Search Results for: preferred rewards

  1. Bank of America has a promotion on Saturday, November 5 for an extra 2% back or 2x bonus miles on all non-cash advance purchases, which really means any normal spend or normal manufactured spend. In preparation:

    – Open another round of Bank of America cards as soon as possible
    – Make sure your credit lines are paid off by November 3rd
    – Set aside time on November 5th to maximize your earnings
    – Bypass the Preferred Rewards 90 day waiting period by opening a business account in branch and asking to be part of the program

    And some related but general advice prosthelytized by Sam and Robert at Milenomics: You should always be ready with a basic game plan for when a big event like this lands so you can spring into action.

  2. Giftcards.com is back up to 8% cashback on the mobile Capital One Shopping portal. Just watch out for the $2,000 gotcha.
  3. Kroger online has $10 off of $150 or more in Visa or Mastercard gift cards through Tuesday
    with promo code OCT2022, and you’ll earn fuel points to boot. While Kroger offers better cards in-store, the online variety is Metabank. (Thanks to GC Galore)
  4. Shop n’ Save stores have $10 off of $100 in Visa or Mastercard gift cards through Wednesday, limit five per account. These are also Metabanks. (Thanks again to GC Galore)

I can’t argue that this isn’t a plan, but it’s not exactly what I had in mind.

  1. New American Express Pay-over-Time 20,000 Membership Rewards links, make sure to leave Pay-over-Time enabled for 120 days to avoid any penalty boxes:

    – https://americanexpress.com/activatenow38
    – https://americanexpress.com/activatenow39
    – https://americanexpress.com/activatenow40
    – https://americanexpress.com/activatenow41
    – https://americanexpress.com/activatenow42

    Any guesses about what the next link will look like? Yeah, me neither.

  2. Check your American Express offers for $50 off of $100 or more at Dell for purchases through October 20. You can stack this with another offer for 10% back, and with the Business Platinum’s $200 credit for a net of $275 in spend.

    As of this writing Dell is also 10x at Rakuten, meaning you’ll get 2,750 Membership Rewards or $27.50 cash back on top of the credits.

  3. Do this now: Register for Hilton’s Q4 double elite qualifying night promotion.
  4. The Chase Ink Premier card is now available for online applications. The sign-up bonus is $1,000 after $10,000 spend in three months, and the annual fee is $195. The card earns:

    – 2.5% cash back on purchases of $5,000 or more
    – 2.0% cash back otherwise

    Unlike other ink cards you can’t transfer the points as Ultimate Rewards to another premium Chase card, so this is a pure cash-back play. The Bank of America Cash Rewards family of cards are effectively 2.625% everywhere cash-back cards with Preferred Rewards, so in general those are better options for anything other than the sign-up bonus.

  5. Simon.com/volume has 72% off of purchase fees on Visa and Mastercard gift cards. The usual warnings with these: these are Metabanks, American Express won’t award cash back or points for Simon transactions, and never feed the mogwai after midnight.

For some reason my computer isn’t giving good results when I try and compute the pattern of Pay-over-Time links.

Bank of America credit cards are really underrated in the travel hacking space, which is one of the myriad reasons the Cash Rewards family of cards was awarded the coveted Miles Earn and Burn Unsung Heroes award. Why you should look into them:

  • The business card portfolio is churnable
  • They have offers like American Express and Chase for statement credits at certain merchants
  • You can get great uplift on the Personal or Business Cash Rewards (5.25% back)
  • They combine hard pulls in the same calendar day, so you can apply for a card, get approved, then apply for another without a new hard pull
  • They’re great MS targets
  • They send targeted spend offers somewhat regularly

On that last note, check your email inbox for spend offers from Bank of America. (I’d search my email program for from:bankofamerica.com in:anywhere and look at the last couple of days worth of messages. Thanks to ukinny for the updated query which will also catch messages that wound up in spam.) People are seeing various offers including:

  • 2% cash back on Alaska Airlines family of cards, up to $150 total cash back
  • 1% additional cash back on the Cash Rewards family of cards, up to $150 total cash back
  • 3% additional cash back on home improvement spend on the Cash Rewards family of cards, up to $75 total cash back

Remember that the cash rewards cards can have multipliers up to 1.75 with the Preferred Rewards program, which could mean up to 10.5% back (3% additional + 3% base) * 1.75. That’s bananas.

A group of people at a party holding up drinks for a toast, except all of the drinks have been replaced with various Bank of America credit cards
Bank of America credit card party! (With inspiration from Danny of the Alchemy podcast on the Milenomics Podcast Network.)

Introduction

When snow starts falling, rental car discussion boards light up with questions like: “how do I guarantee I’ll get a four wheel drive car?”; “how do I make sure I’ll get an SUV?”; or “Help, Hertz filed a lawsuit for wrongful charges of car theft“. Yes, that last one isn’t a question, but unfortunately is real. Anyway, before we dive in to the travel-hacking side of those questions, let’s remember a few rental car basics:

  • Most car reservations are refundable
  • Most car reservations don’t have a no-show fee
  • Many car reservations don’t require a credit-card to hold
  • You can hold multiple car reservations, even at the same company

We can take throw each of the above into a blender and come up with a couple of strategies for getting a the car class you want, hopefully without paying extra.

The Strategy

The mechanics:

  1. Book cancelable reservations across several major companies
  2. Book the car class that you really want directly for 30 minutes after your original reservation
  3. Cancel the other reservations when you’ve got the car you want

When you show up at your destination, look in the company’s app or on the car lot for the type of car you want, and grab the one that has the best option. If you have multiple reservations with multiple companies, you’ll generally find something good. Assuming the best option doesn’t exist though, you can always fall back on the reservation booked in step 2. In practice, you probably won’t have to fall back often though.

Good luck friends!

Sneak preview of a future “Will it Blend?” episode: Hertz Lawsuit Papers.

  1. The Barclays AAdvantage Aviator Mastercard has a heightened sign up bonus of 70,000 AAdvantage miles after a single purchase in 90 days. The $99 annual fee is not waived for the first year.

    This card is useful beyond the sign-up bonus because it can eventually be product changed into the AAdvantage Silver card, but only after a year thanks to the CARD act.
  2. Albertsons, Safeway, Vons, and other Just4U stores have 10x points on Zillions and Zillions Zift cards through Saturday. On Saturday when the “surprise” weekend gift card 4x event is released, you’ll get 12x. (Spoiler alert to Safeway management: Surprises that happen reliably every week with the same offer and same duration cease to be surprises at some point.)
  3. Meijer MPerks has a bonus of 10,000 points with the purchase of a $150+ Visa or Mastercard gift card through November 9, limit one per account.

    Meijer sells both Pathward and Sunrise gift cards.
  4. Giftcards.com has Gift of College gift cards available with no purchase fee. You might earn 2% back in giftcards.com rewards after registering for their program through the end of October, though Gift of College is technically excluded from that program. You will earn portal cash back if you’re sly. Always be probing, Gift of College has been ripe for weirdness in the past but eventually the money does need to end up in a 529 account.
  5. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Visa gift cards through Saturday, limit 10. For best results:

    – Link your credit cards to Dosh
    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Look for lower fee variants if you know how to liquidate them

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  6. Chase Ultimate Rewards has a heightened redemption for Apple products at a rate of 1.5 cents per point for the Sapphire Reserve or 1.25 cents per point for the Sapphire Preferred or Ink Business Preferred cards (or less on other, stupider cards). The promotion runs through the end of November.

    These rates beat regular Pay-Yourself-Back rates, especially if you’re in the reselling game.
  7. There are two small business merchant processing sign-up bonuses:

    – Bank of America $1,000 after $100,000 processed in 90 days
    – US Bank $1,000 offer after accepting charges monthly for three months

    Since we’re MEABers around here, let’s caution a few items: (1) running more than a few gift cards will almost certainly get your account shut down and banned from the processor which could have repercussions on future real businesses; (2) running your own credit cards will almost certainly get your credit cards shut down, sometimes even same-day with banks like AmEx; and (3) you’ll get a 1099 for payments processed. So always be probing, but know when a fence is electrified too, and this one is.

    My advice is to keep these accounts completely above board if you’re going for the bonus. If you don’t have a real business for merchant processing, consider selling a few things on Facebook Marketplace. Combine with the previous item for extra #flair.

Happy Monday!

Stupider cards, prolly.

  1. The Capital One Shopping portal has a new targeted referral bonus of $40 for both the referrer and the referred, as long as the referred installs the Capital One Shopping extension and keeps it installed for 30 days, no other purchases are required. You’re limited to $500 in referral earnings per year per Capital One Shopping account, but otherwise I don’t see any other restrictions. Walmart gift cards are back as a redemption for that cash too.

    What could possibly go wrong here? It’s not like there’s a way to uninstall extensions without the extension knowing, and it’s also not like there’s a way to have multiple browser profiles, right?
  2. American Express Offers has $50 off of $250 or more at IHG properties in the US, Mexico, and the Caribbean with a few random exclusions through the end of 2024.
  3. The Amtrak Guest Rewards Preferred Mastercard has a 35,000 point sign-up bonus after $2,000 spend in three months, and the $99 annual fee is not waived the first year. This card is issued by FNBO, the bad batch of sriracha of big US banks.

    These points are worth 2-3 cents each for travel on Amtrak. If you’re lucky maybe they’ll combine a hard pull for this card with a hard pull for a new JAL card, though I wouldn’t count on it.
  4. Avianca Lifemiles has 30% off of economy flights flown on Avianca metal, for flights booked today with travel through the end of November.

Have a nice weekend!

From left to right: FBNO, Chase.

  1. Citi ThankYou Points has two new transfer bonuses:

    – 20% to Wyndham Rewards through November 16
    – 30% to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club through November 16

    The Wyndham bonus is great for the right use cases; it’s pretty easy to get 1-2 cents per point on a Wyndham or Vacasa booking. The bonus to Virgin Atlantic is mid at best, and don’t forget that (1) Chase has a higher 40% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic, and (2) the Virgin Atlantic award chart is changing at the end of the month.
  2. Citi ThankYou Points also added Preferred Hotels as a transfer partner at 1:4 ratio. If that sounds vaguely familiar, that’s because you can also book some Preferred Hotels with Choice Points which is also a Citi transfer partner. The transfer ratio is great taken at extreme face value because those points are worth somewhere between 0.4 and 1.0 cents each, but in practice availability is:

    – Decent for cash+points bookings
    – Awful for points only bookings
    – Better through the Choice program

    To explore, start on the points booking landing page, and note that you’ll need to create an account and login to see many of the rates. Frankly this program is the most Citi-esque hotel program I’ve ever encountered, so I guess it makes sense that they’re now Citi partners. (Thanks to newg33b)
  3. Office Depot / OfficeMax stores have $15 off of $300 or more in Mastercard gift cards through Saturday. For best results:

    – Buy in even multiples of $300
    – Try for multiple transactions back-to-back
    – Look for lower fee cards, not all fees are the same

    These are Pathward gift cards.

Citi’s prototype robo-taxi is as weird as everything else they do.

  1. The Chase Sapphire Preferred has both a 70,000 Ultimate Rewards and $300 travel credit as a sign-up bonus via referral links, though not all referral links see the increased sign-up bonus. The offer is also available in-branch.

    I prefer Ink cards to the Sapphire Preferred for lots of reasons, but this bonus is worth your attention if you can refer another player. If not, the periodic 100,000 Ultimate Rewards bonus version is a higher value.
  2. The Citi AA Platinum Select card has a sign-up bonus of 75,000 AAdvantage miles after $3,500 spend in four months, and the annual fee is waived the first year. (Thanks to DDG)
  3. United MileagePlus has a tiered transfer bonus of up to 30% for incoming Marriott Bonvoy points through the end of October, and registration is required. Points transfer at a 3:1 ratio and if you transfer in 60,000 point increments you get a bonus 10,000 miles too, so each increment earns:

    (60,000 * 130% * 1/3) + 10,000 = 36,000 miles

    Marriott has a similar deal with AirCanada Aeroplan with a smaller bonus that works out to 28,000 miles, which frankly is worth about the same as 36,000 MileagePlus miles. Frankly I’m impressed at some marketing person’s mileage valuation prowess.
  4. Staples has a fee free $200 Mastercard gift cards through Saturday, limit eight per transaction.

    These are Pathward gift cards.
  5. Chase has the following transfer bonuses through October:

    – 30% to British Airways, Iberia, or Aer Lingus Avios
    – 50% to Marriott Bonvoy (this was 70% over the summer)

    A 30% transfer bonus to the above Avios programs is effectively a 30% transfer bonus Qatar Avios and FinnAir Avios too.
  6. Safeway, Albertsons, Vons, and other Just4U stores have a promotion for 10x points on Zillions and Choose Your Card gift cards through Saturday, and if you wait to buy until Saturday you’ll probably earn 12x instead of 10x with the weekend 4x coupon.

    How does 10x+4x=12x? That’s one of the least weird things about the Just4U program, just roll with it.
  7. Kroger has a coupon for a fee-free variable load Visa or Mastercard gift card of $150 or more through October 15. I won’t go out of my way for one fee-free gift card, but there’s a great chance that it’ll happen organically.

    These are now Pathward gift cards, so long US Bank.
  8. Southwest has a 25% off base fares sale for flights booked today and travel between October 29 and February 10, 2025.

Just4U points as a grocery store mascot.