Category: Credit Cards

  1. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third-party gift cards and fixed value Visa and Mastercards running through August 6. As usual, Amazon gift cards are excluded because I guess they want to encourage reselling of other, higher rate brands.

    Bulk resale rates are creeping back up to previous highs now that Pepper rewards nerfed its rewards earning structure, right when we were getting used to the new world order.
  2. Today is Bilt’s rent day, and:

    – It’s the second to last time that awards earn double points on up to $10,000 in spend; on October 1 it’ll be limited to $1,000
    – You get a free second guest and some free booze on Virgin Voyage cruises booked through Bilt today

    I suppose we now know more about Richard Kerr’s tweet’s meaning last month, and I guess we also learned that maybe he’s experiencing an off-by-one error.
  3. American Express has new targeted offers for adding employee cards online at the generic links. (If you get offer not available, put the card on a different login and/or periodically refresh the page and it may become available.) Each is for 15,000 Membership Rewards after $4,000 spend, limit five per card:

    – Business Gold (POID K4IY:9869)
    – Business Platinum (POID K4IY:9870)
    – Blue Business Plus (POID K4IY:9867)

    These have all been confirmed to post even with other K4IY offers. There’s language in the offer’s terms and conditions that says you may have bonus points clawed back if you close the primary or employee cards within a year. I’m not aware of that ever being enforced in practice though.

Preview: Bilt’s next devaluation.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’ve been out of the country for a couple of weeks, but I’m now back. I tried to keep up on responding but fell woefully behind. I’ll do my best to catch-up by the end of the week though.

  1. The generic American Express no-lifetime language (NLL) landing pages for the Business Gold and Business Platinum have new offers:

    – Business Gold: 125,000 Membership Rewards after $10,000 spend in three months
    – Business Platinum: 175,000 Membership Rewards after $15,000 spend in three months

    The generic NLL landing pages for the Blue Business Plus and Blue Business Cash cards are currently offline, but I expect they’ll come online with new offers soon. Of course, there are better offers out there with lifetime language, so I’ll share my recent favorite phrase: context matters.
  2. Chase is switching its insurance provider from eClaimsLine to Assurant on October 1, and if you rely on credit card insurance then it’s probably worth skimming the new terms and conditions for upcoming fall and winter travel. Highlights:

    – Some cards have increased rental car coverage to $60,000 to match the Sapphire Reserve
    – Extended warranty benefit limits reset annually

    I’ve had great luck with eClaimsLine (see the $16,000 smashed Audi claim for example), but we can flush the entire internet’s wealth of knowledge on claims down the toilet on October 1. (Thanks to DDG)
  3. Some American Express personal Gold referrals have a heightened bonus of 100,000 Membership Rewards after $6,000 spend in six months and statement credits for 20% back at restaurants up to $500 in spend. Also, some cats are afraid of cucumbers. (*)

    The referrer gets an additional 15,000 – 35,000 Membership Rewards too, but not in the cucumber case.

Happy Wednesday!

Context matters, illustrated.

* Don’t say you never learned anything at MEAB.

EDITOR’S NOTE: I’ve been out of the country for a couple of weeks, but I’m now back. I tried to keep up on responding but fell woefully behind. I’ll do my best to catch-up by the end of the week though.

  1. Do this now: Check for 20,000 bonus Membership Rewards for enrolling your American Express charge cards (Green, Gold, or Platinum) into Pay Over Time. Then, set a reminder to shut off Pay Over time in 121 days.

    If you get the bonus offer on multiple cards, consider activating them in separate tabs as simultaneously as possible because reasons.
  2. Do this now: Add all of your Chase Sapphire and Freedom cards to your Instacart account for free Instacart+ membership, each card adds more time, and you use the same landing page each time too. You won’t be able to do this after tomorrow.
  3. Rakuten In-Store has 1-3x Membership Rewards or 1-3% cash back at Lowe’s with a linked card. Goose the offer with the Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card’s monthly home improvement credit too.

    The terms say this doesn’t work with gift cards, but we all know that’s probably not true because reasons.
  4. OfficeDepot / Office Max stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Link your cards to Dosh
    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back
    – Buy even multiples of $300

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  5. Hilton for Business members earn double elite night credits for both business and leisure stays through the end of 2024. You can register for Hilton for Business and link your accounts here if you haven’t already done so. (Thanks to LoyaltyLobby)
  6. The American Express Business Gold card has a 200,000 Membership Rewards sign-up bonus after $15,000 in spend available by referrals only. Different cards from the referrer can have different bonuses, so check them all because reasons.

Commemorative summer coffee mug; presented because reasons.

There’s lots of follow-up news to go over today:

  1. AA’s shopping portal finally has a back-to-school bonus for 2,000 miles after $1,200+ spend through August 8, which was predicted by my made up sources a week ago. That makes those sources right half of the time.

    Giftcards.com remains absent from major airline shopping portals.
  2. As you’ve no doubt heard since just about every news outlet in North America picked up the story, Southwest announced a few things:

    – They’ll soon offer assigned seating
    – They’ll soon offer extra leg room seats
    – Red-eye flights *shudder* start in February 2025

    They still won’t charge for checked bags. Will this make me fly Southwest more? Actually, definitely. (Thanks to Brian M)
  3. The personal American Express Gold revamped. The quick reference card:

    – $325 annual fee (up from $250), existing cardholders pay the new price after 10/1
    – 4x dining is now limited to $50,000 spend per calendar year
    – $50 semi-annual Resy restaurants credit (gaming info here)
    – $10 monthly dining credit shifts to 5 Guys from Shake Shack
    – $7 monthly Dunkin’ Donuts credit (lulz)

    The new card is available via both referrals with a 90,000 Membership Rewards sign-up bonus or through luck and a random number generator you might get 100,000 Membership Rewards by applying directly. Just try different browsers, incognito, a VPN, mobile instead of desktop, or going through different search engines until it shows up.
  4. Do this now: Register for new American Express Gold card credits: $50 semi-annual Resy credit and $7 Dunkin’ Donuts monthly credit (lulz)
  5. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion running today only on third party gift cards and fixed value Visa and Mastercards, excluding Amazon cards. GCG notes that there’s also a coupon for $8 off of two $100 Visa gift cards.

    Fuel points and gift card rates remain more or less steady with last week.
  6. Pepper Rewards, which has effectively tanked most bulk gift card resale rates, has finally devalued its program. As of today, most major brands will earn 1% back in points, rather than the 5% or 10% that they’ve been earning since the beginning of the year.

    My made-up sources say bulk gift card rates will recover by the end of August, and we all know how good they are.

Follow-up recipe from “Churning, Travel Hacking, and Selected Croissant Recipes”.

  1. Wells Fargo quietly launched two new Mastercards that pay Expedia One Key rewards:

    – One Key+: $600 One Key rewards after $3,000 spend in three months, $99 annual fee
    – One Key: $400 OneKey rewards after $1,000 spend in three months, $0 annual fee

    I think these aren’t paying commissions to credit card bloggers so you won’t hear much about them, but both cards earn 3% at gas, grocery, and dining which can easily be parlayed into airline airfare credit at most airlines.
  2. Chase Offers has 5-10% back at several IHG properties on up to $570 in spend each through August 14:

    – 5% or 10% back at Holiday Inn
    – 5% or 10% back at Holiday Inn Express
    – 5% or 10% back at Candlewood Suites
    – 5% or 10% back at Staybridge Suites
    – 5% or 10% back at Indigo

    They’re all gameable too. (Thanks to FM)
  3. Hy-Vee stores have $10 off of $150 or more in Visa or Mastercards through Saturday, limit one per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  4. Giftcards.com has vanished from most airline shopping portals, though it’s still available on Virgin, JetBlue, and Emirates portals, all of which aren’t run by the same conglomerate as the other guys as far as I know (Cartera). It’s also available on Capital One shopping and Rakuten so we haven’t reached the heat death of the universe (yet).

A churner takes a road-trip to Hy-Vee land in a specially designated manufactured spend vehicle.

  1. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards and fixed value Visa and Mastercards in-store tomorrow only. Amazon gift cards remain excluded from the promotion.

    Fuel point rates and some bulk resale rates are increasing slightly as we enter crop harvest season, despite Pepper’s continued dominance depressing rates.
  2. Alaska has a back-to-school shopping portal bonus for 1,000 bonus miles after $550 or more in online spend through August 5. As my made up sources confirmed, Delta still hasn’t pushed bonus, though I still expect AA to release one joining United and Southwest’s versions.
  3. American Express Offers has a $250 statement credit with $1,250 or more in US originating airfare with Qantas through August 27.
  4. The Capital One Venture card has a 75,000 point and $250 Capital One Travel Statement credit sign-up bonus after $4,000 spend in three months. The card’s $99 annual fee is not waived in the first year.

Preparing for the fall harvest.

  1. The Citi Shop Your Way Mastercard has new mid-month targeted spending offers for online spend:

    – 200,000 Shop Your Way Rewards after $1,000
    – 250,000 Shop Your Way Rewards after $1,000
    – $30 statement credit after $500
    – $50 statement credit after $750
    – $70 statement credit after $1,000

    These offers stack with other ongoing offers leading to $350+ in statement credits monthly for many. Sure the sign-up bonus sucks, but that’s not what this card is about. If only giftcards.com, this offer, and the next news item could form some kind of holy trifecta. (Thanks to Justin O, Dave 37, and birt)
  2. Two airline portals have back-to-school shopping portal bonuses for cumulative spend through August 12, which is an extremely long time for a shopping portal.

    – Southwest Rapid Rewards : 2,000 miles after $500 spend
    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 2,500 miles after $600 spend

    Likely Alaska and American will have similar bonuses later this week, and Delta won’t because they don’t believe in holy trifectas (according to sources that I just made up).
  3. American Express Offers has several new airline offers:

    – 30,000 Membership Rewards with $2,000+ spend at ITA Airways through September 30
    – $300 statement credit with $2,000+ spend at Virgin Atlantic through September 16

    Normally these are semi-gameable, but ITA is particularly hard to deal with so caveat emptor. (Thanks to Connor and DoC)
  4. The Chase IHG Premier One Business card has a heightened sign-up bonus of 200,000 points after $9,000 spend in six months, and the $99 annual fee is not waived for the first year. The card also gives $50 in United Travel Bank credit annually, so I’d consider that part of the sign-up bonus too.

    We talked about an IHG devaluation last week and now that the dust has settled, the point value should probably be taken as somewhere between 0.45 cpp and 0.85 cpp, or even more if you have the IHG Select card for it’s 10% rebate and you book flexible rates.

Have a nice Tuesday!

The other holy trifecta.

  1. Southwest has a 20% rebate on a single award flight booked by today with registration for travel through November 20. (Thanks to imadogg)
  2. Giant Foods, Martins, and Stop & Shop stores have 10x points on Home Depot, Lululemon, and some gift cards that aren’t high enough rate on the resale market to bother with through Thursday, limit $2,000 per account.

    Pepper still offers competitive pricing on one of those two brands, so expect demand to be slightly lower than normal. (Thanks to GCG)
  3. The Wells Fargo Choice Privileges cards have heightened bonuses. Note that there seems to be an affiliate code in the link, and I get error codes when I strip it out. I don’t know if anyone will be paid a commission when you apply through this link, but I can tell you I definitely won’t (just like all MEAB links):

    – Mastercard Select: 100,000 points after $3,000 spend in three months, $95 annual fee
    – Mastercard: 70,000 points after $1,000 spend in three months, $0 annual fee

    The Mastercard Select earns 5x at gas, grocery, and home improvement stores, and has a 30,000 point annual bonus. Choice has some awful hotels, but they’ve also got some good to great properties in the Ascend Collection, some Radisson properties, and Preferred Hotels. (Thanks to DDG)

Happy Monday!

Counterintuitively, free breakfast at Choice Hotels diminishes the value of Choice points.