This is a cash back card that comes with no annual fee. This is something that is good to keep in mind as this is a card you could keep for the long haul. This card also comes with no foreign transaction fees, which is a selling point of all Capital One cards. This card also comes with a moderate sign-up bonus of $150 cash back bonus after spending $500 on purchases with the first 3 months of account opening.

Sign-Up Bonus tips

When it comes to the sign-up bonus there are a few things to consider. The first one is capital one includes language in their terms that suggests customers are only eligible for the sign-up bonus if they are a new customer. This is generally being applied to new accounts for a product. So, if you have never had the Savor One card before you should be okay. But bear in mind that the way the language is worded you could be at risk for not receiving the sign-up bonus.

More on not receiving a sign-up bonus. Some have complained that when they used the pre-qualify tool on capital one’s website and then approved they never received their sign-up bonus after meeting the requirements. Keep in mind these are complaints from disgruntled customers, so there may be more to the story. But just to play it safe I would recommend using the pre-qualifying tool and if it looks like you have a good shot at being approved either clear your cookies or open an incognito browser.

Savor One Categories

• 3% cash back on dining and entertainment
• 2% cash back at grocery stores
• 1% cash back on all other purchases

What is an Entertainment Purchase for Savor One?

According to Capital One and entertainment purchase is defined as a ticket purchase made at a movie theater, record store, video rental location, does not include streaming and subscription services. Tourist attraction, amusement park, aquarium, zoo, dance hall, billiard and pool establishment, bowling alley, professional sporting event, theatrical promoter, or concert promoter.

Ultimately if the merchant you are purchasing your entertainment from uses an entertainment code that Capital One determines falls under one of those categories, your purchase will earn you 3% cash back. Some restaurants and stores inside say a sporting arena may be coded as “food” or “merchandise”, respectively.

Interestingly, Capital One lists a few non-qualifying entertainment purchases that they don’t offer 3% cash back for. These would be purchases made at golf courses, country clubs (including membership fees), collegiate sporting events categorized as “universities”, charitable organizations that provide live entertainment, amusement park tickets purchased on third-party sites or on entertainment and resort packages categorized as “travel” or “hotel”.

What is a Dining Purchase with Savor One?

Like the entertainment category, it will mainly come down to how the merchant has set up codes for their business. But according to Capital One, you can expect purchases at restaurants, fast-food places, coffee shops, cafes, lounges, bakeries, bars and nightclubs to count towards Dining purchases.

You can see there are plenty of opportunities to earn that 3% cash back with the Capital One Savor One credit card. While the big brother, if you will to the Savor One card. The Savor card earns 4% on dining and entertainment it does come with a $95 annual fee (waived in year 1).

Earning on Groceries

While not game changing, this card does earn a respectable 2% cash back at the grocery store.  There is no cap to the amount of cash back that you can earn in any category, so that is a plus. But frankly there are better options out there when it comes to purchasing groceries. If you are willing to pay a $95 annual fee The Blue Cash Preferred Card from American Express offers 6% cash back at U.S. supermarkets on up to $6,000 in spending each year.

If you don’t want to pay an annual fee the Walmart Credit card and the Target Red card (both debit and credit versions) offer 5% back that you can use on grocery purchases.

SavorOne Earning Potential

One nice thing about the Capital One Savor One card is that there is no maximum to the amount of cash back you can spend. So if you spend a lot in entertainment and dining out you can rack up that cash back quickly. If you think you spend $10,000 or more you may want to consider the regular Savor card which has a $95 annual fee and you can earn 4% cash back in the dining and entertainment category. Also with no cap on earning potential.

Overall Thoughts

If you like eating out and not paying for an annual fee this very well might be the best option for you. The sign-up bonus is decent for a no annual fee card and you can even use this while travelling internationally. If you want a no annual fee credit card that earns 3X in more than just dining and entertainment. The Wells Fargo Propel card might be a better option for you.

The post Capital One Savor One Review | Deliciousness Straight to your Wallet appeared first on My Credit Card IQ.

The Wells Fargo Propel American Express credit card is quickly becoming one of the most popular credit cards around. For good reason too. In this post we will take a look at how this credit card earns and an amazing perk that more credit cards should offer.

Sign-Up Bonus

This card comes with an outstanding sign-up bonus for a no annual fee credit card. This card earns in points. So you will earn 20,000 points after only spending $1,000 in the first 3 months of account opening. Those 20,000 points are worth a cool $200. Which gives you a 20% return on your spend.

How The Wells Fargo Propel Earning Potential

• Earn 3x points on
  • Eating out and ordering in
  • Gas stations, rideshares, and transit
  • Flights, hotels, homestays, and car rentals
  • Popular streaming services
• Earn 1x points on other purchases
• No limit to the points you can earn
• Points never expire as long as your account is open

Wells Fargo Propel Unique Perk

This card had a benefit that more cards need to include. That is cell phone protection. All you have to do is pay you cell phone bill monthly with the Wells Fargo Propel Credit Card and you receive up to $600 cell phone protection per claim. This covers damage or theft of your cell phone. You must pay a $25 deductible towards the coverage of repairs or replacement of your original phone. No more than $1,200 can be covered in a 12 month period. 

The cell phone coverage goes into effect the 1st day of the calendar month following your first cell phone bill where you pay your cell phone bill.

The terms and conditions on the Wells Fargo website states that this benefit does not cover phones that are lost (i.e. disappear without explanation). It also does not apply to phones that are rented, borrowed, or received as part of a prepaid plan.

I would recommend keeping the receipt for your cell phone purchase incase it is asked for when making a claim. Also do the math to make sure the coverage makes sense over getting one with your cell phone carrier or cell phone company. With many of the hottest phones costing about $1,000 you may not get enough to cover the cost of that new phone of yours.

Additional Benefits

This card also comes with purchase and travel protections that includes:

• Lost luggage reimbursement
• Car rental loss and damage insurance
• Roadside assistance
• 24/7 travel and emergency assistance, and emergency cash advances
• Retail Protection
• Extended Warranty

Link to all the details of each coverage here as it has a lot of legal jargon that I don’t want to mis-represent.

Overall Thoughts

For a no annual fee credit card, the Wells Fargo Propel card is hard to beat. You earn 3X points in some pretty major categories as well as get a solid cell phone protection benefit. I think this card is a contender for the best no annual fee credit card and can definitely be a card that everyone should consider having for the long haul.

If you love cash back cards we bet you’ll love this card that gives 5X back on travel.

The post 9 Amazing Categories for the Wells Fargo Propel appeared first on My Credit Card IQ.

With the recent updates announced to the Chase Sapphire Reserve. A lot of credit card enthusiasts have been talking about changes. One of which involves Chase teaming up with Lyft. In this article we will look at how you can earn more on Lyft Rides with Chase. Particularly 10X ultimate rewards points per dollar spent beginning January 12, 2020.

I just found out by doing some reading on lyft.com that this perk is currently slated to last until March of 2022. But I also read about some other exciting information that applies across multiple Chase credit cards.

Chase Credit Cards that earn more with Lyft

Chase Sapphire Reserve: 

        10x total points on Lyft Rides 

        1 year of complimentary Lyft Pink membership per account (business profile is not eligible)

Chase Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire, Ink Preferred, and Ink Plus: 

        5x total points on Lyft Rides 

Chase Freedom, Student, and Unlimited: 

        5% total cash back on Lyft rides 

Chase Ink, Cash, Business, and Unlimited:

        5% total cash back on Lyft rides 

How to earn

Getting started is a breeze.

Step 1: Make sure you have the latest version of the Lyft app downloaded.

Step 2: Set your eligible Chase card as your default payment method.

Step 3: Earn on rides through March 2022.

Please note starting on Jan 12, you’ll be able to activate the Lyft Pink membership. Set your Chase Sapphire Reserve card as the default payment method in the Lyft app (not available for business profiles) by March 2022 and in-app messaging will guide eligible cardmembers through the complimentary enrollment.

How each Chase card earns with lyft

Without taking into consideration other benefits and only looking at the lyft multiplier we will do the math and see where the breakeven point is.

• Chase Sapphire Reserve

With the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you will earn 10X points which can be worth up to a 20% return. Since this benefit is only being added for Chase to up the annual fee by $100. We will use that amount as the breakeven point. You’d have to spend $500 on lyft each year to cover the cost of the $100 fee increase.

$500 X 20% = $100

• Chase Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire, Ink Preferred, and Ink Plus

With the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire, Ink Preferred, and Ink Plus cards all having a $95 annual fee and earning 5X points which can be worth up to a 10% return. You’d have to spend $950 on lyft each year to cover the cost of the $95 annual fee.

$950 x 10% = $95

• Chase Freedom, Student, and Unlimited and the Chase Ink, Cash, Business, and Unlimited

With the Chase Freedom, Student, and Unlimited cards and the Chase Ink, Cash, Business, and Unlimited cards you earn a flat 5% back. These cards have no annual fee. So there is no break even point here as you have no annual fee to cover. 

What is the best Chase Credit Card to use for lyft?

If you already have the Chase Sapphire Reserve and use Lyft on a regular basis you will probably benefit from keeping it to pay for your Lyft rides.

I think the sweet spot will be to use one of the credit cards with a $95 annual fee. The Chase Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire, Ink Preferred, and Ink Plus as these cards had no increase of the annual fee as of the writing of this article. 

If you have never used lyft before, you can get a free $5.00 credit by clicking here. 

Overall Thoughts

Chase teaming up with Lyft makes sense as a way to add perks that the competitor has.  American Express and Uber have teamed up a while back now. However for those with the Sapphire Preferred in their wallets, this change is pretty lackluster for most. For those with any of the other Chase credit cards mentioned, they will probably receive the most benefit since there is no extra charge attached. 

The post Chase Teaming up with Lyft | Earn with these cards appeared first on My Credit Card IQ.

What if I told you that you could get a buy one, get one on every plane ticket you purchased for the next two years. Would you be interested? Of course you would. It’s easier than you might think. But it does require a bit of planning, but it will be oh so worth it. In this article we will be looking at the Southwest Companion Pass and the best strategy to earn it.

What is the Southwest Companion Pass?

The Southwest Companion Pass allows you to choose one person to fly with you free, all you have to do is pay the taxes. (Which starts at $5.60 each way per person.) This works every time you purchase or redeem points for a flight. YES! You read that right. This even works with flights booked with points. How great is that?

How to earn the Southwest Companion Pass!

There are two ways to earn this golden ticket:

• Fly 100 one-way flights on Southwest in a calendar year

                                   OR

• Earn 125,000 rapid rewards points in a calendar year

Prior to October of 2019 it was only required to earn 110,000 rapid rewards points in a calendar year. Even though the points required has increased now is the perfect time to try and earn the Southwest Companion Pass. I discuss the best way to do this in this youtube video starting at about the 2:15 mark.

Ways to earn Rapid Rewards Points

One way is going to be by flying. You earn rapid rewards points each time you pay for a ticket. A second way is going to be by shopping and dining. You can do this by linking a credit card or debit card to you rapid rewards account. You earn extra points for purchases at participating restaurants and retailers. You can also use the shopping portal for extra points. Last and the way we will focus on is through credit cards and the signup bonus. This is by far the easiest and fastest way to earn The Southwest Companion Pass.

Best time to earn the Southwest Companion Pass?

The best time to obtain it is at the beginning of the year. You want all 125,000 rapid rewards points to hit that account in the same year. As of the writing of this article the date is January 9, 2020. This is an ideal time to get started. Why? Because you earn the companion pass for the remainder of the year in which it was earned and the following full calendar year. So you could get this amazing benefit for nearly a full two years if you plan accordingly. But no worries, I have done all of the homework for you.

Let’s talk strategy

We have already established that the easiest and fastest way to earn The Southwest Companion Pass is with credit cards. We will have to get two Southwest credit cards through Chase bank. Now keep in mind there is well known “rule” in the credit card game with Chase affectionately referred to as The Chase 5/24 “rule”. I use quotes because this isn’t something that Chase actually says exists. What this so called rule entails: If you have opened 5 or more new credit accounts with any bank within the last 24 months (some business cards may not count) you aren’t eligible for any Chase credit cards.

There are 5 different Southwest Credit cards. There are 3 personal versions and 2 business versions. You are only allowed to have 1 personal card. So to earn this you will have to open a personal Southwest credit card and 1 business Southwest credit card. If you sell products, goods, services, etc on any platform that is considered a business. But make sure to check the laws in you local area to make sure you qualify.

The three personal cards have annual fees that range from $69 up to $149. I highly recommend going with the Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority Credit Card which does have the highest annual fee at $149. But the value you get more than covers that fee. But from now until February 10, 2020 no matter which card you choose this strategy will work for you as you will earn 75,000 rapid rewards points. After you spend $5,000 within the first 6 months of account opening you will earn those 75,000 points. You earn it in a tiered way. Meaning you earn 40,000 of those points after only $1,000 of spending within the first 3 months of account opening and then you earn the additional 35,000 points after $5,000 of spending total within the first 6 months.

Now it is time to turn your attention to the business cards. There are two of them. At this time either card will help you obtain the needed amount of rapid rewards points so choose the best option for you.

• Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card: you will earn 70,000 points after spending $5,000 within the first 3 months of account opening. This card comes with a $199 annual fee.
• Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business Credit Card: you will earn 60,000 points after spending $3,000 within the first 3 months of account opening. This card comes with a $99 annual fee.

Are you keeping score?

So now you have spent $8,000 to $10,000 within a 6 month period and have earned at least 143,000 points. You also earned at least 1x point per dollar on $8,000. 

This has put you well over the needed 125,000 rapid rewards points to earn the coveted Southwest Companion Pass. Congratulations, you did it!

Want to know the best part?

Those 143,000 rapid rewards points you earned can still be used to redeem for flights. So get to earning and get to flying. The hardest part might be picking your next destination or maybe your companion to fly with?

The post Southwest Companion Pass | The Complete Guide appeared first on My Credit Card IQ.

This card is bringing it’s A game to the table and I expect it to be a real competitor in the 5% and 5X cash back credit card market. It is a rotating cash back credit card, so it puts it in the same category as the Discover IT card, Chase Freedom, and the U.S. Bank Cash + cards. In this post we will look at how this card earns, some of the perks it comes with, including a sign-up bonus, and of course the categories it earns 5X in.

What is a rotating cash back credit card?

The credit card issuer chooses a category or categories each quarter. For example, the 1st quarter of 2020 is January-March, The Discover IT card’s 5% categories are Grocery Stores, Walgreens and CVS. You earn 5% cash back on your first $1,500 of spending in each quarter in all categories combined. With a maximum earning potential of $75 each quarter. Any spend after the $1,500 and all spend outside of the category earns at a 1% cash back rate.

How to earn points?

The ABOC Platinum Rewards mastercard is no different in the way it earns. You earn 5X points per dollar spent on your first $1500 for all categories per quarter. For ABOC this is calculated at the base rate of 1X point per dollar spent and then an additional 4X points per dollar spent in the given category or categories. Any spend after the $1500 and all spend outside of the category earns at a 1X cash back rate. If you max out the quarters you will have earned $300 cash back without any extra effort on your part.

For any of the 1X cash back rate that you might spend on this card, there is no cap on the points you can earn and the points will never expire. Another thing I like about this card is that once you register your account with this new credit card you don’t have to activate or enroll in any of the quarters 5X bonuses, unlike the Discover IT, Chase Freedom and others. 

You can redeem your ABOC points on Travel, gift cards, merchandise, and cash back in the form of a statement credit. I suspect the Travel and cash back redemption options will be the best route. It will be interesting to see what kind of gift cards will be available. I’ll be sure to update you as new information is released. 

Easy Sign-Up Bonus

This credit card will have one of the easiest sign-up bonuses on the market. You only have to spend $1,200 in the first 90 days of account opening to receive a $150 statement credit. Which is a nice 12.5% return on your spend for purchases you were going to make anyway. The 90 days starts from the day you applied and were approved for the card and not when you receive the card. 

It’s a 5X Cash Back Travel Credit Card? Sorta…

Check out this new 5X #cashback #creditcard. You can even save on Travel, Unbelievable!
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This card has no foreign transaction fees, so you don’t have to worry if you use this card when traveling abroad or even making purchases with international merchants, Although I suspect you’d have a better card option in your wallet while traveling.

Let’s take a look at the categories. What I really like is that ABOC has released their 5X calendar for the whole year of 2020. They did the same in 2019. This is excellent for those of us in the credit card points, miles, and cash back community as it allows us to plan ahead so we can best optimize our credit card use.

At the outset of this post I stated that this 5X cash back credit card from ABOC Platinum Rewards Mastercard is bringing it’s A game and I truly believe that. All of the categories chosen for 2020 are on par with the big boys. The quarter where I think this card really shines is going to be in quarter 3 July-Sept. You will be able to earn 5X points back on travel. This includes airlines, hotels, car rental, and even travel agencies. 5X back on travel is hard to come by and almost never happens on a no annual fee credit card.

They had the same category in the same quarter in 2019. I think it would have been better at least from a consumer standpoint to have this category in the second quarter for 2020. Since most families are traveling during the summer months, most of these trips were planned and paid for prior to July. But I’ll still take it as an option because this is an amazing category to have available. 

Overall

I think for a no annual fee credit card that comes with an easy to reach sign-up bonus and plenty of fire power options when it comes to how to earn the 5X points, this card is a must add to your wallet. Having no foreign transaction fees is a nice addition too. I suspect it won’t be long before all credit cards do away with them. If you like an extra $300 every year then you should consider getting the ABOC Platinum Rewards Mastercard

The post New 5X Cash Back Credit Card appeared first on My Credit Card IQ.

When we travel, we are able to go to places that allow us to relax, have experiences that we wouldn’t otherwise have and experience cultures that enhance the way we view the world. All while making memories that we can revisit time and time again.

When it comes time to book a flight, a hotel or an Airbnb, getting a rental car, and the cost of food, traveling can be expensive. But, it doesn’t have to be! Whether you are looking to take the family on a Disney vacation or wanting to book a bungalow in the Maldives for a getaway you can save big by using points, miles, and cash back.

This is where Credit Cards come into play. Credit Card points are a great way to book travel for amazingly low costs and sometimes free travel. We at Credit Card IQ explore practical ways to use your everyday spending to earn those credit card points, miles,  and cash back so you can travel further for cheaper.

We focus on smart financial decisions and we always advocate for treating your credit card like a debit card. Don’t buy something if you don’t have the money in the bank, plain and simple.

So what are you waiting for? Start planning your next trip by reading a blog post or watching a video on our Youtube channel.

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