There are at least three really good credit card offers to fly you into the weekend:

1. The American Express Personal Gold Card

Why to consider it: The offer kicking around right now is the no lifetime language version, which means you should be eligible for the 75k MR sign-up bonus after spending $5,000 in three months regardless of whether or not you’ve already had a bonus from a Personal Gold. The 75k bonus is historically high too.

Why to skip it: You no longer get the $100 airline credit as of last week. It could throw you over 5/24, You’ve already been approved for another American Express charge card in the last 90 days. The offer didn’t appear for you (like me). You don’t have a way to gin up $5,000 in spend.

How: Check for pre-approved offers at this link.

2. US Bank Business Cash Rewards Card

Why to consider it: It’s offering $500 for $3,000 in spend in 90 days, which is a historically low spend requirement. It won’t affect Chase’s 5/24 rule because it’s a business card that won’t show as a new account on your credit report. It has no annual fee and great categories for earning unlimited 3% on spend (gas, office supply, telecom). It gives a 25% bonus on earned rewards every year, up to $250.

Why to skip it: US Bank sometimes doesn’t like approving credit cards if you don’t have a banking relationship with them (YMMV). You don’t have any sort of actual or made up business, such as selling goods on ebay twice a year.

How: Apply directly here.

3. Rakuten Visa Credit Card

Why to consider it: It earns +3 Membership Rewards points on your MR earning Rakuten account when you purchase items through the Rakuten shopping portal. It’s the original MilesEarnAndBurn Unsung Hero. It has no annual fee. You get $10 after your first purchase. Synchrony doesn’t have many interesting cards, so you can hit this one hard and if you get shut down, 🤷‍♀️. There are opportunities to manufacture spend online through the Rakuten portal.

Why to skip it: You haven’t converted your Rakuten account to a Membership Rewards earning account yet. You don’t ever shop online. Synchrony is known for giving small credit lines. It could mess up your 5/24 plans.

How: Apply directly here, after you’ve converted your account to a Membership Rewards earning account.

Is My Advice Good Advice?

Of course! I’m some rando on the internet that you’ve never met, so what could possibly go wrong? Let’s fly into the weekend together.

Monday morning after flying into the weekend together.

Valentine’s Day shopping portal bonuses have arrived just in time for, err, Valentine’s Day. The bonuses are actually at high multiples for this time of the year, but they’re also low total payout so overall bang for the buck doesn’t quite reach the “11” setting.

  • Southwest, 1,000 miles for spending $300, or 500 miles for spending $100
  • AA, 500 miles for spending $150
  • United, 500 miles for spending $150
  • Alaska, 500 miles for spending $150

I would definitely hit the Southwest version of this first, or if you’re only going to do one, make it that one — you can buy a single Visa or Mastercard gift card at Giftcards.com for $100 and get effectively 5.5x plus the credit card spend, and the virtual Mastercard variety works really well in lots of “from home” techniques.

A dial with the label "VOLUME I" and settings between 0 and 11. The dial is pointed at 11.
Pictured: Better deals than this one.

Look, I’m not here to push credit cards on you. When I’m recommending a card though, know two things: 1) I’m not getting a kickback, so that leaves me fiscally unbiased, and 2) if I’m bringing it up, it’s probably a good deal.

If you happen to have one of the excellent no-annual fee Bank of America Cash Rewards cards, either the personal or business, you might be surprised about what codes as 3% when you choose “Online Services” or “Business Services” as your bonus category. (Or kick that 3% up to 5.25% with preferred rewards for holding a balance at BoA in bank, brokerage, or retirement accounts.) For now, let’s say that several popular online or in-app money transfer or bill payment services will count. Get out there and try a few things!

Bet you thought I was going to write about the Rose Gold AmEx, right?

Hot savings

Hot on the heels of yesterday’s burnt toast comes the following:

If there’s a chance you want the AmEx Personal Gold card in 2021, apply for it now because the airline benefit goes away for new cards tomorrow (but remember AmEx’s one charge card every 90 days rule). Assuming you do sign up for it, in 2021 you’ll get:

  • Sign-up bonus (60k Membership Rewards or more)
  • Referral bonus (15k-30k, make sure to refer from a P2 or friend account)
  • $110 in Uber Eats credits for 2021 and beyond
  • $100 in Airline Fee credits for 2021 only (goes away tomorrow)
  • $110 in GrubHub/Shake Shack dining for 2021 and beyond
  • 4x at grocery stores, up to $25,000 spend per year

I have two of these cards and I also have a charge card approved in the last 90 days (the Unicorn Platinum), so I’m skipping this one even though I would definitely get more. (For me, the $25,000 4x at grocery store is easy to knock out with BBY or Visa Gift Cards, so even that is worth the annual fee, the rest is gravy.) The annual fee of this card is $250, so it’s easy to recoup that fee and then some. If you can go for it, now is the time!

Two pieces of burnt toast.
Follow up one burnt piece of toast with another, as the saying goes. That’s a saying, right?

There are a few easy manufactured spend deals kicking around this week. The first, an old familiar, is that you can still get fee free physical Visa Gift Cards at vanillagift.com using promo code FLASH2020. You’ll pay $8.95 for shipping, even if you order $10,000 worth of cards. These cards don’t work well at Walmart but they work well most everywhere else.

The second is that Staples is offering fee free $100 MasterCard Gift Cards, limit 2. These are sold by Staples directly, so use a Chase Ink card or an American Express Business Platinum with the +4x office supplies offer. Fun side note and a random hint: Staples shut me down in 2014 because they didn’t like me buying a couple hundred hard drives a week for two months. Fortunately for me and for people like me (you), you can always get yourself back online with address, phone, and/or name variations. Different checkout methods work too. Don’t be afraid to experiment.

Third, you can still get two Ting SIM cards for $0.99 each at Best Buy. I’ve been able to get an order in every few days. You can still parlay each of these into ~$100 at Visible.

And finally there’s a bit of bad news: apparently Walmart Money Order fees are going up from $0.88 to $1.00 today. Boo.

Actual photo of the Staples representative who shut me down for buying too many of their clearance hard drives.

A couple to take you into the weekend:

1. Use promo code GOTENJAN or GO15JAN for $10 off of $20 or $15 off of $25 at UberEats, respectively. Have you scaled up on burners yet?

2. I wrote a guest post at Milenomics on the major US carriers’ travel banks and their rules. MS Hint: It’s a good resource for what to do with the results of cashing out premium card travel credits.

Have a great weekend hackers!

A young adult woman wearing a pink sun hat and a sundress slumped over a chair holding (presumably) a beer.
Not pictured: Grand weekend plans. Pictured: Actual weekend.

Are you participating in reselling or in buyer’s groups? I could write a book on the former after years of playing and scaling that game; but first I’d have to recover from my mental battle damage and figure out how to restate some of my feelings in a less hostile way, because it actually can be a very good gig.

In case you are, Amazon is sending out offers for $100 off of $300 for creating an Amazon Business account. To get one:

  • Create a new personal account — I used the same information as my normal personal account, other than the email address.
  • Get identified by Amazon’s algorithms as a business buyer — Buy a few things over a few months that are clearly for resale (high value electronics, not normal household items)
  • Watch for en email with the subject “Get $100 off your first Amazon Business purchase”

I already had another personal and business account, so I believe you can churn this. It’s not an instant money maker, but after a couple of months you’ll probably be able to get $100 in your pocket for buyer’s group or resale activities. Just watch for falling fireball-laden mind bombs.

A wooden crate on fire
3D rendering of my memories of reselling.

What’s the first thing you think of when you think of Walgreens? If you said slightly smelly poorly-lit pharmacies with aisles full of stale clearance candy from the last major holiday and dubious ties to Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes, then you’re wrong. The right answer is of course the Walgreens Prepaid Debit card. Ok, so the card isn’t available yet, but may I suggest that you put in on your radar and sign up for it the day it is?

MS Hint: There are a few prepaid debit cards out there that let you play shenanigans to fund them, an obvious example being BlueBird. But, there are others that aren’t as well known too. Look for them and see what you can do. This Walgreens one is likely to be a great tool for manufactured spend.

A picture of christmas candy with "50% off" signs at a Walgreens.
This is probably the most directly topical picture I’ve ever put in a post. I’m not sure how I feel about it.