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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Targeted: 25% Off your Next Silvercar Rental (Check your Email)

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Good afternoon everyone.  If you are a Silvercar member, check your email for a targeted offer.  I received an email for 25% off my next Silvercar rental (2 day minimum) that expires on December 31, 2018.  Each coupon code is unique, so I cannot share my code, but if you have a Silvercar account, you might have received the email as well.  If you are new to Silvercar, they only rent Audi vehicles.  You can sign up for a free account here and get $25 credit after you complete your first rental, just enter GTHOMAS as the referral code.  Thanks for your support!

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Do This Now: Change Default Payment Setting in Venmo to Private

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Good afternoon everyone.  Venmo just updated their app and made privacy a key component of the app.  Doctor of Credit also shared this article from a researcher who analyzed 18 million Venmo users from last year to see who users were paying and what they were paying for.  The main conclusion from the researcher was that most users’ transaction details (except dollar amounts) were publicly available and that most users had no idea that they could make their transactions private.  You might think that sharing your Venmo transaction details publicly is no big deal, “I have nothing to hide.”  But what if you went to the same bar every Thursday evening and paid you friend for “Drinks at Bar123.”  If you had a stalker, they could easily figure out your habits and find you.  That might be an extreme example, but it is possible.

In today’s post, I will show you how to easily change your default payment settings to private.  You can also retroactively change your past payments to private.  As an example, when I sign into my Venmo app, I can click on the globe icon and it will show me all public payments in real time from around the world.  I do not know any of these people, but yet, I can see who they are paying and what they are paying for.  Let’s go through the Privacy on Venmo screens and learn about the different privacy setting levels.

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Synchrony Bank Cathay Pacific Credit Card Churning 12 Month Language

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday.  I don’t know about you, but I am exhausted.  This (Prime) week has been draining and I am thankful that we made it to the weekend.  I just have a quick post to share about the Synchrony Bank Cathay Pacific Credit Card.  I got this credit card on August 25, 2017 and knew the $95 annual fee was coming right around the corner.  Usually, I like to wait for the annual fee to post, see if I can talk the rep out of charging me for the annual fee or downgrade to a no annual fee card.  I had a bad experience recently where I tried to do that with the TD Bank Aeroplan Credit Card and it was a real headache. Let me explain…

I called TD Bank the day after my statement closed that showed the annual fee.  I asked the rep if she could waive the annual fee (not possible), then I asked if she could downgrade my card to a no annual fee version (also not possible), so I decided to close the card.  I thought all was good until a month later, I received a statement in the mail showing the $95 annual fee, a $35 late payment fee, and a $1.50 interest charge.  Furious, I called TD Bank and told the rep that I closed the card so I should not (and I would not) pay the annual fee and other fees.  She said that since I called after the annual fee posted, she could not reverse the charge.  I complained that that was not correct.  She put me on hold for a few minutes, talked to her supervisor, and then said that all charges were taken care of and no payment was necessary.  Dealing with TD Bank left a bad taste in my mouth and I didn’t want to go through a similar experience with Synchrony Bank, so I decided to close the card before the annual fee posted.  The following day, I received this email from Synchrony Bank with a link to a letter.  What the letter said interested me…

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Chicago Seminars Travel Conference Tickets Now on Sale (October 19-21)

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Good evening everyone, I hope your Amazon Prime Day shopping is going well.  A few hours ago, tickets for Chicago Seminars went on sale.  They are $111 for 2.5 full days of travel advice, networking, drinking, more networking, more drinking, and maybe some sleep too.  I love going to Chicago Seminars and I am so excited to go back.  I just bought my ticket and airfare for the event.  There are limited seats available, but when I purchased my ticket at around 5:30pm PT, there were 472 tickets available.

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Malta Trip Report Part 2: Kayak to Comino’s Blue Lagoon & ATV / Quad Tour Around Gozo

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Good morning everyone.  I hope you enjoyed my post from yesterday, Malta Trip Report Part 1: Walking Through Valletta and Attending Feast of St. Peter & St. Paul.  In today’s post, I will share some photos of my Kayak Gozo tour from Gozo to Comino to see the Blue Lagoon and from the Gozo Pride ATV tour around the island.  Kayak Gozo offers 3 different tours (half day morning, half day afternoon, and full day).  We decided to do the half day morning, called the “Rise and Shine” tour, and the cost was 38 Euros per person.  Laura and I had a double kayak, she was in the front and I was in the back.  After getting the handle of paddling, we went inside a little cove and then made the journey across the channel to the Blue Lagoon, near Comino.

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