Tag Archives: Cash Back

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Reader Feedback: How Should I Spend 84K Citi ThankYou Points Before December 31?

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Updated at 6pm PT on 1/2/21: Thanks to everyone who answered the poll question at the bottom of this post.  Even though “Do Nothing Until 2021” was the second most popular answer, that is what I decided to do.  Hopefully I will be able to make some Citi TYP redemptions in 2021.

Good evening everyone, I need some help.  First of all, this post could be classified as a “First World Problem” or a “Good Problem to Have”, but I would still like to get some help on making my decision.  Long story short, I have a Citi Rewards+ Credit Card and one of the benefits of the credit card is the ability to get 10% of your redeemed Citi ThankYou Points (TYPs) back, on the first 100,000 TYPs redeemed per calendar year (10K TYPs rebate max).  Since there are only a few weeks left in the year and I have only redeemed a few thousand TYPs this year, I need to spend 84K TYPs by December 31 in order to max out the 10K TYP rebate.  In this post, I will discuss how I calculated how many TYPs I need to spend and go through all the various redemption options and my thoughts on each option.

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My December Credit Card Retention Calls: 2 out of 4 Successes ($300 Statement Credits Total)

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  I called about retention offers on a few different credit cards today and wanted to share my results.  Please make sure to scroll to the bottom of this post and read my tips on making retention calls.  I took a page out of Frequent Miler’s playbook (My $575 phone call (complete in 20 minutes)) and called about these 4 credit cards:

  • Chase Hyatt Credit Card ($75 annual fee posted December 1)
  • JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Visa Infinite Credit Card ($450 annual fee posted July 1)
  • Chase Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business Credit Card ($99 annual fee posted May 1)
  • American Express Business Platinum Charge Card ($595 annual fee posted December 2)

Since the old Chase Hyatt Credit Card is product changing to the new Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card on January 11, 2021, I decided to call Chase and ask about a retention offer.  This is a huge ask that I knew was never going to fly, but I tried anyways.  I told the Chase rep that I was planning on closing my old Hyatt credit card and was going to apply for the new World of Hyatt credit card in a few weeks since I could earn up to 50,000 World of Hyatt Points with the new sign up bonus.  Instead of going through the process of closing one card and applying for the other card, I asked if Chase could provide some bonus World of Hyatt Points to forgo the sign up bonus.  Nope, that was not possible.  At that point, I asked the rep to close that credit card and transfer the credit limit over to another Chase personal call.  I am 0 for 1 at this point, onto the next call.

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Citi 5% Cash Back on Online Purchases from 11/24 – 11/30 Statement Credits Posted

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  Last week, Citi ran a promo where you could earn 5% cash back for making online purchases between November 24 and November 30 (Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday).  My Citi AT&T Access More Credit Card statement just closed and the 5% cash back statement credit posted to my account.  I made an online purchase on November 24 for $503.95 and the $25 Online Purchase Bonus posted on December 3.  You may need to wait until your credit card statement closes to see the bonus.

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Intro to Venmo Rewards & How to Order Venmo Debit Card

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your Thanksgiving weekend is going well.  A few days ago, I ordered my Venmo debit card and I wanted to provide an introduction to the Venmo Rewards program and show the steps to order, activate, and use your Venmo debit card.  The Venmo debit card has a clean design and is available in a few different colors.  Here is the front and back of the card (it is a little strange that the front is vertical but the back is horizontal).

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Chase Checking Accounts: More Ways to Waive Monthly Service Fees & Debit Card Benefits Ending Nov 30

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend.  I really enjoyed the Virtual Chicago Seminars and the virtual networking events – I look forward to seeing everyone in person next year in Chicago.  In other news, I was reviewing my recent Chase Savings Account statement and saw this announcement.  A few things are strange and stand out to me.  First, these changes affect Chase Checking Accounts, not Chase Savings Accounts, so I am not sure why this appeared on my recent savings statement and not my recent checking statement.  Secondly, the changes went into effect on September 13 and this statement covers the time period of September 17 through October 16, so I would have expected this announcement on my previous statement.  But enough about those details, let’s cover the changes in the announcement.

Effective September 13, Chase will include additional electronic payments that post to your checking account to qualify for the monthly service fee waiver.  I will go into those changes in the next section.

Effective December 1, Chase debit card holders will no longer have access to benefits in the Visa Benefits Package.  I couldn’t find a link to what is included in the Visa Benefits Package, but I found a link for Chase Business Checking Accounts that mentions Purchase Security, Extended Protection, Auto Rental CDW, and Travel and Emergency Assistance.  I assume most / all of those benefits are included in the personal / consumer version of the Visa Benefits Package, so it is sad to see those benefits ending on November 30 for Chase debit card holders.

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