Category: Bank Bonuses

  1. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 in Visa gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Buy the lower fee “Everywhere” cards if you have a liquidation route
    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back

    This week will probably see a lot more competition than you’re used to, because community service first reasons.
  2. The semi-defunct-like-AT&T-unlimited-data-plans Citi ThankYou Mastercard sent new targeted mid-month offers for:

    – $50 statement credit with $750+ in online spend
    – $75 statement credit with $1,000+ in online spend

    These offers stack with other offers on the card. Now we just need a website that somehow codes as both home improvement and gasoline. (Thanks to birt and Matt M)
  3. Chase launched two new transfer bonuses:

    – 55% to Marriott Bonvoy through June 30 (after 65% last week)
    – 30% to Southwest Rapid Rewards through June 5

    Both of these are mildly interesting. Let’s list the upsides and downsides. Upsides: Bonvoy is a back door to lots of hard to earn currencies, and Southwest award bookings are fully refundable even on basic fares. Downsides: *cough* Southwest and *cough* $55 parking and destination fees at run-down airport hotels on award nights.
  4. PayPal Offers has an offer for 5% back at Giftcards.com with a maximum of $20 back through May 24.
  5. The Marketing machine at Chase offers checking account bonuses approximately 370 out of 365 days a year, and as a result coverage on them is basically continuous. There’s a new targeted business checking bonus for $1,500 with modest funding requirements that’s caused that background noise to jump and coverage is all over. So, let’s discuss a couple of things:

    – If you’re more than just a very casual churner or manufactured spender, avoid Chase deposit accounts, seriously
    – If you’ve got no credit history and you’re just starting out, Chase deposit accounts are useful for a few months before you close them

    You do you though.

Happy Monday!

Upside: The Marriott airport hotel destination fee ensures that hamster wheels are always working.

  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. AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue has a new leader, and the most surprising part is that the leader is a relatively well-known travel hacker, Tiffany Funk. Tiffany co-founded point.me, ran a paid award booking service, and oversaw parts of the business operations at One Mile at a Time.

    My crystal ball is famously nothing more than a ball made of crystal; but it tells me that this is bad news for serious travel hackers and good news for the median regular family putting all their spend on Delta credit cards and booking economy awards with SkyMiles to Rome. I do think we’ll see more business class availability on the worst routes at the worst times, but less availability when and where you want to fly in premium cabins. I sure hope I’m wrong. Today’s action Well, remember that the site’s name ends in “and Burn”.
  2. SoFi has a 2% ACATS transfer bonus on both new and existing pre-tax or post-tax accounts, limit $5 Million in transferred funds.

    To keep the bonus, you’ve got to hold the funds for 5 years otherwise you may pay out more in penalties than the original bonus.
  3. American Express has more targeted offers for upgrading a Business Gold or Business Green card to a Business Platinum. You’ll earn 120,000 Membership Rewards after $10,000 spend in three months, and you’ll be effectively locked into the card for a year unless you like pop-up jail.
  4. Meijer mPerks has 50,000 bonus points with the purchase of a $500 third party gift card other than Amazon and phone cards through today, limit 50,000 points per mPerks account.

    This is what economists call a great value, which is defined as when capitalism accidentally does something nice. (Thanks to GCA)
  5. OfficeDepot / Office Max has $15 off of $300+ in Mastercards through Saturday. As usual, buy in even multiples of $300 for the best oomph.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  6. If you’re a Frontier flyer, register for a bonus 5,000 miles per round-trip flight through August 31 with a maximum of 20,000 bonus miles earned.

    You’ll need to rebook existing travel to qualify for the promotion, otherwise known as when capitalism does what it’s supposed to.

Happy Tuesday friends!

The fine print matters.

  1. Do this now: Register for IHG’s promotion for 2,000 or 8,000 bonus points for two or four night stays, respectively through August 31. There’s also an offer for 2x points for IHG Business Rewards members through December 31.
  2. Do this now: Register for I Prefer’s promotion for a $50 reward certificate for a 2+ night stay at each of their properties, as long “each” means five or fewer.
  3. Raley’s, Nob Hill, and Bel Air stars have 15x points on Lowes and One4All gift cards, some of which convert to Home Depot, through Tuesday.

    This is an outstanding deal.
  4. American Express offers has new offers for:

    – Expedia: 10% back on prepaid Hotels through August 4
    – Cambria Hotels: $100 off of $300+ through September 1
    – Choice Ascend Hotels: $50 off of $200+ through September 1

    Gamers gonna game.
  5. Capital One checking has a $400 new account bonus with promo code FLASH400, provided that you receive at least two direct deposits within 75 days of account opening. A few notes:

    – Don’t do this if you play games with Capital One, the banking side might cause you to lose your credit cards
    – If you have Discover checking or savings, consider closing those accounts quickly so you can either avoid those banking shutdowns, or get this sign-up bonus in the future
    – Business account ACH pushes often look like direct deposits
    – Please close these accounts after you get the bonus

    For more on holding checking accounts at Citi, Chase, and Capital One especially, see SideShowBob233’s opus.

Happy Thursday!

Since we shared SideShowBob233’s opus, we might as well share his award winning art.

  1. Most of the Chase United cards have increased sign-up bonuses, (some include 10,000 miles extra as long as you add an authorized user card within three months):

    – Explorer: 70,000+10,000 MileagePlus miles after $3,000 spend in three months
    – Quest: 90,000+10,000 MileagePlus miles after $4,000 spend in three months
    – Club: 100,000+10,000 MileagePlus miles after $5,000 spend in three months
    – Business: 100,000+10,000 MileagePlus miles after $5,000 spend in three months
    – Club Business: 100,000+10,000 MileagePlus miles after $5,000 spend in three months

    These are generally available via referrals, so please use a referral link.
  2. US Bank reportedly has a $1,500 business bank account bonus with promo code Q2BUS26, though I couldn’t independently verify it. To qualify:

    – Deposit $25,000 within 30 days
    – Maintain at least $25,000 balance between days 30 and 60
    – Make at least six transactions by day 60 (Six $1 ACHs do nicely)

    If you manage your money perfectly, this is effectively a 72% annualized APR, which is almost 72% more than what Chase business checking will give you. Even if you’re not in US Bank’s footprint you can still do this, just open a different relationship with US Bank first. T&C here.
  3. Alaska companion certificate sharing has tightened for the second time since the Hawaiian merger; now they can only be used when fares are paid for specifically with an Atmos Ascent card.

    I for one am impressed that Alaska’s IT is able to discern. (Thanks to best-qualify-catfood)
  4. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Happy Monday!

Alaska IT’s typeface for the new lounge drink lineup.

  1. The Amazing Business card family has new sign-up bonuses in Arizona, California, and Texas:

    – Cash Credit Card: $1,000 after $5,000 spend in 120 days
    – Rewards Credit Card: 100,000 points after $5,000 spend in 120 days

    These cards earn 3x on business purchases, 2x on travel, and 1x otherwise. “What are the rewards worth”, you say? Well, 100,000 points is equal to $1,000 in statement credit or gift cards, there’s no uplift. So why go that way? Obviously because points are funner, duh.
  2. Wells Fargo has a tiered business checking bonus for accounts opened by May 5:

    – $400 for $2,500 in new funds
    – $825 for $25,000 in new funds

    You have to have the average balance at or above the tiers between day 30 and day 60 of opening. For churnability even with existing accounts, find your self a new-to-Wells Fargo Tax ID, and don’t tell them I said it’d work.
  3. New SoFi checking and savings accounts are eligible for $415 from Swagbucks on approval and $300 from SoFi after $400 in direct deposits after 45 days.

    You can churn these too despite the T&Cs and the naysayers. Again, just don’t tell them I said it’d work.
  4. Virgin Atlantic sent targeted offers via email for its Synchrony Virgin Red Mastercard with a sign-up bonus of 85,000 miles after $5,000 spend in 90 days.

    Yes, Virgin Atlantic points are easy to come by in other ways, but the card isn’t only useful for Virgin points.
  5. Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping has a 1,000 point bonus for $250+ in spend through the portal by March 16.

There’s a theme with all of these offers friends, even if it’s not explicit. Always be probing, and happy Wednesday!

The Texas version of the Amazing credit card proves everything’s bigger in Texas, or something.

  1. The Bank of America Premier Rewards program is changing in May. The program is famous for its ability to combine $100,000 in assets for a 75% rewards boost with the Unlimited Rewards credit card 1.5x earning to make a 2.625% everywhere card. Or at least, that’s why it will have been famous through May. At that point, bonus tiers become:

    – 10% bonus: Up to $29,999.99 in assets
    – 25% bonus: Up to $99,999.99 in assets
    – 50% bonus: Up to $999,999.99 in assets
    – 75% bonus: $1 Million in assets or greater (used to be $100,000+)

    I guess $100,000 isn’t what it used to be. You can still earn status with Merrill linked brokerage assets, so consider ACATS of a portfolio into Merrill if you’re really good at 2.625% spend and it’s accessible. If not, it may be time to spread your existing Bank of America assets elsewhere for better use. It’s also probably time to learn about how the fast track program works.
  2. The Chime FinTech platform has a $300 sign-up bonus after $200+ in direct deposits in the first month for new account holders.

    These are churnable if you try.
  3. Spirit announced a new rewards debit card issued by Mezu/Alviere bank (lol). The card’s vitals:

    – $6.99 monthly fee (it’s Spirit after all)
    – 0.5x earning
    – 4,000 bonus points monthly based on some minimum balance to be determined
    – Group 2 boarding
    – 200 points on sign-up, 200 points monthly for 12 months or until Spirit fails, whichever comes first (the latter, duh)

    This one isn’t issued by Sunrise like the recent United, Southwest, and Wyndham debits, which means it’s probably got vastly different behavior. On the other hand, I’ll bet you $100 in Pepper coins that Spirit won’t be around before your 12 months of 200 point bonuses run out.
  4. The Blue Board is a fun tool built for tracking United flights and hub statuses. It’s also a great tool for figuring out the right trip to book your way into a travel credit refund. (Thanks to David)

Happy Tuesday!

Positive news: Retired BankAmeriGuy was on-hand for the press conference.

  1. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a 40% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic through the end of February.
  2. Kracken brokerage has a bonus on incoming stock portfolio transfers through March 31 and held on the platform through April 1, 2027. The bonus depends on whether you’re a paid Kracken+ member, which costs $4.99 monthly:

    – Non-member: 1%
    – Member: 2%

    You’ll pay about $70 over 14 months to be a member, so portfolios over $7,000 in value will do better with paid membership. You’ll also earn $150 by going through Rakuten. You can ACATS transfer in and out with this promotion, no need to liquidate assets and incur a taxable event. Apropos of nothing, SPIC insurance limits are $500,000 on securities. (Thanks to DoC)
  3. The Rakuten American Express card has an increased sign-up bonus of $200 after $2,000 spend in 90 days. This is a third party American Express issued by First Electronic Bank.

    This card is an absolute banger for the right use cases when you link it to a Rakuten account that earns Bilt or Membership Rewards if you’re good at grocery store spend. It is, shall we say, bordering on Unsung Hero territory.
  4. Office Depot/OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. For best results, buy even multiples of $300.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.

Have a nice Monday friends!

Also apropos of nothing: A book showing Bilt’s messaging changes since the launch of 2.0