Category: Credit Cards

  1. Bank of America’s increased bonuses for the Customized Cash Rewards and Unlimited Cash Rewards cards is scheduled to start on June 1, but applications are occasionally already showing the enhanced bonus because BofA’s IT department has yet to discover a futuristic technology called “the calendar”. Anyhoodles, we’ve now seen what bonus cash-back will look like with Platinum Honors uplift with these offers:

    – Unlimited Cash gets an extra 0.5% cash back in the first year regardless of status
    – Customized Cash’s rewards are boosted based on status

    You know what they say though: IT that hasn’t mastered calendars probably hasn’t mastered boosted rewards either.
  2. The Citi AA Executive card has an increased offer of 100,000 miles after $10,000 spend in three months.

    When this card was introduced, you could open eight of them at the same time, hit the minimum spend, and cancel all before the annual fees hit. Those days are long gone from Citi, but not every bank is Citi.
  3. The Citi Rewards+ card, notable for its 10% rebate on redeemed ThankYou Points, will be converted to the no-annual fee Citi Strata card on July 20. The 10% rebate will either go away in July 19, 2025, or July 19, 2026 if you’ve held your card for less than a year so it’s time to redeem while the redeeming is good. The Citi Strata’s interesting bonus categories are:

    – 3x at grocery, transit, gas, and EV charging
    – 3x on a selectable category which is largely lame

    If you want the Strata card, you’ll be able to apply on July 20.
  4. Bank of America’s Alaska card’s bonus often bounces between 60,000 and 70,000 miles, and whenever it bounces there’s discussion. But, alaska75k.com has been around for a long time and continues to work. Can we stop talking about the other ones yet? [end micro rant]
  5. United is removing the Excursionist Perk and elite YBM upgrades from its MileagePlus program on August 21, and removing its upgrade award chart on November 24. But don’t worry, award redemption rates continue to outpace inflation, so #winning?
  6. Kroger has fee-free Visa gift cards online through Tuesday with promo code CLASSOF2025. These will also earn fuel points.
  7. Stop & Shop, Giant Foods, and Martins earn 10x points on Zift Zillions cards through Thursday. Their little step brother Giant earns 4x over the same time. No, Giant Foods and Giant being the same company but different isn’t confusing, why would you think that?
  8. Blit Rewards added Qatar Airways as a transfer partner at a 1:1 ratio (Or according to their poor layout on the “Participating Loyalty Partners” page, it’s actually a -1:1 ratio).

MEAB factoid of the day: The Toyota Blit can transfer you to your Qatar flight, completing the circle of award life.

  1. Do this now: Register for Choice Hotels’ Summer promotion for 5,000 points – 8,000 points after two stays through September 2, with the variance being based on the hotel you stay in.
  2. Barclays launched its version of the GM Mastercard with a 30,000 point after $1,000 spend in 90 days sign-up bonus and 3x everywhere earning.

    The Marcus version of this card had a better bonus and earns 4x everywhere. The Marcus cards will convert to Barclays cards soon, but the earning structure for conversions is unclear.
  3. American Express offers has an offer for $100 back on $500+ at participating Wyndham properties through October 31. Gamers gonna (spooky) game.
  4. Virgin Atlantic has 20% off of award tickets on its own metal for travel between the US and the UK through September 30 booked by May 27.
  5. Alaska has a paid fare sale for flights to and from Mexico, Central America, Hawaii, and Florida for travel between August 12 and November 19 using promo code GETAWAY25 and booked by tomorrow night.

    Although the terms and conditions don’t mention a cabin restriction, I was only able to make the promo work on economy tickets.

Happy Wednesday!

GM points cover up to $750 on used GM vehicles, which means this beauty might be within reach.

  1. Citi ThankYou Points has a 25% transfer to Wyndham Rewards through June 21.
  2. Uber One Member Days has two travel related promotions for Uber One subscribers:

    – 3,000 SkyMiles for 10 Uber rides or 10 Uber Eats orders by June 8
    – $25 Marriott Bonvoy gift card with $100 in Premium Uber rides by June 8

    If you have a 7-eleven in your neighborhood, I imagine you’ll find an easy way to earn 3,000 SkyMiles. (Thanks to Tom R)
  3. The Citi Strata Premier’s 1 cent per point cash out option will be reduced to 0.75 cents per point on August 23, though other cash outs aren’t affected.

    It’s unclear how accounts pooled with a Rewards+, Double Cash, or other cards that have a one cent per point value will be affected, but there are other methods.

Happy Tuesday!

Drivers love getting jobs like this, especially 10 of them.

  1. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card sent new offers last week:

    – $100 statement credit with $1,000+ in online spend
    – $75 statement credit with $750+ in online spend
    – 10% back on home improvement spend up to $100 back monthly for May, June, and July

    (Thanks to Peter and Jason C)
  2. The merger between Capital One and Discover became official yesterday. This is interesting for churners for a few reasons:

    – If you’re shut down at Capital One, getting a Discover card may be a backdoor in
    – Discover cards may turn into more lucrative Capital One cards
    – Credit lines at Discover may become transferrable to other Capital One cards
    – Games that Capital One hates may soon be games that Discover hates

    For those with Discover Miles cards, maybe you’ll get lucky and Discover miles will become transferrable to Capital One mileage transfer partners, so hedge your hoard.
  3. Monday Mad-Libs Mash-Up: American Express Membership Rewards transfers to Hawaiian miles is scheduled to end on June 30. Obviously __________________ [opinion] Alaska MileagePlan _________________ [reaction] happy, but also _________________ [reaction] sad. At least my favorite ___________ [item] is ________________ [adjective] so I can cope.

    The best response gets a free vintage airline postcard of your choice at the thrift store of your choice, paid for by any card of your choice in your current possession.
  4. Staples has fee free $200 Mastercards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  5. Hyatt has a new promotion that isn’t tied to its apparently needy Under Canvas brand: Link your Peloton and Hyatt accounts for 500 bonus Hyatt points per Peloton ride through June 15 at a Hyatt hotel of at least 20 minutes. (Thanks to DDG)
  6. Bank of America is changing the sign-up bonus for two cards starting on June 1. Both will have a $200 welcome bonus after $1,000 in spend, and they’ll also offer a boosted earn for the first year:

    – Customized Cash: Double cash back in the first year with $2,500 quarterly cap on bonus category earn
    – Unlimited Cash Rewards: Unlimited 2% base earning instead of 1.5% base earning

    It may look like a sleeper, but with the right precious eyes, that second one is an outstanding offer. Also, why mention weeks before June 1? So you can lower credit lines and flush your existing Bank of America portfolio to prepare.

Have a nice Monday friends!

Monday vibes.

  1. Hyatt has a promotion for 1,000 Etihad Guest miles for stays between May 15 and July 14 at properties in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, registration required.
  2. Best Western has a promotion for 10,000 bonus points after three nights for stays through September 1, registration required. You can earn the 10,000 bonus points two times, which works out to be approximately 21,034.4431 points according to ChatGPT.
  3. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Visa gift cards through Saturday. As usual:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Look for the lower-fee “Everywhere” cards if you have a good liquidation channel
    – Be approximately 1.2% sad that Dosh isn’t around anymore

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. Two Incomm sites have gift card promotions running through the end of May:

    – VanillaGift: Fee-free $200+ Visas using VGGRAD100
    – TheGiftCardShop.com: Bonus $10 Mastercard with $200+ using GRADBONUS35

    These are Incomm gift cards (duh).
  5. Emirates First awards are now only bookable for Emirates elites or through non-Emirates partners, most notably Qantas. Pricing for Qantas awards is more-or-less inline with prior Emirates pricing, so EK F divas can chill.

Happy Tuesday!

EK F divas eat tacos too.

Last Friday was best known because it was National Christina Day, but something a little less overt happened Friday, hidden in the noise of the National Christina Day parades: Chase shutdown some of its biggest manufactured spend abusers in a second round of purging about a month after the first round. This round of shutdowns appears to be for:

  • Floosies that accidentally or purposefully took advantage of bonus multipliers to the tune of at least a few thousand dollars
  • Churners who found their own ways to trigger bonus categories and did so with medium to heavy volume this year
  • People with large suspicious money flows in our out of their deposit accounts

The first two groups saw only credit cards close while deposit accounts were untouched. The last group saw everything closed. There are enough questions swirling around the churnosphere that probably the subject probably deserves answers beneficial to the whole commnity:

[Q]: What happens to your points when Chase shuts you down?
[A]: They stick around for 30 days unless you’re in New York, in which case it’s 90 days. In rare cases your points vanish immediately, but this is only when Chase suspects fraud or money laundering.

[Q]: Can I get back into Chase if I was shutdown?
[A]: It very much depends on the reason, and how you were shut down. Depending on the circumstance, it’ll be one of: you’ll never see another card again, you’ll be back in after five years, you’ll be approved for cards but they’ll be shut down in a month or two, or you’ll be back in 60-90 days

[Q]: Is there anything I can do to reverse the shutdown?
[A]: There are certain types of shutdowns like bust-out risk that can be overturned by the Chase Executive office. Unfortunately, this round doesn’t seem to be related to any of those types of shutdown, so for those affected in April and May the answer is probably no

[Q]: If Chase shuts me down, can I link new transfer partners in the Ultimate Rewards portal post-shutdown?
[A]: Yes

[Q]: Will pending points post after I’m shutdown?
[A]: Yes

[Q]: Do I need to worry about another round?
[A]: Probably if you know the details of what happened to trigger bonus categories and you had significant volume; otherwise probably not

[Q]: Should I self-shutdown preemptively?
[A]: I would if you were part of the bonus category shenanigans and you haven’t been axed yet

[Q]: Do I need to worry that I’ve maxed spend on my Chase Ink Cash cards at office supply stores?
[A]: No

Good luck, and happy Monday!

Next time: The story of how boomer-era Chase Manhattan Bank helped propel National Christina Day into the worldwide spotlight.

  1. American Express had several big waves of shutdowns yesterday in addition to the its ongoing, nearly daily smaller batch of shutdowns at least partially related to foreign buyer’s group behavior. Based on discussion with and datapoints from those affected, yesterday’s reasons appear to be:

    – Round two of floosies missed in the the first American Express Big Axe, even if they cut out their floosie lifestyle in February
    – Accounts with big spend at international merchants and or with charges in multiple states simultaneously
    – Holders with multiple large, missed payments

    It feels to me like American Express is trying to de-risk its accountholder portfolio and extraneous, abnormal behaviors aren’t as safe as they have been historically. I know nothing about anything, but assuming that’s true, lowering your balances with American Express every single day probably can’t hurt.
  2. The American Express Platinum brokerage cards have increased sign-up bonuses, and you can have both provided you have the right underlying brokerage accounts:

    – Schwab: 125,000 Membership Rewards after $8,000 spend in six months
    – Morgan Stanley: 150,000 Membership Rewards after $8,000 spend in six months

    The Schwab’s best use is cashing out Membership Rewards at 1.1 cents per point, and Morgan Stanley’s is cashing out at 1.0 cents per point and giving the cardholder a free Platinum authorized user card with lounge access.
  3. Starting on June 7, Hyatt will only allow 10 incoming awards (like Guest of Honor, Club Access, Suite Upgrade Awards, etc.) from another member per year.

    Apropos of nothing, last I heard it was still possible to have more than one email address.
  4. AA has a limited time heightened status match for JetBlue elites through June 30:

    – JetBlue Mosaic 1 matches to AA Platinum
    – JetBlue Mosaic 2 matches to AA Platinum Pro
    – JetBlue Mosaic 3 and 4 match to AA Executive Platinum

    These are instant matches that last four months, and you can retain the matches with flight activity. How much activity? In the most AA way possible, you won’t know until they email details on the successful match 🙄.

Have a nice weekend!

Lowering your American Express risk profile comes in many forms.

  1. Do this now: Register for IHG’s Q3 promotion for your choice of either:

    – 2,000 bonus points for every two nights
    – 8,000 bonus points for every four nights

    This is valid for stays through the end of August. If you’re going to stay at least four nights, the second option will always earn more than the first.
  2. Bel-Air, Nob Hill, and Raley’s food stores have 15x points on One4All and Lowes gift cards (ok, ok, and some other stupid ones too) through Tuesday.

    Home Depot cards converted from One4All and Lowes resale rates are currently 90%+ in the post-modern Pepper-is-still-broken world.
  3. Speaking of Pepper, they’ve launched a landing page with a waitlist for their AI based shopping platform, but you’re still unable to redeem pending coins.

    tl;dr: There’s even more reason than ever to answer “nah man!” to the “how do I get into Pepper?” question.
  4. Smart & Final and El Super stores have a $20 grocery coupon with a $100 purchase of some gift cards, notably BestBuy, airbnb, Disney, Lowes, and One4All cards through Tuesday, limit one per transaction. The $20 grocery coupon expires on May 20.

    You should be in the 90-92%+ resale range for these cards.
  5. Several people wrote about a no-lifetime language (NLL) offer link at the generic American Express Business Platinum landing page. The bonus is 150,000 Membership Rewards after $15,000 in spend and $500 off of $2,500 in flights booked through American Express Travel within three months. I didn’t post it before because:

    – It’s very specifically targeted
    – There are better offers around
    – Gamers may worry less about NLLs than others

    Since I heard from several of you, I think my assessment to leave it out was wrong, mea culpa.

For those of you new to the game.