Travel Inspirations!

Often time, we come across the question as to why do we collect the points? I mean really at a very basic level, forget about the cash back but many of us are in this for airlines miles or hotel miles mainly or some other thing which would help us reach that travel goal quickly. So at the core of it all lies the desire to travel and explore new geography, culture, history about a place and more importantly the nature and spiritual aspect of it. Meeting the people, having the local food, the travel part itself, just roaming around the planet, making new friends, checking out how different and yet same the world is, maybe checking out a beautiful part of this planet earth before it could be possible gone in this ephemeral existence. If you look at the big picture, from a very very high altitude, you will realize that travel is one of those things that will stay with you as a core experience. They say life should be made of stories and experiences and not just accumulating materials and human made stuff or accolades. The latter is pretty cheap and withers down quickly and it easy. The former though it really great. Nothing matches the majesty of the giant Sequioa trees. Or really even a place like New York City at night is stunning. So experiences and travel are what makes your memories and you as a person. 

Towards this, I came across a very wonderful blog which I wanted to share with you all. http://worldbicyclist.com/. Kudos to this person for simply taking time off and travelling so much part of this world. I wish and hope someday I am able to travel large parts of the world. Or at least the big countries and couple of smaller and cooler ones such as Nepal and Indoneasia among others. 

This person also did a cool AMA today on Reddit ( for those who know me know that I spent an insanely large amount of time on that site which I am going to cut down pretty soon ;) )

Link to the AMA: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/3ay40s/ive_visited_125_countries_on_a_15_a_day_budget_ama/

Anyhow, have fun and keep kindling that desire to travel more in life!

Buying airline gift cards ..

There is no major news going on these days in the credit card world. Chase has tightened some rules around credit card issuance. Citi continues to put some good credit card offers. But no one had really upped the game. Then this is also not one of those time of the year with great offers. As promised at the outset and remaining true to this blog's values, if there are no news worth your attention or my attention, then there would be no posting either. There is no point in having a financial or credit card blog roll with daily 1 or 3 posts minimum to satisfy advertisement view page requirements. 

One idea that stuck me while meeting recent cards spending requirements is the buying of airline gift cards. While this is kind of obvious in that one buys gift cards of grocers/restaurants and shops that one visits often; the airline one stood out. While the goal of this blog is to generate points and thus free travel, often times it is good to bulk up on cards from domestic airlines which have a hub nearby. United or Southwest or American - all of them are good with hubs in many places. Southwest and Jetblue fly to a lot of destinations. In such cases, it is better to load up on gift cards from this. I fly southwest a lot and will be using them for sure in many instances. So it makes sense to load up on SW gift cards as they never expire. Just an idea- many of these obvious but we kind of miss them in our daily grind of the lives as well as not having a clear tip on what we can and cannot do.

Happy Memorial Day cards!

Happy Memorial Day weekend ...

For the long weekend, I am planning on exploring the local neighborhoods and get some local flavor. But before that, I was casually scanning the credit card landscape for any exciting offers.

The Citi cards from the previous posts are still available.

Chase has some good cards that are available for the next few days:

One is the chase business card:

https://creditcards.chase.com/ink-business-credit-cards/ink-plus-card?CELL=6KQR

The ink plus card is a good card but this year they have introduced it with an annual fee of $95 where as usually they do not have an annual fee for this card. But the points are now increased to 60k instead of the regular 50k. So kind of the 10k point offsets the $95 annual fee. Any individual can qualify as a self employed business. You just have to provide your SSN and address and mention your current income as self employed one.

The other exciting card from Chase is a long time stalwart .. it is a good United/Continental Card and has decent benefits. The annual fee is waived which is usually $95 while the bonus points have increased from 30k to 40k to now 50k!

Chase link direct is here: https://creditcards.chase.com/ink-business-credit-cards/ink-plus-card?CELL=6KQR

Other than that really nothing much going on in the credit card landscape. For those with Excellent credit score, visit capitalone.com as there flagship Spark branded Credit cards have a high 50k offer that is on for some time. Nothing super exciting about this card. But if you got nothing better to do and want to have a fun side hobby which lets you travel for free - go for it!

I am posting less on this site these days as I have ramped up my general finance blog site which will address the philosophy of finance to the millenials and Gen X and Gen Y crowd. Granted there are tons of resources out there but there is nothing that is clear cut and to the point. I am planning on automating most of finance and have a general gist of finance which will them remain consistent for the next several decades and require only minor tweaks.

The other blog site is: https://millenialfinanceblog.wordpress.com

Thanks for visiting this site and as usual leave any comment or contact me via contact link for any ideas and suggestions!

New cards from Citi with good sign up bonuses

From the start of 2015, Citi seems to be very intent in coming up with new and creative offers. The marketing strategy has been to use big bang offers to attract the new as well as veteran crowd. Like last year, when they came up with a 100,000 bonus offer for a Citi American Executive card, this year they did something similar with the Citi Prestige card. Note that both cards have very high annual fees, about $450 which is not waived for the first year. Yet, note the high degree of interest and applications that these two cards have generated implying that if you put a really good product out there, people might come out to buy. I am still on the fence as to whether to quantify this as a good card. I did apply for the Citi American Executive card last year and have more or less used this 100k points in various travel related activities.

Citi Prestige is a different ballgame altogether. My skeptical reviews are here. However, Citi seems to be going aggressive and released better bonus offers for two more cards.

All in all, here are the links sans any sponsorship and direct link to citi website:

1. Citi Prestige card: $450 annual fee, $200 statement credit per calendar year, 50k Thankyou points and that's pretty much it apart from some fringe benefits. Minimum spend is 3k.

2. Citi Thank you premier card: 50k bonus points after you spend 3k on the card. Annual fee waived for the first year.

3. Citi AT&T card: Now this card is interesting. There is an annual fee of $95, a free unlocked phone worth up to $650 from AT&T is awaiting once you spend $2k on it within the standard 3 months. It is pretty interesting card. I would give it that. I am not a big smart phone user but this card is too hard to resist. A 2k spend is pretty average for  most US households - rent, gas, groceries simply add up to that amount quickly in a month or two. If you are living in big coastal cities, then this is an easy task. It is as if you are going to get an unlocked Apple iPhone 6 or Samsung S6 for under 100 bucks. Not at all a bad deal if you have to get a smart phone quickly.

My order of recommendation remains the above three in the numbered order. Given that there is virtually no other provider right now with any exciting offers, it is rather obvious that most people, new and veterans are applying for one of the cards from Citi. In the first quarter of 2015, given the slow pace of the sign up bonuses, this seems a decent start and no harm in applying for one or two cards that Citi seems to limit per user.

Some better bonuses in the horizon..

After a really long drought (! .. not like the california water one :D ), it seems some banks are finally rolling off their sleeves and giving some real bonuses to the new customers.

While Chase has the official Southwest card at 25k points, one can easily get referred by friends to snag a 50k bonus points. If you need me to send you an invite offer, just put your email in the comment section or subscribe or just message me privately and I would be glad to offer you the deal. Read my review of this card here.

Citi started with the Citi Prestige card. I was not a big fan of it to begin with but all said and done, it is not a great card nor a totally worthless card. If you have a travelling itinerary lined up, this card could be a good addition. Just when I was thinking about this, Citi came up with another surprise. They improved the bonus terms in the Citi Premier card.

Non affiliate link is here. I do not get paid or am affiliated with any marketing companies or Citi or any other banks for that matter. This card was pretty good back in the day until Citi decided to split its 50,000 bonus points to two different years by spending $3000 on each. Now this offer is a return to the old strategy and seems like this is pretty nice in terms of attracting customers. From a customer point of view, this is pretty neat as this card does not carry any annual bonus for the first year. So I would highly recommend to apply this card anyway.

As you might be aware, the best airline cards to apply these days are the Barclays US Airways and the Citi American who are slugging it out. Remaining all airline cards are on holding pattern at the moment. The hotel cards have not given much incentive and the Chase IHG card is the way to go for best points at this moment. Given that there is finally some rustle in the credit card landscape, it seems that finally some big companies like Amex or Bank of America might wake up to catch up to Citi or Chase and come up with a big offer.

Base Minimum Credit card and other accounts

Someone that I know who is not interested in anything related to the world of finance, asked me what is the base minimum of accounts and credit cards which also serve as quite optimal in terms of getting rewards and points. Obviously, this person is simply not interested or has time for the bonus points. She much rather prefers to earn cash and spend them as per need. Not interested in having to juggle with having a big stash of credit cards in wallets or for that matter having multiple accounts, she tasked me with designing a very basic package of accounts. Now she is also with Bank of America and has been disillusioned with their fees and banking account structures in general. This task is quite easy. No bank - regional or national - is going to come close to your good old friendly neighborhood credit union. So the best way to have a good checking and savings account would be to have a nice credit union. A simple online search or using the maps such as Bing or Google would give you the nearest credit union. There are also sites dedicated to finding the nearest credit union near you or your zip code. To have this basic account is a no brainer. Sometimes it is also good to have a national level checking or savings account mainly due to access to the customer service when you are involved in international travel or to have a global banking presence. Though bank of america is good, Chase is another bank that came to my mind. Mainly, due to the fact that having a good Chase banking relationship is often an entry way to their credit card world which is often the best out there in terms of the rewards along with American Express. So it was a no brainer to recommend Chase. For savings account, nothing is beating the online savings account. A quick check in bankrate.com gives a lot of results such as Synchrony, GE Capital Bank or the Ally Bank or Ever Bank etc. I prefer going with the two known names such as Discover Bank or the American Express Savings bank. Both have good customer service and are quite fast in terms of incorporating the latest technology in their banking sites. Not that the other banks such as Ally are any behind. The rate differences are almost minimal from 0.90% APR to about 1.05% APR. This is anyway for emergency funds parking only.

Now comes the big question of which credit card to choose. After going thru the list of credit cards in this site, which is pretty much a filtered and sorted list, I thought I would go with the below:

Barclays arrival+  card( 89 ): Good ongoing bonus with annual fee of $89 waived for the first year was the main thing other than the 2% bonus which is pretty much the maximum for all-purpose rewards card. Mainly, this card is hard to get once you have a good amount of credit history. So better to get it immediately. See my other post about the order in which to get the credit cards.

Close Second would be American express blue cash preferred: Simply one of the best cards around from an awesome customer service team, there is a 6% cash back for groceries and 3% gas which are among the highest out there. There is an annual fee of $75 which could also be offset by the high rewards structure. There is a blue cash counterpart as well as everyday card which is simply not the cup of tea for many users out there who do not want to be bothered with going to various stores and loading money.

Bottomline:

Credit card: Barclays Arrival+ and then the American Express Blue Cash Preferred.

As an aside, I would recommend to apply cards with Chase though no need to carry them in your wallet on day-to-day basis. Cards such as the Freedom card or the Southwest card are always good to have.

Savings account: American Express Savings

Credit Union: Find your local one using the online tool.

Checking Account: Chase Total Checking

Citi Prestige Card - worth the hype?

Going contra is sometimes cool but going contra with logic is sometimes a solid perspective on the scheme of things that happen in the credit card world. Recently, Citi came up with the Citi Prestige card and upped the bonus to 50,000 Thank you points which are generally okay and if you redeem in American then you are supposed to get $800 worth of flights. Now travelling in American, getting flights and seats on them.. that itself is a pain. There is also $250 annual credit that can be used if you buy airfare and other incidentals such as baggage fees or inflight entertainment and meals. The $450 annual fee is offset by this is what the claim of many a blogger out there. Of course, the high referral fees is another hidden reason why all blogs are promoting this credit card left right and center. Do I think this is a good card? It is decent. It gives you access to American Express lounges. If you are like the majority of travellers like me, I would like to keep the transit time as short as possible and get home rather than sit near a juice bar and wilt away time in some lounge in some airport. There is a global entry permit of $100 or so. Again, a common feature with many cards and in the grand scheme of things, not really making too much of a difference. A few lines here and there is not going to break you. So it all boils down to $450 annual fee that gives you 50k Thank you points and $250 * 2 airline credit. If you have planned travel coming up, by all means go ahead and get a card but if not, is there a reason to invent travel and go just for the sake of miles and points?

Remember: 450 Annual fee. That is not waived for the year. You could close it on time before they bill you for next year. But still. 450. That is not chump change. In the world of regular 500 reloads, people become sensitized to 450 or anything under $500. Ha, I would recover that in a few reloads. But that is not the point. $450 is no chump change for a huge number of people. You are putting that as a fee. There are folks out there who are regular business travelers and get reimbursed by their companies. Many of course, do not have the time or necessity for such point accumulation. For the rest who do not have access to such travels and would rather prefer the short and sweet world of point accumulation, where does one draw the line? This does look highly commoditized and calculated. But more importantly, it is leading to real and perceivable change in consumer behavior of people like you and me. Remember the monkey is taught to do the tricks of buying stuff online and act in a certain way and after some time, it pretty much does that on its own. The whole credit card bonus points and cash back is just geared towards that. Make you use the credit cards more and  more so much that you don't even think about using cash and would rather just pay extra and return to your default of being "credit card nirvana" state. It is stunning to see how many otherwise reasonable bloggers are doing credit mile runs, going to china for a weekend just because of some few extra points or a $500 "mistake" fare while the capitalist producers simply laugh at the way the humans can be manipulated into relative action and minor changes in behavior. So maybe I might rethink my line on this particular card but I wanted to take a moment and recognize this aspect of having to simply pay huge fees so that there is an "offset" of some invented travel in future. Something that may well be avoided and instead, one can go visit the local library or local zoo or just sit in a beach or a park somewhere nearby!

Best Bonus credit cards for March 2015

Credit card landscape continues to move in the same vein as it was in the start of this year. The usual big banks like Amex, Citi, Chase, Barclays, Capital One are slugging it out by offering pretty much the same offers as during the holiday season of last year.

Some good ones right now to get into your wallet could be

US Bank Club Carlson: https://www.usbank.com/credit-cards/club-carlson-premier-rewards-visa-signature-credit-card.html

Chase IHG : https://creditcards.chase.com/credit-cards/ihg-credit-card1.aspx?CELL=63WS&F42G=FH24R8&I39J=Y71UH0&list=4,2,1&SP4R=FH24R8&

Note that they have increased the rewards recently to 60k points from previously issued 50k points. Both links are direct links to the bank sites. 

Bank of America and Amex continue to offer the same roster. Amex could be a surprise sometime before the end of this year, especially since their exclusive hold on Costco is set to expire early next year. While Citi is purchasing that set of portfolio from Amex, it also is not backing down with the American Airlines credit card where it is issuing and trying to corner users just like its close competition in that market - Barclays is doing. On a side note, Barclays will be converting all the existing US Airways card members into American Aviator Rewards members. Note that with this merger between American and US Airways, the annual fee issued by Citi and Barclays would be $95 and $89 while offering roughly similar perks as time goes by.

Threshold of this activity

On and off, I wonder what is the threshold of this activity? How low or high can one go before one sees one's own limits and threshold of such activities? I mean, the blog world is full of various view points and some say this is immoral, unethical, illegal to others saying that this is the money that they are anyway spending and they are as such being smarter in tapping out the rewards. Nothing wrong in such strategies as long as you are not going crazy over this. I heard a story about someone going full crazy on their local 7-11 by ordering about 25 grands worth of gift cards. 25 grand!. Thats bat shit cray. That pretty much killed the game for that 7-11 store, that guy as well as caught attention of both the gift card company, the 7-11 corporate honchos. The policies got promptly changed. 

The payoff from this is anyway not too huge. Once you exhaust the list of credit card which offer huge sign on bonuses, there is hardly any thrill in going thru them again. Yeah, maybe you can do it all over again for others or yourself if you have a goal. But after a point, it is not a perpetual point machine. There is simply no routine strategy which will take the mental steps out of this and make it mundane and boring. This site was created with that goal in mind and lists out many strategies that will take you closer to your goals. I follow some blogs like Boarding area ones including Frequent Miler, Hustler Money blog which happens to be my favorite along with the My Money Blog; and a whole hosts of other blogs like a Travel Grant or Million Mile Secret and their content hugely varies over time. Some stay consistent to their theme and other diversify over to different things. Some of them seem to have a defined boundary while others keep pushing the envelope subtly. Leading you to wonder, how far do you go in this? There is always "apply for this online link", "open this account to get a $5 reward" and so on...there is no end to this.

There were certain blogs which posted about 10 different ways to use British Airways Avios or 20 different ways to get Delta points or use southwest points at 1800-flowers.com or similar posts. It is so much pressured and the writings in such blogs clearly indicate that the writer did not enjoy writing said pieces. A lot of blogs are also under the pressure to monetize. There are contracts and agreements making them write unwanted and unnecessary information daily at least two times. They have to have the two/three odd posts a day filled with images and big fonts so that they maintain the search rankings, SEO tracking strategies and keep up overall. But in this whole melee, the quality is greatly sacrificed. Back to this topic, this is really simple and like everything else in life, it is going to get only simple or complex that you want to make it. The truth is the credit card signup bonuses have dried up a little bit in the past couple months, reflecting in the lower blog posts in this blog as well as few other blogs who have the similar philosophy of posting news only when there is news to begin with. Simply informing each and every minute development as "Breaking News" makes this blog a CNN or Fox news.

Anyhow, I guess the people that run such blogs have financial compulsions due to which they have to act in a very forceful, aggressive manner. As for my overall philosophy, it pretty much remains the same and I want to do this as long as I enjoy it and not to just rake up few more points for a few days in a grand hotel and looking all weird in the process.

Personal Capital - Few Thoughts

Recently, I was exploring some tools similar to Mint, YNAB or any software which helps me give varied views of my financial landscape. The thing is I like to rotate them and put them in various sites for fear that if one site has all the data and for what-so-ever reasons the site security gets compromised, then you are in for a ride. That is one of the primary reasons why I created multiple accounts with the likes of mints/yoddlee or something that is preferably away from the big companies.

A new site which caught my eye is Person Capital. It is a San Fran based start-up and the site is pretty impressive and very easy to understand and operate. There are no unnecessary clutter and "tools" on the website. It is pretty neat and elegant design. I liked the speed of the site and the overall value it provides in terms of reminder emails as well as fresh articles in their blogroll.

Further, any such site will have their value measured by the database of third-party banks with which they integrate and how fast they do that. I hate PayPal for this particular reason that their integration features are from the last century. In that respect, Personal Capital integrated with many banks and financial institutions with elan and ease. I threw obscure credit unions, big banks, investment accounts, insurance companies, mortgage accounts and even an odd international bank to boot with not many local branches. So, having passed all the test, I have referred it to a few of my friend and colleagues, who gladly signed up for their services. In case, anyone here is interested, here is the link: http://refer.personalcapital.com/share/k3w6m
It is a slight departure from the usual credit card centric theme of this blog but oh well, it is just an odd post before I get my other blog running related to the money matters.