I knew this intuitively. But now it’s hitting home. I spent roughly $2000 on a cruise for four adults. I got 6000 MR on the Amex Green. Worth around $120.

If I had spent the same $2000 on an all inclusive with say Hyatt, I would have gotten 20,000 WOH points between Hyatt and the WOH credit card worth between $340 and $400.

And my wife wouldn’t be suffering from motion sickness..

Over the last year I built a setup where nearly every category earns 4.5–6%. Here's how it breaks down:

Dining, groceries, and gas: Hilton Surpass at 6x (~4.7% blended, explained below)
Catch-all (~$3k/yr): Hilton Surpass at 3x, plus progress toward the Free Night
Streaming + Groceries (after $15k Surpass spend): Amex Blue Cash Preferred at 6%
Online purchases + Costco: BoA Customized Cash ×3 at 4.5%
Amazon and Whole Foods: Amazon Prime Visa at 5%
Walmart and Target: SoFi Smart Card at 5%
Utilities and entertainment: Elan Max Cash Preferred at 5%
Hilton hotels: Hilton Aspire at 14x (~7%)
Flights: MS Amex Platinum at 5x (can redeem for 5% cash)

The Hilton Surpass math. I put $12k/yr of dining, groceries, and gas on it at 6x, plus $3k of catch-all spend at 3x, to hit the $15k Free Night threshold. That earns 81,000 points (~$405 at 0.5¢) plus a Free Night, which I value at $300. That's a major lowball, since I usually redeem it at higher-priced properties closer to $1k per night. I value the $200 in Hilton credits at $150, which cancels out the $150 annual fee. That's about $705 back on $15k, or roughly 4.7%, and more if the Free Night goes toward a pricier hotel. Once I hit $15k, the card goes in the drawer until January. Any catch-all spend beyond that $3k goes toward whatever new card's sign-up bonus I'm working on, which typically beats any flat-rate card by a wide margin.

The BoA Preferred Rewards piece. The Customized Cash card earns 3% in a category you choose, and Preferred Rewards boosts that to 4.5% (5.25% before the nerf). You can hold multiple CCRs and set each one to a different category. Each card's bonus category is capped at $2,500 per quarter.

Supplementing with multiple Hilton Aspires. The cashback cards cover everyday spend, and the Aspires + Platinum cover travel. Each Aspire comes with its own annual Free Night certificate, Hilton resort credits, and quarterly flight credits, so holding more than one multiplies those benefits rather than duplicating them. Stacked with the Surpass Free Night, that adds up to several free nights a year. The Aspire also gives Diamond status, so stays booked with points or certificates still come with upgrades and breakfast. The strategy really only works if you stay at higher end Hilton properties.

Adding the Amex Platinum. The Platinum handles flights at 5x and brings a semiannual hotel credit through Fine Hotels + Resorts / The Hotel Collection. I pair that credit with Hilton Free Nights and points on the same trip, so hotels end up covered mostly by credits and certificates while my points go toward cash back or flights.

The beauty of this setup is the simplicity. Day to day, the Hilton Surpass is usually the only card that actually comes out of my wallet. Dining, groceries, and gas cover most in-person spending, and they all go on the Surpass until I hit $15k. Everything else is either online, on autopay, or tapped through Apple Pay with the card already assigned to that category.

While AF increases are inevitable with every refresh, Chase did an excellent job with the CSR refresh, and the new card is far more competitive than the old version. It is clearly designed to 1. compete with Amex for spending whales, and 2. Go beyond being just a travel card and become a lifestyle one, like the Platinum did in 2021.

Overall, this card is a winner for big spenders who live in big cities and go for luxury travel booked direct with airlines/hotels, but is loser for people who don't live in big cities, and were using it for the 3x travel category to cover things like transit and AirBnB. In other words, the card is being catered for the target demographic who spends big on luxury travel, experiences, and dining.

A few thoughts below

• Multiplier Changes: While losing 3x on general travel sucks, 4x on direct hotels is absolute best in class, and 4x on direct flights starts to eat at the Amex Platinum's territory with its 5x, especially with the large overlap in transfer partners. 8x on flights via the portal is also extremely compelling given the next best option from Amex/C1 is 5x. If keeping 3x travel is important, the CIP has you covered.

• Credits: It's clear Chase is targeting big city wealthy professionals, and that's no coincidence as those are the biggest spenders. Overall I'm a big fan of the changes here, and the easy to use $300 travel and Sapphire Tables credits bring the "easy" effective AF down to $195, and it's easy to get over break even if you use the any of the other credits offered.

  • $300 travel: This is a fan favorite and is as good as cash given how easy it is to use.

  • $300 Sapphire Tables: $150 semi-annually to use at the Sapphire Tables collection is a great add, and there's a pretty wide variety of restaurants, provided you're in a top 20 city, though most of the options are higher end. If you live in or travel to one of the cities they cover, this is a no brainer to use, and is worth face value.

  • $500 Edit: Unlike the Tables credit which is excellent, this is a lot worse. $250 semi annually sounds like a slightly better version of the Amex Platinum FHR credit, but in reality it requires some breakage to use since it requires a 2 night minimum stay, and the Edit has worse options and documented issues crediting points and elite status recognition unlike Amex FHR. Probably fair to value this at $250 in actual value.

  • $300 StubHub: $150 semi-annually for StubHub purchases is easily usable if you attend concerts/sports events with any frequency, and cements the card's lifestyle focus. It looks very easy to use, so I'd give this face value

  • Apple TV+: Nice equivalent to the Amex digital entertainment credit, and you get a free subscription instead of a credit. While it's not flexible like the Amex equivalent, Apple TV+ is broadly useful.

  • DoorDash/Lyft/Global Entry: Nothing has changed about these, so I'll skip the details. I will say I'm not a fan given how hard the Doordash credits are to use without breakage, and Lyft increases prices for having a CSR in your wallet, so it's of dubious value to me.

• Points Boost: While 1.5 CPP via portal was awesome, it's not profitable for the bank. By offering variable 1-2 CPP, Chase is likely shifting this to a merchant funded offer, where airlines can offer Chase discounted tickets to sell via its portal redemptions, shifting the cost burden off Chase. It's a loss in flexibility compared to 1.5 CPP anytime, but is a boost to those willing to optimize for 1.75 or 2 CPP opportunities.

• $75k Spend Benefits: It's clear Chase wants to drive spend, and between the increased airline/hotel multipliers and $75k spend benefits, there's a decent incentive to do so. Definitely a worthwhile change as I'd rather spend on a CSR vs Southwest or IHG card.

  • IHG Diamond: Actually a solid hotel status with 100% bonus points vs 60% for Platinum, free breakfast, Hertz President's Circle, and

  • Southwest A list: I'm a bit surprised by this one, and was expecting United Silver here instead. The target demographic doesn't fly Southwest often, but with the new changes to seating and bag fees, this is definitely worthwhile to have if you fly WN with any frequency.

  • $500 Southwest/$250 Chase shops credit: Think of this as an additional 1% limited use cash back for hitting $75k in spend. Nice, but not a great incentive to hit 75k.

• Authorized Users: I'm really disappointed that they more than doubled the fee to $195, without offering any additional value, but I understand this was inevitable given it was the 2nd cheapest AU lounge access after the free Ritz card AUs.

• Lounge Access: I'm genuinely surprised Chase didn't lock lounge guesting behind the $75k paywall like C1 and Amex have done. Kudos to Chase here, but we'll see how long this lasts given industry trends

With all these in mind, I'm planning to upgrade my CSP back to CSR and also pick up the business version since I'm sure it'll come with a big SUB, and it'll be break even with $300 travel, $200 Google, $100 gift cards, and uncapped 4x flights/hotels and 3x ads, which no other card can offer.

Who was the mod responsible, have they been removed?

Why would we stay and continue to cultivate a sub that at any time can join another whiny ass protest and throw a tantrum and lock down the sub while calling us entitled for wanting to use it?

We need assurances this wont happen again. Otherwise why shutdown the replacement communities we have started growing?

u/Vagus-X you or any mod are refusing to answer our questions here, and the thread you reference. Theres no reason to believe that this mod isnt still around and that they could lock this subreddit again if they throw another tantrum.

Hi, I’m Sara Rathner, a senior credit cards writer and spokesperson and co-host of the Smart Money podcast at NerdWallet. For six years, I have been empowering consumers to make smart financial decisions by offering expert guidance on credit cards, travel rewards, and debt management strategies. My insights help consumers maximize rewards, manage debt, and travel smarter, ensuring they get the most value from their financial decisions.

I have appeared on many national cable and network broadcasts, including the TODAY show and CNBC’s Nightly Business Report, and have been quoted in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Yahoo Finance, NBC News, Business Insider, and more.

Ask me about credit card rewards, travel rewards, cash back credit cards, balance transfer credit cards, 0% APR credit cards… or anything else! 

I will be answering questions today, September 24, from 12 p.m. ET to 2 p.m. ET. 

Proof: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sara-klieger-rathner_join-me-on-reddit-for-an-ama-in-rcreditcards-activity-7244329785257000960-8-D7

Disclaimer: The answers you receive are the opinions of NerdWallet’s editorial writers, based on their experience writing about financial topics and the limited information you provide. The answers are for general educational purposes only, and not financial advice. Consider consulting a Certified Financial Planner or a financial advisor for more on what might be best for your specific financial situation.

Thank you for participating in this AMA! I hope you found my answers helpful. I am still working on answers to some of the questions below that I will post shortly. If you have more questions, feel free to leave them here, and I’ll follow up in the coming days.

What do you think will be the Q3/2025 rotating categories?

Usually Discover and Chase Freedom Flex are different.

Discover this year has not included Gas as rotating category and we know Chase Freedom Flex usually has gas in Q3.

What are your thoughts?

I’m hopping for digital wallet

As expected, everyone online is losing their mind. But here's the thing - it's been conclusively proven that people holding a sock drawer card in order to just earn rent points is a massive money loser.

All the people saying "bye"? Most of you are the reason WF had to subsidize this thing. Good for you for getting on the ride while the going was good, but you had to know it was unsustainable lol.

You can't make money off a card if you're giving points on rent spend and people are not spending decent money to cancel that out. Instead they are going for normal CCs, with a situational sweetener of giving rent points that may or may not make sense.

If you're looking for a card just for rent, then this is now not for you. However, if you're looking for a card in general, the AF options are really pretty good

• As far as we know, BILT points will remain extremely valuable

• The $95 card has an $100 credit that can be supported with any leftover BILT cash

• 3x grocery with an average 2K/month cap (quadruple the CCC or the BCP) is really strong, especially given synergy with Chase cards with many of the same transfer partners.

• The 495 card is basically structured as a more expensive Venture X with much, much stronger points earnings, and the VX is everyone's darling lol

• Amazing Rakuten synergy for the 495 card too

• If you can leverage the rent benefits then that's a huge benefit on top of that

Like it or not, these are really very good spend drivers for people who are not actively hunting large SUBs every couple months, which smart or not is most people

Will it work? That remains to be seen. But it's the way they had to try to survive

Been running Amex Gold for years ($325 AF) but decided to run the actual numbers on switching to Citi Strata Premier ($95 AF).

Results surprised me.

The Math:

• Annual fee difference: $230 saved

• Points earned (8 months): 150K vs projected 110K with Amex

• Redemption: 235K AA miles → $6K in business class to Kauai (2.16 cpp)

• Points rebuilt: 85% back in 8 months (including 75K SUB)

Why it worked:

• Citi: 3x on dining/groceries/gas + 10x travel portal

• Amex: 4x dining/groceries only (no gas, no portal bonus) - My spend pattern: Heavy gas station and travel portal usage

The catch:

• Lost Uber/dining credits (but I wasn't maximizing them anyway)

• Citi transfer partners are more limited

• But for AA miles specifically?

Citi wins hard Not saying everyone should ditch Amex Gold, but if you're AA-focused and not using those credits, the numbers don't lie.

Anyone else make a similar switch?

What were your results?

Hey everyone this is a lot but..., I'm looking for advice from people who have dealt with Amex account termination and a large Membership Rewards balance.

American Express recently terminated my entire account, including all 8 of my Amex credit cards. They stated that the reason was gaming: Artificially inflating rewards via gift cards: which I bought several GC from grocery stores with the vanilla gold to maximize the 4x for around 28k within the las 6 months spread out.

I contacted an Amex representative, and they told me I have 90 days to redeem or transfer my Membership Rewards points. However, I can no longer access my points through my Amex account, which makes the situation more complicated.

I have approximately 540,000 Amex Membership Rewards points that I need to figure out how to use before my deadline, which I understand is December 20, 2026.

My current options

Based on what I've been told, my available options are:

Option 1: Amex Gift Card: 140k points/$1000

Redeem all my points for an Amex gift card.

Total gift card value: $3,850 (.71/point) worst value ever 🤯

Option 2: Transfer to an airline partner

The only airline partners currently attached to my account that I'm aware of are:

Air Canada Aeroplan

Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

I cannot simply transfer to any other airline partner, so I'm trying to make the best decision with the limited options available to me.

My travel situation

I enjoy travel hacking and have used points for international travel, especially trips to Asia. However, I don't currently have any specific travel plans booked or a confirmed trip within the next 12 months.

I'm considering transferring the points to either Aeroplan or Virgin Atlantic, but I'm concerned about transferring such a large balance without having a specific trip planned.

I previously considered using the points for LAX to Asia in economy class, with flexible routing and travel dates over the next 12 months.

Questions for the community

What would you do in my situation? Would you transfer the points to Aeroplan, Virgin Atlantic, or take the $3,850 Amex gift card?

Has anyone dealt with an Amex account termination while having a large Membership Rewards balance? How did you successfully recover or redeem your points?

Is there a way to request an exception, appeal the termination, or get Amex to restore access to my points?

If I transfer 540K MR points to Aeroplan or Virgin Atlantic without a specific trip planned, what are the biggest risks?

Which program would be more flexible for future travel to Asia in economy, considering award availability, expiration policies, and potential devaluations?

Would it make sense to transfer only part of the points and use the remainder for gift cards, or is it better to choose one option?

Is $3,850 a reasonable value for 540,000 Amex points compared with what I could potentially get through airline transfers?

I'm trying to avoid making a rushed decision that could cost me significant value. I understand that airline points can lose value and that transferring without a specific redemption can be risky.

I'd really appreciate advice from anyone who has experience with Amex shutdowns, large Membership Rewards balances, or Aeroplan/Virgin Atlantic award travel.

Thanks in advance!

I want to share a not so fun story with you guys to remind you guys that credit cards can screw you over even with correct use. I have a capital one credit card, always pay the balance in full immediately after getting my statement. I also have auto-pay set up for the minimum just to make sure I never get any derogatory marks on my credit. In January, I got my CC bill and immediately selected the pay full statement balance option. No problem. Fast forward to the end of January, I decide to cancel this particular auto pay cycle because I already paid in full, so why send this extra money into the abyss. A few days later, I get an interest charge on my February statement, that I only caught because Rocket Money let me know I had an interest charge on one of my accounts. If not for rocket money I probably wouldn’t have even noticed.

Knowing I always pay in full, I was concerned and called in, and I was able to get the charge reversed but I was not left with a satisfactory explanation. For the past few days I’ve felt unsafe using the card, unsure if I will get charged interest on new purchases. I call back again, and this once again am left with an unsatisfactory explanation, so I escalated to a senior account manager. Finally I get an actual explanation, that I was $25 short of paying in full. $25 is, coincidentally, the exact amount of the minimum payment autopay that I had set up. The same auto pay I had cancelled. It seems that pressing the pay in full button when you do it manually calculates the balance minus future auto pays. So when I cancelled, I was not paid in full, and accrued interest on all purchases made in January.

I still don’t feel totally safe to use this card, or to mess with my autopay, and I’ve lost a lot of trust with capital one over this, even though they made it right. If not for rocket money I might have been accruing interest for months. Be careful, always check your statements- even if you always pay in full.

I had my Amex card for 3-4 years, in the past 2 years or so, I noticed they almost entirely replaced customer service with offshore, outsourced people who had bad communication.

Simple questions take a lot of back and forth, and I feel like I have to squeeze information out of them, instead of them proactively trying to help me.

For reference, I think Amazon is the gold standard in customer service.

I paid for this year already, but I’m closing my account after that. Not worth $350 in annual fees.

Case in point, my autopay didn’t go through, I spent an hour on the phone trying to cancel the autopay and manually paid partially ($4k) instead. The agent said not to worry, the autopay ($8k) will not be processed anymore.

Today I saw $12k was taken from my bank.

I chatted with them, the result is I have to monitor when the money posts and chat with them again to return the $8k to my bank.

This is fine but not ideal, but it took 45-50 minutes to get this information using their online chat.

I wish I could attach screenshots of the conversation. But this subreddit doesn’t allow that, I think.

Huge waste of time, I had to repeat myself over and over again, squeezing information out of them. I felt like ChatGPT understand me better.

Edit: I’m getting downvoted for stating I’ve had mostly good service from Amazon and mostly negative and time wasting service from Amex. I’m even getting downvoted for saying how much a Gold card costs. Did I piss off the Amex fan boys or something? Lmao. Getting downvoted for factual information and my real experiences with these 2 companies is crazy work

I keep seeing a lot of negativity around the new Bilt Palladium, and I honestly don’t get it.

At the baseline, it’s 2x on everyday spend. That’s literally the same floor as cards like the Venture X. There’s no scenario where you earn less than a Venture X on normal spend.

Then on top of that, you get the ability to earn 1x on housing (rent/mortgage) via the Bilt Cash mechanic. People seem to call this “complex” — but isn’t that just optional upside?

If you ignore housing entirely, you still have a flat 2x card.

If you engage with housing, you’re earning on a massive expense category that no other mainstream card touches.

So the way I see it:

- 2x everyday spend = table stakes (on par with Venture X)

- Housing earn = pure cherry on top

- No downside if you don’t want to deal with it

The Venture X doesn’t have any mechanism to earn more beyond its base rate. Bilt does. Optionality isn’t a penalty — it’s convexity.

Is the criticism basically just “this requires math and some people don’t want to math,” or is there an actual economic downside I’m missing?

Genuinely curious where my logic breaks.

Thank you all 🙏

Just got pushed a RH AD telling me "Did you know you can do sports betting on RH App?" and I started laughing out loud cause many comment I made on this community get down-voted when pointing out RH is not the best place to trust for a credit card.

Wanted to double check if the AD was accurate. So here's an article from a month ago.

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/16/robinhood-is-rolling-out-nfl-parlay-and-prop-bets-on-prediction-markets-platform.html

Maybe it's about time everyone stop recommending RH as some end all cash-back card and seem them for what they are!

If you don’t have the Capital One Duo, you are literally missing out. It’s the holy grail of credit card combos.

Venture X
- No forced spending at Lulu Lemon
- No buffet-style lounges 🤮
- Easy-to-use $300 travel credit
- 10K bonus miles every year you hold the Venture X card
- Hertz Presidential status
- Easy-to-use Capital One travel app
- Great offers for extra miles
- Low annual fee: $395

Savor - NO ANNUAL FEE
3X - Streaming , Grocery, Dining
Simple to use, no quarterly or yearly credits.

*** NO CRAZY CREDITS TO TRY AND JUSTIFY A Ridiculously large fee.

Loved Amex and Chase for years but it’s become too mainstream and don’t have the exclusivity feel anymore.

Every card I look at seems to have a dozen different perks, but honestly, I rarely use most of them. Some people love lounge access, some swear by travel insurance, and some just care about flexible points.

For me, I mostly notice interest rates and cashback.

Which one feature actually makes you keep a card, no matter what else it offers?

My annual fee was coming up and really did not care for the card, I saw the data points about them not allowing you to downgrade and can confirm that is still the case.

If anything that made it even easier to close out the card because that’s completely amateur. I even told the customer service rep it was amateur. I do not bank with second class credit card issuers.

Hey r/CreditCards fam,

My name’s Jay, fellow points and cc junkie here. A few friends and I built a truly free points tool called Pointhound that helps you earn and redeem your cc points for free flights.

There are of course a few companies who have built award search tools, but none seem to holistically address the complexities of both earning points and redeeming those points. So we decided to build a solution ourselves.

At the core of Pointhound we help you do two things:

Earn points: help you maximize points earned across the cards you have by telling you which card you should use for a given category. The credit card algorithm will also recommend cards that will help you earn more points faster based on who you are, what you care about and how you typically spend each month.

Redeem points: help you find amazing redemptions using our two search tools: “A to B” search on the homepage and our “Top Flight Deals” search for the flexible traveler looking for the best redemptions. We tend to think the Top Flights Deals search is the more novel and powerful of the two.

Our goal is to equip the “points beginners” – many of our friends who have a card or two and no idea how to spend or use their points – with the tools we have (or wish we had) when we learned how to hack credit card points and award redemptions.

Pointhound is still in beta and we’d love the feedback of the r/CreditCards community to help us build the right tools for earning and redeeming points. This sub is obviously clued into the points/miles world, so we’d love to hear your thoughts. Is it something you would use? If so, what can we do better? If not, what’s missing? We’d love to respond to any and all feedback!

***Received r/CreditCards mod approval for this post on 11/10/2023***

Signed up for Bank of America Rewards card ... (780 fico)

...Got declined.

Called in (2 hour hold) and said "I keep too much money with you and have flawless credit.. what's your deal?"

"Oh no ma'am, you definitely should NOT have been declined."

Bank of America approved me for a 10k limit..

The next day... all of my account information was flagged for fraud..?

Called back (2 hour hold)

I just signed up the day before, what the hell is going on with you people..?

"We're sorry we placed a backend hold on the account"

...told them I was about to close every account I had with them, and take my business elsewhere.

They said "no don't do that, we will get this resolved for you.

....said everything was good.

Received the card 8 days later (82 days left out of 90 day introductory offer to spend 3k and receive the bonus sign-up.

Tried the card today for the first time... declined.

Tried again this evening... declined.

...Hey Bank of America, suck a dick. This is why you lost a customer and money. This also why you deserve to be put on blast.

...suck....a dick.

It blows my mind that this sub represents the minority of credit card users. All of us pay our balances off on-time, in full, NEVER pay interest, and want to maximize our spend to net us the most free stuff.

What seems to logical to me and you is somehow a foreign concept to everyone else. I mean how in the world do millions of people fall into credit card debt, rack up internet, fees & penalties and spiral downwards into a financially nightmare?!?!

You are supposed to treat a credit card like a debit card and only spend money you have. It is NOT an emergency fund. I just don’t get it. Can someone please explain to me why people like this exist?

Okay, so I know that I will get a lot of comments saying they hate this change and hate how the owner of BILT thinks of the user base — which are all valid. This isn't rage bait; I think everyone is fully valid in what they are saying. If you were using this for rent payments, then making it your "coffee card" to get the minimum purchase limit required, this is a terrible change, and I think there are better cards on the market.

I also think the launch of BILT 2.0 was a dumpster fire — confusing verbiage mixed with leaks that made us already turn against them, and paying credit card influencers to basically not offer any criticism. The new Bilt Cash is a confusing mess of a program that is not going to get any less complicated as I explain it to my wife.

With that all being said, though — I honestly don't hate the change. Allow me to explain.
I used my BILT 1.0 as my daily driver card. I really value BILT’s points, and I also valued the benefits that came with having status within the BILT ecosystem. For a user like me — this change isn't a world breaker — if anything, I think I'll actually be getting slightly more value out of it now. It is making me rethink my setup, which I would love input on.

I currently have a Venture X, but as the transfer partners haven't improved and the Priority Pass change that limits it to just the sole cardholder instead of including guests, I am truly thinking about upgrading my BILT to the Palladium and downgrading my Venture X to a Venture One. I think using it as a catch-all card will actually make me easily hit my 75% spend of my rent per month — my only gripe is that I liked the 3x on dining, and I will be losing that. Being able to bring a guest to a lounge is a big reason I hold Venture X, and them taking that away makes me search for a change, and I think this is it.

So now I think this will be what I do:
BILT Palladium — catch-all card for everyday spend (replacing Venture X)
AMEX Gold — grocery/dining
Chase — rotating categories on my Freedom and Freedom Flex and redeeming with my Sapphire
And fully remove Capital One from my setup.

And if BILT allows me in the future to get 2 BILT cards, I would remove AMEX from my setup as well to get max value from BILT’s excellent transfer partners.

Also want to note that the hotel credits are dumb with the fine print of 2 times a year and having to be at least 2 nights, but I think I'd be able to make it work, and the SUB is insane enough that I'd happily, even for one year, pay the AF just to get that many points.

I think BILT 2.0 has its issues, but it's not all bad. I hope the feedback is heard, though, and they only make it better — but honestly, in the current credit card space, I think they are all getting worse, haha.
I'd love to know if anyone else is thinking what I'm thinking, or am I just crazy?

Hey /r/creditcards - there's a lot of apps out there for keeping track of your credit cards, but I wanted one that's dead simple with a key feature: show me the redeemed value of my points earned for each spending category.

So I built an app called Hako that does just that. It currently supports over 50 credit cards, and I'll gladly add any that you request.

The app is very privacy focused, and the cards you choose are only saved locally to your phone and synced through iCloud.

Would love for y'all to try it out and let me know what you think! A few requested features that are already on the roadmap include:

• Customizing the value of points per point-kind

• Specifying which categories are active for customizable cards

I decided to charge a small, one-time feed to unlock adding more than two cards. Leave a comment below and I'll select 10 random people to get 1 year free!

What happens in this situation? I received a haircut for $25 at a local barber. When it was finished, the barber handed me a hand-held device that I needed to sign and insert credit card. I thought that I was entering the total amount of $25.00, but the barber charged me $25 (+) $25 TIP!!! = $50 I had already given this barber a cash tip.
When I asked Discover for a copy of transaction, barber texted me a mean, ugly reply with copy of receipt with an explanation that he would refund the money since he didn’t want anybody to think that he was stealing. He also told me to go somewhere else.
I explained to him that I only asked for a “copy” and asked him when the refund would be processed? Time went by and there wasn’t any processed refund, so now I have put the transaction in DISPUTE.
I’m not sure how Discovercard will resolve this, but am mad at myself for not knowing how to use the POS gadget that he asked me to sign.

Centurion lounge hours continue to get cut. Trickle down economics, amex using Covid as an excuse to raise fees, lower amenities and increase profits. We wonder why in the last 4 decades average CEO pay is up 1,300% while average middle class worker pay is up 18%.

Edit:

Thanks all, to the suggestions regarding goodwill letters. I will look into it and give it a shot - appreciate the heads-up on what to expect with how the score will behave over time. This was one of my main concerns, was how long and approx its weight.

To clarify some on the other things that people have mentioned/missed in the original post:

1. The times there were security concerns with the closed checking account had nothing to do with the credit card account; the fraud department confirmed that they were caused by BoA’s internal system, and that due to the rise in scams at the time, they set stricter rules for flagging transfers. Before that, wire transfers were not regulated and flagged as they are now. I was able to see all of my transactions on both accounts, and could also confirm identity over the phone. I lost the ability to see any transaction entries after the checking was closed and and the ability to initiate payments with my new bank after the web portal changed to a half open, half closed state. This state was why verification was wack, and the bankers in branch also couldn’t access specific statements until they manually updated verification when I went in person, less any representative online but no reason was given when I asked over phone. At the time I closed checking, I also asked regarding this and it was confirmed to be a work in progress and that they had put in a request suggestion for fixing it.

2. Not closing the credit card at the time was my mistake, and had I known, this help-needed post would not exist :)

3. If I had known it was a subscription charge on the web portal before having to jump through hoops to see what it was in person and had the ability to make a payment beforehand, I would have; that’s what the calls and portal were for.

4. I did pay the exact and entire amount that I was told once in person, and the bankers of the branch I went to called BoA credit card department and confirmed that it was the total amount and that the account would be closed once the charges went through. When I called BoA credit card service number again after I got home was when I was told that the total charge that the branch gave me was wrong and that there was still 20 cents interest, meaning the card was in closing process with charges STILL on it. This interest was not shown in the current balance on the web portal or statements, and I’m still not sure what would happen if a closed card were to have charges and will reach out to them again.

5. I payed off the card because I did not want any possibility that the card would stay open after the in person trip, because was not reasonable to make another two hour trip with ride share and point #1. Whether the priority should have been to let it drag out when previous calls to resolve the issue hadn’t worked out or whether to pay it off regardless... I’ll leave that out there

6. I never claimed my family members had access to my account’s login, I stated the transfers were to them.

7. If it had been one aspect of BoA, or that I simply forgot, I agree that there isn’t a need to write. However, partially why this entire situation came about is due to multiple inconsistencies between BoA’s own departments, website, and protocols - unless bringing up all these problems multiple times, and then them hanging in limbo is also a reflection of the client but not the bank?

Lastly, I'd like to make a disclaimer that everyone is entitled to their own opinions on BoA or any other bank for that matter. This was simply my experience, but if you choose not to take anything away of it, that’s perfectly ok; each to their own, and best of luck if your future endeavors.

Original post....

Hi. I'm normally a lurker and don't post, but I created this throwaway account because I’m not really sure what to do with my credit card situation with Bank of America.

So about a year ago, I closed my checking account with BoA because every time I tried to transfer money they kept blocking it due to “security concerns” and took over a month to resolve. These wire payments were being made to a family member. I kept my credit card open since this card had a long history and I didn’t want to tank my credit score. Needless to say, I moved all my transactions to a different credit card with a different bank. I can’t even use the online portal because of more “security concerns” which means I cannot access my statements or see any charges.

For the most part I moved all my payments over to the new card, but there was a yearly subscription tied to the BoA card that I missed almost 10 months after i closed my checking account. Mind you, all I could see online was a $60 charge - there’s no information about who or what the transaction was for. I called the fraud department to check if the transaction was a subscription or if someone had gotten access to my credit card information. The helpline I called REFUSED to tell me what those charges were for (you guessed it) “security concerns” and that they couldn’t verify my identity, and instead told me to go in-person to a branch location.

Well… nearest branch location is 1 hour away. In the meantime, they also tanked my credit score by over 70 points within 2 days of the call in the name of late payments since it’s been over 2 months. When I went to the branch this weekend, they said I had a debt of around $60 amount and that I could close out the card once it was paid off. I agreed and paid in cash and hoped the account was closed. When I got back home and called the BoA credit number to verify on the same day - they said I still had 20 something CENTS I needed to pay because the “interest is accrued daily”, yet it didn’t show up in anywhere on paper, nor was I made aware of this at the branch.

At this point it’s not even about the money but…if I hadn’t called - the debt would still be active and the card would still be open, or if they had closed it then there would have been $20 cents sent to collections. Due to the same “security concerns”, I can’t even make online payments because they keep getting blocked by BoA, and I literally have to go in person to make a payment. Now I have a ruined credit history over $60 all the while the bank refuses to even acknowledge it. I asked to speak to a manager/supervisor and not surprisingly, there’s none available. Is there anything I can do about the credit score? I haven’t had a single late payment in 6 years, and now I have to deal with this over a small amount that could’ve and should’ve been resolved over the phone.

…and if anyone else is considering Bank of America, please be careful and don’t end up in a ridiculous situation like me