Category Archives: Credit Cards

a blue and red airplane with black text

Use Southwest Airlines Points to Book International Flights on Other Airlines (or into Travel Credit) at 0.98 CPP

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  My wife and I have been sitting on a lot of Southwest Airlines Points thanks to a combination of unused points from a Chase Southwest Airlines Priority Credit Card sign up bonus, referral bonus points, and diverting most of our travel to Alaska Airlines to reach MVP Elite Status.  If you are also sitting on a stash of SWA points, this post might be useful to you.  Did you know that you can use SWA points to pay for flights on other airlines?  The only catch is that it has to be an international route that cannot be booked on www.southwest.com.  To get started, sign into your SWA account, click the Rapid Rewards link, and then click Redeem Points for Gift Cards & More.

a screenshot of a credit card

Continue reading

a black text on a white background

How to Top Off Marriott Free Night Certificate with up to 15,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points

Good afternoon everyone.  A few months ago, Marriott introduced an improvement to their Free Night Certificates where you could combine a Free Night Certificate with up to 15,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points to book a hotel room that cost more points that your Free Night Certificate is worth.  To learn more about the process, read Marriott’s Free Night Award Top Off page.  I finally had a chance to use this feature yesterday for an upcoming stay in Seattle.  In this post, I will show you the booking process.

Sign into your Marriott Bonvoy account and go to the Activity tab to see your Free Night Certificates listed under the Earned Awards section.  I had a 35K Free Night Certificate available from my Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Credit Card that expires later this year.  I clicked on the How To Use Your Certificate link to get started.

a screenshot of a website

Continue reading

a logo with a circle

New Discover Credit Card Benefit: Online Privacy Protection (Removes Personal Info from People-Search Websites)

Updated at 1:30pm PT on 8/9: I received an email this morning that Discover “helped remove 3 private data records”.  From start to finish, the entire process took about 2 weeks from initial scan to data records removed.  Scroll to the bottom to see the update.


Updated at 4:30pm PT on 7/28: I logged into my Discover app today and saw that 1 of my requests was already completed.  That was really fast!  Scroll to the bottom to see the update.


Good afternoon everyone.  I received an interesting email from Discover yesterday about a new credit card benefit called Online Privacy Protection.  I know online privacy is not super sexy, but I decided to check it out and see if it was something useful.  With all the data breaches and hacks / leaks out there, I know it’s impossible to get all of my personal info back, but if I can make it harder for hackers and scammers to get my info, I’m all for it.

Long story short, Discover uses a third party service that scans the 10 most popular “people-search” websites for your personal info, based on the personal info that Discover has on file for you.   If you have ever searched a person’s name on Google, you will usually see 4-5 “people-search” websites at the top of the search results.  These websites aggregate data and show your name, age, address, email address, and relatives.  They make money by selling your data to marketers and data brokers.  With Discover’s Online Privacy Protection service, you can request to have the service reach out to these websites and remove your personal info.  I’ll share the FAQs with you and show you what it found for me.

a screenshot of a sign

Continue reading

a credit card next to a credit card

Why I Converted my 3 Citi AT&T Access More Credit Cards to 3 Citi Custom Cash Cards

Good afternoon everyone.  A few month ago, I wrote My Experience Product Changing / Converting / Downgrading to the Citi Custom Cash Credit Card.  In that post, I shared my experience product changing from the Citi AT&T Access More Credit Card to the Citi Custom Cash Credit Card.  At the beginning of this year, I had 3 Citi AT&T Access More cards but by mid June, I had converted them all to Citi Custom Cash cards.  In this post, I will share why I loved the Citi AT&T Access More and why I stopped loving the cards over the years.

First things first, the Citi AT&T Access More is no longer available to new applicants and Citi recently stopped allow people to product change to this card.  With that info out of the way, here is why I used to love this card.  Instead of a traditional sign up bonus, this card offered a $650 statement credit after you purchased a new AT&T phone.  On September 20, 2016, I purchased a new AT&T phone (I honestly can’t remember which phone it was, but that’s not important).  This card earns 3x Citi ThankYou Points on AT&T purchases and online purchases; 1x on everything else.

a screenshot of a credit card

Continue reading

a blue credit card with a picture of a man

Unboxing Bank of America Alaska Airlines Credit Card: Card Art, Sign Up Bonus & Welcome Letter

Good afternoon everyone.  A few weeks ago, I did a mini app-o-rama and applied for 3 credit cards: Capital One Venture X Credit Card (read post), Chase IHG Rewards Premier Business Credit Card (read post), and Bank of America Alaska Airlines Credit Card.

In this post, I will show you the Bank of America Alaska Airlines card art, sign up bonus, and welcome letter.  First things first, here is the front and back of the card.  It is clean and nicely designed.  I like that it has my Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Number on the back.  It has a very similar style as the Bank of America Alaska Airlines Business Credit Card.

Continue reading