topic Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories in Credit Cards

SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 19:16:32 GMT

Received in the mail:

Anyone else grab this one? I'm liking these bonus categories the SMR has been putting out.

For some reason when I see 2p/1$, I immediately think "oh, not amazing". But SMR is already a really good card. So these cool bonuses are just that; bonuses .

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 19:39:06 GMT

they never snail mail me anything, but I'll have to check online. Barclays seems to treat it's customers pretty well as far as I have experienced so far!

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

Blodreina — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 19:43:36 GMT

The automated system offered it to me during my last call.

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 19:47:17 GMT

Maybe I should call. I feel like only using the 5% I'm just hastening the eventual nerf that is coming. I'd love to use them for something else.

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

Themanwhocan — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 21:50:49 GMT

Unfortunately they gave me a 5,000 points if I spend $750 in each of the next 3 months on my Arrival+

Since I plan to cancel that card in less than 3 months, the bonus is worthless to me unless they will waive the annual fee. Such is life.

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

Anonymous — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 23:59:55 GMT

My dad received the same exact offer on his AAdvantage Aviator Red card. Notice these are 2 BONUS points per $, on top of the base points for the card. So 3 points per $ total.

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 00:18:22 GMT

I did not receive a Q2 bonus on my Sallie Mae like I did in Q1 2016 and Q4 2015. However, I did receive a Q2 bonus for my Wyndham Visa -- extra 2 points on restaurants, gas, and home improvement purchases. Gas is pretty useless because of Sallie Mae, restaurants is pretty useless because Q2 is restaurants for Discover, and I don't spend anything on home improvement purchases, but I still appreciate Barclays doing these quarterly bonuses because they can be very nice sometimes.

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

Runitup — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 00:18:52 GMT

Yup, I got the same offer.

I'm in love and her name is Sallie Mae.

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 06:38:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My dad received the same exact offer on his AAdvantage Aviator Red card. Notice these are 2 BONUS points per $, on top of the base points for the card. So 3 points per $ total.

Good info! Somehow I missed that.

I'll get good use out of the home improvement. Chase & Discover seem to always put that in Q3 (I assume for all of the grill purchases), which isn't as useful to me.

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

SunriseEarth — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 10:49:53 GMT

Not a shabby offer there. If they were loose enough with what gets "travel", it might be of use to me. Discover will be getting my restaurant spend for Q2 and home improvement has never been a big item for me.

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

kdm31091 — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 13:23:14 GMT

Even if the offer isn't super useful, at least Barclay's is doing something, unlike some lenders who never give any promotions.

Banks create these offers with categories that people think they spend more in vs what they actually do, as a general rule. This makes the offer seem more enticing while limiting the amount of actual payout that has to be done (and of course, there's a cap anyway).

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

Callandra — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 16:16:11 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I did not receive a Q2 bonus on my Sallie Mae like I did in Q1 2016 and Q4 2015. However, I did receive a Q2 bonus for my Wyndham Visa -- extra 2 points on restaurants, gas, and home improvement purchases. Gas is pretty useless because of Sallie Mae, restaurants is pretty useless because Q2 is restaurants for Discover, and I don't spend anything on home improvement purchases, but I still appreciate Barclays doing these quarterly bonuses because they can be very nice sometimes.

Same here -- my fiance and I have had our Sallies for the same amount of time (he applied for his literally one day before I applied for mine!). He's never gotten an offer. Neither of us got this one either. Oh well. Maybe next time.

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

Themanwhocan — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 21:17:42 GMT

@Themanwhocan wrote:
Unfortunately they gave me a 5,000 points if I spend $750 in each of the next 3 months on my Arrival+

Since I plan to cancel that card in less than 3 months, the bonus is worthless to me unless they will waive the annual fee. Such is life.

Oooh... I got a two-fer.

Barclay send me another postcard offer, this time for my 2% cash back on all purchases Priceline VISA card (NLA).

2X bonus points on Gas, Restauarant and Home Improvement store purcases, capped at 2500 points.

That makes it a 4% card for restaurants, or 4.4% if I redeem the points for travel purchases, due to a 10% priceline visa bonus for redeeming points for travel.

Edit: its a three-fer. They also sent a letter offering 0% APR for 6 months on Carnival cruise bookings purchaed between 4/1 - 5/15 on my Arrival+ card.

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

Anonymous — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 20:54:48 GMT

@kdm31091 wrote:
Even if the offer isn't super useful, at least Barclay's is doing something, unlike some lenders who never give any promotions.

Banks create these offers with categories that people think they spend more in vs what they actually do, as a general rule. This makes the offer seem more enticing while limiting the amount of actual payout that has to be done (and of course, there's a cap anyway).

Yes, bioth this and Citi's similar offers max out at $25 extra (and otten effectively less if you have other cards you could use anyway). But $25 seems to get a lot of excitement.

And yes, I get it is "free money" (subject to my other card comment) but it's also just $25!

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

Revelate — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 04:55:15 GMT

Got it as well in the mail today.

Giggled a little bit on a bonus on a discontinued card, but the computer taketh away, and sometimes the computer giveth. Pretty decent offer all things considered... 3% doesn't exactly suck over $2500 spend, or an extra $50 by my reading rather than $25? Still get a flat 1% by default.

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 05:07:57 GMT

Never received this offer. Is it random or is there a way to get it ?

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

happypill — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 05:18:04 GMT

I wish I would get some of these offers from Barclay's. The only thing they ever send me is BT and low APR offers, which are worthless to me becuase I always PIF. I wonder if they would send me some of these offers if I paid some interest from time to time. Not worth it, but I'm just wondering what triggers the offers.

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

Man-Of-Steel — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 08:51:37 GMT

@happypill wrote:
I wish I would get some of these offers from Barclay's. The only thing they ever send me is BT and low APR offers, which are worthless to me becuase I always PIF. I wonder if they would send me some of these offers if I paid some interest from time to time. Not worth it, but I'm just wondering what triggers the offers.

I can tell you that in my case, paying interest wasn't the trigger for these bonus offers. I haven't paid any interest on my Sallie Mae account and yet I've been offered the bonus for the following quarters: Q3 2015, Q4 2015, Q1 2016. It looks like I didn't get this new bonus for Q2, but that's Ok since I wouldn't have been able to make much use of it. The bonus came in handy for the current quarter with restaurants, because I don't have a dedicated restaurant card and can't justify one either. Next quarter, I'll be using my Discover it card for restaurants. I can also tell you that a high level of spend wasn't the trigger in my case either. For all I know, it may be something random they are using.

I also agree that an extra $25 over the period of 3 months isn't really much to be excited about, but it is very nice of Barclays to keep offering these bonuses for a discontinued card.

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

kdm31091 — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 13:40:10 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@kdm31091 wrote:
Even if the offer isn't super useful, at least Barclay's is doing something, unlike some lenders who never give any promotions.

Banks create these offers with categories that people think they spend more in vs what they actually do, as a general rule. This makes the offer seem more enticing while limiting the amount of actual payout that has to be done (and of course, there's a cap anyway).
Yes, bioth this and Citi's similar offers max out at $25 extra (and otten effectively less if you have other cards you could use anyway). But $25 seems to get a lot of excitement.

And yes, I get it is "free money" (subject to my other card comment) but it's also just $25!

Not only that but it's not even a guaranteed $25! The $25 is the MOST you can get if you spend to the cap.

Sure, better than nothing, but not really super exciting. Think of it as a little extra something, similar to Bank Amerideals or Citi Smart Savings etc. It's a little bit of extra money but nothing spectacular, and you have to be mindful not to go out of your way to spend in the "special categories".

I don't think the offers are unique to Sallie Mae though as people get them on other, non-discontinued, cards. I think it's just a computer generated thing and it has nothing to do with the card being discontinued.

Re: SallieMae Q2 Bonus Categories

Anonymous — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 14:31:57 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My dad received the same exact offer on his AAdvantage Aviator Red card. Notice these are 2 BONUS points per $, on top of the base points for the card. So 3 points per $ total.

Right!