Why I Fell Off The Bankdirect Bandwagon

It was a bunch of little things and subtle changes, including the following:
  • Monthly balance payments. They used to give 10 miles for every $100 but changed to 100 miles for every $1000. A clever way of rounding down.
  • They set a limit of 10 referrals. 1000 miles is a small price to pay to someone who brings them a new customer, but apparently it was too much for them.
  • They’ve made it increasingly difficult to collect bonuses. Many people had a hard time getting the 10,000 miles for direct deposit. 
I heard the complaints for months and just couldn’t ignore them any longer. BankDirect had huge potential, but they dropped the ball. I’m not sure if it was because of new management, but I no longer felt valued at all. My business didn’t seem to matter to them. And, more than anything else, that’s the reason I stopped being a BankDirect fan. 

My Virgin Atlantic Miles Weren’t So Bad After All

After applying for this card and adding a user, I had 50,000 Virgin Atlantic miles that weren’t doing much for me. I don’t like the amount of fees they charge to book award travel so I thought I was stuck. With a little digging here, I found a free and easy solution. In a 3-minute phone call, I transferred my 50,000 Virgin miles into 100,000 Hilton Honors points. I’ve been trying to add to my hotel point total anyway, so this was a perfect solution for those pesky Virgin miles.

American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card

This baby has overtaken the Chase British Airways card (100,000 miles) and the Capital One Venture card (100,000 miles) as the most profitable one of the year. It’s not even close. Here’s what happened…

  • I originally signed up for a 15,000 Membership Rewards point promotion with the fee waived.
  • As soon as I got the card, I called Amex to bump it up to 75,000 Membership Rewards points. 
  • I transferred those 75,000 points into 112,500 British Airways miles that I’ll use on American Airlines and Cathay Pacific flights. 
  • I picked up another 60,000 Membership Rewards points from the promotions I mentioned earlier this month. I will turn these into another 60,000 to 90,000 miles when I need to use them.
The ease of getting these points is something I’ve never experienced with other cards. The Amex Premier Rewards reps are insanely generous with matching promotions, something that has often felt like pulling teeth (especially in the case of Barclays). I give this card my highest recommendation. If you’re interested in getting it, email me here for an referral link to the application. I will send it to you within 24 hours and walk you through the steps of getting big point bonuses. If you don’t have another Amex card, you should be jumping all over this one.

31 Free US Airways Miles

I know it’s pretty meh, but click here if interested.