Tag Archives: Free Stuff

Reconsideration Strategy for Credit Card Annual Fees During Coronavirus Pandemic

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Good morning everyone.  After reading recent articles by Omar @ Travel Summary (It’s Time to Reduce Your Credit Card Annual Fees) and Doctor of Credit (Credit Card Annual Fee Due? Remember To Ask For A Retention Offer Before Cancelling), I decided to take a look at my credit cards, their annual fees, and whether or not they are worth keeping going forward.  I will share my strategy for organizing my credit cards and my recent call with US Bank regarding my US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card.

I opened up my master credit card spreadsheet and looked at all the credit cards, debit cards, and authorized user cards in the table (68 total cards).  I then removed all my debit cards and authorized user cards and was left with 42 credit cards in my name or Laura’s name.  I then removed all the no annual fee credit cards and was left with 25 credit cards that have annual fees.  The annual fees totaled $4,134.  If you are curious about why we pay so much in annual fees, read I Paid $4,588 in Credit Card Annual Fees in 2019 & Was it Worth it?  Here are the credit cards sorted by card name:

Credit Card Name AF Credit Card Name AF
AMEX Business Platinum $595 Chase Sapphire Reserve $450
AMEX Gold $250 Chase Southwest Airlines Priority (Laura) $149
AMEX Hilton Honors Aspire $450 Chase World of Hyatt (Laura) $95
AMEX Platinum Delta SkyMiles $195 Citi AT&T Access More 1 $95
Banco Popular Avianca Vuela $149 Citi AT&T Access More 2 $95
Bank of America Alaska Airlines (Laura) $75 Citi AT&T Access More 3 $95
Capital One Venture Rewards (Laura) $59 Citi Premier $95
Chase Hyatt Hotels $75 US Bank Altitude Reserve $400
Chase IHG Rewards Premier $89 US Bank Radisson Rewards Business $60
Chase IHG Rewards Select $49 US Bank Radisson Rewards Premier Visa Sig 1 $75
Chase Ink Plus $95 US Bank Radisson Rewards Premier Visa Sig 2 $75
Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless $95 Wells Fargo Propel World $175
Chase Marriott Bonvoy Premier Plus Business $99 Total Annual Fees $4,134

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Need to Cut Expenses? Use Trim to Save Money on Cable / TV / Internet / Phone Utility Bills

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Good morning everyone.  Last month, I wrote that Trim Saved Me Another $15 on my Comcast Xfinity Cable Bill.  Now that the coronavirus has rapidly spread across the country and around the world, I know a lot of people are trying to save money by cutting expenses.  I will have a post out later today about saving money with credit card annual fees, but for this post, I wanted to remind readers that Trim can save you money on cable, TV, internet, and phone bills.  Trim will reach out to your utility company on your behalf and negotiate a lower monthly cost or get you a 1 time courtesy credit (like the $15 credit I received from Xfinity last month).  In exchange for negotiating a lower rate, Trim takes a cut of the savings.  To learn more, read this post: Trim Saves Money on Monthly Cable / Phone / TV / Internet Bills (Negotiates Discounts on your Behalf).

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Work from Home Diary 4: Weekend Yard Work & Hallmark Movies

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a good weekend.  I started sharing my thoughts regarding working from home in a series of Work from Home Diary posts.  Feel free to share your work from home feelings in the comments section below.  For today’s update, I wanted to share my weekend activities.  Before I continue, what does yard work and Hallmark movies have to do with miles and points?  That’s a great question, read on to find out.

On Saturday morning, Laura and I went to Lowe’s to get some cleaning supplies, trash bags, and Amazon GCs.  When we arrived, we saw a deal on colored bark (4 bags for $10) and purchased 8 bags.  We had ambitious plans to clean up our front and back yard and to put out a new layer of bark.  After several hours of work, our front and back yard looked great.  Even though our muscles were sore, using the Lowe’s AMEX Offer on my American Express Blue Business Plus Credit Card to get 10% cash back on the Lowe’s purchases was a nice relief.  The Lowe’s AMEX Offer is cumulative and pays 10% cash back, up to $100 cash back (so spending $1,000 will max out this offer).  This AMEX Offer expires on June 30, 2020, but I expect another Lowe’s AMEX Offer will show up after July 1.

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Dell Technologies 10% Cash Back AMEX Offer Stacks with Business Platinum $100 Dell Statement Credit

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Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is off to a good start.  A few weeks ago, Doctor of Credit reported that there was a new AMEX Offer for Dell Technologies: 10% cash back up to $1,500 that expires on August 31, 2020.  I immediately looked for this AMEX Offer on my cards and found it on my American Express Business Platinum Card.  I didn’t have any immediate uses for any Dell products until last week.  Dell was participating in a St. Patrick’s Day promo and offering 10% cash back.  I decided to check out the site to see if there was anything on sale that I needed.

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Work from Home Diary 2: Afternoon Walks & Restaurant Gift Cards

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday.  I started sharing my thoughts regarding working from home in a series of Work from Home Diary posts.  Feel free to share your work from home feelings in the comments section below.  For today’s update, I will share what it’s been like to work from home this week.  As I mentioned yesterday, this is Laura’s spring break week.  Instead of spending time driving around Ireland or suntanning in Kauai, we are both spending most of our time inside our home.  My work from home set up is upstairs in our guest room / home office and Laura’s work from home set up is downstairs on our den table.  It’s nice that we have our own spaces to work (and listen to music or watch TV).

As an assistant principal, Laura is used to waking up early and leaving early for work.  Now that we are both working from home, we can sleep in a little later, eat breakfast together, and watch morning news before starting our work.  I’m used to eating lunch around 11:30-12pm, so we both take a break, make lunch (or reheat leftovers) and relax for a few minutes.  In the early afternoon, if the weather is nice/decent, we try to go for a 2-3 mile walk around our city to stretch our legs and talk about work and life.  There are not many people outside, but we do see a few others walking and riding bikes. Continue reading →