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

[kidsfirsttrip]

All this Citi grAAvy FOMO i went ahead and applied for the biz. I got a 7-10 day message. I have NO relationship with Citi so I’m hoping that’s why but I’m a bit worried.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Very true, I hadn't thought about that. Hopefully they're not out much money.

Probably $10-$20 at most.

 

[Haley R]

I had assumed this would happen once I started playing that game, but I hadn't even decided whether or not I wanted to and poof it's gone. Guess I can't take credit for this one.

Dh and I haven't even had time to talk about it yet. I'm not sure if we will join the AA game or not.

 

[3 DD love princesses]

https://www.wdwmagic.com/other/myma...GUiU8NgI1HqRsHvegcYE_T9VyY8QX0HV9JhcImK8nTUbg

Did you guys see this? Of course throw away rooms will be an issue but I've never done that. Won't split stays be affected though?

ETA: now that I'm thinking about it for throwaway room people, all they have to do is book a campsite or value or whatever and wait til inside the 30 day window to cancel and they should still retain their Fps...right?

Really hope they fix the split stay part. I never thought of booking just for fp

In CC news, I'm thinking about being brave (finally) and applying for a CIP. I don't have any biz cards at all, and I'm nervous about it all. But I guess a denial isn't really that big of a deal, right? Worth the risk? If anyone has words of advice I'd love to read them. The AA FOMO is real, but I think URs would serve us better at the moment...

DH wasn’t big on the idea but just told him I’ll apply for him and hope he doesn’t have to ever call. Now he has the cip and sw business. About to go for #3. Good luck applying after the 1st

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

.

 

[Haley R]

I’ve lowered my Credit limits with Chase prior to applying for a new card with them to increase my chances of being automatically approved...

Ah okay. I think only one of my cards has a high credit limit. I normally get much lower limits than Dh does. He might be the one that needs to think about lowering CLs.

 

[Haley R]

Well school was cancelled for tomorrow so no subbing for me. I had a half day job, but the roads here are crazy icy. I didn't want to have to go anyway so I'm glad I don't have to drive there. Dh is a little upset that I'm not making money, but nothing you can do about bad roads. Our highway was even closed this morning because it was "impassable" and there was a tow ban (which I had never even heard of before today).

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

Hi credit card peeps! Feels like I’ve been away from this thread forever, but I’m ready to jump back in.

My kids spent the month of January taking turns being sick (as usual, January is the worst), but thankfully both were well in time for our trip to Puerto Rico last week! I used Marriott points to stay at the Courtyard Isla Verde Beach. The standard points room was supposed to be “low floor partial ocean view” but we got a room on the top (12th) floor. Here’s the view from our balcony:

View attachment 384686

I didn’t take any pictures of our room but I’ll post a little review in the hotel reviews thread anyway. We loved Puerto Rico & definitely want to go back. It’s only a 4-hour flight from NYC (I used UR points for our flights on Jet Blue), the island is beautiful, there’s a variety of things to do, and the people are super friendly. Plus it’s part of the US so no passport is required, they use US $, and our cell phones worked fine there with no plan add-ons or anything. I promise I haven’t been hired by their tourism board, we just really loved it there!

Now it’s back to work & school tomorrow, and trying to figure out my next CC. I’m still working on the MSR for my Arrival+ but should be done with it in the next couple weeks so I want to get another application going. Wife & I are both 4/24, so I may try referring her to CIC. (Does that one have referrals? I know a lot has changed with referrals lately.) We don’t have our 2020 trips decided yet so that makes it a little more difficult. We’ve talked about doing Universal and possibly WDW next Feb, but not sure how crazy it will be since Galaxy’s Edge will still be pretty new. We all really enjoyed the warm weather vacation in Feb this year though, so want to continue that trend.

Nice!!! PR is totally on my radar. Was there a lot for your kids to do at the resort?

 

[ClapYourHands]

Yep $300 per year for the 5% categories. Currently sign up bonus is $50. In my opinion if someone doesn't really want to churn, DiscoverIT is a great option, much more so in the 1st year.

In regards to Chase there are several UR cards, I know above Chase Sapphire Reserve was mentioned, you really have to compare that to the Chase Sapphire Preferred in what would be better or if you can swing it potentially a modified double dip (applying for both cards within a day of each other). In regards what are best it just depends on your plans, several other Chase UR cards have been mentioned and the Chase Freedom also have 5% rotating categories. Before you start applying for cards it appears you are likely 0/24, if you don't have any cards within the last 2 years (you have to count your AU's withing the last two years as well). You are at a great starting point, run your plan by us first before applying for cards and we can help with your plan.

Your husband's SPG amex should have amex offers, if you have certain offers you can use these to buy Disney gift cards. Before Christmas there was a best buy offer that many of us used to get discounted gift cards. At this time I don't know of any very good amex offers but something to keep your eye out for as well.

Thank you for the offer. I’ll post my strategy for review before applying.

I thought DH might have offers, but I’m sure he doesn’t notice because he doesn’t go in for that sort of thing (hates gift cards, etc.). He looked at me blankly when I asked about them, so I might need to get access to the account now to monitor for myself.

I follow the Disney GC thread, and have a few hundred in GCs towards my next trip, all purchased at at least 20% off. Before Christmas there were multiple offers out there, but the subsequent dry spell is what has me looking to CCs, since I can’t seem to get find much in the way of straight up deals.

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

I applied on Wednesday night around this same time and went pending. I was approved less than 24 hours later. I’d just give it a couple days You can check your status online (just google citi application status) Good Luck!

Hmmm maybe a Sunday night thing. Here’s hoping!! They sent me a link to check status. I’m sure I’ll be doing it obsessively

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

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[Haley R]

Us, too. Other than our first trip we've always split, once between 3 hotels, but all the other times just two. For us it's part of the fun and I'm annoying that they are chipping away at everything that made a WDW trip so special in the past.



When we were looking to get to CPH, SAS was the only direct. We were trying to use MRs, but could not see any availability at all on SAS, so we gave up and took AF there instead (with a layover in CDG). Not ideal, but free lie flat was definitely worth the annoying layover for us. I'm not sure if SAS just hadn't released seats or if we somehow missed them.



I do think it's been an issue for Disney. Last trip when we were in line for FoP the guy in front of us was telling us how he's a local and that they always make a dummy booking, get the FPs, then cancel the hotel. That way they get first dibs at the FPs. Someone else in line said they do the same thing. So, just anecdotal, but I think if I ran into a few families who do this (when I rarely speak to anyone outside my family) it could be more common than any of us think.

Wow yeah maybe it was even more popular than I thought. I don't think to do those kinds of things. I tend to be a pretty honest person and that would make me feel weird doing that. We just book what we actually want. I will say that we switch reservations multiple times before going because we usually find better rates so that will mess us up, too.

 

[wendow]

Hi credit card peeps! Feels like I’ve been away from this thread forever, but I’m ready to jump back in.

My kids spent the month of January taking turns being sick (as usual, January is the worst), but thankfully both were well in time for our trip to Puerto Rico last week! I used Marriott points to stay at the Courtyard Isla Verde Beach. The standard points room was supposed to be “low floor partial ocean view” but we got a room on the top (12th) floor. Here’s the view from our balcony:

View attachment 384686

I didn’t take any pictures of our room but I’ll post a little review in the hotel reviews thread anyway. We loved Puerto Rico & definitely want to go back. It’s only a 4-hour flight from NYC (I used UR points for our flights on Jet Blue), the island is beautiful, there’s a variety of things to do, and the people are super friendly. Plus it’s part of the US so no passport is required, they use US $, and our cell phones worked fine there with no plan add-ons or anything. I promise I haven’t been hired by their tourism board, we just really loved it there!

That is a gorgeous view!!!! Love it! I've thought about PR for us as well since no passport needed and the PR people I've met here have always been so lovely. May have look more seriously at it. I've shelved Japan for awhile, and while Hawaii is still of interest, it's so expensive. Thanks for sharing about your trip!

 

[Lain]

Probably $10-$20 at most.

Wonder if anyone’s reconsidering their attitude towards aksurvivorfan and his (and others’) generated biz mailers.

 

[wendow]

Wonder if anyone’s reconsidering their attitude towards aksurvivorfan and his (and others’) generated biz mailers.

Huh? What is a generated mailer?

 

[miztressuz]

Thank you. It seems like Chase has a number of different options for the UR. Are there some that are better than others? I'm not sure what CIP is, but I don't have my own business. Minimum spend isn't a problem, as I've got a $350 weekly daycare bill (obviously does not fall into a category, but it's a major expense that doesn't penalize me for using a CC to pay).

I appreciate the heads up on the DiscoverIt. If I understand correctly, I would max out at $300 per year for the bonus plus whatever else at 1%, assuming I spent the $1500 each quarter on the appropriate categories (which I probably wouldn't do on, say, gas), and then would get that matched a year from now. For a card with no AF, that's a pretty good return.

The beauty of the Discover it card first year cashback match if you time your application to be towards the middle of a quarter it gives you 5 quarters to max at 10% for at least $750. It's $7,500 in spend to hit it so it's not the best return out there, for example the Chase cards give a 12.5 - 16.5% return, but it is usually easy and spreads the spend over a longer time. You can also redeem the cashback for giftcards with a little better discount if you do Rainforest Cafe or Landry's restaurants, Starbucks, or if you stay off-site they have Airbnb and Hotels .com ($45 in CB gets $50 GC). Just saw Whole Foods, not as good at $70 for $75, but do I recall people were able to use GC > GC at WF?

Anyway, we managed to max out every quarter when we did it last year mostly by buying GCs to prepay our normal expenses. The restaurant quarters are hard, we got lucky with that quarter, but do you have any gas stations that sell gift cards? Or maybe somewhere like 711 that might code as a gas station ( I'm not fully versed in discover coding quirks) Or even a gas station that sells their own GCs that you'd just use after the quarter to get your regular gas. Something to consider as you work the numbers.

 

[mmmears]

Wow yeah maybe it was even more popular than I thought. I don't think to do those kinds of things. I tend to be a pretty honest person and that would make me feel weird doing that. We just book what we actually want. I will say that we switch reservations multiple times before going because we usually find better rates so that will mess us up, too.

I'm the same, so it never would have occurred to me, but they were talking about how they did it all the time (local AP holders) and how great it was since they could get the FP+ at 60 days. I was kind of thinking that I'd never do that. And that perhaps this is why it was so hard for me to get some FPs. The campground thing is also an issue, maybe worse since it makes it hard for people who really want to camp there (not something I'd ever consider but still). We also book what we really want. Last trip I moved our reservations a number of times since what we really wanted wasn't available at first. Little by little I was able to get everything I wanted in the end.

 

[Haley R]

I'm the same, so it never would have occurred to me, but they were talking about how they did it all the time (local AP holders) and how great it was since they could get the FP+ at 60 days. I was kind of thinking that I'd never do that. And that perhaps this is why it was so hard for me to get some FPs. The campground thing is also an issue, maybe worse since it makes it hard for people who really want to camp there (not something I'd ever consider but still). We also book what we really want. Last trip I moved our reservations a number of times since what we really wanted wasn't available at first. Little by little I was able to get everything I wanted in the end.

So I’m actually having a conversation about this on a different thread. There’s a poster saying they book for their friends who stay offsite. That just doesn’t seem right to me.

ETA: Which apparently is allowed. I just looked at the fp faq thread and as long as they are linked to your mde you can book fps for them. I didn’t know that

 

[platamama]

I was looking into that. I know I will have at least $300 in travel each year to cover most of the AF, and we eat out quite a bit so the triple points on dining is appealing.

But since I don't do THAT much travel, I'm wondering if something that has more broad categories for double/triple points might be better. Most of my spending is on boring stuff like groceries, household products, stuff for the kids, etc. I wonder if I would accumulate enough points to do something worthwhile with them. Does gas code as travel for 3X rewards?

For cards with groceries as a bonus category, there's the Bank of America (BoA) Cash Rewards card that gets 2% at grocery & wholesale clubs, and a 3% category where you can choose gas for the 3% (or online shopping, travel, dining, drug stores, home improvement/furnishings - you pick one of those each month and can switch which one you want to get 3% on each month), and 1% everywhere else. Those bonus categories are capped at $2500 spend per quarter. It has no annual fee (AF), and there's a $150 sign up bonus for $500 spend. If you have checking/savings/investments with BoA or Merrill Lynch you can qualify for increased bonuses depending on how much you have with them, as part of their Preferred Honors program.

Other grocery bonus category cards are the Amex Everyday (and its Preferred version) and the Amex Blue Cash Everyday (and its Preferred version). The Preferred versions have $95 AFs but earn at a higher % in groceries and gas and have higher signup bonuses, so you might want to look at those. The first card earns Amex Membership Rewards (MR: akin to Chase's Ultimate Rewards program, but redeeming for simple cash is a poor redemption), and the 2nd one is cash earned that you can use as a statement credit. If you end up applying for an Amex card, you should cross-refer from your DH's SPG so that he gets additional points in his account. ETA: the new Amex Gold card earns 4xMR at groceries and restaurants, but has a $250 AF although you get a $100 airline incidental credit and $10/mo dining credit at certain restaurants or Grubhub, so you'd need to determine if you would make back that AF money with grocery & restaurant spending.

The Citi Costco Visa earns 4% on gas, 3% on travel/dining, 2% at Costco, 1% everywhere else. Technically it doesn't have an AF but you do need to have a Costco membership ($60 for the basic membership).

Truthfully, you get the most money from credit card signup bonuses, that's where your big money is coming from and not on the incrementally higher % bonus categories. Because Chase is so stringent with its 5/24 rules, that's why there's the focus on Chase cards here in the beginning of ramping up credit cards, because if you sign up for other personal cards because they have good bonus categories then you've decreased the spots left for the good Chase cards. Increasingly, other banks seem to becoming more restrictive with how many cards they are ok with seeing in the past 24 month history.

Discover It is a great card, Citi Double Cash is a great card, but their signup bonuses come and go and are generally small.

I thought DH might have offers, but I’m sure he doesn’t notice because he doesn’t go in for that sort of thing (hates gift cards, etc.). He looked at me blankly when I asked about them, so I might need to get access to the account now to monitor for myself.

You know you can set up your own Amex login for your SPG AU card, right? you don't need to monitor his unless you really want to (which I do for DH since he leaves that up to me). Since Amex gives you a different card number for your AU card, that's what you would use to make your own login. Just go to the Amex website, and in the same box that you would log into, there's a link at the bottom titled "Create New Online Account" and you click on that, enter the info on your SPG AU card, and you should be all set to see what Amex offers you have on your SPG AU card. Often they are the same as the primary cardholder's but not always.

 

[wendow]

Well school was cancelled for tomorrow so no subbing for me. I had a half day job, but the roads here are crazy icy. I didn't want to have to go anyway so I'm glad I don't have to drive there. Dh is a little upset that I'm not making money, but nothing you can do about bad roads. Our highway was even closed this morning because it was "impassable" and there was a tow ban (which I had never even heard of before today).

I am honestly so amazed at how much your schools cancel classes! Our roads can be an all out skating rink here and they don't close. They close for blizzards and/or very near or below 0 temps. That is it. And our district does not have a late start policy so it has to be bad enough to close or school is in session.

We got 8" Friday pm-Sat am and my ds7 still had his basketball game at 8:30 Sat am lol! And that is through a church league so could have easily been cancelled but they just don't cancel here. Being from TX, where they closed the whole town up for a flake, it's so weird to me still. Even though I have lived here half my life now.