Tag Archives: Gift Cards

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

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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My Top 10 Most Read Blog Posts of 2020

Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well.  Every year, I like to check out my stats from Google Analytics to see which blog posts were the most popular.  I created 2 lists by looking at all blog posts written in 2020 and then I looked at which posts were read the most in 2020, but written in a previous year (#stayingpower).  I will list the blog posts from top to bottom based on pageviews, share the original published date, and provide a short summary of each blog post.  If you are curious, here were the most popular posts from 2019, 20182017, and 2016.

2020’s Most Read Posts (Written in 2020)

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Need a Last Minute Gift? Earn Rewards for Buying Virtual Gift Cards from Slide, Fluz & MileagePlusX

Good afternoon everyone.  The holiday season is upon us and we are now in the home stretch.  If you still have a few more gifts to give this year, there is still time to send your friends, family members, neighbors and teammates a gift card.  Of course you can run out to your local grocery store, restaurant, pharmacy, or office supply store to pick up a physical gift card, but if you don’t want to leave your house, you can buy a virtual gift card from the convenience of your phone (and earn rewards).  Whenever I need to buy a gift card for myself or for someone else, there are 3 apps that I use: Slide, Fluz, and MileagePlusX.

I will go into more detail on how to use each app, but there are 3 important things to know about these apps: your virtual gift card is ready to use right away; you can usually purchase the virtual gift card in an exact dollar amount; and you earn rewards in the form of cash back or United Airlines Miles.  Without further ado, let’s go through these 3 apps.

Slide (Apple App Store / Google Play Store)

Slide offers 4% cash back on all virtual gift card purchases (which may be higher or lower than the other 2 apps, depending on the store).  If you are a new member, please use my Slide referral link and you will get a $5 credit towards your first 4 purchases ($20 off total).  For comparison purposes, I bought Panera Bread virtual gift cards from all 3 apps to compare the process and show the various rewards.  After you create your Slide account, type the store name into the search box.  If the store is offered on Slide, you will see it in the search results.  Click on the store name to purchase a virtual gift card.

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Reader Feedback: How Should I Spend 84K Citi ThankYou Points Before December 31?

Updated at 6pm PT on 1/2/21: Thanks to everyone who answered the poll question at the bottom of this post.  Even though “Do Nothing Until 2021” was the second most popular answer, that is what I decided to do.  Hopefully I will be able to make some Citi TYP redemptions in 2021.


Good evening everyone, I need some help.  First of all, this post could be classified as a “First World Problem” or a “Good Problem to Have”, but I would still like to get some help on making my decision.  Long story short, I have a Citi Rewards+ Credit Card and one of the benefits of the credit card is the ability to get 10% of your redeemed Citi ThankYou Points (TYPs) back, on the first 100,000 TYPs redeemed per calendar year (10K TYPs rebate max).  Since there are only a few weeks left in the year and I have only redeemed a few thousand TYPs this year, I need to spend 84K TYPs by December 31 in order to max out the 10K TYP rebate.  In this post, I will discuss how I calculated how many TYPs I need to spend and go through all the various redemption options and my thoughts on each option.

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Citi ThankYou Points Cyber Monday Gift Card Sale (Redeem 20% Fewer TYPs on Nov 30)

Updated on 11/29/20 at 11pm PT: According to the Citi ThankYou Gift Card page, it looks like this 20% discount only applies to Apple, Happy Dining, Fandango, Petsmart, and Top Golf gift cards.  All other gift cards are at the same price.


Good morning everyone, happy Friday!  I just received an email from Citi about their upcoming Cyber Monday Gift Card Sale.  If you redeem Citi ThankYou Points (TYPs) on November 30 between 12:00am ET and 11:59pm ET, you will be able to redeem 20% fewer TYPs.  For example, a $25 gift card normally costs 2,500 TYPs (1.0 cents per point), but during this promo, you will only need to redeem 2,000 TYPs (1.25 cents per point).  The 1.25 CPP rate is the same value you would get if you redeemed TYPs for travel.  You may be able to get more than 1.25 CPP if you transfer your TYPs to transfer partners, so keep that in mind.

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