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.

© 2016 DrCreditCard.net  All rights reserved.

Weekly update first. Several pages have been updated.  In addition, there are a few updated signup offers including Amex Platinum Delta SkyMiles 70K miles + 10K MQMs + $100 credit (for both personal and business versions), Amex Gold Delta SkyMiles 50K miles + $50 credit (for both personal and business versions), Amex Hilton Surpass 100K, Amex Hilton 75K, and Citi Hilton Visa 75K; like always, please check out our Promotions page for details. 

Now the biggest news of the week - to respond to Chase Sapphire Reserve, Amex revamps its iconic Platinum Card, both the personal and business versions, and the changes were effective October 6, 2016.  Also Amex brings back the amazing 100K offer for the Business Platinum Card.  Please head over to our Amex Platinum Card Review for everything you will need to know about it, including the 100K offer for the business card.  Here we will highlight the changes.

Amex Platinum Card (personal): 5x Membership Rewards (MR) points on airfare booked with airlines or through Amex Travel website.  When you book airfare via a third party Online Travel Agency such as Expedia, Travelocity, Ortiz, most likely you will be charged directly by the airline so you will still receive 5x points.  Note previously, this card gives 2x points on certain travel (airfare, prepaid hotels, vacation packages, cruise) booked through Amex Travel, and the booking fees are waived for Platinum members.  Looks like this feature is still available but the airfare will earn 5x instead, while other travel continues to earn 2x.  The last thing to note is that while Amex Platinum has the highest level of travel protection among all Amex cards, it still trails behind Citi and Chase in this regard, as Amex doesn't cover family members or award tickets and doesn't offer Trip Cancellation/Interruption, Trip Delay, or Baggage Delay coverage.  This factor might make some travelers use Citi Prestige or Chase Sapphire Reserve for 3x airfare instead of 5x on Amex Platinum.

While Amex Platinum's $450 annual fee may seems hefty, when you make use of the $200 annual airline credit, the effective annual fee becomes $250.  Most savvy card members probably won't use this card for general purchases, as there are better alternatives out there, such as Amex EveryDay Preferred, Amex SPG, Fidelity Visa, Citi Double Cash, just to name a few.  However, the October 2016 enhancement turns this card into a powerhouse for bonus rewards - 5x airfare is the highest among all miles/points cards.  Using our current conservative value of 1.5 cents per MR point, you are getting 7.5% cash equivalent rewards on airfare purchases.  You only need to spend $4,600 a year on airfare to beat the $250 effective annual fee and 2% cashback, because $4,600 x (7.5% - 2%) > $250.  You will need to spend $8,400 a year on airfare to beat the $250 effective annual fee and a miles/points card that offers 3x on airfare such as Amex Premier Rewards Gold, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Citi Prestige, because $8,400 x (5 - 3) point/$ x 1.5 cent/point > $250.  After that, you essentially receive all Platinum Card's great travel perks for free, such as unlimited access to Delta, Alaska, Centurion, and many more domestic and international lounges, Fine Hotels and Resorts, Hilton/SPG/Marriott Gold, and many others.  If you frequent Delta or Alaska and/or depart from a city where there is a Centurion Lounge, this card offers unparalleled value.  If you frequent Hilton Worldwide, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Marriott International, and/or luxury hotels, this card could also be hugely valuable.

With this important enhancement and its already impressive perks (rated #2), signup bonus (currently 40K), and protection, Amex Platinum finally makes to our Top 10 Best Credit Cards list, even surpassing the other two longtime favorite MR cards - Amex Premier Rewards Gold and Amex EveryDay Preferred.  As a result, the previous #10 Chase United Explorer Visa falls off the list.  Please see below the screenshots of the list before and after October 6, 2016.

Amex Business Platinum Card: (1) 1.5x points on each purchase of $5,000 or more, (2) 50% points rebate when using the "Pay with Points" option, essentially making MR points fixed value at 2 cents a piece, when buying First or Business Class tickets with any airline through Amex Travel, and Economy Class tickets with your selected airline also through Amex Travel.  So the 100K signup bonus of Business Platinum Card is worth at least $2,000!  

Note that you may still choose the other valuable redemption option to transfer MR points to miles/points of several frequent traveler programs, and keep in mind that our current value of MR points for using that option is 1.5 cents a piece, lower than the "Pay with Points" option.  However, these two options are very different in nature, I personally will choose the transfer option even with lower on-paper value, as I know I won't be using my hard earned cash/points to buy international long-haul First or Business Class tickets outright, while transferring points to miles of a frequent flyer program will allow me to have such tickets at a very reasonable rate.  Let's see an example of a recent flight I took: the one-way Suite Class on Singapore Airlines between Tokyo Narita and Los Angeles retails at about $8,000, and if I were to use the "Pay with Points" option, I will need a whooping 400,000 MR points - at exact 2 cents per point value.  However, if I would transfer 74,000 MR points to Singapore miles, I would be able to book this award ticket with the miles + $130 taxes and fees, as long as I find an available seat.  In fact, I did not use my MR points but I transferred my Citi ThankYou points to Singapore miles and I was able to secure not only one seat but two.  If I do math on paper, the value of MR points will be more than 10 cents per point; however, my personal conservative value of them is still around 1.5 cents, as I am willing to pay $1,250 for this ticket (74,000 points x 1.5 cent/point + $130 = $1,250).

Let's come back to see what the changes mean for Business Platinum Card member.  Earning 1.5x points on large purchases (>$5,000) will of course help some members.  However, the enhanced "Pay with Points" is more interesting to most members, as this makes Business Platinum Card a 2% rewards card for general spending with a $250 effective annual fee.  In addition, it opens up opportunities for other MR cards to become more valuable as MR points will be pooled together automatically.  For example, EveryDay Preferred will return staggering 9%, 6%, and 3% rewards for grocery, gas, and general purchases; the personal Platinum Card will return 10% rewards for airfare; Premier Rewards Gold Card will return 6% and 4% rewards for airfare and gas/grocery/dining.

© 2016 DrCreditCard.net  All rights reserved.

We updated several pages throughout the site, including "All About Credit Card Rewards" and "US Bank FlexPerks Credit Cards".  We are copying some highlights here.  For the full details please visit the reviews directly.

Best Rewards Credit Card Combos
Theoretically you need way too many cards to maximize rewards - one for gas, one for groceries, one for dining, one for airfare, one for hotels, one for general spending, and so on.  In real life, most of us can't manager that.  That is why here we will recommend the best two-card combos that will hand you much bigger rewards than a single card while still keeping things manageable.

• Fidelity Visa | Citi Double Cash + one category bonus cashback card: This combo is for people who love cash back!  ...
• Amex SPG + Amex Premier Rewards Gold | Citi ThankYou Premier: This powerful combo is for people who prefer miles/points to cashback.  ...
• Amex EveryDay Preferred + Chase Sapphire Reserve | Citi Prestige: We highly recommend this combo as an alternative to the previous one, for the simple reason that the two cards complement each other in the bonus categories almost too perfectly.  With 30 transactions per month, EDP offers highest return for groceries (4.5x, up to $6,000 spent each year) and gas (3x), while Sapphire Reserve covers travel & dining (3x).  So with this combo, you can easily cover the five most important bonus categories: grocery, gas, dining, airfare, and non-air travel, with only two cards - that is an incredible deal!  As for general spending, EDP returns higher rewards at 1.5x (=2.25%) and will be ideal for most purchases.  However, we recommend using Sapphire Reserve for items that may have price drop within 60 days such as electronics for the Price Protection benefit, and when traveling abroad for the waived foreign transaction fees and embedded EMV chip.  Finally, Citi Prestige is an great alternative to Sapphire Reserve, as it offers similar bonus categories: 3x on most travel (airfare, hotels, travel agents), and 2x on dining & entertainment, and similar and even better consumer protection like Citi Price Rewind and two years of Extended Warranty.
• Chase Freedom Unlimited + Chase Sapphire Reserve: Even though Chase Freedom Unlimited is branded as a cashback card, it actually earn UR points at 1.5x for all purchases without an annual fee.  Normally you won't be able to transfer UR points earned through Freedom Unlimited to frequent traveler miles/points since it is a lower tier UR product, limiting the value of a point at 1 cent.  However, the secret here is that if you have our recommended premium UR card Sapphire Reserve, you can transfer the UR points earned from Freedom Unlimited to Sapphire Reserve's account so all of sudden these points become transferable to miles/points or can be redeemed for travel on any airline through Chase at a fixed 1.5 cents per point.  This hugely increases the value of Freedom Unlimited, making it returning an impressive 2.25% cashback equivalent for general spending based on our current valuation of UR points.  Obviously, Sapphire Reserve will be the card to charge to for travel & dining (3x).  In addition, we recommend using Sapphire Reserve for foreign travel and items that may have price drop within 90 days.  Lastly, if you don't mind having three cards in your wallet, adding Chase Freedom, which returns 5x on quarterly rotating categories, will make amazing Chase UR triplets.  UR points earned through Freedom are also transferrable to frequent traveler miles/points when you have Sapphire Reserve, and then Freedom returns an incredible 7.5% on 5x categories.  Bear in mind there is a quarterly $1,500 spending cap for the 5x categories on Freedom, so if you do everything exactly right, you will be earning an extra 21,000 UR points a year (1,500 x 4 x (5 - 1.5) = 21,000) by adding this non-fee card to your wallet.  Of course, you still may replace Sapphire Reserve with Sapphire Preferred and the same trick works - points you accumulated from either Freedom or Freedom Unlimited can be transferred to Sapphire Preferred's account and they become transferrable to miles/points.

US Bank FlexPerks Credit Cards
​Currently, there are four FlexPerks cards: FlexPerks Select+ Amex, FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature, FlexPerks Gold Amex, FlexPerks Business Edge Travel Rewards Visa Signature.

FlexPerks Select+ American Express

• Annual Fee: none
• ...

FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature

• Annual Fee: 1st year free, $49 thereafter (can be offset by redeeming 3,500 points)
• ...

FlexPerks Gold American Express

• Annual Fee: $85 (can be offset by redeeming 5,000 points)
• Signup Bonus: 30,000 points after spending $2,000 within 4 months of new account opening.  Historical best bonus of this card: 30,000.
• Application Landing Page
• Rewards: 3x on dining, 2x on airlines and gas, 1x everywhere else (up to $180,000 spent annually).
• Best Use of FlexPerks points: The same as FlexPerks Travel Rewards Visa Signature, i.e., up to 2 cents per point when redeeming for airfare through US Bank, with a $25 incidental credit for each ticket booked this way.
• Amex CONNECT benefits: (1) Automatic Global Entry ($100) or TSA PreCheck ($85) credit, every five years.  (2) Complimentary Boingo Wi-Fi.  (3) 24/7 Lifestyle Concierge Service.  (4) Global Dining Program.  (5) Entertainment Access.  (6) VIP Experiences.  Please visit amexconnect.com/flexperksgold for details of the Amex CONNECT program. 
• Other Benefits: (1) No foreign transaction fees with an embedded EMV chip.  (2)  Complimentary Andrew Harper Travel Club membership.  (3) Discounts (up to 25%) and Emerald Club membership at National Car Rental.  (4) Discounts at BostonCoach limousine service. 
• History: this product was introduced in June 2016, replacing the old FlexPerks Travel Rewards Amex, with an increase of annual fees from $49 to $85.

FlexPerks BUSINESS Edge Travel Rewards Visa Signature
...

The Math
...

The Conclusion
As long as your spending on the bonus categories exceeds a certain percentage of your total spending, FlexPerks TR Visa or FlexPerks Gold Amex will beat a 2% cashback card such as Fidelity Visa.  For most consumers, FlexPerks Gold Amex is a better card than FlexPerks TR Visa.  US Bank FlexPerks Gold Amex is rated as one of the Best Credit Cards for Rewards.

We have been working on numerous updates throughout the site during the last couple of weeks.  Here I would like to highlight some updates.

• Barclays Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard has an increased signup bonus of 50,000 miles (value $525 in travel), from 40,000 miles.
• Amex Business Platinum Card is offering an incredible 75,000 points, and with an effective annual fee of $250, our value of the signing up this card is $875.
• Amex Business Gold Rewards Card is offering a 50,000 points with a first annual fee waiver (our value $750).
• Chase Hyatt Visa's first year annual fee is NOT waived anymore.  The signup bonus is 2 free nights after spending $2,000 within 3 months + 5,000 points for adding an authorized user.
• We finally reviewed Korean Air SKYPASS Visa.  Unless you are need the signup bonus (there are targeted offers of 40K) or you need the up to 20,000 elite qualifying miles towards Morning Calm Club, you'd better to consider Amex SPG, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or Chase Sapphire Preferred, as they all allowed points to be transferred to Korean Air miles.
• Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) has added Avianca LifeMiles as a new transfer partner at 1:1.  You also receive a 5K bonus if you transfer 20K.

The wait is totally worth it!  It has been rumored for several months that Chase would introduce this high-end Sapphire in August with a 100K points signup bonus - and now everything has come true.  Please see our review for the new Sapphire Reserve Visa Infinite for details of this new favorite.  Here is the new card in a nutshell:

• 100,000 points after spending $4,000 within 3 months of new account opening.
• The annual fee is $450, but with the annual $300 travel credit that covers all expense in travel category (the industry first), it effectively becomes $150, a merely $55 more than Sapphire Preferred.
• 3x points on travel and dining - if you spend more than $3,667 per year in the bonus categories, you will beat the $55 difference in annual fees, and choosing the Reserve over Preferred is a no-brainer.
• Travel perks include Priority Pass Select for airport lounges, hotel privileges at Relais & Chateaux through Visa Infinite and at over 1,000 luxury hotels through Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection and Visa Signature Hotel Collection , Visa Infinite car rental privileges, Global Entry application credit, primary rental car collision coverage, and waived foreign transaction fees, etc.
• It offers the highest level of consumer and travel protection among all Chase cards.

Sapphire Reserve is now ranked #1 in signup bonus, #3 in rewards, #9 in perks, and #3 in protection, among all credit cards.  By a large margin, it beats Citi Prestige to become the new #1 Best Credit Card by Dr. Credit Card!  Let's look at side-by-side comparison of the old (left) and new (right) lists of Top 10 Best Credit Cards by Dr. Credit Card:

There are several changes: (1) Chase Sapphire Preferred uncrowns Citi Prestige, while Barclays Arrival Plus WEMC falls off the Top 10 list; (2) Citi ThankYou Premier falls from #2 to #6 due to its disappearing signup bonus; (3) there are some minor adjustments due to some changes in signup bonus and perks.

The last thing to know before applying Sapphire Reserve is that the so-called Chase 5/24 rule seems to be strictly enforced for online applications: if you have 5 or more new accounts opened and shown on your credit report in the past 24 months, including credit cards from all banks, possibly mortgages, loans, lines of credit, and even accounts as authorized users, you will get denied automatically by Chase.  There are reports which indicated (1) applying in Chase branch when you pre-qualifies for the card or (2) applying as a Chase Private Client may bypass the 5/24 rule.

© 2016 DrCreditCard.net  All rights reserved.

Over the weekend, the Ritz-Carlton website was updated to reflect an updated Ritz-Carlton Rewards Card.  See the Visa Infinite logo?  Yes, this is the first Visa Infinite product issued by Chase, and also among the major U.S. financial institutions.  Previously, the only known U.S. Visa Infinite product was City National Bank's Crystal Card.  Let's take a look at the changes from the Visa Signature version.

• Increased Signup Bonus: Three free nights at any Tier 1-4 Ritz-Carlton hotel, after you spend $5,000 within 3 months of new account opening, and 10,000 points after you add an authorized user and make the first purchase within 3 months of new account opening.  Note that the current signup offer on the Visa Signature version is two free nights at Tier 1-4 Ritz-Carlton.  The free night certificates will expire after 12 months.  Keep in mind that you can't redeem these certificates at 13 top-tier (Tier 5) properties including The Ritz-Carlton in Bachelor Gulch, Naples, Miami South Beach, Miami Bal Harbour, Miami Key Biscayne, New York Central Park, 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 Laguna Niguel (rates from $449 per night), Half Moon Bay (from $495), San Fransisco (from $399), Washington DC Georgetown (from $369), Aruba (from $359), and Vienna (from $360).  A Tier 4 Ritz-Carlton will cost 60,000 points per night, so this new offer may be considered as 190,000 points at most.  However, we still think there is obvious difference between this offer and the actual 190K points, as the latter will offer more flexibility and no expiration date as long as you keep your Ritz-Carlton Rewards account active every 24 months.  Proceed to Application Landing Page to find out more.
• Increased Benefits: (1) Complimentary Priority Pass Select membership in lieu of Lounge Club that is offered by the Visa Signature version.  Priority Pass Select covers the same lounges in Lounge Club plus an additional 400+ lounges.  At this point, we are not sure about the number of guests that will receive free access and if an authorized user will receive a separate membership.  (2) Reimbursement for Global Entry ($100) or TSA PreCheck ($85) application every four years.  (3) Visa Infinite $100 companion discount per trip on domestic round-trip coach class tickets for your companion(s) on your reservation.  (4) There have been discussions on whether the Visa Infinite version will continue to receive three Ritz-Carlton Club Lounge upgrade certificates, as the new webpage and fine prints don't include this benefit.  However, as of now, new Visa Infinite card members still receive this benefit.
• Increased Annual Fees: The annual fee is $450 on the Visa Infinite, $55 more than the Visa Signature's.  However, the existing Visa Signature card members will be grandfathered in for the $395 annual fee (we don't know for how long though) and upgraded to Visa Infinite to enjoy the extra benefits.
• Worth it?  If you make use of the $300 annual airline credit (on incidentals), your effective annual fee becomes $150.  With that, you you receive Priority Pass Select membership, three Ritz-Carlton club-level upgrade certificates, Ritz-Carlton & Marriott Gold with $10K annual spending, Visa Infinite $100 companion ticket discount, and other great features such as primary rental card coverage, waived foreign transaction fees, embedded EMV chip, and Global Entry credit.  We think this card is one of the best cards for signup bonus, perks, and protection.
• Bottom Line: If you are an existing Visa Signature card member, you will get the best of both worlds - you should be able to request the upgrade and take advantage of the enhanced benefits (Chase is also likely to upgrade all members in the future).  If you don't have a Ritz-Carlton Visa and would like to get one, you probably should go with the Visa Infinite version for the increased signup bonus alone, even though Chase still keeps the Visa Signature version here (only two free nights upon signup).

© 2016 DrCreditCard.net  All rights reserved.

There has been much discussion on rumored changes on Citi Prestige for quite a while, and now we all have received the official email from Citi regarding these changes which will kick in as of July 23, 2017.

"As a valued cardmember, we want to inform you of changes to your Citi Prestige card. As of July 23, 2017 , some of your existing benefits will no longer be offered or will be changed.

Lounge Access

Access to American Airlines Admirals Club®  lounges will no longer be offered with your Citi Prestige® Card.
You will continue to have complimentary access to Priority Pass TM  Select Lounges and Citi® Proprietary Lounges. You, your authorized users, immediate family or up to two guests will continue to enjoy access to over 850 airport lounges worldwide.
Redeeming ThankYou® Points for Flights

You will only receive 25% greater value versus gift cards on all airfare redemptions with your ThankYou® points. For example, 50,000 ThankYou points will now be redeemable for $625 in airfare on all airlines available at thankyou.com.

Complimentary International Golf

The three complimentary rounds of golf will no longer be offered with your card for reservations made on or after July 23, 2017. You'll continue to have access to over 2,000 celebrated and legendary golf properties around the world with access to select TPC properties provided by MasterCard.
Complimentary 4th Night *

The Complimentary 4th Night benefit will be calculated based on the average nightly rate of your complete stay for reservations made on or after July 23, 2017. Please see the reverse side of this letter for examples of how the benefit will be calculated. Taxes will no longer be included within the statement credit. You will still be able to enjoy your benefit at any hotel with no restrictions on the number of times you can use this benefit. All other terms of the Complimentary 4th Night benefit will remain unchanged. "

This is definitely huge devaluation for our #1 best credit card!  However, since the changes are a year away, the scores that Prestige has for Points, Perks, and Protection won't change until next July.  It may receive a lower score for Promotion as the official offer is now 40K instead of the previous 50K.  As the 50K offer's landing page is still alive, we will wait and see when it will be pulled.  We expect Prestige will still be our #1 card for quite a while.  We will adjust the scores next July.

Now let's look at these changes in details.  (1) Loss of Admirals Club access is bad.  However, it is not surprising as Citi and American Airlines just signed a new agreement on their co-branded credit cards.  It makes sense to make Citi AA Executive WEMC, which carries the same $450 annual fee as Prestige, to be the sole credit card that offers Admirals Club access.  We have always thought AA Executive is under-performing, especially compared to Prestige.  (2) Taking away flight redemption at 1.6 cents/point on AA flights and 1.33 cents/point on other airlines essentially makes Prestige's redemption option exactly the same as ThankYou Premier's.  If no other major change occurs between now and next July, we will need to adjust our value of ThankYou points earned on Prestige from 1.6 to 1.4 cents/point - our current valuation for ThankYou points earned on ThankYou Premier.  This value is based on transferring ThankYou points to miles of partner airlines such as Singapore, Cathay Pacific, Air France/KLM, and Etihad, rather than the fixed 1.25 cents/point for flight redemption.  We are actually very curious to see if American Airlines will be added as a transfer partner as part of the new deal between Citi and AA, and if that is indeed the case, we will again adjust the valuation of ThankYou points.  (3) Loss of the golf benefit is bad.  No questions about it.  While we feel that not many cardmembers are taking advantage of this benefit, for those who are it really hurts.  (4) Currently, 4th Night Free is based on the actual rate of the 4th night and some travelers may take advantage of this to score some good saving.  However, you may also argue that taking the average rate of your complete stay is a fairer approach.

Even though we hate these negative changes in general, we will suggest not canceling your Prestige that fast - at least wait until the next time you renew or next July.  We all know that Citi likes making changes much more often than other card issuers - this is already the fifth major change Citi announced on this card in the last three years!  It won't be surprising if Citi brings out some new benefits in the future (e.g. by adding American Airlines as a ThankYou transfer partner).  We certainly hope that is the case, especially we are sure that Citi, just like us, is eager to see what Chase will do in introducing a premium Sapphire card to compete with Amex Platinum and Citi Prestige in August.

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