It’s rare to see anyone talk about the Rakuten Visa, likely because it doesn’t pay bloggers a commission for pushing it on you. If you don’t have this card though, seriously consider getting it. Here’s why:

  • It earns Membership Rewards (if you do it right when you create your account)
  • It has no annual fee
  • It pays +3x for purchases when you start at the Rakuten shopping portal, above whatever the portal is paying
  • It’s from Synchrony bank, so it’s not taking up a Chase, AmEx, or Citi card slot

There is an asterisk or two to consider (giftcardmall.com and giftcards.com are excluded from the bonus 3x), but in general this card is a powerhouse for online spend. For example, yesterday the Rakuten portal was paying 10x for purchases at Sam’s Club. With the Rakuten card awarding an additional 3x by clicking through the portal, you were earning 13x for Sams. (And there were plenty of gift card deals at Sams that could be resold at or above cost, not including the insane MR earnings.)

If you don’t have a Rakuten account, get a referral from a friend. If you don’t have a friend with a Rakuten account, maybe use George’s at TravelBloggerBuzz. (He’s someone I respect and he won’t lead you astray.)

Buy.com logo
Buy.com was easy to pronounce and to remember, then Rakuten bought them and changed the name. Why? Really, why?

The Amex Platinum Unicorn deal is back, but this time it left behind a double rainbow. What does it mean? As a reminder, the card gives 100,000 points + 10x at gas and grocery up to $15,000 spend, which makes it a 250,000 points offer. But that’s just the first rainbow.

The second rainbow? The offer is available by referral from a P2 or from a friend, and that’s worth 25,000 or so additional points (YMMV on the number of points on the referring side). This one involves the “AmEx random number generator” too. If you don’t see the 100,000 points version show up on the referral link, try loading the offer incognito, in another browser, or while connected to a VPN.

Two rainbows hang above a field with a tree line amongst a cloudy sky.
Two rainbows can only mean one thing.

Now that you’re full of can-shaped “cranberry sauce”, don’t forget to clean-up a few things for November before it’s too late:

  • Use PirateShip.com to load $20 credit to your account (AmEx Business Platinum cards’ shipping credit)
  • Prepay $20 to your cell phone bill (all AmEx Platinum cards’ cell phone credit)
  • Load $20 to your iTunes balance (AmEx Personal cards’ streaming credit)
  • Spin up an Uber burner for December if you need to (if you have an Uber Cash balance)
  • Use up any Chase Sapphire Reserve $1,000 5x grocery spend
  • Call for a retention offer on any credit cards that had their annual fee post this month
Woman falling down while loading a washing machine
AmEx cardholder using the monthly dishwashing credit

Now is probably the best time of the year to dip into reselling because the volume is, as Gwen Stefani would say, B-A-N-A-N-A-S. If you’re online or out-and-about and you see any of the following:

  • Nintendo Switch bundle with Mario Kart and 3 Months Switch Online
  • Xbox Series X
  • Playstation 5

… then buy one, two, or as many as you feel comfortable with. (My brother loves to say “Buy now, think later!” — I strongly disagree, but it might be true in this singular case.) List them on Facebook Marketplace or OfferUp and you’re almost guaranteed to make $50-$300 for each item, plus card spend, portal cash-back, dosh cash, etc.

If reselling isn’t for you, don’t stress, just play your new console and eat yo’ turkey. Happy Thanksgiving!

Gwen Stefani surrounded by a marching band holding giant bananas. Image credit: Ronin 47/London Entertainment/SplashNews.com
Gwen Stefani resells bananas.
Image credit: Ronin 47/London Entertainment/SplashNews.com

Register your Citi credit cards for 5% off of online spend, up to $25.00 per card through Monday, November 30. Yes, this works using a few online MS methods, be creative with it; if you’re not part of that game though, it’ll work on an Amazon gift card to reload your balance. Don’t forget your sock-drawer cards too, like my stupid AT&T Access [Less] card.

Southwest is offering a nationwide fare sale, and it doesn’t exclude Hawaii. Book by Thursday night, and use any schedule change hacks you may know of to goose the deal.

Virgin Atlantic is offering some excellent fares on round-trip business tickets originating in Europe (half off in many cases). This applies to both cash and award tickets, but don’t bother on the award tickets because the surcharges (YQ) are kinda ridic. If you’re US based like me, sandwich one of these fares in between two award tickets and turn it into two different trips.

A man and a seal passed out on the beach.
Recovering from a Southwest flight to Hawaii

If you’re into AA status, AA hasn’t shut you down yet, and you have any MasterCard that’s a World Elite MasterCard (like the Citi Double Cash), there’s a super-easy way to earn AA status:

  • Sign up for the MasterCard Travel service
  • Book two round-trip flights (at least one domestic) for Gold
  • Book two round-trip flights (international) for Platinum

The travel has to be completed by March 31, 2021 to qualify. What’s the rub? There’s always a rub. You have to book the flights through the MasterCard Travel concierge, I believe over the phone. There’s another rub: you’ll be flying American Airlines, for low level status.

As far as I know, this works for anyone with an AA account, but check to make sure you see the offer on the travel service home page first the details still match (and read the T&C to make sure they haven’t changed something).

Woman with revolver aimed at her head in front of a giant plate of red goo.
Playing russian roulette with AA for gooey red status.
Image credit: Ars Electronica

Until recently, you could bank monthly AmEx Uber Credits to your Uber Cash balance by using an accidental or purposeful cancel of a ride under certain conditions. That stopped working, which means you’ve currently got to use your Uber Credits as AmEx intended.

There’s a rub though, both Uber and Uber Eats are supposed to draw from your monthly expiring AmEx Uber Credit before they draw down your banked Uber Cash, but it isn’t working that way on Uber Eats. Instead, your banked cash is used and your credit stays put, ready to expire at the end of the month. If you’re one of the four people out there taking actual Uber rides it still works like it’s supposed to, but if you’re like everyone else, you’d probably rather use it on Uber Eats and you can’t with an Uber Cash balance.

Sam at Milenomics proposes a workaround: Spin up a second Uber account, de-link your AmEx Uber Credit cards from your primary account, and link them to the secondary account. That way, at least next month you’ll have those credits on an account without Uber Cash.

A trash panda (raccoon in a trash can).
Trash panda waiting on your non-free Uber Eats waste.

If you’ve got a Chase Freedom or Freedom Unlimited credit card, the 5x bonus category for Q4 is PayPal, and something called a “Walmart”. Right now, a really easy way to get some of the $1,500 spend out of the way is to buy discounted gift cards at PayPal Digital Gifts and sell them via a reputable gift card broker at or above cost (I prefer the ones that buy instantly, not the ones that operate on consignment). A few examples:

  • Adidas, buy at 80%, sell at 81%
  • Michaels, buy at 80%, sell at 80%
  • Lowes, buy at 90%, sell at 90%
  • DSW, buy at 80%, sell at 80%

Through the holidays but especially around Black Friday, check here for the current offerings and knock that spend out.

You know that you can have both a personal and a business PayPal account, right? And if you have multiple businesses, maybe more (but keep it legit, PayPal can be shutdown happy). Limits are usually 2 of each brand per account, so things scale easily.

Bent, discarded happy gift card.
This gift card isn’t happy, it’s lying.