NEW 2.5% Cash Back Card + 4 Hyatt FREE NIGHTS, NEW Bilt $100 Credit

In this video I want to talk about a few things. We have a new credit card that earns 2.5% cash back on all your spending. We're going to do a deep dive and we'll tell you if it's a good deal or not. We have a new benefit on the built credit cards to tell you about and it's worth $100 a year. We also have a new transfer bonus from Citi to a certain airline and this one's a pretty big bonus. And then lastly we have a four free night welcome bonus on a certain hotel credit card from from Chase that just dropped. Hey Credit Warriors, welcome to the show. My name is Ben Hedges, aka The Credit Shifu, and on this channel, we cover US credit cards, personal finance, and luxury travel. If you like the sound of that, please subscribe, but let's get into it. So the first thing I want to look at is this, the Ameriprise Premier Visa Signature Card. This is a new 2.5% cashback card. Now this fits into the category of the so-called catch-all or non-category cards. I don't know why I'm doing that. The minimum rate that we view as worth it on a non-category card is like 2%, all right? Since there are a lot of 2% cards out there, like the Citi Double Cash, Wells Fargo Active Cash, they just earn 2% on everything. So when a new card comes out that is in this category, okay, of non-category cards, they earn the same amount of cash back on everything, it has to be above 2% to catch our attention. And this one is, it's 2.5%. So let's go through the details. So this card is for Ameriprise clients. It seems to me that you have to have an existing Ameriprise account since it says log in to apply. So you already need a way to log in if you want to apply online. But the card wouldn't really make sense if you didn't have an Ameriprise account anyway. And if you're wondering, Ameriprise does a variety of different investment accounts like brokerage accounts, IRAs, et cetera. More on which accounts you can pair with this card in a moment. So anyway, let's keep going through the benefits. There is a welcome bonus of 15,000 points for $1,500. hundred dollars in spending. In your first 90 days. Okay, spend requirement is kind of high, but what are these points worth? Well, we're gonna get into that in just a second. Then there are two rewards points for every dollar spent, no categories or caps, just the usual exceptions like cash withdrawals, buying currency from the US Mint, casino purchases, et cetera. But how do you get to 2.5% cash back on everything? Well, that is because when you redeem the points into an eligible Ameriprise account, they increase in value to 1.25 cents per point, Making two points worth 2.5. And thus it's 2.5% cashback. That also means that the welcome bonus is worth $187.50. I have to point out though that their IRA accounts don't offer you the benefit of transferring the cashback over and getting the bonus. There is a list on their site of which accounts are eligible. I'll put it on screen now. But it seems that it's mostly going to be their taxable brokerage accounts. But there are a few more caveats that we need to talk about. So first caveat is that you have to transfer points into your brokerage account to get cashback in 30,000 point increments. So 30,000 points becomes $375 in your account. This could be inconvenient for some people since depending on how much you spend, you may need to wait quite a while between cashback redemptions. Secondly, the card has an annual fee of $150. But you get So you get all these benefits, no foreign transaction fees, Priority Pass membership, $99 value, trip delay reimbursement, trip cancellation, a load of different things, all right? You can see them on screen now. So out of those, you know, Priority Pass is most interesting. It looks to potentially offer the most value. They say it's $99 in value, but because of that, I know that it's the one where you have to still pay $35 per visit each time you go. So yes, it is $99 in value since that's what it would cost if you bought it. But there are so many credit cards out there on the US market that give you unlimited priority pass, all right? You probably have one in your wallet already. So this really is just doubling up on a benefit that you might already have. So I would say that this card is for people who have high spending, spending so high that with just the extra... 0.5% cashback that you're earning above a standard 2% card with no annual fee, that still is going to offset the annual fee just from the cashback you'd earn from that 0.5%. But then again, you could just get the Robinhood Gold card, which earns 3% on everything for a $50 per year Robinhood Gold fee. The X debit card also earns 3% on everything, that's the one I have, although it is a debit card so it may not be as useful for certain types of spend where you want the greater insurances and stuff offered by a credit card. So anyway, this card may suit some people, especially if you already have an account with Ameriprise, but it isn't the bombshell that it initially sounds like. Alright guys, let's move on to a new benefit on the BILT credit cards. So a while ago, BILT introduced BILT Cash, which is an additional currency that you earn from the BILT cards. And you can also earn it as milestone bonuses as you accumulate BILT points, even if you're just a member of BILT Rewards but don't have the credit cards. But BILT is changing how new members and even current members... earn BILT cash in the future. Current card members, though, can get grandfathered in as long as they are quick to select that option before the end of the year. We did a video on it. It looks like this. You can check it out on the end screen of this video. But anyway, built cash is still a thing right now, and many people probably have a lot of it in their accounts because they've been earning it on the built cards over the year at 4% on all spend. So what can you do with it? Well, you can redeem it for various things, various credits for stuff. You can see they're all listed here. But a new redemption option that they just added is this. Redeem up to $50 of BILT cash toward a Thumbtack booking twice per year. How do you use it? Book a Thumbtack Pro through Built and toggle your BILT cash at checkout. One credit will be available from January 1st to June 30th of a calendar year, and one credit will be available from July 1st to December 31st of a calendar year. Now, Thumbtack is a website where you can hire handymen to fix stuff at your home. So if you are a homeowner, this might be a good use for BILT cash. Since as a homeowner, you have a lot of maintenance expenses each year, as long as you're staying on top of it, all right? And you do really need to because it'll cost more in the future if you don't do it. So this isn't using built cash for something that you otherwise wouldn't spend money on, like using built cash for a Blade helicopter ride to the airport. It's a nice thing to do, don't get me wrong, but I don't think you're going to be spending your money on unless you really are in that sort of high net worth individual level. But no, this is real value since you would probably pay a handyman to clean your gutters or a landscaper to cut your grass Anyway, so it's good to see BILT adding new things and actually this is a benefit of built whether you have the credit cards or you're just a member of the rewards program and that benefit is live in your account now if you want to use it. And if you're interested in BILT, I really recommend checking them out, especially their dining program. It allows you to earn three extra points per dollar spent at BILT restaurants on average, on top of what you earn on whatever credit card you link to BILT, okay? So this quarter, the Chase Freedom Flex is offering seven points per dollar on dining. Yeah, crazy, I know. If you add an extra three points from BILT to that, it's 10 points per dollar. Also, the Amex Gold works well with it for seven points per dollar too. Link for that. is down below. Don't forget to link your card so you can actually earn points. Oh, and link your Lyft account too for extra points on Lyft rides as well. All right, let's move on to a new transfer bonus from Citi to a certain airline. And then we'll tell you about a four free hotel night welcome bonus on a certain Chase credit card. So Turkish Airlines is offering a 40% bonus on transfers from Citi ThankYou points. It runs for the whole of November. 40% is a huge bonus, but the most you can earn as a bonus from this is 50,000 miles. So once you've transferred over 125,000 Citi points, you will have maxed it out with 175,000 miles in your Turkish Airlines account. And any further transfers will be at your regular rate of one to one or one. to 0.7 if you are transferring from a no annual fee Citi card. This bonus as well is on the Turkish Airlines site. So if you go to the Turkish Airlines page on the Citi ThankYou points website, you will not see it. But it is running and I'll paste a link to the page about it on Turkish Airlines somewhere down below. All right, let's move on to our final story. A bonus of four free nights on a certain Chase Hotel credit card. Chase has just launched a brand new welcome bonus on the World of Hyatt credit card. This one could get you four free nights at Hyatt hotels. The new offer gives you four free night certificates after spending $5,000 in the first three months. Each certificate can be redeemed for one night at an eligible category one through four Hyatt hotel. And some category four properties can cost as much as 25,000 points per night. At peak times. So theoretically, you're getting certificates that could replace up to 100,000 Hyatt points. The Points Guy values Hyatt points at 1.65 cents each. So if you maxed out all four certificates, that on average is going to be $1,650 in value. In reality, you won't be redeeming all the certificates for peak nights, probably, and maybe you'll go for hotels that are a little cheaper. So I'm thinking probably most people would be able to get 1,000 to maybe 1,200 in value out of this. 1,650 would be probably if you're really maxing it out. But that is pretty impressive. for a card with just a $95 annual fee. And the benefits don't stop there. You also get an additional category one through four free night certificate every year after your card member anniversary. Plus you can earn another free night certificate after spending $15,000 on the card in a calendar year. Automatic World of Hyatt Discoverer status and five elite qualifying night credits annually. But there are a couple of important catches. First, these welcome bonus certificates expire 12 months after they're issued. And you can only use them at category one through four properties, so don't expect to book the Park Hyatt New York with these. Also, unlike regular Hyatt points, the certificates can't be split across multiple cheaper nights. So if you use a certificate for, say, a 15,000 point per night hotel, you don't get to keep the remaining 10,000 points. All right. They're forfeited. Personally, I think this is, though, a very attractive offer for someone who already has a few Hyatt stays planned. But if you prefer flexibility, regular Chase Ultimate Rewards points could still be the better option. So what would you rather have, four free Hyatt nights or a big pile of transferable points? Let me know in the comments. And if the answer is the Hyatt free night certificates, apply soon because this is a limited time offer. All right, guys, that's the video for today. Thanks for watching. Don't forget to check out the Bilt dining program in the links down below for up to 10 points per dollar at restaurants this quarter. Please subscribe if you're new. We'll see you next time. Bye bye.