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Welcome to April! Q2 5x Opportunities

April 10, 2017 By Trevor Leave a Comment





We’re into April, which means that we have new Q2 5x Opportunities, courtesy of Chase, Discover and Citi.  So consider this a reminder to get out there and maximize your points and cashback.

Q2 5x Opportunities – Chase Freedom

Chase Freedom’s Second Quarter 5x is for Grocery and Drug Stores! Only a few years ago, this would elicit giggles of glee! But fear not.  There have been some amazing deals lately. Just look at this deal that Doctor of Credit shared, in which FQF decreed that you must use “Washtubs, not teaspoons.” While this deal has ended, history suggests that similar deals will come in the future.

Q2 5x Opportunities

Q2 5x Opportunities – Discover

Wholesale Clubs and Home Improvement. Spring is here! For homeowners, this is a great opportunity. For folks who frequent Sam’s Club and BJ’s Wholesale club, this is for you! For resellers; remember that Sams Club and BJ’s both sell a variety of gift cards, so if you can’t find products for resale, you could at least maximize your 5x by getting gift cards for stores that you can find products for resale. 

Maximize your Q1 5x

 

Q2 5x Opportunities – Citi Dividend

Citi Dividend gives us similar pleasure as Chase Freedom gives us, with drugstores. I’m not really sure how fitness clubs fit into the mix. Logically, that seems more like a first quarter thing, but maybe Citi is trying to remind us that we only have a couple months before we’ll want to look good in a swimsuit. As I think about it, maybe I do need to get to the gym a bit more…. All that aside, drugstores are great for gift cards. So, if your gym doesn’t give you $1500 worth of spend–and I hope it doesn’t!–then the drugstore is your option. Hopefully you don’t have some crazy, never ending cold, and instead can leverage some Vanilla Visa’s!

Maximize your Q1 5x

 

Conclusion

As we enter a new quarter, it avails us the opportunity to make a plan to maximize rotating category bonus rewards. Historically, second quarter is a pretty good quarter for maximizing, though I see a whole lot less of home improvement stores than in past years. 

What is your plan to maximize all of your 5x? How do you plan to do it, manufactured spending? Reselling? Organic Spend?

Filed Under: Credit Cards, Miles and Points Tagged With: 5x, Chase Freedom, Citi Dividend, discover, Quarterly Spending Categories

The real winner of Costco Visa change

July 19, 2016 By Trevor Leave a Comment

You have by now–I hope–no doubt heard that Costco no longer accepts American Express. In fact it is now a Costco Visa world. While I shed some tears, as I got a ton of spend on my American Express Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) Business card at Costco over the past years, I also look positively to the future. In that vain, there are winners and losers–as in any situation.

Background

American Express, the long time Costco partner, recently lost that partnership to Citibank and Visa. The details of how that happen, to this day are a bit obscure. Gary Leff has an account, Long story short, it sounds to me like Costco treated this like any other business transaction–like procuring ketchup–and American Express expected more loyalty from a long time partner. The fact is, Costco is a pretty open book business. In fact, this article reports that the general rule is to only mark up 15% or less. I remember vaguely that 8% was the rule in some cases. The fact remains, American Express lost a great partner that had a huge following, and Citigroup and Visa won that.

But Did They?

Citigroup has a great credit card line up for Costco. In fact, Frequent Miler did the analysis after asking whether The Costco Anywhere Visa was the best cashback card, bar none. After a brief look, it is quite enticing:

Costco Anywhere

Now, you should definitely check FrequentMiler’s link out, but I’ll share with you – he doesn’t think this Costco Anywhere card is the best cashback card. Neither do I, but, his conclusion and my conclusion are different–thus why you should check out his link.

The Real Winner of Costco Visa

While this should have been clearly apparent on day one of Costco Visa, it wasn’t, to me. Perhaps I was still in denial about not being able to use my AMEX SPG Business card–after all, SPG points are awfully nice. Or perhaps I was just trying to re-calibrate to the new Visa world. But luckily, a small credit card issuer invested in a billboard to help me see that even without the Costco Anywhere card, I too was a winner!

Chase Freedom's Costco Billboard

Chase Freedom’s Warehouse Club–read: Costco–Billboard – unfortunately didn’t come out well with my iPhone6.

But to help point out even more what Chase is doing, just take a look at their Freedom 5x categories for the remainder of the year:

Chase Freedom Costco Visa

You see, Chase, in their wisdom, saw Citi’s potential winner’s folly (H/T View From the Wing), as a huge win. They changed their Chase Freedom’s rotating 5% cashback–or if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Ink, 5x Ultimate Rewards Points–for the remaining quarters of the year, to include Warehouse Clubs. They are advertising heavily–reference graphic above. In short, Chase sees the amazing hand that they have been dealt, and are leveraging it mightily.

Wrapping Up

American Express lost. Citibank and Visa won–in theory. But I would propose that Chase is the true winner.

Have you gotten the Citi Costco Anywhere Visa? Or used your Chase Freedom at Costco yet? Who do you think the winner is?

Filed Under: Credit Card Match-ups, Credit Cards Tagged With: Chase, Chase Freedom, Citi Costco Anywhere, Costco, Warehouse Clubs

Brexit, Mileage Plus X App, USG Studies FFP’s, All about Costco, AirBNB

June 24, 2016 By Trevor Leave a Comment

The Weekly News Roundup is a collection of headlines from around the internet that caught the attention of the Tagging Miles team. Content on these blogs do not necessarily reflect the positions of Tagging Miles, and should not be considered endorsements. Have a great story we should read? Contact us now and let us know.

Travel:

  • Kathy, who writes Will Run for Miles learned something interesting. Secret Flying, whom I think we have all noticed as a new kid on the street, over the past year, seems to copy other fare deal sites. The positive of this is, that Kathy highlights other original sources of airfare deals – ones that I’ll be watching, and you should too.
  • Grant shares how you can update your Global Entry account online when you renew your passport.
  • Ed asks: Should AirBNB Be illegal? I’ve never stayed an an AirBNB, but I have friends that feel they are the best thing since sliced bread. The thing I hate most about this situation is the fact that most conflicts are resolved with a middle ground. Hopefully AirBNB and New York State can find that.
  • Its probably too soon to tell what the impact will be, but, I think this graphic says a lot:
Brexit Results

Brexit Results

Miles and Points:

  • Gary Leff shares the results of a federal government study on frequent flyer programs. The key take-away is that the government is taking notice of these “no notice changes,” and hopefully they will put some teeth behind the enforcement, that notice must be given.
  • The Mileage Plus X app is great – but be careful on how frequently you use it. Vinh shares a story of someone who generated 5 figures in less than a week, and had his account frozen.
  • Earn 1,000 more United MileagePlus miles with a $250 purchase through the MileagePlus Shopping Portal (and you know how much I love shopping portals!)
  • Costco switched to Visa this past Monday. If you haven’t already maxed out your 2nd quarter Freedom 5x, you have another option!
  • Further to the point – FrequentMiler analyzes the new Costco Visa – it looks enticing! That said, his conclusion is the same one I had come to some time ago, when I received word that my Fidelity AMEX was moving to a Fidelity Visa (it’s almost like they planned this!).

 Tagging Miles Posts:

  • Thank you for 2 Years of Tagging Miles!
  • A rare flight you’ll probably never be able to take
  • Antarctic Medical Evacuation Update
  • Beware of Amazon’s Automated Repricer

Filed Under: Credit Cards, Tagging Miles, Travel, Weekly News Roundup Tagged With: Chase Freedom, Costco, Frequent Flyer Programs, Visa

Singapore Airlines, Marriott Points, Chase Freedoms, Travel fun

June 17, 2016 By Trevor 4 Comments

The Weekly News Roundup is a collection of headlines from around the internet that caught the attention of the Tagging Miles team. Content on these blogs do not necessarily reflect the positions of Tagging Miles, and should not be considered endorsements. Have a great story we should read? Contact us now and let us know.

Reminder: Saturday, there is a Mile and Point Meet-up in Charlotte hosted by P.F. Digest – attend if you can, it will be awesome!

Travel

  • Jeanne shares the worlds tallest air traffic control towers. How many of these airports have you been to?
  • The headline is that Singapore Airlines will be flying nonstop to San Francisco, but there are some other tidbits in this post that folks will definitely not like – notably, the downgauging of the NRT-LAX flight to a 777-300ER from an A380. I’m curious where that A380 will go.

Miles and Points

  • 500 Free Marriott Points. Alone, they won’t buy you much, but just think of that last time that you were just 347 points off of an award. Do this now.
  • Frequent Miler pits Freedom vs. Freedom Unlimited. I come to a different conclusion, but not based on the two cards one on one, but rather the opportunity cost, and other cards on the market. The fact is, 2% should be the floor for your earning rate, not 1.5%. Especially with Freedom working at wholesale clubs.
  • What can those really high annual fee cards do for you? Provide you concierge services, among other things. So go out, and use them!

Tagging Miles Posts of the Week

  • New Opportunities after AAdvantage Program Changes – Become a free agent!
  • Maximize your Chase Freedom 5x at Costco, this quarter, and every quarter to the end of the year!
  • OneWorld Alliance Disincentivizes Partner Bookings

 

Filed Under: Weekly News Roundup Tagged With: Chase Freedom, Free Points, Weekly Roundup

Its halfway through Q2 – Where are you with your Chase Freedom 5x?

May 15, 2015 By Trevor 6 Comments

In April, I offered an alternative to way to maximize the Chase Freedom Second Quarter 5x without eating out.

For background information: The Chase Freedom offers 5x Ultimate Rewards points on up to $1,500 in spending each quarter at select merchants, or merchant categories (see below):

Chase Freedom 2015 Categories-updated

Just for fun, I tried the two different strategies with my 2 Chase Freedom cards.

For one, I went all in and got $1,600 worth of Visa Gift Cards from Bed Bath and Beyond.

For the second one, I just used it for restaurants. I found it particularly interesting, that in the first month and a half of the quarter, I’ve spent $777 on restaurants. I didn’t expect it to be that high, to be honest, but there were a couple contributing factors. The biggest contributing factor was that my wife and I were able to travel to see my mother for her birthday, and so, we had a few nice meals out. Other than that though, pretty run of the mill.

So where are you with your Chase Freedom 5x?

Filed Under: Credit Cards, Manufactured Spending Tagged With: 5x, Chase Freedom

Chase releases Chase Freedom 5x Categories for 2015

December 9, 2014 By Trevor Leave a Comment

Chase 5x

 

Chase has posted a preview for the Chase Freedom 5x categories for 2015, its not a whole lot different. If anything, the only thing that makes it different is that they aren’t giving full details yet. Here’s the preview for 2015:

Chase Freedom 2015 5x Categories Preview

Chase Freedom 2015 5x Categories Preview

Here’s what Chase did for 2014 — you’ll notice, complete overlap of what is identified. I suspect when the full calendar is released, we’ll see Lowes in Q2, Kohls in Q3, and more department stores in Q4.

Chase Freedom 2014 5x categories for reference -- very similar.

Chase Freedom 2014 5x categories for reference — very similar.

Remember, its only 5x on $1,500 spend, which, well, is pretty easy to do. Of course, if you stack the Chase Freedom with the Discover It and Citi Dividend, you’re looking at $4,500 per month, $18,000 per year, resulting in $900 cash back (or better). Of course, if you’ve got a Chase Ink or Chase Sapphire Preferred, then the Chase Freedom 5x is more valuable than a penny a point since you can transfer them to an Ultimate Rewards partner.

For more information on the Discover It card, Doctor of Credit has a comparison of 2014 and 2015.

For more information on Citi Dividend – Rapid Travel Chai posted about those categories. Of particular note – it looks like applications for the Citi Dividend card have disappeared. But, Miles4More reports Citi allows downgrades to the card. Not sure how long this will last, but I’m thinking I may try to downgrade one of my American Airlines cards to it.

Filed Under: Credit Cards Tagged With: 5x, Cashback, Chase Freedom, Ultimate Rewards

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