Hopefully you got in on the Target 10% back on gift cards over the weekend. So far spot rates on Target cards have held surprisingly well during this iteration. I didn’t want to spend a bunch of time at a Target so I maxed out my Discover 5% cash back and left — I probably should have tried harder. Anyway, here are a few things to look at for Monday:
1. US Bank sent me a mailer for a $500 sign-up bonus after spending $4,500 in 150 days on their Triple Cash Rewards no-annual fee business credit card, and it turns out the offer is publicly available without a mailer code (affiliate-free link as always). It’s a great sign-up bonus for a card that won’t show up on your credit report and won’t charge an annual-fee, and the card earns 3% at office supply stores and gas stations (limit $200 per transaction on gas); if you’re locked out of Chase Ink cads or past your office supply 5x capacity it could be a nice card to keep in your wallet, otherwise it’s basically a sock drawer card after the sign-up bonus. A few things to note:
- US Bank combines hard pulls in a single day, so apply for multiple cards at once
- Historically you can get multiple business cards in the same day with multiple EINs
- Freeze your SageStream and ARS reports before applying for better approval odds
- US Bank Visa cards work in many unexpected places where other credit cards don’t, always probe with them
I would have tested getting multiple cards in the same day with different EINs, but on my first attempt the application went pending, so I didn’t think that applying for more was going to help anything. I currently have three US Bank credit cards with ridiculously large credit lines in my portfolio so maybe I should have done something about that first.
2. Meijer is running a promotion for a $10 Meijer gift card free with every $100 Apple gift card purchase, but you do have to clip the coupon on each of your Meijer accounts first. Assuming you were going to buy groceries anyway, this is a profitable deal with current Apple $100 gift card resale rates hovering at around 91%.
3. Friday’s Lowe’s deal for $10 back as a Lowes gift card on $200 in Visa gift cards needs two follow-up items:
- It’s actually $15 back, not $10 back like in past iterations
- Don’t forget to link your cards with JetBlue’s ShopTrue for an extra 3x in JetBlue points at Lowe’s (thanks to Avi for the reminder)
Good luck out there dodging holiday shoppers during your MS escapades.
