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

[SouthFayetteFan]

All,

I’ve spent the past week reading the original board. You all rock! I made it up to page 185 and wanted to move on over here to check out the recent news. Thank you for all of your stories and advice. Like many of you, I wish I’d read this before I recently upgraded and got some new cards. I got hooked into this hobby by staying at the Hotel Indigo in Anaheim and getting the IHG Select card years ago. I then got the CSR and paid for our wedding in Cancun with the card and used the points for our honeymoon in Europe. I now see that I didn’t necessarily make the best use of the points as I directly utilized the UR portal as opposed to travel partners. Anyways, here’s what I have and here’s some questions I have about the best new cards to utilize for my future travel:

2019:
Feb - Amex Gold
Feb - Freedom
Feb - Upgraded to Southwest Priority from Premier - no bonus - had the prior card for 8 years and have never canceled it and got the bonus again - that’s a learning experience

2018:
June - Amex Platinum

2017:
August - DiscoverIt
June - Freedom Unlimited

2016:
Feb - CSR
June - IHG Select

Smith’s is our local grocery store and next month they stop accepting Visa credit cards so that’s why I got the Amex Gold. I then plan on using the Freedom @ Costco during the rotating quarter. I alternate CSR and Amex Gold for restaurants. Amex Platinum and CSR are then both used for booking travel. Freedom Unlimited is for everything else.

I live in Vegas, if you can’t tell by my name so Southwest is the primary airline I fly. Here are some questions I have;

1) Now that I’ve missed out on the bonus for the personal Southwest premier card for this year does it make sense to go ahead and try for the Southwest business now so I can go for CP again in 2 years?

2) Or is there potentially more value in going for CIP as opposed to a Southwest business card? We’ve got a newborn so I don’t anticipate traveling to WDW for at least a year or two. Southwest and Frontier are the only airlines flying nonstop from Vegas to MCO that I’m aware of.

3) Hotel wise we’re all over the place but I utilize the IHG Select frequently. This fall we’re going on a Viking River Cruise. I’ve already got a room in Amsterdam taken care of via IHG but I haven’t done so in Basel. With the current offer on Marriott Bonvoy I’m debating going for that. Make sense? Although I’m not intrigued with the Radisson Rewards card based on @calypso726’s experience in Europe. Although I haven’t read enough to determine if the new Club Carlson card is a good deal. What do you think?

4) Domestic flying I have a bit of a condrum. I fly to Maine and Kentucky each 1-2x a year, and California at least 4x a year. Southwest goes to all destinations but I’m intrigued with springing for 1st class. I could fly to Cincinnati via Delta in 1st to get to Kentucky and occasionally to California via delta. With respect to Maine, Skyscanner says our best option is American Airlines or Southwest. It seems to me based on my various destinations, going for the CP with SW is the best bet. Do you recommend any alternative card for domestic travel or another card for international travel?

5) My wife is an AU on the Amex Gold, CSR and Freedom Unlimited. She also has her own Southwest card. I suppose I could have her cancel her card and order Southwest and the business card for her? The difficulty is that we made her an AU on three cards this year.

Thanks! I look forward to joining the discussion!

So you list a CSR in Feb of 2016 but that card was released in August. Was that a CSP? Or was it opened in a different month - as long as it's been open since Feb 2017, it doesn't affect your 5/24 status but it is good to have the right info.

So I'm going to re-list your cards in a preferred format:
06/17 - CHASE Freedom Unlimited
08/17 - DISCOVER It
06/18 - AMEX Platinum
02/19 - CHASE Freedom
02/19 - AMEX Gold

You might want to use a free account on Experian.com and/or Credit Karma to see if your AMEX Gold is reporting yet. If it IS NOT - I would IMMEDIATELY strike on a CIP card if you want one. AMEX will often delay reporting cards by 1-2 statements so you might have a window to snag that. Once it reports, you are locked out of Chase until July of this year. If you go for that card, consider supporting a fellow DISer via a link on DISchurners.

Let's say you're able to get a CIP now, then come July you're back to 4/24 and in August you're 3/24. If you can focus on business cards (from both Chase and others) you can preserve that 3/24 status. You can mix in one personal card and still hang at 4/24 which keeps you "in" with Chase.

You also should attempt to resolve your wife's AU cards. You want to cancel them all and have her ask the issuers remove them from her credit report. Others can provide more specific advice on this as I've never done it, but you want to get her a clean slate.

Did you earn ANY upgrade bonus when you went from Premier to Priority on your SW card? Regardless, I don't think an upgrade bonus rules you out from just cancelling and applying for a new SW personal card. Why do you think you're locked out for 2 years - am I missing something? I would think you could target a SW CP for 2020/2021 by going for a biz and personal very late this year or early 2020. Your wife also has the runway to do it (now if you wanted - but a better option would be to earn it for almost 2 full years by doing it in early 2020).

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Venmo if you’re willing to eat the 3% fee.

Agreed - and @elgerber, when you're talking about a signup bonus AND CP, the 3% is pretty insignificant.

 

[elgerber]

Venmo if you’re willing to eat the 3% fee.

Thanks! Can you explain this in dummy form, or would it need to be on churners? I haven’t used Venmo before

 

[kandb]

I have to say I was not impressed by Poly. I found it dark, the walk from our room was kinda long, and the bathroom layout was not good.

Yeah, we stayed at the Poly once. We found the room dark and very damp and outdated (Stayed there 2 1/2 years ago). Also, I won't even get into the cleanliness of the room when we arrived (the manager gave us dinner at Ohana's for our family of 5 due to it). We have stayed at the GF the last few years and loved it.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Thanks! Can you explain this in dummy form, or would it need to be on churners? I haven’t used Venmo before

Basically you each get an account... He links his credit card and sends you money. You link your bank account and transfer the money into there. Then you'd write him a check back for that amount. Money moves in a circle, he pays 3% to send it to you, but the spend posts.

A few thoughts:
1) Don't do this until near the end of the MSR period if you think he can meet a portion of this organically (unless you're in a rush for the CP in which case you could do it immediately)
2) Make sure he factors in the fee. If he needs to spend $2,000 more he should only send you $1,942 because then the fee of $58.26 will also post as a purchase. No reason to spend more than necessary!
3) DO NOT Venmo him back the money. Put it in your account and write the check so that it doesn't look suspicious.

 

[wanderlust7]

No no nooooo! I am ok but my son needed this badly to get a CP. Any other clever ideas?

DoC has a list of best bank bonuses. You can scroll through and see if there's a regional one that work for you.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/best-bank-account-bonuses/

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

@calypso726 AMAZING pics! Thanks so much for sharing. I'll never be able to visit Dubai so I'm living vicariously through you!

 

[Haley R]

We got home at 3:40 am from our band’s gig last night. Dh left at 10 am for his flight and his plane just took off. He stops in Chicago before going to Orlando and he was supposed to have like an hour layover and now he said he lands at 1:20 and boards at 1:25!!! He also got an email that his next flight is oversold and they were asking people to take vouchers. Why do they do this?!!! This is why we always try to have nonstop flights.

 

[platamama]

No no nooooo! I am ok but my son needed this badly to get a CP. Any other clever ideas?

What about Plastiq for his rent? 2.5% < 3% Venmo

 

[kandb]

I got the Amex Marriott bonvoy card this month and think will have $5K on it the first month (had a $3900 car repair bill). Will they put the points on it right away or make me wait 3 months? Thanks for your help.

 

[amalone1013]

I’ll give you a “Like” since you posted this here; but if you make the mistake of reposting this story on r/churning, I’ll downvote you. And the downvote brigade will too.

r/churning be like, WE DONT APPRECIATE YOUR JOKEY POSTS HERE

May I ask what are the repercussions on r/churning if you get downvoted?

I somehow think @amalone1013 does it just to aggravate the r/churning crowd.

I'm secretly evil like that

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

We got home at 3:40 am from our band’s gig last night. Dh left at 10 am for his flight and his plane just took off. He stops in Chicago before going to Orlando and he was supposed to have like an hour layover and now he said he lands at 1:20 and boards at 1:25!!! He also got an email that his next flight is oversold and they were asking people to take vouchers. Why do they do this?!!! This is why we always try to have direct flights.

FYI - I think you are actually referencing nonstop flights. I've seen this mistake made here a lot lately (by lots of folks) so I figured I'd share a quick comment:

• A nonstop flight: Means a flight directly from one airport to your final destination without stopping (this is obviously your fastest option)
• A direct flight: Typically implies a flight that stops 1 or more times before reaching your final destination BUT you do not change planes and you have 1 flight number (not changing planes means you won't miss any connections since your plane IS the connection but it will take longer than a nonstop due to the stop)

Both are preferable to a flight with a plane change BUT they do mean different things. I figured I'd set the record straight since we all want to sound like educated travel hackers here

 

[wendow]

I just did a chat with Citi AA. She said she happily put in my request for the 60k match. And nothing else LOL. How do we ever know if it works, we just see if they show up?

Wondering too...I chatted a few days ago and asked for the match (after being denied the first time I asked through SM). Asked Barclay for a match like 2 weeks ago. Still no response from them.

In better news though, I did get my first SUB from my AA citi biz. That one I just did a 70k/4k offer. Got my 74k miles sitting in my AA account all ready to pay for a Disney resort. Love it!!

 

[Haley R]

FYI - I think you are actually referencing nonstop flights. I've seen this mistake made here a lot lately (by lots of folks) so I figured I'd share a quick comment:

• A nonstop flight: Means a flight directly from one airport to your final destination without stopping (this is obviously your fastest option)
• A direct flight: Typically means a flight that stops 1 or more times before reaching your final destination BUT you do not change planes (not changing planes makes you save from missing connections since your plane IS the connection but it will take longer than a nonstop due to the stop)

Both are preferable to a flight with a plane change BUT they do mean different things. I figured I'd set the record straight since we all want to sound like educated travel hackers here

Yeah I meant nonstop. I actually had nonstop typed first and changed it to direct lol.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Yeah I meant nonstop. I actually had nonstop typed first and changed it to direct lol.

LOL - that's funny! It's a pet peeve of mine IRL so I figured I'd mention it.

 

[kandb]

My CSR was 36K and I lowered it to 10K. My credit score dropped as a result - 9 points if I remember correctly. But I figured it was necessary because I also have other high CL cards and my total CL was getting high. I decided to do them one at a time starting with the CSR because it was the highest CL. However, AMEX just increased my SPG CL ,without asking, and gave me 28K on the Hilton biz. Chase just approved my CIP and the card should be here tomorrow so I will see what the CL is.

Did you mean your credit score dropped 9 points or went up by 9 points??? I thought the purpose of lowering CL was to get your score up?

 

[wendow]

@elgerber I was going to suggest Venmo or plastiq as well. The fee with plastiq is slightly lower so if he can pay anything through there, I'd do that first. However, Venmo is a very good deal as well considering there is really no spend involved other than the fee which is worth it, imo, if meeting a MSR is too difficult otherwise.

I agree with @SouthFayetteFan that these are more last resorts so unless you need to get the CP asap, I'd hold off to see if your ds can meet as much of the MSR organically as possible.

I believe there may be some info on DISchurners for using Venmo. @Lain always suggests 'seasoning' an account first by making some smaller payments. Venmo can lock an account if they don't like something and the funds are tied up for awhile.

 

[platamama]

Did you mean your credit score dropped 9 points or went up by 9 points??? I thought the purpose of lowering CL was to get your score up?

Most of us are lowering our CL with Chase to improve our chances at approval so we don't have to call recon.

 

[wendow]

Did you mean your credit score dropped 9 points or went up by 9 points??? I thought the purpose of lowering CL was to get your score up?

The purpose of lowering CL's is so that the bank will give you more credit and not look at you and think you already have enough. Many times lowering CL's will lower your score because your utilization goes up.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

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