Chase has just revamped their whole line up of credit card with slick designs and new names. The offering is the Chase Slate Card. They did not mention anything but I’ve noticed that they have not placed their traditional Platinum Visa or MasterCard on their site. Hence, I can only assume that the Slate is their new “vanilla” credit card. They have also added a couple of new “features” which I’ll review below.

The Chase Slate is like the their old vanilla Visa but with a different twist to it. Chase has a built in program called BluePrint that makes life easier to manage one’s credit card. Here is how it works.

What is BluePrint? – I’ve taken a screen shot of the Chase page with some of their so called “features”. Essentially, BluePrint is a set of tools that let’s a cardholder see how long they would take to pay off their balance, and let them set “what if” scenarios. With these tools, it gives card holders a better idea and more importantly a plan to pay off their balance and set a plan.

Pay off larger purchases at your own terms – According to someone I know at Chase, what they are doing is to comply and go above what is required from the latest CARD Act. The most interesting feature is that if you carry a balance, you can set which particular items you would like to pay in full. For those items which you have designated as “pay in full” items, you will not incur finance charges and you will still get your grace period for those items even though you are carrying a balance. This is much better the traditional credit cards where the grace period does not apply and you will incur finance charges on all balances when you do not pay in full.

Pay down your balance faster – Chase is offering a tool for you to pay down your balance faster. Which is a good thing (though here at Ask Mr Credit Card, we always recommend that you pay your balance in full every month). This allows you to set a payment plan if you carry a balance.

Verdict – I think the Chase Slate Card will appeal to folks who occasionally carry a balance on their credit card. By setting a pay in full schedule for regular items like groceries, they can avoid incurring finance charges on these items even though they may carry a balance due to other purchases. This is better than the traditional credit cards where every purchase incurs a finance charge and there is no grace period as long as you carry a balance. But with this card (or other Chase credit cards with the BluePrint feature), you do not incur those charges with items that you designate to pay in full.

This card has a 0% introductory APR for up to 12 months for both purchases and balance transfers.

There is also no annual fee with this card, the design is very nice and some folks may actually find the Slate(SM) from Chase with its’ blueprints’ features very helpful.

For those who pay in full or looking for rewards, Chase has a couple of other cards like the Chase Freedom^SM, which offers cash back rewards and would be a better choice for many folks.

If you are looking for a vanilla card with low rates, then you should shop around for other cards as they are probably cards with lower rates.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 1st, 2009 at 16:39 and is filed under Credit Card Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.