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

[SouthFayetteFan]

That's higher than I thought but makes sense I guess considering their relative rarity compared to personal mailers and the ability to move toward/stay under 5/24 while amassing biz cards. I think for me I'm much more content to take off with personal mailers. If it's gonna be almost a full 2 years until I'm under 5/24 again, what's another couple months at the end of that for potentially hundreds of thousands of AA points?

EDIT: And with that, just used one of DW's mailers to get another personal AA. Cause why not, I guess. Finished her Premier spend much sooner than anticipated thanks to WDW + paying rent online. Frankly, even with the fee, paying rent makes it way too easy to burn through cards. It's tempting!

In your position, I totally see why you'd go for personal cards! Heck, I'm half tempted to go for a personal card or 2 (and that's after my 2+ year journey to get me and my wife under 5/24!!)

 

[platamama]

Oh I'm sorry!! I worded my original post poorly. I said I had 125k miles for both of us, but what I should have said is 125k miles EACH. So 250k total. I'm seeing 60k PER PERSON for JFK to Tokyo, so 120k should get us both there booking on one of our accounts, and 120k miles booking on the other account will get us back. I hope that helps!

I was curious, so went and checked on Alaska's website. Yes, it does show there are 60K one way awards in first class, BUT if you click on the award fare it will show F for the US portion of the flight and then Coach for the transpacific portion. Sneaky. If you see a seat symbol with two blue colors, it means a mixed cabin fare.







The above image I clipped from a Travel Codex article on finding award space on the Alaska website.

Maybe you already knew about that, but I wanted to be sure you know to look for that in your planning. For giggles, I compared it to the AA website and found different availability but some mixed cabin situation for saver business awards. The devil's in the details.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

2 wins so far today! My 50k points posted on CIC. Already transferred to CSR

Also had our GE interviews today. Our appointments were for 9 & 915. We were a bit early and they took all three of us together right away. Agent is was super nice. Asked where we were traveling. When we mentioned Alaska cruise, he told us he is from Ketchikan. So cool. We actually chatted a bit about it. The only questions DS was asked were full name, DOB, address and dad’s name. DS said it was easy (he kept calling it a test beforehand) We were out of there by 9:15

 

[DisneyMandC]

Can you remind me how you are paying student loans with a card? Are you going through Plastiq? DD has a unsubsidized loan that I would like to start paying on. Actually, I have no idea who to pay come to think of it. I have never seen paperwork for it. Can we pay it before she graduates? I need to look into how to get that information. With her 8000 miles away, she is no help.

I’m using Plastiq since their fee is actually cheaper than what my student loan provider charges for using a CC. I’m not sure how it works on unsubsidized loans but I would think if you can get online access to it then there should be no issue with paying it. I know I had friends in law school who paid on theirs while in school. My loan is actually through the school I attended, so it’s a little different than a normal federal loan.

 

[WVMomof3]

2 wins so far today! My 50k points posted on CIC. Already transferred to CSR

Also had our GE interviews today. Our appointments were for 9 & 915. We were a bit early and they took all three of us together right away. Agent is was super nice. Asked where we were traveling. When we mentioned Alaska cruise, he told us he is from Ketchikan. So cool. We actually chatted a bit about it. The only questions DS was asked were full name, DOB, address and dad’s name. DS said it was easy (he kept calling it a test beforehand) We were out of there by 9:15

How long did it take you to get an appointment in Chicago? Do you know if they do walk ups? I have a credit on my new United card so would like to get DD set up with it. It is kind of a pain to get to Chicago from school, but she is flying out of there for spring break. Is it in both airports? Actually not sure which she if flying from, will need to look that up.

 

[wed100105]

I finally had a moment to search my credit report for dates. Here's where we are now. Thanks to everyone on this board. I just reworked our insurance to be paid by credit card. Not counting bonuses, this should save us at least $146 a year in fees and credit card cash back.


ME:
3/2019 BARCLAYS Frontier Mastercard
2/2019 Chase Ink Preferred Business
2/2019 AU on DH's AMEX Ascend (I probably shouldn't have done this. I only added it because he had a 5000 points bonus. I didn't realize it would count toward my limit. I haven't accepted the card yet, if that matters.)
9/2017 AMEX Hilton Ascend

Other cards more than 2 years old that I frequently use:

Capital One Buy Power (GM) (5% back on the first $5000)
1/2017 CHASE Sapphire Reserve
GAP Visa (only use for GAP or when they offer major reward bonuses)
KOHLS (for discounts and free shipping benefits)

DH:
2/2019 CHASE Disney Visa (referred by me)
2/2019 New Holland Credit Card (Implement Dealer---see previous posts for explanation...)
11/2017 AMEX Hilton Ascend (referred by me)
?/2018 AGCO Credit Card (Implment Dealer---see previous posts for explanation...)


Cards I'm thinking of right now---Frontier Mastercard (for family miles pooling benefits), AMEX HHonors Aspire (holding back right now because of the hefty AF).

We typically fly out of a local airport on Frontier. Delta, AA, and United are at our regional airport, but most require 1 stop flights. Other major airlines are about 3 hours away.

I have a pretty nice balance on Chase UR.

 

[platamama]

I’m using Plastiq since their fee is actually cheaper than what my student loan provider charges for using a CC. I’m not sure how it works on unsubsidized loans but I would think if you can get online access to it then there should be no issue with paying it. I know I had friends in law school who paid on theirs while in school. My loan is actually through the school I attended, so it’s a little different than a normal federal loan.



Thanks! JAL actually flies nonstop from JFK to Tokyo so it’s all first class for 60k

Oh, nice!! Sounds like you're good to go.

Just out of curiosity, have you ever checked into using a billpay service to pay your student loan? I don't have a student loan, but I use Walmart's system to pay my mortgage through billpay and am able to use vgcs for part of my payment. More details over on the dischurners site under ms. If that worked for you, it would end up being 1.49% fee on a $500 (vgc) payment, and that's less than Plastiq's 2.5%. I've seen billpay at my local Kroger store too, but haven't looked into that one.

 

[WVMomof3]

2 wins so far today! My 50k points posted on CIC. Already transferred to CSR

Also had our GE interviews today. Our appointments were for 9 & 915. We were a bit early and they took all three of us together right away. Agent is was super nice. Asked where we were traveling. When we mentioned Alaska cruise, he told us he is from Ketchikan. So cool. We actually chatted a bit about it. The only questions DS was asked were full name, DOB, address and dad’s name. DS said it was easy (he kept calling it a test beforehand) We were out of there by 9:15

How long did it take you to get an appointment in Chicago? Do you know if they do walk ups? I have a credit on my new United card so would like to get DD set up with it. It is kind of a pain to get to Chicago from school, but she is flying out of there for spring break. Is it in both airports? Actually not sure which she if flying from, will need to look that up.

Nevermind, I see that it closes at 3:30, I think her flight is much later than that. And more importantly, I realize she does not have her passport, it is still here at home.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

.

 

[amcc]

We just attended the welcome party at DS’s new school for the fall which was really nice. We visited the school store while we were there and got him an UnderArmour sweatshirt with the school name on it for the low, low price of $75. They told us where to get the uniform so I looked their website. I am doing to be spending a small fortune on uniforms (short and long sleeve shirts, sleeveless and long sleeve sweaters, button-down oxfords, tie, blazer, etc) and the required UA backpack for $70. Yikes! Upper school will be worse the following year since they have to wear a tie and blazer every day. It’s becoming real and exciting!

For my kids private school, I found a lady that does a uniform exchange / sale for several different schools. I’ve never stepped in the official uniform store (3 kids there, total 5 years). Look on Facebook and ask around to see if you find something similar. The blazers are one of those things that barely makes it through half a year with how quickly they grow.

 

[amalone1013]

I got an email from Discover, saying if I use Discover via Paypal online I can earn 10% cashback on up to $100 in purchases through April 30.

 

[amalone1013]

Can I message Capital One through an account? Or just have to call?

 

[miztressuz]

Discover card holders, check your emails for a promotion with PayPal -

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This is double great for anyone still in their cashback match period.

Edit: @amalone1013 FTW (missed it by that much...)

 

[CyndiLouWho]

How long did it take you to get an appointment in Chicago? Do you know if they do walk ups? I have a credit on my new United card so would like to get DD set up with it. It is kind of a pain to get to Chicago from school, but she is flying out of there for spring break. Is it in both airports? Actually not sure which she if flying from, will need to look that up.

I’m not sure if they do walk-in but they do take you if you’re coming off an international trip. We were at O’hare. There were tons of open appointments but we were looking ahead for school holiday. We made our appointment for today in January and had pretty much the whole day open

 

[MKTokyo]

I’m using Plastiq since their fee is actually cheaper than what my student loan provider charges for using a CC. I’m not sure how it works on unsubsidized loans but I would think if you can get online access to it then there should be no issue with paying it. I know I had friends in law school who paid on theirs while in school. My loan is actually through the school I attended, so it’s a little different than a normal federal loan.



Thanks! JAL actually flies nonstop from JFK to Tokyo so it’s all first class for 60k

They do offer nonstop flights from JFK but the award flights are never the nonstop flights. The award flights will have you change planes (usually at LAX) & drop you into coach for the overseas portion, every time.

 

[elgerber]

Can I message Capital One through an account? Or just have to call?

What are you trying to do with Cap One?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

2 wins so far today! My 50k points posted on CIC. Already transferred to CSR

Also had our GE interviews today. Our appointments were for 9 & 915. We were a bit early and they took all three of us together right away. Agent is was super nice. Asked where we were traveling. When we mentioned Alaska cruise, he told us he is from Ketchikan. So cool. We actually chatted a bit about it. The only questions DS was asked were full name, DOB, address and dad’s name. DS said it was easy (he kept calling it a test beforehand) We were out of there by 9:15

It's always awesome when your points post

 

[amalone1013]

What are you trying to do with Cap One?

Well, I PC'd DHs card last month to a no AF one with rewards vs his secured card with AF. Which apparently did not cancel out the AF that had only been billed within the 30 days before like I thought it would... so now his account as AF + late fee + interest. I wanted to try and argue my case. If I can message I can do it vs waiting for DH to call.

 

[elgerber]

Well, I PC'd DHs card last month to a no AF one with rewards vs his secured card with AF. Which apparently did not cancel out the AF that had only been billed within the 30 days before like I thought it would... so now his account as AF + late fee + interest. I wanted to try and argue my case. If I can message I can do it vs waiting for DH to call.

Ah, that I am not sure of. I was able to cancel right from my account. In the past I have been able to message, but it's been awhile.

 

[amalone1013]

Ah, that I am not sure of. I was able to cancel right from my account. In the past I have been able to message, but it's been awhile.

I wasn't seeing an option looking around, but I'm super unfamiliar with capital one. Basically this is the second time I've logged in, the first being after I read I could just PC there instead of trying to get DH to call lol.