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Episode 6: 'Tis the Season to Be Churning
383 Plays6 months ago
Happy Holidays!
Kristoff and Raymond dive into the holiday spirit, covering increased shopping portal offers, Citi and AAdvantage becoming exclusive partners, end-of-year credit card housekeeping notes, and insights into elevated BofA and US Bank benefits when banking as a preferred client.
To wrap up our last public episode of the year, we reflect on what we're most thankful for this year... - TPP
Intro/Outro Music Credits:
"Vibing Over Venus"
Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to Holiday Shopping Deals
00:00:00
Speaker
Tis the season to be churning in this episode of The Points Project.
00:00:12
Speaker
Hello and welcome to The Points Project with your hosts Christoph and Raymond. Hey Raymond, how are you doing? Tis the season to be churning, isn't it? Yes, Christoph, tis the season to be churning. Happy holidays to you. And yeah, there's a cashback portals aplenty and a smorgasbord of deals and so much news to catch up. So why don't we just dive right into it?
Capital One Shopping Offers Discussion
00:00:35
Speaker
so I've noticed that Capital One has had some increased shopping offers. i mean We're talking 30-35% at Dell. I've even seen you know a really infamous 25% link at Walmart, 15-30% on Marriott Hilton, IHG, even some like you know cell phone deals like $250 off from a shopping portal if you want to open up a new account with Verizon and AT and&T.
00:01:00
Speaker
I mean, it seems like Capital One has been going crazy lately with these deals and I'm i'm really enjoying it.
Rakuten Targeted Cashback Strategies
00:01:08
Speaker
Christophe, I think you also noticed like some targeted offers with Rakuten. Did you want to you know get into that?
00:01:15
Speaker
Oh yeah, sure. I mean, I guess most of us have been playing with these shopping portals over the last, well, weeks and like maybe month now, right? With Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals out. But really, like the show is not over. Like yeah if I think back of last year, like there were some really good deals and like, you know, cashback offers during Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but some of the best deals and offers I actually got in the weeks before Christmas. So I mean, that's exactly the timing now. So if I think back, I mean, yeah, I saw some links too that were like maybe 24% at Delaware last year. But yeah, now you're telling me we're going like north of 30 here. ah That's actually ah pretty effective if you want to cash out those MX business platinum craze or others. I mean, 30% uplift is like nothing to really sneeze at.
00:02:07
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. I mean, uh, 30 to 35% at Dell. That, that is really great. If you have some Amex business platinum, you know, $200 credits that you need to get rid of. And I think right now is actually the right time to start working on these, right? Like Dell has been known that if you even place a, you know, an order, let's say at the beginning of December, like they might not even ship until the end of the year. And right. As you've said before, Christophe, you want to make sure that the Dell order ships because if they don't ship, they don't charge. And then therefore your credit doesn't get used up. So.
00:02:36
Speaker
30 to 35% is great for Dell. I can see that being useful for like buyers group purchases, you know, even just regular household usage, right? Like I've, I've made a a lot of work this year ah with the Dell credits and ah you know, just buying things for the house. So ah really love that.
00:02:51
Speaker
Yeah, but actually let me get back to the other thing you just teased. Yeah, I even noticed that apparently Rakuten started like playing or toying with targeted offers now. Like guess sometimes, you know, with multiple accounts, like saying, you know, my player one and my player two account, when I go to, you know, some of my old time favorites, like Cashback Monitor, sometimes I'll check for store, like say, you know, sex with Avenue, because I want to burn some of these valuable $50 credits from my Amex Platinum card.
00:03:21
Speaker
But yeah, it turns out that SACS might actually have, say, 15x. But when you click through and you end up on Rakuten, well, the public offer is 15%. Apparently, when you log in, there's actually a chance now that they target you for a slightly higher, like even 20x offer.
00:03:38
Speaker
Now that's interesting, right? So I even looked at it and saw like maybe it's just some kind of a shareable link or something. But no, the difference really seems to be target on the account. but So if I log in with my player one account, I might see the regular 15X, but then I log in with the player two account and there you go.
00:03:55
Speaker
5% more cashback. That's actually ah very interesting. Again, something that's stackable. And well, you know you can get these things as membership rewards points as well from Rakuten, so that makes it even more valuable. And then, of course, they still stack without cuddling offers and similar things.
Future of Cashback Customization
00:04:13
Speaker
Yeah, it's funny about Rakuten. Also, I noticed that they're still doing that um you know referral offer where if you refer a new user and you know I'm pretty sure you can just refer P2 multiple times over and P2 can do the same thing back to you. But um you can get these, what is it like spend? I don't know how much it was, but like I think it was $40 just for ah doing a little bit of spend on a new Rakuten account. And you know the more Rakuten accounts you have, I think that's probably a good thing.
00:04:40
Speaker
probably a good thing. um But yeah, that that referral offer is also you know a really great deal to stack this time of year, especially if you're doing a lot of holiday shopping. Now, I wonder, just as with MX offers, where we're looking to get targeted with special offers, and now with Capital One having targeted offers that really you know go beyond the ordinary. And here's Rakuten doing the same thing. Is this the future of the cashback game, hoping to get targeted?
00:05:07
Speaker
Just like MX offers and other offers, is that the thing? like Every increasing customization so that at some point you'll need hundreds of accounts to make sure that every account gets you know the most ah out of these cashback offers because we, of course, want to squeeze every last choose out of this game. Yeah, absolutely. It's actually funny. you know I really do use Rakuten and Capital One the most.
00:05:30
Speaker
And it's funny because I have both extensions installed on my Chrome browser. And sometimes I'm like trying to make sure I'm using the right. Cashback portal for a particular website, right? Like if there's 30 to 35% of Dell and you know, 15 X.
00:05:43
Speaker
Uh, at Dell. And so the 30% is from capital one, the 15 X is from Rakuten. Like I want to make sure I'm using that capital one link, but, uh, I've noticed I've had to like disable the extension, uh, just to make sure, like to be absolutely sure that I'm using the correct, uh, shopping portal, uh, for the offer that I want. I mean.
00:06:02
Speaker
I love the trend though, like when ah you have these cashback portals, especially Rakuten and Capital One, like duking it out for the best offers. It's it's pretty fun, like a lot of deals to via to be had and a lot of cashback to be made.
00:06:15
Speaker
Actually, I'm really happy that I got a much bigger screen now because I started creating these different browser profiles ah so that, you know, like every player has their own browser profile and then, well, you need one for Rakuten and add one for Capital One Shopping. And so you end up with this huge grid on your screen. I mean, you just want to spend these $50 at Saks, but you want to do so optimally. Yeah. So, of course, you end up going through like 16 browser windows because, well, there's that many people and well, yeah you get the best offer in the end.
00:06:45
Speaker
Yeah, actually, what ah what browser are you using? Are you using Chrome or using Firefox? Because I know you've actually talked to me you know on the side here about using a Firefox and the the Firefox containers. Is that what you're doing here, or are you just doing this in different Chrome browser profiles?
00:07:00
Speaker
Yeah, so actually you really put me on the spot here because now that I'm contemplating this, um I've been using the ah container tabs from Firefox ah successfully sometimes to say, um you know refresh the same page essentially quickly like 10 or 20 times, right? that If you want to get targeted for a certain offers. But for the shopping extensions, so like Rakuten and Capital One Shopping specifically, I actually just use different browser profiles.
00:07:27
Speaker
And it's actually a really fun when you then end up also have all opening like, well, yeah, 16 windows at the same time, to just to see the cashback percentage. And funny enough, oftentimes you literally see the same number 14 times and then two of them suddenly have a much higher offer and then you take it.
00:07:45
Speaker
Yeah, that's funny. I have been playing around with those Firefox container windows and I have used Chrome browser profiles for for this purpose, right? Like different shopping portals. ah That seems to work well if you having ah if you have a browser profile ah in Chrome for that. But then, yeah, the target offers with ah Firefox containers. I think that's a really good pro tip there. And I really thank you for that tip, Christophe, because it actually helped with ah you know that 15x resi offer.
00:08:10
Speaker
ah really helped me ah start pulling those up. And speaking of the Rezzy offer, I was actually, this kind of ties back into the you know the shopping portal talk, I was actually looking at getting a new VPN subscription for I guess the next two years apparently now, and
American Airlines and Citi Partnership Changes
00:08:26
Speaker
Rakuten actually had Surfshark for 97% cash back.
00:08:30
Speaker
So I mean, when you combine that with like the 1.1 cent per point cash, ah I mean, you're basically talking about like two years of free premium surf shark VPN. And that actually worked to get the 15 X resi offer. And so, um, thank you for that Firefox container tip and thank you, Rakuten for giving me a free VPN for the next two years. Really happy that I was able to pull up that offer finally, after like what months we've been talking about this for like three, four months at this point.
00:08:55
Speaker
Now, still speaking of shopping portals, there's actually a great transition here to our next segment. You see, I just used the AA shopping portal to finally finish my American Airlines executive platinum status. So now I finally have it too. You know, real shout out to giftcards.com here, but yeah, three X points and then a CDA card on top ah made it possible. So now I have a status and I can explore what's possible here from the West Coast, especially with Alaska and Hawaiian merging.
00:09:26
Speaker
I look forward to experimenting with system-wide upgrades and other things, but there's actually some more news that gets me even more excited about A&C. Yeah, that's true. ah Doctor of Credit actually reported today that in 2026 Citibank is going to be the sole issuer of American Airlines cards. If you know American Airlines, right they have two different banks that they partner with to offer co-branded credit cards. There's Citi,
00:09:49
Speaker
And then there's also Barclays, right? So they have two sets of customers. And so I'm thinking that, you know, with Barclays and their customer base, most likely, I'm guessing that these customers on the Barclays end are going to be converted over to Citi customers. So I guess if you don't have a Citibank relationship anymore, well, it looks like you have another opportunity to get back in with Citi.
00:10:09
Speaker
and actually an update to the thank you program where American Airlines is going to be a transfer partner again with a the city thank you point program. And so I'm pretty excited about this. I mean, you know, there are some nice things to to appreciate about having a airline program that isn't inundated with miles coming from a transferable airline program.
00:10:32
Speaker
um But at the same time, you know more opportunities to earn American Airlines miles if you have some city thank you points. Now, um as for me, right me and P2, we don't really have any we don't have any substantial relationship with Citibank right now. I mean, P2 has like one you know a Costco credit card and I have a city AA business, ah but it's really low credit limit there.
00:10:54
Speaker
um But yeah, I think ah in the future, I think I want to get P2 more involved, at least on the thank you point side, so we can you know start earning some thank you points, right? Christophe, I know that you have some feelings on this new AA partnership with ah thank you points. so How do you feel about this?
00:11:13
Speaker
Yeah, i'm on the one hand, I'm very excited about it. I mean, you already heard this, right? I just have the status. And then, ah well, if you have the ability to transfer in points,
Maximizing Amex Card Benefits
00:11:21
Speaker
well, yeah, ah the wall is your oyster, right? There's actually a bunch of really nice sweet spots on A, especially when you're flying from the West Coast to Asia and then even like different regions of Asia or even to Europe. So essentially, if you want to attempt to travel around the world,
00:11:37
Speaker
ah then AA has some very very appealing award options and essentially more miles is always better. right So I generally had a pretty big stash in AA miles, but yeah, I always managed to burn it. So if I have a way to get more of them, I'm very happy about it. On the other hand, as you already suggested, as soon as you have a program that has the ability to transfer in points to miles, then I guess inflation takes place. right So the kind of concern if you want on my side with this city partnership, the ability to transfer thank you points is of course that well, we might be staring right in the face of the next devaluation because if there's a flood of points coming in, guess what? Then a sooner or later has to take a look at some of their best sweet spots and you know, they might be slowly withering away.
00:12:30
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. I was just thinking like if I had a large thank you point balance right now, like would I hold onto my thinking you points and then, uh, you know, like oh wait for American to become a transfer partner? Like would I sort of, you know, knowing that that, that new release is going to, you know, if in 2026 I'm able to transfer all of my points over, like at the end of 2025, am I holding onto my thank you points? I just wonder what I would do there because, uh,
00:12:54
Speaker
Yeah, it is a valuable transfer partner, but at the same time, it's like, at least for me, like, uh, I don't feel comfortable having a large balance of points with a city at any one time. Right. Like, uh, I do like to keep the points coming in and coming out and no, you know, and I don't want to be caught holding onto the bag there.
00:13:12
Speaker
But we'll see how that goes. And I do appreciate that, you know, Citi and AA are actually going to team up here and, you know, make their points transferable. It just made too much sense in my opinion, right? Like they have a co-branded credit card partnership. Like why not make your transferable points, you know, transferable to one of your biggest co-branded airline partners.
00:13:32
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. This is probably one of the biggest anomalies that I know in the point space here in the US that somehow American Airlines doesn't really have any major transfer partners and yet their city sitting there also not having any major airline transfer partners. i think um Yes, you can transfer to you know various programs like EV and others that might be interesting for like an niche users. But yeah, as you say, I mean, Chase has United, and MX has Delta as its flagship carrier inside of the US.
00:14:02
Speaker
That's of course Southwest again with Chase. And well, now here we are and somehow AA and Citi cannot transfer on a regular basis. And it looks like this is going to be fixed now. And I think overall, this is going to be a good experience. Yeah, for sure. I'm glad they're reconciling their relationship with each other.
00:14:20
Speaker
And ah speaking of reconciling things before the end of the year, let's dive into Amex end of year calendar year benefits. And Christophe, how about you get us started here with some of your end of the year reminders for calendar year benefits.
00:14:36
Speaker
Ah, yes, the end of the year coupon book. Let me start with the positive things. So obviously, this is not just the time to go through the chores and clean up the old MX cards. No, really, this is also the time to set up the future triple dip. If you ever thought about getting that platinum card or upgrading to that platinum card,
00:14:59
Speaker
or maybe a business platinum card, anything that comes with card member year benefits or calendar year benefits, then it's worthwhile to read the fine print and take those cards that have these calendar year benefits, like say the airline incidental credit, which is say $200 on your platinum card. Guess what? If you sign up sometime in December, ah you can get the credit once before the end of the year,
00:15:25
Speaker
Once in 2025, and then usually the annual fee also posts a little bit late and you have essentially 30 months to really close out your card or convert it or do something else. And so you might be able to get that created a third time in 2026, just before again, kind of like exiting the card.
00:15:43
Speaker
Now, of course, if you've been doing this for a while, then you probably set up a triple dip the year before, and the year before that too, and so on. And so here we are, and we are staring at the coupon book, and we have to take full advantage of all of these cards and benefits. So let's see, what do we have here? Well, first of all, let's start with my favorite, the Dell credit. The Dell credit on the American Express Business Platinum card that I always wonder how to spend down. Like sometimes I buy office furniture, I used to buy Switch games, I never actually managed to get any of these Xbox gift cards because my orders immediately get cancelled. But I got some hue lights. I have not made up my mind yet, but guess what? I am gonna benefit from a 35% targeted offer from Capital One Shopping to still not be able to make up my mind what to do with those credits.
00:16:36
Speaker
But I'm sure I'll have to spend them before the end of the year because otherwise I'm wasting $200. Now, then there's of course the airline credit that I already mentioned also on the business platinum card. That same equivalent also exists on the American Express personal platinum card. right So that's the $200 credit. But there's also the hotel credit.
00:16:57
Speaker
Now, the hotel credit is actually interesting because, well, again, the booking that you make has to be made in the calendar year, but the booking can be made for a different calendar year. So if you're making a booking of it, you know, your fine hotels and resorts ah credits, like the $200 credit on the Platinum card, then guess what? You can actually just make a booking for sometime next year.
00:17:23
Speaker
this year and then come January 1st you can literally just book the second day right after it ah with a new credit. You know actually I just got a 15x resi platinum right and that personal platinum you know it comes with that FHR or you know the hotel collection credit and I've been thinking about what I'm gonna do with that because ah I don't really have any more hotel stays for the rest of this year, but I was thinking about like, okay, what can I book out into next year? but you know these These need to be prepaid stays today. right like You make the booking today, and so therefore your card is charged, but you're paying out into the future for for that future stay.
00:17:59
Speaker
and so I was looking at you know like, what am I going to be doing middle of the year next year? And you know maybe like a Vegas trip or something like that. So I really but have been thinking about what am I going to do with my FHR credit? And yeah, definitely make sure that I use it up before December 31st.
00:18:17
Speaker
And then I actually have a Delta business gold and that card actually has this $150 Delta stays credit. And actually I've been looking at that credit the entire year and I'm like, what can I do with this $150 Delta stays credit? Like, but it is just in the same way that the FHR credit needs to be a prepaid booking. That's the same thing with this Delta stays credit. You need to do a, I think it's delta dot.com slash stays.
00:18:43
Speaker
And you need to book something prepaid. And so, you know, um these two credits, like the FHR credit, this Delta Hotel credit, essentially, is what it is. Like you you can book that out into the future and ah just make sure that the charge goes through before the end of the year.
Managing Amex Fees and Strategies
00:18:58
Speaker
And then actually, if you have the Hilton Aspire card, right? Like that one also has that $200 every six month Hilton Resorts credit. And so that one, you know, again, you need to make sure that your charges go through before the end of this calendar year, right? But you know, you could have a a booking, you know, sometime in 2025. And so just make sure that, you know, if you have the Aspire card that you're actually making use of that credit, if you already have not made use of the credit. Christophe, you have any thoughts on the Aspire credit?
00:19:27
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. The Aspire credit is ah another a one where it's sometimes a bit tricky. Sometimes you make ah bookings far in the future and you know your card doesn't get charged. ah Sometimes ah some hotels will charge deposits. Sometimes you can just make a prepaid booking. ah It really depends on the card.
00:19:45
Speaker
Actually, now that you mentioned this too, I'm thinking of a bunch of other travel credits that I need to use up, like my $300 Capital One VentureX credit. But yeah, that's the wrong segment for this. So going back to calendar year benefits, I mean, plenty of cards here, right? Especially if you step down from really calendar year benefits, there's still plenty of monthly benefits, right? There's like the $35 Uber credits on ah the Platinum cards and ah Of course, a plan tour of other credits that essentially occur on a monthly basis. But so now we have to take care of both the monthly, the quarterly and the annual credits all at the same time. And of course, I have an Excel spreadsheet somewhere where I keep track of all of this to make sure that I don't miss any of these precious, precious credits like sex.
00:20:32
Speaker
Oh yeah, I actually just used my Saks credit to buy, you know, I should have just bought a gift card. Um, but I actually bought some Shiseido facial wash and it's Shiseido facial wash. I think it was because of my experience going on a Japan airlines first class and then then the amenity kit, they give you a little sample and I was like, this stuff is great. And so I went ahead and saw it on Saks and I was like, I'm going to go get some Shiseido facial wash just because right. It's, it's really good stuff. Fear guy, good stuff.
00:20:59
Speaker
Um, but yeah, I mean, even, you know, other honorable mention type credits, like don't forget about your Duncan credits. Did you, did you already load your, uh, Duncan gift card balance or what did you refuse? But thank you for the sex credit. I really appreciate the hint because I might just get some of that too. Oh, nice. Yeah. I, I find myself, you know, once every month, like not really enjoying loading it, but I do it anyways, just because I can't give up that value.
00:21:29
Speaker
Oh, and also don't forget about your Resi credits, right? So you can go on the resi.com or you can download the Resi app and just go look for some restaurants. I actually just went to this restaurant in San Francisco in the North Beach district called Red Window. And I actually was very happy with ah you know the food quality.
00:21:50
Speaker
And just the just the ability to use up these credits ah for a nice dinner with me and P2 at the end of the year. It was a really nice little you know surprise for Mad Max. And um you know I didn't really see myself using the credit, but I'm glad that I finally got got some use out of it. So ah red window, shout out to them. Great service.
00:22:08
Speaker
And um I don't know if I would call this a calendar year benefit, but this is more of something that's expiring by the end of this year. And that is the Amex Personal Gold 4X, unlimited capacity for spend.
00:22:22
Speaker
and so You know, you basically have the rest of December to max out your Amex personal gold on your dining spend. And, uh, cause next year it's going to be $50,000 per year max. And so if that's your thing, definitely try to max that out as much as possible before the end of the year. Cause that's going to be something that's sorely, sorely missed.
00:22:43
Speaker
Now, another housekeeping item. I guess it's not really a credit, but I suggest that, well, some of these triple dips were set up, of course, last year. So now they are about to expire. And over the next weeks, I'll see, well, ah hundreds and thousands of dollars of annual fees posting. And so I probably also have to prepare to ah find some exit strategies for some of these cars, like early in January or, and you know, come next year.
00:23:09
Speaker
And there's actually quite a few cars that I have. I actually have multiple personal Platinum cars because of an upgrade offer a while ago. And well, there's some business Platinum and business Gold cars in our household too that have the annual fees posting.
00:23:25
Speaker
So maybe another thing that I'll do as part of my housekeeping is not just to make sure to maximize all of these credits and, you know, maybe even load my Duncan account, but also figure out, hey, maybe I'll drop some of these cards and then maybe downgrade others, so say, you know, from a platinum to a gold, which is probably more beneficial if you're having some dining spend to do and other things. Yeah. Anyways, just some thoughts for, you know, the end of the year and already setting up the start of the next year.
00:23:53
Speaker
Yeah, that's for sure. I always forget to do this, right? I focus so much on the credits aspect of maximizing Amex, but then I ah kind of forget sometimes, right? Like the annual fees, sometimes like my balances with Amex, sometimes theyre they're pretty high. And so like the annual fees sometimes gets overlooked.
00:24:11
Speaker
And I forget, like, what is my strategy to exit the card? So I appreciate you making that point there about, you know, making sure to have an exit strategy for getting out of a card, either canceling within the 30-day window for the annual fee refund or, ah you know, downgrading to something, you know, a little bit better. You know, even, um you know, seeking retention, don't forget about that, right? Like, retentions can also make ah keeping the card open another year um pretty much worth it.
00:24:35
Speaker
And so speaking of keeping cards open for another year, I actually had this, I don't know, which it was a dilemma, right? Like I had the Morgan Stanley Platinum card, the annual fee posted back in October, I think, and I had 30 days to make a decision, right? Keep or cancel.
00:24:54
Speaker
and ah My full-on intention here was to make sure that I cancel. I can still cash out my membership rewards if I needed to at 1.0 cents per point. like Is the Morgan Stanley Platinum really really needed here? um But anyways, that was my dilemma. and um i actually the The thing about me making this decision, like the thing that stopped me from making that decision on that on the 30th day was that I had this like pending claim.
00:25:21
Speaker
ah to pay out 300 bucks and I was waiting for that to post and it never did post within that 30-day window and so the timing went down to the wire here and I was kind of like it forced my hand I didn't want to let go of that claim that I was waiting on and so I kept my card open for another year And actually looking back, ah I guess just for like simplicity of cashing out membership rewards, you know, I i already had maxed out my 1.1 cent per point cash out on my Charles Schwab Platinum. And so now, you know, if I didn't have this Morgan Stanley Platinum, you know, I was limited to 0.8 cents per point cash out, which I'm not going to do. Like I'd rather transfer to an airline program at that point.
00:26:01
Speaker
And I actually, you know, did my first ever invest with rewards cash out through the Morgan Stanley ah program. And I was actually pretty happy with how easy that was. And so I don't know. ah I'll keep the card open for another year. I'll enjoy my 1.0 cents per point cash out with my membership rewards.
00:26:20
Speaker
And, uh, yeah, I'm not maximizing this to the full potential, but at the same time, like I am interested in seeing what happens with this card in the next year, right? Is there going to be a devaluation with the invest with rewards program or, or what, right? And so I'd like to see what will happen with this invest with rewards program over the next year. Uh, will there be a devaluation? Will there not? Um, and you know, at the same time, it is nice to be able to easily, you know, cash out my membership rewards, even at one point, no cents per point, which I'll, I'll do for now.
00:26:51
Speaker
Well, it's certainly worthwhile. You get a bunch of credits out of this. at You get, what, two times $200 in FHR credits, two times $200 in airline credits, and then plenty of monthly credits. You can shop at Saks to your heart's desire.
00:27:08
Speaker
ah maybe even benefit from some of the $20 monthly credits ah for, I don't know, another Hulu subscription maybe. yeah so I'm sure you'll get your money's worth. like If you're used to dealing with the coupon book, then ah usually it's not that hard to get at least the annual feedback in terms of credits. Yeah, that's true. I think you'll be just fine with your amongst deadly card.
00:27:30
Speaker
Yeah, let's pray. Um, so continuing on with Amex here, I actually, you know, in the spirit of triple dipping, uh, this is not necessarily triple dipping, but just getting new cards at the end of the year, I was able to get a new Hilton honors surpass. And actually, you know, I'm kind of wondering if I actually chose the right card here, because, uh, for me, the, the decision that I was making was like, I want to be able to earn Hilton free night certs.
00:27:56
Speaker
And so, you know, the business side of that equation has been completely nuked, right? Like the business cards for Hilton, they don't offer these free nights and I highly value them. And, um, you know, I was thinking, should I get an aspire? Should I get a surpass card? What should I do here?
00:28:11
Speaker
And so anyways, ah on the application itself, you know I took a 30K referral from P2. So she got her 30,000 membership rewards. And then um I was deciding between, you know do I do Hilton surpass? And the bonus there was like 165,000 Hilton points for a 3K spend ah versus I think it was like 6,000 spend for 175,000 on the Aspire.
00:28:35
Speaker
I was like, ah do I really want to pay another high annual fee um and get like sort of duplicative benefits? Or do I want to you know keep the annual fee obligation low this year and try to take advantage of like some of the qualities of the surpass card? I i kind of went with the surpass here. like I was like, okay, let's go let's go the cheap route or $150 annual fee, not too bad.
00:28:57
Speaker
Um, and I, one of the things that tipped me over the side here is like, okay, the surpass card has the free night certificate. Um, and that's calendar year benefit. If you spend $15,000 before, you know, essentially right now I have to do this before December 31st. Well, on my way there.
00:29:14
Speaker
um And then I can do it again, right? In early 2025, I can do another 15k spend and a boom, I have like two free nightserts with similar expiration dates. So that was appealing to me on one hand, but then, okay, I got the, I got the card. I'm working on that spend right now and that's sort of my plan, but I'm also looking back and I'm like, Hmm, did I make the right call here? Because the aspire.
00:29:37
Speaker
That one, yeah, it comes with diamond status. Like I already have that, um but it does have the free night certificate upon approval. And then let's say I do 30 K and 60 K spend. I don't think I was going to be able to do that this year because that's a calendar year benefit, but for sure. Like next year I can do the 30 and 60 K spend.
00:29:55
Speaker
um And so then I would have, you know, one free night's hurt for, I guess the, from now until next December. And then I would have, you know, the rest of next year to finish the 30 and 60 K that would be two more free nights hurts. And then I would have like the, you know, the $50 quarterly flight credit, like, okay, fine.
00:30:11
Speaker
I also have that $200 semi-annual Hilton resort credit. like Maybe that's easy to use, maybe not. and so like Now I'm like kind of wrestling with my head here. is like did Should I have went with the Aspire because of you know more capacity to earn the free night certs, um or should a but then higher annual fee obligation, or you know did I do the right thing here with the surpass? ah Yeah, I'll have to spend $30K, $15K this year, $15K next year, and I'll get two free night certs.
00:30:39
Speaker
um you know am i am i Am I overthinking this, Christophe? Did I make the right choice here, or should I have went with the Aspire? like What would you have done? so My response is going to come in very philosophical here, but I think it's just fine. It's it's totally okay. like that There's somehow this tendency, and I was actually thinking about something completely independently of that, where I figured, well, you know I have all of these cars, and then all of these cars, and all the stuff that I need to take care of.
00:31:08
Speaker
Yeah, well, it's only so complicated because, well, guess what? I, and I guess you two, we tend to go for lots of cars. And, you know, at some point you run out of these, like, juicy, meatier cars, you know? As you say, like, hey, here's here's the Serpaska. You know, I have, like, 165,000 points, like, free night certificates, and everything for, like, you know, a hundred-ish dollar fee. Like, okay, like, 150.
00:31:33
Speaker
And instead, then we go like, no, but wait, let me get the Aspire 2. It's like $650. But if I just choose the credits a little bit more, then maybe I'll come out ahead. I guess in the end, the answer is probably just get you know as many cards and make it as complicated as you you know you need it in your life. But at least for me right now, I feel like it's totally fine to not really optimize every last bit.
00:32:01
Speaker
Maybe I say this while I'm staring at my Excel spreadsheet here for like my $10 monthly telecom credit. But ignore that. Ignore that for now. right The point being that I think the choice of the surplus is totally fine. I think it's a good card. The Aspire is also a good card. And when sure, um going for either is fine. If you have the ability to make the spend on the Aspire, yeah, you can get more free night certificates. But guess what? You can do it next year too.
00:32:28
Speaker
I don't know, you can still sign up for the same card again. Why not get both cards, right? Depending on how complicated you want. ah There's plenty of card member options here. But yeah, I think ah in the end, this has been, at least for me, quite a ride like this year with like different cards and and other things. And it's totally fine to make it a little bit less complicated.
00:32:49
Speaker
Um, yeah, and I appreciate that. I love that perspective. I mean, I think actually the the right way to think about this is like, so long as you have the slots open, like why not get both? And maybe I did make this like false, you know, decision in my head of like, Oh, I should have picked this instead of this. And oh, no, don't do that because the annual fee is way higher and it's duplicative benefits. But really like, if you can make value happen with both cards, why not do both? And.
00:33:17
Speaker
Yeah, i think I think that's the right way to look at it. I think a lot of times in this hobby, right, we like paralyze ourselves with like this versus that. And sometimes it's easier to take a step back and be like, no, you don't have to make a choice between this or that. You can do both things. And I think that's probably the right perspective, right? As long as both things make makes sense financially. And so to borrow a slogan from our friends over at Milenomics, the answer is always more cards.
00:33:43
Speaker
The answer is always more cards indeed. For
Expanding Bank of America Relationship
00:33:46
Speaker
sure. So let's talk about Bank of America. I mean, speaking of new cards, actually, I have some backstory on this, right? like So as you know, and especially if you're a Patreon listener, um you'll know that I've been looking to sort of expand my relationship, especially on the business side with Bank of America.
00:34:04
Speaker
i mean There are some great benefits there, um especially with their you know preferred rewards program. um and so if you you know To put some backstory to that, like if you have money with Bank of America, depending on the tier and you know how much money you have with them, ah they'll give you some credit card rewards and different tiers of uplift, like 25%, 50%, 75%.
00:34:25
Speaker
And so actually, you know, that's something that even Christophe, I know that we mentioned in the podcast, like that was my new year's resolution to expand my relationship with bank of America. And so it's funny because I think like two weeks ago I get a random call from a small business banker and I kind of thought this was a spam call, but it turns out it totally wasn't a spam call. It was like a legit small business banker, just looking to, uh, you know, make cold calls and, uh, try to get more accounts open for business clients.
00:34:50
Speaker
And so he called, asked if I was interested in a you know opening up a new credit card. And I was like, yeah, sure. I mean, I did just open a ah business credit card with you guys like less than two months ago, but sure. I mean, if you want to you know give me an application, I'll go ahead and submit. And just side note here, I do know that like opening credit cards with business bankers, they seem to have lower approval thresholds. And so I've had better luck getting new cards opened when working through small business banking.
00:35:18
Speaker
And so anyways, I told him, you know, yeah, gladly apply. But actually what I've really been looking to do is, you know, open a business checking and, um, you know, get platinum honor status with that 75% reward uplift, which I've been drilling over for the last year now.
00:35:34
Speaker
And so he said, yeah, great. Like we actually have a ah business checking bonus where if you deposit, I think like $20,000, you'll get a $1,000 cash bonus as long as you keep it in there from day 31 of the account.
00:35:50
Speaker
through I think day 120, right? So three months of keeping that $20,000 in there. And so yeah, I went ahead and submitted the business checking application and with that bonus attached. And then also he sent me over an application for the unlimited cash rewards mastercard. And that one actually had like, I think like a special targeted bonus of $5,000 and spend $500 statement credit and you know make sure you do that in 90 days.
00:36:16
Speaker
And so, you know, that, that was higher than what I was seeing online. You know, I think if you look for that same card right now, I think the standard offer is $300 statement credit for, I think three or $5,000 in spend. And so went ahead and applied for both. And, you know, luckily both accounts were opened and, uh, you know, I'm already working on that unlimited cash rewards, MasterCard spend, it's a MasterCard. So at least for me, minimum spend on that card should be pretty easy.
00:36:41
Speaker
I went ahead and deposited the $20,000 into the business checking and, you know, just leave it in there for, I guess four months, right? Like I deposited like day two, but it has to stay in there from day 31 through day 120. And so, yeah, I'll just leave that 20K in there. Yeah, it's not earning any interest, but $1,000 is nothing to sneeze at for a new business checking account. So I'm happy about expanding my relationship and ah we'll see how um earning B of A status goes ah come come in early 2025.
00:37:11
Speaker
Yeah, this is actually a nice bonus and we did that same bonus for my P2 last year. And actually the timing is just about the same. I think we actually got the offer via email or maybe it actually came via mailer to where we said, okay,
00:37:28
Speaker
Yeah, hey, yeah open up business checking account. If you didn't have one um and you deposit, I think also 20K, get a $1,000 bonus. And guess what? ah Yeah, if you do this, not just do you get the bonus on the checking account, but also your business cards with Bank of America now ah get this boost, right? Because you now have this ah preferred rewards status with them and Yeah, well, then instead of having, say, a 3% customized cash ah business card, you get another 25% on top of that. And we actually topped it off a little bit further. like Instead of putting just 20K there, we put 50K there. So we actually got the gold tier, which means we got a 50% rewards bonus. And that was pretty nice because some of the spending that we wanted to do anyways,
00:38:13
Speaker
ah Guess what? It was now earning a 4.5% cash back on the business side. oh That was very, very juicy. So hey, you know, kudos. There is the newest resolution and you know, you get rewarded with $1,000 at minimum and then also the uplift on the credit card rewards. So it worked out very well for me. I'm pretty sure it's going to work out very well for you as well.
00:38:35
Speaker
Yeah, that's very nice. And um I actually, you know, I think on the Patreon show, we're going to get a little bit more into B of A Platinum honor status and, you know, how you can go ahead and get that ginned up with B of A and see if you can start earning more rewards on your spend with
US Bank's Smartly Visa Card Analysis
00:38:49
Speaker
B of A.
00:38:49
Speaker
Actually, these kind of programs right where you have like assets with a bank, um they have a bunch of like nice benefits, whether you probably hear about them from time to time, like Chase Private Client, right? Osvago has, like I think, their premiere, whatever, checking.
00:39:06
Speaker
ah product. And there's also a new entrant now to this game, ah which is a US Bank. And that actually makes another nice transition here. You see, US Bank recently introduced their smartly Visa card, which is not a very smart name, in my opinion, because it's very hard to pronounce and it feels somewhat clunky. But then again, we're comparing it to a customized cash card. So maybe it's not that bad after all.
00:39:33
Speaker
But if if you look at the details of this card, it actually comes out to be a potential real winner. um So similar to Bank of America, the US bank now introduces their smartly checking and smartly savings product. And if you get the smartly savings and smartly checking and smartly Visa card, and you have 100K in assets with them, also in potentially retirement accounts or brokerage accounts, right? So you don't need it in cash or checking or savings account.
00:40:02
Speaker
But if you have that, say, with an IRA with them, then ah this smartly Visa card will now pay you ah not just 2% or like 2.6% as you know you get with a Bank of America card, but they'll actually give you 4% cash back on virtually any charge that goes on that card. as long as you redeem those points with their monthly checking account, right ah which doesn't matter. It's like a small speed bump, but essentially you'll potentially get an unlimited 4% cashback card. And that's ah potentially a game changer just for simplifying things. like Sure, um there's a potential aspect here where um you know there's ah many profitable ways to use 4% cashback.
00:40:46
Speaker
But even if I think of my credit card strategy overall, where maybe, hey, I use an Amex gold card to make payments at a restaurant, or I still use my altitude reserve card, which is now unfortunately history, but you know that one for mobile payments, or then I use my Bank of America card with like 2.6% cash back, right, thanks to their uplift.
00:41:08
Speaker
at different, yeah say online portals, like say for tax payments, like where be it income tax or property tax. Anyways, like it sounds like they very convoluted and there's like all of these different things. And so this card, this like smartly Visa card from US bank, despite the name and despite the lack of any kind of signup bonus has the potential to really simplify a lot of this. Like I'm actually contemplating going in and transferring some of my assets from Bank of America two US s bank just to get that card with 4% and just simplify everything. hu Instead of putting like a little bit of spend here on that card, a little bit of spend from that card. on And then having no real place where all of this like makes sense and comes together.
00:41:54
Speaker
I could simply take this card, maybe get an authorized user for my P2 or P3 and P4, and everybody just spends on that card. And you don't really need to think. right as so If you get 4% back on on this, then this works great.
00:42:09
Speaker
Yeah, just spend on a restaurant. Yeah, it's fine, right? I mean, yeah, sure. It's not membership for rewards points, but 4% is 4%. And the same goes for taxes and the same goes for home improvement stores. And the same goes for, I don't know, tickets to Disneyland. You just get 4% across the board and you don't need to think. and This is actually a potentially very, very interesting value proposition.
00:42:30
Speaker
Yeah. And it is US bank too. Uh, as you know, I love the US s bank altitude reserve and I had been meaning right to get the US bank altitude reserve for my wife. And, uh, now that that card has sailed and, uh, you know, bye-bye it's so long, sweet prince you'll be missed. Um, I'm looking at like, okay, well that card's gone. Like I do want P two to have like a single card to really just, you know, Instead of asking me questions like every few days, like which card should I charge for this purchase at target or something like that, right? Like it could be any merchant, right? Really the 4% everywhere, you know, that aspect is great. And in some ways that's better, right? Like you're giving up the 0.5% versus the U S bank altitude reserve, but that required it to be mobile wallet spend. And then redeeming the points was a little bit tricky to get the 4.5% back.
00:43:21
Speaker
But 4% everywhere and it's actually cashback that can be redeemed into a checking or savings account. I mean that just makes life so much easier, especially ah for you know a situation for P2. So I i actually you know gave this card a really hard look and wondered how can I actually get this card because as you know I don't have US bank anymore.
00:43:42
Speaker
And so P2 seems to be the solution here and we'll see if even they let me get the card as like an authorized user, right? Like maybe, hopefully that doesn't connect us in a bad way, um but we shall see. And ah yeah, I have heard some weird feedback on like the smartly, like, is it really a great card? And I don't know, to me simplifying P2 spend seems to make a lot of sense. And I think that's kind of where I'm headed with this offer.
00:44:09
Speaker
Yeah, it's a new offer. It has great potential in my opinion. It's ah not the usual you know big sign on bonus and then i figure out the rest later card. But yeah, make things simpler. And whether it's sustainable or they'll nerf it eventually, ah we don't know. But given that US s Bank has a pretty good history of just grandfathering cards, it's probably a good opportunity to get in on it if you have the 100K that are really necessary to make this a valuable card.
00:44:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think the Ira is probably the best way to get in. um I know that P2 does have something from our old employer that we can you know transfer over. I think it's just sitting dormant. So I don't know. I'm going to give this card a hard look and see if we can make this work because 4% is really nice.
Reflecting on Community and Podcast Success
00:44:57
Speaker
So yeah, to round out the show today, I just wanted to, you know, since it is December um and we just had Thanksgiving, you know, it really got me thinking about what it what happened in 2024 and, you know, what are we thankful for, um you know, kind of going into 2025. And so I'll start here. But I just wanted to say, you know, I'm thankful for the community that um we've started to build with the points project.
00:45:20
Speaker
um Some of the things that we've been been able to do travel-wise or financial-wise in the last year definitely wouldn't have been possible without you know starting to like engage with a community of like-minded credit card enthusiasts, just like you, Christophe, our talks every week.
00:45:39
Speaker
Throughout ah this year been have been great and I've learned so much talking to you. So just wanted to say number one I'm thankful Kristoff for you ah deciding to you know, hop on and start this podcast with me I'm also thankful for you know, the community that have decided to join us on patreon we're just getting the slack group started and There's a lot of you know really great questions that come up and you know I'm thankful for you know having a space to share tips, share news, updates, talk shop, data points. like All of this stuff is is amazing. and so i'm i don't know i'm just i'm ah I'm almost to the point of being speechless with like how much I'm am grateful and indebted to this community and to you, Christophe.
00:46:22
Speaker
you've We've been talking about this for a while and we finally decided to to start on this venture and yeah um' I'm very thankful for that. um And at the same time, like we've been able to travel this year. I mean, this year was like a step down in terms of travel for you know me and P2.
00:46:39
Speaker
But still, like I ended last year coming home from the Philippines, where we had like two weeks in Philippines and Japan. In February, we went to the Maldives. We've had small you know trips throughout the year. And kind of finish the in August, we kind of finished our international travel with another Japan trip. And you know that would have not been possible without you know really just being engaged in this community and learning from like-minded people. So very thankful for the community here. um Christoph.
00:47:08
Speaker
you What are you thankful for? I know I just like waxed poetic. Man, Raymond, I really appreciate both working with you and also really spending time with the yeah there are many different people in the community in this hobby. right If I think of this, yeah, it's great to think, okay, here's the credit cards and you know this is the kind of things and this is how you squeeze ah you know the last penny out of that.
00:47:34
Speaker
But in reality, there is lots of knowledge and many details to this right that you only learn because, well, you exchange ideas with other people. like Everybody's interested in in other things. And so even especially over the last year, right my my of my personal time just ah being more limited right because we have a little one. And so there's lots of work going on. So this this means there's not so much time to really experiment and figure things out. But if you're connected with a group of people where you know the ebbs and flows of life can like even out. And you know sometimes ah one person has more more time than the other person has more time. And I think the same thing happens both at small scale here with our podcast, where I really appreciate you.
00:48:20
Speaker
ah stepping up and taking care of sometimes the heavy lifting like all the editing and all the other things that go into this podcast and even at a larger scale too right where then sometimes we say hey you're the community um some people are specialists for hey at that specific airline ah somebody knows a lot about this specific bank and whenever there's a question that comes up then hey there's you somebody to help out. um So in that sense yes I really want to thank the many people, both in our Patreon community and the many places that people talk, which is a credit card shop, as well as you, Raymond, for really making this podcast happen so consistently and with actually really good quality. And yeah, I hope to keep this going. So thank you. And I look forward to 2025 already.
00:49:11
Speaker
Yes, Christopher, I really appreciate you sharing all of that because I wholeheartedly agree with you. you know it's it's been ah It's been a wonderful time working with you and creating a new community and um you know I'm looking forward to what 2025 brings and seeing you know how we can really step things up next year.
00:49:29
Speaker
But until then, we wish everybody a wonderful holiday season filled with gifts bought from Capital One Shopping Portal, increased offers, liquidated Amex credits, and triple dips aplenty. We'll see you in 2025.
00:49:44
Speaker
Thanks everybody for listening to this episode of The Points Project with your hosts, Christoph and Raymond. Have a good one everybody. See you next year. hey there points project listeners if you enjoy today's episode we also have a patreon feed where we expand upon many of the topics we discuss on this show if you'd like access to the enthusiast member onlyly content and slack group please consider subscribing to our patreon