American Express has announced new Uber perks for US holders of the American Express Gold Card, the American Express Green Card, or The Platinum Card from American Express. First, consumer Platinum, Gold and Green cardholders can enroll now for a complimentary Eats Pass Membership for up to 12 months. Uber Eats Pass usually costs $9.99 a month ($119 a year) and includes:

• $0 delivery fee + 5% off restaurant orders of $15+.
• $0 delivery fee on grocery delivers of $30+
• Unlike Doordash Dasspass and Grubhub+, these benefits apply to every restaurant available on Uber Eats, not just select participating restaurants.

Note the fine print:

Offer valid thru 12/31/2021 on U.S. subscription. Pass will auto-bill starting 12 months from initial enrollment in this offer, at then-current monthly rate.

If you haven’t signed up for Uber Eats yet, you can first use my referral link to get $20 off your first order of $25+. Or simply apply this promo code at checkout: eats-ubermymoneyblog. Thanks if you use it!

In early 2021, the American Express Gold Card will also be getting $10 a month ($120 annually) in Uber Cash, which works both on Uber Eats orders and Uber rides in the US. For 2021, there will still be the $100 incidental airline credit (baggage fees, etc) but it has been announced as going away in 2022. This is in addition to the other $10 a month ($120 annually) dining credit which works on Grubhub, Seamless, and other select restaurants.

So in 2021, Gold cardholders can get all three credits: $120 Uber Cash, $120 Grubhub/Seamless/dining credit, and $100 Incidental Airline Fee credits. Right now the American Express Gold is also running a 60,000 point limited-time offer (the highest I’ve seen), making this is the best opportunity in a while to apply as a new cardholder.

It certainly looks like American Express is working hard to make their Gold card a better competitor against the Chase Sapphire line-up. This follows closely on the heels of the Chase Sapphire Reserve including Lyft Pink and Grubhub+ memberships, in addition to Dashpass and Doordash credits.

Newly added and extended benefits as of November 2020. The Chase Sapphire Preferred card and Chase Sapphire Reserve card have been very popular for their generous travel and dining perks, but right now travel and dining aren’t really happening. Chase has adjusted their rewards program for this new environment, including the following:

Chase Sapphire Preferred new changes:

• New: 2X points at Grocery Stores. 2x total points on up to $1,000 in grocery store purchases per month from November 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021, including pickup and eligible grocery store delivery services. It’s automatic—no activation required.
• Extended through April 2021: Redeem Ultimate Rewards points at 1.25 cents per points towards grocery store, dining, and home improvement stores. (Previously only travel through their portal.) Through April 30, 2021, your points are worth 25% more when you redeem them for statement credits after using your card at grocery stores and dining at restaurants (including takeout and eligible delivery services), home improvement stores and select charitable organizations. Footnote1(Opens Overlay) Just choose an eligible purchase made with your Sapphire Preferred card from the past 90 days. Then, apply the points for all or part of the purchase and receive a statement credit.
• 12+ months of included DashPass membership. For a minimum of one year, enjoy a complimentary DashPass, DoorDash’s subscription service that provides unlimited restaurant deliveries with $0 delivery fee and reduced service fees on eligible orders over $12 on DoorDash and Caviar. Activate by December 31, 2021.

If you earn 2x points on a grocery store purchase, and can use those points at 1.25 cents per point towards grocery store purchases using the Pay Yourself Back tool, that works out to 2.5% cashback towards grocery store purchases.

Chase Sapphire Reserve new changes:

• New: 3X points at Grocery Stores. 2x total points on up to $1,000 in grocery store purchases per month from November 1, 2020 to April 30, 2021, including pickup and eligible grocery store delivery services. It’s automatic—no activation required.
• Extended through April 2021: Redeem Ultimate Rewards points at 1.50 cents per points towards grocery store, dining, and home improvement stores. (Previously only travel through their portal.) Through April 30, 2021, your points are worth 50% more when you redeem them for statement credits after using your card at grocery stores and dining at restaurants (including takeout and eligible delivery services), home improvement stores and select charitable organizations. Footnote1(Opens Overlay) Just choose an eligible purchase made with your Sapphire Reserve card from the past 90 days. Then, apply the points for all or part of the purchase and receive a statement credit.
• Extended through June 2021: $300 annual travel credit works on gas station and grocery store purchases. There are more ways to earn your annual $300 Travel Credit. Through June 30, 2021, gas station and grocery store purchases will count toward earning your Travel Credit. You’ll also earn points on these purchases. And, as always, after your first $300 in travel purchases, you’ll immediately start earning 3x points on travel.
• 12+ months of Dashpass Membership plus $60 in Doordash food credit per calendar year. For a minimum of one year, enjoy a complimentary DashPass, DoorDash’s subscription service that provides unlimited restaurant deliveries with $0 delivery fee and reduced service fees on eligible orders over $12 on DoorDash and Caviar. Activate by December 31, 2021. Plus, earn up to $120 in statement credits on DoorDash purchases through 2021—that’s $60 in statement credits through 2020 and another $60 in statement credits through 2021.
• Annual fee renewal $100 discount. Sapphire Reserve annual fee renewals through the end of 2020 will be $450 instead of the normal $550. This is only for renewals, not new cardmembers.

If you earn 3x points on a grocery store purchase, and can use those points at 1.5 cents per point towards grocery store purchases, that works out to 4.5% cashback towards grocery store purchases.

Lyft has announced that Lyft Pink members will automatically get a free Grubhub+ membership (or Seamless+ if you live in New York City). Grubhub+ usually costs $9.99 a month and includes:

• Unlimited free delivery from from nearly 200,000 restaurants ($12 minimum order).
• Exclusive member discounts featuring free food, dollars-off and more from popular restaurants
• Donation matching through Grubhub’s Donate the Change program with all proceeds currently going towards the Grubhub Community Relief Fund, supporting communities in need impacted by COVID-19

This is notable because Lyft Pink (reg. $199 a year) is included free with the popular Chase Sapphire Reserve card. This adds another potentially valuable perk to offset that high annual fee.

Receive up to 15% off car rides, plus other benefits, such as priority airport pickups, relaxed cancellations, and exclusive saving opportunities with one year of complimentary Lyft Pink, a $199 minimum value, when you or your authorized user activates with a Sapphire Reserve card by March 31, 2022. Lyft Pink will be registered in the name of the cardmember who first activates the benefits.

If you have not joined Grubhub yet, you can get $10 off your first Grubhub order of $15+ if you join via my referral link. I will get food credits as well. Thanks if you use it!

If you already have both Lyft Pink and Grubhub accounts, link them together and activate here.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve also gives a free year of Dashpass membership (free delivery on DoorDash) along with $60 in statement credits on DoorDash food purchases ($60 in 2020 and $60 in 2021). If you are new customer to DoorDash and sign up via my DoorDash referral link, you will get $10 off your first 3 DoorDash orders over $20 ($30 total savings). I will get food credits as well. Thanks if you use it!

Southwest has a new companion pass promotion where can get a companion pass free for nearly two months at the beginning of 2021. Here are the requirements (you must make your ticket purchase soon):

• Register at the promo link, and then purchase a flight by 9/24.
• Travel by 11/15.
• Companion flies free with you from 1/6/2021 to 2/28/2021.

The qualifying flight only need to be one person with a paid flight. Remember to register your Rapid Rewards (RR) number at the promo link first, then buy your ticket using that same RR number. Changes made to the itinerary after purchase may eliminate qualification for promotion.

I have written more about the Companion Pass here, including how the requirements are loosened for 2020. Obviously this promo won’t be of interest to everyone, but if you needed to fly anyway, it can be a good opportunity to try out the companion pass. Thanks to reader Mark for the tip.

If you’re also guilty of watching more TV these days, you may have seen this strange TV commercial (embedded below) for a product called Experian Boost that promises to “boost your credit score instantly”. Usually, good honest products don’t need a gimmicky commercial, so I was skeptical. I assumed that Experian would make you pay somehow to improve your credit score. It turned out I was wrong. The service is free and even makes logical sense, unlike the commercial.

Basically, the idea is that you can include your on-time payments to utility companies like telephone, internet, electricity, gas, and even cell phone bills. Here are some additional details:

• Experian Boost only includes on-time payments, so it can only improve your credit score and never makes it worse than before. Note that unpaid utility bill debts have always been able to decrease your credit scores.
• Proof of on-time utility payments are made by linking your bank or credit card accounts, where you must submit your username and password (much like linking between online savings accounts). They claim the usual SSL encryption and bank-grade security measures. When analyzing your transactions, they are looking for at least 3 payments within the last 6 months.
• “Experian Boost applies to most credit scores that lenders use, including the base FICO® Score, as well as bankcard, mortgage, and auto scores.” Good that it includes the other FICO “flavors”.
• Experian Boost only changes your Experian credit report, so it won’t affect your TransUnion or Equifax-based scores. Not all lenders check Experian.

How much can Experian Boost improve your credit score? Here’s what they say:

Based on data from Experian, 10% of people who previously didn’t have enough information in their credit file to have a credit score became scoreable after using the tool. Also, 75% of people with a FICO® Score below 680 saw an improvement in their score after adding utility payment information to their report.

The TV ad claims “my credit score went up 13 points!”, so we should have relatively modest expectations. In addition, the above quote suggests that the improvement will be more significant for lower credit scores. My scores are relatively high, but I decided to try it out anyway, if only to make sure that it is truly free.

Here’s the initial sign-up page, which confirms how they know you paid your utility bills:

Here’s my credit score before adding any utility information. I have an excellent credit history already, and it was an ominous sign that there was no number in the “average boost” section. I feel like it usually says something like “+10 points average boost” instead of a blank space.

I have an existing free account at Experian, and declined the option to upgrade to their paid tier. I was able to proceed without ever giving them any credit card or bank payment information, so this is not a free trial. It is completely free.

The process is just like linking other accounts via Plaid and similar services. You provide login information and also have to input any two-factor authentication tokens (text message codes, etc).

It does take a few moment for them to scan your transactions, but it should complete while you wait. (In other words, not quite “instantly”, but close enough.) This is where I got the information that they are specifically looking for a history of at least 3 payments in the last 6 months.

After completion, you will receive an e-mail confirmation:

After adding my self-reported utility accounts, I was rewarded with… no FICO score increase. Here’s the message I received:

I guess it makes sense. Previously, I already had a long history of evidence that I was highly likely to pay any debts. After considering this additional evidence… I was equally likely to pay back my debts. Experian Boost is probably best for those that have a few blemishes and could use a little positive evidence added to the mix.

Bottom line. Experian Boost is a free way to potentially improve your Experian-based credit score by adding on-time utility and phone bill payments. I tested it out and it was indeed free with no credit card required nor trials to cancel, although you will have to share your bank transaction data. Although free to all, this service will be more helpful for those with a few dings and blemishes on their credit report.

If you have any American Express credit cards, check your “Amex Offers” in either your online account or smartphone app. Most people are seeing the offer “Spend $10+, get $5 back, up to 10 times when you Shop Small by 9/20/20”.

Get a $5 statement credit by using your enrolled Card to make a single purchase of $10+ at a US business location on the Shop Small Map (or Online Directory) by 9/20/20. Limit of 10 statement credits (total of $50).

Before you click on that “Add to Card” button, be sure that you have selected the specific AmEx card that you intend to use for this promotion. Once you add this offer to one of your cards, the offer will disappear from the rest of them. You must enroll by 7/26/20. Here’s a screenshot:

You can find eligible businesses at americanexpress.com/shopsmalloffer or americanexpress.com/shopsmallonline.

Not a bad deal, you can support local small businesses and get up to $50 total back. (A couple with two cards in their own names can get $100 back.) Shouldn’t be too hard to support them ten times over the next 11 weeks, even if once-weekly at a local restaurant for take-out.

Here is a new Amazon/AmEx promotion that promises “$20 off at Amazon after you make a single purchase of $50 or more using your American Express card”. However, the promotion has a lot of fine print to note:

• You must purchase products “sold by Amazon.com” or “sold by Amazon Digital Services LLC” by 7/22/20. Amazon e-gift cards do not qualify.
• You must spend $50+ on a single purchase using “any eligible American Express Consumer Card”.
• I don’t see any notice that you qualify for the promotion at Checkout. Update: I tried again and when I do the proper things, I see a tiny “Qualifying offers: Promotion applied” message under my Order Total at Checkout. After the order actually ships, you will receive a confirmation e-mail with the promo credit.
• The $20 promotional credit can only be used at the Amazon Moments store, which are “curated 4-Star & Above items”.
• Promotional credit must be redeemed by August 22, 2020.
• Offer limited to one per customer and account only.

This is one of those promotions where if I need to buy $50 of stuff, I’ll definitely try to qualify by using my consumer American Express card and checking out by the deadline, but I won’t go out of my way. (They should more clearly define what is an “eligible” American Express Consumer card.) I’m not quite sure of the point of this “curation” when it consists of a long list of 1,000+ items in every category. Who is going to shop Amazon this way?

My two “keeper” consumer American Express cards are the Blue Cash Preferred from AmEx (6% cash back on US supermarkets, up to $6,000 annually) and the Amex EveryDay Card (keeps my Membership Rewards points active with no annual fee, helps qualify for various Amazon promotions).