Tag Archives: Chase Bank

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My Retention Offer on Chase Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business Credit Card

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Last week, the $99 annual fee posted to my legacy / grandfathered Chase Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business Credit Card (no longer available for new members).  The only reason I keep this credit card is for the 35K Marriott Free Night Certificate, which I value slightly more than $99.  I decided to call Chase to see if I was eligible for a retention offer.  I explained to the Chase rep that I wasn’t travelling much this year and asked if the annual fee could be waived.  The Chase rep said I could get a $50 statement credit or product change to the no annual fee Chase Marriott Bonvoy Bold Credit Card.  I gladly accepted the $50 statement credit and that credit posted to my account about a week later.

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I Converted my Chase Sapphire Reserve to Freedom Flex – Here’s Why & What Happened Next

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  I had a fun time watching the latest FTU Virtual Seminar on Saturday (April 10) and am looking forward to attending the next FTU Virtual Seminar on May 22.  In other news, I officially redeemed all my Chase Ultimate Rewards Points last week.  Yes, you read that correctly, I now have 0 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points across all my Chase credit cards.  Every month when our credit card statements would close, I would transfer the points from my Chase Ink Plus, Chase Ink Bold, and Laura’s Chase Freedom to my Chase Sapphire Reserve.  I would then redeem the points via Pay Yourself Back toward recent grocery and restaurant purchases.

Since it has been more than 4 years since I last got a sign up bonus on the Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card or Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card, I plan on applying for the Chase Sapphire Preferred soon to get the increased sign up bonus.  Before I apply for the CSP, I redeemed all my points and converted my CSR to a Chase Freedom Flex Credit Card.  In this post, I will show you what happened next.

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Hyatt Free Night Certificate Posted 2 Months After Annual Fee Posted (YMMV?)

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Good afternoon everyone.  I’m not sure if this was a fluke, but my most recent Hyatt free night certificate posted 2 weeks before the annual fee posted, but my wife’s Hyatt free night certificate posted 2 months after the annual fee posted.  In this post, I will share the details about both of our situations and show the new terms of the Hyatt free night certificate.

I used to have the old Chase Hyatt Credit Card that had a $75 annual fee, but on January 11, 2021, Chase converted all cardholders from the old Chase Hyatt Credit Card to the new Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card which has a $95 annual fee.  I decided to close my old card before the conversion took place so that I could apply for the new card down the road.  Long story short, the old card annual fee posted on December 1, 2020, but the free night certificate posted to my Hyatt account 2 weeks prior.

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On My Mind: Using Chase Sapphire Reserve for Restaurants & Grocery Purchases Instead of AMEX Gold

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Good evening everyone, I hope your week is going well.  A few weeks ago, I started using my Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card as my go to restaurant and grocery store card.  Both categories earn 3x Chase Ultimate Rewards Points on the CSR.  That sounds pretty good until I explain that I could use my American Express Gold Card to earn 4x American Express Membership Rewards Points on those same categories.  Why would I want to earn 3x instead of 4x?  The answer is simple: Chase Ultimate Rewards Points are much easier for me to redeem.

As you can see by these screenshots that I took today, I only have 1,235 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points, compared to 364K Citi ThankYou Points and 479K American Express Membership Rewards Points.  Let me dig a little deeper into the reasons why the points balances are so different.

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On My Mind: Which Credit Card Do You Use When You Don’t Know The Bonus Category?

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Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a great Super Bowl Weekend.  A few days ago, when I was reviewing my recent credit card statements and I spotted a few purchases that did not earn bonus points.  I assumed the purchases would code as a restaurant, so I used my American Express Gold Card, but to my surprise, the purchases did not code as a restaurant (and I only earned 1x on the purchases).  This led me down a rabbit hole where I pondered similar situations like:

  • A restaurant located inside a hotel (would it code as a restaurant or hotel purchase?)
  • A restaurant that was located on a golf course (would it code as a restaurant or golf course purchase?)
  • A café located inside a bookstore (would it code as a restaurant or a bookstore?)
  • And so on and so on…

To me, there are 2 possible ways to answer these questions: Gamble or Play It Safe. Continue reading →