Tag: AMEX

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Life Life Tips

Loss from Theft

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Agent brown is the name my girls gave to the AirTag I used to attached to the car key (it has a brown holder) and later my older daughter attached it to her brown wallet. We lost agent brown. Saturday, to be more precise, 8/19 evening, at about 6:42 pm I got a text message when I was driving my girls to the premium outlet. The text message is from Amex, and it said “fraud alert” and someone tries to use S8’s Gold Card at a place called “City Gear” for about $280 worth of merchandise. The store declined it and thus the text alert from Amex.

Basically an hour ago my 13 year old lost her purse at the J Creve Coeur girls locker room. She said there is no lock but I cannot verify. We didn’t know then, until the thief started to use the Amex card in her purse and thus triggered the alert from the credit card company.

We were already very close to the Premium Outlet. And I started to call Amex shortly after I get there. To make the card is marked as lost, and also found out two pending transactions at QT. Those 2 transactions will be disputed. After we talked more, it appears someone took S8’s wallet from the girls (kiddos) locker room. S8 said the locker is not lockable. And because she put one of my airtags in her wallet, and I can see at one point the wallet location was at the City Gear (Gravois plaza, or City Gear, 3519 Bamberger Ave, St. Louis, MO 63116). I can even see the location of this person’s home (which I won’t post, I enabled the lost mode and the last location seems to be at someone’s home, at 7:08 pm), as well as QT location (which can be seen from the Amex website from the pending transaction).

A while later after we got home, we found there is even a text message with a time of 7:25 PM saying “I found your wallet” on S8’s phone (she left a number on the wallet).

After some discussions, we decided not to reply back to that text.

This whole episode seems added some excitement to an otherwise uneventful Saturday evening.

I recall when I was in college, my wallet was picked by a thief when I was at a crowded bus (I realized quickly after I got off the bus), another time my drawer in the dorm got broken into and money was lost. In the US, I recall when I was a graduate student, once I lost a digital camera which I left in my office.

I guess this can turn into a good lesson in safety and security (privacy) for our older daughter as the material loss is fairly small.

Peace of Mind

A side note of all this is the Amex and Apple AirTags seem both gave us peace of mind, they provided more transparency than a traditional wallet loss (such as my loss when I was in college in Wuhan). At the same time, I don’t too much curiosity is a good thing. || (update 08-21-2023) it appears the two fraudulent transactions at QT got posted, I opened dispute in the Amex website.

PS – be vigilant: I recall when I was working for the credit card company, on the loyalty and rewards platform, I was tasked to investigate the “fraudulent redemptions for airline tickets and hotel reservations”. It appears the thief (or thieves) got hold of the victim’s personal email and password: the same email and password are used in the rewards redemption website which was operated by the credit card co. Let’s just say the email provider is Yahoo. So from the victim’s point of view, it’s really not a good security practice. At the time though, it was also the 1st time I encountered a sophisticated thief like that and I started to doubt the “evilness” of some criminals. My daughter is 13 and was more thinking about the “goodness” of the people, e.g., she would try to find an excuse why someone would steal her wallet (maybe someone needs the money for food). I don’t know, I would not say she was “woke”. But at the same time, I think we should all be vigilant.

PS 2: handle of loss. 旧的不去，新的不来 (Out with the old, in with the new)。I understand many people want things back, and my daughter is no exception. Recently I started to realized and reconfirm sometimes we just have too much junk (which I discussed below). As a parent I am certainly quite protective of my kids’ feeling got hurt etc. But again we live in a real world. And this sort of thing does happen.

Material Things

A bit relevant topic, from my recent article selling on eBay, one of the themes I want to emphasize is material things are not as important as people, and peace of mind. And I think I agree with this TedX talk Life is easy. Why do we make it so hard? | Jon Jandai | TEDxDoiSuthep

(Update 08-22-2023) Dick’s shares fall 24% as retailer slashes outlook over theft concerns

Categories
401k and Personal Finance

Amex Gold card and Amex card offers

Reading Time: 3 minutes

(Update 09-25-2025) I believe the annual fee for the Amex Gold card is $325 now. The perks: $10 a month on both Uber Eats and Grub Hub; $7 a month back on Dunkin Donuts. Total $27 x 12 = $324. So, this basically pays itself right there.

(Original 06-06-2023) I owned an Amex Gold card for a while. Sometimes I tweeted about it. I was thinking about giving Serenity a card (I talked about it in my blog), too. In fact, the other day Mother’s Day 2023 to be precise, we had her “pay” for the dinner. Note the reason I used the double quotes is I still pay the credit card bill :-).

I mentioned/talked about Amex Gold Card in my other blog post: you will need to scroll down a bit to read the benefits of Amex Gold. I think for the most part, the benefits cover the annual fee of $250.

One thing I did notice recently, is that the Gold Card does not provide airport lounge access. For that access, it requires a platinum card: an Amex centurion lounge or a Delta Lounge. Btw, this video explained various airport lounges well. To summarize though, it may make sense if someone travels quite a bit (meaning probably once or twice each month). And it seems the $495 a year Amex Delta platinum card (Delta Lounge) and the $695 a year Amex Platinum (centurion lounge) are the way to go. For infrequent flyers, thinking Priority Club is worth trying via a day pass. (Update 06-13-2023) I came across another YT video that offers an interesting perspective – It’s Over: Why I’m Cancelling My American Express.

But I am happy with the other benefits that come with Amex gold, including some of the offers. Note I like the flexibility Membership Rewards offer too, e.g., I can transfer the points to my HHonors account (the Hilton family hotels, 1 Membership Rewards point = 2 Hilton Honors points), or Marriott Bonvoy (Marriott rewards program, 1 Membership Rewards points = 1 Marriott Points).

I do have another Amex card, the Blue Cash, with a $95 annual fee. And I think the benefits such as 6% grocery store cashback and offers such as the Disney bundle covers the fee as well.

Note I don’t necessarily like or appreciate some of their “offers”, again, for example, this Fiji water offer, $20 off $80, and I mentioned some of the controversy of the famous Fiji water here. Also the CNBC Jim Cramer’s Investors Club, which is a $100 off $399 offer, again I would pass.

Last but not least, I pay off the balance every month. I think with the rewards credit card, sometimes I may have over-spent. This is something I believe Mr. Zhang Xin did right, as he explained in Chinese about his personal finance tips ( 我的理財觀超級老古板，當作笑話看就可以了章新談談心，老了改不了了 ), basically, he does not use a credit card (he uses cash, I assume debit card included), and he doesn’t invest or trade stocks, as he thinks that’s a gamble.

Offers vs Promotion

I worked for a major credit card company’s rewards program for almost 4 years between 2015 and 2019. And I personally created or oversaw some of the promotions (or campaigns) when I was there. Offers are a bit different. It’s another type of promotion from the consumer’s point of view, basically, the consumer just needs to enroll in that offer, when a qualifying spend happens, the cashback or other rewards will happen automatically. Right now, I mainly use the offers from Amex and Chase credit cards, as they are fairly straightforward and easy to enroll. A good example of an “offer” is this one – #AmexGold has an offer from #Steelcase for $150 off $750, you may want to check your Amex cards if you are planning to buy office chairs from the Steelcase website directly.

PS, danger zone (stock investing) –

YouTube : Warren Buffett: American Express Was Our Best Ever Stock Purchase

Categories
401k and Personal Finance

Cash Back Credit Card II: rebate category madness

Reading Time: < 1 minute(Update 07-28-2010) I found Citi® Platinum Select® AAdvantage® World MasterCard® to be interesting. AA actually offers 3 cards: Master Card, American Express or Visa. They has a 30,000 miles promotion as of now. Another card, which is more useful in our daily lives, is the Upromise® World MasterCard® credit card with Dining & Grocery Rewards, offered by BoA. But I think I will go for the Subaru card, for the 3% cash back (Subaru dollars, good at Subaru dealers for purchase or service).

(Original)Costco American Express Card
3% gasoline
3% Restaurant
2% Travel
1% everything else (including Costco purchase)

Discover card
5% gasoline, hotels, movie and theme parks (July 1st to Sept 30). Discover rotates the 5% cash back category every quarter.
1% for everything else (after meeting those $2,000, $3,000 spending requirements, as I said in earlier post)

Citi Dividend Card
Citi Dividend changed its policy from July 1. It no longer offers 2% (3%?) cash back on groceries etc. Instead it’s taking a page from Discover Cash Bonus Card, doing the rotating category thing. For instance, for this quarter (July 1 to Sept 30) it offers 5% for restaurant (needs enrollment).

It offers 1% for everything else.

Citi Professional
3% cash back on gas station, restaurant, office supplies and car rental;
1% on everything else

Summary

Continue reading “Cash Back Credit Card II: rebate category madness”
Categories
401k and Personal Finance

SPG Starwood Preferred Guest AMEX credit card special offer

Reading Time: 2 minutesFirst I want to thank everyone who used my referral enrolling in Ohio College Advantage 529 plan, esp. those of you who kept quiet after using my referral code. My daughter (although she can not understand what is college these days, being 3 months and 3 weeks old) and my wife also want to express their thanks.

Saw this Starwood Preferred Guest AMEX credit card special offer from dealsea.

SPG has a new promotion – free 30,000 Starpoints after you spend $1000 in 3 months. No annual fee for the first year (then $45). Offer expires 7/6/10.

Here is a review for the card. And another review which talks about points redemption. Quote:

Starwood Preferred Guest program was the first program that had no blackout dates, which meant that if they had a room, they will give it to you. You need 2,000 points for a weekday stay at a category 1 hotel and 3,000 points for a weekend stay. You could also use a combination of points and paying cash. For example, you can use 1,250 points and $25 for a category 1 hotel stay. Starwood also allows you to get a fifth night stay free at category 3,4,5 and 6 hotels. The minimum points required is 28,000 points for a category 3 hotel. Room upgrade requires a minimum of 1,000 points. You can also get 50% off regular rates by using just 1,000 points for any category hotel. Points can be used to redeem for an entire vacation – with hotel stays and flights as well.

Starwood hotels include brands like Four Points, Sheraton,Westin and W Hotels. It seems to me Starwood program is better than HHonors program (Hilton family hotels), and SPG points worth more than HH points. For instance, 3,000 points can get one free night stay at Four Points Daning in Shanghai. So I took the bait: applied the card just now, and got approved 😀