👋 Hi Reader,

Hope your weekend is off to a great start! There's a lot more in today's newsletter than I typically share, but here are some highlights:

📱 Best cell phone plans in 2026 & how I’m saving big
🛫 Citi adds JAL as a new partner with a 30% bonus
💼 $1,000 Bonus on $4k Spend from Brex
🛍️ Free $80 from Capital One shopping
🏦 X Money drops its premium requirement (6% APY)
⚾ MLB postseason seats for 5,000 Capital One miles
🎗️ $15 Make-A-Wish donation for a shot at 1M points
💳 50% off CardPointers (before the 10/1 price hike)

If you enjoyed reading, please forward this email to a friend who might too! And if that's you, make sure to subscribe here. Thank you so much!

Chris

📱 Best Cell Phone Plans (& How I’m Saving)

You're probably overpaying for cell service, and switching could save you hundreds of $$$ without sacrificing coverage or features. Learn what's changed with the big carriers and MVNOs, the math behind "free phone" deals, and the best unlimited plans. I also share the cheapest backup line for two-factor texts and home internet backup, cell phone insurance, and the smartest way to buy a new iPhone.

📺 Watch or 🎧 Listen

💰 Start Your Year-End Review & Save on Taxes

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by… Gelt

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📋 My Past Week

After convincing T-Mobile to give me my final two device credits early, I switched all our phone lines over to US Mobile and now I have unlimited data on all 3 carriers for less than I was paying for one. Definitely check out this week's episode if you want to dig in further and save more on your cell phone plan.
Amy found an amazing recipe for Avgolemono Chicken Soup With Gnocchi and it was delicious! I loved the lemon flavors and we swapped gnocchi for chickpea pasta for extra protein.
Last weekend we hired a family friend to do a photoshoot for the family. It's not something we've typically done, but I feel like our girls are growing up so fast and I'm really excited to have some really great photos of the 4 of us that aren't selfies.
Sometimes we plan trips a year in advance, but in the case of the winter holidays and next spring break, we're behind schedule, so I spent a few evenings this week coming up with ideas for what we could do, including a few close-to-home options. I was pleasantly surprised to still see some good award availability.
Last week I mentioned the mistake I made by not realizing our Tesla warranty coverage lasted longer than I thought. Well, that mistake paled in comparison to finding out when we went to pick up the car that there was some miscommunication and it wasn't safe to drive anymore. We had planned to do the repairs later (or possibly shop the work around), but ended up being forced to get them done now. Fortunately, the service manager was able to help us get the price down a bit.

⭐ My Top Picks

🛫 Citi: Adds JAL, 2 Transfer Bonuses & Tighter Rules

Citi had a big week, with one great addition, two transfer bonuses, and one real downgrade. The biggest news is that Japan Airlines is now a transfer partner, which historically has had some great award availability for flights to Japan. That said, since being added as a transfer partner to Bilt, Rove, Capital One and Citi, I'm worried it's going to get much harder to find good award space. Here's the full list of Citi news:

Citi → JAL: New 1:1 Partner + 30% Bonus — Open a JAL account now, since new accounts can't redeem for 60 days, and don't forget JAL miles have a hard 3 year expiration.
Citi → LifeMiles: 25% Transfer Bonus — There are LifeMiles bonuses all the time, so don't speculatively transfer here.
Citi Strata: Card Bonuses Now Once Per Lifetime — You used to be eligible every 48 months, so this is a big downgrade.

🚆 Bilt + Amtrak, Big Transfer Bonuses & Hilton Status

It's always exciting to see new transfer partners get added, and even better when it's not a terrible use of points. Amtrak is a 2:1 transfer partner, but because Amtrak points are worth roughly 2.6¢, you're getting about 1.3¢ per Bilt point. It's not the best use of Bilt points, but it's not terrible, and with the 10/1 Rent Day transfer bonus it can be pretty great. They're also doing a less exciting bonus to Hilton.

Bilt → Amtrak: 25-125% transfer bonus — With Bilt Platinum, you could get ~3¢ of value from Bilt points, which is incredible. If I lived on the east coast, I might do a speculative transfer here.
Bilt → Hilton: 75-200% transfer bonus + Hilton status match — Even the best bonus wouldn't get you much more than 1.2¢ of value from your Bilt points, so I'm a pass here. That said, if you don't already have a path to Hilton status, it could be worth a small transfer to get the status match.

🛍️ Free $80 From Capital One Shopping

If you're new to Capital One Shopping, you can get a free $80 when you sign up through a referral link, install the extension within 7 days and make a $10 purchase within 60 days. Just make sure to keep the extension installed for the full 90 day promo period. If you don't have a referral link from a family member/friend, here's mine.

💼 Brex: $1,000 Bonus After $4K Spend (by 9/30)

Do you run a business but don't have a Brex account? Sign up here before 9/30 and spend $4,000 within 30 days of activating your card to get $1,000 back. The bonus will be applied to your Feb 2027 statement.

🏦 X Money: 6% APY, 3% Cashback, Now Open to All

X Money just started opening the doors to all X users and it's pretty interesting. If you live outside of NY, it pays 6% APY with a $1,000+ monthly direct deposit. The debit card also earns 3% cash back on all purchases that aren't on the exclusion list (which includes wholesale clubs, utilities, taxes and more).

💳 CardPointers: 50% Off Before 10/1 Price Hike

CardPointers+ is one of my favorite apps for managing all the different card-linked offers you have across all your cards. They even activate all the offers for you, which has resulted in it paying for itself multiple times over. So it's great they're offering a 50% discount before they increase prices and launch an 8th version of the app on 10/1.

⚾ MLB Playoff Seats for 5,000 Capital One Miles

Capital One is once again offering 4 "Cardholder Exclusive" tickets per MLB game for 5,000 miles or $40 each. Just make sure to skip tickets marked "Powered by Vivid Seats," which are a terrible deal.

🎗️ Donate $15 to Make-A-Wish for a Shot at 1M Points

Make a donation of at least $15 to Make-A-Wish through The Points Guy's Charitybuzz campaign to enter a sweepstakes for 1 million of a popular bank's flexible points. A good chance to try to earn some extra points if you were planning to make a donation anyway.

📱 Recommendation: US Mobile

If you haven't listened to Ep #296 yet, I switched all our lines from T-Mobile to US Mobile and am now saving a ton. They're the top-rated carrier by Consumer Reports, they operate on all 3 major US carriers and for $45/year you can actually have multi-network coverage across two carriers. I took advantage of their current promo and got an Unlimited Premium plan for $299 for the year, which includes priority data, 20GB/mo of international data, a free Apple Watch line, and more.

P.S. If you're making the switch, here's my referral link for a free $30.

📰 The Rest of the Week

💳 Credit cards & points

Amex: 30% to BA, Aer Lingus & Iberia — Transfer bonuses to Avios are frequent enough that I'd only consider this if you have a specific booking in mind.
Bilt: Upgrades and downgrades are now allowed — This is great if you feel like you picked the wrong card during the transition.
Venmo Card: Swaps 3% on Top Category for 3% Fixed Categories — This is a big downgrade if you're earning 3% on anything other than dining, entertainment, and streaming.

✈️ Airline news & promos

Alaska: 50K points with a Rate.com mortgage or HELOC — Only worth it if rates and fees hold up against other lenders.
American: Starlux codeshare partnership starts 9/30 — Would be great if this leads to booking Starlux with AA miles.
Finnair: Buy Avios with up to a 50% bonus — Like the Avios transfer bonus above, I'd only consider this if you need to top up a few miles for a specific booking.

💬 Parting Thoughts

As always, thanks so much for reading. I’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s newsletter, and if you enjoyed it, please let me know why!

Chris

Chris Hutchins

💰 My Top Picks, Recommendation & More (9/26/26)