Tag Archives: Free Stuff

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No Upcoming Hilton Stay? Turn Your Credit Into a $50 Snack Shopping Spree

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Reposting on 3/15/2025: as we approach the end of Q1, you only have 2 more weeks to use your Q1 $50 Hilton Credit from your Hilton Surpass credit card and AMEX Platinum card. Don’t despair if you don’t have any upcoming Hilton stays, just go on a Hilton snack shopping spree! Read the full post for more details.

Reposting on 12/10/2025: as we approach the end of the year, you only have 3 weeks left to use your Q4 $50 Hilton Credit from your Hilton Surpass credit card and AMEX Platinum card. Don’t despair if you don’t have any upcoming Hilton stays, just go on a Hilton snack shopping spree! Read the full post for more details.

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Last week, I received a reminder email from Hilton about the Q4 $50 Hilton credit on my American Express Hilton Honors Surpass Credit Card.  I also receive another Q4 $50 Hilton credit from my American Express Business Platinum Card.  In the past, it was easy to use both credits, I’d simply book a Hilton stay once a quarter.  But things are a little different now with a newborn at home.  So when Q3 was coming to an end, I had to get creative to make sure those Hilton credits didn’t go to waste.

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Maximize Instacart Savings with $10 / $20 Chase Credits & Discounted Gift Cards

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your weekend is going well. I’ve been a big fan of Instacart ever since Chase added $10 and $20 Instacart credits to many of their cobranded credit cards in May 2025. Before then, I had never used Instacart because I assumed the grocery prices were significantly higher than shopping in-store and I actually enjoyed going to my local grocery stores.  Between my wife and I, we currently have 8 qualifying Chase cobranded credit cards, which provide $80 – $100 in Instacart credits each month. When you combine those credits with discounted Instacart gift cards, it becomes possible to have groceries delivered to your front door for a fraction of the normal cost.

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Breaking Up with My AMEX Coupon Book: No More Monthly, Quarterly, Semi-Annual, or Yearly Credits

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well. I recently read a great blog post on Frequent Miler about maximizing American Express credits and it made me realize that there are a ton of AMEX credits out there right now with various frequencies (monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, and yearly). After reading the blog post, I took a look at my current American Express credit card lineup and it hit me… I don’t have any of those credits anymore and I’m not sad about that.

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My Favorite Underrated Wells Fargo Autograph / Journey Credit Card Feature: Transfers Starting at 1 Point

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Good afternoon everyone and happy Friday! A warm welcome to any former Bilt Card 1.0 members who may have found their way here. By now, you’ve likely received your no annual fee Wells Fargo Autograph Credit Card and are wondering: What should I do with this card, should I keep it?

While the Wells Fargo Autograph offers decent bonus categories, my favorite feature is something far less flashy, but far more useful to me: you can earn transferable points and move them to airline and hotel partners without paying an annual fee.  This is a huge deal if you ever need to top off an account with fewer than 1,000 points. There are no minimum transfer amounts, which means no orphaned points stranded after a redemption.  That combination is wonderful, but not very common in the miles / points space.

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How Fast Does the Citi Strata Elite $200 Splurge Credit Post for Best Buy Purchases?

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Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Last month, both Laura and I applied for the Citi Strata Elite Credit Card because we had a property tax payment due by December 31 (and we were hoping to triple-dip the $300 Annual Hotel Benefit and $200 Splurge Credit). Long story short (and a situation deserving of its own blog post), Citi declined my application but approved Laura’s application.

If you already have the Citi Strata Elite, the $200 Splurge Credit should be very easy to use. I wanted to share our experience and show how quickly you can expect the credit to post.  Laura selected Best Buy as her “Selected Brand” and spent $200 on Best Buy’s website (they offer a wide variety of gift cards available). The purchase posted on December 29 and the $200 statement credit posted 2 days later on December 31.

Since the Splurge Credit resets each calendar year, she was able to use it again in 2026. Laura kept Best Buy as her “Selected Brand” and made another $200 purchase on January 3. Once again, the credit posted quickly, just 2 days later on January 5. We were both pleasantly surprised that the credits posted automatically and without any need to contact Citi.

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