I’ve mentioned that weirdo light-up UMB credit card before, but I had never previously noticed this product, the UMB Simply Rewards card. It has no annual fee but it offers 3 points per dollar on the following categories:
- Gas Stations
- Grocery Stores
- Discount Stores
- Restaurants and Fast Food
Let’s look at the T&C’s and clarify the rewards a bit more:
https://www.umb.com/Personal/Banking/CreditCards/Q022322
https://www.umb.com/Personal/Banking/CreditCards/Q022322
https://www.umb.com/Personal/Banking/CreditCards/Q022322
So the obvious next question is, how much are the points worth? And the answer is: one cent each! Check out the rewards catalog and you’ll see you can get account credits for 100 points per dollar.
Question: if you had to choose between a flat 2% card and this card, which one would you pick? I could see it going either way. But the fact that you have to think about it tells you this card has a very good value proposition. However, I don’t know anything at all about UMB’s underwriting, customer service, or anything else. Do any of you have any experience with them? This looks like it would be a good card to recommend to people who don’t like to be bothered with credit card churning, but I don’t know enough to recommend it.
Update: Be careful applying if you live outside of UMB’s footprint! Reader R. notes: “I wasted a TU pull to find out you’ll be auto-declined if you reside outside their market area (=midwest).”
I Know Nothiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggg.
Sounds a bit like the Golden 1 Credit Union Platinum Rewards Visa.
Only thing of value here seems to be discount stores but stores coded as that (MCC 5310) seem to be mostly dollar stores and such. Otherwise too many Gas and grocery cards already at 5%. 3% on food might be worth it but I have a Citi Forward and if I didn’t I would probably just use my US Bank Cash+ categories for that.
The 3% at discount stores is pretty unsual. Around me Visa lists quite a few – Family Dollar, Big Lots, Walmart, Target, Marshalls, TJ Maxx, Homegoods, Kmart.
@PFD – Thanks for continuing to turn up less-touted cards!
I wasted a TU pull to find out you’ll be auto-declined if you reside outside their market area (=midwest).
Oh no! That’s kind of surprising, I had checked to see if they had geographical restrictions and didn’t see any, plus they had the standard T&C notes for residents of NY, OR, etc. Thanks for sharing the data point, I’ll note it in above.
https://locations.umb.com/
then click on “browse by state”