Check out our Top Rewards Cards to boost your points earning and travel more!
Club Carlson Visa cardholders are eligible to earn double points 10/1/17-12/31/17 on Carlson stays, Avis/Budget car rentals, and at gas stations. No registration required. See my post here.
As I am a travel promotion masochist, I have been battling with hyper aggressive US Bank fraud prevention and 7-Eleven stores that more frequently refuse to accept credit card for gift cards than not. That deserves a separate post.
In short: you will get to know US Bank’s hold music by memory and make the acquaintance of everyone in the fraud department before you get done with $10,000 spend. Direct dial is 800-260-8469, alternate is 866-821-8411, typical hold time of 15-20 minutes to get to an agent.
The matter at hand, and with any US Bank promotion, is will the bonuses actually post and when.
US Bank Slow Bonus Posting
Spend bonuses issued from US Bank typically do not post until the statement after the statment after the promotion period ends.
My FlexPerks card had a point bonus offer for $1,500 spend 9/1-10/31/17. My 11/19 statement shows no bonus points. I hope the 12/19 will. Sometimes it can take even longer.
That figures in with offers that arrive around your annual fee renewal like thisone was for me. To get the bonus you need to keep the card past the point you can’t close the card and refund the annual fee.
Club Carlson Double Points
This double points offer came via emails from Club Carlson and links to the Club Carlson site, not US Bank. I was skeptical any bonuses would post.
Zilch on the October Statement
I started spending on my personal and business cards in early October. My 10/19 statement for both card showed no bonuses earned on either:
I continued in late Octover into November. The 11/19 statements for both showed bonuses – some of them.
Missing Points
The business card posted double points for everything while the personal card is missing two transactions.
These are the same merchant locations so not a case of one not coding as gas. Even if some did code wrong, the math wouldn’t work because 4/5 were at the extact same location and I am missing bonuses on 2/5.
Multiple Same-Day Transaction Posting (Not Transaction Dates)
This jogged my memory to problems I had in a spend rush December a few years ago with RedBird and Target.
That time I made multiple same-day and weekend transactions on the cards at the same Target. The regular spend points all posted and I didn’t think of it until the following year when my annual fee hit.
I expected to receive anniversary night certificates for $10,000 spend on both and got none. (The certificate and 40,000 renewal bonus, again, like other promotions, posts two statements after your annual fee is billed, and you must have transaction activity that month or it rolls until a statement where you do).
It took months of calling and escalations to get my certificates. Eventually a representative of the ‘President’s Office,’ contacted me to say the issue was that the US Bank software did not calculate any trasactions that post on the same day from the same merchant after the first. That was to be fixed in the system. Clearly it has not.
My two missing transactions track to a series of same-store transactions I made on the personal card on a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday that all posted on a Monday. The business card had no such same-store transactions that posted the same day.
My Plan
I am going to give this time to sit before I deal with US Bank. Their customer service is grossly poor in comparison to other major US banks.
My annual fees hit in December. That means in February I should get my anniversity certs and 40,000 point bonuses. I expect the certs will not show. Hopefully by then some of the missing October statement points post and I just have to fight for the certs and the same-day post transactions.
Unfortunately, my wife’s card’s October statement both has the no double points issue and the same-day transaction post issue. US Bank makes it exceedingly hard for an authorized user to do anything on a card, even file a travel notifcation (I kid you not!). I may give up that one without a fight.
Readers, have you been having Club Carlson gas follies like me? For your sake, I hope not!
Check Out Our: Top Rewards Cards ¦ Newsletter ¦ Twitter ¦ Facebook ¦ Instagram
US Bank’s fraud prevention is INSANE. I rarely to never use the card and a few years back downgraded from the Premier Rewards signature card to the Rewards Visa card, which doesn’t carry an annual fee. Their fraud prevention measures really discouraged me from using the card when I had the Premier version, so once I got the bonus, I bailed the following year. It was also the time when they eliminated their free award nights.
Good luck getting your missing points. You will need a zen state of mind.
When I commuted between NJ and NY, like thousands of people, they would even block me for a lunch charge in NY and then blame me for not notifying them of my travel!
I’ve always had problem with US Bank / Club Carlson posting promotion points. Their customer service is unhelpful and rude. My husband is done with with them and frankly, so am I.