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New Credit Cards
25 Sep. 2020
New Credit Cards
Plastics It’s been awhile since I last applied for new credit cards.  In August 2019, I applied, and was approved for, 7 new credit cards.  Seeing the approvals and points hypothetically roll-in was great, but applying for that many cards led to issues, and I was actually shutdown by one of my major banks (who
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MoneyGram Banned….Again!
24 Jul. 2020
MoneyGram Banned….Again!
Back Scratch Fever You provide a service.  I use that service.  I pay you fees for your service.  You complete the service.  The cycle continues.  That seems like a logical and free market sort of thing to do.  MoneyGram has decided otherwise and is playing with a different set of guidelines.  Their rules go something
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Update on Missing Points
24 Jul. 2020
Update on Missing Points
Missing You By now it should be no secret that Amex increased a number of benefits due to the Covid crisis.  That bump in benefits enabled people to decrease the cost of card ownership (annual fees via credits and extra/enhanced benefits attached to some cards) and also have the opportunity to earn more rewards.  Some
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PenFed Suspends Rewards for Manufactured Spend
10 Jul. 2020
PenFed Suspends Rewards for Manufactured Spend
A View To A Kill When talking to people about bad news, the phrase “well it could be worse” often arises.  Sometimes it doesn’t seem like it and this Penfed news adds to the increasingly long list of bad manufactured spend (MS) mojo.  A few days ago I started reading reports of Penfed not paying
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Looming Shutdowns?
18 Jun. 2020
Looming Shutdowns?
No Soup For You With the covid situation looming, the promotions that big banks have offered to try and increase spend from their consumers have been very generous and also tempting.  I only have limited access to all of the deals offered because I don’t have relationships with Citi anymore, and also don’t have some
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Is TPG a Bad Guy?
2 Jun. 2020
Is TPG a Bad Guy?
Extravagant If you haven’t read this piece in Business Insider about Brian Kelly, aka “The Points Guy” or “TPG” as many call him, you may want to check it out.  It’s been out for awhile, but many in the points, miles and travel space haven’t read it yet.  If you don’t have access to Business
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A New Cash Back Debit Card?
2 Jun. 2020
A New Cash Back Debit Card?
Possibilities This might be an manufactured spend (MS) bone, but that bone also may not have any meat on it, not quite sure.  So I was listening to a podcast about a month ago and a commercial came on that talked about a new “cash back debit card”.  I had to rewind the commercial because
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Redeeming 2 Million+ Points for Cash
19 Mar. 2020
Redeeming 2 Million+ Points for Cash
On Fire As the stock market started tumbling in the past couple of weeks, I thought more about my long term goals both in terms of points and in dollars.  As a step toward saving money, I redeemed 1 million Chase Ultimate Rewards for cash.  That cash-out was about the same time that I was
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