Thursday Quad

1. A few quick Pepper updates:
   
   – Pepper has two processing backends, PayArc and Stripe
   – AmEx cards work if you have Pepper on PayArc, but not on Stripe
   – Merchant coding has changed from software to advertising on PayArc
   – Exceeding purchase limits is no longer obvious, and your account gets locked if you do
   – This isn’t new, but as a reminder, new Pepper accounts don’t see increased payout rates until (1) Pepper decides they should, or (2) they spend a lot of money in a short amount of time
   – Pervasive errors generating gift cards continue to be pervasive
   
   The company’s plan to drop bonus payout rates “toward sustainability” happened last week, but this week’s publicized step-down hasn’t occurred as of this writing.
   
2. The Capital One Venture card has increased its bonus to 100,000 bonus miles after $5,000 spend in three months via referrals because it was jealous that Chase got six articles in 12 h at a prominent travel blog for its 100,000 point bonus. This referral offer was around in February too, but more are now targeted.
   
   The non-referral public offer is still 75,000 miles so ask around before applying. (Thanks to David)
   
3. Alaska MileagePlan Shopping has a bonus of 500 miles after $100+ spent through the portal by April 18.
   
   Perhaps pair with this week’s rage, a Tory Burch American Express $50 off of $250 or $100 off of $500 offer?
   
4. Apparently the RebatesMe has a $45 referral bonus after the referred spends $10, though I couldn’t find it on my accounts, possibly because I use them? (Thanks to MtM)
   

Happy Thursday!

In other news, water continues to be wet and the mountain on your water bottle is only for illustration.