Tag Archives: American Express

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Last 2 Weeks Summary: Barclays Denials, Carmel / Monterey, Hilton GC Issue & New to Aligned Incentives

Good afternoon everyone.  Confession time: I feel like a bad blogger when I don’t post anything in several weeks and it’s been 2+ weeks since my last post.  I’ve been busy with work / life / travel and nothing has inspired me enough to write a full blog post, but I figured I could compile a few different topics into a single post to clear out the cobwebs in my mind.  If you have any questions or comments about any of these topics, please share them in the comments section.  Let’s get to the topics.

My 2 Barclays Credit Card Denials

With all the hype around the Hawaiian Airlines and Alaska Airlines merger, Laura and I decided to apply for Barclays Hawaiian Airlines Credit Cards.  Laura was instantly approved for the personal Barclays Hawaiian Airlines Credit Cards that offers 70,000 Hawaiian Airlines Miles after first purchase (read Frequent Miler’s post).  I decided to apply for the personal and business Barclays Hawaiian Airlines Credit Cards at the same time and both applications went pending.  I called the Barclays reconsideration department to see if I could move some of my credit limit from my 3 existing personal and business Barclays credit cards.  Unfortunately, the rep said Barclays could not approve me for either card and that they could not reallocate my credit limits to approve either/both cards.  That was disappointing and a hit to my ego.  But I am glad Laura was instantly approved for her credit card.

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American Express No Longer Accepted on eBay (You Can Still Pay with AMEX via PayPal & Venmo)

Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is off to a great start.  Unfortunately, if you were planning on shopping on eBay with your American Express cards today, you will run into an issue.  Effective today (August 17, 2024), American Express cards are no longer accepted on eBay as a form of payment.  This announcement came out of nowhere, but it sounds like the decision came from eBay’s side, instead of AMEX’s side.  But, there is a workaround if you add your American Express card to your PayPal or Venmo account.

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How to Trigger $7 Dunkin Credit with $7 Gift Card Reload in Dunkin App

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  Along with the new card designs on the American Express Gold Card, you now have a $7 Dunkin credit every month.  There are not many Dunkin locations in the Bay Area, but I didn’t want to let a $7 credit go to waste.  I created a Dunkin account, download the app, signed in, and went through the process to buy a $7 Dunkin gift card, but that transaction kept failing.  I then decided to “gift myself” a $5 Dunkin egift card which I was able to add to my Dunkin account and then proceed with the $7 Dunkin reload.  If you already have a Dunkin card in your Dunkin account, you can skip this first step.

If you are starting from scratch (like me), go to the Dunkin gift card page and click the Buy Now button under the Give the Gift of Dunkin.

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How to Request New AMEX Gold Card Design: White Gold, Rose Gold or Plastic (Website & App) [Card Art & First Impressions]

Updated at 9:00am PT on 7/30/24: My replacement AMEX Gold Card in white gold arrived today.  Here is what the replacement card looks like compared to my AMEX Gold Business Card that is the standard gold color.  Both the front and back are much lighter than the AMEX Business Gold Card. Interestingly, the 15 digit card number stayed the same, but the 4 digit security code on the front changed, the 3 digit security code on the back changed, and the expiration date changed.  At the bottom of the post, I added the welcome letter and more details about the $100 Resy Credit and $84 Dunkin Credit.


Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Doctor of Credit just published Refreshed American Express Gold Card Now Live, so I thought I would show you how to request the new White Gold design for your American Express Gold Card.  You can also follow these steps if you would like a Rose Gold design, or an 85% recycled plastic design.  The process is slightly different depending on if you are on the AMEX website or AMEX app, but I covered both processes in this post.

To get started on the AMEX website, sign into your account, select your AMEX Gold Card from the top right corner, and then click Account Services.

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Midyear Review: My Credit Card Retention Offer Thought Process & Results

Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. A few days ago, I wrote about my Midyear Review: My 2024 Airline, Hotel & Credit Card Predictions (as predicted, my success rate was terrible). Thankfully, my success rate when it comes to credit card retention offers is much better. Let me ask you a question, if you could make $50, $100, or $150+ from making a phone call, would you do it? If you said yes, then you should make credit card retention offer calls.

In this post, I will share my thought process when it comes to making retention offer calls and then share my midyear results. Here are my thoughts:

1. I call every time a credit card annual fee posts to my account. I have also found that no annual fee business credit cards sometimes have retention offers, but I haven’t had much luck with no annual fee personal credit cards. Lastly, I try to call a few days after the annual fee posts to my account, but several weeks before the credit card payment is due. Continue reading