Why bother with the Amtrak MasterCard?

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George K

George K

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Seems that the Chase Sapphire Visa has

1) Better sign on bonus

2) Slightly better rewards through their portal

3) More shopping "partners" than AGR

4) 2X points for travel

It has an annual fee, waived for the 1st year. Points are transferrable to AGR

AGR Mastercard offers

1) 2X points for Amtrak Travel (other than double days

And....

?
 
Ah! Rebate! Yes, I had forgotten (and I even posted about it yesterday - what a maroon...).

The non-expiration of points. Potentially a big deal if you don't travel often.
 
One other potential criteria worth considering could be that the Chase Sapphire may also be more difficult to qualify for credit-wise than the Chase Amtrak card.
 
Yah, the Sapphire has a significant fee and a MUCH higher spend requirement to get those sign-on bonus points ($4000 in three months). Both of those things make it a non-starter for me.
 
With as many No Fee cards that are available, there should be no reason at all to want to sign up for a Fee card. And the ones that trap you in with a Fee Waiver for the first year are just that-a trap. If you forget to cancel (and many folks do) you are hung. And you will be put through an Interrogation with a rubber hose and bright light when you do go to cancel.
 
OlympianHiawatha said:
With as many No Fee cards that are available, there should be no reason at all to want to sign up for a Fee card. And the ones that trap you in with a Fee Waiver for the first year are just that-a trap. If you forget to cancel (and many folks do) you are hung. And you will be put through an Interrogation with a rubber hose and bright light when you do go to cancel.
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With the direct transfer of points into AGR and many other systems (airlines, hotels, etc). the Sapphire is well worth the fee to me.

So that is a reason to have a fee card.
 
In regards to few cards, one just has to do the math in their spending. If you make more in points than the fee, then you are ahead. The points are often more generous than non-fee cards. Right now I'm digging my fee based Barclay Arrival Plus card. I use it more than the AGR MasterCard.
 
The Barclay Card, it appears, also has a 40K signup bonus, but only a $3000 spending requirement in the 1st 90 days, and it appears that points are transferrable to AGR.

Is this just another card through Chase?
 
George K said:
The Barclay Card, it appears, also has a 40K signup bonus, but only a $3000 spending requirement in the 1st 90 days, and it appears that points are transferrable to AGR.

Is this just another card through Chase?
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I would guess the Barclay card is thru BarclayCard - a different bank.
 
the_traveler said:
Unless Barclay merged with Chase (I can't keep up with all the mergers :wacko: ), Barclay is a different bank.
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That's very, VERY tempting...

When I signed up for (and got my Sapphire Visa), we moved credit lines around on my various cards (and closed one) so that I could use the Sapphire more often. If they're different companies, I won't have to bother with that. ;)
 
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printman2000 said:
I have both and use the Sapphire for everything I can. I have the agr card for the benefits people listed here.
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My situation exactly.

OlympianHiawatha said:
With as many No Fee cards that are available, there should be no reason at all to want to sign up for a Fee card.
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The problem with making blanket statements like that is that everyone has a different situation. Personally, my travel needs vary enough that having the flexibility to move my earned points into multiple different programs is absolutely worth the $95/year fee. Earning Ultimate Rewards points has worked out very nicely for me, as I have transferred them into Amtrak, Southwest, United, Marriott and Hyatt in the past ~18 months. Obviously, some people's travel habits vary, and earning/using points in other ways works very well for them.

OlympianHiawatha said:
And the ones that trap you in with a Fee Waiver for the first year are just that-a trap. If you forget to cancel (and many folks do) you are hung. And you will be put through an Interrogation with a rubber hose and bright light when you do go to cancel.
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That's not been my experience - between my personal experience and the experience of family, it can range the gamut of fees being waved, the card being converted to a non-fee card, or a simple cancellation. While I don't doubt that others have had the "rubber hose and bright light" experience, that is certainly not the only way things can shake out.
 
I actually don't agree on the "never get a fee card" point. For example, I got the Hyatt card. It comes with a $79 fee, yes, but it also comes with a free night at a hotel up to Category 4 each year...which as I figured out yesterday can get me a $240 room at the Orlando Airport Hyatt (probably more like $260, actually, after taxes...I got caught in a spring break overlap and there were basically no cheap hotels in central FL last night that weren't pretty far down the quality line) for nothing. Granted, I do not use that card much...but being able to pull a free night out of thin air at a time like this is worth that.

The other fee card I got was Virgin America's...and that came about because there were scads of tied-in bonuses (extra points, a big pile of status points with annual spend, status point carry-forward, etc.) and there was, as far as I could tell, no non-fee alternative.

IMHO, the point is that an absolute bar on getting a fee card isn't a horrid rule, but it's also not a hard-and-fast situation. It is quite possible to think of a situation where a fee card would make sense in some cases. To offer an example for Amtrak, if you got an extra five-pack of upgrade cards and you live in the Northeast? That's $500+ in value on the Acela or $200+ on the Regional if used properly. An extra pair of companion cards would also fall under this umbrella.
 
George K said:
The Barclay Card, it appears, also has a 40K signup bonus, but only a $3000 spending requirement in the 1st 90 days, and it appears that points are transferrable to AGR.

Is this just another card through Chase?
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Nope it's from Barclay bank.
The arrival plus card gives 2 points per dollar spent. The points are then redeemed as statement credits. This is important. They are not points that you then transfer to AGR or an airline or Starwood etc.

You redeem for a statement credit for anything that is "travel related" you can get better ratios of points to dollars. Plus there is a rebate.

So it's totally different than ultimate rewards points through chase. Right now I'm liking this card because I can redeem little points amounts here and there like for a $79 Amtrak ticket or a$200 hotel stay.

It's not for everyone but I like it right now and I've been using it instead of my AGR MasterCard. Plus I have a chip and pin card!!
 
Hmmm. I guess I was wrong. Still, redeeming the points for Hotel, etc is probably worth it.

What other cards *do* allow a direct transfer to AGR other than the Sapphire and Ink cards?
 
George K said:
Hmmm. I guess I was wrong. Still, redeeming the points for Hotel, etc is probably worth it.

What other cards *do* allow a direct transfer to AGR other than the Sapphire and Ink cards?
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The is seriously old-school, but the Diners Club card (now affiliated with Mastercard) has 1:1 transfers to AGR. For several years it was closed to new applications, but has recently reopened. Also a $95 annual fee.
 
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So keep the Amtrak AGR MC for rebates, travel points and no expiration. Get whatever card suits you to get the most points, lowest rates and fees, and best flexibility for your needs.
 

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