Credit Cards

October 27, 2014

Just Say No to the New TravElite Credit Card

I receive a lot of “credit card spam” in the mail but I always open each envelope just in case I find something worthwhile. Going through this spam mail this weekend, I noticed a new credit card I never heard of called the TravElite card in some fancy packaging. I opened it to find out that it offered 3x points on airfare and hotel purchases (hmm better than the Sapphire Preferred) and 1.5x points on everything else (hmm just like Mileage Plus Club Card). It also offered a $100 airline fee credit annually  and a $100 credit for Global Entry. There was a $99 annual fee (not waived) but all those perks certainly got my attention.

TravElite Card Mailer

TravElite Card Mailer

With my hopes high, I dug a little more into the card. It was an American Express card but issued by the First National Bank of Omaha which I’ve never heard of. My first thought was maybe this smaller bank was issuing a premium credit card to compete with the big banks in the industry so this was good news since I could always use a card that is not from the Chase, American Express & Citibanks of the world. The next question was how is the rewards program since that is what ultimately matters.

Alas, this is where I started seeing the downfall of this card. Per both the mailer and their website, “You can check your point balance and redeem points for rewards like travel, gift cards, merchandise or cash back as a credit to your account.” No mention of transferring points to any frequent flier programs so this looks like your ordinary cash back credit card. I couldn’t find any information related to the rate of cashback but I think it is safe to assume its $.01 per point. While a setback, if this card had a large signup bonus it might be worth it for the first year and than I could just cancel it.

Ah the final nail in the coffin – there was no signup bonus. Without a signup bonus, the most value you could extract from this card would be $100 in the first year and that assumes you need to still apply for Global Entry (since the $100 airline fee credit offset sets the annual fee). Going forward, this would be an awful card to put any spending on since you’d be paying a $99 annual fee for the right to earn 1.5% cashback on all purchases outside of airfare and hotels. You’d be much better off with the no annual fee, 2% cash back Fidelity Amex with a $50 signup bonus or even the Barclay Arrival Plus.

If it wasn’t clear already, this is an awful credit card to signup for. I personally look for at least $300 in value for opening a credit card and that is usually covered by the large signup bonus associated with most cards. This card doesn’t offer one so ,if you see this offer in your mailbox don’t fall for the snazzy packaging and safely send it to your paper shredder.

October 14, 2014

Could the 70,000 Point Chase Ink Plus Offer Actually Be Available After 10/19?

UPDATE: This offer still appears to be publicly available in-branch only. So I was kinda right – go me!

If you read any other points and miles blog in the past month, you probably seen dozens of posts about the “Amazing 70,000 Chase Ink Plus Offer” or “Don’t Wait, Get 70,000 Points Today” and how the offer for this could expire any moment. In fact, many thought it was going to expire last week but it didn’t but now the new expiration date is October 19th. However, is it possible this is wrong and it could actually be extended again (cue mischievous laugh)!

This is pure speculation and I could be very wrong but based on this targeted offer my father received for his business, his 70,000 point offer is good until 11/10. To be clear, this is a targeted offer so by no means does it have to match the public offer that is going on for the Chase Ink Plus business credit card. The odds are small but it wouldn’t shock me to see Chase possibly extend that deadline one more time (and result in even more posts about with bloggers’ affiliate links which is something I refuse to do 🙂 )

Notice the Expiration Date in the Bottom Left

Notice the Expiration Date in the Bottom Left

*As a reminder, I do not have affiliate links as that is a direct conflict of interest with my consulting services. In fact, I didn’t even link to the card in this post.*
September 4, 2014

Points & Miles 101: Before You Cancel a Credit Card Make Sure You Do This!

As you might imagine with over a dozen active credit cards, I am potentially on the hook for a lot of annual fees as the best credit cards that offer points or miles typically have high annual fees ($65-$450). Sometimes when I signup for these credit cards the annual fee is waived for the first year so it is only after having the card for a full year do I have to decide whether to pony up for the annual fee. On some credit cards the annual fee is definitely worth it as they give you a free hotel night (IHG, Hyatt, & Marriott credit cards), bonus points (Club Carlson) or airline credits, elite status and lounge access (Amex Platinum) simply for paying the annual fee. On other cards though, there is no point to keeping them after the first year as I simply signed up for the card to get the large signup bonus, which we all know is the easiest and quickest way to earn lots of points and miles.

The one big piece of advice I have is before you decide to cancel a card you should always attempt to get the annual fee waived or at a minimum, ask for a “retention bonus” (i.e. bonus points) to offset the annual fee. Let me walk you through what I just did with my Starwood American Express credit card when I called to “cancel.”

SPG card

 

I signed up for the American Express Starwood credit card in August 2013 when the signup bonus was for 30,000 Starwood points for spending $5k in 6 months and the annual fee of $65 was waived for the first year. I was excited to earn the 30,000 bonus points but once the first year ended, I had to decide whether to cancel the card or renew it. Unlike some of the cards mentioned above, the Starwood card doesn’t offer any sort of renewal bonus so for most people I would recommend cancelling the card unless the annual fee could be waived or you got enough bonus points to keep the card open. For me however, I wanted to keep the card another year as it is my go to card for everyday purchases as I am trying to increase my Starwood point balance and this is the only credit card that earns Starpoints (unlike say Hilton or American Airlines which all have several cards that earn those type of points or miles).

So even though I decided I wanted to keep the card another year, I still called in to “cancel” my card. When chatting with the representative, here a few good tips to remember:

1) Always be polite – There is no need to get aggressive or sound agitated. Ask them how their day is or how their weekend was. They deal with enough annoying people daily so being nice to them can go a long way. More often then not there is a greater chance the rep will try to help you in anyway possible if you are nice to them.

2) Tell them want to cancel the card, NOT “I am thinking of cancelling the card” – You need to sound plausible and sincere about cancelling a card to get the reps to make an offer to you to incentive you to keep the card another year. In this case, it comes down to who is gonna call who’s bluff. If you sound serious about cancelling, the rep will have to make more of an effort to keep you (i.e extra bonus points). There is no guarantee this works but it will increase your odds.

3) H.U.C.A (Hang up, Call again) – My favorite piece of advice. Make sure to not let the agent cancel the card if you receive no offer – as they start reading the legal mumbo jumbo before they can cancel the card, just tell the rep you’d like some more time to think about it and you will call back. Or my personal favorite – tell them you received an urgent call from your boss on the other line and you can’t miss the call. That will stop the rep from processing anything and it allows you to HUCA and hopefully be more successful next time with a different agent. This worked for me in my example below.

4) Be prepared to walk away – This could actually apply both ways. Be prepared to go ahead and cancel the card if you have tried several times to get something but all the reps have refused and your true intention is to cancel the card. On the other hand, if you really want to keep the card, you might be forced to give up trying to get any extra points or the annual fee waived and just accept it for what it is. Make sure to not let the agent cancel the card on you in this case.

Going back to my example, my first attempt to “cancel” my SPG Amex was via secure chat while logged into my Amex account online but the rep was unwilling to offer anything when I asked if the annual fee could be waived. I pushed a bit further and asked about a “retention bonus” to keep the card open. Again, he could not offer anything, but he did suggest that I call the American Express retention department directly and ask them. The phone number to the American Express Retention Department is 1-800-452-3945.

Later that afternoon, I called the retention department and I was quickly connected to a live agent after entering my card number. I explained that I was speaking with another agent who suggested I speak with the retention department before cancelling my card. She asked why I wanted to cancel and I told her with the other 4 Amex cards I have open, I was paying too many annual fees and “I was trying to get a hold of my finances”.

Almost instantly after saying that, the agent proceeded to explain as a policy American Express does not waive annual fees but it could offer me some bonus points if I kept the card open. My offer was for 1,000 Starpoints + an additional 500 if I spent $1,000 on the Starwood card in the next 60 days (which was fine since I had to buy a new patio set the following week). Even though the value of the points (worth $30 to me at 2 cents a point) didn’t cover the annual fee, I still accepted the offer. As I stated earlier, it is really hard to earn Starpoints and I wanted to increase my Starpoint balance for some future trips I have in mind. With the annual fee in theory reduced to $35, that was a price I was willing to pay to collect Starpoints for another year. This may not work for everyone, but it works for me and my point earning strategies.

In closing, I was content to renew the Starwood American Express for the annual fee of $65 but before I did, I made sure to “pretend to cancel” to see if American Express would blink and offer me something not to close the card. It worked as I earned an additional 1,500 Starpoints for my time chatting with a rep online and then calling American Express. There is a whole thread on Flyertalk showing other offers people received to not cancel their cards, so I highly recommend trying this approach before cancelling your next credit card.