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

[CaliforniaGirl09]

@CaliforniaGirl09

@wanderlust7, @CaliforniaGirl09, @mmmears -

https://www.southwest.com/html/mkt/hawaii-countdown.html

Hawaii, here we come!
It's time to celebrate, Oakland! We're counting down to our first flights to Hawaii from Oakland with a celebration just for you.

Join us March 11th-16th from 4:45 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. PST each evening in Jack London Square. We'll be giving away exciting prize packages — including round trip air travel*!

Thanks, Lain! You are on with the spreadsheet and/or memory. My DH actually works in that area so should be easy on a night or two to check it out.

 

[Lain]

Thanks, Lain! You are on with the spreadsheet and/or memory. My DH actually works in that area so should be easy on a night or two to check it out.

There's no way I'll be able to make it over to Oakland for this. Let us know how it goes! And good luck winning something big!

 

[elgerber]

I've got a lone CF but will soon be under 5/24 if you call 5 months 'soon'.

LOL, I will be 4/24 tomorrow, and 3/24 in two weeks. But I have to do some thinking before I jump into anything. Thinking of the Aviator Biz before I jump back into Chase.

 

[jhoannam]

Amex ATT offer, anyone that doesn’t have wireless but has internet/cable get the credit?

 

[miztressuz]

I have a bit of an OT question; but it relates to travel so I'm hoping this group of well seasoned expert travels can lend of levity to a discussion in our household. If too OT, I can delete it.

As with all of you, we are trying to find more and better ways to maximize travel opportunities. The last few years have been great and this group has really allowed us to take some trips we would never have without you. I'm planning more and more exotic trips all the time and finding ways to get there efficiently using points and tips from this thread. But.... we are debating sending DS12 to a private school for 7th grade next year and through high school. Our local schools are good, better than average, used to be top notch but falling over the last 10-15 years. The private school has some social and intangible values we are high on as well as being one of the top education programs. But, it's not cheap and it is a much more rigorous program study and homework wise.

Now the question: this year we took the kids DS12 and DD8 out of school for a week in January for a cruise. No problem, DS12 caught up after a few hours of homework. DD9 had nothing to catch up. Next year I'm concerned that may not be so easy. We have always traveled during school sessions due in large part to the much lower costs (lower crowds help too). Advice from those of you with older kids? At what age do you think it's too much to take kids out of school for travel? And, how hard (or easy) is it to utilize all these travel award points programs to travel during the peak seasons of summer, winter break, spring break? Looking at cruise prices and they are at least 50% more for those weeks. It dosn't help that Chase UR cannot be used for DCL anymore - buggers.

Sorry again for OT.

I feel this is really going to depend on your kid and the program they're in - but ultimately I think it's about your kids. Are they the type to be proactive about school assignments, can self teach, willing to put in the extra time to make-up/keep up with the class material on their own? If so, you're probably good to continue to try. If not, then it's not very fun to have to catch up later and going on vacation doesn't even feel like fun due to the consequences at that point. I know kids that travel during school terms up through HS graduation without any detriments, others have stopped in middle school because the struggle wasn't worth it. I myself didn't travel much for family trips, but in HS I and my friends missed plenty of classes/days due to activities that took us away. Some of my friends stopped participating in travel activities because it was too much, others still excelled despite the crazy schedules. Might even turn out that one of your kids has no problem with it but the other struggles, it's very individual.

If you choose to travel during peak times then you'll probably have to start planning earlier in addition to being prepared for higher redemption rates. Generally DCL is the cheapest it's going to be on opening day, especially for peak seasons. Even *GT rates don't usually get back down to opening day prices, so doing popular vacations will probably take longer lead times. Could get lucky if your school(s) have slightly different break times so you don't get hit with the full brunt of peak pricing. Likewise, shoulder seasons can help so that you're still outside of school but not hitting it up, say, July 4th week peaks.

 

[miztressuz]

This may sound like a totally stupid question, but if a card doesn't show up on your credit report, does that mean Chase doesn't see it either? DH has that dealership card from last year that he thought he had to use, and it isn't on his report. I'd like to refer him for a CIP Business because I have a couple of larger bills that will cover the MSR. I don't want him to be denied though.

DH:
2/2019 CHASE Disney Visa (referred by me)
2/2019 New Holland Credit Card (Implement Dealer---see previous posts for explanation...) CANCELLED, but not sure yet how it will be on his credit report
11/2017 AMEX Hilton Ascend (referred by me)
?/2018 AGCO Credit Card (Implment Dealer---see previous posts for explanation (Not showing up on DH’s credit report).

Could it be that those dealership cards are business and thus not showing on his personal credit report?

Have you checked the 3 major personal credit agencies, TU, EX and EQ? Not everyone reports to all 3 so it may show up on 1 but not the other 2. Yes, Chase is going by what's on your credit report and so far as we know they usually stick with your personal CR. I would guess that Chase would use the same agency they pulled for yours since they tend to go by region. For me they pull both TU and EX, so if something's not listed on either of those reports then it doesn't exist to Chase.

 

[wed100105]

Have you checked the 3 major personal credit agencies, TU, EX and EQ? Not everyone reports to all 3 so it may show up on 1 but not the other 2. Yes, Chase is going by what's on your credit report and so far as we know they usually stick with your personal CR. I would guess that Chase would use the same agency they pulled for yours since they tend to go by region. For me they pull both TU and EX, so if something's not listed on either of those reports then it doesn't exist to Chase.

thank you @wVMmomof3, that was a super helpful post!

 

[WDWRook]

Thanks for the comments, it's good to get some push back as I can convince myself of anything. DS12 is very smart but not necessarily motivated. We think that is part because school is too easy for him so he gets lazy. Part of the discussion surrounds a Jan 2020 southern Caribbean cruise we have booked, which at public schools we were okay with him missing, but we are unsure for the private school. We really would like to do the southern trip but it appears to only be in the end of January each year. The school year starts mid August and ends the end of May.

 

[hsmamato2]

just got the 85k+ CIP bonus for P2 now to figure out some plans/ Since my family has decided they're not going anywhere for a while..... (two trips in two months? not excessive IMHO) it was easier than I expected to transfer them to my CSR, I thought I was going to have to daisy chain it but it popped right up!

 

[punkin]

Post about what you figure out.

I don't need a phone but I was in Sam's Club this week shopping for my $45 worth after signing up on the recent promo. (Did that primarily to take advantage of gift card deals.)

AT&T offer was $250 gift card for a new phone (I think Samsung as this is what we were discussing). I was mildly interested as I also have the offer. When another customer showed up to ask a question I moved on as I was not very serious and didn't want to block a possible sale for the guy.

Anyway, my phone now has a small nick in the corner due to a fall and it bothers me, but it will require a really good deal to get me to upgrade before another year goes by.

I will post something as soon as I know. I tried to do it over my ATT app, but that doesn't work. I'm going to try to go to an ATT store at the mall later this week.

 

[eeyoresmom]

I'm about to cancel my Ink before the AF hits. I just want to make sure I can transfer UR's earned with my Freedom to DH's Ink for the extra points. Also, can I close the Ink by SM? Thanks in advance.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Yes. Macomb Twp. I would prefer nonstop. Prices I saw were in the $5-$600 range. I totally missed the boat on this deal.

Well hi. I'm in Northville, LOL

 

[FoxC63]

Well hi. I'm in Northville, LOL

Howdy neighbor!

 

[pillow]

Love this! Thanks for sharing it again. I agree. Plus, you never know what's going to happen. We had no plans to fly to Norway this year and stay for a week, and now I think it's likely going to happen. Couldn't do it without the points we've been hoarding for this kind of thing. Best use of points? Maybe not for everyone, but I think it would be a good use for us.



Ah, ok. I'll tell him to pay the wireless then and see what happens.



Following along since Chase didn't exactly give me a big credit line for the CIP that's on its way. I think it was 5K, but after the almost 2 hours on the phone with them I honestly can't remember.

Oh please report back. Would love to hear about your Norway experience. Beautiful country!

 

[WDWRook]

Howdy neighbor!

We are in Grosse Pointe.

 

[platamama]

Have you thought about doing the Lifelock promo for United or AA miles? https://www.doctorofcredit.com/lifelock-earn-up-to-13000-airline-miles/

Quite a few people have done this for the miles and canceled successfully on Reddit. Let me know if you’re interested and I can dig up some DPs.

The only reason I even started looking at Lifelock at all yesterday is because I received a piece of mail offering 12K AA miles and a 25% discount for signing up. So of course then I had to check cashbackmonitor and saw the 80% on Ebates + 10% off. (And later I realized the humor in the juxtaposition of purchasing identity fraud monitoring with not wanting to link Amex with a new Ebates MR account...because fear of identity fraud lol.)

Looking at the math of it:
12,000AA miles x .014cpm = $168 airfare value for $270 spend
$324 (annual Lifelock thru Ebates 10% off) x .8 = $259 cash back on $324 spend

I'm thinking Ebates is the better deal, and if someone is earning MRs, that's 25900MRs for $324 spend. Still, given some of the comments here about the worth of Lifelock and your post with DPs, I think I will hold off. But thanks!

 

[mmmears]

I have a bit of an OT question; but it relates to travel so I'm hoping this group of well seasoned expert travels can lend of levity to a discussion in our household. If too OT, I can delete it.

As with all of you, we are trying to find more and better ways to maximize travel opportunities. The last few years have been great and this group has really allowed us to take some trips we would never have without you. I'm planning more and more exotic trips all the time and finding ways to get there efficiently using points and tips from this thread. But.... we are debating sending DS12 to a private school for 7th grade next year and through high school. Our local schools are good, better than average, used to be top notch but falling over the last 10-15 years. The private school has some social and intangible values we are high on as well as being one of the top education programs. But, it's not cheap and it is a much more rigorous program study and homework wise.

Now the question: this year we took the kids DS12 and DD8 out of school for a week in January for a cruise. No problem, DS12 caught up after a few hours of homework. DD9 had nothing to catch up. Next year I'm concerned that may not be so easy. We have always traveled during school sessions due in large part to the much lower costs (lower crowds help too). Advice from those of you with older kids? At what age do you think it's too much to take kids out of school for travel? And, how hard (or easy) is it to utilize all these travel award points programs to travel during the peak seasons of summer, winter break, spring break? Looking at cruise prices and they are at least 50% more for those weeks. It dosn't help that Chase UR cannot be used for DCL anymore - buggers.

Sorry again for OT.

This is such a hot button topic I'm reluctant to really answer, but I will try. It's one of those YMMV, no wrong way to churn, it all depends kind of things. It depends on so many things, not just the student. It's the rigor and pace of the school, the future goals, the classes chosen, etc. I'll just say that we didn't pull our DD for trips. She went to an expensive private school and that made money tight so that meant we didn't travel as much since peak season is expensive. We have no regrets. We made sure we had family time, but not during the time she was supposed to be in school. It's stressful to pull kids out of academically rigorous environments, no matter how smart they are. It generally leads to them staying up late on those trips trying to catch up. We decided those cruises and trips to WDW could wait. But like I said it depends on what the goal is since that can make a big difference on decisions like this. We pulled our DD from HS for ONE day, one time, and that was to visit a college that wasn't near the ones we visited over 2 spring breaks. The amount of work and late nights she spent catching up was pretty eye opening. Most of the kids I know do not want to miss school for vacations because it's not worth the stress. Mine was trying to get me to take her to school when she was really sick and running a high fever so she wouldn't get behind. If there was a fever I made her stay home.

@wanderlust7, @CaliforniaGirl09, @mmmears -

https://www.southwest.com/html/mkt/hawaii-countdown.html

Hawaii, here we come!
It's time to celebrate, Oakland! We're counting down to our first flights to Hawaii from Oakland with a celebration just for you.

Join us March 11th-16th from 4:45 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. PST each evening in Jack London Square. We'll be giving away exciting prize packages — including round trip air travel*!

Sounds cool! I never get over to Oakland, so I'm not even going to try, but thanks for the info!

I hate to be a downer but middle school is the hardest emotionally and socially and high school ideally is the most difficult academically. I think the last year I would have pulled DD out of middle school would have been 6th grade (her "middle school" was 5-8th) and never during high school---but hers is a very rigorous program that has a 30% attrition rate and several peers have been accepted to Ivy League schools. Only you know how your children can play "make up" but there is a lot of material lost during those times gone IF it's a good school. Also, you're paying a LOT for private school tuition so why would you miss it?

Tough love and just my opinion---go on vacation during the expensive times. Make them smaller or less expensive vacations (not less fun, less pricey!). If you're serious about education in this environment then make it a priority, not going to WDW during the low period (if that exists anymore) or DCL during the cheaper times. Delay gratification and put education first. I hate to be negative and there will be others who disagree but that's my take on someone who's daughter is a senior in high school and I've seen the stress/burnout/exhaustion of her friends and peers as well as the crazy expectations of college admission committees. Frankly, these kids (in a high pressure environment) don't even want to do big vacations-they sleep/study/sleep more/veg out during breaks.

I know others will disagree and that's fine but it's been an eye opening 4 years here.

Totally agree. I've seen kids fall apart from the stress and that's without missing days and getting behind. Some schools are really tough.

 

[pillow]

Oh my goodness!! I'm in CC overload. I'm trying to finish up dd's CIP and my new Barclay AA biz and start my dh on the citi grAAvy train and now I am learning he can get another CIP I promise I have followed the chatter about people getting multiple CIPs but I guess I made the assumption these people all still had one open so I thought dh was out and I'm over 5/24.

Is Venmo officially over for 3x on CIP?

Same here. I'm in overload too. Kinda wish I didn't know about the multiple CIP thing . . .

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

We are in Grosse Pointe.

Ahhh the Northville of the East Side as I like to call it, LOL

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Okay how long for the $750 Huntington Bank promo to post? I've hit my 30 transactions....And I have the $25k in the bank. I wanna downgrade the account and transfer back to discover when I can