I love credit cards so much!

[gottalovepluto]

DoC renews my shutdown fears

Kinda glad DoC did, some of the readers seemed pretty unaware. I think we've done a decent job over here of giving people a heads up on this topic, and by "we" I basically mean @SouthFayetteFan

 

[gottalovepluto]

I'm soooooo tempted by the SPG points sale, esp. since I'm working on SPG Biz spend still (although I just looked, and I will have no trouble meeting the spend organically, so no need to spend more money). But I don't have a specific airline transfer trip planned, and it seems expensive if you're just going to use them for hotel nights. But it seems like lots of people are investing in them, so I've got a little FOMO going on...

Ditto.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Kinda glad DoC did, some of the readers seemed pretty unaware. I think we've done a decent job over here of giving people a heads up on this topic, and by "we" I basically mean @SouthFayetteFan

Hahaha - it's the responsible thing to do. We have a lot of newer folks here and I definitely want to protect everybody from the hassle and frustration of a shutdown.

I don't want to sound critical of DoC but he has largely been silent about shutdowns... He has to acknowledge that some of his readers avoid the fray of r/churning and flyertalk and look to him solely for info (truthfully if you only read DoC you'd pretty much be in the know). Glad to see he made mention of it and I think he should be more up front about it in the future

 

[platamama]

I have come to the same conclusion. Other good thing is it is sorta like money laundering....I buy points and then I tell DH I booked a mom/daughter trip to WDW on points. None of that is a lie and he is none the wiser.

 

[WardFam]

DPs indicate that having a banking relationship with Chase has no bearing on shutdown. There are even DPs of people in Chase Private Client being shutdown. I don't think having an account makes you more at risk...I don't think having an account makes you safer. It literally appears to have no affect. The one thing that does seem to have a bearing though is having a Mortgage of any sort. The assumed reason for this is because it's harder to disappear off the grid if you own real property

Good news on the banking relationship bad news on the mortgage. Who knew paying off our house would make it harder to qualify for a credit card! I would think owning a home would make it more difficult to up and leave also!

 

[linzjane88]

Let me take a moment to complain that I got the plague that DD6 had, along with DD10 getting it too. It was a symphony of wretching last night. In fact even DD6 who felt better and went to school yesterday went for another round. Her and sister were taking turns at the same time with the garbage can. It was funny in an absolutely disgusting way. It has been years since I have been sick like this.

But, glass half full, I have a legitimate reason to sit around all day on the boards planning my next card. Although for most of the morning even sitting upright and typing was too strenuous.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I'm not totally current on posts this morning, so you might have gotten what you are looking for, but we upgraded to UA first class on flights from SFO to LHR last summer. I originally used UA miles to book economy saver awards with the hope of getting an upgrade later. I was realistically just hoping for business class saver upgrades. Starting a month or so out from our flight, I started checking our flights on the UA website several times a day. I think it was about 6 days before our departure date that I saw 4 first class saver awards open up and just about lost my mind. I was literally shaking as I called United to secure the upgrades. I transferred UR to my United account to cover the additional miles needed while on the phone with the agent, and she was able to book the saver first awards. Oddly, after I got off the phone, I could see the first class tickets/seats in my United account, but the extra miles hadn't been deducted. In an abundance of caution, I called back a couple of hours later and, sure enough, the first agent hadn't actually completed the process of our upgrade. Luckily, the seats were still available and the second agent completed the upgrade. She ended up charging me $150 per ticket for the upgrade, which in hindsight I don't think was correct (I don't think there should have been a charge), but I was so happy with the upgrade for that 10-hour flight that I honestly didn't care about paying $600. Totally worth it.

ETA: I'm not sure, though, that you can use miles to upgrade a flight paid with cash. Or maybe it's vice versa, and you can't use cash to upgrade a flight paid with miles.

I think you were charged the $150 because what you did was not an "upgrade" your ticket had to be re-booked. I have VERY limited knowledge but researched this out a bit a couple months ago and switching from a Saver Economy ticket to a Saver First Class on United requires you to be re-booked so they get to charge the change fee. Certainly sounds like it was worth it though!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Good news on the banking relationship bad news on the mortgage. Who knew paying off our house would make it harder to qualify for a credit card! I would think owning a home would make it more difficult to up and leave also!

I'm not saying harder to "qualify". The people getting shut down are getting approved for the cards typically. This is back to the bust-out risk factors - if you look like a bust-out fraudster (i.e. signing up for lots of cards so that you can max them out and then vanish)...you probably don't have a mortgage tying you down.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I have come to the same conclusion. Other good thing is it is sorta like money laundering....I buy points and then I tell DH I booked a mom/daughter trip to WDW on points. None of that is a lie and he is none the wiser.

Part of me is super uncomfortable now, haha

 

[Calfan]

I think you were charged the $150 because what you did was not an "upgrade" your ticket had to be re-booked. I have VERY limited knowledge but researched this out a bit a couple months ago and switching from a Saver Economy ticket to a Saver First Class on United requires you to be re-booked so they get to charge the change fee. Certainly sounds like it was worth it though!

Interesting, and that is almost surely what happened. (Thinking back to my account and the line item entries, they are consistent with re-depositing our original miles and then pulling out the full miles for the first class awards.) It was definitely strange that the agent didn't say anything about the $150 charge per person at the time. But I absolutely would have paid $600 to re-book to first class, so I was still a very happy camper. I have upgraded in the past and had just the incremental miles taken out of my account with no redeposit/change fee, so I wonder if this was a policy change by United or just a one-off with this agent and the way she processed the transaction.

 

[Ava]

Sounds like a great plan!! Will the new Starriott cards offer elite nights at sign-up? I need to go back and review . . . everything is swirling together in my head. I'm surprised I'm not having dreams about Marriott and SPG at night . . .

Enabler.

The new Starriott cards will give 15 elite nights per year, but you will no longer be able to stack them from multiple cards. It's one 15-night credit per rewards account starting in 2019.

I need to think about it some more. I'm already stretched thin on MSR until July from the two SPG cards. But, I could meet MSR on the Marriott card via bank account funding. But, my Sept trip is not set in stone and without it I won't be able to get to 50 nights unless I MS $18K on the Marriott cards, which a) I've never done and b) seems like it could trigger a shut down from sudden high spending. So, there are a lot of "buts" in this scenario.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Decided I should put some normal spend on the Citi AA Biz i got back in Oct so gave it a shot at Best Buy today- declined. Of course. 10 mins after being on the phone with Citi the fraud alert is cleared, maybe, because this is Citi. On the bright side, the fraud alert that showed every time I've logged in for the last 5 months is gone. (I'm not terribly irresponsible, I tried to clear that twice, after over an hour of the phone with csr's and IT telling me everything was fine I gave up.) Citi, I love your AA bonuses- but C'MON!

 

[Lain]

So here is my thinking...and you have the math brain to help me think through this and whether it's totally dumb or incorrect thinking...I am thinking if we got the CFU under this offer, we'd put every single expense on it (apply under dh, get replacement card for me add both teens as AU'ers). I'd move all my plastiq spending to this card (that alone is $2800 month). If we put everything on this card, I could legitimately put $4500-5000/mo on it. Then we have things like college tuition in the fall and spring, which would be additional big chunks plus any other unexpected expenses. I'm estimating 60k in a year pretty easily.

I'm not sure about what other cards I want. The CIC was the main one I was after next. Then maybe a spg biz for me. I was going to go for SW CP late this year but I think our Hawaii plans have changed and since we really only fly 1-2 times a year, and we have a lot of points right now, I'm not sure I *need* to do that. I think, other than the CIC bonus decreasing, every other card could probably wait a year.

What do you think? Pick my scenario apart cause it makes sense in my mind but you are much better at all this than I am. I do know UR are my main point love. I'd rather earn UR's than any other points.

ETA: Could even do some bank account funding with this. I've been stuck in Amex land for so long, I forget all you can do when you are paying with a visa

I’ve just got a moment, and I haven't caught up with the afternoon's chatter, so I won’t be able to thoroughly dissect your post. But I was thinking along the same lines last night.

I think the big thing is there’s no cap on how much spending can earn 3x UR on the CFU in that first year, at least that I'm aware of.

The three Chase cards that are the big UR earners for us are the CIP (3x on Plastiq and eGift cards), CSR (3x on dining and travel), and the CF (5x categories, but capped at $1,500/quarter). Even without a standard 15,000 UR signup bonus, the 3x CFU replaces the CIP and CSR for all their spend for the next year, which I’d say easily amounts to over $10,000/year.

• In terms of the CFU replacing the CSR, I see one potential benefit: (1) downgrade the CSR to a CF/CFU if you won't be making any 1.5x redemptions in the next year or you have another CSR in your household, get a prorated AF back, and put travel and dining spend on the new CFU 3x for a year, then PC one of your Chase cards back up to CSR after a year (eta: or churn a new CSR/double dip with CSP if it’s been 24 months since your last Sapphire bonus).
• In terms of the CFU 3x replacing the CIP, I see two potential positives: (1) Plastiq and the gift card apps could stop earning 3x on the CIP at any time, but you’re guaranteed everything codes 3x on the CFU 3x for at least a year; and (2) I know a lot of people have considered cancelling the CIP after a year to avoid the $95 AF, so the CFU 3x gives them a card that will continue to earn solid 3x base on whatever they were charging to the CIP for at least a year (eta: and frees up a biz card slot?).
• Relatedly, because the CFU 3x is such an earning machine, it makes for an obvious card to put (almost)* all your spend on for a year, which could cool down the desire to sign up for more cards in the next 12 months and could help bring down your x/24 count.
• There are a few instances where spend would go on other cards, like those for which you're trying to meet MSR, CF 5x categories up to $1,500/account, and maybe the Amex BCP at grocery stores.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

DPs indicate that having a banking relationship with Chase has no bearing on shutdown. There are even DPs of people in Chase Private Client being shutdown. I don't think having an account makes you more at risk...I don't think having an account makes you safer. It literally appears to have no affect. The one thing that does seem to have a bearing though is having a Mortgage of any sort. The assumed reason for this is because it's harder to disappear off the grid if you own real property

Honestly, on paper I’m at risk for a shutdown because of number of cards (avoiding Chase for now )
But IRL, I have a husband, a kid, a mortgage, same job for over 10years, live 4 blocks from my childhood home, where my mom still lives. I’m not going anywhere (even if I wanted to. lol) I doubt they take the real picture into account.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Decided I should put some normal spend on the Citi AA Biz i got back in Oct so gave it a shot at Best Buy today- declined. Of course. 10 mins after being on the phone with Citi the fraud alert is cleared, maybe, because this is Citi. On the bright side, the fraud alert that showed every time I've logged in for the last 5 months is gone. (I'm not terribly irresponsible, I tried to clear that twice, after over an hour of the phone with csr's and IT telling me everything was fine I gave up.) Citi, I love your AA bonuses- but C'MON!

OMG that Citi website sucks, as does their IT. I cancelled DHs Citi AA Biz last year after 6 months because of it. Could never get it to work. Despite IT help, I couldn’t change settings or add alerts, we didn’t get statement emails every month. Awful. IT would say, “ok it’s fixed, log in and add an alert “ I would and even they would acknowledge it didn’t go through and they couldn’t figure out why. I finally gave up (I’m the finance/bill pay person in our family).

 

[gottalovepluto]

Honestly, on paper I’m at risk for a shutdown because of number of cards (avoiding Chase for now )
But IRL, I have a husband, a kid, a mortgage, same job for over 10years, live 4 blocks from my childhood home, where my mom still lives. I’m not going anywhere (even if I wanted to. lol) I doubt they take the real picture into account.

Alas, if they did they wouldn't be shutting down their Chase Private Clients.

 

[gottalovepluto]

OMG that Citi website sucks, as does their IT. I cancelled DHs Citi AA Biz last year after 6 months because of it. Could never get it to work. Despite IT help, I couldn’t change settings or add alerts, we didn’t get statement emails every month. Awful. IT would say, “ok it’s fixed, log in and add an alert “ I would and even they would acknowledge it didn’t go through and they couldn’t figure out why. I finally gave up (I’m the finance/bill pay person in our family).

Oh god- there truly is no light at the end of this tunnel is there?..

 

[Ngwira]

I’m in a burning kinda mood. Decided to use the points I’ve accumulated over these past 2 years. So far, I’ve burned a number of Southwest, Hyatt, JetBlue, Amtrak and Chase UR. Earlier this year, I burned tons of MR. I still have some UR, JetBlue and Citi TY points, but the game changes so fast, I figure I should actually use the points I have. I also go through points much faster since I have to cover 4 people.

Now to come up with a strategy to replenish my stash....

 

[AmyAnne]

My wife just clicked down to 3/24 on April 1. By June 1 she will be 0/24. We are hitting Chase with the LARGE min. spends first - here's our rough strategy:

12/2017: Delta Gold Biz (counting for 2018 since most of the spend was this year - we cashed out via Target gift cards)
01/2018: AMEX Blue 4 Business Plus
04/2018: CIP (approved and working on min. spend now)
07/2018: CSR/CSP double dip
TBD Late 2018: TBD AMEX Biz card (to slow the roll with Chase)
Late 2018/Early 2019: CIC
Beyond that she will hit SW Biz, SW personal, CF, CFU
I will click under 5/24 in spring 2019 and then I can hit CIP, CSR/CSP, CIC, etc. myself

We basically have a strategy that goes 2+ years out from now

I admire your plan to get to -5/24 to get the Chase cards. So far this year I have gotten the Discover card (we typically max out the Freedom 5x categories, so this seemed like a good keeper card) and the AmEx MB Platinum (because I am a sucker for the disappearing cards). I need to try to stay focused on business cards to possibly get below 5/24. I'll have two AmEx credit card slots opening this summer when I cancel the Hilton and SPG, so that should keep me busy for the rest of the year.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

oh yay! My boys are 8 & 10. I will have to tell them to look for the other Blackhawks kid on board.

I told DS and he thinks that’s pretty cool! He was excited to get a Patrick Sharp jersey today and we’re going to see Chicago Wolves vs Rockford IceHogs AHL playoff game to tomorrow night. The Blackhawks tix are so expensive, we’re trying to get in some AHL games instead.