Citi Strata Elite Officially Launches

Very monochromatic. I guess they missed that "quiet luxury" is over.

As mentioned in CardsFTW #159 last week, Citi officially announced the Strata Elite. They claim this card is meant to avoid the "coupon book of perks and benefits" and "You shouldn’t need a math degree and a spreadsheet to track your credit card benefits!" They're right. You should have an app. Or, you know, a Wallaby card. (wink, wink)

The New Rakuten American Express Card

Rakuten, the Japan-based global shopping conglomerate, announced its new Rakuten American Express Card, powered by fintech program manager Imprint and issued by First Electronic Bank last week. Both the American Express network, which was recently announced as the brand on the upcoming Coinbase card, and Imprint, which has announced a number of new cards, are on a tear of announcing new programs.

Giving me old SPG Amex vibes (RIP SPG)

Imprint now powers the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles Visa Signature Card, H-E-B Visa Signature Card, Horizon Hobby Visa Card, Holiday Inn Club Vacations World Mastercard, World of Westgate World Mastercard, Brooks Brothers World Mastercard, Eddie Bauer World Mastercard, and the Rakuten Amex.

Unannounced, but seen in the fine print on https://imprint.co/products is an upcoming new product: the Fetch American Express Card, which will be coming soon, according to this page at Fetch Rewards. For those unfamiliar with Fetch, it is a shopping rewards app in the same vein as Rakuten, which had a big Super Bowl TV ad earlier this year.

I spend a lot of time reading bottom of the page disclosures.

The Rakuten card isn’t a brand-new product; it replaces an earlier Visa issued by Synchrony that went on hiatus in 2022.

The new Rakuten Amex has a $25 account opening bonus (with $500 spend in the first 90 days) and a 4% boost on Rakuten online or in-person purchases, up to $7,000 of spending per calendar year. The card also earns 5% at Rakuten dining, 2% on groceries and non-Rakuten dining, and 1% everywhere else. 

There has been a bit of online confusion, but Rakuten rewards members can earn their Rakuten cash as American Express Membership Rewards points, which could be a good deal if you know how to use MR points. This is a strong no-fee offering, assuming all your card points can also turn into MR points. Card members can choose between purple and silver cards, both of which are metal.

Totavi Research Survey

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Southwest Visa Card Fee Increases

Southwest Airlines is having a rough year. Like many long-time Southwest fliers, I am disappointed in the upcoming changes to the airline, such as baggage fees and assigned seating. (An aside: I rarely fly SWA anymore, but I have hundreds of flights under my belt. I grew up with Southwest cattle call boarding, and I know how to use it to my advantage! Ask me about my Southwest-seat duffel bag.)

To add insult to injury, Southwest’s card partner, Chase, is increasing fees across all Southwest Cards and changing benefits. New cardholders will see these changes immediately. 

There are five Southwest cards, three for consumers (Plus, Premier, Priority) and two for businesses (Premier and Performance). Fee increases range from $30 at the low end (Plus going to $99 from $69) to $100 (on the Business Performance card, moving up to $299). At the same time, Southwest is offering some hefty signup bonuses, I was sent a 100,000 mile offer for the $99 Plus card.

Now that Southwest is charging for bags and seating, these new cards will include benefits like a free first checked bag, earlier boarding group access, and seat selection benefits. 

A lot is going on here: 

I get that you want peopple to choose the middle one, but shouldn't the most expensive one have the most features?

So many lines and checkboxes

If I flew Southwest frequently, these might make sense, but I don’t even want to figure this out right now. Coupon book rewards really are everywhere.

AI Card Design

Mastercard loves a new technology trend. Jumping on the AI train, the company announced its new AI Card Design Studio, to help people design cards. Card design is challenging and is a spot where many new card programs get stuck on decisions. I wrote about design in CardsFTW #142. 

very beautiful, but that is the wrong chip

I don’t know why you need Mastercard here—there are lots of AI tools. These cards are pretty and I am going to call out Mastercard on the samples here that use Apple’s proprietary chip.

Goodbye, Synovus

Prior to the Dodd-Frank Act, sponsor banks weren’t exclusively small community banks. When I joined Green Dot in 2006, our primary banking partner was Synovus Financial, via several of its charters like Columbus Bank & Trust and The National Bank of South Carolina. At one point, Synovus comprised more than 30 separate state and federally chartered banks. Following a consolidation of charters, Synovus announced last week that it will merge with Pinnacle Financial. Pinnacle shareholders will own 51.5% of the combined company, so I'm preparing to say goodbye to this brand.

Samsung Wallet Adds Flexible Payments

In the mobile wallet wars, folks often focus on Apple Pay and Google Pay (or Wallet, or whatever they call it these days). Samsung announced some new features for the wallet on their phones, including built-in split payments (pay in four) with Splitit. The company says you must have a valid Visa or Mastercard (excluding Chase, which isn’t participating) and available credit on your existing credit card. Available split options include: six payments every two weeks, eight payments every two weeks, six monthly payments, and nine monthly payments.

The Splitit help desk helps us figure this out: 

• You make a purchase in-store at a Merchant
• If the purchase is eligible for an installment plan, after checkout you will be given multiple plan options to choose from with the associated interest/fees for each plan
  • You must make a selection within 24-hours otherwise your purchase will be paid in full
• After selecting a plan option, Splitit will proceed with creating your installment plan and you will see the following transactions on your credit card:
  • A temporary authorization for the full purchase amount
  • A temporary authorization for the amount of interest Splitit will charge you for creating the plan
  • Your first installment payment
    • Future installment payments are charged automatically according to the biweekly or monthly option you chose when creating your plan
    • The date each installment payment is charged cannot be changed
• Transactions on your card will be listed as: Splitit_Merchant Name
• The APR% for your plan will never change
• There is no pre-payment penalty and you can make extra payments at any time in the Splitit Shopper Portal
• To update the credit card on file for your plan, please login to the Splitit Shopper Portal and select the button to "Update Card"
  • All card updates will result in a new, temporary authorization for the current balance of your plan
• You plan will continue until it is paid in full

In short, they authorize your card to make sure you have credit, then they charge your payments directly to your card (stacking a loan payment on a credit card, which I thought would be a problem under network rules). In the end, you pay Splitit interest, instead of your credit card, plus additional network fees. This doesn’t seem like a good deal vs. standard BNPL or fixed repayment on credit cards. Also, Splitit really needed to capitalize that second "i".

CardsFTW

CardsFTW, released weekly on Wednesdays, offers insights and analysis on new credit and debit card industry products for consumers and providers. CardsFTW is authored and published by Matthew Goldman and the team at Totavi, a boutique consulting firm specializing in fintech product management & marketing. We bring real operational experience that varies from the earliest days of a startup to high-growth phases and public company leadership. Visit www.totavi.com to learn more.

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