I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[disneymagicgirl]

A question about tipping . . . How much do you all tip the driver for UberEats and/or Shipt?

I have the $15 credit for Uber that I am thinking about using for UberEats -- up until last month I actually had two plats so a $30 credit, which sort of made sense to use even after all of the Uber fees plus a tip. But now that I have one plat and one $15 credit, it seems to make no sense to even bother with an UberEats order because the whole $15 would essentially be fees plus tip. (I think I am going to have to check out the banking tip that Albort posted about.)

As for Shipt, I have a $30 back on a $99 purchase but given that Shipt here marks things up about 20%, I am not sure that there's any actual savings after fees plus tip.

I'm coming to the conclusion that these services really are only for people who are willing to pay for the convenience of having a driver bring food to the front door. Which of course is fine, but not helping me see the value in the AF for the AmEx cards.

I am a shipt shopper and sometimes I do doordash too (similar to uber eats).

For shipt, it depends on the order. If it is big order it takes a lot of time to shop it, plus driving to the store and to your home. If small order, shopping may be quick (depends on store stock and substitutions) but the driving is still involved. We get paid peanuts from shipt and no mileage, so the tips really make it worthwhile. We are independent contractors. I, along with many shoppers, keep track of tips and addresses and won’t pick up orders for crappy tippers. A good tip is in the 20% range. If it is a small order and they live close to the store I will cut them slack for tipping less. If I spend an hour or more shopping your order and delivering it, and you give me $5, well, I won’t be seeing you again.

Doordash is not as transparent. The minimum payout is $5.50 in my area. If you tip $6.50, DD pays out $0 themselves. If you tip $2.50, doordash pays out $3. I don’t track tips for those, I just glance at the mileage involved and if it is 2-3 miles for $7 I do it. If it is 12 miles for $5.50, I don’t.

 

[Lain]

Now I have FOMO.

Why not use your husband’s Plat to support yourself to a BBP, or visa versa. 15k MR support bonus, 10k MR SUB, $3k MSR, 2x MR everywhere up to $50k spend/year, $0 AF. It’s a perfect everything else card to compliment 5x MR for flights and FHRs on the Plat, 4x MR for grocery stores and restaurants on the Gold. Biz card so it won’t count against 5/24. Amex probably won’t even do a hard pull on you/DH.

 

[mmmears]

Why not use your husband’s Plat to support yourself to a BBP, or visa versa. 15k MR support bonus, 10k MR SUB, $3k MSR, 2x MR everywhere up to $50k spend/year, $0 AF. It’s a perfect everything else card to compliment 5x MR for flights and FHRs on the Plat, 4x MR for grocery stores and restaurants on the Gold. Biz card so it won’t count against 5/24. Amex probably won’t even do a hard pull on you/DH.

Oh, you're such an enabler! But you have a good point there, too.

 

[Lain]

Oh, you're such an enabler! But you have a good point there, too.

 

[AmyAnne]

This is awful of me but after Uber’s service fee and delivery fee I don’t tip anymore. In NY I would give $5 for delivery, but I never had to pay a delivery or service fee. For groceries I give $1 a bag.

The new service fee has me irked too. Where does it go? I'm a good tipper in general because I understand that people in tipped positions are paid by their employers at some crazy below-minimum wage because everyone (employer, employee, customer) understands that the customer is expected to make up the difference. But I don't understand what/how delivery people get paid -- I am paying Uber and Shipt a fee but what are they paying the drivers?

I am a shipt shopper and sometimes I do doordash too (similar to uber eats).

For shipt, it depends on the order. If it is big order it takes a lot of time to shop it, plus driving to the store and to your home. If small order, shopping may be quick (depends on store stock and substitutions) but the driving is still involved. We get paid peanuts from shipt and no mileage, so the tips really make it worthwhile. We are independent contractors. I, along with many shoppers, keep track of tips and addresses and won’t pick up orders for crappy tippers. A good tip is in the 20% range. If it is a small order and they live close to the store I will cut them slack for tipping less. If I spend an hour or more shopping your order and delivering it, and you give me $5, well, I won’t be seeing you again.

Doordash is not as transparent. The minimum payout is $5.50 in my area. If you tip $6.50, DD pays out $0 themselves. If you tip $2.50, doordash pays out $3. I don’t track tips for those, I just glance at the mileage involved and if it is 2-3 miles for $7 I do it. If it is 12 miles for $5.50, I don’t.

Interesting -- thanks for sharing the inside perspective. I think my problem might be that typical shipt (or doordash or ubereats) customers really are okay with paying well -- including a good tip -- for the convenience. My problem is I am trying to get the most value from an AmEx credit or offer. I have no other need for someone to do my shopping or pick up my take-out order for me.

 

[Soben]

Since you say "2/5" I take that as you have each opened 2 cards in the last 24 months, taking up 2 spots in Chase's 5/24 rule, aka 2/24? That's not bad and still a good place to start. I'm always a fan of UR but not as familiar with redemptions to England so someone else can chime in for best for that UR vs MR. But I think it'll come down to which airline(s) are you looking at or what properties you're looking to stay (are the chains you can transfer points to or independents that can booked through a portal or would you need to cash out if that's what you want to cover? having an idea of that is helpful when deciding a direction.)

As for paying the fee for tuition, most sign up bonus are going to get you at least a 10% return on your spend, so it should cover the cost of that fee. If you were to go for the CIP with a 5k MSR and just put the whole 6k on it, it would be $141 in convenience fee + $95 AF for ~86,000 UR points worth at minimum $860. That gives you a profit of $641 which is a return of 10.3% on your spend; so you definitely make out better than not using it and paying cash. All that said, you make out even better if you can avoid paying the fees to meet MSR but if you can't, paying 2 to get 10 seems like a fair tradeoff. I myself am pretty sure we're going to use our property taxes which has a fee for CC payment to help meet the CIP MSR. I am fee adverse but the numbers for a MSR return have swayed me.

Welcome I’m going to assume you are 2/24...two new personal credit cards opened in the last 24 momthe
for me paying a convenience fee was worth it on my Chase Ink Preferred CIP sign up bonus....acquired 85k URs..which we used to book a 2br villa for 6 nights
I am not familiar with using URs traveling to England...I do know Chase has travel partners and URs can be transferred to them to book flights, hotels etc or they can be booked through the Chase travel portal.

If you are fine with opening business cards...I sell some things on eBay.....the CIP has the highest sign up bonus 80k URs after a $5k spend...

On the Chase personal cards...the Chase Sapphire Preferred CSP has a 60k UR sign up bonus after a $4k spend...

Nice to see you come out of lurkdom...if you are both willing to do business cards then your best option would be apply for CIP then refer spouse for the CIP. From your upcoming tuition looks like you will have 2.5k left to spend after if you did two CIPs. As long as you haven’t applied for a chase card in the last 3 months you should be safe to apply. That would give you 190k UR after meeting the two spends.
If you aren’t part of the dischurners group on reddit you could join and as @SouthFayetteFan says give back to the community.

Wow, thanks for all the advice. It looks like I should start on the CIP and see where we go from there.

And you guys got me, I meant 2/24. Still learning the lingo, lol.

 

[Etonduf]

Does anyone know how to enroll in auto pay for the Barclays Aviator Business? I cannot for the life of me figure out how to enroll.

I had a lot of trouble with this too. You have to go into your profile and add a bank there. Only then can you setup autopay. So, so many extra and frustrating steps with Barclay biz and their 1997 website

I'm having this same issue. I have added a bank and can (apparently) schedule a one-time payment in the future, but can't find a way to set up a repeating auto-payment. The card is heading to the sock drawer soon so it's not like I need recurring payments, but in my anal-retentive way I like to set it up on all my cards in case I (or spouse) use a wrong card and I don't notice. Would hate to get hit with interest or late fees because of a silly mistake.

The jokes about the ridiculous Aviator web site have made the rounds already but it really is terrible. Barclays should be embarrassed. @wendow I believe you mentioned getting stung by the inexplicable "account switching" thing, so I looked and sure enough it showed a couple of charges that I knew about but hadn't posted on the "default" account. So frustrating.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Wow, thanks for all the advice. It looks like I should start on the CIP and see where we go from there.

And you guys got me, I meant 2/24. Still learning the lingo, lol.

I just sent you a PM invite to our DISchurners group. Perhaps consider joining before you pull the trigger on that CIP app and you could use a support link of somebody who gave you advice (I see just quoted 3 helpful folks there)

 

[disneymagicgirl]

The new service fee has me irked too. Where does it go? I'm a good tipper in general because I understand that people in tipped positions are paid by their employers at some crazy below-minimum wage because everyone (employer, employee, customer) understands that the customer is expected to make up the difference. But I don't understand what/how delivery people get paid -- I am paying Uber and Shipt a fee but what are they paying the drivers?



Interesting -- thanks for sharing the inside perspective. I think my problem might be that typical shipt (or doordash or ubereats) customers really are okay with paying well -- including a good tip -- for the convenience. My problem is I am trying to get the most value from an AmEx credit or offer. I have no other need for someone to do my shopping or pick up my take-out order for me.

Yeah, I don’t ever order food delivery because the fees are exorbitant and you never know what kind of person is handling your food. I do order shipt though, when I need the convenience. I don’t do it for every time I need groceries though.
Most of my customers, probably well over 90%, are shipt members, so no other delivery fee for orders over $35.

Just try to order as close to the $99 as you can for the shipt offer. The tips you pay in app are billed as “shipt” as well, so just be strategic to get to $99.

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

First day of the farmer's market here, practically the only place I use cashBought some seedlings since what I've planted so far have all been duds... Spent the morning and afternoon working on putting my planters together, and hopefully making a proof area of my lawn for planting. Very happy with how everything has turned out, I still need to plant some zinnias and sunflowers and get a package of zucchini seeds. Plan to apply for the hilton bus probably tomorrow or Monday. Quick run to costco, and hopefully going to have a nice evening grilling out (if the weather holds). Happy Saturday everyone!

ETA: wish the smiley with the off topic post was smiling, would fit with the vibe of our thread much better.

Farmers' market here tomorrow---and I can use cards with all the farmers and other vendors because everyone has Square We deal with groundhogs and deer---the foxes keep the bunny populations under control

considering doing the same... rent an RV in Anchorage and drive north to fairbanks. passing Denali too. may be a trip this summer.

It was awesome! We rented through Great Alaskan Holidays

Looks interesting and now bookmarked. Maybe summer 2021???

Honestly, I would go again in a hot second.

 

[DisneyMandC]

1. Amex support points post pretty quickly, usually within 2-3 days after approval. My support points for my BBP that was approved Thursday was already in my MR account this morning.

That said, support points post differently with Amex than with Chase. With Chase, if the support points don’t go pending before your statement closes then you have to wait for the next statement close for the points to post to your account. Amex support points don’t go pending; they just post. So the support points for my BBP are already in my Amex MR account after 2 days; I did not have to wait for the supporting card’s statement to close. With a Hilton card, the support points should show up within 2-3 days after approval as an increase in the points earned YTD on the supporting card’s account dashboard. Then, you should see the support points make their way to your Hilton Honors account about 1-2 days later. No need to wait for your supporting card’s statement to close.

Thanks!! It’s been so long since I used an Amex support link I can’t remember when they post.

 

[orangecuse]

Not sure I’ve seen this mentioned so wanted to throw it out there just in case-

Barclay’s has their own shopping portal for the Arrival+ where you can earn extra miles per $. Example- ebags is 10 miles/$1 right now.

 

[tenngirl]

Welcome @tenngirl - The first place to start is right where you are, asking questions and giving your self about 2 years to get things into place.

Next, you will want to determine where in Europe you would like to visit. Then figure out which airlines will fly to that location from your home airport. If your airport is a hub for a particular airline, you may wish to focus on that airline. Once you have a general idea which airline you will likely be using, you need to find out how many people are going on this trip and if you want to fly in coach, business or first class. This will give you a rough idea of how many miles you will need. Once you have that information all set, you will want to come up with a plan B in case this first plan doesn't pan out as you'd hoped. It happens to the best of us.

As a general rule, we recommend starting with the Chase cards due to the 5/24 rule, but depending on your Euro trip goals that may or may not be the best plan for you. If you have a P2 that can play the game with you, all the better. Applying for business cards for your existing business, "business", or business you may be thinking about having, "some day" is also a good plan of action.

Thank you all so much for the responses. It seems I left out some information. We would like to travel to Ireland, but I'm also open to Hungary. As you see, I haven't gotten far in planning yet. Really, there's so much we want to see, and my oldest kid is entering high school so we are really wanting to travel as much as possible. I just paid for part of our hotel when we went to Charleston last week, and now I'm hooked on this credit card mile thing!
The four of us would be flying out of Nashville, where Southwest has a hub. We've never flown anything but coach. I do have a willing P2, and a few years ago I started a little side business that I haven't done anything with in 2 years and did not generate any real income. Could I still apply for a business card?

@tenngirl - While there certainly are a lot of good credit card options out there, it’s very important — especially when you’re just starting out — to be strategic about which cards you get, in which order and timing in between each one, considering the particular rules each credit card issuer has for approving new credit cards.

Credit card issuers each have their own internal rules and guidelines for approving new cards and as a way to discouraging people from abusing their credit card rewards programs (or minimizing risk of default amongst their accounts) by signing up for excessive amounts of cards. One such rule you’ll see cited a lot is Chase’s “5/24 rule,” which means Chase will not approve you for any of their cards if your credit report shows you’ve opened 5 credit cards in the past 24 months. This is important to keep in mind because Chase’s rewards program is called Ultimate Rewards (“UR”), and it’s a favorite here because it’s so versatile and potentially very very valuable depending on your redemption — you can cash out points at 1 cent per point, you can redeem points at 1.25x or 1.5x on the Chase travel portal using Chase’s more premium travel cards, and you can transfer points to Chase’s travel partners like United, BA, Southwest, Marriott, and Hyatt, among many others. @smmco mentions Hyatt — Chase has a Hyatt credit card that will earn you a substantial signup bonus in World of Hyatt points, but you’ll need to be under 5/24 to be eligible.

It looks like you’re 1/24 now by Chase’s count because of the CapOne card. If you were to sign up willy nilly for AA cards from Citi and Barclays, a Hilton card and a Marriott card from Amex, you’d take yourself to 5/24 without having even touched any Chase cards, and that is an immensely huge lost opportunity. Without a strategy, you’ll have locked yourself out from getting any Chase cards and earning any Ultimate Rewards points for at least 2 years. And any personal card you open during those next 2 years will mean you’re one more card away from dropping back under 5/24 and being eligible for Chase cards again. There are ways to stretch out your 5/24 status, so that you can open many more than 5 cards in 24 months, which we can discuss.

As you’re starting out, please please please take in our advice and come up with a strategy before making any major decisions like signing up for a new card. There are folks who have been at this for years who will be more than glad to offer their advice, experiences, and different perspectives. And folks who have been at this for a while still use this community as a sounding board to catch things they might have missed. With all these credit card issuers each having their own rules, it’s very easy to get tripped up and make a mistake going for one (or several) cards and that having an impact on getting cards from another issuer.

Lain- thank you so much! A strategy and good advice is definitely what I am after. Truthfully, I have a VERY LIMITED understanding of using points for airlines vs. hotels vs. just taking the cash reward. I really want to use these cards to maximize the amount of travel we can do as a family. To add to the incomplete info from earlier:
01/19 Capital One Venture
We normally put $1500-2000/month on CCs. We pay them off every month.
The four of us would be flying out of Nashville, where Southwest has a hub. We've never flown anything but coach. I do have a willing P2, and a few years ago I started a little side business that I haven't done anything with in 2 years and did not generate any real income. Could I still apply for a business card?
Can you or any of your wise travel friends suggest which cards I should start with? I feel like I need a class! Thanks everyone!

 

[kmc8826]

Do you need to cancel the SPG to make room for the Delta card, or just canceling to avoid the AF? If it's to make room for the new card, I think most people here recommend keeping the card and then offering to cancel on a call to AmEx. If it's to not pay the AF, my thinking would be to keep it until you get the Delta and then cancel.

I'm also looking at a Delta biz card but so far i can't get the new and improved offers through my Gold biz. Hoping that gets fixed soon.

I need to cancel the SPG Biz card to make room for another credit card (another Delta). Right now I am maxed out at 5. @gottalovepluto posted on the Reddit news thread the link to use to get the higher level referral offers to post. It worked so check that out.

Someone tell me I’m not crazy for wanting to pull the trigger on either the Amex Platinum or Gold Delta Business, or at least reassure me that we’re all mad here

$700 left on P2 CIP, $1K left on CSP, $4K on Citi AA Biz (can knock that out on Plastiq in 1 payment if I’m willing to pay $100 fee).

The MSR on Platinum is $6K (and Amex) but between me and DH we can knock that out with mostly organic spend. I’ll be getting him an employee card assuming that won’t count against his 5/24 since business?

Gold is 70k with only $4k spend. I know the companion cert on the Platinum is worth more than the $195 annual fee, but if I remember you don’t get it until your first anniversary.

Oh decisions, decisions.

Will Amex be sensitive to the MDD I did on 4/16 and 4/17?

Oh we are all mad! Of that I am quite certain.
But in a good way...

If you go for a business card the card you get for DH is technically an employee card and will not count. That is the only way I was able to meet the huge Amex spends I had this fall; it took both of us and all our spend.

Yes, this is what I have done twice. They are happier to close if they are giving you new credit at the same time.

This is what I am confused on. The order of cancel and applying. Do you call to cancel and then say you are going to apply? Or apply and then say “oh yeah duh I need to cancel?”

 

[smmco]

I have more Amex news. 2 days I dug up my American Express account. It had been 6 feet under for about 5 years. Two days ago had a targeted offer for Gold card with the 50k bonus. I also had an upgrade offer and bonus on my blue card. I got both of these cards. Last week I tried to get a Hilton Aspire card and got the pop-up. Today I logged in and had an offer to upgrade my old no AF Hilton card to the Aspire with the 150k point bonus. It seemed too good to be true.... no credit check, no opening a new card, no contributing to the 5/24 rule. I couldn't do it online since I can't find my old Hilton card. I was able to do it over the phone.

Ok on to the bad news I need to spend 7k to get the bonuses. I could write off the blue card If I have to that would put me at 6k. On a normal spending month I put about 1500 on my cards. I don't have any big spends the next three months.
I'm going to start paying my electric bill with one of the cards. In the Summer my bill is around 300-400 a month. They charge 2% to pay with a card, but oh well you got to do what you got to do. I'm going to WDW on the 11th. Hopefully one of these cards will be here by then. If not my Dh is arriving on the 15th and could bring a card. The rooms are already paid for all on points, but I could change my room charges before I leave.

I'm going on Transatlantic cruise in September. The cruise is paid for, but I still need to pay tips, transport excursions alcohol etc. I can do this all before the cruise by adding on board credit....that's probably an extra 1200. I'm also considering upgrading my annual passes. I have from July 20 to Oct 20. I was planning on doing it in October if I was going to do it, but I might have the money to upgrade one in August so that's an extra 800.00.
I already pay my cell phone with a credit card. I'm going to see what other utility bills I can charge. I'm also going to have to stop shopping at Costco for the next 3 months. Any other ideas. I think in the long run I'll be happy with all the bonuses but right now. It's a bit of a challenge.

They say no gift cards. Do the credit card company's know if you buy gift cards at the grocery store or target?
They also said my AF would be prorated. My anniversary date is March. Does that mean I pay a 3/4 of the annual fee and then the total annual fee in March? I would assume I'm available for the annual perks in March???

 

[bernina]

I need to cancel the SPG Biz card to make room for another credit card (another Delta). Right now I am maxed out at 5. @gottalovepluto posted on the Reddit news thread the link to use to get the higher level referral offers to post. It worked so check that out.



Oh we are all mad! Of that I am quite certain.
But in a good way...

If you go for a business card the card you get for DH is technically an employee card and will not count. That is the only way I was able to meet the huge Amex spends I had this fall; it took both of us and all our spend.



This is what I am confused on. The order of cancel and applying. Do you call to cancel and then say you are going to apply? Or apply and then say “oh yeah duh I need to cancel?”

The last time I did this with Amex I applied and it went pending. I called in and was told it was because I already had 5 cards and they asked which one I wanted to close to make room. This was 4 years ago though so hopefully someone with more recent experience will chime in.

 

[tink1970]

Or apply and then say “oh yeah duh I need to cancel?”

The latter has been my MO for the past 2 or 3 cards...I'm sure it works either way but I like for Amex to feel they're winning

 

[ten6mom]

I have spent most of the last two days, with my boys' help (they're THEIR toys, after all) sorting and re-assembling SW Lego Minifigures to get ready to list on eBay. My eyes are bugging out and they're well-played with, meaning some limbs and weapons have been mixed up over the years. It's amazing how the kids (12 and 14) know EXACTLY which piece goes (or doesn't go) with which.

Now I just have to decide how to list them- I've been searching eBay listings to see what others are doing (singly? As a set? As a "random group of 4"?) and it's quite mind-boggling.

Then if I sell any I'll have to be ready to ship ASAP!!! Being a sole proprietor is super duper fun so far...

 

[MKTokyo]

No more crop tops! No more!

We're still at WDW & had two bad event experiences in two days. The first one was a "nobody's fault" kind of thing but tonight's was a completely avoidable fiasco and I'm just so annoyed by how the entire event was handled. At least we came away not having to pay for either one & can put the money toward our upcoming TDL AP renewals. Those prices hurt.

 

[wendow]

I'm having this same issue. I have added a bank and can (apparently) schedule a one-time payment in the future, but can't find a way to set up a repeating auto-payment. The card is heading to the sock drawer soon so it's not like I need recurring payments, but in my anal-retentive way I like to set it up on all my cards in case I (or spouse) use a wrong card and I don't notice. Would hate to get hit with interest or late fees because of a silly mistake.

The jokes about the ridiculous Aviator web site have made the rounds already but it really is terrible. Barclays should be embarrassed. @wendow I believe you mentioned getting stung by the inexplicable "account switching" thing, so I looked and sure enough it showed a couple of charges that I knew about but hadn't posted on the "default" account. So frustrating.

I think there a couple of us here who got burned by having charges post in the other account (which I completely do not understand). I despise that website and am so glad this is not a card I'll be using anymore.