- Citi Premier has seen the best signup bonus ever - 80,000 ThankYou points with a $95 annual fee (our value $1,105).
- Citi Prestige has been pulled from Citi website and is discontinued to new applications until further notice. There are two possibilities: one is that it will be gone for ever as Citi might exit the fierce high-end card market, and the other is that Citi might be working on a major revamp and will bring it back at some point in the future. We might have to pull it from our Top 10 list pending further confirmation.
- Chase IHG Premier WEMC also offers the best ever - 150,000 IHG Rewards points with the 1st annual fee waiver (our value $600).
- Barclays Wyndham Visa cards also hit historical high: 60,000 Wyndham Rewards points on earner Visa, 90,000 points on either earner+ Visa or earner Business Visa. Our valuation for these three offers are $470~$625.
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Our featured review is aimed to summarize the temporary credit card benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic and we have some new updates. The entire post is copied below with the current offers highlighted in cardinal.
Updated May 16, 2021. COVID-19 has obviously changed consumer behavior in a way that most of us probably would had never anticipated before, and it only makes sense that credit card issuers have been making adjustments accordingly. This review summarizes all the temporary benefits provided by credit card issuers during this pandemic. Note that while some benefits are applied automatically, some benefits require activation through a link or via online account. The current offers are highlighted in cardinal. American Express
Bank of America
Barclays
Capital One
Chase
Citi
HSBC
U.S. Bank
© 2011-2021 DrCreditCard.net All rights reserved. There have been more temporary credit card benefits announced recently, mostly on Amex cards. Via Amex Offers, Amex introduced $10-$20 monthly dining credits for a few personal co-branded cards and $10-20 monthly wireless credits for a few business co-branded cards. In addition, on personal Marriott and Hilton cobranded cards, there are some bonus points opportunities for general spendings. We have updated the featured review accordingly and also pasted everything over here. As always, the new benefits are highlighted in cardinal.
Updated February 15, 2021 COVID-19 has obviously changed consumer behavior in a way that most of us probably would had never anticipated before, and it only makes sense that credit card issuers have been making adjustments accordingly. This review summarizes all the temporary benefits provided by credit card issuers during this pandemic. Note that while some benefits are applied automatically, some benefits require activation through a link or via online account. American Express
Bank of America
Barclays
Capital One
Chase
Citi
HSBC
U.S. Bank
© 2011-2021 DrCreditCard.net All rights reserved. Throughout this pandemic when many card issuers have been bringing temporary benefits or bonuses to keep their existing cardmembers, Barclays has been quiet, until now.
In the last couple of days, many Barclays cardmembers received a promotional email titled "Double Bonus Opportunity – Earn up to 60,000 miles!" or "...60,000 points!" or "...$600 Uber Cash!" This appears to be a widely targeted offer to all Barclays cards such as Arrivals cards, AAdvantage Aviator cards, JetBlue cards, Hawaiian Airlines cards, Wyndham cards, Uber card: between 11/10/2020 and 1/31/2021, you will earn up to 60,000 miles/points or $600 cash, depending on which card you have (e.g. 10x additional points on everything, up to 10,000 points earned, and additional 50,000 points when you spend a total of $3,000 within this period). This must be the best bonus ever for existing cardmembers since I started writing about credit cards in 2011; usually you need to open a new account and meet the minimum spending requirement to receive a bonus like this; mostly likely the existing cardmembers did receive a similar bonus when they opened the card, and now it is like receiving a second bonus to keep the card. Barclays has increased the signup bonuses for its two JetBlue World Elite MasterCards (WEMC) to 100,000 points each:
Following Citi's drastic devaluation of credit card protection benefits, Barclays has also cut quite a few protection benefits on its credit card portfolio effective November 1, 2019. The following benefits are removed from most of their credit cards:
At the same time, just like other MasterCard issuers, Barclays has added Cellphone Protection to its World MasterCard and World Elite MasterCard. So after the devaluation, Barclays American Airlines Aviator Red Word Elite MasterCard, for example, will offer protection benefits such as Travel Accident Insurance, Travel Cancellation and Interruption, Baggage Delay, Cellphone Protection, Identity Theft, Rental Car Collision Damage Waiver (still secondary), etc. For details of credit card protection benefits, please visit our Protection page. Overall, the changes are not as bad as Citi's but still very bad for Barclays' cardholders. BTW, American Express also has some major benefit changes on the way (kicking in as of 1/1/2020), which we will cover in the next post. It seems like a trend in the industry, but we will see if other major players such as Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and US Bank will follow suit. There are some recent updates as the following and we are also working on updating several other card reviews.
These are the recently updated signup offers:
Barclays Arrival Plus increases signup bonus to 70,000 miles with the first annual fee waiver11/19/2018 It seems like every card issuer is upping the signup bonuses to attract new applicants towards the end of the year. Barclays has just increased signup bonus on its popular Arrival Plus WEMC from 60,000 miles to 70,000 miles while waiving the first year annual fee. These miles are not and can not be transferred to frequent flyer miles, unlike those miles earned from Arrival Premier WEMC; instead, they can be redeemed to cover any travel expense at least $100 at 1 cent per mile and you also receive 5% of the redeemed miles back each time. In this way, the signup bonus is worth $735 in travel. This is very similar to Capital One Venture Card's 75K offer.
Barclays American Airlines Aviator Red WEMC has increased the signup bonus from 50K miles to 60K miles (the best ever offer), still just after your make the first purchase (which is very rare these days). Our review has been updated too to reflect the post- Amex SPG discussions (see below).
The Facts
The Math In the past we used to not recommend this card for general spending, as the old Amex SPG (before August 2018) returned 25% more AA miles than any AA cobranded cards. Effective August 2018, AA cobranded credit cards have become the best way of earning AA miles via credit card general spending. AAdvantage Aviator Red vs. AAdvantage Aviator Silver: Aviator Silver is $100/year more expensive than Aviator Red, and it comes with three premium features: (1) a 3-2-1 earning structure vs. 2-1 on Red (one additional mile on American, hotels, and car rentals), (2) EQM earning potential with $25K-50K spending, and (3) annual $99 companion certificate with $30K spending. Even if you don't use the last two, you just need to spend $6,250 a year on American airlines, hotels and car rentals to come ahead of the $100 difference in annual fees if you happen to value an AA mile at 1.6 cents a piece like we do, as $6,250 x 1 mile/$ x 1.6 cent/mile = $100. Of course, if your value is different, you can do your own math. The bottom line is that if you are a frequent American flyer, you will most likely find upgrading to Silver Aviator a great deal. AAdvantage Aviator Red vs. Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select: These two cards are direct competitors - they share many features. Their differences are: (1) Citi's version has a $99 annual fee ($4 more than Barclays') but waives it for the first year; (2) Citi's version offers 2x dining and gas; (3) Citi's version offers Reduced Mileage Awards (saving 7,500 miles on select routes); (4) Citi's version offers $100 flight discount after $20K annual spending; (5) Barclays's version offers 3K Elite Qualifying Dollars after $25K annual spending. The Conclusion Barclays designs the replacement of US Airways MasterCard to align with Citi's counterpart. However, if you frequent American or just have big hotels/rental cars spending, you will find upgrading from Aviator Red to Aviator Silver very rewarding. |
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