About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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New Chase Miles for Mortgages Offers: 25,000 – 75,000 Points for Cardholders

chasebank
Apr 05 2018

Last year Chase offered 100,000 points for a home mortgage. That offer was stackable with a fee rebate that required signing up for automatic monthly payments, and Chase Private Client customer discounts also.

One thing we learn about the Chase Sapphire Reserve cardmember population — in addition to average credit scores (785) and annual income ($180,000) Chase has shared before — is that “[t]he average Reserve customer has … more than $800,000 in deposits and investments.” So they figure a down payment shouldn’t be a problem.

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An Odd Place to Put a Hotel Bible

hotel bathroom
Apr 05 2018

Your hotel room probably has a bible, because the Gideons distribute them for free. They started doing this in 1908 at the Superior Hotel in Superior, Montana. And they give away bibles also to hospitals, jails, and medical offices. Worldwide they reportedly give out 80 million bibles per year. The Gideons were formed by two men sharing a hotel room in 1898.

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How Much Banks Pay For Miles, and How You Can Now Beat the Banks

credit cards
Apr 05 2018

There’s an upper bound to what banks can possibly pay to reward customers. That’s based on their revenue which comes from interchange (merchant swipe fees when using the card to pay) and revolve (APR when customers don’t pay off their cards each month).

And we’re pretty much at a place where banks are paying as much as they possibly can at current rates for the rewards and benefits they’re handing out.

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