Tag Archives: Bank of America

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

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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!

a screenshot of a account overview

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My March Madness App-O-Rama Results: 3 out of 4 Credit Cards Approved

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  As I mentioned in my post yesterday, I did a mini App-O-Rama (where I apply for several credit cards on the same day) on Monday.  I am still waiting for most of the credit cards to arrive in the mail, but I have all the results.  Here are the results of my March App-O-Rama (sorry there is nothing related to NCAA March Madness in this post):

  1. American Express Gold Card – instant approval (I wrote about the instant approval here)
  2. US Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Signature Credit Card – pending and then approved (I will have a post out later today with my unboxing photos)
  3. Wells Fargo Business Platinum Credit Card – pending and then approved
  4. Bank of America Alaska Airlines Business Credit Card – pending but will be denied since they want a lot of business and tax documents (I will explain more below)

Click the above link to see info on my American Express Gold Card instant approval.  Without further ado, let’s go through the 3 other credit card application results.

US Bank Altitude Reserve Visa Signature Credit Card

After my instant approval with the American Express Gold Card, I was feeling good and hoped my instant approval streak would continue (like the good ole days when I would go 6 for 6 on credit card App-O-Ramas).  But instead, I got a pending decision and decided to wait and see what would happen.

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How Right (or Wrong) Were My 2018 Travel Predictions?

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Good afternoon everyone.  In mid January 2018, I wrote My Unlikely, But Entertaining 2018 Travel Predictions.  I did not look at that post until yesterday, so it was fun to look at the predictions I had made.  I will go through my 2018 predictions and see how well I did.  Since my memory is not that great, please correct me if I am wrong on any of these.  In a few days, I will share my probably equally as unlikely but equally as entertaining 2019 travel predictions, so check back for that post.  Without further ado, here were my 2018 predictions and the results:

Airlines

  • After the Virgin America merger, Alaska Airlines will add new routes to Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean (Correct! According to Alaska Airlines’ website, they did add several new routes of Mexico City from SFO, LAX, and SAN.  Unfortunately, there were no new routes to Canada or the Caribbean.)
  • Delta Airlines will introduce cash and miles award tickets, then American Airlines and United Airlines will follow suit (Wrong!  Looks like none of the big 3 airlines added “cash + miles” award tickets.)
  • Southwest Airlines will increase their Transfarency by automatically keeping track of travel funds in each account (Wrong!  You still need to manually track your travel funds.)
  • JetBlue will add new routes along the West Coast and maybe to Hawaii (Wrong! JetBlue did add new routes along the East Coast, but nothing new on the West Coast.)
  • Singapore Airlines will allow you to book United Airlines awards online (Correct!  Singapore Airlines added the ability to book award flights on United Airlines in February.)
  • British Airways will bring back the 4,500 Avios award price in the United States (Wrong!  Sadly, the 4,500 British Airways Avios pricing band is still not available in the US.)

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Bank of America Core Checking Account $150 Bonus, But I Only Received $100 [Resolved]

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great Columbus Day Weekend, I had a great time in Santa Cruz with my girlfriend.  A few months ago, Doctor of Credit wrote a post about a $150 bonus on a Bank of America Core Checking Account.  The $150 bonus was only available if you were referred to the offer.  Thankful, a helpful Doctor of Credit reader sent me a referral email.  I received the referral email on July 20 and signed up for the checking account the same day.  The bonus requirements were pretty simple: receive 2 $500 direct deposits within 90 days.  Done.  Now all I had to do was wait for the $150 bonus to post to my account.  All was going well until I only received a $100 bonus…

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Track Credit Card Sign Up Bonuses, Annual Fees & 5/24 Score with TravelFreely

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  A few weeks ago, I was in Denver and went to the Front Range Travel Hackers Meetup Group.  At the meetup, I met Zac, the founder of TravelFreely, a website he created to track credit card sign up bonuses (deadlines to complete the minimum spending requirements), track credit card annual fees, calculate your 5/24 Score, and make it easy for you to track your credit cards along with your spouse / companion’s credit cards.  And by the way, the service is completely free and you can set up your account in a few minutes (unless you have 30+ credit cards like me, in which case, it could take a little longer).  Without further ado, here is how TravelFreely works.  To get started, sign up for your free TravelFreely account here.  Enter your name, email address, and click the Get Started button.

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