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

[Limes96]

You don't have too... I think it would be more about being cautious. I app'd for SW biz on 10/25, was going to do Personal in air app first weekend of December on a trip but went for a leaked link on 11/15. Haven't had any issues.

I’d forgotten about those links. I wonder if those are still working. I will have to look that up. You didn’t have any trouble with the leaked link giving the correct SUB?

 

[GlamMistress]

so.... apparently the person whom I don't know has purchased $82 of merchandise at Bath and Body works...I seem to get their email reciept a few times a year..... I've confirmed it's not my purrchase on any of my cards, so I just ignore it now but it skeeves me out to get someone elses info that easily by mistake. When I brought it up to a phone rep last year they shrugged and said 'it happens' without further fuss. ok...

Apparently this is common with BB Works. Happened to a coworker friend as well. I thought that was the wildest thing. BB Works didn't seem to care much.

 

[disneybirds]

I have been meaning to post about this very subject. Car rentals are the only way I use AA points. I have found it to be an excellent use. Just booked a mid size SUV through AA with Alamo for a week in San Franciso in June for only 19,100 points. Price through Alamo was going to be 830 dollars! You are responsible for taxes and fees, but I use my Arrival and wipe those out too. Just make sure you are logged in to the AA account to get the best deal.

I will be happy to help you further if you have any questions. Basically I have found 50,000 AA points to be worth thousands of dollars in car rentals. I can not come close to that with flights out of ATL-if I can find any!

Thanks for posting. This is very interesting! Have you ever booked National with AA points? I haven't really paid attention to the AA chatter since we are Delta hostages, but I might now. We have a reservation in PDX in July that is over $800. Way too much for a rental car for a week.

 

[hsmamato2]

Depends on the bank. DoC has DPs of what counts as DD.

I read,and re-read those and seem to get more confused and then give up lol

 

[amalone1013]

I’d forgotten about those links. I wonder if those are still working. I will have to look that up. You didn’t have any trouble with the leaked link giving the correct SUB?

Nope, met the spend in about 2 months and it posted. Just waiting for my biz SUB now.

 

[Limes96]

Make sure your DH knows the tax treatment of interest on HELOCs changed when the new tax law was signed. It used to be deductible, and is no longer deductible...unless the money is used toward home improvement only.

source

I didn’t know this! We also have a HELOC that we use for tuition. Haven’t done my taxes yet so it hasn’t come to my attention. Bad news. I’m not very good about keeping up with this kind of info.

 

[amalone1013]

DHs work booked him on SW for his trip next week, just Monday night to Tuesday night. But 4100 RRs

 

[punkin]

Make sure your DH knows the tax treatment of interest on HELOCs changed when the new tax law was signed. It used to be deductible, and is no longer deductible...unless the money is used toward home improvement only, i.e., only the portion that's used for home improvement is deductible.

source

Actually, we are way above the new SALT limits anyway. The Home Equity loan offers no tax advantages at all for us anyway so we are aware.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

what is that 75 credit useful for?

You can use it towards cash flights, the $5.60 security fee, EBCI

 

[Alexle2007]

Can I get some advice? I will need to pay DD's tuition in August and again in December. Her college portal charges 2.5% if you pay by credit card (no amex option). I can also do a monthly payment plan. No "interest" but there's a $75 fee. I do not have that money sitting in the bank so I'm considering a 0% transfer card (I think amex has one for 15 months). After that, assuming it's still not paid off, I'm considering a home equity loan.

DH thinks this is all too complicated and we should just put the whole thing on a home equity loan and pay it off as soon as possible. This is her last year so this will be it.

A complication is that I have no idea what her tuition will be next year until her financial aid award comes in.

I need to structure this to minimize interest and fees and maximize points. Any ideas?

You've now got me thinking that how I can best maximize the $22k will be paying in May for private school tuition. I don't think they take CCs so I would have to go through Plastiq so I would need to make over $550 in reward benefits to come out ahead.

 

[Judique]

We're due for the winter storm tonight too. 2-4 snow plus a glaze of ice. I don't do ice so I've asked DH to take me to work. He's sniffling around meaning he's getting a cold... and whatever it was I had last week. Tomorrow is going to be a mess.

Tomorrow puts us at exactly 1 month until spring. Hang in there guys, we'll get there. And I'll keep dreaming of Disney World in the meantime.

Watching the closings and snow stuff on our local news this morning and they had a couple and their kids who were catching a flight to Disney. I was actually jealous a bit. He had the family tweet a picture from their seats once they got onboard the flight.

 

[Lain]

Make sure your DH knows the tax treatment of interest on HELOCs changed when the new tax law was signed. It used to be deductible, and is no longer deductible...unless the money is used toward home improvement only, i.e., only the portion that's used for home improvement is deductible.

source

You're such an enabler.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

The only new card I've gotten in the past 24 months is an upgrade on my amex gold, which I think wasn't even a hard pull. DH got an Amex platinum and Barkley's AA card (cancelled citi AA card). All his other cards are older than 24 months (so I don't think they count even though they are Chase.



I was thinking maybe pay tuition with the CIU for 2.5% and then transfer to the Amex after 1 year (it has no transfer fees) for another 15 months. That's 2.5 years and I am sure I can pay it off by then. As far as credit lines, we have high household income (on paper at least-high COLA) and DH usually gets lines in the 25k range. It should cover us. I just have to get DH on board.

I usually get super high credit limits...$32,000on my chase personal cards...but the business limits are a lot lower..$11k

 

[Judique]

OK, thanks to everyone who told me to go onto Credit Karma. I did my husbands credit report. He had a 819 and 820. He has only opened 4 accounts in 24 months. I really wanted to get the Barclays 70,000 bonus CC. Even on creditkarma, it said his chances were "poor" for getting approved??? Who the heck are they looking for to get that credit card? They rejected me (I have 797 and 813 credit score). I am looking for a good card with high bonus points. Just wondering what they are looking for if not someone with a high score? Is the chances of getting approved for each card pretty accurate on CreditKarma? I really like that website. Thanks for suggestion.

Sometimes I think they are looking for people who are not too risky who will carry a balance and therefore pay interest.

 

[kayteekt]

Ok, so I looked into the grAAvy train. I feel like I must be missing something. On the site it shows the cost/points being pretty darn high for the Disney resorts. For example, I plugged in dates for our next trip (May). It's showing over 87k points for the room that I have booked for $460/nt. Now granted that's with an AP discount, but I think normal discount rate should be low $600's.

Is the draw, just that you can earn a ton of AA points so it doesn't have to be the best value? I have about 75k AA points that I can't seem to do much with as the sAAver flights are always with layovers or the *worst* times. Would love to be able to do something with these and add more.

 

[Alexle2007]

It didn't start here until early this morning, maybe 4am. But since weather was going to be iffy through the whole day, they closed it down early. Most of the counties announced early here. Today all the schools plus the colleges and universities are all closed. Younger daughter works at a college and they announced yesterday as well. It's supposed to be gone tonight with ice replacing the snow which is actually worse around here.

It started around 9 am here just as we were heading out to breakfast. And now it is coming down fast and furious and the roads are completely covered despite the brine that they put down late Mon night. There was a long line of traffic backed up at the entrance to my drive since some of the cars were having trouble making it up the hill. We are working on 2 inches right now.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Just double checking...we wait 30 days after SW biz approval to apply for a SW personal for the CP, right?

You don’t have to wait 30 days...personal cards are 2/30..but unless you need the CP super fast I’d wait

 

[punkin]

You've now got me thinking that how I can best maximize the $22k will be paying in May for private school tuition. I don't think they take CCs so I would have to go through Plastiq so I would need to make over $550 in reward benefits to come out ahead.

Lol. Exactly!

 

[amalone1013]

Now DENs next GE appt is showing as June. Vegas however shows tomorrow... so I should totally book a weekend to Vegas just for GE interviews, right?

 

[speedyfishy]

Ok, so I looked into the grAAvy train. I feel like I must be missing something. On the site it shows the cost/points being pretty darn high for the Disney resorts. For example, I plugged in dates for our next trip (May). It's showing over 87k points for the room that I have booked for $460/nt. Now granted that's with an AP discount, but I think normal discount rate should be low $600's.

Is the draw, just that you can earn a ton of AA points so it doesn't have to be the best value? I have about 75k AA points that I can't seem to do much with as the sAAver flights are always with layovers or the *worst* times. Would love to be able to do something with these and add more.

was that the rate when you were signed in? the rates are much cheaper if you are logged in. For a week in December the Grand Floridian was 340,000 points.