Cash Back on EV Charging

[Buffalo Bob]

Given all the recent talk about adding credit cards for EV charging... Until I just looked it up, I did not realize that the Costco credit card was now paying 4% back on both EV charging and ICE fuels. Just in case I'm not the last person to find that out...

 

[DeaneG]

And don't forget to temporarily join EA's Pass+ program just before each long road trip.

 

[Buffalo Bob]

And don't forget to temporarily join EA's Pass+ program just before each long road trip.

Hey, @DeaneG! Relative to a post you made elsewhere about a surprise EA charge you recently discovered... I make it a practice to set my credit card alerts to get a text notification of any 'card not present' or 'international' transaction, as well as any transactions over a certain dollar amount. With that, you would have known about that EA charge right away. These alerts have saved my bacon several times, including St. Patrick's Day a few years back when, while fast asleep in Arizona, 'I' was also in Long Island buying $600+ rounds at an Irish pub. Three of 'em before AmEx locked down the fraudulent card. Yikes!

 

[Buffalo Bob]

Hey, @DeaneG! Relative to a post you made elsewhere about a surprise EA charge you recently discovered... I make it a practice to set my credit card alerts to get a text notification of any 'card not present' or 'international' transaction, as well as any transactions over a certain dollar amount. With that, you would have known about that EA charge right away. These alerts have saved my bacon several times, including St. Patrick's Day a few years back when, while fast asleep in Arizona, 'I' was also in Long Island buying $600+ rounds at an Irish pub. Three of 'em before AmEx locked down the fraudulent card. Yikes!

Oops. That was @Halodde, Not @DeaneG!

 

[Halodde]

Oops. That was @Halodde, Not @DeaneG!

I actually do have that setup on my phone already. I'm surprised I missed it. I may have dismissed the notification unintentionally as I was clearing them out. But, I just turned on the email receipt option in the app so I will have a backup in case I miss another notification.

 

[DeaneG]

Hey, @DeaneG! Relative to a post you made elsewhere about a surprise EA charge you recently discovered... I make it a practice to set my credit card alerts to get a text notification of any 'card not present' or 'international' transaction, as well as any transactions over a certain dollar amount...

Having "Card not present" notifications and keeping your three credit reports frozen - essential steps.

 

[Buffalo Bob]

Having "Card not present" notifications and keeping your three credit reports frozen - essential steps.

For sure, but I think the 'international charge' and 'amounts over $XXX' alerts are equally important. In the case of my St. Paddy's Day experience, someone had a bogus card at the bar, and I understand that many international charges are made with bogus cards, as well.

What really annoyed me with my St. Paddy's Day experience was, while I was on the phone with AmEx, I received alerts on two of the three $600+ charges. I was literally begging them to send the police to the bar, and all they kept doing was assuring me that I would not have to pay for the charges, as I assured them that we ALL end up paying for those charges one way or another!

 

[Steveinarizona]

What really annoyed me with my St. Paddy's Day experience was, while I was on the phone with AmEx, I received alerts on two of the three $600+ charges. I was literally begging them to send the police to the bar, and all they kept doing was assuring me that I would not have to pay for the charges, as I assured them that we ALL end up paying for those charges one way or another!

Realistically, a $600 charge for white collar theft will not get an immediate police response in most jurisdictions. In fact, in some, you will be asked to file a report and nothing else will happen.

Before you ask, I know that the person using the card might lead somewhere higher up the criminal ladder. It might. But it might also lead nowhere (the card number may have been purchased off the street after it was bundled up by the bigger criminals). As a former rackets/white collar prosecutor I can tell you that the possibility of building a criminal case against a criminal gang is not strong enough get that kind of police response.

Also, keep in mind the date. police may be more concerned about drunk drivers than a small theft.

On one hand it would be nice if the police/prosecutors etc. acted instantly on such cases. On the other hand, do we really want a police force large enough to instantly respond to such crimes in progress. As Lord Acton has famously said: power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

 

[Buffalo Bob]

Realistically, a $600 charge for white collar theft will not get an immediate police response in most jurisdictions. In fact, in some, you will be asked to file a report and nothing else will happen.

Before you ask, I know that the person using the card might lead somewhere higher up the criminal ladder. It might. But it might also lead nowhere (the card number may have been purchased off the street after it was bundled up by the bigger criminals). As a former rackets/white collar prosecutor I can tell you that the possibility of building a criminal case against a criminal gang is not strong enough get that kind of police response.

Also, keep in mind the date. police may be more concerned about drunk drivers than a small theft.

On one hand it would be nice if the police/prosecutors etc. acted instantly on such cases. On the other hand, do we really want a police force large enough to instantly respond to such crimes in progress. As Lord Acton has famously said: power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

All excellent points. Especially with it being St. Paddy's Day, I would not be surprised to have the police say they have bigger fish to fry, but AmEx wasn't even willing to put in a call to the police. If they had, and if the police responded and caught the SOB, it never even dawned on me that it would lead to a crackdown higher up the food chain. I just wanted my $1,900 worth of retribution! AmEx may have already learned all too well that trying to take immediate action was a fool's errand. If so, I would have preferred that they had told me that... or if they had just led me to believe that they were going to make the call. Sometimes, I guess ignorance IS bliss!

 

[Sam6062]

Since this is the only place I can find about the EV charging now requiring a credit card.

What are they really saying about this free Idle Charge going away? I have only set up my account and charged ONCE in 3 years.

Lucid has not answered my question and I thought our experts here already know the answer

Do I need to delete my EA account or I will be charged a fees?

Thanks!!

 

[borski]

Since this is the only place I can find about the EV charging now requiring a credit card.

What are they really saying about this free Idle Charge going away? I have only set up my account and charged ONCE in 3 years.

Lucid has not answered my question and I thought our experts here already know the answer

Do I need to delete my EA account or I will be charged a fees?

Thanks!!

You should have received an email. To make a long story short: plans are not changing. If you had free charging, you still do. If you had expired, you still have.

The only difference is in idle fees. They used to be uncharged (they were never free). That is changing as of 2/5. You must add the charging add on by 2/5 or your plan will not work as they won’t have any way to charge you idle fees if you stay longer than 10 minutes at the charger.

They will also use that same credit card to charge you for the actual charging, if and only if your plan has expired.

 

[Deathlyshiv]

You should have received an email. To make a long story short: plans are not changing. If you had free charging, you still do. If you had expired, you still have.

The only difference is in idle fees. They used to be uncharged (they were never free). That is changing as of 2/5. You must add the charging add on by 2/5 or your plan will not work as they won’t have any way to charge you idle fees if you stay longer than 10 minutes at the charger.

They will also use that same credit card to charge you for the actual charging, if and only if your plan has expired.

My email says I just need to add a credit card to my wallet to retain my free charging plan. It did not mention to get any add on. I assume there are different versions of the email going around?

 

[borski]

My email says I just need to add a credit card to my wallet to retain my free charging plan. It did not mention to get any add on. I assume there are different versions of the email going around?

If you go to the lucid motors dashboard, then hit upgrades, you will see the free upgrade.

 

[Buffalo Bob]

To be clear... IF you have either the one, two or three year free EA charging promo beyond 2/5/25, the only thing you have to do is to make sure there is an active credit card on file with Lucid. You do not have to activate the EV charge-related upgrade. This is per the letter that I was sent, and per @mcr16's clarification, you won't lose your free charging privileges if you don't comply, but you won't be able to activate the free charging handshake until you do comply.

Please remember that only a fraction of the people with Lucids are on the forum, so they are not being drawn into all of this confusion. So, please just do what the email you received tells you to do. Where to go to enter (or verify) your credit card info is very clearly stated in those email instructions.

The upgrade only comes into play if you want to PAY for charging (with EA and/or others) via a simple handshake. Again, the word PAY is clearly stated.

 

[Deathlyshiv]

To be clear... IF you have either the one, two or three year free EA charging promo beyond 2/5/25, the only thing you have to do is to make sure there is an active credit card on file with Lucid. You do not have to activate the EV charge-related upgrade. This is per the letter that I was sent, and per @mcr16's clarification, you won't lose your free charging privileges if you don't comply, but you won't be able to activate the free charging handshake until you do comply.

Please remember that only a fraction of the people with Lucids are on the forum, so they are not being drawn into all of this confusion. So, please just do what the email you received tells you to do. Where to go to enter (or verify) your credit card info is very clearly stated in those email instructions.

The upgrade only comes into play if you want to PAY for charging (with EA and/or others) via a simple handshake. Again, the word PAY is clearly stated.

Thanks for the clarification, it seems a little scary to enable that add on while the promo is still active. I'm good through sometime in August so will just add the card for now.

 

[Buffalo Bob]

Thanks for the clarification, it seems a little scary to enable that add on while the promo is still active. I'm good through sometime in August so will just add the card for now.

You are most welcome, but I want to be clear. There are different emails that went out with different promotions, and different promotion ending dates, so you should follow the instructions in the email you received.

In the case of the Lucid Charging - Base Plan Upgrade, the details say the following:

The Lucid Charging Services enables Plug and Charge at Lucid partnering charging network at no cost to you. This is a basic membership plan that allows Lucid customers to pay for charging as they go without any monthly fees. It’s ideal for those who use public charging stations occasionally.​

In this case, I think 'to pay for charging' are the operative words. I agree with you... I don't want to risk that a simple EA handshake problem, which would otherwise be resolved by entering the EA charging station number into the app, would instead default to a charge via this plan. It may never happen, but it certainly may.

 

[Sam6062]

Mine should run 3 years from my date of delivery should it not? My GT was delivered June 10th 2022. They had no leases then and I paid the original 139K + TTL. This is the email I received.

https://imgur.com/a/ZIq2XVP

Thank you for all your replies.