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

[becauseimnew]

For those of you that use Mint/YNAB and buy VGC, how do you account for those? Is it easy?

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

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.

Thank you. He gave them my name (instead of my WoH number), and so now the reservation appears nowhere, lol. It doesn't show in his account anymore, and it doesn't show in mine obviously. They did send him a confirmation email and my name is on the res, so I'm assuming won't be an issue.

 

[StephPlum]

I had a bit of FOMO so I and P2 each grabbed a Hilton card earlier this week. Talk me through the FNC. Is there a point limit for the FNC or if there is a room available on points you can use the FNC? I am thinking of using them at Baker Cay in Key Largo. Will that work?

 

[Arcades]

I had a bit of FOMO so I and P2 each grabbed a Hilton card earlier this week. Talk me through the FNC. Is there a point limit for the FNC or if there is a room available on points you can use the FNC? I am thinking of using them at Baker Cay in Key Largo. Will that work?

There's no points limit on FNCs, but you can only book the most basic room. So, for Baker's Cay you're probably looking at one of the two Hammock View options. If you have Diamond status through the Aspire card (or otherwise), you do still qualify for potential upgrades on the FNC booking to get into the Suites. Of course, all of this is subject to the hotel having award rooms available for your desired days.

 

[djmeredith]

I did an impromptu app for the CIP last night, but forgot to unfreeze. It told me to unfreeze Transunion and call today. Approved this morning with $6K limit and the card being expedited.

 

[Eastern]

edited found the answer

 

[newski_mom]

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.

I admire everyone who uses YNAB - I'm an accountant, so love and work with numbers all day and I didn't have the energy to use it. I will say, I use mint much more as a tracker than for budgeting. I'm frugal by nature, so I feel like if I'm spending it, it needs to be spent, so I've never budgeted in the traditional way.

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.

I've heard that about the AmEx account numbers, but between DH and me we only have 4 accounts and none of them have the same last 4, so we've lucked out there.

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

I don't have a good answer to that and have wondered about it myself. I know they are huge though, so think they would have to have top notch privacy (hopefully)

For those of you that use Mint/YNAB and buy VGC, how do you account for those? Is it easy?

I don't do many VGC - so maybe someone can answer better. I do buy various gift cards when Chase has the 10% off at office depot, etc and those I just "expense" to the category it will eventually go to. So, if I buy a restaurant gift card, I just put it to eating out expense.

I would think you could set up a category for "prepaid expense" or something like that as a holding place and then manually make an entry when you spend it moving it from the "prepaid expense" to its actual category.

 

[punkin]

AA just issued a travel waiver for the northeast. Oy!

 

[newski_mom]

Has anyone used Turo for a car rental? We're going to Boise for a wedding this fall and need a car that will hold 5 adults - turo is running at least $100 cheaper for the 3 days that we'll need it.

I just wondered if there's anything about needing additional insurance? Can DH and I both drive the car?

Thanks for any information or advice!

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

Has anyone used Turo for a car rental? We're going to Boise for a wedding this fall and need a car that will hold 5 adults - turo is running at least $100 cheaper for the 3 days that we'll need it.

I just wondered if there's anything about needing additional insurance? Can DH and I both drive the car?

Thanks for any information or advice!

We used Turo when we went to Utah last year. We bought the insurance offered through Turo because the credit card coverages (like Amex or Chase) don’t cover peer to peer rental when I last checked. Even with insurance added though, the vehicle we got was still almost 1/2 the cost of using a rental car agency, and we were able to get a very specific 4x4 vehicle we wanted for off road adventuring.

I was the primary driver, but DH was able to drive too, I just had to add his license to the reservation online.

Also check your Amex offers. They often have offers for Turo. We were able to use one at the time… I think it was $30 off $150 purchase.

 

[nlenguyen]

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

Do you have to be a member?

 

[nlenguyen]

For those of you that use Mint/YNAB and buy VGC, how do you account for those? Is it easy?

I always put the purchase of the gift cards in my vacation category for YNAB. If I have a balance on the gift card I keep a separate note, but I do not put transactions down for those seeing as I already put it under a category once before

 

[calypso726]

Do you have to be a member?

No, you don't need to be part of their rewards program. But it's YMMV for VGC or MCGC purchases at both Staples and OD/OM when fee free is going on. Some stores may decide you can't use a cc.

 

[happ]

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

That's what's kept me from using it. I've used a spreadsheet for my budget for years, but it's a real chore now with so many accounts.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

That's what's kept me from using it. I've used a spreadsheet for my budget for years, but it's a real chore now with so many accounts.

Yeah. I think it would be tough to get DH onboard as he's really privacy conscious, and no point in me doing it if I can't have his accounts on there. Our finances are combined. Oh, well...

 

[hsmamato2]

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.

what is best practice for locking unused cc's?

 

[hsmamato2]

We used Turo when we went to Utah last year. We bought the insurance offered through Turo because the credit card coverages (like Amex or Chase) don’t cover peer to peer rental when I last checked. Even with insurance added though, the vehicle we got was still almost 1/2 the cost of using a rental car agency, and we were able to get a very specific 4x4 vehicle we wanted for off road adventuring.

I was the primary driver, but DH was able to drive too, I just had to add his license to the reservation online.

Also check your Amex offers. They often have offers for Turo. We were able to use one at the time… I think it was $30 off $150 purchase.

SO you can have 2 drivers? I like this idea but never considered it before-

 

[iujen94]

No, you don't need to be part of their rewards program. But it's YMMV for VGC or MCGC purchases at both Staples and OD/OM when fee free is going on. Some stores may decide you can't use a cc.

Has that really been a thing? I’ve got 6 Staples and 2 OD in my area, plus I’ve visited several while traveling and have never had an issue. Most I’ve had is the clerk wanting to see my ID to confirm it matched the name on my credit card.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

SO you can have 2 drivers? I like this idea but never considered it before-

Yes, you can. I think each vehicle/renter sets their own terms though. The one we rented from clearly detailed 2nd driver for free, unlimited miles, etc. It did require the second driver's license to be uploaded before it was approved though.

I saw some rentals that only allowed a certain number of miles to be driven though, and other limitations like can't drive out of state, no pets, charge for additional driver, etc. You just have to check the details before renting. We liked it a lot though. We communicated with our guy via the app, and when our flight was delayed the last day home, we asked if we could keep the vehicle a few more hours and he accomodated us with no issue/no additional charge.

We would use them more often, but a lot of times we're doing one way rentals which doesn't work with Turo.

 

[iujen94]

Annnnd this is why I post here - smh - could have gotten that Barclay’s 70k offer (insert meme of Michael Scott when Toby returns - “NOOOOOOOOOO!”)

Another (albeit $$) option for booking AA - get the Amex Biz Plat card and pick AA as your airline for the $200 yearly airline incidental credit. This also makes AA your selected airline for their deal where, if you pay for an AA flight with MRs, you’ll get a 35% rebate on those points (it works for any biz class flight but coach flights only in your selected airline). I think the math works out to about 1.55 cents per point this way. It’s only helpful if you can make use of some of the other credits/benefits of that card, since it’s got a $695 annual fee, but I’ve used the points rebate thing on several AA flights and that alone has covered the AF and then some.

Also, the BILT card has no AF and transfers to AA (but no big fun SUB)