Several months ago, I swapped out my Citi Thank You Premier card for a Citi Forward card. There was no substantial sign-up bonus to be had for the Forward card and I was not using my Premier card to book flights, so I didn't try to get a new bonus. I just asked Citi to swap them out for me. It took two months but am I glad I made the swap.
One of our big category spends is dining and the Forward card pays five points per dollar spent in this category. Last month I paid for a dinner for eight in Hawaii and paid in advance for $500 of dining at a local restaurant here on Hilton Head island. My total spend was $1342 in the bonus category and I earned a whopping 7000 Thank You points. Now, I won't spend that much every month on dining, but this is a bonus category I can really score with.
Between my sign-up bonuses for the Premier card, Preferred card, and spending on the Forward card, I've racked up 93,997 Thank You points. That's almost a $1000 of gift cards or maybe more in airfare? (I've got to double check that feature) And I still have a 25,000 point second bonus for $5000 in spend once my Preferred card is in its second six months of activation.
The point of my post is to remind you to look closely at your spending patterns and don't get locked down to one or two general category cards. Imagine a truck driver, paying for his own gas, not using a card that bonused the heck out of gasoline purchases. He'd be crazy not to carry a card that offered the biggest bonus for gas. I think it is the Hilton Surpass card, but it may be the Citi Preferred card as well.
It is early in the year and time to take a look at your particular spending pattern. Do you have a big time category you are not taking advantage of?
If you care to comment on big category bonuses you are aware of and using, help your fellow travel crazy buddies by posting them in the comments section for all to see.
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One of our big category spends is dining and the Forward card pays five points per dollar spent in this category. Last month I paid for a dinner for eight in Hawaii and paid in advance for $500 of dining at a local restaurant here on Hilton Head island. My total spend was $1342 in the bonus category and I earned a whopping 7000 Thank You points. Now, I won't spend that much every month on dining, but this is a bonus category I can really score with.
Between my sign-up bonuses for the Premier card, Preferred card, and spending on the Forward card, I've racked up 93,997 Thank You points. That's almost a $1000 of gift cards or maybe more in airfare? (I've got to double check that feature) And I still have a 25,000 point second bonus for $5000 in spend once my Preferred card is in its second six months of activation.
The point of my post is to remind you to look closely at your spending patterns and don't get locked down to one or two general category cards. Imagine a truck driver, paying for his own gas, not using a card that bonused the heck out of gasoline purchases. He'd be crazy not to carry a card that offered the biggest bonus for gas. I think it is the Hilton Surpass card, but it may be the Citi Preferred card as well.
It is early in the year and time to take a look at your particular spending pattern. Do you have a big time category you are not taking advantage of?
If you care to comment on big category bonuses you are aware of and using, help your fellow travel crazy buddies by posting them in the comments section for all to see.
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16 comments:
The problem with the Forward card is that the upfront bonus is negligible, which means you're sacrificing an application for a better signup bonus to get it. You'd have to spend $10,000 at restaurants to equal the 50k churnable bonus for spending $2500 on the Premier. That's a lot of dining. And it's $7500 in spending that can't be used on another credit card to earn other types of points.
Category bonuses are nice, but they need to be tied to a sign up bonus to be worthwhile in most people's situations.
Still earning 6% on groceries (and gift cards bought at the grocery store) with my Amex Blue Cash. I wondered on the way to work today whether I'd ever be able to break this habit and instead buy groceries with new cards for the sign-up bonuses. Nah....
Rick, I wrote to you about the Preferred TY card with 10k bonus, but 5X points at gas and grocery stores for the first 12 months. My plan was to buy Visa and AM EX gift cards at grocery stores for my spending everywhere. I was fortunate to have contractor accept these for payment while remodeling my house. So, that with creative spending ;-), I have earned 580,000+ TY points in the first six months! For those interested, there is still an active link;
http://creditcards.citicards.com/usc/thankyou/Preferred/offer/Nov2011/100GC/default.htm?BTData=C021678706A617459544A43B8BEB2A6A399958490F9FCF5E4E0D5CCD9D986556FD&BT_TRF=115812&app=UNSOL&siteId=CB&langId=EN&sc=1NMZAES1&B=B&m=XCK6MDW7700&uc=BHG&t=t&naInd=V&link=Consumer%5F720343583&ProspectID=2669768F81494A80AEC2A7059E91AFC4
"churnable"? I've got the Premier, and have reached the spending threshold/received my bonus, but wasn't aware it is churnable. That might be nice!
"25,000 point second bonus for $5000 in spend once my Preferred card is in its second six months of activation"
25k second bonus? How so?
Anonymous~
The Premier is not just "churnable" but also "stackable" since Citi doesn't require you to close an account to apply for a credit card of the exact same type. Accumulating multiple credit inquiries and high credit lines may lead to declined applications, but already owning a Premier card will not be a factor. The Premier card does require a high minimum credit line (over $10,000) so if your income is modest you may not be approved depending on how much existing credit you have with Citi. You might want to close some accounts or reduce your existing credit lines.
There is no terminology in the Premier bonus application that restricts the 50,000 point bonus to first-time cardholders like there is with the Citi AAdvantage cards.
Rick - You should look into booking airfare using Thank You points through their site. The fares match up pretty much the same as what's available on the airlines' sites, and if you still have the Premier card, you get a 33% discount on points used, which is pretty significant. I use the Forward card to earn dining points, and keep the Premier card to redeem the points for discounted flights.
Adam C. - Rick is right about the Hilton HHonors Surpass card from AMEX ... up to 60K sign-up bonus; 9 points per $1 at Hilton hotels; 6 points per $1 on groceries, gas, drugstores, wireless phones, internet bills and cable bills; and 3 points per $1 on everything else.
By signing up for the basic Hilton HHonors AMEX and Bank of America Hawaiian Airlines, Virgin Atlantic and Alaskan Airlines cards, as well as the Bank of Hawaii Hawaiian Airlines card, it's easy to amass a lot of Hilton points. The Bank of America and Bank of Hawaii points can be transferred to Hilton HHonors 1:2. Apps could not all be one in the same churn, of course, but you can find info on the best way to space them and how many you could do in one churn.
And no, I do not work for or own stock in Hilton. LOL
Great Post Rick. I don't have a lot of interest in travel since my wife and I are expecting our first child but I am looking for a way to get get cash for points so that I can start a college fund for my upcoming son or add money to a personal mutual fund that I have. I plan on spending the maximum amount on bonus categories for each of my cards that offer rewards. For example, my American Express Costco card offers 5% cash back on up to $1,500 spent at Costco. I want to go to Cosco and buy $3,000 worth of gift cards with my American Express Costco card and then sell it on plasticjungle.com which, according to the site, will give 92.4% of the gift card I sell to them which will make for a loss of $28 but it will give me $75 in costco rewards which I will flip again on plastic jungle. com. with the plastic jungle fees my profit will come out to $41.3. If I do the same kind of thing with six of my cards I'll make a profit of about $2.47 a quarter. Can I go into Costco or any other retailer and get thousands of dollars in gift cards without a hassle? Has anyone done this kind of thing before? I know I could go on Ebay but I figure plastic jungle is less of a hassle.
Did my comment post?
Josh, in order not to receive an inquiry it might be worth it to exchange one of those useless Citi cards (AE or Visa)the ones most of us got 75k with to the Forward card. That's probably what I'll try to do. And use it WHEN I don't have a spend requirement.
Also, for those of you who aren't sure which categories you've been spending mostly in, if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, you can check out Blueprint to give you your answers.
It seems to me that the best combo for Citi cards would be to get the Premier card (and the 50k bonus), then switch that over to the Forward card so there isn't an additional inquiry. Then apply for another Premier in order to get the travel discount. Once you have a Premier and a Forward, just keep apply/closing Premier cards in order to maximize the 50k bonuses
keep in mind there may be limits for annual TY points. Can't remember what mine is on my account, but I know it's there.
Also, avoid plasticjungle. Terrible service if anything goes wrong, and there's a good chance that something will. I wouldn't recommend them to anyone based on my experience.
I used to get 5x TY points on a whole bunch of catagories. Then they changed and then I left for good. Cant get excited about a deal that used to be the norm.
I think the best card for a gas promo is the new Ink Bold by chase. you get double points on gas..Most people value Hilton points between .5 and .6 but value Chase Ultimate Rewards at 2cents each.. you you get .4 cents per dollar and these points can be used to transfer to hotels and flights. You can also go even further and buy Shell gift cards at staples which gives you 5points and use it to buy your gas. so now, throughout the year you get 5UR points on gas spending!
best card for gas is with Pentagon Federal...5% cash back on gas paid monthly. And no annual fee!
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