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Chase Launches Rewards Dashboard for Southwest Airlines Credit Cards (Track Travel Credit & Upgraded Boarding Passes)

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Good afternoon everyone.  I just received an email from Chase regarding a new Rewards Dashboard that is now available for my Chase Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Priority Credit Card.  I don’t have any other personal or business Southwest Airlines credit cards, so I am not sure if this Rewards Dashboard is just for Priority credit cards or for all Southwest Airlines credit cards, but based on the interface, I bet it works with all Southwest Airlines credit cards.  The strange thing about the Chase email is that it tells me to sign into my Chase account, go to my Secure Messages and read the letter.  Why not just send me the details directly to my email?  Does anyone else find this strange?

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My Experience Using Experian Boost to Increase my Credit Score (Mixed Results)

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  I’m sure most of you have seen the Experian Boost commercials on TV or online, but how many of you have actually checked to see if it would boost your Experian credit score?  According to the Experian Boost small print, the average credit score increase is 13 points (which is not a lot), but it’s better than nothing.  Speaking of nothing, some customers may not see any score increase at all (which is what happened to me).  The last thing to keep in mind is that this will not improve your Equifax or TransUnion credit scores and some financial institutions may use a different FICO score or model.  Your credit score will not increase 100 points with Experian Boost, so keep your expectations in check.

The entire process took about 10 minutes and involved logging into my Experian account and linking my financial institutions that I use to pay recurring bills (like Netflix, phone and utilities).  After you link your financial accounts to Experian, Experian Boost will scan your accounts and recent statements to find recurring bills.  Once they find recurring bills, you will be asked if you want to add those recurring bills to your credit report, which may or may not increase your credit score.  In this post, I will walk you through all the steps.  To get started, go to the Experian Boost page and sign in or create an account by clicking the Start Your Boost button.

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Several 1 Way RV Relocation Deals for $1 / Day + $100 Gas Allowance with TransferCar

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Good morning everyone.  I just received an email from TransferCar regarding several 1 way RV relocation deals.  Back in 2016, my brother and I went on an epic RV roadtrip from Los Angeles to Denver thanks to TransferCar.  I wrote about the process in 4 parts (part 1: introduction; part 2: reservation, part 3: pickup & drop off; and part 4: thoughts and photos).  If you are looking for a fun way to explore the US, there is no better way than in an RV.  To get started, go to the TransferCar website and select RV Intermediate to see all available RV deals.

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Chase Checking Accounts: More Ways to Waive Monthly Service Fees & Debit Card Benefits Ending Nov 30

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend.  I really enjoyed the Virtual Chicago Seminars and the virtual networking events – I look forward to seeing everyone in person next year in Chicago.  In other news, I was reviewing my recent Chase Savings Account statement and saw this announcement.  A few things are strange and stand out to me.  First, these changes affect Chase Checking Accounts, not Chase Savings Accounts, so I am not sure why this appeared on my recent savings statement and not my recent checking statement.  Secondly, the changes went into effect on September 13 and this statement covers the time period of September 17 through October 16, so I would have expected this announcement on my previous statement.  But enough about those details, let’s cover the changes in the announcement.

Effective September 13, Chase will include additional electronic payments that post to your checking account to qualify for the monthly service fee waiver.  I will go into those changes in the next section.

Effective December 1, Chase debit card holders will no longer have access to benefits in the Visa Benefits Package.  I couldn’t find a link to what is included in the Visa Benefits Package, but I found a link for Chase Business Checking Accounts that mentions Purchase Security, Extended Protection, Auto Rental CDW, and Travel and Emergency Assistance.  I assume most / all of those benefits are included in the personal / consumer version of the Visa Benefits Package, so it is sad to see those benefits ending on November 30 for Chase debit card holders.

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Chase Sapphire Reserve Double Dip: $300 Annual Travel Credit + Pay Yourself Back

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  I routinely check my credit card transactions a few times a week and noticed that the $300 annual travel credit began to post on my Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card.  In this post, I will show you how to double dip the same transactions that qualified for the $300 annual travel credit and are also eligible for Chase’s Pay Yourself Back feature.  As you can see below, a $6.45 Ralph’s grocery store purchase was eligible for the $300 annual travel credit.

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