Chase just dropped a Grenade. The 50,000 Ink Bold Changes Tomorrow!

Posted by Noob Master on Apr 17, 2012 in business credit cards, Capital One, Credit Cards, reconsideration, Ultimate Rewards, Uncategorized | 5 comments

Hide your kids, Hide your wife, Chase is dropping grenades all up in here.

Link: Ink Bold® Business Card 

(Disclaimer: I do receive a referral if you apply through my link; only use my link if you are satisfied with the service I provide.)

The Ink Bold earns very valuable Ultimate Rewards (same as the Sapphire Preferred) points and is a must have in my book. Read my full review of Ink Bold. I know many readers have already signed up for the Sapphire Preferred, so it makes sense to maximize your earnings by applying for the Ink Bold.

The minimum spend with my link (until 10 AM tomorrow) is just $5k in 3 months, but the new offer will change to 25k UR sign-up bonus and 25k more after you spend $10k in 3 months. If you’re considering the existing offer but the 5k spend still seems a little steep, there are some easy tips to help meet your minimum spend.

If you haven’t applied for a personal Chase rewards card in a while, I suggest applying for one along with the Ink Bold. You can get approved for your 2 Chase cards in one day if you haven’t applied for one in more than a couple months. Here are the personal cards I suggest pairing with the Ink Bold:

The  Chase Sapphire Preferred®  is still a great card and a couple Noob readers have reported being able to bump the bonus up to 50k by sending Chase a secure message. I can’t guarantee that Chase would do this for you, but it never hurts to ask. Read my full review for the Chase Sapphire.

The British Airways 100k Visa card has made a comeback. It’s actually 50k Avios miles on first spend, 25k Avios miles after spending $10k in 12 months, and another 25k Avios miles for spending an additional $25k in 12 months. This card really packs some value for people who live in or close to a One World hub, because you can book American Airlines flights with Avios points. Avios points are great for short hauls, but are not great for flights to Europe.

Now that we have squared away a couple of options for you to pair with the Ink Bold (if you haven’t already applied for a Chase card in the last couple months) let me give you a step-by step guide to applying for the Ink Bold.

Step 1- APPLY

[You Don't have to have a business to apply for the Ink Bold]

Pretty simple right? Just apply. If you are doing a personal app as well, then apply for the personal card FIRST.

If you are applying as a sole proprietor, use your S.S. instead of a tax EIN. Simple. Just be ready to explain your side business.

Step 2- Call the Reconsideration Line

You most likely won’t be instantly approved for your Ink Bold. Chase likes to talk things out with you, but don’t fret- it’s an easy process. If you aren’t familiar with the reconsideration phone call, read my post for more details and phone numbers.

The business reconsideration phone number is 800-453-9719.

If you get a Chase rep that doesn’t want to work with you, then politely hang up and try again. I have gotten reps that must’ve been having bad days and when I tried again with another rep, I was approved.

Be ready to answer questions like why you applied for the card. Talk about your upcoming business expenses (supplies, separate spending), but just don’t mention the sign-up bonus. Essentially, answering these questions is just a technicality. I had to do this for my Ink Bold, as well as my wife’s.

Earning Ultimate Rewards points is what’s it all about, so applying for the Ink Bold was a no brainer for our household. We love earning 5x-15x extra UR points per $1. Also, being able to transfer UR points into an assortment of travel programs and between personal accounts is a huge perk for us.

If your credit score can handle the inquiry, then think seriously about the Ink Bold. 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points is starting to be hard to come by.

As always, if  you any questions or would like to bounce some thoughts off of someone, don’t hesitate to email me. I don’t bite.

— Noob Master

100,000 Capital One Venture Card is back! Kind of.

Posted by Noob Master on Mar 8, 2012 in Capital One, Credit Cards, Uncategorized | 0 comments

They are who we thought they were.

The 100,000 Capital One Rewards card is back! Kinda, sorta. I blogged yesterday about the possibility of this years “match your mile” bonus being tied to travel credit card spending. We were right. Last year, Capital One matched your miles account balance. This year, things are a little different. You will receive a 2x point bonus up to $50,000 spent on ONE PERSONAL TRAVEL CREDIT CARD. For example, if you spent $30,000 on one credit card, you would receive 60,000 Capital One points. You will have to mail in your year ending credit card statement to make this happen.

Personally, I won’t be applying for this card because I spread my spending out over many different cards. If I did spend $50,000 on one credit card, I would take advantage of this deal. But only if I have spent $50,000 or close to it. This would be an easy $1,000 if I that were the case. I tend to use my Capital One points on gift cards or I have them write me a check. Capital One points aren’t my favorite, because you can”t transfer them into airline or hotel programs. You can redeem them for fights on Capital One’s website, but other cards offer miles with better redemption rates. I have blogged about my thoughts on the Capital One Venture card and Alec Baldwin before.

A big reason why I am always uber cautious of applying for a Capital One card is that they pull all 3 credit bureaus. I don’t like this at all. I value each hit on my credit and I prefer to spread them out. When I apply for credit cards, I try to hit all credit bureaus once on different cards. This isn’t always possible, but it’s ideal. It’s a great way to keep your credit score in good condition while racking up more miles. For example, during my last App Party, I applied for the Chase New Ink Bold (Experian), US Airways (Transunion), and the Citi AA Business card (Experian). Unfortunately for me, Citi and Chase both pull Experian in my area. So, I still got 3 hits, but I got 3 cards instead of just 1, and scored 140,000 miles instead of the max of 100,000 with the Capital One card. You can check on creditboards.com and see which credit report a bank pulls in your area.

Here are the bullet points from the terms and conditions with the Capital One Venture card:

• Promotional miles available only to new Venture card customers that meet the eligibility criteria and whose applications are received before the promotion ends. Only one entry per person and per account.
• Minimum purchase required. Customer must make at least $1,000 in total net purchases using the new Venture card within 90 days of account opening.
• Limited time offer. Supplies are limited. A maximum of one billion total Venture miles will be issued as part of the Double Miles Challenge program. The promotion will end when one billion miles have been given away or May 1, 2012, whichever comes first.
• Miles limits apply – maximum of 100,000 miles per account. Capital One will award 2 miles per dollar for up to $50,000 spent on purchases in 2011 on a single major US consumer travel credit card (Visa^®, MasterCard^®, American Express^®, Discover^® ). Spend on small business cards, debit cards, fleet cards, private label credit cards, corporate cards, prepaid cards and Capital One credit cards is not eligible.
• Registration and documentation required. Customers must obtain from the issuer of the eligible account and provide to Capital One a 2011 year-end summary as proof of yearly spend on the eligible account. A year-end summary is a summary of your annual transactions provided by your credit card issuer.
• Customers must have a valid email address and access to a year-end summary for the eligible account to participate. Approximately 7-14 days after approval, new Venture customers will receive registration instructions at the email address provided on the credit application. Once the email is sent, customers must register within 7 days and submit their documentation within 30 days. Registration and/or documentation submitted after these timeframes will not be accepted. Documentation must indicate that the eligible account was held in the name of the new Venture card customer, and must be submitted at one time.
• Miles are awarded within two (2) billing periods of when they are earned.
• New account holders that do not participate in the Double Miles Challenge program will be eligible for 10,000 bonus miles if they make at least $1,000 in total net purchases using the new Venture card within 90 days of account opening. Existing account holders that upgrade to Venture are not eligible for this bonus.

Man, that was a lot of t&c’s. If you have made it this far, then my final thoughts are… this is a good deal if you can get between 75,00-100.000 points. But beware, you will be putting 3 inquiries on your credit report, which could prevent you from taking advantage of other upcoming deals. I suggest joining the conversation here at Flyertalk.

I’m glad to see some 100,000 sign-up bonuses coming back, but I was hoping for a little better terms. Lets hope this is just the beginning of the 100,000 bonuses.

If you need some help deciding on a rewards card, give this blog entry a try or you can email me at noobtraveler@gmail.com.

— Noob Master

Are you really “making it rain money,” Jimmy?

Posted by admin on Feb 28, 2012 in Capital One, Chase Bank, Credit Cards, Uncategorized | 2 comments

I once called Alec Baldwin an Arse and a Liar?

Is Jimmy Fallon in the same category or is he “making it rain cash”? His words of non-sense, not mine.

In the latest Capital One video, Jimmy Fallon is pushing the Capital One cash back rewards card. With 50% more cash back! Can the supposed “50% more cash back!” be true, or is this just another attempt of a 30 Rock-er trying to get one by us.

And is it just me, or does anyone else want Tina Fey to push a card? I would apply.

Capital One Cash Back

The cash back card from Capital One does have some nice features, such as:

• 1% cash back on all purchases
• 50% bonus on the cash back you earn every year
• One-time bonus of $100 once you spend $500 in the first 3 months
• Purchase APR 0% intro APR until February 2013; 12.9%–20.9% variable APR after that

These are some pretty nice features. 1% cash back on all purchases isn’t bad and a 50% cash back on cash back earnings each year is pretty attractive. The one time bonus of $100 is a nice touch, and I do like the 0% APR for a year.

Chase Freedom

Let us now compare these benefits to the Freedom.

There are some great perks here as well. I really like the ability to earn 5% cash back on certain categories and the $200 sign-up bonus is better than the $100 you get with the Capital One cash rewards. Ahem.. Fallon.

Lorne Michaels isn’t here to help you now

One of the main reasons I would go with the Chase Freedom over the Capital One card is if you have the Chase Sapphire or Chase Ink Bold, you can transfer your Freedom cash back points into real Airline or Hotel points. That’s a perrrrk. IMHO, Chase Ultimate Rewards points are the most valuable, because you can transfer them into United, Continental, Southwest, British Airways, Korean, Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club, and Amtrak. So Valuable.

Also, Capital One is going to pull all THREE of your credit bureaus to approve you. That’s redic. I cherish the hard inquiries on my credit report and prefer to spread them out.

Noob Verdict

The Capital One cash back card does offer some good perks, but if you are serious about maximizing your spending and earning miles, the Chase Freedom wins. The Chase Freedom is a great card to start your miles earning lifestyle, especially if you have no credit and are trying to build credit history. And because it has no annual fee, you can keep it forever. However, if you do have some credit history and don’t have the Chase Sapphire Preferred®, I would suggest it over the Freedom. It comes with a 50,000 sign-up bonus, as opposed to the potential 20k points you would get as a bonus with the Freedom. You can read about its other perks in my review here.

So, my verdict is- Fallon is in the same bed as Baldwin. Except not as funny. Although the wife disagrees.

(I do receive a referral, but only click through my link if you are happy with the service I provide)

p.s. Fallon in Taxi – enough said

p.p.s Give me Conan

p.p.p.s If you like your friends and family, then share this with them

— admin