January Catch-Up

February 5, 2019February 5, 2019 / Joe Pyrek / Leave a comment

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At the beginning of each month we will be writing a “catch-up” article highlighting important or noteworthy events from the prior month. While this certainly won’t be a recap of everything that happened across all airlines, hotels, banks, and credit cards, the hope is that we will be able to touch on the things about which you should be aware as well as others that may have slipped through the cracks in the prior month.

In no particular order…

1) American Express and Chase Issuing 1099s for Referral Bonuses

Starting on January 30, some American Express and Chase customers that had received referral bonuses for having friends/family sign up with their links in exchange for receiving points have reported receiving 1099s from the banks.

This is problematic as the banks have effectively applied a valuation to the points given. This reddit thread shows several examples and breaks down the valuations.

What can you do about it? First and foremost, consult your CPA or a tax professional. For some individuals it may have no impact, while for others that have a lot of referrals it could add thousands of dollars of income.

2) Bank of America Adds 24-Month Language to Certain Credit Cards

Similar to restrictions places on bonuses by Citi and Chase, Bank of America joins in by adding restrictions to four of their cards. Below are the cards and the specific terms.

Alaska Airlines Visa Signature : “This card will not be available to you if you currently have or have had the card in the preceding 24 month period.”

Bank of America Premium Rewards: “This Premium Rewards card will not be available to you if you currently have or have had a Premium Rewards card in the preceding 24 month period.”

Cash Rewards: “This Cash Rewards card will not be available to you if you currently have a Cash Rewards card unless you have had that Cash Rewards card for at least 24 months.”

Travel Rewards: “This Travel Rewards card will not be available to you if you currently have a Travel Rewards card unless you have had that Travel Rewards card for at least 24 months.”

3) Herb Kelleher, Founder of Southwest Airlines Passes Away at 87

An innovator in the air travel space, Herb Kelleher passed away on January 3, 2019. Southwest published this notice honoring their founder and his accomplishments.

4) American Express Restricting Centurion Lounge Access

Beginning March 22, Centurion Lounges will become pre-departure lounges only. From their website:

“NOTE: FOR PLATINUM CARD MEMBERS ONLY The Centurion Lounge is a day of departure lounge. We will not admit arriving Platinum Card Members with boarding passes for flights that have just landed. We will admit Platinum Card Members with layovers or connecting flights who produce proof of connecting flight.

We will not admit Platinum Card Members more than 3 hours before the departure time on the Platinum Card Member’s same-day, confirmed boarding pass. This does not apply to Platinum Card Members with a connecting flight.

We will admit children under 2 years of age free of charge, provided an accompanying parent or guardian is able to produce a “lap infant” boarding pass or proof of age. “

I think this is a reasonable move for American Express to make and will help to control overcrowding while not affecting most lounge users. These changes were inevitable as the number Platinum Card holders has increased and the lounges are some of the best in the United States.

5) Citi Prestige Begins to Rollout New Features

As of January 4, the Citi Prestige earns 5x on dining and airfare and 3x on cruising. While these changes have been viewed as positive, more changes are coming.

May 1: Cell Phone protection will be added
August 31: The 2x entertainment category will be dropped
September 1: The highly coveted “Fourth Night Free” benefit will be capped to two uses per year
September 1: The annual fee will increase to $495
September 1: Fixed-value redemptions of ThankYou points using the Citi Prestige drops from 1.25 cents to only 1 cent per point.

This is quite a mixed bag of changes and the strategy for maximizing the card’s value becomes slightly different as well. I will be looking closely at my usage of the card in its new state and will be making a determination before my annual fee comes due (mid year) as to whether or not I’ll be keeping this card. The fourth night free benefit has been majorly devalued, but still offers extremely high potential value compared to the annual fee.

6) Citi Offers New Fee-Free Rewards+ Credit Card

Highlights of this new card include:

15,000 points sign-up bonus
Rounds up purchases to the nearest 10 ThankYou points
Earns 2x ThankYou points at gas stations and supermarkets, on the first $6,000 per year (similar to the Amex Everyday card)
Provides 10% rebate on the first 100,000 ThankYou points redeemed each year

Be aware that the language regarding the bonus covers the Premier AND Prestige card: Bonus ThankYou® Points are not available if you received a new cardmember bonus for Citi Rewards+℠, Citi ThankYou® Preferred, Citi ThankYou® Premier/Citi Premier℠ or Citi Prestige®, or if you have closed any of these cards, in the past 24 months.

7) Marriott Overhauls Co-Brand Credit Cards

This visual shows the current and new cards for both American Express and Chase.

While there are a lot of changes as a result of the acquisition of SPG by Marriott and the rebranding to “Bonvoy,” the most immediate for bonus seekers will be the fact that both the SPG Amex and the Marriott Premier Plus Business cards will stop accepting new applicants on February 12. So if you have been considering grabbing those while they still exist, act fast!

In the interest of full disclosure, we will earn a referral bonus for anyone that is approved from our links. These are publicly available offers and all claims made in this post as of the posting date can be found in the offer language for the card. We only provide the best publicly available offers and thank you for your continued support.

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Plastiq.com Overview

March 28, 2018 / Joe Pyrek / 1 Comment

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In the various forums, groups, blogs, and articles out there revolving around the world of points and miles, Plastiq is often mentioned as one of the tools that can allow an individual to pay a bill with a credit card. In this post, I’m going to go over the basics of Plastiq, some considerations, and some additional tips on earning extra points through using this service.

What is Plastiq?

Plastiq is a company founded by two college students who in their words “believed that making a payment as important as tuition should be as simple as buying a coffee.” The website launched in 2015 and since then millions of users have been making monthly payments covering everything from rent, utilities, mortgages, and phone bills to paying for a variety of additional services like contracting and landscaping, as well as the purchasing of goods.

This is done through simply creating an account with Plastiq and entering various credit cards and the billing information of institutions that need to be paid. Bills can be scheduled in advance or paid immediately. The overall process is quite simple and while Plastiq often offers promotional deals, the standard fee applied is 2.5%. Plastiq will charge your credit card and then cut a check (or send an ACH payment) on your behalf.

Why use Plastiq?

For anyone that is hooked into the points game there is this pain felt anytime something is paid for and points are not earned. One of the most common areas for this (and most individuals’ single largest monthly expenditure) is the home mortgage. By being able to pay these kinds of bills with a credit card, no longer are these valuable points being left on the table.

What limitations exist?

Just because Plastiq enables the ability to pay virtually any bill doesn’t mean that it is a free-for-all without restrictions. Currently Plastiq notes that the following payments are not allowed:

Payments to friends/family (note that payments for legitimate services from a business run by a friend/family member are fine)
Deposits into retirement accounts or other savings plans
Payments to be sent outside of the US or Canada
Credit card statements

Another item to note is that on occasion Plastiq will require verification of a legitimate recipient. This issue came up for me when I entered the name of an individual for payment. This individual has a construction business that is just his name and he had done work on my roof. I received an e-mail from Plastiq asking for an invoice and I provided the invoice and resolved the issue in under 24 hours. I have had tenants pay me via Plastiq and they provided a copy of a lease and they too had the issue resolved in under 24 hours.

Plastiq allows Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover to be used on the site, but while Mastercard and Discover can be used for any type of payment, Visa and American Express have the following restrictions:

Visa: can be used for any payee with the sole exception of mortgages

American Express: can be used on the following payee types (from Plastiq’s website) – “Government, Utilities, Education, Residential Rent and Club Fees and Memberships”

Fees and Spend Coding

The overall fee is 2.5% for credit cards and 1% for debit cards. While I wouldn’t recommend using a debit card on Plastiq, do note that the fee is lower. Visa, Mastercard, and Amex gift cards CAN be used to pay bills and are treated as credit cards and charged the 2.5% fee. Occasionally Plastiq offers discounts for specific card types or bill types or for scheduling payments in advance. Taking advantage of these promotions can add up to a decent amount of savings.

A lot of people ask how these payments code on credit cards (are there category bonus opportunities) and currently I see the payments coding on my cards as “Utilities.” Up until earlier this month the Citi AT&T Access More was coding as 3x, but that seems to have fallen off. At this point, it COULD be reinstated, but I’d personally bet against that.

Plastiq also offers a referral bonus program where users can refer others and earn $1,000 fee-free dollars for themselves and $500 fee-free dollars for the new user.

Maximizing Value

Folks that are newer to the points and miles game might look at a 2.5% fee and view that as a losing proposition up against a card only earning 1 or 2x on the transaction. Like most things in this world, “it depends.” If you are using a straight cash back card, then yes, you are absolutely losing money. In this instance, avoid using Plastiq.

However, for cards that earn airline or transferable points, even a 1x earn rate can be lucrative if you are able to redeem those points for greater than $0.025 each. Many premium cabin redemptions using Ultimate Rewards, Membership Rewards, SPG, or Thank You points can easily top $0.10 per point. Another consideration is using Plastiq to hit the spend necessary to trigger the sign-up bonus. This is a great way to knock out an extra thousand dollars that would otherwise be inaccessible to hitting the credit card.

Lastly, my favorite way to utilize Plastiq is to pay bills by liquidating gift cards. I purchase gift cards using my Chase Ink Plus and Chase Ink Cash at office supply stores in order to earn 5x points and thus am effectively earning 5x on the payment of a mortgage.

Hypothetical Annual Earning

Looking at monthly expenses that can’t typically be paid by credit card, we can get a sense of the value that Plastiq can add.

Expense	Monthly Amount
Mortgage/Rent	$1,500
Utilities	$250
Car Payment	$400

This comes to a monthly total of $2,150, which on an annual basis can give you the following based on these respective earn rates:

1x : 25,800

2x : 51,600

3x : 77,400

5x : 129,000

At 2.5% in fees on $2,150 per month, the annual total in fees is $645. The ability to purchase 5x gift cards at break-even or even negative cost can greatly bulk up that earning power and with close to 130K in points just from paying bills is enough for a first class ticket anywhere in the world.

Bottom Line

Plastiq is a great option to pay bills on a wide range of services and also offers a very reasonable fee for the service. This can allow for a boost to the monthly points accrual, creating significant value provided solid redemptions are made. One thing to remember is that while Plastiq does offer reasonable fees, there are some specialized payment services that do beat them. For example, I had been paying my power bill via Plastiq until I realized that my power company charges a flat $1.65 to pay direct on their website (up to $1000 per payment). As always, do your homework and know that Plastiq is a great additional tool to have in your points earning arsenal.

In the interest of full disclosure, we will earn a referral bonus for anyone that is approved from the link above. These are publicly available offers and all claims made in this post as of the posting date can be found in the offer language for the card. We only provide the best publicly available offers and thank you for your continued support.

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Here Are The Best Cash Back Credit Cards And How To Maximize Their Benefits

February 4, 2018March 14, 2018 / Suri / Leave a comment

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No matter how much we love the rewards from Airlines and Hotel programs, “Cash is King”. There are many cards in the market that offer Cashback as a reward for your spends.

Here is a quick comparison of all the popular Cashback credit cards available.

	Cashback on purchases	5% Rotating Categories?	Annual Fee	Redemption Options
Consumer Cards
Citi Double Cash	2%	No	$0	Statement Credit, ACH Transfer
Chase Freedom Unlimited	1.50%	No	$0	Statement Credit, ACH Transfer, Gift Cards
Chase Freedom	1%	Yes	$0	Statement Credit, ACH Transfer, Gift Cards
Discover it	1%	Yes	$0	Statement Credit, ACH Transfer, Gift Cards
Discover it Miles	1.50%	No	$0	Statement Credit, ACH Transfer, Gift Cards
American Express Blue Cash Everyday	3% cash back at US supermarkets, 2% cashback at US gas stations and select US department stores 1% cashback on all purchases.	No	$0	Statement Credit
American Express Blue Cash Preferred	6% cash back at US supermarkets, 3% cashback at US gas stations and select US department stores 1% cashback on all purchases.	No	$95	Statement Credit
Bank of America Cash Rewards	1% cash back on all purchases, 2% at grocery stores and wholesale clubs, 3% at gas stations	No	$0	Statement Credit, ACH Transfer, Check
Bank of America Premium Rewards	1.5 – 3.5%	No	$95	Statement Credit, ACH Transfer, Check
Wells Fargo Cash Wise Visa card	1.50%	No	$0	Statement Credit, ACH Transfer
US Bank Cash+ Visa Signature card	1%	Yes	$0	Statement Credit, ACH Transfer
Capital One Quick Silver card	1.5%	No	$0	Statement Credit, Check, Gift cards
Alliant Cashback Visa Signature Credit Card	3% First year, 2.5% after	No	$0 for first year and $59 after that	Statement Credit, ACH Transfer
Small Business Cards
Capital One Spark Cash	2%	No	$0 for first year and $95 after that	Statement Credit, Check, Gift cards
Capital One Spark Cash Select	1.50%	No	$0	Statement Credit, Check, Gift cards
Capital One Spark Classic	1%	No	$0	Statement Credit, Check, Gift cards
Chase Ink Business Cash Credit Card	5% cash back at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services. 2% cashback at Gas Stations and Restautants 1% cashback on other purchases	No	$0	Statement Credit, ACH Transfer, Gift Cards, Better value by redeeming for Travel
Bank of America Business Advantage Cash Rewards Mastercard credit card	1% cash back on all purchases, 2% at Restaurants and wholesale clubs, 3% at gas stations	No	$0	Statement Credit, ACH Transfer, Check
American Express SimplyCash Plus Business Credit Card	5% at U.S. office supply stores, 3% on a select category you choose and 1% on all other purchases	No	$0	Statement Credit

Citi Double Cash Credit card:

$0 Annual fee and earn 1% cashback when you buy and an additional 1% cashback when you pay for the purchases.

Chase Freedom Unlimited:

$0 Annual fee and earns 1.5% cashback on all purchases.

Chase Freedom

$0 Annual fee and earn 1% cashback on all purchases. You can also earn 5% on rotating categories that change every quarter, up to a maximum of $1,500 in combines purchases.

5% Cashback calendar for Chase Freedom card holders

Discover it:

$0 Annual fee and earns 1% cashback on all purchases. You could also earn 5% cashback on purchases when you activate and spend at different places that change every quarter, up to a maximum of $1,500 in purchases.

Discover 5% Cashback calendar for 2018

For the first year of card membership, Discover will match the Cashback.

Also, when redeeming your cashback, Discover offers the option of buying various merchant Gift cards at a discounted price.

Some of the gift cards you could buy with your Discover Cashback

Discover it Miles:

Even though this card is called as Miles card, it is effectively a cashback card that 1.5% on all purchases.

Similar to Discover it card, your rewards will be matched by Discover at the end of your first year membership.

American Express Blue cash Everyday:

3% cashback at US supermarkets, on up to $6,000 per year in purchases (then 1%) and 2% cashback at US gas stations and select US department stores and 1% cashback on all purchases.

$0 Annual fee

American Express Blue cash Preferred:

6% cashback at US supermarkets, on up to $6,000 per year in purchases (then 1%) and 3% cashback at US gas stations and select US department stores and 1% cashback on all purchases.

$95 Annual fee

Bank of America Cash Rewards:

1% cash back on purchases everywhere, every time, 2% at grocery stores and wholesale clubs and 3% on gas for the first $2,500 in combined grocery/ wholesale club/ gas purchases each quarter.

No annual fee

Get a 10% customer bonus every time you redeem your cash back into a Bank of America checking or savings account.

Bank of America Premium Rewards credit card:

2 points for every $1 spent on travel and dining purchases and 1.5 points for every $1 spent on all other purchases.

$95 Annual fee

Preferred Rewards customers get an additional 25%-75% rewards bonus on every purchase

Three tiers of Bank of America relationship

If you could maintain a balance of over $100K+, you can enjoy 75% rewards bonus for being a Platinum Honors member. That means you could earn up to 3.5 % per $1 on travel and dining purchases and up to 2.62 % per $1 on all other purchases.

Remember this is tax season, you could pay taxes using credit card using services like Pay1040.com for a fee of 1.87%. When you compare 1.87% fee with the possibility of earning of 2.62% cashback, you could make money on your tax payments.

Wells Fargo Cash Wise Visa card:

Unlimited 1.5% cash rewards on net purchases

$0 Annual fee

US Bank Cash+ Visa Signature card:

5%cashback on your first $2,000 in combined eligible net purchases each quarter on two categories you choose.

2% cashback on one everyday category, like gas or groceries and 1% on all other net purchases.

$0 Annual fee

Capital One Quicksilver card

Earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on every purchase, every day

$0 Annual fee

Alliant Cashback Visa Signature Credit card:

Earn 3% cashback on all purchases during the first year of membership and 2.5% after that

$59 annual fee, waived for the first year

Small Business Credit cards

If you own a small business, you could get one of the small business credit cards that earns Cashback.

Capital One Spark Cash credit cards

There are three variants of this card and offers varying amounts of cashback.

Three variants of Capital One Spark Cash credit cards

Chase Ink Business Cash Credit card

Earn 5% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services each account anniversary year.

Earn 2% cash back on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at gas stations and restaurants each account anniversary year. Earn 1% cash back on all other purchases–with no limit to the amount you can earn

No Annual fee

American Express SimplyCash Plus Business Credit card

5% at U.S. office supply stores, 3% on a select category you choose. On purchases up to $50,000 at 5% and 3% per calendar year, then 1%

No Annual fee

How to maximize the benefits?

All the above mentioned cards offer cash back on all purchases ranging from 1-3.5% on all purchases. However, there are a few cards that offer additional cashback on purchases that falls in specific categories like Gas stations, Grocery stores etc..

For example, Discover it and Chase Freedom card offers 5% cashback on rotating categories that change every quarter. You could earn 5% cashback on up to $1,500 in purchases when you activate.

Here are a few tips you could consider to maximize the

Purchase Gift cards – Many Grocery stores sell gift cards of various merchants like Restaurants, Gas stations, Amazon, prepaid visa/Master gift cards etc. You could purchase gift cards and buy stuff from that merchant, effectively earning 5% cashback on that purchase.
Many gas stations also sell gift cards and could be a great opportunity to maximize your purchases.
If you purchase regularly, you may consider stocking up the gift cards of that merchant for future use or you could buy items in bulk for future use.

Which cashback credit card do you hold and how do you maximize the benefits?

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Comparison of Amex Membership Rewards vs. Chase Ultimate Rewards vs. Citi ThankYou Points.

January 9, 2018March 26, 2018 / Suri / Leave a comment

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It is a known fact that Amex, Chase & Citi are big players when it comes to issuing credit cards. These banks not only have co-branded cards but also issue cards under their proprietary rewards program. These are considered as flexible currency as they offer a lot of flexibility in terms of how we can spend these points.

Here is a comparison of all the features of the three programs – Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards & Citi ThankYou points.

	Amex Membership rewards	Chase Ultimate Rewards	Citi ThankYou points
Cards that will earn the reward points	Amex Platinum Card Amex Business Platinum Amex Premier Rewards Gold card Amex Business Gold Rewards Card Amex Everyday Amex Everyday Preferred Amex Blue Business Pus Credit Card Amex Green Card	Chase Sapphire Preferred Chase Sapphire Reserve Chase Freedom Chase Freedom Unlimited Chase Ink business preferred Chase Ink business cash	Citi ThankYou Premier Citi Prestige Citi ThankYou Preferred AT&T Access Card From Citi AT&T Access More Card from Citi ( possible with product conversions only)
Airline Transfer Partners (1:1 except as noted)	AeroMexico Club Premier: 1,000 MR points = 1,600 Premier points Air Canada Aeroplan Flying Blue Alitalia MilleMiglia ANA Asia Miles British Airways Delta SkyMiles El Al: 1,000 MR points = 20 Matmid points Emirates Skywards Etihad Guest Hawaiian Airlines Iberia Plus TrueBlue points (250 MR Points = 200 TrueBlue Points) Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Virgin Atlantic Flying Club	British Airways Executive Club United MileagePlus Southwest Rapid Rewards Singapore KrisFlyer Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Flying Blue	JetBlue TrueBlue: 1,000 TY points = 800 Turkish Airlines Miles & Miles Asia Miles Avianca Life Miles Etihad Guest Eva Air Flying Blue Garuda Indonesia Jet Privilege Malaysia Airlines Enrich Qantas Frequent Flyer Qatar Privilege Club Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer Thai Royal Orchid Plus Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
Hotel Transfer Partners (1:1 except as noted)	Choice Privileges Starwood Preferred Guest (1000:333) Hilton Honors (1000:1500)	IHG Rewards Club World of Hyatt Marriott Rewards Ritz Carlton Rewards	None
Cash Redemptions	0.6 Cents per point towards Statement Credit	1 Cent per point towards statement credit or ACH transfer	1 Cent per point towards statement credit
Redeem towards travel (Air travel, Hotel and Car Rental on the respective portal)	1 Cent per point. (Get 35% of the points back if you hold Business Platinum card and booked with qualifying airline)	1.5 Cents/Point with Sapphire Reserve or 1.25 Cents/Points with Sapphire Preferred	1.25 cents per point (with Prestige or Premier card)
Points Sharing	Points Sharing not allowed	Points can be shared with another household member	Can be shared with anyone holding ThankYou card. Transferred points expire after 90 days of transfer

Key Things to note:

Some of the cards offer all the features when combined with a premium card. For example, Chase Freedom and Chase Freedom Unlimited alone can not unlock the full potential of Chase Ultimate Rewards program, but when combined with Chase Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve. Similarly, Citi ThankYou preferred offers full value when combined with ThankYou premier or Prestige card

It is generally not a good idea to redeem points towards Merchandise or gift cards

Singapore Airlines Krisflyer, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club & KLM/Airfrance – Flying Blue are common transfer partners for all 3 reward programs – so you could pool points from the three rewards programs for something big.

Which rewards program is best?

The true answer is “It depends“. Each program has its own advantage depending on your requirement and type of cards held. For example, if you have Chase Sapphire Reserve card – you get more value when redeeming towards travel rewards like flight, hotel & car rentals.

You should also consider that the card issuers have recently tightened the rules around the new card approvals, so it may be worthwhile to invest in all the 3 programs.

But, here are some of the strong aspects of each program in different scenarios:

Best program for transferring points to Hotel loyalty programs:

World of Hyatt is associated with Chase Ultimate Rewards and could offer great value when redeemed thoughtfully. Transferring to Marriott Rewards, Ritz Carlton Rewards and IHG Rewards Club is not generally NOT recommended as it is very easy to earn these points at less than 1 cent/point.

Best program for transferring points to Airline loyalty programs:

This is very tough one, as there are sweet spots with each airline loyalty program. But, here are our recommended Airline transfer partners for each program that could offer great value

Amex Membership Rewards: Air Canada -Aeroplan, Delta Sky Miles, British Airways Executive Club, ANA Mileage Club, Singapore Krisflyer, Asia Miles

Chase Ultimate Rewards: United MileagePlus, British Airways Executive Club, Southwest Rapid rewards, Singapore Krisflyer

Citi ThankYou points: Avianca Life Miles, Singapore Krisflyer, Etihad Guest, Asia Miles

Best Program for Travel rewards:

All three programs allowing Flight, Hotel & Car rental bookings through their respective portal. In this case, the best program would be Chase Ultimate Rewards (If you hold the Chase Sapphire Reserve – 1.5 cents/points) or Amex membership Rewards (If you hold Amex business platinum cards – 1.54 cents/point).

If you do not hold the premium cards, then Citi ThankYou Points (1.25 cents/point) and Chase Ultimate Rewards (1.25 cents/point) offer great value.

What is your favorite program and your consideration for choosing that program?

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