Tag Archives: Credit Cards

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3 Buy Miles/Points Promos Ending Soon: American (50K Bonus), United (70% Bonus + Sweepstakes Draw) & JetBlue (50% Bonus)

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Good evening everyone.  I was working on my Buy Miles & Points Page and found a few new offers.  Always check the math to make sure that buying miles & points makes sense for you.  Do not buy miles & points speculatively unless you have a use in mind.  With that said, here are buy miles/points promos for American Airlines, United Airlines, and JetBlue that are ending in the next 7 days.  First up, American Airlines is running a promotion where you can get up to 50,000 bonus miles, depending on the number of American Airlines AAdvantage Miles you purchase.  This offer ends on January 31.

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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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Reality Check: Traveling with Non-TSA PreCheck Travelers Sucks

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend. This past weekend, I was reminded how great TSA PreCheck is and how terribly regular airport security is. You are only as fast as your slowest non-TSA PreCheck traveler. For example, I sped through TSA PreCheck (barely slowing down to put my iPhone in my backpack, putting my backpack on the conveyor belt, putting my carry on bag on the conveyor belt, walking through the metal detector, and picking up my bags) then I waited 15-20 minutes on the other side of security for the non-TSA PreCheck travelers to go through security.  In that 15-20 minute window of time, I realized how much I take for granted having TSA PreCheck.  It is a total game changer for me, especially at SFO when I go through security twice, first to visit the SFO Centurion Lounge, and then again to get to my departure terminal.

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Image source: https://www.politico.com/story/2016/05/tsa-airport-long-lines-223666

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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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