1) Discounted awards on Air France are announced for September and October. The program partners with Membership Rewards (instant transfer). Fuel surcharges are fairly low for flights to Europe. More info HERE (h/t Loyalty Lobby blog)
2) Once a year Capital One has a promotion for opening new accounts, and now is such a time. Keep in mind, they pull your credit for checking account application, but not for savings. Offer valid for new sign-ups only through July 3rd.
I personally got in on these offers in the past and the bonuses posted fairly quickly. You can get $76 for a new Savings account for yourself and $25 for getting one for your child. You can click via my referral link if you wish, which would give me $40. Thanks for your support. (h/t Points and Pixie Dust blog)
3) You can use Chase Freedom to redeem 25,000 points for a Southwest flight with a value of up to $335. No Chase Sapphire Preferred, Ink or Bold cards required. Usually Southwest flights don’t show up on Kayak.com or other search sites. You’ll have to call in to get this benefit. (h/t Million Mile Secrets blog)
4) You might be able to get $10 off $200 Amex gift card purchase with Amex Sync. Read this post with instructions on how to do it.
Also check “offers for you” in your Amex profile.
5) An increased offer for Amex Premier Rewards Gold Business card, offering 50,000 points. The info and link, which pays no commission HERE (h/t Doctor of Credit)
6) An update for my applications for Capital One Venture Rewards and Wells Fargo Propel cards, as promised.
Capital One: Denied, got a letter in the mail. The score quoted from Equifax was 763 (excellent). All three agencies were pulled. The reasons for denial: Too many inquiries in the last 12 months and too many newly opened accounts. Total inquiries from Equifax in the last 2 years: eight, last 12 months: four. As you can see, not that many, really. Called and tried to reverse the decision without success.
The conclusion: Capital One has become very sensitive to new inquiries.
Holly from ClubThrifty blog reports that her husband was approved and she was denied, even though the info was almost identical. Interestingly, she put self-employed status just like I did. Coincidence? You decide. This card pays me commission in case I haven’t talked you out of it!
Wells Fargo: Got a letter requesting pay stubs. I called and explained that I’m self-employed and most of the money is made by my husband. I was asked to fax last 2 tax returns and was assured that the application would be approved after that. Also, the rep said they destroy all sensitive information immediately. Not sure if it’s true, but I hope so.
Decided to go ahead and do it, but white-out kids’ info on the tax return, since Wells Fargo doesn’t need it. Will update on the final decision. Four hundred dollars is a lot of money to me, but is it enough to risk identity theft? Sound off and tell me if I’m crazy!
Update: Please, see the comments section where one of my readers describes her experience with Wells Fargo employee stealing her father’s identity.
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Author: Leana
Leana is the founder of Miles For Family. She enjoys beach vacations and visiting her family in Europe. Originally from Belarus, Leana resides in central Florida with her husband and two children.
The font in your blog is hard to read. Would you please change the font? Normal font like the one in Million Miles Secrets and The Points Guy…
@Brian Thanks so much for your feedback! I’ll look into it and try to change it in the next few days. I certainly want my blog to be easily readable. I’ll work on it, so comment on it again when I make the change.
Brian, let me know if it’s a bit better now. I only have so many choices of fonts, and this is as close I got to what you requested.
Also, credit line is massive at 40k. Wow. Not necessary.
@ Cheapblackdad Congrats on getting the card approved for your wife! I honestly don’t know what the pattern is for Capital One. Not sure if there is one. I’m surprised that 4 inquiries are too many. Our income should have been sufficient.
I included our entire income and my wife’s income from her internship from earlier this year and the one from later this year. Think income is what’s tripping people up? Between my income and my full time job and my wife’s income, who is a student, we so alright.
You are taking too much risk by revealing too much information to Wells Fargo. On the very day my father entered hospice in FL (your state) an employee at a branch near his Wells Fargo branch opened unauthorized accounts in his name. You can imagine the kind of mess this created. If you have already submitted this sensitive information to WF you may want to freeze your credit reports.
@Sofi Thank you so much for the warning! I will edit the post and mention it. I haven’t sent it yet, and now a bit conflicted on what to do. I might call Wells Fargo right away and ask them to destroy the info. Ahh, $400 vs. possible identity theft! Maybe since they are asking everyone to do it, mine will not draw as much attention. Thanks for your comment and I’m sorry about your experience.
Thanks for the mention! Speaking of the Capital One card, they sent me a letter saying that I was denied because I don’t carry a balance on any other cards and because my income is insufficient to get approved for more credit. Say what? How can that be?
Anyway, the letter said I could appeal their decision in writing so I wrote them a letter asking them to reconsider. Hopefully I get the card now since they already did the hard pull. Seriously.
In other news, I applied for another Citi 100K offer yesterday so I see some MS in my near future!
@Holly I hope you get it approved. That would be great! I wonder if I should do it too. That is weird that they mentioned your income as a problem. I wonder if they just put random reasons on denial letter. Strange bank, no question.
My wife was approved with 8 inquiries in past year. They say, however, that we won’t get card in 2-3 weeks. Wow. That makes it harder to hit min spend.
Also, they reported my wife’s experian score about 50 points lower than what the other cards she was accepted fir said. Very unimpressed with them so far.
How or where do you earn miles for Air France?
Hilde, the only 2 ways you can get Flying Blue miles (other than flying) is to transfer them from Amex Membership Rewards and SPG program. There is a co-branded credit card, but I don’t think it’s available to US citizens.
do you get the same 5,000 miles bonus when you transfer 20,000 miles, like to AA
@Hilde Yes, you do get a 5,000 miles bonus when transferring from SPG. However, the transfer is not instant and can take a few days. With Membership Rewards it is instant, but you don’t get the bonus.
@Hilde Not sure if you saw this post on MMS, but it contains more info on this promo and screenshots on how to book the tickets. I thought you might find it helpful http://millionmilesecrets.com/2014/07/05/50-off-award-flights-to-europe-this-fall-with-air-france-klm/
Thanks for posting the results of the Capital One card. I really wanted to apply for my husband, but his credit score and number of new cards is really similar to yours and I think he would be denied.
Shoesinks, no problem at all! I hope to give readers an idea on what to expect. As far as your husband’s app, perhaps it’s prudent to wait a bit till some inquiries age. Hard to say what to expect on these things. It looks like the offer isn’t going anywhere at this point. I’ll update if I know the end date.