Category: Credit Cards

  1. Apparently everyone’s been in the know but me on the Bilt card’s unofficial sign-up bonus that’s been running for months: 5x for up to $12,500 in spend in the first five days after card activation for a total of 50,000 bonus points.

    The late news was enough to push me into an application after sitting on the side lines for years on this card. Application status, asked no one? Pending. (I wouldn’t be a blogger if I didn’t whine about trivial things occasionally right?)
  2. Kroger stores have a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards running through Tuesday, May 16. They’ve also got a 4x promotion on Friday only for all purchases excluding gift cards, but historically they’re bad at these.

    Fuel points account shutdowns seem to follow a sinusoidal pattern, and right now we’re near the bottom for smaller sized fuel points accounts for unknown reasons. Run with it while you can.
  3. Southwest’s shopping portal has a few new spend bonuses for cumulative portal spend through May 12:

    – 500 bonus points after $50 in spend
    – 1,000 bonus points after $150 in spend

    Unfortunately giftcards.com remains absent from airline shopping portals. I need one of you to call the Cartera CEO, who wants to volunteer?
  4. MyGiftCardsPlus, or MGCP as the brevity inclined call it, has 10% back on up to $1,000 in Delta gift cards and 10% back on up to $500 in airbnb gift cards through “while supplies last”, which I assume means until this afternoon.

    Side note, MyGiftCardsPlus is linked to UPromise, and despite popular opinion to the contrary, UPromise can deposit earnings directly to your checking account without being enrolled in college or getting involved in a 529 or similar plan.

A shirt with a catchy slogan for the brevity inclined.

  1. Check chase.com/mybonus for new targeted spend bonuses through July 31. We’ve seen:

    – Ink 5,000 bonus points for $5,000 in spend up to three times
    – Ink 15,000 bonus points for $15,000 in spend up to three times
    – Southwest Business: 5,000 points for every $5,000 in spend up to three times

    (Thanks to nutella and Chad)
  2. The Capital One VentureX Business card has been unavailable for most of 2023 while Capital One retooled aspects of the card (like renaming it from the Business Spark Elite Miles card), but it’s now available again through a small business banker. The sign up bonus is tiered:

    – 150,000 bonus miles after $30,000 in spend in three months
    – 150,000 additional bonus miles after $500,000 in spend in 12 months

    The card is effectively a 7x card for $30,000 in spend or a 2.6x card for $500,000 in spend which can absolutely make sense in the right circumstances. The card is also useful for its best in class Priority Pass program, has an annual fee of $395, and a very gamable annual travel credit of $300 making it an effective $95 annual fee card with mileage transfer to various airlines. (Thanks to The_Most_Hye and Shawshank for the typo fix on the early spend bonus)
  3. Citi is emailing targeted offers for spend bonuses through July 31 on many of its cards. Check for targeted email from Citi for one of the following:

    – 5x points on up to $500 in online purchases
    – 5x points on up to $500 in restaurant spend
    – 5x points on up to $500 at electronics stores

    These are slightly gamable if you like to live dangerously. (Thanks to Professor Horsey)
  4. There are a few transfer bonuses from American Express and Chase:

    – Membership Rewards 25% to FlyingBlue through May 22
    – Membership Rewards 15% bonus to LifeMiles through May 31
    – Ultimate Rewards 25% to FlyingBlue through May 15
    – Ultimate Rewards 30% to Virgin Atlantic through May 31
    – Ultimate Rewards 50% bonus to Marriott through May 15, for saps

Happy Wednesday!

Both “living dangerously” and “avoiding structuring” in one.

  1. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard, the goat of Unsung Heroes, has new targeted offers for 10% back at home improvement stores good once per month for May, June, and July. Offers vary, but we’ve seen:

    – 10% back on $600 or more in home improvement spend, limit $70 back (MEAB)
    – 5% back on $800 or more in home improvement spend, limit $80 back (Tyler)
    – 150,000 Shop Your Way points on $1,000 or more in home improvement spend (birt)
    – 7,000 Thank You points on $600 or more in home improvement spend (TV)

    Look, I’m not here to sell you credit cards and whether or not you apply or are approved I make exactly the same, $0, so understand this comes for a sincere place: If you don’t have this card, why not? It has no annual fee pays you between $1,600 and $2,400 a year with minimal effort.
  2. American Express has a card linked offer for 7,500 additional Membership Rewards with a $500 Delta gift card purchase.
  3. Marriott has a promotion for 40,000 bonus points on paid stays at Marriott Homes and Villas through September 9, but stays must be booked by Wednesday evening. There’s some noise about this one in the bloggersphere and while it’s a decent promotion and is better than the normal Marriott yardstick, at best this is worth about $220 so don’t go out of your way to stay at one of the few Homes and Villas properties just for this.
  4. Target has its regular promotion for $40 back online and $40 back in store for a new RedCard debit or credit card through May 27. Both versions are churnable, and the credit card might be more valuable than you think. Current datapoints suggest you’ve got to wait 10-15 business days between applications for auto-approval.
  5. Southwest has 30% off of round-trip paid fares for the next two weekends only using promo code 30OFF.

Happy Monday!

The yardstick to beat for Marriott Bonvoy’s promotions. This time they did too!

  1. Public Service Announcement (PSA): There are multiple reports that American Express employee cards are no longer coming pre-activated in the mail, and when you try and use them you get email telling you that they need to be activated. It’s an annoying update, but it doesn’t change the calculus of employee card offers for me at all. (Thanks to Jimmy 🐐)
  2. Public Service Announcement (PSA): If you want to book a Choice hotel for someone else, you can add notes to the reservation online which seems to appease front desk agents. I’d suggest something like “Additional guest NAME allowed to check-in for this reservation”. (Thanks to Jim for the tip)

    While we’re talking about Choice, I’m going to mini-rant about their new credit cards issued by Wells Fargo that people keep talking about for some reason. I think they’re crap, specifically because the Citi Premier card:

    – Transfers to the Choice program at 1 ThankYou Point to 2 Choice points
    – Bonuses at a higher rate (3x TYP or 6x Choice points) in nearly all the categories that the Choice cards bonus in
    – Earns a flexible currency
    – Can be paid over the phone with a debit card
    – Has a higher sign-up bonus
    – Is also a Mastercard

    Just get a Premier instead, or two spread 8 days apart.
  3. Walmart has 1% cash-back, or 1x Membership Rewards, via Rakuten’s card-linked in-store program and in theory it’s “Unlimited Use” (their words). You’ve got to re-add the offer an hour after each time you use it so double check timing if you’re on a run.

    In completely, totally unrelated news, Walmart sells gift cards.
  4. Bilt will have a 100% transfer bonus to AirFrance / KLM FlyingBlue on “rent day”, also known by the rest of the world as “May 1”. I know you didn’t ask, but in my opinion this is a screaming deal for business class flights to and from Europe. It’s also a screaming deal for economy flights, but the screaming is for a different reason. (“Row 39? I didn’t know business class went back that far!)

Final PSA: These aren’t Peeps, don’t be confused.

  1. Do this now: Register for Hilton’s latest promotion for 4,000 bonus points per stay at resorts and 2,000 bonus points at other properties.
  2. The Bank of America AirFrance / KLM Mastercard has a new sign-up bonus for 70,000 FlyingBlue miles and 100 XP (enough for Silver status) after $2,000 in spend in 90 days. There’s a report that a dummy booking while logged out shows the same offer with a $100 statement credit too though I wasn’t able to reproduce it.
  3. Bilt has a new card linked dining program available for anyone with or without a Bilt card. It’s currently only available in several major US Cities and it runs on a different network than other dining programs, so it’ll probably double pay for restaurants if they participate in multiple programs. My advice: link the credit cards you use most for dining in the Bilt mobile app, then forget about it, move on, and be pleasantly surprised if points show up in your account.

What you get when you choose your restaurants based on whether they’re linked to a dining rewards program.

  1. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards card has been sending a new rounds of targeted offers on both Friday and Saturday, and the offers stack with each other and with last month’s offers too. We’ve seen:

    – $50 back on $750 in online spend by May 14 (me)
    – $75 back on $1,000 in online spend by May 14 (Tyler)
    – 275,000 points for $1,000 in online spend by May 14 (Zach)
    – 10% back in on gas, grocery, and restaurants for between $700 and $800 in spend once a month for the next three months (multiple)

    Now if only there were a way to spend at an online grocery, restaurant, or gas station (oh wait, there is.)
  2. Do this now: Register for Aeroplan’s promotion for 2,000 extra points in economy or 4,000 extra points in premium economy or business class for paid flights between the US and Canada through May 2. To qualify, you must fly a round-trip or two-one ways.
  3. The Chase Sapphire Reserve has an increased sign-up bonus of 70,000 Ultimate Rewards after $4,000 in spend in three months Increased CSR offer. You can combine this with an 80,000 Ultimate Rewards Sapphire Preferred bonus through a referral after another $4,000 in spend in three months using the Modified Double Dip for a total of 150,000 Ultimate Rewards. (Thanks to Neil)
  4. US Bank has a new $500 Business Checking bonus through April 23 using promo code Q1AFL23. US Bank bonuses can be opened fully online in certain cases, and it’s nicely spelled out how by this comment at DoC. Always be probing.
  5. The world has gone nuts for Apple’s 4.15% interest rate high yield savings account for up to $250,000. Yes, that’s a great rate, but let this serve as a gentile reminder we can do better and still be FDIC, NCUA, or SPIC insured.
  6. Xfinity Rewards is offering existing Xfinity Mobile customers a $100 Visa debit card for porting in a new phone number and keeping the service for 12-14 weeks, and if you’re on the “By the Gig” plan, the incremental cost of five new lines is just a few dollars in taxes. You can do this up to five times for five debit cards with the current promotion.

    In completely random, unrelated news Best Buy is having a sale.

Xfinity’s mobile service, advertised versus reality.

  1. Even though it started a few weeks ago, I think I only realized yesterday that we’ve apparently all agreed that there’s a new, fifth season of the year (“no-feepril”) in which office supply chains across the US take turns offering fee-free or below cost Visa or Mastercards every week throughout the season.

    Office Depot / OfficeMax drew the short straw this week and has a sale for $15 off of $300 or more in Visa gift cards through Saturday. To maximize the deal:

    – Link your cards to Dosh
    – Look for a Chase offer for 10% back at Office Depot / OfficeMax
    – Try for multiple transactions, back to back
    – Buy the grocery, fuel, or dining everywhere varieties for lower fees

    These are Pathward gift cards but there are still plenty of ways to liquidate them both online and in person. If you don’t have a few ways it’s time to get out there and look.
  2. A public link for the Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card with a bonus of five free night certificates worth up to 50,000 points per night after $5,000 in spend in three months has surfaced. The card has an annual fee of $95, and is probably the best deal you’re going to find with Marriott. A few notes:

    – You’re still going to pay for parking and resort fees with these, because Marriott
    – If a property costs more than 50,000 points per night, you can use up to 15k award points too
    – The certificates expire after one year

    I’m famously a Marriott Bonvoy super-critic, but even I’d go for this offer if I was below 5/24.
  3. Finally, let me offer some unsolicited American Express advice for those of you with with big negative balances because reasons:

    Always keep your balances as close to $0 as possible at the end of every banking day to avoid financial reviews or problems with the risk department. This applies as equally to negative balances as it does to positive balances.

Good luck and happy Monday!

Obscure fact: Sometimes Bonvoy and Office Depot/OfficeMax team up. This is the result.

  1. Two more airlines have joined the shopping portal bonus bandwagon for Easter(ish):

    – Alaska MileagePlan: Spend $100 by April 17 and earn 500 miles
    – United MileagePlus: Spend $100 by April 16 and earn 500 miles

    Still no giftcards.com, so Saks or Dell may be your best option for a quick mileage grab.
  2. The American Express Platinum card has an increased referral bonus for the referred:

    – 150,000 Membership Rewards after spending $6,000 in six months
    – $200 statement credit after spending at least $200 in the first three months

    Of course, the referrer should ideally refer from a personal Gold or similar for a bonus +5x at grocery on $25,000 in spend in addition to the referral bonus of 15,000-35,000 Membership Rewards.
  3. Now that ZIRP is a fading memory, earning reasonable interest rates on cash is much easier than it used to be and now largely available to any sized balance. There are now two banks that offer 5.02% savings rates nationwide and may be worth moving to as hub banks for manufactured spend (but not necessarily for money order deposits):

    – UFB Direct
    – CFG Bank

    Making one of these banks your hub could easily net you a few grand if you’ve got six figures on average flying around out there. Happy hunting! (Thanks to DDG)
  4. Office Depot / OfficeMax has $15 off of $300 or more in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. Good things have been known happen if you scale this one in the right way, and always remember:

    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back
    – Link each of your cards to Dosh

    These are Pathward gift cards so have a liquidation plan in place.

Commemorative mug not included, but at 5.02% you can get yourself one.