Good morning everyone, I hope you are having a great day so far. I think Apple Pay is the coolest thing since sliced bread Bluebird/Serve and will revolutionize the payment/shopping experience. Please take a look at the short YouTube video below for a demo of how quick and easy Apple Pay is. Learn more about Apple Pay here.
Literally a few minutes before writing this post, I received the following email from Chime regarding the previously announced changes to debit card loads (link). Starting October 8, you will be able to load up to $200 per day, with a minimum load amount of $25. If you use a debit card from Chase, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, U.S. Bank, Comerica Bank, or USAA, your debit card loads will remain free. If you use a different debit card (including the PayPal Business Debit Card), you will *most likely* get hit with a “fee of up to 3%” per load. We still need to wait and see what Chime does regarding the PayPal Business Debit Card. If you use a debit card from one of the previously mentioned banks, the October 8 change will benefit you.
As an experienced miles and points collector, I can’t stress enough how important it is to be approved for new credit cards (and their huge sign up bonuses) and to keep the best travel credit cards while paying the least amount of annual fees. Some credit card companies will offer statement credits, either to fully or partially offset the annual fee, just by calling and asking. Other times, they will offer a “spending challenge” where you will have to spend $X in Y months to get a statement credit or bonus miles/points. Here are some of my recent conversations concerting reconsideration calls (calls to be approved for new credit cards) and retention calls (calls to minimize or eliminate the annual fee).
For simplicity, green represents good calls (such as being approved or receiving a favorable retention bonus) and red represents bad calls (such as not being approved or not receiving a retention bonus).
Reconsideration Calls (and one Reconsideration Bank Visit):
Retention Calls:
To read the entire page, please click here.
This post is a combination of my recommendations and the recommendations from readers. Thank you for contributing to this post. The big question is, why should you downgrade or convert a credit card instead of closing it outright?
Pros of downgrading or converting a credit card:
Cons of downgrading or converting a credit card:
To read the full article, please click here. Gotta go watch the Little League World Series now.
It’s that time of the year… annual fees start charging, free night certificates start appearing, and bonus points start posting. Earlier this week, I received the following email from Chase / Marriott about my free night certificate valid at any Marriott hotel category 1-5. The one thing I don’t like about the Marriott free night certificates is that they are only valid for 6 months from the date they are issued. If you cannot use them by then, call Chase and they will usually extend the certificate for another 6 months.
Since my free night certificate posted to my Marriott account before the annual fee posted to my Chase Marriott, I was planning on closing the credit card and keeping the free night… for free.
