Unfortunately, it seems that Fidelity is not being very forthcoming about when credit card transaction information will be available for download into Quicken. Lots of times financial firms are a bit coy with release dates for site upgrades and new capabilities in order to manage clients’ expectations about how soon something will be done, as well as because seemingly simple things (e.g., downloadable access to credit card data) can sometimes turn out to be a lot harder on the back end then consumers like to think they should be. Regardless, if Fidelity has a time table for this functionality — aside from it being ‘in the works’ — they are keeping it to themselves.

One thing that is important to remember is that though the Fidelity card is branded AmEx, it’s not a traditional American Express card. Instead, it’s a card with transactions processed on the AmEx network, much the way that the Fidelity Investment Rewards Signature card is on the Visa network. While this means that card holders have access to many of the American Express travel features and otehr network benefits, they aren’t guarenteed the same level of connectivity or private site capability as they would see with an AmEx-issued card, such as the Blue or Green card.

Having previously been an AMEX Blue card holder, and very impressed by their online services, I would imagine that this woudl be well on it way. Your thoughts?

i hope cashback cc companies could clarify this issue.

The basic differentiator between many different rewards cards is simply the vector through which rewards are provided or redeemed. For more traditional “cash back” cards, such as the AmEx Blue card, rewards are supplied either as a statement credit or as a check mailed to the card holder, which can then be literally exchanged for cash. These two types of redemptions are what we tend to consider a “cash back return.” Unlike the AmEx Blue card, the two new cards from Fidelity and Schwab funnel rewards directly into brokerage accounts set-up with the sponsoring firm and linked directly to the card. We consider that to be a different style of reward than cash back, as converting the reward to a cash equivalent is not automatic (i.e., statement credit) or easy (i.e., check). While these different types of programs might functionally deliver similar rewards value, the psychology of the rewards programs linked to a different account — and possibly the back side administrative costs — are different than traditional cash back cards. At least to our minds.

How is 2% cash back (deposited into an investment account” any different than a “return as ‘cash back’?”