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.

Three month long spending bonuses on co-branded credit cards seems to have become a regular event at Chase. The current iteration started on Saturday and runs through August 15. Going to chase.com/mybonus used to be the easiest way to get registered; however in the current iteration that link won’t always show your bonus. Instead, you’ve got a much better chance of getting an offer by going to one of the following links, painstakingly compiled by JC, with a few minor edits and updates:

  • Amazon Prime Rewards Visa: 5% back on travel and gas purchases, up to $1,500 combined
  • Amazon Prime Visa: 5% back on travel and gas purchases, up to $1,500 combined
  • British Airways, Iberia, Air Lingus: 9x on Air Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, and Level purchases, and 5x on all other travel up to $1,500 combined
  • Disney Visa: 6% back on Disney purchases, 5% back on travel and gas purchases up to $1,500 combined
  • Disney Premier Visa: 5% back on Disney purchases, 5% back on travel and gas purchases up to $1,500 combined
  • Hyatt Visa: 8x on Hyatt purchases, 5x on travel and gas purchases up to $1,500 combined
  • IHG Classic Visa: 6x on IHG purchases, 5x on travel and gas purchases up to $1,500 combined
  • IHG Premier Visa: 14x on IHG purchases, 5x on travel and gas purchases up to $1,500 combined
  • Marriott Bonvoy Visa: 7x on Marriott purchases, 5x on travel and gas purchases up to $1,500 combined
  • Marriott Bonvoy Bold Visa: 7x points on Marriott purchases, 5x on travel and gas purchases up to $1,500 combined
  • Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa: 10x points on Marriott purchases, 5x on travel and gas purchases up to $1,500 combined
  • Marriott Bonvoy Premier Visa: 9x points on Marriott purchases, 5x on travel and gas purchases up to $1,500 combined
  • Ritz Carlton Visa: 10x points on Marriott purchases, 5x on travel and gas purchases up to $1,500 combined
  • United Club Visa link 1 or link 2: 8x or 6x points on United purchases, 5x on travel and gas purchases up to $1,500 combined
  • Southwest Rapid Rewards (RR), RR Plus, RR Premier, RR Employee, RR priority Visa link 1, link 2, or link 3: 6x or 5x points on Southwest purchases, 5x on travel and gas purchases up to $1,500 combined
  • United Explorer Visa: 6x on United purchases, 5x on travel and gas purchases up to $1,500 combined
  • United Gateway Visa: 6x on United purchases, 5x on travel and gas purchases up to $1,500 combined
  • United MileagePlus Explorer Visa link 1 or link 2: 6x or 5x points on United purchases, 5x on travel and gas purchases up to $1,500 combined
  • United MileagePlus Select Visa: 7x points on United purchases, 5x on travel and gas purchases up to $1,500 combined
  • United Presidential Plus Visa: 6x points on United purchases, 5x on travel and gas purchases up to $1,500 combined

For the “travel and gas” category, personally I’d pick up $500 Vanilla Visa Gift Cards at 7-11, $500 SecureSpend Visas at Speedway, or $500 BestBuy gift cards at Speedway. For the United cards in particular, consider funding the United Travel Bank. Of course, there are other options — a hint for experts that I’d use with extreme caution only: refunds usually only refund at 1x.

Finally, why are there so many damn versions of Marriott cards between Chase and AmEx? I actually don’t really care to know, so don’t tell me.

A picture showing a fire bellowing out of the top of a tower on a Marriott hotel
Oh my god, we’re having a fire …. sale.

I had another Weekend Wisdom planned for today, but Meijer majorly blew it out of the water, clearly because they weren’t happy to be left out of yesterday’s Grocery Store Manufactured Spend Deals post, or something. So we’ll save the Weekend Wisdom for another weekend. In the mean time, this deal is crazy:

This includes BestBuy gift cards, which are currently selling at 96-96.5%. That means you can manufacture spend at 6% profit, plus grocery store rewards and credit card rewards. There are other options at slightly lower profit too. This is bananas, and if you’re near a Meijer you should hop on it. I’m unfortunately not near one myself, but I am almost ready to book a cheap round trip to Meijer country for a weekend getaway.

The only rental cars currently available in Meijer land, cause #carpocalypse

There are a few grocery store deals going on this week (remember, grocery store weeks usually go from Wednesday to Tuesday because reasons). Just make sure you clip the coupon and save it to your accounts. Yes, accounts is plural, right? Right? The deals:

A stuffed bear with a balloon animal behind it. In the bear's lap is a bottle of Jameson Whiskey.
At least if Safeway is your primary grocery store you’ve still got options.

1. Check here for Chase spending bonuses between May 15 and August 15 on co-branded credit cards, like Hyatt, United, IHG, AARP, or Marriott if you’re a masochist. My Hyatt card offer was for 8x on Hyatt Properties and 5x for spend on travel or at gas stations, up to $1,500 per month. My United card got nicely worded “go eat dirt” letter.

2. Simon has 50% off of Visa Gift Card purchase fees using promo code FS50MAY between now and Friday. Just don’t use an American Express card when buying because you won’t earn points or rewards. Personally I’m still (im)patiently waiting for a new promo code at VanillaGift.com.

3. You can kill two birds with one stone with your Saks American Express Platinum credit; check out with PayPal after shopping through Rakuten and you’ll get 15x, your $30 Personal Platinum monthly PayPal credit, and you’ll still be reimbursed for your Saks purchase too.

4. The Point 1% cash back debit card is offering 10x points on Amazon purchases, or just 10% cash back on up to $500 in spend. This seems to be a recurring theme with Point, a few weeks ago the app was offering 15x on Target purchases on up to $500 in spend. With the Target deal I was able to buy gift cards and still got the 15x despite it being excluded in the offer’s terms and conditions. With the Amazon deal, I’m going to do the same thing and I’m 99% sure it’ll pay out. There’s also a BestBuy offer for 5x for what it’s worth.

If you already have the card, this deal is a no-brainer for a few clicks. If you don’t have it, should you get the card? I’m still not sure honestly: It has an annual fee of $49 so it’s not an obvious winner like Cash.app used to be, but if these deals keep coming it’s well worth the entry fee. If you sign up through anyone’s referral link you’ll get 10,000 points or $100 back after spending $1,000 on the card instead of the stupid $5 you get back for signing up directly with Point. So if you go for it, find a friend or another MS buddy and get a referral from them and you’ll both earn $100. Please just go that route, but if you can’t find anyone else with a referral link mine is here (*), as small as I can make it.

Swinging for Chase bonuses.

1. You can generate a $750 bonus for a Chase Business Checking account at this link. You’ve got to deposit $10,000 and hold it there for 60 days, then make 25 qualifying transactions. If that sounds daunting, believe me, it’s really not. Just set up Debbit to do 25 $0.50 Amazon gift card reloads, or Xfinity bill payments, or something else with your new business debit card. (Also, don’t forget to deposit an extra $13 to cover those $0.50 reloads and maintain that $10,000 balance.)

Even if you’re not ready to do this one just yet, enter your email address on the Chase form, click “Open account in branch” and you’ll get a code for using the offer in the future. It should be valid through at least July 23 so you’ve got plenty of time to get ready.

2. Rakuten is offering 15% cash back or 15 Membership Rewards per dollar spent on a dozen or so stores this week. You should be interested in at least two of them for liquidating your American Express Platinum and Business Platinum Credits: Saks and Dell (Business Platinum). Just make sure you’ve activated your Saks and Dell credits before buying.

1. Staples started offering fee free $200 Visa Gift Cards yesterday. The deal runs through Sunday, and is limit 5 per day (which really means per transaction). These are Metabank gift cards and they’re getting harder to liquidate, especially at Safeway, Albertsons, and related stores. Make sure you have a plan before going big on this one.

Use a card that bonuses at Office Supply stores like the Chase Ink Cash, US Bank Business Cash Rewards, or American Express Business Platinum with the 5x offer attached. I understand that some of you aren’t currently in a position to get a business card. In that case, check out the Huntington Voice Credit Card, which earns 3x on office supply purchases up to $2,000 per quarter. Bonus: This is a no-annual fee card that doesn’t pay anyone commissions, so it probably won’t be pushed on everyone only to devalue its benefits any time soon.

2. Yun let me know that the Rakuten Visible deal was up to $40 or 4,000 Membership Rewards back on service on Saturday, though as of this writing it’s back down to $20 or 2,000 Membership Rewards. Check the current rate at this link. Yes, this is manufactured spend even if it doesn’t seem like it at first blush: You’ll spend on cell phone service and earn miles and/or cash back and a $100 Mastercard after two months of service. I did a few of these this weekend and Rakuten auto-attached $15 off of the first month, making the deal even better (especially if you join any Party Pay group for free to knock $15 off of the monthly bill). This deal can scale.

3. Kroger has a coupon for $3 off of a fixed value Visa or Mastercard running between now and May 25. It can be used multiple times, just make sure you add the coupon to your Kroger account first in the mobile app or at the web site. These are US Bank issued gift cards, which in most cases will work better and at more places than Metabanks. Stack this deal with another coupon for 4x fuel points on fixed value Visa and Mastercard gift cards, though that one expires tomorrow.

A picture of a woman with red hair and a blue shirt walking into a pole at a playground.
Trying to liquidate Metabank gift cards at Safeway.
  • Visible Mobile is again offering $20 back or 2,000 Membership Rewards at Rakuten along with a $100 Mastercard after two months of BYOD service, which will cost you a total of $65 for the service. Chase has an offer floating around for $25 off of Visible Mobile service too, so bring that down to $40 for cell service, a $100 Mastercard, and some cash or points from Rakuten. This deal scales, I had a reader write in that they’ve done over 100 of these. For more, read Cell Phone Burners and Travel Hacking.
  • Yesterday’s 125,000 Delta Reserve card is now available with a referral link from another American Express card holder, like a friend or P2. This card is essentially buying about $1,400 of Delta travel for the $550 annual fee, or about 61% off. So, refer your P2 and you might be able to get 125,000 miles on the card and another 15,000 to 30,000 miles on the referrer’s end.
  • Doug R pointed out that there’s a 2x multiplier bonus that seems widely available for AA SimplyMiles, which you should see after logging in to your account. For the 2x to apply, you have to add the offers to your account between now and tomorrow night. I’d add them all on the off chance you’ll use one (BestBuy shows up as a decent option), then make sure that your credit cards are linked to the SimplyMiles platform. If you happen to trigger an offer by May 31, you’ll get double miles. Note that the offer says you have to use a co-branded card, but my guess is that any Mastercard will work.

    If you haven’t yet signed up for SimplyMiles, sign up here for 400 bonus AA miles.

  • The Bank of America Premium Rewards card is offering 2 points per dollar on grocery spend, uncapped. Meh, I say, except if you have Platinum Honors status with Bank of America. If so, you get a 75% extra in rewards, which makes this card a 3.5 points per dollar card, uncapped, on grocery spend. I still prefer the AmEx Personal Gold for grocery spend at 4x MR, but that’s capped at $25,000 in spend per year which can be knocked out in a couple of days. Uncapped is quite the flex on Bank of America’s part.
Friday flexing for miles