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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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Celebrate Ebates’ Birthday With 15% Cash Back
To celebrate its birthday, Ebates is having a 15% Cash Back Party, featuring over 250 stores. The celebration begins on May 9 and will last one week. Doing your online shopping through a portal is a great way to earn extra cashback in addition to rewards earned with your credit card. I’ve always found the popular Ebates to be very competitive and reliable. What is a shopping portal? In short, a shopping portal is a website that provide links to various internet retailers. In return for directing customers to their site, those retailers pay a commission to the portal for each customer that makes a qualifying purchase. The portal then allots a portion of…
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Review: Capital One Venture Credit Card
Last week, I wrote a review of the BarclayCard Arrival Plus Credit Card. The Arrival Plus card and Capital One’s Venture share many similarities and lead me to the same conclusion. Capital One Venture’s signup bonus is worth $400 towards travel expenses and that is certainly worth the effort, but like Arrival Plus, the value ends there. Card Details Earn 40,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months Earn unlimited 2X miles on all purchases Visa Signature Benefits No foreign transaction fees $59 annual fee (waived the first year) Analysis Capital One Venture uses the word “miles” to describe the rewards that you earn when you…
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Review: BarclayCard Arrival Plus Credit Card
The BarclayCard Arrival Plus Credit Card comes with a generous signup bonus worth $400 when redeemed towards travel costs. The bonus alone is reason enough to apply for this card. Unfortunately, it may be the only reason. Don’t get me wrong, the Arrival Plus has some great benefits. But once you factor in the annual fee which kicks in after the first year, there are better credit card options. Let’s start with the basics. Card Details Earn 40,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 90 days Earn 2X miles on all purchases Get 5% miles back after each redemption 0% intro APR for 12 months on balance transfers…
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Amex Blue Cash Everyday or Preferred. Which is Right For You?
UPDATE: The Annual Fee for the Blue Cash Preferred Card is increasing to $95 on 8/3/16. See my updated post here. 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 be well worth paying. Lets compare the two popular cash back credit cards offered by American Express–one that charges an annual fee and one that doesn’t–Blue Cash Everyday and Blue Cash Preferred. I’ll walk you through the extra benefits and do all the necessary math…
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What’s the Best Cash Back Credit Card if You Only Want One Card?
If you like cash back credit cards and prefer simplicity, consider the Double Cash card offered by Citi. There are no category bonuses or quarterly activations to keep track of, just 2% back on all your spending. I generally don’t advocate having only one credit card as I feel that multiple cards are the best way to maximize bonuses. That being said, there are those prefer a single go-to card for all purchases. For them, I always recommend Citi Double Cash. This card has merit even if you have multiple cash back credit cards (one for groceries, one for gas, etc.), there is always that “everything else” category that no…
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New Freedom Unlimited Credit Card from Chase
Chase has added another credit card to its Ultimate Rewards arsenal. The new Freedom Unlimited, unlike its sibling, has no category bonuses or quarterly activations. You earn 1.5 points on every dollar you spend–unlimited. Freedom Unlimited is a great complement to Chase’s other Ultimate Rewards earning cards. Continue to use the other cards to spend in bonus categories. Freedom Unlimited is now the card to use for “everything else.” Card Details 15,000 ($150) bonus points after you spend $500 on purchases in your first 3 months 2,500 ($25) bonus points when you add your first authorized user and make your first purchase in your first 3 months 1.5x Ultimate Rewards points on all…
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Unique Credit Card Signup Offer for Amex Blue Cash Everyday
American Express has announced a unique promotion for new customers applying for their Blue Cash Everyday Card. This offer could potentially be worth $350–not bad for a no annual fee card–but there are some caveats. The regular signup bonus for this card is $100 cashback in the form of a statement credit after spending $1000 in the first 3 months after approval. If you are a targeted customer (or if you use your browser’s “incognito” window), this offer may be as high as $150. In addition to the regular cashback incentive, the promotional bonus offers 10% credit on purchases at U.S. Wireless Telephone Service Providers up to $200 through the end…
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Should You Pay the Annual Fee for the Chase Sapphire Preferred?
Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP) provides a number of additional benefits that the Chase Freedom card doesn’t offer. However, those extras come at a cost. After being waived the first year, the annual fee of $95 will kick in. Is it worth paying? I’ll walk you through the extra benefits and do the math for you with a calculator at the end of this article. The premise behind this exercise is that you are deciding whether to keep your CSP and pay the annual fee or downgrade it to a Freedom card to save the $95 (or simply cancel if you already have a Freedom). To make this determination, my calculator requires only 4 variables:…
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Time to Plan Some Late Summer Home Improvement Projects with Discover It Card
The Discover It card’s 5% Cashback Bonus categories for the remainder of 2016 were recently announced, and July through September looks compelling. Use your Discover It card at home improvement stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot in the 3rd Quarter and get 5% cashback on up to $1,500 in purchases. If you’re planning some projects now, it might be worth putting them off until July to capitalize on the bonus–wish me luck explaining that to Mrs. PointsYak. All the 2016 bonus categories are listed in the graphic below. Amazon.com is prominently featured in the entire second half of the year, while “& More” in the 4th Quarter is vague at best.…
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