Category Archives for Credit Cards.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has launched a broadside against credit card rewards programs. I spoke with CFPB’s Director, Rohit Chopra about the effort.
The agency warns that several aspects of credit card rewards programs – like devaluations – may violate the law, that retail (store) cards are often poor value, and that consumers can be misled by tools that purport to suggest the best product for them.
Alaska Airlines announced this week that the move to a single loyalty program with Hawaiian Airlines will come this summer, and that they’ll also launch a premium credit card at that time.
Brett Catlin, Alaska’s Vice President of Loyalty, Alliances and Sales, shared some additional details about the card’s companion award certificate with me.
I was approved for this card early in 2024 and now face a choice over whether it’s worth keeping. For now, this Hilton benefit is additive. I suspect it will be more valuable to me than benefits that we may lose – but split up quarterly, at $50 per quarter, requires somewhat regular business with Hilton to maximize and I’m not a Hilton regular. So I’ll have to factor the increased effort (compared to, for instance, making an online Dell purchase) into the equation.
Capital One is offering up to 56,000 miles for signing up with Yieldstreet via Capital One Offers. The real value here is you need to open an account, but it doesn’t look like you need to fund the account or invest.
American Airlines and Citibank have entered into an agreement to extend their cobrand credit card agreement by 10 years. This deal pushes out Barclays, and makes Citi the sole issuer of American Airlines credit cards in the U.S. starting in 2026.
We will start to see points transfers from Citibank to American AAdvantage and likely more.
This morning Bilt is out with a new message to program members that reveals a real pivot in strategy. The message is ‘we’re not just a credit card’.
In this message they lay out some of their vision for 2025, walk through their economics, and drop what I view as something of a bombshell.
Bilt’s monthly Rent Day is back and they have both offers on their traditional timeline (December 1) as well as leading up to it.
Bilt Rewards has a new program that rewards you with 1 point per $2 spent on the purchase price of a home, for working with a real estate agent they refer you to.
This is all wrapped with first-time homebuying tools like mortgage, down payment, property tax and insurance cost calculators that help educate members. Their tool integrates the affordability calculators with real estate search.
Card, and interchange, are so woven into the fabric of the economy that it’s difficult to even predict the full extent of damage from redistributing money here not just from payment networks but also from consumers to retailers. That’s why Senator Durbin’s attempt to cap credit card swipe fees isn’t just bad policy, it’s literally insane.
If I were eligible, I’d definitely consider the premium card – a year of oneworld Sapphire and 80,000 points is a no-brainer to me and I’d spend hard through end of year to earn the redemption fee rebate.
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 »
