American Express

AMEX Hilton HHonors Card

American Express Hilton HHonors 50,000 Point Card

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AMEX Hilton HHonors Card

I finally broke down and got my first American Express card last summer, which was the Hilton HHonors™ Credit Card From American Express. The standard offer on this card is 40,000 points, however, I applied during a limited time promotion offering 50,000 points.

Well the 50,000 Hilton HHonors card from AMEX is back again.

There are two reasons I really like having the American Express Hilton card.

1) The card comes with no annual fee, which is great for those looking to improve their credit. Lots of people end up closing their credit card when the annual fee comes due, but since the card is free, it can remain open. As a result, the age of the account will continue to grow and improve your credit.

2) Carrying an AMEX does good for our family because we live near and shop routinely at Costco, which only accepts American Express. We also exclusively get our gas at Costco. So at least a couple times a month the card gets used at Costco, earning a nice pool of Hilton HHonors points.

The unlisted reason to like the card is it comes with 50,000 HHonors points after only $750 in purchases within 3 months. I think most families can easily afford to place $250/month on the card without much effort, and pay it off each month.

Now the downside of Hilton points is that they are drastically becoming the Delta Skymiles of hotel rewards. Since Hilton hands out points so freely, they conversely require a lot of points on redemptions.

Our family typically looks to stay in your typical Hampton Inns or some of the “cheaper” Hilton properties. They offer consistent products, free breakfasts, pools, and affordable rates, typically. However, when it comes to using HHonors points, Hilton leaves much to be desired.

To give an example, this week we are staying up near Traverse City, Michigan. Looking for hotel rooms over the fourth of July holiday is of course, more expensive. There are also very limited hotel options in the area.

The Hampton Inn Traverse City, even though sold out for our dates, runs roughly $210-250/night. Yet they require 37,500 to 40,000 points PER NIGHT! The valuation is just absolutely ridiculous.

However, in Hilton’s defense, we had a small mountain of points with Club Carlson, and a Country Inn & Suites happen to be all that was available in the area. The nightly rate was roughly $200/night, yet I quickly reserved a room at 38,000 points per night. While it definitely hurt having to redeem 152,000 points for a night in Michigan, it also became our only option at making this last minute trip happen. Every hotel and campground was completely booked…more on that to come.

Fortunately, we earned the points cheaply thru a special free night offer last year. In addition, the point of having points is to be able to use them to make trips happen that might not happen otherwise with dollars.

The Hilton HHonors 50,000 point offer is valid until August 31, 2013. I think this is a great card to not only add balance to your HHonors account, but also a good, all-around AMEX card to carry.

Save Money, Travel More!

Source: Million Mile Secrets

The Hilton HHonors card listed in this post does not offer us a commission, and is the best offer available at this time.

AMEX Premier Gold Card

50,000 AMEX Membership Reward Points with the Premier Rewards Gold Card

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Last week we brought to you some pretty great offers for the Blue Cash Preferred, Blue Cash Everyday, and Delta Skymiles credit cards. As of this posting, those offers are still available via the CreditCards.com match tool.

Simply enter in your name and address, and the system pairs you with the best targeted offer. As I mentioned last time, there is no need to enter in your social security number at this point of the application process.

AMEX Premier Gold 50000 Offer

Last night I was fortunate enough to be targeted for an exclusive offer of the American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card. Normally, the best offer that I can offer through our affiliate channel is for 25,000 Membership Reward points after spending $2,000 in 3 months. However, through the exclusive CreditCards.com link, we can now earn 50,000 Membership Rewards points for only $1,000 spend in 3 months. Double the fun for half the price.

The American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card also offers triple points on airfare, double points on gasoline at U.S. stand-alone gas stations, double points at U.S. stand-alone supermarkets, and single points on other purchases.

Another cool feature is anytime you book two consecutive hotel nights through American Express Travel, you receive $75 back at checkout.

The $175 annual fee on both versions is waived the first year.

AMEX Premier Gold Card

Personally, I am new to the American Express product line, having just opened our first AMEX last year, which was the Hilton HHonors card. However, I have been aching to get a hold of an AMEX offering Membership Rewards points.

Why would American Express Membership Rewards points excite me?

You can redeem Membership Rewards for merchandise, gift cards, or even towards the cost of a revenue flight (i.e. purchasing a flight through AMEX and applying your points towards the purchase at a ratio of typically 1:1). However, the best value comes in the form of transferring them to airline reward programs and then using the miles towards high level redemptions.

Currently the AMEX Membership Rewards program is partnered with the following airline programs:

  • AeroMexico
  • Aeroplan
  • Alitalia Airlines
  • All Nippon Airways
  • Asia Miles
  • British Airways
  • Delta Air Lines
  • EL AL Israel Airlines
  • Flying Blue
  • Frontier Airlines
  • Hawaiian Airlines
  • Iberia Plus
  • JetBlue Airways®
  • Singapore Airlines
  • Virgin America
  • Virgin Atlantic Airways

That means if any of your above accounts fall short on miles, you can transfer them accordingly.

I really want to apply for this card, but the limited domestic travel options worries me. Our family has not ventured much outside of the U.S., and with 3 kids in the next coming months, I am not sure we will anytime soon. It looks like we will be passing on this offer, but for those of you that can use the points/miles, this is a great deal.

The offer for the American Express® Premier Rewards Gold Card through CreditCards.com is NOT our affiliate offer, but the best offer that we are aware of currently.

Save Money, Travel More!

AMEX Blue Cash Preferred

Better AMEX Blue Cash Preferred, Everyday, & Delta Skymiles Gold

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Considering we are a miles and points focused blog, one of the surprising credit cards that has been doing very well for our readers and us has been a card that earns you cashback. The Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express offers an amazing 6% cashback at standalone grocery stores up to $6,000 spend per year. That is pretty tough, if not impossible returns to beat in this market.

We previously discussed:

How to Earn 6% Cashback on ALL Purchases with the American Express Blue Cash Preferred ® Card

and even compared the AMEX Blue Cash Preferred ® to the Blue Sky and Chase Sapphire Preferred Cards upon a reader request.

Our affiliate link had long been the best offer on the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express (affiliate link), offering $150 bonus after spending $1,000 in 3 months.

However, I wanted to make our readers aware that there is a possibility of a better offer lurking around through creditcards.com.

If you visit www.creditcards.com/cardmatch and enter in your name and address (DO NOT ENTER IN YOUR SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER, AS THERE IS NO NEED TO AT THIS POINT), some exclusive offers will come up.

CreditCards Blue Cash Preferred 250 Offer

With any luck, you may see a $250 bonus offer after spending $1,000 in 3 months, which is better than our affiliate offer. There is also rumors of a $150 offer after only a $500 spend in 3 months, again better than our affiliate link.

I have no idea why one would be targeted for the higher bonus versus the lower based off of just your address, but so be it.

On a side note, we were also targeted with this same method with two other cards that may peak your interest.

First was a Blue Cash Everyday offer with a $150 bonus after $500 in purchases in 3 months. Our affiliate link only offers $100 after $1,000 spend in 3 months.

CreditCards Blue Cash Everyday 150 Offer

The third offer was a Delta Skymiles card offering 45,000 miles; 25,000 miles after first purchase and another 20,000 miles after $5,000 in purchases. Earning the extra 20,000 miles comes with a pretty hefty spend, so you may want to consider our lower 30,000 Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express (affiliate link) after only $500 in spend in 3 months. Before using our Delta AMEX link, please go to the Delta AMEX site, enter in your Skymiles number and last name, and see what offer is available directly through them, as occasionally they offer a better promotion.

CreditCards Delta 45k Offer