U.S. Bank Club Carlson Visa Cards Review (old products NOT updated)

Updated April 10, 2016.  Please see our updated review here.

The Facts
There are three Club Carlson Visa cards offered by US Bank: Club Carlson Rewards Visa Signature, Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa Signature, and Club Carlson Business Rewards Visa.  We will compare the first two and talk a little bit about the third later.

Club Carlson Rewards Visa Signature

  • Annual Fee: $50
  • Signup Bonus: 60,000 points (50K after the 1st use and an additional 10K after spending $1,500 within 3 months of new account opening).  Historical best bonus of this card has been 60K since the introduction.
  • Application Landing Page
  • Rewards: 6x Carlson hotels, and 3x everywhere else
  • Other Benefits: 25,000 upon each anniversary.  Complimentary Carlson Silver status or 10 qualifying nights if you are already an elite.

Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa Signature

  • Annual Fee: $75 for personal version and $60 for business version.
  • Signup Bonus: 85,000 points (50K after the 1st use and an additional 35K after spending $2,500 within 3 months of new account opening).  Historical best bonus of these two cards has been 85K since the introduction.
  • Application Landing Page
  • Rewards: 10x Carlson hotels, and 5x everywhere else
  • Other Benefits: 40,000 upon each anniversary.  One anniversary free night at any Club Carlson hotels if you spend at least $10,000 per year.  Complimentary Carlson Gold status or 15 qualifying nights if you are already an elite.
  • The Best Use of Club Carlson Gold Points:  Club Carlson is the frequent guest program of Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group whose portfolio includes Quorvus Collection, Radisson Blu, Radisson, Park Plaza, Park Inn, and Country Inns and Suites.  It is best to use them toward award nights at their hotels.
  • Club Carlson Business Rewards Visa is the business card version of Premier Rewards Visa, with the same great features and a smaller annual fee ($60).  So if you need a business card this is a no-brainer.
  • History: when the cards were introduced, it quietly doubled the value of Club Carlson points for the cardholders due to the Second Reward Night Free feature.  In June 2015, US Bank took away this most popular feature, which essentially cut our value of the Club Carlson points half.

The Math
Set the business card aside, which personal version to get?  For an extra $25 a year, Premier Rewards Visa offers much much more than the regular Rewards Visa, including 25,000 more points at signup, 2 extra points in general spending and 4 extra points in Carlson hotels, 15,000 more points upon anniversary, an anniversary free night for $10K spending, and Gold status instead of Silver.  So this really is an easy one!

Note if you go with the Premier Rewards Visa, the 40,000 anniversary points more than pay the $75, and you enjoy Gold status for free and an anniversary free night for $10K spending.  This is a card to keep after the 1st year.

Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa vs. FIA Fidelity Amex: Let us assume you don't have any paid nights at Carlson hotels (meaning you don't get 10x category bonus), your annual spending is $A and you value a Gold Point at y cents.  Then to beat Fidelity Amex's 2% cash back, you need 5x y% x A + $y/100 x 40,000 - $75 = 2% x A, i.e., y = (2A+7500)/(5A+40000).  If A=30K, then you will need to value a point at 0.36 cent.

The Conclusion
The Club Carlson Visa cards are great to keep after the first year.  Among the three versions, the business card version is no doubt the best, but if you don't need a business card, go with Premier Rewards Visa.  As to weather to put general spending to the card, it is down to how much you value a Gold Point and how many Gold points you need a year.

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