How to Make Sure You’re Getting the Best Credit Card Offers
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Whether it be in the mail, via an ad, or on a blog, credit card offers are given out like candy nowadays. That’s neither good nor bad, it just is. The important thing to question, though, is if the offer is the best it can be.
Hint: Often times it’s not.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying the bloggers, banks, or the powers that be are intentionally posting inferior offers, but on occasion (far too often really) there are better offers online. How do you find said offers, you ask? Hit the break to find out…
Flyertalk
Flyertalk is the place to be for all things travel, so it should come as no surprise that you can find the best credit offers there as well. What makes Flyertalk a trustworthy place to check for these offers is the fact that the forums don’t allow referral links (unless it’s a referral thread). In other words, you won’t have to worry about someone feeding you a crappy offer. Here are the links:
- All Credit Cards (including some below)
- Chase Cards
- American Express Cards
- Citi Cards
- Diner Club Cards
If you cannot find the card(s) you’re looking for via the links above, you could always search Flyertalk or you may need to delve into the forum that relates to it (eg. IHG subforum, AA subforum, ect.).
Blogs
There are two blogs that pop in my head when I’m trying to find the best bonus a credit card has offer: Doctor of Credit and Frequent Miler.
The former is a great resource thanks to Will’s unbiased credit card reviews and the fact that he posts about the newest credit card bonuses as they are released. Frequent Miler, on the other hand, has a constantly updated credit card list where he links to the highest publicly available offer for every credit card you could want (even if they don’t earn him a commission).
Twitter is only as good of a resource as you make it. By that, I mean you should follow multiple points and miles bloggers, credit card companies, hotel companies, and other companies that could talk about increased sign-up offers for your cards. If you watch twitter closely enough, you’ll likely see the best offers as they’re released. Alternatively, you could contact any non-pumping blogger on Twitter and I’m sure they would help you find the best available offer at the time. Options, options, options!
Google is my go to method when signing up for a new card. Why? Because, it’s super easy and it’s Google, so my search is only limited by the amount of websites on the internet… Not too shabby! Here’s how you can use Google for this:
- Let’s say I was looking for the best IHG card bonus. All I would do is head to Google.com and search “IHG card.”
As you can see, Google auto completes the search with the top bonus (“IHG card 80000”) since it is searched for often. - After I actually search the offer I look for one of the sites mentioned above (FM, DoC, or FT) to find what the best offer is at the time. In this case DoC came up and the offer he wrote about happens to be better than the offer Million Mile Secrets wrote about in the link right below his. Hint: Don’t use MMS to find the best CC offers.
- Now, test the offer out. Since the post mentioned above was published in late January, it’s unlikely that it still works, but it’s worth trying. If the offer doesn’t work, try one of the other methods listed in this post to find the best available bonus.
Conclusion
In the world of points and miles, every reward counts, so don’t leave any on the table when you sign-up for credit cards! After all, it’s extremely easy to do a quick Google, blog, or Flyertalk search to ensure you’re earning the maximum amount of points/miles possible.
If you have any tips on finding the best offers that I missed, let me know in the comments.
