Reasons to love the Midwest: US Bank ATMs

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This last weekend I took a trip to beautiful Milwaukee, WI. It was a great trip, giving me the chance to fence, see a good friend and, of course, visit a US Bank ATM! That gives me the occasion to provide an update to this post from back in September. In that post I reported, based on the US Bank Visa Buxx cardholder agreement, that the limits on free US Bank ATM withdrawals are "$200 per withdrawal, 3 per 24 hour period."

I can now report that that information is incorrect . I ended up testing this because I arrived in Milwaukee Friday night, October 11, and my next US Bank Visa Buxx load day was Saturday, October 12. Since I didn't want to spend my weekend on the US Bank iPhone app looking for ATMs, I decided to try an additional $500 in ATM withdrawals Saturday morning. Here's my (successful) withdrawal history:

  • 10/11/13, 19:26, $200
  • 10/11/13, 19:27, $200
  • 10/11/13, 19:28, $100
  • 10/12/13, 16:01, $100
  • 10/12/13, 16:01, $200
  • 10/12/13, 16:02, $200

Now, does this make the biggest difference in the world? Of course not. For readers who don't have access to US Bank ATMs (as I myself don't have here in New England), it doesn't make any difference at all. But I want to make sure my readers have the most up-to-date information that I have, in case they find themselves passing through the Midwest with a Visa Buxx balance and want to make totally free ATM withdrawals.

In other news, I have replaced my computer so new posts and replies to comments and e-mails should return to normal. Even better, as I was writing this post I received notification from Discover that my ShopDiscover purchase was tracked successfully:

I've never felt so good about spending $1,200...

Manufacture small amounts of spend with Plink

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There have been a couple fun articles recently about the new rebate service Plink, which allows you to earn points worth one cent each towards gift cards (Amazon and Walmart being two of the gift card options). For example, everyone should be doing this, and this is a fun way to get discounts on Sears merchandise.

I want to point out that is it also possible to manufacture spend using Plink and get virtually all your money back (partly in the form of Amazon credit), or turn a small profit. As Frequent Miler describes in this post, first add Kmart to your Plink wallet, since Sears gift cards appear as Kmart purchases on your credit card statement. Then, click through to Sears from the ShopDiscover mall, where you earn 10% cash back on Sears purchases. Then, order a physical gift card for exactly $50. So far, you'll have earned $5 in cash back through Discover, plus 300 Plink points, worth $3 in Amazon credit. Then, go to to a gift card reseller and sell the $50 gift card for $42 (you'll have to mail the card in). For example, here are the current rates offered by a number of gift card merchants for Sears gift cards, according to Gift Card Granny:

Thus, after buying a $50 gift card, you'll receive back $47 in cash and $3 in Amazon credit.  Of course, you'll have to pay for postage to mail in the gift cards. On the other hand, you can do slightly better than this by clicking through to Cardpool through TopCashBack to earn another $2 in cash back through that site.

Of course, this is a wildly inefficient way to manufacture spend, and there's a lot that can go wrong: Cardpool in particular has a reputation for "losing" gift cards that are mailed in for sale: I myself won't be doing it myself.

Keep in mind that the value of any technique like this depends on the value of each dollar of manufactured spend, and there are cards that would make it somewhat more lucrative: if you ran this hack through the US Bank Cash+ card and had "department stores" selected as one of your 5% cash back categories, you could earn $100 per quarter this way.

Likewise one of the 4th quarter bonus categories for the Chase Freedom card is "select department stores," and it might be worth running $1,500 through this technique for 7,500 Ultimate Rewards points, especially if you can transfer them to a flexible Ultimate Rewards account.

At any rate, I wanted to make readers aware of this opportunity.

Fidelity Investment Rewards vs. Priceline Rewards

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[Updated 5/25/13: I no longer know of a working landing page for the Priceline Rewards card that displays the 2% cash back offer. However, this FatWallet Forums thread has a link to this application, and if you click on the "Terms and Conditions" at the top of the page you'll see that they still show "2 points per $1 spent on all other transactions."]

[Update 6/29/13: the link above is no longer working, which means the Priceline 2% cash back offer is now well and truly dead. If you know of a working application link, let me know!] 

The two best all-purpose cash back credit cards available today are the Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express, which earns 2 points per dollar, worth 2% cash back when deposited to a Fidelity account, and the Priceline Rewards Visa, which earns 2 points per dollar spent on the card and allows you to redeem those points at 1 cent each for statement credits. Even better, neither card has an annual fee. Today, I'd like to clarify some of the important differences between the two cards.

Issuer

  • The Fidelity Investment Rewards card is issued by FIA Card Services, the credit card division of the Fidelity investment bank.
  • The Priceline Rewards Visa is issued by Barclaycard US. 

Since the Fidelity card is not issued by American Express, you can apply for it at the same time as a credit or charge card issued by American Express, like the Premier Rewards Gold or Platinum Membership Rewards-earning cards, or a Starwood or Delta co-branded card, without an automatic rejection. 

Barclaycard also issues the Arrival World MasterCard (which I just received in April) so you probably won't be able to receive both that card and the Priceline Rewards Visa in the same application cycle.

Signup Bonus

  • The Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express does not have a signup bonus.
  • The Priceline Rewards Visa has a signup bonus of 5,000 bonus points after your first purchase, worth $50 in statement credits. 

Acceptance

 

 

Fewer merchants, especially small local merchants, accept American Express cards than Visa cards, although I find that besides at the smallest grocers and restaurants American Express cards are very widely accepted in the United States. 

If you use the US Bank or Nationwide Visa Buxx cards to manufacture spending, those products only allow you to load using Visa and MasterCard.

On the other hand, if you do much of your shopping at Costco you know that their stores accept only American Express cards.

Minimum Redemption

  • The minimum redemption for the Fidelity Investment Rewards card is 5,000 points, worth $50 in cash deposited to a Fidelity account.
  • The Priceline Rewards card allows a minimum redemption of 2,500 points against a charge of at least $25. No partial redemptions are allowed, meaning you must have enough points to redeem for the entire amount of the charge to your account.

Redemption Method

  • Fidelity allows you to set up automatic disbursements at the end of each month, or you can manually redeem your points for cash deposited to a Fidelity account.  In either case you must have at least 5,000 points, worth $50, in order to redeem them (however, there does not appear to be a maximum).
  • Priceline Rewards allows you to redeem your points for a statement credit against any charge made in the last 90 days.  Since you need to have enough points to cover the entire charge, the best method to make sure you don't have any points left over is to manufacture a transaction of exactly the right size. For example, if you send $1,000 per month using Amazon Payments, you can break that into one $950 transaction and one $50 transaction, which you can then redeem your Priceline Rewards points for.

Conclusion

The Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express and Priceline Rewards Visa are fairly evenly matched, being the only two no-fee cards I know of that offer 2% cash back on all purchases.

The Priceline Rewards card has a lower minimum redemption, and more widespread acceptance as a Visa card, but a slightly more complicated redemption method, which doesn't allow you to redeem your points for cash directly.

 

What's the best way to book a paid ticket?

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Travelling on international premium cabin award tickets is one of the most lucrative uses you can make of your airline miles and flexible credit card points.  The example I usually give is a 100,000 United MileagePlus award to Europe in Business Class.  If you manufacture those points at .79 cents each, you'll pay $790, plus up to a few hundred dollars in taxes and fees.  The point is that you aren't saving much money over a paid economy ticket, but you get to enjoy the comfort of flying in a premium cabin instead.

The downside is that you don't earn elite status-qualifying airline miles for the distance you travel on award tickets, which can be substantial on international flights.  If you value the benefits of elite status, then you'll need to make some paid domestic flights to reach the elite status threshold you're interested in.

That's why today I'm going to cover the most lucrative methods for booking paid airline tickets.

Booking Directly Through an Airline

he most obvious reason to book through an airline's website directly is to use a credit or certificate issued by the airline.  Airlines typically hand out these certificates in exchange for voluntarily giving up your seat on an overbooked flight.  Likewise, if you cancel a non-refundable flight you may have a credit available to use for a later flight (after subtracting any cancellation fees).

When you do so, it's best to use a credit card that gives bonus points on airline purchases.  For example, the Sapphire Preferred Visa and MasterCard issued by Chase give double flexible Ultimate Rewards points on all "travel" purchases.  The American Express Business Gold Rewards and Premier Rewards Gold cards likewise offer triple Membership Rewards points on purchases made directly through an airline.

In terms of fixed-value and cash back cards, the US Bank Flexperks Travel Visa Signature card offers double points on airline purchases, if that is the bonus category you spent the most in during a given statement cycle.  These points are worth up to 2 cents each, meaning you can earn up to 4% back in value on travel redemptions.

Otherwise, your best bet is a 2% cash back card like the Fidelity Investment Rewards American Express or Visa card, or a card you're meeting a minimum spending requirement on.

If you have elite status with Delta, you'll also earn 1 Starwood Preferred Guest Starpoint per dollar spent on airfare directly through the Delta website.  As you'll see below, that's not necessarily the most lucrative method of making paid Delta reservations.

Clicking Through Ultimate Rewards to an Online Travel Agency

If you have a Chase Ultimate Rewards-earning credit card, you have access to the Ultimate Rewards Mall, which allows you to earn bonus Ultimate Rewards points on purchases made through online travel agencies, or OTAs.  You can earn 1 bonus point per dollar spent at Expedia, Priceline, or Orbitz and 2 bonus points per dollar spent at Travelocity or Hotwire.  These OTAs can price out itineraries very differently, so it's always worth checking whether you can find a better price or more convenient itinerary on one OTA rather than another.

The Chase Sapphire Preferred bonuses all travel spending, including OTA reservations, so that's a reliable way to earn a total of 3-4 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on airline tickets (depending on which OTA you use).  In my experience, when booking only an airline ticket (and not a package which includes a hotel, rental car, or cruise) through Travelocity, there will be two credit card charges, one from the operating airline which covers airfare, taxes, and fees:

​With a second charge from Travelocity to cover their booking fee (up to $10.99):

n these situations I believe the American Express Premier Rewards Gold and Business Gold Rewards cards will give triple points for the first, airline charge, for a total of 2 Ultimate Rewards points and 3 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent, a 5-10% rebate, depending on how you value those points.

Cash Back Portals

If you don't have access to he Ultimate Rewards mall, and you don't have a card that bonuses airline or travel purchases, and you don't have elite status on Delta (to earn 1 Starpoint per dollar), then you can still earn a small rebate on your flight purchases by clicking through a cash back portal.  All three of these cash back portals offer a fixed or variable amount of cash back when you click through to online travel agencies and make an airline reservation. 

  • TopCashBack (Expedia: $2.25, Travelocity: $3.00, CheapTickets: $5.50, Priceline: $5-$7)
  • BigCrumbs (Expedia: $1.75, Travelocity: $2.80, CheapTickets: $3.15, Priceline: $2.80)
  • Fat Wallet (Expedia: $1.25, Travelocity: $1.50, CheapTickets: $20(!), Priceline: 1%)

Conclusion

As this analysis makes clear, the best method of making paid airline reservations depends heavily on what tools you have at your disposal.  The single best combination is using the Premier Rewards Gold or Business Gold Rewards card from American Express at Travelocity or Hotwire, after clicking through to one of those travel agencies from the Chase Ultimate Rewards shopping portal.  To get access to that shopping portal, however, you'll need at the least least a no-annual-fee Chase Freedom card.  To turn those fixed-value Ultimate Rewards points into flexible Ultimate Rewards points, you'll need either a Sapphire Preferred, Ink Bold, or Ink Plus card.  However, even if you just redeem your Ultimate Rewards points for cash back through your Freedom card, you'll still be earning a generous 2% cash back on all your paid airline reservations, in addition to whatever awards you earn through the credit card you ultimately make your purchase with.