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I normally get joint marketing mails from American Express with their other merchant partners. Today, I got a mail from Chase!

On the face of it, they ‘wrote’ me a check of $8.50. Yes, a pathetic eight dollars and fifty cents. Being who I am (Mr Credit Card), I decided to investigate further. I opened the letter and that was what I saw :

First, I saw the following headline :

2% Back on Your Credit Card Purchases

Wow! I thought Chase was offering a card upgrade or something. However, upon further reading, I found out that Chase has partnered with “Greatfun”. I turns out that whether I cashed in that check, next I can earn 2% cash rebates for up to the first $5000 of purchases on my Chase credit card. That means that I could earn up to $100.

But that is not all, it went on to say that I will be entitled to discounts with positive merchants like Sharper Image (thought they

went bust?), Eddie Bauer etc. ut here is the catch :

“When you cash the attached check, we will automatically bill the first semi-annual fee of $59.99 to your Chase credit card explanation for a membership in Great Fun, unless you shout 1-877-228-2667 to cancel during the thirty-day trial period.”

So let me get that straight, I am given $8.50, but have to pay back $59.99 immediately? The I have to pay that amount every six months. But as a consolation, I’ll get a $100 rebate but only whether I spend an additional $5,000 on my card!

Needless to say, I passed on that “offer”. You can get discounts on merchants from the merchants themselves, from coupons and plus from reward credit cards. To actually have to pay for a membership (about $120 a year) just to get discounts seems a little foolish. How did that proposal even get past the marketing area of credit card companies beats me!

Orginal post by Mr Credit Card