Tag Archives: Credit Cards

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Stack Your Savings: $50 InKind Referral + Costco Gift Card Deal

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Good afternoon everyone.  I just got an email from InKind with some great news, they’ve doubled the referral bonus from $25 to $50.  If your referral signs up and spends $50 with InKind by October 5, 2025, you’ll earn a $50 bonus. If they miss the deadline, don’t worry, you’ll still receive the standard $25 bonus once they spend $50.

There’s no special referral link for this promotion, so you can keep using your current one. And if you’d like to use my InKind referral link, you’ll get $25 back after spending $50 or more with InKind.

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California Newborns: Claim Your $175 College Savings Boost with CalKIDS + ScholarShare 529

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope you had a great weekend.  A few years ago, when Laura completed her Master’s Degree, I helped her open a 529 college savings account so she could earn miles and points by buying Gift of College gift cards and using them to pay for tuition. Fast forward 5+ years, and I knew I wanted to do the same for Madison.

While researching 529 plans available in California, I came across CalKIDS (California Kids Investment and Development Savings Program). This is a state-funded initiative that helps children start saving for higher education. Every child born in California on or after July 1, 2023 is eligible for up to $175 in free college savings (read this post to learn more).  In today’s post, I’ll walk you through how CalKIDS works with ScholarShare 529 and Gift of College eGCs.

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Triple Play: $500 BofA Checking Bonus, 105K Atmos Rewards Points & 50K AA Miles

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Good afternoon everyone.  First off, thank you for all the kind messages and encouragement you shared with me in my previous post about the birth of my daughter: Attention Passengers: Madison has Joined the Travel with Grant Family.  I’m glad to share the exciting news with TWG readers and I promised I would have some good blog posts in the works.  Here is the first one…

Back in December, I signed up for the waitlist for the new premium Alaska Airlines credit card (now called the Bank of America Atmos Rewards Summit Credit Card).  A few weeks ago, I received a targeted email to apply for the credit card and receive 5,000 bonus Atmos Rewards Points, bringing the total sign up bonus to 105,000 points, but I only had 2 weeks to apply for this offer.

Unfortunately, Bank of America has their “3/12 Rule” (Doctor of Credit post) where BofA will only approve you for a credit card if you have 3 or fewer inquiries from all issuers in the last 12 months.  But… if you have a BofA checking or savings account, the rule changes to the “7/12 Rule” where BofA will only approve you for a credit card if you have 7 or fewer inquiries from all issuers in the last 12 months.  I was slightly over the 3/12 cutoff, but as luck would have it, BofA is currently offering a new checking account bonus up to $500 (Doctor of Credit post), depending on your total direct deposits within the first 90 days.

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Attention Passengers: Madison has Joined the Travel with Grant Family

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  I’m thrilled to share some wonderful news: Laura and I recently welcomed a beautiful, happy, and healthy baby girl named Madison into our family!  I’ve been meaning to share the news, but I just haven’t had the time, energy, and appropriate amount of sleep until now. In the last few weeks, Madison has already taught me plenty, like how to change diapers at lightning speed, how to cradle her tiny head just right, and how to put her needs above everything else.

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When Should You Add or Upgrade to a Premium Citi ThankYou Point Credit Card?

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  A few days ago, I read Frequent Miler’s post (Now transfer from most Citi cards to most ThankYou partners (even from Custom Cash)) and I started thinking about Citi ThankYou Point (TYP) transfers.  Among my 6 Citi TYP earning credit cards, I have always had a Citi Strata Premier Credit Card (and the OG Citi Premier) in order to transfer TYPs to airline and hotel partners.  Recently, Citi started allowing non-premium Citi TYP cards to transfer TYPs to travel partners, but the transfer ratio is ~70% of the premium Citi TYP cards.

For example, if you have a premium Citi TYP card (Strata Elite, Strata Premier, Prestige, or AT&T Access More), your transfer ratios are normally 1,000 TYPs = 1,000 airline miles (like this Avianca LifeMiles transfer).  Conversely, if you have one of the many non-premium Citi TYP cards (ThankYou Preferred, Strata, Double Cash, Custom Cash, ThankYou Mastercard, AT&T Universal Rewards World, AT&T Universal Savings and Rewards, AT&T Universal Rewards, AT&T Points Plus, or AT&T Access), your transfer ratios are normally 1,000 TYPs = 700 airline miles.

My question became… at what point should you add or upgrade a premium Citi TYP card to your Citi lineup?

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