Bank of America Archives

Feb 28 2018

Using bank points to book cash flights and travel: a primer

The miles and points game has definitely changed over the past few years. These days, you may get more value using points to book cash flights instead of stressing searching for award space. Bob Dwyer detailed the rise of bank points in this great post on Saverocity. Then he went ahead and ranked the major flexible currencies over at Milenomics.

The other day, I found out some people I knew spent $500 farming out a reservation to an award booker. Said award booker merely used their points to book cash flights through Chase travel and booked one extra leg using Avios and called it a day. If you plan to earn hundreds of thousands of points, please at least know how to cash them out for cash flights.

This post aims to assist you with that. Up front let me say it won’t be completely comprehensive, I’m no DoC. But I’ll hit some of the main currencies you can use for cash flights and give a quick primer on how to go about doing that. Hope it helps you get the most out of your points.

Shortcuts:

Chase Ultimate Rewards
American Express Membership Rewards
Citi ThankYou Points
US Bank Flexperks
Bank of America Travel Rewards and Preferred Rewards

Chase Ultimate Rewards

Max cash value for travel: 1.5 cents per point (with Chase Sapphire Reserve)

Ultimate Rewards Earning Cards: Sapphire family, Ink family, Freedom family

How to use points to book cash flights and travel

The simplest way to book travel with cash using Ultimate Rewards is to use the Chase travel portal online. Your Ultimate Rewards earning cards should display the balance, if not, click “see balance”, then “redeem”. Then go to “Use Points” in the menu and “Explore and Book Travel”. From that point, the interface looks exactly like Orbitz or any other OTA.

If you want to do something fancier like book a cruise or buy Disney tickets, you’ll need to call in. You can find the number at the bottom of the “Explore and Book Travel” page. I’ve also included the numbers for the cards I have here:

Chase Sapphire Reserve: 1-855-234-2542

Chase Ink or Freedom: 1-866-951-6592

With the Reserve you’ll get 1.5 cents per point, Ink or Sapphire preferred 1.25 cents per point, and 1 cent per point with the Freedom.

You often save money using points to book cash flights instead of trying to figure out how to redeem them for award seats. Here is a simple primer for the different options out there and the value you can get. — This type of interface should be accessible even if you’re not a travel hacker

American Express Membership Rewards

Max cash value for travel: ~1.5 cents per point (with Business Platinum Rebate)

Membership Rewards Earning Cards: Platinum cards, Gold cards, Green cards, Everyday cards, Blue business cards

How to use points to book cash flights and travel

Membership Rewards points can be used to book cash flights online. Click the top left menu and navigate to “Travel”. Click on “Book a Trip” and again you’ll be at an Orbitz type search engine. One nice thing about American Express is the ability to search for cruises online. Not all cruise lines are represented (notably Disney), but that is a nice touch.

If you’d like to book over the phone, just call the number on the back of your card and indicate you’d like to book travel. That will connect you with a travel agent.

Membership Rewards get a standard value of 1 cent per point. The one exception is if you use your Business Platinum card you get a 35% rebate on your points, giving you approximately 1.5 cents per point.

Citi ThankYou Points

Max cash value for travel: 1.25 cents per point (Premier and Prestige, though there are differences)

ThankYou Points Earning Cards: ThankYou cards, ATT Access More (no longer available)

How to use points to book cash flights and travel

Again, booking online is the easiest. Scroll down to “Rewards” at the bottom of the screen after you log in. Click on “view rewards and redeem” on the account of your choosing. You’ll have to select the ThankYou account you are using again (if you have multiple), and then at the top menu navigate to “Travel” => “Flights” (drop down menu). Or hotels or cars, as you like it.

You can book on the phone via the number on the back of your card, indicate you’d like to book travel. Remember with Chase, Amex, and Citi, you can use your points to book Disney hotel packages. If you want to book a cruise, this is the only way to do it. Ask specifically for the cruises and tours department.

If you have the Citi ThankYou Preferred, you get an even 1 cent per point on everything. The Citi Prestige gives you 1.25 cents per point on flights only, Citi Premier gets you 1.25 cents per point on all travel, including cruises.

US Bank Flexperks

Max cash value for travel: 1.5 cents per point

Flexperks Earning Cards: Flexperks, Altitude

How to use points to book cash flights and travel

So, of course, you can do the whole online portal thing, but US Bank has introduced a much better way to redeem your points as of last week (unless you have the Amex). Frequent Miler broke the news that you can redeem via Real Time Mobile Rewards. You’ll want to login to US Bank, then go “My Rewards” => “Redeem Rewards & Access Card benefits” => “Card Benefits” => “Real Time Mobile Rewards” => “Activate”.

Then, whenever you make a travel purchase, you’ll get a text asking if you want to redeem points for it. It automatically calculates at a value of 1.5 cents per point. Brilliant. That means if you buy direct from the airline/hotel/car rental, from Orbitz, wherever, you can redeem your points for it. You aren’t a slave to US Bank’s travel portal and their prices.

Of course, if you’d like to book over the phone, call the number on the back of your card. The math is simple for Flexperks, you get 1.5 cents per point redeemed.

Bank of America Travel Rewards, Premium Rewards

Max cash value for travel: 1 cent per point

Rewards Earning Cards: Bank of America Travel Rewards, Bank of America Premium Rewards

How to use points to book cash flights and travel

Bank of America Travel Rewards

While you only get 1 cent per point when redeeming, people love Bank of America Travel Rewards because you can earn up to 2.625% on every dollar spent (if you have over $100K in Bank of America accounts). Online, just click on your credit card account => “view my rewards” => “redeem points”. Travel Rewards is a “zapping” kind of system. After you’ve made a travel purchase, you can choose to redeem points against that purchase in the form of a statement credit. The minimum you can redeem for is 2500 points ($25).

Bank of America Premium Rewards

Bank of America Premium Rewards works like an online travel portal. Click on your card => “view my rewards” => “redeem points” => “redeem (Travel)”. You’ll be brought to an online booking portal where you can search for flights, hotels, and cars for 1 cent per point.

Hopefully you can combine points between these two products in the future

Final Thoughts

I didn’t include the Capital One and Barclays Arrival cards because I no longer carry them, but they both work in a “zap” your purchase fashion. So basically you can redeem against a travel purchase with points for a statement credit.

Hopefully, you already knew all this and only use this post for reference. Or better yet, you’ve got all this memorized. If not, please remember you can use your points to book cash flights! Use points first, as Freequent Flyer says, and cash last.

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Nov 21 2014

Avoiding Talking to Phone Representatives for Credit Card Transactions

I have no interest in using these when I don't have to — I have no interest in using these when I don’t have to

I’m not a big fan of calling the credit card companies for any reason. I don’t like being on hold, I don’t really like talking on the phone in general, and for some reason even though I’ve been doing this for years calling in gets me all stressed.

Because of this, whenever possible, I try to get things done online via secure messaging or chats. This is especially useful when doing transactions for my wife – the only thing I hate more than calling the credit card companies is having to bug my wife to call.

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but I’ve been cleaning up my accounts and wanted to share some of the things I successfully took care of online. I’d also love to hear what everyone else has pulled off online in the comments – the more I can avoid calling the better!

Chase – Consolidating credit lines

A few months back I asked Jess to call to cancel one of her Chase cards. Like a good soldier, she made the call and also requested that the credit line be transferred to a new card. Like a bad officer, I didn’t do thorough research and just had her transfer to her Chase Sapphire card which ended up having a gigantic credit line – one so big that they did another credit check on her (doh!). n00b move by me, if she had spread the line out amongst other cards more they wouldn’t have done the pull.

Taking care of moving credit lines around was quick and painless online

Anyway, I want to cancel that card soon, but since I’ll be trying to preserve THAT credit line I don’t want to risk her getting another pull. So I wanted to spread that big credit line out to her other two cards. Wanting to avoid asking her to call (and annoying her), I decided to see whether I could move the lines via secure message. Low and behold, I sent a secure message detailing the exact credit lines I wanted on the three cards and they consolidated them for me. So simple, and I didn’t have to talk to a human being. Score!

Citi – Canceling a card

I almost always call to cancel cards to try to get retention bonuses, but deemed Jess’ business card unnecessary to keep (it doesn’t help her personal credit so it wasn’t really worth it). I secure messaged through Citi to see if they’d cancel my card – and they did without even confirming!

The day after I sent the secure message I logged in and saw this – nice

I found out because the next time I logged in the account was completely gone. I kind of wish they had confirmed (so be careful), but we cancelled the card without talking to an agent, waiting on hold, or anything. I never got to read the secure message they sent back confirming because the account was closed, but we eventually got a letter in the mail a week or two later.

Bank of America – Sending out a new card

I recently downgraded my Virgin Atlantic Mastercard to a BankAmericard Cash Rewards card. I received the disclosures and all that in the mail but never received the card. I fired up a secure chat on the Bank of America website because in the past I’ve found that I have to navigate WAY too many menus to talk to a human for my liking on the phone with them.

Wow when I was trying to take a screenshot I found this. Didn't even need to chat! — Wow when I was trying to take a screenshot I found this. Didn’t even need to chat!

Anyway, we chatted about what had happened, and then the CSR asked me if I just wanted them to issue me another card. I sincerely was like, “Wow you can do that?” I thought they’d want me to call or something. Anyway I confirmed my address and some other personal details and my new card was on its way.

Final Thoughts

My general motto is why talk when you can type, so taking care of this nitty gritty stuff via secure message or chat really works for me. These were three things I didn’t know I could do online before I tried – so I’d love to hear what other people have managed to take care of online. The less I need to talk the better – teach me your ways in the comments, please!

Oct 22 2014

A Comparison of 0% Introductory APR Credit Cards

Disclosure: I receive no compensation for any links from this post. I found them on Google. They aren’t compensating me for name dropping them either. Messing with 0% APR Cards is dangerous – be responsible and be careful.

One day I’ll get to part two of my credit card tier list. In the meanwhile, a friend of mine asked me if I knew of any good 0% introductory APR credit cards, no annual fee cards so I promised him I’d do some research for him. I generally don’t even think about these things because I don’t believe in ever carrying a balance – but his reasoning for wanting that leeway sounded generally sound and he doesn’t want to take any balances he may build up past the introductory period (though the danger of not paying it off in time is always there). He was looking for rewards cards, though not necessarily the travel variety.

A couple of big bolded warnings before I get to my research.

– Carrying a balance is always dangerous: The credit card industry is built on people wanting to spend more than they can afford. Even at a 0% intro APR, it’s dangerous to keep a balance if you’re not disciplined and don’t pay it off in time.

– Carrying a balance on a rewards card is even more dangerous: When I started doing my research, I saw some 0% intro APR cards that had no rewards at all. In my head I was like, why the heck would anyone get one of those? But then I realized my paradigm is different – I never carry a balance and I just see credit cards as a means of getting rewards. However, if you don’t have the discipline to pay off in full (or are carrying a balance because you need to during the intro 0% period) – having a rewards card is risky. Simply put, you are “getting” something while still carrying a balance and that could tempt you to keep spending on the card and add to that balance. On the cards with no rewards, you’re basically getting nothing in return so you might be prone to pay it off quicker.

– Applying for credit cards can be dangerous even for the fiscally responsible: Those of us heavy into the miles and points game generally have systems to make sure we don’t miss payments and always pay in full, but even the bets of us make mistakes. I certainly do. There have been a lot more posts on this matter recently, these two are two that I remember catching my eye (sorry to others I’ve missed).

So if you’re going to apply for a 0% APR card – make sure you have the discipline to use that “free” loan correctly – pay it off before the interest kicks in. Otherwise you might find yourself in trouble. Please be responsible. I haven’t included affiliate links for any of these cards – this is my pure, objective research that I thought might help responsible people in specific situations (like my friend). Make good choices!

The Card Contenders and My Analysis

Google has an interesting card comparison tool (that leaves out Capital One and Chase for some reason). I used it to narrow down everything to seven cards: AMEX Everyday, BankAmericard Cash Rewards, Blue Cash Everyday by AMEX, Capital One VentureOne Rewards, Chase Freedom, Citi Double Cash, and Discover it. My criteria were sign up bonuses and/or high rewards earning – I also included Double Cash because that’s the card my friend specifically asked me about. All these links are the best offers I could find online. I’ve made a chart comparing the cards:

I’d say one card doesn’t really fit all, though I have some favorites. I’ll quickly run down the pros and cons that I see for each card (if I were applying personally).

I’ve stated before that I’m not a huge fan of Amex EveryDay, but if you are looking to transfer to airline partners like Delta or British Airways that might be the card for you. Some tips on how to redeem those pesky miles if you’re interested. There’s a version with an annual fee as well that’s slightly more lucrative.

The Bank AmeriCard Cash Rewards card has the benefit of an easy to clear sign up bonus, though it’s earning power doesn’t really blow my mind. 3X on groceries is nice – but how much groceries do you really buy? And since this post is for people looking for 0% APR cards I wouldn’t recommend Manufactured Spending in any way shape or form – too tempting. Not that 3X is a gamechanger anyway.

I feel the same way about Blue Cash as I do the Bank AmeriCard Cash Rewards – just nothing amazing enough to make me really want it. I like it even less for my friend because the 0% period is only six months. I’d prefer the version with an annual fee that offers 6X at grocery stores.

The Capital One VentureOne card has the benefit of no foreign transaction fees if you travel a lot, but 1.25X is a mere pittance in the rewards world AND Capital One takes your credit from all three agencies. Hard pass.

I'll hand it to Citi, the card looks pretty slick even though I don't like it — I’ll hand it to Citi, the card looks pretty slick even though I don’t like it

Originally when my friend asked me the question, he was leaning towards Double Cash due to the 15 month 0% APR and I said it probably was a good card for him. But the lack of a sign up bonus and the whole “1% when you buy and 1% when you pay off” thing really turns me off. I’d like this card more if there was a sign up bonus but I can’t currently find one.

Chase Freedom and Discover it are probably my favorite cards out of the bunch – they both offer 5X rotating categories and 1X on everything else. I’d give Freedom the edge right now because it has a sign up bonus and I like Chase as a bank (it’s good to build a long term relationship with them) – but Discover has the benefit of no foreign exchange fees and its bonus categories tend to dovetail more with my personal spending.

Final Thoughts

For the responsible miles and points enthusiast who is paying their balances off in full – most of these cards are probably niche cards that have specific uses. However, if you’re looking for a 0% APR card, I’d lean towards Freedom or Discover it. Hopefully the chart is helpful as you start your research – I’m sure some people will find cards that better suit their needs. It bears repeating – if you need the 0% loan – truly evaluate how important that is to you and be careful about how much of a balance you build up. Fiscal responsibility is more important than few rewards here or there. Anyway, to my buddy – hope this helps! Make good choices!