I love credit cards so much!

[3 DD love princesses]

PayPal acquired and owns Venmo, but Venmo is a separate service from PayPal.

So you’d be receiving payment only? There’s not much difference between Venmo and PayPal for receiving payments. Venmo does have rolling limits on how much can be sent and how much can be withdrawn. PayPal has tax reporting requirements that send out 1099-K if you recieve over $20k in payments and 200 transactions per year. For sending money, PayPal charges 2.9% and 30 cents per payment funded by a credit card. Venmo charges a flat 3% for credit card payments, but CIP earns 3x on the payment and fee; no fee for debit cards and cash equivalent cards that Venmo processes as debit.

I’ll have to look into it as I don’t have a PayPal anymore from back when the PayPal digital Best Buy cards my acct got shut down. Not sure if I’d be able to open a Venmo acct

 

[Lain]

I’ll have to look into it as I don’t have a PayPal anymore from back when the PayPal digital Best Buy cards my acct got shut down. Not sure if I’d be able to open a Venmo acct

Oi. I remember that.

 

[mmmears]

Well we're working on those MSR for the 2 cards, and now I keep seeing nice AMEX bonus offers and it's hard to not use the AMEX all the time. First world problems, I know... In other happy news, we used all the GCs from the AMEX/Amazon deal, so I'm happy we got 20% off our groceries this month.

Now DH tells me hes not picking the vehicle up until Monday because they're waiting for a part to come in. There's still hope!

Ooh! I hope you can get it onto your new card! Still kicking myself for not playing this game a few months ago when 8K was spent to repair my car (6.5-7 of it was from the insurance co). Oh well, nothing I can do about it now, but what an easy way to get that MSR in one bill.

 

[wendow]

Let me know what you find that looks interesting. I am seeing some decent beach places in south FL, but I will have to upgrade my cert to cat 8 or 9.

Are these the ones in Marco Island and Singer Island that you mentioned? Aren't they going to be Cat 6 as of 8/1 (or at least Marco Island)?

 

[DisneyMandC]

Need to catch up on today’s post, but won my horse show today and got approved for the Citi AA Biz! Woohoo!

 

[Magical2017]

Sorry that this is a non-Disney related question, but we already paid for our Disney trip next month. I am trying to earn as many points as possible for flights to Europe for next summer. I am going for work so my flight will be paid for, but DH and our two sons will be meeting me there. I did copy a few blog links from here, but am kind of overwhelmed at the length of this thread. If someone could point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it. I did check and saw that American requires 60K miles per person, but we are not married to American Airlines, by any means.

 

[jhoannam]

I also was targeted and thinking after I meet the MSR on the Amex I have coming, I may go for the first 20k MR though I just despise meeting Amex MSR’s lol!!

It will be easy because we have to pay for DD’s flight to Spain next week, that alone is $1,500. I’ve got to do some research about paying the rest of the trip with the Amex via Plastiq. I have to pay the Global alliance via check.

 

[wendow]

It will be easy because we have to pay for DD’s flight to Spain next week, that alone is $1,500. I’ve got to do some research about paying the rest of the trip with the Amex via Plastiq. I have to pay the Global alliance via check.

It may not be too hard on my end either. My dd18's tuition bill for the fall will cover the new Amex MSR. So, pretty quickly I can move to the BGR. I still can't get the offer to activate. Every time I click through the email, the page says it's 'temporarily unavailable'.

And just on a $1500 flight! That's just one way?!? Oh my!! No way to use points to get her back?

 

[GlamMistress]

Sorry that this is a non-Disney related question, but we already paid for our Disney trip next month. I am trying to earn as many points as possible for flights to Europe for next summer. I am going for work so my flight will be paid for, but DH and our two sons will be meeting me there. I did copy a few blog links from here, but am kind of overwhelmed at the length of this thread. If someone could point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it. I did check and saw that American requires 60K miles per person, but we are not married to American Airlines, by any means.

What cards and points do you collect currently?

 

[Ngwira]

Good churning day for me. Got approved for the Amtrak 30,000 offer. Also used several Amex offers to buy discounted gift cards. Used the buy buy baby and bed bath and beyond ones to buy discounted Starbucks gift cards. Also hit the Nordstrom Anniversary sale to use my reward dollars. Lastly used some Kohl’s cash for an outfit I had been eyeing.

The Amtrak points will be put to good use. DH got the card in 2016 and we’ve used all the points so this will replenish our stash. We are riding Amtrak to DC this upcoming weekend and may use the points for a trip to Montreal next summer.

DH was targeted for two lucrative bank bonuses. $400 from Ciruzens and $250 from Santander. Expiration dates are in September.

 

[Lain]

Need to catch up on today’s post, but won my horse show today and got approved for the Citi AA Biz! Woohoo!

Business is good. Congratulations!

 

[Psychodisney]

Good churning day for me. Got approved for the Amtrak 30,000 offer. Also used several Amex offers to buy discounted gift cards. Used the buy buy baby and bed bath and beyond ones to buy discounted Starbucks gift cards. Also hit the Nordstrom Anniversary sale to use my reward dollars. Lastly used some Kohl’s cash for an outfit I had been eyeing.

The Amtrak points will be put to good use. DH got the card in 2016 and we’ve used all the points so this will replenish our stash. We are riding Amtrak to DC this upcoming weekend and may use the points for a trip to Montreal next summer.

DH was targeted for two lucrative bank bonuses. $400 from Ciruzens and $250 from Santander. Expiration dates are in September.

Was your Buy Buy Baby a free standing store or combine with Bed Bath and beyond? I've got a combo store near me and I only have the Buy Buy Baby offer. Wondering if it will work!

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Are these the ones in Marco Island and Singer Island that you mentioned? Aren't they going to be Cat 6 as of 8/1 (or at least Marco Island)?

Yeah, but new cat 6 does not equal current cat 6, so I assume if the certs mapped they wouldn’t allow my current cat 6 cert to book a new cat 6 property. Plus they are both going up in points so it would be good to attach the cert now.

 

[jhoannam]

It may not be too hard on my end either. My dd18's tuition bill for the fall will cover the new Amex MSR. So, pretty quickly I can move to the BGR. I still can't get the offer to activate. Every time I click through the email, the page says it's 'temporarily unavailable'.

And just on a $1500 flight! That's just one way?!? Oh my!! No way to use points to get her back?

That’s round trip. At least I’ll earn 4x with the Amex promotion. And she’ll earn AA points.

 

[brownhaired_girl]

Need to catch up on today’s post, but won my horse show today and got approved for the Citi AA Biz! Woohoo!

View attachment 338512

Do you show Equitation or Hunter under saddle? Or both?

 

[magickingdomprincess]

Is there an easy way to check what category Marriott hotels are currently? I'm having a hard time looking by current category. Thanks!

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Is there an easy way to check what category Marriott hotels are currently? I'm having a hard time looking by current category. Thanks!

It lists it when you pull up the hotels

https://www.marriott.com/hotel-search.mi

eta: wait, are you trying to pull up a full list of hotels in a certain category? that I don't know.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Do you show Equitation or Hunter under saddle? Or both?

Hunter Under Saddle! Used to do the eq, but not with this horse. He’s only 4 so he’s still very much learning the ropes.

 

[calypso726]

Sorry that this is a non-Disney related question, but we already paid for our Disney trip next month. I am trying to earn as many points as possible for flights to Europe for next summer. I am going for work so my flight will be paid for, but DH and our two sons will be meeting me there. I did copy a few blog links from here, but am kind of overwhelmed at the length of this thread. If someone could point me in the right direction, I would appreciate it. I did check and saw that American requires 60K miles per person, but we are not married to American Airlines, by any means.

No worries, this thread not a Disney specific thread. It's a travel hacking thread for DISers. Some are here for Disney trips and some are not, so it's all good.

First, you need to figure out what airline you are likely going to fly. This will depend mostly on your departure and arrival airport or any that are nearby. Is you closest airport a hub for a specific airline? If so, that may be the one you need to focus on because it will have the best availability for award travel. For example, if someone lives near ATL then they should not be focusing on American or United because ATL is a hub for Delta. You would want to do some mock Googleflight or Momondo searches from your departure airport to your arrival airport to get a general idea of which airline has the most flights available for that itinerary.

The 60K economy round trip is for saver awards. Award flights for next June are already out. There may or may not be saver award flights available by the time you have miles in place to book. If there aren't saver awards, the anytime awards in economy will start at 130k per person round trip. Fortunately, saver awards in economy tend to be more abundant than business or first and availability with saver awards still looks pretty decent.

If you wind up needing AA miles here is my suggestion:

Apply for the AAdvantage Platinum select card - 60K AA miles for $3K spend in 3 months, $99 AF waived first year
Apply for the Barclay Aviator Red card - 50K AA miles after first purchase, $95 AF
Have your DH also apply for the Barclay Aviator Red card and the AAdvantage Platinum select card

This will give you 220K AA miles which is enough to cover your DH and 2 sons on saver awards.

 

[wendow]

Yeah, but new cat 6 does not equal current cat 6, so I assume if the certs mapped they wouldn’t allow my current cat 6 cert to book a new cat 6 property. Plus they are both going up in points so it would be good to attach the cert now.

I just don't get this. I looked up the Marco Island resort and on the new list, it will be cat 6 (unless I am reading that wrong, which I admit, is entirely possible)...But how does a cat 6 cert not equal a cat 6 resort after 8/1? Are you attaching the cat 6 cert now to Marco Island? What happens if you want to change resorts (or is that a big question mark...)?