No more GM credit card dollars
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hno:
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What?!? I just was going to get a GM credit card too! This combined with HORRIBLE lease rates is really frustrating. For comparison, you can lease a loaded CX-9 for less that $400/month (24 month term, just over 2k due at signing) right now!!
Still, the Enclave is a better vehicle overall IMO, but GM really is taking advantage of the demand for the vehicle. Oh well, I guess I may end up waiting a year or more for the 2009's to come out and see what offers they have then.
Still, the Enclave is a better vehicle overall IMO, but GM really is taking advantage of the demand for the vehicle. Oh well, I guess I may end up waiting a year or more for the 2009's to come out and see what offers they have then.
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3,253 Posts
Where did you hear this? I didn't think GM restricted any vehicles when it came to the GM card. I knew some vehicles had lower redemption limits than others, for those with the newer GM cards, but I have never heard of them totally excluding a vehicle. ???
I agree with fenwah. I have the "old" GM card & took delivery of my Enclave July 3rd & used the max $3500!! Really nice but during the final meeting at the dealer with the finance person he called in my GM credit card number & came back with a printout that said I could only use $1000 toward the Enclave. We just about fell off our chairs & said that was a deal breaker. The finance person said don't get excited, I'll call & talk to a live person as sometimes the "system" makes mistakes....we didn't really have a good feeling.
He finally got in touch with someone who checked & said that their "system" has been making some mistakes on the Enclave & that we could use our entire $3500 on the vehicle!
Keep in mind this is for the "old" card only!! Otherwise you are limited to $1000. Our dealer said to never give up that "old" card as many customers have been surprised & upset with the new cards benefits not that GM doesn't constantly try to get us to change. READ the fine print!!
He finally got in touch with someone who checked & said that their "system" has been making some mistakes on the Enclave & that we could use our entire $3500 on the vehicle!
Keep in mind this is for the "old" card only!! Otherwise you are limited to $1000. Our dealer said to never give up that "old" card as many customers have been surprised & upset with the new cards benefits not that GM doesn't constantly try to get us to change. READ the fine print!!
Even the web site for the 'old card' is telling me that it's only $1000 redemtion allowance. I emailed the GM customer service about this. They said that the redemption amounts do not apply to the 'old card' members. I'll copy and paste the email later tonight when I get home on what they said. I plan on printing out the email as well in hopes that it will speed up the process a bit.
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124 Posts
With the original card I had no limit and got my full $3718 off. And they priced it very close to supplier price. CHA-CHING!!!
Actually, one could work the figure up to $4,000 if you played your 'card' the right way so to speak.
I believe this is how it could be done. I gathered this information in a long talk with a GM card representative the other day. See, I'm coming up on my seven year anniversary date and wanted to know how my earnings were going to expire. After the seventh year, and during the eighth year, the earnings will expire month by month as they were earned seven years earlier. She even read to me a month by month series of earnings that would expire.
But here's the kicker as she explained. As the eighth year begins, and earnings begin to expire month by month, one remains eligible to earn up to $500 in earnings for the current new year, the eighth, sort of. So conceivably if one earned most of ones first year earnings in the later months of the first year, and then accumulated the eighth year earnings quickly before any of the seven year old earnings started to expire, one could push the total earnings up to $4,000 for a time.
I believe I was getting the straight story. I asked a number of questions and the answers seemed to confirm this understanding. The clincher was her statement that for most accounts that are at the point of loosing earnings each month, the total earning balance 'bounces' up and down around the $3,500 level, depending on the amount of earnings expiring and the amount of new earnings added. So if you 'game' the situation..... $4,000!
So, after I use my current $3,500 in GM earnings on my 2008 Enclave, I am going to delay as long as I can the $500 in earnings in the first year. That way I'll have a six month window or so 7 years from now to push my earnings closer to $4,000 when I plan to purchase my new 2015 Enclave.
I believe this to be true. I'm not to my seven year anniversary date yet, so I can't confirm if this is how it will work or not, but it does make sense. If anyone has contradictory or confirming information or experience on this subject, lay it on.
I believe this is how it could be done. I gathered this information in a long talk with a GM card representative the other day. See, I'm coming up on my seven year anniversary date and wanted to know how my earnings were going to expire. After the seventh year, and during the eighth year, the earnings will expire month by month as they were earned seven years earlier. She even read to me a month by month series of earnings that would expire.
But here's the kicker as she explained. As the eighth year begins, and earnings begin to expire month by month, one remains eligible to earn up to $500 in earnings for the current new year, the eighth, sort of. So conceivably if one earned most of ones first year earnings in the later months of the first year, and then accumulated the eighth year earnings quickly before any of the seven year old earnings started to expire, one could push the total earnings up to $4,000 for a time.
I believe I was getting the straight story. I asked a number of questions and the answers seemed to confirm this understanding. The clincher was her statement that for most accounts that are at the point of loosing earnings each month, the total earning balance 'bounces' up and down around the $3,500 level, depending on the amount of earnings expiring and the amount of new earnings added. So if you 'game' the situation..... $4,000!
So, after I use my current $3,500 in GM earnings on my 2008 Enclave, I am going to delay as long as I can the $500 in earnings in the first year. That way I'll have a six month window or so 7 years from now to push my earnings closer to $4,000 when I plan to purchase my new 2015 Enclave.
I believe this to be true. I'm not to my seven year anniversary date yet, so I can't confirm if this is how it will work or not, but it does make sense. If anyone has contradictory or confirming information or experience on this subject, lay it on.
That makes sense. Thanks for the insight.
I've been using my "old" GM card since the early 90s, and my wife has been using hers also. Back during our working years we traded fairly frequently and never got up to the $3500. We used (in round numbers) $1700 for her '96 GMC Jimmy, $2300 for my '97 Chevy S10, $1900 for our '99 Buick Century, and $2600 for our '04 Buick Rendezvous. The Rendezvous was a sweet deal because GM was offering $5000 factory rebates then.
Now that we're both retired we plan on keeping our vehicles a bit longer so we should be building up bigger balances. I should have around $2500-3000 in my rebate account when I buy my Enclave in '10 or '11.
I've been using my "old" GM card since the early 90s, and my wife has been using hers also. Back during our working years we traded fairly frequently and never got up to the $3500. We used (in round numbers) $1700 for her '96 GMC Jimmy, $2300 for my '97 Chevy S10, $1900 for our '99 Buick Century, and $2600 for our '04 Buick Rendezvous. The Rendezvous was a sweet deal because GM was offering $5000 factory rebates then.
Now that we're both retired we plan on keeping our vehicles a bit longer so we should be building up bigger balances. I should have around $2500-3000 in my rebate account when I buy my Enclave in '10 or '11.
When my wife and I test drove the Acadia and Enclave back to back, I talked to the saleslady about whether or not she could beat my price from my other dealership. Their best price was still $1500 higher than the dealership that I purchased it from. Anyway, getting back on track, the saleslady asked if I had a GM Card. I said yes...and she said, well, let's look up your earnings. So, she logs into the system on her PC...it immediately tells her that the 08 Acadia and Enclave have a limit of $1000 GM earnings. I told her that I was on the old card. She said, well, let's see what they say once we enter your information. So, she entered my information...and sure enough, I was able to use the entire amount. She was completely floored. So apparently, there aren't too many people still on the old GM Card.axiama said:
To make a long story short...stay on the old GM Card if you can.
:ditto:
Same thing happened to me. For some reason the dealer had to call someplace when he told me $1000 was the max & I had the "old" card.
After he called in they told him their "system" was making errors on the "old" card so we ended up getting our $3500. The dealer said a person
should never change away from the old card. Many customers were surprised/disappointed/mad when they found out the new card had limits. Its been said before many times...read the fine print!
By the way....you'd think that by now they would have fixed their "system" as this has been going on for quite a while. Maybe they don't want to fix & hope a customer just accepts the fact that $1000 is the limit even if they have the old card. Never put anything past a Company to play dumb in these situations if it means more $$$ in their pockets...
Oh, I see I had posted the same information above.....sorry...
Same thing happened to me. For some reason the dealer had to call someplace when he told me $1000 was the max & I had the "old" card.
After he called in they told him their "system" was making errors on the "old" card so we ended up getting our $3500. The dealer said a person
should never change away from the old card. Many customers were surprised/disappointed/mad when they found out the new card had limits. Its been said before many times...read the fine print!
By the way....you'd think that by now they would have fixed their "system" as this has been going on for quite a while. Maybe they don't want to fix & hope a customer just accepts the fact that $1000 is the limit even if they have the old card. Never put anything past a Company to play dumb in these situations if it means more $$$ in their pockets...
Oh, I see I had posted the same information above.....sorry...
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3,253 Posts
I have the old card and will not change. The only person that I think would benefit from the new card is someone whoe spends a bunch each year on their credit card and buys new cars very frequently. I think the new card does not have the $500 annual earnings cap like the old card. So if you buy a new car every year and charge a bunch, the new card could be a benefit.
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I just noticed this old topic, and it made me reflect on how the credit card companies sometimes change the rules. In fact, the rules keep changing frequently lately due to the current economic crisis. Sometimes the lore of a better account is dangled before an account holder to tempt them to "upgrade" to a new account which may actually ofter inferior benefits and fee structures. This is a way for the institution to get the account holder to break the current contract for the institution's benefit. Lots of people are having their credit limits lowered or accounts changed/closed "for their own protection" "due to fraudulent activity". This is often simply a way for the institution to reduce benefits, such as the the GM credit card dollars. For example, if a bank card institution wants to limit their liability on dollar rewards, they can close your old card account "due to fraudulent activity" and provide you with a new one that would be governed by the new rewards limits. A similar event happened to me involving a phone card in the late 1980's, in which the new account had higher fees and more limited calling options. The phone company stated that they had detected suspicious activity on my account that I would not be liable for, and that they changed my account "for my protection". When I found out that the account benefits were changed for the worse, and that the old benefits were no longer available because I had a new account now, I was not so sure that the institution had acted "for my protection." Just some food for thought. :-\
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