Category Archives for Credit Cards.
Bank of America has several lesser-known but still excellent rewards credit cards. They will approve at most 2 cards every 2 months, 3 cards every 12 months, and 4 cards every 24 months. That limit applies to Bank of America cards only, rather than being like Chase which looks at the cards you’ve opened from all sources.
A new study looked at germs on different forms of payment mechanisms and how they compare to some of the more disgusting things we can think of. And while little compared to a door handle of a McDonald’s in New York, or to a city parking meter, the credit cards, bills, and coins we use may be more germ-laden even than the bathrooms at New York Penn Station or a New York subway pole.
Testing “40 debit and credit cards, 27 different bill denominations, and 10 coins for germs” each surface “was swabbed with a handheld germ testing device and assigned a ‘germ score’ to rank the item on the disgusting scale.”
My wallet has a bunch of credit cards sitting behind credit cards. It has my drivers license, office security access card, and Priority Pass cards. That doesn’t even begin to cover it though because I’ve got my insurance cards, AAA card, and some business cards too.
Overstuffing – and simply using – a wallet wears it out faster. I don’t like investing a ton of money in a wallet because it’s simply not going to last the way I use it.
Imagine you wanted to develop a policy that would erect the greatest barriers possible between the poor and middle classes and the already wealthy, and prevent income mobility, what would that policy look like? It would probably include limiting access to credit along the lines proposed here.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Don’t discount the value of a bucket as a signup bonus!
Along with some pvc pipe, gravel, sand and charcoal you could use a bucket to build a water filter. You can grow food inside of a bucket. Or harvest rainwater. You could even attach a couple of straps to the bucket and make it a backpack. With holes near the bottom of the bucket, and placed inside roasting pans, you might be able to use it to feed chickens. Buckets are also super useful if the ALS Foundation gets the ice bucket challenge to go viral again.
The AAdvantage Aviator Business Mastercard has a new best-ever offer with an initial bonus up to 75,000 miles.
What’s cool is that you can also get the American AAdvantage small business card from Citibank, the CitiBusiness / AAdvantage Platinum Select World Mastercard, and it has a best-ever initial offer too.
American Express is running a 30% bonus on transfers to Virgin Atlantic through July 1. You have to log in to see the bonus.
Virgin’s miles are fantastic for ANA and Delta redemptions. However I’d only make the transfer to redeem a specific award, rather than doing to preemptively or viewing the program as a store of value.
Plastiq.com is a service that will charge your credit card and mail checks on your behalf. (With some vendors they also make electronic ACH payments.)
Their usual fee for this is 2.5%. It’s worth it to incur that fee if you’re earning a signup bonus with the credit card charges, or you’re meeting a spending threshold for a bonus.
Right now Mastercard payments are costing just 1.5%, and you can even pay a residential mortgage with a Mastercard.
A Brookings Institution piece argues that the “poor subsidize wealthier consumers” in financial transactions from checking accounts to credit card rewards. I do not think this is quite right, but let me first lay out the argument.
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 »
