{"id":1667,"date":"2021-05-28T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/?p=1667"},"modified":"2023-04-18T12:33:24","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T18:33:24","slug":"friday-housekeeping-may-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2021\/05\/28\/friday-housekeeping-may-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"Friday Housekeeping, May Edition"},"content":{"rendered":"

End of month housekeeping has turned into an American Express show. The new MO over there seems to be to offer as many benefits tied to the calendar as possible. They count on most people not using the benefits (breakage) to boost the marketability of the card and to subsidize the few that take advantage of the benefits. Be one of the subsidized in this case, not the subsidizers. I\u2019d suggest you be like Tom Hanks and check the following:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong>\u00a0Make sure you\u2019ve spent any American Express credits in Uber Eats or Uber by Monday night. The holiday weekend should make this one easy on the Eats side.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong>\u00a0Check for any credit cards that have had annual fees post this month and call the bank for a retention offer. I suggest saying: \u201cI\u2019m thinking of closing this card given its high annual fee, but before I decide what to do I was wondering if there are any retention offers or spend bonuses.\u201d You\u2019ll earn 100 MilesEarnAndBurn bonus points if you add \u201cCOVID has made it really<\/em> hard to use the benefits, I wish it would end soon\u201d.<\/p>\n

American Express specific caveat: If you take a retention offer, plan on keeping that card for 12-13 months to avoid getting popups that deny credit card bonuses in the future. <\/p>\n

3.<\/strong>\u00a0If you have an American Express co-branded personal card (Marriott, Delta, Hilton),\u00a0make sure you\u2019ve attached the dining offer to your card<\/a>\u00a0and that you\u2019ve spent it by Monday night. The easiest way to do this from home is to buy an exact value DoorDash gift card on\u00a0Fluz<\/a>. Amazon Meals is another decent option. As always, find a Fluz referral from a friend to make their day if you don\u2019t have an account already, they\u2019ll earn something and so will you.<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong>\u00a0Spend any American Express co-branded business card wireless credits before Tuesday, but make sure you\u2019ve added the offer to your cards first<\/a>. I prepay my cell phone bill with this one, and at this point I\u2019m prepaying into 2022.<\/p>\n

5.<\/strong>\u00a0Make sure you\u2019ve spent any $10 American Express Personal Gold dining credits by tomorrow. My go to is the local coffee shop; a couple of lattes and a muffin jump just north of $10 on GrubHub. Not personally, but I know ShakeShack works for a lot of you.<\/p>\n

6.<\/strong>\u00a0Cancel any cell phone burner accounts that you\u2019re done with (and for which you didn\u2019t use a virtual credit card number that already expired).<\/p>\n

7.<\/strong>\u00a0Spend your AmEx Personal Platinum $30 PayPal credits. The easiest way to get these out under the wire is with\u00a0PayPal Digital Gifts<\/a>\u00a0which has been paying the credit even though the T&C says that it shouldn\u2019t. If you\u2019re set up as a gift card reseller, you can alternatively buy gift cards for resale on Fluz<\/a> or eBay gift cards on Slide<\/a>. This benefit goes away after June, and honestly that\u2019s not a moment too soon. I\u2019m sick of dealing with it.<\/p>\n

8.<\/strong> The time remaining for Q2 bonused spend is already two thirds over. Check the current Q2 categories and reassess your strategies<\/a>. Hopefully on the Chase Freedom side you were able to knock it out at Lowe\u2019s<\/a>.<\/p>\n

9.<\/strong> If you\u2019ve got the time, look for a nice miles & points related podcast. There are a few good ones out there and they\u2019ll boost your skills and learning.<\/p>\n

Have a nice holiday weekend, and grill until you drop (or something).<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
Memorial Day celebration with Tom Hanks. The man on the left is exhausted from dealing with American Express benefits.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A young man slumped over a giant plate of food with Tom Hanks next to him, arm draped over, pointing and smiling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":2,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-housekeeping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1667"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7283,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1667\/revisions\/7283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}