Tag Archives: Bank of America

a woman with blonde hair and a green shirt

Why Do We Keep 16 No Annual Fee Credit Cards?

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is off to a great start.  A few days ago, I wrote a post titled I Paid $4,588 in Credit Card Annual Fees in 2019 – Was it Worth it?  In that post, I shared the 21 credit cards that I plan on keeping and how I justify paying the annual fees on those credit cards.  I felt bad for the 16 no annual fee cards that Laura and I have and decided to write a post about them too.  Roughly half of the no annual fee credit cards were downgraded / converted from a credit card with an annual fee.  Besides the rewards that some of the no annual fee credit cards provide, keeping no annual fee credit cards open long term is good for your credit score.  It improves the length of credit history (average age of accounts), which represents 15% of your total credit score.  It also helps with the amounts owed (your credit utilization ratio), which represents 30% of your total credit score.  Lastly, it helps with payment history (paying your credit card bills on time), which represents 35% of your total credit score.  For more info, check out this Doctor of Credit page.

a colorful circle with white text

Image source: https://www.kiplinger.com/article/credit/T017-C000-S002-how-your-credit-score-is-calculated.html

Continue reading

a blue text on a white background

My Wife Merged 2 Alaska Airlines Accounts (Combined Miles & Discount Codes)

Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  A few months ago, my wife applied for the Bank of America Alaska Airlines Credit Card.  The credit card offered 40,000 Alaska Airlines miles after spending $2,000 in 3 months, a $100 statement credit, and the $99 companion fare.  Fast forward to October 28, her credit card statement closed and it showed that she earned 42,975 Alaska Airlines miles that would post to her Alaska Airlines account.  The only problem?  The Alaska Airlines miles never posted to her Alaska Airlines account.

a screenshot of a credit card

Continue reading

a blue credit card with a picture of a man

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.

Continue reading

a blue and white logo

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!

a screenshot of a account overview

Continue reading

a woman with blonde hair and a green shirt

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

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.

a close-up of a credit card

Continue reading