I love credit cards so much!

[kawc1945]

We both have a CSR, racking up lots of points. However, when I try to search for flights using ultimate reward points to Europe I just don't see the amazing deals I expected to be able to find. Granted, my home airport is CLT (small and limited choices) and it is always way more expensive but are there blogs or advice I can look at on how to use the ultimate rewards the best way possible? We have already used miles to go to Europe twice so this is not new to us, we know what a good price/miles amount is from here, and we follow TPG and others.

 

[AmyAnne]

We both have a CSR, racking up lots of points. However, when I try to search for flights using ultimate reward points to Europe I just don't see the amazing deals I expected to be able to find. Granted, my home airport is CLT (small and limited choices) and it is always way more expensive but are there blogs or advice I can look at on how to use the ultimate rewards the best way possible? We have already used miles to go to Europe twice so this is not new to us, we know what a good price/miles amount is from here, and we follow TPG and others.

I am new to this points process myself, but I am going to give you my thoughts. The value of using the UR portal to purchase flights is being able to pay with UR points. But the prices are not any better than what you would get purchasing directly from the airlines. To get the really good deals, you are probably going to have to transfer your UR points to an airline rewards program and book the flights using rewards points.

 

[Ngwira]

My brother applied last night and got the "we need more time to consider your application" message. He called recon and was told to wait for a letter. Bad news?

He was approved!!!! So 7-10 day is not an automatic denial!

 

[wendow]

I thought this, too, regarding the travel credit. That I had to quick apply for CSR so I could get the travel credit twice. BUT you can still get the travel credit twice.. it will just be 2017/2018 instead of 2016/2017. so If you get it in Jan.. you can get the travel credit 2017 and then in Jan of 2018 before you'll have to pay the $450 again

Oh, that makes sense. I was thinking there was some special doing on right now but you're right, it is not. So no rush...just hoping the bonus hangs around for few more months.

 

[SMorgan711]

Oh, that makes sense. I was thinking there was some special doing on right now but you're right, it is not. So no rush...just hoping the bonus hangs around for few more months.

I'm hoping it does too. I'm planning on opening the CSR hopefully right after I do my Ink+ spend!

 

[JacknSally]

Oh, goodness. So I've been reading through myfico.com threads all day and I thought I had decided on a card, but I bounced over here to check out the opinions on the boards and now I'm all overwhelmed and confused again. Haha.

I've seen lots of talk here about the various Chase cards. I had pretty much decided on a Venture. Should I assume from the lack of discussion here about Venture that it's not a good card or doesn't have great rewards? 2x points per dollar seemed good to me, so maybe I'm missing something?

I'm hoping to open a card that I can earn rewards to use toward travel (plane fare, specifically) as we'd like to go to Disney a few times in the next year and the 14 hour drive is getting less and less doable, but flights out of our local airport are expensive as only Southwest and Delta fly from here to MCO. I do currently have 3 cards (DiscoverIt, Disney Visa, and a JCP Mastercard) as well as student loans and a car note. Last credit app was February 2014. Current scores are 722/719/708. As of now we don't have plans to travel anywhere other than Disney but in the future it's definitely a possibility.

Any suggestions as to what cards I should look into?

Back to reading!

 

[Albort]

Oh, goodness. So I've been reading through myfico.com threads all day and I thought I had decided on a card, but I bounced over here to check out the opinions on the boards and now I'm all overwhelmed and confused again. Haha.

I've seen lots of talk here about the various Chase cards. I had pretty much decided on a Venture. Should I assume from the lack of discussion here about Venture that it's not a good card or doesn't have great rewards? 2x points per dollar seemed good to me, so maybe I'm missing something?

I'm hoping to open a card that I can earn rewards to use toward travel (plane fare, specifically) as we'd like to go to Disney a few times in the next year and the 14 hour drive is getting less and less doable, but flights out of our local airport are expensive as only Southwest and Delta fly from here to MCO. I do currently have 3 cards (DiscoverIt, Disney Visa, and a JCP Mastercard) as well as student loans and a car note. Last credit app was February 2014. Current scores are 722/719/708. As of now we don't have plans to travel anywhere other than Disney but in the future it's definitely a possibility.

Any suggestions as to what cards I should look into?

Back to reading!

Spending habits? How often do you travel to Disney? Do you travel alone? can you spend $10k in 3 months?

 

[JacknSally]

Spending habits? How often do you travel to Disney? Do you travel alone? can you spend $10k in 3 months?

$10K in 3 months? I haven't seen that as a requirement on any cards I've looked at.

We currently don't travel often at all because of how much it costs, which is why I'm looking to get a card that rewards with travel incentives. I won't travel alone, it would always be me and my husband. Not interested in anything specific to a certain hotel chain or anything like that, unless Starwood has a decent rewards program, as we would be traveling to Disney and staying either on property or at Swalphin.

I do have a small business if that makes Ink+ a decent option.

I did the pre-qual on Cap1's site and was pre-approved for both Venture and VentureOne, but everything I've read said VentureOne was pretty pointless. Venture is offering 40,000 bonus points right now, but I don't know how easy those are to redeem for flights. I haven't tried a pre-qual on Chase yet.

 

[Albort]

$10K in 3 months? I haven't seen that as a requirement on any cards I've looked at.

We currently don't travel often at all because of how much it costs, which is why I'm looking to get a card that rewards with travel incentives. I won't travel alone, it would always be me and my husband. Not interested in anything specific to a certain hotel chain or anything like that, unless Starwood has a decent rewards program, as we would be traveling to Disney and staying either on property or at Swalphin.

I do have a small business if that makes Ink+ a decent option.

I did the pre-qual on Cap1's site and was pre-approved for both Venture and VentureOne, but everything I've read said VentureOne was pretty pointless. Venture is offering 40,000 bonus points right now, but I don't know how easy those are to redeem for flights. I haven't tried a pre-qual on Chase yet.

i say 10K, is actually more like 12k.
Plan A: Southwest Premier/Plus/Business. 50k per card after $1k spendings. 110k in points to receive companion pass for the year, meaning if you fly, your SO flies for free. you can use your 110k points to redeem your points. you will get 100k for $2k spendings, then the remaining 10k to get to the 110k points.

Plan B: Chase UR is probably the easiest to earn points in. Travel cards are Reserve(100k after 4k), CSP(55k after 4k). other cards that earn UR pts are Freedom, Freedom Unlimited. Theres also 2 business cards, Ink+ and Ink Cash which both earns UR pts. Ink+ is probably the best way to earn points due to its 5x category in office supplies.

Honestly, if you fly with southwest a lot with your husband, that companion pass is very worth it. half off on all trips for a year basically. If your more lo key and want to also redemn for hotels and others, the UR earning is probably better. URs can also transfer to Southwest and you can probably book delta flights through korean air. points are more open to usage.
Im not familiar with SPG. sorry.

Venture one, i believe its you basically say $.01 per point, then buy whatever flight you like.

 

[JacknSally]

i say 10K, is actually more like 12k.
Plan A: Southwest Premier/Plus/Business. 50k per card after $1k spendings. 110k in points to receive companion pass for the year, meaning if you fly, your SO flies for free. you can use your 110k points to redeem your points. you will get 100k for $2k spendings, then the remaining 10k to get to the 110k points.

Plan B: Chase UR is probably the easiest to earn points in. Travel cards are Reserve(100k after 4k), CSP(55k after 4k). other cards that earn UR pts are Freedom, Freedom Unlimited. Theres also 2 business cards, Ink+ and Ink Cash which both earns UR pts. Ink+ is probably the best way to earn points due to its 5x category in office supplies.

Honestly, if you fly with southwest a lot with your husband, that companion pass is very worth it. half off on all trips for a year basically. If your more lo key and want to also redemn for hotels and others, the UR earning is probably better. URs can also transfer to Southwest and you can probably book delta flights through korean air. points are more open to usage.
Im not familiar with SPG. sorry.

Venture one, i believe its you basically say $.01 per point, then buy whatever flight you like.

We actually don't fly at all. I haven't flown since 2009, when Northwest still flew out of Memphis. Delta & Southwest are all that flies from here to MCO now, so we drive whenever we go to Disney. We just did the 14-hour-one-way drive this past weekend, though, and it's getting harder to do, so we're open to looking into flights if we can find a cost effective way to do it. Currently on the cheapest Southwest flights we're looking at $150 more (minimum) than the total cost of gas for the roadtrip. Delta is always at least double the Southwest fares. I am currently looking into CSP and Ink+, but leaning more toward CSP since I buy all my business supplies through non-traditional vendors (I make t-shirts, so I'm not at office supply stores often. When I need ink or shipping labels, I buy from Amazon because they're cheaper) and even gift cards I would buy at Kroger to earn fuel points, not at Office Depot. The more I read about Venture, the less user-friendly the reward points seem. I will look into Freedom!

 

[Albort]

We actually don't fly at all. I haven't flown since 2009, when Northwest still flew out of Memphis. Delta & Southwest are all that flies from here to MCO now, so we drive whenever we go to Disney. We just did the 14-hour-one-way drive this past weekend, though, and it's getting harder to do, so we're open to looking into flights if we can find a cost effective way to do it. Currently on the cheapest Southwest flights we're looking at $150 more (minimum) than the total cost of gas for the roadtrip. Delta is always at least double the Southwest fares. I am currently looking into CSP and Ink+, but leaning more toward CSP since I buy all my business supplies through non-traditional vendors (I make t-shirts, so I'm not at office supply stores often. When I need ink or shipping labels, I buy from Amazon because they're cheaper) and even gift cards I would buy at Kroger to earn fuel points, not at Office Depot. The more I read about Venture, the less user-friendly the reward points seem. I will look into Freedom!

Ink+ will give u 5x at amazon too. gives u 5x access to target, walmart, etc via gc.

 

[Psychodisney]

We actually don't fly at all. I haven't flown since 2009, when Northwest still flew out of Memphis. Delta & Southwest are all that flies from here to MCO now, so we drive whenever we go to Disney. We just did the 14-hour-one-way drive this past weekend, though, and it's getting harder to do, so we're open to looking into flights if we can find a cost effective way to do it. Currently on the cheapest Southwest flights we're looking at $150 more (minimum) than the total cost of gas for the roadtrip. Delta is always at least double the Southwest fares. I am currently looking into CSP and Ink+, but leaning more toward CSP since I buy all my business supplies through non-traditional vendors (I make t-shirts, so I'm not at office supply stores often. When I need ink or shipping labels, I buy from Amazon because they're cheaper) and even gift cards I would buy at Kroger to earn fuel points, not at Office Depot. The more I read about Venture, the less user-friendly the reward points seem. I will look into Freedom!

I have had the Venture card for a few years and will keep it to compliment my CSP. It is very user friendly! The Venture points are very easy to use and can "erase" any travel purchase. You earn 2% on everything. Then when you have a travel expense such as a hotel, rental car, airfare....you log in, select the travel charge and get credit for it. 40,000 points = 400.00 Just move the decimal point over 2 spaces to determine how much your points are worth.
For airfare, I like UR because I like to be able to transfer them to SW so if the fare goes down, you get your points back.

 

[JacknSally]

Ink+ will give u 5x at amazon too. gives u 5x access to target, walmart, etc via gc.

"Via gift card", though, so only to redeem? I wouldn't earn 5x on purchases at those vendors, correct? I haven't seen anything in their fine print that says you would earn the 5x rewards on those vendors, though earning it on cell phone and internet bills is handy.

 

[JacknSally]

I have had the Venture card for a few years and will keep it to compliment my CSP. It is very user friendly! The Venture points are very easy to use and can "erase" any travel purchase. You earn 2% on everything. Then when you have a travel expense such as a hotel, rental car, airfare....you log in, select the travel charge and get credit for it. 40,000 points = 400.00 Just move the decimal point over 2 spaces to determine how much your points are worth.
For airfare, I like UR because I like to be able to transfer them to SW so if the fare goes down, you get your points back.

Oh, that is very handy! Thank you! Is transferring the points to SW easy to do?

 

[Albort]

"Via gift card", though, so only to redeem? I wouldn't earn 5x on purchases at those vendors, correct? I haven't seen anything in their fine print that says you would earn the 5x rewards on those vendors, though earning it on cell phone and internet bills is handy.

u could get visa gift cards, but those comes with a fee. They do sometimes come out with promo where u can buy these visa gift cards and they refund u like $15. i use gyft.com more often. buy them via paypal will code any gc to 5x. ive bought close to 4k worth of gc in the past 6 months earning 5x on it all! You can also buy gc from staples or office depot.

 

[JacknSally]

u could get visa gift cards, but those comes with a fee. They do sometimes come out with promo where u can buy these visa gift cards and they refund u like $15. i use gyft.com more often. buy them via paypal will code any gc to 5x. ive bought close to 4k worth of gc in the past 6 months earning 5x on it all! You can also buy gc from staples or office depot.

Right, but like I said before, I only buy the gift cards from Kroger so I get the fuel points from them. I wouldn't be buying them from the office supply stores. I was just trying to clarify your earlier comment as it didn't make sense.

 

[Psychodisney]

Oh, that is very handy! Thank you! Is transferring the points to SW easy to do?

For SW, if you use a Chase card with Ultimate rewards(UR), the transfer to SW is very easy and quick. You link your RR number, decide how many points to transfer. Click the button and they are there within minutes.

 

[JacknSally]

For SW, if you use a Chase card with Ultimate rewards(UR), the transfer to SW is very easy and quick. You link your RR number, decide how many points to transfer. Click the button and they are there within minutes.

Thank you so much! Decided to go with the Ink+ and was approved so yay!

 

[GPC0321]

I wish Chase would go ahead and announce Freedom's 5X categories for 2017 already! I found an article from September 2015 where they announced 2016's categories. Here we are closing in on November 2016 and no word yet about 2017's categories?

I'm trying to decide if I should go ahead and buy some gift cards at Sam's before the end of the year. I'd rather wait until 2017 (our trip isn't until December 2017), but I'd be irritated if there turns out to be no wholesale club category next year (can hardly imagine that).

I guess I can wait it out. Surely by December they'll have announced the categories.

 

[Albort]

I wish Chase would go ahead and announce Freedom's 5X categories for 2017 already! I found an article from September 2015 where they announced 2016's categories. Here we are closing in on November 2016 and no word yet about 2017's categories?

I'm trying to decide if I should go ahead and buy some gift cards at Sam's before the end of the year. I'd rather wait until 2017 (our trip isn't until December 2017), but I'd be irritated if there turns out to be no wholesale club category next year (can hardly imagine that).

I guess I can wait it out. Surely by December they'll have announced the categories.

still praying for a 10x Amazon category... haha