Category Archives for Credit Cards.
As a short hand expectation many people figured that would mean that applications for the Starwood Amex product – the one I’ve had for 17 years – would cease August 1. American Express, though, says “the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Consumer card will continue to welcome new Card Members now through August 2018, and beyond.”
Many people believe that means the card will continue to be offered indefinitely. I’m quite certain this is not the case.
After laying out the details of the new unified Marrott loyalty program I covered the new credit cards that will be offered.
One opportunity emerges.
Plastiq will usually charge 2.5% to bill your credit card and send a check to make payments for you.
I love competition, though. Because now that there’s a new player on the scene Plastiq is out with a lower rate promotion to lock in rent payments.
Marriott did a deal with both Chase and American Express for credit cards. Chase gets the bulk of the personal business, but American Express gets to issue a premium personal card. American Express gets the small business cards. And cardmembers keep their legacy products.
Both banks are issuing new products, and making changes to existing card products too. So in addition to speaking with Marriott about the changes I reached out to Chase and American Express as well to learn more and they were both forthcoming.
Urbanr lets you pay rent by credit card. They charge the tenant’s card, and the landord receives payment electronically in 3-5 business days.
And at 1.5% you’ve got a worthwhile margin even with a 2% cash back card though you can do better than that. Plus they’re offering $10.
Last year Chase offered 100,000 points for a home mortgage. That offer was stackable with a fee rebate that required signing up for automatic monthly payments, and Chase Private Client customer discounts also.
One thing we learn about the Chase Sapphire Reserve cardmember population — in addition to average credit scores (785) and annual income ($180,000) Chase has shared before — is that “[t]he average Reserve customer has … more than $800,000 in deposits and investments.” So they figure a down payment shouldn’t be a problem.
Southwest has changed their redemption values today in a way that upends the original model of the Rapid Rewads 2.0 program launched in 2011.
They’ve reduced the average number of points per dollar required for Business Select fares by 35% and Anytime fares by 22%. And they’ve increased the average points per dollar required for Wanna Get Away fares by 6%.
This $49 card has come with an anniversary free night every year that’s good at any IHG hotel. For new certificates issued May 1 onward these certificates will only be good for hotels that normally cost 40,000 points per night or less.
From August through October there was a 50,000 mile signup bonus offer for the Cathay Pacific Visa. That’s double the previous offer.
Through June 30 they’re offering an initial bonus up to 60,000 miles.
Yesterday I received a nice box with a thank you note inside and a book 1000 Places to See Before You Die with my name inscribed onto the cover.
I reached out to Barclays to see what’s going on with this and they shared:
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 »
