Category: Quick Hits

I hope your Memorial Day was as nice and relaxing as mine was. Since I didn’t scour the churning space this weekend like I normally would, I’m going to offer your a generic tip instead:

American Express doesn’t do a hard credit-pull for almost all applications, successful for rejected, as long as you have at least one of their cards currently open. That means that sending in applications for American Express cards (especially business cards because they won’t show on your credit report) is pretty much consequence free. If you’re not lobbing in an application for an American Express sign-up bonus every few months, make sure you’ve got a good reason for it. With an average sign-up bonus sitting north of 90,000 these days and four successful business applications a year, you’re looking at 360,000 bonus membership rewards points with absolutely zero impact to your credit score. That’s a big deal.

My majestic Memorial Day wind-surfing experience. That’s one foot on the board people, I’m basically pro.

If you have an American Express personal card, or a bunch of them like me, today is a great day to give them a call or chat with them online and ask for a retention offer. In the last week I’ve been offered or seen widespread offers for:

  • 50,000 Membership Rewards on the Morgan Stanley Platinum, Schwab Platinum, and some regular Platinums
  • 30,000 Membership Rewards on the Gold and on some Platinum cards
  • 20,000 Membership Rewards on the Everyday Preferred
  • 50,000 Skymiles on the Delta Reserve

Conversely, the other co-brand cards seem to be offering nothing but a wasted couple of minutes on the phone. As always, YMMV though.

My usual language is “I’m thinking of closing this card due to its high annual fee, but before I make a decision, I wanted to see if there were any spend bonuses or retention offers available.” If there’s no offer and I want to keep the card anyway, I’ll usually say “Hmm, I think I’m going to think about it some more and call you back later.” Sometimes there are multiple offers too, so after being presented with one offer, it never hurts to say “Hmm, are there any other offers?”

Obligatory caution: If you take an American Express retention offer, keep the card open for a year to stay in their good graces. You can get retention offers with American Express at any point during your card member year, but I like to wait until the annual fee posts since cancelling the card mid-year usually won’t offer a pro-rated refund (except in Massachusetts, go Sox I guess). Big bonuses like this make me second guess that strategy though.

A picture of a barefoot Tip O'Neill on the beach in khaki pants rolled up above the thighs, a sweater with a yellow polo underneath, sunbathing under an american flag styled umbrella.
Tip O’Neill, another example of Massachusetts being just a bit different.

It continues to be a great week for manufactured spend and miles earning and with Memorial Day weekend coming up, I think it’s just going to stay great through Monday, keep your eyes peeled. For now:

  • Amazon is giving between 40% and 60% back on purchases of up to $100 when using one or more Membership Rewards points at checkout (of course, you should only use one point). This round seems to be widely targeted, everyone that I’ve talked to has had an offer. Buy a BestBuy e-gift card and resell at 96%, and stack with an American Express offer for +2 Membership Rewards per dollar at Amazon if you have it. I knocked this one out more quickly than I typed this paragraph.
  • The American Express random number generator is at it again — there’s a Hilton Surpass 200,000 American Express offer floating around after spending $10,000 in three months. The annual fee on the Surpass card is $95, which makes this a great deal in-spite of the underlying currency. To find it, search for “Hilton Surpass Credit Card” on Google, Bing, or Yahoo, and try different browsers in incognito or standard mode. You’ll get it eventually; for me I pulled it up in Safari’s private mode using Google.
  • Check your inbox for targeted offers for Delta SkyMiles American Express cards that lack once per lifetime bonus language. Delta miles are worth a little more than 1.1 cents a piece, so do the math if you get one.

For both of the American Express offers, don’t forget that there’s a five credit card limit at American Express (and a 10-12 charge card limit). Both the Hilton and Delta cards are credit cards. Both programs are also severely devalued compared to their competitors, which may mean future devaluations are still a while out.

A computer program with the title "American Express Hilton Bonus Generator" with a minimum bonus of 85,000 and a maximum bonus of 200,000.
Exclusive screenshot of the American Express backend bonus offer generator fabricated obtained by MilesEarnAndBurn.

It’s a good week to be hacking:

  • Get a free year of TripIt Pro and access to an $800 First Republic checking account bonus ($50,000 deposit, 90 day lifecycle) by signing up for a free year of Founders Card, which is a glorified coupon book for … people. They have other coupons of dubious value in case you want to poke around too. Sign up with code VIPTRIALRIUN12, and use a burnt out gift card or a virtual credit card number when you sign up so they can’t charge you in renewal fee in a year.

    For what it’s worth, I really like TripIt and use it weekly despite its old, clunky, IE6 era interface. Deal from Holly at DoC.

  • Check your Southwest Rapid Rewards profile page for a few great earnings bonuses. So far, I’ve seen or heard of:
    • 10,000 points toward the companion pass
    • 10,000 points toward elite status (A-List or A-List Preferred)
    • 3x bonus Rapid Rewards points one or more flights, depending on the offer
    • 2x bonus points on flights to and from Southwest hub cities (I saw Houston)
  • Plastiq is offering a widely targeted offer for $10 in gift cards for each $1,000 in payments sent, up to $3,000 in total spend. Look for an email with the subject “Earn up to $30 when you make a payment this month”. Hint: If this feels like a snoozer, honestly it’s actually not. Try a few things!

Hack away!

A black and white photo of a woman in overalls with an axe slung over her shoulder, smiling.
Getting ready to hack away at Plastiq.

Like inflation of the US dollar, the deals this week have started out with a nice “up and to the right” graph shape:

  • SoFi will deposit $100 into your account if you set up a new direct deposit in the next 90 days, and deposit at least $1,000 in a 30 day period. This only works if you set up a new SoFi account or if you haven’t already had direct deposits into your existing SoFi account.
  • SoFi will also give you $20 for checking your mortgage rate by June 1. This only involves a soft credit pull, not a hard pull, so it won’t affect your credit score.
  • There is a Barclay AAviator credit card link floating around that gives 60,000 AA miles after making any purchase with the card within the first 90 days, and the annual fee is waived the first year. 60,000 AA miles for a hard pull and no annual fee is a great deal. I applied an my application went pending, probably because I haven’t put a ton of spend on my other Barclay cards and they care about that. I’ll call reconsideration in a couple of days and should be able to get it pushed through. #bonvoyed for now though.

    Don’t forget that this card is a personal credit card, and will thus impact your 5/24 status with Chase.

  • MileagePlusX is offering 25x United miles on Raddison stays of up to $330 spend by September 30, but only for a single transaction. I’d move to a Radisson for an upcoming stay for this deal if it had showed up in my MileagePlusX app, but sadly I was #bonvoyed again.
  • Office Depot/OfficeMax has $15 off of $300 or more in Visa Gift Cards. Buy two $200 cards for $398.90, and use a Chase Ink credit card or another card that bonuses at office supply stores. I went yesterday and bought two, but I forgot my Ink and had to use a non-bonusing card. #bonvoyed three times in a row.
My pending Barclay’s AAviator application, on pause for 7 to 10 business days.

If you’ve got an American Express Personal Platinum (or literally five of them like me), then you’re probably repeatedly annoyed at the twice a year $50 Saks credit. The best option to liquidate these is to take your stack of Platinums to a physical Saks and buy a $50 gift card with each, which isn’t supposed to reimburse but always does. That’s all fine and dandy, but the closest Saks to me is literally 698 miles by car which leaves me either 1) schlepping a bunch of Platinums around to a store I wouldn’t normally go to while I’m out of town, or 2) buying some overpriced stuff on Saks.com.

Reader Ryan let me know about another way that has more modestly priced receptacles choices:

  • Check out at Saks Off 5th with PayPal rather than using the Saks checkout and the $50 American Express credit will still post, even though it’s not supposed to

Don’t forget to go through a portal too.

A modestly priced receptacle.

To triples in a row? What even is this week?

  • Office Depot/OfficeMax has an instant discount of $15 when purchasing at least $300 worth of Mastercard gift cards between now and Saturday. Two $200 gift cards worth (checks notes) $400, will cost you $398.30. Use a card that bonuses at office supply stores (duh).
  • Check your American Express offers for $150 back on $1,000 spend at Dell.com. Don’t forget about the Xbox gift card XBOX10 promo code, and ideally add this offer to a Business Platinum with unspent Dell credit if available. With XBOX10 and the resale rate hovering around 82%, this deal is profitable and you’ll earn a nice shopping portal bonus at Dell to boot.
  • PointApp has 10x earning at BestBuy between now and Sunday with a cap at $500 in spend. It’s definitely worth it for a few clicks to buy a BestBuy GC for resale if you’ve already got a Point card. They’re also offering a targeted 1,500 point bonus for using the card once per day for five days in a row, at least $5 per purchase. For this one, just use Debbit.
Remember, we do this so we can buy tickets and hang out at the airport for 14 hours due to a mechanical delay.

Today’s triple is ordered by increasing difficulty — you know, for fun:

  • Link your Marriott account to your Emirates Skywards account to earn 1,500 bonus Marriott Bonvoy points. In case you don’t have an Emirates Skywards account like me, you can easily create one here.
  • Check CashApp for a 5% back on online orders at Sam’s Club boost, usable once per day for up to $400 in spend each day through Thursday. I’d buy a couple of Visa or Mastercard gift cards each time, and don’t forget to go through a shopping portal, which often tracks gift card purchases at Sam’s Club (though not always). If you don’t have CashApp, find a friend for an invite and you’ll earn $15 after sending another CashApp user five bucks.
  • Ting SIM cards with $30 credit are now $0.99 at BestBuy and $1.00 at Target. The Visible $100 Mastercard deal is still running strong, and reader Yun let me know that TopCashBack is currently at $40 for new bring your own phone plans with a port-in of an existing phone number, in addition to the $100 Mastercard that you’ll get from Visible after two months. Additional background is available here and here.

Those last two bullets will pair well together. If you don’t have CashApp, I guarantee someone out there that you know has it. Reach out, say hi, and get a referral. I reluctantly put a referral for Point in a post last week because it was the only way to get a good sign-up bonus, but I can’t bring myself to do it again this week, that’s not why I’m in this; so find a friend!

Shout out for another triple in the house.