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Amex Announces New Platinum Card Benefits
After recent buzz about potential new benefits coming to the Platinum Card, today American Express announced the changes. Beginning October 6, consumers with a Platinum Card from American Express will receive 5X Membership Rewards points on airfare booked directly with airlines or through American Express Travel. Also, Business Platinum Card Members will now earn 50% points back (up from 30%) when using Membership Rewards Pay with Points through American Express Travel to book an economy flight with their selected airline or a first or business class ticket with any airline. In addition, Business Platinum Card Members can earn 1.5X Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on any individual purchase of $5,000 or more. “Our new…
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Transfer Points and Status Match Between Marriott and Starwood
Marriott has completed its acquisition of Starwood Hotels & Resorts, giving the combined company 30 hotel brands and over 5700 properties worldwide. Effective immediately, you can now match your highest level status and transfer points in either direction between the programs. The 3:1 ratio for transferring points is fair: 3 Marriott/Ritz Carlton Rewards points = 1 Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) point. The only limitations are a minimum of 1000 points and a maximum of all the points in your account. If you have a Marriott or Ritz Carlton account and an SPG account, you can link them together here. If you are not already a member of one or both of the programs,…
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Chase Sapphire Reserve – Post Denial Options
After applying for Chase Sapphire Reserve in a bank branch earlier this week, I finally decided to call the reconsideration line to check the status. As I feared, my application was denied due to too many accounts opened in the past 24 months. I asked the representative “How many is too many accounts?” She was polite but would not put a number on it. I had considered waiting to let the decision process play out on its own–some have had more luck being approved that way. I finally considered calling for two reasons: There might be a need to move some credit around which could be causing the delay. I have 3 additional recently…
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The New Chase Sapphire Reserve Card Looks Fantastic!
UPDATE: The 100,000 point signup bonus offer for online applications will be reduced to 50,000 on January 12, 2017. Chase has introduced its new premium travel credit card, Sapphire Reserve, and it looks fantastic! Loaded with benefits, it carries a hefty $450 annual fee. This new addition to its lineup finally gives Chase a direct competitor to The Platinum Card from American Express and Citi Prestige. Sapphire Reserve offers a myriad of travel benefits that more than make up for the annual fee, including an annual $300 travel credit, complimentary Priority Pass airport lounge access, and Global Entry/TSA Pre✓ credit. Unfortunately, this card is subject to Chase’s restrictive 5/24 rule. Last week, I wrote…
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New Chase Sapphire Reserve: Now You See It, Now You Don’t
Update: Chase has clarified that the Visa Infinite $100 credit towards 2-5 domestic flights will not be included as a benefit of the Chase Sapphire Reserve. I’ve updated this post accordingly. Yesterday afternoon, Chase prematurely accepted online applications for it’s new, but yet-to-be-announced flagship credit card, Chase Sapphire Reserve. The link to the application page was discovered and posted by a user on reddit. A short time later, another link listing the card’s benefits was posted by a different user. Within a couple hours, the party was over as Chase took down the links. During the time that the links were active, applications to Sapphire Reserve did not appear to be subject to the…
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The Chase 5/24 Rule: When a Great Credit Score Isn’t Enough
You earn a good salary and your credit score is over 750, but Chase just denied your credit card application. How can this be? If you’ve opened 5 or more credit cards from any bank in the last 2 years, you just became the latest victim of the Chase 5/24 rule. Your good credit history is usually the most important prerequisite banks look for in order to approve you for a credit card. But with Chase’s unique credit card approval rule, your stellar credit takes a back seat to your potential profitability. Before applying for any Chase credit card, you’ll need to know what the Chase 5/24 rule is and if it applies to you. Here…
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50% British Airways Transfer Bonus from Amex Membership Rewards
For a limited time, you can get 50% more British Airways Avios when you transfer from your American Express Membership Rewards account. For every 250 MR point you transfer, you’ll get 300 Avios instead of the usual 200. This offer is good through 11:59 p.m. CT on October 10, 2016. If your travel plans include British Airways or its partners in the near future, now would be a great time to transfer some of your Membership Rewards points. In October, 2015, American Express reduced the regular Avios transfer ratio. For each 250 Membership Rewards points you normally receive 200 Avios. Prior to that devaluation, the exchange ratio was 1:1 (250:250). Ultimately,…
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Rundown of all the New Amex Offers
Many new Amex Offers have been released over the last few days. If you have travel plans, the Sheraton Hotels and Ritz-Carlton deals are particularly lucrative and might influence your hotel choice. In addition, the 10% back on gas and tolls offers can provide you with a savings on money you’re probably spending anyway. For newcomers to these deals, check out my primer: Amex Offers = Too Good To Miss Out!. I wrote about how to connect your American Express card to your social media account and how to add offers to your card via Twitter, Facebook, or your americanexpress.com account. Twitter is the easiest method, but some offers are targeted, so you should be logging on to your…
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Should I Cancel a Credit Card I No Longer Use?
There are times when it makes sense to cancel a credit card, but it’s oftentimes better not to. In “Before You Cancel That Credit Card, Read This!“, I wrote about the effects that canceling a card have on your credit score–it can never help, only hurt your score. In this article, I’ll go through some of the more common reasons I see given for wanting to cancel a card and discuss the validity of each reason. I have too much available credit This is a common misconception in consumer finance. Banks actually prefer if you have a large and varied amount of available credit. Risk is reduced by spreading it out…
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Amex Blue Cash Preferred Raising Annual Fee
Beginning August 3, 2016, the Annual Fee for the American Express Blue Cash Preferred credit card is increasing from $75 to $95. There’s been no announcement other than the notation on the web-based application. There is also no indication of any enhancement to the card’s benefits. The rest of this post is an update of Amex Blue Cash Everyday of Preferred. Which is Right For You? There are those who would never apply for a cash back credit card that charges an annual fee. Does it make sense to pay a fee to get your own cash back? The answer lies in your own spending habits and as you’ll see, those fees could…
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