I recently signed up and was approved for four different credit cards, with the following signup bonuses:
- Amex Blue Cash: no bonus
- Barclaycard Arrival: 40K bonus after $1K spend
- Citi Executive AAdvantage: 100K after $10K spend
- Chase Ink Plus: 50K after $5K spend
You can read about the Blue Cash card here, and read about my experience with the Citi Executive card here. The Arrival card is one I’ve wanted for some time and so I finally bit the bullet and applied. As to the Ink Plus, of course I’ll be thrilled to get the 50K signup bonus again, but my primary motivation was to get a Visa version of the card (I already have a MasterCard version assigned to a separate business). With the Visa version, I can enroll the card in the Visa Savings Edge program so as to automatically earn cash back at certain merchants (including Staples, where the Ink card also earns 5X).
For my wife, I’m very tempted to sign her up for the 100K Citi offer, but I’m holding off for now. The reason? I feel like something else big is coming. Yes, the Citi offer is a big score, but I keep thinking that we’re going to see another big score soon. It’s just a hunch. I have absolutely no inside knowledge nor psychic powers in play here. Anyway, for whatever reason, I’m waiting for that something else. I’m hoping that my wife will be able to snag both the Citi offer and the next big thing. We’ll see.
In case my imaginary next big thing doesn’t materialize, here are some offers I’m considering for my wife:
- Two Southwest 50K cards in order to nab a companion pass (which requires 110K points earned in a calendar year). Now that Southwest will be flying to Aruba and other interesting tropical locations, I’m more interested than ever. And, my companion pass from the big Sears 15X deal in 2012 has expired.
- An Amex business Gold card or business Platinum card. We need to cancel her personal Platinum card soon because the second year annual fee just came due, so she’ll need another Membership Rewards card to keep her points alive. I might even take a chance on the Platinum Mercedes card, even though she technically wouldn’t qualify for the 50K bonus since she currently has the regular Platinum card (I don’t know if they really enforce that restriction with that card). Another good option would be the Blue for business card (offer temporarily expired).
It only offers a 10K signup bonus, but it has no annual fee and it earns a respectable 30% annual bonus on points earned.On the other hand, with that card she won’t be able to transfer points to airlines, so it would really just be a stopgap approach to keeping her points alive until a better opportunity arises. - Citi Executive AAdvantage 100K
- Barclaycard Arrival 40K
- BOA Alaska Airlines 40K (here’s my Quick Deal regarding that offer)
How long should I wait? We have until late March to cancel the Platinum card to recover the full second year annual fee, so we could wait that long. On the other hand, I don’t know how long the Citi 100K offer will remain in play. I think I’ll wait at least until late February and maybe even until mid March. But, hopefully, I won’t have to wait that long. Hopefully, the next big thing will appear soon.
See also
- Best credit card offers
- Staples Rocks
- Tips for spending $10K to get 110,000 miles
- Playing 5X everywhere Whack a Mole
- Predictions of big scores in 2014
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[…] January, I wrote about my plans for my wife’s next round of credit card applications (see “Earning points while my better half waits”). In that post, I listed a number of cards that I was considering for her, but I also said […]
[…] you may know, I recently signed up for the Citi Executive AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard because of its current 100,000 mile signup offer. The offer requires paying a $450 annual fee […]
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Got a targetted Business platinum offer for 50K after 5K spend in 3 months. It is in my as well as my wife’s account
FM you made me a believer with your hunches! you were on point in your post earlier in the week… soon thereafter the 100k offer launched.
btw if you have any hunches on the lottery, please share 🙂
Ha ha. Lottery hunches I keep to myself 🙂
@M Thanks for the tip to find targeted offer for the business gold. That is exactly what I am looking for right now to add to my collection.
I am sitting out the 100K AA offer since it isn’t my priority. I am focusing on flexible rewards like URs,MRs,and hotel points.
Yeah,50K offer for SPG I would be smiling in sleep. But we can dream about it.
A 50k business gold rewards targeted offer showed up in the snail mail today.
I keep getting 50k with $5,000 spend business gold rewards in the mail too, but if I go to amex.com, click on Small business cards, then at the bottom there will be a section to enter your information to search for targeted offers, I get 50k after $2,000 spend.
On a different note, the upcoming big thing may be coming from Barclay.
Applied the citi executive on the 28th, receive the card today, 1/31, in Fedex, in a black folder, similar to the hyatt or fairmont packaging.
Here is why something BIG in the game should happen. It is Febuary. Worst month of the year for retailing anything….except perhaps cough medicine….most are dealing with horrible weather and huge holiday bills that have just come due. Febuary is Squirrel Time! This is why Retailers and Banks must consider something extraordinary to capture attention to their products. Otherwise they resign themselves to weak Febuary sales which is not uncommon. Sad for the consumer…as the big boys just ride out the weak periods like Febuary. It is possible to have record Febuary Sales with a compelling bargain deal! Time will tell! How about $200 off an iPad Air:)
@Andy – yes that’s what most of us have done.
Hi FM,
Can I apply for Chase Ink Card using my SSN as a sole proprietory (because I do not have any company/business)? Thanks in advance.
Andy, yes, please see this post: How to sign up for the Ink Bold (or Ink Plus)
edit: Sorry, not cancel. I switched it to the SimplyCash, which just earns Cash Back.
FYI…I recently cancelled my Blue for Business card, even though I had no other card that earned Membership Rewards (oops!).
I called Amex and they said the balance is still there, I just didn’t have access to it online because I had no active cards with Membership Rewards.
I was able to redeem all the outstanding MR points over the phone for GCs!
I think they keep your points alive for about 30 days. After that, they charge you to reinstate them.
Strike while the iron is hot on the AA IMHO. Even if “something big” comes it probably won’t be from Citi, so who cares? Even if is Citi, its just an 8 day clock unless you just got something else. You can’t be worried about inquiries are you? Unless your credit is new or weak those are a paper tiger.
That’s a good point.