Category: New Credit Card Offers

Some big changes are taking place with the American Express Platinum card, perhaps most importantly an annual fee increase to $550 and a new annual $200 Uber credit.

First the foremost, the $450 annual fee we’ve all come to know and love is being increased by $100 from $450 to $550. This makes it $100 more expensive than rival Chase Sapphire Reserve, which offers similar features.

Amex Platinum Changes Take Place March 30th

The new annual fee will be imposed on new card applicants as of March 30th, with existing card members paying the increased rate on their next annual renewal rate that falls on or after September 1st, 2017.

This applies to the following Amex Platinum cards:

• The Platinum Card from American Express
• The Platinum Card from American Express for Ameriprise
• The Platinum Card from American Express for Charles Schwab
• The Platinum Card from American Express for Goldman Sachs
• The Platinum Card from American Express for Mercedes-Benz
• The Platinum Card from American Express for Morgan Stanley

For the record, the Mercedes version currently charges $475, so it’s unclear if that annual fee is going to be bumped up to $575 or $550.

Also notice that the Amex Biz Platinum isn’t listed here…so it should remain at $450 per year.

Clearly this a blow to those accustomed to paying the $450 annual fee, but there is a silver lining, assuming you didn’t #DeleteUber.

$200 Annual Uber Credit with New Amex Platinum

While the steep annual fee isn’t good news, the $100 increase can more than be offset by the new $200 annual Uber credit tied to the card.

Yep, Platinum cardholders will soon get $200 each year to apply toward Uber rides within the United States, broken down on a monthly basis (which is somewhat annoying).

Put simply, American Express will add $15 in Uber credit to your account each month and $35 in December, for some reason, to round it out at an even $200 over a 12-month period.

In other words, you can take a couple short rides around town each month for free, or potentially use the credit to get some free or discounted UberEATS meals, assuming the purchase qualifies.

The caveat is that you have to add your Amex Platinum as a payment method in the Uber app, though it’s unclear if you actually have to use it for payment.

You also get automatic Uber VIP status, which typically requires a combination of 10 rides and/or UberEATS meals a month to kick in.

With Uber VIP status, you get the highest-rated drivers and the best cars, apparently, along with advance access to Uber promos. In short, you might get a better car and driver.

In any case, if you’re an active user of Uber, your Amex Platinum just got $100 cheaper, and is effectively $350 per year. If you don’t use Uber, you might as well start, or consider ditching the card if $550 isn’t returning the necessary value each year.

Free Gold Cards and 5X on Hotels

Aside from the Uber credit, American Express is also offering Gold Cards free of charge for authorized users. These used to cost $45 for up to five additional cards. Still kind of random to let others have a different card than what the primary cardholder has, but we digress.

The new iteration of Amex Platinum will also offer 5X on hotel purchases made via amextravel.com, which flanks the newish benefit of 5X on airfare booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel.

The question is whether the price on the Amex site makes sense to forego possible discounts and promo codes…you’ll have to see case-by-case.

Amex also notes that you’ll get access to its “expanding Global Lounge Collection,” which includes two new Centurion Lounge locations in Hong Kong and Philadelphia that will open later this year. In total, you get access to about 1,000 lounges in 120 countries worldwide.

There’s also a new Global Dining Collection, a better mobile app, and they say cardholders will get access to more global events, if that’s your thing.

Oh, and did we mention that the card is going to be metal…how novel. You can get the metal version by requesting it on March 30th, or simply wait 60 days prior to your current lousy old plastic card’s expiration date.

How to Get Your $550 Back from Amex Platinum

At this point, you might be wondering how you’re going to get your $550 back from this damn card. That’s not cheap by any stretch.

Well, let’s break it down to see if we can make this card close to free, or at least reasonable.

First, you kind of need to use Uber. What sucks about this new feature is how specific it is. It would have been way better if it was for general ride sharing, or local ground transportation, etc.

Instead, you’re confined to Uber, a company not everyone is in love with at the moment. In short, it means Lyft won’t get you anywhere.

You still get your $200 annual airline fee credit, which can be used for incidentals, but is often used for airline gift cards (assuming it works).

Those two features certainly knock down the $550 fee, but still leave you paying a bit of money each year unless you take advantage of the more obscure benefits.

What’s very clear is that this is American Express’s answer to the widely popular Chase Sapphire Reserve card. Let’s see how the two stack up.

Amex Platinum vs. Chase Sapphire Reserve

Card name	Amex Platinum	Chase Sapphire
Annual fee	$550	$450
Travel credit	$200 airline incidentals	$300 ALL travel (including Uber, Lyft) and hotels
Uber credit	$200	n/a
Global Entry credit	$100 or $85 for TSA Pre	$100 for either
Lounge access	Many programs including proprietary Amex lounges	Priority Pass Select
Foreign transaction fees	None, but Amex not accepted everywhere	None and it’s a Visa
Bonus categories	5X on Amex hotels and airfare booked directly or via Amex	3X on ALL travel and at ALL restaurants worldwide
Authorized user	$175 for up to 3 additional cards	$75 per card
Redemption options	Only good for airline transfers	Good for airline transfers and cash value
Card material	Metal	Metal
Net annual cost	$150	$150

If we ignore all the random perks and authorized user stuff, both cards have a net cost of $150. The big difference, and this is very important, is that the Chase Sapphire Reserve has a lot more flexibility when it comes to getting that $450 annual fee back.

For example, you can use Uber, Lyft, book hotels from any website, book airfare from any website, and generally do all types of stuff to get the $300 travel credit.

With Amex Platinum, you have to designate one airline and use it for incidentals (or gift cards), and you’re stuck with Uber and only Uber for your Uber credit.

The only real upside to Amex Platinum is that the lounge collection is much better and you can earn 5X on air and hotels, but only via select channels.

Seeing that Visa is much more widely accepted worldwide, the CSR is probably the winner here, especially if you travel worldwide and want to avoid foreign transaction fees.

Of course, both offer great sign-up bonuses and can be well utilized for a year or so before canceling to avoid the subsequent annual fee.

However, keeping the CSR year after year is pretty compelling because it’s so easy to get the $300 in credits each year.

(photo: Raido)

Apparently 50,000 bonus points is no longer a big deal, so Chase is giving it away on their lowest-tier business card. Well, they will be come March 12th, according to a post from DoC.

They have the scoop via a screenshot (picture or it didn’t happen), which details an increased sign-up bonus of $500 on Chase Ink Cash when you spend $3,000 in the first three months from the card’s open date.

The flyer (or digital flyer) even points out that it’s a $300 increase from the typical sign-up bonus of $200. That’s ostensibly the selling point Chase employees will share with customers who walk in the door.

We recently compiled a list of the largest sign-up bonuses ever offered, and it appears as if we’ll need to make a change just a day after creating that darn thing.

It should be noted that the sign-up bonus on Chase Ink Cash has been as high as $300 in the past for the same spending requirement, so it’s actually only $200 above its all-time high.

Still, this is a great offer if you’re unwilling to go for the Chase Ink Preferred and its 80k or 100k sign-up bonus.

100k Sign-Up Bonus for Chase Ink Preferred (90.5k Effective Rate)

Speaking of, the newish Chase Ink Preferred card will see its opening bonus rise as well, from the current 80,000 UR points to 100,000 UR points when you apply in-branch, assuming you are targeted and qualify.

The caveat, which the flyer also highlights, is that the $95 annual fee will no longer be waived.

Effectively, this means the 100k offer is only really a 90,500 offer when compared to the 80k offer with no annual fee the first year, depending on how you value the points.

Why Would You Apply for Chase Ink Cash Instead of Chase Ink Preferred?

If you’re wondering why someone would apply for the Chase Ink Cash if they could get double the sign-up  bonus on the Chase Ink Preferred, it might have to do with the bonus categories.

Well, that’s assuming the person actually thought it through, which we’re sure not everyone does. But if you did take the time to think it through, it would likely have to do with the bonus categories.

You see, the Chase Ink Cash offers 5% back up to $25k annually in a variety of categories, including office supply (hello gift cards!), cell phone, landline (people have those?), internet, and cable TV.

It also earns 2% back up to $25k annually at gas stations and restaurants.

Meanwhile, Chase Ink Preferred only earns 3X, but in a ton of categories and up to $150,000 in annual purchases combined.

Those categories include:

– Travel (air, train, taxi, uber, lyft, hotel, car rental, etc.)
– Shipping
– Internet, cable, phone
– Advertising via social media and search engines

So for the savvy point-hoarder, it could make sense to go after the fee-free Chase Ink Cash card and get 5X in those other categories, and then transfer the points to a different Chase card that has full Ultimate Rewards flexibility, including point transfers to frequent flyer programs.

The minimum spending requirement is also $2,000 less on the Chase Ink Cash card…

Can You Get Ink Preferred If You Have Ink Plus?

Now you might be curious if you can get these other Chase Ink cards if you already have a different Chase Ink card. For example, can you get Ink Preferred if you already have Ink Plus?

Or, can you get Ink Cash if you already have Ink Plus? The answer should be “yes” as long as you otherwise qualify for a new Chase credit card.

In other words, if you aren’t barred by their 5/24 rule or simply ineligible based on creditworthiness, it shouldn’t be an issue getting a second or third Chase Ink card because it’s a different product.

And as we pointed out, there are practical reasons to apply for one or more the cards. You may need to explain that to the rep by the way, so keep that in mind.

Another reason (excuse) to get multiple Chase Ink cards is if you have multiple businesses. For example, if you run three different websites, you might be able to get a card for each separate business, within reason.

Which Chase Ink Card Should I Get?

Assuming you already have Chase Ink Plus, which comes with the 5X categories on up to $50k in combined spending per year, you’re probably better off going with the Chase Ink Preferred.

While the Chase Ink Cash card now has a solid $500 sign-up bonus, you can get double that via the Chase Ink Preferred.

And you already get the 5X categories via Chase Ink Plus. If you open a Chase Ink Preferred to flank it, you’ll have quite the point-earning combo on your hands.

It’ll look like this:

• 5X at office supply stores, on internet, cable TV, cell phone, and landlines
• 3X on travel, hotels, shipping, online advertising
• 2X at gas stations and hotels
• 1X elsewhere

With those two Ink cards in tow, you can basically drop the Chase Sapphire Reserve before the hefty $450 annual fee is due and only miss out on the 3X restaurant category.

Yep, Chase Ink Plus and Chase Ink Preferred pack a mean punch together. You’ll also have a ton of Ultimate Rewards simply from the sign-up bonuses, so even if you don’t use them that much, you should still have quite the points haul.

The only caveat is if the Chase Ink Cash $500 bonus is a one-time deal. If it’s here today and never returns, you could argue going for it and saving the Chase Ink Preferred for another time, assuming it will always be 100k or near that.

But that’s a risk – the Chase Sapphire Reserve 100k bonus was already cut in half, so the same could happen to Chase Ink Preferred.

(photo: Peter Linke)

People seem to just lose it whenever the Amex Starwood Preferred Guest credit card comes with an increased sign-up bonus, such as the 35k offer currently available until early April.

At first glance, you might notice that the sign-up bonus on the SPG card is quite low compared to other credit card offers out there.

After all, there are many other credit cards that come with 80k, 100k, or even 150k sign-up bonuses. So why should we all go nuts when SPG raises their sign-up bonus to a measly 35,000 points?

Is 35,000 SPG Points an Amazing Offer?

Well, for one, it’s the highest sign-up bonus they’ve ever offered on the card, though the minimum spending requirement might be a little bit higher as well.

At the moment, American Express is offering an increased 35,000 Starpoints when you spend $5,000 in the first six months of account opening.

Broken down, it’s 25,000 Starpoints when you spend $3,000 in the first three months, and an additional 10,000 Starpoints if you can muster another $2,000 within the first six months.

The offer is only available until April 5th, 2017, meaning you have to make a decision in the next couple months if you haven’t taken advantage before.

Assuming you spend the required total of $5,000, you’ll wind up with 40,000 Starpoints, which is apparently pretty good for this lucrative credit card currency.

The sign-up bonus is usually only 25,000 points, so you’re getting a big bump on a percentage increase basis (40% bump to be exact), though it’s only another 10k points.

However, these points can go pretty far, or at least further than other award currencies, such as Membership Rewards and Ultimate Rewards.

One Redemption Idea for 40,000 Starpoints

For example, you get a transfer rate of 1:3 from SPG to Marriott, which is now owned by Starwood. So those 40,000 Starpoints equate to 120,000 Marriott Rewards points.

That’s well above the 80,000 Marriott Rewards points you can earn through the Marriott Rewards Premier Credit Card from Chase, or the business version of the card. Both would only net you 83,000 points after spending the required $3,000 in the first three months.

So we know right there that SPG points are indeed a valuable currency. And if you happen to have Chase Ultimate Rewards points lying around, you can get 5 free nights at a category 8 Marriott hotel, such as the beautifully updated Wailea Beach Resort in Maui.

Hotels in category 8 will set you back 40,000 Marriott points per night, but if you book four consecutive nights, you get the fifth night free.

In other words, if you have 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points that you can transfer over to Marriott along with your 40,000 Starpoints, you’ll wind up with 160,000 Marriott points.

Hello free vacation in Maui for five nights! And you only burned through 40,000 UR points in the process, which isn’t bad seeing that Chase is constantly throwing 100k and 80k offers our way.

Starpoint Airline Transfer Bonus

Another special benefit to Starpoints is the transfer bonus they enjoy when sent to participating frequent flyer programs. For every 20,000 you transfer, you get a 5,000 bonus, all year-round.

Put simply, 20,000 Starpoints equals 25,000 frequent flyer miles – oh, and they have the most airline partners of any credit card issuer, including some carriers that require very few miles to go long distances.

What’s special about the 35k bonus offer is the fact that you get 40k Starpoints after spending the required $5,000, which is enough for two 20k transfers to airlines.

If you transfer all 40,000 Starpoints earned via the 35k sign-up bonus offer, you’ll get 50,000 frequent flyer miles.

Typically, you’d have 30,000 Starpoints and you could transfer 20k for a 5k bonus, but then you’d only have 10k remaining, which wouldn’t receive the 25% bonus (has to be 20k increments).

Actually, you can get even more miles than that if there happens to be an SPG transfer bonus going on. One recent example was American Airlines providing a 20% transfer bonus.

That meant you could transfer 20,000 Starpoints to AA and receive the standard 5,000 transfer bonus, plus another 20% bonus on top of that, for an additional 5,000 AA miles.

All said, you’d get 30,000 AA miles for the price of 20,000 Starpoints. If you transferred all 40,000 Starpoints, you’d get 60,000 AA miles.

As you can see, the value of the SPG bonus can be a lot better than it looks once you factor in all the special perks of Starpoints.

Aside from frequent flyer and hotel transfers, you can always use the Starpoints for Starwood hotel stays as well, with some good value depending on the category. Certain developing countries have low-category hotels that are still quite nice, and you can use the cash & points option to stretch your points even more.

The icing on the cake is the fact that the annual fee of $95 is waived on the card the first year, meaning you might be able to get 60,000 frequent flyer miles without paying a dime in credit card fees. And the spending requirement is pretty reasonable.

You just have to be smart with redemptions, and avoid options that don’t maximize the value of these special points.

Pro tip: Don’t transfer Starpoints to airline partners that offer a less than 1:1 ratio, including United, Air New Zealand, GOL Airlines, and LATAM Airlines.

(photo: Matt@PEK)

We were traveling back to Los Angeles from Maui the other day, when toward the end of the flight, the attendant mentioned a credit card deal over the intercom.

At first, we were a bit surprised to hear the pitch, which lasted what seemed like a full five minutes or longer as the pilots were focused on making their final approach to LAX.

The credit card offer was apparently an exclusive one, and they let that be known to all the passengers on the flight.

Is the 50k Hawaiian Airlines Offer Really Only Available In-Flight?

Instead of the publicly available 35,000 bonus miles, you could earn 50,000 Hawaiian Airlines miles when you spent $1,000 in the first 90 days from account opening with the Hawaiian Airlines World Elite MasterCard from Barclaycard.

Other than that, the offer appeared to be the same. They mentioned the one-time 50% off companion discount for roundtrip travel (in coach) between North America and Hawaii.

Oh, and the complimentary checked bag for the primary cardholder if/when the card is used to book travel directly with Hawaiian Airlines.

There was also the usual $89 annual fee, which was not waived the first year.

In short, the offer from the sky came with an additional 15,000 Hawaiian Miles, which is nothing to sneeze at, assuming you want the card.

We meant to get a paper application, which they were passing out to passengers, but kind of forgot, perhaps because that long and slightly aggressive pitch put us in a bizarre dreamlike state. Not sure, but we forgot. Darn it!

Anyway, we wanted to see how truly exclusive the offer was once we got back home. Was it really only available to passengers on a Hawaiian Airlines flight? Or was that just part of the pitch?

It wasn’t long before we found out that it was indeed a non-public offer, but like most other things in life, there was a way to get the deal without being on a flight or mailing in that paper application.

How to Get the 50k Hawaiian Airlines Credit Card Offer

We quickly found out that there was a way to populate the 50k offer by starting the online booking process with Hawaiian Airlines.

In short, you have to go to the Hawaiian Airlines website and select a flight, any flight, and go through the process of pretending to buy a plane ticket.

You don’t have to pretend if you really want to book a flight on Hawaiian.

Anyway, it involves quite a few steps, including selecting the flight, picking a seat, entering in personal information, and so on. Eventually you get to the payment screen, which is the key part of the process.

If, and only if, you select Credit / Debit Card for payment method will the 50k offer show up. If you select Gift Cards / Gift Certificates or masterpass it will not appear.

So, once you click the radio button next to Credit / Debit Card the offer should appear to the bottom right portion of the screen. Then you can click on the offer and snag the extra 15k points, all without actually buying a plane ticket.

Pro tip: Don’t log-in, but do select a one-way flight and skip seat selection (scroll down during that part) to save yourself some time during the quasi-booking process.

As to what those extra 15,000 Hawaiian Miles are worth, you can refer to their award chart. It’s practically enough (you need 20k) to fly one way to/from Hawaii and North America.

It’s also enough for a round-trip flight between different Hawaiian Islands.

Alternatively, the extra 15k miles could be used for a bigger reward, such as a flight to Australia, New Zealand, or Tahiti.

Moral of the story is to always do some digging for the best available offer before you apply. Sometimes it takes a bit of extra legwork, but it can certainly be worth the trouble.

A dude with an executive desk job who also drives a motorcycle? Rocks an Italian suit in the office, then quickly changes into a cool leather outfit (complete with stylish riding boots) while speeding away, only to change into an unbuttoned, crisp white dress shirt as he walks into a very cool dinner party with perfect hair?

Sure, no problem. You are, after all, a Black Card customer. At least, that’s what the new commercial seems to be attempting to convey. Superhero status. Oh, and did we mention the card is made of metal (stainless steel and carbon)? And the song is the coolest you’ve ever heard?

We’ve seen this MasterCard Black Card ad run a lot on TV recently, during major sporting events like the NFL playoffs. Clearly it’s a big push for the revamped credit card, which used to be a Visa product, but is it effective?

What Does the MasterCard Black Card Actually Offer?

In today’s day and age, we wonder if appealing to lifestyle without offering tangible benefits is still effective? After all, we’ve already got luxury credit cards that come with very real benefits, like Amex Platinum, Chase Sapphire Reserve, and Citi Prestige.

So does anyone care if there’s another credit card out there that’s black and metallic? Maybe, we’re not sure. What we weren’t sure of, at least from the commercial, was what the card actually offered.

After some digging, we found out that the Black Card, which is part of the Luxury Card family of credit cards from Barclaycard, has a $495 annual fee.

That beats out all three of the aforementioned luxury credit cards, which all happen to charge a $450 annual fee.

What’s more, the Black Card doesn’t come with a sign-up bonus of any kind. Again, those other three do, and big bonuses at that.

The Black Card does offer an annual airline credit, but it’s only $100. Meanwhile, the other three cards offer annual credits ranging from $200 to $300.

The one bright spot is Black Card comes with 1.5% cash back on every purchase, and points are worth double when redeemed for airfare.

But again, there are no annual fee credit cards out there that offer 2% cash back on every purchase. And it would take a lot of spending at a rate of 1.5% to earn that annual fee back.

How the MasterCard Black Card Stacks Up

Benefit	Black Card (Barclaycard)	Amex Platinum	Chase Sapphire Reserve	Citi Prestige
Annual fee	$495	$450	$450	$450
Sign-up bonus	n/a	40k points for $3k spent	100k points for $4k spent	50k points for $5k spent
Airline credit	$100	$200	$300	$250
Lounge access	Priority Pass Select	Centurion Lounges, Delta lounges, Priority Pass	Priority Pass Select	Priority Pass Select
Bonus category	1.5% cash back on all purchases	5X on flights booked via Amex	3X travel, hotel, dining	3x travel, 2x dining
Forex fee	None	None	None	None
Global entry	$100 credit	$100 credit	$100 credit	$100 credit
Transfer points?	No	Yes	Yes	Yes

As you can see, the luxury credit cards available from four major issuers offer a lot of the same stuff, with some major differences with regard to sign-up bonuses and point-earning categories.

And the Black Card doesn’t allow point transfers to travel partners, another huge benefit to the other cards listed above.

With the highest annual fee of all the cards, you might expect more, such as a healthy sign-up bonus or a larger annual airline credit. At least you can use the credit for airline purchases and not just incidentals.

But is that enough to justify an industry-leading annual fee?

Not sure. At least the cool guy with the motorcycle can get into the airport lounge, thanks to a complimentary Priority Pass Select membership with Black Card. Oh, and he gets Luxury Gifts, whatever those are, and a quarterly Luxury Magazine to read. Sweet.

By the way, there’s a MasterCard Gold Card that’s even more expensive, at $995 per year, which is plated in 24-karat gold. It earns 2% cash back and comes with a $200 annual airline credit. Hmm.

(photo: Véronique Debord-Lazaro)

If you’re an avid Amazon.com shopper, we’ve got some great news for you. This morning Chase launched the new Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card, which they say is the only card that offers 5% cash back on all Amazon.com purchases.

On top of that, it comes with a 2-1 rewards structure, whereby you earn 2% cash back at restaurants, gas stations, and drugstores, and 1% on every other qualifying purchase made with the card.

That means for every $100 you spend at Amazon, you get $5 cash back, which is a good deal if you already do most (or all) of your shopping with the mega e-tailer.

Non-Prime Members Earn 3% Cash Back at Amazon

If you happen to be a non-Prime Amazon member, you’ll only earn 3% cash back at Amazon with this credit card, but Chase has introduced some new added benefits.

You will no longer pay foreign transaction fees when using the card abroad, and cardmembers will receive a new metal card to show off to their friends.

The non-Prime version also comes with 2% cash back at restaurants, gas stations, and drugstores, and 1% elsewhere. So, for every $100 spent at Amazon, you get $3 back. Do the math to determine if Prime is worth it to you based on how often you shop at Amazon.

If you are already an existing Amazon Rewards Visa Signature cardmember with an Amazon Prime account, you will receive a new card soon. But in the meantime, the new benefits will kick in right away.

Note that there’s no promotional APR with the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card. At the time of this writing, both purchase and balance transfer APR were a variable 14.49% to 22.49%.

In other words, you’ll want to pay off your balance in full each month to avoid costly finance charges.

How to Earn 5% Cash Back at Amazon without This Card

There’s actually a well-known (in some circles) trick to earn 5% cash back at Amazon currently, without the need for this new credit card.

If you have an old Chase Ink Plus card that earns 5% back at office supply stores, you can simply purchase Amazon gift cards at places like Staples or Office Depot and apply them to your account.

You will earn 5% back on these purchases up to $50,000 per year, so there’s not necessarily a need for this card if you’ve already got that one.

However, there’s a chance Amazon will change the Chase Ink benefits in the near future, so this new card could soon become the only game in town to earn 5% back at Amazon.

Pro tip: Also look out for the rotating 5% cash back Amazon.com category that is often featured with both the Chase Freedom Card and the Discover it Card. It’s limited to $1,500 in spending, but it’s yet another way to earn 5% cash back at Amazon.

Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card Highlights:

• $70 Amazon gift card upon approval
• 5% cash back on all Amazon.com purchases
• 2% cash back at restaurants, gas stations and drugstores
• 1% cash back on other qualifying purchases
• No foreign transaction fees
• No annual fee
• No limit on rewards you can earn
• Rewards don’t expire, can be used to purchase Amazon products
• Can also redeem for cash back, gift cards, and travel

(photo: Joe Le Merou)