Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
Disclosure: The Crystal® Visa Infinite® Card is NOT an affiliate card and I received no compensation from City National Bank for this card or this post. HT to reader Yosef for the contact.
EDIT: I have confirmed that this offer is ONLY valid in the states that CNB has locations in. So congrats to all who live in the follow states: https://www.cnb.com/sitepages/locator.aspx
UPDATE 6OCT15: This offer is now ONLY available in branches. You must visit a bank location to get the offer. See the link above if there is a bank year you.
What an amazing offer from a bank you do not hear all that much about. City National Bank has bumped their Crystal® Visa Infinite® Card new card bonus to 100,000 points after spending $5,000 in the first 90 days. These points can be used at 1 cent each to book airline tickets, hotels and the like.
This card is being marketed as a direct challenge to the The Platinum Card® from American Express (Learn how to apply) and has many of the same perks. Let me quickly run down the bullet points and then get to the other details:
- Earn 3 Points on gasoline, airline, hotel, taxi, rental car, train, bus, restaurant, fast food and takeout food dining purchases. 1 Point on all other purchases.
- No Foreign Transaction Fee
- $250 Airline Incidental Fees Statement Credit
- Priority Pass SelectTM – Airport Lounge Access
- $100 Global Entry Application Fee Statement Credit
- Annual Fee – None first year. After that, $400
Now let’s break this down a bit more. First off the Priority Pass SelectTM is not just for ONE person but TWO. That is a very nice perk of the card.
Also, much like many other cards, you are getting credit for Incidental Fees. This “may” work for buying airline gift cards like many other cards, but clearly I have not tested this. The T&C state it is up to the airline to “code” it correctly so gift cards may or may not work. Things like GoGo will NOT work as they are not billed by the airline. Another choice for Delta Diamond is, if it is offered again, to pay the $245 fee to UG from Individual to Executive membership to allow you to bring guests into the Sky Club.
The $100 Global Entry (that includes TSA PreCheck) fee has become somewhat of a stock rebate on most premium cards. Nice they are including this as well as no foreign transaction fee that most really just consider a “junk fee” anyway.
Bottom line this is a nice card and the offer is amazing. Here is the thing, you cannot just apply with a link. This is a “smaller” bank. You will need to 1st download an application via a PDF you can get HERE! Then, if you live in the right states, with that filled out you can email Michael Thomas – Senior Relationship Banker at Michael.Thomas@cnb.com the filled out application and included income verification like a W2 or a tax return. Yes, a bit of a pain but I will be going for this card (and Lisa as well)! – René
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Perhaps worth a try but please be aware this bank caters to the rich and famous and doesn’t position itself as a general purpose bank. Their qualification requirements may be well beyond what we normally see.
With first year annual fee waived, this seems almost too good to be true (even with the hassle of paper application). Do you know how strict they are re: recent credit inquiries? I just did an app-o-rama about 6 weeks ago with 4 new cards…
@Maddy – Not sure but I did the same and going for card right now! 🙂
Information elsewhere says that this card is only available to residents of certain states (NY, DE, GA, TN, NV & CA). Is this true? I live in Illinois and 100k points for only 5k spend, with no annual fee no less, would be too good to pass up.
@Ryan – Should be no problem. I am in Indiana and going for card.
I would hesitate to do business with a bank that asked me to send my SSN and W2 over unencrypted email.
Also- any idea of the redemption for this 100k points?
I’d hate to spend $5,000 to find out that it would get me two nights at a Hampton, or something.
@Ryan – Read post. 1 cent each booking air etc.
Thanks, Rene. For those interested, I did some dummy searches and it is indeed about one cent per point, which is pretty good. http://www.cnbrewards.com/general_home.asp
Also, I confirmed that the 100k offer is good through the end of November, so I’ll probably be getting this in a few weeks.
@Ryan – I have my app in. Will do a followup post once and if approved. 🙂
.
PS – I would not wait TOO long. I have a feeling this will go viral and be over faster than posted.
Thanks for the post. Where is the link to the offer benefits, including 3x bonus categories and $250 airline fee credits? Couldn’t find it on provided links. Thanks.
@Dan – Ooppsss will ad the following link that I was going to put in:
.
https://www.cnb.com/lending/cards/individual/
never mind found it
Great information Rene. Turning my application in….Hope to find out soon and use this great card for upcoming Mexico trip in December.
I have a dumb question. How do you sign the online form? Thanks
@Patrick – Download or save the PDF to your computer. Then attach it with income verification and email to the bank.
From what I read, the card is only available to residents of certain states.
@Patrick – You can apply as long as you are in the USA!
can you advise about your best methods of uhemm(MS) are these days?
thank you
lost after amazon!
evan
@Evan – Find a SimonsMall (not the mall name but the owner of the mall name) and buy VDGCs for $3.95 fee and load to BB. Oh and get a bunch of new cards every 91+ days and use that to meet spend. 😉
@kurt – I spoke to Michael at CNB. To submit paperwork securely, first send a regular email to Michael with “Please initiate secure transmission” in the subject line (the way their encryption server works, it has to be initiated from their side). Michael will respond with a link that will enable you to submit your app securely. @rene – Please update the article to reflect this.
I attempted to apply for the card over the phone and was advised they do not take applications over the phone or online. They advised they only accept applications in their bank branch. I received the same answer from two different reps.
@Susan – I think they got WAY more traffic then expect and shut things down. It was a GREAT and amazing offer.
emailed the scanned app and received a quick reply to send W2, tax info, or paycheck stub. App will then be sent on to processing. Thanks for the tip! Wife sent in after mine … 🙂
ooops! I live in the wrong state. darn it.
@DaveBob – I am working on that an hope they will honor out of state during live deal. Unless I am blind (very possible) it does not say anything about states.
I am in California and when I saw the news yesterday morning, I went to a local branch to apply for the card. I was told that I am approved for the card! So exciting…Wish more of you could get in so we can exchange our experiences about the card.
@Jackie – I am SO happy for you. Well done. I so wish I could get mine. Grrrr!
After spending $5000 on the card, would you get 105,000 points or 100,000 points?
@TJ – Depends on what you spend in on via 3x or 1x. You get 100k Plus the points for the 5k spend!
Where are the details on the 100k bonus? There’s no mention of it on CNB’s website.
@TJ – You can pick up a flyer with all the details in the branches.
Rene,
I have to say this process was worse than a mortgage application. I had submitted my application in October like everyone else but because Michael was so buried, he didn’t get to my application later in the month. Had to send paystubs, Driver’s license, etc then got a notification in the first week of November that they pulled an Experian credit report.
And…. wait. Then, I got an e-mail from Michael 2 weeks ago asking for more information about my job, etc and another form of id. And, more waiting.
2 months later, No news until today, I get a credit alert via e-mail:
12/3/15- CITY NATIONAL BANK has reported an account has been opened in your name.
Nice customer service, right? Guess I got the card 🙂
Stuart and Rene,
I went through exactly the same process. All efforts paid up… We got approved and got the card.
Thanks for the post.
A friend of mine works from CNB bank and he helped me signed up the application at the same time my mortgage refi. I got the credit card last Dec. and used to spent about 6k. I used the card mostly for our bathroom renovation project. I waited for like about 4 weeks till the 100k points showed up on my account. The day that I saw the rewards points, I ordered a credit card worth $1,000.00 from their website to send it to me. This is good promotion if you have future expenses like I did. I will only keep the card within a year so I won’t pay for the annual fee of $400.00. That is the catch if you keep the card more than a year. I transferred all my balance here to my line of credit account so I can close this card anytime.