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

[CyndiLouWho]

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'm not an accountant but the rest is me.

Nope. The momentary freeze, eyes widening and slight discombobulation is far more amusing and satisfying to both of us. Follow that up with courtesy and gratitude. For me, kindness is the greatest weapon I possess that no one ever sees coming and is rarely defeated

Sadly, kindness doesn't usually change their minds or behaviors. Getting reported to management also won't change their minds but it might prevent behavior from happening again. Either way, it just sucks. I've never confronted anyone but have wanted to.

 

[nlenguyen]

Ok

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.

ay good to know

 

[nlenguyen]

I VERY rarely enter my transactions manually, so I just do the import each day (or almost every day) so it doesn't take much time. That's how I knew about the odd $139 from Amazon. I like to think I'm frugal, but I'm probably not as much as I'd pretend, so having buckets of expenses allocated and letting YNAB tell me if I'm depleting something just works for me -- ESPECIALLY dealing with more CCs since I've gotten into travel hacking. I actually tried YNAB once and was like "what?" and then a few years later it just clicked for me. One nice thing is having 5 years of expenses tracked because we are now mostly retired and it helped to see how we've been spending our money and be able to toggle things on or off (like our mortgage and college expenses) from the reporting.



I don't buy a ton of GCs but this is what I do. Vacation, Dining Out, whatever it'll be used for.

I recall reading about how some people create an "account" for GCs they've purchased and then budgeted them if they plan to use them for a variety of things. I don't MS, so my GC usage is pretty straightforward.

When we go on our Disney trips, I typically buy a lot on DGC's. Hardly ever use a cc or dc so it works for me.
I get the ease of importing transactions. I thought about that, but I like to add them and compare to what was actually put in

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

I'm guessing this - https://www.npr.org/2022/12/06/1140998674/hertz-false-accusation-stealing-cars-settlement

One of many examples. - In another instance, customer Nicholas Wright rented a car from Hertz with his family while on vacation in Savannah, Georgia in October 2021 and was falsely accused of theft. According to a lawsuit, 30 minutes after renting the car, 10 police cars surrounded the vehicle and held Wright and his 13-year old daughter at gunpoint for auto theft. “He learned the car had been reported stolen before he rented it,” the lawsuit said.

Yikes. Maybe we should rethink our rental in Italy, we went through Hertz because we wanted a Tesla (or any electric car), but I didn't know about the horror stories. Personally haven't had issues before.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

I don't understand what's happening to Amex referrals. I keep hoping it'll go back to normal because I want to get a Delta Gold before the elevated bonus expires on 8/02. It will be a keeper for me because the free luggage alone would pay the AF and we fly short Delta flights often enough. But I'd love to be able to have P2 get some referral with it...

Should I just give up and get it without referral?

 

[punkin]

DH had been chatting with Amex for a couple weeks trying to get a retention offer on his vanilla platinum. Absolutely nothing! The AF is due Sunday. Any advice? He's probably going to keep it anyway because it just about pays for itself, but I'd really love some MRs thrown his way.

 

[EACarlson]

Thanks for the comments on Turo. I chatted with my insurance and this is what they told me:
View attachment 779420
So, it makes me feel good about the insurance other than the loss of use part. I'm not sure how the chase and other coverages deal with that either to be honest.

I'll probably go with Turo because I do like the fact that you can choose exactly the kind of car that you will be driving. With the AmEx extra discount, it's a really good deal to get a nice car.

Everyone needs to check their own insurance to verify if what you found out from yours is true for them as well. Chase covers loss of use, so will most secondary rental insurance. I've never used the AMEX primary so I don't know if that would cover or not. There were quite a few stories a couple years ago about how Turo owners would cancel people's reservations if they got a higher offer from someone else. Not my thing, I'll rent from one of the reputable companies, just like I stay at hotels rather than AirBnB.

What are the Hertz horror stories? I just did a rental reservation through Chase travel and Hertz gave me the lowest rate so I booked them. Usually the lowest was Budget, Avis, or Enterprise and I never had any issues with any of them.

Almost all of the stories revolve around people extending rentals or changing to one way rentals. I would have no issue using Hertz, but I won't book through Chase. Third party agencies always give me problems and I want to be able to skip the counter.

 

[georgina]

Yikes. Maybe we should rethink our rental in Italy, we went through Hertz because we wanted a Tesla (or any electric car), but I didn't know about the horror stories. Personally haven't had issues before.

I doubt they would have had issues with their fleet of Teslas. Live on the edge!

 

[leeniewdw]

DH had been chatting with Amex for a couple weeks trying to get a retention offer on his vanilla platinum. Absolutely nothing! The AF is due Sunday. Any advice? He's probably going to keep it anyway because it just about pays for itself, but I'd really love some MRs thrown his way.

It took me 2 tries. I explained what perks I used and the ones I didn’t.

I read somewhere that someone impressed upon them about the lack of a guest at the Centurion lounge since that was a perk that’s no longer available. YMMV , good luck.

 

[calypso726]

Sadly, kindness doesn't usually change their minds or behaviors. Getting reported to management also won't change their minds but it might prevent behavior from happening again. Either way, it just sucks. I've never confronted anyone but have wanted to.

You’re not wrong.

 

[Sheree]

Hi everyone
Due to an unexpected car repair 3k we met p2's bonvoy msr sooner han we thought. i met msr on cic already so with another 15k coming up by Sept, what to go for next!

last 24 months:

P1:
CSP 6/22
IHG 10/22
Amex Plat 7/23
Ink Biz 5/23 I have unlimitd and cash, can't remember which

P2
Venture X 3/22
Lowes 9/22
Bonvoy 6/23
Ink within 2 years, more than a year

we have Aspire with P2 as AU for26 years, always get 15k fnc

currently have
AA 106k and 88k miles
HH 400k
UR 300k
Marriott 66k
MR new

possible Virgin cruise next year, using AA to Greece.

several trips to wdw on frontier with dvc we own, I have AP

thinking of ink referall to build UR but that's only 8k msr

will use amex plat hotel fhr for weekend in nyc so that's covered

thinking united to build miles back up but we won't use baggage entitlement but maybe once so not worth an af I think

other ideas?

i really appreciate all the advice.

 

[afan]

DH had been chatting with Amex for a couple weeks trying to get a retention offer on his vanilla platinum. Absolutely nothing! The AF is due Sunday. Any advice? He's probably going to keep it anyway because it just about pays for itself, but I'd really love some MRs thrown his way.

The computer either decides he's got an offer or not. There's nothing anyone says that can magically make amex give a retention offer. It'd be all over the place if that was the case. That's also why I always do it over chat. It's quicker and easier to get to the point which is whether there's and offer or not.

 

[mmmears]

The computer either decides he's got an offer or not. There's nothing anyone says that can magically make amex give a retention offer. It'd be all over the place if that was the case. That's also why I always do it over chat. It's quicker and easier to get to the point which is whether there's and offer or not.

I swear it's like they act as if their job is dependent on them NOT making it quick or easy to get to the point. Or at least that's my experience with chat or phone. I hate them both.

 

[afan]

I swear it's like they act as if their job is dependent on them NOT making it quick or easy to get to the point. Or at least that's my experience with chat or phone. I hate them both.

Some are worse than others but I'll literally just type. I understand what the card offers I just want to know of there's a retention offer. Part of why I always chat, prob wouldn't be able to do that on the phone.

 

[sunnyd_83]

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 for the first time earlier this month in Dallas and our car owner told us the additional insurance was unnecessary and we would be covered under our own individual car insurance policy.

 

[afan]

We used Turo for the first time earlier this month in Dallas and our car owner told us the additional insurance was unnecessary and we would be covered under our own individual car insurance policy.

That's going to be dependent on your own insurance. I'd double check my own policy and advise it of anyone else before relying on that.

 

[mom2febgirls]

DH had been chatting with Amex for a couple weeks trying to get a retention offer on his vanilla platinum. Absolutely nothing! The AF is due Sunday. Any advice? He's probably going to keep it anyway because it just about pays for itself, but I'd really love some MRs thrown his way.

I chatted 5 times :/ and finally got an offer on the 30th day. I was going to keep it anyway but I was glad to get something (25K points for $3K spend)

 

[gottalovepluto]

We used Turo for the first time earlier this month in Dallas and our car owner told us the additional insurance was unnecessary and we would be covered under our own individual car insurance policy.

Lol. Nope. They have no idea what your policy does or doesn’t cover.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

That's going to be dependent on your own insurance. I'd double check my own policy and advise it of anyone else before relying on that.

Lol. Nope. They have no idea what your policy does or doesn’t cover.

Yeah, when we rented last year, my insurance had an exclusion for what they classified as “peer to peer rental”, which is how Turo codes for them they said. I have Allstate. When I checked with Amex it also didn’t cover. I just purchased the insurance through Turo. So yeah, definitely don’t take peoples word for it or think it’s a “one size fits all”.

 

[afan]

Yeah, when we rented last year, my insurance had an exclusion for what they classified as “peer to peer rental”, which is how Turo codes for them they said. I have Allstate. When I checked with Amex it also didn’t cover. I just purchased the insurance through Turo. So yeah, definitely don’t take peoples word for it or think it’s a “one size fits all”.

Plus a lot of people don't fully understand comp and collision and what's covered. Not everyone carries comp since it's not required everywhere. Good luck if you hit a deer or have hail storm damage etc.