How to Avoid Reward Credit Card Honey Traps [BA QA]

Chase Reserve car came out, this new list of perks, and somewhere in there is a streaming perk. I think it's Apple TV. Are y'all Chase Reserve cardholders did y'all fall for the lore, the lore and the appeal like the This was a moment, the Chase Reserve launching in twenty seventeen, sixteen.

Oh, huge moment.

Yeah, it was one hundred thousand dollars. Sorry, one hundred thousand points.

I didn't see that.

Wait, I didn't get that perk. How do I get that one? But it's very annoying.

I was tempted to pay the one hundred and forty dollars for the yearly premium on Peacock because I was tired of getting ads every But.

I'm not doing it, y'all, I'm not doing those ads.

Hold on, Chris, don't ruin it. She's giving me a segue, Baybay, a segue.

Take the segway, girl, take it.

Speaking of the cost of streaming apps, Chase Reserve came out with a brand new Chase Reserve car came out this new list of perks, and somewhere in there is a streaming perk. I think it's Apple TV, Apple Apple And do have I, madam? I already have it up to the points guy dot com. Have y'all are y'all Chase Reserve card holders? Did y'all fall for the lore? The lore and the appeal like the this was a moment, the Chase Reserve launching in twenty seventeen, sixteen.

Oh, huge moment.

Yeah, it was one hundred thousand dollars. Sorry, one hundred thousand points.

I didn't see that.

Wait, I didn't get that perk. How do I get that one?

That's how I pay for my honeymoon. That's how I know the date so well. I'm like it was the fall of twenty sixteen because I got the card and then we used the points to get our honeymoon. We got married twenty seventeen. But as a Chase Reserve customer, the perks have gotten, especially the sign on perks, have gotten kind of stale.

They're so stale they would never hit that again. The one hundred thousand, I have not seen it to that level yet. And even now girl, with this streaming perk. The streaming perk is one hundred and twenty dollars annual credit for eligible streaming services. Hey, that's cute, that's cute, But like, how are you gonna get to the point where the forty eight month the forty eight month rule was everything for people who like to turn credit cards.

It's over now.

Yeah. Is that just with Chase or is it with all card card companies?

They've all the ones that they have are the Chase Sapphire and the other one of the Reserve. Both of those now you have one time welcome bonus and is much harder to earn it and you can't get it more than once.

Well, I was about to hold a gun to my husband's head. I mean I was about to ask kindly for my husband to sign up for the Reserve because I had signed up for it back then. It's been almost ten years. We were too cheap to ever do. They wouldn't let you add a joint cardholder for free.

It was like you had to do two cards.

You had to do two cards, and he never got one. And I'm like, oh he can get one.

Yeah, with your link with your AFRO, like that's what we did.

Well. They're bringing back the one hundred thousand point bonus though, if you've ever had.

It right so your so your husband can qualify for that. Yes, definitely get him to.

Jump on that, which is like what's his is mine and I will be point, especially.

When it comes to trial, especially when it comes to travel.

Yes, but and they've also increased the Chase travel credit, which it was three hundred now it's five hundred dollars when you spend five thousand on the first But does do those benefits carry on to a current customer? Do I get the five hundred dollars travel credit now because every year I get three hundred dollars of travel.

Because I think I think so because your annual fee is going up to next year.

I was going to get to the bad part, you know.

Three from what I from what I'm seeing, the three hundred dollars travel credit on the Chase, that fire reserve does not carry over from year to year?

Oh anymore because it definitely has.

Right what I it doesn't ext it's a user or lose it thing like you don't get to watch.

Yeah, you don't stack, Yeah, but I would always I mean, I wouldn't even think about it. I would just be like, oh that's nice because I'd buy Ubers, or it would be for a lot of different things. Cabs, Metro North. All right, well let me break down some of the perks. We've done. The one hundred thousand this is for new new members. But Chase has been like promoting this big

Basically I'm mad with that.

Just just say it's eight hundred, because I thought.

I just take the other five dollars in you know.

Psychology works, it's under eight hundred. It's under eight hundred.

I hate it. Five hundred and fifty I think is what it has been. I don't even know if it's worth me keeping the card. I might just let Husby get the card and just get rid of mine.

I mean, ask yourself, is it worth sixty six dollars a month? Because that's really what it comes down to, right, sixty six dollars a month.

Yeah, that's at the end of the day. Most people they look at seven ninety five, they look at five fifty. They go, that's insane because you're looking at all at once.

But if you're going to benefit in sixty six dollars of value per month at least, then it's worth it.

And it's worth it.

Well, let's see eight X points on all this is the and now they have a business, will make sure I have the right one up eight They say, you get twenty seven hundred dollars in annual value. But let's see it looks like eight X points on all travel purchases made through Chase Travel, four X points on flights that are booked direct through Chase. I think it used to be three x four X points on hotels, three

Yeah, it's a one time thing, a one time thing.

So then they're keeping the three hundred annual travel credit. You're getting a five hundred dollars credit for stays booked using the edit, which I actually haven't used. I didn't realize that was something that they had. It's like a hotel.

Those are I believe they're expensive hotels though, so it's like you're not getting like that five hundred credit, which is two hundred fifty dollars each, is not all at once. It's only taking a fraction off of those hotel prices.

They have dash Pass membership for one hundred and twenty dollars and three hundred dollars and door Dash promos. I already use dash Pass membership. I do think I get my money's worth.

And they also have restaurant credits too, Like I travel so much for work that like sometimes I just want to instead of paying six seventeen.

Dollars for a bottle of water at the airport.

Convenience, now I will step into the lounge real quick, have a whole meal, get what all of that stuff that I need right for with a benefit with my card and if not, with lounge access, because I know that the prefer doesn't have lounge access, but the reserve does. But sometimes you get a little perk to get lounge access with the preferred.

But we even forget you the game card, my Priority pass card.

You gotta have that. Put it on your phone.

I have it on my wallet, on mynallet yep. Do it. And not only that, but if you don't end up seeing a lounge anywhere nearby, you still get restaurant credits. Twenty thirty bucks goes a long way at the airport, so you don't have to constantly be spending money.

So I think the.

Problem is so many people got it and they don't like they don't actually travel enough to get the benefit.

Be real with yourself. You might have the idea of the.

Goal to we've done. Had it on my phone, y'all.

Girl, get that. You better get that QR code off the screen.

Did you tell.

Snap shot snapshot real snaps everyone?

Damn no, girl, Did you really get denied because you thought you didn't have your Priority pass and it was on your phone?

I forget you know, I don't even bother to I'm usually so late to the airport. I don't have to. I'm see for me.

It's the layovers. If I ever have a layover, I'd be like, all.

Right, I'm not gone. It would have been nice. And oh when we were going to London, my friend was like, don't you have priority pass? I was like, yeah, I don't have the card with me. I forgot it and JFK is JKS earlier.

That's GUARDI earlier because they hooked that thing up. Guardia looks really nice.

Now. Guardias is so nice, nice, so nice organized that I had to I went to the airport for nothing because my flight ended up being canceled. I went and got me a nice burrito. I did a little bit of shopping and I was like, huh oh, cut.

That water fountain that looks like a Balacchio in Vegas.

They did. They did that.

I mean, there was a lot of taxpayer dollars, but but it's very pretty.

So we'll give you that stub Hub credit. I just bought three hundred dollars stub Hub credit, so you can get up to one hundred and fifty dollars in statement credits two times per year through January through June and then again from June to Decimer. So god, I just bought. I mean, I'm not it's like super I'm pretty proud of it. I don't care. I bought another take to see Beyonce in Atlanta.

I know you were gonna say that.

You can say away because.

Listen, Linda, listen back to visit my dad anyway, I have a work trip coming up. You know Dad's going to be alone. I was like, I volunteer a tribute. I'll come, I'll come, pick me, pick me immediately because she was overlaps with her dates in Atlanta. But I need to see her with my people, like I need to be surrounded by Atlanta's And I got the best deal, Like I have incredible I have an incredible seats. I

You could have got it for two hundred with the three hundred.

But stop, I'm gonna activate this ship.

They better get well hold up. You only go get one hundred and fifty now credit because it's always per half the year.

Better than but honey, it's a discount. We take those.

So basically that, oh, this would be one hundred and fifty for the last half of the year. I was going to say, we I'll get another ticket.

No, no, no, you can't activate it twenty Yeah, you know exactly. It's worth five doubles that if I get two, then it's work all right.

Then they can Chase pay me for all his promotion. They got two hundred and fifty dollars worth of Apple benefits Apple TV plus they got one hundred and twenty dollars in lift credits something about Peloton. Go check it out, y'all can go to check credit cards dot Chase dot com. Yeah uh, and don't get it if you can't afford that incredibly high fee and all safety.

Six dollars a month, but it's paid once, all at once. Seven ninety five gets taken from your account in January, so just be very aware that you have to pay that all up front, but spreading it out sixty six per year. Don't be paying interest on the credit If you're paying interest on your credit card, stay away, stay away, graduate up to interest.

I paid some interest this year, y'all.

Don't do it.

It's truly it does. It does, and also be like, oh I should use this card. I'm like, girl, you know you're gonna pay interest on it. No, I'm gonna get back to the payoff in full, y'all. I'ming to get back. It's been a weird year. When you hear that guy that's sixty eight dollars a barrel like costs her high. Hey, ba fam, we gonna take a quick break, pay some bills, and we'll be right back. All right, ba fam, We're back. But what else is in what's

I've been running with the Capital One venture X for a little bit because of the lounge access and they give you that three hundred dollar annual credit, so those together pretty much cover the annual feed for me. I think it was something else I get with them, and I'm like, okay, yeah, it feels worthwhile. But the lounge access is because how much does it cost I think it is three ninety five, so reasonable. Yeah, it's not bad.

That's the point you need the reserve, the reserve.

But the with the Capitol one, there's actually a really nice lounge just open up inn SFO that I use and has like you know, it's clean, new, they got good food, they got a good space to relax, they got showers and bathrooms all that stuff. So for me, it was like, okay, this is perfect because that's the airport. I'm either then or Oakland. And there's even a lounge in Oakland that I can can get into as well.

Just that one thing made it worth it.

Yeah, I don't fly Southwest as much, but that sounds like it's definitely worth it if.

You fly Southwest a lot.

But although there are changing things, they're doing assigned seats and they're getting rid of the free bags.

I don't like that.

If you know, I don't know.

I've flown. I flew Southwest a couple times last year and it just was stressful.

Yeah, I don't like them finding seats. I don't like that. I need to know where I'm sitting.

Like what, yeah it is, But the thing is like for me, I always eat the leg room and I don't have to pay extra sit in the exit row at least I didn't have to, so I'm like it's perfect. I pay the same price to everybody else. And if I get if I check in earlier, if I can get to that exit row, if not, but if other flights, I pay extra one hundred dollars to sit over there.

That's true, That's very true.

But I probably will soon or a lid for every pot.

A lid for every part.

All right, So Capital one X I've.

Been using two one is the we just got this year for the first time, the American the American Express, the Platinum card, which is it's a big one.

It's six hundred and ninety five.

That was a year.

But is that the one that's on par with the Preserve or the Reserve Chase Reserve so their pars are going to be going up?

Yeah, oh for sure.

And the ones that we signed up for was you spend eight in the first three months and you get oh no, first six months, so it was actually even more time to spend the eight thousand, but you get one hundred and seventy five thousand points, which was one amazing five. Yeah, so we've been we've been using it. We went for Jamil's birthday which was Moral Day week and May twenty fifth, we went to Hawaii for two weeks.

Almost didn't really spend much on the travel stuff.

So I feel like if you are strategic with the car, if you get the points and stuff and you're using it correctly, and if y'all don't know and you're like, wait, I'm sleeping on this, there's a lot of content creators that focus on points and miles that you know, are really really great. Like I learned so much from some of them, because even I was very basic when it comes to credit card Like I just was like, I just.

Got these three or four cards that I need.

I keep the annual fees pretty low and only a few like two years ago to now is that I started getting in the game with more strategic cards. So the second one, besides the Amex one, which has like a bunch of credits, it definitely makes it's worth the six ninety five fee for sure.

But the other one is the built rewards credit card, which we used to pay rent. We're not homeowners yet, so our rent is a little pricey.

Like Miami rent three thousand dollars a month, so a little bit upwards from that. In New York as well, rent was pretty pricey, but we have we pay less rent now. In Miami, but it's still a lot. So we put it on the Built card every month. There's no fee for it because they create like a bank account through the credit card portal, so you use the bank account to pay your rent instead of a credit card, so you don't pay fees, and then all of those

So it's like, okay, those two have been.

We talked about that. We were like when we first started talking about the bill or when you first brought it up originally, we were both thinking like how long are they going to keep this up for? Like or were they gonna make money?

Milk it while you can milk it, while right, milk it while you can't.

I think a lot of banks refuse, I was gonna say, I think a lot of banks refuse to work with them.

The only bank that they got to like take the deal was Wells Fargo, which says a lot.

So oh well they are, Yeah, trash truly a good tool I've been using too. If you're like, look at all these credit cards. It's a site called travel Freely. And what they do they let you put it. You don't have to like log it, you have to give them any your counterformation. You just say what card you have and when you sign up, and what it does. It'll track the time you have until you're to get like the spending limit, so you can get your bonus,

Free to use.

You just put me on because I hadn't heard of that, and I Trouble.

Freely Okay, I hadn't heard of that either. To the points cut, I know, are those all the cards they all use anymore? That you want to share.

What else? I've tried some of the hotel ones, but I often find that they're not the point values are really high, Like it takes like so many points to book a hotel room. But the one I want to try next, I think is Hyatt just because they have really they don't give you as big a bonus when you sign up, but it takes so many fewer points to book a hotel like you can get a nice high hotel fight. Yes, No, I think it's double is Double Tree the cookie people?

Oh you're right? Why did I think? No?

Hiatt is a little bougi er than a Double Tree.

Yeah, except for.

They're warm.

Classy is one word.

But you can use Chase points and transferred over to Hyatt because when we were in Japan, we we paid nothing to stay at the Higat Kyoto. We just used the Chase portal to book it with the Chase and it was pretty a good It was a really good rate, a good transfer deal.

I haven't heard y'all. Well, y'all don't have children, but now I have a household. The Blue Cash Preferred or the yeah, the AMX Blue Cash what is it? Yeah card Preferred Credit card. That's been my jam for years since I moved to the Birds, basically because of that six percent cash back on groceries. The only thing though, is I'm finally spending so much on groceries that I easily max out the benefit. So they give you six percent cash back up to six thousand dollars per year. Babe.

Use it for.

But that's my go to for grocery shopping. The Chase Sapphire Reserve is my go to for anytime I'm ordering out, anytime I'm like buying entertainment, travel or food. That's my my Chase card and we didn't mention business credit cards. But for business credit first, I had the Capital one Spark, which is two percent is it two percent cash back or one point five percent cash back? It's one of those check for you. Oh, I love this fact check on the go, get it for me. Thank you give

So unfortunately for I did not know Blue Vine had a business card. My I do use them for banking for my business banking. But my business credit card is the AMEX.

The which one is it? Let me check that because I don't know the AMEX Business Cash.

On AMX Business Cash. You know, we didn't even mention the Chase Sapphire. The business card is also getting an upgrade. But I don't use Chase soft Fire for my business.

Yeah, I don't use the Chase software for business. But I'm gonna check the blue Vine business card because I didn't even know they had one. Y'all are putting me on today. I got, I got travel Freely, I got the blue Vine business card.

I gotta check.

I gotta look into I'm into this.

So blue Vine Business, did you find out what the capital one cash back is? Chris? It's two percent? Okay, so blue mine slightly less. It's one point five percent cash back. But there's no annual fee, which is always what I well, it's what I was looking at as a business owner. I don't My business expenses are not so so high that I'm going to be making a ton of money on to like justify a high annual fee. So for now, we're humble and we had the Blue Vine Business credit card.

I'll take a Bluevine even know they existed.

Capital Ones Park because of that two percent is also a great option. Heyba fam, We're going to take a quick break, pay some bills, and we'll be right back. Well, that was our credit card. I'm going to make that my whole episode for Friday. This is gonna be credit card.

Seriously, I feel like a lot of people need a quick update, especially with all this content I see on social media now of like people are freaking out about the prices going up with these cards.

But the reality is you got to look at the like truly do the math. Don't just like respond to.

The price increase without looking at the holistic picture of what you get. And if you're not going to be able to get value from it, then just don't have it. Nobody's forcing you to have it.

But I think there are a lot of perks that make it worth it for sure.

Yeah I think so too, But please use credit cards responsibly, very wisely, wisely all right BAFM. Well yeah, and thanks Chris andan Nellie for the credit card. The credit card knowledge. I want to know from y'all for this summer for Hot Girl Hot Guy summer, what are you using to travel? Are you going to sign up for the Chase Reserve card? Let us know? Okay, va Fam, thank you so much for listening to this week's show. I want to shout out to our production team, Courtney, our editor, Carla, our