In my opinion, summer is the best time of the year. A chance to enjoy the sun (if you don’t live in California like me), take a vacation, or take advantage of the highest credit card sign up offers of the year. Chase, American Express, Barclays, and Citi have all introduced increased sign up offers this year to entice and lure customers away from their competition and make us credit card fanatics lick our lips. I’ll list here some of the best current credit card sign up offers that will be expiring soon and some of the ways to reach the spending requirements to receive those bonuses.
Chase:
Today is the last day to take advantage Chase Ink Bold & Plus Cards’ increased offer of 60,000 bonus points for signing up instead of the usual 50,000 points. As long as you sign up by today, you are eligible to receive the increased offer even if you don’t get approved right away. If your application is pending for review, I recommend you call Chase right away and make sure to have your card approved over the phone as the process can take weeks otherwise.
Increased 60,000 Point Sign Up Offer!
American Express:
American Express just increased the sign up offer for one of the best cards available in the market: The American Express Starwood Preferred Guest Card. Normally, this card carries a 25,000 point sign up bonus, but Amex increased the offer to 30,000 points for both the consumer and business cards. If you need a referral to receive the increased offer, please email me at theflymiler@gmail.com and I would be happy to send you one asap. This card is valuable for so many reasons, with amazing redemption value at the Starwood Hotel chains and the ability to transfer points to dozens of major airlines with a free 5,000 point bonus for every 20,000 points you transfer to an airline frequent flyer program. This offer will only last until 6/30, so take advantage now before it’s too late!
Increased 30,000 Point Sign Up Offer!
Citi:
The Citi Executive AAdvantage World Elite MasterCard is still carrying the unbelievable 100,000 point sign up bonus, when you spend $10,000 in 3 months. This offer includes a $200 statement credit after your first purchase to help offset the $450 annual fee, and you receive free access for you and your companion to the Admirals Club lounge, along with free checked bags for you and your companion as well. This offer has been around for a few months now, so if you’ve been thinking about getting this card, better to apply now before it’s too late.
100,000 Points for American Airlines!
Barclays:
Barclays increased the sign up offer for the Premier Miles & More Credit Card from 20,000 points to 50,000 points! Earn 20,000 points after your first purchase and an additional 30,000 points when you spend $5,000 in 3 months. Lufthansa has cheaper mileage redemption options for domestic flights within the United States and has an amazing premium cabin that you can put these 50,000 points towards.
The US Airways® Premier World MasterCard® is not slated to stay around too much longer. The card will most likely disappear in early 2015 when American Airlines and US Airways officially merge. Barclays improved the sign up offer for this card by receiving 40,000 points after your first purchase! So no need to worry about spending thousands of dollars in a short period of time for this one.
Meeting the Spending Requirements:
Every month, the spending limits for manufactured spending reset. So today being the 1st day of June, is a perfect day to send money using Amazon Payments or loading your Bluebird account with Visa Gift Cards.
Amazon Payments is a great way to spend $1,000 per month on your credit card without actually spending any money at all! Make sure you sign up and verify all of your bank account and personal information. This may take Amazon 2-3 days to confirm, and once your account is active, you can start sending friends or family who also have an approved Amazon Payments account $1,000 per month. You just need to add a credit card to your account and you’re allowed to send $1,000 every month. So technically, you can send a friend or family member $1,000 on May 31st, and then send another $1,000 on June 1st as those count as 2 separate months. Once completed, your friend or family member who received your $1,000 must withdraw that amount into their bank account and then send you $1,000 with their credit card, and you both get to spend $1,000 while receiving $1,000 into your bank account. It’s as easy as that!
Bluebird is a reloadable card from American Express that anyone can sign up for and is not a credit card and won’t count against your credit score. Once you receive the card in the mail and activate it, you can then load visa gift cards onto your Bluebird by visiting any Walmart money machine ATM and manually adding the amount to your card. You are allowed to load $1,000 per day up to $5,000 per month onto your card. You can then use your Bluebird to pay off any credit card bills and essentially use your gift cards to pay off the credit card you used to originally buy those gift cards! If you sign up for the Chase Ink card, make sure to buy Staples gift cards if you are looking to meet the $5,000 spending minimum and receive 5x points for your office supply store purchase!
Free points is in the summer air so take advantage now and fly free for the rest of the year!