Author Archives: Grant

About Grant

Grant is an expert in frequent flyer miles, hotel loyalty points, credit card rewards, and cash back deals. He also has a pretty cool travel blog. Find him on Twitter @travelwithgrant.

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Check the Citi Merchant Offer Redeemed Section to Verify You’ve Used an Offer Successfully

Good afternoon everyone, we are almost to Memorial Day Weekend!  A few days ago, Doctor of Credit published Citi Offers: AT&T Wireless, $40 Off $65.  I have AT&T service, so I quickly added the $40 Off $65 AT&T Citi Merchant Offer to all my eligible Citi credit cards (6 out of 7 cards had the offer).  I then signed into my AT&T account and prepaid $65 toward my next bill.

Citi doesn’t send emails when you use a Citi Merchant Offer (like the way American Express does with AMEX Offers), so you need to wait patiently for the purchase and statement credit to post.  My $65 AT&T purchase posted to my Citi Double Cash on May 20, but I haven’t received the $40 statement credit yet (as of May 23).  I decided to do some digging to see if I triggered the offer, even before the statement credit posted to my account.  Here is how you can do that within the Citi app (and the steps are probably very similar on the website).  Sign into you Citi app, click on any Citi credit card, then scroll down and click the Explore Products & Offers button.

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2 Venmo Promos: $5 Cash Back with $25 Starbucks Reload & $5 Cash Back after Sending $50 Gift Card [Both Bonuses Posted]

Updated at 9:00am PT on 5/31/24: I received the $5 cash back this morning (5/31) for the $25 Starbucks reload.  Screenshots added below.

Updated at 7:20am PT on 5/23/24: I received the $5 cash back this morning (5/23) for sending the $50 gift card through Venmo.  I will post another update when I receive the $5 cash back from the $25 Starbucks reload.


Good afternoon everyone, I just received this email from Venmo about 2 promos.  You can get $5 cash back after you spend $25 in the Starbucks app or reload $25 to your Starbucks balance.  You can also earn $5 cash back after sending a $50 gift card via the Venmo app, up to 3 times ($15 cash back limit).  I decided to jump on both deals since I use the Venmo and Starbucks apps often.

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My Cardless FOMO

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Over the last few weeks, Cardless has introduced 4 new credit cards from Avianca Airlines and Qatar Airways.  The credit cards have various designs, annual fees, sign up bonuses, earning categories, and card benefits.  So what’s the problem?  It’s been reported many times that Cardless has a “1 Card Rule” that says:

Can I select a different Cardless product?
No. It is not currently possible to move between Cardless products, nor are you able to close your account and open a new one.

I have “Cardless FOMO”, but in this case, the fear of missing out (FOMO) is not missing out on the opportunity to get one of the existing Cardless credit cards below, but rather the fear of missing out on a great future Cardless credit card that has yet to be released.

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I Still Prefer the US Bank Altitude Reserve vs. New-ish Citi Strata Premier for Earning, Redeeming & Travel Protection

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  Yesterday, I wrote my Deep Dive into Citi Strata Premier Credit Card Earning Categories & Travel Protections (Rental Car, Trip Interruptions & Lost Luggage). I wrote about the various travel-related earning categories and covered the 4 main travel protections on the new-ish Citi Strata Premier Credit Card.  In this post, I will compare those earning categories and travel protections with the US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card.  As a reminder, the Citi Strata Premier (CSP) earns 10x on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked through the Citi Travel Portal and 3x on air travel, travel agencies, hotels, gas stations and EV charging stations.

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Deep Dive into Citi Strata Premier Credit Card Earning Categories & Travel Protections (Rental Car, Trip Interruptions & Lost Luggage)

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  Much has already been written about the new-ish Citi Strata Premier Credit Card, but I wanted to do a deep dive into the earning categories and travel protections on this credit card, mostly so I could compare this credit card to the US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card.

This post has many links to the various pages on the Citi card benefits website, but you will need to sign into your Citi account first before clicking any of the links below.  Let’s get started by covering the various travel-related earning categories on the Citi Strata Premier.

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