After just one month, I had it with this credit card. I called FIA Card Services to pay my final balance and close my account. It wasn’t until two months later I received a letter in the mail to say I still had a balance. WHAT IS GOING ON?! I called their customer service line, to find out that they never paid my final balance – I had half remaining. I asked why I was never informed the account was still active, I never received any statements in the mail, I never received any emails – NOTHING. I was told I had insufficient funds in my checking account to pay the final balance (which is not true). I asked to see previous statements for the two months my account was left open and told me that I couldn’t view them online because “typically when a call is placed to close the account they stop showing statements online.” I don’t see how it’s possible for them to tell me my account is closed, make half a payment, leave my account open, and not send me any notification.

Go with a more established credit card company – this fidelity one is terrible!

You get 2 points per dollar. At 5,000 points you get $50. 5,000 points = $2,500 spent.

$2,500*2%= $50.

A 2% cash back return.

I have a Fidelity Mutual Fund and a brokerage account. When Fidelity started advertising their American Express Card at a 2% return to go into Fidelity investments, this sounded like a good deal. Well…, not so fast. I wish I had kept a log but I didn’t think I would have all these issues. So, my memory will have to do.

I applied, filled in the details, where my rewards were to go, etc. The cards came quickly and were activated. I had a number of items to spend, so the reward amount mounted quickly. I was pleased, every vendor but one accepted the AMEX card.

Then, the rewards. It turns out that neither Fidelity nor AMEX is handling this card; it is handled through FIA which is part of the Bank of America. The 2% is converted into points, not exact cash, 2 points per $1.00. Of course, there are other things you can now do with your points which makes the process somewhat complex. If you want, you can even convert to cash, but at 1% return. It takes me a while to figure this out. I try to use their web site but gave up after a long time. I really don’t like to have to sit at the computer and just play around with this stuff. I finally called; and, to their credit, got a very helpful person who explained the points and rewards to me. Now I understood, or thought I did, at least how this point system worked.

The next thing I find is that the points just sit there, not converted to Fidelity investments, just sit there. I try to figure that out; but, like the other issue, after wandering around the web site, have to call for information. I find that you have to have a number of points before you can convert. So, you can have points just sitting there not accumulating gain (or loss). I find also, that the helpful person had to set up where my points are to go. It didn’t seem my original application information was accessed nor could I do this without her, even though I admit I may have been a little short of web browsing patience at this point.

Finally, the helpful person got it worked out where my points are to go and also was able to set up the conversion to be automatic, once a month at the end of a month. In the meantime, I had emailed Fidelity about these issues, saying I wanted a Fidelity card that converted. They were helpful, saying they checked and I was now having my points converted. Of course, I knew this at this point, the communication overlapping.

Not there yet, though. I kept checking my Fidelity brokerage account (which you have to have to get a card, anyway) and the money did not appear. The points (money) were gone from FIA but not into my account. With electronic transfers being what they are these days, I assumed it would be a day or so. The helpful person at FIA, again, tells me it will take a while. Try 10 to 20 days before the money is added to the account, quite a lag time.

Now, I’m there, right? The money is in my brokerage account into my mutual fund to start earning. No, that is not automatic. You now have to go through this complicated procedure to move the money into the mutual fund. I have the email from Fidelity but haven’t had the stamina to do the seven steps they outline.

Maybe I’ll just use another card.

[...] My Dollar Plan: Fidelity 2% Cash Back Credit Card. [...]