As it turns out, January was my month of new credit cards. I’m not talking about new credit cards that I applied to (although I did apply for the Citi Prestige card), but rather new physical cards for existing accounts. Typically I don’t request new cards unless the account becomes compromised. However, Chase recently rolled out contactless cards for nearly their entire portfolio of credit cards. With that roll out, Chase is encouraging customers to request new contactless cards.
Personally, I’m all for this movement to contactless credit cards. I far prefer the tap-and-go nature of using a contactless card over the chip technology. I’ve also noticed in recent months more and more merchants understanding what contactless cards and how they work. Many I suspect had no idea that their chip readers accepted contactless payment.
In any event, this past months I spent some time going through my open credit card accounts and requesting contactless cards for accounts that I had not yet received a new card. The most recent card I received through this process was the refreshed Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card. Not only was this new card contactless, but it also featured the new Marriott Bonvoy branding. Until now I only had to old Marriott Rewards Premier card.
Requesting The New Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Contactless Credit Card
Chase makes requesting a new credit card incredibly easy. Online account functionality is definitely an area where Chase excels. To request a new Chase credit card you must first log-in to your Chase credit card account. Once logged in, select the credit card account for which you’d like to request a new card. Then, on the right hand side of the page, click on the “things you can do” drop down. From that menu you can click on the “replace a lost or damaged card.”
After clicking this option, Chase will redirect you to the “replace a card” webpage. On this page you can change your card account and select a reason for card replacement. One of the options available should be “my card needs to be reissued” and in that option is text which lets you know to use this option if you need a tap-to-pay card.
After selecting this option you should receive a confirmation that your card will be reissued. If you know where your card is, be sure to use this option as your card number will remain the same. This is important if you have any reoccurring charges hitting your card account. If your card is lost or stolen, select the lost or stolen option to allow Chase to send you a new card with a new account number.
Receiving My Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Contactless Credit Card
As with most replacement credit cards, my new card arrived in plain white envelope. Inside I could feel the familiar feeling of a credit card in the right third of the envelope. That’s always a sure fire sign that a new credit card is inside. Sure enough, that’s exactly what I found when I opened the envelope.
My new contactless Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card was affixed to a single sheet of paper. That document contained some important information such as the last 4 digits of my new card (for confirmation), my credit limit, and my cash access line limit. The document also provided instructions for how to activate my new credit card. That information was of course also found on the sticker placed on the front of the card.
Finally, toward the bottom of the page was a very brief overview of a few of the benefits offered from the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card. Specifically, this area served as a reminder that the card earns 6X Marriott points at Marriott properties and 2X points on all other purchases. Of course the card also comes with a free, 35,000 point anniversary night which is the primary reason I keep the account open.
Shortly after opening the envelope I pulled the card off of the paper and called up Chase to activate the card. Activation took just a few short moments. After that I took a closer look at the new design of the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card.
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Contactless Card Design
Now, this post isn’t meant to critique the appearance of the credit card, but personally, I hate the new look of the card. Even worse, I hate the new feel of the card when compared to the old Marriott Rewards Premier Plus card.
The Marriott Rewards card has historically been a thick metal card with a dark black finish. The card felt solid and years ago it was among the first metal credit cards to hit the market. It seems weird that Chase and Marriott opted to instead go with a standard plastic credit card when redesigning the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card.
It doesn’t help that I’m simply not a fan of the Marriott Bonvoy name or branding. I’ve just never become accustomed to the weird small “o” in Bonvoy with the little orange line beneath it. Likewise, I don’t like the orange line on the new Bonvoy Boundless card that meets that same orange “o” to begin the word Bonvoy. Of course, I also dislike all of the other lines and “o”s scattered all over the front of the card… All I can say is that I’m thankful this card sits in my drawn 360 days out of the year.
Final Thoughts
If you haven’t done this already I’d highly recommend going through your credit cards to see which still don’t feature contactless functionality. After that I’d contact each card issuer to see if they offer a contactless version of your card. They might give you a hard time about requesting a duplicate replacement card (since you haven’t lost your current card), but I’d still try. Chase thankfully makes requesting cards incredibly easy and even has an option to request a contactless card on their website.
Contactless payment is just so much faster and easier than the traditional swipe or chip technologies. I never got use to using a chip reader and have never enjoyed doing so. I much prefer to just tap my card on the payment terminal to complete a transaction. Needless to say, I’m thrilled to see card issuers and payment companies move toward contactless payment.
