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

The Very Latest:

• VIDEO: New Southwest Performance Business Card Review – Including an 80,000-point bonus offer! (June 20)

Still New & Exciting:

• VIDEO: Chase Freedom 3rd Quarter 5% Categories Announced – It’s gas stations and (most) major streaming services. (June 13)
• VIDEO: New Marriott Bonvoy Bold Credit Card Review – Marriott & Chase launch a no-annual-fee Marriott card. Is it worth getting? (June 11)
• VIDEO: Chase Freedom Student Card Review – Chase’s new student credit is a bit different than its general-market credit cards, but it could be right for some college students. (June 10)
• American Express Platinum 70,000-Point Bonus Publicly Available – Usually 60,000 after $5000. YMMV. (June 7)
• VIDEO: Rose Gold is Back on the American Express Gold Card – Limited edition version of the Gold card will be available for about six weeks. (June 5)
• VIDEO: Earn Delta SkyMiles on Ticketmaster Purchases – If you’re forced to use Ticketmaster, you might as well earn some extra airline miles from it. (June 4)
• American Express Gold to Now Earn 4X Points on International Restaurants, Too – Until now it’s only been 4 points per dollar on U.S. restaurants, but that is changing. Via The Points Guy. (June 4)
• Sonesta World MasterCard Launches – Growing (but still small) hotel chain launches its own credit card. (June 4)

Updated June 13, 2019 – If you’ve ever been pitched on opening a new credit card at a retail store while making a purchase, you know that some stores are more than happy to give you instant credit — you apply on the spot, get approved, and you can use the card immediately. Below we offer a list of such cards, including regular bank credit cards as well as retail credit cards. Apply online and get shopping today. (Note that instant approval is not guaranteed.)

• American Express Cards – Most American Express credit cards and charge cards now offer the possibility of an “Instant Card Number” upon approval. Your “eligibility is based on our ability to instantly validate your identity.” If you are eligible, you’ll get an Instant Card Number that you can use even before you have the physical card in hand. Note, however, that you may not be able to access your card’s complete credit line instantly.
• PayPal Cashback Mastercard – One of our very favorite credit cards on the market also lets you use your card today if you are approved instantly. Here’s the language they use to describe the process: “If you’re approved, in most cases, a temporary credit line will instantly be added to your PayPal account and you can start using it on PayPal right away – – even before you receive your card.” Beyond the instant approval, this card gives you a 2% rebate on everything you buy with it — which is the top of the market for cash-back cards with a flat rate on all purchases.

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

American Express has boosted the bonus on its flagship Platinum Card to 70,000 points after $5000 in spend within the first three months.

While this card has offered greater bonuses from time to time in the past, the publicly-available offer has generally been 60,000 points after $5000 in spend for the first half of 2019.

What is Chase Ultimate Rewards?

Chase Ultimate Rewards is the points program used by every Chase-branded rewards credit card, including the Chase Freedom and Freedom Unlimited, the Chase Sapphire credit cards, and also Chase small business credit cards.

You’ll notice that even the Chase credit cards that are marketed as “cash back” are in reality giving you Ultimate Rewards points equivalent in value to cash. For example, the Chase Freedom Unlimited is marketed as a 1.5% cash back card. In reality, you are getting 1.5 points per dollar with the card, and those points can be converted to cash at a penny per point, which equals the 1.5% shown in the card’s marketing. Chase is not being deceptive, however. By using this points system, you actually have more options to redeem your rewards.

How much are Chase Ultimate Rewards points worth?

In most cases, as alluded to above, Chase Ultimate Rewards points are worth a penny each. For example, 10,000 points = $100 in rewards.

There are some exceptions, though. In particular, you will probably want to know about the enhanced value of points that certain cards give if you redeem them for travel through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. (You must go through Chase’s travel portal to get the enhanced rate.) The three Chase-branded cards that have an annual fee offer this enhanced value for travel:

• If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card, your points are worth 50% more when redeemed for travel. In this case, 10,000 points equals $150 in travel value.
• If you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card, your points are worth 25% more when redeemed for travel. In this case, 10,000 points equals $125 in travel value.
• If you have the Chase Ink Business Preferred Card, your points are worth 25% more when redeemed for travel. Again, 10,000 points equals $125 in travel value.

June 5, 2019 Update: Added Wikimedia as a potential source of remote, at-home jobs.

If we were looking for an opportunity to work from home, these are the 15 opportunities we’d tackle first. All are legitimate stay-at-home work jobs, and this site does not receive any compensation if you choose to work with one of them. (See also: How To Make Money Without A “Regular” Job)

• Enterprise – The well-known car rental company often hires at-home customer service representatives and reservation agents who work with Enterprise customers by telephone.
• TTEC (TeleTech) – Offers work-at-home customer service opportunities. From their site: “As a TTEC@Home associate, you’ll use TeleTech’s proprietary technology to support and assist customers with a variety of customer service and technical needs. This could include helping customers over the phone, via chat, or on social media. Best of all, you can do it all while wearing your slippers or flip flops! (To get started, you’ll need internet access and a home phone.)”
• U-Haul – Employs at-home customer service representatives helping U-Haul customers by phone. These work-at-home opportunities come and go, so keep trying. (After clicking through, search “home” in the job listings to narrow the jobs down to home work opportunities. Last we looked there were a handful of opportunities.)

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