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

[Judique]

Maybe. Send pics and I'll decide.

Pics of her points balances??

 

[platamama]

Can't help too much, but my legit DD comes in as "DES: PAYROLL" so I'm not sure the "ACH-WEB" would be included in the triggering. Also the transaction category is "Income: Paychecks/Salary" but I'm guessing that's keyed off that DES: field in the description.
Since Serve seems to work, how that codes might be an indication but not a guarantee that anything else that codes that way works. @platamama , what did serve look like?

Unfortunately in this case, it looks like BoA gives a 2 month grace period before they start charging the monthly fee, so probably not advisable to wait and see if it waives the monthly charge either. Typically BoA pays the bonus out within a couple weeks of meeting the requirements so you could try to hold out and see if you get paid first, but I second @gottalovepluto and work on changing payroll just in case.
For reference:

https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/bgf1za/_/elr6idt

Couple other DP's around the same time that bonus still posting within a couple weeks of requirements met.

My qualifying serve dd transactions looked like "DES:EXCHANGE" @Alexle2007 FWIW. My bonus posted on my statement close date.

 

[Lain]

Maybe. Send pics and I'll decide.

Andy! Don’t you already have a beautiful wife?!

 

[speedyfishy]

Maybe. Send pics and I'll decide.

Wait, am I on reddit?

 

[Andysol]

Hmm. Not sure I'm making the cut if beauty is the criteria... how about I send you my credit score or MR balance? Then I might have a shot...

It's all about that status. Not single or married, of course. Just that 5/24 status

Wait, am I on reddit?

Don't check your DMs!

 

[WVMomof3]

I'm one that's crazy enough.

I actually got J availability for 4 for next year, which is no easy task. Not ideal airlines/routes, but for 4, no complaints.

Dallas-Toronto-London on Air Canada
Venice-Vienna on Austrian
Vienna-Istanbul-Ho Chi Minh City on Turkish
Bangkok-Seoul on Thai
Seoul-Honolulu on Air Asiana

54 Nights and several inter-country small flights not included. London-Paris train (will do Disneyland Paris). Paris-Rome via small flight, Rome-Florence-Vienna train, throughout Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and to Bangkok are small puddle jump flights.

Ended up being 105k MR + ~$600 per person.

You could easily make a Japan-Hong Kong-Shanghai-Paris route though and hit all the parks. Going west to east is a bit tougher for availability but easier for jetlag for most people. East to west is better availability. And with 4, that's what I had to do. Getting to and from Japan will be your hardest leg to find availability for J.

Wow, that sounds awesome! 105k MR doesn't sound bad for that at all. Maybe goals once I get a MR earning card.

 

[Lain]

Do you put spend on all your cards?

Hah! That's funny. No, never. Almost all of my cards are sock-drawered. The only exception is I recently got the $15k free night on the Hilton Biz, so maybe all of that spend (since January) has me in Amex's good graces. Doesn't explain the Hilton no-AF, Aspire, and Surpass that have been gathering dust though.

I think what prevents the Amex pop up is probably a bit more complicated than putting spend on all your cards. There are a lot of theories out there trying to figure out Amex’s algorithm for triggering the pop up.

Some people think Amex is looking for you to maintain the same level of spend as you had during the MSR period, but that’s just nuts and I certainly don’t maintain that level of spend on every one of my cards every month. I do maintain a high level of spend (high cost of living) with Amex, collectively, every month.

Others suggest if you get the pop up, to bring up your levels of spend to where they were while meeting MSR, and increasing spend to get rid of the pop up seems to help, i.e., those who have gotten rid of the pop up say they increased their spend on existing Amex cards, but it seems YMMV because it’s not clear how much spend will get rid of the pop up, whereas some people have reported just using the cards again for everyday spend was enough, while others have put thousands of dollars of new spend on their cards and still can’t get rid of the pop up.

Then there’s a debate whether you need to put spend on all of your cards or just any card will do. For people with 5 or 10 open Amex cards, putting spend on every card is logistically difficult and presents a lot of opportunity cost because that spend could be used towards cards with better category bonuses or MSRs on new cards.

I do continue to spend on an Amex card after meeting MSR, but I taper off my spend on the new cards within a few months and move that spend to my Amex Gold (4x MR restaurants/4x MR supermarkets), BGR (3x MR gas), Bonvoy Biz (4x Marriott gas), and BBP (2x everywhere) for better category bonuses. This helps to put several thousand dollars of spend mostly on the Gold and BBP every month. I also have a Plat, 2 Biz Plats, a legacy SPG/Bonvoy, and Bonvoy Brilliant. The “sock drawered” cards mostly see less than $100 in charges each month using Amex Offers and credits and non-bonus category spend just to keep them active. But that’s certainly no where near the levels of spend that I put on them while meeting MSR.

So far, no pop ups.

ETA: Then I think of people who maintain high levels of spend with Amex, generally, due to MS. They’ll grab all the cards for their SUBs, but many of the cards they’ll open don’t have category bonuses that are conducive to MS, e.g., a Plat will get you 5x on flights but 1x at the supermarket or office supply store and no incentive to hit a certain spend for some status or free night. A card like that would go in the sock drawer and see little continuing spend. But cards like the Gold, EDP, and even BBP would see a lot of MS spend because of the usefulness of their categories. And all that spend on just a few cards seems to ward away the pop ups.

 

[DisneyMandC]

It was only $200 idk why he was bugging. When I went to the other staples they didn’t even ask to see the ID. Plus I always show my ID at grocery stores getting VGCs and no one has ever commented on my out of state ID. It was weird.

Makes sense. Thanks.

Yeah I neither own a car nor live in VA - both of those things seem awful - so I can see why it would be more of a pain.

Hey....

 

[punkin]

Just saw your original post, sorry.

If Summer 2021 is the goal, you have tons of time. A couple Biz plats, a couple personal plats and a couple of personal/biz golds and you're there. You're not as far off as you think. Anyone with healthy spend should be able to stockpile 575k MR in a year if you stay focused.



That would be a terrible, terrible use of points. UR to Marriott makes me almost die inside. Marriott to ANA finishes the job.

UR currently has two main purposes post the United deval:
-Transfer to Hyatt, which is the biggest value
-Booking travel via UR Portal w/ a CSR (or CSP/CIP at worst) @ 1.5cpp

Marriott/HH/AA/Delta should be used for their respective chains.

You just need to start stockpiling MR. J availability for 5 is going to be a bit of a pain but doable. You, like me, will have to pick non-ideal airlines and potentially be economy for a small leg or two. Example- I couldve gone from Vietnam to Taipei on EVA economy, but only availability out of Vietnam in J was Asiana, Air China or a lucky Thai route to Bangkok.

3 Must-Have websites:
www.flightconnections.com is one resource to see what star alliance flies and out of where.
www.United.com will be your other one to see which flight has saver avaibility. Saver availability = you're good. ETA here: Don't log onto united while searching. Because if you search logged in it'll give you "exclusive" saver routes. Those won't transpose to ANA and aren't available.
https://matrix.itasoftware.com is your last one to check your exact fees you'll be paying. Europe is notorious for high fees so be very conscience here. American or British through LHR would be $650/person alone. Air Canada was $5.60.

Istanbul will be a necessity for you whether going east or west. You're going to fly Turkish through IST for certain at that'll be ~$300 fees/pp there alone. Good thing about IST though, is you can plan a long layover and do a free city tour that Turkish puts on. They'll even feed you. The longer layover you can swing here, the better.

You're limited to 8 stopovers and 13 segments. Ground transfers count as a stopover.
Example, I'm doing DFW-YYC-LHR then train to paris then plane to rome then train to venice. VEN-VIE is my next flight under my RTW ticket. But LHR is a stopover, Venice is one, and Vienna is one. So that's 3 stopovers and 5 segments.

The other thing to keep track of is which plane flights what segment. Not all J are created equal. But with 5, the bottom line is: beggers can't be choosers. You'll have to take what you can get and be happy about it.

This is so confusing to me. I have no idea what any of this means. I'm trying to get 2 business or first class lie flat tickets to Europe in fall of 2020. I thought the best way is UR to United, but reading this completely confuses me. Maybe my MR points would be better. I really need help.

 

[Tinkerbell19672]

Does anyone know the answer to this...Discover has 5% back thru PayPal this quarter. If I purchase something online from a merchant who doesn’t take PayPal but I use my PayPal debit card, will I still get 5% if Discover is set up as my primary in my account?

 

[tink1970]

Wow, that sounds awesome! 105k MR doesn't sound bad for that at all. Maybe goals once I get a MR earning card.

Does this mean I could do 2 RTW with my 240K MRs? Please don't tempt me Oh wait, I don't think I could do a RTW and skip Asia. If that were possible, I'd be all over it!

Hey....

I know, right? The Commonwealth is beautiful and my car is like another appendage.

That said, the taxes on my expensive sports car when I lived in said Commonwealth were painful, for sure.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Went to staples again and the guy told me one per person again. He also asked for my ID and made comments that I have 90 days after living in VA to switch my ID (I still have a NY ID, but like really? mind your business.

I drove to another staples and they were wiped out. I completely cleared them out and got $1400 worth. I may check Thursday to see if they got anymore cards.

decided to get a VGC at my local Staples....tried for 2....was told 1 per person per day and he did ask for ID as well.

Not sure if I am going to try Serve or use it for organic spend.....but I realized the other day that there is a Family Dollar store about 2 miles from our house...always thought it was another Dollar Tree

 

[DisneyMandC]

I know, right? The Commonwealth is beautiful and my car is like another appendage.

That said, the taxes on my expensive sports car when I lived in said Commonwealth were painful, for sure.

It always makes me happy when I hear someone else call it the Commonwealth haha.

I have nothing to compare it to since I've always lived here, but I don't find the car taxes to be too terrible. The property taxes in my area are very cheap. I pay $2200 a year for 17 acres of land. I think my mom's is actually about the same for 60 acres of land because she has it specially designated as farm use or something (she's zoned agriculture).

 

[tink1970]

This is so confusing to me. I have no idea what any of this means. I'm trying to get 2 business or first class lie flat tickets to Europe in fall of 2020. I thought the best way is UR to United, but reading this completely confuses me. Maybe my MR points would be better. I really need help.

If you want to fly to Europe you can use MRs or URs (transferring to United or Flying Blue) OR a combination of both. It's really easy and several of us do this regularly.

Where do you want to go and when? That's the first step. Then, go to skyscanner to get an idea of which alliances (there are 3) fly to that place. That's step two. Once you determine the alliance with the best flights for you, then that will determine URs or MRs (or both). You can do one ways both there and back if you are short on miles in one currency, as well.

As the booking window gets closer, you can bounce ideas off of us here if you'd like. Once you're accustomed to it, it really starts to make sense.

 

[speedyfishy]

decided to get a VGC at my local Staples....tried for 2....was told 1 per person per day and he did ask for ID as well.

Not sure if I am going to try Serve or use it for organic spend.....but I realized the other day that there is a Family Dollar store about 2 miles from our house...always thought it was another Dollar Tree

I haven't tried loading Serve on LI, but I have gotten MO's at a few Walmarts and Stop and Shops there without any problems. I bet loading Serve would be even easier if you wanted to give it a shot. I'll try Serve loads when I'm visiting NY for Labor Day weekend.

 

[tink1970]

It always makes me happy when I hear someone else call it the Commonwealth

I think it comes from being there in high school when I took civics/poly sci. I also refer to the other Commonwealths as such. I suspect I had a very strict teacher who required us to be accurate; I can't explain the anal tendency to do so any other way.

ETA-same teacher made me kneel on the floor to measure my skirt and sent me home once because it was too short. She was really scary in retrospect.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I think it comes from being there in high school when I took civics/poly sci. I also refer to the other Commonwealths as such. I suspect I had a very strict teacher who required us to be accurate; I can't explain the anal tendency to do so any other way.

I remember in my first job I had an out of state coworker who laughed in court the first time she heard the prosecutors referred to as "The Commonwealth" or "Madam Commonwealth." She thought it was a joke and didn't realize it was a real thing! We got her straight pretty quick lol.

 

[LynnTH]

I need your expertise... So, I have a trip to Aruba for the 4 of us booked for Jan 3-9th. Use AA for airfare and got each way for 15,000 points each. Also used Marriott Points for the Marriott Stellaris which was 50,000 points a n night with 1 night free. So everything paid for - good to go..

Except now I have been thinking it would be fun to have my Brother, SIL and Niece join us. ( we go on a lot of cruised together). But everything will need to be changed so need to know if this will work.

I would have to change the dates to like Jan1-8 instead as the AA points bookings went up. I have 89,039 in my account and DH has 50,008 in his account. We can get my brothers family there by changing the dates for 15,000 each there (so 45,000 total and can use DH's points) and back it would be 27,500 per person (so 82,500 each on my points). That is all good but am I able to change our flights to these dates without having to use more miles for on the flight back will I have to come up with the extra 50,000 points in order to do this. I read I can change the flights with no fees as same itinerary but was not clear on if I would have to come up with the extra points to do this?

Also, the Marriott Stellaris does not have any more rewards booking available. But I think we can change to the Renaissance and from what I can see - I would be able to use my 3- 35,000 certificates for this and then the rest in points and then just switch our reservation over to this hotel. This Stellaris was right on the beach in the High Rise Section and the Renaissance they take you by boat to their private beach and seems it is more in the downtown area with more shopping and restaurants (which we would like). Anyone know anything about these hotels??

Trying to see if this all would work before I approach my Brother on this to see if he could get off of work (for a pretty much free vacation)

 

[speedyfishy]

I have nothing to compare it to since I've always lived here,

I'm just really struggling with being away from my family and friends back at home. Plus, I can't stand how people drive here. Sorry, but when the light turns green that means go. I'm always honking. and I swear people don't know what a yield means, I have had so many people just go instead of stopping and they almost hit into me. Oh, and one time I was at a grocery store and talking on the phone and said the F word a cashier said something to me!!! like don't curse or that's not nice? I was like uhhh what???? ( I try and not curse in front of kids and Im not a loud person so idk why this person felt the need to say something, but whatever it was legit one F word) I remember one time I took my little sisters out to eat in NY and the person next to us was cursing up a storm and talking about the drugs and things they did last night. you know what I said? nothing, because its none of my business lol. If I didn't like what that person was saying I could have gotten up and left. Ok, rant over im just homesick so I complain about every little bad experience that I have lol.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I haven't tried loading Serve on LI, but I have gotten MO's at a few Walmarts and Stop and Shops there without any problems. I bet loading Serve would be even easier if you wanted to give it a shot. I'll try Serve loads when I'm visiting NY for Labor Day weekend.

decided to get a few this week on my CIC for the 5x URs.....haven’t received the Serve card I ordered last week yet
..I can always use them at the supermarket or may give one to a distant cousin as a wedding gift...if there is a problem with Serve