Update December 2021: On December 15th, 2021, HMBradley announced upcoming changes to their interest rate that will become effective February 1st, 2022, along with changes to their credit card boosts that are effective January 1st, 2022. See my HM Bradley review for additional commentary.)

Original post (will be outdated as of 1/1/2022):

I’ve reviewed the HM Bradley Checking account as a new bank option offering interest rates of up to 3% APY on balances up to $100,000, depending on factors like savings rate and direct deposit. Last week, I finally managed to qualify for their HM Bradley credit card, which offers additional advantages when used with their banking product:

• Savings Tier Boost: Get boosted to the next highest Savings Tier APY when you spend at least $100 each monthly cycle on the HM Bradley credit card AND have a least $2,500 in monthly direct deposits for each month of the previous quarter. If you are already at the highest Savings Tier, they will increase your APY by another 0.5% APY. (Currently, this makes it a possible 3.5% APY.)
• Savings Tier Protection: When you pay your HMBradley Credit Card with your deposit account, it won’t count against your Savings Tiers.
• Annual fee waived for the first year, then $60 (charged as $5 per month?).

3-2-1 Cashback rewards on credit card purchases details:

• 3% cash back on your top eligible spending category each monthly statement cycle
• 2% cash back on your next eligible spending category each monthly statement cycle
• 1% cash back on everything else.

How do I apply for the HM Bradley credit card? I can’t find the application. As someone who already had a sizable amount deposited at HM Bradley, I was definitely interested in that 0.5% APY boost. However, I couldn’t find an application link anywhere! This is what they tell you to do:

With an active HMBradley account, you just need to opt into One Click Credit, and we will automatically notify you if you are eligible for the HMBradley Credit Card. We send offers at the beginning of every month, so be sure to check your account and email to see if you qualify. With One Click Credit, you authorize us to make a soft inquiry on your credit report each month for twelve months to determine if you are eligible for the HMBradley Credit Card. The inquiry does not affect your credit score and is not an application for credit.

I followed their directions have been opted in to “One Click Credit” for several months. Yet, what I didn’t know was that they also screen people based on income (not only credit score), AND they estimate your income based on your direct deposits to HM Bradley. I split my direct deposit many different ways, so they thought my income was too low.

It turns out the magic number for me was about $2,500 in direct deposits within a month. As soon as my HMB direct deposit was higher than that threshold, I was invited with an email subject “You have a new credit offer!”. This also happens to match their ongoing requirements, but I can’t be sure that this is the same number for everyone. I’m just reporting my own experience.

Alternatively, if you click on the “Insights” tab on the left, you can also self-report your income now in order to help you qualify for this credit card. Again, I am not sure what minimum income they are looking for, but the range looks to be above a minimum of roughly $35,000 per year.

List of eligible categories. Taken from their fine print:

• Education
• Motor Vehicle
• Pets
• Groceries
• Utilities
• Financial
• Gas
• Shopping
• Entertainment
• Alcohol & Bars
• Dining
• Healthcare & Childcare
• Professional Services
• Health & Fitness
• Home
• Furniture
• Personal Care
• Business Services
• Electronics & Software
• Air Travel
• Ground Transportation
• Lodging
• Sporting Goods

My take and a warning. Their 3-2-1 cash back rewards structure includes some unique categories that I don’t see on other credit cards, and another positive factor is a lack of a cap on earned rewards. Thus, if you happen to make large credit card purchases in specific niche categories like Education or Healthcare/Childcare, then the 3% cash back may be attractive. Otherwise, you may be better off with a flat 2% cash back on everything with no annual fee, especially given that HMB will charge a $60 annual fee after the first year.

More significant to me was the Savings Tier Boost. As I’m already at the 3% APY tier, earning an additional 0.5% APY could be worth up to hundreds of dollars a year. $10,000 at 0.50% APY would be another $50 a year, almost covering that eventual $60 annual fee. $50,000 at 0.5% APY would be $250 in additional interest per year. $100,000 at 0.5% APY would be $500 in additional interest per year. Definitely a nice ongoing perk to encourage me to use their bank and credit card frequently.

However, I just noticed this line in their fine print about the Saving Tier Boost promo: “Offer expires December 31, 2021.” That was a surprise. I don’t like the idea of promoting something as a headline credit card feature when you already plan on having it expire in less than 7 months. I do hope they extend it, as without this feature I would not have applied for this card.

Bottom line. The HM Bradley credit card offers a unique set of perks that currently mesh really well with their banking product. Be aware that you must maintain an certain minimum monthly direct deposit into their HM Bradley checking account in order to be invited to apply (roughly $2,500 a month for me). Before applying, be aware that the Savings Tier Boost feature is set to end on December 31, 2021.

The Citi Custom Cash Card is a newly-launched rewards credit card which offers 5% cash back on your top eligible spending category up to $500 spent each month. This card will again compete against the other 5% cash back cards on the market, as did their now-discontinued Citi Dividend card. Highlights:

• Earn $200 cash back after you spend $1,500 on purchases in the first 6 months of account opening. This bonus offer will be fulfilled as 20,000 ThankYou(R) Points, which can be redeemed for $200 cash back.
• 5% cash back (5X Thank You points) on your top eligible spending category up to $500 spent each monthly billing cycle. 1% cash back on all other purchases.
• No rotating bonus categories to sign up for – as your spending changes each billing cycle, your earn adjusts automatically when you spend in any of the eligible categories.
• Citi will only issue one Citi Custom Cash(SM) Card account per person.
• No annual fee.

This is a new card, but note the following:

Citi will only issue one Citi Custom CashSM Card account per person. You will qualify for the bonus offer only if you have not received a bonus offer for opening a new Citi Custom CashSM Card in the past 48 months.

List of eligible categories. Taken from their fine print:

• Restaurants. Includes purchases at cafes, bars, lounges and fast food restaurants. Excludes purchases at bakeries, caterers, restaurants located inside another business (such as hotels, stores, stadiums, grocery stores, or warehouse clubs) and third party dining delivery services.
• Gas Stations. Excludes gasoline purchases at warehouse clubs, discount stores, convenience stores or other merchants that do not use the gas station merchant category code.
• Grocery Stores. Includes purchases at supermarkets, meat/seafood stores, dairy stores, bakeries, and miscellaneous food/convenience stores. Excludes purchases at general merchandise/discount superstores; wholesale/warehouse clubs; candy, nut and confectionery stores. Purchases made at online supermarkets or with grocery delivery services also do not qualify if the merchant does not classify itself as a supermarket by using the supermarket merchant category code.
• Select Travel. Includes airline, hotel, cruise line and travel agency purchases. Excludes timeshares, boat leases and rentals, campgrounds and trailer parks, and real estate agencies.
• Select Transit. Includes car rentals, ferries, commuter railways, subways, taxis/limousines/car services, passenger railways, bridge and road tolls, parking lots/garages, bus lines, and motor home and recreational vehicle rentals. Excludes bike/scooter rentals, auto clubs and insurance companies.
• Select Streaming Services. Includes the following cable, satellite, and streaming providers: Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Music, Apple Music, CBS All Access, Disney+, AT&T TV NOW, ESPN+, fuboTV, HBO Max, NBA League Pass, Netflix, Pandora, Showtime, Sling TV, Spotify, Starz, SiriusXM, Vudu, YouTube Red, YouTube TV, and Tidal.
• Drugstores
• Home Improvement Stores
• Fitness Clubs
• Live Entertainment

Thank You points. As with the Double Cash card, this card technically earns Thank You points, which you can then convert to a statement credit or direct deposit into your bank account. So you really earn “5 ThankYou Points for each $1 you spend in your highest spend category each billing cycle up to the first $500 spent in that category.” 2,500 Thank You points = $25 statement credit, and so on.

You can’t convert your points to airline miles with this card, but if you also have the Citi Premier Card, that card does allow you to convert miles in various programs on a 1:1 basis including JetBlue, Cathay Pacific, EVA Air, Etihad, Flying Blue by Air France and KLM, Singapore Airlines, and Thai Airways. For example, with the Premier card, you could convert 20,000 TY points into 20,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles.

My take. This is a minor variation of the other cards that offer 5% cash back on rotating categories every quarter. Those cards usually offer 5% cash back on a couple of specific categories on up to $1,500 of spending each quarter (3 months). This makes the maximum cash back via 5% categories the same: $25 a month, or $300 a year.

As wit the other 5% cards, since you only earn 1% cash back on every other purchase, you can easily get better rewards elsewhere. For example, if you had the Citi Double Cash card, you could be earning 2% cash back on every other purchase. You could put all your small purchases on the Citi Rewards+ card, which rounds up rewards to the nearest 10 points. If Citi really wanted to shake things up, they would have combined the 5% cash back on up to $500 and the 2% cash back on everything else, instead of making us keep two different cards going. That would have been a slam dunk.

As a rewards optimizer, the best use for this card would be to only use it for a specific category all year long (up to $500 a month). If you wished you could just pick a category and just stick with it all year, this card lets you do that. You could put only gas on the card. You could put only restaurants on the card, and so on. Use another card for your other purchases, even a 1.5% cash back card is better. Of course, Citi is hoping you won’t do that, making your overall cash back rate much lower, possibly even lower than 2%.

Bottom line. The Citi Custom Cash Card is a newly-launched rewards credit card which offers 5% cash back on your top eligible spending category up to $500 spent each month. Since you only earn 1% cash back on everything else, you should pair it with a 2% cash back card like the Citi Double Cash card.

(Update: This 5/24 opportunity is no longer available. You can still sign up for an account and be alerted of the next opportunity roughly 48 hours prior.)

New deal May 24th, 2021. The US Mint regularly releases limited-edition coins to collectors. The coin sets are often limited by household. PFS Buyers Club is a website broker that recruits regular folks to buy their allotted coin set with a set markup amount, with the agreement that they will sell only to PFS Buyers Club. For example, you might pay $300 for a coin and they’ll agree to pay you $350 for it – a fixed profit of $50.

On Monday, May 24th at 12:00 pm Noon Eastern Time, there is a new guaranteed profit opportunity. You can buy up to 10 sets of two different limited-edition Morgan Silver dollars. You can buy 10 of each coin at $85 each plus $4.95 shipping, which should cost you $854.95. PFS will pay you $1000 ($145.05 commission) for those 10 coins. If you do this for both of the two sets, you will spend $1,709.90 and get paid $2,000 for a total profit of $290.10. One minor wrinkle on this offer is that they don’t expect to ship until October, but they also won’t charge your card until October.

Note that the eventual value of the set may exceed that elsewhere – you may be able to get $120 for each coin on eBay, for example – but if you want to make that bet, don’t promise to sell to PFS Buyers Club. Just buy it on your own and try to sell it yourself. Keep in mind that eBay seller fees can be quite high, and you’ll be responsible for other costs like the proper shipping with adequate insurance. PFS Buyers Club will send you a free prepaid mailing label (including insurance) and pay you via eCheck, paper check, or PayPal.

You’ll also earn credit card rewards on your purchase (worth another $34.20 here at 2% cash back), or also possibly satisfying the requirements for some $500+ value credit card bonuses. This makes the total net profit safely over $300. Note the October wrinkle above though for timing purposes. (Added: There is concern that American Express and Fidelity credit cards might not award points on US Mint purchases, so to be safe I would use alternative cards.)

My past experience. I used PFS back in March for the first time, and everything went smoothly and I was paid my money in full without issue. The amount of communication was great and better than expected; I was kept up-to-date every step of the way. The total time commitment was about 30 minutes for $400+ profit, including the stop at the Fedex store to drop off the box with prepaid label. The eCheck option worked great – I printed the check out at home and deposited immediately via mobile app. PFS has a very solid reputation online, and I referred several blog readers last time and did not receive a single complaint. (Some folks were unable to buy the coins from the US Mint itself.)

Here are the two coins: Morgan 2021 Silver Dollar w/ O Mark and Morgan 2021 Silver Dollar w/ CC Mark. Here is a direct quote of the deal text:

On Monday, May 24th, at 12:00PM ET the US Mint will be releasing two limited edition Morgan Silver Dollars. Each has a purchase limit of ten per household, so you’re able to buy ten of each. The cost of each Silver Dollar is $85.00, and when adding the $4.95 shipping charge, each order will total $854.95.

You will have each order shipped to your own house or office and then ship it to PFS Buyers Club with a prepaid shipping label that we will provide for you. Please note: The Mint only intends on shipping these “beginning in October”. They will not charge your credit card until they ship.

PFS will be offering a commission of $145.05 for each order for a total payout of $1,000.00. To be clear, you have the opportunity to place two orders of $854.95 each or $1,709.90 in total, and we’ll be paying you $2,000.00 for a total profit of $290.10! This is also a great opportunity to earn valuable points/miles on your credit cards, as well as meet any spending thresholds..

If you want to jump on this, you can sign up to join PFS Buyers Club here. Sometimes these deals fill up, so I would sign-up and opt-in sooner rather than later. You can still opt out of the deal until an hour prior to the coins going on sale. They will provide very detailed instructions. Follow them carefully, and it was pretty easy for me as a first-time buyer. If you use that link, I will receive a referral fee if you successfully sell your coin for a profit. Thanks for those that use it, and for those that already used it last time! I will be opting in myself as well.

Chase has expanded their partnership with DoorDash (and Caviar) to offer free DashPass membership for 12 months to co-branded Chase credit cards. DashPass is a subscription service that offers a $0 delivery fee and reduced service fees for subscribers when ordering $12 or more from any DashPass-eligible restaurant (look for the checkmark). The regular price is $9.99/month. Eligible cards include:

• Chase Southwest cards
• Chase Marriott cards
• Chase United cards
• Chase Disney cards
• Chase IHG cards
• Chase British Airways cards
• Chase Aer Lingus cards
• Chase Iberia cards
• Chase World of Hyatt cards

You must activate here. Note that after those free 12 months, you’ll automatically be charged $9.99/month for continued membership unless you cancel DashPass.

If you have a Chase Sapphire Reserve or Sapphire Preferred credit card, you can also get free DashPass benefits on eligible orders for at least 12 months (and a maximum of 24 months) after activation. Sapphire Reserve cardholders also get $60 in statement credits towards DoorDash in 2021.

If you have a Chase Freedom or Slate credit card, you can free DashPass benefits on eligible orders for 3 months after activation. After the first 3 months, the user will be auto-enrolled for the next 9 months in DashPass with a 50% discount applied to the then current membership rate. You can cancel at any time.

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 $15 ($30 total savings). I will get food credits as well. Thanks if you use it!

US Bank continues its credit card expansion with the new U.S. Bank Altitude Connect Visa Signature Card, a premium travel rewards card which has a headline feature of 4X points on travel and gas stations, plus 2X points on dining and grocery stores. There is also a launch offer of 50,000 bonus points worth $500 cash via statement credits. Here are the details:

• 50,000 bonus points after you spend $2,000 in the first 120 days. 50,000 points can be redeemed for a $500 statement credit.
• 4X points per dollar spent on travel and gas stations.
• 2X points per dollar spent on grocery stores, grocery delivery, dining and streaming services.
• 1 point per dollar spent on all other eligible net purchases.
• Up to $100 towards TSA PreCheck® or Global Entry® application fee reimbursement via statement credit, once every four years.
• $30 annual streaming credit. $30 credit for annual streaming service purchases such as Netflix and Spotify®.
• Cell phone protection. Up to $600 reimbursement if your cell phone is stolen or damaged when you pay your monthly cell phone bill with your card.
• No foreign transaction fees
• $0 annual fee the first year, $95/year thereafter.

$30 annual streaming bonus details. If you charge at least one eligible video or music streaming service ever month onto this card, you’ll get 2X points per dollar spent, and also a $30 streaming service credit after 11 months of streaming service purchases. Eligible services include Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Disney+, Sling TV, YouTube TV, Vudu, AT&T TV Now, Apple Music, Google Music, Spotify, Amazon Music Unlimited, Tidal, SiriusXM, and Pandora. A clever little incentive to keep you actively using this card.

An automatic statement credit of $30 per 12-month period will be applied to your U.S. Bank Altitude Connect Visa Signature Card Account within 2 statement billing cycles following 11 consecutive calendar months of eligible streaming service purchases, such as Netflix, Hulu, Apple Music, if the Account is in good standing (open and able to use).

Overall thoughts. Even beyond the attractive sign-up bonus, this card looks very solid. Most of the major spending categories are covered by the 2X/4X tiers: travel, gas stations, grocery stores, dining out, and streaming. The TSA PreCheck fee reimbursement, $30 annual streaming credit, and cell phone protection also add ongoing value. The annual fee is waived during the first year, so there is no upfront cost to trying this card out.

Based on the rewards structure and annual fee, this cards will compete directly with the highly-popular Chase Sapphire Preferred card. Note that earning Ultimate Rewards points may be more attractive to those that can maximize the value of airline miles and/or hotel points. However, if you prefer to redeem for straight cash (statement credits), this US Bank card has higher multipliers on travel and gas stations, and thus likely higher rewards when comparing cash back amounts.

You may also compare this with the U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve Credit Card, which has more rewards but also a much higher annual fee.

Bottom line. The new U.S. Bank Altitude Connect Visa Signature Card offers a competitive 4X points on travel and gas stations, plus 2X points on dining out and grocery store purchases. Right now, new applicants can score a sign-up bonus worth $500 with the annual fee waived during the first year. This is definitely going on the Top 10 Best Credit Card Bonus Offers, especially as it is one of the few that I don’t already have.

• U.S. Bank Altitude Connect Card application link