Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  Last Thursday, I got 2 emails from US Bank regarding my credit card statement and a travel credit that posted to my US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card.  I got this credit card in my March App-O-Rama and wrote about Unboxing my US Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite Credit Card: Card Art, Brochure & Welcome Letter last month.  I’ve been hard at work meeting the $4,500 minimum spend requirement to get 50,000 US Bank FlexPoints and was hoping the sign up bonus would post on my first credit card statement.  In this post, I will show you when the annual fee posts, when your travel credits will post, and when the sign up bonus will post to your account.

My US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card statement closed on April 24.  I logged into my US Bank account, went to my US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card account and saw that I received a $113.30 travel credit for a $113.30 Delta flight I recently booked and the $400 annual fee for this credit card.  I clicked the More Details link beneath both charges to see more details.

Unfortunately, the transaction details do not show any more details than what is already shown.  So based on this information, the annual fee will post on your first credit card statement.  If you made any eligible travel purchases that count toward the annual $325 travel credit, you will get the travel credit on the date when your credit card statement closes.

Up next, I wanted to see if/when the sign up bonus would post to my account.  I clicked the My Accounts tab, then clicked My Rewards, then clicked a different My Rewards, and then clicked Redeem Rewards & Access Card Benefits under my US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card.

I then clicked on Manage Points.

I then clicked on Points History.

On the Points History page, I can see that the sign up bonus and FlexPoints from my spending posted on my first credit card statement (I spent ~$4,600 during this statement period).  You will also see that I earned 500 bonus FlexPoints for enrolling in Real-Time Rewards.  This is a free program that you can sign up for if you have any US Bank FlexPoints earning credit cards.

To enroll in Real-Time Rewards, click Card Benefits and then click Real-Time Rewards.  If you want to learn more about Real-Time Rewards, here is the US Bank page.  Frequent Miler and Freequent Flyer Book wrote about using Real-Time Rewards recently and show what travel purchases worked and what did not.

Lastly, US Bank allows you to redeem 35,000 FlexPoints to cover the $400 annual fee (1.14 cents per point).  That is a bad deal, since you can get 1.5 cents per point when you redeem for travel or via Real-Time Rewards.  The thing that was interesting about this redemption option is that it says you can use 35,000 FlexPoints to cover the “annual fee ($400) and any additional card annual fees ($75 per card) billed to your account.”  Therefore, this option would actually be worthwhile if you had 2 or more authorized users (your annual fee total would be $400 + $75 + $75 = $550), but you would only be required to redeem 35,000 FlexPoints (worth $525 in travel).  I don’t have any authorized users on this credit card, so I will just pay the annual fee with cash and redeem my FlexPoints for travel.

If you have any questions about the $400 annual fee, $325 in travel credits, or the sign up bonus on the US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card, please leave a comment below.  Have a great day everyone!