Category: Credit Cards

Watch for a barrage of promotions over the holiday weekend, especially for the gift card resale markets. In the mean time, there are a few interesting promotions to kick off the weekend:

  1. Starting today and running through July 15, the OnJuno debit card has 10% cash back on spend of up to $1,000 provided that’ve set your spending source to USDC. Effectively any manufactured spend should work to meet this promotion.
  2. Many Hilton free night certificates are expiring today thanks to past COVID extension policies. Some customer service representatives will extend these for you, and I have multiple reports of successful reinstatement and extension of the certificates if you call the day of expiration and ask to use them.

    You may have to try a couple of different times to get a representative who knows how to extend though, and you shouldn’t sleep on this if you’re affected because it’s not likely to work after today.

  3. Yun was the first to let me know that the Upgrade rewards debit card has a new referral bonus program of $100 for the referrer and referred after three debit card transactions within 60 days. Upgrade’s debit card pays:

    – 2% at drug stores, gas, subscriptions, restaurants, and utilities
    – 1% everywhere else (including PIN transactions)

    Nearside’s 2.2% cash back debit card is currently more interesting, but at the end of 2022 their rewards rate will also be 1% so it may be worth grabbing a $100 sign-up bonus from Upgrade in anticipation of that if you’re in the rewards debit game.

  4. The Citi Shop Your Way Rewards Mastercard, a MEAB Unsung Hero, has a new targeted offer for 15% back in statement credits on gas, grocery, and restaurant spend up to $90 for each month between July and September. (I got and maximized the same offer for April through June too.)

    Check your inbox for email with the subject: “[NAME], activate your limited-time statement credits offer now”

Finally, I’m going to be like a normal blogger for a second and vent about something that none of you care about and isn’t related to the site’s mission — sorry in advance: The Crown City Classic is a 7.4 mile race for July 4 (7/4), and it’s something that P2 and I have participated in for years. This year though, they moved it to July 2 because reasons, and we didn’t figure that out until a week ago after our travel was already booked. Why do I bring it up? Always double check dates for events that you’re traveling to. I wish I had.

Have a nice holiday weekend!

The Crown City Classic race organizers trying to figure out exactly when 7/4 is.

  1. Meijer has $50 off of a future purchase on a $500 third party gift card, limit one per MPerks account (or you can ration this down as $5 for every $50 in gift cards purchased). Noteworthy brand exclusions include Apple and Amazon, but BestBuy, Home Depot, and Nike are all included in the promotion.
  2. Staples has $200 Mastercard gift cards available for no-fee, limit five per transaction through Saturday. These are Metabank gift cards, so have a liquidation plan in place. (Thanks to GC Galore)
  3. The Target $40 online + $40 in-store RedCard sign-up bonus is back. If you’re not sure why this is interesting, see Target RedCard Hacks.

    Current datapoints suggest between 7 and 14 days are required between churning these cards. (Thanks to sb18 via MEAB slack)

  4. Simon.com has 50% off of Visa and Mastercard gift card purchase fees with promo code JUN22HOT50. These are also Metabanks. Side note: if Metabanks were in a race with other gift cards, they’d come in third out of three in their age group.
  5. Reader/maestro Larry often says something like: “Never hold a deposit account at a bank that has credit cards that you care about.” Something innocuous on the deposit account side of the business involving know your customer regulations, loss prevention, or fraud concerns can often lead to eyes on your credit card portfolio, and eyes on your credit card portfolio are rarely a good thing.

    With the above in mind, I’d suggest giving a moment of thought to the following item that everyone seems to be talking about: The new American Express Business checking account that has a relatively measly 20,000 Membership Rewards sign-up bonus after a few hoops and allows Platinum card holders to cash-out Membership Rewards at one cent per point.

    You can probably guess that I don’t think you should go for it. American Express cards are too valuable to risk holding a deposit account with their banking division, and Platinum card holders (and others) can always cash-out at a penny per point even without this checking account.

Metabank gift cards are kind of a big deal, third place (out of three) in the 14-17 year old age division.

Phone In Offers

The glory days of adding up to 99 American Express employee cards are in the rear view mirror and at this point every known call in offer has been nerfed. There are still bonuses to be had, but instead of a maximum of 1,980,000 Membership Rewards or $19,800 in statement credits, the best offers are now topped out at 495,000 Membership Rewards or at $4,950 in credits.

First, here are the current statement credit offers:

  • Hilton Business card: $50 in statement credits for spending $1,000 per employee
  • Marriott Business card: $50 in statement credits for spending $1,000 per employee
  • Lowe’s Business card: $50 in statement credits for spending $1,000 per employee

And, there are points offers for cards too:

  • Delta Platinum or Reserve Business card: 5,000 SkyMiles for spending $1,000 per employee
  • Blue Business Plus: 5,000 Membership Rewards for spending $2,000 per employee
  • Business Green: 5,000 Membership Rewards for spending $2,000 per employee
  • Business Gold: 5,000 Membership Rewards for spending $2,000 per employee
  • Business Platinum: 5,000 Membership Rewards for spending $2,000 per employee

Of course these bonuses stack with normal category spend bonuses, so the normal 4x earning at gas stations on the Business Gold card while spending up to $2,000 at with an employee card will net 6.5 Membership Rewards per dollar.

To get these offers, you have to call the number on the back of your card, speak to a customer service representative, then ask if there are offers for adding employee cards to your account.

Online Offers

There were public links for 20,000 Membership Rewards after $4,000 in spend on an employee card with a limit of five cards to the Business Green, Business Gold, and Business Platinum last fall. The offer terms list an expiration of March 30, 2022. But, terms aren’t always enforced, right?

There are multiple private reports and now a public report sharing that online offers for adding up to five employee cards on the Business Platinum or Business Gold card continue to work, even if you added the employees after March 30 and also met the spend after March 30. So, if you want to take a (relatively safe) gamble, you can try your luck at these links:

Good luck!

Looking at past American Express employee call in offers in the rear view mirror.

Points earning at American Express is exceeding plaid speed. Here’s what we know so far:

The Offers

Sometimes things are available at only when you know to call in and ask about them as we learned with the 99 employee card offers. This time it’s business card sign-up bonuses though, and they’re big:

  • 180,000 Membership Rewards for a Business Gold card with $20,000 spend in six months
  • 250,000 Membership Rewards for a Business Platinum card with with $30,000 spend in six months

Both may also offer 10,000 additional points for adding an employee card and spending $1,000 in six months. To see if you’re eligible, call (855) 531-3491 and navigate your way through the phone tree to reach a customer service representative, then ask about the offer you’re interested in. You’ll have to specifically mention the 180,000 or 250,000 Membership Rewards bonus as appropriate. (Thanks to FM for background)

Notes

What we know about the offers:

  • They don’t seem to have lifetime language
  • You may not be eligible for a bonus even if the rep sees the offer
  • You’ll get a popup before submitting the final application if you’re not eligible
  • You probably have to specifically call out the bonus to get the representative to acknowledge the offer

Hacking the Offers

We can always level up our game a notch, right? Here are a few ways:

  • You can be approved for both of these on the same day, so don’t be afraid to try for both
  • You can quadruple dip the $200 Dell Business Platinum credit with a single annual fee, getting it for Jan-Jun 2022, Jul-Dec 2022, Jan-Jun 2023, and Jul-Dec 2023 (annual fees can be refunded up to 30 days after posting)
  • After a couple of weeks, you’ll probably be eligible for a call in offer for adding employee cards, each with a 5,000 Membership Rewards bonus for $2,000 in spend up to 99 employee cards or 495,000 additional Membership Rewards in total
  • Bonus categories and offers stack, so if you can manufacture spend in shipping or gas with employee cards you can earn 6.5x Membership Rewards per dollar
  • You can probably get a retention offer after 2-3 months, but then you’re locked in for another 12 months and another annual fee if you want to stay out of the penalty box

No word yet on whether these cards bypass the 11 or 12 charge card limit, but you can bet I’m going to try.

This guy closed his American Express Business Gold card three months after a retention offer. Don’t be like him.

  1. American Express has targeted even more people for 20,000 Membership Rewards for turning on Pay Over Time, and thus round included me. They’ve made a couple of other significant updates to these bonuses:

    – You’re now eligible for a new bonus every 120 days, just make sure you turn it back off to be targeted again in the future
    – You no longer need to switch the default card when searching for bonuses, just picking a new card is now enough to see if there’s a bonus available

    Check to see if you’re targeted at the Pay Over Time landing page.

  2. The Citi Shop Your Way Mastercard (the classic MEAB Unsung Hero) has another round of targeted spend bonuses through July 14. Offers have been reported for:

    – 150,000 points after $2,000 in spend
    – 12,500 ThankYou points for $2,000 in spend (Thanks to BB_Pcola)
    – $50 after $1,000 in spend (Thanks to birt)

    The subject for my offer was “Name, open now to unlock your special, limited-time offer! 🌟”.

  3. IHG is reportedly sending out targeted offers for 12,000 points for two stays within 60 days of registration, and the registration deadline is November 30.

    Check your inbox for the subject “Welcome back! Celebrate with 12,000 points”.

  4. Southwest is expected to release its next schedule extension today for travel between November 11 and January 4, so it covers all major winter holidays.

    Experts should look for inexpensive flights that are likely to be changed within two weeks of their actual desired travel too. (Thanks to Brian M via MEAB slack)

On second thought maybe everything should come in a grab bag, hmm.

Introduction

Nearly every forum and chat room that I read regularly had a mini-freakout at least once and probably a dozen times between mid-last week and yesterday. The issue? American Express Membership Rewards transactions have been failing all over the place for some card holders, and the primary concern for some is that shenanigans are catching up with them. Sample failures:

  • Schwab cash out: ❌
  • Morgan Stanley cash out: ❌
  • Transferring to Delta, Hilton, or FlyingBlue: ❌

That said, sign-up bonuses, authorized user bonuses, and normal spend rewards have all been posting without issue according to all reports.

History and Data Points

My personal opinion is that we’re seeing bugs in American Express’s system and it’ll all be corrected in a week or two. What leads me to that conclusion?

  • Multiple reports of issues for accounts with plenty of gaming
  • Multiple reports of issues for accounts without any gaming
  • Multiple reports of successes for accounts with plenty of gaming
  • Different error messages on different days
  • American Express bans have always been nearly instant, with your first warning being a notification that your card was removed from Apple Pay followed by a nasty banner when you try and log in to the website
  • Schwab cash-outs go offline nearly monthly
  • Customer service reps aren’t seeing any flags, locks, or holds on affected accounts

There was also an infamous period in the height of COVID lockdowns in 2020 during which Invest with Rewards was offline for many for over a month, so, they’re not exactly batting a thousand with the Membership Rewards system.

The Advice You Didn’t Ask For

Where does the beer come in? I’m going to borrow advice that C F Frost gave yesterday on what to do: Grab a beer and relax while this plays out, we’ll know more in a few weeks.

Cheers!

Based on the conversations I had yesterday, maybe a beer this size is in order for a couple of you?

Reader Jacob surfaced a few “to the moon” Hilton credit card bonuses late last week, and as far as I can tell they’re bigger and better than anything else available through referral, affiliate link, or direct application. The links appear on the hotel internet captive portal for guests staying at Hilton Homewood Suites (and possibly other Hilton properties), and fortunately they work outside of Hilton internet too:

  1. The Hilton Surpass card has two free night certificates after $3,000 in spend in three months. These certificates are valid at any property with standard awards, even properties that are 150,000 points per night. At the right property this is effectively a 300,000 HHonors points bonus, other than that certificates expire in 12 months and the points wouldn’t expire while you hold the card. The annual fee is $95.
  2. The Hilton Aspire card has 150,000 points and a free night certificate after $4,000 in spend in three months. This free night certificate is also valid at any property with standard awards, and is the same one that comes with other versions of this card’s sign-up bonus. The annual fee on this one is $450.
  3. The Hilton Business card has 180,000 points after $10,000 in spend in three months. All versions of this card also award free night certificates after $15,000 and $60,000 in spend per year. The annual fee is $95.

In theory the credit card limit with American Express is five (or six) per cardholder. But it’s possible that those limits aren’t enforced for everyone right now just like the charge card limit.

Happy Monday!

AmEx’s concept card design for the new HHonors cards proves that marketing spent too much time on /r/WSB.

  1. Staples has fee free Visa gift cards for sale starting on Sunday and running through the following Saturday, limit five per transaction. As usual, try for back-to-back transactions to minimize your time getting to Staples stores.

    These are Metabank gift cards, and yes, there are ways to liquidate them both online and in-person. (For example, the high fee BravoPay/Famigo.)

  2. Lowe’s has an offer for a free $15 Lowe’s gift card with the purchase of a $200 Visa gift card, delivered via email, running through Wednesday of next week. The “Everywhere” variety of cards are eligible too. To maximize the deal:

    – You can buy multiple cards in a single transaction and still be eligible for the rebate
    – There is a limit of two $15 cards per email address, but you have multiple email addresses, right?
    – Look for a gift card buyer offering at least 86% on small denomination Lowe’s gift cards
    – Be sure to link your cards to your JetBlue ShopTrue account to earn 3x JetBlue miles on the purchase

    These are also Metabanks.

  3. Delta’s AmEx card landing page has some great offers that are now widely targeted (and note that while not always the case, Delta cards are typically eligible for a bonus multiple times with or without no-lifetime language. AmEx will give you a popup letting you know you’re not eligible before your final submit regardless of the language of the offer):

    – Delta Gold Personal 70,000 SkyMiles + $200 statement credit after $2,000 in spend, annual fee waived the first year
    – Delta Platinum Personal 90,000 SkyMiles + $200 statement credit after $3,000 in spend
    – Delta Reserve Personal 80,000 SkyMiles + $200 statement credit after $5,000 in spend
    – Delta Gold Business 75,000 SkyMiles + $200 statement credit after $4,000 in spend, annual fee waived the first year
    – Delta Platinum Business 95,000 SkyMiles + $200 statement credit after $5,000 in spend
    – Delta Reserve Business 85,000 SkyMiles + $200 statement credit after $6,000 in spend

    Note that only spend on the on the Platinum and Reserve flavors counts toward Delta’s spend waiver for elite status. (Thanks to DoC)

  4. Simon Mall has 60% off purchase fees for Visa and Mastercard gift cards of up to $1,000 face value through tomorrow evening. Use promo code JUN22FLASH60.

    Need I say it? Sigh, these are Metabanks. (Thanks to Stephen at FM)

  5. Last year the weekly hotness was an office supply store running a fee-free promotion effectively every week. This year the new hotness is Kroger running a 4x fuel sale on third party gift cards effectively every week, this time through June 21.

    Apparently Kroger is also running a 4x fuel sale for every weekend in June, and in the past magical things happened when a weekend and a weekly fuel points promotion overlapped. My suggestion is that you go experiment this weekend and see what voodoo you can conjure with Kroger fuel points.

Have a nice weekend!

Before Kroger’s IT team coded up their fuel points rewards system they rode this thing, which should explain a lot.