Tag Archives: American Express

3 $10 Amazon eGift Card Giveaway – Tell me your Labor Day Weekend Plans

2 Amazon Gift Cards

3 $10 Amazon eGift Card Giveaway – Tell me your Labor Day Weekend Plans

In honor of Labor Day and the upcoming 3 day weekend, I wanted to thank those of you who have been using my Amazon affiliate link to shop on Amazon.  All you have to do is click the button on the right side of this page and you will be redirected to Amazon.  I really appreciate your support and encourage your shopping addition.

Amazon Affiliate Logo

In other news, if you have a Serve Card, you probably received the following offer this afternoon.  After you make 5 purchases of $10 or more with your Serve Card, you will receive a $10 statement credit.  If you work this right, that is a 20% discount on practically anything you buy.

Serve 5 $10 Offer

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Random News: $5 off $50 Chime Purchase at Office Depot, Plink & Monster Learning, RIP Evolve Money, and New AMEX Offers for Marissa Collections and J Crew

Chime Logo

Random News: $5 off $50 Chime Purchase at Office Depot, Plink & Monster Learning, RIP Evolve Money, and New AMEX Offers for Marissa Collections and J Crew

Here are today’s random new stories…

If you have a Chime Card, you should have received the following offer for $5 off a $50 purchase at Office Depot (just in time for Labor Day).  I recommend stocking up on a gift card to your favorite store or restaurant.  To learn more about the Chime Card, click here.

Chime Office Depot Offer

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Warning: Watch Out for American Express Transaction Reporting Glitch

AMEX Logo

Warning: Watch Out for American Express Transaction Reporting Glitch

Good evening everyone, I hope you are all having a good week so far.  Are you looking forward to Labor Day Weekend?  I know I am.  I’m flying to Portland, Oregon this weekend with my family.  I’m planning to hit up some local breweries (any recommendations?) and walk around the city.  Anyone interested in meeting up sometime during the weekend for lunch/drinks?  Let me know in the comments.

Anyway, back to the title of the post.  I am not sure if this is technically a glitch or an anomaly or whatever it is called, but I thought it was strange so I figured it was worth sharing.

I am an authorized user on my friend’s SPG card (I’m such a good friend) and was helping him make some purchases while he is traveling outside the US.  When I look at the credit card account online, I see 3 purchases and a payment for the current period (August 2 through today).  I thought everything was good until my friend said that I owed him $500 for a purchase I made that I didn’t pay him back on.  I was confused.  I made  approximately $2,000 in purchases and paid him back approximately $2,000.  What is the problem?

AMEX View 8-2 to Present

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Master Collection of all of My Reconsideration and Retention Calls

Which Credit Card

Master Collection of all of My Reconsideration and Retention Calls

As an experienced miles and points collector, I can’t stress enough how important it is to be approved for new credit cards (and their huge sign up bonuses) and to keep the best travel credit cards while paying the least amount of annual fees.  Some credit card companies will offer statement credits, either to fully or partially offset the annual fee, just by calling and asking.  Other times, they will offer a “spending challenge” where you will have to spend $X in Y months to get a statement credit or bonus miles/points.  Here are some of my recent conversations concerting reconsideration calls (calls to be approved for new credit cards) and retention calls (calls to minimize or eliminate the annual fee).

For simplicity, green represents good calls (such as being approved or receiving a favorable retention bonus) and red represents bad calls (such as not being approved or not receiving a retention bonus).

Reconsideration Calls (and one Reconsideration Bank Visit):

  • 7/14/14 – US Bank Club Carlson Business Credit Card bank visit (link).  
  • Account approved after a few days.
  • 6/12/14 – Citi American Airlines Executive World MasterCard (link).  
  • Account approved over the phone.
  • 6/12/14 – Chase Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards Plus Credit Card (link).
  • Account approved over the phone.

Retention Calls:

  • 8/6/14 – Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card (link).
  • Received a category 1-4 free night certificate after spending $1,000 in 3 months.
  • 8/6/14 – Chase Southwest Airlines Premier Credit Card (link).
  • Received 3,000 Southwest Airlines Rapid Reward Points.
  • 7/29/14 – Dad’s Citi American Airlines Platinum MasterCard (link).
  • Received a $95 statement credit.

To read the entire page, please click here.

Don’t Close your Credit Card! Downgrade or Convert to these Credit Cards

Which Credit Card

Downgrade or Convert to these Credit Cards

This post is a combination of my recommendations and the recommendations from readers.  Thank you for contributing to this post.  The big question is, why should you downgrade or convert a credit card instead of closing it outright?

Pros of downgrading or converting a credit card:

  • Downgrading/converting your credit card lengthens the average age of your credit card accounts and improves your credit score (learn more about your credit score here).
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card keeps your credit utilization ratio lower, which is good for your credit score (see link above).
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card keeps your miles/points from expiring or being forfeited back to the credit card company.
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card results in no hard pull of your credit report.
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card is sometimes easier than outright applying.
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card makes it possible to get the same credit card multiple times (like 2 Chase Freedom or Bank of America Better Balance Reward cards).
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card may result in a sign up bonus on the new card (sometimes not, see cons below).

Cons of downgrading or converting a credit card:

  • Downgrading/converting your credit card may result in not get a sign up bonus for the new credit card.
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card may take a long time for the conversion process (Citi takes 60+ days).
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card may cause you to have “too much available credit” and may make it harder to be approved for future credit cards (mostly Barclays, but you can do recon calls to reverse their decision).
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card may interfere with the “churnability” of the credit card.

To read the full article, please click here.  Gotta go watch the Little League World Series now.