I got the USBAR October 2024 and thought it would be one of, if not *the* endgame card. But the nerf killed it for me. The spending cap wasn't a deal-breaker for me but removing the 1.5x redemption definitely was, as was removing the dining redemption from the annual fee reimbursement and requiring you to use the portal.

I did an obligatory ask if there were any retention offers but there weren't so I downgraded to a free card.

I have one of the Kroger family cards and may get another one for NFC payments but think I'll finally do the work to get signed up for the BoA Preferred Rewards. Hopefully, they don't kill the current promotions on their CCR and UCR before my 3-month average is up.

Are you all keeping or downgrading the USBAR?

USBAR was my catch all card and depending on their transfer partners, I’ll either keep it or PC it but atm I’m leaning towards PC.

My only other catch all card is CFU but it earns 1.5x which personally I don’t really like, as much as I love the UR points.

I know there’s the Citi Double Cash, Wells Fargo Active, RobinHood Gold etc but not sure which one to aim for.

My main priority is to use points to travel but with school upcoming, I won’t have much time for that so I’m okay with a cash back card. What would be the best option?

Following the USBAR Nerf, what would be the best credit card to replace USBAR for all the mobile wallet and Travel expenses?

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/u-s-bank-to-make-negative-changes-to-u-s-bank-altitude-reserve-travel-transfers-1¢-per-point-instead-of-1-5¢/

Summary of changes:

Effective December 15, 2025:

• Mobile pay transactions will be capped at $5,000 per billing cycle (month), with an additional $5,000 cap after the first cycle.

• Redemptions for travel will be reduced from 1.5 cents per point to 1 cent per point.

• $325 travel credit will be applicable only for travel through the travel center. No more dining credits will be applicable, and travel booked directly through merchants will no longer be eligible for credits.

• Possible introduction of transfer partners. (??)

• 10x points for hotels and car rentals purchased through the portal, and 5x points for flights booked through the portal.

US Bank Altitude Reserve: 10/10
TL;DR: USBAR card is a seriously great card. Effective $75 annual fee. 3x on Apple Pay turns into 4.5% cash back for travel purchases. Apple pay is accepted SO many places these days. Purchase/Travel Protection is nice as well. Pays for itself…and then some! I recommend this card to anyone with an iPhone and infrequently travels.
So I have had the US bank Altitude Reserve for just over a year (AF hitting made me realize I need to write this up). I absolutely love it. I have been in the CC game for a while and I just kind of got worn out always trying to figure out which card was best for what situation. I really wanted to have 1 main card, with of course a backup or two. But THE card that was a great daily driver and with the USBAR card I have found it. This is a long-ish review so bear with me, but I think it is the best single use card on the market.
The top perk to me is the 3x on Apple Pay. Apple Pay is accepted at the majority of the places I go to these days such as:
- Grocery stores
- Fast food / Takeout
- Pharmacies (CVS, Walgreens , Duane Reed, etc.,)
- Hardware/home good stores
- Clothing stores / shopping
- Pop-up trucks
- Bars / breweries
- Vending machines
- Sporting goods stores
- Costco
- Target
- Bookstores
- Hair salons
- Auto parts stores
- Convenience stores
- *some* medical/dental
- Movie Theatres
- Pet stores
- Museums
- Gift shops
- My insurance
- Electricity Bill (small fee)
- Internet Bill
- *Some* Gas stations
- Specific places I have used it such as Best Buy/Apple/ Newegg/REI/Dicks/Container store/Nordstrom/Verizon/Macys/SeatGeek/Bookstores
The list goes on and on. I do not know what some of these random stores will code as but with apple pay it does not matter. When you parlay it with the 1.5% multiple for redeeming points on Travel purchases this 3x on apple pay effectively becomes 4.5% back and that is truly phenomenal. The only downside is that, yes, at regular restaurant you are likely going to have to pull out the physical card. Same goes for most gas still, but it is getting better. All the local grocery store market has tap-to-pay now. In those situation where the gas/restaurant do not have appley pay, its 1.5x points. That is not 3x or even 4x you could be getting with Amex gold, Wells Fargo Autograph, Capitol one savior, among others…I get that. But for me, I really wanted to have 1-3 cards max and not play the game anymore.
The other great part of Apple Pay is online shopping. I have a mac and safari integrates Apple pay. I would say 1/3 of the stores I buy from offer Apple Pay and I get 3x points on all those online orders too. Shopping, electronics, health, big box stores, whatever it is, seems like every 1 in 3 times I can use apple pay. Truly fantastic to get 3x on online shopping without even trying. Apple pay is the single greatest reason to own the USBAR card in my opinion. I even recently found out (also thanks to reddit) I can pay my car insurance, internet bill and electricity bill with apple pay. Electric charges a fee but its less than 4.5% so it’s still a net gain.
Just to prove to myself how efficient Apple Pay is, I kept track of every purchase I made in the last month and how often I was able to use Apple Pay. I made 84 purchases in October (not counting reoccurring bills) and of those, 66 were able to be made with Apple Pay! Not only that but in terms of actual dollar amounts 80% of all the money I spent was Apple Pay eligible!
You also get 3x on Travel purchases such as hotels and flights. I do not travel much at the moment and I know a lot of no AF cards get 3x on travel but as with the apple pay, all travel becomes 4.5x when points are redeemed for travel. Win-win!
There are also a bunch of other perks like travel protection, purchase protection, rental car insurance, 5x on travel booked in the portal, priority pass access, TSA precheck, and Visa infinite perks. I do not have a ton of experience with many of those perks but let me tell you lounges and TSA precheck alone out of the list are absolute life savers. I have never done lounges before this and wow it makes long layovers just a dream. Likewise, TSA precheck has saved my butt on one occasion where time was of the essence and I may have missed by flight otherwise. Getting to pass the line like that feels pretty sweet.
I hear complaints all the time about how the AR card doesn’t have travel partners. Personally, I think travel partners are entirely overrated. I travel 2-3x a year for work. I use the company card. Last time I flew personal was February. Getting forced to used Delta, or AA or some random foreign airline like Virgin or Air Canada just cause those are the travel partners seems so limiting to me. For example I have the Amex Gold card for a while. Racked up a bunch of 4x points but for the life of me I couldn’t find a travel partner. It’s basically Delta, Jet blue, Hawaiian or international airlines. I ended of cashing out at like a 0.6x rewards on all those 4x points…I also see a lot of comparisons to the Capital One Venture X card. Lower annual fee, higher travel perks, purchase protection, lounge access, TSA precheck but no Apple pay.
Finally, the annual fee. I think the concern about the AF being $400 is a bit overblown. A previously post broke this down with great detail and credit where credit is due (https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/comments/y6paru/redeeming_us_bank_altitude_reserve_points_to_pay/). But the annual fee is $325 after the travel/ dining credit. If you use your points to pay off your annual fee redeeming 35,000 points for your annual fee is $350 cash value, giving you a $50 discount. So, your AF is now effectively $25 (400-$325 credit - $50 discount). But if you earn 3x points on those $325 dollars in dining at 3x points, it equals 975 points, or $9.75 cash value, which brings your effective annual fee down to $15.25. WOW!
“There is a catch though; in order to accumulate 35,000 points in a year, you'd need to spend $11,667/year ($972/month) on the card, all at 3x points. Alternatively, you could spend $10,833/year ($903/month) at 3x and $2,500/year ($208/month) at 1x to earn 35,000 points, and your net cash value compared to putting all those purchases on a no AF 2% card would be the same”…. That was not a problem for me I earned just over 75,000 points to date. And I just last month I started paying utilities and bills with apple pay. Two flights, hotel stay 2-3x along with groceries, takeout and Costco will get you to 35,000 no sweat in my case. But may not be possible for everyone.
All and all just a superb card that I cannot recommend enough. If you use apple pay and don’t travel all that much, this card is a no-brainer. For others who may use google or Samsung pay I still think this card is worth it. For those that fly 5 times or more a year it may not be the best 1 card set-up, but I would still recommend it!

I'm curious to hear current cardholders' thoughts now that US Bank Altitude Reserve has been closed to new applicants in favor of Smartly. I've had the card myself since Mar 2022, and with my AF coming due soon I've been debating keeping it vs product changing.

Breaking down the card's main benefits below for comparison with alternate No-AF suggestions:

Mobile Wallet 3% Back, Up To 4.5% Travel Redemption

Apple Pay is pretty ubiquitous these days, at least in my experience there are very few places that don't accept it. For people who prefer the simple setup of mobile wallet, USBAR is strong. You don't have to worry about MCCs coding wrong or keep track of rotating categories/spend caps.

USBAR is great for Costco year round in the US since it's a Visa. Other than the OG Freedom with 5% rotating warehouse category, Discover workaround for online certificates, yada yada, it's one of the most painless cards to use at Costco.

It handles large expenses well with a high CL being Visa Infinite - it was nice to get 3% back immediately from my cat's $2.5k emergency surgery last month without thinking too hard about what card to pull out at the vet. And sometimes the 3% beats the fee that some businesses tack on with credit cards, so it's a no brainer choosing USBAR over debit.

The most similar card(s) available right now in terms of mobile wallet spend, which is also offered by US Bank, are their branded rewards cards (such as Ralphs or Kroger Mastercards - 5% back on up to $3k/yr per card for mobile wallet). You can get multiple cards - and it's not just limited to Kroger banners, US Bank works with other brands too). I have the Ralphs card--point redemption is a better experience than Cash+, with no minimum. But the con is that it was issued with a very low CL and cannot compete with USBAR. I only got $500. I've heard they're stingy with CL on these cards but it's also very likely I was offered the minimum because I had $10k credit card debt at the time I applied...

(Long story short, I salvaged a small arbitrage opportunity from a shitty situation where the same cat had emergency surgery the PRIOR year... I have the balance in a high yield savings account ready to pay off at any time, as soon as my 21 mo. 0% APR is over, or I'm tired of seeing a high CC balance/low score...)

Travel Perks

TSA Pre-check/Global Entry Credit: up to $120/yr every 4 years: sooo nice to have but a common perk for AF travel cards. US Bank's no AF Altitude Connect card offers up to $100/yr as the same perk (seems like USBAR caught up to the $20 increase in global entry but Connect has not—still awesome for a free card)

x5 Points US Bank Travel Center Booking: ugh, I hate booking travel on most CC portals, so buggy and cumbersome. It's only for prepaid hotels + car rentals. No-AF Connect has the same perk. And No-AF Cash+ is even better because it includes airfare.

Priority Pass Select Membership: x8 visits a year to the highest membership tier of priority pass, but priority pass kinda sucks in the US. However, I do love the once-a-year visit you can redeem to a Chase lounge. Makes me want to get a Sapphire lol. Connect has the same perk but half the visits. Some other CCs have a lower tier priority pass membership which makes them even more useless.

Probably missing other visa infinite perks, but those at least are the most widely advertised of USBAR

AF Comparison

$400 fee - $325 dining/travel credit = $75 fee

If you want to be really pedantic, since you still get spend rewards from the credits applied, let's say you stack 3% mobile wallet and manage to redeem extra 50% value for travel.

4.5% of $325 = $14.63 rewards back, = $60.37 adjusted fee

Compare to a 5% mobile wallet card spend for that same $325 credit amount = $16.25 benefits, so you lost out on $1.62 in value = $61.99 fee

Or compare to 2% Apple Card mobile wallet spend $325 credit amount = $6.5 benefits, so you gained $8.13 value = $52.24 fee

To make up the difference of $61.99 net effective AF on one 5% US Bank branded card (with max $3k/yr benefit)

$3k max spend on 5% US bank branded = $150 back
$3k spend on 4.5% USBAR redemption = $135 back, $15 difference + $61.99 AF = $76.99 / 4.5% = $1710.89, +$3k base spend = break-even point for USBAR at $4,710.89 spend yearly

If you rock two 5% cards for max 5% back on $6k and run the same equation, $30 difference + $61.99 AF / 4.5% = $2044.22 + $6k base spend = break-even point for USBAR at $8,044.22 spend yearly

To make up the difference of $52.24 net effective AF on 2% Apple Card:

4.5% - 2% = 2.5% spend must be equal or more to $52.24, $52.24/2.5% = break-even point for USBAR at $2,089.60 spend yearly

These are best case scenarios assuming you don't have any 5% cashback category cards eating into your spend rewards, which makes it incrementally harder for the USBAR to catch up at .5% loss in rewards with every transaction, + required travel redemption for the extra 1.5% value.

Also, apologies as my math could be wrong and I'm very tired.

PC Options for USBAR

- Can downgrade to another card in the Altitude family like Connect discussed above, or Cash
- Have heard you can still get a SUB even though you're technically not eligible when you PC, reward tracker shows up and you can get the bonus depending on the timing of your annual membership.

Potential PC path: USBAR > downgrade to Connect or Go, get unofficial SUB without using an extra CC slot, > switch to another Cash+*

(*Bank branded Elan 5% Max Preferred is basically the same card but the categories as a bit different and the ones you choose stay the same from quarter to quarter - you can set it and forget it, you don't need to elect it every quarter like you need to for Cash+)

Retention Offers

- Previously awarded enough points to offset $75 effective fee but I doubt the card will have more since it's discontinued. Anyone have DPs here? I've never asked for a retention offer on a discontinued card before.

TLDR

- USBAR still a unique blend of benefits useful for people who don't wanna track CCs but still wanna get good rewards and travel perks. Very appealing as a simplified system with few limits.
- No longer available so run the numbers for yourself or hand it off to a family member you trust who doesn't churn.
- Cat surgeries are great to generate CC rewards, but very bad for the wallet.
- Collective brainpower used to write this long post and maximize my cashback setup could probably have been much better spent upskilling and making money instead... but where's the fun in that?! Alas, my goals this year are to simplify my life, get healthy, and make more money, so will take a break from churning and live vicariously through others on this sub :)

Cashback Setup

My current cashback setup for anyone interested:
A little redundant but planning to trim down.

- Amex BCP, upgraded in-app for SUB, will downgrade again when AF hits because the incremental rewards aren't worth the fees for my current spend & lifestyle
- Apple Card - sock drawer, nice once in a blue moon for apple product upgrades, 3% back and no interest monthly payments
- Bilt - auto pay 5 transactions/month, theoretical rent card but currently using zelle
- Chase Freedom OG: 5% quarterly
- Discover It: 5% quarterly
- Ralphs Mastercard: 5% mobile wallet & kroger stores $3k/yr
- Citi Custom Cash: 5% $500/mo top category
- Citi Custom Cash 2: PC'd from stata premier after SUB
- USB C+: 5% gym & utilities
- USBAR: card in question
- Wells Fargo Reflect: 21mo 0% sad emergency card (want to PC to Attune but heard it can't be done so will close after promo rate is done)
- Shop Your Way: newest addition, got the SUB and just waiting for those targeted offers to hit :D

Fellow USBAR card holders, it looks like our time may be limited. I doubt they keep this card forever, as it seems like they've replaced it with the Smartly Visa Signature (flat 4% cash back if you have 100k+ investments with USB).

What's everyone have their eye on to switch to when the day comes?

Outside of SUBs, why do you like the US Bank Altitude Reserve card? Is it for the consistent 3x (4.5x) multipliers for travel and mobile spend? Do you like being walletless and just mobile only? Do you like the cashback nature of this card? The simplicity? I'm curious to know!

USBAR is no longer open for applications. It's possible it'll open up again in the future, but it remains to be seen.

What other cards (from any lender) do you think are going to get the axe sometime because they're too good? Do you think current users of those card(s) will be grandfathered in? Is there any cards you want to get while you still can?

Any fellow USBAR cardholders received the mailer detailing substantial changes to the card? I saw it circulating in a FB group, but can’t verify on their website

https://imgur.com/a/60OaJ0W

I’ve just seen understandable negativity around the post-nerf USBAR but what are reasons for keeping it?