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

[PolyRob]

@PolyRob great new avatar. We love Stitch too. My youngest bought one today with a flower lei draped on him. I have never seen that one before.

@wendow that is funny about your boys and your avatar. My girls always see mine and start snooping around all excited like thinking they are going to see a big Disney secret. When I tell them it is just about credit cards and they read over my shoulder a bit they quickly lose interest. Oh and my DH is not completely on board with the Tokyo Disneyland plan either. At the airport Thursday I said something about it and got the “what are we still on that?”

@SouthFayetteFan I actually was going to try your shower thought plan of doing the Amex referral on spouse with pop up but I ended up bailing on it. I decided since I am still on their good list for now I did not want to take the chance to jeopardize my status. I got close though...to even filling out application. Before I could send though and get the pop up it blanked out and said not qualified. I think that might have been a glitch but I took it as a sign to leave it alone.

We had a really rough initial start staying DVC which included getting in finally at 3 in the morning and having the sofa bed be broken so not enough beds for everyone to sleep. But Disney has made it right for the most part and now having the kitchen, washer/dryer, and the perks of being off site with on site, I am liking it. It only took a partial breakdown that was extremely sad at the Kidani front desk for us to get a new room the next day and the points refunded for the first night. DH gets mad in situations like that and I just get sad. I guess we balance each other out.

Thank you! I figured it had to still be Polynesian related.
I think I know the Stitch you are talking about! I saw it in July at Poly and was almost tempted to purchase it myself. Green lei on his head as well as around his neck with flowers???

Sooo sorry to hear your first DVC stay started out rough! At least your points were refunded and you're enjoying the villa now

 

[AmyAnne]

We had a really rough initial start staying DVC which included getting in finally at 3 in the morning and having the sofa bed be broken so not enough beds for everyone to sleep. But Disney has made it right for the most part and now having the kitchen, washer/dryer, and the perks of being off site with on site, I am liking it. It only took a partial breakdown that was extremely sad at the Kidani front desk for us to get a new room the next day and the points refunded for the first night. DH gets mad in situations like that and I just get sad. I guess we balance each other out.

Oh no -- hoping that the stay continues to improve!

 

[wendow]

I called up Disney to try to payoff my reservation at CSR. I read off the numbers from my CSR to the CSR and finished the payment. So excited to stay at CSR and earn extra points on my CSR! See...that wasn’t so bad, right???

nope! I get you!

 

[wendow]

@wendow that is funny about your boys and your avatar. My girls always see mine and start snooping around all excited like thinking they are going to see a big Disney secret. When I tell them it is just about credit cards and they read over my shoulder a bit they quickly lose interest. Oh and my DH is not completely on board with the Tokyo Disneyland plan either. At the airport Thursday I said something about it and got the “what are we still on that?”

My boys lose interest too pretty quickly in the thread but my 10yo ds wants his pic in my avatar lol!

As far as Tokyo, I think we are looking at 5+ years out. My dh told me he would much rather us go someplace tropical, especially since we will have SW CP for the next two years. SO, i am going to 'table' Tokyo for now, and revisit in a couple years.

 

[wendow]

We had a really rough initial start staying DVC which included getting in finally at 3 in the morning and having the sofa bed be broken so not enough beds for everyone to sleep. But Disney has made it right for the most part and now having the kitchen, washer/dryer, and the perks of being off site with on site, I am liking it. It only took a partial breakdown that was extremely sad at the Kidani front desk for us to get a new room the next day and the points refunded for the first night. DH gets mad in situations like that and I just get sad. I guess we balance each other out.

I really hope your trip improves from here!

 

[disneybirds]

So the kids have decided they want Cali or Florida for Spring Break this year. Last year VERY last minute I snagged a split flight to Miami (Frontier down, AA back) for like $120/ea. So we flew into Miami. Hit the beaches on the way up to Orlando. Used my SPG to stay at Vistana Resort Villas. They loved it. We went to Universal Studio Walk and then Blizzard Beach avoiding all the the Disney crowds madness. So now I've got to look and see which I can pull off better. I have AA miles, and AA vouchers. I have Delta miles and $300 in Delta GCs. I have the $250 credit to use from the Aspire for 2019 too. So I think I should be able to pull off the flights, I have 170k in URs too. So then it's trying to find a place to stay. I'm about to have 300k in Hilton, and 2 free nights.

Our spring break is the first week in April, so not Easter this year. How bad is Disney then? I know it's still "Spring Break time" in general, so I'm going to guess I just want to avoid it.

The entire state of Georgia has spring break the first week of April, so even though it isn't near Easter it will still be busy. Good luck finding some deals!!

ETA: We went 7 times last year with our APs. Here are the trips in order from crazy busy to least busy ...

Christmas (2 times) - Incredibly Busy
President's Day Weekend and 1st Week of April with Easter - Really, really Busy
4th of July Week - Only the actual 4th was insane
Fall Break (last week of September) - Great week
Weekend before Memorial Day with pouring down rain all weekend - walked on so many rides and have pictures with no one in them, but it was pouring!

 

[platamama]

There was a tale recently of somebody on r/churning that I believe was a 15 yr customer or something like that and recently got a pop up so unfortunately that may not keep you safe. I’ll try to find it.

EDIT: Actually it was a customer for a decade, has paid AFs on cards throughout that time period. Was denied a bonus (with no pop up warning) on Schwab Plat...wow, These denials with no pop up to me are way more frustrating than seeing the pop up.

https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/c...ion_thread_january_16_2019/ee7czu3/?context=3

That's really frustrating, seriously. At least with the pop up you know not to expect anything. Here I was, like @AmyAnne, thinking having a 16 yr history with Amex would insulate me a bit from the denials. Now I'm unsure of how to proceed. No pop ups yet, but if Amex just denies the bonus even if you fulfill your end of the agreement, that is just flat out misleading.

With Amex only allowing one card for an Amex offer, it is no longer easy to justify paying AFs for a bunch of cards either. It's always been easy in the past for me to be ok paying the AFs when they were offset by the offers.

I have to make a judgement call by 1/24 as to what to do about DH's BGR. Pay the $175 AF for a renewal? Upgrade to the Biz Gold and pay $295 for the increased earning structure? Cancel it and hope to get the Schwab in a couple months, or end of the year?

His stats (3/24):

03/17 - Nordstrom store card (I know, I know, the good news is it drops off soon)
07/17 - CitiBiz AA
07/17 - AAviator
12/17 - Amex BGR
03/18 - SPG Biz
03/18 - Amex Biz Plat
07/18 - Amex Biz Green
10/18 - Amex Gold
10/18 - CIP
11/18 - BBP
01/19 - United Biz

So I've hit the biz cards intensely for him; and he's gotten 6 Amex cards in the past 13 months.

At this point, I'm leaning toward canceling the BGR, Amex Plat and Green this year and keep spending on the remaining Amex cards until end of the year and try to triple dip the Schwab then. Do you think I'm playing with fire? I don't really need to have the Schwab, it would just give me another option with the MRs. But since he's got the BBP (and I expect to keep the Amex Gold too) that will keep the MRs available for transfers which is what I hope to do sometime in our future. SPG Biz is a keeper too. Paying $720 in AFs (BGR, Plat, Green) would be a serious dent in the value of the MRs I have so far...

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

That's really frustrating, seriously. At least with the pop up you know not to expect anything. Here I was, like @AmyAnne, thinking having a 16 yr history with Amex would insulate me a bit from the denials. Now I'm unsure of how to proceed. No pop ups yet, but if Amex just denies the bonus even if you fulfill your end of the agreement, that is just flat out misleading.

With Amex only allowing one card for an Amex offer, it is no longer easy to justify paying AFs for a bunch of cards either. It's always been easy in the past for me to be ok paying the AFs when they were offset by the offers.

I have to make a judgement call by 1/24 as to what to do about DH's BGR. Pay the $175 AF for a renewal? Upgrade to the Biz Gold and pay $295 for the increased earning structure? Cancel it and hope to get the Schwab in a couple months, or end of the year?

His stats (3/24):

03/17 - Nordstrom store card (I know, I know, the good news is it drops off soon)
07/17 - CitiBiz AA
07/17 - AAviator
12/17 - Amex BGR
03/18 - SPG Biz
03/18 - Amex Biz Plat
07/18 - Amex Biz Green
10/18 - Amex Gold
10/18 - CIP
11/18 - BBP
01/19 - United Biz

So I've hit the biz cards intensely for him; and he's gotten 6 Amex cards in the past 13 months.

At this point, I'm leaning toward canceling the BGR, Amex Plat and Green this year and keep spending on the remaining Amex cards until end of the year and try to triple dip the Schwab then. Do you think I'm playing with fire? I don't really need to have the Schwab, it would just give me another option with the MRs. But since he's got the BBP (and I expect to keep the Amex Gold too) that will keep the MRs available for transfers which is what I hope to do sometime in our future. SPG Biz is a keeper too. Paying $720 in AFs (BGR, Plat, Green) would be a serious dent in the value of the MRs I have so far...

I rarely am at a loss for words when it comes to dishing out advice...but I struggle with AMEX any more...

The chances of being denied a bonus without the popup seem somewhat slim. Numerous people are applying for AMEX cards and receiving bonuses, these stories just are super frustrating because we immediately say "what if that were me". I'd really struggle to justify BGR, Plat and Green AFs to keep on the up and up with AMEX. That's a pretty large cost with no guarantees...

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Bonvoy my friends! Marriott apparently heard my message from a month or so ago and gave me 500 more points from the 29 ways promo (I specifically complained about 1 missing 500pt win). Woohoo...not that I needed them but yay, lol!

AND I found this while doing my regular "check all my points" in every account update Points can be used fraudulently and stolen so keep track and check them often!

 

[platamama]

I rarely am at a loss for words when it comes to dishing out advice...but I struggle with AMEX any more...

The chances of being denied a bonus without the popup seem somewhat slim. Numerous people are applying for AMEX cards and receiving bonuses, these stories just are super frustrating because we immediately say "what if that were me". I'd really struggle to justify BGR, Plat and Green AFs to keep on the up and up with AMEX. That's a pretty large cost with no guarantees...

Yeah, that is a large cost. Thanks for your thoughts. It helped to type it all out - I think it's pretty clear to me now that I'm going to cancel the BGR, Plat & Green when those come up for renewal. Then use the Gold and BBP heavily to rack up MRs. The Schwab has been around for a long time, it will probably stick around, and even if it ends up going away at some point there will probably be some notice ahead of time at DoC or FM.

You know what's funny, is that it was your Amex post on Dischurners that got me into accumulating MRs with the Schwab being my end goal!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Yeah, that is a large cost. Thanks for your thoughts. It helped to type it all out - I think it's pretty clear to me now that I'm going to cancel the BGR, Plat & Green when those come up for renewal. Then use the Gold and BBP heavily to rack up MRs. The Schwab has been around for a long time, it will probably stick around, and even if it ends up going away at some point there will probably be some notice ahead of time at DoC or FM.

You know what's funny, is that it was your Amex post on Dischurners that got me into accumulating MRs with the Schwab being my end goal!

If it helps any here's what I'm doing...I think I'm going to have my wife lay low with AMEX all year...no cards...We've put a lot of grocery spend on the BCP lately. When triple dip season rolls around, I'm going for the Schwab either way...If we get a popup, we just won't put any spend on the card. Cash out all the MRs and be done with AMEX. If NO popup...we'll weigh the recent reports of people being denied even w/out a popup and determine if we're going for the MSR or not.

 

[platamama]

If it helps any here's what I'm doing...I think I'm going to have my wife lay low with AMEX all year...no cards...We've put a lot of grocery spend on the BCP lately. When triple dip season rolls around, I'm going for the Schwab either way...If we get a popup, we just won't put any spend on the card. Cash out all the MRs and be done with AMEX. If NO popup...we'll weigh the recent reports of people being denied even w/out a popup and determine if we're going for the MSR or not.

Sounds like a good plan to me.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Well I got approved for the Amex Everyday but only $5k and they will only let me transfer $3750, I need to transfer $8500. Any idea how likely it is that I can get Amex to up my limit?

 

[afan]

@DisneyMandC I finished the book tonight. It didn't have as much law stuff in it as I thought it would but I really enjoyed it. It did start slow and took until about page 150 to get better but it's the first book in the series which I didn't realize. The next comes out in May so I imagine it won't start as slow. It's The Widows of Malabar Hill and it's the most recent one I rated on good reads.

 

[Lain]

If it helps any here's what I'm doing...I think I'm going to have my wife lay low with AMEX all year...no cards...We've put a lot of grocery spend on the BCP lately. When triple dip season rolls around, I'm going for the Schwab either way...If we get a popup, we just won't put any spend on the card. Cash out all the MRs and be done with AMEX. If NO popup...we'll weigh the recent reports of people being denied even w/out a popup and determine if we're going for the MSR or not.

I’ve been thinking about doing something similar:

(1) Have my wife lay low with Amex this year (should be easy since she’ll be 0/24 with Chase by March), keep her 2 Amex cards (SPG Biz and Hilton Biz), pay the AFs, keep putting spend on them (the Amex Offers will more than offset the AFs) and build some member history of her own, then try again in triple dip season to see if she still gets the pop up or not. Or,

(2) In a few months, refer my wife for the BBP whether she gets the pop up or not. I’ll pocket the 20k MR referral, and if she’s still getting the pop up or gets her bonus denied, then we can throw our expensive SF rent on her BBP every month if Amex really wants to see some big spend from her.

I think #2 is probably the better bet for rehabilitating my wife’s relationship with Amex, but I’m trying to figure out timing and how to make it work in two player mode. We’re currently putting rent on my Biz Plat, which helps inflate my spend with Amex, and I hope will keep me on the nice list. Moving that expense to my wife’s card will result in a drop off in spend on my cards, which could negatively affect my relationship with Amex while helping hers.

Meanwhile she’ll be 0/24 and I’ll be 4/24 in March, so the focus will be back on Chase. Since she has a long runway with Chase, I’m thinking maybe we should just proceed with #1 for now, then switch to #2 when I’m about done with Amex and it’s her turn to hit the big Amex bonuses.

I don’t know. I’m at a loss for words when it comes to Amex.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Totally off topic, but from previous years...I know others here are TurboTax users but also frustrated with them...

Tonight, I go in, I enter a bunch of info...even though I'm using the standard deduction this year for the first time in forever (I have a strategy to play some games with my deductions every other year) I still need to upgrade to Deluxe due to my HSA and IRA stuff (I guess a simple return isn't actually simple). Oh well, no big deal...

I upgrade for $19.99. My personal tax spreadsheet comes to within $2 of my expected refund so I know everything is right but I'm still waiting on a few forms to verify numbers so I save and exit. I log back in...and it says my price is now $39.99. I try to clear and start over...it's $39.99...

This ALWAYS happens with TurboTax Every year it's some sort of bait and switch on the pricing!! They just drive me crazy (but I'm familiar with the system and it's easy to use so I just pay it and continue to hate them). Sorry - just had to vent...

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I don’t know. I’m at a loss for words when it comes to Amex.

I was involved in a discussion awhile back on r/churning about this and it was so strange. Basically there's people who have gotten burned or are worried about getting burned AND there are people that think it's overblown.

I said I was pretty much done with AMEX and people were frying me for it. "You've never been denied" / "You're going to avoid them because there's a chance they may deny you a bonus" / "You're not going to risk spending $5k over the small chance you won't get a bonus" etc...

Do these people think money grows on trees??? $5k of spend for me (the Schwab Plat MSR) should be worth a minimum of $500. And that's 20%+ of the annual spend I have to devote to sign-up bonuses. So YES I will avoid AMEX because I'm not about to hand them $5k in spend for nothing. I get it that it's the MS culture that exists there that causes them to be so dismissive of any MSR but I can't help but shake my head at some of those fools at times...

 

[PolyRob]

Totally off topic, but from previous years...I know others here are TurboTax users but also frustrated with them...

Tonight, I go in, I enter a bunch of info...even though I'm using the standard deduction this year for the first time in forever (I have a strategy to play some games with my deductions every other year) I still need to upgrade to Deluxe due to my HSA and IRA stuff (I guess a simple return isn't actually simple). Oh well, no big deal...

I upgrade for $19.99. My personal tax spreadsheet comes to within $2 of my expected refund so I know everything is right but I'm still waiting on a few forms to verify numbers so I save and exit. I log back in...and it says my price is now $39.99. I try to clear and start over...it's $39.99...

This ALWAYS happens with TurboTax Every year it's some sort of bait and switch on the pricing!! They just drive me crazy (but I'm familiar with the system and it's easy to use so I just pay it and continue to hate them). Sorry - just had to vent...

I just started my tax return with Turbo Tax as well!! I purchased the deluxe version from Target a few weeks back by price matching Amazon (which matched and beat Costco by offering an additional $10 gift card). Crazy that your price just doubled! The software is identical year over year minus the new forms. Although I noticed a few new pictures of "CPAs" this year throughout the prompts. I guess Intuit needs to pay its models.

 

[Haley R]

Recently I’ve found October more crowded than the spring...

We experienced this for the first time last year. We won’t be back again in October

 

[wanderlust7]

I've been reading the AmEx pop-up analysis with interest since I've just started getting AmEx cards. Both DH and I have a 22 year history with them though (and I guess that's totally dating us, lol). Before recently, I only had the EveryDay (and it's various iterations?), which went through periods of being sockdrawered for years except for the rare AmEx offer that popped up on my radar. Now I'm actively seeking those offers. DH had the Costco AmEx before they switched to Citi, which got regular spend. When that was closed, he got the BCE, which got somewhat regular spend since it was linked to his PayPal.

So I guess I'll see how much this history keeps the pop-up at bay. My new BGR, I don't intend to keep the second year. I do plan to spread out the MSR as @Lain suggested. Then I'll do restaurant spending on it for 4x (even though I'd rather put it on my CSR). DH's Rose Gold we might keep. The dining credit is easy to use with Grubhub pickup and the airline GC figure I can sell for at least $80, so effective AF would be $50. His Hilton Biz we might cancel after the first year. I'm thinking I should get more cards this year before I need to start canceling. There aren't a lot of AmEx cards that I see myself keeping and regularly using. So probably not a matter of if but when I get the pop-up.