The Marriott Rewards Premier Plus Credit Card is the new co-branded card from Chase and the newly-merged Marriott/Starwood/Ritz-Carlton rewards program. The current bonus is 75,000 bonus Marriott Rewards points after spending $3,000 in 3 months. Here are the card highlights:

• Earn 75,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 within the first three months.
• 1 Free Night Award (valued up to 35,000 points) every year after account anniversary.
• 6X points per $1 spent at participating Marriott Rewards & SPG hotels.
• 2X points for every $1 spent on all other purchases.
• Automatic Silver Elite Status each account anniversary year.
• Get upgraded to Gold Status when you spend $35,000 on purchases each account year.
• 15 Elite Night Credits each calendar year.
• Free in-room, premium internet access while staying at participating Marriott Rewards® and SPG® Hotels.*
• No foreign transaction fees.
• $95 Annual Fee.

Note the following:

The product is not available to either:

(1) current cardmembers of the Marriott Rewards® Premier or Marriott Rewards® Premier Plus credit card, or
(2) previous cardmembers of the Marriott Rewards Premier or Marriott Rewards Premier Plus credit card who received a new cardmember bonus within the last 24 months.

The Marriott and Starwood merger is now complete, and you can use these points at either Marriott properties (Ritz-Carlton, Renaissance Hotels, Courtyard, Residence Inn, Springhill Suites, Fairfield Inn & Suites) or Starwood Properties (Westin, Sheraton, The Luxury Collection, Four Points by Sheraton, W Hotels, St. Regis, Le Méridien, Aloft).

Here’s the new award chart information:

You could use 70,000 points on two free nights at a Category 5 hotel like the Courtyard Waikiki Beach in Hawaii on a standard date, or you could get 4 free nights at a Category 3 hotel like the Residence Inn Austin Arboretum.

You can still turn your points into airline miles with a bonus. 60,000 Marriott points = 25,000 airline miles. Similar to the old Starwood bonus structure, they will add 15,000 points for every 60,000 points you transfer to airline miles.

Finally, Marriott points are also convertible to gift cards, but it takes 60,000 points to redeem for a $200 gift card for Marriott or retailers like Best Buy, Home Depot, or Nordstrom. That ratio isn’t all that great so you’ll definitely get the most value via hotel night redemptions or airline miles transfer.

After your account anniversary and paying the $95 annual fee, you’ll get an Anniversary Free Night Award automatically deposited into your account within 8 weeks. The Anniversary Free Night Award is valid for a one night hotel stay at a property with a redemption level up to 35,000 points. Getting $95 value out of hotel night is pretty easy to achieve, as long as you use it before it expires after 12 months.

Bottom line. The Marriott Rewards Premier Plus Credit Card is an updated version of their Premier card and is currently offering 75,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 in 3 months. As with all hotel cards, the value is dependent on your unique travel preferences. If you stay at Marriott/Starwood properties regularly, the free annual night award should easily cover the annual fee. If you have the old card you may be able to get a bonus for upgrading.

In early April 2018, Delta disclosed that hackers may have compromised credit card information from ticket buyers on Delta.com between September 26 and ending October 12, 2017. However, as with many of these “cyber incidents”, this may just be the tip of the iceberg. If you realized actual damages, call 1-855-815-0534 and an AllClearID investigator will help recover financial losses, restore your credit and make sure your identity is returned to its proper condition.

Delta has also paid AllClearID to provide 2 years of free credit repair and monitoring services starting April 7th, 2018 to anyone who thinks they have been impacted. Visit https://delta.allclearid.com to get a unique code that you can redeem at enroll.allclearid.com. AllClear Fraud Alerts with Credit Monitoring includes:

• Protection at the three national credit bureaus: Starting with the ability to request, renew, and remove a 90-day fraud alert through TransUnion. TransUnion will relay the request to set the fraud alert to Experian and Equifax, and AllClear will send a reminder email when it is time to reset the fraud alert.
• Credit Monitoring: To detect creditors that ignore the fraud alert law. Available with single or triple bureau option.
• Annual TransUnion credit report and VantageScore 3.0: For added visibility into your credit file.
• $1 Million in Identity Theft Insurance Coverage: Provides reimbursement of certain fees, lost wages, and fraud losses related to identity recovery. There is no deductible for this insurance.

The primary thing of value that I see is the free credit monitoring of all three credit bureaus for free. I already have credit monitoring of TransUnion and Experian through various free credit score websites, but none of them cover all three at once. If you actually have damages from identity theft, the repair services and insurance coverage may also be of benefit. I don’t know why they focus on the 90-day fraud alerts, as they are already free to anyone that fills out a simple online form without AllClearID.

Opt-in to 3-bureau monitoring. I signed up, and I should note the the default option is single-bureau credit monitoring. The stated reason is that they don’t want to alert you three times if a the same new event is reported to all three credit bureaus. Really? I am quite interested to see if it is reported to one and not the others. Therefore, I was sure to opt into the 3-bureau option. Screenshot:

I would also note that AllClearID will call your phone every single time you log in and require you to enter a PIN number and/or voice verification.

The Chase Freedom Visa card has updated its quarterly 5% cash back categories for April 1st to June 30th, 2018. One of the eligible cash back categories is PayPal. April is also the time to make both income tax payments along with 2017 tax returns and also quarterly estimated taxes for 2018. PayUSATax.com is an IRS-approved payment processor and accepts PayPal as a payment with a 1.97% transaction fee.

Here is the fine print:

Includes transactions made using your Chase Freedom card with PayPal for purchases or sending money. Eligible transactions only qualify for a total of 5% Cash Back rewards. Purchases made using PayPal at other current 5% quarterly categories will be awarded a total of 5% Cash Back rewards on up to $1,500 in combined purchases. When you send money to Friends & Family via PayPal using your Chase Freedom card, standard transaction fees apply. See PayPal’s fees. Websites and other information provided by PayPal are not within Chase’s control and may not be available in Spanish. Must have/open a PayPal account to send and receive money.

Technically the Chase Freedom earns 5x Ultimate Rewards points, which might actually get you more than 1 cent per Ultimate Rewards point value if you have a Chase Sapphire Preferred or Chase Sapphire Reserve card.

Bottom line. From April 1st to June 30th, 2018, you can make a tax payment of up to $1,500 using PayPal with Chase Freedom as the funding source and get earn 5% cash back while paying only ~2% fee, for a net ~3% profit. You must go through PayUSATax.com. That’s a max profit of about $45, which you could think of as covering your tax prep software.

In case you missed it (as I did), Equifax extended their credit freeze fee waivers through June 30th, 2018. A credit freeze is regulated by your state, and generally prevents access to your credit reports to open new credit accounts. To unfreeze, you must notify them directly by mail/phone/website and provide a 10-digit PIN. However, unless there is new legislation, eventually state-specific fees will apply.

Equifax also rolled out Lock & Alert, which allows you to instantly lock and unlock access to your Equifax credit report. A lock also generally prevents access to your credit reports to open new credit accounts. One difference is that this service is run by Equifax and not regulated by the government. The benefit is that you can lock/unlock instantly via website, iOS app, or Android app. Equifax also promises that this feature will be free forever. Embedded below is their explainer video:

Exceptions. The following places may still access your credit report even if frozen/locked:

• Companies like Equifax Global Consumer Solutions that provide you with access to your credit report or credit score or monitor your credit file
• Companies you have an existing account or relationship with
• Federal, state and local government agencies
• Collection agencies acting on behalf of companies you owe
• For fraud detection purposes
• Companies that wish to make pre-approved offers of credit or insurance to you
• Companies reviewing your application for employment

My experience. I installed the Lock & Alert app and it’s pretty barebones. Basically a toggle switch with no additional features. To sign up, you’ll need your Social Security number but no credit card is required. The “Alert” part doesn’t mean they tell you if someone tried to check your Equifax report, it just means they’ll let you know when it is locked and unlocked. I was a little confused by that part. Why do I need an alert for something that only I can activate/deactivate?

The recommended practice is to keep it locked by default and then unlock temporarily when you apply for a mortgage, credit card, car loan, or some bank/credit union accounts. I personally prefer using locks over freezes, but am disappointed that it took so long for such a simple feature to be rolled out to consumers.

TransUnion has a similar service called TrueIdentity with free locks. Experian offers locks only as part of their $19.99/month credit monitoring plan. I guess we’ll have to wait until (our information stored on) Experian servers get hacked too, and then maybe they’ll be so kind as to allow us free access.

Bottom line. I plan on using the Equifax instant lock/unlock feature. You may still want to consider a freeze. I think consumers should get both locks and freezes for free from all three credit bureaus as it is our information they are selling and we are the ones impacted if it is incorrect or hacked.

Updated. Here’s a targeted deal for Amazon Prime members that also have American Express Membership Rewards points. First, all Amazon Prime members can get the following prices today (20% off all Alexa-enabled devices):

• All-New 8GB Fire 7 Tablet with Alexa for $39.99
• All-New 16GB Fire 8 HD Tablet with Alexa for $59.99
• All-New 32GB Fire HD 10 Tablet with Alexa for $119.99

However, if you have American Express Rewards, first link your American Express card to Amazon. Then check eligibility here for up to a $40 discount when you pay with at least one AmEx point. The final prices would be:

• 8GB Fire 7 Tablet with Alexa for $19.99
• 16GB Fire 8 HD Tablet with Alexa for $29.99 (sweet spot?)
• 32GB Fire HD 10 Tablet with Alexa for $89.99

Finally, here is another targeted coupon link that checks your eligibility to save $30 off $60 at Amazon when you buy anything (not just Fire Tablets) with Membership Rewards points. You may have done this older offer already, but the expiration has been extended if you missed it.

Be sure to select your linked American Express card as payment method, select the option to Pay with Points (you can use just 1 point), and apply the promo code to trigger the discount.

Updated. It looks like this offer is back as of February 2018. I was able to get another $10 credit even though I already got the previous $10 credit back in September. I still had the Discover card as my default 1-click payment method, but I did change to a Chase card right before clicking on the promo link below (not sure if that made any difference).

Original post:

Amazon has a targeted offer for $10 Amazon credit when you switch your 1-Click default payment method to an eligible Discover credit card. They’ve run similar offers for Citi and Chase in the past.

The link should show your eligibility (for the account that is currently signed-in). It probably won’t work if your 1-click default method is already Discover. You could try and remove it first. I had a Discover card already in my account, but not set as 1-click, and it worked for me. $10 credit valid on items both sold and shipped by Amazon.

If you have a Discover card, you may also want to sign up for their free Social Security Number Monitoring and New Account Alerts. I keep my Discover it card open for its rotating 5% cash back rewards.

Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed), the 3rd largest US credit union by assets, launched the PenFed Power Cash Rewards Visa Card in 2017. This credit card offers up to 2% flat cash back with no earning caps and no annual fee. Here are the highlights:

• Sign-up bonus: $100 statement credit when you spend $1,500 in the first 90 days.
• 2% cash back on all purchases with PenFed Honors Advantage (qualifying military service or PenFed checking account, details below). Otherwise, you get 1.5% cash back on all purchases.
• No annual fee.
• 0% Intro APR on balance transfers for 12 months. 3% balance transfer fee.
• No foreign transaction fees.

PenFed Honors Advantage requires either of the following:

• Military service (active, reserve, retired, or honorably discharged).
• Checking account. Have and maintain a PenFed Access America Checking Account. This account has no monthly fee with daily balance or monthly direct deposit of $500 or more. $25 minimum opening deposit. As long as the account is open, you qualify for the 2% cash back.

In other words, if you don’t have military service, opening and keeping $500 in their Access America Checking Account will keep you qualified without a direct deposit or minimum activity requirements.

Cash back redemption options. Your cash back rewards can be redeemed as a statement credit, a deposit into a PenFed account, or a deposit into an external bank account. Simple.

Competition. The following cards currently offer a competitive level of cash back rewards. Some offer higher rewards, but with additional requirements and/or an annual fee. Please read my card-specific reviews for details.

• Citi Double Cash Card Review
• Fidelity Rewards Visa Card Review
• BankAmericard Travel Rewards Card Review
• Alliant Credit Union Visa Signature Card Review

PenFed CU membership eligibility. Check out their eligibility tool. If you have a military affiliation, chances are that you can join immediately. However, anyone in the general public can also gain access by first joining either the National Military Family Association or Voices for America’s Troops. Both of these partner organizations can be joined with a one-time donation of $17.

Bottom line. The PenFed Power Cash Rewards Visa Card offers 2% flat cash back on all purchases with no annual fee. There is currently a $100 sign-up bonus if you make $1,500 in purchases within the first 90 days. PenFed Credit Union membership is required, but is also open to anyone willing to donate $17 to the National Military Family Association (NMFA).

If you already have one of the other 2% cash back cards available with less requirements, this may not warrant an additional credit check and new bank account. However, PenFed does offer good customer service and other financial products. You might consider making them your primary banking institution if you live near PenFed branches (often near military bases).