Saks BANKRUPT, Amex Credit Safe? + New Credit Card Rumor + 5 FREE Hotel Nights

In this video, I want to cover a rumor that a certain bank is going to launch a brand new credit card at the beginning of February. Then I'll also show you two hotel credit cards that if you sign up for either of them right now, you can get five free nights. Then we have a new bonus on a certain airline card. It's a chance to get almost 100,000 airline miles, which can cover a trip across the Atlantic in business class for a very reasonable spend requirement. And lastly, Saks Fifth Avenue just filed for bankruptcy. What does that mean for the Amex Platinum $100 annual Saks credit? We'll tell you later in the video. Hey, credit warriors, welcome to the show. My name is Ben Hedges, aka The Credit Shofu, and on this channel, I cover U.S. credit cards, personal finance, and luxury travel. If you like the sound of that, do subscribe, but let's get into it. Oh, and this video is brought to you by Factor, but more on that later. All right. So in our first story of the day, we have a rumor that was posted by a reader of Doctor of Credit that there is a new Wells Fargo credit card coming out in early February. Check this out from the comments on an article about the Wells Fargo autographed journey card. And the guy's name is Frank. So Frank says, went to open in branch with a new account and banker said they've got a quote new card coming on February 6th. Then William, one of the guys who runs the site replies, any other details at all? And then he says again, that's the transition date of the built card. So I imagine something related to that. OK, if you don't know, Wells Fargo is stopping issuing the built card. They're moving to a new issuer and it ends on February 6th. Then Frank replies, no details at all was when I asked about the 100000 points on the autograph, but he deflected to saying that I should wait for the new release as it was the same cost, but better really sounded like a totally new card. In hindsight, I think he's just confused with the built refresh. So he's talking about inquiring about the 100000 points on the autograph journey. And the banker said that there's something coming for the same annual fee, but it's better whether that means a better card or a better welcome bonus. I don't know. Now, what is interesting is that the date he mentioned is February 6th, which is the last day that the built Wells Fargo cards work. All right. And the new cards come out on the 7th with the new issuer. And the guy ended the comment by saying the banker could have just been confused, but it would also make sense that Wells could launch a new card on that date since you're discontinuing one product. Maybe it makes sense to start a new one. Right. The people who had the built card from Wells Fargo before the switch to built 2.0 and didn't close their original built card account will be converted to the Wells Fargo autograph card anyway. So they will still be Wells Fargo customers. So perhaps it does make sense to have a new card to try and upsell these people to pay something with an annual fee to get some money rolling in after all the losses that Wells Fargo took on the built card. So we'll have to wait and see with this one. I do hope they release something. It's always good to have new products hitting the market. All right. Let's move on to our next story. How to get five free hotel nights from two different hotel chains. But first, I'm a busy guy, whether it's making YouTube videos, managing two Airbnb properties or buying and selling stocks. My schedule is pretty full. And the last thing I want to do when I get home after a long day is spend half an hour or more cooking. I just want to eat. Well, that is where Factor comes in. They have over 100 meals to choose from, many of them high in protein and some inspired by Mediterranean cooking, which is something that I really got into last year because it's one of the healthiest diets in the world. 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OK, so there is now a new limited time offer on the World of Hayek credit card from Chase for five free nights. Here's the small print and three free nights after you spend five thousand dollars on purchases in the first three months of account opening, plus two free nights after you spend fifteen thousand dollars on purchases in the first six months. Free nights can be redeemed at any category one to four Hyatt hotel or resort worldwide. Now, in case you are wondering, this won't cover nights at Hyatt all inclusive resorts, unfortunately, but you can still find some pretty good hotels in category four like this one in L.A., this Hyatt Regency at JFK Airport if you wanted to do a one night stay before an early flight or if you wanted to spend a few days somewhere for a vacation, like a beach vacation, you go to this hotel at South Beach, Florida. It's also in category four. These nights are valid for 12 months after they're issued. So if you get them in three or six months time, you would have until mid 2027 or so to use them. We do have an end date on this bonus, and that is February 26th, 2026. So apply soon. And in case you're wondering, this card has a ninety five dollar annual fee. But this bonus is pretty similar to the bonus on another mid tier hotel card also from Chase. So the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless card is currently offering five free nights, each valued at 50,000 Marriott points. So the equivalent of two hundred and fifty thousand points in total for spending just three thousand dollars in three months. And in addition to that, a one hundred dollar airline statement credit when you spend five hundred dollars or more directly with airlines. The five free nights can also be combined with extra Marriott points. Marriott lets you top up with up to 15,000 points. This makes hotels in like Manhattan, for example, accessible since it's very hard to find a hotel below 50,000 Marriott points in Manhattan. There are many that are just over 50,000. And oh, there is one here that's actually forty one thousand, but it just opened. OK, it's probably why. But in general, you're looking at 50 to 60,000 for something decent. Then with the airline credit that is split into fifty dollars for each half of the year for two hundred and fifty dollars in spend. But the cool thing about this is it's actually a benefit that current cardholders can use to. All right. That's really rare. If you're a current cardholder, you just need to activate it through a link. OK, and I will paste that link down below. And what you're seeing on screen is what you see when you click in. You've got to activate it through there. This card has the exact same annual fee as the higher one, ninety five dollars. So it's kind of direct competition. I think it might actually be a better deal since the spend requirement is way lower. OK, three thousand dollars versus fifteen thousand dollars. But if you really like Hyatt and you have a trip planned already, that includes a Hyatt hotel and you just want to go to Hyatt, then, you know, that's great. But otherwise, I prefer this one. I think it's a better deal. All right. Let's move on to another card that now has a new limited time bonus, and that would be the British Airways visa also from Chase. Here's the deal. It's ninety thousand avios for spending five thousand dollars in three months. Trips across the Atlantic on British Airways business class from the U.S. east coast. OK, so like New York to London now costs eighty eight thousand avios. So you could get a one way ticket to Europe in business class or maybe a round trip in economy for the bonus. You could also use the avios on American Airlines or another one world partner airline, probably for better value with lower taxes and fees as well. For example, I've used avios on American Airlines to fly to Cancun. I've used them also on Japan Airlines to fly from Taiwan to Japan round trip in business class. Food was really great on that flight. And in case you're wondering, the Iberia and Aer Lingus cards both have the exact same bonus. But it doesn't really matter anyway, since you can actually transfer the points between all of them. So it actually doesn't really matter which one you get. I would probably go for the British Airways one, since that's the most well known of those three airlines. You do need a direct link to apply for this one. I'll put that down in the description and in a pinned comment below. And in case you're wondering as well, it ends on March 11th, where it'll probably go back down to what is currently the public offer. Seventy five thousand avios in the annual fee on this card is ninety five dollars. All right. Let's now talk about the SACS bankruptcy and how it might affect your Amex Platinum card. All right, SACS, everyone's favorite store to buy fifty dollar socks at. You'll get that joke if you're an Amex Platinum member, has filed for bankruptcy, OK? And this is because they are currently facing lawsuits over unpaid bills to suppliers. They owe like one hundred and thirty six million to Chanel, fifty nine million to Gucci for products that they have taken delivery of but haven't paid for. And really, their troubles started when they acquired Neiman Marcus a few years ago. Like who would have thought that it would be a good idea in the age of Internet shopping to buy a relatively large brick and mortar retailer with several dozen stores across the US who they themselves filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy back in 2020? I don't know. Anyway, this bankruptcy doesn't mean that SACS is shutting down. Actually, it's just part of their restructuring. They have hired a new CEO, Van Ray and OK, I'm butchering his name and he actually comes from Neiman Marcus. OK, so I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not, but he made this statement. This is a defining moment for SACS Global, and the path ahead presents a meaningful opportunity to strengthen the foundation of our business and precision it to the future. OK, all right. Let me translate that from management speak into just plain English. What he's saying is we're going to turn it around, guys. All right. That's his aim. We're going to turn it around. It's not a defining moment. The defining moment will come if they actually succeed in turning this around. But that's his aim. He's going to turn it around. He doesn't want the company to shut down. And yeah, they're going to do a lot of restructuring. They'll probably close some stores. They're going to need to pay off debt, et cetera. But I think what everyone with the Amex Platinum is going to be asking is, is your SACS credit safe for now? OK, so the points guy reached out to SACS, who gave him this statement. Eligible American Express card members can enroll and continue to use their SACS Fifth Avenue benefit at this time. Now, according to Doctor of Credit, the court is also allowing SACS to, quote, So that means that cards purchased up until the date it was filed are good to go. OK, you can still use them. So I would not go and buy a new SACS gift card now, even though they're actually still available on SACS's website. I would say there's a bit of risk to that, buying them now. But no matter whether you have a gift card or a SACS credit, I would still want to use it ASAP, because although these things are still usable, people are finding that a lot of items on the SACS website are now sold out. So it seems that they're not restocking many items right now because they're going through restructuring. Maybe they're going to discontinue some product lines. They're going to switch up what they're selling, cut some items, et cetera. And they probably haven't got around to doing all that yet. So they're just letting some items go out of stock. There's also a small risk that they don't emerge from bankruptcy later this year. But I think Amex will have come up with a solution by then if that happens. OK, they'll bring in some other type of credit, Macy's credit, perhaps. All right, guys, that is the video for today. Don't forget to get 50 percent off your first box and free breakfast for a whole year with Factor in the links down below. Their meals are really tasty. I love trying that out for this video and I'll probably buy more. Anyway, please subscribe if you're new. We'll see you in the next one.