US Bank arguably has some of the most lucrative credit card cash-back offers. They are also known for being stingy with their credit card approvals; several datapoints indicate that applicants with a 800+ FICO score, a high income, and 10+ year credit history often get denied or given a $500 limit. Today I will discuss an overview of the cards offered, application rules, and tricks to get approved.
The consumer cards offering rewards currently offered by US Bank as of May 2024 include:
- US Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite — a hefty $400 annual fee card. However, $325 of travel or dining credits are offered, making the effective annual fee $75 if you use the card for more than ~$27 of dining/travel purchases every month. The Altitude Reserve offers 3 points back for eligible travel purchases, 3 points back for mobile wallet purchases, and 5 points back for prepaid hotels or car rentals made in the Altitude Rewards Center.
- Due to the wide acceptance of mobile wallets across the board, most in-person purchases are eligible for getting 3 points back using Google Pay or Apple Pay. Additionally, many online stores allow mobile wallet purchases as well.
- Points can be redeemed using Real Time Rewards for 1.5× the point value if used for travel purchases. Real Time Rewards work by turning them on and responding to a text when an eligible purchase is made to redeem your rewards. For example, if you book a flight with Southwest, or book a hotel and you text back that you consent to using your Altitude Reserve points, you would effectively be getting 4.5% back.
- $100 of TSA precheck or global entry credits are given every four years.
- This card has no foreign transaction fee.
- The sign up bonus is 50,000 points for $4500 spend in 3 months, equivalent to $750 worth of travel credits.
- US Bank Altitude Go Visa Signaturw, a $0 annual fee card, which gives 4% cash back uncapped for dining purchases, 2% for gas station purchases, 2% for grocery purchases, and 2% for streaming services (with a $15 streaming credit after 12 monthly purchases).
- It has no foreign transaction fee which makes it a great card to eat out when you’re travelling abroad. 4% cash back on dining is virtually one of the highest cash back for any card on the market.
- The sign on bonus is $200 for $1000 of spend in 3 months, which is easy to hit even for low spenders.
- US Bank Altitude Connect Visa Signature: a no annual fee card starting September 9, 2024. It includes 5 points for travel booked in the Rewards Center, 4 points for travel, 4 points for gas, and 2 points for dining, gas, and groceries.
- This card is being devalued come September 9 for each point to be worth 0.8cpp instead of 1cpp. This indicates that it would be 4%, 3.2%, and 1.6% back on the various categories.
- It has a massive sign on bonus for $500 for only $2000 spend in 4 months.
- It comes with $100 of TSA pre-check or global entry credit each year.
- US Bank Cash Plus Visa Signature: a no annual-fee card offering 5% in two categories capped to $2000 a quarter and 2% in one.
- The possible 5% categories include fast food, home utilities, TV/Internet/streaming, gym memberships, department stores, cell phones, sporting goods, movie theaters, ground transportation, select clothing stores, furniture stores, and electronic stores.
- 2% categories include grocery stores, restaurants, or gas.
- Homeowners will typically get a lot of use out of this card, especially for the home utility category. You get to choose new categories every quarter.
- The wide range of unique 5% categories not typically offered by other credit card lenders makes this a very effective card to catch some monthly spending, but is not great as an everyday card.
- The sign on bonus is $200 for $1000 of spend in 90 days.
- US Bank Shopper Rewards Visa Signature: a $95 annual fee offering 6% back on $1500 of purchases every quarter on two chosen retailers and 3% on $1500 of purchases every quarter on one category.
- The 6% retailers include a long list of retailers, but some popular ones include Walmart, Amazon, Home Depot, Ikea, Kohl’s, Wayfair, and Target.
- The 3% category includes bills/utilities, wholesale clubs, and gas/EV charging stations.
- Sign up bonus is $250 for $2000 in spend in 120 days.
- This card is wonderful for people who primarily shop at a few large stores, like Costco, Walmart, and Amazon. If for example you spend $500 a month on Costco, and $500 a month on Walmart/Amazon purchases, then you would get $540 of rewards every month, and minus the annual fee of $95 and it’s $445. Compare this to a 2% flat card where you would get $240 for the same spend. This is almost double the rewards if you frequent the same stores.
- The annual fee is $0 the first year so you can try it out and product change to a different card with no fee the second year if you find out that your spending habits don’t align with this card.
Additionally, US Bank offers the Visa Platinum card for 0% APR for 21 months, and secured cards for the Visa Platinum, Altitude Go, and Cash Plus. They also partner with State Farm for a 3% insurance card capped to $6000 a year, and Kroger superstores for a 5% Kroger Pay and mobile wallet card capped to $3000 a year.
If any of these cards appeal to you, you should satisfy all these standards before applying:
1. You should have not applied to any cards in the last 3 months.
2. You should have not opened any credit card accounts in the last 6 months.
3. You should not have opened any more than 1 credit card account in the last 12 months.
4. You should have a 760+ FICO score.
5. You should have at least 2 years of credit history with no missed payments or delinquencies.
6. Your income should be higher than $30,000 when applying for an unsecured card.
However, all these standards must only be met if you do not have a bank account with them. If you do have a bank account with them, your chances of approval are much higher even if you break a few or many of these rules. Since I bank with them, I personally applied to a discontinued card in 2019 with a $25,000 income with no credit history whatsoever and was approved. There are many data points of applicants being approved less than 3 months after opening a checking account with them, even when they were denied multiple times.
If you’re planning on applying to many cards at once, US Bank should be the first card you apply to once you get to 0/6 1/12.
US Bank primarily pulls TransUnion, with 52% of applicants reporting a TransUnion pull. 25% was pulled from Experian and 23% from Equifax. These vary by state; for me, they have pulled TransUnion 4 times now.
Credit limit increases have been known to both be hard inquiries and soft pulls, so if you don’t want a hard inquiry, make sure you freeze your credit before applying for an increase.
Additionally, for banking customers who park at least $20,000 in US Bank, they offer Smart Rewards cash back offers in addition to the normal credit card rewards. These Smart Rewards include high cash back for general categories or popular stores, such as 15% back on dining purchases, 15% back on gas purchases, 15% back on groceries, 15% back on home improvement stores, 10% back on Aldi, or 20% off Home Depot. I personally have gotten over $150 for around $1000 in spend over the year solely from these Smart Rewards for dining, gas, and grocery purchases.