I love credit cards so much!

[Lain]

thanks this is awsome, and yes I knew there was lots out there, almost too much, I didn't really know where to start, now I do.

You can check https://www.awardhacker.com/ for an idea of how many frequent flyer miles it'll cost to fly with the different carriers from all your destinations to HNL, as well as what awards points are transferrable to those airlines. That should give you an idea which awards and miles programs to focus on next.

 

[gottalovepluto]

You can check https://www.awardhacker.com/ for an idea of how many frequent flyer miles it'll cost to fly with the different carriers from all your destinations to HNL, as well as what awards points are transferrable to those airlines. That should give you an idea which awards and miles programs to focus on next.

I hadn't had time to explore around awardhacker so thank's for posting about it again! SO COOL!! (Gosh I'm such a credit card travel nerd sometimes, I'm going to be plugging in potential trips all night after work...)

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

We made it back! Married and honeymooned and had a great time! And saved a few bucks thanks to credit cards

Came home to my Marriott card in the mail, so I've got just over two months for that spend. I'm about $200 through the $500 spend for my CFU. I've got my car in the shop currently, hopefully done next week. My share of that after deductible and insurance payouts from the hail and accident is about $4200. So there's my Marriott spend, plus some extra so I'm trying to decide what to do with that.

I got a spending offer on my Barclay Arrival (no fee) - extra 1k points each month I spend $1500 on it for Oct, Nov, Dec, and an extra 2k if I do it all 3 months. Not that exciting, but if I'm not meeting a spend I'll have to debate that vs other cards. Now that the wedding is over, we have really low expenses so we'll probably slow down on cards. We don't have rent/mortgage/utility expenses right now, and we paid off our student loans in August. Set monthly bills right now are about $450, fluctuating spending about $1000 (gas, groceries, eating out, etc so it's not always all spent, plus we're not always together when this spending is going on). Most of our 'spending' is saving goals. We've got car payments but that means I'd have to talk DH into using plastiq, etc...

I was excited for a moment about SPG business, but not the $10k spending, especially $6k in 3 months. Not sure I can come up with enough there!

Tentative plans:
Before we get any joint accounts, I think I'll send him to Chase to get a $300 checking + $200 savings account bonus. Not only will we get $500, but closing his current account means no more $10 debit card fee! So silly, but there's no way to waive it. He's been at that bank for about 15 years and every cent has always gone through them. Still $10.
2018: Jan - WDW; April - DLR/SoCal for a wedding; Maybe something in Sept for anniversary, and hopefully a few weeknd trips with SW CP
2019: Get SW CP under DH, Cruise for us or possibly with family
European trip in 2019 or 2020 with lots of credit card help - going to start looking into that now

Congratulations! So exciting to have heard about your wedding plans for so long and now to know it is a done deal. Wishing the best for you guys.

 

[Albort]

The SPG biz 35k offer ends 11/1/17. That's a historical high offer, right, but with a higher msr? Who knows if we'll see another 35k SPG offer with the Marriott acquisition? The Marriott is at 80k right now, which is off its high of 100k. I'd wait on the Marriott for a higher offer.

it happened last April. got the spg personal then. I neglect to mention I'm 4/24 right now. hehe

 

[calypso726]

I do have to say I love this board. I got into this a few years back in a very small way, basically just the SW card. Did nothing for several yrs, then for what ever reason started reading this board this past spring. Since then I have gotten the following, CSP, CIP, SW +, SW business( my companion pass) AMex GOld, and just now got the Amex Hilton Surpass. So when I finish my spend on the CIP and Hilton, I will have accumulated, over 160,000 UR's, 52,000 MR's, 120,000 SW Miles, the,companion pass, and 100,000 hilton points. The goal being to take my family, 4 kids, 2 spouses, 1 girl friend, and 2 grand children to Hawaii, in the summer of 2019. Right now hubby has not started in to this, but at some point next yr, I will start him, so that we will end up with the companion pass again for 2019, and 2020. Right now 4 of us live on the east Coast, 1 daughter and her family live on the west coast, the other daughter and family live in Guam.

so anyone have any suggestion on where I should go from here, some of us will be staying at the Hilton in Hawaii, as it's next to the military hotel where the rest of us will be. THus the need for HIlton points, Not sure if I shuld go for the Hawaiian air CC or just stick to the Chase and Amex for hubby. Anyone know what the current best way is to use either my UR or my MR towards air fare.

I would get hubby on board now. If you are planning to secure award flights you need to have those miles in place well before your trip. I plan my trips about 2 years out. I allow myself one year to get the miles I need so they will be in place about a year before I need to book. I was trying to book flights to Hawaii next year for March recently. Thee were no decent flights on award tickets. It was not a planned trip. We received an offer to attained a timeshare presentation that was too good to pass up. Unfortunately they only were allowing us to select 6 months out. We complained and tried to get back a deposit with the timeshare for the trip since we could not book on miles. They didn't want to give back the deposit but escalated the issue to management. Suffice to say we were allowed to book further out so I could secure flights on mile before choosing our dates to stay at the resort.

Besdez getting your DH board, I would suggest making mock flight reservations for everyone so you know which miles you will need when the time comes.

Is this a good deal? Should I jump on it? I've been researching business/first class flights for this summer to from EWR to LAS then from PHX back to EWR for a trip to Vegas/AZ/Grand Canyon.

$3,533.64 for 4 people

I feel like that is excellent price for first class. Thoughts??

Edit: It's American, and nonstop.

It's a good price but domestic economy is not anything to write home about. If it is a lie flat seat I'd be all over that. Check seat guru and see.

 

[speedyfishy]

Has anyone opened a PNC checking and savings account with a credit card? I’m seeing DPs online of them requiring you to send in a signature card. Anyone know what this is?

 

[afan]

I realized today that what I thought were fraudulent charges were actually mine. I'll call in after work though I don't have the old card and the new hasn't come yet so not sure how that'll go. Will reversing the fraud cause issues?

 

[mfly]

Question for you all: I'm (finally) getting my sister into the cc game. She has 2 CCs: Freedom and Sapphire (the old regular one). She hasn't had any new cards within the past 24 months. She and her husband have a good income, she has good credit, etc.

She applied for the SW Premier and Plus on the same day. One was instantly approved, the other she got a 30-day message. Fast-forward to today (about a week later) and she got a letter from Chase saying she was denied for the second card for "too many requests for credit or opened accounts with us."

Is this likely as simple as her calling and asking for credit lines to be moved around from her current Sapphire to the new card?

I thought it would be an easy, instant-approval situation, so I don't want to be the bad guy for getting her in this situation and not being able to help her out.

 

[calypso726]

Just got approved for the new BoA Premium Rewards card. I haven't played with BoA cards since they don't have any I want. Although I've considered the Alaska card from time to time. But I've got an upcoming trip that I will likely be able to make the spend for a bonus so I figured a new credit card was in order. I'm not ready to cancel anything I have just yet. I'm maxed out on the number of Amex credit cards one is allowed to have. I'm in a holding pattern with Citi until my 24 months are up for another card and I'm LOL/24 with Chase. So, I will happily take $500 from BoA, thank you very much.

 

[elgerber]

[QUOTE="calypso726, post:I'm LOL/24 with Chase. So, I will happily take $500 from BoA, thank you very much.[/QUOTE]
This is hilarious! And totally me too.

 

[platamama]

Just got approved for the new BoA Premium Rewards card. I haven't played with BoA cards since they don't have any I want. Although I've considered the Alaska card from time to time. But I've got an upcoming trip that I will likely be able to make the spend for a bonus so I figured a new credit card was in order. I'm not ready to cancel anything I have just yet. I'm maxed out on the number of Amex credit cards one is allowed to have. I'm in a holding pattern with Citi until my 24 months are up for another card and I'm LOL/24 with Chase. So, I will happily take $500 from BoA, thank you very much.

I just got approved last week for that one too. That puts me at 5/24 so no more for me until SW cards late next year (except the targeted offer I just got from CitiBusiness AAdvantage). Are you a Preferred Rewards level? The 2.625% (at Plat Hon level) everywhere is pretty sweet.

 

[Lain]

No plastique. I used the CIP to pay eBay fees and shipping/freight bills. Hopefully that was ok. Sounded like all of those things should code at 3x.

You can see how a transaction codes on the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal site, under Your Points>Review More Activity (Recent Activity) much sooner than waiting for the transaction details to post on your regular Chase account site. As for shipping, I've found that going through USPS earns me 3x on the CIP, but using PayPal shipping to generate a USPS label does not earn 3x even when charged to the CIP.

Thanks so much for the link for referrals!

No problem!

I'm thinking next step should be to get DH a CIP.

After that, I'm torn. I like that with the one chase card you can redeem at 1.5...but that annual fee (esp if we each get one) . I know we'll get the 300 travel credit. But, I'm also thinking the way we travel may not code as travel (renting dvc etc...).
I'm assuming the 1.5 per point is when you use within chase UR portal. So...no benefit if you're transferring to other partners. Maybe the chase Marriott is a good choice or even IHG (if we stay in hotels it's along those lines we're not fancy travelers).

DH thinks my new hobby is a good way to fly to Disney instead of putting so many miles on our vehicles. However, i can't for the life of me figure out how to get from CLT to MCO using these chase points. Only direct flights are American Airlines and frontier. I thought I was on to something, transfer UR to British Airways. Book flight with avios. Used to be 4500 for economy short hauls. Now it's supposed to be 7500. However, CLT to MCO quotes as 15,000 on their site. But maybe that's still not a bad value...????

Sorry for the ramble, trying to sort all this out in my head.

Referring your DH for the CIP is a good move. 20k UR for you, 80k for him.

As for the CSR, that's another 50k UR signup bonus but the $450 AF is off-putting to a lot of people, even with the $300 travel credit. You mentioned renting DVC -- that counts as "travel" for the CSR (and the CIP, since they should code the same). You'll have to ask this thread which DVC brokers actually code as "travel" as their merchant codes vary. So, on the CSR and CIP, you can earn 3x UR for renting DVC; and on the CSR you'll get a $300 statement credit for that rental, bringing the effective AF to $150. Because the CIP and CSR both earn 3x for travel, it's a bit redundant to have both for charging travel unless you plan to use the CSR over the CIP for its better redemption value (points are worth 50% more vs. 25% more) on the UR portal. So, you can decide if $150 effectively is worth a 50k UR signup bonus, and if so sign up; then, if you don't get enough value out of the CSR's redemption bonus, cancel after the first year.

But due to the new "one Sapphire rule," it might make sense to apply for both the CSR and CSP at the same time to double-dip on their 50k bonuses. The CSP would take up another slot, so people who have neither card are waiting to be at 4/24 with Chase to use that last slot to double-dip. The CSP has its $95 AF waived the first year.

Question for you all: I'm (finally) getting my sister into the cc game. She has 2 CCs: Freedom and Sapphire (the old regular one). She hasn't had any new cards within the past 24 months. She and her husband have a good income, she has good credit, etc.

She applied for the SW Premier and Plus on the same day. One was instantly approved, the other she got a 30-day message. Fast-forward to today (about a week later) and she got a letter from Chase saying she was denied for the second card for "too many requests for credit or opened accounts with us."

Is this likely as simple as her calling and asking for credit lines to be moved around from her current Sapphire to the new card?

I thought it would be an easy, instant-approval situation, so I don't want to be the bad guy for getting her in this situation and not being able to help her out.

I would call recon: 1-888-270-2127. It doesn't sound like a 5/24 or 2/30 problem. I'm thinking Chase will want to know why your sister applied for two credit cards on the same day after years of doing fine with just two, and Chase may have already extended her enough credit (or wants to see how she does with recently extended credit). She could say she wants cards that give her better travel benefits with an airline she uses frequently, and that she needs both the Premier and Plus because she "wants to keep expenses separate." Emphasize good credit history, and if it comes down to it, ask to move around credit from other cards.

Wishing her good luck!

 

[eeyoresmom]

For those who are concerned how opening credit cards affects your credit (or as I like to think of it, debt) score, I'll share my experience. I just started opening the Chase cards after first becoming interested in travel hacking in general this spring. In February my credit (debt) score was 815-832. I had an Amex BCP and a Chase Disney Visa with no balances and no other consumer debt. In April I opened the CSP. In late June I opened the SW Plus and Preferred on the same day. I met MS and got all my sign up bonuses as planned, never carrying a balance. In July I purchased a new car sooner than I was planning. My plan was to pay cash but was offered 0% interest and decided to finance the car and pay it off after a year, which I am glad I did because I ended up helping DD buy a house for cash this month. In July, after buying the car and opening the 3 cc's my credit (debt) score went down to 802-810. Between July and now, I've been using my cc's as usual and paying off the balances and my score is back up to 820-832. I am paying off that car very soon because having that payment is just messing up my budgeting so we will see what effect paying that off has on my score. I know Dave Ramsey and others say you don't need a credit score but in this situation it really has been beneficial that I had that cash available and I wouldn't have gotten 0% without a great score.

 

[calypso726]

I just got approved last week for that one too. That puts me at 5/24 so no more for me until SW cards late next year (except the targeted offer I just got from CitiBusiness AAdvantage). Are you a Preferred Rewards level? The 2.625% (at Plat Hon level) everywhere is pretty sweet.

Not at the moment. We moved around some money last year to qualify for Chase Private Client as that was the only way to get the CSR at the time if you were over 5/24. This loophole no longer works for anyone considering that move. I am going to be looking into Platinum Honors with DH and see if it is possible to move over some money there for 3 months, move up a tier timed to the annual review once a year to qualify for the next 12 months. We also would have to run some numbers and see if it is worth the hassle. The Chase Private Client move was definitely worth the hassle for us. I negotiated the fees down to match what we were already paying with another managed account, moved over much less than their public terms are for CPC qualification and kept half of our investments in the existing managed account to compare what Chase would do with our current provider at the time. Chase out performed our current provider at the time each quarter so we moved the rest over to Chase. Plus DH and I each got our CSR cards when they were at the 100,000 bonus. I know it sounds insane to go through all that just to get a freaking credit card but as it turned out, well worth it.

I figure I have some time to mull it over and work the numbers. I will be keeping the card anyhow. The $95 fee is offset by the $100 airline incidental credit. I have no problem spending the $100 on an AA gift card. DPs on Flyer Talk state that $50 AA gift cards will trigger the credit, so I can buy two. We stockpile the AA gift cards like a mini AA savings account and will use them we can't find award flights we like when planning last minute trips.

 

[calypso726]

Ok my turn to ask for some input on a trip! Here's the back story, which I am explaining in case anyone else ever runs into the same situation. Back in June, we received and offer from a timeshare company to go to Maui for 6 days and 5 nights for $700~, a car rental, a resort credit and 5,000 AA miles. The offer would expire at the end of them month in June. All we have to do is sit through one timeshare presentation for about 90 minutes. Ok, no problem. The rooms average $350 per night so this was a no brainer for us. Not to mention, any semblance of an excuse will do for me to plan a vacation or trip no matter how unexpected. We paid the fee and then tried to book the stay for March since I found some award availability to fly to Maui. Well they weren't booking for March. They said they's call us when they were as they book 6 months out. We got the call a couple of weeks ago and the dates we wanted weren't available for the resort or for the flights. So I looked at other dates for flights a few weeks before and there was no award availability that was acceptable. We decided we wouldn't be going and DH called to decline the offer and try to get a refund on the $700~. That was a no go. He spoke with supervisors and explained the situation and finally an acceptable compromise was reached. They would waive the 6 month booking window. We were going to be guaranteed resort availability through October 2018 and could call and secure whatever we wanted after we got our flights booked. That works for me. I decided the first week of September would work so I am now in the process of securing flights and here is where I'd like some input.

We are flying out from Florida so it will be a long flight. Most of you already know DH (aka the Princess) is simply not going to do an economy flight that is over 3 hours. If a lie flat seat is possible then that is what we are doing. Not that I'm arguing with him about it. I suppose I have my own tiara when it comes to long flights. There are limited options for lie flat seats. AA, once again is looking like our best bet. There are no saver awards to be found! So, I can either book 2 one ways for 67.5K miles each (135k miles total). Or pay $2290 total in AA gift cards. Or pay with Amex MR business card 229,000 MR and then get back 50% a few weeks later since that benefit is still available to me until January. Currently, we are AA gold which I still don't understand how we got any status or how that benefits us. We aren't too far off from Platinum which I also don't understand. I imagine there is some opportunity cost for using miles over pay with points or gift cards but I don't know what that would be. So WWYD and why? Thanks for any insight!

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I imagine there is some opportunity cost for using miles over pay with points or gift cards but I don't know what that would be. So WWYD and why? Thanks for any insight!

If you have the gift cards to cover, I might do that because platinum status will get you 60% mileage bonus over gold's 40% bonus, since you fly AA so much.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Ok my turn to ask for some input on a trip! Here's the back story, which I am explaining in case anyone else ever runs into the same situation. Back in June, we received and offer from a timeshare company to go to Maui for 6 days and 5 nights for $700~, a car rental, a resort credit and 5,000 AA miles. The offer would expire at the end of them month in June. All we have to do is sit through one timeshare presentation for about 90 minutes. Ok, no problem. The rooms average $350 per night so this was a no brainer for us. Not to mention, any semblance of an excuse will do for me to plan a vacation or trip no matter how unexpected. We paid the fee and then tried to book the stay for March since I found some award availability to fly to Maui. Well they weren't booking for March. They said they's call us when they were as they book 6 months out. We got the call a couple of weeks ago and the dates we wanted weren't available for the resort or for the flights. So I looked at other dates for flights a few weeks before and there was no award availability that was acceptable. We decided we wouldn't be going and DH called to decline the offer and try to get a refund on the $700~. That was a no go. He spoke with supervisors and explained the situation and finally an acceptable compromise was reached. They would waive the 6 month booking window. We were going to be guaranteed resort availability through October 2018 and could call and secure whatever we wanted after we got our flights booked. That works for me. I decided the first week of September would work so I am now in the process of securing flights and here is where I'd like some input.

We are flying out from Florida so it will be a long flight. Most of you already know DH (aka the Princess) is simply not going to do an economy flight that is over 3 hours. If a lie flat seat is possible then that is what we are doing. Not that I'm arguing with him about it. I suppose I have my own tiara when it comes to long flights. There are limited options for lie flat seats. AA, once again is looking like our best bet. There are no saver awards to be found! So, I can either book 2 one ways for 67.5K miles each (135k miles total). Or pay $2290 total in AA gift cards. Or pay with Amex MR business card 229,000 MR and then get back 50% a few weeks later since that benefit is still available to me until January. Currently, we are AA gold which I still don't understand how we got any status or how that benefits us. We aren't too far off from Platinum which I also don't understand. I imagine there is some opportunity cost for using miles over pay with points or gift cards but I don't know what that would be. So WWYD and why? Thanks for any insight!

When you pay with MR, is that transferring points to AA or that is as a cash transaction? It seems like if MR is a cash transaction, you would get miles for the flights plus pay less overall (114k miles total) for the flight than if you booked directly with miles. That is probably what I would do.

 

[calypso726]

If you have the gift cards to cover, I might do that because platinum status will get you 60% mileage bonus over gold's 40% bonus, since you fly AA so much.

We do fortunately. That is good to know and definitely something to consider. The MR points would also be a cash transaction since it is pay with points and not a transfer. I lose that 50% back benefit in January.

When you pay with MR, is that transferring points to AA or that is as a cash transaction? It seems like if MR is a cash transaction, you would get miles for the flights plus pay less overall (114k miles total) for the flight than if you booked directly with miles. That is probably what I would do.

Cash transaction and get 50% back. So I'd pay with 229,000 points and then would get 50% back into my account a day or so later. I'd love to use the benefit before I no longer have the option. I guess it is a matter of point valuation which is why I am wavering. I've also never taken the whole status thing into consideration because I've never bothered to try to understand it since I didn't think we'd ever have it or that it would benefit in any way. Now I have to math and learn about status stuff. I know, first world problems.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

We do fortunately. That is good to know and definitely something to consider. The MR points would also be a cash transaction since it is pay with points and not a transfer. I lose that 50% back benefit in January.

Didn't know that about MR points, so would use that option then. Fewer net points used, plus qualifying miles. Win win.

 

[calypso726]

Didn't know that about MR points, so would use that option then. Fewer net points used, plus qualifying miles. Win win.

Yup. You can use them like Chase UR points. You can transfer them directly to a partner airline or hotel program or pay with points. Sometimes they have bonus transfers to airlines which is pretty sweet. The points are .01 as cash. But, if you have an Amex Plat biz card that you opened after October 2016 but before May 31, 2017 you will get one full year of the 50% back when paying with points. This makes my current points valued at .02 each until January. After January the rebate drops to 35% points back which makes the pay with points worth 1.54 which is slightly more than the CSR 1.5. So, for the moment I have more buying power with Amex MR than I do with UR which is why I am not considering using UR points for this trip at all.

The value of AA miles is far less than the value of MR and we have a LOT of AA miles. Normally, I'd use them because I'm not taking status into account and we have a lot. However, I am also reluctant to use them at the moment because of an upcoming trip to Antarctica for my 50th. My only option is likely going to be AA. If there is no saver availability the miles can be as high as 195k each way! The OOP cost is over $3800 per person Gift cards won't cover it and I won't pay that much OOP. So, I'm currently inclined to hoard the AA miles since I can't rely on saver availability during a peak time. So I am rather glad to hear the recommendation from you and @Jen and Ashwin to be use the MR points. I think that is what I am going to do. Thanks for helping me come to a good decision It always helps to "think out loud" here on the board and get some input from the travel hacking peeps!