Here’s a kind of weird but cool tip I learned recently - if you haven’t tracked your Amex applications well and would like to look up your past apps, you can use this link to do so.
But First:GENERAL WARNING WILL ROBINSON
As you can see in the screen shot below, to use this lookup tool you have to enter your social security number and zip code.
You’ll notice that last entry in the snippet did not say approved -
That one was actually Amex not wanting to give me a Gold card with the sign up bonus for some reason - although it did offer me the card without the bonus, which I declined.
Amex sometimes does that when you use referral links rather than surf directly to their site.
Why, you ask?
I wanted to try to get the extra points from my DW’s referral, but and I never got the chance because soon after they changed the card family rules and now my Platinum card excludes me from the Gold bonus forever. Longer, maybe.
Seems like the crazy offers from the sears card have dried up. It’s a sad day, but we’re still maximizing where possible. Last year we were able to redeem thank you points for almost $4,000 in gift cards from just about $1,000 monthly spend.
Anyone who has been interested in a Southwest Companion Pass but hasn’t gone through the usual start of year multi-credit-card points bonanza technique to earn one for the full 2 year period:
There is a new simplified method to get the CP for ONE year with a single personal credit card obtained through a newly generated referral link. (Dr of Credit image below is a link to their writeup.)
My Thoughts
Pro:
If you just don’t want to deal with the 2 card monty method of getting a personal + business card to earn the required points and have the CP until the very end of 2026, and you will be able to use the CP a few times before this 1 year version expires: this is an easy no-fuss no-muss way to get it.
Con:
If you go for this offer, you may make it a little harder to go for the CP next year if that might be your intention since you can’t earn any personal card Sign Up Bonus for another 24 months from when you earn your last SUB.
However you CAN get 2 different biz cards since they don’t have that rule, which leads me into…
For a little more work and spend, you could have the CP for 10 more months until year end 2026 AND earn more than 130K Southwest Rapid Rewards points instead of just the 30K in this offer by getting both a personal and business card. (See previous overviews of that in this thread or on any points blog, really.)
There have been some reports this year that SW/Chase was making getting biz cards a little more difficult to obtain, but I’m not sure at all how prevalent that really was.
Important: You will need to refresh your referral links to be able to link to this offer. If you do not have a friend or family with a SW card referral link, maybe check out the TP forum thread and Google sheet to see if anyone adds one there for this deal. (I just added a heads up to that thread, so might take some time if anyone does.)
Anyone else get a 1099 from chase for “other income”? I got one for my Marriott and southwest cards, presumably for the SUBs. $800 in added “income” insane horrible, but I think you can state that the value of whatever you received is less than they report.
I haven’t checked my mail this week yet, but I did receive a few of these last year -
Some were correct (you do report referral bonuses as income if you get a 1099 for them and your total is over $600), but they also sent a couple that were for SUBs - like the Marriott 5 free night cert deal - and SUBs are not taxable income.
Chase followed up on their own with the Marriott 1099 and sent a corrected $0 income form (months later.)
The other 1099 I received for a SUB I got nowhere when trying to explain to Chase reps it was incorrect. They didn’t even understand the concept and I never got to a rep that could figure out where I needed to call. The income taxes on it weren’t the biggest amount, so I finally gave up and just paid the taxes.
I thought about reporting the 1099 in Turbotax and trying to override the value, but I figured I’d rather pay the price than get a letter from the Feds.
Did this a few years back with a 1099 for sales incentives. They were $100 off. Small company so I’m sure it was a typo. I asked them to change it a few times. After several promises it was never sent. So I just claimed the extra $100 in income and called it a day.
I haven’t gotten any yet. Maybe I haven’t met the threshold. Not complaining. A wee bit smaller check I have to write to our friends at the Internal Revenue Service.