I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[SouthFayetteFan]

How about we redirect to something completely on topic!

2 Questions:

1) If you were told you had to close ALL of your CCs and could only hold ONE card...which card would you hold, and why?

2) Tell me about your favorite trip that churning has enabled. Where did you go? How did churning make it possible? etc...

Let's flood the thread with fun on topic comments that can encourage everybody during these tough times!!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Hey guys - I saw something new and interesting on DISchurners.

In other news, I see a CIP in my daily delivery email today, so that's cool!!

 

[becauseimnew]

Our trips for this year currently stand as follows:

- May: Brazil/Argentina/Uruguay - starting to cancel, definitely a lost cause at this point.
- July: Amsterdam/Brugges - cancelled, replaced with a hopeful camping trip with a group of our friends, location TBD but likely a national forest somewhere between CA and TX
- July: Chicago/Michigan - trip for a family wedding, still on
- September: Zion NP - still on, actually managed to get a better campsite due to cancellations
- October: Toronto - week-long trip for a family wedding, still on
- December: WDW - still on

We're fairly optimistic that our domestic trips will happen, but that might be wishful thinking.

Will you reschedule your May trip? That sounds AMAZING!

 

[Judique]

So I got an IHG card probably .... three or four months ago. I met the minimum spend quickly because we had home owners insurance due. And I got the points. But now I only have smaller charges like groceries. Wonder if they will say anything? I guess they probably don’t care. Has anyone had your credit card say “ you were charging SO MUCH for the first two months and now you’ve slowed down!” I guess I will have car insurance this summer.

I have the IHG card and I rarely put anything on it. Occasionally I get an offer and spend $50. Have had it at least 6 or 7 years, maybe more with no issues.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

I think that is the usual requirement but I sent a SM last week to close a CIP and received a response today that they closed it.

For some reason I was recalling that you could close by SM but you can't downgrade? Maybe I'll try if no one knows.

We still have the Aulani/Disneyland trip in July, Ireland/Northern Ireland in September, many F&W weekends throughout October/November and Dubai/Africa in December on the books. I am resigned to the strong possibility that none of them will pan out. That said, I won't be cancelling anything until the last possible moment. I'd rather wait for the airline to cancel and get a refund with no penalties.

I still have a trip to England in late June/July that was originally for DD's graduation. We have to go back and clean out her room so I'm hoping travel restrictions are lifted by then. If not, not sure what we'll do.

I also have a trip to Disneyland in mid to late July that I'm holding on to for now, but I'd be pretty shocked if it happened. Our state is being very proactive and there is no way of getting around crowds at Disneyland. I'm hearing rumors of a lock down here until June

I'm also holding on to a UK trip in September to take DD to her masters program at Oxford!!!! (Can I just say that again ... OXFORD!!!). Can you tell I'm obscenely excited for her? She has to meet her grade requirement for her offer, but I think the shut down will prevent her from missing it. Crossing fingers!

I also a Base Camp hike in October/November that I suspect won't happen, and another trip to London for Christmas. I'm hoping we have a vaccine by then, but I'm not out any money on any of these so no use in cancelling now.

I don't know what prompted the mod post, but I really don't want this thread to close.

Me neither. But I took advantage of the mute button a few days ago for the first time so I might have missed something.

 

[afan]

I don't know what prompted the mod post, but I really don't want this thread to close.

As for trips, we still have our late August cruise booked (but I think the chances of that happening are pretty close to zero) and plans to spend a few days in Paris in September. I haven't had the heart to cancel it all. It took so much work getting points, booking the flights, the hotels, the private tours and I know I need to do it, but I just haven't done it yet. I don't think I am going to plan anything at this point. When we know more and I have a better chance of going, then I hope I can plan something to look forward to, even if it's small and domestic.

I know, I know but I'm going to answer anywya so it's here, no one wonders amd hopefully just gets seen and then not posted about again.

Due to a problematic post over the weekend.

And the reminder, you can put posters on ignore, you can skip past them or you can report problems. We do try to self mod to keep things easier but sometimes stuff happens.

 

[kylenne]

How about we redirect to something completely on topic!

2 Questions:

1) If you were told you had to close ALL of your CCs and could only hold ONE card...which card would you hold, and why?

2) Tell me about your favorite trip that churning has enabled. Where did you go? How did churning make it possible? etc...

I would definitely keep my CFU...1.5% on every purchase no matter what, for a very flexible currency is great. That card has been very good to me.

I am not a churner per se, I'm a very casual player and just started the process of rebuilding my credit a couple years ago. Sadly my first redemption got cancelled because of This Stuff. But I had booked our May flights to MCO entirely with the SUB bonus from my JetBlue Plus card. Small potatoes compared to some of you guys lol but I always wanted to be one of those "fly on points" folks and given where my credit was 10 years ago, it was a milestone I was proud of.

 

[wisconsinmom]

How about we redirect to something completely on topic!

2 Questions:

1) If you were told you had to close ALL of your CCs and could only hold ONE card...which card would you hold, and why?

2) Tell me about your favorite trip that churning has enabled. Where did you go? How did churning make it possible? etc...

Let's flood the thread with fun on topic comments that can encourage everybody during these tough times!!

That is a tough one! If I could only keep one it would likely be my CSR. I might change my mind on that with the annual fee increasing but I love the travel perks and have no problem spending my $300 travel credit.

I don't know that I've ever completely churned a trip but I typically use points for flights. It is the rare day that we pay for flights. We've done free trips to Hawaii using CSR points to pay for flights and staying at our timeshare. Hawaii for free is my favorite.

*******

We are currently sitting on tickets to Italy in July. I know we won't be going but 3 of the tickets are booked through CSR. I'd really prefer to get the points back vs flight credit. Do I just bide my time and see if the flights are cancelled? They are on Iberia.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

This reminds me, has anyone got their bonus points from the previous months bonus promotion? I had a SUB during those months so hoping to see my 25% bonus show up soon!

We just did an "endorsement", which I'd never heard of before but it was basically like an easy refinance- same lender, but with 1% lower interest rate, and switched from 30 to 15 year mortgage. So excited to reduce our mortgage by 10.5 years, although our pmt did go up $400.

we haven’t seen our yet..I think the last time they took almost 3 months to post

 

[elgerber]

How about we redirect to something completely on topic!

2 Questions:

1) If you were told you had to close ALL of your CCs and could only hold ONE card...which card would you hold, and why?

2) Tell me about your favorite trip that churning has enabled. Where did you go? How did churning make it possible? etc...

Let's flood the thread with fun on topic comments that can encourage everybody during these tough times!!

Not really sure on question 1.
Question 2, trip to the UK to visit my DD when she spent a semester there in spring 2017! It was so wonderful. Used Arrival + for each dh and I and accrued a ton of points for flights and trains. Used hotel points for Lincoln, Edinburgh and York. Used Cap One miles for the hotel in London. Rented out our DVC points for spending money.
Next would be our upcoming trip to Aulani, but that hasn't happened yet LOL.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

How about we redirect to something completely on topic!

2 Questions:

1) If you were told you had to close ALL of your CCs and could only hold ONE card...which card would you hold, and why?

2) Tell me about your favorite trip that churning has enabled. Where did you go? How did churning make it possible? etc...

Let's flood the thread with fun on topic comments that can encourage everybody during these tough times!!

Favorite card would likely be the CSR. Not sure if the new AF would impact my decision (mine renewed in October before the increase).

Favorite churning trip probably would have been the WA Maldives, but I digress. Several years ago I took dd to Venice, Florence and Rome. The flights were on points as well as our nights at the Gritti Palace. Florence and Rome hotels were booked using dh's AmEx platinum (FHR) for room credit and free breakfast. Also February of this year and last year we stayed at the Westin Whistler on points (flights Aeroplan miles) for dd's winter break and even though the hotel is showing its age you can't beat the location and kitchen. I'll add that this year we were upgraded to one of the 2 bedroom penthouse suites!

Can't wait to hear from @calypso726 about her favorite churning trip!

 

[amcc]

How about we redirect to something completely on topic!

2 Questions:

1) If you were told you had to close ALL of your CCs and could only hold ONE card...which card would you hold, and why?

2) Tell me about your favorite trip that churning has enabled. Where did you go? How did churning make it possible? etc...

Let's flood the thread with fun on topic comments that can encourage everybody during these tough times!!

I would definitely keep my CSR for the UR portal redemption but this would be done with my husbands one card being either a CIC (like the 5% on some categories) or a CIU for the 1.5 pts.

The only trips I've used churning for is to redeem UR for our family of 6 to France and Germany using a CSR through the portal. Each time, I saved about $6k cash. Having these points enabled us to do these trips without spending beyond our means.

 

[DisneyMandC]

How about we redirect to something completely on topic!

2 Questions:

1) If you were told you had to close ALL of your CCs and could only hold ONE card...which card would you hold, and why?

2) Tell me about your favorite trip that churning has enabled. Where did you go? How did churning make it possible? etc...

Let's flood the thread with fun on topic comments that can encourage everybody during these tough times!!

1. Definitely CIC. 2x URs on gas and restaurants and 5x on office supply?? Heck yes! I will be seriously upset if they ever get rid of that card.
2. Definitely our family trip to Disney in September 2019. While I talk about the great earning rate of the CIC above, the truth is actually cashed out a ton of URs to pay for it after Chase nerfed Disney in the travel portal. Between URs and discounted Disney GCs, I spent about $2500 OOP on 3 rooms for 7 nights at Pop for 6 adults with 6 day PH tickets and the Disney Dining Plan. Absolutely no regrets, probably the best Disney trip I've ever taken in my life.

 

[miztressuz]

I received an email from GEICO overnight; perhaps you did as well. It said they will grant a 15% premium credit upon renewals between April 8 and October 7 this year. It's not completely clear, but I think when your policy renews you will be charged normally, but your account will have a 15% credit of whatever you aid under your current policy period. Of course,, this means you have to renew to get the credit. Not the best approach but better than a kick in the pants. Also, they describe it not as an acknowledgment that driving, accidents, and damages are down but just giving back. There was also stuff in the email about pausing cancellations for non-renewal.

This reminds me, for anyone with an insurance company doing credits, check your default payment method. With Esurance (and possibly Allstate too) they are automatically crediting your payment method on file - which is generally the last card we all had a MSR for.

I switched mine to a debit card this morning so I'll get cash back and not wreck my min spend.

So I got an IHG card probably .... three or four months ago. I met the minimum spend quickly because we had home owners insurance due. And I got the points. But now I only have smaller charges like groceries. Wonder if they will say anything? I guess they probably don’t care. Has anyone had your credit card say “ you were charging SO MUCH for the first two months and now you’ve slowed down!” I guess I will have car insurance this summer.

Nope, don't care. AmEx is starting to kind of care as evidenced by the pop up for new apps. But Chase not so much yet. I rarely if ever use my IHG card, and they're still happy to take my AF and give me a FNC ever year going on close to 10 years now. I might put a purchase on it once a year, but some years it was literally a gallon of milk.

 

[Judique]

How about we redirect to something completely on topic!

2 Questions:

1) If you were told you had to close ALL of your CCs and could only hold ONE card...which card would you hold, and why?

2) Tell me about your favorite trip that churning has enabled. Where did you go? How did churning make it possible? etc...

Let's flood the thread with fun on topic comments that can encourage everybody during these tough times!!

First of all,
1, Only one credit card??? Noooo!!!! But I'd keep my NFCU Flagship Visa. And then I would be closing 6 Amex's, 7 Chase cards, 1 BOA, 1 US Bank, 3 more NFCU cards, 1 Lowes card and can't recall any more. Ouch.

2, I don't have any 'fancy' trips, but my free nights and points get me to the beach in summer, and help me with many road trips, and side trips of one or two nights. My daughter on the other hand is second only to @calypso726 on this board for aspirational travel.

 

[punkin]

How about we redirect to something completely on topic!

2 Questions:

1) If you were told you had to close ALL of your CCs and could only hold ONE card...which card would you hold, and why?

2) Tell me about your favorite trip that churning has enabled. Where did you go? How did churning make it possible? etc...
Let's flood the thread with fun on topic comments that can encourage everybody during these tough times!!

1) My Amex Gold. It's my oldest card (1997) and I buy A LOT of groceries.
2) Not my favorite...but...I used miles and a companion pass for last minute tickets to move DD out of college last month.

 

[magickingdomprincess]

I'm still planning on summer and fall travel. I have several summer WDW trips planned (we'll only take one but have several dates reserved as backup), DLR at the end of July, and again Labor Day weekend for a wedding, and another WDW trip in Nov for F&W. I'm hopeful they'll all still happen.

 

[elgerber]

On the IHG card, I have had mine for a few years, and never charge anything on it except the annual fee LOL.

 

[kylenne]

My original plan was to upgrade in a year from the CSP to the CSR for the boosted earning and redemption rates, plus the perks, but the fee increase + everything going on now has made me unsure. Glad to see it getting love. (I went for the CSP first because of the higher SUB)

 

[GZanta77]

How about we redirect to something completely on topic!

2 Questions:

1) If you were told you had to close ALL of your CCs and could only hold ONE card...which card would you hold, and why?

2) Tell me about your favorite trip that churning has enabled. Where did you go? How did churning make it possible? etc...

Let's flood the thread with fun on topic comments that can encourage everybody during these tough times!!

1. Probably have to go with CIC. I thought Amex Gold at first, but the 5x on gift cards at Office Supply would make the CIC a whole lot more flexible. Also CSR but that is less attractive without the other cards to feed it at 5x URs. So CIC it is.

2. Lots of trips enabled by churning, but rarely completely funded by points - so right now I will say the favorite trip is the last minute one-way flight booking on points to bring DS home from the UK a few weeks ago after university was cancelled.