Thinking About Getting A Gas Credit Card,
By
Easy Tips
—
Monday, 16 July 2018
—
Credit Tips
2.66, according to AAA, meaning those cards give less than a 2% return. 0.88% which does not come with a bonus. Nearly one-fifth of consumers have let their credit-card rewards expire, according to a study from TD Bank. But those are often offered for a limited time. Because of that, it could make sense to sign up for a gas card before a big road trip, Schulz said. But outside of that scenario, a gas card may not make sense.
One notable example is the Chase Ultimate Rewards program. When you shop through its travel portal, you can get 1.25 cents per point if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred or 1.5 cents per point with the Chase Sapphire Reserve. The other method is redeeming your points for a statement credit. After you've made anything that qualifies as a travel purchase with your card issuer, you can apply your points toward the resulting balance on your account.
Many rewards programs give you other ways to use your points, such as redeeming them for cash, gift cards, or a product you can choose from the program's points store. These are almost never worth it. If you're going to use a travel rewards card, you'll get much greater value from your points when you redeem them for travel. You don't need a Ph.D. With an understanding of how redeeming points works, you can get the most value out of your current points or select a new card in a rewards program you like.
The path from a traditional bank to a financial technology firm is well-trodden. Going from traditional banking to a venture-capital firm that invests in fintech startups is another option - potentially an even more lucrative one. Caribou Honig can testify to that. 25bn in annual revenues, where he managed of a 200-person underwriting operation and lead digital transformation initiatives. However, he soon arrived at a crossroads in his career.
“At Capital One, I cut my teeth on analytic data strategies, underwriting and risk management,” Honig says. “I led the team that cracked the code of moving away from direct mail to Internet marketing and customer acquisition. “But in 2006, I burnt out professionally - my wife was in grad school and we had young kids, so I took some time off,” he said.
Honig, who has an MBA and a JD, is a testament to the truism that you should always be a good leaver and stay in contact - and on good terms - with former bosses and colleagues. He was working as a freelance consultant when he decided to launch a VC firm with Frank Rotman, a former senior vice president at Capital One, and Nigel Morris, the ex-president and COO of the bank.
In 2008, just before the height of the financial crisis, QED Investors, a boutique VC firm focused on data-driven fintech and insurance technology (insurtech) companies, was born, with the three co-founders self-seeding the startup. When Honig started at Capital One, it had around a thousand employees - when he left it had roughly 20k. His preference is working at a smaller organization. “When I joined forces with the guys to create QED, we had three of us, operating at a different scale - you can’t have a bank with three people or a VC firm of a thousand,” Honig says.
“It’s liberating to be at a small firm of three people, where the notion of a performance appraisal didn’t make sense,” he says. “If I had feedback for someone or someone had feedback for me, we’d just tell each other. Banks have various business lines, and even monolines have different segments and organizational units, each with a different strength, whereas it’s easier for a VC firm to operate as a cohesive team.
There is no doubt that, like PE, VC is a compelling, sought-after career path. That said, the barrier to entry may be even higher in the VC space than PE. “There is no clear and straight path to VC, which is frustrating for people who have an eye towards it - there is no well-trod trail,” Honig says. “Having a background that gives you some exposure to fact-based analysis is valuable, because it gives you some access to understanding technology.
Shelling out hundreds of dollars in annual fees for premium credit cards is not for everyone, especially when you’re a beginner to the points and miles game. But if you consider yourself in that boat, it’s not a problem. 100 a year and still earn lucrative travel rewards. Among the top credit cards in this category are the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card. 95 that are waived for the first year.
Today, we’ll take a closer look at how these two cards stack up in a head-to-head comparison. Both cards offer sign-up bonuses which are quite generous, especially given the fact that you can effectively try out both cards for a year without paying anything at all. 3,000 within the first three months of account opening. 4,000 within the first three months of account opening. 625 in travel, and you can get an even greater return by leveraging Chase’s transfer partners.
You’ll also earn an extra 5,000 points when you add an additional user and make a purchase within the first three months. Winner: Sapphire Preferred. Although both cards offer 50,000-point sign-up bonuses, the two are not equal, and you’ll get an extra 5,000 points with the CSP by adding an authorized user.
Capital One Venture: Double miles on all purchases with no annual cap — very simple. That’s by far the highest bonus on hotel spend on any credit card in the market today. Sapphire Preferred: Double points on all restaurant and travel purchases, one point per dollar on all other purchases.
The card’s definition of travel is quite broad and includes expenses like tolls, parking and subways. Winner: Capital One Venture. Putting aside the value you’ll get for these points (more on that in a moment), the everyday earning rate is better with the Venture than the CSP. Both cards allow you to redeem points toward travel, gift cards and cash back, but travel redemptions always provide the best value. Venture: Redeeming Venture miles is very easy, and unlike transferring points, doesn’t require jumping through any hoops.