Not that many exciting new signup promotions recently, but we still keep making updates throughout the site. Here is a summary of some important updates.

• BofA Alaska Airlines Visa received a revamp with a historical best offer of 70,000 miles + $99 companion pass.
• Delta introduced a new perk for all its cobranded cards (Delta Gold Amex, Delta Platinum Amex, Delta Reserve Amex): 15% off miles for awards travel on Delta flights.
• Amex elevated signup bonuses on all the Hilton cobranded cards: 100,000 points for Hilton Amex, 150,000 points for Hilton Surpass, and 165,000 points for Hilton Business Amex.
• Capital One rebranded Spark Travel Elite as Venture X Business Card, which shares almost all the features as the personal Venture X Card.
• Chase Aeroplan Visa saw another 100,000 miles offer, but with a high $20K spending requirement.

COVID-19 pandemic has obviously changed consumer behavior big time, and it makes sense that credit card issuers are making adjustments accordingly.  This post summarizes these adjustments from Amex, Chase, and Citi.

American Express

• For those who open a credit card (personal or small business) between 12/1/2019 and 5/31/2020, the period to meet spending requirement to receive signup bonus will be extended for three months.
• Platinum Card (personal): up to $320 in statement credits on select U.S. streaming services and U.S. wireless phone services (up to $20 per category per month, from May through December 2020); cardmembers that renew between April and December 2020 will receive $200 in statement credits for Amex Travel (Amex's travel booking portal, from August 2020 to December 2021).
• Business Platinum Card: up to $320 in statement credits on wireless phone services and U.S. shipping (up to $20 per category per month, from May to December 2020); up to additional $200 in statement credits on Dell purchases in U.S. (up to $100 from 5/1/2020 to 6/30/2020; up to $100 from 7/1/2020 to 12/31/2020) - this is on top of the $200 Dell credits that are already part of this card's benefits; select cardmembers will also receive a $200 credit when they renew between May and November 2020.
• Green Card: up to $80 in statement credits on U.S. wireless phone services (up to $10 per month, from May through December 2020).
• Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant Card: earn 6x points on U.S. supermarkets, up to $7,500 in purchase, from May through July 2020); $300 Marriott statement credits can now be used towards U.S. restaurants, from June through August 2020).
• Marriott Bonvoy Business Card: select cardmembers will receive a $59 credit when they renew between May and December 2020.
• Hilton Aspire Card & Hilton Surpass Card: earn 12x points on U.S. supermarkets, up to $7,500 in purchase, from May through July 2020; bonus points earned through these credit cards from May to December 2020 will be considered base points for determining Hilton elite status; unexpired free weekend night certificates as of 5/1/2020 and newer certificates issued until 12/31/2020, will be valid for any night of the week, and those issued between 5/1/2020 and 12/31/2020 will be valid for 24 months (instead of 12 months); in addition, Hilton Aspire's $250 Hilton resort credits can now be used towards U.S. restaurants, from June through August 2020.
• Hilton Business Card: select cardmembers will receive a $50 credit when they renew between May and December 2020.
• Delta SkyMiles Reserve, SkyMiles Platinum, SkyMiles Gold, SkyMiles Blue cards: earn 4x miles on U.S. supermarkets, from May through July 2020; select Business SkyMiles Reserve cardmembers will receive a $125 credit when they renew between May and December 2020; select Business SkyMiles Platinum cardmembers will also receive a $75 credit when they renew between May and December 2020.

Chase

• For those who open a new credit card (personal or small business) from January through March 2020, the period to meet spending requirements to receive signup bonus will be extended for three months.
• Sapphire Reserve Card: annual fees will be reduced from $550 to $450 for those who renew the card from 4/1/2020 through 7/31/2020; earn 5x points on groceries, up to $1,500 in purchases per month, from 5/1/2020 through 6/30/2020.
• United Club Infinite Card, United Club Card, United Presidential Plus Card: earn 5x miles on groceries, up to $1,500 in purchase per month, from 5/1/2020 through 6/30/2020.
• Marriott Bonvoy Boundless, Bonvoy Bold, Marriott Rewards Premier: earn 6x points on groceries, up to $6,000 in purchase, from 5/1/2020 through 7/31/2020.
• The following cards will earn 3 points or miles on groceries, up to $1,500 in purchase per month, from 5/1/2020 through 6/30/2020: Sapphire Preferred Card, United Explorer Card, United MileagePlus Select Card, Southwest RapidRewards (RR) Plus Visa, Southwest RR Premier Visa, Southwest RR Priority Visa, British Airways Visa, Iberia Visa, Aer Lingus Visa, World of Hyatt Visa, Hyatt Visa, IHG Rewards Club Premier WEMC, IHG Rewards Club Select MasterCard, and Disney Premier Visa.

Citi

• For those who open a credit card (personal or small business) between 12/1/2019 and 5/31/2020, the period to meet spending requirement to receive signup bonus will be extended for three months.
• Citi Prestige: the annual $250 travel credits can now be used towards groceries and dining, from May to December 2020.
• Citi AA Executive: cardholders that renew after 3/31/2020 will receive a $225 statement credit, which equals to half of the annual fee.
• Citi AA Platinum Select: the annual $125 flight discount certificates (after $20K annual spending) that are expiring between 3/31/2020 and 5/31/2020 will be extended for 6 months.
• CitiBusiness AA Platinum Select: the annual $99 companion certificates (after $30K annual spending) that are expiring on 12/31/2020 will be extended for 6 months.

As detailed in the previous post, Amex has revamped all six Delta SkyMiles credit cards as of January 30, 2020.  Now we have updated the following reviews to reflect the changes:

• Amex Delta SkyMiles Gold Card (personal and business)
• Amex Delta SkyMiles Platinum Card (personal and business)
• Amex Delta SkyMiles Reserve Card (personal and business)
• Several other reviews involving these credit cards
• Best Credit Cards for Perks

Note that with increasing annual fees, Delta Reserve Card and Delta Platinum Card both offer incredible Delta perks such as airport lounge access (Delta Reserve only), annual companion certificate, Delta Medallion Qualifying Miles booster, Delta Medallion Qualifying Dollar waiver, first checked bags for free, priority boarding, etc.  That is why Amex Delta Reserve Card is now #3 (up by one) and Amex Delta Platinum Card #8 (up from #10) Best Credit Cards for Perks.

In addition, Amex also introduced some impressive signup offers for these cards:

• 60,000 miles upon signup and an additional 10,000 miles upon the first renewal for Delta Gold Card (personal or business, ~$600 value in our book)
• 80,000 miles upon signup and an additional 20,000 miles upon the first renewal for Delta Platinum Card (personal or business, ~$550 value after considering annual fees)
• 80,000 miles + 20,000 MQMs upon signup and an additional 20,000 miles upon the first renewal for Delta Reserve Card (personal or business, ~$450 value after considering annual fees)

The major revamp of all seven Delta Amex credit cards are on the way.  Let's have at a breakdown of the changes.  All the tables are from American Express / Delta Air Lines.

Delta SkyMiles Blue American Express

• 2x miles on dining will be expanded from U.S. to worldwide
• Foreign transaction fee will be waived;
• "Pay with Miles" feature will be added.

Three business cards also receive similar changes.  Here we highlight the differences from personal cards.

• Delta SkyMiles Gold BUSINESS American Express receives the same changes as the personal version except that instead having grocery as a new 2x bonus category it will have U.S. shipping and U.S. advertisement as new 2x categories;
• Delta SkyMiles Platinum BUSINESS American Express receives the same changes as the personal version except that instead having dining & grocery as new 2x bonus categories it will give 1.5x miles for any purchases of $5,000 or more each (up to $50,000 miles per year);
• Delta SkyMiles Reserve BUSINESS American Express receives the same changes as the personal version except that it will give 1.5x miles for all purchases once the annual spending exceeds $150,000.

After Citi's September overhaul and Barclay's November overhaul of their credit card protection benefits, Amex will also have some major changes coming on January 1, 2020.  Here are the breakdowns of the upcoming changes.

• Trip Cancellation & Interruption: added to Platinum Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant.  This covers trips cancelled or interrupted due to weather, terrorism, sudden illness or injury, jury duty, up to $10,000 per trip and $20,000 per year.  In addition to tickets paid entirely with an Amex card, awards tickets and Pay with Points tickets are covered as well.
• Trip Delay: added to Platinum Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant, for flight delays more than 6 hours, up to $500 per ticket.  Also added to Gold Card (personal and business), Green Card, and Delta Platinum (personal and business), for flight delays more than 12 hours, up to $300 per ticket.  In addition to tickets paid entirely with an Amex card, awards tickets and Pay with Points tickets are covered as well.
• Travel Accident Insurance: removed from all cards!
• Roadside Assistance: removed from all cards!  For most cards it is not big deal, as the benefit only dispatches a service provider and you still have to pay for the service.  However, certain premium Amex cards such as Platinum Card (personal and business), Gold Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant currently offer Premium Roadside Assistance which covers towing up to 10 miles and other incidentals for free, for up to 4 times per year, and this benefit will be gone as well!  Many cardholders including myself, actually use the Premium Roadside Assistance in lieu of AAA's basic plan, and in 2020 they have to look into alternatives such as Chase Sapphire Reserve (which unfortunately only covers up to $50 per use) or start paying AAA once again.
• Return Protection: removed from all cards except for Platinum Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant, Blue Cash Preferred, EveryDay Preferred, and Plum Card (business).
• Extended Warranty: coverage will be reduced from two years of extended warranty down to one year.  Remember Amex actually just increased the coverage from one year to two years back in August 2018, and in 2020 the only card issuer that continue to offer two years of extended warranty is Citi (and only for certain cards).  What is more, this benefit will be removed entirely for EveryDay Card, Blue Card, Blue Cash Card, and Cash Magnet.
• Purchase Protection: coverage will be reduced from 120 days back to 90 days.  The same story here - Amex just increased the coverage from 90 days to 120 days in August 2018.  The coverage usually covers only theft or damage, up to $1,000 per item and $50,000 per year, but Amex will add accidental loss and increase the per item limit to $10,000 for Platinum Card (personal and business), Gold Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant. 

Overall, the changes are mixed - some gain and some loss - but not as bad as Citi's drastic devaluation.  The cards that benefit from the changes are probably limited to those with an annual fee at least $450 - Platinum Card (personal and business), Delta Reserve (personal and business), Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant; the rest of the cards are generally considered to receive reduced coverage.  We think most cardholders will be unhappy about the changes.  We will update our Protection page once these changes kick in.

This week we have seen some elevated signup bonuses on a few credit cards (our value for the bonus minus first year annual fee is for your reference - your valuation may vary):

• Amex Gold Delta SkyMiles personal card ($95 annual fee, waived for the first year): 60,000 miles + 5,000 MQMs (Medallion Qualifying Mile) - our value $650
• Amex Gold Delta SkyMiles business card ($95 annual fee, waived for the first year): 70,000 miles + 5,000 MQMs - our value $750
• Amex Platinum Delta SkyMiles personal card ($195 annual fee): 75,000 miles + 5,000 MQMs + $100 statement credit - our value $705 (historical high) 
• Amex Platinum Delta SkyMiles business card ($195 annual fee): 80,000 miles + 5,000 MQMs + $100 statement credit - our value $755 (historical high)
• Amex Delta Reserve personal card ($450 annual fee): 75,000 miles + 5,000 MQMs - our value $350 (historical high)
• Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless Visa ($95 annual fee): 100,000 points - our value $655 (historical high)
• Chase IHG Rewards Club Premier MasterCard ($89 annual fee): 120,000 points - our value ($390 (historical high) 

This is not the first time Amex runs this kind of promotions for its Delta cobranded SkyMiles Credit Cards, and won't be the last one.  Now through 9/19/18:

• Amex Delta Gold SkyMiles Card (personal) - 60K miles ($95 annual fee waived for 1st year)
• Amex Delta Gold SkyMiles Business Card - 60K miles ($95 annual fee waived for 1st year)
• Amex Delta Platinum SkyMiles Card (personal) - 70K miles + 10K MQMs ($195 annual fee)
• Amex Delta Platinum SkyMiles Business Card - 70K miles + 10K MQMs ($195 annual fee)

As our current valuation for Delta miles and its MQMs are around 1 cent a piece, the signup bonus after considering the first year annual fee for either of these four cards is roughly $600.

Alliant Credit Union Visa Signature, which carries a $59 annual fee and offers unlimited 3% cashback for the first year and 2.5% cashback thereafter, was introduced earlier this year, but I haven't got a chance to write the review and crunch the numbers until recently.  After Year 1, you need to spend $11,800 a year on this card to beat a 2% cashback card with no annual fees, such as Alliant Visa Platinum Rewards, Citi Double Cash, or Fidelity Visa, as $11,800 x (2.5 - 2)% = $59.  If your have large annual spendings, this card is hugely lucrative - for example, if your annual spending is $100K, you will earn an additional $440 over a 2% card after considering the $59 annual fee.  After I put this card through our analysis considering all four "P" factors, this card becomes the #2 Best Credit Card for Rewards and #9 Best Credit Card by Dr. Credit Card.  Even though we are sad to see one of our longtime favorite Amex Premier Rewards Gold dropping out of the Top 10 list, the more competition the better for the consumers.

If you ever wonder if Alliant Visa Signature is the best cashback card out there when you spend at least $12K a year, there are a few options you may want to look into:

• If you qualify for a USAA Credit Card and keep monthly direct deposit of at least $1,000 in your USAA checking account, you will earn unlimited 2.5% cashback without an annual fee.  However, not everybody is eligible to become a USAA member.

• For BofA customers who has a combined balance of $100K+, the new BofA Premium Rewards Visa will likely be a better card, as it offers unlimited 2.625% cashback for general spending and 3.5% for travel and dining, assuming you will be able to make use of the annual $100 airline incidental credit to effectively cancel out the $95 annual fee.
• Merrill Lynch Octave is by-invitation only and is exclusive to Merrill Lynch's richest clients (requiring at least $10M in asset with them).  If you qualify for this card, the annual fee will be consider $600 after you make use of $350 annual travel credit.  With that, you enjoy a few other travel perks including airfare discount, which may or may not offset the hefty effective annual fees.  However, the biggest perk is 2.5x points earning rate for everything, and your cashback equivalent rate is up to 5%.  Note that you may only achieve 5% by redeeming for tickets that are exactly $500 each.  In reality, it should be reasonable to achieve a redemption value of 1.6 cents per point, then your earning rate will be 4% which is still amazing.

The bottom line: for most consumers, Alliant Visa Signature is the "King of Cashback".  We could only hope that it won't be dramatically changed in the near future.
​
Of course, we have been making other updates throughout the site.  For example, early this week Amex has again brought back limited time offers for the four Delta SkyMiles Amex Cards: personal and business Gold (60K miles + $50), personal and business Platinum (70K miles + 10K MQMs + $100).

© 2017 DrCreditCard.net  All rights reserved.

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

• Effective June 1, 2017, Amex Business Platinum has reduced the 50% rebates to 35% for its fixed-value redemption option when you use "Pay with Points".  Amex introduced the 50% rebate feature back in October 2016, essentially making the Membership Rewards (MR) points worth a fixed value of 2 cents each, when buying First or Business Class tickets with any airline through amextravel.com, and Economy Class tickets with your selected airline also through amextravel.com.  We wrote, "This makes Business Platinum Card a 2% & 10% rewards card, for general purchases and airfare, respectively.  In addition, it opens up opportunities for other MR cards to become more valuable, at least on paper.  For example, when paired with Business Platinum Card, EveryDay Preferred will return stunning 9%, 6%, and 3% rewards for grocery, gas, and general purchases; the personal Platinum Card will return 10% rewards for airfare; Amex PR Gold will return 6% and 4% rewards for airfare and gas/grocery/dining."  Amex has come to the conclusion that this feature is too generous and thus decided to kill it.  Now with the reduced 35% rebates, MR points will be worth 1.54 cents each when you use the "Pay with Points" option, and this value is actually similar to our valuation of MR points when you transfer points to the 21 partner airline or hotel programs.  If you applied the card between October 5, 2016 and May 31, 2017, you are allowed to keep the 50% rebates for a full year.
• Chase has brought the best ever signup offers for its Southwest Rapid Rewards Visa cards, you will receive 60,000 points (~$840 in travel rewards) on each of the three cards: Southwest RR Premier Visa, Southwest RR Premier Business Visa, and Southwest RR Plus Visa.  This is the highest signup bonus on these cards.  Please see our review for details and the signup links.  When you sign up two of these cards, you will receive 120,000 points which more than gets you the very lucrative Southwest Companion Pass status.  After you receive the signup bonuses, you will be upgraded to Companion Pass status for the rest of 2017 all the way to February 2019.
• Amex has another round of limited-time offers for its Delta SkyMiles cards: 70,000 miles on Delta Platinum Amex (both personal and business) and 60,000 miles on Delta Gold Amex (both personal and business).  Please see our review for details and the signup links.

Amex Blue Business Plus now replaces Amex Blue Business as the entry level Membership Rewards (MR) business card, with no annual fees.  Not only does it offer better rewards for most consumers - 2x (up to $50K spent per year) vs. 1.3x MR points, but it allows points to be transferred to frequent traveler miles/points without another premium MR card.  Amex Blue Business Plus is the first card ever that returns 2x points for general spending while allowing frequent traveler miles/points transfer.  Previously, the best cards of this type (earning SPG, MR, UR, TY, etc.) "only" return 1.5x points: Freedom Unlimited (no annual fee) returns 1.5x UR points but requires another premium UR card to allow miles/points transfer; Amex EveryDay Preferred ($95 annual fee) returns 1.5x MR points with a requirement of at least 30 transactions per month.  Based on our current valuation of MR points at 1.5 cents a piece, the Blue Business Plus returns an impressive 3% travel rewards for general spending; the only downside is that the 2x applies to the first $50,000 spent each year.  Please see our Amex Blue Business Plus review for details.  We are now even calling this no-fee card the "King of Business Cards" due to its lucrative rewards potential.

UBS has joined the already (over) heated high-end credit card market, with its Visa Infinite credit card.  Its 3-2-1 rewards structure competes well with its competitors, and while the maximum value is 1.8 cents per point (cpp), our more realistic valuation is around 1.5 cpp.  However, bear in mind that these points can not be transferred to frequent traveler points/miles, as in the case of its major competitors, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Citi Prestige, Amex Platinum.  Please see our UBS Visa Infinite review for details.  While it could be potentially rated high on our Top 10 Best Credit Cards list, as UBS's intention is to cater for its ultra affluent clients, we need more time to evaluate how easily accessible it is to regular consumers.  Now if you are not a UBS client, you have to call the 800 number and request an application to be mailed to you.

We have been continuing to make updates throughout the site, including an updated review for Delta SkyMiles Amex Cards with enhanced signup bonus (60K for Gold versions, 70K for Platinum versions)

© 2017 DrCreditCard.net  All rights reserved.