Tag Archives: Cash Back

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I Earned 15,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards by Paying Allstate Insurance with 2 Chase Freedom Credit Cards

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Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday!  I have 2 Chase Freedom Flex Credit Cards (the second was a downgrade from a Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card) and Laura has an older Chase Freedom Credit Card (Visa version). In case you missed the announcement, Chase Freedom celebrated it’s 15th birthday this year and to mark this special occasion, Chase added 2 more bonus categories in March: Tax Preparation and Insurance.  Tax prep and insurance are not the most exciting categories, but the timing couldn’t be better for us since we had $3,000 of car and home insurance payments to make this month.  Before I made the insurance payments, I made sure that our Chase Freedom cards were registered and that we still had $1,500 in spend to do on our cards.

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Keep, Cancel or Convert? Laura’s American Express Gold Card ($325 Annual Fee)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  A few days ago, I was reviewing our recent credit card statements and saw that the $325 annual fee posted to Laura’s American Express Gold Card.  We discussed the card benefits and decided it wasn’t worth prepaying $325 in order to jump through all of these hoops to earn back the $325 annual fee.  As a reminder, here are the coupons statement credits on this card:

  • $10 Uber / Uber Eats credit each month ($120 total)
  • $10 Grubhub credit each month ($120 total)
  • $7 Dunkin credit each month ($84 total)
  • $50 Resy credit every 6 months (launched in July 2024, so only $50 total in 2024)

Even though we did receive all of these credits in 2024, I would not value them close to $374.  In order to receive all of those credits, we had to jump through 37 hoops throughout the year.  We are still sitting on $28 of Dunkin credit (the nearest Dunkin in about 40 miles away) and we have a $50 restaurant gift card for a nearby Resy restaurant that we bought at the end of December.

Also, we were not using the card for 4x at restaurants and 4x on groceries.  I have plenty of AMEX MR Points, so we were using 2 Citi Custom Cash Credit Cards for 5x at restaurants and 5x on groceries.  Then in 2025, we switched to using the Chase Freedom Flex Credit Card for 5x on groceries ($1,500 quarterly max) and the Discover It Credit Card for 5x at restaurants ($1,500 quarterly max).

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In addition, we decided to transfer all 150,000 of Laura’s AMEX MR Points to her Hawaiian Airlines account, then she transferred them to my Hawaiian Airlines account and then I moved them to my Alaska Airlines account (read more about that process here).  The next step was to contact AMEX via Online Chat to close the card…

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My 2024 Peloton Bike Rental Year End Review (Total Cost of Ownership & Workout Class Stats)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Last year, I wrote My 2023 Peloton Bike Rental Year End Review and it turned out to be my second most popular post of 2024, so I figured I would do a 2024 year end review as well.  I am not turning Travel with Grant into a fitness blog (Pedal with Grant), but I wanted to share my experience renting and using my Peloton bike in 2024.

In December 2022, I stumbled onto a Mashable article that mentioned renting the bike directly from Peloton and I was surprised by the affordable monthly price. As of January 2025, the Peloton bike rental program is still running, but you can only rent the Peloton Bike+ now – the original Peloton Bike is no longer available to rent (as of August 2024).

For starters, you can rent the Peloton Bike+ for $119 / month.  Your membership includes a set of Peloton cycling shoes (you can buy more pairs / sizes on eBay) and a Peloton All-Access Membership (to stream all the live and on-demand classes).  There is an initial $150 delivery and set up fee, but there is no long term commitment and you can end the rental anytime and have the bike picked up for free. I liked having the option to return the bike if we didn’t like it or use it enough to justify keeping it.  There is also an option to buy out the bike and finance the bike with Affirm.

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New American Express App Feature: Get Your AMEX Pass to Access 25 Venues + 10% Cash Back on Qualifying Concessions

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Good afternoon everyone.  I was clicking around the American Express app and stumbled on some new features that are being rolled out.  If you sign into the app and click the Account tab in the bottom right corner, then click Try New Features, you will see 3 new features: New Wallets & Merchants, Amex Inspire, and Amex Pass.  This post is dedicated to the AMEX Pass feature, but I cover the other 2 features at the bottom of the post.  The AMEX Pass creates a special QR code that you can use to access select AMEX venues (25 as of 1/8/25) and you can earn 10% cash back on qualifying concessions by using your enrolled card.  Here is the process to set up your AMEX Pass.

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Marriott Vacation Club Shadow Ridge Timeshare Vacation Package: $249 for 4 Nights + 15,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points (Targeted)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  Today, I received a targeted timeshare vacation package offer via mail for the Marriott Shadow Ridge in Palm Desert, CA (near Palm Springs).  The cost is $249 for a 4 night / 5 day stay, plus you have your choice of 15,000 Marriott Bonvoy Points or a $75 Marriott gift card.  If you value 15,000 Marriott points at $150, that brings the cost down to $100 for 4 nights or $25 / night.  You need to attend a 90 minute timeshare sales presentation, but that seems like a pretty good deal.  I have experience with timeshare sales presentations and they are not too bad.  I will go through the booking process to show you what it is like, what is included, and how much it costs.

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Image source: https://www.marriott.com/en-us/hotels/ctdsr-marriotts-shadow-ridge-i-the-villages/overview/

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