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

[wanderlust7]

I signed up for the Marriott Bonvoy with 100K points. I am a Marriott rewards member (no cc) and since it doesn't count against my 5/24, I figured why not? Now I am sorry I didn't sign up for the AMEX Hilton card with 125K points. It seems like that is just as good. I looked up rooms and a lot of embassy suites (which we love) are only 25K points per night. Any opinions on both cards?

You can get both. I did. Assuming you can meet the MSR and are below 2/90 (maximum 2 AmEx credit cards within a 90 days rolling period).

But if you're purely comparing the 2, I think the Bonvoy is better. First year AF is waived while the Hilton's is not. Bonvoy points are also valued more. Going by Frequent Miler's more conservative estimates (not TPG's inflated ones), Bonvoy is 0.72 cpp, so SUB is worth $720. Hilton points are 0.45 cpp, so SUB is worth $562. But of course, your actual value will depend on how you use them. Also, the Bonvoy comes with a 35k certificate each card anniversary, making it easier to justify keeping the card (and keeping the pop-up at bay). The Hilton does not.

 

[kmc8826]

@wanderlust7 and @alryan I think you should both wait on a Chase card. I understand being tempted but when the shutdowns were happening (or at least being talked about more) last year at this time it is pretty scary. Getting more UR’s won’t do you any good if you are completely locked out from them and they are forfeited. Just play it safe.

Now if I could find that referral for 80k, it’s not showing up for me. I will keep trying.

Use the link from Reddit that @gottalovepluto posted earlier today. I already got the emails and it is the 80k. And yes they are different products.

 

[Psychodisney]

Just getting back from vacation this evening. I tried to at least skim to keep up.
We had a great trip overall. We flew to FLL and stayed at the Ft Lauderdale Hyatt Place the night before we flew to Nassau (2 rooms on points). Very nice and convenient to the airport, but apparently not in the best neighborhood. We went over the the Margaritaville Resort in Hollywood, FL for dinner and must have had my DH's CSR skimmed in the parking garage kiosk. I was leery of credit card fraud for this trip but I expected it in Nassau! Called Chase yesterday to deal with that. Interestingly, when I fueled the rental car with my Citi Costo card, it was denied. Then I used my Capital One card, they sent me a text to verify it was me before I could pump gas! Must be a hot bed of fraud around there. We then flew to Nassau and enjoyed the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, 5 nights, 2 rooms booked on points with Grand lounge access earned via old Hyatt card. The Baha Mar was beautiful and relaxing. However, my family was a little bored. We are used to WDW vacations with lots to do. Our excursion, which I booked on points, was cancelled by the tour operator due to weather conditions. Hopefully, that won't be a battle to recover 73K UR points! We flew back to Orlando and had a fun evening at the MK last night. Everyone needed a little Disney fun to end our trip!

I still can't believe how much of that trip was paid for via points and discounted Disney gift cards!

I think the consensus is we need trips with plenty to do. My DH doesn't care for the parks right now. Too crowded and too much walking. I'd love to look at ABD but the prices scare me!

 

[Artygal90]

I need hotel redemption advice if anyone would be willing to take a look at my plans. We are thinking of extending our LA trip by a couple days, so we'll need to book two more hotel nights in LA proper, somewhere convenient to Santa Monica, Beverly Hills, and Hollywood. I have about 55k UR (and should get about 50k more within the next couple weeks, although I have plans for those too), 30K MR, and 41K Bonvoy points. Here are the options I see - which one would be best?

Option 1) Do a split stay - book one night in a cheap hotel with UR in Santa Monica, then switch to a Cat 5 Marriott for one night in Beverly Hills using my current Bonvoy points.

Option 2) Book 2 nights at cheap hotel with UR in Beverly Hills for around 20k UR.

Option 3) Transfer all my MR to Marriott and stay two nights at the Cat 5 Marriott in Beverly Hills.

Pros/Cons
- Options 2 and 3 are attractive since I don't have to deal with the aggravation of doing a split stay.
- But I'm not sure using up all my MR and/or my remaining Bonvoy points is the best move though, since I could easily combine my current Bonvoy points with a future free night cert for a two-night stay somewhere in 2020. I also want to accumulate MR for a first-class Tokyo flight in a couple years.
- On the other hand, I need to keep 70k UR to pay for Uni tickets and our LA rental car.
- Finally, doing a split stay would save us a little time and hassle driving around LA, since we could do Santa Monica and maybe The Getty on arrival day, spend the night there, then switch to the other hotel to do museums/Hollywood stuff.

Thoughts?

 

[wendow]

im Group A, position 58 for my SW flight tomorrow.

is that good or bad? haha

Anything in A group is good!

 

[kmc8826]

To all you homeschooling moms: awesome job!

I agree it is probably so much better for the kids. Now they are starting to focus on teaching for the tests this spring, but the big push the last 2 months for my 6th grader was learning Greek mythology. Which is fine, but her having a knowledge of the US government might be a little more handy in real life. That is awesome you all can do it. I am on our school community council (deals with budgets of school) and entire focus is always testing. Meanwhile I have a 4th grader who is still struggling with basic times tables.

I work full time and make a lot more than my husband so home schooling would never be an option. Practically speaking I am not sure I have for the temperament for it anyway. But reading your posts I told my husband he could retire (he can now qualify with the pension since he has 20 years in law enforcement) but he would need to home school the girls. He declined. I seriously do think it would be good for them though.

 

[gottalovepluto]

DoC reporting Plastiq hopes to be back up tomorrow

 

[Lain]

We did it. I am risk averse by nature and DH is stressed and tired (work issues) and he was finally willing to look at this stuff so it was kind of a now or never thing (based on availability). Thanks to all of you (and Tink, Lain, and Albort especially for trying to help to today). We never, ever, ever would have had the points to do something like this if I hadn't found this group.

Now we just have to wait to make sure DD's paperwork, residency, etc. all gets done so she will be there. No biggie LOL.

So happy to read about your successful redemption, and your earlier posts about how you were able to earn so many points in such a short time to make these trips happen. I wish I could've helped out more with your flights today, but I was out with the family watching Captain Marvel (good movie, don't believe the haters). But it looks like everything's worked out. Congrats!

 

[wendow]

Meanwhile I have a 4th grader who is still struggling with basic times tables.

Thanks for the kind words!

Just wanted to say that I also have a 4th grader struggling with basic times tables. So even us homeschool moms don't have it so perfect all the time

 

[wendow]

DoC reporting Plastiq hopes to be back up tomorrow

Oh, please let this be true!!! Thanks for posting an update!

 

[mmmears]

So happy to read about your successful redemption, and your earlier posts about how you were able to earn so many points in such a short time to make these trips happen. I wish I could've helped out more with your flights today, but I was out with the family watching Captain Marvel (good movie, don't believe the haters). But it looks like everything's work out. Congrats!

Thanks, and don't worry. DH found a good redemption since we were pretty flexible with dates (that's also a first for us!). I'm glad you enjoyed the movie. Yep, no way could I have done this without this group. I almost had MRs for the whole thing (DH topped off my FB account with a few of his), and I never would have even had ANY MRs without this group - I was just using his card as an AU. The 150K SUB points I got over the 2 cards made all the difference in the world. I hate sounding fussy but at this point in my life I can't do a 2 flight trip to Europe in economy. And we certainly couldn't have paid the $10K that the tickets were selling for today.

 

[wendow]

I was out with the family watching Captain Marvel (good movie, don't believe the haters).

My dd16 went and saw it today with her friends. She thought it was great as well!

 

[EACarlson]

Wife and I went last night and really enjoyed it. Much funnier than Marvel movies have been lately.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Wife and I went last night and really enjoyed it. Much funnier than Marvel movies have been lately.

Oh that’s good! I’ve been missing the humor!

 

[CaT_DisLife]

Question for those who have placed a credit freeze - how long do you wait after you unfreeze your credit from the credit bureaus before you apply for a credit card? Minutes? Hours?

Anyone know which bureau Chase pulls for the biz cards? I’m hoping to apply for the United biz before the current offer goes away and I have to unfreeze my credit accounts. Do I need to do it for all 3 credit bureaus?

Thanks!

Forgot to add that I applied for CIP on 11/18 and CIU on 1/19. I should be ok applying for another biz card, right?

 

[Lain]

Need some advice. I'm going to be 5/24 once the personal Plat hit my credit reports. I think that's sometime soon after the second statement cuts? The date of the second statement cut is exactly 60 dates from my last Chase app - the CIC that I had to go through recon to get approved. Since then I've dropped combined Chase CL to 30k. Before that it was already <50% income and <70k. I had 2 returned payments and 1 late payment due to a typo in the bank account (the second time was because the autopay didn't update the corrected info) - all were reversed.

My original plan was to just take a break from Chase until August. But with DPs of CIP #2 with SSN, I'm tempted to go for it. I think it's a loophole that's going to close sooner or later (my theory is that the EIN option will stick around). I'm okay with 2 wasted pull if I'm denied. More worried about a shutdown.

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

Go for it or don't go for it?

I don't know, when I see the potential for 100k UR, my judgment goes out the window. The daredevil in me would risk it, especially since you'll be at 5/24 soon and presumably not applying for any more Chase cards for a while, so this CIP would be your last hurrah. The sensible side would pause and run it by @SouthFayetteFan.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

You all are like crack dealers. Haven't even gotten my shiny new CIP in the mail yet and just opened a Wells Fargo checking for the $400 bonus. Eying the Chase checking offer for my wife's direct deposit.

I don’t think I could deal with a crack in my wall. I would be worried about how dirty it gets back there. I would have to do something to fix that lol.

Somehow in my head after reading these two comments in close succession I thought that @Haley R was referencing “crack” in the wall... That crack dealers comment got real pretty quick!

 

[Haley R]

Dh and I are watching instant family and it’s so good!!!

 

[Haley R]

Somehow in my head after reading these two comments in close succession I thought that @Haley R was referencing “crack” in the wall... That crack dealers comment got real pretty quick!

Lol that escalated quickly

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Need some advice. I'm going to be 5/24 once the personal Plat hit my credit reports. I think that's sometime soon after the second statement cuts? The date of the second statement cut is exactly 60 dates from my last Chase app - the CIC that I had to go through recon to get approved. Since then I've dropped combined Chase CL to 30k. Before that it was already <50% income and <70k. I had 2 returned payments and 1 late payment due to a typo in the bank account (the second time was because the autopay didn't update the corrected info) - all were reversed.

My original plan was to just take a break from Chase until August. But with DPs of CIP #2 with SSN, I'm tempted to go for it. I think it's a loophole that's going to close sooner or later (my theory is that the EIN option will stick around). I'm okay with 2 wasted pull if I'm denied. More worried about a shutdown.

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

Go for it or don't go for it?

I don't know, when I see the potential for 100k UR, my judgment goes out the window. The daredevil in me would risk it, especially since you'll be at 5/24 soon and presumably not applying for any more Chase cards for a while, so this CIP would be your last hurrah. The sensible side would pause and run it by @SouthFayetteFan.

Ok - I’ll weigh in

I am typically a “play it safe” guy but I’m leaning towards Go For It in this scenario. I can’t explain why, my gut just says your worst case is a denial. What are your other cards - since I see only 1 personal and you are 5/24 soon lol. Did the Platinum with AMEX trigger an inquiry? How many inquiries in the last 2 years from other biz cards? (Basically I guess I’m saying list all your cards in the last 24 months, haha). Perhaps with that info I may feel a little more definitive.