Pentagon Federal Credit Union (PenFed), the 3rd largest US credit union by assets, launched the PenFed Power Cash Rewards Visa Card in 2017. This credit card offers up to 2% flat cash back with no earning caps and no annual fee. Here are the highlights:

• Sign-up bonus: $100 statement credit when you spend $1,500 in the first 90 days.
• 2% cash back on all purchases with PenFed Honors Advantage (qualifying military service or PenFed checking account, details below). Otherwise, you get 1.5% cash back on all purchases.
• No annual fee.
• 0% Intro APR on balance transfers for 12 months. 3% balance transfer fee.
• No foreign transaction fees.

PenFed Honors Advantage requires either of the following:

• Military service (active, reserve, retired, or honorably discharged).
• Checking account. Have and maintain a PenFed Access America Checking Account. This account has no monthly fee with daily balance or monthly direct deposit of $500 or more. $25 minimum opening deposit. As long as the account is open, you qualify for the 2% cash back.

In other words, if you don’t have military service, opening and keeping $500 in their Access America Checking Account will keep you qualified without a direct deposit or minimum activity requirements.

Cash back redemption options. Your cash back rewards can be redeemed as a statement credit, a deposit into a PenFed account, or a deposit into an external bank account. Simple.

Competition. The following cards currently offer a competitive level of cash back rewards. Some offer higher rewards, but with additional requirements and/or an annual fee. Please read my card-specific reviews for details.

• Citi Double Cash Card Review
• Fidelity Rewards Visa Card Review
• BankAmericard Travel Rewards Card Review
• Alliant Credit Union Visa Signature Card Review

PenFed CU membership eligibility. Check out their eligibility tool. If you have a military affiliation, chances are that you can join immediately. However, anyone in the general public can also gain access by first joining either the National Military Family Association or Voices for America’s Troops. Both of these partner organizations can be joined with a one-time donation of $17.

Bottom line. The PenFed Power Cash Rewards Visa Card offers 2% flat cash back on all purchases with no annual fee. There is currently a $100 sign-up bonus if you make $1,500 in purchases within the first 90 days. PenFed Credit Union membership is required, but is also open to anyone willing to donate $17 to the National Military Family Association (NMFA).

If you already have one of the other 2% cash back cards available with less requirements, this may not warrant an additional credit check and new bank account. However, PenFed does offer good customer service and other financial products. You might consider making them your primary banking institution if you live near PenFed branches (often near military bases).

If you are a California resident, check out this special offer on the Southwest Rapid Rewards® Credit Card that provides a shortcut to the SWA Companion Pass:

• Plus Consumer (CA Only), $69 annual fee, 40,000 point bonus
• Premier Consumer (CA Only),$99 annual fee, 40,000 point bonus
• Premier Business (CA Only), $99 annual fee, 60,000 point bonus

The Companion Pass lets a designated person fly with you for free on all your Southwest flights – both paid and award flights! (You must still cover taxes and fees from $5.60 one-way.) Usually, you have to fly 100 qualifying one-way flights or earn 110,000 Rapid Rewards points within a calendar year in order to qualify. However, this special offer lets you get it after applying for a new card and making a single purchase of any amount.

Here are some additional things to consider:

• How California residency is determined: “Individual must have a valid California address as evidenced by their application for the Rapid Rewards® Credit Card.” PO Boxes are not allowed as billing addresses. You should probably have the same billing address on your Rapids Rewards account.
• You must open the card by 11/30/17, and allow up to 8 weeks after your first purchase to receive the Companion Pass. The pass will be valid until 12/31/18.
• Chase has a rule that they will automatically deny approval on this credit card if you have 5 or more new credit cards from any issuer on your credit report within the past 2 years (aka the 5/24 rule).
• Not available to either (i) current cardmembers of any Rapid Rewards Credit Card, or (ii) previous cardmembers of any Rapid Rewards Credit Card who received a new cardmember bonus for a Rapid Rewards Credit Card within the last 24 months.
• Rapid Rewards® points won’t expire as long as your card is open or you have flight-earning or partner-earning activity at least once every 24 months.
• You must still pay the annual fees of $69 or $99, depending on the card.

Southwest recently announced that they plan to start flying to Hawaii, but the flights probably won’t be until late 2018 or early 2019. Therefore, you might try to time your purchases so that you get the 40,000/60,000 point bonus in 2018 as part of a larger plan to earn 110,000 points throughout 2018 and get another Companion Pass good through the end of 2019.

Equifax announced that they were hacked between May-July 2017, exposing the personal information of potentially over 143 million people. As one of the three major credit bureaus, they have a lot of data: credit card numbers, social security numbers, birth dates, addresses, and driver’s license numbers. Essentially, everything you need for identity fraud.

Equifax has a Potential Impact Tool that lets you check if they believe your information has been exposed. You must provide your last name and the last six digits of your Social Security number. It seems that unless they say “you’re not affected”, then you should assume you were affected. No matter what, they are offering everyone a free year of Equifax TrustedID Premier service, which includes:

• 3-Bureau credit monitoring of Equifax, Experian and TransUnion credit reports
• copies of your Equifax credit report
• the ability to lock and unlock your Equifax credit report
• identity theft insurance
• Internet scanning for Social Security numbers

They’ll give you a date and you’ll need to come back to activate. I suppose they need to make a queue with that many new “customers”. Equifax also set up a dedicated call center at 866-447-7559, open 7 days a week, 7am–1am Eastern time.

So the business that gets to collect all my personal data (and then charge me for a credit score based on that data) lost my data, and as an apology gives me a temporary subscription to their own identity protection service (which people pay for because… their data gets hacked). Does anyone else feel like there needs to be more of an incentive not to get hacked? This benefit only lasts for a year, so you may want to sign up for other free credit monitoring services. Also see the Big List of Free Consumer Reports on how to get a free full copy of your credit and other consumer reports.

Plastiq has a new 1.5% promo rate (standard fee is 2.5%) if you schedule 3 or more mortgage payments with your Mastercard by end of this 2017. You must pay the standard 2.5% first, and then discount will come in the form of a rebate check sent by January 5, 2018. The check will be sent to the name and billing address associated with your Mastercard used for the promotion. Max rebate is $200. Their instructions:

• Schedule 3 or more monthly mortgage payments by checking the box next to recurring.
• Use a Mastercard.
• Set up the first 3 payments so they are set to process between September 5, 2017 and December 31, 2017 11:59 p.m. EDT.
• Look for a notification of eligibility on the payment review screen.

Here are some ways that this promo may be useful…

Sign-up bonus spending requirements. Sign-up bonuses on credit cards usually have spending requirements. For example, you might get a $500 value bonus but need to spend $3,000. Well, that’s effectively 16.7% back so if you need a little help to get over that hurdle, it’s okay to pay a 1.5% fee.

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 current example is the Citi Double Cash Card. For example, if you have a mortgage bill of $5,000 and you earned 2% cash back while paying a 1.5% fee, your net 0.5% is $25. You could also get another month or so of “float” before the your credit card bill is due.

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.

Discover has a new free alert service available to Discover cardholders on an opt-in basis. I must have missed the initial announcement. This is not complete identity protection (which usually costs a monthly fee of $10 or more) but the following subset:

• Social Security Number Monitoring. Discover scans the internet including the “dark web” where stolen SSNs are often traded and sold for the purposes of identity theft and fraud. If your SSN is found, you will receive an alert.
• New Account Alerts. Whenever a new account (credit cards, mortgages, car loans or other credit accounts) is reported on your Experian credit report, you will receive a notification. If you don’t recognize the new account, that can be an indication of identity theft.

You must authorize Discover to access your credit report, but since they are doing so on your behalf, this will not affect your credit score in any way. Opt-in and activate these alerts here. You can choose e-mail and/or text alerts. Deactivate here.

Bottom line. If you are a Discover cardholder, this is a free service that alerts you to new accounts and thus potential identity theft. I keep my Discover it card open for its rotating 5% cash back rewards.

The Citi Prestige Card is their premium ThankYou point rewards card. Here are the highlights of the cards perks and sign-up bonus:

• 50,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in purchases within the first 3 months of account opening.
• 50,000 bonus ThankYou® Points are redeemable for $500 in travel, anytime, with no blackout dates when booked through the ThankYou Travel Center.
• Annual $250 Air Travel Credit, valid for flight-related expenses charged to your card including airline tickets, baggage fees, and upgrades.
• Complimentary 4th night stay at any hotel of your choice after a minimum 4-consecutive night booking through ThankYou.com or the Citi Prestige Concierge (based on your average night stay, exclusive of taxes and fees).
• Airport Lounge Access. You and your authorized users get access to hundreds of VIP lounges through Priority Pass™ Select.
• Transfer points to a variety of travel loyalty programs from airlines to hotels.
• 5x points on Air Travel.
• 5x points on Restaurants.
• 3x points on Hotels and Cruise Lines.
• Early 1X Points on All Other Purchases.
• No Foreign Transaction Fees on Purchases.
• $495 annual fee.

Note the following fine print:

Bonus ThankYou® Points are not available if you received a new cardmember bonus for Citi Rewards+?, Citi ThankYou® Preferred, Citi ThankYou® Premier/Citi Premier? or Citi Prestige®, or if you have closed any of these accounts, in the past 24 months.

Annual $250 Air Travel Credit details. Unlike other cards, airfare counts as well as baggage fees, lounge access, and other incidental purchases. This renews every calendar year, so it can be used to help offset the annual fee every year.

This statement credit is an annual benefit available for purchases appearing on your billing statements from December through the following December. Pending transactions that do not post in your December billing cycle will count towards the next year’s Air Travel Credit.

Hotel points and airline miles transfer options. Citi ThankYou points are also now available to transfer to certain airline mileage programs on a 1:1 basis including JetBlue, Cathay Pacific, EVA Air, Etihad, Flying Blue by Air France and KLM, Singapore Airlines, Qantas, EVA Air, Jet Airways, Turkish Airlines, and Thai Airways. For example, 50,000 TY points can get you 50,000 Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles. If you know how to redeem this points wisely, you can get a lot of value for international flights.

The Hyatt Credit Card is changing their sign-up bonus on 6/29/17. For now, you can get two free night awards after spending $2,000 in the first 3 months from account opening. The free nights are valid for a standard room at any Hyatt hotel worldwide with no blackout dates, no resort fees, but expire within one year of issuance. You can also get 5,000 Hyatt points after adding an authorized user and having them make a first purchase in the first 3 months from account opening. This alternate link adds a $50 statement credit but says nothing about an authorized user bonus. Take your pick.

The new offer is supposed to be 40,000 Hyatt points after spending $2,000 within your first 3 months of cardmembership. The question is then:

What is better: Two free nights at any Hyatt hotel or 40,000 Hyatt points?

The overall answer is you should apply for the current offer if you have an aspirational hotel you want to stay at within the next year or so. Here is a screenshot of their award chart:

As you can see, the best Hyatt hotels cost more than 20,000 Hyatt points per night, with a cash cost of $500+ per night. Some examples of these Category 6 and 7 properties:

• Park Hyatt Paris – $800+ per night
• Hyatt Regency London – The Churchill – $500+ per night
• Park Hyatt Tokyo – $400+ a night
• Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort and Spa – $600+ per night
• Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort – $500 per night
• Park Hyatt New York – $600+ per night
• Palacio Duhau – Park Hyatt Buenos Aires = $500 per night
• Park Hyatt Sydney – $500+ per night

There are about 50 hotels worldwide that at Cat 6 and Cat 7. If you don’t want to stay at one of those, then you should take the flexibility of the 40,000 Hyatt points. You don’t need to use them within a year, and you can also use Points + Cash redemptions if you want.

If you have any problems booking your award nights, I would first try using the phone and calling. If that doesn’t work, use the power of social media and contact their Gold Passport “Concierges” @hyattconcierge on Twitter.

Card highlights.

• $75 annual fee. Not waived the first year.
• Free Category 1-4 award night upon renewal. Upon annual fee renewal, you will also receive a free night certificate valid for Category 1-4 hotels. Category 3-4 hotels can easily run $200 to $300 per night.
• Free Discoverist member status. Automatic as long as your card is open. This gets you minor room upgrades when available, premium internet access, and late 2pm checkout.
• Explorist status after you spend $50,000 or more on purchases in a calendar year. Perks include guaranteed room availability up to 72 hours in advance, 4 Club lounge access awards and more.
• 3 Bonus Points per $1 spent at all Hyatt hotels and resorts. 2 Bonus Points per $1 spent at restaurants, on airline tickets purchased directly from the airline and at car rental agencies. 1 Bonus Point per $1 spent on all other purchases made with your card.
• No foreign transaction fees.

Restrictions. This Chase Hyatt card is not subject to “5/24” restrictions, although it will count as an opened card for other 5/24 cards. Our strategy is to have one person apply for Chase 5/24 cards, and the other person applies for everything else like these. However, there is this language:

This product is available if you do not have this card and have not received a new cardmember bonus for this card in the past 24 months.

Bottom line. I enjoy using hotel awards to stay at luxurious places where I would balk at paying the full cash cost. Nights-based awards are nice for such aspirational stays. You can get $1,000+ value out of two free unrestricted night awards. The award certificates do expire after a year though, so you might prefer to wait for a points award with additional flexibility. I might even wait for an improved limited-time offer or something. But if you’ve been waiting on this bonus, you need to make a decision soon.

If you have a Discover credit card and shop at Kohl’s, follow the quick instructions below and check if you have $10 in Kohl’s Cash credit available in your account. There is no purchase required. Availability varies and you might see again next month; this one expires 7/2/17. Found via SD.

• Log into your Discover card account.
• Go to the Rewards tab and click on Discover Deals
• In the Search Merchants box, enter and click on “Kohl’s” (not “Kohl’s online”)
• Look for the $10 off $30 offer as shown below.

The “deal” here is that because the code and PIN effectively work as “Kohl’s Cash”, the $30 minimum is not actually enforced. Therefore, it’s similar to $10 in free store credit (subject to certain brand exclusions). Just provide the cashier the barcode number, or use the barcode and 4-digit PIN online at Kohls.com. In addition, you can transfer these codes to other people, or stack up to 4 codes on your own purchase (if a family member has a Discover card too, for example).