Alex: In the last year, we’ve seen more and more credit cards increase annual fees and add more benefits. Listen in as we talk about some of the most underrated and forgotten-about credit card benefits that we actually love.

Welcome to Points Talk®. We are three moms who’ve discovered how to leverage credit card welcome offers to get hundreds of thousands of dollars of travel expenses for nearly free. We’ve used credit card points and miles to take vacations to places like Hawaii, Paris, Greece, Maldives, Japan, and so much more. And the best part? We each still have 800 plus credit scores. Imagine being able to take the vacation of your dreams for nearly free. It’s totally possible, and we’re here to show you how.

Alex: Hey, I’m Alex.

Pam: And I’m Pam, Alex’s mom.

Jess: And I’m Jess. Let’s talk points. I think we can all agree that we are tired of the coupon book-style credit card benefits that we’re seeing more and more from those premium credit cards like the American Express® Platinum and the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. But which of these coupon book benefits is actually worth it? We hear a lot about the high-value credits like the $300 travel credit on the Chase Sapphire Reserve, the $600 American Express Fine Hotels + Resorts® credit, the $500 The Edit credit by Chase Travel℠.

But what about those more underrated, less talked-about credit card benefits? Today we’re going to share our favorites, and those that are often not talked about as much, and that we think really help offset the annual fees on these premium cards, in addition to those bigger $300, $500, $600 credits that I mentioned. So Pam is going to kick us off.

Pam: Okay, we’re going to start off with travel benefits today, and I want to just give a little disclaimer that some of these benefits that we’re going to talk about were things that we were already paying for, but a lot of them are things we really didn’t think about before. We weren’t paying for. It wasn’t even on our radar, but they’ve now become something that we like and value.

And there are several things that way, and I think that a lot of people, I do, I get sick of the coupon idea too, but once you get using it and you find things that you like, it’s not as bad. I mean, it is bad, but it’s not as— I mean, I hate it because I’m like, every the first of the month, I’m like, “Okay, what do I have to do?” And I try to get it done in the first, within the first week, and out of my mind.

But it’s also, I was an extreme couponer, so for me it’s a little bit fun, and there are things that we really value that we have found. So, outside of the big benefits, like hotel credits and travel credits that Jess mentioned, let’s talk about some of the lesser travel benefits.

Okay, well, obviously, lounge access. That’s really not a lesser talked-about one because everyone talks about it, and it’s a super popular benefit. And I am one who certainly gets to the airport early enough to use my lounge access, and so that’s—

Jess: Pam gets her money’s worth with the lounge access. There’s no doubt about that.

Alex: You don’t even need all these other perks we’re going to talk about because the lounge access gets so used by her because you’ve got really good lounges in Denver, too.

Pam: Well, that’s the thing. I think that’s what makes it so good for me, is that we have excellent lounge access. I’ve got a Capital One lounge, I’ve got two United lounges, I have an, a Centurion® Lounge, and we have an Admiral Lounge®. So I mean it’s like, okay, I can pretty much, you know, I can easily use my lounge.

Alex: Yeah, and you have the Delta Sky Club®, too, don’t you?

Pam: We do. You know, that’s the one that I used to use at the beginning, and I never go into there anymore. And I need to go check it out and see if they’ve improved it, but yeah, I never use that one. So, let’s talk about some of the travel benefits and credits that we like the best. Jess, these are some of the lesser-known ones, except for when you get to me. I’m kind of talking about the ones that are more known. Okay, Jess, what’s the, what’s one that you really like?

Jess: All right, so when the Citi Strata Elite℠ came out, I think we were all kind of like, eh. It was like late last year when it came out and we, we read about it and we’re like, eh. And then I applied for it because I was like, “Well, Citi is the only bank that transfers to AA. I love my AA miles to book on partner airlines.” So I got the card, and then I started actually using it and I was like, “Oh dang, I’m actually really in love with this card.”

And so, the big one from that card that I really love is the Blacklane credit. I had never even heard of Blacklane before I got this card. I didn’t know what it was. So for those of you who are in that same boat, it’s kind of like a super fancy Uber or Lyft. And so, you can pre-order it ahead of time to come to your— I’ve used it for airport transfers. And so, you get $200 a year, a calendar-year, credit with the Citi Strata Elite. You get $100 from January to June and then $100 from July to December, but it’s like a really fancy Uber or Lyft. I, I’ve already used— I have, I have a Citi Strata Elite, and so does Ted. I used it for when we went to Tanzania because we were gone for two weeks, and I was like, “I don’t want to park at the airport because that’s going to be really expensive to park at the airport for two weeks.” And so, I used my credit to pick us up to take us to the airport, and then I used Ted’s credit to pick us up from the airport and bring us home.

Alex: That is a really smart way to use it because I wouldn’t have thought of that, because I should have looked into that, because we have a big trip coming up where we’re going to be parked at the airport for about 10 days. 

And you know, that adds up. I actually use, I park at The Parking Spot, and I do have like some credits because it’s like their rewards program’s free. So that helped, but that’s a really good idea to use it because what I’ve noticed sometimes is I used my Blacklane credits in New York, and it was a really great use of them.

Pam: Yeah, and it really was nice.

Alex: It was great. I looked into using it at a, when my mom and I went to Legoland and it was like, “Whoa, this is ridiculously expensive.” It was actually cheaper for us to just rent a car. It was like $100 for two days to just rent it. But what I’ve noticed is if you book, I think if you book it a little earlier, in some places, and I think there’s going to be markets where it makes more sense than others, like a smaller airport is maybe going to be more expensive. But I think if you maybe book a little earlier, it might be cheaper than if you do it the day of or something like that. 

Jess: Yeah. Yeah, and the thing is, like, it is more expensive than an Uber or a Lyft. These are like really nice cars, and if you have a big family like ours, like you can get a Suburban that fits like six, seven, eight people. And so, but it works out with the $100 credit. Like, I think for us it was like $120 each way. And so it ended up being $20 each way with the credit, and it’s way nicer than what you’ll get with Uber and Lyft. To me, it’s more predictable. Like it’s a legit— like sometimes if I pre-order an Uber, I worry like that they’re not going to show up, you know?

Alex: Yeah. No, I’ve heard of that happening sometimes. And then it’s nice with Blacklane, like they, you put in your flight details and they will watch your flight, too. And they’re, at least in my experience, they were just waiting for us.

Jess: Exactly. So with the credit, it ended up being much cheaper than an Uber or a Lyft would be, and I didn’t have to pay for parking at the airport. So I’m like anxiously waiting for July 1st to hit because I already know, I already know what I’m going to book it for our trip in the fall.

Alex: So are you using it for the same thing? For the to take you to the airport?

Jess: Yeah, because we’re going to Peru in October and it’s the same thing where we’re going to be gone for like 10 days and so it’s going to be way, um, it’s going to be way cheaper for us to just use Blacklane. 

Alex: And then the thing too is because they’re dropping you off right at the front, picking you up right at the front. Like with The Parking Spot, I have to take a little bus, you know, to get to my car, and you just have to add an extra time.

Jess: Exactly.

Ale: So that’s cool.

Pam: Yeah. I love that. Yeah, I’ve never thought about that because airport parking gets expensive when you’re gone for a long trip. Sometimes I’ll have my husband take me and pick me up, but, you know, lots of times I just pay a lot for airport parking.

Okay, so for me, I’m really not talking about, I’m not talking about the lesser ones as much. I just love the FHR and The Edit, especially with the Hyatt changes. That to me is so, so important. I have found that as I am starting to book hotels now, I mean, immediately, if I’m going somewhere, I’m looking on the Hyatt site. But now I’m being a little bit more careful about using my Hyatt points. And so I’m actually looking more at the FHR site or The Edit and seeing if I can find a luxury stay there, or just even, you know, with The Edit, it’s not really a luxury stay, with FHR, it is. And because I have several cards between my husband and I that give those credits, it’s really something that I’ve come to really love and really appreciate and use a heck of a lot more.

Jess: The nice thing, too, is like if you do book, say you book Hyatts through The Edit or FHR because, you know, you’re trying to really save, stock up, save your Hyatt points, or like the points price is ridiculous, a lot of the times you’ll still get, you’ll still get your, you’re going to get your Edit and your or your Fine Hotels + Resorts benefits, but you’ll also get like your Elite Nights with Hyatt still, you know? And so it’s kind of a nice way to still get your Elite Nights because I’m assuming you’re probably still going to go for Globalist most years.

Jess: Or at least you’ll wait and see how it works out.

Pam: At least, at least this year. We’ll see how it all works out.

Jess: So, you know, you get to, you get to use some of those credits while also still getting your Elite Night credit. So that’s pretty nice.

Alex: Yeah. And you can use Points Boost, which it could potentially, in some cases, it might even be cheaper to book a Hyatt hotel through the portal if it’s through The Edit and Points Boost. That could be a case where that might make more sense now than it used to.

Pam: It has. For instance, I want to go to the Park Hyatt Beaver Creek, and I could do that with Hyatt points, but I don’t want to use those Hyatt points. And it’s just kind of a staycation. It’s just, you know, near Aspen, so it’s pretty close. But with FHR, I can go, and by the time, I mean, I’m paying literally nothing, and I’m getting a $100 credit for dinner and, you know, or something else there. It works out just really good. And I, like, you know, I do get my Elite credit, so that’s great. So Alex, I know you’ve got a couple lesser-known ones that I really like, like the Uber Eats credit. So tell us about those.

Alex: Okay, so first of all, I really like my CLEAR® membership that comes with my Amex® Platinum card. You get it with the business or the personal. I really like this, and I think it really, sometimes it depends on your airport. I know sometimes for you, Mom, the CLEAR line doesn’t really save you very much time.

Pam: Not, not in Denver, it doesn’t, but there are other airports that definitely does.

Alex: Yeah. And with Salt Lake, I feel like PreCheck® is usually pretty short anyway. Salt Lake typically doesn’t get too crazy very often. But there’s just been times where we have been maybe even on a, and we still use it every time we go to Salt Lake, but there’s been times where we’ve been in Phoenix, and we had an issue with our rental, with the rental car lot back when they had a rental car lot that you had to take a bus to. Now they have a train, which is so much nicer. But we were barely going to make our flight. We were like sprinting because the bus, there was just so many people. And literally, I don’t think if we didn’t have CLEAR, I do not think we would have made that flight because we just flew through security.

It’s super nice, too, because kids under 18 get to go with you through CLEAR for free. So my husband has CLEAR, I have CLEAR with we with each of us having those cards. So I really value that perk. It just takes a lot of pressure and anxiety off when you don’t have to worry about, like, I know, “Okay, I can get to the airport about this early and it’s going to be fine because I have CLEAR and I have TSA PreCheck®,” which is another perk that I really like that comes with a lot of cards. And it’s really nice, too, because if you have multiple of these cards, you can pay for that for other people. It doesn’t have to be for the cardholder’s name. So that’s really nice as well.

And then other things I really like is with the Chase Sapphire Preferred® and Chase Sapphire Reserve, their travel protections are so good, which is why these are the cards that I always book with. I know if you listen to our episode last week about travel insurance, we talked a lot about those cards in that episode, but that’s huge. Just can give you a lot of peace of mind if your luggage gets lost. And I have had to, we had a stroller get damaged once. We were able to get that money refunded for the cost of the stroller. So it really does come in nice when you need it. And then— 

Pam: And I’ve had, I’ve had luggage, um, delayed twice now, and I was able to go buy some clothes to get by and some toiletries and get that reimbursed. So I have definitely used that. I think that’s like something that’s really important.

Alex: Well, and that’s why for me, it’s not just about, “Oh, I need to have a point, a card that lets me transfers my Chase points out.” It’s, “I need to have one of these cards because the travel protections are so good.” So I’m always going to either keep my Sapphire Preferred or Reserve. And keep in mind if you have the Reserve, the travel protections are even a little bit better than the Preferred.

And then another one I like, like my mom mentioned, is with the Amex Gold and Platinum, you get an Uber credit. Now, that does come in handy when I’m traveling, but I don’t do, I don’t really take Ubers if I’m at home. There have been a couple of times where, like if we’ve had our car getting worked on, my husband will drop it off and take an Uber to work, and then take an Uber to go pick up the car, or things like that, every now and then.

But I like to use my Uber credit a lot of the time for Uber Eats. It’s just kind of a guilt-free way to be like, “Oh, I’m going to treat myself to lunch today. It’s been a busy day. I feel like, I don’t want to have lunch at home,” and so I really like that. Would I probably, would I be using Uber Eats if I didn’t have this credit? Probably not, but I love being able to use it. And I prob- and I still would be eating out. So that’s the thing. Like I’m still going to take myself to lunch here and there. And so this just gives me a way to save on that. And then I do Uber pickup, so I don’t have to pay any of those delivery fees. 

Okay, another little segue or switching gears just a tiny bit. With these credits, what are credits you would each like to see added, changed, or removed as far as travel credits go? 

Jess: Well, I don’t, if you follow us on Instagram, you probably know that I got a puppy in August, got a Golden Retriever, and so I’m adjusting to the dog owner life. We have two cats, but they are much easier to leave, and, you know, they, they use their litter box, and they don’t need to go outside, and they don’t need to go on walks. And so, the most expensive part of travel for us now is usually pet boarding because, you know, our flights and our hotels are covered on points, and then that ends up being the biggest expense for us.

So I would love some sort of pet boarding credit like Rover. I think that would be really cool for all those pet parents. I think there are a lot of people. Alex, I know you have a dog, too, and I think that, you know, a lot of people in the points and miles world, their biggest expense is pet care while they are traveling. And so I think something like that would actually be really cool.

Pam: The other day, my husband looked at our phone bill and he said, “Do we really pay this much every month?” And I go, “Oh no, I was at, you know, on a trip.” And I’m just, I know there’s other ways that people can use their phones. I just like to, I don’t know, I feel safe, I feel secure knowing that my phone is active no matter wherever I am. And so I have Verizon as our carrier. They have an international plan that used to be $10 a month. Now it’s $12 a month. So I have that on every single day, wherever I am. Most people—

Alex: Wait, wait. $12, isn’t it $12 a day? Not $12 a month.

Pam: $12 a day, yes. Oh, I wish it was that.

Alex: When you’re traveling.

Pam: That’s what I really wish, when I’m traveling. Yes, thanks for clarifying that.

Alex: I was like, wait a minute, I would do that. That’s a steal.

Pam: Who, wouldn’t? Why am I complaining about $12 a month? But yeah, it’s $12 a day, and that adds up when you’re on a 10-day trip or, you know, and so that was what he was looking at. So I really wish that they had like a Verizon international plan credit or international plan credit for whatever carrier you have. That would really help. I also, I know Alex is going to say this, but I also would really love the other expense, major expense for me when I travel besides using my phone, is airport parking. I would love if there was a credit for airport parking. I think that would be one that people would use a lot. And then the thing that I’d like to see changed is all the coupon stuff, but I don’t think that’s going to happen.

Jess: But then what would you do? What would you do on that day, Pam? If you weren’t finagling…

Alex: Yeah. Where would you get your dopamine hits on the first of every month? 

Pam: What would I do? What would I do the first of the month? You’re right. Well, I’d probably have to…

Jess: Nothing Bundt Cakes would go out of business if they took these coupon book credits away, so.

Pam: Yeah, exactly. So those are my wish-fors. Do I think it’s going to happen? Probably not, but we can always wish. Alex, what, what are yours?

Alex: All right. Well, I think there are too many Hilton credits. I don’t need like five Hilton credits a month because you get them with the Amex Business Platinum, you get them with the Hilton cards. It’s just too many. That being said, I don’t think that when they came out with this credit, they planned on people having three business Platinums between them and their spouse, plus each of them having like a Hilton Surpass card, but that is my situation.

We get like five, I think we have five different cards that have Hilton credits. And I just, it’s one of those things where you’re like, “Okay, let’s find a way to use the Hilton credits,” which I will put a link in the show notes. There is some great people out there in the world. I don’t know who they are, but they created like a crowdsourced list of Hilton Hotels where the credits work. And so…

Jess: Like if you’re not staying there, like if you’re going to Starbucks or if you’re going to eat at the restaurant or something like that.

Alex: Yeah, so I have found that really helpful, but it’s just one of those things where you’re like, “All right, I guess I,” like when I’m traveling somewhere new, I’ll just throw in my Hilton cards and my business Platinum, look on that list and be like, “Okay, is there a Hilton around me where I we could maybe go get dinner tonight in the hotel restaurant?” We actually did that in Hawaii. We were staying at the Andaz Maui. We walked over to Grand Wailea and had dinner in their Italian restaurant, and the Hilton credits covered it. So that was pretty cool, but it’s just, you know, that doesn’t come every single quarter. No.

Pam: When we just got back from Legoland, Alex and I, and it was so great because I was able to, we stayed at a Hilton Hotel that’s right, you know, we get a, a little secret pathway to go to Legoland, and so I was able to use two Hilton Aspire credits of $200 to pay for it. And then I had three business Platinums and I was able to put those on there, too. And it was like, it was, it was like, “This is the best. I have used every single credit, you know, for Hilton.” And it and it’s like was so nice to be able to do that.

But it is, I agree, it’s hard. I mean, Jess I know has a place, a Hilton near her that has a Starbucks. I have to, to do that, and I don’t even use Starbucks much. But I give them away as gifts.

Jess: I volunteer to be the recipient of your Starbucks cards.

Pam: But I have to drive to Denver to be able to find a Starbucks to do that. There is a hotel in Fort Collins that you can use it at their restaurant, and I thought, I need to start doing that. I need to go there and eat lunch of dinner there. But yeah, I agree Alex, that’s a tough one.

Alex: Yeah. I know some people will just take their Hilton cards and go buy snacks in the hotel, but I’m like, I haven’t gotten desperate enough to be, it’s a, it’s a time thing. It’s like something I don’t really think about. I don’t want to like, I don’t want the Hilton credits to take over my life.

So anyway, another thing I thought was kind of fun, years ago, I think it was like during the pandemic, Amex Green had an Away credit, and that was pretty cool. I think you act- I didn’t have the card. I’ve never had that one, but you did that one, didn’t you? 

Pam: Uh-huh, I did.

Alex: I think that was your first Away suitcase, maybe? 

Pam: I think, I think it was. No, I think you girls, I think you girls bought me one time. I think it was my second one.

Alex: Oh, okay. Yeah. Another one I think would be pretty cool is if there was a credit for a travel company like Viator or an Airbnb credit, some sort of travel credit where it’s places that people actually stay and use. Now, I get with the credits, their idea is they kind of want to make it a little hard for us to use because they want us to not get all of our money back, so I don’t see them doing all these changes.

But there’s also Lyft credits, but the reason I like the Uber credits more is because I can use them for Uber Eats. And Lyft doesn’t have, it’d be really nice if Lyft had like Lyft Eats or Lyft Food or they partnered with DoorDash or something.

And then, I think it’d be really great if the airline incidental credits could just be used for, like, on the Amex cards, if those airline fee credits could work on tickets. Like because Chase has the $300 travel credit that’s good on any travel expenses. And I know there’s so many of us where we didn’t even know we used our credit because we were just paying for something like, “Oh, I used my $300 travel credit. Okay, cool.” But for the Amex credits, you have to really like think about those and use them. And so it’d be really nice if they, I’m not saying they have to make it as good as Chase, but if you would just let us use it on flights, that would be really cool. So, that’s my wishlist.

Jess: Especially now that United TravelBank doesn’t work anymore. I’m just like, “What am I going to even use it on next year?”

Pam: Oh, you know what I did? You know what I did, Jess? I went and bought airline lounge passes, United Airlines lounge passes. So I did that because I only get two with my Explorer and I end up going into United Lounge fairly often. So I think I bought three of those because I think they’re $59 each, and so I bought three of those. I thought, “Okay, I feel better.” I mean, it’s not as good as a TravelBank for sure, but it will, it will work.

Alex: Yeah. All right, do you want the latest credit card offers, approvals, and changes? We cover it all on Points Talk® Premium. Don’t miss out. Subscribe through the link in the show notes or at pointstalk.supercast.com.

Jess: All right, travel benefits are an obvious perk to travel rewards credit cards, but another thing we are seeing more and more of are those lifestyle and other random everyday credits. So we are now going to each share our favorites.

All right, when I was going through this outline, the first thing that came to mind was the Resy credits that come with the Amex personal Platinum card and the Amex personal Gold card. I actually love the Resy credits. They are, especially with the Platinum, they’re $100 a quarter. 

Alex: Yeah, that’s good. A quarter.

Jess: So, you’re getting $400 total a year, and they are, you know, I’m a busy mom. I don’t have, I’m, I’m terrible about like scheduling date nights because I just never know what’s going on with everyone’s different schedules. But these are, these have been a really perfect way to like force myself to schedule a date night because there’s a restaurant not too far from us that’s on Resy and I’ll just say like, “Okay, it’s almost the end of the quarter. We have to spend our $100. Let’s go on a date night,” and I’ll make a reservation for us. And I personally find the Resy credits much easier to use than the Sapphire Reserve Tables credit that comes with the Sapphire Reserve because there just aren’t nearly as many options as there are with Resy. So I’m a huge fan of especially the Amex Platinum Resy credit. What about you, Alex?

Alex: I mean, this is like kind of a gimme because it’s like the easiest credit to use, but the Splurge Credit with the Citi Strata Elite where you get $200 that you can use at Best Buy, American Airlines, and a few other places, but by far, Best Buy is my go-to option. I, there’s like no easier way to use it. I know, didn’t you get Ted an Apple Watch with yours?

Jess: I did. For Christmas, I got him an Apple Watch and I got, you know, I got $200 off an Apple Watch. So…

Alex: You know, I kind of want to get the, what are they called? The Meta glasses, maybe? Is that what they’re called?

Jess: Yeah.

Alex: Because I have some people I know that have them. And when they’re, like a friend of mine, she was posting on Instagram videos from her kids’ basketball games that she recorded with her glasses. And as a parent, it is so hard to record your kids. Like, I don’t even really try very often because as the kids are running down the soccer field, I’m like, “The odds of me getting something good are very slim,” so I don’t really even try. But I’m like, “Oh, that would be really cool to have those and just watch the game and be recording and being able to get videos of my kids to then have for later,” because I don’t really have much of that. So that was kind of selling me.

I actually was trying to get Mitch to get them because I don’t really know if they’re necessarily my style. I’m sure they have ones that are more like smaller for smaller-framed faces, but I was trying to get him to get them before, and I’m still, that’s kind of what I’m thinking of possibly doing, but I mean, in the past, I went around Christmas time and got Amazon gift cards as Christmas gifts. So that’s a super easy way to do it as well.

And then I also like the Amex Gold $10 dining credit. You guys, I like my, I like getting my lunches when I’m busy at work, you know, and I’m like, “Okay, I just picked up my youngest from preschool. We’re going to swing by and pick up food on our way home, and then I can get going to work, he can have his lunch, and we’re good to go.” So I like that. I use mine for Grubhub the vast majority of the time, but I know Five Guys is on there, too, and we are a Five Guys family. We really like Five Guys.

Pam: Okay, for me, the ones that I have really liked, I really liked the Oura Ring credit. Jess had an Oura Ring, and I really wanted to try it. And so when I, you know, I got that credit, and I was like so excited to get it. And I, right now, my Oura Ring is charging, but I look at it all the time. What’s my stress level, as if I don’t know it? How good was my sleep? You know, I really, really like that. And so that’s when, my husband wants me to get one, and so I can use this year’s to…

Alex: For him?

Pam: …to get him one, yeah.

Alex: Yeah. I think my favorite thing is I don’t have one because I don’t have the Amex Platinum personal card, and that’s where the credit comes from. But when traveling with these two, every morning they’re like, “Oh, this is how good of sleep I got last night.” No, it’s Jess saying, “I slept so great. Look at how many hours I got.” And my mom’s saying, “Oh, I slept terrible. I got, I was up every few hours.” And then them being like, “Oh, here’s my stress levels for the day.” So I’m feeling a little left out that I can’t share in that every morning. But that’s when…

Jess: Well, next year, I can use my credit for you because you get one every year, and I don’t need a new Oura Ring every year. So, I volunteer to buy you an Oura Ring with my credit next year.

Alex: Thank you. Okay.

Pam: Yeah. That’s great. I’m, I’m glad to hear about that because that was my only thing that’s like, “Okay, how many Oura Rings can you buy?” But yes, volunteering to get them for friends or family, especially when they go on sale is what I, what I do.

Alex: Yeah. It would be nice if you could use them for other… I mean, if you could use it on the subscription.

Jess: Yes. That’s what I don’t get. That’s what really annoys me because, I mean, the subscription’s, it’s like six, what, six or seven dollars a month. It’s not a lot. But if I could have that covered by the credit, that would be great.

Pam: Yeah, I think you should be able to once you’ve gotten it, but oh well. The other thing that I really like and it, this is obviously, we really like our lunches and our dinners out.

Alex: So we like to eat good food.

Pam: Yes. Bonvoy Brilliant dining credit. It’s the easiest one to use because I don’t have to go through Grubhub or DoorDash or anything like that. It’s $25 on each card. So when I’m out, I just use that card to pay for it. I know my daughters laugh because I always am saying, “Oh, I’ve got my Bonvoy Brilliant card and I’ve got a dining credit I’ve got to use. I’ll pick that up.” But it is really the easiest. I wish they had more credits that were like that.

And then again, just like these guys said, I love the Splurge Credit. Such an easy thing to use. I love the Resy credit. There is a restaurant in Fort Collins that was one, a steakhouse that is one of our very favorites. We went to it all the time, no matter what, but I always paid for it. And it is on Resy, and so that is really good. I too, find that the Sapphire Tables is harder to use. We don’t have any in Fort Collins for that, so I have to, like, if I’m up in Denver, and that has been fun because I can go try out a new restaurant, but it’s not something that gets used every single time because I have to make a special trip, you know, to do that. Okay.

Jess: Well, I will say, okay, real quick, about the Bonvoy Brilliant dining credit, I just got the Bonvoy Brilliant recently. I never had it before, and I love this credit, too, because I can load my Starbucks card with $25 a month, and it works towards the dining credit. And so I don’t even have to leave my couch. I can just load my Starbucks card. Same for like if you have the Chick-fil-A app, I’ve heard that it works if you load your Chick-fil-A wallet or whatever. And so I think that I wish more of the dining credits were like that, so easy to use.

All right, so do you all think that these credits make sense if they already fit in your lifestyle? Do you think issuers are getting better or worse at picking useful partners? I feel like they’re getting better with who they’re partnering with, but I feel like they’re getting worse about raising annual fees and using these credits as a way to justify that when we’re kind of having like coupon book fatigue, you know?

Alex: Yeah. And the restrictions too. It’s like they, they change the rules after they do it. Like the DoorDash credit is now, you have to spend what, $20, $25 at a pickup. The Lululemon credit got harder to use.

Pam: Yes, that one really made me mad.

Alex: Yeah, so I’m with you, Jess. I feel like their partner, they’re partnering with great things. Like, I love DoorDash. Lululemon’s great. I love like the Apple TV credits, you know, all of, or Apple Music, the Apple credits. Those are all great, but when you make it so you have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get the credits, that’s when it gets frustrating.

Jess: I think the Lululemon in particular is just ridiculous. Like you can’t even— so you used to be able to purchase a physical gift card online for $75. They took that away. You can’t even go into a store now and purchase a $75 gift card. They make you choose either a $50 or a $100 gift card if you’re paying with an Amex. That is crazy to me.

Alex: That is crazy. That’s way crazy.

Jess: That, yeah, that just annoys me. All right, which of these credits do you feel like are fluff and you would like to see replaced? I, like you said, Alex, I literally have in the outline, “The limits on the DoorDash credits piss me off.” That’s what I wrote. I just think like $10 off a non-restaurant order, and your minimum for pickup has to be $20. Like it’s ridiculous. It is, it has gotten beyond ridiculous.

Jess: I would rather them just take away the DoorDash credits and give us something else at this point. I mean, the $5, the $5 restaurant credit, like we use DoorDash pretty frequently, and so that one I’m like, “Okay, it gets used,” but I’m also like, “Whoop-dee-doo, $5 a month on a $795 card.”

Alex: You’re not like, “Sweet, I’m keeping this card now because it gives me a $5 monthly credit.” Like it’s ridiculous.

Jess: I do like, so the personal Gold, the Amex personal Gold card comes with a $7 Dunkin’ credit. I actually like that one. I am not a Dunkin’ fan, but I use ours at Baskin-Robbins. So, hot tip there, you can use it at Baskin-Robbins. It does not have to be one of those like Dunkin’ Baskin-Robbins combo stores. Like we have just a standalone Baskin-Robbins, and I’m able to use it there. I just don’t tell them it’s a Dunkin’ card because then they’ll be like, “Why are you trying to use a Dunkin’ card at Baskin-Robbins?” I just kind of say like, “Oh, I have a gift card,” and they scan the QR code. The other thing is we have a Dunkin’ near us, and so sometimes, like it’s, when we’re recording this right now, it’s the end of the year, so I’m like, “Oh…”

Alex: The school year.

Jess: Yeah, the end of the school year. Sorry, end of the school year. I’m like, “Oh, teacher appreciation, I’m going to send Dunkin’ Donuts. Oh, like you need a treat for your, for your school party, oh, I’m sending Dunkin’ Donuts.” And so I kind of use it as an excuse to like send Dunkin’ for any of those special occasions, but otherwise I’m using it at Baskin-Robbins. I do wish that Chase would come out with a Starbucks credit to compete with Amex. I feel like that, I feel like they’ve been doing that a lot. Like they’re trying to compete with one another on their credits. So Chase, come on, you need to add a Starbucks credit. That would certainly get used every month, no question. 

Alex: Yeah. All right, I wish that the StubHub credit with the Sapphire Reserve was just something you could use at once. I think that’s the thing that I get tired of, too, is these credits are, “You can use it quarterly or semi-annually.” It’d be really nice if they just gave us more flat credits because $300 or like a $150 StubHub credit semi-annually, that’s not going to get you too far. Like most of the time, you’re not going to a concert or a sporting event by yourself. And so it’d be really nice, I’m, I mean, I’m guessing on average, a lot of tickets are probably going to cost around $150, depending on what you’re going to see. But I’m like, if you could just give us $300 at once, that’d be really, really great.

And then a flat streaming credit usable anywhere. I feel like there’s eight trillion streaming credits from all the different places, but it’s like, “This card gets you this, this one gets you this.” It’d be nice if it was like, “I have this card, I can choose where I want to get my streaming credit from,” instead of choosing from two, I could choose from all of them, or if it was just streaming credit and it just took it off from whatever streaming service you used.

I also think it would be cool if there was an Audible or a Libro.fm credit because I 

like listening to audiobooks, so that would be kind of a fun one for me. Like a home internet credit would be cool because everybody has internet. I just think like more usable would be better than some of these ones, where you’re like, “I don’t know how I’m going to use this.” 

Pam: Yeah, you know, one thing I have to really agree on is that StubHub credit being annual, not semi-annual. I wish, actually, I wish all the credits, it would be like you use them during the year. You don’t have to split everything up between, you know, quarters or semi-annual. If they just gave us and gave us the, you know, ability to use them whenever we wanted, that would be great. Are they going to do that? No, because they want to make it harder for us so that we don’t use them. But if they, that would be my huge wish thing.

Alex: Well, and one thing that I’ve seen is kind of an issue, though, is why I don’t think they’ll do a lot of these things, is especially with American Express, is they keep, you know, they increase the annual fee, they add more credits, they make credits a little more annoying. And those lounges are still always packed. You still have waits. Depends on the airport. Like Salt Lake, I can fly right in every time I want to go. But when we were, when I’ve been in Houston, I have to wait. Denver, I have to wait. We were just in Atlanta, my mom and I have to wait. LAX, have to wait. And so, it’s, I can understand their point of view where they’re like, “People keep wanting to get in our lounges, and they’re willing to pay. Why would we make it easier when we still have overcrowding?” So, I don’t know. 

Pam: Yeah. Yeah, yeah. And then we talked about the Lululemon credit, and I really, you know, I still like that one. Yeah, they’ve made it way harder, but I like shirts, I like things at Lululemon, so I’ll still use that. So I kind of wish that they would, you know, some of the other cards would add another Athleta wear credit like the Auri or Athleta or something like that.

Alex: Athleta would be nice because you can find things that aren’t as expensive.

Pam: Yes. Yes. So I really wish that they would that, you know, some of the other ones would add that too. So, okay, Alex is going to talk about some business card credits.

Alex: Yeah, so some of these credits from major business cards are very meh. They’re like nothing I get excited about. I also understand they’re targeting business owners, but even still, I feel like some of these credits are very niche to certain types of businesses. Like, not every business owner is going to be like, “Oh, this is really great. I needed a, like, what are some of the random ones? I needed an Adobe credit or an Indeed credit.” Like I guys, I don’t even know what Indeed is.

Pam: Yes. Yes. I agree.

Alex: So I’m not a big fan of some of those things, but here are some ones we actually like. I have the business Gold card. I’ve had this card before. I got back on the gravy train, so I’m on my second Amex business Gold card. And before I canceled it after the first year, I might still cancel it. I haven’t decided what I’ll do. I got plenty of time to figure that out. But I’m actually really liking it because I, and it’s like not like they really changed it very much from when I last had it. I guess I’m just getting better at using the credits.

So it comes with a Walmart+ membership. It’s kind of funny because it doesn’t actually cover the whole membership. It’s like I have to pay like a dollar and something cents every month. I’m like, “You guys could just bump up this credit to cover the whole thing. Like this is silly.” But I’m really liking Walmart+ because you get free grocery delivery, and it’s the ones where you have to like, you know, you can’t order it, and they’re going to deliver it to you in 20 minutes. It’s you got to schedule it for later in the day, but that’s been really nice. And typically, I’ve done grocery pickup from Smith’s, which is a Kroger brand. And it’s, it’s really nice to not even have to drive to the grocery store. We’re getting very lazy with our grocery shopping these days. But it’s really nice that they just drop my groceries off for me. So I like that.

Walmart+ also comes with a streaming credit where you can get like, Paramount+ or Peacock. I did Peacock. I, you, I think you can switch it out every so often, but I don’t really use it all that often, but it’s there.

And then I like the $100 giftcards.com credit that comes with the Sapphire Reserve Business. It’s $50 semi-annually, but so easy to use. I either got like DoorDash or Chipotle gift cards. So there’s not a huge selection, and you do have to purchase through their unique, like there’s a unique site you have to shop through, but it’s been really, really, like one of the easiest ones to do.

Pam: Well, you guys said, or you said, Alex, that the business card credits are kind of meh, and they are. And you guys had picked the best ones, so I had nothing to even pick by the time you guys had done yours. So I really have nothing else to say other than what you guys are going to say, but I will agree that the giftcards.com from the CSR Biz is the easiest one. I absolutely love that one. I usually get a DoorDash card, and that’s, you know, it’s just, it’s a great one, but I have really nothing else to add because they are very meh. Okay, Jess is going to talk about some that the only ones that I would like too.

Jess: I will also add, if you’re listening to this episode and you’re like, “How in the world do they keep track of all these credits?” Because we’re not even mentioning all of them. There are, there are like a dozen or more that we are not even going to mention.

We have a brand new benefits tracker checklist that we just launched this year, after so many people were like, “How do you keep track of your credits? How do you keep track of your credits?” I actually pulled mine up when I was prepping for this episode, and I was like, “Let me scroll through this and like refresh my memory on all the different credits.” So we’re going to link that in the show notes. It’s like a Google, a Google Sheet, where you can check off that you’ve used credits each month. There’s like a tab for you, and if you have a player two, there’s a separate tab for them, too. So it has come in clutch for me to be able to like really take advantage of all of our credits. So we will link that in the show notes.

As far as business card credits, my very favorite is the $20 business credit that comes with the Amex business Gold, and that is because you can use it at office supply stores, and I use mine at staples.com. And so, y’all have probably noticed that I like credits I can use from my couch, and I don’t have to go out into the world and go in person. And so that $20 business credit that I can use at staples.com, I, you know, first of the month, I’m using that credit every single month.

And then, as a business, as Points Talk Squad, we actually get a lot of use out of the business, the Sapphire Reserve business, Google Workspace credit. And so we have it where we, what is it like every two or three months, we’re rotating whose Sapphire Reserve business we have on the account.

Alex: Which reminds me, Pam, we probably need to go look at mine and see if it’s, see if it’s time to switch or not. 

Pam: I don’t, I think we need to switch to mine. I don’t think we’ve used mine yet.

Alex: Yeah. We will.

Jess: Well, the year is young, Pam.

Pam: That’s right. Okay. So you know what, Jess? That $20 business credit from the Amex business Gold, I keep thinking I need to change it and do the Staples.com thing that you do, but I can’t get away from my Grubhub…

Alex: The Nothing Bundt Cakes.

Pam: Bundt Cakes on Grubhub. And I’m even, and this is the even worse part about it is that when I use the Bundt Cakes on Grubhub, they’re charging me more than if I was going in there and buying them, but my family and my grandkids, I get the gluten-free ones for them and I just, you know, they’d be so disappointed if I didn’t have those in my freezer. So I don’t know, so I’m getting over-overcharged, but…

Alex: You know, when you think of, “Oh, I remember going to grandma’s house, and she would have this,” that’s what they’re going to say when they’re adults. I remember when my grandma would have a freezer full of gluten-free cake for me.

Pam: Exactly. Exactly. Okay, so next we’re going to talk about in a dream world, what would we change about these business card credits. Okay, I would 100% say get rid of the Dell credit. I mean, they had the Dell credit on the Platinum cards, the business Platinum cards for forever, and it used to be two, and it’s been years, and I’ve had multiple. You cannot believe how many Dell things I have bought through the years.

Alex: No, we do know. She’s got a closet full of printers.

Pam: I have printers to last me for the rest of my life. And ink.

Jess: Y’all, Pam, you’ve probably heard this story before, but Pam legitimately, like if she’s trying to print something and it won’t work, she just goes in her closet and pulls out a new printer and tries a new one. Like, I’m not, this is not a joke. This is Pam’s actual life. And so I think she has a…

Alex: It’s been a joke that’s lived on forever because I think, when did that first happen? Did you like have a blog post?

Jess: She wrote a blog post, Pam wrote a blog post about like her favorite credits to use, and I think she mentioned it and she was like, “I love the Dell credit. Every time a printer breaks, I just go get one from my closet.” And I was like, “What? Excuse me? You have a printer closet?”

Alex: We need a picture of this. Can you send a picture of this? We need to see your printer closet.

Pam: Well, I still probably have three or four still. So and then, then I have probably three or four Bose earbuds, too, because that was the next thing that I started buying.

Jess: Are you using them right now?

Pam: One of them, yes. So yeah, so you can see there’s one of them. And so if I ever can’t find any or lose one on a trip, I can always open up another package. Or for Christmas, we do a Christmas gift exchange type thing, and I usually throw one in there, and the grandkids all try to, you know, are really excited when they pick that one. So…

Jess: Pam has a Dell distribution center at her house, which is what we’re hearing.

Pam: Well, honestly, though, I have got, bought so many things now from Dell. Just get rid of that. Give me something else.

Alex: Yeah, I mean it was fun for a little bit. Like I have my webcam that we use for the podcast that I use. I think I got my mic with, my podcasting mic like.

Pam: Me too. Yup.

Alex: My son, like I got him like a gaming mic or a gaming keyboard. He built a PC with his friend and his friend really helped him a ton with it. So as a thank you, I got his friend like a nice gaming keyboard with my credit. So that was pretty fun, but I agree like there’s been times where I’ve purchased things thinking, “Oh, this will be great. I’ll be able to use this in my, in the business somehow with content creation or different things like that.” And then it’s like, “Oh, this thing didn’t work as I expected and it was a waste.”

So I don’t know. I’ve also bought like they have Switch games and we have a Switch. So that was fun to get like when my kids lost our Mario Kart, we bought a new Mario Kart. And so there’s been some fun things, but there’s also been a lot of times where it’s like, “Okay, what am I going to buy with my Dell credit? I’ve bought everything that they have.”

Pam: Well, well, they also quit selling some things, so that made it harder. There was a lot of things I could use in my daily life they used to sell. And they’ve really quit selling stuff, so it’s it’s a lot more… 

Alex: Like we got a Nest thermostat from them. That was cool. They had Ring doorbells, like they had some really cool stuff. I just don’t know how much of it they still have. Right.

Pam: That’s the problem.

Alex: And we already have it all, like I’ve said.

Pam: Exactly. So I do have an extra, this will surprise you guys. I have an extra microphone, you know, in case this one breaks. I am the queen of if you’ve got one, get two because if one breaks, you don’t have to worry about it.

Alex: You don’t have to go to the store.

Pam: Exactly. Okay, Jess, what about you?

Jess: All right, so in a dream world, what would I change? I wish that so many of the credits weren’t duplicative. I don’t need a Walmart+ credit on my Amex business Gold and my Amex Platinum. Like that’s, I think, and I don’t need, I feel like every single Chase card has a DoorDash credit. You know, I’m like, “I don’t need a DoorDash…” Like, there are people in our Facebook group and they’re like, “I created eight DoorDash accounts so that I can use my credits.” And I’m like, “I’m not doing that.” I have two, and that’s the extent.

Pam: I have seven.

Alex: Yeah, I can’t, my brain can’t.

Jess: I can’t either. So I wish that they just didn’t have so many that were repeated on so many of the cards. I think like an Amazon Prime credit would be great. Like, how about one has a Walmart+ credit, and one has an Amazon Prime credit, or how about Chase, you try to compete with Amex and add an Amazon Prime credit? That would be really helpful for my family, at least.

Alex: Yeah, I completely agree with you. I, everything you guys have said. I don’t have anything to add because just, to just agree with. I had the same thing, Dell credit, tired of it. And, yeah, just having repeats is annoying. 

Pam: Yeah, so, you know, I think we can all dream about the credits we’d love to see, but until then, we can utilize the ones we get currently, the best we can. So get our free benefits tracker spreadsheet in the link in the show notes that Jess was talking about. I can’t tell you how many times I personally use that. Every month, when we get about mid-month, I look and see, “Okay, did I use everything that I need to? What do I need to use next?” It really helps us maximize our benefits. Thanks so much for listening. We’ll catch you all next week.

Thanks so much for listening to Points Talk®. Make sure to hit the subscribe or follow button from wherever you’re listening so you never miss an episode. Wanna start jet setting even faster? Follow the links in the show notes to learn about everything we discussed in today’s episode. And to stay connected and follow along, follow us on Instagram @PointsTalkSquad. We can’t wait to see where in the world points and miles take you.