The latest credit card & travel loyalty stories from us and other sites of interest:

The Very Latest:

• Blispay Credit Card Acquired by Alliance Data (Comenity) – Blispay had a promising beginning as a 2% cash-back credit card and special 0% financing offers, but it essentially ran out of money to accept new customers. Will it stay the same under Alliance Data/Comenity? Via Baltimore Business Journal (with a hat tip to Doctor of Credit for catching this). (May 23)
• Carter’s Announces Launch of Branded Credit Card – Baby brand including Carter’s, OshKosh B’gosh (best name ever), etc., is teaming up with Alliance Data / Comenity Bank on a new rewards credit card. Via Carter’s. (May 23)

Still New & Exciting:

• NEW TARGET CREDIT CARD BONUS: Get $35 Coupon Off Purchase of $75 or More – When approved by June 15, 2019. (May 20)
• Get a $20 Best Western Gift Card with Just 1 Best Western Stay – For Best Western Rewards members who register and stay between May 20, 2019 and September 2, 2019. (May 20)
• VIDEO: Petal Credit Card Adds Rewards! – Card for new-to-credit customers now offering up to 1.5% cash back on purchases, provided you always make your payments on time. (May 15)
• Club Jax Lounge Opens at Jacksonville International Airport – A new lounge option for Priority Pass and other lounge memberships. (Or $40 if you have no membership that gets you in free.) Via Business Wire (May 15)
• New Hilton / Lyft Partnership Announced – Get up to 3 Hilton points per dollar on your Lyft rides. (May 14)
• Enhanced Bonus Offer on Alaska Airlines Credit Card – Adds a $100 statement credit on to the previous 40,000 miles and $99+Fees Companion Fare. Via US Credit Card Guide. (May 10)
• Updated Blue Cash Preferred Card Now Available – New rewards, new design, $250 bonus are yours for the taking. (May 9)
• Choice Hotels Rewards Summer Travelers With $50 Gift Card After Just Two Separate Stays – Not worth bending over backwards to meet the requirements, but something extra if you might already be scheduling two stays between now and August 9. Via Choice Hotels. (May 7)

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

Do you like to game the system? Do you like to look for the loopholes and arbitrage opportunities that others miss? It can be very intoxicating. But sometimes gaming the system can be dangerous as well. Which brings us to credit card churning.

What is credit card churning & why would you do it?

Credit card churning is the practice of getting approved for a credit card, taking the upfront bonuses that the card offers, and then closing the account as soon as possible. If the card has an annual fee, it might mean getting any bonuses available before the annual fee has to be paid. The “churning” aspect is that you do this repeatedly, opening a large number of card accounts and then quickly closing them. Sometimes people even apply for and receive the exact same credit card multiple times.

It is easy to see the attraction is doing this. You essentially get something for nothing. Sometimes you don’t have to do anything to get nice reward bonuses, sometimes you only have to use the card for a nominal amount of charges, say $500, to get the bonus. You could be getting cash, you could be getting points, you could be getting airline miles. Once you have the bonus, close the card and move on to the next one. You can get a lot of free money and other perks this way.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

Hilton and Lyft announced a new partnership today that will allow Hilton Honors rewards members to earn Hilton points on their Lyft rides.

Specifically, you can earn:

• 3 Hilton points per dollar on standard Lyft rides
• 2 points per dollar on share Lyft rides

Winning a new car would be pretty exciting, right? Well, here’s a list of the latest sweepstakes & contests that give you that chance. Note that winning in these giveaways often means you’ll have to pay taxes on the estimated value of the car, so read the fine print! (Sweepstakes list is ordered based on the entry deadline.)

• HGTV Smart Home Sweepstakes (Includes New Mercedes-Benz GLE) – Enter up to twice daily until June 14, 2019. Drawing on or about June 19, 2019.
• Sheplers Ford F-150 Sweepstakes – In reality the Grand Prize is $12,000, which the sponsor considers to be the cost of a three-year Ford F-150 lease, which is actually something less than winning a truck. One entry per person maximum, by September 30, 2019. Drawing on October 5, 2019.

Below is a list of the 100 largest U.S. banks & thrifts by asset size (as of December 31, 2017). Note that some banks will actually appear twice due to their corporate structure (Chase, Capital One, others), even though they are part of the same company. Also, not every bank is a “retail bank” that serves consumers. Of note: each of the four largest United States banks is at least 3 times the size of any of the other banks on the list.

1. JPMorgan Chase Bank, National Association

2. Bank of America, National Association

3. Wells Fargo Bank, National Association

4. Citibank, National Association

5. U.S. Bank National Association

6. PNC Bank, National Association

7. Capital One, National Association

8. TD Bank, National Association

9. The Bank of New York Mellon

10. State Street Bank and Trust Company

11. Charles Schwab Bank

12. Branch Banking and Trust Company (BB&T)

13. SunTrust Bank

14. Goldman Sachs Bank USA

15. HSBC Bank USA, National Association

By ProudMoney.com Staff

Discover has been offering rotating 5% cash back categories on its Discover It card for some time now, and we’ve created this page to track current 5% categories, upcoming 5% categories, and a history of Discover 5% offers to see how today’s categories compare to what’s been offered in the past. Note that Discover offers 5% cash back on up to $1500 in combined purchases in the designated categories each quarter, and that you must “activate” each quarter in order to get the 5%. (You can activate online or call Discover if need be.) Purchases beyond $1500 (or any other card purchases) earn only 1%.

Current 5% Discover It Categories

• Discover It Current 5% Cash Back Categories (April 1, 2019 – June 30, 2019): 5% cash back at Gas Stations and on Uber & Lyft purchases.

The fine print on the current offer, via the Discover 5% Cashback Bonus Calendar: “Earn 5% Cashback Bonus at Gas Stations (stand-alone), Uber, and Lyft from 4/1/19 (or the date on which you activate 5%, whichever is later) through 6/30/19, on up to $1,500 in purchases. Purchases made at Gas Stations affiliated with supermarkets and supercenters may not be eligible. Purchases made through Uber Eats will not qualify. Purchases of Uber and Lyft gift cards may not be eligible. Certain digital wallet transactions qualify for 5%, for more information see Discover.com/digitalwallets. Purchases made using tap-and-pay, mobile or wireless card readers, virtual wallets or similar technology will not be eligible if the technology does not provide sufficient transaction details for rewards qualification. Rewards are added to your Cashback Bonus account within two billing periods. See Cashback Bonus Program Terms and Conditions for more information about your rewards.”

Upcoming 5% Discover It Categories

• Discover It 5% Categories for third quarter 2019 (July 1, 2019 – September 30, 2019): Restaurants and PayPal
• Discover It 5% Categories for fourth quarter 2019 (October 1, 2019 – December 31, 2019): Amazon.com, Target, and Walmart.com

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

My wife and I have sold two homes by owner (in Chicago and in Cleveland), without the help of a real estate agent. While I think agents can be helpful in some instances, we felt that both of our homes were desirable to a good number of buyers, making the sales likely to be fairly easy. We were right; both sold in less than two weeks.

Here are some tips based on our experience of successfully traveling the “For Sale By Owner” route, as well as some general home selling tips.

Preparing Your Home

Curb appeal is huge when it comes to selling a house. Remember that people want to picture themselves living in your house, so their first impression is extremely important. The nicer your house looks from the outside, the better. You can’t necessarily change the overall look of your home — it is what it is — but you can spruce it up through landscaping, a paint job (if applicable), fixing anything that is obviously broken, and un-cluttering porches or patios that can be seen from the road.

Inside, same thing. People want to picture themselves living in that home, not you. Obviously the house should be clean, but it should also be uncluttered. In particular:

• Don’t clutter the home with too much furniture and especially “knick knacks.” You may love to fill every square inch with stuff, but potential buyers want to see the actual home, not your Santa collection. In addition, I always remember one home we visited that had so much furniture you could barely move. They even had a sofa in the middle of the hallway!
• Continuing on the “less is more” theme, go easy on the photos and other wall art. I remember visiting one home that had pictures on every inch of the walls in every room — there’s wasn’t even space between the pictures, they overlapped! It was like a teen girl’s bulletin board in there. You love your family and your memories and your art, but if you’ve gone overboard, take some of it down while buyers are coming through.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

Holders of the Discover It credit card will be happy today as Discover is surprisingly enhancing its 5% cash back calendar and will now also be offering 5% cash back on purchases at Walmart.com, Target, and PayPal in the second half of 2019.

Specifically:

• In the third quarter (July 1 – September 30), Discover It cardholders will get 5% back on purchases via PayPal in addition to the 5% rebate on restaurant purchases previously announced.
• In the fourth quarter (October 1 – December 31), cardholders can 5% back on purchases at Walmart.com and Target (in store and online), in addition to the 5% rebate on Amazon.com purchases already announced.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

Marriott will launch a home-rental business to take on Airbnb, with initial details to be announced possibly as soon as next month, according to a new report from The Wall Street Journal.

Customers of the new business would earn Marriott Bonvoy rewards points when staying at these rentals, according to the report.

By Adam Jusko, ProudMoney.com, adam@proudmoney.com

Citi is offering to boost the cash-back percentage on its Citi Double Cash credit card to 2.5% (from 2%) for targeted customers who add a Citi Priority Banking Package that includes both a checking AND savings component. The 2.5% cash-back rate is good through 1/31/21, so almost two full years. (The 2.5% rebate comes as 1.5% when you purchase with your card, and 1% when you pay off your purchases.)

It’s a lot to ask for an extra half-percent reward on your credit card. You must open both a Citi consumer “checking account and a new consumer Citi Accelerate Savings account as an owner in The Citi Priority Account Package.” (The Citi Accelerate Savings account is a high-yield savings account offering 2.36% as of this writing.) While that’s already two different accounts to open, there’s also this to remember: