News in the points and miles world was hard to come by in June 2020. The world of travel began to open in June until an increasing number of COVID-19 cases closed the doors again. Fortunately, that brought us a plethora of news from credit card issuers who are trying to keep their cardholders happy. Citi and Chase both added some bonus categories for certain cards. And American Express had a technical error with the Hilton Surpass Card on their website.
This is the third iteration of my new Monthly Reviews. Here are the best posts of June 2020:
The Citi Premier and Prestige Have New Bonus Categories
Citi announced that their Premier and Prestige cards have new bonus categories in early June. The changes for the Premier were not supposed to occur until August 23, 2020. But Citi pushed the date up by over two months in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
There are currently different earning structures and bonus categories for the Citi Premier. Which earning structure you will receive depends on when you were approved for your Citi Premier card. This post explains the earning structures and provides a timeline of events for the Citi Premier’s long transition.
Furthermore, the Prestige’s categories are only promotional as opposed to the Premier’s permanent categories. The Prestige’s categories expire on August 31, 2020, so there is still time to take advantage of them if you have a Citi Prestige card.
Amex Has Removed the Hilton Surpass Card from Its Website
One night in early June, I was looking around American Express’ website. And I discovered that Amex removed the Hilton Surpass card. This post speculates why that could have been. Plus, it provides a mini-review of Amex and Hilton’s mid-tier credit card.
American Express put the Hilton Surpass Card back on their website two days after this post was published. This showed me that Amex’s website had a technical error that stopped the Hilton Surpass application links from working.
Chase Freedom 3rd Quarter 2020 Categories Revealed
Chase revealed the Freedom Card’s 3rd Quarter 2020 categories in mid-June. The current Chase Freedom categories are Whole Foods and Amazon.com purchases. This post provides my initial reactions to these categories as well as the best way to take advantage of them.
You can still register your Freedom Card to earn 5x Ultimate Rewards (UR) points for the current quarter. All you have to do is click on this link to the registration page and enter your name, ZIP code, and the last four digits of your card’s number.
Chase Has Added New Bonus Categories to the Sapphire Cards
However, the biggest credit card related new of late June came from Chase. The Bank of Morgan added new bonus categories to the Sapphire Cards on the last day of the month. Both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve received bonus categories in Gas, Instacart, and select Streaming Services. Plus, cardholders of both cards are receiving a $50 statement credit for Instacart purchases.
Unfortunately, the bonus categories and the statement credit are temporary. They will last until the end of the third quarter, September 30, 2020.
Final Draw
The four posts featured above generated some decent views and readership, especially in these tough times. I am so grateful for everyone who has read them and my other posts over the last month. Thank you again!
Hopefully, times will get better and we will be able to travel once more.
