NEW Citi Card Coming VERY Soon + Hugh Cash Back Bonuese

In this video, we are going to look at a new City credit card that is about to be released. We have an up to 200% transfer bonus for one of Built's transfer partners this rent day, June 1st. And Bank of America are offering increased cash back for a whole year in addition to a welcome bonus on two of their cards. I'll show you how you can potentially get up to 8.25% cash back. In this video, so stay tuned. Hey credit warriors, welcome to the show. My name is Ben Hedges aka the credit Shifu and on this channel I cover US credit cards, personal finance, and luxury travel. If you like the sound of that, please subscribe. But let's get into the video. And this video is brought to you by Silo, who's offering up to $5,000 in cash back on your brokerage account, but more on that later. Okay, so City over the last few years has filed a load of new trademarks featuring the word strata. So just the city strata itself. Then we have the City Strata Premiere, which is the new name of the City Premiere. Okay, that card didn't really feature many changes, but it did replace the City Premiere. And then we have the City Strata Elite, which people think is a new name for the discontinued Prestige card that will have a relaunch at some stage. And we also have the City Strata Select, and I have no idea what that one is. But today we are able to cross another one of these strata trademarks off the list because City has announced the City Strata card which will replace the City Rewards Plus card. So this is going to be the new low tier no annual fee card in the City thank you points earning lineup. So you have the City Strata, the City Strata Premiere which is already out and then potentially the City Strata Elite which would replace the Prestige. Sounds like a logical progression, right? But then what about the City Strata Select? I don't know what that is. Maybe it's a credit builder card or maybe it's a card where you select the categories. I don't know. But anyway, let's talk about the City Strata. It does replace the City Rewards Plus card. And let's go through the changes. So, here are the rewards categories on the new City Strata card. 5X thank you points on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked on citytra.com. 3x points per dollar on supermarkets. 3x points on select transit and gas/e stations. three points per dollar on an eligible self- select category of your choice, including fitness clubs, select streaming services, live entertainment, cosmetic stores, barber shops, hair salons, and pet supply stores, two thank you points per dollar on restaurants, and one thank you point per dollar on all other purchases. Now, considering the old rewards plus card just earned two points per dollar on supermarkets and gas stations, and then one point per dollar on everything else, I would say that this is an improvement. However, there are two rewards plus benefits that are going away. Let's take a look at those. So, here are the negative changes. The new card doesn't have the 10% points rebate on the first 100,000 points redeemed per year. And the card also doesn't round up points earned to the nearest 10 like the old rewards plus card did. I'm guessing that this simplifies things for City and also saves them a lot of headache with people who are playing the system. Okay, making hundreds of two or three dollar purchases and getting 10 points each time. For me personally, I would probably prefer to earn three points per dollar on supermarkets and gas than have to constantly look for small purchases. But for the really strategic card holder, there is a lot of value to be had by making lots of small purchases. On a $2 purchase, for example, that would get rounded up to 10 points. So that's five points per dollar. Imagine going to a grocery store selfch checkckout and doing your entire $100 grocery shop in singledigit transactions. That's got to be against their terms and conditions somehow. Okay, I guess that's probably gaming the system. So, you can see why this would be a real headache for City. Anyway, current card holders will be switched over to the new card on July 20th, 2025, and it's going to be open for new applicants later this year. If you apply for the card between July 20th, 2024 and July 19th, 2025, you will retain the 10% rebate and the roundup feature until July 20th, 2026. And you will have all the new points earning categories, too. So, for you guys, you're actually the most fortunate. For new card members, when the card opens for applications later this year, there will be a welcome bonus of 30,000 City thank you points for spending $1,000 in 3 months, which is pretty good for a no annual fee card. All right, let's move on. But first, I love delivering great value to you guys. And that is why I have partnered with Silo, a company I personally have an account with to bring you the opportunity to earn up to $5,000 extra per year. Interested? Keep listening. Silo is looking to disrupt the brokerage industry by becoming the first cashback investing platform. They saw all of these other brokerages, not naming any names, giving one-off deposit bonuses or free stocks worth like $2 each for new users. and they knew that they could do better. So, they will match all of the money you have in your brokerage account, whether it's invested or sitting there as cash, by 1% every year for life, up to $5,000 per year in cash back. So, let's say you invest in the S&P 500, which averages 8% a year. Well, now you have 9%. Or putting that in simpler terms, if I have $100,000 in a silo account in the S&P 500, I will on average get $8,000 in return per year. Well, now that's going to be $9,000. For this deal, there is a monthly fee that starts at $10, but that means you only have to have an account size of $12,000 to offset that monthly fee completely. If you are a serious investor who is growing their portfolio over several decades, that extra 1% will literally add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Silo allows you to buy US stocks, ETFs, and corporate and US government bonds. Investments are held with interactive brokers where your money is SIPC and FDIC insured. So, if you want to earn up to $5,000 every single year, don't wait. Use my link siloarkets.com/ben. It's also in the description below, and start investing today. So, our next story is the upcoming Built Rent Day bonus. Now, Built is a credit card that lets you earn points on rent payments with no fee. If you just sign up for the Built portal, but not their credit card, you can still earn points on rent payments to any landlord using your existing cards, okay? But you have a 3% fee. You can also use their dining program with any card and you can earn three Built points per dollar on most restaurants on top of what you earn on your credit card. And you can also earn points at Walgreens, too. Built has a load of transfer partners that you can send those points to. Now, on the first of every month, they do rent day where rewards from the Built credit card are doubled on everything except for rent, but also they typically do bonuses on some of their transfer partners as well, which benefits just members of the regular built portal and members of the credit card as well. So, this rent day is June 1st, 2025, and there is going to be a transfer bonus of up to 200% on AOR hotels. Now, AOR is a French company that owns some great brands, including the Fairmont. And I stayed at the Fairmont Orchid in Hawaii and found it to be an awesome property. It's probably the best hotel in Hawaii, at least the best hotel on the Big Island, but they also own Sophetel, Novatel, and SLS, which are others that you may have heard of, too. Points normally transfer over at a 3:2 ratio from built, but on June 1st and actually on June 2nd this time too, they're doing a promotion of up to 200%. So for the two lower levels of Built membership, you get a 50% bonus, which effectively gives you a 1:1 transfer ratio. And for gold and platinum, you get a 200% bonus, which gives you a transfer ratio of 1:2. So you're getting double the amount of a core points in your account. So, that's a pretty good ratio considering the normal ratio is 3:2. Now, I was trying to find how much the Fairmont Orchid would be in points, but when I searched the points rate wasn't showing up. I guess it's probably because I don't have any AORE points in my account, but the points guy values a core points at 2 cents a piece. So, getting a 1:2 ratio if you're gold or platinum, that is a really good deal. It's 4 cents in value for each original built point. Now, if you are interested in Built, I'll put a link to their portal in the description down below. Even if you don't want their credit card, just signing up for their platform and then linking any credit card, which is free, lets you earn extra points through their dining program and also extra points at Walgreens as well on top of what you're already earning on whatever card you're using. So, it's kind of a no-brainer. Do check it out in the description down below. And it does help out our show if you sign up through our link. So, we thank you very much if you do. All right, let's now move on to our last story of the day. So, Bank of America will be offering increased cash back on two of its cashback cards for new card members for a whole year. Check this out. Coming June 1st, new customized cash rewards card holders will earn 6% cash back and new unlimited cash reward card holders will earn 2% cash back for the first 12 months. And they also say that that is in addition to their welcome bonus of $200 for spending $1,000 in your first three months on each of the cards. So on the customized cash card, it's normally 3% on bonus categories that you choose on up to $2,500 spending in each quarter. So that's now increased to 6%. And on the unlimited cash, it's normally going to be 1.5% cash back on everything. So they're adding 0.5% to that to make it 2%. Now, here is where it gets really interesting. Bank of America also has something called the preferred rewards program where if you have certain amounts of money invested with them in savings or brokerage or retirement accounts, they give you a bonus on your credit card rewards as well as a few other benefits. So above $20,000, you get a 25% bonus. Above $50,000, you get a 50% bonus. And above $100,000, you get a 75% bonus. Now, Bank of America states that the preferred rewards bonus won't apply to the extra 0.5% cash back or the extra 3% cash back on these cards, but it will be applied to the base rate and then you will earn your 0.5% or 3% on top of that as well. So, you're getting three things there. For example, if you have $100,000 invested in Bank of America and you have the customized cash card, you will earn 3% base rate, then 75% bonus, which takes you to 5.25% 25% and then you get another 3% on top of that which takes you to 8.25% on your bonus categories in your first 12 months. On the unlimited cash card, you get 1.5% on your base spend. Then you get a 75% bonus which takes you to 2.625% and then you get an additional 0.5% bonus in your first 12 months which takes you to 3.125%. Now, okay, the customized cash one is more impressive over 8% but remember that is only on certain categories and is limited. The unlimited cash one is well unlimited and it's on all categories. Now, all the details are on this press release. I'll probably put that in a pin comment somewhere down below. And this offer is going to be starting on June 1st. So, do check it out, especially if you are someone who keeps their investments with Bank of America. All right, that is the video for today. Thank you so much for watching. Don't forget to earn up to $5,000 bonuses every year with Silo. Link is in the description down below. Please subscribe if you're new. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye.