My Latest Round Of Credit Card Applications
It is a new year, with new goals, and part of my plan for reaching those goals is credit card welcome offers. I need to hit my goal of earning $15,000, as well as, replenish some transferrable currencies this year. That goal will be met by grabbing bank bonuses, retention, authorized user and spending offers plus some newly minted welcome offers. Since there is no time like the present I kicked off 2022 with our latest round of credit card applications. Or, I should say, my wife did. I am pleased to share that we batted 1.000! Our focus was on the smaller banks and cash back offers this time around. Let’s take a look at the details of her three approvals.
Bank of America Premium Rewards
First up was the Bank of America Premium Rewards card and its $500 welcome offer. My wife last carried this card 3 years ago so she was once again eligible for the welcome offer. The card isn’t a great long term option for us, only earning 2% back on travel & dining and 1.5% back on everything else. If you have Bank of America Platinum Honors then you may have a different take. That is because the rewards the card earns are boosted with a 75% increase. With Platinum Honors status the card becomes a 2.625% earner on every day purchases, which is pretty great.
The card comes with a 50,000 point (worth $500) welcome offer after spending $3,000 within the first 90 days of card membership. It has a $95 annual fee but comes with a $100 airline incidental credit. We should be able to get twice the first year since it is based on calendar year and not cardmember year.
Results: $500 cash back, $200 in airline incidental credits, $95 annual fee.
Discover It Card
Next up we went with the Discover It card. This wasn’t initially on the radar but with the $100 refer a friend offer I decided it was an easy win we should grab. I have had the Discover It card since college and was able to refer my wife. We both earn $100 after she makes 1 purchase with her new card. That is a quick & easy $200 right there. But, the card also doubles all cash back earning the first year. This is a 5% rotating category card, which means it earns 5% back on $1,500 in spend each quarter on select categories. With the double your cashback offer that 5% becomes 10% though. If I am able to max out each quarter that is an additional $600 in cash back. If I time my spending right, since she signed up in late January, I may be even able to slip in a 5th quarter at 10% back in there too. The current category for the first quarter is grocery, as if I don’t have enough of that already, but it should be easy enough for me to maximize.
Results: $200 referral offer & $600 back in continued earnings in the first year
US Bank Altitude Connect
This card is another one that was not really on my radar to start the year. Their current Winter Olympics promo changed that though. The card normally has a 50,000 point offer, worth $500, after spending $3000 within 90 days. That is a solid offer but it has been juiced up for the Olympics.
The current offer is 55,000 points after $2000 in spend within the first 3 months of card membership. That can be increased to 60,000 points if the US earns enough medals, but that seems unlikely since the goal is so high (36 or more medals). The $95 annual fee is also waived the first year.
Results: $550
Final Thoughts
When it is all said and done, at the end of the year, my wife should have earned $1850 in cash back and $200 in airline incidental airline credits with only paying one $95 annual fee. That is a pretty solid haul, although the Discover card requires ongoing attention to get it all. The $1755 in net earnings will bring me almost 12% of the way to my yearly $15,000 in earnings goal. Now I just need to put together a few more rounds of applications like this!
Have you done any recent applications? Do you plan on grabbing any of the offers I went with? Let me know in the comments.
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Are the 55,000-60,000 points for US Bank Altitude Connect card redeemable for $550-$600 in cashback or are cashback redemptions diluted like the the Citi Thank You points redemptions are for cashback?
They are worth a penny a piece towards cash back. ThankYou points are also worth a penny a piece now and you can easily cash them out (changed like a year ago).
When I attempt to redeem 4,884 Thank You points for statement credit, direct deposit, or check, they are worth $24.42 — 1/2 cent a piece.
Sorry, I should have specified with the Premier card. You can cash out at one cent per piece with the Premier or Prestige card.
Mark, do you ever get 1099-MISC forms for cash back offers from new credit cards? I got cash back offers from TD Bank, Wells Fargo, and Capital One in 2021 and wonder if I will get the 1099s. If not, that is a nice amount of tax-free bonuses.
Only for bank bonuses and for personal referrals but never from new cards.
In my experience Cap One is really hard to get approval of an application. My FICO is in the 830s but still denied twice in past year. And they do a hard pull from all 3 credit reporting agencies. Their explanation of denial? Too many open accounts.
Wow that sounds ambitious! Any thoughts of what US Bank is looking for in terms of card usage? My husband has Radisson personal and business but puts virtually no spend on it.
Usually if you have a previous relationship with them you have a pretty good shot at approval.
I really would like to get into Capital One, but, even with an 810 score it’s impossible.
They are tough to crack for sure.