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Your guide to Credit Cards week at the 2020 TPG Awards

Nick Ewen
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Nick Ewen is a director of content at TPG and helps readers leverage credit cards (he has 23 of them) and loyalty programs to travel more for less. His 20+ years of expertise has helped him visit over 50 countries and all 50 states. He's been at TPG for more than 11 years.
Dec. 04, 2020
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7 min read
TPG Awards Features_Cards Week
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Credit Cards Week at the 2020 TPG Awards is officially in the books! Just in time to kick off the shopping sprint ahead of the holiday season, we went through a jam-packed week of content — including a number of ways for you to participate. Across the entire week, we dug into the credit card industry and look at a number of exciting developments for customers in the future.

And don't forget: Reviewing the content from this week will help prepare you for Trivia Night at the 2020 TPG Awards, our culminating (virtual) event this year. We'll be using questions pulled from all of the content we're rolling out, so be sure to follow along on the site and across our social channels to maximize your chances at winning a terrific prize.

You can also check out this post for an overview of what you missed during Airlines Week.

Sign-up for the TPG daily newsletter so you don't miss out on anything related to the TPG Awards.

Read on for more details on what you may have missed.

Monday

Just like we did with Airlines Week, we started things off by announcing our Readers' Choice winners. We handed out four awards during Credit Cards Week:

  • Best Premium Travel Credit Card: Chase Sapphire Reserve
  • Best Travel Rewards Credit Card: Chase Sapphire Preferred Card
  • Best No-Annual-Fee Credit Card: Chase Freedom Unlimited
  • Best Business Card: The Business Platinum Card® from American Express

Interesting enough, all four of these cards became three-time award winners in 2020, showing incredible staying power in the minds (and wallets) of TPG readers.

Of course, with Cyber Monday falling on the first day of the week, we took a closer look at the how to maximize your purchases. And TPG's own Madison Blancaflor kicked things off on social media as our host for the week — including our new augmented-reality filter that is now live on our Instagram. Try it out for yourself and share on your own Instagram account, and be sure to tag @thepointsguy for a chance to win some TPG swag!

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As always, you can review the full #TPGAwards2020 conversation on Twitter, where the community is encouraged to share their thoughts on all of the content launching throughout the week.

Tuesday

Giving Tuesday arrived on the first day of December, and we published a bunch of charity-related content on our site and social platforms. First, we launched an update to our list of best credit cards for charitable giving along with our comprehensive guide to donating your points and miles. We also kicked off an exciting campaign with United Airlines' Miles on a Mission. Now through the end of December, you can donate your MileagePlus miles to a charitable organization, and United will match up to 125,000 miles per charity.

Many already reached their goal for 2020, but help the others get there! Donate your United miles on this page to help a worthy cause this holiday season.

Related: How to use your credit card points to donate to charities this Giving Tuesday

Wednesday

As we hit the middle of the week, we handed out out first Editors' Choice award for Innovation in Credit Cards. Chris Dong highlighted the major changes issuers made in meeting the needs of customers this year — and recognized the one that represented the most innovative step forward. In 2020, this award went to Chase for the new Pay Yourself Back feature, an incredibly flexible program that allows cardholders to redeem Ultimate Rewards points to cover select (non-travel) purchases — and will be around through at least April 2021.

We also launched a refresh of our guide to best first credit cards for those just getting into the world of points and miles — a great resource for all you beginners out there.

I also hosted our second Facebook Live of the 2020 TPG Awards, where I was joined by some of our top-notch editorial team members to break down the Readers' Choice award winners. We figured that some would disagree with the cards our readers selected for the above awards, and we were right. Check out the recording for the lively discussion — and feel free to review our similar conversation from Airlines Week.

Our Instagram was also busy, as we highlighted several TPG readers who successfully diversified their points portfolio to book incredible rewards. If you're over-leveraged in a single loyalty currency, be sure to follow @thepointsguy to learn all about why diversification is key to a successful points-and-miles strategy.

Thursday

Thursday saw another round of great content on our site, as Madison continued our "Spotlight on Safety" series as she looked into what card issuers are doing to protect customers from identity theft and other risks. We also gave out our second Editors' Choice award — recognizing the credit card that offers the best combination of simplicity and value for cardholders. The winner? The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, which provides a solid earning rate and straight-forward redemption option — plus the ability to get more value via transfer partners.

We were also thrilled to be host an Instagram Live with Farnoosh Torabi, author and personal finance expert whose work appears across dozens of media outlets — including The New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Good Morning America. She's also a contributor at NextAdvisor, which is owned by TPG's parent company, Red Ventures. Farnoosh makes financial advice easy-to-understand (and even fun), so check out the video if you didn't get a chance to tune in.

And of course, if you're not already, be sure to follow @thepointsguy on Instagram so you don't miss out on any exciting content in the future.

Friday

We wrapped things up on Friday with a look ahead to 2021, as Katie Genter took a deep dive into what card issuers can (and should) be doing to engender long-term loyalty from customers. We also launched a ton of content across our social platforms, looking closely at all of the cards and programs we discussed during the week.

Bottom line

We're excited to wrap up our second week of the 2020 TPG Awards, and as you can see, there was a ton of content and engaging activities across the five days. Remember to review everything we put out this week and across all four weeks of the awards, as we will be pulling questions for TPG Trivia Night from all of the content we publish — maximizing your chances of taking home some great prizes.

Featured graphic by Wyatt Smith/The Points Guy

Featured image by (Graphic by Wyatt Smith/The Points Guy)
Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author’s alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.