Category Archives for Credit Cards.
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.
Two weeks ago Paypal introduced language into its terms and conditions that allowed them to withdraw $2500 from your account for each time they believed you “promot[ed] misinformation” or you sent, posted or published “messages, content, or materials that, in PayPal’s sole discretion, (a) are harmful, obscene, harassing, or objectionable.”
After an online backlash they pulled the language from their update. They called it a mistake, but once the internet outrage died down they brought it back.
October 1 was the inaugural Bilt Rewards ‘Rent Day’. There were some smashing deals, and they promised to be back monthly.
They’re back with some great offers including elite status with United Airlines – literally for everyone.
The premium American Airlines credit card, the Citi Executive AAdvantage card, is a bit of a throwback. The card has been largely unchanged since it launched in summer 2011. So it doesn’t have many of the benefits of other airline premium cards. However, it is by far the cheapest way to gain club access with American Airlines, since the price of membership has risen while this card’s annual fee has not. The card is overdue for a refresh.
Bilt Rewards, the loyalty program which lets you earn points for paying rent and which offers probably the single best no annual fee rewards card in the market (the Bilt Mastercard), announced a growth round of $150 million in new funding at a $1.5 billion post-money valuation. Their round was led by Left Lane Capital and included Smash Capital, Wells Fargo, Greystar, Invitation Homes, Camber Creek, Fifth Wall, and Prosus Ventures.
These things can be somewhat challenging to date, but it appears to me that Bilt Rewards is faster from launch to unicorn status than Square, Instacart or Twitter were. And there’s two reasons this strikes me as important.
Where interchange has been limited, like in places such as Australia, credit card annual fees have risen since spend on the cards isn’t as profitable.
Europe, where interchange is limited and the use of cards as a payment mechanism is less common than in the United States (and cash more prevalent), is much poorer than the United States. That’s hardly the only reason, or the most significant reason. It’s a bundle of policies, and the U.S. would be ill-advised to follow European economic, financial and regulatory policy.
PayPal updated its user agreement, and sent an email to business account customers, explaining that effective November 3 customers would be subject to $2,500 fines per instance of ‘promoting misinformation’ or “sending, posting, or publication of any messages, content, or materials that, in PayPal’s sole discretion, (a) are harmful, obscene, harassing, or objectionable.”
If they deemed you to promote messages they objected to 10 times, or to have spread misinformation (in their sole discretion) 10 times, they could take $25,000 from your account. It isn’t clear whether – if your PayPal balance was $0 – they could withdraw funds from your linked accounts, but other areas of its terms would suggest this possibility. After an online backlash they’ve pulled the language from their update.
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 »
