Category: Bank Bonuses

  1. Kroger has an in-store 4x fuel points promotion running this Friday, Saturday, and Sunday on fixed value Visa and Mastercards and third party gift cards. This year’s frequent sales have spiked the secondary markets and they show no signs of slowing, apparently like “the artificial turf movement” (I know what you’re thinking, but no, I didn’t make that up.)

    If you’re not sure why you should care, The Daily Churn released a good podcast on the subject last week.
  2. Wells Fargo has a churnable checking bonus that doesn’t require that you hold funds in an a near-zero interest earning account to earn. For the bonus, you can’t have a current Wells Fargo checking account or one in the past 12 months, and you’ve got to:

    – Open a new Everyday Checking account by October 12
    – Direct deposit (or “direct deposit”) $1,000 within 90 days

    There is a $10 monthly service fee that’s easily avoided with $500 per month in electronic deposits. There’s no reason that you can’t just electronic withdraw back the next day too, so just schedule some back-to-back ACHs at an existing bank once you set up your account. (Thanks to DoC)
  3. Do this now: Register for Accor’s Q4’s autumn promotion for 4x points on stays through November 26, provided you book by October 15. These hotels are a great option in expensive cities in Europe even without a promotion, and the points have a high value equivalent roughly to the value of a Hyatt point.

From Kroger fuel points to artificial turf to death, talk about escalation.

Yes, there’s an elephant in the room regarding Chase and a shutdown bloodbath in certain circles yesterday. We’ll save commentary for the future though because the dust is still settling, but I will say (1) if you don’t know why it’s happened then you’re almost certainly not affected. (2) If you are affected, I’m sorry, that sucks, but I’d make sure that Chase followed consumer laws about forced account closure and act accordingly if I were you.

  1. We haven’t talked about bank bonuses much lately given the low interest rate paid by checking accounts and the much higher interest rates paid by high yield savings accounts, but Capital One has a bonus that bucks the trend with $350 and minimal capital (lol) requirements:

    – Open a new checking account with code BONUS350 by October 18
    – Send at least two direct deposits of $250 or more in the first 75 days

    The account has no monthly fees and you can transfer money out immediately after your direct deposit posts.
  2. Southwest will open its travel schedule sometime this morning for travel through April 8, 2024. This includes most school’s spring break vacations and fares for popular routes on Southwest are often cheapest when first bookable.

    Level 201 travel hackers can probably figure out how to have a good shot of being impacted by a schedule change between now and April 8 too. (Thanks to the outstanding Brian M via MEAB slack)
  3. The AirFrance/KLM FlyingBlue program has released promo awards for discount award tickets to and from Europe through March 31, 2024. Notable US cities included in the sale:

    – Chicago
    – New York
    – Detroit
    – Washington DC
    – Denver
    – Atlanta
    – Austin
    – Houston
    – Minneapolis

    Promo awards normally list economy award prices but business class tickets are often reduced too. I’ve had great luck with these in the past, but do remember that there’s a 50 Euro fee for cancelations in the program before you go nuts on booking.

Happy Thursday!

Pictured: The Chase shutdown elephant. What, you didn’t think I was being literal?

In the last day there’s been a wave of Chase shutdowns that have swept through very specific parts of the community. All of the data-points I have suggest everyone shutdown has had two things conspiring against them in tandem:

  • An account on their credit report listed as “Closed by issuer”
  • A negative Ultimate Rewards balance (largely related to chargebacks)

From my perspective the likely timeline was: A negative Ultimate Rewards balance led to an analyst getting involved, the analyst soft-pulled a credit report and saw derogatory marks and applied a two-strikes rule, then the analyst queued the account for closure.

Some unsolicited advice when dealing with banks and rewards, Chase or otherwise:

  • Don’t let your points balance or card balance go negative at statement close
  • If one of those does go negative, transfer points and/or spend as necessary to get it non-negative
  • Dispute away any derogatory remarks from your account (persistence will eventually pay off)

If you’re shutdown, know that a shutdown at Chase is generally better than a shutdown at other banks because with a little luck and good timing, you’ve got a points machine.

Have a nice weekend!

Pictured: The Chase shutdown wave hitting some unlucky manufactured spenders.

  1. Walmart is 6x in-store at Rakuten, up from 3x last week. The terms and conditions haven’t otherwise changed but I think the likelihood of cancellation for heavy hitters is higher at 6x than 3x because Rakuten seems to investigate high balance accounts.

    If you’re tech savvy and can isolate your digital footprint well, you can scale with multiple Rakuten accounts.
  2. With the end of the month approaching, don’t forget that you’ve got through Wednesday to:

    – Spend your AmEx Gold $10 dining credits
    – Spend your AmEx Business Platinum $10 wireless credits
    – Spend your Chase GoPuff $10 credits

    In my opinion, Shake Shack gift cards, T-Mobile credits, and in-store pickups are the best way respectively to maximize each of these three credits with a minimum amount of time and breakage.
  3. Staples has fee-free Visa gift cards in-store through Saturday, limit eight per transaction. As usual, try for back-to-back transactions if you’ve got the liquidation capacity to minimize your time spent in a dying, overpriced, one employee per 1,500 square foot, big-box office supply retailer.

    These are Metabank Pathward gift cards so have a liquidation plan ready before you buy enough to stand up as a fifth leg for your desk.
  4. Truist has a $400 personal checking account bonus through July 25 for opening a new account and having two direct deposits totaling $1,000 or more in the first 90 days. When signing up, use promo code TRUISTCHKQ223, and note that DoC says this is state limited; that’s not been my experience with Truist though (in general if you can’t sign up online, pretend you’re Lady Gaga).
  5. There’s a 30% transfer bonus for Membership Rewards to Virgin Atlantic through June 14. This program has some great sweet spots, but double check availability before transferring anything in. I don’t have any particular inside knowledge but I think a devaluation of this program is near.
  6. Dell is currently at 12x on Rakuten, so it’s a good time to try and cash out your American Express Business Platinum Dell $200 Q1/Q2 credit and have your order cancelled.

Pictured: Dave pretending to be Lady Gaga to get a Truist bonus. Little does he know they’ll lock his account for shenanigans in T-58 days.

Today we’re keeping it short and sweet (because you know, usually we’re super long winded around here).

  1. DoC notes that there’s a Citizens bank $300+$100 sign-up bonus, and even though it’s mentioned to only be available in certain states, let’s just say that’s not been my experience. The bonus:

    – $300 for getting $500 or more in direct deposits in the first 60 days
    – $2 back per debit transaction, up to $100 back in the first 60 days

    Obviously you should automate the second part, and possibly even find a way to trigger the first part without bugging your employer.
  2. Simon has 35% off of all fees when ordering Metabank Pathward gift cards using promo code MAY23SAVE35.
  3. Multiple reports suggest that BlueBird has throttled cash withdrawls at an ATM to $80 per transaction. I’ll be honest, I didn’t know people were still using BlueBirds at ATMs but to each their own.

Happy Tuesday!

Today’s post (in red).

  1. Chase has three new bonuses for opening a business checking account by August 3, bringing new money into the account within 30 days, and maintaining it there for 60. The tiers:

    – $300 for $2,000 in deposits
    – $500 for $15,000 in deposits
    – $750 for $30,000 in deposits

    If you’re playing games with Chase cards, I very much suggest skipping these offers, but they can be a good option for less active players. Sometimes the codes can be sold after you can no longer sign up for them for what it’s worth.
  2. AA is selling status through targeted personal offers:

    – Gold for between $350 and $1,000
    – Platinum for between $1,000 and $1,800

    They’ll also sell you the status for miles at the exchange rate of $0.01 per mile. Since no one asked for my opinion, I’m going to, err, share it anyway: These prices range somewhere between meh and lol, or extrapolating geographically somewhere between Amarillo and Lubbock. (Thanks to VFTW)
  3. Delta has a SkyMiles sale for 34,000 miles each way in Delta One to and from Bogota, Columbia. When booking double check that you’re not getting a standard domestic first class seat, unless you’re a masochist of course.

Have a nice weekend!

Pictured: AA’s premium status shop somewhere between Amarillo and Lubbock.

  1. SoFi has a $600 bonus for taking out a personal loan. You can pay these off quickly and if you’re swanky you can probably churn them too. Referrals are a thing with SoFi loans but the referral is split at $300 for the referrer and $300 for the referred (which may still be a good deal based on the 1099-MISC language in the bonus terms and conditions). (Thanks to DoC)
  2. Do this now: Register for Best Western’s Q2 promo, 2,000 bonus points per award stay through September 4. Do this later: Cry if your best option was a Best Western.
  3. Simon’s online bulk site has 35% off of Visa and Mastercard purchase fees with promo code APR23FLASH35 through April 16. Most of these are Pathward gift cards so have a liquidation plan in place before you go as big on these as the atmospheric rivers went on Northern California.
  4. FQF reminds us about how Just4U rewards from Albertsons/Safeway/Vons stores can be redeemed for Alaska Airlines miles when you set your preferred store location to one in Alaska.

A travel hacker preparing for going big on Pathward by going big on their lawn.

  1. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard, an original MEAB Unsung Hero, now allows for points redemption to Visa e-gift cards at the same redemption rate as other gift cards, making this the new best points cash-out option and making the card even more valuable.
  2. Lowe’s has an in-store promotion for a $15 Lowe’s gift card with the purchase of a $200 Mastercard gift card. The Mastercards are Pathward and have an activation fee of $5.95 to $7.95 depending on the variety, and the resale rates on the Lowe’s card are between 82% and 84% making this a profitable deal without considering credit card rewards.

    There’s a limit of two per $15 Lowe’s cards per email address, but someone told me it’s possible to get more than one email address. I know, sounds weird right?
  3. Fake Points Travel Blogger notes that the Bilt credit card company (Bilt Technologies, Inc) is suing another company also named Bilt (technically BILT, Inc) over trademark infringement for a mobile app that’s existed longer than credit card company, and that lawsuit spawned a counter-suit. Also revealed in court filings is that since its inception, the credit card Bilt has made a total of $41.4 million in revenue through January of this year.

    The action item on this one? Start thinking up new names for the Bilt rewards program and share them around your circles. I can’t wait to hear what you come up with.
  4. Reader Kevin was the first to let me know that there’s good (?) news to go along with yesterday’s bad news that Walmart has $3.74 load fees BlueBird cards: You can now load BlueBird cards at Family Dollar fee-free, just like with Serve cards.
  5. You’d better sit down for this, because I think you’re going to be blown away, err, wait. The opposite actually:

    Staples will be selling fee free $200 Visa gift cards in-store starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit eight per transaction. As usual, try for multiple transactions back-to-back to minimize the time spent in a 12,000 square foot store manned by two employees, one of whom is in the back room watching TikTok.
  6. American Express’s Delta co-brand cards have increased sign up bonuses:

    – Personal Gold: 75,000 SkyMiles after $2,000 spend in six months
    – Personal Platinum: 75,000 SkyMiles and 10,000 MQM after $5,000 spend in six months
    – Personal Reserve: 100,000 SkyMiles and 10,000 MQM after $5,000 spend in six months

    AmEx used their random number generator with these offers so if you don’t see them, switch browsers, go incognito, connect to a VPN, try mobile, yell at Richard Kerr between lawsuits, or something similar until you do see them. (Thanks to rep-swe)

Have a nice weekend!

The real surprise isn’t Staples, it’s what’s at the bottom of the slide.