ON A PERSONAL NOTE: Last night, I was supposed to fly from LaGuardia to Charlotte via USAir when my flight was cancelled shortly before boarding. They directed everybody to the special services counter where a 100-person line instantly formed. Rather than spending hours waiting in line for an uncertain reward, I just called the USAir reservations line, where a very friendly agent rebooked me on an American Airlines flight leaving a few hours later. Success!
I made it home four hours after I was supposed to get home, but that sure beats coming home a day late, especially with Mrs. PFD entering her third trimester. I’m not a frequent traveler, but situations like this are one of the reasons why I like to read the boardingarea.com blogs. It may seem obvious to many that you should call the airline instead of waiting in line–but then, if it had been obvious, there wouldn’t have been so many people waiting in line.
HOW TO GET SIX MONTHS OF AMAZON PRIME FOR FREE: If you have an .edu email address, you can sign up for Amazon student and get 6 months of Amazon Prime (free two-day shipping!) for free. Better yet, there’s a $10 bonus for every student you refer, so sign up all your friends for some beer money. You can get your own referral code here.
Unfortunately residents of AR, MN, NC, and RI are not eligible for the referral bonus, so as much as I’d love to get some sweet, sweet, Amazon cash via my own link, I can’t. Therefore, I’ll give you My Money Blog’s sign-up link since I first read about this promotion there.
FIRE SALE ON FIRES?: Apparently Amazon’s getting ready to launch a new Kindle, so they’re clearing out the old ones. You can get a Kindle Fire HD 7″ for $160 (down from $200), or you can get the Fire plus a case and a $25 Amazon gift card for $199 (H/T to HustlerMoneyBlog for that one). For what it’s worth Cnet thinks the new Kindle is worth waiting for.
HOW TO GET A GOOD CREDIT CARD DEAL FROM WELLS FARGO: Last month the WSJ reported that Wells Fargo wants to increase its share of the credit card market:
CEO John Stumpf said in an interview Friday that the bank is making a big new push into credit cards this year. So far, 35% of Wells customers are using a Wells credit card, up from 31% a year ago, and the bank will make a push in the second half of this year. “We are trying to broaden our card offerings,” Stumpf said. “We should double our share.”
It’s usually a good sign for consumers when a bank CEO wants to aggressively increase his company’s credit card market share, since the easiest way to do that is by offering really good bonuses. But how to get on the gravy train?
Don’t expect the bank to bombard the entire country with a blanket of credit card solicitations. Stumpf said he won’t push Wells Fargo credit card on non-Wells Fargo customers, despite rumblings among some investors that the bank is about to expand its card business beyond its own customer base.
But if you are a Wells customer and haven’t gotten a credit card, expect to hear from the bank. Since nearly every Wells Fargo customers has some credit card, the bank will work on getting as many as possible to switch to a Wells Fargo card—and to use it.
So if you don’t have any sort of Wells Fargo account, it may be worthwhile to consider getting one in the hopes of being marketed to. I don’t currently have anything with them, but now I’m thinking about it–but then, I’m kind of a nerd about these things. I see their basic checking requires a $1,500 minimum balance to avoid a monthly fee, which is kind of a nuisance. Of course, you could also sign up for one of their existing credit cards which give you 3% back on gas, groceries, and drugstores for the first 6 months.
In any case, if you’re a fan of the Amex Sync deals and the Small Business Day promotion, you may be interested to know that Wells is launching an Amex product:
Wells Fargo will issue credit cards accepted by American Express’ merchant network, the San Francisco-based bank said Wednesday.
The companies did not disclose the terms of the deal.
Wells Fargo plans to start piloting the cards in the U.S. this year, with a full launch starting in the middle of next year. Wells Fargo spokesman Josh Dunn said the bank is not disclosing the pilot markets.
And of course, once Wells starts taking market share from Citi, Chase, et al., do you think those guys are going to sit there and take it? Let’s hope not. Does Wells Fargo’s interest in the business portend a new golden era of credit card offers? Let’s hope so!
Wow, you are getting ahead of the game! Well’s decision will benefit everybody in the CC game!