Month: November 2021

Introduction

I finally got a kick in the pants to write this post after Rocky emailed and asked why I keep talking about the Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card but haven’t ever posted any real information about it. Why haven’t I posted anything when I clearly love the card? Well, I guarantee you don’t want to know what’s going on inside my head at any given moment, so let’s skip the why and jump into the what. The what:

This no-annual fee card will pay you $700 or more a year, seemingly in perpetuity.

Vitals

This card is issued by Citi and is part of a cobranded relationship with Sears. Yes, Sears, the store that as of two days ago officially has no physical locations and was ransacked for billions of dollars in real estate by Eddie Lampert over the last decade.

  • Issuer: Citi
  • Type: Mastercard (512106 BIN)
  • Rewards: SYWR Points or ThankYou Points
  • Earn rate: 10 SYWR Points per dollar or 1 ThankYou Point per dollar
  • Bonus categories:
    • Up to $10,000 spend per year combined:
      • 5x at gas
      • 3x at grocery stores and restaurants
    • 2x at Sears/Kmart/Hometown Stores
  • Annual fee: $0
  • Sign-up bonus: $40 after spending $50 (but YMMV on whether that auto-posts)
  • Affiliate-free application link

I think it’s obvious to about everyone in the known universe that if you could choose to earn ThankYou Points or Shop Your Way Rewards, you’d choose ThankYou Points. Unfortunately, the only way to get the ThankYou Point version of the card is to call in and ask to convert your Shop Your Way Rewards earning to a ThankYou Point earning version, but I haven’t heard of anyone having any success doing that since 2020. So, if you’re like me, you’re probably going to be stuck with the Shop Your Way Rewards version.

What do you do with Shop Your Way Rewards? You can redeem ten of them for a penny toward merchandise like toilet paper, iPads, or neoprene dumbbells at shopyourway.com, or you can cash them out for a gift card to resell. I definitely do the latter.

Value

Here’s why this card is really valuable: After you’ve had the card for two to three months and it’s been sock-drawered, you’ll start getting spending offers in your email inbox and those offers stack. And unlike everything else about Citi and Sears IT, they post automatically every-time. For example, I have the following spend offers all running concurrently and all from within the last 30 days:

  • $70 statement credit after spending $2,000 anywhere
  • 10x points at Best Buy (lol) and home improvement stores up to $1,250 in spend
  • 10% back in statement credits on utilities every month through January 2022 (min spend $400, max earn $50 per month)

All of these offers obviously pair really well together. For simplicity, I’ll buy 3x$500 BestBuy gift cards at BestBuy for resale and send a $500 “utility payment”. After those two transactions I’ll earn $120 in statement credits plus another $125 worth of Shop Your Way Rewards points, all from a no-annual fee card.

And while not all months have offers stack as nicely as this month, it happens a lot. A lot.

MS Hint: This card is like other Citi Mastercards in many ways, but it does a few things better than other Citi cards too so don’t forget to probe.

ZOMG Wha??

Circling back to the introduction: this no-annual fee card will pay you $700 or more a year through targeted spend offers. Why? The rumor I’ve heard is that the Sears Shop Your Way Rewards card is one of the most valuable cards in Citi’s portfolio because it’s typically held by older generations that grew up with Sears, and those cardholders typically carry a monthly balance which earns Citi plenty in interest and fees so they want to encourage more spending and bigger balances. The story sounds truthy, but I have no independent confirmation so let’s just call it a likely possibility.

How come you haven’t heard of this card before? Well I’m sure the main reason is Sears, though I don’t think it pays a commission to affiliates so there’s not a financial incentive to write about it. Finally, the Shop Your Way Rewards program isn’t exactly on-par with AAdvantage or Hyatt, so there’s that.

(Special thanks to Garth for introducing the card to me.)

What’s going on in my mind at any given moment: trying to get one of these stupid wheels to turn.

This time of year never disappoints with manufactured spend promotions. Here are a few to look at today:

1. Kroger is running a 4x fuel promotion on third party fixed value gift cards from today through December 7. Time to warm up those grocery store bonused credit cards.

2. The rumor that Sam’s club has started to pay out portal bonuses on gift card purchases again has been confirmed (at least for me). Time to warm up those warehouse club bonused cards and your Rakuten Visa, or take advantage of the 7 days remaining on the CashApp Sam’s boost.

3. HyVee grocery stores are running an offer for $10 off each $150 in Visa gift cards through November 25. I’d buy a $500 Visa gift card for $30 back, and lather, rinse, and repeat.

4. If you have any non American Express issued AmEx cards, use this page to add an offer for $10 back on $10 or more in spend at small business, up to 5 times for a total of $50 back by December 31. I added the offer to my US Bank Flexperks AmEx and liquidated by buying five $10 gift cards at the local coffee shop.

Happy manufacturing!

Pictured: Retailers gearing up for black Friday. Not pictured: our giant manufactured spend robot that eats fastpitches for breakfast.

1. Meijer surprises with another 10% back on gift-cards as $5 in rewards for each $50 in gift card purchases, but it’s not like last week’s book-a-last-minute-ticket-to-the-Midwest sort of deal because: it’s not a straight cash discount, you’ll need to buy groceries to redeem, and the rewards expire. What you should know about this one:

  • You get the discount back as Meijer rewards to buy groceries
  • You can buy a single $500 gift card to max out the deal on an account
  • Some gift cards are excluded, but BestBuy isn’t one of them
  • You can (and should) have multiple Meijer accounts
  • The deal runs through December 11

2. Office Depot / OfficeMax doesn’t surprise with its $15 back on $300 or more in Visa gift cards deal. As with other iterations:

  • Link your credit card to Dosh for an extra $10 back per transaction — I use a new Dosh account for each Chase Ink card that I have
  • Try and get multiple transactions in a single trip
  • Buy the “everywhere” variety of cards for lower fees if you have a liquidation channel

(Thanks to DoC)

3. Arizona friends: How does a credit card with no-annual fee and $2,000 back as a sign-up bonus sound? Zions bank has got it. The catch? You have to spend $50,000 within six months to earn it. Did I look into registering a business in Arizona to take advantage of this? You better believe it. Why do I keep asking questions? No idea.

4. The Point debit card has changed their referral sign-up bonus: Under the new structure you get the annual-fee back after spending $200, which isn’t as high as the bonus was in the early summer, but it’s a lower spending threshold then I’ve ever seen. This card is effectively a 2% cash back debit card through the end of the year (once you get the Visa version in the mail) and it’s easy to game. They also occasionally have boosted earnings at selected retailers.

Under the new program, the referrer gets to a code for a free-suitcase after five referrals, which is possibly the lamest bonus for the referrer that I’ve ever seen. My normal position is that you should use a friend’s referral link rather than one from some rando on the internet, but because your friend isn’t likely to earn a suitcase, the public sign-up offer is lower, and because I don’t want a suitcase, I’m willing to post my referral here in case you want to sign-up: Point debit card $99 back after spending $200.

Pictured: Your prize for pushing the Point debit card on unsuspecting friends.

Citi ThankYou points have long been the most average of bank transferrable currencies, with American Express’s Membership Rewards and Chase’s Ultimate Rewards being a tier or two above and Capital One being below. Citi has done a lot to up its game in the last 30 days, and it’s really due to two changes:

  • They made the transfer ratio from ThankYou Points to Choice Hotel Points 2:1 about a month ago, and while many of Choice’s brands are complete and utter dumpster fires, that’s not always the case. Many hotels in the Choice Ascend collection are rather nice, and occasionally you can book into a suite for the same redemption price as a normal room. Side note — I stayed at one over the weekend and got about 2.05 cents per ThankYou point versus the cash rate, which is in Hyatt territory for value per point. This worked especially well because I was in a smaller city that didn’t have any real Hyatt options but did have an Ascend hotel.
  • Yesterday, they added Wyndam as a 1:1 transfer partner. At first blush, that’s a big meh, but at second blush there’s a lot of value to be had here, thanks to the Wyndham relationship with Vacasa. (Vacasa is basically just another version of airbnb.) With Vacasa, the nightly rate is 15,000 points per bedroom in the unit, regardless of location or cash price. With strategic booking, Citi ThankYou Points can be used at a value of 2-4 cents per point on Vacasa properties. The bad news though? You have to book these over the phone.

Between the two new options you can find your way to getting 2-4 cents per point in value out of the ThankYou program, which means I’m much more interested in earning those points. Does this mean I like them more than Ultimate Rewards or Membership Rewards? No, I don’t — but I’m getting closer, and I no longer think of a ThankYou point as being roughly equivalent to a penny. Good show Citi, and your move, hotel transferless Capital One.

Now, let’s all say goodbye to calling Citi for a mortgage payment cash-out for a bank that mysteriously has the same name that you do.

Pictured: ThankYou Points September 2021 (left), and November 2021 (right).
As good as my steel cut oats breakfast bowl? No, but getting better.

1. United’s MileagePlusX mobile app has a targeted offer for 5,000 bonus miles when signing up for Clear. There are two possibilities here:

(Thanks to TheSultan1 on reddit for pointing out the bonus offer)

2. There are new targeted United MilePlay offers, check for yours at this link. Sometimes these are really lucrative and other times they’re not worth your time, but do take a look in case it’s the former on this round. For me, it was definitely, without a doubt the latter. My offer:

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3. There’s a new no-lifetime language American Express Business Gold card offer for 90,000 Membership Rewards after spending $10,000 in three months. You can get a bonus 10,000 Membership Rewards by adding an employee card and spending $1,000 or more on that card, also within the first three months.

These cards are great for gas station manufactured spend primarily, but can also be great for advertising spend if you can manufacture that (or have legit advertising spend).

4. There’s a Hyatt Globalist requalification offer for current Globalists that aren’t likely to hit 60 nights this year but still want to maintain status until February 2023. The catch? You still have to stay 20 nights between now and February 28, 2022 to meet the requalification offer so it’s not exactly a slam dunk.

5. Staples has $200 Mastercard gift cards fee free running Sunday through the following Saturday, limit five per transaction. I almost didn’t write about this one because we’ve reached the point where these deals are happening more often than not and it’s not really news any more. (Thanks to DoC)

6. Tomorrow is the last day to transfer your Citi ThankYou points to AA. I truly believe this deal will come back because:

Of course, time will tell. Happy weekend!

An image of Steph Curry missing a dunk.
Pictured: Te Hyatt Globalist requalification play.

Two new credit cards entered the travel hacking sphere this week. It’s too early to tell how gameable they’ll be, but it’s not too early to get an opinion on how useful they seem from a site that has no financial interest whatsoever vested in whether or not you apply for a credit card.

To that end, today I’ve tried to summarize what’s unique about these cards and leave out crap that won’t matter to most of you, because usually that stuff is just chaff to make you think you’re getting a bigger value then you’ll probably end up with (see the $120 annual Equinox credit).

Captial One Venture X

Affiliate-free information page: Capital One Venture X

Sign-up Bonus 100,000 Capital One points after spending $10,000 in six months
Annual Fee $395, not waived for the first year
Bonus Categories – 10x Hotels and Rental cards only when booked through the Capital One travel portal
– 5x on Flights only when booked through the Capital One Travel Portal
Major benefits – Primary rental car protection
– Trip delay protection (for delays six hours or longer, or overnight)
– Cell phone protection
– 10,000 bonus points every card renewal
– $300 travel credit
Issuer quirks – Capital One pulls from all three major credit bureaus
– If your credit score is too high (say, above 800), they probably won’t approve you
– You may have better odds of approval if you note that you often carry balances during the application

Is this card worth it the first year? I think so. The points you earn from $10,000 in spending for the sign up bonus and the $300 travel credit will cover the annual fee, and you’ll still have the bonus to use to pay for travel directly or to transfer partners.

Is this card worth it for year two and beyond? No, probably not. Capital One’s transfer partners certainly lag the offerings of Chase and American Express, and likely lag those of Citi too. They also lack a good hotel transfer partner. After year one, I’d rather keep:

  • A Citi Double Cash and a Citi Premier which will have a total annual fee of $95 with stronger earning potential and the same to better transfer partners.
  • An American Express Personal Gold which has a total annual fee of $295, stronger earning potential, and better transfer partners
  • A Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Ink Preferred which has a total annual fee of $95, stronger earning potential, and much better transfer partners

American Express Morgan Stanley Blue Cash Preferred

Affiliate-free information page: AmEx Morgan Stanley Blue Cash Preferred

Sign-up Bonus $300 after spending $3,000 in three months
Annual Fee $95, waived for the first year
Bonus Categories – 6% at grocery stores and supermarkets, but only up to $6,000 per year
– 3% on gas stations and transit (but not airfare or car rentals)
Major benefits – $100 annual credit after spending $15,000
– 0% interest for all purchases within the first year
Issuer quirks – American Express probably won’t do a hard pull of your credit if you already have another American Express
– You have to have a Morgan Stanley brokerage account to qualify ($5,000 in Access will do)
– You won’t be able to use a referral link for this card, it’s only available by head-on application

Is this card worth it the first year? Well, if you don’t have another good manufactured spend card for gas stations, probably yes. If you do though, the real benefit is the $300 sign-up bonus — and that’s pretty weak compared to $750+ offers seen elsewhere.

Is this card worth it for year two and beyond? If you don’t have another card that bonuses at gas stations and you’re good at manufactured spend, definitely. $15,000 worth of manufactured gas station spend to offset the annual fee is child’s play with Speedway.

That said, I’d rather just have a Citi Double Cash and a Citi Premier which earns transferrable miles, has better earning potential for the long term and also earns 3x at gas stations, and it can still be cashed out at the same rate. That combo also has a $95 annual fee, but doesn’t offer a published benefit for offsetting that with spend (of course a retention call to Citi will typically yield the same end-result).

What I Did

Morgan Stanley Blue Cash Preferred: I have better options for gas stations than the Morgan Stanley Blue Cash Preferred, so I wrote this card off.

Capital One Venture X: I applied with the intent of holding it for one year, and I was denied (likely my credit score is too high).

Good luck out there, and have a drink for me at the Venture X party if you make the cut!

The Capital One Venture X party that excluded me. (With thanks to @nutella for the updated BoA image.)

State of the Union

I’m not burying the lead this time: gift card reselling has gone plaid in the last week. A few vitals:

  • BestBuy $500 card rates crept above 99% for a day, and held at or above 98% for most of the week
  • Kroger Fuel Points spot prices are higher than I’ve ever seen, reaching north of $18 per 1,000 points
  • There have been more profitable non-BestBuy gift card reselling deals in the last two weeks than there were all summer long
  • Bulk gift card buyer demand seems to be larger this year than it was last year (or the year before)
  • More brands are becoming profitable when combined with grocery rewards: Apple, Home Depot, Nike, and Marshalls to name a few. More diversity means more opportunity

Honestly, The last week was so good that I knocked out a few big-spend sign-up bonuses on new credit cards using nothing but third party gift card resale deals over the past weekend.

Where to Start

The number one question I get lately is “Where do I find resale rates like these? I checked Raise and GiftCardWiki, and the gift card rates aren’t anywhere near what you post.” Well, I’ll share three for the moment (two for beginners and one once you’ve done a little bit of volume):

There are others too, but I think to use them effectively you should cut your teeth with the above. As you get bigger volume and better at the processes, you’ll get better rates and ultimately probably network your way into advanced aggregators and ultimately private buyers who will pay the highest rates. My best suggestion is to walk before you run on this one!

I know this isn’t what people mean when they say “cutting your teeth”, but it’s where my mind goes. Also, it’s probably where yours will go now too. Sorry, not sorry.

The existing articles about what resets the expiration of miles in AirFrance/KLM’s FlyingBlue mileage program are all over the board, and they conflict with one another at the surface level. There’s only one thing that’s been certain to this point: crediting an actual SkyTeam revenue flight to your FlyingBlue account will reset expiration and kick the can down the road for another two years.

What about points transferred from partners and from the FlyingBlue shopping portal? You’ll find different information in different articles and they’re all correct at some level. It’s taken several months of experimentation and now with the help of Gary and Connor, I now have a proper test and validation set to explain what’s going on:

  • Some partners reset expiration of transferred miles, and some don’t.
  • No partners reset the expiration of miles earned through flying
  • Miles earned through a FlyingBlue credit card reset the expiration of all miles

Ok, but most of us don’t have a FlyingBlue credit card and don’t want to credit a flight to the FlyingBlue program, so we rely on transferred miles to reset the clock (and transferred miles is probably how we got them in the first place). Here’s the scoop:

Partner Resets Transferred Mileage Expiration
Brex Yes
Capital One Yes
Chase Yes
Citi Yes
FlyingBlue shopping portal Yes
American Express No

See the stick in the mud there? Our best friend and aspirational colleague American Express is different than the rest. When you transfer miles from American Express to FlyingBlue, it doesn’t reset the expiration on other transferred miles, and that’s why we’ve had mixed data-points about this topic for years.

Now that we’ve tested and validated this, can we collectively move on to something else?

Happy Tuesday!

The “something else” that we’ve apparently moved to collectively. Why did we catalog this, exactly? Perhaps there’s some golden ratio of crust to nugget meat that I don’t understand.