1. Remember how we discussed that you should turn off American Express’s Pay-Over-Time feature, because reportedly having it on can use up one of your five total credit card slots with AmEx, and you won’t get bonuses for enabling it if it’s already on? There’s a new rub:

The American Express Green card seems to be counted as a charge card according to multiple threads in private forums and this thread at Reddit. So, if you want five AmEx credit cards, either ditch that Green or upgrade it to a Gold which isn’t counted as a credit card, but rather a charge card. I personally wouldn’t mind having another 3-4 Gold cards, they’re no-brainer value cards for me.

2. It’s time to liquidate your AmEx Business Platinum Dell credits, just make sure you’ve enrolled for the benefit at the American Express website’s “Benefits” tab before you buy. The vitals:

  • Dell Home is 10x at Rakuten as of this writing, though Rakuten punked me twice on Monday, so who knows how long it’ll stick around
  • You can use the code GAME10 for 10% off of Xbox gift cards (the smaller the denomination, the faster it sells if you’re selling yourself, or liquidate with trusted gift card outlet immediately for 80-82%)
  • You’ll earn 3% in Dell rewards on this purchase to use in the second half of the year for liquidating more AmEx credits
  • American Express is really good at quick statement credits from Dell, and Business Platinum cards earn $100 Jan-Jun, and another $100 Jul-Dec each year

From my internal monologue: How did this week turn into an American Express / Rakuten week?

A picture of a comic brain with a thought bubble that contains "..." on a pink background.
Internal monologue loading.

It feels like everyone is talking about deals on Simon Mall $1,000 gift cards right now (40% off of prepaid Visa fees with promo FS21FEB40). Yeah, they’re good at stores that aren’t Walmart, they’re high denomination, and you can buy a bunch at once easily. There’s a big problem with them though: They don’t earn points when purchased with American Express cards because AmEx blocked earning on Simon purchases.

If you’re trying to put spend on an AmEx and get something out of it, use Vanilla Gift Cards with the promo code FLASH2020, which amazingly is still working. You’ll earn spend when you go this route, and the fees are almost non-existent. They still work at most grocery chains too, just like BlackHawk gift cards.

Bonus hint: Simon business volume accounts are better than personal ones, but that has nothing to do with AmEx.

A man passed out on a tan couch wearing a Mario costume.
A guy dressed up like Mario dreaming of earning Membership Rewards through manufactured spend.

American Express has a few “no lifetime language” (NLL) card offers kicking around. The great news is that if you got the Unicorn Platinum card around when it came out in November, your 90 days is up and you’re eligible for another American Express charge card. As a reminder, if you apply for an NLL card and American Express doesn’t give you a popup saying you’re ineligible to receive a bonus, you should get it after meeting the spend requirements.

The best wisdom out there is to avoid obvious manufactured spend on American Express welcome bonus spending, though you can ignore that advice and probably be fine if you can’t gin up spend in any other way (just like you can drive without a seatbelt and probably be fine, but you may also die.)

Bonus tip: Check here to see if you’re eligible for 40% off up to $40 back, when you pay for an item sold buy Amazon and use at least 1 Membership Rewards point.

A Gold American Express card with the text "Click It or Ticket" overlayed on top.
American Express’s failed joint safety campaign with the US DOT.

Update: I was severely punked: Both of these deals died between when I scheduled this post and when it was published a few hours later. Sorry. In the mean time, Saks Fifth Avenue is now 10x at the Rakuten portal, so now is a good time to cash out your $50 American Express Personal Platinum credits and earn 500 Membership Rewards points in the process.

A couple of deals that I wrote about in the past weeks are still around and are bigger than before thanks to Presidents’ Day promotions. (Thanks for making me look like a small-deal-pushing-tool, Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Washington.) If you want to take advantage again with a P2, or if you missed it the first time, go for each of these bigger bonuses:

1. The Visible Wireless deal, available with your burner phone SIMs (or your main SIM I guess), is even better now with $60 or 6,000 Membership Rewards back from Rakuten thanks to today’s promotion. You also get a $100 Mastercard after two months. Update: it’s down to $25 or 2,500 points. Boo.

2. Depositing $1 in a new account Betterment now earns you either $127.50 or 12,750 Membership Rewards points when you open the account through the Rakuten portal. This is worth doing for P2, P3, P4, and any other players at your disposal. Skip P7 though, that guy’s a jerk. Update: the presidents got me again. It’s now back down to $75 it 7,500 points.

The Merriam-Webster definition of the word embiggen: "to make bigger or more expansive".
See English professor? I told you it was a real word.

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.

Happy Wednesday! There are a couple of items worthy of your attention today:

1. You can score 7,500 American Express Membership Rewards points with the Rakuten portal by opening a Betterment Checking or Cash Reserve account and funding it with $1.00 or $10.00, respectively. In the grand scheme of things, this is a great offer for just transferring a buck and not worrying about it ever again. Or you can hang on to the account and use it for it’s world-wide ATM fee reimbursements.

If you don’t have a Rakuten account, use a friend’s referral link so they get a bonus, or use George’s at TravelBloggerBuzz. Also, make sure you’ve converted your Rakuten account to a membership rewards earning account.

2. Do you want a Southwest Companion pass with a single credit card? The 100,000 point Southwest Performance Business card is still kicking around, and that sign up bonus by itself will earn you a companion pass. Now that Southwest flies to Hawaii, Mexico, Costa Rica, and all over the Caribbean, I’m actually interested in it even though I don’t like flying Southwest (call me old fashioned because I like seat assignments and potential first class upgrades. I also like when we used to wear an onion around our belts, which was the style at the time). Combine this with yesterday’s green or black star Chase offers to bypass 5/24 if needed.

A photo of a person wearing an onion tied around their belt.
Illustrated: Why I don’t like flying Southwest very much.

Are you way above the Chase 5/24 rule *? There is a new round of widely targeted offers that bypass 5/24. To see if you’re targeted, log in to your Chase online account, click the hamburger menu icon (☰) in the upper left, click on “Just for you”, and look for offers that have a green star or black star icon. Those offers should bypass the usual 5/24 restrictions.

*In case you’re not familiar with it, the 5/24 rule says that you won’t be approved for a Chase credit card if you have five or more new personal credit card accounts from any issuing bank in the last 24 months.

A clear shot glass with the words "5/24 Cup" printed on the front.
The Chase credit card drinking game’s official mascot.