I love credit cards so much! v4.0 - 2021 (see first page for add'l details)

[WVMomof3]

Looking for advice on PC for CSP to CSR. Both P2 and I have one. Mine opened on 3/17/2020 and P2 on 9/19/2020. I will move all our UR's to one card to take advantage of the 1.5 towards travel. I've read previous posts and know that the annual fee will post a few weeks after PC. So which card would be the best to PC? I am thinking mine since my AF will be due soon? My plan then is to cancel the other card once that AF becomes due since I won't have a need for both.

The card must be a year old before you can PC. It can take a few months for new fee to post.

 

[ski_mom]

I know there's been a lot of talk on here about being careful with new account when refinancing. DH and I are going to be building a house, so will be taking out a loan for that. We haven't even done any paperwork with the bank yet, but I imagine will be submitting it in the next couple of weeks. with building, it's my understanding that the loan won't really finalize until the home is complete which will be months from now. They are estimating it will be finished 6 or so months after construction begins.

Would it be the recommendation to not do any new credit cards until loan is completely finalized, or just through pre-approval? That is so long!! Could we still do business cards in that time period? Also, what about bank bonuses. They seem innocent enough, but I really don't want to explain why we have 10 checking accounts open . Seems normal to me, but maybe not to a banker. But, I don't even know if they care / look at that.

 

[iujen94]

I used the Chase offer for Amazon Fresh on 2/15. The charge has fully posted, but no credit yet. I haven’t used a ton of the Chase offers, so I’m not sure if this is unusually slow? I’m used to things like the DoorDash credit that posts almost instantly. If it is slow or seems to be missing, is SM the route to go to follow up?

 

[570traveler]

The card must be a year old before you can PC. It can take a few months for new fee to post.

Thanks! So I will PC mine after the year is up. Does it matter if I pay the $95 AF then PC or PC as soon as the year is up?

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Looking for advice on PC for CSP to CSR. Both P2 and I have one. Mine opened on 3/17/2020 and P2 on 9/19/2020. I will move all our UR's to one card to take advantage of the 1.5 towards travel. I've read previous posts and know that the annual fee will post a few weeks after PC. So which card would be the best to PC? I am thinking mine since my AF will be due soon? My plan then is to cancel the other card once that AF becomes due since I won't have a need for both.

Since you can’t PC before the card is open a year...you can PC yours on 3/18/21...you don’t have to pay the AF before

 

[Judique]

I used the Chase offer for Amazon Fresh on 2/15. The charge has fully posted, but no credit yet. I haven’t used a ton of the Chase offers, so I’m not sure if this is unusually slow? I’m used to things like the DoorDash credit that posts almost instantly. If it is slow or seems to be missing, is SM the route to go to follow up?

I find some of the Chase offers take more than a week to credit.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I know there's been a lot of talk on here about being careful with new account when refinancing. DH and I are going to be building a house, so will be taking out a loan for that. We haven't even done any paperwork with the bank yet, but I imagine will be submitting it in the next couple of weeks. with building, it's my understanding that the loan won't really finalize until the home is complete which will be months from now. They are estimating it will be finished 6 or so months after construction begins.

Would it be the recommendation to not do any new credit cards until loan is completely finalized, or just through pre-approval? That is so long!! Could we still do business cards in that time period? Also, what about bank bonuses. They seem innocent enough, but I really don't want to explain why we have 10 checking accounts open . Seems normal to me, but maybe not to a banker. But, I don't even know if they care / look at that.

Since they will probably do another credit check closer to the closing...I wouldn’t open any new cards, but I’m super careful.
Probably also depends on your credit score and if you would still qualify for the lowest rates if it went down due to a new card

 

[hsmamato2]

Ok....more questions re: PC'ing the CSR....
1)right now I have a bunch of $ available to PYB.... wwyd? I need to PC within the next week or so- but when I do I know I lose all the PYB options from the last 90 days still sitting on it.... (this is a $ saving move, I have to cut down on AF spending while we're not traveling right now) -I can maybe buy some grocery gc to use ,or just leave my points alone for now...
2) and if I'm not traveling, wwyd with the UR? I have CFF,CF, FU,etc etc. already. My plan was to get P2 the CSP and pool them all on that card for us. But I'd rather hold off app'ing for that for a while till I know I have some bills due (really low household spend right now) -any drawback to keeping UR on that lower tier card for a while till we get the other app going?
3) also- any possible benefit to PC'ing a CIU to a CIP (if it's possible to do) since that's an easy place to store the UR?
With the above 3 questions, I think I'd mainly just be missing out on PYB for now, did I miss anything? Please and thank you for any advice.

 

[Haley R]

Dh found out the week of April 25 is going to be a busy work week so now we’re looking at either the week of April 19 or May 10. I don’t think anything is going on that week of April but the may week is Mother’s Day. Which one would you guys pick?

I’m trying to convince him to go for 4 nights instead of just 3. The checkout day we’ll go straight home so I don’t count that one. I was hoping to do check in day and another full day at the fort, one day at mk, and then another trying to do the skyliner and boardwalk. He doesn’t want to do MK at all

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Ok....more questions re: PC'ing the CSR....
1)right now I have a bunch of $ available to PYB.... wwyd? I need to PC within the next week or so- but when I do I know I lose all the PYB options from the last 90 days still sitting on it.... (this is a $ saving move, I have to cut down on AF spending while we're not traveling right now) -I can maybe buy some grocery gc to use ,or just leave my points alone for now...
2) and if I'm not traveling, wwyd with the UR? I have CFF,CF, FU,etc etc. already. My plan was to get P2 the CSP and pool them all on that card for us. But I'd rather hold off app'ing for that for a while till I know I have some bills due (really low household spend right now) -any drawback to keeping UR on that lower tier card for a while till we get the other app going?
3) also- any possible benefit to PC'ing a CIU to a CIP (if it's possible to do) since that's an easy place to store the UR?
With the above 3 questions, I think I'd mainly just be missing out on PYB for now, did I miss anything? Please and thank you for any advice.

1 For me I’ve used PYB on every eligible purchase since it started. But I only use my URs to book hotels through the Chase travel portal so I’m getting the same 1.5 value using PYB.
So it depends on what you are saving them for and the value you’d get from them...if it’s not over 1.5 I’d cash out whatever you can with PYB
2 I would keep them on the PCd CSR
3 since you can store your URs on any of your cards I wouldn’t PC to the CIP and pay that AF

 

[elgerber]

Nothing to strike terror into your day, like seeing an envelope from the IRS in your informed delivery!! Now I am totally freaked out, and our mail doesn't come until late afternoon. I cannot even imagine what could be wrong. I have claimed every tax form I ever got, with no adjustments.

Also, with Rakuten, can you only have one account per household or can each spouse have one? In the terms it says you must sign up with an email, and only one per person. I signed up P2 with an email similar to mine, but a different email, and they emailed his email that I used saying that he can't have two accounts, and they need to merge them.

Portillos finally posted to my card, now to see how long Amex takes to give me the $10 credit.

 

[havaneselover]

Nothing to strike terror into your day, like seeing an envelope from the IRS in your informed delivery!! Now I am totally freaked out, and our mail doesn't come until late afternoon. I cannot even imagine what could be wrong. I have claimed every tax form I ever got, with no adjustments.

Also, with Rakuten, can you only have one account per household or can each spouse have one? In the terms it says you must sign up with an email, and only one per person. I signed up P2 with an email similar to mine, but a different email, and they emailed his email that I used saying that he can't have two accounts, and they need to merge them.

Portillos finally posted to my card, now to see how long Amex takes to give me the $10 credit.

This happened to my last summer (letter from IRS in informed delivery) and it completely stressed me out. It happened to be when I did dd's FAFSA form and connected my FAFSA account to my taxes so they could download the information straight from the IRS. But it was the first year I'd filed as a K-1 owner rather than a W-2 employee and it took forever for them to process my return so I was super anxious.

 

[amalone1013]

I know there's been a lot of talk on here about being careful with new account when refinancing. DH and I are going to be building a house, so will be taking out a loan for that. We haven't even done any paperwork with the bank yet, but I imagine will be submitting it in the next couple of weeks. with building, it's my understanding that the loan won't really finalize until the home is complete which will be months from now. They are estimating it will be finished 6 or so months after construction begins.

Would it be the recommendation to not do any new credit cards until loan is completely finalized, or just through pre-approval? That is so long!! Could we still do business cards in that time period? Also, what about bank bonuses. They seem innocent enough, but I really don't want to explain why we have 10 checking accounts open . Seems normal to me, but maybe not to a banker. But, I don't even know if they care / look at that.

We bought a house back in October. I had an AMEX Biz Plat spend keeping me busy with the 6 month MSR due to covid which helped at the time, but I did a Chase biz card for each of us - one June, one Sept, for an Oct 30 closing and I had to explain those pulls. We only got biz cards in 2020 so I didn't have any new cards on credit report to go with the pulls. I've also got quite a few bank accounts from doing bonuses, and also doing some gift card reselling and such and I didn't want to have to explain that, so I only sent in statements for the accounts that our down payments were coming from - I probably held back about $10k in the accounts I didn't send in, which was in flux from bonuses and reselling. I figured they still probably thought we were crazy as we each still have checking and savings at our original main banks from before marriage, and we each have a Discover savings account

My understanding from the very light research I did when we debated building ourselves, is that you'll take a construction loan now and then after the house is built convert it to a mortgage - essentially taking a new loan. So I would think/expect that you would have to go through a credit check and most of the process again - but I'm not an expert here Especially with the time it will take to build too, I know around us there have been delays in that from supplies going up in price and being hard to get due to covid.

So all this is a long winded way to say, you could maybe do a biz card or a few depending on your risk tolerance, credit score, feelings on it. My explanation for mine was we opened the cards to earn travel reward points and that we didn't carry a balance on them, and I had to send in a statement for each. I did not say/point out it was a biz card though the statement said that, and they didn't ask. I probably wouldn't have done it had I realized the pull would show up but I didn't think about it at the time and we'd been shopping for 6mths. Our credit scores were very high too (probably due to this hobby ) As for bank accounts and such, we had to provide 2-3months of statements. If I was in your shoes on that, if the cash needed for bonuses is something you don't need to send them for your loan, I would just keep it aside and keep using it for that.... like for us, any bank bonus/reselling activity I kept to my Ally account that I did not send in. That cash was not significant compared to cash in main accounts and such for our consideration. I made sure that I didn't have any transfers to/from it in the last few months to our main accounts. I didn't do any bonuses requiring direct deposits because I wanted to give the main bank statements showing our paychecks going in every 2 weeks. I operated that Ally account as it's own little world.

Again, not an expert, just my thoughts and my experience

 

[Judique]

Nothing to strike terror into your day, like seeing an envelope from the IRS in your informed delivery!! Now I am totally freaked out, and our mail doesn't come until late afternoon. I cannot even imagine what could be wrong. I have claimed every tax form I ever got, with no adjustments.

Also, with Rakuten, can you only have one account per household or can each spouse have one? In the terms it says you must sign up with an email, and only one per person. I signed up P2 with an email similar to mine, but a different email, and they emailed his email that I used saying that he can't have two accounts, and they need to merge them.

Portillos finally posted to my card, now to see how long Amex takes to give me the $10 credit.

Maybe you are getting an over due stimulus. (Trying to look at the bright side....)

 

[elgerber]

This happened to my last summer (letter from IRS in informed delivery) and it completely stressed me out. It happened to be when I did dd's FAFSA form and connected my FAFSA account to my taxes so they could download the information straight from the IRS. But it was the first year I'd filed as a K-1 owner rather than a W-2 employee and it took forever for them to process my return so I was super anxious.

It's going to freak me out all day. No FAFSA or K-1 here.

 

[elgerber]

Maybe you are getting an over due stimulus. (Trying to look at the bright side....)

LOL, thanks, got them all already.

 

[amalone1013]

Also, with Rakuten, can you only have one account per household or can each spouse have one? In the terms it says you must sign up with an email, and only one per person. I signed up P2 with an email similar to mine, but a different email, and they emailed his email that I used saying that he can't have two accounts, and they need to merge them.

Hmmmm, I've got an account for each of us - technically, I think I myself have 2, we even both may have 2 but all of the emails were pretty different. I think I opened us each one years ago when I started doing credit cards, and then opened us each one months apart last year to start doing MRs instead of cashback.

 

[becauseimnew]

Just wanted to thanks everyone for all the Costa Rica tips. I have decided to replicate the itinerary that @CyndiLouWho posted with a some modifications. DH loves to drive so we'll be getting a rental car - need to do more research on that. Since we are going during spring break I need to stay on top of making reservations. I already have Hyatt Andaz Costa Rica Resort at Peninsula Papagayo booked for 3 nights, the itinerary calls for 2 nights in that area but I would love to add a rest day - it will all come down to flights schedules.

Can someone recommend a hotel near Manuel Antonio National Park entrance?

 

[afan]

Dh found out the week of April 25 is going to be a busy work week so now we’re looking at either the week of April 19 or May 10. I don’t think anything is going on that week of April but the may week is Mother’s Day. Which one would you guys pick?

I’m trying to convince him to go for 4 nights instead of just 3. The checkout day we’ll go straight home so I don’t count that one. I was hoping to do check in day and another full day at the fort, one day at mk, and then another trying to do the skyliner and boardwalk. He doesn’t want to do MK at all

Probably not what you want to hear, but if he's not comfortable going to MK you should skip it. You guys haven't really been going anywhere so it's like going from 10 mph to 100 mph. MK will still be there when you're both comfortable going. People's stress and anxiety are up from this, even those that never really had it. It's not the time to convince someone to be comfortable with something. My Garmin has gone off for abnormal high heart rate at the grocery store and when I've had to go into the office a couple of times. If you leave the zoo or park because it's too busy, MK needs to be skipped there's no escape from people there.

 

[WVMomof3]

I may have cracked last week after shoveling too much snow. We are enjoying the warm sunshine and don’t want to go back. Bought tickets on Thursday for a Sunday morning flight. It wasn’t nonstop unfortunately and both flights were 100% full. That has been only time I haven’t been comfortable the whole trip. We already got an email saying our flight home will be full too. I was only able to get this (The Confidante Hyatt) on points Monday - Thursday so we did a HP near Miami airport first night. Highly do not recommend that one. Lol. We are heading to Hyatt Centric FLL in a bit and will fly out of FLL on Saturday. I think I’m going to do a mini 2 night run in Pittsburgh on way home to bring us to 30 nights. Also we got Hyatt brands #5 and #6 this trip! So a completely free trip that will earn 2 more free nights!