This seems to be an error on Chase’s part, and they’re fixing it within 10 business days if you call and ask. In theory . So your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to check your TransUnion credit report and put a ticket in with Chase if necessary.
FlyingBlue Promo Rewards for March have been released for travel booked in march and flown through August 31. The promotional US cities are Detroit, Seattle, Washington DC, Boston, and Austin.
The biggest volume gift card reselling platform Raise’s GCX, which incidentally via a broker is where most manufactured spender’s gift cards end up, recently made moves that seem to effectively push all but the top three or four sellers into insolvency unless they have a stable of private buyers or a mostly non-existent big alternative. Based on discussions with several anonymous brokers, the new normal is:
New tiers (that sound like Delta status levels) based on quarterly sales volume:
<= $19,999 for Bronze
$20,000+ for Silver
$100,000+ for Gold
$500,000+ for Platinum
$1,000,000+ for Diamond
$10,000,000+ for Delta 360 Diamond Plus
Platform selling fees ranging based on tier level from 15% to 6%-ish (that means if you sell BestBuy at 98.50% of face, you’ll take-home 83.5% after fees as a Bronze member, maybe up to 45 days later)
Penalties for cards that don’t sell quickly enough
Increased penalties for debited transactions (when a buyer says the card doesn’t work)
No more grace period for bad quarters, immediate tier demotion
Longer holding times before payout for many gift cards
If you want to sell on Raise / GCX and compete with the big three current sellers that are paying approximately 6-7% in fees, you’re going to have pay around $40,000 in extra commissions on your way to that tier too. That means:
Raise’s changes are forming an oligopoly of gift card resellers
Smaller resellers are going to drop out (I’ve heard of three already)
The bar to entry to be an effective bulk competitor is higher than ever
Competition for manufactured spenders selling gift cards to brokers will fall
Manufactured spenders will see decreased profits as competition falls
The existing oligopoly will see increased profits as competition falls
Raise is likely to have a simpler business and a smaller support staff with these changes, but they’re also leaving themselves vulnerable to a new marketplace competitor with lower fees and a penchant for marketing that could take over as the new de-facto gift card resale platform. Watch for turbulent times in the short term, and (hopefully) a new reseller focused marketplace in the medium term.
Oh, and since we haven’t talked about Pepper for a while, let’s take a tangent from the main topic to mention Pepper’s weekend: they were offering 20% back in Pepper Coins for Best Buy purchases, and 25% back for Target purchases. Completely auspicious right?
Happy Monday!
GCX/Raise’s totally original status program elite bag tag.
The American Express Hilton cards have an increased sign-up bonus:
– Honors: 70,000 points and a free night certificate after $2,000 spend in six months – Surpass: 130,000 points and a free night certificate after $3,000 spend in six months – Aspire: 175,000 points after $6,000 spend in six months
In case you’re in pop-up jail on those and don’t know how to get out, you can find smaller bonuses that are mostly popup immune for the same cards here.
If you missed yesterday’s post because I can’t tell the difference between AM and PM, please find it here. If you missed it for some other reason, well, I don’t know what to tell you.
Since no one asked, I bet this happened because Sears is a dead brand and Citi was up for contract renewal on the co-brand trademark, then decided that even $2 to maintain the co-brand wasn’t worth it. (Thanks to Eugene)
Stop & Shop, Giant, and Martins stores have 8x points on Zillions Zift gift cards through Thursday, limit $2,000 per account. Giant Foods does too, except at 4x because reasons. The current Pepper climate means that ebay gift cards are usually the best conversion for bulk resellers from the Zillions of Zift options. (How is was that even a valid sentence? Churning is weird.)
Have a nice weekend friends!
A churner descends into madness while trying to redeem Zillions Zifts.
Before we dive in let’s start with a quick American Express shutdowns update: There were no reports of new shutdowns yesterday. Are we out of the woods yet? I think that’s highly unlikely, but you never know I guess. Anyway, let’s dive in to today’s news.
– Book a round-trip or two one-ways by tomorrow night – Fly by the end of March – Earn a companion pass valid between August 7 and October 8
This works on award and paid tickets, and if you’ve already got something booked you can cancel and rebook too.
The American Express personal Hilton cards have new no-lifetime language (NLL) links:
– Aspire: 150,000 points after $6,000 spend in six months – Surpass: 130,000 points after after $3,000 spend in six months – Honors: 80,000 points after $2,000 spend in six months
On the one hand the mileage bonus is low compared to other sign-up bonuses, but on the other hand it’s Synchrony so that’s a nice win with the right playbook.
The Capital One Venture card has a sign-up bonus of 75,000 miles and a $250 Capital One Travel credit available by referrals (and publicly available too, but use a referral from a friend instead).
– Buy in even multiples of $200 – Don’t forget about your American Express Business Gold monthly credit – Look for ‘Anywhere cards’ which may be cheaper as long as you can liquidate them
– $75 statement credit after in $750 in online spend – $100 statement credit after $1,000 in online spend – 15,000 ThankYou Points after $1,000 in online spend – 250,000 Shop Your Way points after $750 in online spend
It stacks with the other ongoing offers too, obviously. Now we just need Lowe’s or Home Depot to sell Visas or Mastercards online to make the stack even easier. (Thanks to Cashback Cowgirl, Matt, Santosh, and Brandon)
– 40,000 Ultimate Rewards → 60,000 Bonvoy Points – 60,000 Bonvoy Points → 25,000 JAL Mileage Bank miles
In other words, you’re getting a 1:0.625 ratio from Ultimate Rewards to Milage Bank which isn’t great, but isn’t awful for the utility of JAL’s own upgrades and expanded award availability.
There is commentary on various forums on the internet that this is a modified link, but I believe the commentary is incorrect and there’s no abnormal risk in this link, rather it’s using a different campaign code than the previous version of the offer.
Happy President’s Day!
The Presidential Citi Shop Your Way Rewards salary beats the average US Government Job *circa 1940.
The Pepper gift card reselling platform, the current mass market frontrunner in the race to move funds from venture capitalist bank accounts to your wallet, has a few newsworthy updates:
They got a loan last week, and they did the most Pepper thing possible when filing: The CEO’s name is spelled wrong. (This is probably a bridge loan, VC funding definitely doesn’t look like this)
Yesterday, they offered (with most of the cash back coming in a couple of weeks):
Unlimited Amazon gift cards at 25% off
Walmart gift cards at 24% off, up to $1,500 per account
HomeDepot gift cards at 22% off, up to $3,000 per account
I think it’s clear that Pepper is eating most of the cost on these offerings, which could lead you to a few conclusions:
They might be trying to pump sales in anticipation of funding hurdles and are fiscally fine
They might be trying to make payroll and are fiscally almost dead
They’re just benevolent and like giving away money, but they have plenty of it
One of those three is probably right. Make your risk/reward calculations accordingly. Since no one asked: I’ve been bringing down my Pepper float to smaller numbers gradually over the last couple of months, and I’m approaching zero but not there yet.
Finally, I want to add something to a common argument I hear about Pepper, which is “Who cares if I lose the $20,000 I have floated to Pepper right now? I made way more than that.” It’s a good point, but I’d like to offer that if you can catch the falling knife, you can make “way more than that” and still not lose $20,000.
