physixfan      2017-05-31     2018-06-21 33 Comments

First National Bank TravElite American Express Card Review

Application Link

• This card no longer accepts new applications. If you are lucky to have this legacy credit card, you can still enjoy its original benefits.

Benefits

1. Earn 25,000 points to redeem for a $250 statement credit, when you spend $2,500 in the first 3 billing cycles.
2. The points earned from this card can be redeemed for travel, GC, or statement credit etc. The best way to use them is via statement credit, and in this case, the point value is fixed 1 cent/point. So I’ll just use cash back in the rest of the post instead of points.
3. Earn 3% cashback on travel purchases, and 1.5% cashback on all other purchases.
4. $100 Travel Discretionary Fund. It’s similar to AmEx air credit: you can get $100 each year for airline incidental charges. The official website mentioned what are included: baggage, fees, airport lounge access, on-board food and beverage and more. But practically what counts and what doesn’t count requires data points. Note that you need to enroll first to enjoy this benefit.
5. $100 credit for Global Entry.
6. No foreign transaction fee.
7. No annual fee.

Disadvantages

1. Basically there’s no disadvantage at all. Probably the only disadvantage is that it’s hard to get, as it is said that FNBO is sensitive to hard pulls.

Recommended Application Time

1. We recommend you apply for this card after you have a credit history of at least two years and you are very comfortable with the credit card game.
2. It is said that FNBO is sensitive to hard pulls.

Summary

The benefits of this card are almost too good to be true. The $250 offer is really decent for a no annual fee credit card. The really amazing feature is: you can get $100 air credit every year without an annual fee! Based on experiences with AmEx Airline credits, we should be able to get the air credit by purchasing small amount airline gift cards (data points are welcomed!). Besides, as a third party AmEx credit card, it’s not limited by the AmEx 5 credit card rule, and yet you can take advantage of AmEx Offer! So you can earn at least $100 each year, and if you are familiar with AmEx Offers, it’s possible to earn hundreds of dollars.

The only disadvantage is that this card is probably difficult to get. The DoC review of FNBO said that FNBO is sensitive to hard pulls, and someone even with a 800+ score was declined in the comment region of the DoC review of this card. Of course, there are successful data points as well. I hope readers who tried to apply can report your data points, including credit score, number of hard pulls, and successful or not. Thanks!

I suspect the benefits of this card will not last long, especially since this is a small bank. Cherish it and try to take advantage while the benefits still exist.

Historical Offers Chart

This card is discontinued in 2017.05.

Application Link

• This card no longer accepts new applications. If you are lucky to have this legacy credit card, you can still enjoy its original benefits.

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