Credit Card News Roundup

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News I haven’t covered yet…

-The Chase Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card® Card Visa now has a EMV chip version available so that you’ll be able to use your card in more places when abroad. Definitely a useful feature for a card with no foreign exchange fee.
It’s not available in a Mastercard so you’ll need to apply for the Visa or have them switch your Mastercard into a Visa to get a card with a chip. A week ago that would be a bad idea, but now all Chase credit cards give rental car coverage worldwide so there’s no benefit difference between Visa and MC.

-If you have The Platinum Card® from American Express you can have your Hilton status upgraded to Gold by calling the number on the back of your Platinum card by 12/31/13. The status will last until 02/28/15.

With Hilton Gold you get free breakfast, WiFi, and upgrades.
If you have a stay on the account you can also match it to top-tier Hyatt Diamond status where you can get confirmed suite upgrades and even free kosher breakfast in some hotels.

Now is a great time to get a Platinum card as you can get a $200 airline fee refund for 2013 and a $200 refund for 2014.  See this thread for more on that topic.

It also comes with a $100 global entry expedited customs (5 year membership) refund, platinum card airline club access (American, Delta, and USAirways) for you and your entire family for at least 4 years, priority pass worldwide unlimited lounge membership, Starwood gold elite status with a point rebate even on award stays, car rental perks at Avis, Hertz, and National, lost item (up to $10,000/item) refund protection, checked baggage protection, 3 additional Platinum users (with 4 years of free platinum card lounge access, priority pass membership, and global entry refund) for just $58 each on the consumer card, no foreign exchange fees, and many more free benefits.  There is a $450 annual fee.  As with all annual fees they are refundable if cancelled within 60 days, they are pro-rated if cancelled after 60 days.

The Platinum card also now gives free entry to top-of-the-line Centurion lounges worldwide including in Dallas and Las Vegas and other US airports coming soon.  There are also lounges in Argentina, Brazil, India, and Mexico.  You can even get a free spa treatment in the DFW lounge!

-There is an offer for 100K Avios with BA again though it requires $10K spend to get up to 75K and $20K spend to get up to 100K.  Several DDF’ers have had success getting matched to the new offer. Gone are the days when just $2,500 in spend got 100K I suppose. Whether it’s worth spending an extra $10K to earn a 25K bonus will probably depends on whether you have other spend requirements to meet to earn a bonus with a lower threshold.

-You can now transfer American Express points over to Emirates.  Though if you really want to fly on their planes with a shower spa onboard you will do better transferring Starpoints to Alaska or JAL or Chase UR points to Korean as they generally charge fewer miles and it should help avoid paying fuel surcharges.

-You can now see exactly how many points you earn with each charge on the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card .  Just click on a transaction online and you’ll see if you correctly earned double or triple points.  For example I was able to tell that The Bagel Shoppe in Cleveland isn’t properly coded as dining but a quick SM earned points to compensate for that and then some, so it’s definitely worth checking your online activity.

-Select Barclay cards are now giving cardholders their Transunion FICO score free of charge.  Just login to your account and check it out.  It will update automatically when there is a change. Note that this is TU-08 which is the score that Barclays uses but not many other banks do. Still it’s useful to know and it is a legit FICO score. The ’98 and ’04 FICO models are still more commonly used that ’08.
The ’08 model FICO:
-Penalizes you even more for a high utilization ratio both individually and collectively for your cards.
-Lessens the effects of a single late payment but increases the effect of multiple late payments.
-Debts that were originally under $100 will no longer have a negative effect on score.
-Gives more weight to the variety of credit accounts that you have.
-Takes away the benefit of being an authorized user on a non-family account.
-Gives more points for having more accounts in good standing and takes away points for having only a few total accounts.
-Accounts that have ended the month with a 0 balance for a long time will factor less into your score.

You can click here to enable FICO tracking on select Barclays cards.

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57 Comments On "Credit Card News Roundup"

All opinions expressed below are user generated and the opinions aren’t provided, reviewed or endorsed by any advertiser or DansDeals.

Tim

What’s a emv chip ?

Al

It’s showing me at 830. How much different would this FICO score be compared to the other agencies?

Mandel

Thanks

I have a 799 score which i think is good. does that mean it may be a big difference to the commonly used system or it shouldn’t be very different?

Dan

@Tim:
It allows you to use your card abroad where they may only be able to read the chip to charge a credit card instead of swiping it.

@Al:
@Mandel:
It can be very different, I wouldn’t draw any major conclusions from it until more banks, mortgage companies, and car finance places switch to it.

Redbull3

Dan,

Any idea how long that BA 100K offer will last?

Debbie

I also received an offer to get 20% more Matmid Points when you transfer Membership Rewards® points from American Express through November 30, 2013 http://www.elal.co.il/ELAL/English/States/USA/Fares/default_items/USA_American_Express_more_Points_031013?md=MATMID&cmd=email&cm=USA_NOV_13_MATMID

Jason

Amex platinum to Hilton Gold upgrade, is this something that comes up every now and then? debating if I should upgrade amex platinum?!!!

Aerial Dag

Dan, doesn’t the BA offer actually require 12k in spending, not 10k like you say in the post?

Barb

Dan,
I did a search but I don’t find exactly how to go about getting the match to top-tier Hyatt Diamond status because I have Hilton Gold? Phone call or website link? Thank you for the guidance.

Josh

FYI – I just called and the Platinum Cash Back ($0 annual fee) does not qualify for the Hilton Gold upgrade 🙁

Nic

What’s the math behind Amex plat being $58/person? I thought it was like $175??

Dan

@Redbull3:
No.

@Debbie:
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/35934

@Jason:
Never seen it before.

@Barb:

-Email proof of competitor status to goldpassport@hyatt.com
-Fax proof of competitor status to 402-593-9449

@Josh:
Lol, nice try.

@Nic:
3 additional cards for $175.

Rick

Dan,

I first got the Chase BA card 4 years ago and cancelled it when the renewal came. Can I apply for this Chase 100k BA offer and get the points again?

Thank you,

Rick

Josh

@Barb:

I just emailed Hyatt directly and got a diamond challenge (11 nights in like 60 days or something – but you get the benefits of diamond immediately)using my IHG Platinum status. To my knowledge, Hyatt only does status challenges and not direct matches.

Peter5

@Nic

$175 gets you up to 3 additional cardholders; I just did this recently for my family members

Julien

Hey Dan, I just received my BA card and took a shot at asking for the old 100k offer they use to have where you receive the extra 50k on your 1-year anniversary. I messaged Chase and they matched the offer. So all I have to do is spend 2k in 3 months to receive the 50k and then message Chase again on my 1-year anniversary to receive the 50k bonus. Might be worth a shot if anyone’s interested in trying as well.

Dan

@Julien:
Wow!

Julien

Oh and I included an old screenshot I found online which is an offer I actually received last year when I booked a flight on BA but didn’t want to sign up for the card at the time. So a screenshot might help as well.

Marge

Hey dan,
I just got an offer in the mail for 100k signup bonus with AMEX platinum. Should i take it? Or hope I get it again in another four years (when my husbands runs out?)

Brilliant

Julien, can you share the screenshot on the forums? Thanks

http://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=15413.585

Nic3456

cool – I just assumed it was $175 per card for up to 3 and not $175 total – good to know. Thanks!

Jeff

Those of you who are being matched are you still getting the annual fee waived for the first year ? That would be even better than match.

Isaiah

I am starting to plan my wedding, which means I would be able to meet all of those spend X amount in the first 90 days to receive XX more points/miles. Can someone tell me what the best card to get is for travel rewards? I want to be able to have our first flight together after the wedding, essentially paid for, through the amount of spending we will be doing for our wedding. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Chraina

I just checked our FICO scores through Barclays and they are much higher than the fako scores on Credit Karma and Credit Sesame. Is this more accurate? Anyone else have this result? It looks like a good thing but I’m afraid it is a mistake.

Igor Ivanovich

Thanks for this awesome post! 🙂 Good news and good reminders to enjoy the benefits of the cards.

A side note, I assume the Purchase protection is better with Amex Plat than with Chase Sapphire Preferred, I bought some vodka with Chase SP and wanted to return it. The store would not take it – after 2 weeks. I called Chase but they said it is excluded because it is a consumable item. Anything I could do still? I think it is also excluded because it was purchased overseas. Do you know such details about Amex Plat?

Thanks again, keep up the great work!

@Isaiah: Congrats!
How much time until the wedding? Are you thinking of a big international flight or just like BWI – LAX? DO you want to go first class? Where are your preferred destinations?

Boruch

Thank you DAN for all your Posts
You are Wonderfull

I have now this Card in a visa

Whats the best way for me to get the MasterCard & get the Bonus of 40,000 points

Boruch

Just wondering

How would we know which hotels give free Kosher breakfast with gold status?

HoKo

@Dan Any input on how often we can get a chase bonus. Reports on FT are widely varying – I’m seeing anything from 12-24 months…and people disagree on whether the clock starts on application date or cancellation date. Do you have any further info one way or the other? I first got the card Spring’11 and cancelled Spring’12.

Boruch

Beware !!

The new offer with BA has the Annual Fee on it

So NEW Applicants get the 50k offer 1st
& then ask them to match it !!

Mark

I was only offered the challenge from hyatt they didn’t offer me straight up match. U do have a stay with them(hilton)

sb

Hey Dan for the hyatt match do you need a night on the hilton account or the hyatt account???
Thanks

Aay B.

Ouch.. ): getting Hilton Gold on the Amex Platinum is probably something new.. I’ve just canceled my Platinum with Amex (made sure to get the SPG Gold though.
Any other way for me to get HHonors Gold Status?

jo

with one stay at hilton is it a status match to hyatt or just a trial

mp

There was once an offer to get bonus MR points for upgrading from amex gold to platinum. Do you know if theres anything now, or if it makes sense to expect something to come up?

Cook

When does the statement credit post for the $200 airline charge, immediately or at end of cycle?

mr v

hi i just called amex platnium and they said it take 7 to 10 days for gold status
is there a number to get it instantly ?

banon

dan, know if the amex platinum fee reimbursement would likely cover canadian taxes charged on ba mileage flight?

Yaks

It seems that if you just started out with barclays it takes 3 weeks until they can enable the FICo score feature

elky

does anyone know if I can get this 100K avios BA offer for a business account? on the website that this link points too, there is only a personal card offer..anyone know?

ari

I now have sapphire mastercard – if I call to ask to switch (because I want the chip version, etc) and do the spending again, will I get the bonus again?

Dan

@Isaiah:
There are lots of good options out there,
http://www.dansdeals.com/go/1/
http://www.dansdeals.com/go/2/
Really depends on where you’re trying to go.

@Igor Ivanovich:
AMEX is always better, though Vodka sounds iffy.
AMEX typically automatically refunds items under $100.

@sb:
Hilton.

@Cook:
Within a week.

@mp:
http://forums.dansdeals.com/index.php?topic=31391

@banon:
Follow the forum link and just get cash…

@elky:
No.

@ari:
You don’t get for converting, just for opening a new card.

Cook

How long does it take to get lounge membership card after upgrading?

A

igor, why dont you gift it to someone?
you can figure out what to do with alchohol bottle
dont kill your credit history with petty requests. its recorded and remembered. companies have a black list they share.

NJMACMAN

I just called Amex Platinum to upgrade from Hilton Silver to Gold- they said they never heard of Hilton, only SPG. What do I do now?

Dan

@Cook:
The card itself works for lounges. You can also signup for Priority Pass after upgrading.

@A:
There is no blacklist for using credit card benefits.

@NJMACMAN:
HUCA!

NJMACMAN

Thanks Dan. Worked the second time!

Jason

@NJMACMAN,

It took me 2 calls for Amex CS to dig up the promotion.

Josh

@jo:

To my knowledge, Hyatt only does challenges, no direct matched. During the challenge, you get diamond benefits.

Igor Ivanovich

@A: Thanks. I will see. It was very expensive. In Israel and they tripled the price on alcohol because they raised taxes. Painful to talk about it 🙁 On one bottle there is a price tag for 35 shekel covered by one for 89.99 shekel.

chff

Was able to get my FICO score with my US Airways card

Mark

@Dan:
Can you please explain the Hyatt status match from Hilton Gold?

David

@Dan,
After reading your experience with the AMEX SPG cards, I signed up for both AMEX SPG personal and biz cards during the 30k promo a little while ago. I had one personal SPG still open at the time of application. Now neither card has posted the 10k first use bonus points after two billing cycles. On one of the cards I have already met the spending requirement for the remaining 20k bonus points, but they were not deposited to my spg account automatically. I didn’t put in my old spg number and was assigned two new spg numbers. It seems that SPG has already combined the two new accounts.

Now should I wait a little bit more and see if those points post automatically or should I contact AMEX? Thanks.

Isaiah

Time to the wedding is up in the air as we have not yet picked an exact date, looking probably in feb. We would be looking for international flight to tel aviv, london, or paris.

@Igor Ivanovich:

al

Warning Chase card points are going down in value as per my broker.

Igor Ivanovich

@Isaiah:

Check out the forums if you did not do that yet. Its much easier for you to find info there and get help from the crowd.

All the best!

Shimon

“If you have a stay on the account you can also match it to top-tier Hyatt Diamond status ”
Dont understand how to get the diamond status.
Thanks for all your help

leslie freudenheim

Is this the best card for miles? We have United Chase Card which gives us 2 miles on most of what we charge. We can get award travel on all UAL partners.

We use Capital One Venture while abroad to avoid 3% transaction fee.

Is there any better card for miles? (We’ve had it for 20 years; they don’t offer 2 miles per 1$ any more.)

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