Credit Cards

While I love credit card rewards, I’m also a huge fan of the many perks associated with often high annual fee cards. At worst, these are marketing to get folks to consider the product. At best, these are actually really valuable for cardholders and meaningfully (or fully!) offset the associated card fees. Cue American Express […]

Somehow the world has made it one more rotation around the sun in largely one piece. I am confident this new year will be chock full of exciting opportunities and new outrageous promotions to take advantage of. But let us not forget about one of the best, constantly changing parts of the many credit cards

I’ll start off by saying that this is maybe one of my all-time favorite schemes. While it won’t make you rich, it is a really pretty simple, so long as you can plan and execute accurately. In full disclosure, I have done this primarily at Discover after stumbling upon this a number of years ago.

This is the perfect no-nonsense partnership. Effectively every Chase card has a combined free trial of Instacart+ and a monthly credit. While I don’t love using delivery (or pickup) for orders in general, I’m all for it if it’s actually cheaper. This is. Instacart+ is effectively a no-fee (really, reduced-fee) delivery. Typically it’s $99/year or

Alas, there is often an asterisk. This one comes in the form of “Preferred Rewards” relationship requirements with Bank of America. This relationship bonus is notable, bumping the rewards earn from 1.5% to 2.625% on all spend. No joke. Link to the product itself (not a referral link) The base product itself is perfectly fine

The card is as dead dead as the dinosaurs. Reddit is blooming with speculation and folks miffed at the quick turn here. The original pitch is solid, but just because something sounds good doesn’t mean it’s a good business. It is so delightfully coincidental that the redemption from my Mesa-provided $100 gift card for Cozy

I may have a dozen cards with annual fees, but that doesn’t mean I like paying the fees out of the goodness of my heart. There’s some sort of, typically meaningfully, benefit I see with each of those cards. Free nights. Free bags. Travel credits. Uber discounts. Regardless, big fees, though, are still potentially scary

Thank you Citi & AA for your contributions to my points-based travel bookings.

This past month Kathy & I had a delightful adventure to visit home, aka Northern California. This was a nice mix of visiting family and simply escaping the house (given my recently broken leg, to say I’ve felt stir-crazy is an understatement). The trip was lovely, full of sleeping in late in nice hotels, windy