Tag Archives: Credit Cards

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How to Activate Physical Sinemia Card Online

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Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is off to a great start.  By the time you read this post, I will be on my way back home to San Francisco.  I promise to work on a few trips reports regarding my trip around Eastern Europe.  But in the meantime, here is my post on how to activate your physical Sinemia card.  I do not know exactly when I ordered my physical Sinemia card, but it was in early December.  A few weeks later, I got this email from Sinemia stating that my physical Sinemia card was sent out.  In the email, it says that the physical Sinemia card should arrive in 5-7 business days, but I was not home the last week and a half of December, so I am not sure exactly when it was delivered.  Without further ado, here is how to activate your physical Sinemia card online.

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Gift Cards Trigger $75 Annual Travel Credit for Chase Southwest Airlines Priority Credit Card

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Good afternoon everyone, greetings from Macedonia!  I’ve been traveling around Eastern Europe this week, but I noticed that the Chase Southwest Airlines credit cards have changed their sign up bonuses and some cards are now offering the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass.   Even though the Southwest Airlines Companion Pass is awesome, I want to talk about the Chase Southwest Airlines Priority Credit Card.  My girlfriend recently converted her Chase Southwest Airlines Plus Credit Card to the Chase Southwest Airlines Priority Credit Card, and part of the card benefits is a $75 annual travel credit.  Much like the airline reimbursements on the American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card and the American Express Platinum Charge Cards, I assumed airline gift cards would trigger the $75 statement credit, but I had to find out for myself.

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How Much Money Did I Make from Bank Account Bonuses in 2018?

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Good afternoon everyone, this is a sequel to my 2017 post titled How Much Money Did I Make from Bank Account Bonuses in 2017?  and from my 2016 post titled My 2016 Roundup of Bank Account Bonuses (1099-Int Tax Season).  To recap, in 2015, I made $1,175 in bank account bonuses. In 2016, I made $2,850 in bank account bonuses. And in 2017, I made $3,700 in bank account bonuses.  Would 2018 be a record breaking year… unfortunately not.

In 2018, I opened a total of 15 bank accounts (split between checking, savings, and brokerage cash accounts).  8 of those accounts are now closed, 7 accounts are still open, and I am still waiting for bonuses from 2 of those accounts to post.  Here are all the bank accounts I opened, the date they were closed and the bonus I received.  To be fair, I am still waiting for the $125 bonus to post to my Meriwest Credit Union Checking Account and the $150 bonus to post to my TIAA Bank Yield Pledge Checking Account, but I met the requirements already, so now I just need to wait.  Doctor of Credit keeps a very detailed and up-to-date bank account bonuses page.

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How Quickly Does Cash Back Post for Chase Offers?

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  I meant to publish this post a few weeks ago, but better late than never.  Chase has started to roll out more and more Chase Offers (similar to AMEX Offers) on several Chase credit cards.  In this post, I will show you how long it took for a Lowe’s Chase Offer to post to my account.  The Lowe’s Chase Offer provided 10% cash back on the first $120 spent, for a maximum of $12 cash back.  I added the Lowe’s Chase Offer to my Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card on December 9, 2018.  That same day, I went to Lowe’s and spent $96.60 (combination of a Christmas tree, stand, and some gift cards).  After the Lowe’s purchase posted to my credit card, the Lowe’s Chase Offer showed up under my Redeemed tab of Chase Offers.  The terms state that the statement credit should post within 7-14 business days, so let’s see how long it really took.

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How Right (or Wrong) Were My 2018 Travel Predictions?

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Good afternoon everyone.  In mid January 2018, I wrote My Unlikely, But Entertaining 2018 Travel Predictions.  I did not look at that post until yesterday, so it was fun to look at the predictions I had made.  I will go through my 2018 predictions and see how well I did.  Since my memory is not that great, please correct me if I am wrong on any of these.  In a few days, I will share my probably equally as unlikely but equally as entertaining 2019 travel predictions, so check back for that post.  Without further ado, here were my 2018 predictions and the results:

Airlines

  • After the Virgin America merger, Alaska Airlines will add new routes to Mexico, Canada, and the Caribbean (Correct! According to Alaska Airlines’ website, they did add several new routes of Mexico City from SFO, LAX, and SAN.  Unfortunately, there were no new routes to Canada or the Caribbean.)
  • Delta Airlines will introduce cash and miles award tickets, then American Airlines and United Airlines will follow suit (Wrong!  Looks like none of the big 3 airlines added “cash + miles” award tickets.)
  • Southwest Airlines will increase their Transfarency by automatically keeping track of travel funds in each account (Wrong!  You still need to manually track your travel funds.)
  • JetBlue will add new routes along the West Coast and maybe to Hawaii (Wrong! JetBlue did add new routes along the East Coast, but nothing new on the West Coast.)
  • Singapore Airlines will allow you to book United Airlines awards online (Correct!  Singapore Airlines added the ability to book award flights on United Airlines in February.)
  • British Airways will bring back the 4,500 Avios award price in the United States (Wrong!  Sadly, the 4,500 British Airways Avios pricing band is still not available in the US.)

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