Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
In 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 that I was waiting for the next big offer to appear. I said that the Citi 100K offer was terrific, but also that “I feel like something else big is coming.” Well, I got tired of waiting and decided to go forward with a few applications.
I picked the following (all of which can be found on my best credit card offers page:
- Citi Executive AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard. $200 statement credit plus 100,000 mile bonus after $10K spend. $450 annual fee not waived.
- Chase Ink Plus. 50,000 Ultimate Rewards point bonus after $5K spend. No annual fee first year ($95 thereafter).
- Amex Platinum Mercedes-Benz card. 50,000 Membership Rewards point bonus after $3K spend. $475 annual fee not waived.
The AA card and the Platinum card were approved instantly. The Ink Plus decision was pending, but my wife received a email about a week later that it was approved. With those three cards, we’ll score 200,000 bonus points and miles from just three applications. My wife could have easily signed up for additional cards, but I’m still vaguely holding out hope for the next big offer to come along. By limiting to just three cards, she should have capacity to get approved for another if my hunch in waiting ever plays out.
The experiment that wasn’t
I thought that my wife had a personal Platinum card. I thought that signing her up for the Platinum Mercedes card was testing the rule saying that the Mercedes offer is not available to those with a Platinum card. My guess (and it is just a guess) was that the Platinum Mercedes card is actually treated as a fully separate product from the regular Platinum card. So, I thought that the terms & conditions were really about the Mercedes Platinum card not just any Platinum card.
After she signed up for the Mercedes card I discovered that her current card is actually a Platinum Business card. In other words, she is fully eligible for the Mercedes card offer regardless of whether my guess was right or wrong. So much for that little experiment!
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Don: typically your credit score will fully recover in about 3 months. There are many factors that affect credit scores, though, so your experience may differ.
If I apply for 3 credit cards and my credit score lowers by 12-15 points, how long before my score goes back up 12-15 points?
Darn quotes did not post in the previous message, sorry about that.
To econjon:
Just did my wife for 3 cards as well
🙂
A little clarification on Ink change from MC to Visa. I have the Ink Business MC, and currently use it quite a bit. Can I apply for another Ink Business (Visa) and keep both (and then transfer over some autopayments such as Cable TV and Verizon, then close the old one?)
There are 4 different types of Ink cards: Ink Bold, Ink Plus, Ink Cash, and Ink Classic. For each business, you can have up to 1 of each. In other words, 1 business can theoretically have all 4 cards. But, I don’t think you can have two Ink Bold cards for the same business (but I could be wrong) even if one is a MasterCard and one a Visa. Best bet is to find out which one you have and sign up for the other one. For example, if you currently have the Ink Bold, then sign up for the Ink Plus. Then transfer auto payments over if you don’t want to keep the Ink Bold.
Thx for the reminder. Just did my wife for 3 cards as well. AA exec, Amex biz gold (targeted 75k) and Carlson. Tempted to add one from Chase (hyatt??) and BofA. But would hold off if something big coming soon!
I don’t really know of anything big, it was just a hunch
The next big thing is already here! It’s the Citi AA Exec 100K miles offer. Just do it again. Then again.
Good point!
Do you know when the Citi 100k offer expires? Plan to get one next week or should I wait?
No, sorry, no idea
It’s old news that mb platinum, biz platinum, and personal platinum are 3 separate products.
I have seen reports time and again that you can get the bonus for all 3 within 12 months, or even at the same time if you please to do so.
Yes, it was well known that the mb platinum was a separate product until Amex added the following text to the application:
Once that happened, a number of blogs reported that you could no longer get the mb platinum card immediately after holding the platinum card (or vice versa). I always doubted that assumption, but haven’t had a chance to test for myself.
I would really like to know if this the Mercedes card is treated as a separate product…I remember reading somewhere that is is now treated as the same product for bonus purposed, but I am not 100% sure. I got both bonuses 12 months ago but again heard rumors that may not be the case anymore….
Wording on the application makes it sound like it is the same product, but I don’t think that is the case. Angel’s comment supports my belief. Unfortunately, I simply haven’t had the chance to test this conclusively myself.
Can the sign up bonus be earned more than once for ink or ink plus (Are these cards churnable?)
You can have 1 Ink Plus, 1 Ink Bold, 1 Ink Cash, and 1 Ink Classic per business
Also, if you used to have one of the above, and it has since changed to a new product (for example, Ink cards recently changed from MasterCard to Visa), then you can get the bonus again.
Just my personal experience with Amex Plat (Personal) and Amex MB Plat when I applied about 6 months aga: they treated them as different products. I was able to get the miles on both cards. Cheers!
Thanks!
Worked in incognito mode on Chrome. I should have remembered how many cookies AMEX collects and how often they change what you see based on them. Thanks for the correction.
That’s what I clicked. I got an error message. Let me try from Chrome Incognito later because I was just told it’s boarding time.
Not dead. Did you even try to go to frequentmiler’s best credit card offer page to try?