Navy Federal Credit Union (NFCU)

I received an email which cited my existing card number.

I wish I got your offer instead of a 0% APR. Also haven’t used mine in over a year.

So far so good. Some things the T&Cs imply cannot be used towards bonus spend or earning bonus actually are working quite nicely.

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Continue to take gas . . . so far. I have stopped using the card. Will let you know if things change. But so far no rewards given in return for my big spend. Major flop. Wiped out.:frowning_face:

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No. But it is what I would label “unconventional” spending. It is what I have been doing since last spring, with a large measure of success elsewhere, in order to boost my spend and collect rewards. Said another way:

The NFCU disallowed spending categories resemble those of many other domestic CC issuers. I have gotten away with my unconventional spending with a large number of those other CC issuers. It’s not working with Flagship, at least not so far.

I decided to take my loss at NFCU. I sent them a “good faith” payment, a large payment, completely paying off the card. They promptly slapped a hold on my payment; so far it has been nearly a week. Once that hold comes off, in acknowledgment they finally realize they have good funds, and if I still do not have my reward at that point, I will telephone them and bellyache. Doubt it will do much good. Probably will just have to take my loss.

Finally, I am by now convinced NFCU classified my big spend as a purchase, not as a CA. So I’m guessing their list of disallowed purchases is longer than what they reveal. They might be playing by “Singapore rules”, if you remember my thread regarding what is happening in Singapore. I say that because my big spend is on that Singapore list, which as you may recall is a very long list.

I really do not disagree, Argyll. This stuff, all of it, varies SO MUCH from card to card. Some issuers, well, most issuers, are pretty trusting . . . at least in my experience this year. When they trust there is no hassle.

But I agree, this is not the first time I’ve had a payment placed on hold, for example. Again, policies vary all over the place from one CC issuer to another. Outcomes are unpredictable.

I’ve not prior had rewards themselves withheld, though. But I suppose there is a first time for everything.

I mean, think about it: NFCU deals primarily with a military clientele, not as much with the population at large. Military folks tend to be more straight arrow than the hoi polloi. So I would have anticipated NFCU to be more trusting than other CC issuers with whom I recently have done business. But that is not how I have found things to be at NFCU.

What can I tell you? All the CC issuers are different. You have to take 'em as they come.

Remember the military is made up of largely 18-20 yr olds with their first exposure to a paycheck and available credit. So while they may be “straight arrow”, fiscally responsible is not always the case. If you drive around base housing, there is a lot of brand new $40k-$60k pickups sitting in the driveways.

Agreed. I should have been more specific. I’m a senior citizen. I was not taking into consideration military recruits or the very youngest people in the military generally. I continue to believe military people of early middle age and older tend to be more straight arrow.

Also, NFCU knows my age. There are fewer older crooks as a percentage, military or not, than younger crooks.

Pay the bill yourself, then send payment confirmation to bank for reimbursement out of your escrow account. If they already paid, request a refund from the city. Use this as an opportunity to request them waiving the escrow requirement.

I’ve done that before and it took over a month to get my money back from the city. I vowed never to do that again. I really should let the bank make their own mistakes. But I’m not a deadbeat so I can’t help myself from butting in.

Shinobi, don’t be so quick to give up or write off rewards. I stress, be patient, especially with new cards until you learn their specific habits. For some issuers they take longer to post. I have had many new cards where I’ve had my first $2k purchase flagged for potential fraud and they’ve rejected those purchases until I verify it was me. It is also not uncommon for rewards to not post until the end of the billing cycle. In the case of initial signup bonus rewards, it’s also not uncommon to take 2 or 3 billing cycles for rewards to post.

I know you want immediate rewards, no hassle, and expediency, but in the case of credit card rewards, usually I wait at least 1 billing cycle for expected rewards to post and at least 2 cycles for signup bonuses before thinking about calling. It’s not abnormal. This is especially true if your high transaction purchases may be considered fraudulent and under manual review.

One current example: I have a business card from Wells Fargo, where 50k points are showing as rewards ($500 cash back bonus) from my $5k spend where the 2% cashback on purchases has already posted and automatically applied, but they say the 50k points for the signup bonus will not be automatically applied as cashback for another 90 days! I only called simply to ask if the bonus would be automatically applied as cashback or if I could deposit to an account. That’s when they mentioned the 90 day period, specifically for their bonus.

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Thank you, Corndogg. I am respectful of your opinion and I appreciate your post.

My situation with NFCU Flagship at this point is as follows:

I received my rewards for small purchases almost immediately. I still have not received my reward for a single large purchase. My statement closed a week or more ago. I paid off the card prior to statement closure in accord with Argyll’s teachings. This means I have paid back the large charge I made to the card. My payment to NFCU was placed on hold for roughly a week. But now that hold has expired meaning they know my payment was good and they have accepted my payment and restored my credit line in full.

However, as of earlier today, they still have not credited me with the reward I should have earned for that large purchase.

Just for the record, I made a single large charge prior to statement closure. I have made no more charges to the card, large or small, following statement closure.

If they are treating me with “caution” it is being done with no notification whatsoever. They promise, for purchases, two points per dollar spent. They have not so far honored that promise. And they have not explained why they violated their own policy. Apparently they feel such violation is their prerogative with no warning or explanation.

By the way I know based on considerable experience, had I used any one of several other cards I own for that same large purchase, I would by now have collected a nice reward. The purchase did not violate terms and conditions commonplace with all USA cards.

However, as I mentioned to you prior, my large purchase DID cross the line established by the Singapore list of concerning MCCs (merchant category codes). If NFCU Flagship is operating beneath Singapore rules they have not so advised me, their cardholder.

ETA

I apologize to anyone who might not understand my reference above to Singapore and to Singapore rules. It is regarding an older thread here on this forum. Here is a link to that thread:

Singapore link

Maybe if you just speak nicely to them they’ll give you the rewards.

Agreed, Argyll. I will get 'round to telephoning them sooner or later. Want to give them a bit more time. Even if the reward is gone I need to know whether or not my large purchase will count toward awarding of the Flagship $500 bonus also promised to new cardholders. If the bonus is gone, so am I as a user of this card. After all, at $59/year the card is worthless if their rules are so very strict to where I cannot make any money.

Maybe back up and take a deep breath. :smile:

You left out the part about when they promise to deliver those two points per dollar spent. It should be somewhere in the T&C.

Is the policy you’re referring to the same as the promise? If so, again, checking the T&C should give you some clarity on when to expect the points.

With any NFCU card, including my new Flagship, I have gotten rewards as soon as the purchase(s) post. That holds true for both my and my wife’s brand new Flagship cards. We each redeemed somewhere around $80 worth of rewards.

With ya on that. That is what happened with my small purchases. Rewards showed up very quickly.

But not with my large purchase.

Navy Federal is turning out to be problematic for me.

First, their multifactor authentication is seriously broken for Quicken users. It continues to prompt for MFA again and again and again, and only about 1 time in 20 actually completes to download transactions. If they just didn’t support Quicken downloads, that would be different. But they do … it just doesn’t work well.

But the main thing is that they refuse to allow customers to automate paying their bill. You have to manually trigger each payment. I’ve got waaay too many credit cards to worry about manually paying them each month. Every other of the plethora of credit cards I have across many servicers and across Visa, MasterCard, Amex, and Discover is set up to draft the full balance on the due date. Worse, Navy Federal blames it on ACH rules.

we do not have the ability to establish recurring payments of your statement balance from an external account. Automated Clearing House (ACH) will only allow payments of a specified amount for recurring transfers.

Was your large purchase something questionable? Could it be argued as a cash equivalent? Why so much secrecy?