October 30, 2016

Points Costs When Redeeming American Express Membership Rewards for Merchant Gift Cards

I signed up for an American Express Premier Rewards Gold card recently to get the sign up points.

Their Membership Rewards program has various ways to redeem your points.   One option is to get gift cards from a variety of merchants.   The redemption varies from around 0.7¢ to 1¢ per point.    Theres no simple way to get a complete list on the Amex site and you have to click on each merchant to see the dollar value.   So I created a table for reference.

Most cards have multiple redemption options such as options to get $25, $50 or $100 gift cards.  I'm only listing the minimum redemption option and the higher value cards are just multiples.    Note Mercedes Benz offers maintenance and some movie theatres offer movie tickets  Those gift cards have variable dollar value and I estimated typical market value

Keep in mind : The table below is going to change over time and I don't plan to update it.  

Here are the gift card choices and the dollar value / point spent.   (I haven't listed some theme parks and snow lodges)

points card value value/points
Aria hotel 10000 $100 $0.0100
Bellagio hotel 10000 $100 $0.0100
Best Western Hotels 5882 $50 $0.0085
Delta airlines 7143 $50 $0.0070
Fairmont hotel 50000 $50 $0.0010
Four Seasons 14286 $100 $0.0070
Hilton 3571 $25 $0.0070
Hotels.com 7143 $50 $0.0070
Hyatt 5000 $50 $0.0100
Mandalay Bay 10000 $100 $0.0100
Mandarin Oriental 5882 $50 $0.0085
Marriott 7143 $50 $0.0070
MGM Grand 10000 $100 $0.0100
MGM Resorts 10000 $100 $0.0100
Ritz Carlton 14286 $100 $0.0070
Amtrak 5000 $50 $0.0100
Avis 5000 $50 $0.0100
Enterprise 5000 $50 $0.0100
Hertz 5000 $50 $0.0100
Mercedez Benz 100000 $1,000 $0.0100
Mercedez Benz service A 26000 service A $0.0077
Mercedez Benz service B 58000 service B $0.0100
Benihana 5000 $50 $0.0100
Bonefish Grill 2500 $25 $0.0100
California Pizza Kitchen 2500 $25 $0.0100
Chilis 2500 $25 $0.0100
Flemings Prime Steakhouse 5000 $50 $0.0100
Legal Sea Foods 5000 $50 $0.0100
Lettuce Entertain you 5000 $50 $0.0100
Maggiano's Little Italy 2500 $25 $0.0100
Morton's The Steakhouse 10000 $100 $0.0100
OpenTable 3751 $25 $0.0067
PF Changs 2500 $25 $0.0100
Ruth's Chris 5000 $50 $0.0100
Seamless.com 1000 $10 $0.0100
Seasons 52 5000 $50 $0.0100
Starbucks card 3571 $25 $0.0070
The Capital Grille 5000 $50 $0.0100
The Cheesecake Factory 2941 $25 $0.0085
AMC 1200 1 ticket $0.0083
Cinemark 1125 1 ticket $0.0089
Facebook games 588 $5 $0.0085
Regal 1200 1 ticket $0.0083
Showcase cinemas 3600 2 ticket + consession $0.0028
Athleta 2500 $25 $0.0100
Banana Republic 2500 $25 $0.0100
Barnes & Noble 5000 $50 $0.0100
Bath & Body works 1000 $10 $0.0100
Bergdorf Goodman 5000 $50 $0.0100
Brooks Brothers 5000 $50 $0.0100
Coach 5000 $50 $0.0100
Cole Haan 5000 $50 $0.0100
Crate and Barrel 5000 $50 $0.0100
Gap 1000 $10 $0.0100
Gap Brands 2500 $25 $0.0100
Groupon 1500 $15 $0.0100
Intermix 5000 $50 $0.0100
itunes 1176 $10 $0.0085
J Crew 5000 $50 $0.0100
Neiman Marcus 5000 $50 $0.0100
Nike 2500 $25 $0.0100
Old Navy 1000 $10 $0.0100
PB Teen 5000 $50 $0.0100
Pottery Barn 5000 $50 $0.0100
Pottery Barn Kids 5000 $50 $0.0100
Ralph Lauren 5000 $50 $0.0100
REI 5000 $50 $0.0100
Restoration hardware 5000 $50 $0.0100
Saks Fifth Avenue 5000 $50 $0.0100
Spafinder 2500 $25 $0.0100
Staples 2500 $25 $0.0100
Target 7143 $50 $0.0070
The Home Depot 2500 $25 $0.0100
Tiffany & Co 25000 $250 $0.0100
Victorias secret 2500 $25 $0.0100
west elm 5000 $50 $0.0100
Williams-Sonoma 5000 $50 $0.0100
Zappos.com 5000 $50 $0.0100



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October 28, 2016

Best of Blogs for Week of October 28th

Every Friday afternoon I share some of the more interesting or notable posts that I have seen in the personal finance blogs and other sources for the past week

MyMoneyBlog has a nice List of Cheap Basic Cell Phone Plans on Every Network – From $1.25 a Month

MMB also discusses Consumer Report Car Brand Reliability Rankings 2016

Dough Roller tells us about Variable Annuities: What They Are and Why They’re a Bad Idea for Most Investors
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October 27, 2016

$20 off $20+ at Shutterfly via Discover Deals (YMMV) - Shipping and Taxes apply

I'm seeing an offer in my Discover card account in the Discover Deals section for $20 off of a $20+ purchase at Shutterfly.    

To get the offer you have to log into Discover for your card and then go to the Discover Deals and find the Shutterfly offer.    The offer has a unique promo code.

However, as it seems with all Shutterfly deals nowadays you do have to pay the taxes, shipping and handling.    

I don't know if everyone gets the same offers so this may be YMMV.

Example purchase :  right now you can get 4.5"x5" photo magnets for $6.74.    3 of those would be $20.22 and with $7.97 shipping the pretax total is $8.19.  


Offer details:
Offer expires December 31, 2016 (11:59 P.M. PT). Discover card must be used for payment. Offer is good for $20 off one qualifying merchandise order of $20 or more (after select discounts and before taxes, shipping and handling) through shutterfly.com, our mobile-friendly site, or Shutterfly App. This promo will be applied to your order before any code-based %-off promos. Limit one $-off promo per order. Promo can only be redeemed once per account and/or billing address. This offer code can only be entered once. Taxes, shipping and handling will apply. Not valid on Make My Book services and fees, personalized postage stamps, prepaid, annual savings, and video plans, gift certificates, cards sent using mailing services, prior purchases, FavePix, TripPix, and orders placed for in-store pick up. Cannot be redeemed for cash or combined with select offers or credits. Not valid for resale. We reserve the right to modify or replace any part of these terms and conditions without notice.


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October 26, 2016

Zillow Rental Comps for October 2016

I have been doing rental comps from Craigslist and Zillow.   The most recent was April 2016.
However right now I'm not able to get Craigslist to give me total numbers for the rentals listed on the map view with consistency and because of that its not practical to try and find medians in my old method.  So I'm just doing Zillow comps for now.

Here are the Zestimate figures :

A B E
Jan-16 $1,500 $1,400 $1,675
Apr-16 $1,600 $1,300 $1,750
Oct-16 $1,600 $1,450 $1,695

Zillow also tracks a range of rents with a low and high estimate.

here are the current figures including the low and high of the ranges:

Zillow min med max
A $1,500 $1,600 $1,900
B $1,200 $1,450 $1,600
E $1,600 $1,695 $1,800

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