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Mesa Abruptly Shuts Down Credit Cards
Step right up, Bilt
And I thought it was going to be a slow news week…
Yesterday, we learned that Mesa abruptly closed all its members’ credit cards, effective immediately; points transfers and redemptions appear to be limited according to early reports. This comes less than two weeks after Mesa launched a fancy new transfer partnership for its cards. The future of the Mesa credit card, if any, is unclear at this time.
Mesa, if you’re not familiar, was a credit card that allowed you to earn points based on your mortgage payments. It was the first card to reward consumers for their mortgage payments, and it was a very generous no-fee card (although it required $1,000 in monthly spending on the card to earn those points). It was one of the best deals in the credit card space, and now, it seems, it’s gone.
Luckily, Bilt is launching its new cards in a few months, and has announced that you will be able to “earn points on any eligible residential mortgage payments,” although they are light on details so far. So if you want to lazily collect points on your mortgage payments, you hopefully won’t be out of no-fee options for long.
When more news comes out about Bilt’s new cards or options for Mesa cardholders, we’ll cover it here in the newsletter.
This week on the blog 📝
It’s the season of giving and sharing. 🎄 So I wrote about sharing, transferring, and pooling points. Some credit card, airline, and hotel points are more flexible than others. Some can’t be moved at all, some can be pooled within a family, and some can be shared with any other member without limits. Read which options are most convenient here.
Quick Points of the Week ⚡
Extra points 🪙
100 free AA miles, plus more with spending targets. AwardWallet reports that you can get 100 American Airlines miles just for signing up for a recent promotion and booking a qualifying hotel and/or car rental. My offer was slightly different, but I got the 100 miles just for registering and can earn more with qualifying dining, online shopping, or an event ticket purchase. It’s hard to beat free miles—check in the app or online to see if the offer is available to you.
More value 📈
Bilt launches side-by-side points and cash pricing. When you search for flights on the Bilt Travel Portal, you’ll see the cash price, the price in Bilt points, and the price in transferable points—although only for flights bookable with British Airways or Iberia Avios. Hopefully this expands in the future. (Bilt)
Rumors 👀
Is Spirit going out of business? Many think so–and maybe this weekend. (Thrifty Traveler)
Last chance ⏳
Use those end-of-month/quarter/year credits. Many credit cards have statement credits or other perks that will expire if not redeemed by the end of December (e.g. the Citi Strata Elite “splurge credit”). Check your app or the bank website to find them, and Google your card for suggestions on how to use them. Just don’t let the FOMO push you to spend real money that you otherwise wouldn’t have.
Nerdy Points 🤓
Use gift cards to get more points. Points Path suggests buying gift cards from stores where your cards earn bonus points. I like to triple dip on Airbnb with gift cards, but I’m too lazy to go all out on the strategy. But if you want to snag some extra points, this could be a good approach.
Sign-up bonus of the Week 🎯
The no-fee Chase Freedom Unlimited is currently offering $300 bonus after spending $500 in the first three months after opening an account. This is well above the typical $200 offer, but there have been better offers in the past (Award Wallet says it has gone as high as $600, but I don’t remember that).
The Freedom Unlimited is a solid low-cost, low-maintenance card. It has no annual fee or complicated credits to keep track of, and 1.5% minimum cash back on purchases is solid, as is 3% cash back on dining and drugstores, and 5% back when booking travel through Chase. Many people pair this card with a Sapphire card; this allows you to redeem the cash back as transferable Ultimate Rewards points (1% cash back = 1 UR point), and pair the Freedom Unlimited’s higher 1.5x base earning with the Sapphire cards’ elevated bonus categories.
That strategy doesn’t appeal to me, personally. Chase points are useful, but my least favorite for my lazy strategies (post to come on that, stay tuned). The 1.5x back is solid, but I would rather use my Atmos Summit, my Venture X, or a Double Cash for my base spending.
That said, whether as a primary card or as part of a Chase-based strategy, the Freedom Unlimited is a decent option, and $300 is a respectable bonus, especially for only $500 in required spending–so low that it might be possible to earn it entirely in 3x categories. 🔥
Other great current bonuses
100k points on the Capital One Venture X (our take: 🔥🔥🔥🔥)
100k points on the Citi Strata Elite (our take: 🔥🔥🔥)
125k points on the Chase Sapphire Reserve (our take: 🔥🔥🔥)
175k points on the Hilton Aspire (our take: 🔥🔥)
75k points on the Chase Sapphire Preferred (our take: 🔥)
$250 gift card on the Amazon Prime Visa (our take: 🔥)
Enjoy the weekend! 🦥
Those 100 free AA points could get you 0.14% of the way to an award flight to Japan. Gotta start somewhere!
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