Credit Cards

Category Archives for Credit Cards.

Americans Stuck Abroad With No Money After Uber Charged Them $30,000 For A Single Trip

by Gary Leff

Jul 07 2023

Two Americans vacationing in Costa Rica were charged $29,994.33 for one Uber ride. It was supposed to be 29,994 a single Uber ride due to a suspected currency conversion error. The couple claims that the cost of the ride should have been 29,994 Costa Rican Colón – or US$55.16.

Complaining to Uber, they were told to contact their bank. The bank says Uber’s the one who charged them this way. And since they paid via debit card, their bank account has been fully drained. They shared their story having made it to Guatemala with “no access to funds” for their five year anniversary.

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Should Gun Control Advocates Oppose Efforts To Regulate Credit Card Interchange?

by Gary Leff

credit card reader
Jul 01 2023

A coalition could form to make this legislation viable by bundling rules that would prevent card issuers from discriminating against guns and other disfavored businesses.

At a minimum, Republican legislators concerned about movement in the direction of banning certain types of transactions from incumbent card networks could lead them to support legislation they believe reduces the relative power of those networks.

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Delta Opens The Kimono On Their SkyMiles Credit Card, Now About 1% Of The Whole Country’s GDP

by Gary Leff

Jun 28 2023

Before the pandemic the American Airlines co-brand portfolio had the largest charge volume, but American, United and Delta were all over $100 billion annually. Delta now says they’re “approaching 1% of U.S. GDP” on their co-brand cards, which would be ~ $255 billion.

Inflation helps, but it’s reasonable to think they’re suggesting they’re around $200 billion in annual charge volume on Delta Amex cards. Even if American and United are lagging Delta’s growth surely then these three airline co-brands are now taking a slice out of more than 2% of U.S. GDP.

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Up To $25 In Lyft Credits From Bilt Rewards (Free To Join)

by Gary Leff

Jun 26 2023

Bilt Rewards, the program that rewards you for paying rent, has the most lucrative partnership with Lyft. You earn their transferable points for rides you would take anyway, in addition to points earned on your credit card for the spending. For Rent Day – Bilt has lucrative special offers on the first of every month – Bilt and Lyft are offering free ride credit. All Bilt members are eligible for a $10 ride credit Members with the Bilt Mastercard receive a $20 ride credit If you ride Lyft on July 1 (Rent Day) you get an additional $5 credit. Link your Bilt and Lyft accounts in the app, if you haven’t already, and you should because you earn Bilt points for your rides and this is better in my view than earning Delta, Hilton or…

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Citi AAdvantage Executive Card Fee Increases: Some Published, More To Come

by Gary Leff

Jun 21 2023

Back in the fall I wrote that Citi would be ending the benefit of no annual fee authorized users with Admirals Club access, and likely raising the annual fee on the card itself as well. The ability for a single $450 annual fee to generate 11 cards (primary plus up to 10 authorized user cards) each with the ability to enter Admirals Clubs and also bring up to two guests was simply too good a deal.

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