AMC Entertainment Card Debuts, Apple Pay Later Rolling Out, Amazon Card Updates, and More

April was yet another busy month, with plenty of news that could affect your wallet. So, I’ve compiled some of these top stories from this past month to share, including updates to Amazon’s credit cards, two new financial services from Apple, Facebook’s settlement, and more.
Amazon card updates: fioney.com/chase-and-amazon-a...
AMC Card: fioney.com/amc-entertainment-...
Bask: moneyat30.com/bask-bank-has-o...
Bilt Dining: moneyat30.com/bilt-continues-...
Facebook: moneyat30.com/facebook-probab...
First up this month, Chase and Amazon have added a couple of new benefits to their co-branded cards
Before I get to the updated rewards, it should be noted that Chase and Amazon have mercifully shortened the official names of their two cards. Now, the Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Signature Card will just be the Prime Visa while the former Amazon Rewards Visa Signature Card has become the Amazon Visa. Plus both cards have refreshed designs.
As for those new rewards, Prime Visa customers with an eligible Prime membership can now earn 5% back on Chase Travel portal bookings while those with the Amazon Visa will earn 3% on these bookings. Additionally, both cards will now earn 2% back on local transit and rideshare on top of the previous dining and gas stations' 2% categories.
Overall, these are positive changes, although they’ll likely be moot for many customers. That’s because there are plenty of rewards cards that already offer 2% across the board or that offer more than 2% in these categories. Meanwhile, the 5% Chase Travel benefit matches what’s offered by other no annual fee cards such as the Freedom Flex. Nevertheless, if you use your Prime Visa as your primary credit card, then this is probably a small win.
Next, AMC Entertainment Visa card has officially launched, giving us a much clearer picture of what it has to offer
Earlier this year, AMC announced that it would be launching its own credit card but didn’t offer many details. Now, the AMC Entertainment Visa has debuted… and, spoiler alert, it’s not very exciting. While the card’s 50x points on AMC purchases, 20x points on dining, 20x points on groceries, and 20x points on gas, and 10x points on all other purchases categories sound pretty insane on paper, when you realize that you’ll need to redeem 5,000 points for a $5 reward, what you’re really looking at is 5%, 2%, and 1% back categories. Therefore, unless you go to AMC an awful lot, this is probably one to skip. Instead, I’d personally recommend something like the Capital One SavorOne instead as it includes 3% on entertainment including movie theatres, 3% on dining, and 3% on groceries among other benefits. Plus, this is regular cashback rather than AMC rewards. So that’d be my preference but that’s just me.
With interest rates continuing rise, Bask Bank has once again increased its mileage accrual rate
Recently, BaskBank - which allows customers to earn American Airlines AAdvantage miles instead of cash interest, raised its rate by another half a mile - or 2640. Now, customers can earn 2.5 AAdvantage miles for every dollar in their account on an annual basis. So, if you keep $2,000 in your account for a year, you’d earn a total of 5,000 miles over the course of 12 monthly interest payments that will be deposited into your linked AAdvanage account. Honestly, it’s hard to calculate whether this rate is really competitive with traditional accounts, but it’s nice to see Bask trying to keep up.
By the way, for more on Bask Bank, I recently posted an updated review for 2023, so be sure to click the UA-cam card or look in the description box to check that out.
In addition to debuting its Apple Card Savings account in April, Apple has also been rolling out its Apple Pay Later feature to more customers
As you probably know by now, Apple Card customers can now open up a high-yield savings account called Apple Card Savings. In addition to the option to have their Daily Cash deposited into this account automatically, users are free to add extra funds and take advantage of the account’s fairly strong APY.
Meanwhile, Apple is also in the process of bringing its buy now pay later platform to more customers. With Apple Pay Later, users can apply for a loan ranging from $50 to $1,000. Then, they can use the funds to make purchases and finance them over the course of four payments - one of which is due at the time of purchase, with the subsequent three paymenbts due every two weeks. I haven’t used Apple Pay Later myself since I have no reason to, but it seems like many other BNPL platforms. So, while I do find it interesting that Apple is expanding its financial service offerings, I’m not so sure about this one.
#creditcards #FioneyMoney