This was another relatively slow week due to the New Year, I was hoping to see some more American Express sync offers but that hasn’t been the case as of yet. Because it’s a new year, it’s a new quarter which means you need to remember to active all of your cards that earn 5% in rotating categories. We’ve made this easy for you by putting all of them into one post, we also included a few spending tips to help you max out these categories.
We also let you know about a credit union that has a rewards checking account that can earn up to 5.07% APY on balances up to $20,000. This same credit union also offers a grocery store cash rebate card that earns 3% cash back on up to $200,000 in purchases per year and comes with a $100 sign up bonus.
Our latest writer, Manasa R also contributed her first post which was a fantastic round up of all the Fidelity IRA & Brokerage bonuses. I’m really excited to add another regular contributor to the site, she will be focusing on brokerage bonuses but will also touch on other topics as well.
I also tried my hand at predicting the future, by guessing what will change with credit cards in 2015. I can’t wait until the end of the year to see how close my predictions were, no doubt they will give everybody (myself included) a good laugh.
Credit Karma also beefed up their free credit monitoring service by adding Equifax data. This now means you can get your full credit report, VantageScore and monitor your TransUnion & Equifax data with Credit Karma. It’s a shame that they still aren’t offering users access to a FICO score, but I imagine that is for cost reasons. Thankfully the majority of credit card issuers are now offering consumers access to their FICO score for free.
If you have a Chase Freedom card then you will know that the 5% categories for this quarter include grocery stores. A lot of grocery stores sell $500 gift cards, which is an easy way to hit the $1,500 limit. To make things easier for all of you doing manufactured spending, we put together this complete list of grocery stores that sell $500 and whether they accept credit cards or not and any other policies they have.
Contents
All Of Our Posts This Week
Sunday 28th
- $150 Twitter Competition Winners Announced
- Square Cash App Offering $5 Sign Up Bonus & $5 Referral Bonus For Free
Monday 29th
- [IL, MI, OH, PA, WI only] First Merit Bank $150 Checking Bonus
- [FL only] BrightStar Credit Union (BSCU) $100 Checking Promotion, No Direct Deposit Requirement
- [NY only] Apple Bank $100 Checking Bonus
- [FL only] Community First Credit Union of Florida $100 Checking Sign Up Bonus
- $5 Off $25 Giftcard At Gyft When You Use Paypal, Small Money Maker
- Credit Karma To Add Equifax Data To Their Free Credit Score/Report Service
- Regions Bank $165 Checking Bonus – Select States Only
- Grocery Stores That Sell $500 Giftcards
- Credit Cards That Have Been Recently Discontinued
Tuesday 30th
- Free $25 Tango Giftcard For Signing Up To Money Stream & Linking A Bank Account
- [Targeted] $20 Bonus For Depositing Your Tax Refund Into Your AmEx Serve Account
- Fidelity IRA and Brokerage Account Bonuses: 8 Bonuses & Up To $2,500 In Cash
- My Predictions For Credit Cards In 2015
- [NJ only] Oritani Bank $125 Business Checking Promo
- [NJ only] Open a TGIF Checking Account with Oritani & Receive Up To $125
- [WI + IL only] $100 North Shore Banking Checking Promo, No Direct Deposit Required
Wednesday 31st
- Consumers Credit Union 5.07% APY On Up To $20,000 Rewards Checking
- Donate To Charity, PayPal Will Match 1% Of Your Donation + Get 5% Back With The Discover It
- American Express Nerfs Their Campus Edition Card Starting March 1, 2015
- CCU – Cash Rebate Card Review $100 Bonus + 3% Cash Back On Grocery Store Purchases
Thursday 1st
- RadPad – Pay your Rent with a Debit/Credit Card
- Staples $20 Visa Rebate with Purchase of $300 Visa Gift Cards
- Q1 2015 Cashback Categories, Activation Links & Spending Tips (Freedom, it, Dividend & Cash+)
Friday 2nd
Saturday 3rd
- Bank Bonuses That Were Recently Extended
- Refer A Friend To Arizona Central Credit Union And You’ll Both Get $100
Best Posts From Around The Web
Manufactured Spending
Credit Cards:
- Citi quietly replaces the Universal Card with the new AT&T Access Card by PFdigest
- Bank of America No Longer Allowing Multiple Better Balance Rewards Applications – There is an Even Better Workaround! by Oren’s Money Saver, great to have confirmation that downgrading to better balance rewards still works.
- Check your E-mail – British Airways Visa Credit Card Spend Bonus by TaggingMiles
- New JPMorgan Palladium Card Enhancements Are A Huge Disappointment by Hungry For Points
- Barclays really stepped it up and gave me 20,000 miles! by Free Travel Guys
- American Express Membership Reward Point Transfers to Frontier Airlines Ending on March 4, 2015 by Travel With Grant
Travel Hacking:
- Hilton HHonors Category Adjustments Effective January 14, 2015 by Travel Sisters
- David vs. Goliath, United and Orbitz Try Cracking Down on Cheap Airfare Practices
by View From The Wing - IHG Rewards Club Sneaks a Big Change Into Their Terms and Conditions by View From The Wing
- Cashing In On the Orbitz Cyber Monday Sale – How A Sale Turns Into A Fantastic Trip! by Miles to Memories
- China Eastern And China Southern Awards Now Bookable On Delta.Com by Mile Cards
Misc
- The $5 Challenge By Stanford University
- UberX Economics – How I Did New Years Eve by Jetsetters Homestead
- Free $10 to spend on Erin Condren Organizational Products by Money Saving Mom
- Free $7 SYWR points (SEARS/KMART) for Liberty Mutual Auto Quote by Slick Deals, in the past I’ve found similar deals actually post without me chasing up on it and as such it wasn’t worth the time.
- Is a Boarding Area blogger plagiarizing me? by PFdigest
- Target Bullseye Bumper Car Gift Card, Free Toy by HexBug by Slickdeals
Deals Dying Next Week
A lot of deals died last week, so there aren’t a lot dying this week but the following deals will be:
It looks like I am too late for the $25 Tango Gift Card (offer suspended):
GET A $25
TANGO CARD
Connect your accounts and get a Tango Card worth $25.
Sorry, this offer has been suspended. Please check back later.
Thansk for linking to my Frontier Airlines AMEX MR post. I won’t shed any tears for that loss.
Yeah I wonder if anybody has actually transferred points across. The Tango deal was too good to last, this is what happens when you’re busy working all the time, Grant!