Credit Cards

Category Archives for Credit Cards.

3 Routes Where You Can Book Europe Business Class For Under 46,000 Chase, Amex or Citi Points

air france plane
Jan 31 2019

New variable Air France KLM Flying Blue points pricing is live and often makes no sense. Some awards are more expensive, some less expensive. Instead of a hidden award chart they have a calculator.

But they still offer various routes at 25% or 50% off each month and new ones are up for booking in February and travel in March and April.

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American Express 1099’ing Referral Bonuses

credit cards
Jan 31 2019

Apparently American Express is sending out 1099s to people who referred customers to their credit cards.

Just because Aemrican Express tells the IRS that Hilton points are worth 1.25 cents apiece doesn’t mean that’s the revenue on which you owe tax. You can dispute the value and pay less tax as a result. Here’s the process to do it.

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Why Banks Will Keep Paying Big Credit Card Rewards (Until the Economics of Cards Change)

credit cards
Jan 28 2019

Recently the Wall Street Journal wrote about banks trying to control rapidly spiraling rewards costs. I didn’t take seriously the idea that banks would cut back on rewards to consumers to do this because they are offering rich rewards for a reason: they need to do so to attract consumers which earn them a piece of every transaction (plus annual fees, and interest when they don’t pay off their bills).

Josh Barro though takes on the broader claim about banks backing off of big rewards in New York magazine.

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My Credit Card Predictions for 2019 and Beyond

What 2018 Taught Us What to Expect in 2019 The Future of Credit Card Rewards There’s a reasonable risk of recession some time in 2019. The Federal Reserve has been raising interest rates. Together that means higher cost of capital for banks and greater repayment risk on the credit they extend. As a result I see approval standards for premium rewards cards tightening. Initial cardmember bonuses remain crucial to attracting customers and demonstrating to them that the card has value quickly, in order to encourage moving a new card top of wallet. The fact that Barclays wasn’t successful with Arrival Premier moving consumers to a model of rewarding them after they’ve proven their value to the bank means that issuers can’t move away from big up front rewards. I continue to be impressed by how…

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How to Turn Capital One’s New Mileage Transfers Into Great Trips

Jan 04 2019

The biggest end of year miles and points news is definitely that Capital One has introduced the ability to transfer their miles to a variety of different airlines. That’s a game changer because the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card is now a double threat. When you spend on the card you earn your choice of 2% back towards paid travel, or up to 1.5 airline frequent flyer miles per dollar spent.

Here are thoughts on how to best transfer your points and book award travel using this new option.

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Chase Not Planning to Stop Cardholders From Pooling Points From Multiple Cards

credit cards
Jan 01 2019

This doesn’t mean Chase will never implement such a rule. And in the meantime I continue to ‘sweep’ points from my no annual fee cards into my premium card accounts each month — just in case — I don’t want to be left with big points balances in less valuable places if the music ever does stop. However it appears this is not something to be concerned about in the immediate term.

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