Search Results for: preferred rewards

  1. Chase is changing the Sapphire Preferred card:

    – Transfers to Hyatt will be 4:3 on June 15 for new cards and October 1 for existing cards
    – The annual 10% rewards bonus ends on June 15 for new cards and October 1 for existing cards
    – 3x earning on gas, EV charging, Airbnb, and VRBO
    – A new Global Entry / PreCheck credit since the other 14 you have aren’t enough
    – Changed travel insurance
    – A one-time Apple TV coupon

    Generally speaking this is a negative change, but don’t worry if you want a positive spin from lala land, TPG has your back: “And at a time when many travel cards are becoming increasingly expensive and complicated, there’s a strong argument that the Sapphire Preferred just became an even better fit for casual travelers.” Erm, ok.
  2. The Chase Ink Business Preferred card will also devalue transfers to Hyatt starting on June 15 for new cards, and October 1 for existing cards. Side note: Reportedly the sign-up bonus for several Ink cards and the Sapphire Reserve Business card will be increased on June 15, I guess to counter bad-press?
  3. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic through July 7.
  4. For those of you that like it when portal-like companies that you’ve never heard of team up with business banks that you’ve never heard of, there’s a $300 promotion between Finder and Grasshopper. To earn a $300 Finders gift card which can apparently be turned into a Visa e-gift card:

    – Open a new Grasshopper business checking account via Finders
    – Deposit $100+

    In theory the Finders gift card arrives quickly, and it might be clawed back if you don’t keep the account open 150+ days. (Thanks to DoC)
  5. Kroger, Fry’s, Ralphs, Harris Teeter, and other family stores have a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards excluding Amazon and Flexible fuel cards, and on fixed value Visa and Mastercard gift cards, running through Tuesday, June 23.

    Fuel points demand is currently through the roof for probably obvious reasons.
  6. Two airline portals have a summer bonus promotion:

    – Alaska Shopping: 500 miles with $200+ spend by June 19
    – United Shopping: 750 miles with $250+ spend by Sunday

    Giftcards.com is a quick way to knock these out.
  7. Southwest has 40% off both award and revenue flights using promo code FLYWOW for travel between August 4 and December 16 and booked by today.

    Blackout dates? You betcha. Only select flights on non-blackout dates? Of course, this is Southwest after all.

Have a nice Thursday friends!

Preview of upcoming Chase automation, built to address their most common customer request.

  1. E*Trade customers are now eligible for American Express Morgan Stanley Platinum cards. In the past you needed either an Active Assets Account (they spelled American Automobile Association wrong), a Preferred Savings account, or a sunsetted Access Investing account. The card is generally interesting because:

    – It gives unlimited cash out at 1 cent per point (TBD on the E*Trade integration)
    – It gives a free authorized user Platinum card with its own lounge access
    – Historically it’s been semi-churnable

    According to the T&Cs, eligible accounts include an individual E*Trade brokerage or bank account.
  2. The Chase Ink Preferred card has an increased sign-up bonus of 100,000 Ultimate Rewards after $8,000 spend in three months, and the $95 annual fee is not waived for the first year.

    This card is available via referrals, but there’s restrictive referral language so the referrer may not get their referral bonus. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try though, T&Cs don’t always match reality.
  3. The Synchrony Virgin Red Mastercard has a sign-up bonus of 60,000 miles and a $200 statement credit after $4,000 spend in three months. The bonus is available on the checkout page during a booking, whether or not you actually check out and pay . The card’s $99 annual fee is not waived the first year.

    There was at one point a 75,000 point bonus, but 60,000 miles and $200 is better because you can transfer just about every currency to Virgin Atlantic, often with a transfer bonus. The card has other intrinsic value. (Thanks to DoC)
  4. American Express Membership Rewards has a 40% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic through December 31. It feels like we just talked about this somehow, somewhere
  5. TradeUp Brokerage has a $2,000+$2,000 sign-up bonus, the first for bringing $100,000 in stocks to a new brokerage account, and the second for doing the same with an IRA account. You’ll need to keep the funds there for a year, and you’ll end up with a few extra shares of either CRCL or SGOV too. (Thanks to DoC)
  6. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Visa gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Go for the lower fee “Everywhere” cards if you can liquidate them

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Happy Monday!

Morgan Stanley naming team in action.

  1. The Rove Miles shopping portal added Lufthansa Miles & More as a transfer partner. This is great because:

    – There wasn’t previously a great way for US members to earn Miles & More
    – Lufthansa and Swiss availability is much better with Miles & More
    – Swiss First is bookable with matchable Miles & More Senator status

    With this development and with Rove’s ability to maintain elite benefits on hotel bookings, it’s probably a good idea to include Rove in your comparison shopping when booking paid hotel nights. Rove has referral bonuses, so use someone’s referral link if you’re going to join.
  2. The major airline portals have shopping portal bonuses (ordered by expiration date):

    – American: 4,000 bonus miles with $1,600+ (+2.5x) through November 17
    – Alaska: 1,500 bonus miles with $650+ (+2.3x) through November 19
    – Delta: 4,000 bonus miles with $1,500+ (+2.67x) through November 21
    – United: 5,000 bonus miles with $1,100+ (+4.55x) through November 22
    – Southwest: 4,000 bonus miles with $900+ (+4.44x) through November 24

    Each of these portals has giftcards.com as an option, and Chase Offers has a targeted offer for 5% back on up to $1,000 spend too.
  3. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  4. Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins have 6x point earning on third party gift cards through Thursday, limit $2,000 per loyalty account (or 4x earning for Giant Food because apparently it’s a running joke at the parent company).
  5. Wyndham and Vacasa’s partnership is ending for reservations after November 30 and stays after January 31, 2026. Here’s your obligatory wah-wah trombones sound.
  6. Rakuten has portal bonuses for applying for several Chase cards through their links:

    – $30 for the Freedom Unlimited (or $50 for almost no one)
    – $30 for the Sapphire Preferred (or $50 for almost no one)
    – $25 for the Ink Unlimited (or $50 for exactly no one)

    Referral offers for the Freedom and Sapphire Reserve are generally a much better deal for the referrer, but Chase Business referrals are restricted to new businesses (to Chase) only, so the Rakuten bonus is often the best choice. (Thanks to DoC)

Happy Monday!

Embargoed oil is also a thing.

Unless you’ve been stranded on a desert island all weekend, then you’ve almost certainly heard about the Chase Sapphire Preferred’s 100,000 point sign up bonus because it pays affiliate bloggers a hefty commission when you open a card with their link, and in fairness it is indeed a historically high sign up bonus (my link is not an affiliate link, it’s not my style). Should you go for it? Maybe, but it’s definitely not the best thing that happened in travel hacking since AA retired its torture-tube E-140 fleet. A few things to consider about the card’s 100,000 points:

  • You’ll have to be under Chase’s 5/24 limit to even get the card, with or without a bonus
  • You can’t have earned a Sapphire sign-up bonus in the last 48 months
  • You can’t currently have a Sapphire product open
  • This is only 10,000 points more than the current usual 90,000 points offer, hardly something to write home about UPDATE: Harv notes that 80,000 points is the usual offer, thanks for the correction
  • The Chase Ink Preferred has a normal 100,000 point sign up bonus, and you can churn it — repeatedly

That last bullet is of particular note. You can get multiple Ink Preferred cards (even in the same week), they earn the exact same Ultimate Rewards, they don’t count against 5/24 when opened, you don’t have to worry about them showing up on your credit report, you get essentially the same benefits as the Sapphire Preferred, and they’re honestly pretty easy to get as far as Chase cards go. You can product change them to a no annual fee Ink Cash for 5x at office supply stores when the annual fee hits the second year too. Even better, Chase regularly targets business owners for 125,000 Ink Preferred sign up bonuses by mail or just for asking a banker in branch.

So, if you’re excited for the 100,000 point Sapphire Preferred bonus and it still fits given everything, by all means go for it but make sure you do the Chase Modified Double Dip which will earn you 160,000 points rather than getting the Sapphire Preferred 100,000 points by itself. Otherwise though, maybe consider opening an Ink Preferred or two instead.

Where you’d have to be to not have heard about the Chase Sapphire Reserve sign-up bonus.

Look, I’m not here to push credit cards on you. When I’m recommending a card though, know two things: 1) I’m not getting a kickback, so that leaves me fiscally unbiased, and 2) if I’m bringing it up, it’s probably a good deal.

If you happen to have one of the excellent no-annual fee Bank of America Cash Rewards cards, either the personal or business, you might be surprised about what codes as 3% when you choose “Online Services” or “Business Services” as your bonus category. (Or kick that 3% up to 5.25% with preferred rewards for holding a balance at BoA in bank, brokerage, or retirement accounts.) For now, let’s say that several popular online or in-app money transfer or bill payment services will count. Get out there and try a few things!

Bet you thought I was going to write about the Rose Gold AmEx, right?

Hot savings
  1. Do this now: Check Hyatt for new Q2 targeted promotions for:

    – 3x points on two night or longer stays
    – 2,000-10,000 bonus points per night up to five nights
    – A rock

    I got the last one.
  2. American Express Offers has a new targeted offer for Hilton card holders for +4.5x on any spend totaling at least $2,000 through August 21, limit 27,000 additional bonus points.
  3. The Wells Fargo Choice Privileges Mastercard has a 60,000 point sign-up bonus after $1,000 spend in three months. The card carries no annual fee and 3x at gas, grocery, home improvement, and phone services.

    This Choice program usually leads to a lot of questions, so let me address the common ones: yes, no, no, the Ascend Collection and/or Scandinavia. What are the common questions? That’s an exercise left for the reader.
  4. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards in-store through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards, and anecdotally the death of the floosies has pushed competition for these up. Also, yes these can still be liquidated in lots of ways, always be probing.
  5. FrostieWaffles reminds us that today, or maybe tomorrow, is the last day to apply for Bank of America credit cards with Preferred Rewards boosts at lower tiers than the tiers required after. Yes it’s complex, and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s too late to worry about it.

Happy fake Monday friends!

From /r/moldyinteresting: Frosty waffles aren’t always from frosting.

  1. US Bank’s Amazon Prime Business Mastercard launched with a variable sign up bonus of between $100 and $750. The spend requirements also vary between $0 and $6,000. Amazon Business accounts reportedly see the highest offers, and offers vary between browsers, account, and time of day. Earning:

    – 5%-6% on Amazon purchases of up to $150,000 per year
    – 2% cash back on your top three select categories of up to $150,000 per year (gas, grocery, and software are all options)
    – 1% everywhere else

    The card has no-annual fee, and is a solid offering from the bank that’s at the very bottom of the top tier of banks.
  2. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion through Tuesday on One4all gift cards, some of which convert to high-value bulk cards like Home Depot.

    Separately, there’s a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards excluding Amazon and flexible fuel gift cards, and on fixed-value Visa and Mastercard gift cards, valid tomorrow only.
  3. Bank of America has a business checking bonus of between $400 and $2,500 depending on new funds held in the account between days 31 and 90. The sweet spots depend on whether or not you’re doing this for Preferred Rewards status:

    – $400 bonus with $5,000 in funds (an annualized 48% APR)
    – $1,500 bonus with $100,000 in funds (an annualized 9% APR)

    You can still accelerate Preferred Rewards status during new account sign-up, so you can knock a year’s status and the sign-up bonus together out by tying up funds for only 60 days if you execute correctly. (Thanks to DoC)
  4. Ally Invest has a $200 sign-up bonus with $1,000 in new external equities or funds held for 90 days, and the bonus is valid for existing Ally Bank customers provided they haven’t had a self directed investing account at Ally. The annualized interest rate on this one is 80%. (Thanks to FM)

Happy Thursday friends!

Ally Invest tweet from the future.

  1. First Electronic Bank’s Bank’s Rakuten American Express card has an increased sign-up bonus of $100, or 10,000 Membership Rewards, after $1,000 spend in 90 days. The card earns:

    – Rakuten portal: 4x up to $7,000 spend per year
    – Rakuten restaurants: 5x
    – Groceries and dining: 2x
    – Everywhere else: 1x

    The card definitely isn’t an unsung hero, but it is a card that earns unlimited 2x Membership Rewards at grocery without RAT concerns, and possibly soon unlimited 2x Bilt points at grocery too. It’s also a third party AmEx. Finally, it’s time for your annual reminder that Rakuten used to be called buy.com, but that was too hard to say and spell, or something.
  2. Existing Bank of America Preferred Rewards members have an opportunity for a $1,000 bonus for bringing $250,000+ in retirement or regular brokerage investments into a new Merrill account, even if have an existing Merrill account with promo 1000PR.

    You can ACATS transfer existing investments. Investments only have to be with Merrill for 90 days after transfer.
  3. American Express has newly targeted upgrade offers for:

    Delta Gold to Platinum: 30,000 SkyMiles + $250 statement credit with $3,000 spend
    Delta Platinum to Reserve: 35,000 SkyMiles + $300 statement credit with $4,000 spend

    Both give you six months to hit the spend.
  4. American Express’s Delta Personal Gold card also has a heightened $500 statement credit + 50,000 SkyMiles sign-up bonus after $3,300 spend in six months through October 29. The offer is presented while making a (dummy) booking, and the annual fee is waived for the first year too.

    This one won’t work with the above targeted upgrade offers in the first year though, thanks to CARD act, also known as the fried twinkee of credit card regulations.
  5. Vanilla Gift has fee-free Visa gift cards with promo code VISA100. I’d be surprised if other Incomm sites don’t also have promotions running, but they’re not advertising them in the same ways that they normally do so I can’t tell. Purchase limits are $10,000 per rolling 24 hours per account.

    These are Vanilla / Incomm gift cards. (Thanks to DoC)
  6. Rove lets you now earn regular loyalty points and elite night credits on some hotel bookings in addition to miles earned directly with Rove.

Happy Wednesday!

Rakuten’s next rebrand.