Tag Archives for american express.
Who says the Fidelity American Express doesn’t ever have bonus offers?
Fidelity 5% cash back categories
Now, admittedly, this isn’t an earth-shattering bonus. It’s only offers a bonus for travel-related categories, and only up to $500 in spend until March 31st, 2015.
But, enrollment is easy (literally one click), and it seems like they’re targeting a lot of their cardholders for this.
As I begin to figure out my points and miles strategy for 2015, I thought it would be helpful assess what I currently have in my wallet.
Pre-warning: this is a very text heavy post. No pretty pictures to look at, just a whole lotta straight talk (1,200 words worth).
By bank:
I just got a new Platinum Card in hopes that I’ll actually get a bonus for opening it – but I’m not holding my breath. In any regard, I already cashed in the $200 in airline incidentals on AA gift cards in 2014 and will do so again this year, so I will make back most of the annual fee right away.
I occasionally use Priority Pass Select on lounge visits that would otherwise be $50 a pop, and love dipping into the Centurion Lounges where I easily drink over $50 in cocktails alone (not to mention the spa treatments).
I also have utilized the Fine Hotels & Resorts program a time or two, and really love the near-constant Amex sync offers. So, I’m keeping it.
As for the EveryDay Preferred… it really has become by “EveryDay” card – I use it constantly and get 1.5-4.5x Membership Rewards points on everything I buy, which is pretty sweet. The earning is decent for non-bonus spend and is great for groceries, gas, and even more sync offers. (Email me if you’d like a referral to this card!)
If only Amex would up the points-earning power of the Platinum Card, I might actually put a buck or two of spend on it.
First of all, Happy New Year’s Eve! And now…
I just got back from REDbird Land (AKA the Memphis metro area). I was there visiting family for the holiday and made a point to stop in to a Target to pick up a REDbird card (AKA Target American Express Prepaid REDcard) and load it up with $500 – the max load for a temporary card.
Off the heels of Chase’s recent refer-a-friend program, American Express is letting cardmembers refer new members to cards they currently hold.
American Express Refer a Friend landing page
I’m down to two American Express cards at the moment – the Platinum Card, and the Amex EveryDay Preferred (which I love).
Here’s what my offers look like:
You da best
Had to get this off my chest.
There’s always a lot of talk in the points and miles world about which cashback card is “the best.” The speculation is constant, rampant.
A friend of mine (HT: Jason) shared this link with me last night, and I thought I’d pass it along to you guys because I know I will definitely be using it in the future. It’s called Snap, from Groupon.
Snap’s a new app for saving money on groceries – at any grocery store. You locate a coupon you want to use, “snap” a picture of the receipt, then upload it through the app. After it’s approved, they add money to your account, and you can request a check once you hit the $20 mark, which seems really easy to do as some of the coupons are for unlimited use.
And a lot of the coupons are for household staples. Here are some screenshots: Read More
Ah, my adventures in Serve.
They are doing their best to make sure the product is secure, I’ll give ’em that.
When I originally got the Serve card, I wanted to find out which banks charge cash advance fees for reloading with a credit card. My idea was to load $5 from each bank’s credit card and report the results. Not so fast.
Also see:
I just reviewed my latest post and I’ve written about Amex a LOT recently. This is neither a good thing nor a bad thing. Chase’s products are functioning smoothly and as they should; I still love the Arrival card; still jammin’ on my Club Carlson Visa. The only anomaly recently has been with Amex.
I wrote yesterday about the new ability to see category bonuses on the Amex website. I also wrote previously about a secret/hidden benefit of the PRG card – that online transactions were posting at 3 points per dollar. In introducing this new category bonus transparency, Amex revealed two things: 1) the unpublished 3x bonus was long-lived and 2) it is now gone.
3 points per dollar for Amazon Payments? Yes, please!
In the first photo, from May 2013, you can see that I had luck getting 3 Membership Rewards per dollar for all online transactions, including Amazon Payments. As you can imagine, this was a boon for my manufactured spending. I also got the 3x bonus for Birchbox, an online subscription service.
In the second photo, from March 2014, I got the standard 1 point per dollar – but it is coded as an internet purchase, NOT a cash advance, which is good to know – and it did earn me Membership Rewards points.
I was hanging on to the PRG card for this unpublished benefit. Now that it’s gone, and I have the EveryDay Preferred card, I have no use for this card any mre. And at $175 per year, it screams “cancel me.”
Going forward, I recommend the EveryDay Preferred card unless you know you’ll meet the $30,000 spending threshold to get the 15K Membership Rewards bonus. In all other cases, default to the EveryDay Preferred. You can read more of my analysis of these two cards in this post.
Having that bonus for online transactions was a good benefit. Now that category bonuses are visible on the website, it seems that this benefit has been removed.
Yesterday, after writing the post about how to best manufacture spend post-Vanilla, I went ahead and dumped Bluebird. I’ve heard of many ways people have done it, and the different sequences of opening/closing, and all the conflicting rules about switching from Bluebird to Serve.
Activation notification via email from American Express
I got my new Amex EveryDay Preferred card the other day. Instead of being really excited about, like usual, I was sorta like, “Hrmph.” My credit limit was not… where I wanted it to be. I wasn’t satisfied by how low it was. Not to worry, I can just switch around lines of credit, right?
I have two consumer lines of credit with Amex that are not charge cards: the Delta Skymiles Platinum card and now, the EveryDay Preferred card.
On the Delta card, let’s say I have a $10,000 credit limit, and on the EveryDay, let’s say they gave me $2,000. I have $12,000 in total to switch around however I want, in theory. $6,000 for each, for example. No problem, I thought, I’ll give Amex a call. Read More
I had the good fortune to visit Guadalajara, Mexico for a night as part of my trip from LAX-GDL then GDL-ATL. (Click to read my experience in Aeromexico’s economy class.)
I wasn’t expecting many (or any) amenities at GDL, but pulled up my Priority Pass app on my phone just for kicks. There is one Priority Pass lounge in Terminal 1, and I was able to go for free thanks to my American Express Platinum card – Priority Pass Select membership comes with the card.
I headed over to the lounge not expecting much, but was very pleasantly surprised (the best kind of surprise?).
Off to Atlanta on Delta!
Hello and welcome to Out and Out! My name is Harlan – I’m a points and miles enthusiast who loves to travel. I am interested in personal finance, the power of positive thinking, and the extraordinary journeys that make life worth living.