We have been continuing to make updates throughout the site.  Here are some highlights.

• Chase has brought to us the best signup bonus on its Marriott Visa personal card.  You will receive 107,500 Marriott Rewards points after you spend $5,000 and add an authorized user within 3 months of  new account opening.  As the Marriott Rewards and Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) programs are on the way to integrate and allow points transfer between linked accounts at a ratio of 3:1, our valuation of Marriott Rewards points is now 0.75 cent per point, exactly a third of that of SPG points.  The $85 annual fee is not waived, so this signup bonus is worth ~$720 in our book.  107,500 Marriott points can be transferred to 35,833 SPG points, and this offer is similar in value to Amex SPG which offers 35,000 SPG points with an annual fee waiver.
• Amex has upped signup bonus of its Amex Hilton Surpass (annual fee $75) and regular Amex Hilton (no annual fee): Surpass offers 100K points upon signup plus a free weekend night at select Hilton Worldwide hotels after you pay the second annual fee; the regular Hilton Amex offers 80K points on signup.  As our valuation of Hilton points is 0.4 cent per point, the signup bonus is worth $325 for Surpass and $320 for regular Hilton Amex, respectively.  For the second year after paying the $75 annual fee, Surpass also gives a free night, which can invaluable.  Both signup offers are the best in history.

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We have been making updates throughout the site and this post highlights some of them plus some recent news.

• We have reviewed Cathay Pacific Visa Signature, a new product by Synchrony Bank with an annual fee of $95.  The signup bonus is 25,000 miles after spending $2,500 within 3 months of new account opening and is worth about $230 in our booking considering the first year annual fee.  It did not make to our Promotion page because we only list deals that are more than $300 in value.
• Singapore Airlines is devaluating its KrisFlyer miles as of March 23, 2017.  The redemption value will increase for premium cabin travel and they also remove the online redemption discount; however, they will also remove the fuel surcharges associated Singapore Airlines redemption.  This is to encourage more economy class redemption versus business class or first class.  Our valuation of KrisFlyer miles will be adjusted slightly from 1.5 cents a piece to 1.4 cents.  Citi ThankYou points, which allow transfer to multiple programs including KrisFlyer, will also be worth around 1.4 cents in our book, as KrisFlyer offers the best value among ThankYou's transfer partner, in our book.  As always, your milage may value.
• Between March 2 and April 30, 2017, you will receive 50% bonus when you transfer Citi ThankYou points to TrueBlue points, the frequent flyer currency of JetBlue.  Normally ThankYou points transfer to TrueBlue points at a 5:4 ratio, so with this promotion they transfer at a 1:1.2 ratio.  TrueBlue points are loosely revenue based and the redemption value ranges from 1 to 1.8 cents a piece; our value is 1.4 cents.  When you take advantage of this limited time promotion, your ThankYou points can be worth 1.68 cents, slightly higher than our normal value of ThankYou points at 1.4 cents.  We recommend using this promotion only when you have a plan ready and have an idea of how many TB points you will need for your travel.
• Amex promised more changes to its iconic Platinum Card when it enhanced this product back in last October.  Now the changes are finally coming effective March 30, 2017.  Personal Platinum Card will have the annual fees increased by $100 to $550, and receive 5x on prepaid hotels booked via AmexTravel.com, $200 in Uber credits annually (limited to $15 per month plus an additional $20 in December), free additional Gold Card, enhanced Priority Pass Select guest policy (two free guests per visit versus none before), and finally a new metal card design to rival Chase's Sapphire Reserve and Ritz-Carlton Visa .  Business Platinum Card will keep the same $450 annual fee and receive 5x points on airfare and prepaid hotels booked via AmexTravel.com and enhanced Priority Pass Select guest policy.  Looks like Amex will continue to differentiate the personal and business version of this card.  We will update our review after the changes kick in.

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Amex SPG (Starwood Preferred Guest), the No.3 Best Credit Card by Dr. Credit Card, has come back to give the 35K offer once again.  This is the best signup bonus on this card in terms of total points; however, the spending requirement is a little higher than the similar offer that came out about a year ago.  If you open both personal and business SPG Card, you will receive a total of 70,000 points.  Keep in mind that you can only get the signup bonus when you have never received bonus on the specific card before.  For example, if you received bonus on the personal SPG Card before you are not eligible for the 35K on the personal card, but if you never received bonus on the business card then you are still eligible for the 35K on the business card.

With the merger between Marriott and Starwood, you can now link your SPG account to your Marriott / Ritz-Carlton Rewards account and transfer SPG points to Marriott / Ritz-Carlton Rewards points at a ratio of 1:3.  Thus the signup bonus of 35,000 SPG points equals to 105,000 Marriott points.  If you open both personal and business cards, you can transfer 70,000 SPG points to 210,000 Marriott points.  As we expect at some point, Amex SPG Card will be gone, it is your best chance of getting a boatload of SPG/Marriott points if you have never had SPG Card before. 

Personal Amex SPG Landing Page: you will receive 25,000 points after spending $3,000 within 3 months of new account opening, and another 10,000 points after spending an additional $2,000 within 6 months, thus a total of 35,000 points with $5,000 spent.

Business Amex SPG Landing Page: You will receive 25,000 points after spending $5,000 within 3 months of new account opening, and another 10,000 points after spending an additional $3,000 within 6 months, thus a total of 35,000 points with $8,000 spent.

There have been quite some updates throughout the site and these are the highlights for the past week.

• Chase United MP Explorer is offering a public 55K miles bonus, without an annual fee waiver.  For quite some time, the same offer is targeted to many United MP members, and of course the public offer is always better.  Note that the business version still offers a 50K mile bonus with the first year annual fee waiver.
• We noticed the landing page for JPM Ritz-Carlton Visa's three Tier 1-4 free night offer was dead and re-directed to the new (and reduced) offer of two free nights.  The old application link was kept alive for a few days before pulled.  However, there is a landing page for three free nights that indicates an expiration date of November 30, 2016.  You may try it at your discretion, with the worst scenario being you just receive two free nights instead of three.  Note that Ritz-Carlton Visa is currently exempt from the infamous Chase 5/24 rule which disqualifies you from getting a new Chase card if you have opened five or more credit card accounts in the previous 24 months.  As long as you did not receive a signup bonus on the Ritz-Carlton Card within 24 months, you are eligible for the new signup bonus.  Keep in mind that you can't redeem the free Tier 1-4 certificates at 13 top-tier (Tier 5) properties including The Ritz-Carlton in New York Central Park, Bachelor Gulch, Naples, Miami South Beach, Miami Bal Harbour, Miami Key Biscayne, Grand Cayman, St. Thomas, Tokyo, Kyoto, Hong Kong, Shanghai Pudong, and Dubai.  However, there are still some amazing properties that are Tier 1-4, such as the ones in Half Moon Bay (rates from $599 per night), San Fransisco (from $399), Laguna Niguel (from $479), Los Angeles (from $409), Washington DC (from $329), Georgetown Washington DC (from $409), Boston (from $345), Dallas (from $399), Charlotte (from $399), Reynolds Lake Oconee (from $309), Maui Kapalua (from $399), Cancun (from $299), Aruba (from $299), Hotel de la Paix in Geneva (from $475), Vienna (from $360), Herzliya (from $395), and Macau (from $460)
• We discovered the website for Visa Infinite Hotels that is available to any U.S. issued Visa Infinite card.  Visit VisaInfiniteHotels.com to book a hotel - you have to type in your Visa Infinite card number before start searching for hotels.  Visa Infinite Hotel Collection covers a subset (~200) of Visa Signature hotels (900+ luxury hotels and resorts worldwide) but offers an extra perk such as a $75 dining credit or $100 spa/hotel/rate credit per stay, in addition to Visa Signature Hotel Collection's 7 perks (guaranteed lowest rates, daily complimentary breakfasts for two, room upgrades upon availability, late checkout upon availability, $25 food and beverage credit per stay, free room wi-fi, and VIP amenities).  Currently, the only three U.S. issued Visa Infinite cards - CNB Crystal, Chase Sapphire Reserve / JPM Reserve, and JPM Ritz-Carlton Card - participate in both programs.

We have been making updates throughout the site and this post highlights some changes:

• We finally reviewed the new Avianca LifeMiles credit cards which was introduced last November.  Banco Popular in Puerto Rico is the issuer of these new cards.  You can earn a 60,000-mile signup bonus when you use a special promotion code in the application of Avianca LifeMiles Vuela Visa.
• Amex has reduced the amazing signup bonus on its Business Platinum Card from 100,000 points to 75,000.  This signup bonus is still worth a lot - $1,250 in our book.  The requirement to receive the full bonus was also increased from $15K to $20K.
• Amex has changed the signup bonus on its SimplyCash Plus Business Card to $400 with a spending requirement of $15K.  This is a non-fee business card and normally doesn't offer a signup bonus.
• Southwest Airlines changes how the potentially lucrative Companion Pass is earned.  Points transferred from hotel or rental car programs no longer count toward annual Companion Pass qualification.  However, points earned from the co-branded credit cards, including the signup bonus, continue to qualify.

This is Sean, aka Dr. Credit Card.  First of all, I would like to wish every reader of the site a happy 2017!  It is pretty crazy that the last blog post was almost two months ago - I bought a new house and moved in recently and have been unable to keep up.  Even though there have been updates on the site here and there, I wish more could have been done.  Now we have been slowly settling in, the site should be back to normal.  Here are some highlights of the recent updates.

• Our No. 1 credit card Chase Sapphire Reserve is now offering an online signup bonus of 50K points, down from 100K that was offered since its introduction in August 2016.  However, you can still receive the 100K bonus when you walk into a branch and apply.  Note that the infamous 5-24 rule (you will be denied the new account when you have opened 5 or more new credit cards in the past 24 months) still applies when you do that.  Hurry up if you haven't got this amazing card - source says the in-branch 100K offer will last through March but you never know if Chase decides to pull it earlier.
• Barclays has made American Airlines Aviator Red MasterCard available to new customers, with a signup bonus of 40K.  This means Citi is no longer the sole issuer of American Airlines' credit card products.  We welcome the competition. 
• We are very sad to see one of our favorite card for perks Chase Fairmont Visa has been discontinued for new applications due to Accor's acquisition of Fairmont, Raffles, Swissotel.  Fairmont Visa has been offering an amazing signup bonus (two free nights, possibly in a suite, plus breakfasts) and is also one of the credit cards to keep paying annual fees without spending a dime.
• Chase Southwest Plus Visa's 50K offer is back.  While the higher annual fee Southwest Premier Visa has been offering 50K, it has been a while since last time we saw Plus Visa's 50K offer.
• Citi has increased the signup bonus of Citi Prestige from 40K to 50K, while decreasing the signup bonus of the ThankYou Premier from 40K to 30K.

We have been continuing updating our site and here is the highlight of the week.

Chase brought to us Ink Preferred exactly as rumored.  Ink Preferred replaces Ink Plus as the $95 premium Ultimate Rewards (UR) business card.  The existing Ink Plus customers will be grandfathered in for all features and could receive the signup bonus on Ink Preferred as long as they qualify under the infamous 5/24 rule.  "5/24 rule" is a Chase internal rule that makes obtaining a new Chase card almost impossible when you have opened five or more credit cards (regardless of issuers) in the last 24 months.  Ink Preferred offers an amazing 80,000 UR points signup bonus, which is worth $1,200 in our book.  The annual fee is not waived when you apply online, but may be waived when you apply in branch.  Ink Preferred offers very different bonus categories from Ink Plus: 3x travel, shipping, advertising through search engines and social media, and phone / internet / cable services, and 1x everywhere else.  Ink Preferred will be a great combo to pair with the non-fee Ink Cash, as together they will cover 7 bonus categories that are essential to business.  Please see our review for details.

Amex has been fighting back, as Chase has been very aggressive to take its market shares.  Last month, they revamped the iconic Platinum Card, both personal and business versions.  They also upped the signup offer on Business Platinum Card to 100K points.  Now they have made available a public 100K offer through a special link.  It is recommended that you use private browsing mode in your browser if you don't see this offer.  100,000 Membership Rewards points are worth $1,500 in our book.  Keep in mind that Amex is even more stringent than Chase when coming to signup bonus: if you receive a bonus on the same product ever before, you will get the card when you are approved but won't get the bonus again.

We have been continuing to make updates throughout the site.  Here are some highlights:

• BofA MERRILL+ Visa Signature has an incredible 50,000 points offer.  Please see our review for details.  There are reports indicating that you don't need a Merrill Lynch relation to apply and get approved, and a relationship with Bank of America may or may not be required.  50K points are worth $500-$1,000 and we think it should be reasonably easy to redeem them for $800 in airfare.  Even though this card is worth keeping after the first year as there is no annual fee, we won't recommend it for general spending.
• We also reviewed the super-exclusive BofA Merrill Lynch Octave Amex, which carries an annual fee of $950 and is by-invitation-only exclusively for Merrill's richest clients who maintains at least 10 million dollars in asset with them.  The most interesting feature of the card is the up to 5% travel rewards for general spending (4% is reasonably achievable).
• Chase Marriott Visa has a new offer: two free nights at Category 1-5 hotels & $200 statement credit after spending $3,000 within 3 months of new account opening, an additional 7,5000 points after you add the first authorized user and make the first purchase within the same 3 months, and waived first year annual fee ($85).  The old offer of up to 87,500 points is still available.  Please see our review for details.  As for which offer is better, it depends on your value for Marriott points and free nights.  In our book, the new offers is worth $445 and the old offer is $440 - about the same.
• Please always check our Promotion page for the current credit card signup offers which are ranked by our value.     

We have been continuing updating pages throughout the site.  Here are some highlights.

• Amex has brought back the long-waited 30K offers on its SPG Card, at least sort of.  You may visit the link on our SPG Amex Review page to see if you receive the 30K offer instead of the regular 25K.  If the 30K offer doesn't show up, you may want to try again with a different browser or use private browsing mode.
• Amex also has a limited-time offer for its Business Blue Card: in addition to the regular 10,000 points your receive after the first use within the first three months of new account opening, you will also receive 10x points on U.S. restaurants for the first $2,000 in purchase in the first 6 months (up to 18,000 bonus points over regular earning), and 2x points on the first $50K in purchase in the first year (up to 50,000 bonus points over regular earning).  If you max out the bonus, you will have 78,000 bonus points!  This card has no annual fees and gives a 30% annual points bonus based on what you spend the year before.  So you will receive 10.3 points per dollar spent in dining within the first 6 months and 2.3 points per dollar spent everywhere else within the first year.  Normally the value of MR points earned through this card is capped at 1 cent a piece; however, if you have a premium MR card, the points will be automatically pooled together and the value could be higher.  For example, if you have the newly enhanced Business Platinum Card, the points value will be either fixed at 2 cents a piece when you use them toward airfare or depending on how you use them after you transfer MR points to miles/points of partner frequent traveler programs (our current valuation is 1.5 cents a piece).
• We reviewed US Bank LATAM Airlines LANPASS Visa Signature, which returns 3.2 LATAM kms for LATAM purchases and 1.6 kms for other purchases.  Our current valuation of LATAM kms is 1.1 cents a piece, so this card competes well with other airline miles card.  However, we will recommend Amex SPG over LANPASS Visa for general spending if collecting LATAM kms is your major goal, because you will earn 1.5*1.25 = 1.875 kms per dollar spent on Amex SPG if you transfer SPG points to LATAM kms in bulks of 20K.  In terms of annual fees and travel perks, The $75 annual fee will almost be offset by the annual 4,000 bonus miles (6,400 kms), and you will enjoy several LATAM benefits such as one annual 20% discount, 25% bonus flight points, and three annual upgrade coupons, almost for free.
• We finally reviewed Fort Knox FCU Visa Platinum, which is perhaps the best cashback card that offers 5% on gas purchases considering it has no annual fees, no spending limit, and no special requirements.  The caveat is that even though you may apply as a non-member of the credit union, their review process is generally more stringent than major credit card issuers.

© 2016 DrCreditCard.net  All rights reserved.

We have been continuing to make updates throughout the site.  Here we would like to highlight a few important ones:

• Wyndham Rewards Visa has been revamped.  The no-fee version offers 3x points on Wyndham, 2x on gas, utility, grocery stores, 1x everywhere else, and automatic Gold status.  The $75 version offers 5x points on Wyndham, 2x on gas, utility, grocery stores, 1x everywhere else, 6,000 annual bonus points, and automatic Platinum status.  Compared to the old Wyndham Visa, the new cards reduce points earning on general spending from 2x to 1x, but add automatic elite status as well as waived foreign transaction fees.  As we value Wyndham points at around 1 cent per point, the old cards offer great rewards for general spending and thus rated #6 Best Card for Rewards.  We had concern about uncertainty in the rewards program before and it is very sad to see Wyndham/Barclays simply decides to slash the rewards for general spending in half.  Now the new cards won't make it to Top 10.  Even though the new perks such elite status may attractive some customers, we won't recommend the new cards for general spending at all.  It is interesting that you may still sign up the old cards through the old landing page.  We think the existing cardholders have to be grandfathered in for 2x points on general spending, but we have no info at this point and probably won't know how long it will last even if it is indeed the case.
• JetBlue's frequent flyer program TrueBlue has been added as a transfer partner of Citi ThankYou.  You can now transfer ThankYou points to TrueBlue points at a 1.25:1 rate, if you have either ThankYou Premier or Citi Prestige.  TrueBlue points are mostly fixed at value of 1.4 cents per point, so if you use this option, the value of ThankYou points will be 1.12 cents per point - not a very good way of using ThankYou points.  A better way would be using ThankYou to book a revenue JetBlue flight through Citi at fixed value of 1.33 cents per point, instead of transferring the points to JetBlue and then booking an award ticket.  Our value for ThankYou points is 1.4 for ThankYou Premier considering other valuable transfer partners, and 1.6 for Citi Prestige considering the fixed value for booking an American Airlines flight through Citi.
• JP Morgan Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite offers $100 companion discount per trip for 2-5 domestic round-trip coach class tickets on your reservation.  Even though the terms say that primary cardholder must be one of the ticketed passengers, there are reports confirming that authorized users also enjoy this benefit for free.  This may potentially increase the value of this card quite a bit.
• Marriott and Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) offer reciprocal earnings on their credit cards.  Chase Marriott Visa and JPM Ritz-Carlton Visa will start earning 5x points on SPG hotels; while Amex SPG will start earning 2x points on Marriott/Ritz-Carlton hotels.  The two loyalty programs will eventually merge in 2018, but before that customers can take advantage of the best of both programs.  Details about the future of these credit cards still remain uncertain.  We suspect that Marriott or Ritz-Carlton cards probably won't change much, while Amex SPG will probably convert to a Chase product at some point in 2018.

In addition, you may find the following news interesting.

• Amex offers 2x points for select small business purchases through 12/31/16.  That is an additional 1x points you can earn through this "Shop Small" promotion.  You have to enroll your Amex at https://www.americanexpress.com/us/content/shop-small-offer/ to take advantage of this promotion.  They also have a useful search tool for you to find the participating small businesses in your area.  The following cards are eligible: Membership Rewards cards (such as Amex Platinum, Amex Premier Rewards Gold, Amex EveryDay Preferred), Delta SkyMiles cards, SPG cards, Blue Sky cards, Blue Cash cards, Hilton HHonors cards, Plenti Card, and Schwab Investor Card.
• Per Bloomberg, Chase will introduce a new business card product called "Ink Preferred", which features a 80K points signup bonus, a $95 annual fee (waived for the first year), 3x points for the first $150K spent on travel, telecommunications, shipping and advertising on social-media and search engines, and 1x points on other purchases.  Chase already has a $95 business card Ink Plus, which offers 5x points on office supplies, wireless services, landline communications and cable services (up to $50K spent annually), 2x on gas and lodging (up to $50K spent), and 1x on other purchases.   At this point, we don't know whether Ink Plus will continue to be offered alongside with Ink Preferred or be converted to the new card in the future.

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