Tag Archives: Free Stuff

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Get 0.7% APY + $100 Bonus by Stacking 2 Marcus Savings Account Deals (Expires February 12)

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Updated 12/1/22 at 4pm PT: Marcus is currently offering 3.00% APY and if you sign up with a referral link, like mine (https://www.marcus.com/share/GRA-IT7-LURK), you will get an extra 1.00% APY boost for the first 3 months, bring you to 4.00% APY for the first 3 months.

Good morning everyone, I hope your MLK Jr. Weekend is off to a great start.  In my post How Much Money Did I Make from Bank Account Bonuses in 2020?, I made a measly $800 from bank account bonuses in 2020.  I decided to hit the ground running in 2021 and have opened a few new savings, checking, and brokerage accounts in January (worth around $1,500).  My interest was piqued yesterday when I read Doctor of Credit’s post Marcus $100 Bonus for New & Existing Savings Customers with $10,000 Deposit (.50% APY).

My brother, who is a big fan of bank account bonuses, told me to use his referral link to join Marcus first (I would get a 0.2% APY boost for the first 3 months) and then to enroll in the $100 Marcus savings account bonus which is available for new and existing customers.  By stacking both deals, I will get 0.7% APY and the $100 bonus all at the same time.  As you can see, my Marcus account shows 0.7% APY and has 2 active offers applied.  Continue reading this post for step by step instructions on how to stack both of these deals.

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US Bank Cash+ Launching Real-Time Rewards for $10 Purchases & More News (Beginning February 19)

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Good afternoon everyone, happy Friday!  I just received an email from US Bank regarding my US Bank Cash+ Credit Card.  There are several changes that go into effect, beginning on February 19.  The most exciting change is the introduction of Real-Time Rewards for the US Bank Cash+, which I have used a few times on my US Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card.  You will also be able to use your cash rewards through PayPal.  There are also some negative changes to when cash rewards expires and redemption options.  Read on to see all the details.

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Ask Me (Almost) Anything Friday

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Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  I am looking forward to my MLK Jr. 3 day weekend and hope you are too.  Travel with Grant has always been about writing blog posts that interest me and I write blog posts that I would want to read (hopefully readers want to read those posts too).  My inspiration to write comes from first hand experiences with travel and rewards credit cards, in addition to reading other miles & points blogs and listening to miles & points podcasts.  I don’t have any blog posts at the forefront of my mind right now, so I am looking to my readers for some inspiration.  What are you interested in right now?  Do you have any questions about traveling, miles and points, or credit card rewards?

If you do, please leave a comment below and I will do my best to answer them all.  I should be able to answer some of them in the comments section, but others may lead to full on blog posts of their own.  My only request is that you do not ask me any complicated award booking questions like, “I want to get 25 people to Australia for Christmas in first class.”  Trust me, I’m not sitting on the greatest award booking secrets ever known, so my short answer will be to reach out to an award booking service and pray that they can help you out.  That is my one and only request, but I welcome all other questions.

Thanks for reading, thanks for commenting, and enjoy your long weekend!

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How Much Did I Pay in Credit Card Annual Fees in 2020?

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Updated at 9:20am PT on 1/4/21: I went through my credit card statements and found 2 more retention offers, so I updated the second table below.

Good morning everyone, I hope your weekend is going well.  In December 2019, I wrote I Paid $4,588 in Credit Card Annual Fees in 2019 – Was it Worth it?  In that post, I listed all of our credit cards that had annual fees and I attempted to justify why paying over $4,500 in annual fees was worth it.  Unfortunately, 2020 made it very difficult to get a ton of value out of our travel reward credit cards, so in March 2020, I wrote Reconsideration Strategy for Credit Card Annual Fees During Coronavirus Pandemic.  I decided to list all of our credit cards that have annual fees, sort them by when the annual fee posted / will post, and called for retention offers every time a new annual fee posted.  At the beginning of 2020, we had 25 credit cards with annual fees and would pay $4,845 in annual fees if we made no changes or retention offer calls.  In this post, I will share what retention offers we received, which credit cards we closed, and which credit cards we product changed.

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My Best Practices for Closing a Credit Card

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Good morning everyone, I hope you had a great New Year’s Day!  A few weeks ago, I wrote My Best Practices for New Credit Cards and Sign Up Bonuses.  In that post, I shared a variety of tips and tricks to stay organized and squeeze out the most value from your new credit cards.  In today’s post, I will talk about the other side of the coin – best practices for closing credit cards.  There are many things you need to do before you call to close your credit card.  Here are some tips and tricks to follow:

Is the Credit Card Worth the Annual Fee?

Whenever a credit card has an annual fee, you need to ask yourself, “Does the value you receive from the credit card benefits meet or exceed the cost of the annual fee?”  Most credit card benefits are intangible (you cannot touch them), but you must assign a value to them.  For example, if your credit card offers these benefits, how much are the benefits worth to you?

  • Airline Elite Status – you must fly in order to use your status.
  • Free Checked Bags – you must check bags on flights.
  • More Award Seats / Better Award Availability / Lower Pricing – you must search and book award tickets using miles and points.
  • Hotel Elite Status – you must stay at the hotel chain (or match to another hotel elite status).
  • Free Night Certificate – you must find participating hotels and award availability to use your free night certificates.
  • Rebated Points – you must have enough points to redeem for an award in order to get rebated points.
  • Statement Credits – you must spend money (hopefully on something you want / need) in order to get the statement credits.
  • Airline Travel / Incidental Reimbursement Credits – you must find qualifying charges to make in order to trigger the credits.
  • Refer a Friend Bonuses – you must have friends, family, or blog readers who will apply for new credit cards with your referral links.

If you are interested, check out my Keep, Cancel, or Convert? Series to see how I decide which credit cards are worth keeping and paying the annual fees.

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