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

[hsmamato2]

just double checking...shopping thru SWA portal re-ups the points expiration date, right?
and as for the 'consulting' biz..... No thank you. for the same reason I don't want to be a TA...too much stress. If I'm a friend sharing tips to help,that's one thing,and always with the caveat....YMMV on many things, but go ahead and try it. If someone's paying me for this info.... then the PRESSURE is on to make it happen as promised. Not for me thanks-

 

[DisneyMandC]

He has helped many get out of debt...I don't agree with his firm anti-CC stance, but there are people who should not be using CC at all. But the generalization (his) that they are evil and everyone runs them up...just wrong.

I was actually listening to a bunch of recordings from his show on Youtube yesterday and man... some of the situations people get themselves into were mind blowing to me. I mean, I have a lot of student debt. But yeesh.

 

[platamama]

Anyone have any thoughts if a VGC is an acceptable wedding gift?

My only hesitation about this is what if that VGC is fraudulently drained before the recipient got to use it? Once burned, twice shy - I've had this happen with one $500 VGC in the past and it was a total pain to deal with, needing receipts and affadavits and months of time in order for me to get my money back. I still buy them for my own purposes but I'm aware that it can happen. It would be awkward, to say the least, if that happened to the one card you give as a gift (would they even tell you? would it leave a bad feeling behind?). Odds are not likely, of course, but it could happen.

 

[wendow]

He has helped many get out of debt...I don't agree with his firm anti-CC stance, but there are people who should not be using CC at all. But the generalization (his) that they are evil and everyone runs them up...just wrong.

He helped us get out of debt too and I use his high school personal finance class with my teens. But his anti-cc stance just gets under my skin. No they aren’t for everyone but many are disciplined enough to use them wisely. And he completely ignores any benefits to using credit cards. I stop the DVD’s to constantly reteach all that.

 

[trenty]

I was actually listening to a bunch of recordings from his show on Youtube yesterday and man... some of the situations people get themselves into were mind blowing to me. I mean, I have a lot of student debt. But yeesh.

..and the people on low incomes(or any income for that matter) who dig themselves out using his program...mind blowing in a good way....I agree with most of what he says....and if someone is in serious debt, his plan does work

 

[trenty]

But his anti-cc stance just gets under my skin.

I think he needs to do this. For those in serious trouble - CC need to be off-limits.

 

[amalone1013]

I've read a bit of DR stuff. Haven't listened to the shows. But if his methods help people help themselves with debt, I think that is great. I can definitely agree with the value of his teachings too. And some people can't have that much credit available to them. We're all different.

And if she was all like, I do this so I cut up my cards and it was the best decision ever for me, made me look at my spending, etc etc whatever I would be like that is awesome for you! I just hate when they make me feel super uncomfortable paying with MY credit card when they start the devil talk... like please don't assume I can't handle myself with my credit card. We're all different!

ETA: And in my case, it's always someone in a cashier position who starts this talk (which makes sense) but I always think about the other people around... like what if there are people in CC debt denial around being made uncomfortable by this, that kind of thing, they might go complain... I'm sure store management everywhere would not appreciate an employee making people feel uncomfortable with their method of payment. Unless of course, they are pushing their store CC My sister used to get a 25 cent bonus for every person she talked into a Shopko credit card.

 

[elgerber]

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[DisneyMandC]

..and the people on low incomes(or any income for that matter) who dig themselves out using his program...mind blowing in a good way....I agree with most of what he says....and if someone is in serious debt, his plan does work

Very true. I think he does mostly speak common sense and hard facts that people need to hear- mainly, if you have 70k in credit card debt, quit going out to eat and buying stupid crap. It's interesting to listen to his show though because you can totally hear it in some people's voice that they're not going to follow through when he tells them to sell their car with an $1100/month car payment (actual one I heard yesterday) and buy a beater.

 

[Lain]

I kind of blurted that I get extra points on my credit card... and the lady was like, oh I follow the Dave Ramsey method and then went on a tirade on how credit cards are evil because everyone runs them up to the limit. Man I hate that!

Just smile and thank her for subsidizing your credit card rewards.

 

[amalone1013]

when he tells them to sell their car with an $1100/month car payment

 

[DisneyMandC]

And if she was all like, I do this so I cut up my cards and it was the best decision ever for me, made me look at my spending, etc etc whatever I would be like that is awesome for you! I just hate when they make me feel super uncomfortable paying with MY credit card when they start the devil talk... like please don't assume I can't handle myself with my credit card. We're all different!

I think I've mentioned this here before, but mom and I were talking about a story on the Today show where they mentioned that X percentage of Americans don't know the interest rate on their credit card. I was like well, yeah, I don't know the interest rates on any of mine, but I don't pay interest on any either...

 

[platamama]

With Navy Federal, the smaller payments go into "unapplied funds" until the monthly amount has been paid in full. Anything above that gets applied to principle. I sent them 6 payments one month via Plastiq and all were credited correctly.

Can you call them and have it changed automatically or do you have to call after the payments and get it corrected?

Sounds like you and @pillow have nice mortgage companies! I hope @vanjust14 is fortunate with hers too.

Right now, I'm using part of my mortgage to meet MS/MSRs and outlined that over in Dischurners under MS. (I've successfully made 2 payments so far, and plan to continue that as long as it lasts and makes sense to do.) I only got in 1 CIP payment via Plastiq before that died, and this other way is more work but at least I'm getting something out of the mortgage payment (besides the house haha).

I'm waiting for my green Serve to show up. It's been 7 days, arrgghh. Have you gotten yours?

 

[speedyfishy]

Would someone with magic AA hotel/car rates mind checking a hotel for me, just so I can see how much lower rates might be once it figures out I am again a cardholder?
Just for an example, could you check The Westin St. Louis for 5/24-5/27?

Thank you!!!

28,800 a night or 86,400 for the whole stay.

 

[EACarlson]

just double checking...shopping thru SWA portal re-ups the points expiration date, right?

Yes, any thing that adds points to your account. Signing up and doing their surveys does as well.

 

[GlamMistress]

Well, here's something odd: just got an email from Royal Caribbean about my imperial Rome excursion for August. They dropped the included lunch. Didn't drop the price tho. Still $344 for the two of us. Ugh.

 

[elgerber]

28,800 a night or 86,400 for the whole stay.

Thank you!!! That is 57600 cheaper!
Now how long until I can see those darn rates?!?!?!

 

[miztressuz]

Thank you everyone for the wonderful replies!

In small farming, I think it's pretty much done this way that you write checks for your inputs. You save an exorbitant amount of money in prepaying your inputs. We paid cash for a new shed (money was from inheritance and savings). We also have to be careful in that we don't want to have our supplier see us paying using credit cards. It's small town living....

Thanks for everyone who mentioned using the pay service. I'm going to look into that because I have two large farm payments ($11,000 each) this year. We were going to pay it with a personal check to Compeer, but this may be an excellent opportunity to churn and meet minimum spending.

I have to be very careful as well with our credit. I want to maintain my excellent credit score as we plan to purchase more farms in the future.

It's a shame the stigma of CC use is still prevalent. If you have any larger suppliers or something more national could look into those maybe. Like the difference between going to Mom's Doughnuts versus Dunkin Donuts and using your CC for your 85 cent donut. Dunkin's not going to bat an eye as the CC fees are just rolled up into the prices nationally but doing it at Mom's and Mom's looking at you like "you don't even have a buck in your pocket for a donut? hm, let's see what Maisy heard..." kinda spoils all the fun.

Me too. Usually if I'm buying GCs somewhere and someone comments (like Lowe's/Staples with the AMEX offers, etc) I'll just say oh my credit card gives me extra points at some stores. One time I was buying Petco GCs at Staples on the last offer, the guy was like are these for employee giveaways? Uh sure.

Charitable giving They were for the animal shelter or homeless shelter to take care of the pets. Or raffle give aways or something. That's totally a business write off strategy.

 

[amalone1013]

So for GE... after the interview, when will DH be approved? Right away, or does it take time to review again? His business flight is Monday night so I think he's getting excited about skipping security lol

 

[pillow]

Sounds like you and @pillow have nice mortgage companies! I hope @vanjust14 is fortunate with hers too.

Right now, I'm using part of my mortgage to meet MS/MSRs and outlined that over in Dischurners under MS. (I've successfully made 2 payments so far, and plan to continue that as long as it lasts and makes sense to do.) I only got in 1 CIP payment via Plastiq before that died, and this other way is more work but at least I'm getting something out of the mortgage payment (besides the house haha).

I'm waiting for my green Serve to show up. It's been 7 days, arrgghh. Have you gotten yours?

I really don't think they can force you to make a principal payment - as long as your checks add up to a full payment. I think they must reclassify for you. Having said that, of course they can be a PITA and/or incompetent, and nobody want to deal with that. I had 2 mortgage companies who would automatically apply my checks as a payment (I made a note in the memo line), and I didn't have to call. However, the other 2 smaller mortgage companies could not process the checks that way. So every month, I'd call and have them reclassify. It was time spent on the phone, but it was never a problem for them to do it.

I don't pay via Plastiq any more though since I've been successful getting money orders locally. Lately, I've been mailing in money orders or a combination of a money order and a check.