Don’t ignore targeted credit card offers

Personalization is a hot topic in the marketing world. This is playing out in the credit card space in multiple ways. Here’s what you need to know, and how you can use this trend to your advantage.

Have a question about credit cards? E-mail me at ted.rossman@bankrate.com and I’d be happy to help.

Some sign-up bonuses are variable

American Express recently rolled out “as high as” language on some of their public offers. Most cards have a standard welcome offer for all cardholders (X points or miles after spending Y dollars), so this is an interesting (and relatively new) structure.

For example, The Platinum Card® from American Express now has different welcome bonuses for different applicants. The card offers as high as 175,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $8,000 in the first six months with the card. The high end of the range, in particular, represents one of the best credit card sign-up bonuses on the market.

Existing customers can see their offer by logging into the Amex website or app. Every potential applicant will see their specific offer before a full application — and hard credit pull — occur so you can make an informed decision about whether to proceed.

My Platinum offer is “just” 80,000 points, unfortunately. I suspect this is based on things they know about us, like existing account and credit histories, income, etc. I admit I’m a little miffed that my offer is less than half of the maximum.

Other cards sometimes extend targeted welcome offers, perhaps communicated via snail mail, e-mail or other means. These are sometimes framed as cross-selling opportunities to existing cardholders, while others show up unsolicited from issuers you don’t already have a relationship with. Some of them are pretty sweet, so paying attention to this sort of correspondence can be lucrative.

Your spending habits vary and your rewards can, too

In recent years, we have seen various cards seek to personalize spending rewards. One of the knocks on traditional rotating category cards like the Chase Freedom Flex®* and the Discover it® Cash Back card is that the categories are pre-selected by the card issuer. It’s great if they line up with your spending habits, but there’s nothing you can do about it if they don’t.

A newer class of rotating category cards puts the cardholder in control. Sometimes cardholders need to pre-select an elevated rewards category such as gas, online shopping or travel (on a card like the Bank of America® Customized Cash Rewards credit card). The even more novel approach, espoused by the Citi Custom Cash® Card* and the Venmo Credit Card, automatically adjusts the top-earning category or categories each month based upon the cardholder’s individual spending habits. This is more user-friendly, since you don’t need to remember to log in and change the category every month. It’s a great way to multiply your cash back credit card rewards.

Card-linked offers get personal, too

Card-linked offers are digital coupons that go by brand names including Amex Offers, Chase Offers and My Wells Fargo Deals. The issuers describe these as curated lists of discounts that vary from cardholder to cardholder. You have to remember to log into the issuer’s website or app every so often (ideally, at least every few weeks) to see what’s new and opt into the deals you might want to use. Then, once you pay with the associated card, you automatically get a discount applied as a statement credit.

I recently saved $30 off a car rental thanks to a Chase Offer and smaller amounts on a couple of restaurant purchases. I’m intrigued by several other possibilities currently available on my Amex, Chase and Wells Fargo cards, including:

• $100 off a Chase Travel reservation of $600 or more
• 9 percent back at Valvoline (up to $250 in rewards)
• $5 back on up to three Apple Pay purchases of $50+
• $20 off a $100+ purchase at NFLShop.com

Across my three credit cards, I have access to hundreds of these promotions at any given time. I constantly need to remind myself to check in on them. It’s an especially good time to think about this, since the holidays are coming up. I see several brands represented that aren’t places where I shop regularly, but something on my holiday gift list could be a great fit.

Stacking discounts

My favorite way to utilize these targeted offers is to stack them with other discounts. For example, you can combine a store promotion with an Amex Offer, your normal credit card rewards and a cash back app such as Rakuten. That represents up to four ways to save on the same purchase.

Here’s how combining several savings opportunities could look on my $240 purchase via Levis.com.

Adding all the discounts together ($60 + $40 + $1.80 + $3.60) equals $105.40 in savings. In other words, I’d only pay $134.60 for $240 worth of merchandise (I omitted sales tax for simplicity’s sake, and because those rates vary from place to place).

All together, I saved about 44 percent off my $240 purchase. That’s a pretty sweet deal! Deals — with an “s” on the end — really. This kind of thing can certainly add up at scale. Consider the savings if you practice these strategies on all the purchases you make over the holiday season — or better yet, for the entire year.

The bottom line

Targeted credit card discounts can be a nice way to get some extra bang for your buck — as long as you remember to opt in and pay with the right card. Multiply your savings by combining these deals with other smart shopping strategies.

*The information about the Chase Freedom Flex® and Citi Custom Cash® Card has been collected independently by Bankrate.com. The card details have not been reviewed or approved by the card issuer.