Have you heard? There is a new 5X point credit card on the market. The ABOC Platinum Rewards Mastercard. This card has actually been on the market for a few years, and the bank has been around even longer. (ABOC stands for Amalgamated Bank of Chicago). This card received a refresh in January of 2019 into a 5X cash back credit card. I only noticed this card a couple weeks ago as I was researching some information for another upcoming post.
This card is bringing it’s A game to the table and I expect it to be a real competitor in the 5% and 5X cash back credit card market. It is a rotating cash back credit card, so it puts it in the same category as the Discover IT card, Chase Freedom, and the U.S. Bank Cash + cards. In this post we will look at how this card earns, some of the perks it comes with, including a sign-up bonus, and of course the categories it earns 5X in.
What is a rotating cash back credit card?
The credit card issuer chooses a category or categories each quarter. For example, the 1st quarter of 2020 is January-March, The Discover IT card’s 5% categories are Grocery Stores, Walgreens and CVS. You earn 5% cash back on your first $1,500 of spending in each quarter in all categories combined. With a maximum earning potential of $75 each quarter. Any spend after the $1,500 and all spend outside of the category earns at a 1% cash back rate.
How to earn points?
The ABOC Platinum Rewards mastercard is no different in the way it earns. You earn 5X points per dollar spent on your first $1500 for all categories per quarter. For ABOC this is calculated at the base rate of 1X point per dollar spent and then an additional 4X points per dollar spent in the given category or categories. Any spend after the $1500 and all spend outside of the category earns at a 1X cash back rate. If you max out the quarters you will have earned $300 cash back without any extra effort on your part.
For any of the 1X cash back rate that you might spend on this card, there is no cap on the points you can earn and the points will never expire. Another thing I like about this card is that once you register your account with this new credit card you don’t have to activate or enroll in any of the quarters 5X bonuses, unlike the Discover IT, Chase Freedom and others.
You can redeem your ABOC points on Travel, gift cards, merchandise, and cash back in the form of a statement credit. I suspect the Travel and cash back redemption options will be the best route. It will be interesting to see what kind of gift cards will be available. I’ll be sure to update you as new information is released.
Easy Sign-Up Bonus
This credit card will have one of the easiest sign-up bonuses on the market. You only have to spend $1,200 in the first 90 days of account opening to receive a $150 statement credit. Which is a nice 12.5% return on your spend for purchases you were going to make anyway. The 90 days starts from the day you applied and were approved for the card and not when you receive the card.
It’s a 5X Cash Back Travel Credit Card? Sorta…
Check out this new 5X #cashback #creditcard. You can even save on Travel, Unbelievable! Share on XThis card has no foreign transaction fees, so you don’t have to worry if you use this card when traveling abroad or even making purchases with international merchants, Although I suspect you’d have a better card option in your wallet while traveling.
Let’s take a look at the categories. What I really like is that ABOC has released their 5X calendar for the whole year of 2020. They did the same in 2019. This is excellent for those of us in the credit card points, miles, and cash back community as it allows us to plan ahead so we can best optimize our credit card use.
At the outset of this post I stated that this 5X cash back credit card from ABOC Platinum Rewards Mastercard is bringing it’s A game and I truly believe that. All of the categories chosen for 2020 are on par with the big boys. The quarter where I think this card really shines is going to be in quarter 3 July-Sept. You will be able to earn 5X points back on travel. This includes airlines, hotels, car rental, and even travel agencies. 5X back on travel is hard to come by and almost never happens on a no annual fee credit card.
They had the same category in the same quarter in 2019. I think it would have been better at least from a consumer standpoint to have this category in the second quarter for 2020. Since most families are traveling during the summer months, most of these trips were planned and paid for prior to July. But I’ll still take it as an option because this is an amazing category to have available.
Overall
I think for a no annual fee credit card that comes with an easy to reach sign-up bonus and plenty of fire power options when it comes to how to earn the 5X points, this card is a must add to your wallet. Having no foreign transaction fees is a nice addition too. I suspect it won’t be long before all credit cards do away with them. If you like an extra $300 every year then you should consider getting the ABOC Platinum Rewards Mastercard