JEEP REWARDS CREDIT CARD

[Caraholic]

Hey all-
for years I’ve just kinda wondered about it. Previous issuing banks had varying rewards. who has one now, or did and why did you think??
did you redeem points/ turn rewards into purchase credits or cash towards purchase?
thanks-
C

Sponsored

 

[Kevin_D]

It’s no different than any other rewards card. You don’t get anything for free. Higher interest rates, higher annual fees, higher prices: someone, somewhere is footing the bill, and it ain’t your bank or the credit card company.

 

[IamAlan]

I always try to use OPM (Other People's Money). I have one credit card, (Bank of America cash back, no annual fee) and pay the full balance every month. And I use the cash back to lower the monthly balance due. It's not q lot, usually $30 to $50, but it's not bad. No balance, therefore no interest, and free money.

 

[jebiruph]

I got the FCA credit card before I bought my JL 3 years ago. Since then it's been used in the purchase of several Jeeps, both to earn and spend rewards. I've found that some dealers restrict the use of a credit card for a car purchase and others don't. I also use it for almost all my purchases to accumulate rewards and pay it off monthly to avoid interest payments.

Purchases from an FCA dealer earn 5% rewards and rewards spent at the dealer are doubled. Since dealers are charged a fee of 2.5%, I agree to cover that if they let me put a significant amount of a car purchase on the card. I know I will use the rewards at a dealer, so that's still 7.5% rewards.

 

[u-joint]

It’s no different than any other rewards card. You don’t get anything for free. Higher interest rates, higher annual fees, higher prices: someone, somewhere is footing the bill, and it ain’t your bank or the credit card company.

That's a odd view of reward credit cards in general. The interest rate shouldn't mater, because as a financially responsible person you're paying it in full every month and therefore the interest rate is 0%, plenty of reward cards have $0 annual fees and the ones that have an AF often pay out more in rewards than the AF costs, and as far as higher prices - outside of paying taxes I've yet to encounter any transaction that costs more due to using a credit card.

The person footing the bill is the merchant, and they pay the same credit card processing fees regardless of whether your credit card pays you rewards, charges you an AF, or is free and has no rewards.

Hey all-
for years I’ve just kinda wondered about it. Previous issuing banks had varying rewards. who has one now, or did and why did you think??
did you redeem points/ turn rewards into purchase credits or cash towards purchase?
thanks-
C

From what I've seen the card offers:

2% CB on gas & travel
5% CB at the dealership

$0 annual fee, with a signup bonus of $100 after spending $500 at the dealer.

IMHO there are a LOT better cards. Unless you're expecting to spend some serious cash on a regular basis at the dealer, then I'd skip this card. You can typically tell how bad a card is by looking at the signup bonus. If they're only offering $100 (or less) then it's typically not worth the credit pull.

Good $0/year AF cards offer $200-$250 as signup bonuses, and good AF cards easily offer $500+.

I'd personally not get this card.

 

[Kevin_D]

… I've yet to encounter any transaction that costs more due to using a credit card.

Ever bought fuel?

The person footing the bill is the merchant, and they pay the same credit card processing fees regardless of whether your credit card pays you rewards, charges you an AF, or is free and has no rewards.

As a merchant that accepts card payments, I disagree. While I don’t specifically pay more for a rewards card transaction, all of my transaction fees have increased since the advent of rewards cards. I pass that along to purchasers as increased prices on all merchandise.

Kevin

 

[u-joint]

Ever bought fuel?

Yes, and every gas station I've ever purchased at charges the same for cash buyers as well as debit & credit purchases.

 

[Caraholic]

So I also wonder when I think about this card is how well the rewards can be put towards the purchase. My other card has a cap on how much and gm changes that cap per model and just whenever in general. 500-3500 towards a new car. i saw that this card has limited uses outside the dealer but is it worth the effort for future vehicle purchases?

 

[u-joint]

So I also wonder when I think about this card is how well the rewards can be put towards the purchase. My other card has a cap on how much and gm changes that cap per model and just whenever in general. 500-3500 towards a new car. i saw that this card has limited uses outside the dealer but is it worth the effort for future vehicle purchases?

Each dealer is going to be different, but when I bought my gladiator the dealer only let me put $3,000 of the down payment on a credit card (I had to write a check for the difference). At 5% back this is $150 in rewards. Versus a 1.5% card you're only looking at an extra $105 in cash back for this purchase.

The real question is, do you anticipate buying enough vehicles, services, or parts from the dealer to make this worth the credit pull and TL? IMHO between the $100 bonus, and the extra $105 from a vehicle purchase, I'd not open a card just for that. I also don't think the $150 in cashback puts you anywhere close to a category cap if one exists.

Take for example the Amazon.com Prime card (free with your prime membership), which gets you 5% back on all Amazon purchases. Same cashback percent, but in a wildly more useful category.

At the end of the day it's your credit, but if it were me I'd not do it. I try to limit my cards to more generally useful categories and limit the overall number of cards in my wallet. Currently I only have two, the Amazon prime card, and the Amex Gold. That gets you Amazon purchases, gas, drugstores, and groceries, which represents a huge percentage of my monthly expenditures on a recurring basis.

 

[Caraholic]

Interesting- so you don’t seem to be able to redeem points for a purchase then? What good is a card like that lol

Sponsored