Category Archives for Credit Cards.
A woman says that she ran up more than $10,000 in charges at a strip club, but doesn’t think she should be responsible for the transactions on her Chase Freedom and Chase Sapphire cards. She says she “had one too many drinks and/or I was drugged” and has filed disputes with Chase.
She was given temporary credits on her Sapphire card. However she’s been denied credit for her disputes on the since-closed Freedom card.
Banks are spending billions of dollars to gain access to customers, and to convince those customers to run their spend through the bank’s products. However this strategy is difficult.
It can be a more fruitful strategy to fish for customers in new ponds. And we’ve seen a lot of that. Chase used to see small portfolios and feel they wouldn’t move the needle enough. Now they’re doing DoorDash, Instacart, and Air Canada Aeroplan’s U.S. co-brand.
We’re no longer facing 8% – 10% inflation, but probably still 4% – 5%. And it’s may be harder for the Fed to go the last mile.
However it may be that the banking crisis does the work for them – banks are likely to tighten up lending, which is contractionary. The odds of recession have grown, there’s no longer much talk of a soft landing (let alone no landing). Consumers have already pulled back in the week since Silicon Valley Bank failed.
The big co-brands have all become such expensive deals that only the biggest banks could swallow them. So your airline credit card isn’t going to disappear. And the big banks are also the only ones that have been able to afford to stand up their own rich transferable points programs which can outcompete airline cards.
The space is now open, and it’s not only available to Black Card customers. There is an open Salon with complimentary coffee and (3) distinct areas with separate reservations. And a secret room.
By Monday there’s a reasonable chance that Silicon Valley Bank will be taken over by another bank, and even that uninsured deposits will be made whole. In any case, depositors will have access to cash soon.
However there’s one way in which this spills over… maybe not into other banks, but apparently to miles and points?
Bilt Rewards has introduced a new partnership with Lyft. All Bilt members can now earn 2 points per dollar spent with Lyft by linking their account. Bilt credit card members separately earn 5 points per dollar on Lyft spend. So you can earn 7 Bilt points per dollar spent with Lyft.
Big merchants like accepting credit cards, because it’s a convenient way for consumers to pay, and puts money right in their bank accounts. But that comes at a cost, which they’d rather not pay. They want the government to legally require banks and payment networks to provide their services for less.
Retailers don’t want to come out and say this, of course, so they cloak their argument in doing good… for the poor, whom they claim are the ones paying credit card fees. And they claim that rewards cards, which bring in bigger spenders who buy more and are more expensive, especially hurt the poor. That’s not actually true.
Capital One transfers to Virgin miles will receive a 30% bonus during the month of March. This applies to transfers for Venture X, Venture, VentureOne, Venture X Business and Spark Miles cardholders.
The DoorDash Rewards Mastercard has just launched, and is available for applications. It’s a no annual fee cash back card, where you’ll want to consider it for bonus earning categories and benefits but not for everyday spend.
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 »
