$200 bonus for Total Rewards credit card

Got this email from cet:
Our exclusive offer to you as one of our most valuable Total Rewards members! (hahahaha- I'm thinking EVERYONE with a players card got this email.)

last year, cet has been spamming their 10000 reward credit bonus ($100) for opening a TR credit card.
but you gotta spend like $750 in the 1st 3months to get that.

now it's 20000 rc bonus ($200) but:
-Spend $750 outside of Total Rewards resorts and casinos and earn the standard 10,000 Reward Credit bonus
-Spend another $1,000 (for a total of $1,750) outside of Total Rewards resorts and casinos and earn your exclusive offer of 10,000 additional Reward Credits, to bring your grand total to 20,000 Reward Credits!

basically spend $1750 in 3months to get $200 in food/hotel comps.

sucks for those bit and applied last year.
good for procrastinators, I guess.

I don't like the trend of spend requirements going up for credit card signup bonuses. I guess it's inevitable. Not an issue for people good at manufactured spend.

I was just talking about these types of offers this morning.

That's a lot of money for some people to put on a credit card. I don't have that many expenses, to be honest. At least, not ones that would make sense to pay by CC.

They are trying to get people to move this new card into a "front of wallet" position, habitually spending. A very competitive field, Credit Cards are. It's helped banks build the biggest buildings in every major city in the US.

If you have the discipline to pay things off every month, go for it. Otherwise, that $200 cash will disappear in interest rates and possibly an annual fee.

Don't forget it's a 20,000 reward credit ($200) bonus in addition to the 5x, 3x, 2x, 1x reward credits you get for using the card as well. So at a MINIMUM you should get another $20 or so just for using the card.

It's not too bad, but yeah it's pretty stupid they want you to spend almost $2k in 3 months on their card just to give you a little kick back. If I could pay rent by CC I'd think about it... Always written a check.

Yes, btw, your "exclusive" offer went out to a very wide array of TR members =P.

Quote: Romes

Don't forget it's a 20,000 reward credit ($200) bonus in addition to the 5x, 3x, 2x, 1x reward credits you get for using the card as well. So at a MINIMUM you should get another $20 or so just for using the card.

It's not too bad, but yeah it's pretty stupid they want you to spend almost $2k in 3 months on their card just to give you a little kick back. If I could pay rent by CC I'd think about it... Always written a check.

Yes, btw, your "exclusive" offer went out to a very wide array of TR members =P.

I put all my spending, all bills, on a credit card. $2,000 in 3 months is a piece of cake.
My ex wife is a master at using these intro bonuses. She usually gets 50000 air miles for something like $2000 over first three months, then moves on to a new card when she hits the minimum, and will cancel the card before she has to ever pay a fee, which is usually "first year no fee".

That's something that's on my agenda to look up. CC's that give you a lot of airline miles. Any tips on specific cards to start with?

Quote: Romes

That's something that's on my agenda to look up. CC's that give you a lot of airline miles. Any tips on specific cards to start with?

It depends on what airlines you would actually fly on. I get United and Delta offers almost daily. Southwest too. For me the bulk of my flying that is not paid by my job is to Vegas, and Southwest is the only airline with nonstops, so that is my main card. I have the TR card because for me it was worth getting the $100, and at the time also waived resort fees for being Platinum automatically (I only gamble enough to be gold), and separate check in areas, and 5% back at TR properties. I believe after March 31 I will no longer be Platinum due to my card, so will stop using it.

If you want to "AP" the credit cards, you must be vigilant to cancel before the yearly fees kick in, and thus 'rotate' the cards. But if you accumulate miles on an airline that is inconvenient to fly on, it might not be worth it. Most airlines have expiration dates on these miles if you are no longer using their credit card, and that date can be as little as a year from when you earned them.

I'm guessing if my ex spends 40k a year on credit cards she is getting at least 500,000 miles or the equivalent.

Nice explanation..
Thanks SooPoo.

I used to buy Visa gift cards, or frontload all of my gas expenses by getting a Chevron gift card. Collect bonus, rinse and repeat.

Hard pulls are worth $500+ unless you've exhausted all other options. There are at least half dozen cash equivalents out there.

You've got cash equivalents like the Citi Premier/Prestige. You probably end up with about 110k points after completing both minimum spends. This is worth $1760 on AA flights and $1460 on any other airline. Fee is waived for Premier and you get enough travel credit back on the Prestige for it not to matter (it's an annual fee of $450 with two calendar-year $250 travel credits).

You've also got legit miles, like American's card gives 50k. I recommend you do not mess with airline miles unless you're willing to put in the time, it's all a game and the game has been tightening up for a decade now. With that said, I have a round trip business class flight to London over the 4th of July and I'm planning first class to Australia/Japan in 2017.

If anyone here is learning about this, feel free to PM me, I've been knee-deep for the past year.

I forgot to say, there are dozens of sites with information. Reddit's churning site is fine, Flyertalk is best but a good portion are a-holes. There are a bunch of blogs out there, but they get paid if you click on their CC link, so some can be a little biased.

Did flyertalk change their format at some recent point. I was never into the milage runs but I thought about trying it. I went to their forum and it seemed different than I remember and I had a tough time navigating it.

Your point about $500 per card is valid but not all of us have 3k (or whatever some of them are) to spend through. When I did my last card I was going to get one of those big boys but I couldn't figure out how to spend 3k and nor pay interest on it.

Quote: GWAE

Your point about $500 per card is valid but not all of us have 3k (or whatever some of them are) to spend through. When I did my last card I was going to get one of those big boys but I couldn't figure out how to spend 3k and nor pay interest on it.

I've only been... sorta on Flyertalk (same username, a few stupid questions) for a year, but I think it's been the same the whole time.

You are correct about the spend aspect, it's something that gets ignored in the "circles" because so many people there are willing to manufacture their spend. I'd still recommend it if you have to make a big purchase, it's a pretty straighforward way to get 20-25% back on something you're buying with a CC (as in, big purchase + daily spend for three months).

In other news, Mike Tyson was on my flight tonight. We started our descent and my neighbor asked this guy across the aisle for a picture after we landed. This was a four hour flight and 30 minutes from landing I realized that Mike fucking Tyson is sitting across from me (I was 2A, he was 2F). He was really nice, took like three pictures, then put on a hat that covered his face tattoo and blended in. I would have loved a picture, but it was obvious he didn't like it and just wanted to get on with his business.

Quote: SOOPOO

Southwest too. For me the bulk of my flying that is not paid by my job is to Vegas, and Southwest is the only airline with nonstops, so that is my main card.

Romes:

I collected the SWA CC miles bonus recently. I was frustrated that they had ridiculously limited seats available one time for an entire month, but when I called the Customer Care #, they booked what I wanted for me using the points. Lately though, I have NOT seen competitive fares on Southwest to LV.

For my gasoline purchases, I have a 5 % rebate card good at any gas station (First National Bank of Omaha). My bank has a 1.8 % card for regular purchases.

Quote: Romes

That's something that's on my agenda to look up. CC's that give you a lot of airline miles. Any tips on specific cards to start with?

I'm very happy with my rewards from my Credit Union Visa. You send them the itinerary/receipt (by fax or email) and they send you a check. Any airline. Any time. Been doing it almost 20 years.