Sign Up Bonuses Archives - Your Mileage May Vary

What Is Manufactured Spending And Why Do People Do It?

Manufactured spending. What does that mean? It’s not apparent from the name, but a good guess would be that it has something to do with spending money in relation to travel since I’m writing about it on a blog dealing with points, miles and travel.

I’m personally no expert on the topic. I know some of the basics of what’s involved in the process. I’ve dabbled with some of the more straightforward methods here and there, but I’m not a regular practitioner.

For those of you who know what manufactured spending is, there’s not going to be anything new in this article, unless you want to read someone who has a basic understanding of the topic explaining it to someone who has never heard of it before.

I don’t think there’s a set definition of manufactured spending or MS. My best attempt at it is that manufactured spending is any method used to spend money multiple times through a financial instrument, to earn some form of reward.

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Starbucks Is Sending A Targeted Offer To Members Who Don’t Know What Their Stars Are Worth

I’ve never been intrigued by the Starbucks Rewards credit card. Chase has gradually increased the signup offer for the card from 2,500 Stars to 4,500 Stars and eventually to the current offer of 6,500 Stars if you spend $500 on the card in the first three months.

While I viewed the current offer as being worth up to $400 if you took advantage of the sweet spots of the Starbucks Rewards program, they could be worth much less if you redeem your stars for less valuable rewards.

I guess Chase and Starbucks think that the most loyal Starbucks customers don’t know how to get good value from the Starbucks Rewards program, so they’ve come up with a new offer.

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It’s Official: I Have To Stop Giving Sharon Grief About Keeping Her AMEX Green Card

One of the things I’ve given Sharon a hard time about since I got started collecting points and miles was her insistence on keeping her Green American Express card. No matter what, it always had a place in her wallet. Her argument about knowing her number by heart wasn’t enough of a reason for me to keep a card with a $55 annual fee that gave us no benefits. The only reason I didn’t push the issue was that it’s her card with the longest credit history. Not that she couldn’t take the hit to her credit score, This is the woman who, for two months, maxed out her FICO score.

So when I saw the email from American Express, along with posts from every other blogger out there, about the long-rumored refresh to the Green card, I was thrilled that we already this card and could immediately take advantage of the new benefits while not having to pay the higher annual fee until our renewal date in 2020.

In case you haven’t seen, here are the benefits of the newly relaunched American Express Green Card. Continue reading “It’s Official: I Have To Stop Giving Sharon Grief About Keeping Her AMEX Green Card”

Credit Card Review: Gold Delta SkyMiles American Express Card

Delta offers several co-brand credit cards through its partnership with American Express. The Gold Delta cards are the mid-level entry point of the card portfolio. These cards have an annual fee but also provide some excellent benefits if you’re an occasional Delta flyer.

This review is for the personal version of the Gold Delta SkyMiles American Express card. If you decide that you want to sign up for this card, or any of the Delta American Express business credit cards, we’d appreciate if you use our link. We receive Delta SkyMiles for each referral and that helps us keep Your Mileage May Vary HQ going strong.

So what type of benefits does this card provide upon signing up and does it make sense to keep this card for the long run?

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I Fell For The Barclays Survey Email About Their Arrival+ Card

If there’s a bank that’s giving Citi a run for its money about not knowing where they want to take their credit card business, it’s Barclays. While they have co-brand credit cards with many airlines, including American, JetBlue, Hawaiian and Frontier, their proprietary card line has been inconsistent. It was just in June 2018 when they launched the Arrival Premier with points that could be transferred to airlines. However the lack of partners that customers in the U.S. were familiar with and a confusing transfer ratio system caused the card to be closed to new applicants in October, just three months after its launch.

The Barclays Arrival+ (plus) card has been around since 2014 and has gone through several refreshes. New applications were closed for a while in 2018 when the Arrival Premier was launched but applications were opened up again, with a 70,000 point sign up bonus, when the Premier fizzled out.

So what were we to think when Barclays, again, closed new applications for the Arrival+ in June of 2019?

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