Tag Archives: Cash Back

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

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Good morning everyone.  As part of my “Keep, Cancel or Convert?” series, I like to evaluate and reevaluate credit cards to make sure they still deserve a spot in my wallet (or at least my credit card drawer).  A few weeks ago, the $99 annual fee posted to my Barclays JetBlue Plus Credit Card.  I don’t fly JetBlue very often, but I do enjoy getting a 10% rebate on my redeemed miles and getting 5,000 bonus anniversary points every year.  Those 2 benefits alone are probably worth close to $99, depending on how much you value JetBlue points and how many JetBlue points you redeem.  So the question is, is this card a keeper?  I was leaning toward keeping the credit card, but I decided to call Barclays and ask if there were any retention offers available anyway.  Good thing I called…

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Stacking American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card $250 Resort Credit & DoubleTree AMEX Offer ($45 Off $225)

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Good afternoon everyone.  I love my American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card and have gotten great value from this credit card.  I have written extensively about this credit card in these posts:

In today’s post, I will show you how I stacked a DoubleTree AMEX Offer (spend at least $225 and get a $45 statement credit) with the $250 Resort Credit offered on the American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card.  I am a big fan of AMEX Offers and occasionally you will see Hilton related AMEX Offers on your American Express Hilton credit cards.  As luck would have it, there was this nice DoubleTree AMEX Offer available on my American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card.  This offer is still available for the next 3 days, if you are interested.

 

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International Purchases Can Trigger Chase Offers (Ex: Starbucks in Europe)

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend. Last week, I wrote How Quickly Does Cash Back Post for Chase Offers? Then a few days ago, I added / linked a Starbucks Chase Offer to my Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card. I would earn 5% cash back at Starbucks, up to a maximum of $1.50 cash back ($30 x 5% = $1.50). Last week, I went to a Starbucks in Bucharest, Romania, and bought my mom a Starbucks mug (she has a collection of Starbucks mugs from around the world). Surprisingly, a few days after purchasing the Starbucks mug, I got an email from Chase stating that I had earned 91 cents cash back with the Starbucks Chase Offer.

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Arcadia: $15 Off My PG&E Gas & Electricity Bill (+ 5% Cash Back with US Bank Cash+)

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Updated 10am PT on 7/9/20: Arcadia Power changed their name to Arcadia, so I updated the logo and changed references of “Arcadia Power” to “Arcadia” in this post.  Arcadia has also improved their website, so some of the screenshots in this post are out of date.

Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  Last month, Doctor of Credit wrote a post about Arcadia stating that you could use this service to pay your electricity bill with a credit card and not be charged a fee.  I have been paying a $1.35 fee per payment to PG&E (Pacific Gas & Electric) for the last few years, so I was immediately interested.  For the last few years, I have been using my US Bank Cash+ Credit Card to earn 5% cash back on utility bills (as far as I know, Chase Ink Business credit cards do not earn 5x on electrical utilities bills, just phone / internet / TV utility bills).  With the $1.35 fee per payment, as long as my payment to PG&E was greater than $27 ($27 x 5% = $1.35), I would come out ahead.  If I could continue earning 5% with my US Bank Cash+ Credit Card to pay my PG&E bill and avoid the $1.35 fee, I would definitely use Arcadia.  I am happy to state that that is exactly what happened with my recent PG&E payment via Arcadia.  If you are not an Arcadia member, please use my referral link to create a free account.  Thank you!

I received this email from Arcadia on January 5.  In the email, it says I saved $15 (my Arcadia first payment bonus) and owe $105.88.  My card on file (US Bank Cash+ Credit Card) would be charged on January 8.  I didn’t need to do anything else.

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How Much Money Did I Make from Bank Account Bonuses in 2018?

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Good afternoon everyone, this is a sequel to my 2017 post titled How Much Money Did I Make from Bank Account Bonuses in 2017?  and from my 2016 post titled My 2016 Roundup of Bank Account Bonuses (1099-Int Tax Season).  To recap, in 2015, I made $1,175 in bank account bonuses. In 2016, I made $2,850 in bank account bonuses. And in 2017, I made $3,700 in bank account bonuses.  Would 2018 be a record breaking year… unfortunately not.

In 2018, I opened a total of 15 bank accounts (split between checking, savings, and brokerage cash accounts).  8 of those accounts are now closed, 7 accounts are still open, and I am still waiting for bonuses from 2 of those accounts to post.  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 $125 bonus to post to my Meriwest Credit Union Checking Account and the $150 bonus to post to my TIAA Bank Yield Pledge Checking Account, but I met the requirements already, so now I just need to wait.  Doctor of Credit keeps a very detailed and up-to-date bank account bonuses page.

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