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My Wife’s Difficult Credit Card Approval Process After Marriage / Name Change

Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  A few weeks ago, my wife Laura decided to apply for the Bank of America Alaska Airlines Credit Card.  Her credit report is great and she is a very responsible credit card user, so I figured it would be an easy instant approval for her.  Unfortunately, it took several weeks and a few phone calls to get approved for this credit card.  The reason?  After we got married at the end of July, she was in the middle of changing her name on her passport, driver license, social security card, bank accounts, credit cards, etc.  She also recently got promoted to a new position, so she had a higher salary than before.  I believe both reasons resulted in Bank of America requiring additional documentation because her new name and new salary were not showing up on her credit report (yet).  In this post, I will share with you the process she went through to ultimately be approved for the Bank of America Alaska Airlines Credit Card.

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4 Buy Miles/Points Promos Ending Soon: Alaska (50%), Choice (30%), JetBlue (50%) & Southwest (40%)

Good afternoon everyone.  I was working on my Buy Miles & Points Page and found a few offers ending soon.  Always check the math to make sure that buying miles & points makes sense for you.  Do not buy miles & points speculatively unless you have a use in mind.  With that said, here are 4 offers that end this week.  Up first, Alaska Airlines is offering up to a 50% bonus, depending on the number of Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Miles you purchase.  This offer expires today – September 14. 

There is also an Alaska Airlines 2-for-1 promo going on today with the San Francisco Giants.

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4 Tools I Use to Keep Track of My Credit Cards and Money

During my time as a professional travel hacker, I’ve found that the best way to stockpile points and miles is to intelligently stockpile credit cards. Over the years, I’ve collected over 30 credit cards and have accumulated hundreds of thousands of points and miles in almost every currency out there, so you can imagine that organizing my accounts has the potential to turn into a messy logistical nightmare. Fortunately for me, there are several tools out there that were designed to help people like me manage multiple accounts. Here are four of my favorite, go-to apps and tools that I use to keep myself organized.

1. Travel Freely

Travel Freely is a webapp that is dedicated to helping travelers optimize their points and miles game, which is exactly why I use them. Not only is Travel Freely great for learning the ins and outs of rewards programs, but it’s also a hugely practical tool for organizing the rewards credit cards that you already have. For me, I use it to keep track of annual fee and bonus deadlines as well as 5/24 status. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the 5/24 rule, it’s specific to Chase accounts. Chase does not approve applicants for a new card if they have opened 5 or more credit cards (from any bank) in the past 24 months. Travel Freely has all of my logistical credit card information stored in one place so that I don’t have to go back and individually search for deadlines or have to guess my 5/24 status.

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Amtrak Guest Rewards Points Expire? Call Amtrak to Reinstate Points for Free (1 Time Courtesy)

Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday.  Yesterday, I had a mini panic attack when I got an AwardWallet notification that my Amtrak Guest Rewards account balance dropped to 0.  I immediately logged into my Amtrak Guest Rewards account and saw that my 22,510 Amtrak Guest Rewards Points had expired.  Oh no!!  According to Frequent Miler’s Reasonable Redemption Values (RRVs) for Amtrak Guest Rewards Points, these points are worth between 2.5-2.9 cents each, so those 22,510 Amtrak Guest Rewards Points were worth up to $653 in Amtrak travel.  I hadn’t taken an Amtrak trip since my California Zephyr trip from Denver to San Francisco in February 2016 – but I definitely had my eye on the Empire Builder route from Chicago to Seattle/Portland.

Strangely, the Amtrak Guest Rewards Points were deducted from my account on August 15, but I didn’t get the AwardWallet account update until September 12.  Come on AwardWallet, tell me sooner that my points are expiring next time!

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Contact Plastiq Customer Service if 1% Fee is Missing from Payments

Good afternoon everyone.  I had an issue with Plastiq recently and reached out to their customer service team.  I am very happy with the Plastiq customer service team and wanted to share my experience with you.  Long story short, I was targeted for a Plastiq promo in May.  Since I hadn’t used a Mastercard to make a payment with Plastiq in a while, I was targeted for this promo.  I could get a 1% fee when I scheduled 3 payments of up to $2,000 each.  The standard fee for using a credit card on Plastiq is 2.5%, so only paying 1% was a good deal.  Unfortunately, the 1% fee was not working on my account, so I ended up contacting Plastiq’s customer service for help.

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