{"id":4067,"date":"2009-02-27T23:38:34","date_gmt":"2009-02-27T23:38:34","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/?p=4067"},"modified":"2009-02-27T23:38:34","modified_gmt":"2009-02-27T23:38:34","slug":"fun-with-starwood-amex","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/fun-with-starwood-amex\/","title":{"rendered":"“Fun” With Starwood Amex"},"content":{"rendered":"

Generally, I prefer that my credit cards be seen, but not heard. I don’t want a “relationship” with my credit card company, and I don’t want to hear from them unless I<\/em><\/strong> have a problem.<\/p>\n

So Much For That Theory<\/strong><\/p>\n

The other night, I placed a $300 clothing order from a well known online retailer. I paid an additional amount to upgrade the shipping. The next day, I received a voicemail from Amex on my home telephone indicating that they wanted to verify the charge for security purposes. I later received a call on my cell phone to the same effect. After verifying the charge was authorized by me, I thought the matter was resolved.<\/p>\n

So Much For That Theory<\/strong><\/p>\n

Several hours later, I received an email from Amex, asking me to contact them. I figured that it was about the same issue, just sent out after it was resolved. I then received an email from the retailer telling me the charge was declined, and asking me to call them. I did call them and told them the story and asked them re-run the charge. They informed me that the delivery date had been pushed back. So much for paying extra for expedited delivery and the convenience of online shopping.<\/p>\n

At this point I am getting a little upset. I paid extra for expedited delivery and everyone is dragging their feet.<\/p>\n

A few things could have happened better.<\/p>\n

1). Amex could have contacted me sooner in order to have me verify the charge without delaying shipment.<\/p>\n

2.) The retailer could have contacted me sooner in order to have me resolved this before delaying shipment.<\/p>\n

3.) Amex could have realized that I have ordered from this retailer before, several times, in the past, albeit not recently. That should have told them that the charge was legit.<\/p>\n

I do find it odd that a relatively small charge at this retailer set off alarm bells, while I made a charge of $1,200 a few weeks ago from a company I had never shopped with that went through just fine. On the other hand, perhaps this online merchant is the subject of more fraudulent spending.<\/p>\n

Nailed That Renewal Bonus!<\/strong><\/p>\n

A few months ago, my wife’s Starwood Amex came up for renewal and it’s $45 renewal fee. I asked her to call and ask for a renewal bonus. It didn’t work, and I figured it was because she really hadn’t spent much on it as we had got it for the sign up bonus and had since used it very little.<\/p>\n

Now, it was time for my renewal bonus and I thought I would give it a try. First, I made sure to choose the prompt for “canceling a credit card.” At this point, I had so many Amexes that I actually would cancel if they didn’t give me a bonus. The conversation was surprisingly brief and frank. It went like this:<\/p>\n

Me: I am considering canceling my card because of the annual fee unless I could have that waived or get some bonus Starpoints.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Amex: I can’t waive your fee, and I am only allowed to give you a maximum of 3,000 bonus points for renewal.<\/em><\/p>\n

Me: I’ll take it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Then, it dawned on me to consider if that is a good deal. Obviously, my wife and I have other Starwood Amexes, so canceling this one wouldn’t be a big deal. We would just earn our valuable Starpoints on a different card.<\/p>\n

What Is The Value Equation?<\/strong><\/p>\n

$45 for 3,000 Starpoints equals exactly 1.5 cents per Starpoint. As I have shown many times, I can regularly find value in Starpoints in the 3-4 cents per point range at many of their hotels. It is getting harder, but you can still find some value in converting Starpoints to airline miles, especially at the 1-1.25 rate you get when you do it in a 20,000 mile block.<\/p>\n

Of course, I got somewhat lucky when I converted tens of thousands of Starpoints to Delta miles only<\/strong><\/em> to take advantage of the “Big Delta Promo”. <\/a> Since that was clearly a one time deal, converting Starpoints to Delta SkyMiles is now a loosing proposition. These days a SkyMile is worth merely 1 cent when purchasing coach airfare and I was only able to extract 1.7 cents per SkyMile from a business class international ticket I redeemed this week. You can fare better on almost all other carriers.<\/p>\n

Since I wasn’t going to be using the 3,000 miles for conversion to Delta’s miserable program, will I get my $45 worth? Well, there are still many Sheratons that you can redeem 3,000 Starpoints for a night’s stay. Typically, these are in smaller towns or near major airports. Still, a night there easily costs double what I paid for these SkyMiles. In fact, it is rare to find a Starwood property where your StarPoint is worth less than 1.5 cents, so, worst case scenario, I think it is a wash. Better yet, I may just qualify for Starwood Gold again (by spending $30,000 on the card this year) if I don’t switch cards mid year. With Starwood Gold, I will get free upgraded rooms and late checkouts, a significant value when traveling with children.<\/p>\n

I guess I am putting up with Amex’s shenanigans yet another year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Generally, I prefer that my credit cards be seen, but not heard. I don’t want a “relationship” with my credit card company, and I don’t want to hear from them unless I have a problem. So Much For That Theory The other night, I placed a $300 clothing order from a well known online retailer. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n"Fun" With Starwood Amex<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/fun-with-starwood-amex\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\""Fun" With Starwood Amex\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Generally, I prefer that my credit cards be seen, but not heard. I don’t want a “relationship” with my credit card company, and I don’t want to hear from them unless I have a problem. So Much For That Theory The other night, I placed a $300 clothing order from a well known online retailer. […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/fun-with-starwood-amex\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Ask Mr Credit Card Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-02-27T23:38:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jason Steele\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jason Steele\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/fun-with-starwood-amex\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/fun-with-starwood-amex\/\",\"name\":\"\\\"Fun\\\" With Starwood Amex\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-02-27T23:38:34+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-02-27T23:38:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/18331587d05ff4eaeee29fd913227597\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/fun-with-starwood-amex\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/fun-with-starwood-amex\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/fun-with-starwood-amex\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"“Fun” With Starwood Amex\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Ask Mr Credit Card Blog\",\"description\":\"Just another WordPress site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/18331587d05ff4eaeee29fd913227597\",\"name\":\"Jason Steele\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/author\/jsteele\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"\"Fun\" With Starwood Amex","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/fun-with-starwood-amex\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"\"Fun\" With Starwood Amex","og_description":"Generally, I prefer that my credit cards be seen, but not heard. I don’t want a “relationship” with my credit card company, and I don’t want to hear from them unless I have a problem. So Much For That Theory The other night, I placed a $300 clothing order from a well known online retailer. […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/fun-with-starwood-amex\/","og_site_name":"Ask Mr Credit Card Blog","article_published_time":"2009-02-27T23:38:34+00:00","author":"Jason Steele","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jason Steele","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/fun-with-starwood-amex\/","url":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/fun-with-starwood-amex\/","name":"\"Fun\" With Starwood Amex","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-02-27T23:38:34+00:00","dateModified":"2009-02-27T23:38:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/18331587d05ff4eaeee29fd913227597"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/fun-with-starwood-amex\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/fun-with-starwood-amex\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/fun-with-starwood-amex\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"“Fun” With Starwood Amex"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/","name":"Ask Mr Credit Card Blog","description":"Just another WordPress site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/18331587d05ff4eaeee29fd913227597","name":"Jason Steele","url":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/author\/jsteele\/"}]}},"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4067"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.askmrcreditcard.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}