Tag Archives: Bank of America

a blue and white logo

Warning: Opening a Bank of America Checking Account May Break Automatic Credit Card Payments

Posted on by . 2 Replies

Buenos dias everyone! A couple of months ago, I logged into my Bank of America account and was surprised to see that my Merrill+ Visa Signature Card had a past due balance. Since I have a lot of credit cards, I always set them up for automatic payments initiated by the credit card company – that way, they’re usually on the hook if something goes wrong with a payment. Upon further investigation, I discovered that my automatic payment for the end of October had been scheduled and then canceled without any explanation. I also noticed that the same thing had happened to my Bank of America Spirit Airlines World MasterCard.

A screenshot of a Bank of America eBill history, showing two "eBill-Initiated Payments" listed as canceled, and one manual payment in the middle marked as processed.

Continue reading →

a close up of a logo

My Unlikely, But Entertaining 2018 Travel Predictions

Posted on by . 9 Replies

Greetings from Uyuni airport in Bolivia.  I have a few minutes before my flight, so I wanted to get this post published.  Sorry for the delay in posting this list, my crystal ball was in the shop for a tuneup. As you can tell from my 2017 travel predictions, I am wrong 99% of the time, so take these predictions with a grain of salt (that I took from the Salar de Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia).  Here are some of my highly unlikely, but entertaining travel predictions for 2018.  Enjoy!

Airlines

  • After the Virgin America merger, Alaska Airlines will add new routes to Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean
  • Delta Airlines will introduce cash and miles award tickets, then American Airlines and United Airlines will follow suit
  • Southwest Airlines will increase their Transfarency by automatically keeping track of travel funds in each account
  • JetBlue will add new routes along the West Coast and maybe to Hawaii
  • Singapore Airlines will allow you to book United Airlines awards online
  • British Airways will bring back the 4,500 Avios award price in the United States

Continue reading →

a black text on a white background

Most of my 2017 Travel Predictions Were Wrong (Who Could Have Predicted That?)

Posted on by . 2 Replies

Good morning everyone, happy almost New Years Eve.  Earlier this month, Doctor of Credit wrote how bad travel bloggers are at making predictions (I came in last at 33% correct), but he only reviewed our credit card predictions.  I made a lot of other predictions in January 2017, so let’s see how good or bad my predictions were.  I covered airlines, hotels, credit cards, and MS.  I will put my thoughts in bold at the end of each prediction.

Airlines

  • Southwest seems bent on making the Companion Pass very difficult to get unless you fly Southwest every week.  I believe credit card signup bonuses will no longer count toward the Companion Pass and Southwest might kill the whole concept of the Companion Pass entirely or switch to a certificate program similar to the Alaska Airlines companion fare or Virgin America companion ticket.  Southwest Airlines did eliminate hotel transfers counting toward the Companion Pass, but credit card spend and sign up bonuses still count toward the Companion Pass.  I am also the proud companion on my girlfriend’s Companion Pass.
  • Other airline credit cards will adopt the Alaska Airlines companion fare (you pay full price and your companion pays up to $120) or the Virgin America companion ticket (you pay full price and your companion pays full price minus $150).  No, I don’t think any other airline added a companion fare as a credit card benefit.
  • American will introduce a basic economy fare class to compete/copy Delta and United.  Yes, I got this one right!
  • Alaska Airlines will introduce a new level of elite status (maybe MVP Gold 100K?)  No, Alaska Airlines MVP Gold 75K is still the highest elite level.
  • More airlines will get away from the 12,500 one way domestic ticket and start to introduce 5,000, 7,500, and 10,000 mile awards.  Yes, I think Alaska Airlines announced cheaper awards on shorter flights.
  • British Airways will kill the 4,500 Avios award band globally and possibly remove one of their lower award tiers.  No, 4,500 British Airways Avios tier is still available outside the US.
  • Singapore Airlines will allow us to book Star Alliance awards online, rather than calling in.  Partially true, but not rolled out completely.
  • Hawaiian Airlines will get bought by a low cost airline, Southwest Airlines or JetBlue.  No, no one bought Hawaiian Airlines.
  • We will see 1 or 2 more mileage matching promos, this time from a big legacy airline.  No, no mileage matching promo like the JetBlue / Virgin America match last year.
  • My ~20,000 Spirit Airlines miles will expire and I won’t care.  Sort of, my Spirit Airlines miles did expire, but I still shed 1 tear.

Continue reading →

a blue and white logo

Bank of America 2/3/4 Rule: When Can I Apply for my Next Credit Card?

Posted on by . 6 Replies

Good morning everyone.  A few weeks ago, Bank of America changed their rules in terms of approving new personal credit card applications.  Doctor of Credit has a very good post about the new “2/3/4 Rule” which he states that Bank of American will “only approve you for at most two cards per rolling 2 months, three cards per rolling 12 months, and four cards per rolling 24 months. Let’s call this the ‘2/3/4 rule’.”  Luckily, Bank of America business credit cards do not count toward the “2/3/4 Rule.”  The comments and data points from that post are pretty conclusive, so instead of fighting the new rule, let’s see how we can play with this new rule.

I am OCD and I save all my credit card statements for every credit card from every month.  I have statements for all my open and closed credit cards.  I wanted to find out the opening date for all my Bank of America credit cards, so I opened the first statement for each credit card and looked at the first date printed on my statement.  For example, I am pretty confident my opening date is right around March 23, 2017, for the credit card on the left and August 10, 2017, for the credit card on the right.

Continue reading →