Year: 2022

Beginning in mid-June I started receiving reports that American Express has imposed spending limits on charge cards and lowered limits on credit cards. Based on the number of reports I’ve received directly and the volume of chatter I’ve seen in various groups the issue is widespread, much more so than we’ve seen in the last several years. What’s going on?

Charge Cards

With charge cards, it seems American Express is doing on of two things to affected accounts (but probably not both):

  • Imposing spending limits on mostly unused charge cards
  • Taking up to a week after payment to free-up available credit

For active charge cards, spending limits don’t seem widespread (but there are a few reports).

Credit Cards

On the credit card side we’ve seen:

  • Credit lines slashed on both idle and actively used cards
  • Taking up to a week after payment to free-up available credit

Unlike the charge card side, activity on a card doesn’t seem to protect it from a reduced spending limit.

Observations

So far, everyone that’s been affected by the recent charge limits has one of these two traits with their AmEx accounts:

  • Big balances (think 30%+ of stated annual income)
  • Lot’s of cycling (similar magnitude)

The language used on the AmEx website when a limit is imposed mirrors the language used when a financial review results is reduced charging privileges. That could mean we’re seeing a new type of financial review (perhaps a “silent financial review”), and having a big balance or cycling your cards quite a bit triggers it.

Assuming this round is like past rounds of spending limits, it’ll probably be stuck on your account for a year.

Why is AmEx doing this?

I don’t have inside knowledge about why AmEx is doing this, but I do know that their two major banking partners aren’t rosy on AmEx’s recent financial performance (Morgan Stanley’s bank analyst downgraded the stock this week and Charles Schwab has given the company a “D – Underperform” equity rating as of yesterday.) Perhaps AmEx is looking for ways to reduce their risk or for ways to shore up their balance sheet?

AmEx’s public Q2 financial results are scheduled for early Friday of next week, so perhaps we’ll learn more then. In the mean time be aware that AmEx seems to be more on edge lately and act accordingly, like maybe drink a beer and chill.

AmEx understands “no preset spending limit” as well as this shop understands 99 cent stores.

Introduction

A particular gift card retailer has recently upped its game on flagging accounts with significant past purchase volume, and unfortunately the flag prevents future orders from processing so it’s effectively a ban.

The flag has affected one of my accounts in the last two weeks and I know it’s affected at least a hand-full of readers’ accounts too. If you’re stuck in this situation, you can probably unstick yourself with a little bit of effort. The same technique works for most bans that don’t involve positive ID validation, so consider taking this as a general technique for winning at life.

The Technique

To get around the ban, you need to follow reader Vince’s advice: “Think a bit about how you would correlate accounts if you were a retailer, then break those correlations.” The obvious ones?

Each of those things might reveal a link between two accounts that otherwise aren’t linked. So when you’re banned, change each of them. For IP addresses, unplugging your router and plugging it back in may be all you need, but a VPN works in a pinch. For cookies, switching your browser or clearing all site-data will do the trick, and so on. Of course, it’s possible that there are less obvious correlations too, don’t consider this list to be exhaustive.

Yes, yes, I can already hear some of the questions the last bullet brings: “If I change my address, how will my credit card charge go through?” Easy answer – effectively no retailer actually verifies billing addresses; instead they verify zip code (if they verify anything at all). Does your zip code have another address? I know mine does.

Good luck getting out of those bans!

Winning at life looks different for everybody.

Have you ever heard the “orange you glad I didn’t say banana” knock-knock joke? Well, that, but Prime Day.

  1. Do this now: Register for Radisson’s double points promotion on two-night stays or longer through August 31.
  2. Simon’s volume gift card buying site is running a promotion for 72% off of purchasing fees through Friday with promo code JUL22SUPER72, which will be a total cost of somewhere around $3.60 to $4.25 for $1,000 Visa or Mastercard gift cards depending on how many you order.

    The usual warnings: American Express doesn’t award points on Simon purchases, and Simon gift cards are Metabanks so can be trickier to unload, but there are avenues online and in person.

  3. It’s been reported that Chase is offering $95 statement credits as a retention offer to some World of Hyatt credit card holders (they also occasionally offer $100-$200 statement credits for the Sapphire Reserve). If you have a Hyatt card, I’d call Chase and say “I’m thinking of closing this card, but before I make a decision, I’m wondering if there are any retention offers or statement credits available?”
  4. Meijer MPerks has $10 off of $150 in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday after clipping the offer in your account. Scale this one with multiple MPerks accounts, and rejoice that you can often avoid Metabanks at Meijer. (Thanks to GC Galore)

Have a nice Wednesday friends!

Amazon Prime day and all the articles about it summed up in a single picture.

Delta’s Medallion elite members are eligible for complimentary upgrades to First Class and Comfort+ seats when traveling alone or with a single companion on non-basic economy fares, but if you have three or more people booked on the same PNR (passenger name record / confirmation code), then no one is eligible for an upgrade.

There’s a simple travel hack to get around the limitation and as long as you’re willing to split a group’s reservation, it’s easy for a companion to get an upgrade along side every traveling Medallion member.

The Trick

To get an upgrade for an elite and a companion as part of a larger booking, all you need to do is contact Delta over the phone or chat and ask them to “split the PNR for the Medallion member and a companion” from the rest of the group. On splitting, the Medallion member and companion will get a new PNR and the rest of the group will remain on the old PNR. The new PNR will be eligible to add to both the First Class and Comfort+ upgrade lists like any regular booking.

Notes

  • You can split a PNR multiple times, especially useful with multiple elites and multiple companions
  • You can’t ever recombine a split PNR
  • During normal schedule changes Delta tends to rebook automatically in chunks via PNR so there’s a small chance that you may end up with separate flights for each PNR after a schedule change. For this reason, I’d only split the PNR right before your upgrade window starts unless you like dealing with Delta over the phone
  • During IROPs, the same automatic rebooking engine could split you across different flights, so caveat emptor
  • The companions left without a medallion in their group will lose priority access on their boarding passes, but they can still board with the elite (just say: “they’re with me” at boarding)

Good luck and happy upgrades!

Using ultra-high speed cameras, science captures the exact moment that a Delta PNR splits.

  1. There’s a targeted 20% Membership Rewards transfer bonus to Etihad Guest. Sweet spots:

    – 50,000 points in Business or 62,500 points in First Class to and from Europe or Asia on AA
    – 30,000 – 50,000 points in Business class to and from South America on AA
    – Cheap economy redemptions to Europe, South America, or Asia on multiple airlines

    (Thanks to Parts_Unknown)

  2. The United mobile app on Android and iOS has targeted promotions for co-brand card holders. To find your offer, look for “Ready, set, choose your reward” in the app on the home screen, or try this link from TheSultan1. After completing $600 in spend on the card my reward is (choose one):

    – 2,000 bonus miles
    – $20 TravelBank Cash expiring 8/31/2023
    – 100 Premier qualifying points (PQP)

    Other higher and lower offers have been seen too. I picked 2,000 bonus miles, which makes the card earn 4.33x for $600 in spend.

  3. GC Galore reports that Sam’s Club gift card purchases are explicitly listed as eligible for earning cash-back until July 15, presumably due to Amazon Prime Day competition. Stack Sam’s gift card promotions with Albert debit card cash back boosts for an even better return.

    Just avoid the Sam’s pizza. But for real, avoid the pizza.

Call it a hunch, but I think Sam’s Club employees are confused about which ingredients are the pepperonis.

  1. American Express has another set of no-lifetime language (NLL) heightened offers available. To see if you’re targeted, login to AmEx and check the following links for two great no-annual fee cards:

    – Blue Business Plus 75,000 Membership Rewards after $15,000 in spend in 12 months
    – Blue Business Cash $750 after $15,000 in spend in 12 months (discussed yesterday)

    Both of these have phone in employee card offers available, 5,000 Membership Rewards after $2,000 in spend on the Blue Business Plus and a $50 statement credit after $2,000 in spend on the Blue Business Cash. Both work for up to 99 employees, or 450,000 bonus points on the Plus or $4,500 in statement credits on the Cash.

  2. Check for email from Citi for targeted 5x on PayPal spend, up to $600 by September 30. This has been seen on:

    – Double Cash
    – Premier
    – Rewards+
    – AAdvatage

    Related to the above: PayPal raised its credit card fees for person-to-person payments to 2.99%, and stopped allowing friends and family payments from personal accounts to business accounts.

  3. Check this link for Barclays credit card targeted 5x spend bonuses on grocery, gas, and restaurant purchases up to $700 in spend through September 15. (Thanks to San_K)
  4. Staples has fee-free $200 Visa gift cards, limit five per transaction running from Sunday through the following Saturday. These are Metabank gift cards, and based on lots of prodding from reader Jim, I won’t say anything bad about Metabanks (today). (Thanks to DDG)
  5. Simon’s volume purchasing program has for 50% off of bulk Visa and Mastercard gift card purchases using promo code JUL22WKND50.

Jimmy’s dog helps us jump toward the weekend with a Delirium Tremens. #JimmyStyle

  1. Norse Atlantic Airlines has launched new US flights with ~$250 economy roundtrip fares from the US to Oslo, Norway on multiple dates this fall. They currently operate out of FLL, MCO, JFK, and LAX. Obviously this is an amazing deal if you live in or near one of those airports.
  2. A new no-lifetime-language (NLL) link for the no-annual fee American Express Blue Business Cash card with a $750 sign-up bonus after $15,000 in spend within 12 months has surfaced.

    This card also still has a phone in offers for up to 99 employee cards with 5,000 bonus Membership Rewards after $2,000 in spend per card. (Thanks to jackal3000)

  3. Brex has a 25% transfer bonus to Avianca Lifemiles through July 31, which is well timed with the impending shutdown of many Brex accounts on August 15. Best uses of Lifemiles:

    – Award chart anomalies, like JFK-Lisbon in business class for 35,000 miles or JFK-Zurich in coach for 16,500 miles (you can find these in other major North American cities too)
    – Flying to or from Europe in business class and tacking a coach leg onto the end to lower the price
    – Economy flights to or from the Caribbean for 12,500 miles each way
    – Short haul domestic US economy for 7,500 miles each way

  4. The crypto bank Voyager has declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The discharge of debts will probably mean that crypto holdings are locked up for months or years and will be treated like other corporate assets, meaning holders will likely get only a small percentage of their original crypto holdings on the other end. US Dollar holdings at Voyager will likely be returned in full.

    I’d consider this a canary for other weird crypto fintechs and act accordingly, especially given that a recession is imminent or present.

Pictured: Voyager crypto bank’s vault.

There have been a few significant developments in manufactured spend over the last week or so, and I think a quick summary is in order:

  1. Speedway is temporarily awarding 500 points per card on certain Visa gift card purchases, both advertised and unadvertised brands.
  2. Another Metabank liquidation channel vaporizes: the Play+ card stopped taking Metabank Mastercard gift cards last week, and Metabank Visa gift cards the week before.
  3. There have been sporadic reports trickling in for about a week that several US Bank gift cards compatible with paying Citi cards over the phone have stopped, well being compatible with paying Citi cards over the phone. It appears that this issue affects cards with an earlier expiration, so all is not lost.

There are still plenty of techniques out there, always be probing.

Look, I’m not going to say that all probing is good. Props to Henton’s for exploring what meals could be, but I’d chalk this one up as a failure.