Category: Credit Cards

  1. Bilt has a 25-100% transfer bonus on March 1 only for JAL Mileage Bank. The bonus is based on your Bilt status, and you can add an extra 25% by spending $135 in Bilt Cash.

    For those keeping track at home, Bilt Cash is exactly like regular cash if regular cash couldn’t be used for anything useful for all but one day a month, and even then only a little of it was useful.
  2. American Express paused Membership Rewards points transfers to ANA are paused through March 5. The need to feed the content monster has shifted into high gear with rampant speculation that this means the end of 1:1 points transfers. It’s certainly possible that’s true, but hopefully we haven’t collectively forgotten the lesson of the fake Hyatt card scam. That was a content monster stomach ache and a half.
  3. Chase added Wyndham Rewards as a 1:1 transfer partner. The Wyndham program still has some outsized value in some hotel redemptions, especially the European kind.
  4. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards other than Amazon and generic fuel cards today only.

    Rates look great for February, at least we can thank Pepper for something.
  5. Air France / KLM FlyingBlue changed their points expiration policy, as of May 4 any activity resets expiration and expiration is the same regardless of when and how points were earned.
  6. I don’t write about rumors unless they’re actionable, and this one unfortunately is: Capital One may be moving Venture, VentureOne, Savor, SavorOne, Quicksilver, and QuicksilverOne cards to the Discover network, see the bottom of this page for the source.

    If these cards are part of your game and that game is reliant on running on the Visa or Mastercard network, it’s probably time to come up with a backup plan, like maybe a product change to a VentureX or another issuer altogether.
  7. JetBlue has an economy award sale for travel booked by today and flown between March 10 and May 20. This stacks with the only somewhat useful JetBlue Plus card’s 10% rebate.

Have a nice weekend friends!

Breaking: Actual photo of content monster feeding during the great Hyatt card lie of 2026.

  1. The American Express Business Hilton card has an increased sign up bonus of 175,000 Hilton points and a free night certificate after $8,000 spend in six months. This offer will likely be available for referrals on Friday or Monday. (Thanks to DDG)
  2. Monday saw new American Express Hilton no-lifetime language (NLL) links on personal cards, and we’ve got a new, different set today in case Monday’s expire.

    – Honors: 70,000 points and a free night certificate after $2,000+ in six months
    – Surpass: 130,000 points and a free night certificate after $3,000+ in six months
    – Aspire: 175,000 points after $6,000+ in six months

    These should also be available for referrals on Friday or Monday, but they won’t be NLL.
  3. VanillaGift.com has fee-free Visa gift cards with code VGWOMEN through March 8. For scalers, the purchase limit: $10,000 per account per rolling 24 hours, to the minute.

    These are Incomm gift cards.
  4. Capital One Shopping has a targeted heightened $80 referral bonus, both the referred and the referrer (or referer, where my computer scientists at?) get the bonus, limit $1,900 per account.

    You don’t need a Capital One account to use Capital One Shopping, and it’s great for manufactured discounts.
  5. Citi ThankYou points has a 25% transfer bonus to Wyndham Rewards through March 21. There was a time where this represented amazing, outsized value. Today, it’s more like a “extra value menu” kind of deal.
  6. American Express Lowes cards are being transferred to Synchrony on April 13. This is all around good because: payment games, a new AmEx slot, and perhaps a workaround to a Synchrony ban.
  7. Southwest has a 30% off fare sale for flights booked by today and flown between April 7 and May 20 with promo code ONBOARD. They’re excluding Sunday travel because reasons.

Happy Wednesday!

Who says programmers can’t be funny, even if they can’t spell?

  1. The American Express Hilton personal cards have new no-lifetime language (NLL) heightened, (or maybe we should say elevatored) sign-up bonuses:

    – Hilton Honors: 70,000 points and a free night certificate after $2,000+ in six months
    – Hilton Surpass: 130,000 points and a free night certificate after $3,000+ in six months
    – Hilton Aspire: 175,000 points after $6,000+ in six months

    These aren’t currently available by referral, so if timing isn’t critical and if you’re NLL agnostic, consider giving it a few days to see if that changes.
  2. Meijer MPerks has two promotions through tomorrow, both are limited to one per MPerks account:

    – 7,500 points with $100+ in Visa and Mastercard gift cards
    – 10,000 points with $100+ in One4all gift cards

    The open loop cards are Pathward / BlackHawk Network cards.
  3. American Express Membership Rewards has a 15% transfer bonus to Avianca LifeMiles through March 28.
  4. United is changing earning for tickets purchased April 2 or later. Chase United co-brand card holders (team Rocket), and possibly United debit holders with spend will come out ahead. Non-co-brand card holders (team Kirby) lose:

    – Team Rocket: Increased paid ticket mileage earning
    – Team Kirby: Decread paid ticket mileage earning

    – Team Rocket: 10% – 15% lower priced award redemptions
    – Team Kirby: 0% lower priced award redemptions

    – Team Rocket: Increased premium cabin award availability
    – Team Kirby: The Scott Kirby Special™, also known as nothing

    In case you were wondering, Scott Kirby has no relation to pink Kirby based on my exhaustive research.
  5. Office Depot/OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300+ in Visa gift cards through Saturday. Even multiples of $300 make churners happier.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  6. Giant, Giant Food Stores, Martin’s, Stop & Shop have 8x points on Zillions Zift gift cards through Thursday. For once, Giant Food gets the same deal as the other three, bananas but true.

Have a nice Monday friends!

It’s easy to see how the Scott Kirby / pink Kirby confusion arises based on Scott’s official portrait.

  1. Chase Ultimate Rewards can’t be deposited to an external account starting March 27, instead you’ve got to redeem as a statement credit or to a Chase account.

    There are generally only a couple of good reasons to have a Chase deposit account, but those are overshadowed with a really bad reason to have one after you’re established.
  2. Chase Offers has new offers for:

    – $100 back on $600+ in Chase Travel spend
    – 10% back on up to $320 spend at Best Western properties

    Look, not all Best Western properties are bad, but also there’s a reason that we poke fun at them.
  3. Wells Fargo launched two new versions of the Autograph Journey card for Premier clients, but in-app only. They’re exactly like the regular Autograph Journey cards, except for:

    – There’s a 100,000 point sign-up bonus instead of a 60,000 point sign-up bonus
    – There are different colors available
    – They’re more, uhhh, fun

    There’s still a $2,500 Wells Fargo Premier banking bonus through April 14 and brokerage accounts work for it too, so if the fun of the Autograph Journey gold edition moves the needle, I bet it moves even more with a cool $2,500 added on.
  4. Alaska Atmos has a coach award sale for flights booked by February 27 and flown through May 12. Because Alaska is trying to be like the other major US carriers, they added blackout dates around spring break too:

    – Helsinki Finland: 17,500 miles each way
    – Copenhagen Denmark and Vienna Austria: 20,000 miles each way
    – Hokkaido Japan: 20,000 miles each way
    – Munich Germany and Prague Check Republic: 30,000 miles each way

    If you’re cool with flying coach: (a) uh, wow; and (b) check cash fares before booking, they’re often pretty cheap right now.

Happy Thursday friends!

Wells Fargo marketing shows off fun outfit ideas for your new fun credit card.

  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

  1. New travel related credit card offers are out:

    – American Express: Delta Air Lines $200 off of $1,000+ by April 30
    – Chase: Marriott TownPlace Suites 15% back up to $57 by March 12

    Chase is usually easier to deal with than American Express when it comes to most things, but also this.
  2. The Barclays JetBlue Plus Mastercard has a better offer of 75,000 TrueBlue points after $1,000 spend in 90 days that surfaced after Monday’s news. This one comes from an in-flight mailer and requires a promotional code. Most any six digit number will work including 000000.
  3. Bilt is rejecting some mortgage payments from a major mortgage servicer, and I’m guessing that servicer isn’t the only one not working well. It might make sense to wait a month or two for everything to settle before you put your mortgage or

    (Sorry guys, I’ve been doing my best to not write about the nearly daily Bilt snafu for a couple of weeks because we all just know that it’s a clusterhug at this point, but this one affects people where they live.)

Have a nice Thursday!

A preview of Bilt’s latest offerings, Homes by Bilt, shows they put the same care into cutting corners in everything they do.

  1. Do this now: Register for Marriott Bonvoy’s Q1 promotion for 2,500 bonus points and an additional elite night for each Marriott brand with a completed stay by April 26.

    For those keeping track at home, 2,500 Bonvoy points are worth approximately the same as a six pack of sharpies and a Laurence sanga. The elite night credit’s value is very much in the eye of the beholder.
  2. Radisson Rewards has a Q1 promotion for 500 bonus points after your first stay, 3,000 bonus points after your second stay, and 3,500 bonus points after your third stay through April 9, registration required. This is the non-Americas version of Radisson.
  3. The Chase Southwest personal Visa credit cards have improved offers for:

    – Plus: 20,000 points plus a Companion Pass through February 2027
    – Premier: 30,000 points plus a Companion Pass through February 2027
    – Priority: 40,000 points plus a Companion Pass through February 2027
    – Pretend: 50,000 points plus I made it up

    These are available via referral, please use P2’s or a friend’s instead of a random link on the internet.
  4. JetBlue and United’s Blue Sky alliance announced that each can book revenue tickets for the other airline on their own ticket stock.

    Traditionally new partners mean that there are booking code and pricing arbitrage plays, but who knows this time.

Happy Wednesday friends!

TIL: This is a Laurence sanga.
(Thanks to Larry)