[00:01] because lately I feel like there's been even more negative changes than usual what I've noticed is that these changes are starting to feel like they're point where a lot of people out there are saying they actually want to quit
[00:13] this game. Honestly, I've never seen this many people being this pessimistic So, today I want to sort of just take a step back with you guys and address some completely change the way the credit card game works moving forward in 2026
[00:26] opinion on whether I think credit cards are still worth the ever-increasing them. So, I've got three things I want to talk about here that are each posing card user at the moment. And the first thing on this list is going to be
[00:39] make this video because it's kind of a big deal in the whole points and miles upcoming high devaluations that were just announced to be coming soon in May. is a big deal, in recent years World of Hyatt's been sort of the leader out of
[00:52] all the hotel rewards programs out there in terms of offering the most consistent with them. And even if you haven't been earning Hyatt points directly, there's earning other flexible points that can be transferred over to Hyatt. So,
[01:05] their Sapphire Preferred and Sapphire Reserve, as well as the three new credit points that can be transferred to a number of airline and hotel programs valuable Hyatt's been over the years, transferring your Chase and Bilt points
[01:18] over to them has been a very popular option. It's probably the one transfer two points currencies, and I'd even go so far as to say that Hyatt being a transfer partner is probably one of the primary reasons many people even bother
[01:31] first place. So, anytime Hyatt makes changes to their own rewards currency, Hyatt points, but in my opinion, they're also devaluing those highly sought-after turn affects people's decisions to keep or cancel those cards as well. So, yeah,
[01:46] that's going to be happening here because of this upcoming Hyatt what's actually going on and how to handle it. Basically, Hyatt still uses a while this award chart spanned from lower cost category one properties on
[02:00] properties at the top. So, think cheaper brands like Hyatt House and Hyatt Place then more expensive brands like Park Hyatt and Andaz higher up. Those eight levels of rates with off-peak, standard, and peak that Hyatt is going to set for
[02:15] the year and expected demand. So, for example, a category four hotel like maybe a Hyatt Regency somewhere could cost 12, 15, or 18,000 points per night. And then a category eight hotel like a Park Hyatt could cost 35, 40, or 45,000
[02:29] prices from that chart are much better than dynamic pricing models that a lot and Hilton use, and that's because dynamic award pricing means that points prices can increase in line with cash prices, so there's less upside from each
[02:42] normally do not run into that issue because again, there's that fixed award price is going to go as cash prices rise. Now, normally the only way that every year around March they release a list of hotels in their portfolio that
[02:57] fall under for that chart, therefore increasing the fixed points prices that these properties. Many hotels are not even affected by these annual category updates, but a lot of the really popular ones might just move up a category and
[03:10] expensive per night, and that stings for a minute, but honestly everybody usually updates pretty quickly. So, everyone was basically expecting the same thing was then out of nowhere in late February Hyatt hit us with the bad news that
[03:24] award chart changes. Now, instead of having three levels for each category there's going to be five levels per category with lowest, low, moderate, still going to be eight categories, it looks like the pricing at each level has
[03:39] across the board. So, if we now take a look at the range for what category four and category eight hotels could be going for starting in May of 2026, category fours could be 12, 15, 20, 22 and 1/2, or 25,000 points and category 8s could
[03:54] be 35, 45, 55, 65, or even as high as 75,000 points per night. Just to put the equivalent of the typical sign-up bonus that we see on the Chase Sapphire people's gateway into earning Chase points for Hyatt transfers. And oh yeah,
[04:09] mentions at the bottom here that they're still going to be the typical changing their portfolio that they're going to be announcing soon in April as well. charts coming for other all-inclusive resorts as well as Miraval resorts that
[04:23] So, with all this news on the Hyatt devaluations, here's how I'm looking at some Hyatt stays coming up throughout 2026 that I've booked previously using a combination of Hyatt points, Chase points, and Bilt points. So, those stays
[04:37] award chart, and I don't have to worry about pricing changes on any of those. wife and I are planning for later in 2026 and early in 2027 that's going to days after this announcement about these award chart updates, I just went ahead
[04:51] in those prices as well. The good news is that you can book Hyatt stays using before any of these changes go into effect in May, and you're still going to current award chart. So, even if you have a Hyatt stay that's only
[05:05] want to think about booking it sooner rather than later to lock in the better if you need to because Hyatt does also have some really friendly cancellation going to have to see what all these changes actually look like once they go
[05:19] just compare the cash price for certain stays to the potentially higher points the math decide just how bad these changes actually are. What I'm hoping to higher two out of the five new levels of pricing per category, and I'll be able
[05:33] property after these changes go into effect thanks to the points calendar that I really do appreciate about Hyatt is that they're pretty transparent about going to be no fees on award bookings either. On top of that, I'm glad we
[05:47] dynamic pricing, even though this does move much closer in that direction now But again, we're just going to have to wait and see exactly how bad this new live. The third thing I'm looking at here is how companies like Chase and
[06:01] because ultimately, they do have some power here to fight back against partners that they know the customers love. So, will they offer higher sign-up or just other ways to help bring back some of the purchasing power that might
[06:15] Chase or Bilt launch a Hyatt transfer bonus because that would be a big deal and Bilt understand that having Hyatt as a transfer partner is a big selling ecosystems over others. So, I want to see what their reactions are going to
[06:29] looking at here is that I expect people are going to continue voicing their concerns about devaluations like this by not only speaking up and commenting on by remembering to essentially vote on how they feel about significant changes
[06:42] their business to credit cards and issuers that best align with what brings and the companies they partner with like updates do end up being truly very negative, then you've got to do what's
[06:54] elsewhere. The reality of the credit card game is that it's just something play this game to be willing to adapt plan to do here. I'll take action and transfer points to book Hyatt stays now
[07:07] are a very real threat to my credit card strategy that involves earning a lot of to them. But ultimately, again, I'm treating this devaluation just like all decisions. And that's going to bring me to the second thing I want to talk about
[07:21] threats to the average credit card user right now, and that's the fact that devaluations just seem to be a lot more frequent these days. So, not only did that are going to negatively affect the value of credit card points, but we also
[07:33] the other week that are really going to hurt customers who don't have a United then even on the cashback side of things, we just saw Bank of America nerf their popular Preferred Rewards program. So before under this program, customers
[07:47] who held a minimum of $100,000 in balances across Bank of America and advantage of a 75% credit card rewards bonus feature. That 75% bonus would turn a Bank of America card that earned 1.5% cash back on everything into a card that
[08:01] earned 2.62% back on everything or a card that earned 3% back on a certain category into 5.25% back on that category. That was a nice feature that focused customers over to Bank of America to take advantage of that, but
[08:14] coming soon in May of 2026 as well, Bank of America is going to be updating this program to become BofA Rewards. And with this update, customers are now going to need 10 times the combined balances as before with 1 million required to be
[08:26] held with Bank of America or Merrill Lynch to get the same 75% credit card whole new rollout of Bilt 2.0, which was a wild update that led to a lot of frustrated a lot of people. And I covered this in a separate video that
[08:39] down below as well if you want to check that out later. Now, the crazy thing here is that I'm making this video in March of 2026 and all these updates here since the beginning of this year. So we're not even a full 3 months into 2026
[08:53] aspects of the credit card game have shifted in a big way. My team and I are to write about so many negative stories in our newsletter, but we are trying our these things as soon as they happen. So just a reminder here, but if you haven't
[09:07] sign up for our free newsletter Wiser Wallet with the link down below in the description. We send out emails every Tuesday and Friday to cover breaking news, limited time credit card offers, and a ton of redemption examples as well
[09:19] max value from your points and miles. So go ahead and check out that link down below to join and as a thank you, we're also going to send you our free 7-day going to help you get started with points and miles if you're completely
[09:31] we've been constantly covering more and more devaluations to hotel or airline changes that just affect credit cards more credits to keep track of, or higher minimum spends on sign-up bonuses with
[09:45] at all of this is that all these changes and devaluations can kind of get blame a lot of people for just choosing to switch over entirely to team cashback and low effort that can still produce a good return on spend. I think if you
[10:00] card game for the points and miles side of things to unlock more value or highly you've got to be someone who's very organized, someone who is actually going to travel a few times per year, and also someone who actually looks at earning
[10:14] travel as a hobby. So, as much as these updates and devaluations can be a bit always just looked at booking travel with my points and getting good value as successful in getting all these pieces to fit together with finding award
[10:28] bonus or something like that, it's honestly kind of fun and everyone else I the same way. Now, that does not mean that it's right for these airline, changing things up this much and so I think it's still very important to again
[10:42] business elsewhere when enough is enough. But, like I said, adapting is not going to be quitting or moving away from team travel anytime soon. But, thing I want to talk about here that I think is also currently threatening the
[10:55] and it's something that I feel like keeps getting worse but doesn't get credit card surcharges that effectively punish people for using credit cards at surcharge is essentially an extra fee of roughly 3% on average that a business
[11:09] pay with a credit card instead of a debit card or cash. But, if you do then you get to avoid paying this extra 3% fee. Businesses get charged this processing fee for accepting credit cards regardless but most of them choose
[11:22] prices so that all customers are effectively paying for it rather than just passing it along to only customers who pay by credit card. Now, the one these fees the most are restaurants, especially local restaurants or smaller
[11:34] across a growing number of other small businesses charging these as well that I just went to the other month. Now, how often you might run into these partially depend on where you live as well because local laws and rules
[11:48] state to state. But, over on places like Reddit, you're going to see a lot more surcharges do feel like they're becoming a lot more common. Now, if you look at certain small businesses that are very relationship-driven, like maybe a local
[12:00] going to charge people for tax preparation services, I can understand fee because they probably already know the customer is pretty well on a much benefit to them for accepting credit cards and taking on that extra 3%
[12:13] But, for businesses that are much more transactional, like a local restaurant, for example, charging an extra 3% fee when paid by credit card while rewarding feels frustrating, especially in today's world when carrying cash is not only no
[12:27] longer very common, but it's also sort of inconvenient. What makes it even more credit card surcharges are not really disclosed super well from the start of a transaction. So, with restaurants as an example, it's usually not until after
[12:39] you find out there was some fine print on the menu that mentioned a 3% fee added on when paying by credit card. Or even that other example I came across at dropped off my car for service in the morning, and I came back to pay and pick
[12:51] then at that point that I learned that paying by credit card would incur an if I look back at any restaurant or card fee along to me over the past few years, I do see that they technically
[13:04] they're not breaking any laws. But, that doesn't change the fact that getting hit by surprise, and it almost always leads me to take the same action to fight back typically would be by not giving them any more of my business in the future.
[13:18] It's a free market, and those of us who use credit cards are free to do that. when I do receive a service from a small business that I genuinely enjoyed, but they charge those fees. So, here's some other actions that you could take.
[13:30] business right away, you can also just reach out to management or ownership to with their payment policies. Again, it's mostly small businesses that choose to rather than increase the prices for everyone. And small business owners are
[13:44] what a thoughtful customer has to say, so I would start there. Another form of that's honest and has constructive criticism because restaurants and other care about these as well. So, you can bet that if they see a lot of people
[13:58] potential to hurt their sales, then they might consider making a change. And then to change their ways with credit card surcharges, again, you can always just at least come prepared next time with either a debit card or cash to avoid
[14:11] that earns a higher multiplier that card that earns three to five x on dining at restaurants. Remember that the main reasons why responsible credit card users opt to use this payment method are
[14:23] protections that credit cards have. So, just ask yourself if those benefits are a business that passes along credit card fees to you. But how do you guys feel more credit card surcharges where you live? And do you think all these recent
[14:37] other changes are now making you consider quitting the credit card game just going to keep adapting and running the numbers before I ever adjust think that airlines, hotels, and credit card companies are just doing way too
[14:50] for choosing to earn cash back if that's just easier for them. But as always, sure to go ahead and check out this video over here on the screen next that YouTube thinks you're going to like, but I'll see you in the next one.