Category: Bank Bonuses

  1. The Bank of America Alaska Business card has an increased offer of 75,000 miles after $4,000 spend in 90 days. You can usually get multiple cards with multiple businesses.

    In the before times, I loved getting multiple Alaska cards each time a heightened offer came out. Now that (a) BofA’s payment options aren’t what they used to be, and (b) the Alaska and Hawaiian merger completed so you can transfer Membership Rewards → Hawaiian → Alaska, this card is mid at best; especially when Membership Rewards card bonuses approach a half-million points with a little 15x fun.
  2. US Bank has a $900 sign-up bonus for a new Platinum Business checking account with promo code Q1DIG25 through March 31. You’ve got to bring $25,000 in new funds within 30 days and maintain them through day 60, and you’ve got to have 5 debit, ACH, or other transactions.

    If you time everything perfectly, that means that you only need funds in the present for 31 days, which is an effective APR of 43%. Last I checked, 43% was slightly better than, let’s say Chase, was paying on checking accounts too. Having this account will help with US Bank business credit card approvals, like the $750 Business Leverage or $750 Triple Cash rewards cards. (Thanks to DDG)
  3. The American Express Delta SkyMiles personal cards have increased sign-up bonus for direct links and referrals, but the increased bonuses require the American Express random number generator to work in your favor. The offers:

    – Gold: 80,000 miles after $2,000 spend in six months, annual fee waived first year
    – Platinum: 90,000 miles after $3,000 spend in six months
    – Reserve: 100,000 miles after $5,000 spend in six months

    If you don’t see the heightened offer, try switching browsers, using incognito mode, or poking an Ed Bastion voodoo doll.

Have a nice weekend, and watch for a guest post tomorrow!

Q: Why does the Ed Bastion voodoo doll have a cape?
A: AmEx works better that way.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’m on an annual blogging vacation for the last two weeks of the year. To make sure you still have content, some of the smartest members of the community have stepped up with guest posts in my absence. Special thanks to Graham, the author of the TC Tailwind Blog, who candidly shares his story on the dark side of credit card churning for writing this post. I’ll see you on January 1!

tl;dr: If you have multiple players with different tax situations, being smart about who earns taxable referral or bank account bonuses could more than double your post-tax earnings. Or it could make no difference at all. Calculate the difference it would make for you, by punching in a fake 1099 to last year’s TurboTax file.

Credit card sign up bonuses and points from spend aren’t usually considered taxable, but referral bonuses, checking account promos, and plenty of other kinds of rewards are. This tax treatment means that if you’re a high earner, you could be paying up to half of the bank-assigned value of your points in taxes. For some pathologically high points valuations, this could even result in owing more in taxes than what you think your points are worth. These facts make it worth doing what you can to optimize the tax treatment of your points.

In investing, Asset Location is the concept of putting assets with poor tax treatment into tax advantaged accounts (eg. holding bonds in your 401k to avoid paying annual taxes on the dividends). In the churning world, those of us with multiple players can practice a similar concept, by locating our taxable earnings with the player with the most favourable tax situation.

How much of a difference can this location strategy make? Let’s run a few scenarios. In each scenario, we’ll assume that:

  • We’re going for a $900 Chase checking bonus (while SideShowBob233 howls faintly in the distance).
  • It is equally convenient in our churning plans for P1 or P2 to receive the bonus.
  • There are no special tax situations, such as ample capital losses that one player or the other could use to balance out their earnings.

Here are a few scenarios:

  • The Best:
    • P1 is a very high earner in California and would be subject to a 37% Federal, 3.8% NIIT, and 12.3% State tax on the bonus, for a total of 53.1%.
    • P2 has no income, can take the standard deduction, and will be subject to no state or federal tax.
    • Results: P1 would pay $477.90 in taxes, keeping only $422.10 of the bonus. P2 would pay $0 in taxes, and keep the full bonus. Earning the bonus with the right player would more than double your earnings from $422.10 to $900.
  • The OK:
    • P1 and P2 live in Florida, and would be subject to only a 24% and 12% Federal tax respectively on the bonus.
    • Results: P1 would pay $216 in taxes, keeping $684 of the bonus. P1 would pay $108 in taxes, keeping $792 of the bonus. Earning the bonus with the right player would moderately increase your bonus earnings by $108 from $684 to $792.
  • The Wash:
    • P1 and P2 are married and file their taxes jointly, meaning they share a tax rate.
    • Results: It doesn’t matter who gets the bonus, it will increase their joint taxes.

Does taxable bonus location matter to you? Taxes are complicated, so it’s hard to know for sure. You might be able to eyeball the impact by looking at the above scenarios and seeing which looks closest to your situation. For an even more exact estimate, boot up last year’s TurboTax (or other tax software of your choice). Try punching in a fake 1099-INT with $900 in Box 1, for P1 and then for P2. That will tell you how much more each player would have paid in taxes last year, if they’d gotten this Chase bonus.

P.S. If you’re interested in more nitty-gritty financial optimization content like this, check out my blog. There’s a subscribe box at the bottom of every page, if you’re interested in seeing new content as it comes out. And if you think I’ve missed something, gotten something wrong, or should write future posts on a particular topic, please drop me a line.

– Graham

SideShowBob face-planing while howling in the distance.

Bank of America’s written rules and their real life behavior never quite matched one another. Some of the consequences of the mismatch include:

  • Business cards aren’t really limit one per product type, despite the language
  • Hard-pulls are combined for between 1 and 30 days, generally
  • Phantom credit lines can exist in Bank of America’s systems for a year after you close a card

There’s more detail about the quirks and app-o-ramas in the Bank of America Followup post from 2021, but in the past several months things have changed. Multiple data points now suggest that if you apply for more than 3-4 cards on the same day:

  • You may be still be approved for all cards on the same day
  • A day or two later, only one card shows up in your online profile
  • Several days later, emails or letters show up saying all applications but your first are denied
  • If you’re really unlucky, Bank of America will close your accounts (this is rare)

This isn’t entirely consistent, but it happens enough that it’s time for some new guidance on Bank of America app-o-ramas:

  • Stick to between one and three cards for safety
  • Stagger your applications across days

Generally you’ll still only have one hard pull on your credit report too, and you can freeze your reports after the first application to make sure.

Good luck!

Following up requires a followup to the shirt too.

  1. Do this now: Register for Choice’s Q4 promotion for 8,000 bonus points on two night (or longer) paid stays through January 5.
  2. Do this now: Register for Marriott and Singapore Airlines reciprocal earning promotion for bookings and flights between October 10 and December 12. You’ll earn:

    – 500 Singapore KrisFlyer miles on paid Marriott stays
    – 1,200 Marriott Bonvoy points on paid Singapore flights

    Because Marriott is Marriott, 500 Singapore miles are probably more valuable than 1,200 Bonvoy points.
  3. The Chase Hyatt personal card has a new sign-up bonus for five free category 1-4 free night certificates with $4,000 spend in three months. The $95 annual-fee is not waived the first year. I prefer the points version of the sign-up bonus since those don’t effectively expire and are more flexible. (Thanks to shris420)
  4. Etihad Guest has a tiered 20%-40% transfer bonus for incoming Citi ThankYou point transfers through October 31. With the transfer bonus, AA short0haul flights are cheaper to book with Etihad than with Alaska MileagePlan.
  5. Qatar Avios has a 25% transfer bonus for incoming Citi ThankYou points transfers through October 31.
  6. Bank of America has a $500 personal checking account bonus requiring $15,000 deposited within 30 days, keeping the money there through day 120, and one of: sending a bill payment, using Zelle (don’t do this), mobile depositing a check, or making a singe direct deposit. Use promo code MCC500CIS. There are exclusions for

    The effective APR of this deal is 13.3% in the best case or 10.0% in the worst case, but the real reason to do this is for opening up Bank of America credit card approvals. (Thanks to DDG)
  7. US Bank has a $900 business checking account bonus requiring $30,000 deposited within 30 days and maintaining the balance for 60 days using promo code Q4AFL24. This bonus requires that 12 months have passed since you last had a business checking account with US Bank.

    The effective APR of this deal is 36% at best and 18% at worst which is reason enough to go for it, but like with Bank of America, opening a checking account will help with credit card approvals. (Thanks to DoC)
  8. Chase’s Q4 Pay Yourself Back 25% bonus categories are: utilities, insurance, fitness clubs and gyms, gas stations, and annual fees. Bonuses are all only the Sapphire Reserve this quarter too. “Select Charities” remains at its 50% bonus value. So long high volume gold cash-out, but hello octopus insurance cash-out!
  9. Chase is making a change to the Sapphire Reserve $300 annual travel credit which seems to be:

    – $300 travel credit resets in December as usual for use past your December statement
    – Remainder of unused December credit becomes a statement credit on December 31
    – $300 travel credit for January 2025 – [your anniversary date]
    – $300 travel credit for [your anniversary date 2025] – [your anniversary date 2026]

    I think this means a bonus $300 travel credit in 2025.
  10. Chase’s has a few targeted promotions for booking through the travel portal:

    – 10,000 bonus Ultimate Rewards after booking a hotel stay of $400+ by January 31 (via email)
    – $100 back on $500 in spend by October 31 (via Chase Offers)

    These will stack, and these are (probably) both gameable. (Thanks to FM)

Pay yourself back hiccups when buying Octopus insurance.

  1. Do this now: Activate Q4’s quarterly rotating credit card categories:

    – Chase Freedom: PayPal, McDonalds, pet shops, vets, and some charities
    – Discover IT: Amazon and Target
    – Citi Dividend: Currently the page errors out, cause #CitiGonnaCiti, but in theory it’s restaurants and Citi travel
    – US Bank Cash+: I choose utilities and electronics stores

    For gaming these in the absence of organic use: PayPal P2P works well, Amazon and Target both sell gift cards, utilities usually allow overpayments, and electronics stores like BestBuy sell gift cards. Amazon, Target, and electronics stores are also typically good targets for buying group activity.
  2. Do this now: Register for IHG’s Q4 promotion for 3,000 bonus points for every two nights stayed between this Thursday and December 31.
  3. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card, run by a team who seems to think that they’re a venture capitalist funding a FinTech that will make money “really soon now”™, sent mid-month offers for online spend. We’ve seen:

    – $30 statement credit after $500 spend
    – $50 statement credit after $750 spend
    – $75 statement credit after $1,000 spend
    – 200,000 Shop Your Way Rewards after $750 spend
    – 250,000 Shop Your Way Rewards after $1,000 spend

    (Thanks to Y, MS Ninja, BrandonV, and Jack)
  4. Citi ThankYou Points has two transfer bonuses running through October 19:

    – Leading Hotels of the World Leaders Club: 25% transfer bonus
    – Avianca LifeMiles: 25% transfer bonus

    Both are solid choices, and if you’ve never looked into Leaders Club redemptions, it’s probably worth your time to do it. (Thanks to yt-nthr-rddtr and Oofzies)
  5. The Chase Avios co-braneded cards have increased sign-up bonuses for 100,000 Avios after $7,500 spend in six months. You can choose between British Airways, Iberia, or Aer Lingus cards, and once you have Avios you can transfer them between programs. The $95 annual fee is not waived the first year. Note that smaller benefits, like economy companion certificates or flight statement credits after lots of spend aren’t the same on all three cards.

    Yes, it’s possible to collect all three, but maybe grab some Inks with a referral instead and transfer into Avios programs if you really need them?
  6. Meijer stores have 50,000 MPerks points for $500 in third party gift card purchases through September 28, limit one per MPerks account.

    We all know that you can only have one MPerks account per email address, and we all know that you can have only one email address, right?
  7. M&T Bank has a $350 bonus for opening a new checking account with promo code TN and direct depositing, or “direct depositing” $500 within 90 days. Some regions like California are excluded because reasons.

Who wouldn’t want $1,500 (times n cards) worth of this?

  1. Do this now: Register for your United MilePlay targeted promotion.

    I got “book and take a trip in a premium seat 1 time to get 5,000 bonus award miles” through September 13. Sounds great at first, but the fare must be $500 so it’s not that great.
  2. Do this now (if you didn’t yesterday because I bungled the link): Register for targeted AA promotions for miles or loyalty points. My offer was 5,000 bonus AAdvantage miles after two paid flights in any cabin in August or September.
  3. You’ve heard of Bilt, right? They are to credit cards what Marriott Bonvoy is to Loyalty Programs; sure there’s value to be had, but you have to wade through plenty of sludge and grime to find it. A few choice examples:

    – They’re actively seeking to bonvoy manufactured spenders
    – They’ve recently removed valuable transfer partners
    – They shutdown a bunch of their users, but didn’t actually, it was just an accident

    Well, they’ve found another way to #bonvoy their early adopters and presumably biggest fans: At the end of the year, they’re closing cards opened in 2021 and early 2022 issued under Evolve Bank, which, side note, leaked customers’ private data for funzies. Don’t worry though, they say if you apply by the end of August they’ll give you 10,000 bonus points, so it’s all cool right? No, not right. At least you can lock all of your credit reports, apply and get denied, and still earn 10,000 points. (Thanks to pizza42bob)
  4. Staples stores have fee free $200 Mastercard gift cards starting Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit eight per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  5. Chase’s no annual fee Marriott Bonvoy Bold card has a sign-up bonus of 60,000 points and a 50,000 point free night certificate after $2,000 spend in three months.

    I think there’s a niche for this card, specifically if you don’t spend many nights in Marriott Hotels but occasionally need them when nothing else is available. I fit this bill, but very much nothing else has to be available.
  6. Chime has a $301 or $318 portal sign-up bonus for new customers that apply through the end of the month and have two direct deposits (or “direct deposits”) of $200+ in 30 days. (Thanks to FM)

Have a nice weekend friends!

Better alternative to Marriott Courtyard: No $39 parking fee and no $59 resort fee on free night stays.

  1. Southwest has 40% off of fares to and from Hawaii booked by tomorrow night for both paid and award travel from August 13 through December 17 with promo code HAWAII40. Of course there are blackout dates around Labor Day and Thanksgiving. Also SNA airport is excluded because it’s too convenient.

    Side note, do you know why I’m not in marketing? The real reason is I don’t enjoy it, but the fun reason is I’d refuse to release a promo like this without the promo code being HAWAIIFIVE0, on principle.
  2. Alaska Airlines has a paid and award fare sale for travel between August 20 and November 30, booked by tomorrow night. Some sweet spots:

    – West coast to and from Hawaii for 7,500 miles
    – Short haul to and from Mexico for 4,000 miles
    – Transcontinental flights for 10,000 miles

    They’re calling this “Autumn’s on sale!” Not bad I guess, at least they didn’t call it the “Alaska 1282 blow-out sale!”
  3. JetBlue has 25% off of all non-Mint, non-transatlantic fares booked today for travel from September 7 through November 20 with promo code FALL.

    Incidentally, they’re calling this one “Get the fall rolling”, which again, I’m not in marketing, but an airline talking about making things fall feels like, uhh, a choice.
  4. WeBull has a new account brokerage bonus for 2% of net transferred portfolio value in July for up to $5,000,000 in assets. Bonuses will be paid half on July 31, 2025, and the other half on July 31. 2026.

    SIPC insurance limits are $500,000 per account in case you have reservations about the longevity of a brokerage that chooses to turn the noun “bull” into a verb, seemingly on purpose. (Thanks to DoC)

After the “Get the fall rolling” sale, JetBlue prepares its next sale: “New England on fire”

  1. Multiple reports including this one confirm that Chase is matching last week’s increased Ink Preferred sign-up bonus of 120,000 Ultimate Rewards on referred cards, which means in two player mode the effective bonus is 160,000 Ultimate Rewards:

    – 40,000 points for the referrer
    – 100,000 points for the sign-up bonus after $8,000 spend in three months
    – 20,000 points for a matched sign-up bonus via Chase Secure Message

    Of course if you’re in two player mode, each player can refer the other and based on a weird academic discipline called “math”, 2 * 160,000 = 320,000 Ultimate Rewards points.
  2. British Airways devalued short-haul flight redemptions on AA and Alaska metal. A couple of notes:

    – Alaska’s MileagePlan award prices were already cheaper for short haul
    – Etihad awards are cheaper for short haul on AA
    – Other Avios currencies like Qatar and Finnair have lower prices
    – You can freely transfer Avois between programs

    So yes, this kinda sucks, but there are plenty of workarounds. Never blindly accept award pricing in oneWorld. Can’t we just get back to fake travel blogger rage until the next British Airways Visa card heightened bonus comes out and move on?
  3. There are two brokerage bonuses that may be worth your time:

    – TastyTrade: up to $5,000 but only for new customers
    – Schwab: up to $6,000 for new and existing customers

    Brokerage bonuses are typically easy if you have retirement (or non-retirement) assets in the stock market, because you can ACATS transfer your existing portfolio to meet the requirements without a taxable event (but of course, I’m not a tax advisor and no one should ever take my advice about anything, literally ever, instead consult with an accountant from a weird academic discipline called “finance”).
  4. Meijer has a couple of promotions running through Saturday:

    – A clippable digital coupon $10 off of $150+ in Mastercard gift cards
    – An automatic 10,000 MPerks points with $100 or more in Choice gift cards

    Often the clippable coupons can be reloaded after each purchase on the same MPerks account, but I don’t know if that’ll work this time. In case it doesn’t, based on a weird academic discipline called “Information Technology”, it’s possible to have multiple email addresses and thus multiple MPerks accounts. (Thanks to GCG)

A credit card offer from a weird, non-academic discipline called churning.