I’m not sure if I should bother with Citi Rewards+. Extra $100 per year?
Not quite sure about the value? Actually, is it a monthly 
payment or a “once a year”?
Just joking!
Maybe 
…
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Yeah probably not worth it for just $100. Maybe if your husband also had his own DoubleCash and Rewards+ and you split your expenses, then it’d be $100 each per year. But to fully maximize you’d need 4 or 5 people (since you spend 4-5 times more than the rebate maximum), and that’s probably too much work 
.
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you can get more then 1 Citi Custom Credit card!! Just apply for P1 or P2 if they approve you doing this. (if you have these folks). App asks if you want to get another card (AU) for another user. Check YES!! Enter your NAME. Then when they arrive you are gold!! I knock these offers out 2x per month(Wife and my card) with my name on both. I do CVS 500.00 VGC and they do not check names on card. Groceries here do look at name when buying a 500.00 GC. So for 2 years buying 500.00 gift cards in CVS/StopandShop/Acme and 25.00 cash back per month on both. BTW, Citi SYW card and Custom Cash and Disc miles do not care if you buy the gift cards. Once in a while a fraud alert that is taken care of via cell phone asking if I made this purchase. Click “yes” and it clears up to make the purchase. Takes 5 minutes for the text to come through. Im also using 2 OBCash cards so I’m busy.
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Well, obviously you can be an AU on someone else’s card, that’s not the same as having more than 1 of your own. To get more than 1 of your own you have to apply for another, then PC into this one a year later.
I can’t figure out what you’re trying to say. Why is name ever a problem? You can put your own name on an AU card from your wife’s account, there’s nothing strange or novel about this…
Amex Offers and Benefits: Current offer 5% off insurance up to $20. Not much but still pretty good, it means 6% back on $400 in insurance payments. Last year it was 10%.
Last month, I used a 10% off on wireless up to $400 on T-Mobile.
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0/3 
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You can also get a different card and PC it over to a doublecash. I did this a few months ago and have two now. Mentioned above, and I think the easiest way to do this.
Stumbled across this the other day: Simon® American Express® Credit Card | A new credit card experience built for Simon customers
5% at Simon malls, up to $10k/year ($500 back). This works well for me, since my local malls include things like Aldi, a local Albertson’s brand, Target, Dollar Tree, and Total Wine & More.
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Question for the hivemind: are there any really good credit cards (that aren’t already in the quick summary) for veterans? For example, the PenFed Pathfinder Rewards Visa waives the $95 AF and comes with 4x on travel (worth >= 3.4%), $100/yr domestic air ancillary travel statement credit, Global Entry / TSA Pre statement credit, Priority Pass, no FX fees and a decent SUB (>=$425). With the AF waived, it’s practically a no-brainer travel card almost on par with the Venture X. I’m wondering if there are others.
Doesn’t seem better than PenFed, but it’s a close second if the PenFed card is denied I suppose. TY for this and the DPs.
FWIW , Priority Pass on the Pathfinder doesn’t get you any actual free lounge visits, it gives you a membership and you can use that to pay the normal price to get in. Venture X actually gets you free lounge visits.
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My Experian score dropped 16 points today. The only change is that everything has a zero balance, i.e. zero debt, for which it says “Very Good.” Usually there’s a balance of $400 to $1000 and it says “Exceptional.”
The score went up 1 point with the two other bureaus with the zero balance.
Maybe zero balance classifies me as a “deadbeat” at Experian for not having any debt.
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Some people have been saying for quite a long time that to get the highest score it is better to have 1-2 accounts reporting a balance, no matter how small, than none at all.
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My Experian score just went up 16 points. One card shows a $5 balance. It now says “Exceptional” for “Amount of debt” where it showed “Very Good” when there was a zero balance.
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Advancial’s Visa Rewards has only 1% rewards but it’s 0% for purchases for 12 months from account opening. It’s 1.5% if you spend more than $2500 during the month. (When you make 25 or more purchases or spend $2,500+ on your credit card during your billing cycle, you’ll earn 1.5 points for every $1 spent. on all purchases during that billing cycle.)
They also have no-fee 0% balance transfers which start from the date of the balance transfer. It’s primarily aimed at a single balance transfer but you can do multiple ones within 30 days.
I have a question in to them on whether one can have both BTs and purchases and the purchases are separated so they can be paid off after the first 12 months.
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The T&C should mention in what order payments are applied.
I don’t see it, possibly because it’s a temporary promotion, not the regular status of the card.
Has anyone actually gone ahead and gotten the Bilt card?
With the demise of Paypal Bill Pay, I’m trying to figure out how to best milk rewards out of bills I can’t pay with a credit card. I’m heavily invested in the Hyatt ecosystem (Bilt transfers 1:1 to Hyatt) and with being SEA based, Bilt’s addition of Alaska (at 1:1) has a certain appeal to me.
It seems that some folks are successful in paying their mortgage with Bilt while others get a slap on the wrist. I’d love to get some data points on this.
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My landlord switched to the Bilt system but I did not get the card.
An article in USA Today from 3-7-24 states: “the Bilt Mastercard currently does not offer points on mortgage payments.”
A point’s cash value is .055 cents or 0.5% rewards compared to 2% or more for the best rewards cards. The requirement for using the card 5 times means I would receive 0.5% on those purchases rather than 2.5% with the card I normally use.
Bilt also has some fine print saying they own your data and can sell your data or essentially do whatever they like with it. In addition, if you choose rent reporting to the credit bureaus, you cannot opt out for the duration of the lease (this is a credit bureau requirement, not Bilt’s).
Better Business Bureau shows 54 complaints which you can read.
I find the discussion of points in most reviews and ads very misleading, as they don’t mention the actual value of the points nor the hoops you have to jump through to get rewards. That being said, it seems to work for some people, but the rewards seem very minimal compared to most other rewards cards.
I think the real value with Bilt is in the transfer partners. Hyatt in particular offers a pretty attractive value per point; I can regularly get 2.5 cents - often far more if I book something on a busy weekend.
Alaska is interesting because, up until now, there were really only three ways to get miles with them: fly them, use their BoA Visa, or transfer from Marriott at 3 MR: 1 AS mile. I just got about 6 cents per mile last week on a biz class redemption on LATAM (45k miles for LAX-SCL in business class). They are in the process of devaluing the program though so perhaps that high valuation doesn’t have much more time to live.
Anyway - thanks for the take, and in particular, on their privacy policy. Will have to look more into that.