Oakley Sunglasses & Swim up to 70% off
Nike: Extra 20% off Clearance
Bobble Filtered Water Bottles $5 Shipped
British Airways Visa: Up to 100,000 Miles
Clinique: Free 7-piece Bonus with $23.50
Kate Spade: Up to 75% off
4InkJets.com: 10% off + Free Shipping
Bare Minerals Fun In Sun Set $50 Shipped
9 Whiskey Stones $13 Shipped
5ct Green Swarovski Pendant $39
3Pc Foyer Table & Lamp Set $50 Shipped!
Entertainment.com: 12-Hour, $12 Sale!
Express: $10 off $30, $25 off $75
Pink Sapphire Earrings $18 Shipped
Phone/Tablet External Battery $26 Shipped
Refurb Ryobi Gas Yard Trimmer $85 Shipped
Capital One: $100 Cash Back, 0% Intro
Oral B Professional Care Toothbrush $40!
Hard iPad Case + Stand $11 Shipped
One Year of Fast Company $3.50
One Year of Family Handyman Magazine $7
AmEx Blue Sky: $100 Back
McAfee AntiVirus+ 2012 3 User $10 Shipped
DualShock PS3 Controller $20 Shipped
Seiki 15" LCD HDTV $90 Shipped
8oz Hilo Kanilehua Coffee $13 Shipped
Captain America DJ-Style Headphones $15
FitBit Ultra Wireless Tracker $90 Shipped
Avia Men's A339M Walking Shoe $24 Shipped
Lands' End Men's Pattern Dress Shirt $24
4Pc Conversation Patio Set $148!
AmEx Starwood Card: 30,000 Starpoints
$70 Voucher to Vistaprint $17
Crocs Baya Flip Flops $15 Shipped
Lands' End: Extra 20% off Sale Items
71% off King Size Decorative Pillow Shams
Foldaway Hammock $37 Shipped
Logitech 2.0 Speaker System $60 Shipped
Nike Jordan Black Cat Trainer $67 Shipped
Canon T3i DSLR 3 Lens Bundle $780
Starwood American Express Card
I’m a credit card junkie. No, not for the debt (a terrible idea) but for the million ways you can use them to your advantage. It’s a big game and you can be the winner if you make the right choices.
Many of you have talked with me about what are the best credit cards. Ultimately, the answer depends on your uses and goals. That said, more often than not it is the American Express Starwood Card. It is by far the best pure rewards card.
If you’re not using one, here’s why you’re missing out:
1. Starpoints are the New Gold
Airline cards get you 1 mile, maybe 1.25 if you’re lucky. Cash back cards get you 1% back, maybe 1.5% or 2% if you’re really lucky (the 5% back offers are narrow hype). Regardless, call it 1 or 2 cents of value per dollar spent on the card. Starpoints are super flexible and can be turned into 3 or 4 cents easily and 8 or 10 or 20 cents when you get creative! Bottom-line: 1 Starpoint > 1 Airline Mile > 1 Cent.
2. Airline Cards Don’t Compete
You earn 1 Starpoint per dollar spent but can transfer Starpoints to over 30 airlines, most at a 1:1.25 ratio, meaning 20,000 Starpoints equals 25,000 miles on, say, American or US Air. Most airlines cards are 1:1 so you have to spend $5,000 more for the same reward. Also, you’re stuck with one airline whereas with Starwood you can transfer to over 30. If you have an airline card, cut it up and get the Starwood American Express.
3. A 40,000 Point Signup Bonus?
Get 10,000 points with your first purchase and an additional 30,000 after spending $15,000 within 6 months (it’s a 15,000 bonus plus the 15,000 you’d get from your spending). Yes, $15,000 is quite a bit to put on a credit card in 6 months. However, there are ways to churn through that by accruing charges that don’t really cost you anything. More on that in a future post. 
4. Or a $1,500 Signup Bonus?
Starpoints are really valuable for hotels. 40,000 Starpoints nets you an “unrestricted” 5-night stay (technically 4 nights plus the 5th night free) with no blackout dates at any category 4 hotel including the Westin Aruba, The Westin Chicago Michigan Avenue, The W in Montreal, New Orleans, Chicago or Seattle, the Le Méridien Tahiti or the St. Regis in Shanghai. These rooms can be $200-$300 per night or up to $1,500 for five nights. This means you’re getting 3.75 cents per point. This would sound much better if the signup bonus was $1,500, right?
5. Starwood is BIG
Don’t know the name? They own W Hotels, Westin, Sheraton, St. Regis, Le Meridien and several other brands you do know. Over 940 properties in total.
6. AmEx Benefits & Extended Warranties
The Starwood is a full-fledged AmEx so it comes with benefits like car rental insurance, travel accident insurance, the Global Assist hotline and my favorite: a warranty extension of up to 1-year on products purchased with the card.
7. Free Starwood Gold Preferred Guest
If you manage to spend $30,000 annually on your Starwood American Express you’ll achieve Gold status within the Starwood Preferred Guest Program. At this level, you earn 5 Starpoints per dollar spent on Starwood stays (3 from Starwood’s SPG Program and 2 from AmEx) plus you’ll get room upgrades and 4pm late checkout.
8. A Decent Start
Get a 2.9% intro APR for 6 months and no fee for the first year. After that the $65 fee is still attractive relative to other cards with rich rewards programs. Most decent airline cards have higher annual fees.
9. Nights & Flights – Confusing But Worth It
In short, if you have 70,000 Starpoints, you can use SPG’s Nights & Flights offer to get 5-nights at any category 4 hotel plus Starwood will give you 50,000 airline miles to transfer into an airline account. Normally, that 5-night stay would cost 40,000 points. Since 70,000 points would transfer into 85,000 miles, you’re getting the nights for 35,000 miles, which is much cheaper than the 40,000 points they’d normally require. Or you can look at it as getting to do a 50,000 mile transfer for 30,000 points, much better than the normal 1:1.25 ratio.
10. An Extra 2,000 Points?
Go here and get 1,000 points for each of up to two additional new Starwood AmEx cardholders who spend $150 in their first 3 months.
The secret eleventh reason: you can double-Dip if you have a business. Signup using both Business and Personal AmEx Starwood offers and get double the bonus. Or just signup your spouse or significant other for the personal.
Caveats: you’ll likely need a 720 or higher credit score to get approved (buy your credit score & report for $11.96 after code FICO25 here). As always, read all the full fine print at the AmEx or Starwood sites for full details.
Beyond that, have fun and enjoy the vacation!
Comment below with your favorite credit card.
Thanks, appreciate the information.
I have a Starwoods card and love it! Thanks for the write up Brad!
[...] is a reminder that if you have a Starwood American Express Card and have a decent amount of points, you may want to transfer them today. The Starpoints Transfer [...]
[...] that Brad’s Deals claims you can get 40,000 points per card but nowhere on the links he provides does it appear to me [...]
I signed up back in January and have charged over $15K in less than six months and did not receive the 15,000 point bonus. SPG referred me to AMEX and AMEX didn’t know what I was talking about. They did get me an extra 3000 points for calling. Love Bradsdeals, but this one seems to be incorrect.
-Mike
Brad indicated that “However, there are ways to churn through that by accruing charges that don’t really cost you anything. More on that in a future post.”. Brad, When will you be posting this topic?
FYI, as this will matter to some: AmEx takes any and every opportunity to charge exhorbitant penalties, and they will layer them on. I’m not saying you shouldn’t do this deal, I’m saying you should know yourself and your own behaviors before considering the trade-offs in rewards vs. penalties. Example:
I did not get a first statement (I don’t do electronic billing and definitely not auto-pay) on a new business card two years ago. I have an excellent credit score (800) and it was my first statement, but they wouldn’t accept accountability or waive the $60 late charge. In fact, by the time I got what should have been my second statement, there was a second charge for not paying the first charge within 15 days!
By the way, American Express customer service is not in America, it’s in India. I consider that to be a deceptive practice.
It’s a shame, but true that every time you have a real problem with your AMEX, you get shuttled off to a black hole in India.
Watch your credit and your credit cards. A lot of credit card companies use Indian personnel to answer questions on your interest rates or fraudulent charges. Understanding their English is almost always impossible, so I switched to a local credit union and talk to a body here in the US every time. Having had my identity stolen once was enough. No more extra information should be given to any third country national in any another country. Transferred all my cards, too. Feel Safer.
Gloria, I almost exclusively use their website, which is pretty robust and can even handle things like disputing charges.
I’m glad it is OK because their phone customer service IS atrocious. It’s one of the worst.
Point number 2 above claims, “You earn 1 Starpoint per dollar spent but can transfer Starpoints to over 30 airlines, most at a 1:1.25 ratio…” That doesn’t seem to reconcile with information available at http://www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/account/starpoints/transfer/airline_partner_list.html. What is the basis of the claim?
The second sentence:
“Plus, for every 20,000 Starpoints transferred within the same transaction, Starwood will automatically add another 5,000 Starpoints!”
Means that 20,000 points equals 25,000 points. So 1:1.25.
I have ALWAYS felt that one SHOULD NEVER have to pay a credit card company a yearly fee just for the “privileged” to use their card…..this to me in nonsense! With their high interest rates they certainly could let you use THEIR card without charging a fee! Hense, I have NEVER paid a yearly fee….if a credit card company changed their policy to a fee carrying card, I switch immediately! Save the $45.00+ yearly fee and go out for a nice dinner instead!
Mary, I agree that credit card companies usually win in the battle with consumers. I do think that you can fight back with some of the points above. And I certainly don’t advocate carrying a balance and paying interest.
Would you talk more about the creative ways to redeem Starwood points for value of 4 to 20 cents each>?
There is a lot here and I’ll try and cover it at length but an easy example is with the right hotel reservation or with a 1st or business class international plane ticket. Those can cost $5,000-$20,000 or they can be had for a relatively modest number of points.
For example, 80,000 Starpoints = 100,000 Air Canada Aeroplan miles = 1 First Class North America to Europe round trip on a 3-class plane.
I recently did exactly that and booked a flight that would have cost $16,700 if I paid cash. Hard to believe…
That’s a little over $0.20 / point, for example.
For me, the Capital One Venture was the most beneficial since we plan on using our rewards for airline tickets. They were by far the better choice at 2 points per mile for use anywhere. I’m a geek and did my spreadsheet to determine which credit card was best among 10-15 including various AMEX and airline specific cards.
One more deal that I received when I signed up for this, I got a voucher for 1/2 off a stay from 1-5 nights at most hotels. Definitely a perk I wasn’t expecting.
Yes, good point. The 50% off certificate has some value, though the discount is off the “rack rate” and can sometimes (but not always) be beaten without it.
brad, we are currently Delta/Amex platinum card holders. do you know if we can transfer the points we have from that card to the Starwood card? don’t want to have 2 Amex cards and fees.
beth, those go right into delta skymiles and delta doesn’t let you transfer them out at all. that’s part of the value of starpoints (they are one-to-many). the best value of that delta card is that you accrue some delta medallion qualifying miles (MQM) with your spending, getting you closer to status on delta. beyond that, the $150 fee, the lack of flexibility with transferring miles out and delta’s mediocre-at-best frequent flyer program, i’d go with starwood.
[...] you don’t believe me, check out Brad’s Deals- a popular deal blog that has been featured on the Today Show and in USA Today. They outline 10 [...]
Great post! I’ve been recommending this to my friends for years. We use the Starwood AMEX at Costco since they only take AMEX and then cash the points in on level 2 Sheraton hotels. I’ve stayed at level 3 and 4 Starwood hotels; they are nice, but not that much nicer. It costs 4000 points to stay during the week and 3000 points to stay on the weekend at a level 2 Sheraton hotel. Those rooms cost $130-150 during the week and less on weekends. At the one where we usually stay, we get upgraded to the Club level, so we get free hors d’oeuvres at night, free breakfast in the morning and fruit and soft drinks through the day. We have stayed at Sheraton hotels for free probably 40 times over the years from Atlanta, to Chicago, to DC. It’s the best rewards card, by far, if you have the right level Starwood hotel where you are going.
Membership Has Its Rewards!!!
Don’t count on it. I’m a 25 year American Express card holder and that means absolutely nothing.
One recent example was that I mistakenly underpaid a 240.00 bill by $17.00. They immediately shut down my card until I paid the 17.00. That’s 25 years of on-time payments of over 100K in transactions – and they shut me down for 17 bucks. My point here is BUYER BEWARE when dealing with American Express no matter what partner they are working with. I have had a very positive experience with Nordstrom Visa – would highly recommend them!!
The fine print of the 30k miles by spending $1000 in 3 months says “Offer expires 7/6/10.” I think I’ll call to check.
Here’s the new link from Lucky on hit One Mile at a Time blog that is good until 07/31/10:
https://www143.americanexpress.com/apisites/microsite/ApplicationFormApp.do?partnerId=95&channel=1000&sourceCode=&authid=&cardType=STPC&seqNumber=251&returnUrl=https://www.americanexpress.com
Just got my card and am looking forward to the rewards. Thanks Brad!
Thanks for this well put together blog post on the Starwood AMEX. I’m looking forward to the post regarding the following:
“Yes, $15,000 is quite a bit to put on a credit card in 6 months. However, there are ways to churn through that by accruing charges that don’t really cost you anything. More on that in a future post.”
I’ve received my Starwood card and the AAdvantage card is on it’s way (this one I’ll cancel as soon as I use the 75,000 miles). I need to spend some money on these cards to get the promotions. Is your “accruing charges that don’t really cost you anything” a reference to purchasing gift cards to gas/grocery/Costco/Target/etc which are essentially cash? I would love a blog post if you get the time.
I hit my required $1,000 in a month. The 1080 points for charges posted today (about 1 week after closing), but the bonus 30,000 didn’t. The fine print says “8-12″ weeks. I hope it doesn’t take that long. We’ll see.
Hey Andy, how’d this work out for you? I believe I’ve had delays as well but no actual issues beyond that.
Hi Brad, it worked out great. I got them the next week. I’m currently building the miles up to get to 70k for the Nights and Flights offer (Cat 4).
I used 20k (turns into 25k AA) of my wife’s 30k Starwood points to top off the 75k AA Citi miles and get 2 Business fights to Miami for 100k miles.
What nice about Starwood is you can transfer miles to your spouse for free! I’m not sure if you mentioned that in the above benefits. Most airlines charge to transfer miles. So, I took her remaining 10k, immediately putting me up to 40k, which is perfect for the 5th night free (cat 4).
[...] why I’ve been posting about the 100,000 Mile Citi American Airlines Bonus, the American Express Starwood Card or last spring’s Hyatt Big Welcome Back deal. There’s a lot of this stuff out there [...]
Hi Brad,
Do you know if one can refer themselves for the Business SPG Amex (collecting 5,000 *points) if one has the personal card?
Ed
[...] not offer the best rewards, you should never actually charge anything to it! (For spending, the Amex Starwood is my current [...]
I am wondering how applying and canceling such cards would affect my credit score? I have a good score of around 730, and would like to gain a higher score, rather than lower it.
I have tracked my credit score fanatically for years and my take is that as long as you have:
1) some cards with age
2) enough other unused credit
…it isn’t much of a score hit, if at all, if you periodically open and close other cards.
Brad-the info is great but has now turned me into a credit card benefit fanatic! I signed up for the Amex Plat (per your post) but definitely only plan on a year with that card. Would this really be the ideal replacement? Do you have a suggestion for a comparable card that is a Visa or MC for places that don’t accept Amex?
Thank you!
M, I feel your pain!
Yes, this is still my preferred replacement. The value of Starpoints and flexibility if you’re transferring out are hard-to-beat. There are several other contenders that I hope to discuss at length shortly.
As for Visa/MC, I personally have several I like. One is an old 2% cash back Charles Schwab card but those are no longer offered. It’s a little heretical to take the 2% because I know I can beat that value with points/miles most of the time but it is still solid. There are some hotel and airlines cards in the mix that are better than others. These tend to be heavily dependent on personal preference and routine.
I’ll try and break these down at length shortly, too.
Would the Chase British Airlines Visa be a worthwhile alternate?
[...] use of the card earns you 1.25 miles per $1 spent, a very attractive ratio equivalent to the Amex Starwood and better than 1:1 airline cards like the Citi American AAdvantage Visa. It’s fair to say [...]
[...] goes without saying that you can make the deal even sweeter by paying with your Starwood card for the stays, as you can earn points with each purchase. A [...]
Hi Brad
I have a COSTCO american express card since 2006. After I read your article I signed up for the SPG card and was approved immediately. I received the 10,000 bonus points on first purchase but inspite of spending $15000 in the first 6 months, American express is not crediting me with the 15000 bonus points.
I have talked to the customer service reps thrice and all I get back is that this offer is valid for new users only. I am a new user and have never had any SPG card in my life before. It feels like I am being ripped here by Amex. I love their card and service but am unhappy about this one instance.
BTW I already have my 50,000 bonus points with my first purchase with CHASE/BA card and on my way to earn the other 50000 miles when I spend 2500 in the first 3 months.
I hope amex credits my account with the 15000 bonus points else I will be disappointed and will not use their cards again.
Hi Amol, i’m sorry to hear about this. Shame that Amex is being tough about it. My wife recently signed up for one and got the 15k bonus without a hitch, for what that is worth.
Good news about the Chase BA miles, though. Enjoy!
[...] point bonus on the American Express Platinum Card, 100,000 Mile Citi American Airlines Bonus, the American Express Starwood Card or last spring’s Hyatt Big Welcome Back deal. There’s a lot of this stuff out there [...]
Hi Brad,
I called AMEX, looks like the ‘earn 1000 Starpoints when add an additional cardmember offer’ no longer exist.
Brad:
I too am confused by your point #3, A 40,000 Point Signup Bonus.
I cannot find this offer?
That’s not the offer but is the result, sort of. Note the question mark:
3. A 40,000 Point Signup Bonus?
Get 10,000 points with your first purchase and an additional 30,000 after spending $15,000 within 6 months (it’s a 15,000 bonus plus the 15,000 you’d get from your spending).
[...] card? Check and see if you can get a deal for your upcoming trip. A big favorite of ours is the Starwood Preferred Guest Card from American Express. Through 7/31, they are offering a free night at any of their hotels and [...]
What’s the difference between the SPG personal and business cards?
I believe they’re identical. It’s worth noting that the SPG doesn’t mean you have to have a big, fancy business, or even an incorporated one. Sole proprietorships are fine. In practice, Amex doesn’t dig in very much b/c the card is ultimately backed by your personal credit.
[...] Not Using AmEx Starwood? 10 Reasons You’re Losing Money (Brad’s Deals) [...]
Hi. this is probably a dumb question, but since it’s an amex card do you also earn membership rewards points, or only the star points? Thanks
That’s actually a really good question.
The only Amex cards that earn membership rewards points are their charge cards (green, gold, platinum). Most other Amex cards are credit cards and most of those have an affinity (Starwood, Delta, Hilton, etc.) so the rewards are via the partner. The remainder are cash back cards with no points/rewards beyond the cash.
[...] 30,000 Starpoints w/ AmEx Starwood Card: Sign up for the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Card and you’ll get 10,000 points with your first purchase, and when you spend $5,000 in 6 months, you’ll get 15,000 bonus points. Those points can be transferred to frequent flier miles for over 30 different airlines! Read more about the AMEX Starwood here. [...]
To answer the question whats a good credit card thats not AmEx. I just signed up for the Bank of America 1, 2, 3 rewards card. They give you 3 points for gas, 2 for food and 1 for everything else. If you deposit your bonus in a free bank of america savings acct they give you a 10% bonus. You get an extra 100$ if you charge $500 in the first 3 months. There is no annual fee, average low rate of around 12%. Travelers insurance, 1 year product warranty, concierge service, roadside dispatch ect. all included.