U.S. Bank Altitude Go Review: The Best Cashback on Dining

In this US Bank Altitude Go teview, you’ll learn the sign-up bonus benefits, cashback, fees, and how to redeem points with U.S. Bank. The Altitude Go is now officially the best 0% APR credit card and here’s why.

The U.S. Bank Altitude Go Key Points:

• $200 sign up bonus after $1000 spend
• $15 annual credit on streaming services
• 4% back on dining
• No Foreign exchange fees
• No annual fee
• 0% APR for 12 months on purchases and balance transfers
• Official Sign Up Link

From this review of the US Bank Altitude Go credit card, you’ll see that this is absolutely the best no annual fee credit card. When stacking up this bonus against other 0% APR credit cards, this by far has the best benefits and the best sign up bonus. A big part to how I got out of debt was using no interest credit cards to pay off cards with high-interest rates.

The Sign Up Bonus

The US Bank Altitude Go gives you $200 after spending $1000 in the first 90 days after being approved for the credit card. That’s a 20% rebate on your money on a credit card that has no annual fee. This sign up bonus is very generous and has very few competitors. Pretty much US Bank is being overly generous to pull customers from the bigger banks like Chase and American Express.

To achieve the $200 bonus without actually having to spend $1000, I highly recommend using Rebate Key. For details on how it works, I wrote a full guide on how to get free stuff on Amazon which explains the process. Rebate Key just uses one method of manufacturing spend online. It’s a process where you fake spend money to get your credit card bonuses. I have a detailed article on how manufacture spending works that will help.

The sign up bonus for the US Bank Altitude Go is ONLY available from 6/8/20 to 8/9/20. There’s no information on how long the sign up bonus will be available for, but there’s no reason to not apply for that free money now.

The Benefits

The Altitude Reserve benefits include a big sign up bonus, no annual fee, $15 annual streaming credit and 0% APR for the first 12 months. Here’s a breakdown of what those mean.

$15 Streaming Credit: Included with the no annual fee US Bank Altitude Go card is a $15 streaming credit annually. To use the credit, you’ll need to have 11 consecutive month of charges from any streaming service (see list in cashback section). US Bank is pretty generous here, because they’ll give you the credit as long as there is a monthly charge from any streaming service for 11 months.

That means you can change out your streaming services throughout the year. Each month you can rotate between Netflix, Hulu, or Disney+ without having to be committed to just one for the year. The US Bank Altitude Go has no annual fee and they are straight-up giving you a $15 credit every year. Pretty much this is going to be one of those credit cards you keep open forever to maintain an excellent credit history. You need to read up on these essential credit tips.

0% APR for the first 12 months: No interest charges on purchases and balance transfers during the first 12 months of having the card. But just because there’s no interest, doesn’t mean you should overuse the credit card. You should never use more than 50% of your credit card limit otherwise it will hurt your credit score. That’s one of the most common credit card mistakes.

To explain briefly, if you have a $2000 limit on your credit card and have a statement balance of $1000, that’s 50% utilization on your credit card which is really bad. Just keeping it at 49% or less is considered neutral and using it at 1% to 10% is considered excellent.

Visa Signature: It’s pretty awesome that the Altitude Go is a Visa Signature card because it includes a lot of built in benefits.

• Extended Warranty protections
• Travel and Emergency Assistance
• Year End Spending Summary
• Roadside Assistance (typically up to $50)
• Visa Signature Concierge
• Auto rental collision damage waiver
• Zero fraud liability (you’re not responsible for fraudulent charges)
• Replacement card/Emergency Card

The Fees

It’s absolutely insane that the Altitude Go credit card has no annual fee and no foreign exchange fees while still offering you a sign up bonus, streaming credit and 4% cashback on dining.

• No annual fee
• No foreign exchange fees

The Cashback

The US Bank Altitude Go credit card offer mentions that you get 4X on dining which means 4 points per dollar spent on eligible dining purchases. Since one point really has a value of $0.01, 4X really means you’re getting 4% back on your purchase. US Bank hasn’t released a detailed list of all the companies that qualify for streaming and has mentioned only the major US providers. You might not be eligible for the cashback or streaming benefit bonus is you use a non-major US provider.

What cards are as good or better for dining than the Altitude Go credit card?

The only credit card that can beat the Altitude Go at 4% cashback on dining is the Citi Prestige card which offers 5% back on dining. Just so you know, that Citi Prestige card has a $495 annual fee while the Altitude Go is completely free. Other cards like the AMEX Gold get you 4X points but has an annual fee of $250.

Then you have your credit cards like the Discover IT and the Chase Freedom which have 5% rotating bonuses every quarter. These may include dining but are capped at $1500 spend for the quarter. Right now, there is no better credit card for dining cashback than US Bank’s Altitude Go.

The Points: Redeeming Your US Bank Altitude Go Bank Points

To redeem your US Bank Altitude Go bank points, you’ll have to redeem the 20,000 points as a $200 statement credit. There is a 2500 point redemption ($25) minimum and each point is valued at $0.01. If you also have the Altitude Reserve the points can be redeemed for up to $0.015 cents per point when used for travel. Redeeming the points as a statement credit is very easy and straight forward. You actually get the lowest value from it and can squeeze more value from the points if you use it for travel.

Alternatively, you can redeem the points for overpriced merchandise, magazines, gift cards or travel. Travel can get you 1.5 cents per point values (rather than just 1 cent per point) IF you have the Altitude Reserve. Even if you have the Altitude Reserve, it can still be a challenging experience.

US Bank has one of the worst and oldest looking websites compared to the other major banks like American Express, Citi, Chase, and Barclays. I had the US Bank Altitude Reserve for a year and it was pretty useless. The card came with 50,000 points ($500 cash value) so I did still come up. Additionally, it had Priority Pass so I did take advantage of that for the airport lounge access.

Trying to use the points to redeem for travel proved to have a few big challenges. My experience from using US Banks points program:

1. Hotel bookings can only be redeemed for bookings made at least 3 days in advance. I’m a last minute traveler because those last minute deals are awesome
2. Redeeming points can only be made through the US Bank rewards site. The site loads incredibly slow with very small images. I had to open another browser and look at hotel pictures from a different website
3. Hotel reservations cannot be cancelled. This may have changed, but I tried to change something that clearly said “free cancellation” and US Bank wouldn’t change it.
4. Flights booked must originate or end in the United States. Yeah, this sucks. I hope this changed. It’s very hard to redeem a small amount of points for an international flight from the United States. I tried to use it for a $50 flight within Poland and it didn’t work. I had to call support to find out why.

How it stacks up: Altitude Go vs Chase Freedom vs Citi Double Cash vs Discover It

There are many credit cards that have no annual fee and still offer cashback, but in my opinion the US Bank Altitude Go is the king. That’s because of the free $15 credit, $200 sign up bonus and the 4% on dining.

For me, the majority of my daily spend is on dining so this makes the most sense for me. I’m sure the situation is different depending on the person, but I haven’t seen a sign-up bonus as generous for a credit card this good. If you’re looking for credit cards that have no annual fee and have great benefits, these cards can compete with the US Bank Altitude Go:

• Chase Freedom: Rotating 5% cashback categories
• Chase Freedom Unlimited: 1.5% back on everything
• Citi Double Cash: 2% cashback on everything
• Discover It: Rotating 5% cashback categories

The rotating cashback categories are limited to credit card spend up to $1500. 5% of $1500 is a total of $75 cashback. You’d have to spend close to $2000 in dining on the US Bank Altitude Go to beat that cashback amount so think about what works best for your situation. If you’re trying to get out of debt, here’s a chart of other 0% APR credit cards:

Getting Approved For The US Bank Altitude Go

Even if you have an excellent credit score, that’s still not going to be an automatic approval. Other factors like income, debt and the amount of credit cards you currently have open will impact the approval decision.

I didn’t get automatically approved! My application for the Altitude Go went immediately to pending. That’s when I remembered that I froze my credit score which explains why I didn’t get approved. I hadn’t applied for any other credit card in over a year. Since my application went to pending, I was able to call the US Bank Reconsideration line to get my application processed properly. This is after unfreezing my credit.

Altitude Go Minimum Credit Score for Approval: 750+

Since data points for the Altitude Go have not yet been established, an estimate of the minimum credit score you’ll need is between 700-750 to be approved. This is after using the US Bank Cash+ and US Bank Visa Platinum card as data points for the minimum credit score range for approval.

Product Changing from the Altitude Reserve to the Altitude Go

Since the annual fee on the Altitude Reserve is $400 and the Altitude Go has no annual fee, you might be looking to downgrade. Both US Bank credit cards are in the same “Altitude” line of cards and you should be able to upgrade or downgrade as needed.

Later in 2020, US Bank will be release another credit card in the Altitude line. Look forward to it!

Calling US Bank For Reconsideration

When you call US Bank to be reconsidered for approval, be sure to have your application number ready. It’s available in the email they sent you regarding your application status. Also be sure to call early! Their office closes at 5pm central time. I’m guessing they have limited call capacity due to the virus, but at least you can still reach someone.

US Bank Reconsideration Phone Number: 1-800-947-1444

Reconsideration for the Altitude Go took less than 10 minutes and I still wasn’t approved but will find out in a week. Just note that I have 2 credit card accounts with US Bank with pretty high limits and have been a customer for 6 years. That 10-minute call was worth trying to get that $200 bonus if you think about it. I know it’s uncomfortable to use the phone, I’m a millennial and only like texting. Anything where I don’t have to have immediate communication with a stranger. But I can make a 10-minute call for $200. If you do get approved automatically, you’re supposed to get your credit card immediately so you can use it, but comments from DoC show that US Bank is not providing the credit card immediately.

TLDR

After doing a detailed review on the US Bank Altitude Go, you can tell that this credit card has a lot to offer at the right price. It’s no annual fee, but you’re pretty much looking at -$15 a year for the credit card just from the streaming bonus. You’ll actually be making money by having a credit card and you can even get the $200 sign up bonus if you get it before the promo offer ends. The 4% back on dining is unbeatable and offers better cashback than credit cards that have annual fees over $250!

I personally don’t have any affiliate links or make any money recommending this product. An honest review and the link goes directly to the US Bank application site without a referral code. This detailed US Bank Altitude Go Review is to help you become smarter with your finances and take advantage of the best bank offers.