Bye bye AOPA Visa

[MSmith]

AOPA has sold out ... er changed their AOPA Visa program.

Under the current program, you get 5% of your FBO purchases back up to $250 per year. This means that to get the maximum benefit you must spend $5000 per year (not too hard in this hobby).

Now, they're going with the World Points visa card. No rebate - you get points. $1 spent gets you one point. $1 spent at an FBO gets you 2 points.

You can get a cash rebate in this program. A $250 rebate costs 25,000 points. You'd have to charge $12,500 to get that!

I think I'll be scrapping my AOPA Visa in favor of some other card NOT from MBNA. And perhaps scrapping my AOPA membership.

 

[gismo]

AOPA has sold out ... er changed their AOPA Visa program.

Under the current program, you get 5% of your FBO purchases back up to $250 per year. This means that to get the maximum benefit you must spend $5000 per year (not too hard in this hobby).

Now, they're going with the World Points visa card. No rebate - you get points. $1 spent gets you one point. $1 spent at an FBO gets you 2 points.

You can get a cash rebate in this program. A $250 rebate costs 25,000 points. You'd have to charge $12,500 to get that!

I think I'll be scrapping my AOPA Visa in favor of some other card NOT from MBNA. And perhaps scrapping my AOPA membership.

I think I'll go as far as dropping the MBNA Visa since the benefit is virtually nothing and they cannot figure out how to work autopay with my checking account at another bank. I'm not dumping AOPA themselves both because they have very little to do with the drop in MBNAs rebate program returns and they are still a needed voice in Washington IMO.

 

[AdamZ]

Yeah I got that letter too. I don't know what benefit AOPA would get from the change so I have to suppose that it was MBNA that made the change but then again the letter did come from AOPA.

The cand is really usless to me now so like Lance I will scrap it for something that gets me something I want. But I won't ditch AOPA. We need it.

 

[wsuffa]

Yeah, I'm about done with MBNA. Though I probably will hold on to one card I've had with many years solely for credit rating purposes. Most of my stuff goes on USAA card as it is.

 

[SCCutler]

Yeah, I'm about done with MBNA. Though I probably will hold on to one card I've had with many years solely for credit rating purposes. Most of my stuff goes on USAA card as it is.

USAA, only way to go- proof that a huge bureaucracy can work well, and treat its customers like they really matter.

 

[Lawreston]

Yeah, I'm about done with MBNA. Though I probably will hold on to one card I've had with many years solely for credit rating purposes. Most of my stuff goes on USAA card as it is.

I'm with Bill as regards his 2nd sentence. As I read the responses I remembered the logic that in personally cancelling a card there comes a negative factor re one's credit rating. It's better to keep the card, but discontinue using it.

HR

 

[Bill]

Most of my stuff goes on USAA card as it is.

Yup, USAA for credit card and insurance. Good folks (well, as good as they get in that industry)

 

[MSmith]

I'm with Bill as regards his 2nd sentence. As I read the responses I remembered the logic that in personally cancelling a card there comes a negative factor re one's credit rating. It's better to keep the card, but discontinue using it.

HR

I've recently looked at my credit rating. It's sufficiently high (and I have no major plans in the near future) so I'll take the ding.

 

[AdamZ]

USAA, only way to go- proof that a huge bureaucracy can work well, and treat its customers like they really matter.

Yeah I have USAA too but its not available for everyone only commissionied military officers and their decendants.

 

[Ken Ibold]

Yeah I have USAA too but its not available for everyone only commissionied military officers and their decendants.

and people who marry their descendants...

signed,
hubby of a navy brat

 

[TangoWhiskey]

It's better to keep the card, but discontinue using it.

Unless there is some other mitigating factor, such as a high annual fee, or a bad payment history. (But then, you probably shouldn't have had the card in the first place!)

 

[Kaye]

As I read the responses I remembered the logic that in personally cancelling a card there comes a negative factor re one's credit rating. It's better to keep the card, but discontinue using it.

HR

Why??????

I have an MBNA card since 1993 that I use regularly and pay the balance in full. I'm fed up with MBNA, and plan on changing. My approved credit is way too high to leave a lingering, unused card. Why is it a negative in cancelling the card????

Kaye

 

[wsuffa]

Why??????

I have an MBNA card since 1993 that I use regularly and pay the balance in full. I'm fed up with MBNA, and plan on changing. My approved credit is way too high to leave a lingering, unused card. Why is it a negative in cancelling the card????

Kaye

Credit scoring. It's now used for everything from home loans to insurance (yep, how much you pay for insurance is based on credit score, in many states).

The formulas for credit scoring are not typically disclosed, but in general they take into account how old your accounts are (older=better), how often you open new ones (more=worse), how long since your last account was opened (newer=worse), how much credit you have vs how much credit you use (a small ratio of used/available = better), how you pay your bills (paid on time=better), and how many inquiries have been made against your credit file recently (more indicates that you're shopping for a loan and/or are receiving more offers, and therefore you're more risky).

Even something as simple as changing cellphones can lower your credit rating because it's considered a 'credit inquiry' and 'recent new account'.

And you can't argue the credit rating.

So, the general advice is *if you're concerned about credit rating* pay your bills on time, don't open a lot of new accounts, and keep some accounts around longer term. I've discovered that my insurance rates are not quite as good as they could be (even though I have a 25 year record with the company) solely because I opened a new credit card account 2 years ago to replace an old MBNA account and because I changed to a less expensive/different cellphone plan a year ago.

Grrr...

 

[Lawreston]

Why??????

I have an MBNA card since 1993 that I use regularly and pay the balance in full. I'm fed up with MBNA, and plan on changing. My approved credit is way too high to leave a lingering, unused card. Why is it a negative in cancelling the card????

Kaye

It's just part of the unfairness of the credit industry. Each and every time one applies for a credit account there will be a negative hit on the applicant's credit score. When an individual orders his/her own card to be cancelled there'll be another hit against that holder's credit score. It isn't fair, but that's the way the system works.
If one just keeps the card and doesn't use it, the cancellation penalty won't occur. And as another had posted, there may be other reasons to "can" a card -- high rates, bad payment record, etc. -- but if approved by another issuer the older balance can be transferred to the new account at a potential zero % interest rate(for a specified time period).

HR

EDIT: And Bill Suffa said it best, while I was typing.

 

[MSmith]

and people who marry their descendants...

signed,
hubby of a navy brat

I thought it was illegal to marry your descendants.

 

[Bill]

I thought it was illegal to marry your descendants.

He does live in the south (if you can call FL the south, more like NYC south )

 

[gkainz]

and people who marry their descendants...

"If your family tree has only one branch...then you might be a redneck!"
Jeff Foxworthy

 

[MSmith]

Ok, folks.

OTHER THAN USAA (which I'm not eligible for), anybody have any other suggestions for a replacement card?

 

[ScottM]

It's just part of the unfairness of the credit industry. Each and every time one applies for a credit account there will be a negative hit on the applicant's credit score. When an individual orders his/her own card to be cancelled there'll be another hit against that holder's credit score. It isn't fair, but that's the way the system works.
If one just keeps the card and doesn't use it, the cancellation penalty won't occur. .

The credit score is really misnamed in my opinion. It should be called a credit customer score. What I mean by that is that the number really shows how likely you are to request credit and then pay it back with interest. Then the credit companies use that number to make offers to you so that you will pay them the interest and use the card which also generates revenue. Since they make money when you use a card you get dinged when you don't use a card and just leave the account open.

 

[Dart]

...I think I'll be scrapping my AOPA Visa in favor of some other card NOT from MBNA. And perhaps scrapping my AOPA membership.

Add me to NOT MBNA crowd. I've had previous troubles from MBNA but the final straw was how they closed one of our employee cards (business account) for exceeding the limit. I was on vacation and luckily still within cell phone range (I was cruising offshore) so I found out about it and called customer "no-service" where I supposedly uped the limit and was assured the card would work. Long story short, I was lied to numerous times during this silly 2K over-limit scenario (mind you there was over 45K available credit on the overall account).

It's not like we are kids with bad credit, almost twenty years in business with a stellar credit rating.

I did drop AOPA. For similar reasons, I was badly treated by Red Board management despite complete compliance with the ROC.

 

[ScottM]

I have not got this info from AOPA but I am about to drop the card. I hardly use it and then when I do getting the rebate was a HRPITA

 

[wsuffa]

I dropped Boyer a note about the change. Got what appears to be a form note back, same as at least one other redboarder.

The LAST thing I need is another "points" card. Show me the cash. The rebate is the only reason I haven't cancelled the card yet. Just got done cancelling another MBNA card after they changed it to an American Express without notice or request from me. Boom, new card shows up. They didn't even try and keep the account.

BTW, if AOPA dropped the affiliation with MBNA/BoA, you can bet that MBNA would be nasty. I had an old IEEE affinity card (two, actually, one MC, one Visa, back when some merchants wouldn't take one or the other) with MBNA. When IEEE moved the affiliation, MBNA jacked the credit limits on those two cards up 11x their original limit - intentionally to keep people from moving to the new bank/affiliation. At the new credit limits, the new affiliated bank turned down applicants. The only way to handle it was to cancel ALL MBNA cards, wait 3-4 months for your credit report to clear, and then reapply.

 

[Gerhardt]

A couple of notes.

1. My letter from Boyer states that not enough people were using the card for cash back so they were changing to a more popular program. BS! Nothing is more popular than 5% cash back. And by giving people LESS they're somehow going to entice more people to use the card?

2. I use Discover for most non-aviation purposes and get a handful of cash back each year. But I think it's about the same amount that the AOPA Visa card will be giving back under the new program.

3. If you're not going to use the card then close the account. In most cases (not all) it is better to close an account than leave it open and unused. Your credit report will show that it was closed by the consumer. But in some cases an open and unused account can remove points from consumer scores. The theory is that a lot of open (even though unused) accounts can be used if the consumer chooses to. i.e. someone gets into a bind and racks up lots and lots of debt on usable accounts.

4. The terms consumer score and credit score are a misnomer. Each person can have lots of scores. Your insurance company *ahem* probably uses one type of score. Your bank another. A credit card company you apply to may use yet another.

 

[Lawreston]

There have been numerous and varied-titled threads about this subject. I'm not certain where my post should be injected, so it's in this one.

Having read all the versions as each was prolonged, I, too, am sympathetic to changes which have been made since BOA took over the original MBNA. Or, I should say I'm, also, sharing the concern of many re the policy changes which affect the AOPA programs of yore.

With those points in mind I'd like to recognize that MBNA in its original virgin / its virgin edition(old Smothers Brothers comic line) -- was an extremely generous company in wherever its corporate office communities. I write with my home front in mind -- Maine -- and note that Camden, Rockland, Belfast, Brunswick, and Bangor all shared in collective generosities of MBNA corporate programs. Today's Bangor Daily News carries word of the continuance of past practices, though I'm convinced that generous Charlie was not looking for publicity. But he's a class act, and so I share:

http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/midcoast.aspx?articleid=144507&zoneid=179

And from my house, Happiest of Holidays to all who celebrate in whatever tradition/faith.

HR

 

[SkyHog]

There have been numerous and varied-titled threads about this subject. I'm not certain where my post should be injected, so it's in this one.

Having read all the versions as each was prolonged, I, too, am sympathetic to changes which have been made since BOA took over the original MBNA. Or, I should say I'm, also, sharing the concern of many re the policy changes which affect the AOPA programs of yore.

With those points in mind I'd like to recognize that MBNA in its original virgin / its virgin edition(old Smothers Brothers comic line) -- was an extremely generous company in wherever its corporate office communities. I write with my home front in mind -- Maine -- and note that Camden, Rockland, Belfast, Brunswick, and Bangor all shared in collective generosities of MBNA corporate programs. Today's Bangor Daily News carries word of the continuance of past practices, though I'm convinced that generous Charlie was not looking for publicity. But he's a class act, and so I share:

http://bangordailynews.com/news/t/midcoast.aspx?articleid=144507&zoneid=179

And from my house, Happiest of Holidays to all who celebrate in whatever tradition/faith.

HR

I have no idea what you just said.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

edit: I didn't mean that to be as rude as it came off. For some reason, I just am having a hard time understanding this post. I don't know why.

 

[SCCutler]

...I didn't mean that to be as rude as it came off. For some reason, I just am having a hard time understanding this post. I don't know why.

Nick: You are *so* ready to be out for ABQ.

Merry Christmas!

 

[Aztec Driver]

A couple of notes. No matter what any credit card gives as an incentive to use their card, it will eventually be paid for by you, the consumer. Generally in the form of higher product prices, as these costs are not absorbed by the bank, but by the merchants accepting these cards. These merchants will ultimately pass that cost to the consumer. So what is the reason for all of the fuss?

The problem I have with them is they keep moving the due date around and they do not process the payment as soon as they receive it. Therefore, if you do not pay it as soon as you get the statment, it ends up late, incurring a late fee and raising your interest rate to the maximum. I do not have that problem with any other credit card I have.

Since the cutoff date for the 5% rebate is 12/31, how do I submit for rebates those items that I just purchased this month, since the statement will not come out until after Jan 1?

 

[ejensen]

It looks like you can redeem the points for cash, the equivalent of 1 or 2 percent back. Is there something about the redemption scheme that makes this not a good deal? I always ran into the 5% max in July or August. Two percent might work out better unless they make it hard to get. My primary card give 1% and just mails it in February.