Tag Archives: Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Look Mom, I’m on the Home Page of Boarding Area and my Chicago FTU Advanced Review

FTU Advanced Badge Front

Look Mom, I’m on the Home Page of Boarding Area and my Chicago FTU Advanced Review

Greetings Boarding Area readers! This week, Travel with Grant will be a featured blogger on the Boarding Area home page (thank you Randy for inviting me to be a Prior2Boarding blogger). If this is your first time reading my blog, this is all you need to know:

  • I talk a lot about manufactured spend and have several detailed guides about Bluebird, Serve, and various money saving deals like AMEX Offers, Chime Card, and Staples Easy Rebates.
  • I am very disloyal when it comes to airline and hotel “loyalty” programs, but I prefer the term “free agent” instead. I have airline miles in several frequent flyer programs and hotel points in several hotel reward programs.
  • I fly economy 95% of the time and will redeem frequent flyer miles if award space is available *and* the cheapest paid ticket is more than I want to pay.
  • I believe in “earning and burning,” rather than hoarding miles/points for aspiration international first class flights or $1,000+ hotel rooms. Spending fewer miles/points allows me to travel more often.
  • Last but not least, I have 27 credit cards (link) and I am only 24 years old – pretty good credit card to age ratio, right? Credit cards are an amazing tool if used responsibly. To put it bluntly: if you pay interest or late fees on your credit cards, you are subsiding our travel lifestyle/hobby. Please don’t pay interest or late fees!

FTU

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Random News: Last Day for AMEX $10 Statement Credit, iPhone 6/Plus Cases, Friday’s App-O-Rama Results, and Hang-Up-Call-Again Success Story

AMEX Serve Logo

Random News: Last Day for AMEX $10 Statement Credit, iPhone 6/Plus Cases, Friday’s App-O-Rama Results, and Hang-Up-Call-Again Success Story

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is off to a great start.  I had the pleasure of meeting a blog reader (and hopefully a future blog reader) for coffee in Oceanside this morning to talk miles and points.

Let’s get to the random news, shall we?

Sorry for the late notice, but today is the last day to take advantage of the $10 AMEX Serve Statement Credit After Making 5 $10+ Purchases.  You must make 5 purchases of $10 or more with your Serve Card between August 15 and today.  The statement credit posts after a few days of making the qualifying purchases.

Serve $10 Statement Credit 5 $10 Purchases

Click here to read the full article.  Continue reading →

More Info Regarding Chime Card Loads After October 8 and my App-O-Rama Planning

Chime Logo

More Info Regarding Chime Card Loads After October 8 and my App-O-Rama Planning

Literally a few minutes before writing this post, I received the following email from Chime regarding the previously announced changes to debit card loads (link). Starting October 8, you will be able to load up to $200 per day, with a minimum load amount of $25.  If you use a debit card from Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, Comerica Bank, or USAA, your debit card loads will remain free.  If you use a different debit card (including the PayPal Business Debit Card), you will *most likely* get hit with a “fee of up to 3%” per load.  We still need to wait and see what Chime does regarding the PayPal Business Debit Card.  If you use a debit card from one of the previously mentioned banks, the October 8 change will benefit you.

Chime Debit Card Updated Terms

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Random News: CSP Poll Results, Back 2 School Blogger Report Card, Staples Free After Rebate Paper, Korean Kit Kat Bar, and New AMEX Offers for AMEX Hotels, Paperless Post, and Cole Haan

Cry CSP

Random News: CSP Poll Results, Back 2 School Blogger Report Card, Staples Free After Rebate Paper, Korean Kit Kat Bar, and New AMEX Offers for AMEX Hotels, Paperless Post, and Cole Haan

Good evening everyone, here are the poll results for “Is the Chase Sapphire Preferred worth the $95 annual fee?” (link).  Your votes have been tallied and it looks like 60% of you agree with me that the $95 annual fee is not worth it.  Looking at the comments, I agree that the Chase Ink Bold/Plus/Cash Business Credit Card is superior to the Chase Sapphire Preferred.

For the record, if you downgrade or convert your Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card, you will keep the same credit line, that will not change.

CSP Annual Fee Poll Results

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Don’t Close your Credit Card! Downgrade or Convert to these Credit Cards

Which Credit Card

Downgrade or Convert to these Credit Cards

This post is a combination of my recommendations and the recommendations from readers.  Thank you for contributing to this post.  The big question is, why should you downgrade or convert a credit card instead of closing it outright?

Pros of downgrading or converting a credit card:

  • Downgrading/converting your credit card lengthens the average age of your credit card accounts and improves your credit score (learn more about your credit score here).
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card keeps your credit utilization ratio lower, which is good for your credit score (see link above).
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card keeps your miles/points from expiring or being forfeited back to the credit card company.
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card results in no hard pull of your credit report.
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card is sometimes easier than outright applying.
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card makes it possible to get the same credit card multiple times (like 2 Chase Freedom or Bank of America Better Balance Reward cards).
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card may result in a sign up bonus on the new card (sometimes not, see cons below).

Cons of downgrading or converting a credit card:

  • Downgrading/converting your credit card may result in not get a sign up bonus for the new credit card.
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card may take a long time for the conversion process (Citi takes 60+ days).
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card may cause you to have “too much available credit” and may make it harder to be approved for future credit cards (mostly Barclays, but you can do recon calls to reverse their decision).
  • Downgrading/converting your credit card may interfere with the “churnability” of the credit card.

To read the full article, please click here.  Gotta go watch the Little League World Series now.