Google Pay has been revamped and if you do not mind sharing your credit/debit card info with Google then it would be a great addition to your phone wallet at least in the short term. The reason being Google Pay is currently offering a great promotion where the referral and referred person both earn $21 when the referred person makes a qualified purchase of $10 or more. (Here is my referral link Thanks!). The good news is that even if you have had used Google Pay in the past, since this is the revamped App, you can still sign up with referral link and earn $21.

But this is not the only reason for sign up. Google Pay has also integrated card linked cash back offers as part of the revamped App and currently it is offering great deal's such as $21 on purchase of $50+ at Target, 20% back for purchase at REI with up to $50 back in cash back and $30 back on Walmart+ sign up. These offers need to be activated/added and the terms vary from offer to offer and there are separate offers for In-store or online purchase.

The Google Pay app still retains the useful feature of person-to-person pay as well as group pay feature which allows for Venmo like split payment feature. It also has host of other features like spend tracking etc which folks may or may not be comfortable on sharing with Google. Since Google explicitly asks you for enabling personalized offer, you can turn it down and still use it as a short term opportunity for earning some $$ or cash back.

The good news is that you can unlink the cards, account and thus be done with it if you are not a fan of "Google Pay" in long term. For short term though this is a good opportunity to earn quick $21 referred credit without leaving your home.

Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website. ​

Lot of credit cards with useful perks come with annual fees. The perks may range from benign such as "No foreign transaction fee" to high end perk such as free hotel night/certificate, travel credit for airlines or shopping/dining credits. While No-annual fee credit cards might be preferred, there can be great benefits with annual fee card which might justify paying the annual fee's and could be easily recouped based on your usage of the perk/benefit.

Still, one of most overlooked thing about annual fee card's is the ability to ask for retention offers which can either completely or partially offset the annual fees. While not all annual fee card provider would provide retention offer, it is still worth few minutes of your time to call and check. Also getting retention offer will vary from card to card and from person to person. So, how do you go about getting one? You can try below two options:

Send a secure message or do online chat:
The easiest way to get your message across is by sending a secure message (Chase?) if it is an option or doing online chat (American Express?) and sending it after the annual fee has posted is the best time. Be specific in your query and ask for any statement credit or points benefit you can get to offset your annual fees.

Talk to the Customer Care and ask for specialist or supervisor:
The best time to ask for a retention offer is when your annual fees posts to your credit card account. Call the number on the back of the card and talk with the agent and explain him about the annual fees. You will hear the standard description from the agent about the perks of the card and why you should be paying the annual fees. Your best defense is NOT to ask for "Fee Waiver" but rather for "statement credit" or for points/miles earning card any offer which would provide "X number of points/miles".

If the talk does not go anywhere ask for specialist or supervisor as they have more lee-way and see offers which the front line customer care agent may not see. Do NOT say that you want to cancel the card but rather you are considering cancellation as that makes your intent known at the same time gauging if the agent has anything to offer.

Which Credit Card Issuer are easy to budge?
Most of the credit card issuer will look at your relationship and the length of time you are a customer before providing any retention offer, but this is a big YMMV. There are certain credit card issuer such as American Express who are known to provide points offer or statement credit for their own portfolio of cards and less inclined to provide it for the co-branded credit cards. While other such as Chase Bank are not known for providing offers on co-branded credit cards. Yet, banks such as U.S. Bank are known to routinely issue 5k to 10k bonus points annually on their high end Altitude Reserve Visa Infinite Card "If you ask".

So, there is no golden rule out there, but the key is "To Ask!". So, if you have your annual fee coming up do not hesitate to ask even though you might not be looking to cancel the card as you might be pleasantly surprised with the Retention Offer!

​Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website. 

COVID-19 has disrupted many travel plans and a side effect of struggling airline industry is the airlines credit or discount codes issued in lieu of direct refund wherever the airlines could offer it. But due to on and off lock downs and travel restrictions even folks who were issued those airline credit or discount code would find difficult in using it.

So, if you have expiring airlines credits or discount codes here are few things you can do:

Contact airline's to see if they can courtesy extend your credit:
Lot of airlines realize that it still might not be possible for folks to use the credit or discount code's and given the ramping COVID-19 they might be willing to extend it or re-issue a new code with future expiration date.

Convert the credits to airlines miles (YMMV, but keep an eye for any special run by airlines):
Few airlines have been innovative and have provided members with option to convert their available credits due to cancellation to airline miles. Southwest Airlines already have active promotion for the same (So check if your credit qualifies) and Alaska Air has run the promotion couple of times in the past, so keep any eye if you have Alaska Airlines credit.

Use the credit or discount code to book future trip:
While your credit may expire it generally can be used for booking future flights before expiration. Although how far in future you can book depends on airlines, usually you should be able to book 330 days out on major U.S. airlines (Except Southwest Airlines). So as a last resort you can book something way out with hope of taking that flight and hoping if there are schedule changes you can use it to your advantage to change your ticket for free without any additional cost.

So, do not sit and let that airline credit/ discount code expire but rather act upon it with whichever options works out for you before the expiration date.

​Disclaimer: Some of the links used in the post may be referral links and earn referral to this site. We appreciate you supporting the website.