10 Credit Card HACKS You NEED To Know – The Credit Shifu

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These are huge to make sure you’re getting as much value as you can from your credit cards!

I've worked in a company that had "retention offers" to "save a customer", and it's always cringe to hear any customer of any company say the word "retention", as that's an internal company policy/term, which the customers shouldn't be privvy to. It's a word you shouldn't know, let alone use as a bargaining chip.

A retention offer is a last ditch method a company keeps in their back pocket to try to keep you from canceling. You can simply be reluctant enough to cause them to play their Trump card on their own volition, but you should make it THEIR idea/suggestion, not yours. Or at least manipulate the conversation to make them THINK it was their idea, while you act surprised that such an offer exists.

Asking "can you give me a retention offer?" is like a waiter/waitress asking you how much you are going to commit to giving as a tip as soon as you sit down, before they begin providing you any service, so that they can decide what level of service they are going to provide you. It's cringe. A waiter should at least give you the illusion that the amount that you tip was optional and entirely your choice. But to outright ask for a tip, that's cringe.

If I'm empowered to try to use a retention offer to save a customer, who are you to outright peek at my poker hand? That's like saying, "I can see your cards in the reflection of the window, so I'm going to win." If a customer did that to me, I'd gladly drop the customer for being too entitled by expecting me to use my Trump card.

My suggestion… change the wording. Say, "are there any new incentives on the card that I might like?" Since the only thing "new" they can add to the card in year two would be their retention offer, they would get an idea that they could use the retention offer as a "new incentive" to make the card a keeper card for you. And it would feel like it's their own big-brain move, not you extorting them with threat of canceling if they don't surrender points "or else" (which is what it sounds like).

I think kudos is a great tool. But for some reason when you enter to Amazon, doesn't say that the Chase Freedom Flex have 5% this quarter. It says 1%.

Road to black card

I wanted to hear more details about the virtual card numbers but you didn't mention which cards/issuers/services provide them.

I used to be The Iron Chef of credit card systems, but now I just eat frozen pizza.

Regarding stacking rewards on different third party vendors like Rakuten etc, I'd caution telling people they can be stacked on top of each other. I tried to do this with Rakuten and Southwest Rapid Rewards dining and adding my card to one service would remove it from the other. I believe many of the third party awards sites go through the same parent company for card verification and this is why they can't be stacked.

I don’t think kudos will work with rakuten:

What if I use other rewards programs as well?

We want to ensure you earn your Kudos Boost on every eligible purchase! When you use multiple rewards programs online, only one rewards program gets credit for helping drive the sale. We don’t have a way of knowing which company will receive credit for your transaction in that scenario. Once a purchase is credited to us, we’re unable to retroactively attribute the purchase to another rewards program.

If you click to activate Kudos Boost but then activate another program afterward, we won’t receive an affiliate commission to share with you.

Hey Ben, are you sure you are able to combine Rakuten and Kudos to stack rewards? According to the Kudos FAQ:

Q: What if I use other rewards programs as well?

A: We want to ensure you earn your Kudos Boost on every eligible purchase! When you use multiple rewards programs online, only one rewards program gets credit for helping drive the sale. We don’t have a way of knowing which company will receive credit for your transaction in that scenario. Once a purchase is credited to us, we’re unable to retroactively attribute the purchase to another rewards program. If you click to activate Kudos Boost but then activate another program afterward, we won’t receive an affiliate commission to share with you.

This makes it seem like in your example, clicking to activate the Kudos boost after clicking through Rakuten may disqualify the cashback from Rakuten as only one rewards program can get the credit. Can you please clarify this? Thanks!

This was an awesome video. Loved your tips on retention offers. Thanks Ben!

Should have used “aka the Credit ShiFu” since day-1！
早在改頭銜時就該兼用”信用卡大師” 的稱號了呀！

Another thing you didn't mention is how much spend you put on a certain card in order for the bank to justify a retention bonus. If I had the Amex Gold or Even the Green and ONLY put a couple $thousand in spend a year, they won't give me any sort of meaningful bonus – if one at all…

Something to keep in mind with amex and a few other banks like Citi as well, you can usually get a retention offer with the chat with a representative option, instead of an actual phone call.

great video!

Whats your take on having multiple ultra-premium CCs? Is it ever practical to have something like Plat + VentureX? Or CSR + Plat? Etc