Earning points while my better half waits

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I recently signed up and was approved for four different credit cards, with the following signup bonuses:

  • Amex Blue Cash: no bonus
  • Barclaycard Arrival: 40K bonus after $1K spend
  • Citi Executive AAdvantage: 100K  after $10K spend
  • Chase Ink Plus: 50K after $5K spend

You can read about the Blue Cash card here, and read about my experience with the Citi Executive card here.  The Arrival card is one I’ve wanted for some time and so I finally bit the bullet and applied.  As to the Ink Plus, of course I’ll be thrilled to get the 50K signup bonus again, but my primary motivation was to get a Visa version of the card (I already have a MasterCard version assigned to a separate business).  With the Visa version, I can enroll the card in the Visa Savings Edge program so as to automatically earn cash back at certain merchants (including Staples, where the Ink card also earns 5X).

For my wife, I’m very tempted to sign her up for the 100K Citi offer, but I’m holding off for now.  The reason? I feel like something else big is coming. Yes, the Citi offer is a big score, but I keep thinking that we’re going to see another big score soon.  It’s just a hunch.  I have absolutely no inside knowledge nor psychic powers in play here.  Anyway, for whatever reason, I’m waiting for that something else.  I’m hoping that my wife will be able to snag both the Citi offer and the next big thing.  We’ll see.

In case my imaginary next big thing doesn’t materialize, here are some offers I’m considering for my wife:

  • Two Southwest 50K cards in order to nab a companion pass (which requires 110K points earned in a calendar year).  Now that Southwest will be flying to Aruba and other interesting tropical locations, I’m more interested than ever.  And, my companion pass from the big Sears 15X deal in 2012 has expired.
  • An Amex business Gold card or business Platinum card.  We need to cancel her personal Platinum card soon because the second year annual fee just came due, so she’ll need another Membership Rewards card to keep her points alive.  I might even take a chance on the Platinum Mercedes card, even though she technically wouldn’t qualify for the 50K bonus since she currently has the regular Platinum card (I don’t know if they really enforce that restriction with that card).  Another good option would be the Blue for business card (offer temporarily expired)It only offers a 10K signup bonus, but it has no annual fee and it earns a respectable 30% annual bonus on points earned.  On the other hand, with that card she won’t be able to transfer points to airlines, so it would really just be a stopgap approach to keeping her points alive until a better opportunity arises.
  • Citi Executive AAdvantage 100K
  • Barclaycard Arrival 40K
  • BOA Alaska Airlines 40K (here’s my Quick Deal regarding that offer)

How long should I wait?  We have until late March to cancel the Platinum card to recover the full second year annual fee, so we could wait that long.  On the other hand, I don’t know how long the Citi 100K offer will remain in play.  I think I’ll wait at least until late February and maybe even until mid March.  But, hopefully, I won’t have to wait that long.  Hopefully, the next big thing will appear soon.

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