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May 10, 2011 - Rick

I’ve got two of them figured out and you may be surprised. I’m applying for the Citi Thank You Points Preferred Card and the Citi Forward Card. Why the swap?Because I’m tired of being short on hotel points and stays for elite status. I’ll double my per-dollar-spent return for the first year. Hear me out.You know I love my SPG card. It earns me points that I think are worth 2.5 cents each at a minimum and considerably more in a cash and points redemption in higher priced markets. I will continue to use it on non-bonus-spending categories. I will put away Katy’s Hilton Surpass card that earns six points (worth .6 cents each) on gas, groceries, and prescriptions in favor of:

1. The Citi Preferred Card, which earns five points (worth one penny each) at the grocery store, drugstore, and gas stations.

2. My new dining card will be the Citi Forward Card, which pays me five points (worth one penny each) for restaurants and other entertainment.

With $2000 in spend times five points per dollar, I will earn $100 Hyatt or Marriott gift cards that I can use on qualifying stays towards future elite status. It took $3000 to $4000 in spend to earn a reward stay with my SPG card. I stay at lower-end properties and can find stays in the $100 range that will qualify as stays for elite status and promotions for bonus points.

The bonus points are only issued for the first year on these two cards, then they fall back to one point per dollar no matter the category of spend. I do believe the MTVU Card offers five points per dollar on restaurants for more than one year, and I’ll switch to that a year down the road.

The sign-up bonuses are lousy at 6000 points for the Preferred card and 1000 points for the Forward card, but I need new cards to apply for. And the extra earnings per dollar will add up quickly in my categories. Note: Believe it or not Citi actually dropped the bonus on the Forward card???

Chase Priority Club Visa for 60,000 Points NOT Targeted

I’ve been hunting for the invitation for months and find out now I don’t need it. It is available to everyone on the Priority Club website while you are shopping for a hotel:

Earn 60,000 Points!
Plus, get a Free Night every year, worldwide, and a 10% rebate on redemptions with the Priority Club^® Select Visa^®. Learn more.

I found this on the website Reservations Desk Page while attempting to book a night at the Savannah Airport. Just do a hotel search and when you have found the hotel you want, this should be above the room options. Maybe all you guys saw it before, but it is new to me and a card I plan on applying. Note: the application page it takes you to does indicate the 60K sign-up bonus and that the bonus is for first-time cardholders. The info is in the terms and conditions on the bottom of the page.

On a Speculative Note

I have nothing definite, can give no more info and don’t have any more info but get the feeling we will be playing a game of Chase the miles again soon. As Colonel Clink, or maybe it was the Sargent, used to say: “I know nothing” What was the name of that show? American prisoners of war in WWII camp?

Katybug’s Scores Amazed Me

I handle Katy’s applications, and try to mirror mine. She does not exactly match my apps but I assumed her scores were similar to mine. The girl has two 900+ scores on the VantageScore scale on Transunion and Equifax. Her Experian score is very close to mine in the 830s as most of our pulls come from Experian in South Carolina, but the 900+ numbers really floored me. We’ll be looking for more non Experian pulls for Katy in the very near future. She won’t be applying for the Citi Forward or Preferred card as we shop together and the sign- up bonuses hardly warrant the inquiries unless you are a heavy spender in the bonus categories. We only need one Thank You point account at this point.

25,000 Membership Rewards Points,$200 Airline Credit, and One Year Lounge Access.

ElijahN

Do you think I could move the same money between both accounts or would I need to withdraw it to a third-party account each time? No need to publish this if you think it's too revealing. Just an answer would suffice.
EBM

reading the terms for Fidelity, it says "Your Fidelity account must remain open with the qualifying funding for six months from the date that the qualifying assets are first received in the eligible account."

I take that as if I want the 50k miles @ 100k funds, I need to show 100k funds at the 6 month mark.
Alan

@ Rick

In reguards to the Fidelity account bonus. Since you have not done this yourself, are there any confirmations that this has actually worked? Pulling and redositing funds. I was just wondering if someone wrote to you to confirm this or if it was posted on Flyertalk.

With the TDAmeritrade, you posted that you've done it before. Did you do an initial deposit of $25k or did you use your pull and redeposit method on this? I would be curious to see if that method works for this deal as 20k SPG points seems more appealing than the delta miles.

Thanks!
Anonymous

Are there any type of hard inquiries for opening these accounts?
wes

rick, thanks for sharing and providing context for these equity account funding for miles…have done the Delta, now registered with AA…also did the TD-Am a few years ago…very good to know new play (esp with SPG points)
Carl

I tried a signup bonus with Fidelity a couple of years ago, but because I already had an IRA account, they said I was not eligible. I had to be a new Fidelity customer. Did not matter that I had never taken advantage of a sign-up bonus in the past, so not sure this will work based on previous experience with Fidelity.
FrugalTravelGuy

elijah: Withdraw to third

allen and EBM: Existing FT trade confirms play with "in and out" I did it all in one deposit with TD in the past.

Carl: My best advice. Call Again
gpapadop

I had done all of these before and know that both Fidelity & TD Ameritrade were not too happy sometime ago when I tried to do it again. Maybe I should call again…I just need to make the time as this takes some work!

To avoid the closing/transfer out fees, do you just leave a dollar or two in the accounts? Until when?
FrugalTravelGuy

gpap: My $1.xx in one and $3.xx in the other have been there for several years now. They can be mad all they want. They make the rules

Rick
Anonymous

I'm confused by the reader email. What Amex bonus is the reader referring to?
René

Hi Rick thanks for the catch on the points break. You just saved me a TON of points for a trip this summer!
Kim R

I did Fidelity even though I had an IRA – it's a matter of getting to the right rep who will allow you to bring "new" funds in. I also did Ameritrade before with an existing account but had never had a bonus, also by bringing in "new" funds. May be time for me to call both companies and ask if they would accept more 'new' funds.
Kim R

I did Fidelity even though I had an IRA – it's a matter of getting to the right rep who will allow you to bring "new" funds in. I also did Ameritrade before with an existing account but had never had a bonus, also by bringing in "new" funds. May be time for me to call both companies and ask if they would accept more 'new' funds.
Darren

Given the Fidelity offer does not expire until February 14, 2012, I'm thinking of waiting a few months to see if this "in and out" deal actually works as expected for those of you brave enough to try it first. For the TD Ameritrade offer, it seems the funds have to be committed for 9 months "Account must remain open with minimum funding required for participating in the offer for 9 months". Given the offer date of 6/30/2011, seems like the wait and see strategy wouldn't work in this case.

Rick will you post a status update when you finally get miles awarded for these?
Gary Steiger

It is not necessary to fund either Fidelity or Ameritrade accounts with cash. You may ask each to transfer stocks and bonds from some other account whose combined value meets the minimum. They send you a form, you send it in, then they do the work. Takes about a week. You can even fund and account for one of the brokers, wait the minimum, then fund and account with the other broker with the assets in the first broker. Easy.

Years ago I received some non-Delta airline miles for opening a Fidelity account. But then I added more (stock) after registering for the Delta offer. It was the only one that offered miles for adding assets to an additional account. I confirmed this possibility first by phone. The rep actually coded my account for the offer and made extensive notes in it saying he approved the processs. The Delta miles posted in a few weeks – would have been sooner had my account not been a trust account.

Ameritrade is much more liberal about giving miles more than once. They once gave an offer of golf clubs for adding assets. I asked for miles, instead, and got them. When I changed from a personal to a trust account, I got miles for the trust account. If you have a reasonable offer that gives them more of your assets, ask about getting miles for the transfer.
Anonymous

I've done the AA at Fidelity, and in the process of doing the Delta. The in-and-out works. The miles show in the airline accounts on Sunday (I always left funds in around Thr until Monday and they posted as expected).

In fact, I recommend signing up for the Delta immediately after the AA miles post– you might be surprised by how fast *those* miles post
Anonymous

This is what it says on the Fidelity website…. "Your Fidelity account must remain open with the qualifying funding for six months from the date that the qualifying assets are first received in the eligible account." That seems pretty clear to me. I consider myself very travel- and deal-savvy and I certainly push the limits on many of these offers (signed up for 3 SPG TD Ameritrade offers already), but I called twice and was specifically told that the balance needs to be maintained for the duration of the offer period. I told the reps that I intended to do direct deposit totaling more than $100,000, and that I would park the $$ in a money market account. I said that I would write checks out the account and my balance may slip below the $100,000, perhaps as low at $25,000. Both reps advised me I would only receive 15,000 miles, the $25,000 bonus. If someone has been told otherwise, please post the name of the agent who advised you that the in and out concept would work.

Thanks
Anonymous

Do any of these give you the 1099 form where you have to pay taxes on these?

Also, for the "Account must remain open with minimum funding required for participating in the offer for 9 months, or TD Ameritrade may charge the account for the cost of the Starpoints"

What is the minimum funding required? Is that the 25k? Do I really need to leave that all in there for 9 months, or can I leave in like $2-$5?
Anonymous

@ Anonymous:
you said you did the deal with Fidelity & AA & are now in the process of doing it with Delta. Did you open up a new account with Fidelity and register for the Delta offer? Did you then transfer the funds from your old account to the new one or did you make new deposits?

I just did the AA offer with Fidelity and have the funds in my account. Can I just transfer these to a new account using the Delta offer?
Wolfgang

How quickly can you withdraw and redeposit the funds?
Overnight?
Could you therefore churn and qualify for the promotion by starting out with an even smaller sum, such as $5,000?
Anonymous

With regard to the Fidelity accounts, I was told there is no fee payable to close out the account. Am I missing something–do I need to leave a dollar in the account and keep it open for some reason past the 6 month period?
garimell

The wording for the TDAmer offer does seem to say that the entire amount (say $25K for the 20K points) needs to be in there for 9 months. Wouldn't I be doing almost as well with those $25K parked in BankDirect? 22,500 miles vs. 20K SPG points (<=> 25,000 AA miles)…
Anonymous

For TDA offer, it seems you get bigger bang for your buck with smaller deposits ($2K => 3000 SPG pts; $10K => 10000 SPG pts; $25K gets you only 20000 SPG pts). And your money needs to sit there for 9 mos earning 0.01% interest compared to most good savings accts earning at least 1%. So for the full 20000 SPG pts, you are buying them for about 1.25 cents. Probably still a good deal.

For Fidelity offer, I would want some sort of assurance from Fidelity (why would they agree upfront?) that the in/out funding plan would allow you to get the DL or AA miles before I committed any $$.

Thanks for the great posts, Rick!
Thomas Ly

Has anyone recieved there points yet for doing the TD offer still waiting for points to hit after two weeks.
Anonymous

Bank Direct is now charging $12 per month for mileage earning checking accounts regardless of the amount on deposit.

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