Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is worse

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DetroitRed
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Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is worse

Post by DetroitRed »

I wanted to point out another way the Pentagon Federal Platinum Rewards Visa new rewards system (where you get a prepaid Visa with your reward monies) is worse than the old one (where you got immediate cash back).

I bought some shoes with the prepaid Visa and later returned them.

The refund didn't seem to be appearing on my prepaid Visa. I called customer service and was told the merchant gets 30 days to give me a refund.
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G-Money
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by G-Money »

Not a big Dan of prepaid gift cards. Any way to deposit them into your checking account?
Don't assume I know what I'm talking about.
treypar
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by treypar »

I typically use the reward card to buy an amazone gift card.
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JamesSFO
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by JamesSFO »

treypar wrote:I typically use the reward card to buy an amazone gift card.

I just directly get the Amazon gift cards, instant code and Amazon automatically applies it to purchases. Works great.
Polaris
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by Polaris »

I've been using the amazon electronic gift cards too. While it's not as convenient as the auto cash back, we buy enough stuff there where it's pretty painless.
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DetroitRed
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by DetroitRed »

treypar wrote:I typically use the reward card to buy an amazone gift card.
That's a very good idea. Probably doesn't work for me though because I don't spend much on Amazon.com.

Re: the new rebate via a Visa prepaid card. I also have to remind myself not to use the prepaid Visa for gas or at a grocery store because the PenFed Visa's rebate is over 1% for those transactions.

Going forward I guess my rules for spending the prepaid Visa are:

- Not for gas
- Not at a grocery store
- Not for things I might return
- Spend it within a year
jimmyrules712
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by jimmyrules712 »

Yes these kinds of things are definite disadvantages of the card. I usually use the visa gift cards to pay my cable, dish, or cell phone bills since I know I won't be doing any returns on those.
THY4373
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by THY4373 »

Yes Visa gift cards can be a hassle. if you don't want to buy a gift card to Amazon, Home Depot or whomever else you do have another option for cashing them out. If you are married or otherwise have access to two SSNs, you can set up two Amazon Payments accounts for you and your significant other. Amazon allows you to send up to a $1000 per month for free and funded from credit/gift cards. I use this method to cash out my PenFed rewards by sending the money to my wife and then depositing that in our checking account. It also allows me to cash out the rebate gift cards I get. One trick is when you first add a card to Amazon payments it sometimes does a test charge. This temporarily lowers the amount available for spending. To avoid this when you add a card, change the expiration date to something in the future other than the correct date. Add the card, then edit the date to correct, and then send the money to your SO. It sounds more complicated than it is. Best way I have found to easily and quickly cash out Amex, Visa and MC gift cards.
rj49
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by rj49 »

The Visa cards are a big hassle, since you have to remember how much balance you have, and you end up with confused cashiers, trying to apply part of a purchase to the Visa card if it's low. I suggest browsing the grocery items in Amazon, which I use my Penfed rewards to use for cat food, sunflower seeds, and coffee. And I believe Amazon owns Zappos shoes now, which has free returns. I find Amazon also works well for Christmas gifts, since you can bundle a lot of purchases together to get free shipping, and avoid malls and regular stores when they're full. If you don't want to buy things, you can always treat yourself to streaming movies, music, or ebooks.
THY4373
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by THY4373 »

rj49 wrote:The Visa cards are a big hassle, since you have to remember how much balance you have, and you end up with confused cashiers, trying to apply part of a purchase to the Visa card if it's low.
A lot of self checkouts Kroger and Home Depot to name two that work for me allow split tenders. Say you have $2.50 left on your Visa GC. You can pay with the card it will deduct $2.50 from the total (or whatever you have left and you don't have to remember this it just does it) and then prompt you for a second form of payment for the rest (I use one of my regular CCs). I find it very easy to burn up gift cards with small amount left on them this way (well at least I did before I adopted the Amazon payment method of clearing out the balance at once).
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DetroitRed
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by DetroitRed »

THY4373 wrote: A lot of self checkouts Kroger and Home Depot to name two that work for me allow split tenders.
I've paid for one transaction at a store with two Prepaid Visa cards and my regular credit card. The clerk didn't like it very much (and I didn't like it much either), but it allowed me to use up multiple prepaid Visa cards at once, so I'd definitely do it again.
MnD
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by MnD »

These things are annoying and especially annoying when they have low/uncertain balances.

I never make a partial charge to these.
Wait until you have a purchase that exceeds the card value and have the cashier charge the gift card that amount, with the balance on a regular CC.
I do this for things that are not generally returned like groceries, and then shred the card right when I get home.
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Default User BR
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by Default User BR »

rj49 wrote:The Visa cards are a big hassle, since you have to remember how much balance you have, and you end up with confused cashiers, trying to apply part of a purchase to the Visa card if it's low.
That's never been a problem for me. You swipe the card, then either the display or the cashier will announce any remaining amount due. You pay in the regular fashion after that.


Brian
fareastwarriors
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by fareastwarriors »

Default User BR wrote:
rj49 wrote:The Visa cards are a big hassle, since you have to remember how much balance you have, and you end up with confused cashiers, trying to apply part of a purchase to the Visa card if it's low.
That's never been a problem for me. You swipe the card, then either the display or the cashier will announce any remaining amount due. You pay in the regular fashion after that.


Brian


It depends on the Point of Sale machine. Some of the older ones require you to know the exact amount.
Carl53
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by Carl53 »

I seldom use the gift cards at retail establishments unless I know that it is unused or that I have gone online and confirmed the new balance. If I do this I'll use a sharpie to write the balance on the card. Mostly, I use the partials to pay online bills. I've used probably as many as four or five gc to pay an insurance bill, sometimes in conjunction with a cc if necessary.
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OAG
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by OAG »

Carl53 wrote:I seldom use the gift cards at retail establishments unless I know that it is unused or that I have gone online and confirmed the new balance. If I do this I'll use a sharpie to write the balance on the card. Mostly, I use the partials to pay online bills. I've used probably as many as four or five gc to pay an insurance bill, sometimes in conjunction with a cc if necessary.
+1 Just burned $39.70 off my latest $50 PenFed gift card at Lowes and the clerk offered to write the remaining balance ($10.30) on the card for me. At lowes they usually will offer to do that.
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Topic Author
DetroitRed
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by DetroitRed »

DetroitRed wrote:I wanted to point out another way the Pentagon Federal Platinum Rewards Visa new rewards system (where you get a prepaid Visa with your reward monies) is worse than the old one (where you got immediate cash back).

I bought some shoes with the prepaid Visa and later returned them.

The refund didn't seem to be appearing on my prepaid Visa. I called customer service and was told the merchant gets 30 days to give me a refund.
An update.

My refund is now showing on the prepaid card, so the shoe store didn't take 30 days to refund my money. It took between 2 and 5 days (I checked after 1 day and it hadn't posted and didn't check again until day 5).
cdogg44
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by cdogg44 »

I have a Square card reader that I use to cash out prepaid cards. Yes you pay a 2.75% fee, but it is worth it for the convenience.
dcb
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by dcb »

Don't know if this is new information or not, but just tried to redeem my 10,000 points for an Amazon $100 gift card as I have done in the past. But now a $100 card requires 12,000 points. This 20% deflation of point value appears to be true across the board for all redemptions. Do not recall getting any notification of this change from PenFed.

don
bigsing
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Re: Pent Fed Platinum Rewards - another way new card is wors

Post by bigsing »

dcb wrote:Don't know if this is new information or not, but just tried to redeem my 10,000 points for an Amazon $100 gift card as I have done in the past. But now a $100 card requires 12,000 points. This 20% deflation of point value appears to be true across the board for all redemptions. Do not recall getting any notification of this change from PenFed.

don
I noticed this too, i was on the site yesterday and the normal redemption rates displayed.
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