Category Archives for Credit Cards.
Citi is revamping its Premier and Preferred cards. Citi Premier gets new earning categories, and spending points on paid travel will no longer be as lucrative (making points-to-miles transfers the only good option). Citi Preferred is getting new bonus categories.
The American Express Centurion Card, or Black Card, is a prestige item in a wallet but way too expensive for what you get. It costs $10,000 in the first year ($2500 thereafter). There are, however, some unique benefits the Platinum card doesn’t get – like Delta Platinum and Hilton Diamond status – and now even a $1000 annual Saks credit along with other new perks.
A year ago I offered advice on sanitizing credit cards. Since then I learned that your credit cards are actually dirtier than the bathrooms at New York’s Penn Station.
Now as we try to sanitize our hands, and everything we touch, especially the few times we go outside this has greater relevance than ever. Did you hand your card over to a store clerk? Did you stick it inside a card reader machine, and what was on the last card that was in there? I actually sanitized my cards, even before the current crisis.
Everything has changed. You may have opened a new small business credit card, and your business is temporarily closed under a ‘shelter in place’ order. Or you’re just pending less in light of uncertainty in the economy.
Maybe you’re stuck at home, buying groceries but you had planned for big expenses you’re putting off (like travel!). I’m sure there are many readers wondering how they’re going to meet the minimum spend requirement for those credit card bonuses.
A lot of people are becoming unemployed. To a credit card issuer that means late payments and eventually chargeoffs. The reason banks sometimes reduce credit lights, and tighten lending standards, in a down economy is because there is more repayment risk. This reduces their exposure to bad debt.
I’m still excited for the long term of rewards cards. Thanks to the government’s money printer go brrr right now the cost of credit to banks is unbelievably low.
As some travel providers fight to hold onto cash without delivering services you may need to turn to credit card charge backs – putting your credit card issuer on your side to get your money back.
Credit card bonuses have seemed to get a lot larger in the past few months, as competition heated up across bank issuers to attract new cardmembers. 100,000 points was a huge line to cross. Sure, Hilton cards have had those offers frequently but a Hilton point isn’t the same thing as a United mile.
Now is the time to stock up on lots of miles. Hoard them for big trips when you’re ready to take them. Airlines seem to be expecting a lot of empty seats for awhile. That means there’s a good chance for very good award availability, lots of opportunities to use your miles. And airlines will be using the loyalty programs both to fill seats and get passengers flying again.
Chase has brought back ‘return protection’ for the Chase Sapphire Reserve® card. That’s a benefit that had been dropped two years ago. I actually noted this in my full review of the card last month but it’s worth highlighting separately.
TripActions is a corporate travel management and booking tool that travelers seem to like a lot more than suffering through Concur. They’ve just announced their second product, which is a company credit card aimed at business travel and called Liquid. Companies using it in beta include Zoom, Lyft and letgo.
This isn’t a co-brand credit card, they’ve actually raised a $500 million debt facility to finance payments for the TripActions Liquid Visa themselves. This way they’re able to offer seamless integration between payments and travel without a bank getting in between booking, payments, reporting, and control.
I think I’ve figured out why Chase and Visa would agree to give United $400 million more a year – starting right away – for a credit card deal they already had in place for several years.
Much of United’s explanation why made no sense. This new deal isn’t likely to lead to a lot of “portfolio growth” (more cardmembers). They already were introducing new cards, new benefits, and have been running aggressive acquisition bonuses. However 5 words in United’s SEC filing seem to give away the plot.
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 »
