Tag Archives: Travel Credit Cards

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2 Recent Credit Card Retention Offers: $150 Statement Credit & 4,000 Customer Appreciation Points

Good afternoon everyone.  Part of my credit card strategy is to call and ask for a retention offers every time a credit card annual fee posts to my account.  I am not successful 100% of the time, but I always find it worthwhile when I receive a retention offer for $50, $100, $150 or even $695 with a single call.  Today’s post is a friendly reminder to call and ask for retention offers.  The worse thing that can happen is that the rep screams at you relentlessly says they have no offers available.  You can then decide to keep the card open, downgrade to a no annual fee credit card, or cancel the card.  Here are my 2 recent examples.

The $450 annual fee posted to Laura’s JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Credit Card on January 1.  She called the customer service number on the back of the card and received a $150 statement credit to keep her credit card open.  The $150 statement credit posted at the end of January and then she paid off the remaining credit card balance.  $150 for a 5-7 minute phone call is a great hourly rate :)

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How to Submit Primary Rental Car CDW Insurance Claim with eClaimsLine / Card Benefit Services (US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card)

Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday.  A few months ago, I was in Southern California and driving my Hertz rental car to Disneyland when a small rock struct my windshield, causing a long crack on the driver’s side of the windshield. I’ve never had to file an in insurance claim for a rental car before, so this was a new experience for me.  In this post, I will share details of the claims process and what I learned along the way, so if you are ever in a similar situation, you know what to expect.

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Payment Posts Instantly when you Pay Bilt Credit Card via Wells Fargo Checking Account

Good afternoon everyone.  A few weeks ago, I wrote I Finally Got A Bilt Credit Card (Application Process, Earning & Redeeming Strategy, and Unboxing).  In that post, I shared that I was excited that I was approved for the Bilt Credit Card (my referral link) but confused why I was only approved for a $4,000 credit limit since I applied for 2 other credit cards afterward and was approved for a $22,000 credit limit on a Bank of America Air France / KLM Credit Card and a $17,200 credit limit on a Barclays JetBlue Plus Credit Card.  I knew with a $4,000 credit limit, it was going to be impossible challenging to spend $12,500 in the first 5 days in order to receive the maximum 50,000 bonus Bilt Points for new card members.

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PSA: Bank of America Won’t Automatically Send a Replacement Debit Card when your Card Expires

Good evening everyone, I hope you had a great Presidents’ Day Weekend.  Long story short, I realized my Bank of America checking account debit card expired in July 2022 and Bank of America never sent me a replacement debit card (until I requested a new debit card in February 2024).  Let me provide more background info, in case you are curious.

I opened the Bank of America checking account in July 2018 when Bank of America was offering a $150 new account bonus.  Bank of America is not my primary bank, but I kept the checking account opened for several years because I had 2 Bank of America Better Balance Rewards Credit Cards (RIP old friends) that provided a quarterly bonus for having a Bank of America checking account.  After Bank of America discontinued the Better Balance Rewards cards and product changed them to Unlimited Cash Rewards cards in May / June 2023, there was less of a reason to keep my Bank of America checking account.

I had my Bank of America debit card in my ApplePay Wallet all of those years and took my Bank of America debit card internationally when I travelled, in case I needed to get cash.  For the last 1.5 years, I had no idea that my debit card was expired and I never received any notice from Bank of America or in my ApplePay Wallet.

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How to Transfer IHG Points for Free to Other Accounts (Only for Diamond Elite & Business Rewards Members)

Good afternoon everyone, happy Valentine’s Day!  I started working on this post about 2 months ago, but totally forgot to finish.  Stephen at Frequent Miler wrote a post about transferring IHG points for free to other IHG members, but only if the member sending the IHG points was an IHG Diamond Elite Member or if they were an IHG Business Rewards Member.  Laura and I are both IHG Platinum Elite Members (thanks to having the Chase IHG One Rewards Premier Credit Card), but Laura was able to become an IHG Business Rewards Member easily online (I have been an IHG Business Rewards Member for at least a year).

To get started, she signed into her IHG online account and went through the process to become an IHG Business Rewards Member.  Continue reading to learn more about transferring IHG points to another member and how long the points transfer took.

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