Category: Credit Cards

  1. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Marcus Apple Card portfolio will be moving to Chase with a deal inked yesterday. There’s a chance that current Apple Card holders banned by Chase may find their way back as part of the acquisition based on prior deals, but it’s definitely not a guarantee. (Thanks to mforch)
  2. The Nilson report for credit card purchase volume in 2024 by issuer was leaked on reddit yesterday. I believe the data to be dubiously accurate.

    Two questions: (1) Do you have a card from every issuer on the list? And (2), why not? If banned from Chase, see the previous item.
  3. Kroger has a 4x fuel points promotion on third party gift cards and fixed value Visa and Mastercards through Tuesday, January 20. As usual, Amazon and third party fuel gift cards are excluded from the promotion.

    In a Pepper-free, lame-Newegg world, market rates are surprisingly good for a January.
  4. Southwest has a fare sale for travel between January 26 and May 13 booked by tonight using promo code DREAMBIG. Yes, someone at Southwest dreamt of blackout dates, and yes they made that dream real.

Happy Thursday!

The Marcus-Chase card deal contract, with banana for scale.

  1. Expired free night certificates used to be worth 10,000 points for a category 1-4 certificate, or 20,000 points for a category 1-7 certificate if you called Hyatt right after expiration and asked, as long as those certificates were from the Hyatt program and not a partner like AA or Chase. That was nerfed, with the new values:

    – Category 1-4 expired certificate: 2,500 points
    – Category 1-7 expired certificate, 5,000 points

    It beats the devaluation points for Club Upgrade Award certificates for Globalists I guess.
  2. Chase Pay Yourself Back on the Sapphire Reserve Business card removed all bonus categories except for “Select Charities”, and the boost on that category dropped from 50% to 25%. #bonvoyed

    The personal Sapphire Reserve is unaffected. (Thanks to Chris)
  3. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network cards.
  4. Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins  have 10x points on Lowes gift cards through Thursday. Of course their little brother Giant Food is only 4x. Why? Because reasons.
  5. JetBlue has 26% off of base fares booked by tomorrow for travel between January 13 and February 28 using code GO26. Of course there are blackouts, and also all Fridays and Saturdays are #NOGO26. You can stack this with a Citi Merchant offer for $50 off of $200+ too.

    Did I hear you want discounted Mint or transatlantic, or worse, discounted Mint+transatlantic? JetBlue was quoted as saying “That’s a nah from me dawg. Just ask Giant Food.”

Have a nice Tuesday!

It’s not all sadness at Giant Food though, their seasonal section carries this beauty.

  1. Do this now: Register for Q1 5x rotating categories:

    – Chase Freedom and Freedom Flex: Dining, up to $1,500
    – Discover IT: Grocery, wholesale clubs, select streaming up to $1,500
    – Citi Dividend: Amazon, select streaming up to $1,500
    – US Bank Cash+: I choose utilities and electronics because reasons

    Chase had a few other categories that weren’t mentioning to, but clearly I do want to mention that I didn’t mention them.
  2. Do this now (if you have a Chase United card): Check for targeted spend offers. Most are an extra 2x, 2.5x, or 3x up for between $2,000 and $10,000 in spend.
  3. On Saturday, the British Airways shopping portal listed Kate Spade at 250 miles per dollar, and several other portals were in the 100+ miles per dollar range too. This triggered, in order:

    – A Kate Spade churner shopping spree (buying miles at 0.4 cents each is a steal; and oh yeah, you get a bag too)
    – A quick examination of Kate Spade return policies
    – Some happy P1 and P2 Kate Spade fans
    – Sadness, when the portals actually tracked at 2x-4x

    If you’re stuck holding both the literal and metaphorical bag, I’d suggest first opening a case with the portal, but know that it probably won’t go anywhere. Next, I’d reach out to Kate Spade directly, which also probably won’t go anywhere. Finally, either consider whether the miles are worth your time to pursue even further, or just return your purchase. If you want to chat with others about the issue, I’ve created a Telegram group for discussion, it’s open to all churners but meant to be specific to this issue, not a long lived general room.
  4. The Citi ThankYou Mastercard, which has been nominated as a MEAB Unsung Hero but is still stuck in committee, sent year long spend bonuses for the third year in a row. We saw:

    – $160 back on $2,000 spend at gas, grocery, or dining (monthly)
    – $150 back on $1,500 spend at gas, grocery or dining (monthly)
    – $120 back on $1,200 spend at gas, grocery or dining (monthly)
    – 5% back on up to $1,600 spend at lots of places with lots of merchant codes (monthly)

    A few notes: $160 * 12 months = $1,920, and you also earn ThankYou points. Also, unfortunately no you can’t apply for this card. (Thanks to Matt M, Michael, and K)
  5. The Citi AA Platinum Select Mastercard has a heightened bonus of 80,000 AAdvantage miles after $1,000 spend in three months. This offer is from inflight AA applications and requires a flight attendant code. Any six digit code starting with ’00’ should work.
  6. AirFrance / KLM’s promo awards for January includes:

    – Business: Orlando, Montreal, St. Martin
    – Premium Economy: Chicago, Seattle, and Mexico City
    – Economy: New York, Houston, Miami, Atlanta, and Las Vegas

    There are business class opportunities in my spot checks on some of the economy and premium economy cities too, but they’re sparse.

Happy Monday!

Pictured: The MEAB Unsung Hero committee in deep deliberation.

  1. The generic Blue Business Plus and Blue Business Cash links currently have no-lifetime language (NLL) targeted offers:

    – Blue Business Plus: 75,000 Membership Rewards after $6,000 spend in four months
    – Blue Business Cash. $750 after $6,000 spend in four months

    Both cards have no annual fee, and as far as I know, these offers are not available via referrals.
  2. Hey-Vee stores have $10 off of $150+ in Visa gift cards through Sunday.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  3. The Incomm sites have fee free gift cards for the holidays. The first two sites promotions run through December 17, and the last runs through December 31:

    – VanillaGift.com: Fee free $100+ Visas with promo VGHOLIDAY25
    – TheGiftCardShop.com: Fee free $300+ Visas and Mastercards with promo HOLIDAY25
    – MasterCardGiftCard.com: Fee free Mastercards with promo NOFEES25

    Sometimes these codes stick around longer than they should, and sometimes they come back from the dead too. These are Incomm
  4. The Kudos shopping portal now offers payouts via PayPal directly with a $10 minimum. Prior to yesterday, Amazon cash-out at 1 cent per point was the best option available. Obviously (electronic) cash is mo betta though.

    If you’re not a member of Kudos, ask a fellow churner for a referral and make their day. If you don’t know any fellow churners with Kudos, reach out to me and I’ll send one at random.
  5. Breeze Airways has 40% off of base fares for travel booked today with promo code TWIST.

    You know what that means, right? It’s time for more Breeze Route Bingo™. Today’s route is Gulfport, MS (GFP) to Las Vegas, NV (LAS). If you have a bingo, reach out to me for today’s grand prize, up to $10,000 daily in fee-free gift cards through December 17!

Happy Wednesday!

Second place in Breeze Route Bingo™ gets half a sandwich.

MEABNOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation at the end of the year and there won’t be any daily posts between December 15 and December 31, at least none from me. We may have guest posts during that period, but that depends on you sending me some. On January 1(ish), we’ll celebrate with the 2025 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs (also, jifs is wrong way to pronounce that word – also known as the Bonvoy way).

  1. Klarna released a new rewards earning Visa debit card, apparently with WebBank’s charter. The application link is live on their site too. The earnings structure seems to be:

    – Plus:, $9.99 monthly fee: Earns 1.0% (1.0x?)
    – Premium, $19.99 monthly fee: Earns 1.5% (1.5x?)
    – Max, $44.99 monthly fee: Earns 2.0% (2.0x?) and provides lounge access

    They mention transfer partners like SAS Eurobonus, British Airways, FlyingBlue, Accor and Radisson, but transfer ratios and mechanics are currently unknown. Also the “Max” tier’s card comes in either rose gold or bro’s gold (aka rose gold), your choice. The T&Cs exclude lots of things from earning, but… (Thanks to C-MontgomeryChurns)
  2. The Citi AAdvantage Executive Mastercard has a heightened sign-up bonus of 100,000 AAdvantage miles after $10,000 spend in three months. The card’s main utility after its sign-up bonus is in AA lounge membership for the card holder and its modest loyalty point boosts. You can also add up to three authorized user cards with their own AA lounge access for $175 total. I suggest you don’t add up how many cheese cubes you need to eat to offset the annual fee though.

    There was a glorious time in the mid-2010s where you could apply for 12 of these cards back-to-back, get approved for all of them, hit all the spend, get the bonuses, and then close the card before the annual fee hit. Those games are long gone though, at least with Citi.
  3. There are a few short lied airline shopping portal bonuses:

    – AA eShopping: 500 miles with $150+ spend by tomorrow night
    – Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping: 1,000 miles with $200+ spend by tomorrow night
    – United MileagePlus Shopping: 1,000 miles with $150+ spend by Saturday night

    As usual, giftcards.com is an easy way to hit these.

Have a nice weekend friends!

AA lounge cheese cube alternative: Adult hot dog Mac ‘n Cheese, now non-toxic*.

MEABNOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation at the end of the year and there won’t be any daily posts between December 15 and December 31, at least none from me. We may have guest posts during that period, but that depends on you sending me some. On January 1(ish), we’ll celebrate with the 2025 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs.

  1. The Synchrony Virgin Red Mastercard has a heightened bonus of 75,000 points after $4,000 spend in three months today only.

    This is a great card for ancillary benefits, but it’s a relatively lame bonus at face value given that Ultimate Rewards and Membership Rewards also transfer to Virgin and have cards with higher bonuses.
  2. The Mesa Homeowners Visa card added Omni Hotels as a transfer target. Until it’s nerfed, there’s good value on the high end at 30,000 points for a free night at any Omni hotel. Transferring within the next three months also earns you “Champion Status” in the Omni program, which is about the same as the mid-tier status levels at other hotel chains.
  3. The two biggest US airlines that you don’t want to fly that don’t start with “American” are having fare sales:

    – Southwest: 50CYBER for 50% off of base fares booked by tomorrow
    – JetBlue: SAVE35 for 35% off of base fares booked today

    It might shock you to learn that there are certain blackout dates with each sale. I know, crazy right?
  4. Kroger online has 5% off of Visa and Mastercard gift cards using promo code TEACHERS25, limit ten per account through December 8. These cards earn fuel points which makes it a great deal provided you know how to use or sell those points. The purchase will not code as grocery.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  5. Southwest Rapid Rewards Shopping has 1,000 bonus miles with $200 spend through Sunday. Giftcards.com remains on the shopping portals, but only 1x at Southwest so a single $200 gift card should be about right.

Have a nice Wednesday!

Trigger warning: Omni hotel shower drain.

MEABNOTE: I’ll be going on a blogging vacation at the end of the year and there won’t be any daily posts between December 15 and December 31, at least none from me. We may have guest posts during that period, but that depends on you sending me some. On January 1(ish), we’ll celebrate with the 2025 version of Travel Hacking as Told by GIFs.

Introduction

American Express, Wells Fargo, Chase, Citi, Bank of America, FakeBank LLC, FakeFinTech LLC, Rob’s Credit Union, and lots of others issue cards that have annual credits tied to a calendar year. When you pair that with the note that most issuers also let you refund an annual fee up to 30 days after it posts, you arrive at December being the best churning month of the year because:

  1. The first statement is usually 30 days after approval
  2. Your annual fee usually posts on the 12th statement (at 360 days, roughly)
  3. You can usually request an annual-fee refund within 30 days

This obviously doesn’t work for issuers that don’t issue annual-fee refunds though, like banks that rhyme with schmapital bun. It’s also a ymmv proposition with Bank of America, but it works there in the majority of cases.

The Actual Triple Dip

Because a card approved in December spans the calendar years 2025, 2026, and 2027 with a single paid annual fee, you can earn annual credits in all three years, hence the term “triple”. Because it’s silly that banks let us do that, we add the term “dip” (I couldn’t be bothered to fact check this part).

An Example

How about our good friend the American Express Business Platinum? Annually, you’ve got credits to cover things like:

  • $200 airline incidental
  • $150 Dell credit + $1,000 Dell credit
  • $600 annual Fine Hotels and Results credit
  • $360 Indeed credit
  • $250 Adobe credit

So if you apply for a card in December, your 12th statement won’t generate until between mid-December 2026 and mid-January 2027. Once that happens, you’ve still got another 30 days for games and an annual fee refund. With a single annual fee, you’d be able to get:

  • $600 in airline incidental credits (2025, 2026, and 2027)
  • $450 + $3,000 in Dell credits (2025, 2026, and 2027)
  • $1,200 in Fine Hotels and Resorts credits ($300 for 2025, 2*$300 for 2026, and $300 for 2027)
  • $1,080 in Indeed credits (2025, 2026, and 2027)
  • At least three migraines while dealing with the Adobe credits (various)

Good luck out there, and have a nice Tuesday friends!

Next time: Failed triple dips.

  1. US Bank has a double cashback promotion for its card linked offers and its shopping portal today through Friday.

    The portal and offers are hard to find and are quirky, so double check the US Bank portal cheat sheet if you’re not sure how to get there.
  2. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a tiered 15-25% transfer bonus to AirCanada Aeroplan through January 5, 2026:

    – 15%: transfer <= 74,000 miles
    – 20%: transfer between 74,000 miles and 174,000 miles
    – 25%: transfer >= 175,000 miles

    I think banks shouldn’t make you pull out a calculator for a transfer bonus personally, but welcome to #2025.
  3. The Chase Aeroplan Visa has a heightened sign-up bonus of 75,000+25,000+20,000 miles with tiered spend:

    – 75,000 miles after $4,000 spend in three months
    – 25,000 miles after $20,000 spend in 12 months
    – 1.5x on 1x spend through January 15, 2026 up to 20,000 miles

    I think banks shouldn’t make you pull out a calculator for a sign-up bonus personally either, but welcome to #2025 again.
  4. The Rove shopping portal, notable for its transferability to Lufthansa Miles & More, has a promotion through Black Friday for 4x-5x at giftcards.com.

    If you’re not a member of Rove, use a friend’s referral link. If you don’t have a friend with Rove, reach out to me and I’ll send you a random churner’s link.
  5. Giftcards.com has a $10 gift card with the purchase of $100+ in Visa gift cards with promo code VISABOGO. This code is appearing on most shopping portals, so it should stack with portal earning.
  6. Staples stores have fee-free $200 Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit nine per transaction.

    These are Pathward / BlackHawk Network gift cards.
  7. On December 1, Bilt will have a 50-100% transfer bonus to British Airways Avios depending on your Bilt status. Two things:

    – You’ve still got a few days to earn if this is interesting to you
    – To decide if it’s interesting, would you trade 1.50-2.00 Avios for a Hyatt point?

    Even with a big Hyatt balance, I’d generally still answer the second question with a definite “yuuup”.
  8. Royal Air Maroc has a paid status match opportunity for non-US frequent flyer elites (that is, they’re not matching US airline status). Matches to Gold ($349) get oneworld Sapphire and to Platinum ($749) get oneworld Emerald status though the end of 2026. 

    Both will get you access to AA and Alaska lounges even when flying domestically with either airline. (Thanks to David) 
  9. There are two niche hotel promotions, register for either or both if there’s any chance of you staying with either program in the next quarter:

    – Best Western: 5,000 bonus points for 2+ night stays through February 1, limit 20,000 points
    – Preferred Hotels: 35,000 bonus points after two night stays through June 30, 2026 booked by December 4

    I’ve been told Best Western has some really nice properties, but I’ve personally yet to see one. I can confirm however that Preferred Hotels does have some really nice properties.

Happy Wednesday, safe travels!

The kind of quirk you should expect from the US Bank shopping portal.