Category Archives for Credit Cards.
At the beginning of the year, Capital One launched their premium hotel collection with extra benefits for Venture X cardmembers. Now they’re extending this to a new type of hotel and crucially these are available to Venture X, Venture X Business, Venture, and Spark Miles cardmembers.
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…
Rewards are not for everyone. If you can’t be strategic, if you can’t handle your finances, then you shouldn’t play. Dave Ramsey profits off scams but also has advice that is helpful to a segment of the population that can’t manage money. The problem is that Ramsey thinks it applies to everyone, and he’s wrong.
There are some situations where getting one card precludes you from getting something else, whether it’s the best deal on a mortgage (usually not an issue, but always best to be safe before applying) or another credit card. When there’s a tradeoff you have to consider which choice delivers more value to you.
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.
Chase is offering a 20% bonus on transfers from Ultimate Rewards to Air Canada Aeroplan through July 31, 2023.
Senators Dick Durbin (D-IL) and Roger Marshall (R-KS) have re-introduced their bill to crack down on credit card interchange. That’s the cost businesses pay to accept credit cards. Since banks and card networks like Visa and Mastercard make money on each transaction, they spend money to encourage those transactions. That’s what funds credit card rewards. It’s even to a large extent what funds the airlines, when carriers like American often don’t make money flying planes but ultimately earn money selling their miles to banks. Reducing interchange reduces card rewards. Of course if that were somehow good for the world, it would be tough to argue for our miles and points. But it isn’t good for the world. Countries that have capped interchange haven’t seen prices fall to consumers. Consumers are used here a fig leaf…
I think this is great. If this is something you want to support, you can earn more miles doing so. And if it’s not, you can ignore the offer. Of course in 2023 it’s not so simple.
Bilt Rewards, the program that lets you earn transferable points paying rent, turns two. And each month they offer rich promotions the first of the month for ‘Rent Day’. This month you can instant win 100,000 Bilt points or points for Virgin or Emirates business class roundtrips for two, on top of points for trivia and double points on card spend.
Many frequent flyers use Plastiq to pay bills with a credit card, they charge the card (and you earn miles) and they pay electronically or via check. Their fees have increased in recent years and are now up to 2.9%, but some find it worthwhile for paying things like mortgages and car payments that can’t otherwise be charged – especially when earning an initial bonus for a new credit card, or earning high spend bonuses and credit towards elite status.
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 »
