$300 INK CASH BONUS: This had escaped my notice, but the Chase Ink Cash is temporarily offering a $300 cash back bonus. It’s normally $200. This card has no annual fee and gives you 5% cash back on the first $25K spent on office supplies each year. The link I’ve posted is not an affiliate link since I am not cool enough to have Chase affiliate links, but if you are interested in the card, you might want to consider checking to see if your favorite blogger (besides me) has one. If you don’t already have an Ink card, I have to say the combination of a $300 bonus, 5% on office supplies, and no annual fee is pretty good and might warrant consideration on your part if you’re in the market for a business card.
ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER $500 FROM WELLS: Thanks to Doctor of Credit for bringing this to my attention–it’s the Business Elite Credit Card from Wells Fargo. There’s a steep minimum spend of $10,000, but you get 50,000 points for your trouble. DOC writes:
The main issue with this card is you can’t apply directly. You must apply through your Wells Fargo Financial Advisor and I presume you’ll also need a legitimate business to be eligible (eBay and Amazon “businesses” will not count). Thankfully the deal isn’t that great, you need to spending a massive $10,000 and you’ll only earn an additional 10,000 points for doing so. If this card earned at a decent rate at certain locations then it may be worth trying to get it, but as it stands I wouldn’t bother with it – even if I had a financial advisor with Wells Fargo and a business that warranted such a card.
I agree that this one wouldn’t be at the top of my list, but still, you can do worse than that. I’m still hazy on the Wells Fargo rewards program, but my understanding is you can get up to $750 of value from those 50,000 points, and that’s not a terrible return on ten grand of spending.
POSSIBLE CITI TRICK?: I received an email solicitation from Citi urging me to convert my Preferred to a Premier. The good thing about having a Premier is that you get a better rate of redemption on your ThankYou points. I noticed this buried in the fine print:
Any fee changes, including the annual fee and removal of foreign transaction fees, will be applied 51 days after you upgrade. All other benefits will be applied to your account within 11 days after you upgrade.
Does Citi want people to upgrade, redeem, then downgrade again? They’re practically begging for it!
On a related note, I’m attempting a hostile takeover of Citibank via Kickstarter–have a look!
ATTENTION PARENTS: In the wake of the very cool Charlotte meeting of the minds, the Deal Mommy has a poll up to gauge interest in a meet-up focused on family travel:
I envision talking about topics such as:
- Scheduling around a school calendar
- Saving money without relying on only credit card bonuses
- Condo Rentals and hotel rooms for families overseas
- Booking award tickets when you need more than 2
- Destination Planning for families
- How to Save on Theme Park vacations
I think it’s a great idea. One of the presenters at the Charlotte meeting asked how many in the room were parents, and there weren’t tons of people raising their hand. On a related note, I’ve noticed my travel habits are different from many in this space, as I don’t fly first class and rarely stay in suites. (Real suites, not “Country Inn and” suites.) So if anybody’s interested, go on over to Deal Mommy and register your opinion.
It’s a shame that the business Elite card doesn’t earn at a better rate otherwise it might be worth whiled.
Thanks for the tip on Chase Ink Cash!
So why dont you fly in 1st Class? I’m intrigued.
A couple of reasons:
* I don’t fly very much, period
* When I do fly, it’s either for a quick business trip to NYC or Columbus, OH, or else for a family trip to Nicaragua.
* I have four kids, so it’s a lot of points to go first class for everyone.
* I haven’t actually done a trip to Europe or anything like that since I started getting into the points & miles scene.
I cracked up at the kickstarter way more than I should have, nice work.
I think family travel is not a topic well covered in the blogging space. Traveling with my two kids (now older teen and young adult) over the years has been challenging. The “pointy” part of the plane is not easily doable with the booking challenges for four people (nevermind six!) and double occupancy is the norm in Europe and Asia. We’ve coped by renting apartments through VRBO. (don’t ask about the beautiful apt with bedbugs…..or maybe you should!) and staying in smaller family run hotels that have “family room” offerings. I’ve looked for fun activities to break up the museum visits and in the process found some cool local kids things to do that seem to be off the tourist radar. But definitely, it’s lots more work and effort to uncover these places.
I have three kids.
I think I know Jetblue and Southwest better than many bloggers.
My flying with tots tricks: Use play dough in the tray table to make a ‘rim’ so toys don’t fall off all the time. Attach string to the bottles/cups/things so you can more easily recover them when “dropped” and drink lots of wine.
I often go for a combo of paid and award tickets. My kids are older teens and well seasoned travelers so we have even done a split between two flights.
I book two rooms. Or suites. I collect points in my name/account and in husbands, then we each book an award night.
I think there are many with families in this game, they just don’t make it to the DO’s and FFU.
I tend to go for the Category 1 / Category 2 – type of hotels since it’s a lot cheaper, pointwise, to book two rooms.
Thanks, Barb. What are the “family room” offerings like? Haven’t heard of that before.
Here’s an example of one we stayed in last summer in Rothenburg right on the market square. http://www.gasthof-greifen-rothenburg.de/english/rooms-bed-breakfast.html
The room was huge. We had a living area with couch etc, a dining area and a double bed and two twins. Very clean and an excellent restaurant on the first floor of the hotel. The website says they have rooms that hold up to 5 people.
Wow, that does look nice, I really need to get back to Germany sometime.
* I have four kids, so it’s a lot of points to go first class for everyone.
I would say this is one reason that’s not an excuse. 🙂
Thanks Andy. Plus the kids are so young first class would be wasted on them. They all think Country Inn & Suites is AMAZING because hey, it’s a hotel!