Wells Fargo Amex news, Priceline 2% Visa not 100% Dead, and a Hilton 50K offer

A BLOG WORTH CHECKING OUT: I recently had the pleasure of discovering Travel Blogger Buzz, an enjoyable and occasionally hilarious collection of links and commentary from around the travel blogosphere. If you’re looking for new and interesting stuff, or if you just enjoy watching somebody call out bloggers for pimping credit card links, give it a look! And while you’re at it, you might want to consider the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard, a credit card which can heal the sick, give sight to the blind, AND give you 2% back on your purchases!

WELLS FARGO AMEX DETAILS: Over at FWF, somebody posted details of the forthcoming Wells Fargo Amex credit card. Quoting directly from the post, here’s the forecast:

$45 annual fee / no fee first year
10k points with $3k spend in 3 months
3x gas
2x restaurants
1x everywhere else

Annual relationship bonus:
10% with Wells Fargo checking and savings accounts
25% with PMA package *
50% with PMA package and balance of $250,000 or more

PMA stands for Portfolio Management Account, which is Wells Fargo’s hoity-toity mass affluent account. So the best case scenario with this card, assuming these details are verified, is that even if you have a whole bunch of money parked at Wells you pay an annual fee and in turn you’ll receive rewards that are no better than what you can get with no-fee credit cards. No thanks!

PRICELINE 2% VISA STILL ALIVE, SORT OF: This won’t really help anybody for now, but just thought I’d pass along that Barclays has an invitation-only application page for the 2% version of its Priceline card, which as you may recall was yanked a few months ago. The T&Cs are dated 8/1/2013. Does this herald the return of the 2% card? I have no idea. The Fidelity Amex could use some company, though.

50K HILTON OFFER: A large, New York-based bank is advertising a 40K offer on its site for the HHilton HHonors VVisa, but here’s a 50K link. After the recent Hilton devaluation, that bonus is worth approximately $3.50, but still, it’s the principle that’s important here.

CONGRATULATIONS, JP MORGAN CHASE!: I’d like to take a moment to congratulate JP Morgan Chase for having been fined $8 billion in little more than two years! As per Barry Ritholtz, here’s the breakdown:

$56 million (April 2011)
$153.6 million (June 2011)
$229 Million (July 2011)
$88.3 Million (August 2011)
$5.29 Billion (February 2012)
$110 million (February 2012)
$150 million (March 2012)
$296.9 million (November 2012)
X% of $8.5 billion (January 2013)
$100 million (March 2013)
$410 million FERC settlement (August 2013)
$900 million (September 19, 2013)

Says Ritholtz: “Its walls are made of lawyers, and its moat is made of burning money. Something is wrong with a board of directors that tolerates this sort of egregious incompetency and/or rampant illegality.” Then again, their incompetence is our 5% “unlimited” cash back AARP card, so let’s not get too judgmental…