So I recently did an AOR (App-O-Rama) and the Wells Fargo Active Cash was one of the cards I applied for and failed to get. The datapoints in the denial letter are interesting.
Category: Credit Cards
Both the Discover It and Chase Freedom Flex rotating categories are in for Q4 2024.
The following is my plan for Q4 2024 using my custom cashback strategy as described in my recent article: Introducing My 5%+ Custom Cashback Strategy.
I was told by an online acquaintance that they were targeted by Bank of America for $750 elevated sign up bonuses for both their Business Unlimited Cash (BUC) & Business Customized Cash (BCC) credit cards.
The normal sign up bonus is $300 a piece. The “elevated” offer many of us know about is $500 a piece. This $750 offer is total news to me!
The Wednesday Morning Weekly
This one will be short and sweet!
A brand new iPhone Pro costs $999 before taxes. After say 7% sales tax it’s $1068 out the door. This is quite pricey!
But for those who have a Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR), Chase often runs specials where you can buy Apple products with Ultimate Rewards points at 1.5x, which provides a 33.3% discount on the iPhone — if you value Chase UR at 1 CPP as I do. This brings the $1068 out the door price down to $712.
When signing up for a Chime Checking account, as part of the application process they have you check some checkboxes agreeing to Terms of Service. Often people just blindly click all the checkboxes to get through an application more quickly.
Chime sneaks in a Credit Builder Secured Credit Card application as part of this “Terms of Service” agreement for the checking account. In my opinion, this is deceptive and they shouldn’t be allowed to do this, but I am no lawyer.
The Wednesday Morning Weekly
I am frugal and I don’t travel much. The last time I flew in a plane was in 1992 for a work related convention — a round trip between Los Angeles and Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). It was also the first time I had ever flown in a plane. Of all my credit cards, the primary travel benefit I make use of is the World of Hyatt transfer partner with Chase allowing us to get $150 rooms w/ free breakfast for effectively $50 per night. We do also make use of the Amex Business Platinum (ABP) $200 annual credit to fly my boyfriend’s mother out to visit every year or so, via a Southwest flight.
Many people believe the only reason to retain any Amex metal card, is primarily for the travel benefits. Now I perhaps agree with this with respect to the personal metal cards, but not so much with respect to the business metal cards. The effective annual fee for me on both the Amex Business Gold (ABG) and Amex Business Platinum (ABP) are around $100 each. Even with this one might ask me, “Why are they worth even that if you are not a traveler?”
Most already know this, but one can make a call to Chase and have them transfer credit limit from one Chase Ink Business card to another.
I am told that $500 is the minimum to be left on a particular card — I personally usually leave a minimum of $1000 to $2000 on any given card.
This works between the Ink Cash, Ink Unlimited as well as Ink Preferred — to and from.
However with the Chase Ink Premier, you can only transfer credit limit to it, NOT from it. Additionally you cannot transfer UR from the Chase Ink Premier to another card, but you can cash it out a 1 CPP.
Amazon owns Woot. You can now use their Chase credit card there as you would on Amazon and get the same cashback. If you have Amazon Prime subscription you get 5% cashback, otherwise 3%.
Click link below for more information:
8/27/2024: Good news! Synology C2 Storage codes as MCC 5734 and should count for the annual $100 software subscription credit. See the end of this article for more details.
7/2/2024: I just learned from DoC that U.S. Bank is now offering a $750 SUB on their Triple Cash Rewards Business Credit Card for a $6,000 spend within 6 months. I need another card to work and I think I am going to go for it. US Bank Triple Cash Rewards was only $500 for $4500 spend in the recent past. $750 sounds really enticing and reminds me of the recent Ink Unlimited and Ink Cash deals — the Chase Inks are my favorite cards of all credit cards. The card has no annual fee along with 0% APY for 12 months on purchases. I’ve also heard you can even fund bank accounts with it if done properly. The 3% cashback on gas and dining is helpful as well.
I have a US Bank Cash+ credit card as part of my 5%+ Customized Cashback Strategy. I use it primarily for Utilities but don’t get even close to the $2k quarterly spending cap — not even half that.
I learned from an acquaintance on RJ’s Profitable Content Pro discord channel that Ebay purchases code as MCC 5311 — Department Stores on the US Bank Cash+ card.