Category: Bank Bonuses

  1. The undisputed and strangest goat of the Miles Earn and Burn Unsung Heroes, the Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card, has a higher sign-up bonus than I’ve ever seen at $225 back after $1,500 in spend. A few notes:

    – You can hold multiple Citi SYWR Mastercards
    – The approval rules for this Citi card are different than other Citi cards
    – The normal Citi limits don’t apply (8/65, 24 month rule, etc)

    I’m likely going to delay dropping below 5/24 by a few more months to get another one of these cards. (Maybe I shouldn’t even be trying to get below 5/24, but here we are.)

  2. CashApp has a 10% back boost for online purchases at Sam’s Club on up to $200 per day for today and tomorrow, and currently Sam’s club is 2x or 3x via the Rakuten portal. This is a good way to get discount Visas, Mastercards, or Disney gift cards. (Thanks to SideShowBob233 for the pointer)
  3. Chase has a $750 sign-up bonus for new business checking account customers after depositing $20,000 for 60 days and making 5 transactions (like 5 Amazon loads of $0.50 each with my business debit card). EDIT: Thanks to RabbMD for correcting the number of transactions required. More notes:

    – You can’t have received a new business checking account bonus from Chase in the last 24 months
    – The business can’t have had a Chase checking account in the last 90 days
    – The account needs to be open for six months (but the $20,000 need only be there for 60 days)

    The effective APR for this offer is 22.5%, so probably worth your time. (Thanks to DoC)

The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard if it were a playground.

This blog has a strict focus on travel hacking, churning, and manufactured spend. I’m going to occasionally write about another topic too and today is the test run. Any feedback you have is always appreciated!

  1. Wells Fargo has a $1,500 bonus for opening a new Business Checking Account in-person and parking $5,000 in the account for 60 days. To open:

    – Generate an offer code at this link
    – Print out the emailed offer
    – Make an appointment at this link to open your account
    – Show up to your appointment and make small talk for 30 minutes while the banker fumbles around with the computer

    This will also work with a sole proprietorship using your own social security number in case you don’t already have a business ready to go. (Thanks to Nathan via slack)

  2. Meijer is running a sale for $10 back on $150 or more in Mastercard gift cards through April 16 after clipping the digital offer. There’s a limit of one per account, but that shouldn’t stop you. You have another email address or two right?
  3. Many of you know that I’m a big time avgeek, a private pilot, and that I miss United’s Channel 9 sorely. So it’s easy to understand why my interest was piqued yesterday while flying home on a short final for landing at our destination with an altitude of about 100 feet off the ground when the engines spooled up with a takeoff roar. We started a climb and a banked into a turn rather abruptly.

    After about a minute the captain announced that there was a loss of separation and that air traffic control had told us to go-around. It’s not the first time this happened to me and I had exactly zero stress or anxiety about it, but I did want to channel the old Russian proverb: “trust but verify“. So, I tuned into one of my favorite websites using the inflight internet, Live ATC, and listened to the rest of the uneventful approach and landing. After landing I listened to the archive and indeed our aircraft was told to go-around (now it’s trusted and verified I guess).

    What’s the point of all this? Live ATC is a great resource to figure out what’s really going on with your flight, and it’s fun as an avgeek destination too.

Have a nice Tuesday.

The passenger next to me on yesterday’s flight, probably.

We’ve got a grab-bag for today:

  1. The Bilt credit card is now wide-open for applications, and based on coverage in the space it’s likely paying a big affiliate commission for new applications too. My affiliate relationship-less opinion:

    – Hyatt, AA, and FlyingBlue are great travel partners
    – It’s easy to earn 50,000 points by paying P2 $50,000 per year in rent via a check
    – No annual fee
    – 3x on dining is easy to game
    – The lack of sign-up bonus is lame (I’d expect to get at least $750 out of a sign-up bonus typically)

    If I weren’t shooting to be under 5/24 I’d have gotten this card a long time ago, and I’d expect that I’d already be shutdown too. That said the jury is still out on how quickly Bilt will bring down the axe.

  2. American Express has targeted more accounts for:

    – 20,000 or 30,000 Membership Rewards for enrolling in Pay-over-Time (thanks to sctrader)
    – 90,000 Membership Rewards for a no-lifetime language (NLL) Business Gold card, check for a pop up on your dashboard for other accounts

    (Thanks to sctrader and churnandburn58 for the first reports of each, respectively)

  3. Citi’s banking division is emulating Will Smith by slapping the credit card division in the face after being told it wasn’t good enough: They’ve got retention offers for checking accounts through their automated chat system for between $50 and $200 based on your account type. To enroll:

    – Log into your bank account at citi.com
    – Click “How can we help?”
    – Type “close account”
    – Choose “Checking” in the dialog and hit next

    The bonus comes as a statement credit after you make a purchase with your debit card of at least the offer amount.

Citi’s banking division is sick of playing second fiddle to the credit card division.