Update: It's being reported that the 70,000-mile bonus will only be available through April 17, 2024. However, please note that public offer is often subpar. See below.
There's a welcome offer for the Alaska Airlines Visa Credit Card of 75,000 miles. To earn the bonus, you need to spend $3,000 within 90 days of opening your account.
You'll also receive an Alaska companion fare after meeting the minimum spend requirement. This companion ticket allows you to book a ticket for yourself and pay $99 plus taxes/fees for your traveling companion. The minimum taxes/fees will be $23. This can be especially useful for trips to Hawaii.
Bonus Restrictions
If you have this card or have had this card in the last 24 months, you're not eligible for the bonus.
Alaska Airlines' shopping portal is running a promo in which you can earn bonus miles. Specifically, you can earn:
These are not cumulative. Rather, if you spend $300, you will earn an additional 800 bonus miles which bring you to a total of 1,200 bonus miles. For those doing the math, 1,200 Alaska miles for $300 spend is 4x per dollar. That's on top of what you'd earn shopping with a particular merchant.
This offer expires at 11:59pm ET on January 26, 2024.
Let's Get Nerdy (And Earn More Points)
The Alaska Airlines shopping portal is currently offering 4,500 miles for a purchase of The Motley Fool Stock Advisor. There's a promo code (SALE60) that will drop the price to $79. However, you don't want to use that code if you have the Amex Offer for $50 back on a $99 purchase from The Motley Fool (expires May 5, 2024).
If you have that Amex Offer, you will have $99 spent toward the $300 necessary to get 1,200 bonus miles. Your out of pocket will only be $49 once you factor in the Amex Offer statement credit.
Assuming you spend another $201 via the Alaska shopping portal, you'll end up with at least 5,700 miles for $250 out of pocket. Even if you were to only earn 1x on the remaining $201, you'd end up earning 23.6x Alaska miles per dollar.
Points Wire Note:
For those looking to earn more Loyalty Points with American Airlines, you can use the AA shopping portal with the Amex Offer to earn 6,200 AA miles and Loyalty Points.
Disclosure: I may earn a referral bonus or commission if you use the links below.
Five years ago, I wrote about how to earn points and miles on Airbnb stays for God Save The Points. However, I still see so many people skip some easy steps that could help them earn tons of points so I thought I'd flag a few.
Which Credit Card Should You Use?
Bonus: The Chase Freedom Flex (and Chase Freedom) quarterly 5x bonus categories generally includes grocery stores once per year. PayPal is another common quarterly bonus category that could help you earn 5x on Airbnb gift cards.
Which Airline Portal Should You Use?
ANA has a promo for first-time Airbnb users: Get a 3,000 JPY (~$20) discount on a stay in Japan and earn 2x per 200 JPY (this is ~1.48x per dollar)
Stack These Options
Regardless of whether you pay for your Airbnb with a credit card, gift cards, or a combo of the two, you should always click through an airline partner. I think British Airways is the best option since you can earn 2x Avios. Plus. BA is a transfer partner of Amex, Bilt, Capital One, Chase, and Citi so it's easy to earn additional Avios.
Disclosure: I may receive a referral bonus if you use the links below.
Rakuten is offering up to 12x on Dell purchases. If you have an Amex Business Platinum, this is a great time to use your first $200 Dell credit. If you can find something you need at Dell, 2,400 Amex Membership Rewards points via Rakuten at no cost is a nice bonus!
If you're new to the Amex Business Platinum, cardholders receive can receive up to $200 back from Dell purchases twice per year - once from January through June and once from July through December.
If you haven't joined Rakuten yet, you can sign up and earn a $30 bonus if you spend $30 within 90 days. If you link your Amex Membership Rewards account to Rakuten, you can earn Amex points instead which makes the bonus 3,000 points. In the past, we've seen the bonus as high as $40/4,000 points.
Sign up for Rakuten (my referral)
Direct link to Rakuten/Dell Offer
The Aeroplan Credit Card's current two-part sign-up bonus is expected to end shortly. If you've been thinking about applying, I would make a decision now. With the current bonus, you can earn:
While the first part of the sign-up bonus is obviously worth earning, the second part depends on your current situation.
If you would put that spend toward other sign-up bonuses, it would be hard to justify earning ~1.5x on the remaining $16,000. However, if you don't plan on getting another card for a bit or you have enough spend for both, this could be worth considering.
Keep in mind that the Aeroplan Card earns 3x on dining and at grocery stores. If you were to spend the remaining $16,000 on 3x categories, you'd earn ~4.5x when you factor in the 25,000 bonus points. If you need Aeroplan points, this could be a great way to supplement your balance.
Not bad for a card with a $95 fee.
Other Aeroplan Card Benefits
Of these benefits, my favorite is the 10% transfer bonus since it can be stacked with an Ultimate Rewards transfer bonus. For example, Chase is offering a 20% bonus for transferring points to Aeroplan through January 15, 2024. If you transfer 50,000 Chase points, you'd get a 30% bonus. That would bring you to 65,000 Aeroplan points.
Update: More people have been targeted with this offer as of August 7, 2024
Amex has launched a Business Checking bonus offer of up to 70,000 Membership Rewards points. Please note that this offer appears to be targeted.
To earn the 70,000 Amex points, you need to meet the following terms after getting approved:
"Qualifying transactions are mobile deposits, check deposits by mail, and electronic/online transactions including ACH, Wire, and Bill Payments. Business Debit Card transactions and deposits using our Redeem for Deposits feature are not qualifying transactions."
Log into Amex to see if you're targeted.
Traditionally, Chase would only allow you to refer someone to the specific Sapphire card you had. Now, you can refer someone to either Sapphire card regardless of which Sapphire you have.
So, if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred, you can refer someone to a Sapphire Reserve and vice versa.
Currently, you can receive 15,000 Ultimate Rewards points per referral up to 75,000 points per year.
The increased offers on the Chase Ink Unlimited and Chase Ink Cash are set to end the morning of January 18, 2024.
For several months, they've each had a sign-up bonus of $900/90,000 points after spending $6,000 in 3 months. Referral links are already showing a $750/75,000-point offer so I would expect all links to drop to that.
If you have an Ultimate Rewards card with an annual fee, this bonus worth 90,000 points. You just need one of these cards: Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or Ink Preferred. By pairing with one of these cards, your cash back/points can be transferred to any of Chase's airline and hotel partners.
If you decide to apply, we appreciate you using the links above!
Points Wire Note:
As these are business cards, you'll need some kind of business to qualify. However, this can be a side hustle that you operate as a sole proprietor such as selling items on eBay/Amazon. It doesn't have to be your full-time job.
The Chase Freedom Unlimited's offer for unlimited matched cash back for 12 months is coming to an end. I'm still confirming the exact end date, but I wouldn't hesitate to apply if this has been on your list.
Don't forget, the cash back this card earns can be combined the points with a Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or Ink Preferred. This allows you to transfer the points to airline and hotel partners. You just need one of these three cards to turn the Freedom Unlimited's cash back into fully transferable points.
Freedom Unlimited Bonus Categories
This offer could help you earn a ton of Ultimate Rewards points.
There's another offer available via referral: $200 cash back plus 5% back on gas and groceries for 12 months up to $12,000 spend. Which is best for you depends on your spend habits.
Check out 35 great ways to book business class with Chase points.
Disclosure: I am not a tax professional. Please speak to a tax professional for any questions about your taxes. I may earn a referral bonus if you use the links below. I serve as on an advisory board for Bilt.
Paying taxes has been an easy way to earn points for years and one credit card processor just lowered its fees.
While there's a small processing fee to pay with a credit cared, you'll often come out ahead with the points you earn. This is particularly true if you get a new card to earn a sign-up bonus. If you're not earning a sign-up bonus, just using a card that earns 2x could make it worth it.
The IRS works with three credit card processing companies: payUSAtax, Pay1040, and ACI Payment, Inc.
Currently, ACI charges the highest credit card processing fee of 1.98% followed by Pay 1040 at 1.87%. However, payUSAtax has dropped their fee over the last few years and is now the best option at 1.82%.
You can make two payments per processor each quarter for estimated taxes (1040-ES) as well as your previous year's taxes (1040).
Best Cards For Paying Taxes - Earn Points
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