- T-Mobile: Hackers Accessed Customer Call Data by PYMNTS.
- The Man Who Turned Credit-Card Points Into an Empire by NY Times.
- Korean Air Will Postpone Devaluation Of SkyPass Frequent Flyer Program by VFTW.
Deals starting/expiring at the end of today or starting today (view the full deal calendar here):
- None
Deals starting/expiring at end of tomorrow:
- HSBC $600 Checking Bonus – Direct Deposit IS Required
- HSBC $200-$450 Checking Bonus
- Chase Offers/BofA: Get 10% Cashback at Hyatt (Max $25 Cashback)
- Drop: Spend $5/$10 At Select Brands & Get 1,000 Points ($1) (Amazon, Target & More)
Popular posts from yesterday:
I agree he masquerades as trying to help his readers with finding the best deals, which is not always true.
“Pretty much every player at this level disliked Brian Kelly and The Points Guy for one reason or another, including, but not limited to: being a sellout, beating them to the punch, getting in bed with the credit-card companies, advocating for suboptimal deals, masquerading as a consumer advocate, taking credit for a community he did not create and giving a face to a subculture that would rather remain anonymous.”
The TPG article seemed like a paid advertisement, but it didn’t have any such disclaimer.
I’m surprised no one here has bothered commenting on the article about SkyPass devaluation, which imo is way more interesting and slightly more recent than the other two topics.
Instead, we have low-effort comments about how much TPG sucks, mostly from people who haven’t even read the NYT article.
Don’t think you’re special if you don’t like TPG or Brian, by the way: they’re both old news and any new article in a major publication about either is usually just rehashing what many of us already know about the industry, the hobby, and the community. There’s no need to express how outraged you are every time he’s mentioned on DoC.
Yes, TPG sucks. TPG knows it which is why they removed comments from their site.
Hi
OMG. … And here I’m thinking, “If I’m taking anything (or anyone’s info) with a grain of salt, then I should be fine!’… But then, reading (most of) the comments here makes it sound like I just walked into a party where everyone seems to agree on someone’s practices and realized I’m shocked…. I guess my INTERWEBS reading has not been deep enough or long enough to see the clear bottom of the pit! Thanks everyone…. I should adjust my opinions with solid research now.
Does Brian Kelly require all the TPG employees and contributors adhere to his far leftist political views? All the articles that voice a political opinion (and there are many that do) bend way left.
Yet he is still a creep that allegedly snorts coke and sexually harasses others while on the job. How woke.
The Man Who Turned Credit-Card Points Into an Empire? It’s the same man who’s given NYT its wirecutter business model and helped convert any number of incompetent “news” sites into credit card blogs incl BI and CNBC.
In that aspect, both TPG and NYT are now in the same business: separating stupid people from their money.
Wonder why things like “making a pass at freelancers and snorting cocaine in the workplace” are mentioned in the passing. It’s been a career-ender in many cases.
Did the reporter not care enough to pursue this seriously? It seems like they gave it just enough importance so no one shows up later on and says NYT ignored our complaints.
“People called me a sellout in the beginning, like, ‘Oh, you’re just doing this for the masses.’ And yeah — I am. That’s the point.”
Yeah, right. Tell it to the folks who religiously click through every bad deal you’ve ever posted on your site and they’ll believe you.
If there’s an iota of soul left in the ‘truth in advertising’ laws, TPG, NYT and any number of remodeled ‘news’ sites would’ve been forced into bankruptcy for content baiting, poor disclosures, and misleading and false advertising practices. But fortunately for them, politicians and bureaucrats aren’t that smart.
Everytime the nerdwallet commercial played, I used to throw up.
CNBC and BI have gone one step further:
1. Pull unsuspecting victims via cheesy articles like “how this Miami man spends his $250,000 income” and other content stolen from real blogs.
2. Somewhere in the article put a link saying “you may want to check out the best cashback card in the market right now”.
3. Embed a referral link for a lame card without any fair analysis of point/cash value, comparison with other cards or anything.
I’m still stunned by how many people still google “which credit card should I get” and blindly click through the first result and sign up using the referral link without any understanding whatsoever of the poor disclosures and the web of financial interest behind these referrals or even doing a basic assessment of how well the recommendation fits with their income, lifestyle, or spending habits.
For any newbies out there:
People at these aforementioned lowlife sites have low to zero ethical standards (in some cases they directly work with the banks to push you bad products), and they’ll recommend anything that’ll earn them the money and (it’s usually the bad recommendations that earn them the most). So think with your brain for 5 seconds before applying for anything.
Points guy is an asshole and most people know this
Glad I never used the points guys affiliated links. Here is an article about his life style and toxic work environment.
https://outline.com/4M8Tjm
Interesting article. It is amazing how he scaled TPG so quickly: sold it for $20 million in only 2 years after creating TPG.
If you can engage in questionable business practices and still are able to sleep well at night I’ve got a hundred business ideas for you.
I am not defending TPG’s business model: CC referral links that are not always in the reader’s best interest and hype about taking showers in first class, etc. Please give some examples of TPG’s questionable business practices.
If you’re looking to upvote the top comment on this post trashing TPG, it’s this one.
FYI, TPG is just one “guy”. The rest are his employees/disciples (some are female).
Spoiler: the NYT article isn’t all about Brian Kelly and his non-essential travel during the pandemic. It’s also about Flyertalk, Latinpass, and the Sacagawea coin.
MS is mentioned a dozen times: I always love when clever freelancers think they’re doing God’s work and justify writing about this topic by citing someone else who has already done it.
“Pretty much every player at this level disliked Brian Kelly and The Points Guy for one reason or another, including, but not limited to: being a sellout, beating them to the punch, getting in bed with the credit-card companies, advocating for suboptimal deals, masquerading as a consumer advocate, taking credit for a community he did not create and giving a face to a subculture that would rather remain anonymous.”