Credit Card Deals

I Bet You Never Heard of This Travel Discount Program for VISA Cardholders

Visa Special Offers Discount Program
Hotel Discounts

Well I’ll be darned if there isn’t another well-hidden discount program for people who hold Visa credit cards.

Introducing the Visa Offers Program

The Visa Offers program offers 70 distinct deals for holders of the Visa personal credit cards.

There are cash discounts and/or upgrades offered on shopping, dining, car rentals, hotels and entertainment.

You just need to go to the Visa Offers webpage to peruse the offers and see the special terms.  Many of the offers require you to click through to the merchant’s site and use a special promo code.

The Visa Offers program is for people with personal credit cards, in contrast to the Visa Savings Edge program for small business cardholders.

Special Savings for Visa Cardholders

Any Visa-branded personal credit card can be used with this deal.   Examples include the United MileagePlus Explorer card, the Chase Freedom card, the Southwest Rapid Rewards card, the The Priceline Rewards™ Visa® Card,  The WyndhamRewards® Visa Signature® Card, The Choice Privileges® Visa® Card, and many others.

Here are some examples of the savings you will find.

Hotel Deals

There are discounts available for hotels in New York, Chicago, London, San Francisco, Hawaii, Paris, and other top destinations when you use your Visa card to book and pay for a stay.

  • Stay 3 nights or longer in an ocean view or oceanfront room at the  Royal Lahaina Resort on Kaanapali Beach on Maui or the Royal Kona Resort on Hawaii’s big island and get a $25 daily food and beverage credit per room.
  • Radisson Blu Edwardian hotels in the U.K. (including the May Fair Hotel) offer up to 20 percent off stays and a complimentary room upgrade.
  • Upscale Raffles Hotels & Resorts in Singapore, Cambodia, the Philippines, China, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Seychelles and Paris offer daily breakfast for two, room upgrades, and late check-out.
  • Select Hilton Worldwide hotels in New York City offer 15 percent off the best available rate.
  • Save 10 percent off the best available rate plus breakfast for two at over 150 participating Preferred Hotel Group properties around the world.
  • Book a Premier View Category room at the Parc 55 Wyndham in San Francisco and receive 20 percent off your room rate.
  • Swissôtel Chicago offers a complimentary room upgrade, late check-out, and  a free ride from Uber car service.

Discounts on Legoland

Use your Visa card and receive 20% off single-day tickets to LEGOLAND® in Florida and California, as well as LEGOLAND® Discovery Centers in Dallas, Chicago, Kansas City, Atlanta, Westchester, New York and Toronto.

Discounts on Car Rentals and SuperShuttle

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Club Carlson Visa Bonus Offer on Dining (Targeted)

Club Carlson Visa Bonus OfferOn the heels of the massive Club Carlson devaluation last week, I was surprised to receive a a special offer in the mail to earn an extra 5  bonus points on restaurant purchases made with my Club Carlson Visa between March 1st and April 30th, 2014.

10x Points on Restaurant Spending with Club Carlson Visa

The Club Carlson credit card normally pays 5x points on all purchases, so with this offer, I could earn 10x points on restaurant spending.  The maximum bonus I can receive is 5,000 points.  I’m unlikely to spend $1,000 at restaurants over a 2 month period, but at 10x points, I’ll take what I can get!  

The offer requires preregistration online at clubcarlsonvisaoffers.com with a targeted code provided in the offer letter.

2x Bonus Points on Grocery Purchases with US Air Credit Card

Credit card companies sometimes offer special bonuses like this to get you in the habit of using their card for everyday spending.

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Ebates Now Offering 8% Cash Back on Holiday Inns . . . Better that with the Upromise Credit Card

Holiday Inn Express Neptune, NJ
Holiday Inn Express Neptune, NJ

Today I received a surprise check in the mail from Ebates, an online shopping portal.

I don’t remember what I bought online, but it reminded me to check out Ebates’ current payouts on travel purchases.

The best travel deal I found on the Ebates site was for 8 percent cash back on IHG Hotel Reservations.

IHG properties range from budget to luxury:   Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza, Hotel Indigo, InterContinental, Staybridge Suites and Candlewood Suites all fall under the IHG umbrella.

Of these, Holiday Inn Express is my current favorite.  We stayed at a HI Express near Asbury Park, NJ in September.  While the location away from the beach was not inspiring, we had a very pleasant stay.  We enjoyed the free WiFi, free breakfast, and the swimming pool.  The room was clean, modern, and spacious.  When traveling with kids and teens, a few extra square feet can make big difference in comfort!

The fine print from Ebates states that cash back is only available for commissionable IHG rates.  Specially negotiated rates such as IHG friends & Family are not eligible for cash back.  Further, it may take up to 40 days after travel is completed for cash back to show up  in your Ebates account.  

11 Percent Cash Back on IHG Hotels with Upromise Credit Card

If you are intrigued by this deal, there is an even better offer open to holders to the Upromise MasterCard.  You may have heard of the Upromise college savings program.

Well it turns out that Upromise is not just for college students or their parents.

Anyone can open a Upromise account and receive cash back from certain purchases.

The best deal is via the Upromise MasterCard, which pays 5 percent cash back on all purchases through the Upromise online shopping portal.  The portal includes a slew of travel websites that pay additional cash back over and above the five percent.

IHG hotels, for example, currently pays 6 percent, for a total of 11 percent cash back.  Not bad.

11 Percent Cash Back on Priceline Hotels with Upromise Credit Card

What’s more, if you prefer to save money with Priceline for “Name Your Own Price” hotel reservations, you can also get 11 percent back:  5 percent by using the Upromise MasterCard via the Upromise shopping portal, plus 6 percent additional from Priceline.  Now you are talking real savings!Earn 10 Percent Cash Back on Travel with Upromise Credit Card

In fact, you will find over 900 online merchants including a slew of popular travel sites in the Upromise shopping portal.  Many of the popular travel sites are represented — including Orbitz, Expedia, Hotwire, Westin, Hotels.com, Carnival Cruises, and many others.  Used in conjunction with the Upromise Credit Card, you will be well on your way to earning 10 percent cash back on travel.

To earn and receive cash back earnings, you must be a Upromise member, pay for purchases with your Upromise MasterCard and register your credit card to your Upromise account.  To become a member and register your credit card, go to Upromise.com/activate.

What’s the downside?

Online shopping portals can be frustrating to deal with. Sometimes “cookies” that track your online activity will prevent the cash back portal from properly crediting your purchase.  Also, if you use the wrong coupon code, you may not be eligible for cash back. 

Some days, I am ready to give up on online shopping portals, but on days when a check comes in the mail, my faith is restored!

There are affiliate links in this post.  Thanks if you choose to use them!  

Rumors about the Barclaycard Arrival Credit Card Offer Confirmed

BarclayCard ArrivalJust days after I posted my definitive one year review of the Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® rumors started circulating on the internet about changes to the card’s minimum purchase requirement.

Today, those rumors were validated.

Previously, if you spent $1,000 within 3 months of opening the Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard®, you would get 40,000 bonus points worth $400 toward any travel purchase.  That is a very generous offer for opening new credit card.  What’s more, you’d earn 10 percent back on all redemptions for travel expenses, so the payout is worth $440.

In my definitive one year review, I argued that I know of no other credit card with such a generous bonus offer for such a low minimum spend requirement.

Now, the minimum spend requirement is going to be increased to $3,000 in a 3 month period.

Does an increase in the minimum spend requirement affect my evaluation of the Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard®?

Absolutely!  Arguably, $1,000 in spending over a 3 month period is fairly doable for many households.  Triple that requirement, and you would have to move your major purchases to the new credit card, which is not always easy to accomplish.  If you are not easily able to meet the increased minimum spend requirement, you might want to hold off applying for this card until you anticipate some major expenses.

Cash back credit cards like the Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® are not worth it if they cause you to spend more money than you would ordinarily.  An increase in the minimum spend requirement makes this offer less accessible to many people.

If you have been considering Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard®, you can read more about my take on the pros and cons of this offering here.  

Here are the specifics of the offer as of today:

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Win a Trip to the Winter Olympics Every Four Years, for Life

Win a Trip to the Winter Olympic Games for Life

Have you enjoyed watching the winter Olympics this year?

If so, you’ve probably noticed that Visa is a corporate sponsor.

Wouldn’t if be fabulous to attend the games in person?  It would be a once in a lifetime experience!  What if you could attend every Olympic Winter Games for as long as you live?

To promote its association with the Olympic games, Visa is running a contest to win a trip to the Olympic Winter Games for life!

Every time you use your Visa credit card from January 1 through February 28, 2014 and you will be automatically entered to win a trip to the Olympic Winter Games for life, every four years beginning in the winter of 2018.

One grand prize winner of the Visa Olympic Winter Games Trip for Life Sweepstakes and one guest will receive round-trip airfare and accommodations for two, round-trip event transportation, and tickets to Olympic events.  

Official rules are available at online.  

No purchase is necessary to enter or win. Details for mailing in an entry are available online.  

 The odds of winning are less than 1 in 6 billion, but what the hey?  

I love the ice skating events and the free ski, and the scenery in Sochi is absolutely spectacular!  And you?  

Credit Cards: A Cautionary Tale

Confessions of a Credit JunkieMichelle Singletary, who writes the nationally syndicated column, “The Color of  Money,” is my favorite personal finance writer.  She dispenses down-to-earth advice for the average person, and it is usually spot on.  So in December, when she featured a new book on credit cards in her column, I took note.

The book, Confessions of a Credit Junkie:  Everything You Need to Know to Avoid the Mistakes I Made, by Beverly Harzog is a cautionary tale by someone who got themselves into serious credit card debt, and managed to dig her way out.  What was shocking to me, was that Ms. Harzog was a Certified Public Accountant when she found herself drowning in debt.  Speaking from her personal experience as well as her professional expertise, Ms. Harzog’s book discusses:

  • The seven ways to use a credit card to rebuild credit
  • How to get out of debt using a balance transfer credit card–and pay zero interest while doing it
  • Credit card strategies to save on groceries, gas, and travel

As someone who tries to keep to a budget and never charges anything I don’t have the money to cover, I could not really identify with Ms. Harzog’s story of extravagant spending on designer clothing, which she relates in the early chapters of the book.

Where the book really shines, however, is in the plain English discussion of the laws governing credit card issuers, and in particular, the different regime covering personal and business credit cards.

Harzog details consumers’ rights under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA).  

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The Fab Chase Ink Plus Retention Offer My Husband Nixed

Chase Ink Plus Business Credit CardI just noticed that a $95 annual fee had posted on my December statement for the Chase Ink Plus credit card.  Ugh.  I really don’t like to pay bank fees!

I opened the Chase Ink Plus card in November 2012 for the 50,000 bonus Ultimate Reward Points (worth $625 in travel) which easily transfer to Southwest Airlines, United Airlines, and Amtrak for award travel.

The Chase Ink Plus is a small business credit card and I have been using it for my environmental consulting business.  The card pays 5x points on routine purchases at office supply stores, and on various telecommunications expenses, 2x points on gas and hotels, and 1x point on everything else.   I have set up most of my routine business expenses like the phone bill, long distance provider, web hosting fees, internet access, etc. as automatic payments on the Ink Plus credit card.  

By the time I noticed the annual fee, I had already missed the 60-day deadline for closing the card and requesting a fee waiver.   I called Chase to see if it would be possible to get a fee waiver anyway.  Frankly, I really didn’t want to close the card or downgrade it at this point, because it would mean transferring automatic payments from a dozen different vendors to another credit card.

The customer service rep offered me a nice deal:

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Barclaycard Arrival: The Definitive One Year Review

IMG_0590

2/20/2014 Update:  The terms of this offer were changed today.  In order to earn the 40,000 bonus points, you must spend $3,000 within the first 3 months of opening the card.

Is Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® the Best Travel Rewards Credit Card for General Spending?  

Over the last couple of months, my family has had a number of major expenses pop up some of which may resonate with you:

  • the check engine light came on in my 2003 Honda Civic Hybrid:  $5000 repair bill
  • ditto for my husbands 2003 Volkswagen Passat:  $3800
  • my daughter got braces:  $4650
  • the heat pump finally gave out:  $6995

Granted it is unusual to have so many large, chargeable expenses totaling $20,000 in a two month period.  But it it is easy to anticipate similar health, home maintenance, and auto repair expenses over the course of a year.

In our case, the car mechanics, the orthodontist, and the HVAC installer all accepted credit cards for payment, but only MasterCard or Visa, not American Express.  That mirrors my experience with other small business vendors where we have regular large expenditures, such as the dog kennel or the vet.  

None of these household expenses are considered “bonus” categories with any credit card product that I am aware of.  Except the Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard®, that is.

(There is a Fidelity credit card that pays 2 times points, but it is an American Express card, which is not accepted everywhere.  There is a Capital One Venture card that pays 2 times points; the Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® effectively pays out 10 percent more than that — 2.2 percent.)

Earn 2.2 Points on All Charges, if Redeemed for Travel Expenses

BarclayCard ArrivalIt’s a bit redundant, but the Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® — pays 2 times points on everything.  There is no limit on the amount of points you can earn.

In my case outlined here, with $20,000 in expenses we could earn 4o,000 points.  40,000 points can be redeemed for $400 worth of travel expenses (the points are worth half that if redeemed for cash).  You earn a ten percent bonus on redeemed points, so 4,000 points are redeposited in your account, worth another $40 toward travel expenses, for a total of $440.  The ten percent bonus provides an incentive to keep using the card in order to redeem all your points.

How Much Travel Can You Buy for $440?

Exactly $440 dollars worth!  Depending on your bargain hunting skill and preferences, you can use this money for budget hotels, rental cars, train tickets and airfare.

You can travel when you want, and where you want, without worrying about limited award availability or blackout dates.

What’s more, you will earn frequent flyer miles and loyalty program points on your purchases!

I was an early adopter of the Barclaycard Arrival — I received a targeted offer and opened the card a year ago.  I have written about it on and off, but I wanted to share my experience with the card one year out.

By comparison, with a miles earning credit card, my recent charges would earn 20,000 miles  — perhaps enough for a one-way ticket on Southwest Airlines or two roundtrip tickets on Amtrak, but hard to redeem for much else.

Get a Sign-Up Bonus Worth $440 Towards Travel

Some credit cards are good for everyday spend, others provide generous sign-up bonuses.

The Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® does both!

Beyond the 2.2 percent payout rate for general expenses, the Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard® offers an excellent signup bonus.

If you spend $3,000 within three months of opening the card, you get a bonus of 40,000 points, which can be redeemed for $400 worth of travel.  Furthermore, you earn 10 percent back on all redemptions for travel expenses, meaning another 4,000 points are awarded, making the initial bonus worth more than $440.

Other Benefits of the Barclaycard Arrival Plus™ World Elite MasterCard®

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New Years Eve Priceline Coupon Code

Priceline Coupon CodeI love reeling in a good deal! 

That’s why I enjoy bidding for “name your own price” hotels on Priceline. 

On December 31, 2013, for one day only, Priceline is offering an extra 5 percent discount off “name your own price” hotel rooms.

The coupon code is JE27MES7.

The discount applies only to two night reservations for two star hotels and above.

When I book Priceline hotels, I like to use my Barclaycard Arrival™ World MasterCard® credit card, which earns two times points on Priceline reservations.  This no annual fee travel rewards credit card offers a $200 signup bonus (worth $220 because of a 10 percent bonus on redemptions).

We stayed at the Sheraton Times Square in NYC over Thanksgiving.   We booked the room through Priceline, and paid with the Barclaycard Arrival™ World MasterCard®.

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Priceless Cities: MasterCard’s World of Discounts

Priceless Africa from MasterCard

If you currently hold a MasterCard you may have heard about the Priceless Cities program, which offers cardholders unique opportunities and discounts in several U.S. cities including Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami and New York.  

Registering for the program gives you access to exclusive offers.

For instance, in researching our upcoming trip to New York, I found special offers for early entry or evening tickets to the fabulous holiday train show at the New York Botanical Gardens, as well as discounted tickets for standard admissions.

There were also some club, hotel, entertainment and restaurant discounts, and a special venue for viewing the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

But did you know that Priceless Cities is actually an international program?

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