Tag Archives: Discover It Credit Card

a woman holding her hands up with a man in front of him

Q4 Credit Card Category Strategy: Do Way Better than 5% Cash Back at Amazon

Good afternoon everyone, Q4 is among us.  With that, comes new cash back categories for Chase Freedom, Citi Dividend, and Discover It credit card holders.  Let’s go through the list of categories really quickly, starting with the Citi Dividend Credit Card: 5% cash back at Best Buy and department stores.  Most people will probably buy Visa Gift Cards at Best Buy.  I would also like to mention that you can often buy department store gift cards for much more than a 5% discount by shopping on Gift Card Granny.  Macy’s gift cards are 10%+ discounted, Sears gift cards are 6%+ discounted, and Kmart gift cards are 7%+ discounted.

Citi Dividend Q4 Calendar

Continue reading

a woman holding her hands up with a man in front of him

Chase Ink Plus $95 Statement Credit and Other Retention Offer Tips and Tricks

(Hat Tip to Kenny @ Saverocity for the inspiration)

Good evening everyone, I am writing this blog post from The Hall, a bar/restaurant in SF as I wait for a few travel hackers to join me.  This morning on BART, I read Kenny’s post about his recent Citi retention offers and I thought I would share my retention offer strategy and a few tips and tricks.  I’ve probably mentioned these tips and tricks a few times on this blog, but a refresher is always welcome.

Let me recap my recent retention offer call to Chase regarding my Chase Ink Plus Business Credit Card.  The $95 annual fee was going to post at the end of this month and I haven’t used this credit card in 6+ months (my Chase Ink Bold Business Credit Card get’s all my love).

Chase Ink Plus Business Credit Card

Continue reading

a woman holding her hands up with a man in front of him

Comparing US Bank’s Free Credit Score with other Free Credit Score Services

Good morning everyone, I hope you all had a great weekend.  A few days ago, I noticed that US Bank began offering free credit scores online.  Before I review the credit score feature, I wanted to get a few credit card and credit score annoyances off my chest.

[rant on]

Whenever I talk to people about credit cards, I eventually reveal that I have 30+ credit cards.  Since most people think having 2-3 credit cards is a lot, they automatically assume I have thousands of dollars in credit card debt.  It is annoying that people assume you have a shopping addiction and have no financial responsibility – that couldn’t be further from the truth.

People also ask about my credit score, since they assume it is 1 static number (like your age or height) – that couldn’t be further from the truth either (below, I compared my credit score from 5 different services).  There is actually no single credit score since each credit bureau (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) each have their own scoring models and reports, which subsequently produce different credit scores.  When people ask me what my credit score is, I don’t tell them a number, but I do say, “I have a great credit score, good enough to be approved for 30+ credit scores.” Here are 2 other annoying misconceptions that I want to put to rest about having 30+ credit cards:

  • I do not carry all 30+ credit cards with me at all times – I only carry my Citi Forward and AMEX Old Blue Cash on a daily basis
  • I do not use all 30+ credit cards every month – aside from meeting minimum spends on new credit cards, I only use 4-6 credit cards in any given month

[rant off]

Now with that off my chest, let me show you the new US Bank credit score feature.  After you log into your US Bank online account, click Check My Credit Score for Free on the left hand side.

US Bank Check Credit Score Free

Continue reading

a close-up of a logo

Discover It + ApplePay + Walgreens = 22% Cash Back for BART Clipper Card Reloads

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  I’m sure everyone knows about the recent Discover ApplePay promo, but if not, please read Frequent Miler’s post.  Since I live and work in the Bay Area, I take BART almost every day and spend about $225 a month on BART costs.  I shared my experience loading my BART Clipper Card at Whole Foods during the last 2 Whole Foods AMEX Offers:

On my way to work yesterday, I stopped at my local Walgreens in San Francisco and asked to load $50 to my BART Clipper Card.  The cashier was very friendly and knew exactly what to do.  When it came time to pay, I used my iPhone 6 with ApplePay to charge my Discover It Credit Card.  The purchase went through fine and appears to be a standard Walgreens purchase.

BART Clipper Card Walgreens Reload

Continue reading