When oldest daughter was home from college on Christmas break, she opened a new Capital One checking account solely in her name and closed the joint MONEY Teen Checking that we opened together a few years prior. This finally got me down to 2 checking accounts, one joint checking with Mrs. Dress Pockets and one individual Fidelity cash management account.
Oldest daughter also opened a Vanguard 529 account and I finally got around to transferring the frozen UGMA/UTMA 529 account where I was the custodian. Vanguard decided to freeze this account when she turned 18 even though the age of majority in our state is 21. Perhaps because it truly was an UGMA account and not an UTMA account &shrug. UPS Store notary signature service on the transfer forms set me back $5. Now I know what to do when next oldest daughter turns 18 later this year. I’ll try to write a separate post now that our first year of college spending has come and gone.
On the credit card front, I opened a Delta SkyMiles Gold American Express card with a $500 welcome bonus credit and 40,000 frequent flyer credit miles. We booked a few summer trips already and flying direct on Delta seemed a wiser use of family time than continuing to pretend we were saving money with Southwest free checked bags but changing planes at Chicago MDW. The Delta American Express card also comes with 1 free checked bag per person which will wash out the $150 annual fee in subsequent years. The $150 annual fee is waived the first year.
Mrs. Dress Pockets opened a Fidelity Cash Rewards Visa card. This has been my goto card the past number of years with 2% cash back when credited to a Fidelity account. We deposit the monthly cash back in 529 accounts for the youngest children. Her card application had a $150 welcome bonus credit. I had been holding out for the $300 welcome bonus I got. No such luck.
No sooner did her new card arrive than I stumbled across this Finance Buff blog post about a new US Bank Smartly Visa with 4% cash bash. Yes you have to move $100k over to a US Bank brokerage or savings account to qualify for the additional 2% cash back. While I’ve done ACATS transfers to close Betterment accounts and a DTC transfer to close a Morgan Stanley account, I’m not quite ready to jump at this opportunity. Perhaps one of you readers will jump first. I’m leery that they’ll lower the 4% Visa cash back as soon as I open all the accounts and transfer the $100k. This happened to me many moons ago with a 2% cash back Schwab Visa that Schwab sold to Bank of America which lowered the cash back to 1.5%
