Good morning everyone. As part of my “Keep, Cancel or Convert?” series, I like to evaluate and reevaluate credit cards to make sure they still deserve a spot in my wallet (or credit card drawer). In today’s post, I will share my thoughts regarding my American Express Hilton Aspire Credit Card. I was reviewing my recent credit card statement and spotted a reference to the annual fee (it was very subtle and is probably overlooked by most people). I decided to check out page 4…
Good afternoon everyone. As part of my “Keep, Cancel or Convert?” series, I like to evaluate and reevaluate credit cards to make sure they still deserve a spot in my wallet (or my fiance’s wallet, in this case). Last year, my fiance was approved for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card and she used it heavily when she first got the credit card (to meet the $4,000 minimum spending requirement), but that credit card hasn’t gotten much use lately. This is mainly because I have the Chase Sapphire Reserve Credit Card that offers 3x on travel and dining vs. the Chase Sapphire Preferred’s 2x on travel and dining. And since my March App-O-Rama, I have been using my American Express Gold Card since that credit card offers 4x on dining. Long story short, my fiance’s Chase Sapphire Preferred was not worth the $95 annual fee. This is hard to believe since the Chase Sapphire Preferred was one of the best travel rewards credit cards just a few years ago. We decided the best thing to do would be to convert her Chase Sapphire Preferred Credit Card into a Chase Freedom Credit Card, since we did not have a Chase Freedom between the two of us and the 5% rotating cash back categories would be easy to use.
Good morning everyone. A few years ago, Club Carlson / Radisson Rewards credit cards were awesome because you could redeem points and get your last night free. If you booked a 2 night stay, you got 50% off the total price. Well, it was too good to last, so Club Carlson / Radisson Rewards got rid of that benefit. A lot of people burned all their points and closed their credit cards, but I decided to keep my Club Carlson / Radisson Rewards credit cards. To make thing confusing, there are 4 US Bank issued Radisson Rewards credit cards (3 personal and 1 business).
For the longest time, I had the US Bank Radisson Rewards Premier Visa Signature Credit Card ($75 annual fee) and the US Bank Radisson Rewards Business Visa Credit Card ($60 annual fee). Both of these credit cards offer 40,000 anniversary bonus points every year, just for paying the annual fees. For $135 in annual fees, I could get 80,000 Radisson Rewards points every year. Since I wanted more cheap Radisson Rewards points, I decided to apply for the US Bank Radisson Rewards Visa Signature Credit Card ($50 annual fee) and then upgrade to the US Bank Radisson Rewards Premier Visa Signature Credit Card ($75 annual fee) in the future. As luck would have it, I wasn’t approved for the US Bank Radisson Rewards Visa Signature Credit Card ($50 annual fee), but instead, I was approved for the US Bank Radisson Rewards Visa Credit Card (no annual fee).
Good morning everyone. In January, my fiance was approved for the Chase World of Hyatt Credit Card (my referral link) that offered 25,000 Hyatt points after spending $3,000 in 3 months and an additional 25,000 Hyatt points after spending $6,000 total in 6 months. We are planning a wedding, so spending $6,000 in 6 months was not a problem. This credit card also offers an extra free night certificate (for category 1-4 Hyatt properties) if you spend $15,000 during the cardmember year. So the dilemma is, after spending $6,000 on this credit card and earning 50,000 Hyatt points, is it worth spending an extra $9,000 on this credit card to get an extra free night certificate? Here are my thoughts…
Updated 8pm PT on 3/15/19: Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway. I wish I could give everyone codes, but I only have so many codes available. Here are the winners: Mike Saint, Bill Pisor, LAURAPDX, Brandon, Priscilla Ennis, Seth, Will, Stephanie Woods, iwantmoremiles, and Jim F. I will email the winners the codes. Thank you.
Good afternoon everyone. A year ago, I wrote AwardWallet Feature I Wish Existed: Keep Checking for Account Balance Changes. In that post, I wished there was a way for AwardWallet to constantly check a specific airline / hotel account to see when miles or points posted. This is super important if you transfer points from a transferable points currency (Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Citi Thank You Points, Capital One Points, or Marriott Bonvoy) in the hopes of booking an award flight before the award space disappears. Some transfers are instant, while others may take several hours or several days.
I am happy to report that AwardWallet took my idea and added the feature to AwardWallet. Here is a blog post describing Balance Watch and how the feature works:
“Balance Watch will monitor a loyalty account to let you know as soon as your points arrive. Once activated, AwardWallet will check your balance up to twenty-four times per day and send you a desktop, mobile, and email notification as soon as a change is detected.”
Image source: https://awardwallet.com/blog/balance-watch/