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

[wanderlust7]

Ah okay. I doubt we would use the offer because it has to be used by April 7

Looking at my e-mail, looks like you just have to buy it by then. You have 12 months to use it. Not too sure what happens if they have no dates that work for you. I think the bigger issue is if you want to sit through a sales presentation. Don't know how high pressure the Hilton one is. Just don't get sucked into buying one.

Been through a few when I was younger for the free stuff. Then swore off of them, lol.

 

[wendow]

I'm good with that and I love having them home, but it is a lot of work. It's worth it though and I don't regret it for a minute.

Same!! I've regretted a lot of things in life. The decision to homeschool is not one of them

 

[Albort]

Chase stats:
09/18 CSR
09/18 CIP
11/18 CIU
01/19 CIC

Go for it or don't go for it?

just looking at that... thats really pushing it to me... id wouldnt touch chase until some of those drop off the year mark.
thats my 2 cents though.

 

[mmmears]

Any personal reports using Juicy Miles? Curious since we're sitting here struggling to find good award flights at the moment.

 

[wanderlust7]

just looking at that... thats really pushing it to me... id wouldnt touch chase until some of those drop off the year mark.
thats my 2 cents though.

Thank you for the advice! Okay, back to original plan plus 1 month.

 

[snugglebug]

A little worried too from the tone of the tweet. Being down (for so long) didn’t sound planned.

Unexpected things happen. At least they're being vocal. If a website was down an extended period of time with no communication then I'd worry.

 

[Albort]

Any personal reports using Juicy Miles? Curious since we're sitting here struggling to find good award flights at the moment.

ask us first! :]

ive heard of good things about them, but there are cheaper options...

 

[AmyAnne]

Thanks for sharing this chart.

Property taxes make me nervous. I'd love to be able to use Plastiq for them though. I have almost $11,000 in property tax bills. It's on about 7 different parcels though, and we're supposed to include our bill/payment stub with them. I really wish Plastiq would allow you to send it to yourself and then pay the person/entity.

I hope the Plastiq site comes back up as I am planning to use it this month for property taxes too.

For those looking for another way to use a credit card to pay property taxes besides Plastiq, I'll share that paying property taxes is my only reason for MS. I buy $500 Visa gift cards and then turn them into money orders, and then use the money orders to pay the taxes. With the gift card activation fee and the money order fee, it comes out to about 1.5% in fees. I do pay our taxes in person so I can explain that yes, I do want all of these money orders applied to our one tax bill. (I just say I buy them throughout the year to spread out the cost; this last time, the cashier even said, "that's a great idea.")

I'm not sure how the 1.5% compares to Plastiq -- our postal system is horrible here so I probably would still pay in person even if I was paying by (my own) check.

 

[snugglebug]

I am curious, how do you handle the more challenging middle/upper grade class work? Sure, I took higher level math and science in high school but I am not qualified to teach DS geometry, trig, chemistry, physics or bio given that it’s over 30 years since I took those classes.

Sometimes I need to "refresh my memory" since it's been awhile since I've studied some of these things, but we managed. There are so many resources from online to Co-ops, etc.

I went into it thinking we'd re-evaluate each year and make a decision. My older son spent a year wanting to go into PS and at that point I was very much against it for him (middle school years are hardest). Other than that my kids have been happy. They sleep in until almost 10 and start school around 1pm (I work in the mornings), what's not to love?! My oldest daughter graduated A&M, she received many compliments on her writing skills. One of her professors even selected her to present her paper at a conference. That was a proud mom moment since I often doubt my skills lol

 

[mmmears]

ask us first! :]

ive heard of good things about them, but there are cheaper options...

We're looking for SFO > OSL in September. Looking at AF since we've done that one before. But it always makes me nervous to transfer points to one airline. What if the flights aren't available once the points transfer?

 

[DisneyMandC]

Cross posting this with the gift card thread- my Lowe’s did have a Kroger gift cards! I don’t think I’ve ever seen them sold anywhere. I picked up a $100 one with the 10% back Amex deal and will use it during the fuel points promo to buy a Disney GC hopefully. If not, I regularly shop at Kroger anyways so it’ll just go to groceries.

 

[Albort]

We're looking for SFO > OSL in September. Looking at AF since we've done that one before. But it always makes me nervous to transfer points to one airline. What if the flights aren't available once the points transfer?

if ur UR heavy, most UR point transfers are instant.
only one i know have that issue is ANA, where MRs will take a day or two.
do u have a specific date for September?

 

[mmmears]

if ur UR heavy, most UR point transfers are instant.
only one i know have that issue is ANA, where MRs will take a day or two.
do u have a specific date for September?

MR heavy. And I'd like to use mine first (but don't have enough for 2 seats). We're thinking AF because it worked last time and we know how to do it. No specific dates, but DH has found some "better" points seats on some dates in early Sept. We can be kind of flexible, since DD's program orientation is at the end of August. She'd like us to not come at the very beginning, but the weather (I'm not a cold weather person) is making us try to visit sooner rather than later in the month.

 

[WVMomof3]

Cross posting this with the gift card thread- my Lowe’s did have a Kroger gift cards! I don’t think I’ve ever seen them sold anywhere. I picked up a $100 one with the 10% back Amex deal and will use it during the fuel points promo to buy a Disney GC hopefully. If not, I regularly shop at Kroger anyways so it’ll just go to groceries.

I bought a bunch last year with my Amex offer. Then kept forgetting to use them! lol I just use them for regular grocery spend. I have the Lowes offer again on both mine and DHs cards and will probably buy more, but trying to finish off some MSRs so haven't yet. Maybe I should just buy a few every month to keep Amex happy.

 

[Haley R]

Looking at my e-mail, looks like you just have to buy it by then. You have 12 months to use it. Not too sure what happens if they have no dates that work for you. I think the bigger issue is if you want to sit through a sales presentation. Don't know how high pressure the Hilton one is. Just don't get sucked into buying one.

Been through a few when I was younger for the free stuff. Then swore off of them, lol.

It’s honestly not worth it to me lol. If we’re going to Orlando we probably won’t be staying in a Hilton

 

[Albort]

We're looking for SFO > OSL in September. Looking at AF since we've done that one before. But it always makes me nervous to transfer points to one airline. What if the flights aren't available once the points transfer?

looks like AF or SQ(55k)/UA(60k) is the way to go.
from this TPG article, transfers to AF is instant --> https://thepointsguy.com/guide/transfer-chase-to-flying-blue/

SQ partner look up can be found using UA.

I also checked the UR portal, i can see tickets on DL for $525 or 35k points RT... might be the way to go?

 

[Happy814]

Interesting. DS’s new school for the fall mentioned they have a student taking AP Chem online since they don’t offer it but the school pays for it and I just can’t see how that is done since Chem is so hands-on. DS’s bio class has already dissected frogs which isn’t something I did until my 10th grade bio course. So taking science classes online just puzzles me since it’s no like I keep a dead frog in my house or a chem lab.

Jumping in to say that I took two chem classes online in college. I took Biology in the classroom with a lab and everything, and the Chem classes online. I will say - the online course was much, much more intensive. The first class I had was completely virtual. There was even a virtual lab where I would conduct the required experiments. The other chem class I had was a blend of virtual/real life. Basically, I had to conduct experiments myself at home. Plus there was other course and book work. Out of all the science classes I had, I will say I learned the most during the online classes; although I 100% concede that they are MUCH harder than real life classes.

 

[mmmears]

looks like AF or SQ(55k)/UA(60k) is the way to go.
from this TPG article, transfers to AF is instant --> https://thepointsguy.com/guide/transfer-chase-to-flying-blue/

SQ partner look up can be found using UA.

I also checked the UR portal, i can see tickets on DL for $525 or 35k points RT... might be the way to go?

Thank you, Albort. We're looking into it all right now, J-class so we can lie down a bit. We need to use MRs instead of URs.

 

[havaneselover]

Is it correct that you can pay federal taxes online with a cc for just under 2%? I've been offered a small profits interest from the owners of my company. The drawback is I have to pay quarterly taxes (including self employment taxes) and my health care premiums will no longer be tax-free (I'm going to ask that they offset that by increasing my salary modestly). But it looks like I can pay them with a credit card. I've been trying to figure out if I can spend $5,000 in three months before I apply for platinum but this would be easy with three months of tax payments.

 

[Albort]

Thank you, Albort. We're looking into it all right now, J-class so we can lie down a bit. We need to use MRs instead of URs.

damn it, i didnt check J class haha.