WYNDHAM KNOWS HOW TO HANDLE PESKY CUSTOMERS: I’ve posted before on the virtues of the Wyndham credit card, which was the best way to earn miles without paying an annual fee, albeit at the low rate of 0.8 miles per dollar spent.
The key phrase in that last sentence is was the best way. Poster lotuspad broke the news on Flyertalk that Wyndham was halving the value of its points when redeemed for miles. So instead of earning 0.8 miles per dollar, you’re now earning 0.4. And if you were sitting on a pile of points that you were about to redeem, you’re out of luck because this change is effective immediately. Advance notice is for losers!
$200 FROM PNC: PNC is willing to give $200 to anybody willing to open up a checking account. Requirements: $2,000 in direct deposits, plus one use of PNC’s online billpay. The offer’s good in AL, DC, DE, FL, GA, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, MO, NC, NJ, NY, OH, PA, SC, VA and WI–sorry, west coast. (Thanks FWF!)
HOW TO USE THOSE AMERICAN AIRLINE MILES: There is criticism of The Points Guy for at times being a thinly veiled credit card marketing machine. Say what you will about the guy, but he does know his stuff: here are 10 good uses for American Airlines miles. If you’re not too experienced with AA redemptions, this is a good read.
Haven’t heard about that AA card 100,000-mile offer? Here you go. If you don’t want to deal with the $10K minimum spend and the considerable annual fee, keep in mind there are some 50K-mile offers as well.
INCREASE YOUR TAX REFUND BY 10%: This is not my cup of tea, as I’m still working through some Amazon credit from another deal, but Amazon and TurboTax are teaming up to give you an extra 10% on your refund when you get it in the form of an Amazon gift card. Why? Because Amazon likes to help, that’s why.
REAL ESTATE: Along the same lines as my free land post, Zero Hedge has a list of cities where you can buy a house for a dollar–or less! The usual suspects are there of course–what would we do without you, Detroit?–but what’s news to me is that the federal government now has a dollar home program:
Dollar Homes are single-family homes that are acquired by the Federal Housing Administration (which is part of HUD) as a result of foreclosure actions. Single-family properties are made available through the program whenever FHA is unable to sell the homes for six months.
You can look for a dollar HUD home of your own here. Happy hunting!
The $200 PNC credit is tempting. Am I alone, though, in that switching direct deposits for a cycle or two, and doing the registration for bill pay is a big “hassle” factor? Or is it easier than I am thinking it is?
A lot of places count an ACH from another bank as a direct deposit.
Nice post! Will go for the PNC account even though I already have one, does not seem to exclude existing customers. Indeed I have a joint account with my wife, so will use this opportunity to open up individual accounts each and yes use ACH to meet the “direct deposit” requirement.
The TurboTax thing is interesting, my tax refund was $10k last year so this could be meaningful. Of course that is a lot of Amazon gift cards, and nobody has yet found the holy grail of being able liquidate Amazon GCs at face value.