Updated. After the Equifax hack and many subsequent hacks that affected so many Americans, there is renewed interest in the various ways you can monitor and/or protect your credit report. Below is a summary of the options available.

Free credit reports. Everyone should take advantage of the free copy of their credit reports (Equifax, Experian, TransUnion) and their bank report (ChexSystems, TeleCheck) available every 12 months. I would also add LexisNexis to the ones I personally check. This free access is mandated by the government. Here again is my Big List of Free Consumer Reports.

Free credit monitoring. There are many offers nowadays for free credit scores and partial snapshots of your credit report. These are provided by private services, either in partnership with or as a subsidiary of the major credit bureaus. In addition, some offer credit monitoring, where they will e-mail or text you when a significant change occurs (new accounts, etc). I choose to take advantage of this, knowing it is in exchange for some ads. Here’s a recipe for credit monitoring coverage across all three major bureaus:

• TransUnion: CreditKarma.com or CreditSesame.com
• Equifax: CreditKarma.com
• Experian: FreeCreditScore.com

Free credit locks. The credit bureaus now have a feature that allows you to instantly “lock” and “unlock” the credit report of a specific credit bureau and thus prevent access. These are nice because you can unlock it for a day or so when you need, but otherwise keep it locked. Again, if they are free, they are probably supported by ads and/or upgrades (which is fine by me, I just decline the occasional upsell and it stays free).

• TransUnion: TrueIdentity (free ongoing)
• Equifax: Equifax Lock & Alert (free ongoing)
• Experian: Experian IdentityWorks Plus (30-day free trial then $9.99/month).

Free Fraud Alerts. If you are concerned that your personal information is compromised (you should be!), you can contact any one of the three major credit bureaus and ask for a “Fraud Alert” to be placed on your credit report. This supposedly lets all potential creditors know that you are at high risk and that they need to do extra identity verification. Be sure that they have your current contact information as they will call you every time someone tries to check your credit report.

(Update: I’ve had a Fraud Alert on my account for over 12 months now, and I have not seen any special precautions taken despite applying for multiple credit cards during that time. No verification phone calls, no snail mail letters, etc. I wouldn’t depend on a Fraud Alert to stop any criminal activities.)

This is free of charge. It will expire automatically after 1 year but you can call in and renew by submitting a new request within 30 days of your current alert expiring. If you are a documented victim of identity theft, you can ask for an Extended Fraud Alert of up to 7 years. By law, you should only need to contact one of them, and they are supposed to contact the other two companies and thus have the Fraud Alert active on all three accounts. Taken from FTC.gov:

• TransUnion Fraud Alert: 1-800-680-7289
• Equifax Fraud Alert: 1-888-397-3742
• Experian Fraud Alert: 1-888-766-0008

Credit Freezes. This is the most comprehensive measure to take. Once you initiate a credit freeze, it will stay on there permanently in most states (or at least 7 years in others). In order for a business to check your credit report, you must manually “unfreeze” your credit temporarily. As of 9/21/18, this should be free by law at all three credit bureaus. You must contact each credit bureau separately.

• TransUnion Freeze: 1-888-909-8872
• Equifax Freeze: 1-800-349-9960
• Experian Freeze: 1-888-397-3742

In addition, the same law requires that free credit freezes also be made available for children under 16 years old. (I would warn folks that you have to send in multiple sensitive personal documents like birth certificate and possibly notarized forms to verify your kids’ identities. Makes sense but a lot of work.)

I decided to initiate a free 90-Day Fraud Alert to try it out (through Equifax since they should do the extra work).

I already access my credit reports/ChexSystems/LexisNexis every 12 months, and I continuously monitor my own credit using the services listed above. Here’s a sample free alert I got from CreditKarma:

I then cross-referenced with a similar free credit monitoring alert from CreditSesame (TransUnion) that included more info like date and card issuer:

Bottom line. That’s the menu; I would start at the top and pick what works for you. I tend to open a relatively high number of credit and bank accounts throughout the year, often for a time-senstive promotion, so I choose to decline the extra hassle and cost that comes with a credit freeze. I use the free monitoring services listed above instead to get an e-mail whenever a new credit check occurs or a new line of credit is reported. If you rarely get new accounts or simply feel otherwise, go more extreme.

The American Airlines AAdvantage® Mile Up® Card is the no annual fee co-branded American Airlines credit card. It replaces the former and not-very-publicized Citi/AAdvantage Bronze card and adds a few new features. Here are the card highlights:

• 10,000 bonus American Airlines miles plus a $50 statement credit after $500 in purchases within the first 3 months.
• 2 AAdvantage® miles per $1 spent at grocery stores, including grocery delivery services
• 2 AAdvantage® miles per $1 spent on eligible American Airlines purchases
• 1 AAdvantage® mile per $1 spent on other purchases
• Earn 1 Loyalty Point for every 1 eligible AAdvantage(R) mile earned from purchases.
• Save 25% on inflight food and beverage purchases when you use your card on American Airlines flights.
• No annual fee.

I view this is a niche card for those that want to earn American Airlines, but don’t fly or spend enough to justify the annual fee of the other cards. Some folks just aren’t willing to pay an annual fee, no matter how good the perks are.

Bonus details. If you find the spending requirement too high on many cards, note that this one only requires $500 in purchases to earn the account opening bonus. Note the following language:

Statement credit and American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles are not available if you have received a statement credit or American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles for a new AAdvantage MileUp^SM account in the past 48 months.

This means that yes, you can still get the bonus on this card if you’ve had another co-branded American Airlines card from Citi in the last 24 months like the Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite™ Mastercard or the CitiBusiness® version designed for businesses.

No waived baggage fees. As you might expect, being the no annual fee version also means less perks. Notably, this card does not include any baggage fee waivers, which was a big potential source of savings from the other cards mentioned above (with annual fees). Also missing are priority boarding and the ability to book discounted award tickets (“Reduced Mileage Awards”).

Redemption tips. American Airlines MileSAAver awards are still 25,000 miles for a round-trip ticket within the contiguous 48 states. Their online system is pretty good for looking for domestic AA awards. If the trip is less than 500 miles, then it is only 15,000 miles round-trip within the contiguous 48 states. Under-500 miles routes include Las Vegas to/from Los Angeles, Charleston to/from Miami, New York to/from Washington DC, Philadelphia to Boston, and many others.

Bottom-line.  The American Airlines AAdvantage® Mile Up® Card is the no annual fee credit card from Citi and American Airlines. This card is a good fit for folks that don’t want to pay an annual fee for extra features, but still want to earn American miles on purchases (and keep their miles from expiring from inactivity). As such, you may consider “downgrading” your other Citi/American cards to this card if you stop wanting to pay the annual fee. Note that if you downgrade you don’t get the sign-up bonus, and getting the bonus from this card is independent of the bonuses from other Citi/American cards anyway.

• American Airlines AAdvantage® Mile Up® Card application link

The Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® is the premium American Airlines co-branded card that includes Admirals Club lounge access and the ability to earn Elite Qualifying Miles if you spend enough on the card. Here are the full details.

• Earn 50,000 American Airlines AAdvantage(R) bonus miles after making $5,000 in purchases in the first 3 months of account opening
• Admirals Club(R) membership for you and access for up to two guests or immediate family members traveling with you.
• First checked bag is free on domestic American Airlines itineraries for you and up to 8 companions traveling with you on the same reservation
• Priority check-in, airport screening (where available) and early boarding when flying American Airlines.
• Earn 10,000 additional Loyalty Points after you spend $40,000 in purchases during the qualifying status year.
• No Foreign Transaction Fees on purchases.
• Up to $100 statement credit every 5 years, as reimbursement for your application fee for Global Entry or The TSA PreCheck®.
• Earn 1 Loyalty Point for every 1 eligible AAdvantage(R) mile earned from purchases.
• $450 annual fee.

Note the following fine print:

American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles are not available if you have received a new account bonus for a Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive account in the past 48 months. The card offer referenced in this communication is only available to individuals who reside in the United States and its territories, excluding Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands.

As mentioned, this is the highest level Citi/American Airlines card, designed to make the frequent American Airlines customer as comfortable as possible. The primary reasons for the higher $450 annual fee are the Admirals Club lounge membership and the opportunity to earn more Loyalty Points towards status.

Admirals Club lounge membership value and details. Admirals Club membership usually costs $550+ a year on its own, and this is now the only card that gives it to you as a complimentary feature. Here’s the full cost chart:

This membership allows both you and your immediate family (or up to two traveling guests that accompany you) to access over 50 Admirals Club locations worldwide. Your immediate family includes spouse, domestic partner and/or children under 18 years of age. You don’t even need to be on an American Airlines flight! You can even give your spouse or trusted friend/family an authorized user card and they’ll get lounge access too, even while traveling separately from you. (Authorized user cards have no additional fee.)

You can be flying on any airline, and if that airport has an Admirals Club you and your family can go inside. Lounge access might save you money on certain things like comfortable seats, free food/drink, WiFi, and sometimes hot showers. Mostly it just makes the overall flying experience more pleasant. I’ve been to Admiral’s Clubs with special kids rooms; perfect for families during delays or layovers.

Bottom line. Bonus miles are always nice, but this card is mostly about the Admiral Club lounge access and the help in achieving/maintaining elite status on American. If you don’t fly on American enough to value these perks, I would consider the Citi® AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite Mastercard instead.

• Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® application link

New promo. Plastiq has a new promotion where you can pay a bill using a Mastercard in Masterpass with no fee. Expires 9/30/18. Thanks to readers Jon and Bill. Here are the restrictions and details:

From now until September 30, 2018, we will waive the Plastiq fee when you use Mastercard in Masterpass for the payment. This promotion applies to any bills or invoices up to a maximum of $250 each.

To qualify for this promotion, you must:

Use a Mastercard in Masterpass for the payments (read here on how to add a Mastercard in Masterpass to your Plastiq account).
Submit or schedule payments between June 1, 2018 12:00 a.m. ET and September 30, 2018 11:59 p.m. ET.
The payments’ delivery date must be before or on September 30, 2018.
There is no minimum or maximum amount required for the transaction.
If the amount is over $250, you will incur a Plastiq fee on the remaining amount over $250.
If you have signed up with a referral code, you will need to hit the required minimum of $500 in successful payments and receive the fee-free dollar credit in order to be eligible for this promotion.

To clarify, there is a $250 limit per payment, but no limit on the number of payments. You could split up a larger bill into $250 increments if the payee accepts that. You could convert a mortgage, home equity loan, student loan, tuition, or property tax payment into a credit card payment that earns rewards or fulfill a sign-up bonus. For example, with the Citi Double Cash Card, the 2% cash back means every $5,000 in purchases could earn $100 cash back.

Original post:

Plastiq.com lets you pay bills and invoices with a credit or debit card, even if they don’t usually accept them. The standard service fee is 2.5% for credit cards and 1% for Visa and MasterCard debit cards. However, they run limited-time promotion with lower fees. They will charge your card and send out a paper check to the payee (direct bank transfers to a few), so you’d want to plan ahead for any snail mail delays. They recommend 10 business days to be safe. More ideas from their site:

• Rent or Mortgage
• Homeowners Association (HOA) dues
• Tuition
• Childcare costs
• Buying a car, RV, or ATV
• Income or business taxes

(Note: This was only an example given during a 1.5% fee promotion. The current fee may be higher or lower.) Why would I want to pay a 1.5% service fee?

Sign-up bonus spending requirements. Sign-up bonuses often having spending requirements. For example, you might get a $500 value bonus but need to spend $5,000. Well, that’s effectively 10% back so if you need a little help to get over that hurdle, it’s okay to pay a 1.5% fee. Here are some recent cards with big $500 value bonuses but also spending requirements:

• Chase Freedom Card
• BankAmericard Travel Rewards® Credit Card
• British Airways Credit Card
• Southwest Airlines Credit Card
• Chase Ink Plus Business Card
• Citi ThankYou Premier Card
• Citi Prestige Card

2% cash back credit cards, or similar. If you have a rewards credit card that offers 2% cash back (or equivalent value in points), then you can still make a slight profit by putting them on your credit card. A simple example is the Citi Double Cash Card. For example, if you have a tuition bill or tax bill of $5,000 and you earned 2% cash back while paying a 1.5% fee, your net 0.5% is $25.

Combine a rewards card + 0% APR on purchases. Many credit cards offer 0% APR on purchases for an introductory period of 12 months or longer. If the card also has a half-decent rewards program on purchases, the combination of purchase rewards and spreading out the payments over a year at no interest could be attractive.

Referral program. Plastiq has a somewhat confusing referral program. If a new user signs up via a referral link and pays $500 worth of bills, they will then get $500 “fee-free dollars”. So first you’d have to pay the fee on a bill, and then on your next bill, $500 of it will be “fee-free” (at 2.5% that’s a $12.50 savings). The referrer will get $1,000 in fee-free dollars. If you take advantage of the promo above, that should trigger the bonus. Here’s my referral link. Thanks if you use it.

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.