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.

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