Banks Pull Back Credit Card Rewards, New Citi Rewards+ Card, IHG Rewards Free Nights, Gun Violence Atlas

We bring you news how the banks pull back credit card rewards, meet the new Citi Rewards+ card, register for the new IHG Rewards Free Nights promotion, check out a US Gun Violence Atlas, more sad news of devaluations from AA and Singapore, some airline shopping promos, check out some amazing photos as usual, a must read investing tweetstorm, learn amazing stuff you can do with your smartphone, learn which countries pay the most and less for Netflix, we go into detail about the latest mass media article regarding our hobby and more!

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Friendly reminder that the Hyatt and Southwest cards for 60,000 points expire January 9 (or is it January 8?). You can support the blog by applying with my links, no yellow arrows needed. Thanks!

Stop the presses, we have a NEW rewards credit card. By Citibank. It is called Rewards+. No annual fee, it rounds up Thank You points to the nearest 10. I lost interest when I made it to the 15k signup bonus part lol. I am sure some bloggers will make it sound like the best card rivaling the Chase Sapphire Preferred for the sales commission. Citi has fallen way behind the competition, sad to see! Looking at my links to see if this baby is available so I can queue up my “69 reasons I love the Citi Rewards+ card” type posts (lol), I did see that the Citi Business AAdvantage Platinum Select World Mastercard is available for 70k miles still!

Register for the new IHG Rewards Free Nights Faster promotion. Which is like the same old Accelerate type promos they have been doing for…ever!

More devaluations from American Airlines and Singapore Airlines. Soooo, what’s new?

Some online shopping promos from American, United, and Alaska.

RIP Herb! S​outhwest Co-Founder Herb Kelleher Dies, Leaving a Legacy That Changed Airlines Forever.

Living in Ann Arbor in the middle of a new hotel bubble….We have another one! Home2Suites by Hilton is coming to the Briarwood mall corridor.

The Top 10 Pictures of 2018 at Andy’s Travel Blog.

This is helpful: 21 Hidden Smartphone Superpowers. I had no idea we can do some of this stuff. Talk about being more addicted to these machines…

I am sorry to report to you guys that them sex robots trend is just not happening. According to The 9 Most Important Sex Trends that is :)<—-evil smile. I keep you updated with all that matters. I am going to get an affiliate relationship with CBD lubes and 3D printed sextoy companies (see trend #9) next, where is that blog marketing intern to work for free and…samples hey? Woohoo…Oh wait! I had no idea that the first sexrobot was conceived in ancient Greece! Where would you read stuff like this huh? You never get bored in TBBLand 🙂

Lots of interesting data on this article: Which countries pay the most and least for Netflix?

A brilliant twitter storm about investing and being disciplined with it. Must read if you are interested in the subject. Jim is great to follow on Twitter, I steal many of his gifs lol!

An Atlas of American Gun Violence. Scary! Enter your location and…weep.

 

That Lofoten place in Norway is so picturesque!

Panoramic Photographs by Peter Li Bring an Otherworldly Perspective to the Architectural Symmetry of Churches  These are mind blowing photographs by Peter Li, WOW!

I need to slow down but I can’t…I am addicted to the 27 cents my blog made yesterday, sad! But when I divert a credit card click from The Points Guy—–>Bliss!

Seriously though, this is my busiest stretch in my day job, quarter and year end coming together. And the market is not helping out either. But it comes with the territory. I am also preoccupied with my mother’s developments back in Greece. As we speak she is settling into the best retirement care home in Larisa…as a trial period. It is her first day today and we shall see how it goes…

Entering Blog Buzz territory for the advanced miles and points addicts…

Mile Nerd continues his farewell tour, here is Post #3. Giving some advice to aspiring bloggers about finding your voice. And of course the huge importance of you the blog readers in all of this! And this is Post #4, which almost brought tears to my beautiful eyes. We are going to miss this guy!

This is why the changes in the Singapore Airlines Krisflyer program mentioned in the beginning of the post SUCK!

Another mass media article about what we do. This one from the Wall Street Journal titled: Rewards Credit Card Gained a Fanatic Following – Now Banks Are Pulling Back. Reading it made me cry as it confirmed my depressed outlook, sad!

Consumers have figured out how to game the system, spending just enough to earn generous sign-up bonuses—then abandoning the cards in a drawer. Others pay their bills in full and avoid interest charges and late fees. [Yeah, since the mid 90s smh, what can I say some consumers are SLOW smh. Been such a lovely ride, no regrets!]

As of the third quarter, JPMorgan’s credit-card holders had accrued $5.8 billion in rewards they had not yet redeemed, up 53% from the end of 2016, according to securities filings.

JPMorgan, Citigroup and other large banks, including American Express Co. , are discussing how to cut back or rejigger some of their cards’ rewards, according to people familiar with the matter. The banks don’t plan to end rewards, but want to shift them in ways that encourage more card usage and scale back upfront bonuses, the people said. [Yeah we noticed &^$#@!]

The Sapphire Reserve card proved great for business for Brian Kelly, who started the rewards website The Points Guy as a hobby in 2010, while working in human resources at Morgan Stanley. His website helped spawn an ecosystem of rewards fanatics across the internet who swap tips about card deals. The banks covet his favorable reviews of their cards and often turn to the site to promote them. [It sure did! You can rest assured the reviews are favorable for credit cards the site sells lol! There are fanatics like TBB readers and there are…TPG reader newbies who just don’t know any better and get manipulated so easily, sad!]

That is in large part because of concerns many card issuers have about “gamers,” who open cards with rich sign-up bonuses and then stop using them once they have tapped out the early rewards. U.S. credit card attrition rates, a measure of how many cards are closed each year, reached 15% in 2017, up from less than 10% the year before, according to Mercator. [I am actually still  crying!]

I applied in branch for the City National Bank Crystal Infinite Card on December 27 and today I received a call from the lady who took my application in a Manhattan branch that I was approved and I should receive all four of them in a week or so. Terrible timing of course, the 75k offer had expired so I am only getting 50k points. And missed a round of travel credits for 2018. It’s okay. When it arrives I better sit down and rethink my strategy and cut some losers to thin the herd…

And I leave you with this (HT:Nick)

TBB
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Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.