Sign Up Bonuses Archives - Your Mileage May Vary

Why I’m Paranoid About Meeting An American Express Spending Requirement

It’s been a while since I signed up for an American Express card and needed to meet a minimum spending requirement. In that time, AMEX has founded the Rewards Abuse Team (affectionately called RAT). Please stop saying it’s the RAT Team because that would be the Rewards Abuse Team Team. But if you say that, you probably still type in your PIN number at the ATM machine. If you don’t get that joke, maybe someone will explain it to you.

The RAT Ream’s job is apparently to find any reason to deny a signup bonus to any cardholder they feel is trying to game the system and sign up for cards just for the bonuses. Why AMEX thinks this practice is a bad idea would make you question why they offer huge bonuses in the first place if it’s bad for business but better to put the blame on the customers, right?

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What’s The Better World Of Hyatt Credit Card Sign Up Bonus – Points Or Free Nights?

In 2018, Chase and Hyatt relaunched their co-brand credit card and the World of Hyatt credit card was born. For a while, the card offered a sign-up bonus of up to 60,000 World of Hyatt points if you reached the tiered spending requirements. Eventually, the sign up bonus was reduced to 50,000 World of Hyatt points, which isn’t a bad offer and one that I’d still recommend if you have a use for Hyatt points. However, a new offer has surfaced and now you can choose between the two offers if you want to sign up for the card.

Which offer is better? Should you take the points or the free nights? As usual, Your Mileage May Vary.

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Why I Didn’t Apply For the CNB Crystal Visa Infinite Card

I was right there on 6th Avenue in Manhattan, across the street from the City National Bank branch. One of the only three locations in New York where you can apply, in person, for the City National Bank Crystal Visa Infinite card. I was prepared. I had a copy of my most recent pay stub from work. A copy of my passport. Ability to pull up my investment portfolio on my phone and print if needed.

So why, if I had everything ready, didn’t I go into the branch and apply? I’m not even sure if I made the right choice. All I can say is that I hesitated and went for an easier offer.

Before leaving for New York, I warned Sharon that I wanted to stop by a bank branch during our trip to apply for a card and she might need to come with me. I tried to explain why but I know that after some point, I just need to pull out “you just have to trust me.”

I’ve had my eye on this card for a while. Besides being able to make money on the travel credits alone, the ability to save $100 on each set of round trip tickets we buy could save us a bunch of money every year. The sign-up bonus is currently 50,000 City National Rewards bonus points once spending $5,000 in the first 90 days.

I referred to Frequent Miler’s post in order to learn about all the benefits of the card. The stars were aligning and we were on our way. What happened? Continue reading “Why I Didn’t Apply For the CNB Crystal Visa Infinite Card”

If You’re A Disney Fan, You Should Have The Disney Credit Card

One of the credit cards I’ve had for the longest is the Disney Visa card issued by Chase. In fact, I’ve had many versions of Disney credit cards but when this particular card was launched, I’ve been a cardholder since, like my card says, “Day 1”

And yes, we do have the Tinker Bell version of the Disney card (Note from Sharon: my choice. But if they had the flamingo from Fantasia 2000, I’d get that one in a millisecond!).

So why do I keep this card? One reason is the card has no annual fee, so why not? Since I’ve kept it so long, it now helps my credit rating by increasing my average account age, one of the factors considered in your score. That’s enough of a reason to not close the card, but I find that for a Disney fan, this card provides several perks you only get by being a cardholder:

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Share Your World of Hyatt Referral Link

When I looked back at our hotel stays in 2018, we only stayed in three hotel chains and most of the stays were with Marriott and IHG. One of the hotel chains we didn’t use at all last year was Hyatt and one of the main reasons was because I don’t have any Hyatt points. I could always transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to my Hyatt account but I like to keep my options open and moving points to Hyatt for a hotel means that I won’t be able to use those points for something else. Time for me to get some Hyatt points.

One card that I’ve had on my radar since it was relaunched this summer is the World of Hyatt Credit card from Chase. It has great benefits with Hyatt, unique bonus categories and has a 60,000 bonus point sign up offer. News circulated last week that the signup bonus for this card will be reduced to 50,000 points as of January 9, 2019, so if I want it, I have less than a week to get the card. I’m currently under 5/24 with Chase so I’m eligible and I’m almost done with the spending requirement on the last card I signed up for. Perfect timing.

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