Tag Archives: Chase Bank

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I Paid $4,807 in Credit Card Annual Fees in 2023 – Was it Worth it?

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Good evening everyone, I hope your holiday season is going well.  With the end of the year right around the corner, I decided to publish my 2023 version of credit card annual fees I paid this year.  For comparison, here are my previous credit card annual fee posts:

For this year’s post, I decided to break up the list of credit cards into 5 sections:

  • New credit cards with sign up bonuses
  • Credit cards with retention offers
  • Credit cards that have been upgraded / downgraded / product changed
  • Annual fees saved on closed credit cards
  • All other credit cards

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How Much Money Did I Make from Bank Account Bonuses in 2023?

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Good morning everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Doctor of Credit has a Best Bank Account Bonuses page that he keeps up to date with the best offers each month.  In that master post, he links to individual bank account bonuses with helpful information regarding the bonus details, how to avoid monthly fees, when to close the account, how often you can open a new account, and much more.  For the last 9 years, I have been opening new checking accounts, savings accounts, brokerage accounts, and cash management accounts for the new member bonuses.  At the end of each year, I share my results on the blog.

Over the last 9 years, I have made over $24,000 in bank account bonuses.  You will receive 1099-INT / 1099-MISC tax forms every year, so you have to pay taxes on the bank account bonuses, but sometimes you can fund the opening deposit with a credit card and earn miles, points, or cash back.  If you are lucky, you can meet a minimum spending requirement by funding a new checking account or reach a high spending target to earn more rewards.  Here are my results from the last 9 years with links to corresponding yearly summaries:

Drum roll please… Here are the 13 new accounts I opened in 2023 that paid out $3,685 in bonuses:

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December Credit Card Dilemma: AMEX Platinum or AMEX Gold?

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Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday!  My wife and I have a $6,000 bill that is coming up in the next few weeks, so we (mostly me) are trying to figure out which new credit card to get to pay the bill (and earn a new sign up bonus along the way).  Traditionally in December, this is the time of the year that most travel hackers focus on spending the holidays with their friends and family setting themselves up for a Southwest Airlines Companion Pass in early January or getting a new American Express Platinum Card for the opportunity to go for the “Triple Dip” – where you can use the new card benefits at the end of 2023, again in 2024, and one more time in early 2025 before the annual fee is due.

My wife currently has a Chase Southwest Airlines Priority Credit Card and I am over Chase 5/24, so the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass is off the table for us.  My wife has never had *any* American Express cards as the primary account holder, but she is an authorized user on a few of my AMEX cards.  The “Triple Dip” on the AMEX Platinum seems like a no brainer, but AMEX has messed up our plans by adding a “Family Rule” on the American Express Gold Card that says:

You may not be eligible to receive a welcome offer if you have or have had this Card, the Premier Rewards Gold Card, The Platinum Card® from American Express, American Express Platinum Card® by Charles Schwab, The Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley or previous versions of these Cards.

Basically, if she gets the AMEX Platinum, she will not be eligible for the AMEX Gold sign up bonus in the future.  So this is where the dilemma comes in.  Should she go for the “Triple Dip” on the AMEX Platinum and forgo ever getting a sign up bonus on the AMEX Gold?  Or should she get the AMEX Gold now and then apply for the AMEX Platinum in the future (maybe in December 2024)?

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My 6 Credit Card App-O-Rama: Results & Reconsideration Calls

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Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday!  A few weeks ago, I applied for 6 new credit cards in my most recent App-O-Rama (which doesn’t work as well as it used to work, back in the good ol’ days), but I wanted to share my results and reconsideration calls.  Warning: I don’t recommend applying for multiple cards in the same day (“do as I say, not as I do”).  With that said, I started with the American Express Blue Business Plus Credit Card that has a 75,000 American Express Membership Rewards Points signup bonus after spending $15,000 in 12 months.  Check out this Doctor of Credit post for more info.

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PSA: Confirm Retention Offer Statement Credit or Bonus Points Post to your Account – If Not, Follow Up

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Good afternoon everyone.  At the end of every year, I write a post like I Paid $4,043 in Credit Card Annual Fees in 2022 – Was it Worth it?  In that post, I shared how much I paid in credit card annual fees and how much value I received from credit card benefits, targeted spending offers, and retention offers.  99% of the time, I get more value out of a credit card than the cost of the annual fee (otherwise I would have closed or downgraded to a cheaper or no annual fee credit card).  One of the key parts of my credit card strategy is to call every time a credit card annual fee posts to my account. 90% of the time, I do not get any retention offer or a retention offer that does not excite me (like 0% APR for 12 months or 0% balance transfers).  But about 10% of the time, I do get a decent retention offer that I happily accept.  Like the old saying goes, you miss 100% of the shots you do not take.

Most of the time, the retention offer will post within a few weeks or by the time the next credit card statement closes.  But sometimes it doesn’t, so you may need to follow up to see what is going on.  This is exactly what happened to me regarding 2 retention offers I recently received from Chase.  I called in early July about the $450 annual fee on my JPMorgan Chase Ritz Carlton Credit Card and explained that I was considering closing the credit card because the annual fee posted and I wasn’t getting enough value out of the credit card.  The rep looked at the retention offers and said they could offer me a $150 statement credit if I kept the credit card open and paid the annual fee.  I happily accepted the offer and patiently waited for the $150 statement credit to post.  Unfortunately, nothing happened for 2 full months.

I called Chase in mid September and asked about the $150 retention offer and the agent said that they see the $150 retention offer statement credit as an option, but that the button to accept the offer was not pressed / selected.  The rep was able to click / accept the offer and said that the $150 statement credit would appear in the next few weeks.  A few days after the call, the $150 statement credit posted on September 18.

Mini Rant: I hate that a $150 statement credit on my Ritz Carlton credit card causes me to lose 300 Marriott Bonvoy points.  I didn’t earn any points when I paid the $450 annual fee, so why am I paying 300 points when I receive a $150 statement credit?

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