May 16, 2015

PSA: Don’t Listen to Certain Bloggers & Signup for a Chase Bank Account with a $250 Bonus

Programming Note: These PSA posts will become a weekly post effective immediately as I have lots of little tidbits that I think are worth reminding others about so they don’t do something dumb. My past PSA posts have been pretty popular so I’ll see how the response is to a weekly post.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again – it really annoys me when big, prominent bloggers push inferior offers to their readers and do not share the best offer on a particular product because it doesn’t offer them a commission. The latest and greatest example of this is The Points Guy posting (after discussing with others I took away my link to his post but I’m sure you can find it) about earning a $250 bonus for opening a Chase checking ($150) and savings account ($100). I’m sure at face to the uneducated reader that seems like a great offer but you can do much better – in fact I can show you how to get a bonus of $300 on just the checking account alone.

So what’s the trick to getting these better offers?

1. Know the landscape of all current offers – Similar to credit cards, you want to get an idea of if a particular bonus is high or low relative to the historical bonus offered on that product. I think the best resource to follow bank bonuses is Doctor of Credit who covers bank bonuses pretty in-depth including both nationwide banks and smaller state specific banks. In this case, I see a wide range of offers topping out at $600! for both a checking and savings account at Chase. Yes, the deposit requirements might be different but its worth checking them all until you find one that works for you.

2. eBay is your friend – I’m surprised more people don’t know about this but on eBay you can buy Chase checking and savings account coupons. A quick eBay search shows several coupons available for $2-$15 dollars for offers up to $500 from Chase. Some of the most prevalent ones:

Chase Checking ($300) and Chase Savings ($200) – This requires direct deposit (checking account) and deposit of $15,000 (savings account). The checking account bonus alone is higher than The Points Guy offer even if you choose not to do the savings account offer!
Chase Checking ($200) and Chase Savings ($100) – This requires direct deposit (checking) and deposit of $10,000 (savings). Same as requirements as The Points Guy offer but $50 better to you!
Chase Checking ($200) and Chase Savings ($50) – This requires direct deposit (checking) and deposit of $5,000 (savings). Same bonus from The Points Guy offer but deposit requirement are not as high.

3. Google can also be your friend – A quick Google search for “Chase checking account bonuses” returned many hits (obviously) but one of the top ones was a link to Hustler Money Blog who is giving away $300 checking account bonus & a $200 savings account bonus to all his readers with no cost involved. There were also other sites either giving them away or giving readers instructions on how to get a higher bonus. I think the 5 minutes of Googling to pocket a possible extra $50-$350 dollars is worth it.

4. If all else fails, wait – Let’s say you checked all the resources above and either didn’t find an offer you were comfortable with or didn’t want to pay a trivial amount of money for a code off eBay. That’s fine so I would recommend to sit back and wait for a targeted offer (if you have a Chase credit card you will eventually get an offer at some point) or for the public offer to increase. Again, this is just like credit cards. If the bonus on the Chase Sapphire Preferred was cut to 20,000 points tomorrow, you would wait to apply until the bonus was 40,000 points again right? Take the same approach here with bank accounts.

Conclusion:

The Points Guy is obviously too busy playing with his Apple Watch (seriously how many posts has he had on it?!?) as this is yet another example of his inability to post about the best offers on a particular product. Would you want to do business with a financial advisor who pushes substandard investments because it paid him a fancy commission? Of course not. But that’s why I have these PSA posts to help others avoid this mistake. Sure, my readership is about 1/10000 of The Points Guy but if I helped one person get a few hundred more dollars in their pocket, then this PSA post has done its job.

May 4, 2015

PSA: Go to Your Local Chase Branch for the Better 60,000 Point Offer on the Chase Ink Plus

This is a quick public service announcement that there is a better offer available on the Chase Ink Plus than what is being mentioned on most of the big boy blogs. The Chase website, along with those blogs, advertise a 60,000 point signup bonus for spending $5,000 in 3 months with a $95 annual fee on the card. While that admittedly is a strong offer on the card, you can do even better as Chase branches have the same offer EXCEPT the annual fee is WAIVED for the first year.

No $95 Annual Fee for You Chase!

Basically if you live near a Chase branch, you can save $95 by applying in branch instead of online. Obviously this bit of news doesn’t help you if you don’t live near a Chase branch but I’m just your friendly neighborhood spider man good-hearted, no affiliate link to promote blogger reporting the news.

Good day.

(HT Free Frequent Flyer Miles)

May 3, 2015

Chase Ink Cash Signup Bonus Increased to 30,000 Ultimate Rewards Points

The lesser known sibling of the Chase Ink Plus card, the no annual fee Chase Ink Cash Business Card now has a signup bonus of 30,000 points after spending $3,000 in 3 months. This is the highest offer I’ve seen on this card, which is a limited time offer that is valid through May 25, 2015. This offer is not available to those who already have this card or received a bonus on this card in the past 24 months.

Here is the direct link to signup on Chase’s website.

In my opinion, this is one of the strongest no annual fee business cards on the market. Even though this card is advertised as a ‘cash card’, this card actually earns Chase Ultimate Rewards points. This is an important distinction as these points by themselves can be only redeemed like cash back but if you also have a Ink Plus, Ink Bold or Sapphire Preferred credit card, you can transfer the points from the Ink Cash card to one of those cards and then transfer the points to your favorite airline or hotel program.

The benefits of this card are as follows:

5% back (or 5x UR points) on office supply stores and on cellular phone, landline, internet and cable TV services (capped at $25,000 in spending per cardmember year in these categories combined)
2% cash back (or 2x UR points) on gas stations and restaurants (capped at $25,000 in spending per cardmember year in these categories)
1% cash back (or 1x UR points) on everything else
No annual fee
Primary car rental collision damage waiver when car is rented for business purposes
Additional perks such as extended warranty coverage and purchase protection

If you have a small business (or something that qualifies as such even if it does not have an EIN), I would strongly consider this offer, especially if you already had or have the Ink Plus (whose signup bonus is now 60,000 points). The only big differences are the Ink Plus caps the 5x at office stores at $50,000 per year instead of $25,000 (important to MSers) and the Ink Plus does not have a foreign transaction fee while the Ink Cash does. There are only a limited number of cards that you can earn Ultimate Rewards points from via credit card signup bonuses and this is the only no annual fee business card that does so. Since this is the highest offer I can recall on the card, I think it makes sense to apply for it now.

I am planning to apply for the card sometime in the next week or two as I have the annual fee coming due on my Ink Bold this month and short of an great retention offer on the Ink Bold, I plan to cancel that card. Thanks Chase for the great timing of this offer!

April 5, 2015

Roundup of Recent Cuts to Credit Card Benefits to Club Carlson, Virgin Atlantic, American Express & Chase Ink Cardholders

By now, most of us are aware of the big changes coming to Club Carlson credit cardholders, which I think is the single devaluation thus far in 2015. However, in the past week or so there have been other cuts to benefits for cardholders carrying the Chase Ink cards, Virgin Atlantic MasterCard, American Express Business Platinum card and Fairmont card. Here is a quick roundup of all the recent cuts in benefits.

1. Club Carlson Cardholders Lose Bonus Award Night – The big news of the week was the massive devaluation of the Club Carlson program when they chose to eliminate the Bonus Award Night feature for Club Carlson Visa Cardholders. To me, this basically cuts the value of Club Carlson points in half if you maximized the Bonus Award Night benefit properly. You can view this post when I expand upon my thoughts on losing this benefit. The CliffsNotes version is this rivals the Hilton Devaluation Massacre a few years ago.

To make up for this benefit, Club Carlson is offering members a 30,000 point bonus if you have a paid stay by August 31st and is adding a new benefit for cardholders of 1 free night for a US hotel annually if you spend $10,000 or more and pay the annual fee. I don’t think that benefit is worthwhile as the US footprint for Club Carlson hotels is not impressive and I will be cancelling both my card and my wife’s shortly.

2. Virgin Atlantic Cardholders Lose Regus Gold Membership – While probably not the most popular benefit, I recently received a letter from BofA stating Virgin Atlantic is ending its partnership with Regus effective May 22, 2015 and as a result cardholders will no longer have a complimentary Regus Businessword gold membership.

Sorry for the bad scan of the letter from BofA

For those that don’t know, Regus is a network of lounges (not just airports) and offices around the world and having Gold membership, entitled to you complimentary access to any lounge or office which had free refreshments and wifi. This was a great benefit if you needed to get work done or need a space for a quick business meeting when you were away from your office. The listed price is $59/month for a Gold membership so if did use this benefit consistently, this could be a big loss for a few cardholders. You can still signup by May 22nd to get one last year of Regus membership.

3. American Express Business Platinum Cardholders Lose Pay with Points 20% Rebate – I don’t usually use my American Express Membership Rewards points this way but for a long time, Business Platinum cardholders could redeem their points directly for travel and get a 20% rebate for doing so. Starting July 1st, American Express is now removing this benefit for cardholders. This is an unsurprising move as Amex cut this benefit a while back from the personal Platinum card. You will still be able to redeem points for travel directly at a rate of a penny per point – it is just the 20% rebate that is going away after July 1st.

4. Chase Ink Cardholders Lose Lounge Club Membership – Continuing the trend this week, Chase has decided to cut Lounge Club membership as one of the benefits from the Chase Ink family of cards. The Lounge club is a network of 350 mostly independent airport lounges scattered across the world. LoungeBuddy does a good job detailing what Lounge Club is all about.

If you haven’t signed up yet, you can still do by April 30th, 2015 at this link using code CHASEINK to get a one year membership. You will receive the first two visits free to any lounge in the Lounge Club network and additional visits after that are $27.

5. Chase Fairmont Cardholders Lose Lounge Club Membership – Just like the Chase Ink cards above, Chase has also cut this benefit from the personal Fairmont credit card as well. You have until April 30th to enroll at this link here by using code fairmont. Once enrolled, the first two visits are free and are $27 each after that. (H/T to Doctor of Credit for notifying me on this change).

Let’s hope these changes above are the last negative ones for a while though based on recent history this probably won’t be the case.

February 21, 2015

Point & Center: Free Points, Free Miles, New Discover it Miles Credit Card & More

Happy Saturday everyone, I hope you are enjoying warmer weather than I am in New York. Here is a quick recap of some of the deals and offers from the past week.

1) 500 Air Berlin Miles – It feels like free Air Berlin miles comes around every few months or so. This time the offer is for 500 free miles for linking your Air Berlin topbonus number to Heinemann & Me which is apparently a German duty free store chain. You might need to first register for a Heinemann & Me account which is free.

In the event you are not an Air Berlin topbonus member, you can first register for an account here and earn 500 free miles for joining. Then you can complete the offer above for an additional 500 miles.

2) New Discover it Miles Credit Card – Discover launched a new credit card, Discover it Miles, that sounds basic at first as it offer 1.5x on all spending for no annual fee which isn’t that exciting, considering there are 2% cashback cards with no annual fee out there. However, instead of a traditional signup bonus, Discover is offering double the points for the first year so this is really a 3% cashback card for the first year with no annual fee and the additional travel perk of $30 towards in-flight wifi via Gogo annually.

I personally prefer to collect airline miles or hotel points over cashback since I use my miles for international, premium travel and cashback is really only suitable for cheap, domestic travel. I’m passing on this card but Doctor of Credit had the best review I saw on the card and I agree with his conclusion. On a side note, kinda lame of Discover to name this card it Miles when it doesn’t even earn miles…

3) Delta Checked Baggage Guarantee – In a move that rivals Alaska Airlines, Delta is now offering customers a 20 minute guarantee on the delivery of their checked baggage or else customers are entitled to 2,500 SkyMiles. Delta claims checked baggage will be available within 20 minutes from the time the plane pulls into the gate. If not, Delta customers can go online and fill out a form to claim their 2,500 SkyMiles. This promotion is only valid through March 31st and is for domestic flights only. It appears Delta is giving this a test run and if successful, it wouldn’t shock me to see this rolled out on a more permanent basis going forward.

4) Refer a Friend Offer for Chase Sapphire Preferred – I’ve wrote about this offer before but Chase has recently reintroduced the refer a friend offer on the Chase Sapphire Preferred in which existing cardholders can refer others and earn 5,000 bonus points for doing so (the applicant will receive the standard 40,000 point offer currently). Not all cardholders are eligible however, including myself. You can check your eligibility here and if you keep getting an error message, then you are not able to refer others. I have no idea how Chase chooses who can participate in this offer but it can’t hurt to call or secure message them asking to be enrolled.

5) Free 300 La Quinta Points – Not a huge offer but I’ve seen various free point offers over the years for La Quinta so you might already have a small point balance there. You can earn 300 points for watching this quick video here or if you are lazy, you can just register at this page here without watching the video.

I didn’t include the promotion for the free 1,000 Hilton HHonors points for changing your password since that promotion is not yet valid contrary to what other bloggers posted. Once that promotion is confirmed to be working, I will post a separate entry about it.

PointsCentric

Points & Miles Travel Consulting

Chase