Weekend thoughts from around the web
/No great insights in today's post, but I wanted to mention a few of the biggest things I've been thinking about as they crossed my plate this week.
- According to Frequent Miler's correspondent, new Citi Forward card accounts do not offer 5 ThankYou points for "entertainment" and restaurant spending. While American Express Campus Edition cards weren't hugely scalable (limited to $6k in loads per rolling 12 month period), they were a nice, cheap deal. See the comments to this post for details on that hack. Fortunately, a similar (better?) version is still available with the US Bank Cash+ card, which allows cash redemptions, unlike ThankYou points which require a little finesse to monetize at their full value (for example, student loan and mortgage rebate checks).
- Chase Sapphire Preferred's new real-time breakdown of points earning is completely addictive. Instead of having to reverse engineer your earned points when your statement closes, you can now view your bonus points in real time in your online account's "recent activity." I use my Sapphire Preferred as my default card so it doesn't affect my everyday usage pattern much, but I was surprised to see that a local cafe where I get an occasional cup of coffee was not posting "restaurant" bonus points. Of course, the Barclaycard Arrival World MasterCard posts your earned points throughout your statement cycle, so you don't need to wait for your statement to close to make a redemption.
- Speaking of the Sapphire Preferred, Friday November 1, 2013 is the first Friday in November: earn 3 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar on restaurant purchases made today.
- Finally, this is ridiculous . Are you really willing to commit to putting $3,000 on this card 12 months from now? Do you know where you'll be 12 months from now? Try harder, Citi.
