Important Things To Know About U.S. Bank Credit Cards

Whether you want a credit card that offers cash back on everyday purchases or a credit card that’ll reward you with flights to exotic locations, U.S. Bank has the cards that will fit your needs. U.S. Bank is also one of the country’s largest banks and one of the biggest issuers of credit cards. Though this Minneapolis-based bank operates branches primarily in the West and Midwest, anyone can apply for U.S. Bank Credit Cards— and the bank has some good ones.

Things to Know

1. Before applying for any US Bank credit cards, be sure to freeze your SageStream & ARS credit reports. US Bank checks these reports, but it doesn’t seem to help in the approval process at all, just another reason to deny you. Although you will need to have these unfrozen when you sign up for a US Bank checking account (they sometimes offer promotional bonuses, don’t need to be unfrozen if applying in branch).
2. You can view what credit card offers you are pre-approved for online. You can view your offers before you actually apply. This is useful for people who might not have great credit, but this doesn’t guarantee you a pre-approval.
3. You can churn their cards. Being able to get the bonus more than once can work in your favor. Just keep in mind they are harsh on approvals.
4. You can have as many credit cards as you want and/or approved for. There is no limit to the amount of  U.S. Bank credit cards you can have. But keep in mind that the more cards you have with them, the more difficult it is to get approved.
5. You cannot check your application status with U.S. Bank online. You must call them (800) 947-1444.
6. If you apply for multiple cards, the hard inquiries will be combined. If you apply for more than one card and your applications are approved on the same day, all of the hard inquiries will be combined. This will then be considered as a single inquiry. However, U.S. Bank is quite difficult to get approved with.
7. If they increase the sign up bonus of one of their credit cards that you’ve recently applied for, they will usually match it. However, U.S. Bank does not often change their bonuses, but it’s worth mentioning.
8. U.S. Bank offers a referral program. If you want to refer one of your friends to one of their cards, then you can get a bonus of up to 10,000 points per referral.
9. When meeting minimum spend requirements, your time frame begins when your card is approved.
10. Spending on authorized user accounts does not count towards the minimum spending requirements. Only spending on the primary card will count.
11. It’s not possible to get sign up bonuses paid out earlier than expected. So make sure you apply with plenty of time before you want to redeem those points/miles.
12. U.S. Bank waives the fees on their checking account if you have one of their credit cards. This is useful when they are offering a sign up bonus on those accounts. Personal credit cards will waive the fees on personal accounts and business credit cards will waive the fee on business accounts.
13. U.S. Bank also lets you change your statement closing date. (e.g if your pay falls at a certain time and you want to pay off your card before the statement closes). It might make sense to change it to just before the end of the month, that way you’ll always show a low balance.
14. If you apply for a credit card and you are denied, you can still be re-considered. If you are denied when applying for a credit card, call their re-consideration line. Call 800-947-1444 or 800-685-768. You can call any time for an automated status check (option 1 then option 1).
    • 8am – 8 pm Monday to Friday
    • 9 am – 6 pm Saturday
    • Closed Sunday
15. U.S. Bank will not allow you to pull a different credit report if the one you have is frozen. You can’t even  give them a PIN to access the frozen report.
16. U.S. Bank reports your credit utilization based on what it is on the 1st of each month. This is useful to know if you need to reduce your credit utilization for FICO score purposes.
17. When it comes to credit limits, US Bank is quite weird. For increases they’ll run them as a soft pull if under $1,500 and a hard pull if over $1,500. For reallocations, they do a soft pull but you need to get a manager to approve those anyway.
18. You can not product change between brands (e.g Club Carlson to Cash+). If you do want to downgrade a US Bank branded card, then the Cash+ card is likely to be your best option with your choice of 5% categories (even if most of the good ones are gone).
19. U.S. Bank will often waive the annual fee on FlexPerks credit cards when you call about retentions. Or they’ll just give you enough points to offset the annual fee. YMMV.
20. You can get a refund if you cancel your credit card. If you cancel your credit card within the first 30 days from account opening, they will refund the annual fee.
21. Business credit cards don’t get reported to the personal credit bureaus. This can be useful in keeping your credit report cleaner.
22. If you set up auto-pay set up with U.S. Bank, they will pay the full statement balance. But if you make a partial of full payment, we’re unsure.