U.S. Bank BUSINESS Altitude Power World Elite MasterCard
Last updated September 6, 2024.
The Facts
The Facts
- Annual Fee: $195
- Signup Bonus: 75,000 points when you spend $10,000 within the first 120 days of new account opening. Historical best bonus: 75,000 points since introduced in early 2024.
- Application Landing Page
- Rewards: 6x points on prepaid hotels & car rentals through U.S. Bank, 2.5x on mobile wallet (up to $5,000 in purchase each quarter), 2x everywhere else
- Best Use of Altitude Rewards points: You may redeem the points for cash back, travel, gift cards, merchandise, magazines, etc., at up to 1 cent per point (cpp). The best option for most customers will probably be the "real-time rewards" feature if you enroll your cellphone number for this feature in your online account. Once enrolled, whenever you use this card to pay for eligible purchases, you will receive a text message from US Bank asking you if you want to redeem your points for that specific transaction, at fixed value of 1 cpp. Note that, while you can transfer points between the "1 cpp" Altitude Rewards (Altitude Go, Altitude Connect, Altitude Power), you can not transfer them to the high-end Altitude Reserve to achieve higher rewards value at 1.5 cpp.
- Other Benefits: Waived foreign transaction fees with an embedded EMV chip.
The Math
The 6x bonus category is not very useful because of the prepaid requirement and the fact that hotel bookings through a third party are ineligible for points earning and/or status recognition by several major hotel programs. Even if you max out the quarterly limit for mobile wallet, you are only getting $5,000 x 4 x (2.5-2)% = $100 over the regular 2%, effectively reducing the annual fee to $95. We would recommend Amex Blue Business Plus (no annual fee, 2x points = 2% cash or 3% travel rewards, up to $50K spending) or Capital One Spark Miles ($95 annual fee, 2x points = 2% cash or 3% travel rewards, no cap).
The Conclusion
With a $195 annual fee, unattractive 6x and 2.5x bonus categories, and mediocre 2% rewards, US Bank Altitude Power doesn't stand out from competitions.
The 6x bonus category is not very useful because of the prepaid requirement and the fact that hotel bookings through a third party are ineligible for points earning and/or status recognition by several major hotel programs. Even if you max out the quarterly limit for mobile wallet, you are only getting $5,000 x 4 x (2.5-2)% = $100 over the regular 2%, effectively reducing the annual fee to $95. We would recommend Amex Blue Business Plus (no annual fee, 2x points = 2% cash or 3% travel rewards, up to $50K spending) or Capital One Spark Miles ($95 annual fee, 2x points = 2% cash or 3% travel rewards, no cap).
The Conclusion
With a $195 annual fee, unattractive 6x and 2.5x bonus categories, and mediocre 2% rewards, US Bank Altitude Power doesn't stand out from competitions.