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.

Several cards are offering increased signup bonuses - please always check out our Promotions page for the latest credit card signup offers, sorted by our valuation.

• Capital One Spark Cash Business Card: up to $2,000: $500 after spending $5,000 within 3 months of new account opening and an additional $1,500 after spending $50,000 total within 6 months.  Even though requirement of the additional $45K spending to get the full $2,000 is undoubtedly on the high side, the effective cashback of 5.3% (3.3% from bonus + 2% from regular cashback) is not bad at all.  For comparison, the best business card for general spending is Amex Blue Business Plus which returns 2x Membership Rewards (MR) points on the first $50,000 each year and with our valuation of MR point at 1.5 cents per point represents equivalent cashback of 3%.
• Capital One Spark Miles Business Card:  up to 200,000 miles: 50,000 miles after spending $5,000 within 3 months of new account opening and an additional 150,000 miles after spending $50,000 total within 6 months.  Capital One Miles can be redeemed for travel rewards at exactly one cent a piece, so this signup bonus is similar to Spark Cash's.  However, one thing to know is in the coming December, Capital One will finally introduce the miles transfer feature that allows its Miles to be transferred to the following partners: Aeromexico, Air Canada (Aeroplan), Alitalia, Avianca, Cathay Pacific, Etihad Guest, EVA, Finnair, FlyingBlue (Air France & KLM), Hainan Airlines, Qantas, and Qatar.  The transfer ratio will be 1 Capital One Miles = 0.75 frequent flyer miles (1,000:750).  Based on these transfer partners, our valuation for Capital One Miles will be 1.1 cents a piece, and the 200K miles you obtain from this signup bonus will be worth $2,200, a little more than the fixed value travel redemption.
• Capital One Venture Card: 75,000 miles after you spend $5,000 within 3 months of new account opening.  Similar to Spark Miles, these miles are worth 1 cent a piece when redeemed for travel rewards, but can be transferred to frequent flyer miles after December.  
• Chase United Explorer Visa: up to 65,000 miles: 40,000 miles after spending $2,000 within 3 months of new account opening, and an additional 25,000 miles after spending $10,000 total within 6 months of new account opening.  If you don't want to spend $10K to get the full 65K miles, you may consider another offer of 50,000 miles after spending $3,000 within 3 months of new account opening. 
• All three personal Chase Southwest RapidRewards Visa Credit Cards are offering 60,000 points: 40,000 points after spending $1,000 within 3 months of new account opening and an additional 20,000 points after spending $12,000 total within the first year of new account opening.  All three personal Southwest Visas offer the same signup bonus: Southwest RR Plus Visa, Southwest RR Premier Visa, and Southwest RR Priority Visa.  Note that the Southwest RR Premier Business Visa still has an easier offer of 60,000 points after spending $3,000 within 3 months of new account opening.
• Banca Popular Avianca LifeMiles Vuela Visa: 60,000 miles after the first purchase - increased from the regular 40K offer.  You need to enter the promotion code LM17WB to receive this offer.

Since three weeks ago, there have been "rumors" about upcoming major changes to Citi Prestige, which has been temporarily discontinued to new applications since August.  It seems like Citi has learned a lot from Chase regarding this type of marketing strategies - remember two years ago before Chase unveiled Sapphire Reserve there had been all these down-to-details type of rumors about the new card circulating around for months.  When the "rumors", a.k.a. strategic sourcing of unofficial information, started three weeks ago, I called Citi and the custom service representatives did not disclose or confirm any of the information that was circulating around.  But I knew the information was highly likely to be accurate.  Now we finally have it - official words from Citi: existing Prestige cardmembers started receiving emails from Citi regarding the revamp and Citi now also have a dedicated page for this information at information.citi.com/prestige/intro.

The changes will start kicking in on January 4, 2019 when supposedly Citi Prestige will be back online for new applications.  I ran some quick numbers and it seems like as long as Citi offers at least 20K points signup bonus, Prestige will finally take the crown back from Sapphire Reserve as the #1 Best Credit Card by Dr. Credit Card, after about 2.5 years later.  We won't update the list until then, but let's first look at the changes.

• On January 4, 2019, Citi Prestige will offer 5x points on dining (up from 2x), airfare (up from 3x), and travel agencies (up from 3x), 3x points on hotels (the same as before) and cruise lines (up from 1x), 2x points on entertainment (which is the same, but will go way on 8/31/19), and 1x everywhere else.  Recently, we have seen Amex dramatically increased category bonuses on its personal Gold Card and Business Gold Card with introduction of some 4x categories (personal card now has groceries and dining as 4x and business card has two categories you spend most each month from six categories).  Now Citi pushes the bonus game even further with almost too-good-to-be-true type of bonuses.
• On January 4, 2019, the annual $250 airline credit will be expanded to cover all travel purchases, including airfare, hotels, car rentals, parking, ground transportation, etc.  This is similar to Sapphire Reserve's $300 annual travel credit and will make it much easier to effectively reduce the annual fees.
• The annual relationship bonus will be removed - you will receive your last relationship bonus on your next account anniversary.
• On May 1, 2019, cellphone protection will come to Citi Prestige.  Note that Prestige has already the best in industry consumer and travel protection, along with American Airlines Executive WEMC.
• Coming on September 1, 2019: annual fees will be increased to $495 (from $450) for primary cardmembers and $75 (from $50) for authorized users -  but if you are Citi Gold members, your annual fees will be kept the same at $350.; the Fourth Night Free feature will be capped at 2 times per year (now it is unlimited);  25% bonus ThankYou points when redeeming for flights will be removed - any travel redemption will have fixed value of 1 cent per point - however, the transfer feature that allows points to be transferred to frequent traveler miles/points remains the same, and thus our valuation of ThankYou points will remain 1.5 cents per point; 2x points earning on entertainment will be reduced to 1x points.

In general, with the already impressive perks and protection and the dramatic increase in category bonuses, Citi Prestige is surely on the way to take back the glorious #1 Best Credit Card spot.  As an existing cardmember who has been thinking about canceling Prestige after obtaining Sapphire Reserve, I can't wait 2019 to come!

Just about a month after revamping the personal Gold Card, Amex did it again with the new Business Gold Card with the following changes.

• The name is changed from "American Express Business Gold Rewards Card" to simply "American Express Business Gold Card".
• The annual fee is increased from $175 to $295; in addition, the first year annual fee is no longer waived.
• The signup bonus is changed from 50,000 Membership Rewards points to one year of G Suite Basic + one year of ZipRecruiter Standard (estimated to be over $3,000 if you take the value on paper).
• Bonus category changes: the old Business Gold Rewards Card offers 3x MR points on one category selected by cardmember from airfare, U.S. gas stations, U.S. shipping, U.S. advertising, and U.S. computer purchases, 2x the rest of the five categories, and 1x everywhere else; the new Business Gold Card offers 4x points on two categories you spend most each month from six categories (five as above plus newly added U.S. restaurants) and 1x everywhere else.
• In addition to the miles/points transfer feature,  Business Gold Card now offers a new redemption option - 25% points rebate with the "Pay with Points", essentially making MR points fixed value at 1.33 cents a piece, when buying First/Business Class tickets with any airline through amextravel.com, and Economy Class tickets with your selected airline also through amextravel.com.  While we value miles/points transfer feature a little higher at 1.5 cents a piece, we do think the 1.33 fixed value option is much easier to achieve for most consumers.

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In general, even with the increased annual fees, the new card represents a major enhancement over the old card, especially considering that the non-fee Amex Blue Business Plus already offers very impressive 2x points on everything and the old Business Gold Rewards Card only returns one extra point on one single category which we have been criticizing as lackluster.  Now the new Business Gold Card pairs extremely well with Blue Business Plus by adding two extra points for two major categories.  You only needs to spend approximately $10K on 4x categories each year to beat the $295 annual fee, and everything beyond that will be your net earning with this card.  For example, if your business' annual 4x category spending is $30K, you will earn approximately $600 in addition to your Blue Business Plus.

In addition, you may even strategically add the personal Amex Gold Card to the mix and use it for 4x on groceries and dining while using Business Gold Card for 4x on airfare and gas (or other categories).  Of course, if you value the lucrative travel perks such as airport lounge access and luxury hotel privileges by having the personal or business Amex Platinum Card, you will have 5x points on airfare and can adjust your 4x categories accordingly.  The Amex MR ecosystem finally becomes internally harmonic and poses a great threat to the Chase UR ecosystem.  At least on paper, Amex seems leading the way.  We will have a separate post to compare two ecosystems.