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

[Alexle2007]

Staples .com running a no-fee $100 MCGC deal again.

https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/fee-free-100-mastercard-gcs-at-staples-com/

And they’re gone Just looked since we are back on the ground but I missed them.

 

[Albort]

And they’re gone Just looked since we are back on the ground but I missed them.

there was another one that was suppose to be coming out for Safeway grocery stores, i think its eta is coming up.

 

[Lain]

@Lain when u go through Masterpass with a MCGC, does it charge the 2.5% or 1%

2.5%

 

[Alexle2007]

there was another one that was suppose to be coming out for Safeway grocery stores, i think its eta is coming up.

Thanks. I was looking at Staples to meet my CIC MSR. I had purchased $1000 on two different accounts last time but it looks like one of the orders was canceled. Maybe i’ll Just pay the fee for $600 GCs to get the 5x on the spend or buy other GCs we’ll use.

 

[Judique]

I would love to learn where to get started. We pay off our cards every month but charge less than $800 a month.
We haven’t applied for any cards in years.
I have been trying to read and learn.
I need to fly five people from IAD to Mco in September. (Free dining sucker here) One lap infant also.
We have only flown frontier. Would their card be ok or are there some others that you recommend. Southwest does not currently fly nonstop out of Washington. No way I’m gonna hold a baby for that long.

We have 2 rewards cards. One is points the other is cash 1% back and a ten percent bonus if deposited into a suntrust account.

I have been looking and trying to read. This thread is super fast moving. Any recommendations or places to read more. We have been more pay off in cash type people for a while. I do buy everything I can with my card and then pay it off.

I would love to earn enough to pay for most of our flights to Disney especially since we usually drive. I’d rather not with 4 impatient kids.

Thank you!!

Southwest has 1 flight out of DCA that is non stop and many non stops out of BWI, but yes, no non stops out of Dulles. I think it's worth it to book a seat for the baby and bring a car seat. My daughter does it with 2 babies - has never flown with them on her lap. It's definitely an extra cost but safer and more comfortable.

You could try for the companion pass with Southwest and with that plus the points generated you would have enough for all of you - 6 seats total? The spend is $2k I believe. I'm behind so someone may have already responded. You are smart to go for non stops - they are not only shorter timewise but always cheaper on Southwest.

 

[Judique]

@lyshia04


Just wanted to say my DCA flight to MCO tomorrow cost 2,400 Southwest points one way.

Chase URs can be transferred to SW.

Last year I beat that out of DCA. 1717 RR points per person last January to fly my family on the DCA nonstop. September is looking a little more pricey this year.

2400 RR's is a must do trip in my opinion! Have loads of fun!

 

[Judique]

AF posted on my Marriott Biz this morning. Chase is handing out the $90 statement credits for the $99 AF like candy, so definitely call if your AF is hitting soon. I was on the phone less than 2 minutes and just said I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pay that AF or switch to an Amex card. She immediately said she could give me a $90 statement credit and it would appear in 1-2 billing cycles.

Hope they are still doing this in June when my AF is due!

 

[Judique]

No Amex 1099’s yet either. Is it possible they are just sending them to those who had multiple referrals? I only had a couple. Maybe those with less than a certain amount aren’t getting them? Or are ours all slow and that is wishful thinking?

I had a self referral which gave me $100 credit on my old card. No 1099 yet, but $100 isn't anything I'm going to stress about.

 

[trenty]

None for me yet. I did have a couple referrals, but I'm hoping they were below the threshold. So annoying! I went ahead and deleted my referral info on DISchurners. I didn't get many from it, and at this point it isn't worth the hassle or uncertainty of being taxed on it. Some of the valuations are pretty ridiculous. Hopefully people are successful in getting the amount reconsidered. I would argue cash out price.

I just deleted my links on reddit too. I have not gotten any from there, but not worth it if it should happen. I have only one Chase referral so I am not too worried for this year, but going forward I will give up referral points.

 

[Judique]

I read that as 1889 and was so confused how you'd ridden it so long ago. Sleep deprived runner's brain



Nothing here yet either.

Not happy to hear about chase referals but I don't think I had any at least.

Sometimes my body feels that old, like yesterday after I started to try to rest on my 'day off'.

I had one Chase referral of the Disney card - another $100 Disney dollars, so I guess I'll have $200 in extra income. I made many trips to Goodwill before the year ended though.

 

[lyshia04]

The United Explorer card is a terrible offer at only 40k UA miles. That card has an in-flight offer link (also available publicly) for 50k miles, and often has targeted offers of 50k and 60k miles, and as high as 70k miles in summer 2017.

If you’re open to applying for business credit cards, as @SouthFayetteFan suggested, the United Business credit card is offering 75k miles after spending $5k in 3 months. That offer ends 3/18/19.

Arguably, however, the Chase Ink Preferred (“CIP”) that @SouthFayetteFan suggested is a better deal at 80k Ultimate Rewards (“UR”) bonus points after spending $5k in 3 months. If you fly United, UR points transfer to United miles 1:1, so 80k UR > 75k UA miles. UR also gives you the additional flexibility of being used like cash to book flights and hotels on the Chase UR travel portal. This is helpful if you can’t find good award availability using, for example, United miles, or if using UR like cash costs less points than it would take to book an award seat. The CIP gives your UR points 25% extra value, so 1 UR point that is usually worth only 1 cent if you cash it out, is worth 1.25 cents when used to pay for travel on the Chase portal. If you decide to get the Chase Sapphire Reserve (“CSR”) and move your UR points to that card, your points are worth 50% more and redeem as 1.5 cents towards travel booked on the Chase portal.

If you are under 5/24, don’t even think about the Wells Fargo card. There are so many good signup bonuses from Chase’s cards, but you have to be under 5/24 to be approved for pretty much any of their cards.

Please don’t rush into anything! There are a lot of rules for particular cards and issuers that we want to help you keep straight. While you’re still getting the hang of this hobby, it’s always a good idea to run your strategy and plans with us before any application for a new card.

So I’m not quite sure what 5/24 is. 5 cards in 24 months. The last card we applied for was suntrust maybe or our Disney visa. We don’t use the Disney visa. But that was roughly 4 years ago.
This stuff makes my head spin. I did the gift card stuff back in the day where I didn’t have to go to five different stores.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Judique]

I don't see a lot of talk about the Costco Citi Visa on this board. Why is that?

Ok, in trying to catch up I was also busy hitting quote so need to clean up.

No sign up bonus.

10 months with a VGC owner, or try my luck at 7 months with any DVC owner.

11 months window with an owner.

Now leftovers are where I draw the line. DH will eat whatever is in the refrigerator. I don't remember when we put that in there or it's been a week, I'll toss it.

I have one who will not eat used food the next day.

Another great thing to have and I'll have to have in my next car. Not just cruise control but adaptive cruise control. The car will automatically slow down and keep a set distance between you and the car in front of you. Helps you avoid having to start and stop your cruise control all the time. I love cruise control for road trips. I use in the rental car as well.

Just to keep up the car talk - I have to have back up camera, back up sensor (beeping), blind spot, navigation (need the bigger screen than my phone), hands free phone. I am definitely spoiled when it comes to what I need in my car.

I need all of these things but have few in all 3 cars. I like the adaptive cruise control and will be shopping soon so thanks for that info.

In good news, I've driven it so long with the check engine light on that the light finally burned out so no more irritating lights on my dashboard

I put tape over a check engine years ago and found that annoying. Most of my 'check engines have been loose gas caps or new ones needed, except for one time we needed an oxygen sensor.

I SM'd Chase to find out about anniversary resets due to product changing (both DH and I upgraded our old personal Marriotts to the new Premier Plus in the past few months for the 50K upgrade bonus).

NEW anniversary date is when you make the upgrade change. Maybe some people here knew that, but I've never upgraded a card with Chase before and was reading comments on the FM post about pc'ing to the RC.

I was counting on DH getting his free night this month, and me getting my free night in May -- but now those won't be available until Oct (me) and Dec (him). I did read one conflicting DP in the comments on FM's RC post where the person said they still got their FN certificate on their original anniversary date, so there might be some YMMV with this.

At least we got 50K pts each which is a free night at most places, so that helps me from feeling too "robbed."

Upgraded in December and got my upgraded certificate and the 50k right on schedule. Plus a 95$ refund. Now I'm thinking I'll see that fee very soon, but I'm hoping it won't come until next year.

So hypothetically, could someone with a Marriott Premier/Premier Plus go 1 year, 10 months paying the $95 AF, then in the 11th month PC to the R-C card, pay only a one- (or two-) month prorated AF on the $450, and get the 50k FN cert after year 2?

I'm making notes and seriously thinking of this. November would be my 11th month. Could you please put this one your spreadsheet to remind me? Not kidding....

Damn. Haven’t read in a couple of weeks and I’m 200 pages behind.

It happens.

This might have already been said but still catching up. We won’t eat at H&V anymore especially after the server lost my gift card and the manager wouldn’t do anything about it. We still had to pay for the meal and never did get my gc. Was not happy to lose out on the $500+ gc. Lots of time spent and bad memories. Kids still talk about it. Food just isn’t that great and the characters just rushed by didn’t interact. They were posed for a picture then tried to move on and didn’t answer any of the kids questions. they commented about the outfit and they didn’t do anything to acknowledge it. On the other hand fantasmic is great. You can get a fp for it in the afternoon if you wanted to. We have been able to get all 5 of us around 3-4 pm.

I think I read this already but did you have a record of the card? You can always quickly transfer the funds to another card if you have the card info. I have a list because I usually have a huge stash of Disney gift cards (for DVC dues) and don't want to risk that money.

 

[lyshia04]

Southwest has 1 flight out of DCA that is non stop and many non stops out of BWI, but yes, no non stops out of Dulles. I think it's worth it to book a seat for the baby and bring a car seat. My daughter does it with 2 babies - has never flown with them on her lap. It's definitely an extra cost but safer and more comfortable.

You could try for the companion pass with Southwest and with that plus the points generated you would have enough for all of you - 6 seats total? The spend is $2k I believe. I'm behind so someone may have already responded. You are smart to go for non stops - they are not only shorter timewise but always cheaper on Southwest.

I saw the companion pass thing but I was unsure because of their non stop flights at Dulles.
I was worried about bringing a car seat since we aren’t gonna rent a car and just do Disney transport. Husband drives almost three hours a day for his commute and really wants a week where he does no driving so I’m trying to make that a reality for him. If I can swing it I have no problem getting baby a seat.

Thanks for the help.

 

[havaneselover]

Trying to help my sister. She got a delta amex a few months ago (also has some sort of legacy gold card) and is toying with the idea of getting a platinum amex. Can she self refer herself?

Never mind--I see it has to be within the delta family.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I saw the companion pass thing but I was unsure because of their non stop flights at Dulles.
I was worried about bringing a car seat since we aren’t gonna rent a car and just do Disney transport. Husband drives almost three hours a day for his commute and really wants a week where he does no driving so I’m trying to make that a reality for him. If I can swing it I have no problem getting baby a seat.

Thanks for the help.

You can use the car seat on the plane only, then put it in the closet for the week. You can’t use it on Disney transport. People think I’m crazy but we adopted DS when he was 1 and took a car seat to China to get him. Most cars/buses in China don’t have seatbelts so you can’t use a car seat. So I took an empty car seat to China, and bought an expensive one way ticket back for DS and his car seat. Would do it again in a heartbeat. He was safe and comfortable. If your baby is over 22# and can sit up alone, you could use a CARES harness.

 

[hsmamato2]

Don't know if anyone answered already, but you should be able to do that. Open one account in your name with your employee card and 2 with P2 WoH. They will both count toward MSR, and YMMV but my credit card funding counted as direct deposit.

thanks!

 

[hsmamato2]

DoC confirmed, its going out regardless of $600 or not.

so if I got one referral(self) for some hilton points, should I expect something?

 

[hsmamato2]

Costco got me again..... latest offer on DoC was set up auto renew get $20 gc..... I let mine expire like 6 months ago,but upcoming surprise FL trip means we want a specific minivan rental with two drivers...and guess whose prices beat everyone elses?(yes,Costco) so I did the call in, set up the autopay and here we go again. I love their products etc, just didn't feel the $60 was worth it..... but now that it's saving me money on a car rental (again) I'm back!

 

[Oscar Madison]

Costco got me again..... latest offer on DoC was set up auto renew get $20 gc..... I let mine expire like 6 months ago,but upcoming surprise FL trip means we want a specific minivan rental with two drivers...and guess whose prices beat everyone elses?(yes,Costco) so I did the call in, set up the autopay and here we go again. I love their products etc, just didn't feel the $60 was worth it..... but now that it's saving me money on a car rental (again) I'm back!

Yes, they had great deals on glasses for our family. That and the hot dogs keep me coming back.

 

[havaneselover]

Costco got me again..... latest offer on DoC was set up auto renew get $20 gc..... I let mine expire like 6 months ago,but upcoming surprise FL trip means we want a specific minivan rental with two drivers...and guess whose prices beat everyone elses?(yes,Costco) so I did the call in, set up the autopay and here we go again. I love their products etc, just didn't feel the $60 was worth it..... but now that it's saving me money on a car rental (again) I'm back!

I have such a love/hate relationship with Costco because ours is obscenely crowded. They just sucked me into purchasing a SimpleHuman sensor mirror on sale for $125.