Tag Archives: Chase Bank

Planning for Retention Bonuses for a Chase Ink Bold MasterCard and an SPG American Express Credit Card

Update 7AM:  I just called Chase and got a $95 statement credit on my Chase Ink Bold MasterCard and I moved my credit line from my SPG American Express Credit Card to my Blue Cash Preferred Credit Card.  See tonight’s post for more information.
Ink Cards

Planning for Retention Bonuses for a Chase Ink Bold MasterCard and an SPG American Express Credit Card

There comes a time in every credit card’s life when you have to make a very important decision – do you pay the annual fee and keep the credit card another year or do you cancel the credit card to avoid paying the annual fee?  Like most things in life, there is a secret third option, which I like to call Door 3, aka the Retention Bonus.  Behind Door 3, you get the best of both worlds – keep the credit card for another year and avoid paying the annual fee.

I’ve had pretty good success in the past regarding the Chase Ink Bold MasterCard (5,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points or $47.50 statement credit) and the Chase United MileagePlus Credit Card (2 more United Club Passes and 10,000 United miles).  Ideally you want to call 10, 11, or 12 months from the day you were approved for the credit card, right before the annual fee posts to your account.

The term retention bonus means waiving the annual fee, providing a statement credit that offsets the annual fee, or bonus miles/points that offset the annual fee.  Some credit card companies will make you spend a certain amount of money every month to get the retention bonus.  To ensure the highest possibility of a retention bonus, here are my tips:

  1. Make sure your credit card is paid off and has a $0 balance.
  2. Make sure all transferable points have been spent/redeemed/transferred already.
  3. Have 1 or 2 good reasons why you want to cancel the credit card.

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Which Credit Score is the Most Accurate?

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When I talk to friends about credit cards, they eventually always ask me how many credit cards I currently have.  I am not embarrassed, so I tell them I currently have 24 open credit cards (full list here).  The usual response is “doesn’t that kill your credit score?”

My favorite response is: “my credit score is good enough to get 24 credit cards, so it must be pretty good.”

But lately, I’ve been thinking about their question and I wanted to see if I can get a more accurate number for what my credit score actually is.  I use free online credit monitoring services Credit Karma and Credit Sesame (learn more here).

Let’s start with Credit Karma.  According to their website, my “credit score” is 756 based on TransUnion Credit Score data.  The reason I use “credit score” in quotes is because it is a FAKO score, not a FICO score.  What that means is that Credit Karma (and Credit Sesame) get the raw credit data from one of the 3 big credit bureaus and analyses it to create their own “credit score.”  Most of the time their “credit score” is very similar to the real credit score, but sometimes their are differences.  One important point is to check that date that your “credit score” was produced, which in this case is March 28.

CK Score TransUnion 03-28-2014

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Guest Post from Doctor of Credit: Bank Account Sign Up Bonuses

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Guest Post from Doctor of Credit: Bank Account Sign Up Bonuses

(Disclosure: Will from Doctor of Credit emailed me about doing a guest post for each other’s blog and I said that would be a cool idea.  If you are interested in doing a guest post, please send me an email.)

If you’re a regular Travel with Grant reader like myself then chances are you’ve made a heap of points, miles and cash from various credit card sign up bonuses. Unfortunately you’re limited by the number of cards you can apply for and be approved for because you receive a hard credit pull every time you apply. Manufactured spending can be a great way to fill in the time between app-o-ramas, but my favorite thing to do to take the edge off is to make some extra spending money from bank account sign up bonuses.

Why I Love Bank Account Sign Up Bonuses:

  • The majority of them don’t require a hard credit pull, only a chex systems inquiry.
  • They pay cash, which is much more flexible than points and can be used for spending cash for your travel holidays.
  • They compliment credit card sign up bonuses. E.g, the Chase Freedom gives you a 10% bonus on all points earned if you have a Chase checking account open. A lot of checking accounts also allow you to fund the initial deposit with a credit card which is perfect for helping to meet some minimum spend requirements or some light manufactured spending.

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Quick Updates Regarding the New Chase IHG MasterCard and Visa Savings Edge Program

IHG Rewards Club Logo

Quick Updates Regarding the New Chase IHG MasterCard and Visa Savings Edge Program

This is a follow up post to an earlier post (Friday Rundown: Free Lounge Access for Chase Ink Bold/Plus, New IHG MasterCard…).  In that post, I said that I had received a letter from Chase regarding my Chase IHG Visa Credit Card.  My card would soon be converted to a Chase IHG MasterCard Credit Card.

New IHG Card Letter Front

The letter stated that I would received my new MasterCard credit card by May 17, but my card would be automatically changed at/on April 1.  Apparently my calendars are a few days late or Chase is a few days early, because it looks like they have already made the change to my current IHG credit card.  I assume I will receive a new credit card in the mail any day now.   Continue reading →

My Exciting Day: New Office Depot, 20,000 Point Plink Winner?, and Amazon Gift Cards in Stock

Office Depot Logo

My Exciting Day: New Office Depot, 20,000 Point Plink Winner?, and Amazon Gift Cards in Stock

I’m sure your day was just as exciting as mine, but here is how it went…

There is a new Office Depot store that just opened near me so I went to check it out…

New Office Depot Irvine

And I see the gift card rack, all full of gift cards.  Those $200 Visa gift cards are hard to find at the other Office Depot stores in town.  I looked at both sides of the gift card rack and didn’t see any special wording about using cash for certain gift cards.  So I take a OneVanilla gift card to the check out counter and try to load $500 to it.  Unfortunately the register is not working properly, saying “Card Declined” – after just scanning the barcode on the back of the gift card.  Manager comes over and tries, but no luck.  I go back to the gift card rack and try to buy a $200 fixed value gift card, but the same error message shows up.  Ughh, it must be the system.  I will try back again later this week, but I’m sure they will have blocked the $500 cards from being purchased with a credit card by then.  Continue reading →