Credit Cards

Category Archives for Credit Cards.

New Priority Club Visa Offers

by Gary Leff on December 10, 2005

Dec 10 2005

There’s a new Priority Club Visa offer which is better than the standard 10,000 points with first purchase: 15,000 bonus points with first purchase Free $20 statement credit with first purchase 10,000 bonus points after spending $15,000 on the card each year No fee the first year ($29/year thereafter) Gold status in the Priority Club program (which doesn’t offer much) It’s still not a great card to put large amounts of spending on. It only offers 1 Priority Club point per dollar spent (3 per dollar at Priority Club hotel properties, e.g. Intercontinental and Holiday Inn). I’d take almost any other card’s earning strength. But the offer is an improved one and the signup bonus is nice. And the earning isn’t bad when earning 3 points per dollar spent or if you put exactly the…

Priority Club Shopping Bonus

by Gary Leff on December 1, 2005

Dec 01 2005

When I listed holiday shopping promos last week I left out the offer from Priority Club: double points for paying with Visa and threshold bonuses for various spend levels (up to 10,000 bonus points for $1000 in spending). Spending at 23 merchants count towards the bonuses. Thanks to the MilesLink newsletter for the reminder.

Who gets to issue the USAirways Visa, after all?

by Gary Leff on October 17, 2005

Oct 17 2005

Bank of America, which is being replaced by Juniper Bank as issuer of USAirways’ co-branded credit card, is suing the airline for breach of contract. Bank of America claims it has exclusive rights to offer a co-branded card through December 2008. Juniper Bank has been sold the exclusive right after December 2008… but their deal with USAirways involves a two-year “transition period” in which both banks can issue a card.

Best United Visa offer yet?

by Gary Leff on August 28, 2005

Aug 28 2005

I’ve seen 15,000 bonus miles with first purchase and annual fee waived for the first year. And I’ve seen 20,000 miles with first purchase but there’s an annual fee right away. This is the first time I’ve seen 20,000 bonus miles with first purchase and fee waived the first year. In general I haven’t seen too many problems getting the signup bonus credited or having the fee waived — but it’s still a good idea to print the offer page (which mentions the bonus miles) and print the terms and conditions page (which mentions no fee the first year) just in case there’s any confusion later.

Bonus miles for referring new cardmembers to the Alaska Airlines Visa Signature

by Gary Leff on August 14, 2005

Aug 14 2005

If you have an Alaska Airlines Visa Signature, you can refer friends to the card and earn 1000 Alaska miles when they’re approved for it. The Alaska Airlines Visa Signature is one of the cards that I recommend as one of the Best Mileage Earning Credit Cards (in limited circumstances, primarily if you can make use of the companion travel certificate that comes with the card). So if you’re going to get the card, consider letting someone who already has it refer you so they can get a free 1000 miles. (Via Free Frequent Flyer Miles.)

Juniper Bank to issue Visa for Merged USAirways-America West

by Gary Leff on August 9, 2005

Aug 09 2005

When the USAirways-America West merger was first announced in May I noted that a key detail was a planned cash infusion from a credit card partner in the neighborhood of $300 million. It was curious that the partner wasn’t named, while Bank of America was already partner to both airlines. So, despite the Charlotte Observer calling the news “somewhat unexpected”, it shouldn’t be all that surprising that Juniper Bank (which issues Frontier and Airtran cards) will become the issuer of the USAirways card.Taking the place of Charlotte-based Bank of America will be Juniper Bank, a subsidiary of British-based Barclays PLC, which agreed Monday to pour $455 million into the merger between US Airways and America West Airlines. In exchange, Juniper will have the exclusive right to market the US Airways credit card beginning in 2008,…

Multilevel Marketing for Credit Card Rewards

by Gary Leff on July 23, 2005

Jul 23 2005

Colloquy reports on a new program in the United Arab Emirates where cutomers receive a 1% rebate on their spending and a 1% rebate on the spending of everyone they refer for the credit card. I haven’t seen anything like this in the U.S. (though there are certainly one-time referral bonuses for getting someone to sign up for a card) but I certainly expect to.

20,000 Mile Bonus Offer for United Visa Signature Platinum Class

by Gary Leff on July 14, 2005

Jul 14 2005

The new United Mileage Plus Visa Signature Platinum Class, detailed earlier this month, has an offer of 20,000 bonus miles with first purchase along with the other card benefits detailed in my previous post. The application link won’t spell out the bonus miles — these links usually don’t — but the link is from an email clearly promising the bonus miles. In my experience with the United Visa, this works out perfectly well (although if you have any problems receiving the correct bonus, email me at gleff -at- yahoo.com and I’ll forward the text of the email).

United Mileage Plus Visa Signature Platinum Class

by Gary Leff on July 2, 2005

Jul 02 2005

There’s been a lot of buzz about a new United Airlines co-branded credit card. It’s expensive but has some great features. I haven’t chosen to carry it myself, but for frequent United flyers it may be just the right card. First, the fee is $140 per year. That’s more than the regular Signature Visa at $60 and more than the Gold Class Visa Signature which is priced at $85 (and which comes with 2500 anniversary miles, double miles on United purchases, and up to 10,000 miles a year for balance transfers). It’s also more expensive than the $30 Starwood American Express, to my mind the gold standard in mileage earning credit cards. However, there are some interesting benefits to the new United card. In addition to the 15,000 bonus miles with first purchase, 1000 mile…

Cathay Pacific Visa for Canadians

by Gary Leff on May 24, 2005

May 24 2005

Canadians can get a Cathay Pacific Visa Platinum card from RBC Bank. The annual fee is stiff at CA$150, but the card earns 1 AsiaMile per Canadian dollar spent — pretty good earning — on top of the 5000 AsiaMiles with first purchase. The AsiaMiles program permits upgrading on British Airways and American in addition to Cathay Pacific, and some of its awards are incredible values. 60,000 AsiaMiles buys you a business class award of less than 5000 miles each way. That would yield a British Airways ticket from the U.S. East Coast to most destinations in Europe. American charges 50,000 miles in coach for that. AsiaMiles is my program of choice for transferring eBay Anything Points, by the way, since 1 eBay point yields slightly more than 1 AsiaMile.