I love credit cards so much! v6.0 - 2023 (see first page for add'l details)

[hsmamato2]

Thank you both for the info. The room is for occupancy of 4, but when I called to actually book it the lady said you could only use a FNC for double occupancy. @DogCat you had to call in to book right? They didn't mention that? The verbage from Hilton agrees with what I was told. Maybe it's just not enforced. Wondering if I should just call back and see if someone will let me book it or just tell them there is only 2. Seems like a silly rule.

We haven't used the resort credit yet either, so I'd like to do Bull & Bear when we stay. Assuming that wouldn't be an issue. Just charge the meal to the room?

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I mean..... most hotels don't seem to care who's coming in as along as the bed styles will be ok,i.e. 2 queens will def fit 4 people no matter what...(?) unlike a Disney hotel

 

[hsmamato2]

IHG Biz- hit MSR last week...how long till I see bonus? any DP?

 

[hsmamato2]

Had 90k UR points stolen yesterday. I have been waiting for a refund from my Scotland cancellation which hasn't posted. Yesterday when I checked my account, there was a debit of 90k UR points. My phone calls were frustrating with Chase yesterday. Points have not been returned yet. She had me change username and passwords. We'll see.

yikes. I just changed my password....I hope you get those back

 

[EACarlson]

Well sometimes they do a hard pull. I just applied (with a referral) for the Hilton Honors card and got a HP. I was certainly surprised because I currently hold 2 amex biz cards, neither of which got a HP. Prior to the 2 biz cards I had an amex personal card for many years but had already closed it when first applying for my biz. They show me as a card holder since 2004 (the date of my old personal card.) I guess you never know what amex is gonna do.

edited to say at least they approved me lol

So you weren't a personal cardholder when you app'd for the Hilton? I'm not surprised that you got a HP. While AMEX is HPing current cardholders more often now than in the past, it's still more than 99% that if you currently hold a personal AMEX, when app'ing for another there will not be a HP.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Got IA for the Hilton card last night! Between dd and I we will have 4 FNCs to use (one I hit the SUBS, which will be before the end of the summer).

Up next the Chase CIP in mid-August for 100k UR with $8k spend (tuition and res payment coming up in September + another property tax payment will cover the SUB).

 

[EACarlson]

Finished my first bank bonus and closed the account this morning. Wells Fargo made it very easy to close the account online. And now I've already spent the bonus on shoes and travel insurance.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Fee free $200 Visa GCs at Staples starting Sunday 7/23 to Saturday 7/29…limit of 8 per customer per day

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Hi all! I'm a long time DISer, but CC newbie. I have been reading these posts for a few weeks now, trying to understand it all & I'm now ready for your advice!
A little about myself, I have stage 4 kidney cancer (doing great!) and am in my 3rd year of a clinical trial at MD Anderson in Houston, TX. CC-wise, I pay for myself & a companion to fly to/from TX every 4 weeks (est. 1K). My airports of choice are Greenville/Spartanburg, SC & Asheville, NC. I have dealt with several cancelled flights and delays during this last year, so a card with a good travel insurance policy may be useful.
My hubby is retired, but still working at another job & I have 7 more years to work. We just sold our rental cabins (we're in the Great Smoky Mtns.), and have business tax #/info., etc. if needed for business cc's.
Here is a breakdown of my frequent airline co's & points that I have:
**Clinical trial pays for 1 person in economy…
Southwest 35,779
United 21,750
Delta 12,044
American 6,445
Here is a breakdown of my frequent hotels & points:
**Clinical trial pays $240/nt
Marriott 8,496 (have used 11 free nights (for vacays) from points this year)
Radisson 11,922
IHG 9,967
Hilton 6,719
Credit card spend varies, but I will estimate $3,000/m for both of us (each of the last 2 months have been over $6k..). We could have more household bills/insurance charged to cc's, as he only charges the cable bill currently. Cards are paid in full monthly, and we never carry a balance.
I'm hoping to learn this process to assist with a trip out West in 5/24 and possibly a trip to France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland. The travel party would likely be myself, hubby, daughter-22 and possibly her boyfriend-22 (not sure since he's in grad school and will head towards pharm. school after that).
Typically, my trips consist of two 7-10 night stays at Disney & a week at the beach. I haven't been to Europe since our honeymoon, and I don't even know where to start planning that!
These are the cards we've applied for in the last 24 months:
My Cards:
5/23-Barclay Carnival
10/21-Citi Costco
3/23-BOA Royal Caribbean (closed 6/23)
04/22-Wells Fargo Active Cash (user)

P2 Cards:
04/22-Wells Fargo Active Cash
08/22-Tractor Supply
05/22-Lowe's for Pros (comm. Account)
5/23-Barclay Carnival (user)
10/21-Citi Costco (user)
3/23-BOA Royal Caribbean (closed 6/23...user)

I hope I haven't missed anything, and I apologize for the lengthy post! Feel free to ask any questions. I am so excited to get started with this. I am all about saving money for travel! Reading all of your posts have been so inspiring. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your knowledge with others!

Sorry I missed your post! Glad the clinical trial is going well!

So for you, P1, looks like you are 4/24. You are at a critical point here because Chase won't extend cards once you're 5/24. So this is your last chance with Chase to stay under that dreaded 5/24. I would recommend a Chase business card, which right now has a reduced spend, and very versatile earning. Chase Ultimate Rewards (URs) can be transferred to several airlines, including Southwest, if you have a CSR or CSP. Do you have any Chase ccs currently?

With the Chase Ink Preferred, you can earn 100k UR after spending $8k/3mos (normally $15k), $95 AF. If P2 has a business card, P2 can support you and earn 40k UR! If you don't already have a P2 who has a Chase card support link, consider using a support link from over at https://www.reddit.com/r/DISchurners/. You can message the mods over there with your DISBOARDS username, and they'll get you joined to the group.

As far as P2, we recommend NOT adding your P2 as an authorized user. When you do that, it can add to their x/24 count with Chase. Chase may be able to manually review P2's application and P2 can explain that those cards are authorized users. If P2 is game for that kind of thing, P2 could also get a Chase Ink Preferred using your support link, once you have one, earning you two another 140k UR.

I don't think the CIP has travel protection or extended warranties, so probably best not to book those categories with this card, if you go that route.

 

[leeniewdw]

Finished my first bank bonus and closed the account this morning. Wells Fargo made it very easy to close the account online. And now I've already spent the bonus on shoes and travel insurance.

This reminds me. I opened the WF Biz Account back in April 2022 with the $1500 bonus. No reason I can't close that now right?

 

[Arcades]

This reminds me. I opened the WF Biz Account back in April 2022 with the $1500 bonus. No reason I can't close that now right?

Most early termination fees (if any) expire after 3-6 months (check your terms and conditions on the account). Generally, if you're just opening an account for a bank bonus, close it ASAP so that you're eligible from the same lender again in the future (usually you're eligible if you have not closed a similar account in the last 12 months).

 

[leeniewdw]

Weird thing happened with my Amazon Prime membership. I renew on August 11th. I've been on the fence about renewing it. We don't use Prime for streaming anything currently and I almost always do the delayed shipping to get some digital credits (we RARELY need stuff asap). I noticed that I got billed $139 on 7/17. I finally decided to chat and ask why they billed early. The first person seemed confused, claimed it was just an authorization (it was not). Anyway, I got so frustrated and told them to go ahead and cancel the Prime membership. Good thing I did, because they had to xfer me to the cancellation group who then proceeded to tell me that the 7/17 charge for was "the other account". I'm like "WHAT other account". Long story short, someone linked my Prime CC (that I've had forever) to a new Amazon account and signed up for prime using it.

So I've called Chase and reported it as stolen with a fraud charge. I NEVER carry this card around and my DS is an authorized user from back when he was in college over 5 years ago. I suppose he could have lost his card years ago, but I don't even think I gave him the newest card when we rec'd them.

Not the first time I've experienced fraud (Amex called one night to ask if I was transferring money from my ING online account to a new Amex account -- um, NO. Apparently it hit their potential fraud group because of an address that had never been associated with me. Still thankful to AMEX for preventing that disaster.) But it still sucks.

I use YNAB and every single transaction is imported so I feel like I'd be wise to fraud pretty quickly. This one was pretty close to NOT being caught because of how close to my actual renewal it was. I'm guessing the criminal picked this timeframe because it was right around Prime Day where people might not notice the Amazon charges being weird.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

I guarantee I'm not paying close enough attention to charges on my cards. I am trying to do a better job locking cards that I know are sock drawered. But it's the Chase and Amex cards that I might add an offer to, which I leave open, and I really need to look at those more closely.

 

[punkin]

I guarantee I'm not paying close enough attention to charges on my cards. I am trying to do a better job locking cards that I know are sock drawered. But it's the Chase and Amex cards that I might add an offer to, which I leave open, and I really need to look at those more closely.

In thinking I should systematically close a lot of my sock drawered cards. I just can't keep track of them.

 

[newski_mom]

I went through and set up mint.com - I initially did it so I could easily categorize our expenses, but I love it because every charge flows through there and I don't have to log into multiple banks / cards to see everything that goes on one of our credit cards or our debit cards from our checking account.

It does take a bit of work at the beginning setting it all up, but once you get your accounts hooked to it, it's super easy and fast to take a quick look. I go through it at least every Monday to categorize that week's charges and keep a fresh eye on everything.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

To have my DH change a Hyatt reservation we did on points (on his account) to my name so I can check in without him, do I call Hyatt customer service or the Hyatt hotel directly? First time I'm having him do this. I assumed customer service/reservations, but I'm a Hyatt newb.

 

[leeniewdw]

I went through and set up mint.com - I initially did it so I could easily categorize our expenses, but I love it because every charge flows through there and I don't have to log into multiple banks / cards to see everything that goes on one of our credit cards or our debit cards from our checking account.

It does take a bit of work at the beginning setting it all up, but once you get your accounts hooked to it, it's super easy and fast to take a quick look. I go through it at least every Monday to categorize that week's charges and keep a fresh eye on everything.

I truly couldn’t play in the points game at all without tracking. With YNAB I budget all my spending categories and when my charges import it moves the budgeted funds from the base category to the CC category. That way I don’t mentally feel like I have more money than I do.

But even if you don’t need that aspect of budgeting, having all the spending in one place to see what’s going on is super helpful.

In fact, when they were first telling me it was related to my actual Amazon prime membership but couldn’t explain why it was 3 weeks early, I was able to quickly scroll to see when I was billed last year…which was 8/11, so I knew something was up. I didn’t have to log into chase and find the statement etc.

 

[wanderlust7]

To have my DH change a Hyatt reservation we did on points (on his account) to my name so I can check in without him, do I call Hyatt customer service or the Hyatt hotel directly? First time I'm having him do this. I assumed customer service/reservations, but I'm a Hyatt newb.

Assuming he doesn't need the stay credit and there's been no category change since you reserved, you'd call Hyatt customer service. Give them your Hyatt number and the reservation will appear in your account.

 

[wanderlust7]

I went through and set up mint.com - I initially did it so I could easily categorize our expenses, but I love it because every charge flows through there and I don't have to log into multiple banks / cards to see everything that goes on one of our credit cards or our debit cards from our checking account.

It does take a bit of work at the beginning setting it all up, but once you get your accounts hooked to it, it's super easy and fast to take a quick look. I go through it at least every Monday to categorize that week's charges and keep a fresh eye on everything.

I use Mint too. Works great, though there are some quirks. Amex account numbers with the same last 4 digits seems to confuse it. It also doesn't download transactions after a card is closed, so I need to remember to enter a manual transaction for the AF refund.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

I use Mint too. Works great, though there are some quirks. Amex account numbers with the same last 4 digits seems to confuse it. It also doesn't download transactions after a card is closed, so I need to remember to enter a manual transaction for the AF refund.

Thoughts on the privacy downsides? I don't like the idea of Mint/Intuit having every detail of my financial info, but it is attractive to have it all in one place

 

[ahself]

To have my DH change a Hyatt reservation we did on points (on his account) to my name so I can check in without him, do I call Hyatt customer service or the Hyatt hotel directly? First time I'm having him do this. I assumed customer service/reservations, but I'm a Hyatt newb.

If you don't want to transfer his reservation to you, he can call customer service / reservations and have them add your name as a guest on the reservation. I did this a month ago for my wife on a stay I booked on points but wasn't planning on staying with her. Once done, it showed her name under stay details / additional guests on the app. She was able to check in and stay without me, and I received the stay (nights) credit on my account.