Amex Just SUPERCHARGED These Credit Cards + EASY $200 Gift Card

Hey, credit warriors. Welcome to the show. In this video, I want to talk about two things. American Express just refreshed a popular set of co-branded credit cards with new benefits, including new credits and welcome bonuses. We'll go through all of that here. Then, in addition, we have an easy way for you to pick up a $200 Amazon gift card with no spend requirement. Hey, credit warriors. Welcome to the show. My name is Ben Hedges, aka The Credit Shifu, and on this channel, I cover US credit cards, personal finance, and luxury travel. If you like the sound of that, please subscribe, but let's get into it. Oh, and this video is brought to you by the Built Dining Program, where you can earn an extra three built points per dollar on your dining spend on top of what you earn on your credit card. More about that later. So the set of Amex cards that has been refreshed is the Delta SkyMiles credit cards. First thing that you will notice is new card art, which doesn't really bring any benefits, but it's cool if you like the new design. And note the Delta Reserve is now gray, which is probably, I would say, better than that ridiculous purple that they used to have. I mean, why would a high-end premium travel card be purple? You know, gray signifies exclusivity. It's almost a black card, but not quite. All right, let's go through the new benefits. Starting today, basic Delta SkyMiles gold, platinum, and reserve consumer and business card members will receive a complimentary second-checked bag on domestic Delta-operated flights. So this doesn't apply to the no annual fee card, the Delta Blue, but on the three personal and business Delta Amex cards with annual fees, you will be getting your second-checked bag for free. A couple of points about this though. First, it's only for the primary card member, so no authorized users. And also it only applies to US domestic flights. That's a little disappointing since I would think people are more likely to need a larger amount of luggage on international flights. But whatever, I guess us Americans are much more likely to fly somewhere within the country than outside. I leave the country probably only once a year now, and that's only because I have family overseas. Like if I didn't have family overseas, I would probably just go on vacation within the US or maybe go to Mexico. All right, on to the second new benefit. Additionally, enrolled Delta SkyMiles gold and gold business card members will have access to the $120 rideshare credit after card renewal, unlocking up to $10 in monthly statement credits on eligible US rideshare purchases with select providers. Now this rideshare credit is kind of like a hotel anniversary free night because you only start getting it after your card's first anniversary. So 12 months after you first opened the card, it seems for existing card members, as long as you have had the card for more than a year, the benefit will be activated immediately. And if you've had the card less than a year, well, same as people who just sign up now, you need to wait until your card's first anniversary, and then this credit will activate. So what rideshare services can you use this credit on? Well, it's Uber, Lyft, Curb, and Alto. I've only heard of the first two of those. Maybe I'm old. Okay, Boomer. And in addition, it's only valid on rides within the US with those companies. So do remember that. But other than that, yeah, $10 in free money per month, not bad. All right, let's now look at the bonuses because Amex has come out with some elevated welcome bonuses on all of the cards with annual fees. But first, if you like transferable points, why not sign up for the built dining program? You've all heard of built, right? The rewards program that lets you earn points on rent and mortgages. But you may not know that they have a dining program where you can link any card and earn an average of three extra points per dollar on your dining spend at built restaurants, which there are many of especially live in a big city. It works great with cards like the Amex gold for a total of seven points per dollar. Okay, four from Amex on dining on that card and three from built. Actually, if you have the delta gold or platinum that we're talking about in this video, you would get two extra delta miles per dollar on those cards and three built points for a total of five points back. Built has some great transfer partners like Hyatt Hotels, United Airlines, Emirates, etc. So sign up today with my link below and don't forget to link any existing card from your wallet so that you can earn points on your dining spend. Oh, and if you link your lift count, you can also earn extra built points on your lift rides too. It's free, so it's kind of a no-brainer. Link is in the description down below. All right, let's now look at the bonuses on all of the personal delta cards. First of all, on the delta blue, there isn't a special bonus. It's just the usual 10,000 bonus miles and that's for spending $1,000. But that is the no annual fee card, so you can't expect too much. Let's now look at the three personal cards with annual fees. All of these are two-part bonuses. Two-part bonuses can sometimes be annoying with like, you know, spend $2,000 for the first half and then $10,000 for the second half. These aren't like that, so don't worry. On the gold, earn $70,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 or more in purchases with your new card within the first six months of card membership and an additional $20,000 bonus miles after you make an additional $2,000 in purchases within your first six months. So that's a total of $5,000 in spending to get the full 90,000 point bonus. On the platinum, $80,000 bonus miles for spending $4,000 in your first six months and an additional $20,000 bonus miles with an additional $2,000 in purchases in your first six months. That is $6,000 in total spending to get the $100,000 bonus points. Then on the reserve, $100,000 bonus miles after you spend $6,000 in your first six months and then an additional $25,000 bonus miles after you spend an additional $3,000 within your first six months. Total is $9,000 in spend to get 125,000 points. The point sky values delta sky miles at 1.2 cents each. So that gives us $1,080 for the full bonus on gold, $1,200 for the bonus on platinum and $1,500 in value for the bonus on the reserve. The bonus amounts on the delta business cards are the same, but the spending requirements are higher. So $6,000 on gold, $8,000 on platinum and $15,000 on reserve. But it's just in one go. There's no two part thing. The bonuses on all of these cards, both business and personal are running until July 15th. So get the more you can. And in case you're wondering if the annual fees have increased, no, the annual fees on all of these cards stay the same. So this is one of those refreshes that has only added good things and there's actually no downside to it. All right, let's talk about one more thing, and that is how to get an easy $200 Amazon gift card. So Amazon's prime day is June 23rd to 26th. There are prime days, all right, where there will be loads of deals and discounts that you can pick up on things on Amazon. Now, around this time, the Amazon Prime Visa signature card from Chase normally does a welcome bonus of $200 or sometimes even a $250 gift card immediately upon approval. No spend requirement, no waiting for it. You just apply and boom, you get $200 in your account to use on prime day. Now, currently I see a $150 gift card bonus when I look this card up, but apparently a $200 gift card bonus is coming on June 11th and it will last until July 9th. This information is from doctor of credit. I'm not sure how they know this, but since this isn't like some bombshell annex leak or something, it's pretty standard info based on a deal that they do every year. So I think it's fine just to believe them with no source stated. So if you're interested, do check this out on June 11th, it should be available. Then you have to be a prime member to get this card and to access the deals that are available on prime day. But I think a lot of people in the audience are prime members and it is a pretty valuable bonus since you get extra value beyond the $200 since everything you will be buying will be on sale. All right guys, that's the video for today. Don't forget to check out the built dining program in the links down below. You can earn an extra three points per dollar on all of your dining spend. Link is below. Please subscribe if you're new and we'll see you next time. Bye-bye.