Getting half off your airfare for the next couple years thanks to Amex

So Amex lured me into getting an American Express Platinum card a few years ago with a stellar bonus.  I was lucky another 150,000 points for signing up for the Business version of the Platinum card.  This Business Platinum card currently has a publicly available bonus offer of 100,000 Membership Rewards points--not shabby at all although the spending requirements are quite hefty.  But here's why it might be worth it:

Make $1,950 immediately with minimal outlay

Why might you sign up?  Well, you'll make $2,000 off the bat.  Amex recently enhanced the Business Platinum card so that you can use Membership Rewards points towards airfare at 2 cents per point.  So that sign up bonus of 100,000 points is worth $2,000 in airfare.  Nice.  The annual fee of $450 is more than offset.  And it's pretty easy to get the effective first year annual fee down to $50 per the post in the first link.  Except it's even easier now that you don't even have to buy airline gift cards but instead can buy Amazon gift cards through the MileagePlusX app.  You might balk because to get the full 100,000 point bonus, you need to spend $15,000.  Here's where the next step comes in.

Get half off your next $12,500 in airfare purchases

Why is this even more lucrative?  First, along with making Membership Rewards points more valuable for Business Platinum cardholders, it also made them easier to earn by awarding 1.5X points on purchases over $5,000.  Second, through the end of the year, Amex is offering 2X points on small businesses, including a neat website called Plastiq.  Plastiq lets you earn credit card points by paying bills using your credit card, for a fee.  That includes mortgages, rent, and (better yet) home equity lines of credit.

So draw you could draw down a home equity line, and pay it back using Plastiq.  On a $4,878 payment (i.e. $5,000 including the 2.5% fee to Plastiq), you will earn 12,500 Membership Rewards points (5,000 base points, 5,000 small business bonus points, and 2,500 large purchase bonus points). Your out of pocket cost for the 12,500 points is $122 (that 2.5% fee).  Remember, those points are worth 2 cents each toward airfare, so essentially you are buying the points for a little less than 1 cent each and redeeming them for 2 cents.

The only limitation?  The 2X Small Business Saturday promotion is limited to 250,000 bonus points and runs until the end of the year.  You can shoot for 625,000 total points using this 2.5X opportunity, which is worth $12,500 in future airfare, not counting the sign-up bonus which adds another $2,000 worth of bonus points.  These $14,500 worth of points would cost $6,097.  If you are good at redeeming miles, you could use the points as miles and get even more value.

Fun with Citi Price Rewind

A policy that isn't worth the paper it's printed on

Today's lesson is exploiting Citi's Price Rewind policy, which is a gold mine that you never knew you had.  Most credit cards advertise a price protection policy, which promises that if you purchase an item on your card and find it at a lower price later on, they'll reimburse you for the difference.  Sound good?  Yes, too good.  Most cards never pay out on this policy, because you need to jump through a couple of hoops, including mailing in a copy of the advertisement where you found the lower price.  What?  Yes, finding a newspaper with the advertisement, cutting it out, and mailing it in.  What if the lower price is on Amazon?  Tough luck, no Internet price matching.  What if the price is lower but there is no printed advertisement?  Tough luck, you need the printed ad.

As advertised, Citi Price Rewind is virtually useless.  There is a Price Rewind website where you can  enter details of your purchase, and the system is supposed to automagically alert you when their hard-at-work, omniscient machines scour the Internet to find a better price for you.  I tried this, and lo and behold, it didn't work--I made a purchase from Amazon.com, and even when Amazon (and other retailers) lowered their price, no benefit was triggered even though all conditions were met.

Light bulb!  Sticking it to the man

I discovered that you don't need to rely on the Price Rewind website.  Instead, what you can do is fill out a blank form and fax it in to them.  THEY WILL MATCH INTERNET PRICES!  FROM ANY RETAILER!

Allow that to sink in...

Has your mind recovered from the racing through the possibilities?

Yes, you can buy from anywhere and get it price matched.  I am batting 100% so far in my price match requests.  The only restrictions being 1) a maximum of $300 per item and 2) $1200 per year per card.  Found a great price from a retailer you've never heard of?  Perfect -- order from your trusted store.

Even more possibilities

The truly wily among you will realize that there are even more possibilities:

• Category bonuses: What if I have a certain credit card from Citi that earns 5X ThankYou points at an online retailer that sells virtually everything?  Not only will I get the lowest price, I will also earn 5X points if I buy from my favorite retailer and then get it price matched!  Another example is the Citi Dividend card, which is paying 5% back at Best Buy this quarter.
• Double price match (DON'T DO THIS!): This is not something I have done nor is it ethical.  In theory, if you find a retailer like Best Buy or Staples that has a post-purchase price match policy, you can get it matched twice.  If the price difference is 50%, you would get it for free!

The Bank of America trifecta - earn 2.63% cashback plus $1075 in account bonuses to start

Update: I was wrong about two things related to the BofA Travel Rewards card: 1) unlike the BofA Cash Rewards card, the Travel Rewards can only be redeemed toward travel charges made on the BofA Travel Rewards card, unless you have a BofA Fidelity card, in which case you can transfer the points earned to the Fidelity card and then redeem for cash into your Fidelity brokerage account, and 2) unlike the Cash rewards card, the 10% bonus on deposits to your checking account do not apply, because you can't transfer the points to cash in your checking account.  2.63% toward travel isn't bad, though.  And what's more, is that like Citi's credit cards, you can pay your BofA credit card balance with a debit card by calling 888-998-2829 (collections department).  So if you have a rewards debit card that pays you 1% back (hard but not impossible to find these days), you can theoretically earn 3.63% back!

Road to riches via manufactured spending

Do you have $100,000 in cash under your mattress?  No?  I am a little disappointed, because you could have earned this sum by following some of my past advice in buying Visa gift cards and liquidating them.  With the right credit card, each of the following cards earned me ~$20.

Credit card glory

Okay then, do you have $100,000 in your IRA?  If yes, you can take advantage of Bank of America's relatively new Preferred Rewards program.  In the program, you can earn bonuses for keeping money at Bank of America, including its subsidiary Merrill Lynch.  These bonuses include (in order of importance to me):

• 75% bonus on credit card rewards
• free investment trades every month
• waived monthly bank account fees

The first of those is the most important.  You see, Bank of America has some credit cards that pay you 3% back in certain categories.  That translates into 5.25% back.  If you don't care to hustle around and buy gift cards at 7-Eleven, then you won't get as fat a bonus, but you can get 2.63%2.89% back on everything you buy.  So consider paying those pesky convenience fees for your income or property taxes, paying 1.88% or 2.35% and earning 2.63%2.89%!  I like those numbers!

How to earn 2.89%?  Bank of America has a Travel Rewards credit card that earns 1.5 Worldpoints (i.e. 1.5% cash back) for all amounts spent on it.  Multiply that by 1.75x, and you get 2.625% cash back.  Wait a minute, you say.  That's not 2.89% back.  You're right, because there is another bonus which is if you redeem your points for cashback that is directly deposited into your Bank of America checking account, you get an additional 10% back, so you really earn 2.8875% cash back on everything!

Alternatively, you can get the Cash Rewards credit card, which earns

• 3% (5.775% with multipliers!) back at the gas station
• 2% (3.85% with multipliers) back at grocery stores, and
• 1% (1.925% with multipliers) back on everything else.

The only downside is that the bonus categories (gas & groceries) is limited to a bonus on $1,500 per quarter, which puts a serious crimp in my get rich quick schemes.

$1,075 to start!

There are nearly always account opening bonuses on all three accounts: brokerage, checking, and credit card.  These will add up to $1,075 if you apply in the right sequence and take advantage of a current checking account promotion:

• $300 for opening a checking account (expires April 10, and note the direct deposit requirement and service fees, which will get waived if you keep a certain balance and waived permanently once you qualify for a Preferred Rewards tier)
• $600 for depositing/transferring $200,000 of securities ($300 for $100,000)
• $100 for opening a Bank of America credit card, which will get bonused up into $175 only after your 3-month average BofA balance has reached $100,000 and you redeem into a checking account.  You will need to wait about 1.5 months for this to happen if you deposit $200,000.

Pay your mortgage with your credit card: Evolve your payments with Evolve Money

Evolve Money is one of my favorite new payment services.  And until April 21, you can get $5 added to any payment you make using the service by using promo code Save5april (expires April 21 at midnight PDT).  Evolve Money accepts debit cards only (and a certain brand of reload card), so you might be wondering how this could possibly be a money earning opportunity.  Well, those Visa and Mastercard gift cards you see on the racks of grocery stores and drug stores are debit cards, which--in many stores--you can buy with a credit card!

What.  Is there some catch?  Isn't this complicated?  And don't those debit cards come with fees?  Yes, yes, and yes.  It does take a couple of steps, and those debit fees can add up to about 1%.  But here are reasons why it might be worth your while:

• Earn a 1% spread: if you have a 2% cash back credit card like the Fidelity Amex or the Barclay Arrival, you can earn a 1% spread.  Pay 1% to your grocer or drug store, get 2% back from your credit card company.
• Buy miles a 1 cent per mile: Practically any ol' credit card will give you one mile per dollar spent, so if you can redeem for value of upwards of 1 cent per mile (not hard to do if your dates are flexible), this is an opportunity to fly cheaply.
• Earn a 4% or greater spread: This is the real money.  If you have a credit card that earns a 5x bonus on spending categories like groceries (the Amex Blue Cash Preferred, for example or the many Wells Fargo cards offering 5% cash back on groceries, drugstores, and gas) where gift cards are sold, you can earn an even bigger spread (4% back on whatever you spend, including your mortgage!)

Sweet deal (100,000 miles!) for Citi AAdvantage card

Citi's premium AAdvantage credit card comes with a $450 annual fee, but before you stop reading, know that with this special offer it comes with a $200 statement credit (your effective fee is $250) plus 100,000 miles after spending $10,000 in 3 months. That is for sure a lot of spending, but it is a little easier these days with the ability to manufacture spending by buying gift cards. This card has a hefty annual fee mainly because it offers access to American Airlines Admiral Club lounges.

Is the $450 annual fee for the American Express Platinum Card worth it?

I never really considered holding the American Express Platinum Card, since it comes with a hefty $450 annual fee, and as my regular readers know, I am not a baller. I don't spend $450 without expecting A LOT in return. Like a life-sized gold nude sculpture of myself (solid gold, not leaf). To my surprise, I am considering keeping the Platinum card for the benefits. I get no commission whatsoever if you sign up--I'm writing this because a friend asked me about the card.

How they got me

I was lured into getting a Platinum card with the fleeting 100,000 bonus point offer almost a year ago. I transferred the 100,000 Membership Rewards points into 135,000 Avios (British Airways points). Take a city pair like LAS-LAX, which is 238 miles each way. On British Airways' award chart, that flight qualifies for a 9,000 point round-trip redemption. So my 135,000 point sign-up bonus would earn me 15 round trip tickets on this city pair or $3000 in airfare assuming $200/ticket. It was a no brainer to sign up for a year and cancel. It's very rare to get the 100,000 Membership Rewards sign-up offer, but there is a Mercedes Benz version of this card with a 50,000 point offer. Another strategy is signing up for the Gold Rewards card for 75,000 bonus points (a more regular offer) and then call and try to upgrade to Platinum (often they will offer you 25,000 additional points). Card Offers apparently has a 50,000 point offer for the Gold card valid now. There are numerous transfer bonuses from Membership Rewards currently (20% to British Airways, 25% to Emirates, 30% to Virgin Atlantic), but they are all limited time offers so be sure to time your transfers strategically.

Sticking it to the man

The easiest way to get value from the card is to get $200 in statement credits for airline charges each calendar year. I have spent $200 on airline gift certificates ($100 in two transactions). This is perfect to use in combination with offers such as Alaska Airlines' companion pass that comes with its BofA credit card. With my flight patterns, it's very easy to get the full $200 in value every year. Unless your card is issued on January 1st, you will get two calendar years in your first year of card membership. So in your first year (never cancel before getting another $200 on January 1st!), you can easily get $400 in value toward airfare, which takes a big chunk out of your first year's $450 fee. To keep the card, though, I need to come up with another $250 in value.

Another way I get value from the card is the bonus offers I get from Amex Sync programs. For example, Amex is offering me $25 off $250 purchases at Best Buy if I just tweet #AmexBestBuy. I can do that. I can also buy Visa gift cards there and earn 10% off money. I also saved $50 on a Travelocity hotel booking earlier this year. In total, I've saved $260 this year through Amex Sync programs on this card alone. You can be sure that I'll spend at least $10 on this card on Small Business Saturday. Did I get $270 in value? Not exactly, because unlike the Best Buy and Small Biz Saturday offers, I had to spend money I probably otherwise wouldn't have spent.  So call it $150-200 in value.

I was fortunate enough this year to make several reservations for myself and others through American Express' Platinum Concierge service at restaurants like Per Se. It's rumored that American Express has its own standing table at certain restaurants. The service touts being able to find a painter in Paris to choose a color to paint a Paris apartment...I don't think I will be using it for that anytime soon. The service is pretty bad for restaurants not in its radar screen (even Michelin starred restaurants), but it has definitely saved me a lot of time and effort.

I also got value from the American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts program, which offers amenities such as free breakfast for two, a $100 credit for dining or spa services, early check-in, late check-out, a room upgrade, etc. Recently I booked a room at THEhotel in Las Vegas for $90 for one night using this program, so we got an $80 breakfast credit and a $100 spa credit. Or a spa service that comes with a free room, depending on how you look at it. Great value.

I haven't traveled much this year for business, but if I traveled more, I would place even more value on the lounge access that I get with the card. In addition to the American Airlines Admirals Clubs, Delta Sky Clubs, US Airways Clubs, you get access to Priority Pass Select lounges and two Centurion lounges (I took advantage in Las Vegas, and it is well worth a visit even if you access it using your non-Platinum Amex card and pay a $50 entry fee).  Access to these clubs cost hundreds of dollars per year, but I think I've gotten at least $100 of value from access this year.

My car battery died last month. I don't have AAA, and thanks to Amex Platinum, I don't need it!

I think I did quite well this year with the Platinum card. While there are other amenities (below), I would recommend it to heavy travelers in particular. And even better, if you can leach onto someone who has the Platinum card, the additional user fee is only $175 and covers up to 3 additional cardholders. That works out to $58/year! Well worth it for any of combination the benefits that I got most value from (above), but you might also find value in (although many of these apply to the primary cardholder):

• One year free of Amazon Prime (I sadly signed up before they started offering this)


• Free Gold status in the Hilton and Starwood programs (although this status is easy to come by via other means)


• Global Entry fee refund (gets you through lines faster)


• Other benefits like shipboard credits when you book a cruise


• Companion pass when you book an international business class ticket (good luck using it and finding a truly discounted fare!)


• Generous accident insurance, purchase protection (90 days and up to $300 per item), etc.

Santander Bank giving $240 PER YEAR for banking with them

Santander is one of Europe's biggest banks, and it bought New England-based Sovereign Bank many years ago.  In one of the most lucrative offers for opening a checking account I have ever seen, Santander is giving customers $20/month for having a checking account with them.  That's $240 per year.  What has my bank done for me lately?  Follow the details on this Fatwallet thread.

Chase Checking account opening bonus - Back again with a twist

(open account by October 15)

Chase once again offers $200 for opening a checking account, only this time they are making it a bit tougher to get a coupon code.  These coupon codes sell for anywhere from $2 to $25 on eBay.  The only thing you have to do is already have a Chase login (through a credit card, mortgage, etc) or to know someone who does have one.  Then visit this link after you've logged in for your coupon code. The page will spit out a code. And if you hit refresh, it will spit out another code. Here are a couple of codes -- one for each of my readers!

5227155083349281
5227155083357866
5227155083361390

Get your annual $200 from Chase

(expires August 15)

Chase offers account opening bonuses of up to $200, such as this one which expires on August 15.  You will need to keep your account open for 6 months to keep the bonus.  And after that you can close it.  The bonus is open to anyone who hasn't had a Chase account in the last 90 days.  So really you can get this bonus every 9 months, providing you can find a link like the one above.  Or some people on eBay sell the same link for $50 or so.  But keep in mind that the bonus is considered interest, so you will see a 1099-INT at the end of year for $200.  There is no hard credit inquiry, so if you can manage the logistics of maintaining $1500 and direct depositing at least $500 into your account each month (ACH pushes count), then there's not much reason to not pick up your free $200 every year!

Another Whole Foods discount through Amex

American Express offers $10 off a $75 purchase at Whole Foods if you tweet #AmexWholeFoods. It's not as good as last year's $20 off the same amount, but now that I have signed up all my cards (including my additional card holders for multiple savings per card), I can stretch these discounts a bit further. If you prefer Facebook over Twitter, you can sign up for this same promotion by heading to the Amex Like Link Love app on Facebook.

Make an easy $10 on Visa gift cards

(Deal expired early, sorry!)

(expires Saturday, April 27)
Staples is selling $100 Visa gift cards for just $95. Normally these carry a $5.95 purchase fee plus $1 in shipping. You can buy a maximum of 2 cards per customer and easily cash them out via Amazon Payments. If you use a credit card like the Ink cards from Chase or the American Express SimplyCash card, you can earn a total of 10% back with this simple purchase.

TurboTax discount of $20

There is little joy in doing taxes, except for 1) a large refund or a distant 2) a $10-20 discount from TurboTax Online. TurboTax Deluxe starts at just $19.99 with this limited time discount.

If you aren't using Amazon Payments, you aren't living

Amazon Payments is a payment service that lets you pay merchants or any other person who has an e-mail address, just like PayPal.  The big difference between PayPal and Amazon Payments is that there are no fees associated with credit card payments.  Yes, major light bulb.  Neither sender nor recipient pays fees for payments using a credit card.  That means:

1. Free rewards - Send money to someone who won't abscond with it to Panama.
2. Excellent way to hit minimum spend on new credit cards - Need to hit that outrageous sounding $10,000 in spending get a mega credit card bonus?  No problem.

Well, there are limitations.  Each Amazon account can send and receive $1,000 of payments per month via credit cards.  That's $20 per month for those of you with a decent 2% back credit card.  Some people have multiple Amazon accounts and have successfully charged thousands per month, though I would not recommend this.  To open an account, you do have to enter your social security number, I assume as part of the Patriot act or some other anti money laundering regulation.

The best deals tend to be deals where there is a deep pocketed sponsor who is trying to buy market share, just like Microsoft tried to buy search share by sponsoring Bing cashback, which is an extreme example.  My guess is that Amazon doesn't mind you taking advantage of fee-free Amazon Payments for a while because they are trying to buy payments market share, which will in turn give them more competitive rates with banks, give them more credibility with retailers, and broaden customer adoption so that they can be a viable PayPal competitor.

Get $200 for opening a Chase checking account

(expires October 6, 2012)

Chase frequently has bonuses for opening checking accounts.  These range from $100-200, and today you can get a coupon for a $200 bonus by clicking on this link.  You will need to open a Chase Total Checking and keep it open for 6 months.  To avoid fees, you'll need to keep a $1,500 balance or have a direct debit of $500 or more each month (some account transfers will count).  This deal doesn't result in a hard credit inquiry (save those for sweet Chase credit bonuses!).

Get 7.5% back on all your spending, 11% back on gift cards

(extra $50 travel card code expires today, July 28)

Bonus savings for today only: Enter code TRAVEL to get a $50 hotel cash card redeemable here.

A couple posts ago, I talked about how you could get 4.2% back on any spending category using a combination of the American Express SimplyCash card and the American Express Prepaid card.  Today, I'm sharing a similarly diabolical way to get 7.5% back on all your spending, this time involving any of the American Express Small Business cards.  American Express has a program called OPEN, which gives small business card holders a statement credit rebate for certain merchants such as Hyatt hotels, FedEx, Hertz, and OfficeMax.  Last month, American Express changed its rebate terms on OfficeMax, getting rid of rebates on in-store purchases but upping rebates to 10% on purchases over $250 at OfficeMax.com.

But we can buy only so much toner at inflated prices.

What we prefer to buy is money at a discount.  So get an American Express Small Business card if you don't already have one.  I recommend cards like the American Express Starwood Card, the American Express Premier Gold Rewards card (especially if you can get in on a 75,000 account opening bonus), the American Express SimplyCash card, and the American Express TrueEarnings Costco Business card.  All of these are great cards on their own, and the SimplyCash card even carries no annual fee.  Don't worry about having a small business--you can just put your name as your business name.

So follow these steps to get your cash back:

1. Go to OfficeMax.com, and buy at least $275 worth of OfficeMax gift cards.  These should arrive about a week later via USPS Priority Mail.  Do not buy just $250 worth of cards.  You must buy $275 or more, otherwise you will get only 5% back from OPEN if you buy $250 or less.
2. When the gift cards arrive, go to your OfficeMax store and shop their gift cards.  They have $200 Visa gift cards that carry a $6.95 service charge.  They also carry gift cards to Amazon.com, Nordstrom, Apple iTunes, and many more.  Some cashiers might say you can't buy a gift card with a gift card, but I usually just tell them to try it and see if it works, and it has always worked for me.  You might need to visit a few different registers or stores if you get shot down.

In a couple of days after your initial purchase, you will get a 10% OPEN Savings statement credit.  On top of this, you will have earned whatever your card's core earnings program gives you -- 1% cash back for SimplyCash and TrueEarnings, 1 Starpoint per dollar spent (certainly worth more than 1% back), or 1 Membership Reward points per dollar spent.  So your earnings are as follows on a $200 purchase (I choose this amount because that's the largest Visa gift card size, but remember you need to buy >$250):

• Visa gift card: 10% off $200 in OfficeMax gift cards = $20 statement credit, plus you get an additional 1% back or $2.  $22 in rewards less $6.95 in fees is 7.5% off a Visa gift card.
• Other gift cards: If you are purchasing something at other stores like Amazon, you can trade in $200 in OfficeMax gift card for $200 worth of Amazon.com gift cards.  Your net rewards would be $22, with no fees whatsoever, for 11% off any gift card that they carry.

Think of the possibilities.  For example, you can pay your tax bill with a 1.89% fee, so you can make a 6 point spread on your taxes.  Or, get a free Square card reader and pay a 2.25% fee for a 5 point spread ($10.50 per $200 gift card).  It's hard to spend money on $200 gift cards and keeping track of balances, so the Amex Prepaid deal can be more convenient for large purchases.  But this deal is very rewarding--it's free money.  Don't risk getting stuck with thousands of dollars in OfficeMax gift cards.  If you already have an Amex small business card I recommend taking advantage of this deal today for the $50 hotel credit!

Get 4.2% on all purchases with the American Express Prepaid Card

Another Amex deal (no, I am not paid in any way by them, except by exploiting opportunities like this next one).  American Express has introduced a Prepaid Card, a re-loadable stored value debit card of sorts.  There is really nothing special about this card, except the way that you can reload it.  They expect you to link it to a bank account and load it via direct debit, and if you get a new card and reload it this way with $50 in July, Amex will give you $10.

However, there is another reload method that yields 4.2% on everything you buy.  For all of my strategizing to get more than 2% back, this deal trumps them all.  Office Depot sells "vanilla reload" cards, displayed right next to "temporary" American Express prepaid cards in its retail locations.  Buy these vanilla reload cards with a credit card that rebates you 5% on office supply purchases, and you will net 4.2% after the $3.95 fee per reload card (maximum value of $500).  You will pay $3.95 for the reload card but get $25 back on your $500 purchase.  Cards that give you 5% back include:

• American Express SimplyCash - No annual fee and 5% back is rebated as a statement credit (2 cycles after your purchase).  Also get 5% back on mobile phone bills.
• Chase Ink Bold - $95 annual fee (waived for the first year and more than offset if you can spend $10,000 to earn 50,000 Ultimate rewards points).  This can be a better value, because you get 5 points per dollar at office supply stores, which you can redeem for airline tickets worth 10 cents per dollar or more.  Also get 5% back on mobile phone bills, internet services, and cable bills.

American Express 75,000 Membership Rewards points for Amex Gold Premier sign up

(expires June 26) They last had this big bonus as a one-day deal for the leap year. The 75,000 point bonus for the American Express Premier Rewards Card is a whopper because Amex often has transfer bonuses to other airlines. I signed up for this card on leap day and after spending $10,000, I got my 75,000 bonus points plus 10,000 regular spending points. Then I transferred them to British Airways with a 50% American Express bonus, netting me 127,500 miles--even more than British Airways own credit card that doesn't waive the first annual fee like this one does. A great deal! It's hard to spend $10,000 in 4 months, but some ideas include paying taxes (yes, you'll pay a 2.3% fee but it could be worth it), using Amazon Payment to send a friend money (no fees), or just prepay some expenses by buying gift cards.

Get up to $500 in Apple gift cards from Fidelity

(expires June 30, but often gets extended)

Got some spare change? Like $300,000? Fidelity offers free Apple gift cards if you deposit at least $75,000 into a Fidelity brokerage account. That gets you a $100 gift card, and you can get a $500 gift card for depositing $300,000. Okay, so you it's still a high bar. The funny thing is that you can deposit money, withdraw the money, re-deposit the same money, and still earn the bonus. So the only real limit is how much time you have to repeat this process, since transfers take some time.

The best thing is that you can use this with an existing Fidelity account (non-retirement). So, you can combine offers. Like getting 50,000 United MileagePlus miles, 50,000 Delta SkyMiles, or 50,000 American AAdvantage miles for opening an account with $100,000, then going for the Apple deal after your initial miles post.

Get $1000 toward your next vacation from Capital One

(expires May 1)

Capital One has a solid rewards card called Venture. For a limited time, they are giving away 100,000 points for signing up for Venture, a bonus that is worth $1,000 in travel spending (if you book through their rewards site) or gift cards. In addition, you get two points per dollar of spending and incur no foreign exchange fees. The two requirements for the bonus are:

1. Spend $1,000 within 90 days
2. Submit a year-end summary from your existing travel rewards card

The card comes with a $49 annual fee (waived for the first year).  I think the rewards program is pretty good, especially for those who recently lost their Charles Schwab card that rebated a straight 2% back monthly.  But most point hoarders will find the reward program less valuable than ones that give you miles that usually give you more bang for the buck.  Personally I prefer cash back or cash toward travel so you don't have to deal with award blackouts, but I find the Citi and Chase bonuses toward travel more rewarding than this card.  Nevertheless, it's a whopping bonus that is tough to pass up.

50,000 Citi ThankYou point offer expiring today

(expires today)

Citi usually offers a 25,000 point bonus for Citi ThankYou Preferred Card, which carries no annual fee. However, they have a 50,000 point offer that expires today. You get 25,000 points after $5000 in purchases in each of two consecutive 6-month windows for a total of 50,000 points. Their Citi Premier Card also offers a bonus of 50,000 points, but it carries a $125 annual fee (waived for the first year). The Premier card is probably a better offer for most customers--unless you already have one, in which case why not sign up for both? Or if you don't like the idea of signing up and canceling after a year, the Premier card is better with no annual fee.

I would not recommend using the Preferred card regularly after you get your bonus miles except possibly on airfare, where you can get points on miles you fly, even some award tickets. For example, if you book a JFK-LAX, you would earn a bonus of 1650 points (33% of the round trip total of 4950 miles). But you don't earn this bonus unless you have an equal amount of regular spending. So it's something like double points on airfare, but not that great.

I find ThankYou points to be worth just under a penny per point because you can redeem at a penny per point for a wide variety of gift cards such as Amazon.com and Home Depot. However, if you have a ThankYou Premier card, which gives you 25% off airfare booked at ThankYou.com, the points are worth about 1.3 cents. If you fly regularly and rack up bonus flight miles, you can get about 2.7 cents rebated to you for airfare purchases. And with the Premier Card, you get a 20% bonus for spending at grocery stores, gas stations, and drugstores, so that is around 3 cents back in airfare in these categories. But only if you can bank the flight bonus points, which is relatively easy because award travel where taxes are greater than $50 generally counts.