Tag Archives: Barclays Bank

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Keep, Cancel or Convert? Barclays JetBlue Plus Credit Card ($99 Annual Fee)

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  I hope you all have exciting weekend plans for the first weekend of 2018.  My girlfriend and I are flying to Las Vegas this weekend with a couple lounge visits in our future (SFO Centurion Lounge on departure, LAS Centurion Lounge on arrival, again to LAS Centurion Lounge on departure, and then the Escape Lounge (Priority Pass) in OAK on arrival).  Enough about my free lounge obsession, let’s talk about the Barclays JetBlue Plus Credit Card.

I got this credit card during my December 2016 App-O-Rama and wrote this post about the features of the credit card.  I quickly received the 30,000 JetBlue points from the sign up bonus but I didn’t fly JetBlue at all in 2016.  But thanks to the generous 3x JetBlue points on Amazon purchases, I continued to earn hundreds of JetBlue points each month.  I almost completely forgot about this credit card until this email came to me in early December regarding the annual fee and the 5,000 bonus JetBlue points for being a cardmember.

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How Much Money Did I Make from Bank Account Bonuses in 2017?

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Good morning everyone, happy last Friday of the year!  A long, long time ago, before Doctor of Credit was as popular as he is now, he did a guest post for me back in March 2014: Guest Post from Doctor of Credit: Bank Account Sign Up Bonuses.  DOC has always been a big fan of bank account bonuses, but it took me a long time to get on the bandwagon and now I am hooked.  Earlier this year, I wrote about my 2016 Roundup of Bank Account Bonuses.  In 2015, I made $1,175 in bank account bonuses.  In 2016, I made $2,850 in bank account bonuses.  And this year, I made $3,700 in bank account bonuses.

Here are all the bank accounts I opened, the date they were closed and the bonus I received.  To be fair, I am still waiting for the $200 bonus to post from my Capital One 360 Money Market account, but I met the requirements already, so now I just need to wait.  I learned about all of these bonuses on DOC and he keeps a very detailed and up-to-date bank account bonuses page.

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

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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.

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$10 Bonus for Adding Authorized User to Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card (Targeted)

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Good morning everyone.  I hope your weekend is going well so far.  Yesterday, I received an email from Barclays regarding my Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card.  If I add an authorized user between December 1 and December 15, I will get a $10 statement credit.  You can only get 1 $10 statement credit.  I believe this offer is targeted, but if you have a Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card, check your email and see if you received a similar email.  I have a few other Barclays credit cards, but I did not receive a similar offer on those credit cards.  I also have not used my Barclays Arrival Plus Credit Card in several months, so that might be another reason why I was targeted for this offer.

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App-O-Rama Update: Did I Get Approved for the Barclays Wyndham Rewards Credit Card?

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Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is off to a great start.  A few days ago, I wrote My 8 Credit Card App-O-Rama Results (Mostly Bad News).  In that post, I shared the details (and denials) for most of the credit cards below.  At the end of that post, I said I would share my experience applying for the Barclays Wyndham Rewards Credit Card.

  • Bank of America Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Credit Card: 30,000 AS Miles + $100 statement credit after spending $1,000 in 3 months ($75 annual fee)
  • Bank of America Virgin Atlantic Credit Card: 75,000 VA Miles after spending $12,000 in 6 months ($90 annual fee)
  • Bank of America Amtrak Rewards Credit Card: 30,000 Amtrak Points after spending $1,000 in 3 months ($79 annual fee)
  • US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card: 50,000 FlexPoints ($750 in travel credit) after spending $4,500 in 3 months ($400 annual fee)
  • Wells Fargo Visa Signature Credit Card: 20,000 Go Far Reward Points after spending $1,000 in 3 months ($0 annual fee)
  • First Bankcard Best Western Credit Card: 50,000 Points after spending $1,000 in 3 months ($59 annual fee, first year waived)
  • Synchrony Bank Cathay Pacific Credit Card: 50,000 CX Miles after spending $2,500 in 3 months ($95 annual fee)
  • Barclays Wyndham Rewards Credit Card: 45,000 Wyndham Points (3 free nights) after spending $2,000 in 3 months ($75 annual fee)

Even though this credit card was listed at the end of my App-O-Rama post, it was actually the first credit card I applied for during this App-O-Rama.  Unfortunately, my application went to pending and then to denied a few days later.  This credit card was going to be harder to get than I thought.  I decided to wait for the denial letter and put my reconsideration skills to the test.

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