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

[Alexle2007]

Mine thankfully don't shed but the puppy won't go outside by herself so we both track so much dirt in the house. It's driving me bonkers. And she currently barks when I vacuum so this should be interesting. I'm just hoping the old dog (who is currently in the cone of shame) doesn't get sucked up! (I will probably have the vacuum clean when we're all upstairs.)

OMG, mine barks and tries to play with it every time I vacuum. He sheds so much hair though! Thank goodness we currently have cream carpet and lighter colored tile in the kitchen that hides most of it unlike my black car interior that shows it all.

 

[elgerber]

OMG, mine barks and tries to play with it every time I vacuum. He sheds so much hair though! Thank goodness we currently have cream carpet and lighter colored tile in the kitchen that hides most of it unlike my black car interior that shows it all.

that's my other concern with a robot vaccum, mine bark at the vacuum, I fear they would bark all day at the darn thing.

 

[platamama]

One question - DH is working toward spend for a retention offer, if I would use his offer to spend $1,000 get $350 back, the $650 actual money spent would count toward his retention offer, correct?

Actually the whole $1000 would count.

 

[havaneselover]

that's my other concern with a robot vaccum, mine bark at the vacuum, I fear they would bark all day at the darn thing.

I'll let you know how it goes with mine. I'm picking the vacuum up at lunch.

 

[cdurham1]

Would like some general advice on my thoughts-

My 2020 total credit card spend was $44,985. I like sign up bonuses, but I think I spend enough that I shouldn't ignore my categories on everyday transactions.

What is the optimal number of new cards I should be going for each year?

My initial thought was I love sign up bonuses, so I should do a lot. However, I will run out of the really good ones fairly quickly and be stuck waiting on the time to reset to get them again. If I waste spend on small sign up bonuses, 1. I may not get a ton of value bc my everyday spend is somewhat valuable by itself, and 2. I will constantly be in 5/24 jail.

Right now, I am at 4/24 and I am pretty sure my next card will be some Chase card when a sign up bonus makes sense (waiting on a Southwest card probably).

 

[WVMomof3]

I miss having to vacuum pet hair. . Now I vacuum just as often to pick up an embarrassing amount of crumbs. Who knew we were such slobs when I had an amazing daily floor cleaning service from the dog.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

Funny, we've nicknamed our robovac "Harry". The dogs sometimes will bark and try to play with it or chase it around. We'll tell them to "leave Harry alone" and then they will. Treating the robovac as a living thing has worked for our dogs

 

[becauseimnew]

Would like some general advice on my thoughts-

My 2020 total credit card spend was $44,985. I like sign up bonuses, but I think I spend enough that I shouldn't ignore my categories on everyday transactions.

What is the optimal number of new cards I should be going for each year?

My initial thought was I love sign up bonuses, so I should do a lot. However, I will run out of the really good ones fairly quickly and be stuck waiting on the time to reset to get them again. If I waste spend on small sign up bonuses, 1. I may not get a ton of value bc my everyday spend is somewhat valuable by itself, and 2. I will constantly be in 5/24 jail.

Right now, I am at 4/24 and I am pretty sure my next card will be some Chase card when a sign up bonus makes sense (waiting on a Southwest card probably).

Are you open to business cards? If you are, I would just be getting a chase business card every 3 months.
That's 4 cards a year with $30,000 in MSRs, if you do CIC/CIU. Plus having a few Chase freedoms in your wallet will also help earn 5x on rotating categories, if you have 2 of those that could be another $12,000 in spend.

And you can get 2 personal cards a year to stay under 5/24.

In 2020, I opened 8 cards and P2 opened 4. I'm at 4/24, and only opened 2 Biz cards this year, same with P2. We've focused our spend on all the extra spend offers the cards have offered this year.

 

[ski_mom]

Just wondering if anyone knows how the Global Entry is going now? We are in the midwest and fly out of STL. DH has been approved, but needs his appointment. Last he checked, they were not doing them in STL and said appointment could be done at incoming airport from an international flight. Well, we're not flying internationally right now, so that's not an option. We will be going on a cruise at the end of this month and have to go through customs at the end of that. Do you know if that qualifies as an entry point to do the appointment?

If so, DH will be able to get his done, but I had applied a long time ago and mine expired, so I guess I'd have to get approved again. At this point, I'm sure I wouldn't get the initial approval for an appointment at the end of this month, but we are scheduled for a cruise in February, so might go ahead with application with intention of doing the appointment at that point.

I am thinking of just doing the TSA precheck since I know I can get that done locally and we have enough credit card offers to get it free even though it would be doubling up.

Finally, we also have "Clear" free through AmEx, but I'd much rather have the precheck, but wondered if anyone does both?

 

[StephPlum]

My Amex BBP has a staples offer. Spend $100 get $25 back.

Got this too. Thanks for sharing.

 

[cdurham1]

Are you open to business cards? If you are, I would just be getting a chase business card every 3 months.
That's 4 cards a year with $30,000 in MSRs, if you do CIC/CIU. Plus having a few Chase freedoms in your wallet will also help earn 5x on rotating categories, if you have 2 of those that could be another $12,000 in spend.

And you can get 2 personal cards a year to stay under 5/24.

In 2020, I opened 8 cards and P2 opened 4. I'm at 4/24, and only opened 2 Biz cards this year, same with P2. We've focused our spend on all the extra spend offers the cards have offered this year.

Sounds like solid advice. I do have a business card need. You are right, that makes a lot of sense.

 

[IFlossU]

Finally, we also have "Clear" free through AmEx, but I'd much rather have the precheck, but wondered if anyone does both?

DH and I just signed up for Clear at the end of September. We also have TSA precheck. In our case having both was an excellent time saver. The Precheck lines were longer than I have ever seen them, at both PHX and MCO. With Clear we were escorted to the front of the Precheck line like VIPs, haha! We were through security both times in less than 5 minutes. I thought it well worth the effort to set up Clear, which was incredibly simple.

 

[StephPlum]

I have been checking on my SW March flights all the time and finally saw some movement down 6K points lower per person. Good news. That makes it almost what I expected but hope for some more discounts before March.

I tried Autoslash and maybe I am not doing it right. For my March flight it quoted a really low price on Fox (ignoring as I want to stay with the main players) and then 700ish for the other cos (ALAMO, Enterprise,....). My costco price with Enterprise is 560. I thought maybe that was because I booked that awhile ago but going out to see what the Costco site says today and I still get the same price of 560.

 

[AndreaDM]

Just wondering if anyone knows how the Global Entry is going now? We are in the midwest and fly out of STL. DH has been approved, but needs his appointment. Last he checked, they were not doing them in STL and said appointment could be done at incoming airport from an international flight. Well, we're not flying internationally right now, so that's not an option. We will be going on a cruise at the end of this month and have to go through customs at the end of that. Do you know if that qualifies as an entry point to do the appointment?

If so, DH will be able to get his done, but I had applied a long time ago and mine expired, so I guess I'd have to get approved again. At this point, I'm sure I wouldn't get the initial approval for an appointment at the end of this month, but we are scheduled for a cruise in February, so might go ahead with application with intention of doing the appointment at that point.

I am thinking of just doing the TSA precheck since I know I can get that done locally and we have enough credit card offers to get it free even though it would be doubling up.

Finally, we also have "Clear" free through AmEx, but I'd much rather have the precheck, but wondered if anyone does both?

I tried to do the GE interview on return from Iceland into Chicago and was told I could not do it without an appt. I made an appt. for Cleveland (an hour away), but then before that appt. our local airport CAK did them for just a week. I was able to get one and did it on my lunch break, in and out in 15 min.!

 

[LB002]

Wher

Just booked my first Hyatt stay. Transferred 16k UR’s for a 2 night stay. Cash price was $530. Read a lot about people booking Hyatts using points so I figured I’d check it out. What a great value! Looking forward to a long weekend in the Buffalo area

Where in Buffalo? My hometown!

 

[LB002]

I have been checking on my SW March flights all the time and finally saw some movement down 6K points lower per person. Good news. That makes it almost what I expected but hope for some more discounts before March.

I tried Autoslash and maybe I am not doing it right. For my March flight it quoted a really low price on Fox (ignoring as I want to stay with the main players) and then 700ish for the other cos (ALAMO, Enterprise,....). My costco price with Enterprise is 560. I thought maybe that was because I booked that awhile ago but going out to see what the Costco site says today and I still get the same price of 560.

I think car rental prices are so batty right now, Autoslash doesn't do much bc prices just go UP!

 

[becauseimnew]

Sounds like solid advice. I do have a business card need. You are right, that makes a lot of sense.

Enjoy all the URs! Don't forget to use support links on DisChurners.

 

[LB002]

Do you have any URs (to transfer to Hyatt)? Miraval is having a BOGO sale. I've never been to one, but I'm intrigued. Includes meals and some activities.

https://onemileatatime.com/hyatt-miraval-promotion/

Oohh!. DH and I were looking at the new Berkshires property for our anniversary. Will definitely need to check this out!

 

[disneybirds]

My Amex BBP has a staples offer. Spend $100 get $25 back.

Thanks! It was on BBP as well. My DH had it on his Delta Reserve Business.

 

[amalone1013]

LOL. I am more worried it will be attacked.

We ended up getting one for my inlaws for Christmas and we were worried about that, they have 3 dogs and while the youngest is 4 she can be very energetic when not sleeping lol. And she doesn't know how to be gentle. We were worried she would give it some good solid bops with her paw but other than being confused at first, now they just ignore it and just move if they are laying on the floor and it heads towards them. Not quite a puppy lol but hopefully it would be ok!