Category Archives for Credit Cards.
In order to be an attractive co-brand partner you need a large base of customers who are loyal to your brand. And ideally you have a currency and benefits those customers are willing to accelerate with their spend. There’s just not a huge opportunity on day one.
So Avelo has an interesting workaround. They’re not yet in a place to generate that sweet, sweet co-brand cash. But they can earn a commission on credit card signups.
The Bilt Mastercard, the no annual fee card that lets you earn points paying rent at no cost (up to $100,000 per year) and earns double points on travel and triple points on dining, earns even more one day a month for “Bilt Rent Day,” but for this month it’s running a full week thanks to Black Friday.
Bilt Rewards is offering the first-even 100% transfer bonus with a partner that normally has a 1:1 ratio, at least the first that I’m aware of in twenty years.
The founder of Barstool Sports, David Portnoy, flexed on social media showing himself buying a pack of gum with a Black Card for $1.59 – and the terminal displays his available Membership Rewards balance of 44,403,931 points.
Sure, you can use Amex points at Rite Aid. It’s a poor value, but it’s an opportunity to show the balance in an ironic setting. The employee comments “you probably could go on a trip” and Portnoy boasts “I’ve gotta be a league leader with points.”
We’ve seen American Express load up on merchant-funded offers to show substantial cash value to cardmembers, while raising annual fees. We’ve seen Chase do the same – think DoorDash and Lyft right before the pandemic, while announcing a fee increase on the Sapphire Reserve card.
These offers can be hard to make last. Eventually the brand reaches as many customers as they are likely to reach, and no longer benefits from offering continued discounts. So issuers need a funnel of new offers to replace the ones they lose.
It’s now possible to earn Star Alliance Gold status through credit card spend alone, and to earn transferable Star Alliance points in the Star Alliance Rewards program.
Star Alliance has launched its first stand-alone credit card, in the Australian market. This is expected to expand.
The bet is that the bank will lose money on interchange, but make money on APR. They’re looking for customers who will revolve. Banks lose money on some customers (who pay off their bills each month) while making money on those who pay monthly interest charges.
In the final sketch of the Elon Musk episode Saturday Night Live last year, Musk suggested creating a currency based on “whatever we say it’s based on.” Now the Dogefather has filed paperwork for Twitter to get into the payments business.
In a Q&A today with advertisers, he described users “link[ing] their online bank account to Twitter” and offering “extremely compelling money market account to get extremely high yield on your balance.” They’ll also offer a debit card and other services.
In addition to a biggest-ever bonus there are changes to the card’s earning, and benefits – including to the $99+tax annual companion pass.
In our deeply divided world, where we can’t seem to decide whether Elon Musk is a hero to the left (electric cars and solar energy) or villain (since if he allows former President Trump to trashpost on twitter that’ll be a threat to democracy, though it likely helps the political fortunes of Democrats), there’s one thing we can all come together over. Taylor Swift. Hero to the alt-right and to the cultural left.
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 »
