A few readers have recently sent me e-mails asking why I don’t post reminders letting them know that certain credit card offers are due to expire. There are a couple of reasons which I thought I’d post to avoid any further confusion.
- In most cases these offers don’t disappear completely. When other bloggers state that an offer is due to expire in two days!!!! (the exclamation marks are important, how else would you know it’s urgent?) What they really mean is that after that date they will no longer earn commission on that offer. Usually “zombie links” are still available to be used after the official expiration, I usually just update the links on my post with the new working zombie links instead.
- My readers are more than capable of setting themselves reminders. I’m not really here to nag you about certain offers, in the past I’ve post reminders about bank account bonuses that have been particularly good but that was mostly because the blog grew so much between when I first posted the offer and the reminder.
- Offers that come around once, usually come around again. A lot of the offers that come around, come around often. For example, the Southwest cards from Chase almost always offer 50,000 miles and as such there really isn’t any urgency. Sometimes you’ll get an offer that is so good (and unprofitable) from the bank that they don’t offer it again, but I usually try to make a point of this when I originally post the offer. This is rarely if ever the case.
In life when somebody is trying to rush you into a decision, chances are they stand something to gain. The more informed you are, the less chance you are to make a bad decision (and the less chance they have of earning a commission). If you ever feel rushed into making a financial decision, stop what you’re doing and sleep on it.
Going forward I’ll likely tweet out when offers are due to expire a few days beforehand, that way those that do want the reminders can have them whilst those that don’t want them don’t have to have the blog feed cluttered with these reminders. If you’re considering an offer, my recommendation would be to set yourself a reminder using Google calendar (or similar) to alert you a few days before it’s due to expire. Also if a deal is so forgettable to you, chances are it probably doesn’t represent good value.
