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

[CyndiLouWho]

Anyone know if the Disney Character Warehouses take Disney GCs?

 

[Alexle2007]

I have a bit of an OT question; but it relates to travel so I'm hoping this group of well seasoned expert travels can lend of levity to a discussion in our household. If too OT, I can delete it.

As with all of you, we are trying to find more and better ways to maximize travel opportunities. The last few years have been great and this group has really allowed us to take some trips we would never have without you. I'm planning more and more exotic trips all the time and finding ways to get there efficiently using points and tips from this thread. But.... we are debating sending DS12 to a private school for 7th grade next year and through high school. Our local schools are good, better than average, used to be top notch but falling over the last 10-15 years. The private school has some social and intangible values we are high on as well as being one of the top education programs. But, it's not cheap and it is a much more rigorous program study and homework wise.

Now the question: this year we took the kids DS12 and DD8 out of school for a week in January for a cruise. No problem, DS12 caught up after a few hours of homework. DD9 had nothing to catch up. Next year I'm concerned that may not be so easy. We have always traveled during school sessions due in large part to the much lower costs (lower crowds help too). Advice from those of you with older kids? At what age do you think it's too much to take kids out of school for travel? And, how hard (or easy) is it to utilize all these travel award points programs to travel during the peak seasons of summer, winter break, spring break? Looking at cruise prices and they are at least 50% more for those weeks. It dosn't help that Chase UR cannot be used for DCL anymore - buggers.

Sorry again for OT.

We are at the same point you are. DS11 will be entering 8th grade though for private school in the fall. He was just accepted and I signed the contract. His school calendar at private school is very different than our public school calendar. His Winter Break is 12/18-1/3 so 2 1/2 weeks compared to the barely one week at public school. This will allow to fly out earlier and return later (although our CP ends in Dec 2019 so that may factor in). He has several 4 day weekends for short getaways, he has a 3/13-22 for Spring Break (3/13 will be his 13th birthday so perfect timing for his birthday celebration (he wants to do a cruise)), 5 days at Easter and he gets out of school 2 weeks earlier than his public school (and doesn't have to make up snow days since they will have a bit of online school/assignments in the event school is closed for snow). This will make it much easier to go away on vacation. The only vacation I am still trying to figure out how to fit in is 3 weeks in Australia since we have been in July and would never going during their winter again and I don't think early-mid Aug is still warm enough. When we get there I may see how it works if we extended his Winter Break a bit.

He is in all honors courses and just missing a day or two day in 7th grade makes catching up challenging. We are trying to limit in "extra" vacation to just long weekends where he misses a day.

We are anxious to see how it works with private school in the fall. And from talking to some of the students, it seems like teachers are much more flexible and accommodating. But that is probably easier to do when you only have 13-15 students in a class instead of 30-35.

 

[Natgridenergy]

I think DW is going to drink from her CIPpy cup on my grAAvy train

 

[amalone1013]

Anyone know if the Disney Character Warehouses take Disney GCs?

They do!

 

[Alexle2007]

Thanks for the comments, it's good to get some push back as I can convince myself of anything. DS12 is very smart but not necessarily motivated. We think that is part because school is too easy for him so he gets lazy. Part of the discussion surrounds a Jan 2020 southern Caribbean cruise we have booked, which at public schools we were okay with him missing, but we are unsure for the private school. We really would like to do the southern trip but it appears to only be in the end of January each year. The school year starts mid August and ends the end of May.

I would check with the school on their policies also. That's my plan

 

[mmmears]

Oh please report back. Would love to hear about your Norway experience. Beautiful country!

I'll be happy to share. Just waiting until DD's stuff is finalized so I can plan a visit. We did the N/I/S cruise in 2018 and loved Norway, so it's really exciting. Have you been to Oslo? I haven't but was watching Oslo travel videos on YouTube last night trying to figure out how to plan this.

ETA - I'm going to need to ask for help with this one. Never tried booking something without lots of planning beforehand.

 

[FoxC63]

Anyone know if the Disney Character Warehouses take Disney GCs?

Yes.

 

[castoral]

I have a bit of an OT question; but it relates to travel so I'm hoping this group of well seasoned expert travels can lend of levity to a discussion in our household. If too OT, I can delete it.

As with all of you, we are trying to find more and better ways to maximize travel opportunities. The last few years have been great and this group has really allowed us to take some trips we would never have without you. I'm planning more and more exotic trips all the time and finding ways to get there efficiently using points and tips from this thread. But.... we are debating sending DS12 to a private school for 7th grade next year and through high school. Our local schools are good, better than average, used to be top notch but falling over the last 10-15 years. The private school has some social and intangible values we are high on as well as being one of the top education programs. But, it's not cheap and it is a much more rigorous program study and homework wise.

Now the question: this year we took the kids DS12 and DD8 out of school for a week in January for a cruise. No problem, DS12 caught up after a few hours of homework. DD9 had nothing to catch up. Next year I'm concerned that may not be so easy. We have always traveled during school sessions due in large part to the much lower costs (lower crowds help too). Advice from those of you with older kids? At what age do you think it's too much to take kids out of school for travel? And, how hard (or easy) is it to utilize all these travel award points programs to travel during the peak seasons of summer, winter break, spring break? Looking at cruise prices and they are at least 50% more for those weeks. It dosn't help that Chase UR cannot be used for DCL anymore - buggers.

Sorry again for OT.

I totally get where your coming from. About 2 yrs ago we actually moved school districts rather than private school (that was our backup option) for several reasons. BEST DECISION EVER! We are now in the 30th of 680 school districts in Ohio. Small rural town with an amazing gifted program but also an amazing IEP department as well. We've taken off season trips since the kids were little. Last year, we took a Nov '18 Disney trip and my oldest said he just cant do it anymore. Our school is challenging, and heavy on homework, but 5th grade (he's advanced though) that he said no more. Even in 3rd grade, we would spend the entire 11 hr drive down and back doing homework, but with 4 of them having that much, its just not worth it anymore. We spent hours getting caught back up even when we got back.

Sooo.....we're now traveling Spring Break (always mid march), possibly Xmas break (1st week in Jan), a short trip in June and a week long trip in Aug. YES.....it costs more. The economy booming DEFINITLY doesn't help. BUT I've still been able to pull it off. Cruise we go on in 2 weeks was not cheap by any means. We're paying out of pocket BUT I bought gift cards from Kroger and reaches a few MSR paying for it. Our short lake vacation in June. I was able to find an awesome deal....$500 for 4 nights at Lake Cumberland sleeps 10. We're splitting with another family and used Barclay points eraser. Week in Hilton Head we got a 3 bedroom condo for $1200. Again, Barclay erased the AirBNB costs. SPG just sent us an offer for Lagunamar for Mar 2019....dates available during our Spring Break. I'm also looking

 

[kmc8826]

If you close the CIP outright, would you miss (DH having) the CIP if he/you couldn’t get approved for another one? (I’m thinking not, since Chase has rendered the CIP’s categories essentially useless).

Do DH’s other cards need additional credit line from the CIP? (If not, closing it would cut $10k from DH’s overall CLs to lower his risk ahead of another application.)

I’m thinking just close the CIP.

No I have my CIP which is not quite a year. At this point on it only our cell phone bill and Netflix is on it. Only reason I want another CIP is the UR's! I will just close it out then. Thanks!

Thanks for the comments, it's good to get some push back as I can convince myself of anything. DS12 is very smart but not necessarily motivated. We think that is part because school is too easy for him so he gets lazy. Part of the discussion surrounds a Jan 2020 southern Caribbean cruise we have booked, which at public schools we were okay with him missing, but we are unsure for the private school. We really would like to do the southern trip but it appears to only be in the end of January each year. The school year starts mid August and ends the end of May.

It is so hard! Thanks for the input of those who have gone through it.

My oldest is 12 too. When I said the next time all of us go to WDW is fall break in October (1 bedroom at BLT already booked) she wanted to know how much school she would miss. When I said only 2 days she said that was too much and she would just stay with Grandma?!? It is so hard. My plan was to take just D8 for her solo trip in August but now thinking maybe we should do the family trip then when school still out. Of course DVC already pretty booked...

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

There's no way I'll be able to make it over to Oakland for this. Let us know how it goes! And good luck winning something big!

Thanks, and I definitely will!

 

[kmc8826]

And reason I jumped on here this morning...I also got an email from Fiji Airlines.

https://frequentmiler.boardingarea.com/fiji-for-395-round-trip-nonstop/

No way we can go but someone please do it...what a great deal. Now there is a way to use UR's! @wendow maybe you could do that since Hawaii didn't work out?!?

 

[castoral]

Okay how long for the $750 Huntington Bank promo to post? I've hit my 30 transactions....And I have the $25k in the bank. I wanna downgrade the account and transfer back to discover when I can

I opened my account on 9/30, made initial deposit that day. Hit my 30 transactions fairly quick. Bonus hit on 12/4.

 

[spacerangerqueen]

Just had to share this story with my mom for y'all:

I texted her tonight to tell her to start looking at Disney restaurants since we're coming up on 180 days(!!). I told her we were planning to eat lunch at BOG and our fancy dinner would be at California Grill. She told me that she remembered eating a really good steak at a restaurant in the Contemporary but didn't know the name of the place. I figure it can't have been anywhere but Cali Grill, but I didn't remember going there. She said this would've been in 1995 and I didn't go because I loved the babysitting place at Wilderness Lodge so much that I cried to go there and play instead There you have it, folks. You take your kid to Disney World, put her up in a deluxe hotel and offer her a steak dinner, and she just wants to go to the babysitter.

It was probably the Concourse Steakhouse that was located where Contempo Cafe is now until 2008ish.

 

[amalone1013]

SPG just sent us an offer for Lagunamar for Mar 2019....dates available during our Spring Break. I'm also looking

I just found one of those in my inbox for Palm Springs... I want to get away! lol

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

I think DW is going to drink from her CIPpy cup on my grAAvy train

Have her eat a SUB while enjoying the SUBs and @SouthFayetteFan may lose it!!!

 

[spacerangerqueen]

This is pretty much our DS. He has always been obsessed with vehicles/things that go - cars, trucks, trains, planes, etc. His fav character is Lightning McQueen of course. He absolutely loves the train at MK. He is also very into collecting the transportation cards. Most of this obsession does not bother me at all on our trips.....except the trains in Epcot!!! He would stand there for HOURS if we let him. He just loves to watch them go back and forth. He had a minor freakout once when one of them ran off the track and it took a while for a cast member to arrive to fix it. Those trains drive me crazy sometimes.

Same! Dragging my child away from the trains in Germany is THE WORST. It makes me never want to go to Epcot.

 

[platamama]

With US Bank you have to freeze reporting from Sagestream and ARS reports to increase the odds of an approval. Some people don't find it worth the hassle ever since Radisson devalued the program and eliminated second night award stays for free. I did it before that devaluation. I would do it again today simply because I find value in accumulating the 40k points every year and letting them pile up until I need them.

Oh, yes, I remember when the Club Carlson program was really worth it when it was "BOGO." Both DH and I got the card, took a 3 week trip to Europe and 12 of our hotel nights were free. I do agree it's worth holding onto; although I did end up canceling his card, I'm letting mine accumulate points to use as needed. Actually, we're going to be in CA next month and I'm using 2 x 28K pts for nights that are each going for $200/nt, so it's a good sock drawer card for sure.

Good info for US Bank, I'm pretty sure you've posted about that before but I'd forgotten. Honestly, other than the Altitude Reserve card, there's nothing they have that I would want.

Just wondering who among here would change your churning strategy if Chase eliminates transfers between CF, CFU, CIC, CIP, CSP, CSR old Ink Plus/Bold?

I’ve been thinking about that and I would likely still continue to earn Chase points on some of my cards. However, I would definitely consider canceling some depending on the specifics of such a change. It could easily force me to place a greater focus on Amex MR and even TYP.

Just curious on how others view a potential change.

I like the thought experiment. I think I'd keep all my $0 AF cards to use for category bonuses and keep my CSR (I like the benefits), but cancel my CIP (which I plan to anyway). Non-category spend would go on either BBP for 2xMR, or BoA Premium Rewards for 2.625%* everywhere for me. DH would use his BBP or his BoA Travel Rewards for 2.625%* everywhere. Online shopping would go on DH's BoA Cash Rewards (5.25%* up to 2500/qtr). At least, that's how I have it set up right now if I ever stop having MSRs!

*at BoA's Plat Honors tiered rewards level

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

@amalone1013 did you do PayPal with Cardpool. Did the money get deposited? My check is being mailed really hope it come!!!!

 

[StephPlum]

I should be able to add a DP to this soon. My first CIP statement closed yesterday with a $3300 balance on a $5000 CL. I didn't pay it early since I figured, business cards don't go on my personal report so I may as well wait to pay until closer to the due date. I'll report back if my credit score changes.

Here's my limited DP. DH had a 7K CL on his CIP and we put 5K on it for the new HVAC unit. I never pay off early, always autopay in full on due date. No change in his credit score. I would have heard about it.
Me: I'm going to sign you up for a new card.
DH: one for points or for me to use?
Me: points!
Sign up for CIU
DH: I got an alert, my credit score dropped. Inquiry by Chase bank
Me: That is the card you said we could get. How much did it drop?
DH: It went from 832 to 831
Me: <rolling my eyes and shaking my head> One point! You're telling me about a one point drop?
So I know if on his CIP large utilization, if it impacted his credit score he would have told me.

I'm about to cancel my Ink before the AF hits. I just want to make sure I can transfer UR's earned with my Freedom to DH's Ink for the extra points. Also, can I close the Ink by SM? Thanks in advance.

I did this. Cancelled CIP on the anniversary through SM.

 

[AmyAnne]

Just wondering who among here would change your churning strategy if Chase eliminates transfers between CF, CFU, CIC, CIP, CSP, CSR old Ink Plus/Bold?

I’ve been thinking about that and I would likely still continue to earn Chase points on some of my cards. However, I would definitely consider canceling some depending on the specifics of such a change. It could easily force me to place a greater focus on Amex MR and even TYP.

Just curious on how others view a potential change.

Pretty sure I would cancel the CSR -- the only reason I have it is for the 1.5x redemption, but I earn most of my URs from the Ink.