The Alaska Airlines Visa credit card is issued by Bank of America and offers several unique cardholder perks, and currently has an increased limited-time offer. The business card version currently also has a limited-time offer.

Alaska Airlines Visa Signature Card

• 60,000 Alaska miles + Companion Fare from $122 after $3,000 or more in purchases within the first 90 days after account opening. Companion fare voucher is “Buy one ticket, get one for $122” ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from just $23).
• Free checked bag + Priority boarding. Any cardholder who purchases airfare with their card, and up to 6 additional guests traveling on the same reservation, may check their first bag free. This is worth $60 roundtrip per person.
• 3X miles for every $1 spent on eligible Alaska Airlines purchases. 2X miles for every $1 spent on eligible gas, cable, streaming services and local transit including ride share purchases. 1X mile per $1 spent on all other purchases.
• 10% rewards bonus w/ BofA on all miles earned from card purchases if you have an eligible Bank of America® account.
• Ability to earn another Alaska’s Famous Companion Fare ($6k spend requirement). Get another Companion Fare from $122 ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $23) each account anniversary after you spend $6,000 or more on purchases within the prior anniversary year. Valid on all Alaska Airlines flights booked on alaskaair.com.
• No foreign transaction fees.
• $95 annual fee.

I will be adding this offer to the Top 10 Best Credit Card Bonus Offers.

Alaska Airlines Visa Business Card

• 50,000 Alaska miles + Companion Fare Voucher after $3,000 in purchase within 90 days. Companion fare voucher is “Buy one ticket, get one for $122” ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from just $23).
• Free checked bag + Priority boarding. Any cardholder who purchases airfare with their card, and up to 6 additional guests traveling on the same reservation, may check their first bag free. This is worth $60 roundtrip per person.
• Ability to earn another Alaska’s Famous Companion Fare ($6k spend requirement). Get another Companion Fare from $122 ($99 fare plus taxes and fees from $23) each account anniversary after you spend $6,000 or more on purchases within the prior anniversary year. Valid on all Alaska Airlines flights booked on alaskaair.com.
• 10% rewards bonus w/ BofA on all miles earned from card purchases if you have an eligible Bank of America® small business account.
• $70 annual fee for company, plus $25 per card.

I will be adding this offer to the Top 10 Best Small Business Credit Card Bonus Offers.

Looking to pay off any remaining credit card debt? 📈 Shopping around for the best balance transfer offer can save you thousands of dollars in interest. Below is a freshly updated list of the best 0% APR balance transfer offers. I try to include both the big banks and lesser-known credit unions with easy membership requirements.

Best No Balance Transfer Fee 0% APR Offers

Fairwinds CU Cash Back Card – 0% Introductory APR for 12 months on purchases and balance transfers and no balance transfer fees. After the intro APR offer ends, a variable APR will apply. You must be an Fairwinds Credit Union member to obtain this card, but membership is open to everyone. You must also keep a nominal $5 in a share savings account. Also earns 1.5% cash back on purchases. No annual fee.

La Capital FCU Rewards Card – 0% Introductory APR for 12 months on balance transfers and no balance transfer fee during the first 90 days after account opening. After the intro APR offer ends, a variable APR will apply. You must be an La Capitol Federal Credit Union member to obtain this card, but membership is open to everyone who joins a partner organization for as little as $20 (Louisiana Association for Personal Financial Achievement). You must also keep a nominal amount (usually around $5) in a share savings account. No annual fee.

Navy Federal CU Platinum Card – 0.99% Introductory APR for 12 months on balance transfers during the first 60 days after account opening and no balance transfer fees. (This is not 0%, but ~1% is still quite rare in the current interest rate environment.) After the intro APR offer ends, a variable APR will apply. You must be an Navy Fedral Credit Union member to obtain this card, and membership is limited to those with a military affiliation, although it does include anyone whose immediate family member serves or has ever served in the military. You must also keep a nominal amount (usually around $5) in a share savings account. No annual fee.

Comparing a shorter no-fee balance transfer vs. a longer one with a modest fee. As of January 2024, the average credit card interest rate is roughly 24% APR (!). If you are paying 24% APR, that’s like paying 2% on your balance every month (!). Paying a 3% upfront fee for an 21 month period of 0% would be like paying your current interest rate for 1.5 months and then getting 0% interest for the remaining 19.5 months. That may be preferable to 12 months at 0% with no balance transfer fee, especially if you spread out your payments over the entire period and use that additional time to pay it all off by the end. Here is an example comparison.

• $5,000 balance, 24% APR, 12 month payoff = $472 per month for 12 months. ($5,673 total paid)
• $5,000 balance, 0% APR + No BT fee, 12 month payoff = $417 per month for 12 months. ($5,000 total paid)
• $5,000 balance, 24% APR, 21 months payoff = $293 per month for 21 months. ($6,172 total paid)
• $5,000 balance, 0% APR + 3% BT fee, 21 month payoff = $245 per month for 21 months. ($5,150 total paid)
• $5,000 balance, 0% APR + no BT fee, 21 month payoff = $238 per month for 21 months. ($5,000 total paid) ** not an available offer **

I can see how one might prefer the $245 per month for 21 months, even thought it results in a slightly higher total amount paid than the $417 per month for 12 months. Especially if this creates an attainable plan that the end of 21 months, you are debt-free and you saved over $1,000 in interest ($6,172 vs. $5,150). Even if there was no balance transfer fee for 21 months (which unfortunately isn’t an option), the difference would only be $7 per month.

If you are sure you can pay it all off within the shorter 0% period, then you should pick the no balance transfer fee option.

Best Low Fee, Longer-Term 0% APR Balance Transfer Offers

US Bank Visa Platinum Card  – 0% Intro APR on purchases and balance transfers for 21 billing cycles. After the intro APR offer ends, a variable APR will apply. There is a 3% balance transfer fee ($5 minimum). Side perk of up to $600 in cell phone protection. No annual fee.

Citi Simplicity® Card – 0% Intro APR on balance transfers for 21 months from date of first transfer. All transfers must be completed in first 4 months. This unique card has no late fees and no penalty interest rate. You also get 0% Intro APR on purchases for 12 months from date of account opening. After the intro APR offer ends, a variable APR will apply. There is a 3% balance transfer fee ($5 minimum). No annual fee.

BankAmericard Credit Card – 0% Intro APR for 18 billing cycles for purchases and balance transfers made in the first 60 days of opening your account. After the intro APR offer ends, a variable APR will apply. There is a 3% balance transfer fee. No annual fee.

Wells Fargo Reflect Card – 0% Intro APR on balance transfers and purchases for 21 months from date of account account opening. Balance transfers must be made within 120 days from account opening There is 5% balance transfer fee (min $5). No annual fee.

Wells Fargo Reflect Card – 0% Intro APR for 18 months for purchases and balance transfers. After the intro APR offer ends, a variable APR will apply. There is a 3% balance transfer fee ($5 minimum) for balance transfers made in the first 60 days of opening your account. No annual fee.

The Chase Freedom Unlimited® Credit Card is a no-annual-fee rewards card which earns a flat 1.5% cash back on all non-bonus purchases (or a possibly more valuable 1.5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent). This is a different card from the new Chase Freedom Flex, which has 5% cash back on rotating categories, on up to $1,500 in purchases each quarter. Here are the highlights for new cardholders:

• $250 bonus (25,000 Ultimate Rewards points) after you spend $500 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.*
• 0% Intro APR for 15 months from account opening on purchases and balance transfers. 3% intro balance transfer fee when you transfer a balance during the first 60 days your account is open, with a minimum of $5. After that, the fee for future balance transfers is 5% of the amount transferred, with a minimum of $5.

Here is the standard rewards structure, before the new cardholder offer:

• 5X points (5% cash back) on travel purchased through Chase Travel^SM.
• 3X points (3% cash back) on dining out, take-out, and eligible delivery services.
• 3X points (3% cash back) on drugstore purchases.
• Earn unlimited 1.5% cash back on all purchases.
• No minimum to redeem for cash back. You can choose to receive a statement credit or direct deposit into most U.S. checking and savings accounts. Cash Back rewards do not expire as long as your account is open!
• Cash back does not expire as long as your card is open.
• No annual fee.

1.5% cash back on all purchases is better than the 1% cash back you see from a lot of cards, but there are now multiple 2% back back cards out there.

But wait, you actually get Ultimate Rewards Points! The lesser-known perk of this card is that you actually earn Ultimate Rewards points, which are in turn redeemable for cash back at a rate of 100 points = $1 in cash back, or 1 cent per point. But you don’t have to do that. Ultimate Rewards points are worth collecting because of their flexibility. (I hope Chase doesn’t forget this fact.) This is important because there are many ways in which Ultimate Rewards points can be worth much more than 1 cent per point.

If you have also have the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Chase Sapphire Reserve, or Ink Business Preferred Card, then you can pool all of your Ultimate Rewards points together (even with your spouse/partner as an authorized user) and thus utilize all of the same transfer partners with the following results:

• Earn 1.5 United Mileageplus miles per dollar spent on ALL purchases.
• Earn 1.5 Hyatt points per dollar spent on ALL purchases.
• Earn 1.5 British Airways Avios per dollar spent on ALL purchases.
• Earn 1.5 Southwest Rapid Rewards points per dollar spent on ALL purchases.

Notice that you are earning more miles and points on ALL purchases than even the specific co-branded cards from United or Hyatt themselves! Most of them just offer 1 point/mile per dollar spent on all purchases.

If you placed a perceived value of 1.5 cents on each United Airlines mile or Hyatt hotel point, then you’d receive 2.25 cents of perceived value per dollar spent with this card. Your actual numbers will depend on your own specific redemption choices, but you can see that you can definitely exceed 2% cash back value on an ongoing basis with the Sapphire Preferred/Freedom Unlimited combo.

With the Sapphire Reserve, you can also redeem for travel through the Chase Travel^SM portal at 1.5 cents per point value, which means 20,000 Ultimate Rewards points = $300 towards airfare, hotel, car rentals booked through Chase Travel. 5% cash back on groceries turns into 7.5% potential value back, and so on.

If you would like the opportunity to earn 5% cash back on rotating bonus categories each quarter, compare with the Chase Freedom Flex card. You can have both a Freedom and a Freedom Unlimited card, but you’ll have to apply for each card separately. I think this is actually a great combo if you plan to keep a Sapphire Preferred/Sapphire Reserve/Ink Preferred cards as well.

Restrictions. This card is subject to “5/24” restrictions, which means that your application will be automatically denied if you have opened 5 or more credit cards in the last 24 months (check your credit reports). Our household strategy is to have one person only apply for Chase 5/24 cards, and the other person applies for everything else. There is also this language on the consumer card:

This product is available to you 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. The Chase Freedom Unlimited® Credit Card> is a unique card that works best in combination with either the Chase Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire Reserve, or Ink Preferred Business cards. The combination of earning 1.5 Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on all purchases plus the unique redemption options from those other cards can create a value exceeding that of 2% cash back. You also get a bonus category of 3X points on dining out and drugstore purchases.

The information for the Chase Freedom Unlimited® Credit Card has been collected independently by My Money Blog. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

(Update: New $50 limited-time offers for new RedCards, including new Reloadable version with no credit check. Offer expires 12/9/23.)

The Target RedCard offers 5% off all Target purchases both online and in-store (Target gift cards excluded, in-store Starbucks included) and free 2-day shipping on qualifying items at Target.com. You also get an additional 30 days for returns and exchanges. No annual fee.

There are now three versions of RedCard: Credit, Debit, and Reloadable. Debit and Reloadable have no credit check and I never carry a balance, so the credit card doesn’t interest me at all. There is a new limited offer for each that includes $50 savings on a $50+ Target purchase. The Debit and Reloadable version do not perform a hard credit check on the three major credit bureaus. There are a bunch of restrictions on big brands (see below), but I can easily spend $50 on food and other household goods. I plan on going for the new Reloadable version this time around.

Full fine print copied below. Usually I just make my pick-up order at Target and make sure the coupon works in the app before checking out. The Reloadable $50 bonus is much less finicky.

Save $50 on a future qualifying purchase over $50 when approved for credit or debit RedCard

RedCard Debit or Credit: Get a coupon for $50 off of one future qualifying purchase over $50 when you are approved for a debit or credit RedCard in-store or at Target.com between 10/29/23-12/9/23. The coupon will be mailed to the approved cardholders with their RedCard and will be valid through 1/8/24. Must upload coupon to Target App and be fully enrolled in Target Circle™ to redeem coupon. Excludes items sold by Target Plus™ Partners, alcohol, Apple products, Barbie camper and houses, Beats, Black History Month, Bose, Bratz Collector and Designer Dolls, Bullseye’s Playground, Cards Against Humanity, Casper, clinic & pharmacy, Cricut, dairy milk, Disney Princess Castle, Dockers, Do-a-Dot, Doona, DSLR cameras & lenses, Dynamic Coins, Dyson, Elf on the Shelf, Fisher Price Laugh n Learn, Fitbit, Funko Standard Pop, gift cards, GilletteLabs Heated Razor Starter Kit by Gillette – 3ct, Google, Hair Appliances, HALO Baby, Hasbro Games (Classic Monopoly, Connect Four, Jenga, Sorry, Trouble), Healthy Roots Dolls, HP Inc., ICU reading glasses, Infant Optics, JBL, Latino Heritage Month, LEGO, Levi’s Red Label, LG OLED and QNED TVs, Lights From Anywhere (Junior), limited-time designer partnerships, Lovevery, Marvin’s Magic Drawing Board and Pens, Mega Bloks, Meta Oculus and Portal, mobile contracts, Motrin baby, Nintendo hardware and Switch games, Polder, Philips Avent, Plan B, power shave, power dental, prepaid cards, Play-Doh Ice Cream Truck Playset, PlayStation – consoles, virtual reality and accessories, Pride, Revival, Samsung TVs, Shipt Membership, simplehuman, Sonos, Sony Electronics, Take Action, Target Optical, Tempur-Sealy, Trading Cards, Tylenol (and baby) pain relief, Ulta Beauty at Target Brands, Umbrellas, Unlocked phones, Vera Bradley handbags, Weber, What Do You Meme?, WonderFold.

Get a $50 credit when you open a RedCard Reloadable Account & spend $50 at Target.

RedCard Reloadable Account: Get a $50 credit when you open a RedCard Reloadable Account and spend $50 at Target. To receive a $50 statement credit for the RedCard Reloadable Account, you must successfully register online at redcardreloadable.com for a new account between 10/29/23-12/9/23, then activate the permanent card once received in the mail and spend $50 (net of reversals/returns) at Target (“$50 transaction”) within 45 days of registration. The statement credit will be posted to the account within 30 days of the $50 transaction. The $50 transaction must occur in one transaction at a Target location or at Target.co; if you get cash back at the register during the purchase, the transaction will not qualify for this promotion. Limit one (1) $50 credit per customer. Offer is subject to change or cancellation at any time.

We’ve become regular users of the Target app and their Drive-Up option. No markups, well-organized, dedicated parking area, and minimal waiting. The online stock available is mostly accurate, better than Walmart in our experience which has more frequent, often-imperfect substitutions. If only Costco had a similar service! (Sam’s Club does have a pickup option.)

Amazon lets you “Shop with Points” using many different loyalty programs including Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou, and Discover. They also offer targeted promotions from time to time, and they seem to come back periodically even if you’ve used them before. I recommend quickly clicking on each of the links below to see if you are targeted at the moment and activate for an additional discount for redeeming a single penny’s worth of points. If you’re not targeted (I wasn’t this round), then just wait until next time.

(Note: If you are reading this in an email/RSS reader, unfortunately I am not allowed to include any Amazon affiliate links in e-mails, so they have been removed. Just click here to view the links.)

“Shop with Points” promo links

• Discover Cash Back. Past details here.
• Chase Ultimate Rewards. Chase Freedom, Freedom Unlimited, Sapphire, and Ink Business cards all earn UR points. Past details here.
• American Express Membership Rewards points. Past details here.
• Citi Thank You Points. Past details here.

The Bank of America Premium Rewards Credit Card is the mid-tier premium card in the line-up, with added perks in exchange for an $95 annual fee. (Comparable with the Chase Sapphire Preferred and American Express Green cards.) This card also participates in the Preferred Rewards program, which gives you better rewards if you let BofA hold of your assets. Here are the highlights:

• Earn 60,000 bonus points ($600 value) after making $4,000 in purchases in first 90 days of account opening.
• Earn 2 points per dollar spent on travel and dining purchases.
• Earn 1.5 points for each dollar spent on all other purchases.
• 10% customer bonus when you have an active Bank of America checking or savings account.
• If you’re a Preferred Rewards client, you can increase that bonus to 25% – 75%. See details below.
• Up to $100 annual airline incidental statement credit for qualifying travel purchases such as seat upgrades, baggage fees, in-flight services and airport lounge fees.
• Up to $100 airport security statement credit towards TSA Precheck or Global Entry Application fee, every four years.
• No foreign transaction fees.
• $95 annual fee.
• No limit to earning points, and points don’t expire.

Preferred Rewards bonus. The Preferred Rewards program is designed to rewards clients with multiple account and higher assets located at Bank of America banking, Merrill Edge online brokerage, and Merrill Lynch investment accounts. Here is a partial table taken from their comparison chart (click to enlarge):

Let’s consider the options. Bank of America’s interest rates on cash accounts tend to be lower than highest-available outside banks, so moving cash over to qualify may result in earning less interest on your cash deposits. Merrill Lynch advisory accounts also usually come with management fees. The sweet spot is if you have brokerage assets like stocks, mutual funds, and ETFs.

In the past, moving over to Merrill Edge at the Platinum and Platinum Plus levels also led to 30 to 100 free online stock trades every month. Fast forward to now, and nearly all major online brokers offer commission-free trades anyway.

Personally, I moved over $100k of brokerage assets to Merrill Edge to qualify for Platinum Honors. This can include your existing ETFs and mutual funds held elsewhere (Vanguard, Fidelity, Schwab, etc). I realize not everyone will have this level of assets to move around, but if you do then it is worth considering. Keep in mind that it will take a while for your “3-month average combined balance” to actually reach the $100k level and officially qualify for Platinum Honors. You might become Gold first, then Platinum, and so on. After that, the 25%-75% rewards bonus on credit card rewards kick in.

Once you reach a certain tier, BofA guarantees that you will stay there for a year no matter what, even if your balance fluctuates. Note that the terms state “The Preferred Rewards bonus will replace the customer bonus”, which means that you will lose the 10% customer bonus when you qualify for the 25% to 50% bonus.

Here’s are the cash back rates after the Preferred Rewards bonuses:

• Platinum Honors (75% bonus): 3.5% cash back on travel and dining, 2.625% cash back on all other purchases.
• Platinum (50% bonus): 3% cash back on travel and dining, 2.25% cash back on all other purchases.
• Gold (25% bonus): 2.5% cash back on travel and dining, 1.875% cash back on all other purchases.

Rewards comparison. This card has a more flexible rewards structure than their BankAmericard Travel Rewards card in that the points don’t have to offset a travel purchase. You can redeem at a flat 1 point = 1 cent value towards a statement credit or deposit into eligible Bank of America or Merrill Lynch® accounts (including deposit, investment or 529 accounts).

Getting a flat 2.625% (Platinum Honors) or 2.25% cash back (Platinum) on all purchases is a very solid base earning level. In terms of the competition, there are now multiple cash back cards in the 2% cash back range such as the Citi Double Cash Card with no annual fee. That means I wouldn’t bother with this card for everyday purchases if I wasn’t Platinum or Platinum Honors.

Also note that you can also earn similar levels of everything rewards (minus the travel/dining bonus category) but restricted to offsetting a travel-related purchase with the BankAmericard Travel Rewards card – except with no annual fee. The question then reverts back to if you can offset that $95 annual fee with the $100 annual incidental airline credit good towards seat upgrades, baggage fees, in-flight services and airport lounge fees. (Sadly, everything seems to be an added fee these days.) If you can get max value out of that airline incidental credit every year, then that removes the major disadvantage when compared to the BofA Travel Rewards card. You can then enjoy the added perks like the $500 value sign-up bonus, $100 Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit once every 4 years, and the higher rewards on travel/dining bonus.

Bottom line. The Bank of America Premium Rewards Credit Card is rather average in basic form, but is elevated into an excellent card if you can qualify for the Platinum or Platinum Honors tiers of their Preferred Rewards program for up to 3.5% cash back on travel and dining and 2.625% cash back on all other purchases. Note the the $95 annual fee is not waived for the first year. Consider your ability to use up the $100 annual incidental airline credit.

Also see: Top 10 Best Credit Card Bonus Offers.