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

[Lain]

Ok - I’ll weigh in

I am typically a “play it safe” guy but I’m leaning towards Go For It in this scenario. I can’t explain why, my gut just says your worst case is a denial. What are your other cards - since I see only 1 personal and you are 5/24 soon lol. Did the Platinum with AMEX trigger an inquiry? How many inquiries in the last 2 years from other biz cards? (Basically I guess I’m saying list all your cards in the last 24 months, haha). Perhaps with that info I may feel a little more definitive.

@wanderlust7 - I mean "worst case" is a Chase shutdown, but there are lots of DPs of folks arguing their case and getting their cards reinstated. Even if Chase won't reinstate your cards, you have 30 days to redeem or transfer your UR points (hopefully 100k UR richer) and you could move them to P2.

 

[Haley R]

This movie is making my emotions go crazy

 

[Artygal90]

Question for those who have placed a credit freeze - how long do you wait after you unfreeze your credit from the credit bureaus before you apply for a credit card? Minutes? Hours?

Anyone know which bureau Chase pulls for the biz cards? I’m hoping to apply for the United biz before the current offer goes away and I have to unfreeze my credit accounts. Do I need to do it for all 3 credit bureaus?

Thanks!

Forgot to add that I applied for CIP on 11/18 and CIU on 1/19. I should be ok applying for another biz card, right?

I usually unfreeze a day or two before I plan to apply. And Chase always pulls Equifax for me (not sure about Experian since they're not on Credit Karma). I'm in TX, which I think makes a difference.

 

[wanderlust7]

Ok - I’ll weigh in

I am typically a “play it safe” guy but I’m leaning towards Go For It in this scenario. I can’t explain why, my gut just says your worst case is a denial. What are your other cards - since I see only 1 personal and you are 5/24 soon lol. Did the Platinum with AMEX trigger an inquiry? How many inquiries in the last 2 years from other biz cards? (Basically I guess I’m saying list all your cards in the last 24 months, haha). Perhaps with that info I may feel a little more definitive.

@wanderlust7 - I mean "worst case" is a Chase shutdown, but there are lots of DPs of folks arguing their case and getting their cards reinstated. Even if Chase won't reinstate your cards, you have 30 days to redeem or transfer your UR points (hopefully 100k UR richer) and you could move them to P2.

Oh, voices of dissent and temptation!

Here are all cards. None of the AmEx had hard pulls.

08/17 Barclay's Arrival+
09/18 CSR
09/18 CIP
10/18 Citi Premier
11/18 CIU
12/18 CapOne Venture
01/19 AmEx Gold Biz
01/19 CIC
01/19 AmEx Hilton Biz
02/19 AmEx Plat
02/19 AmEx Bonvoy Biz
03/19 AmEx Plat Biz

I did kind of run through worst case scenario in my head. Cards shut down, I would transfer to DH's CSP. Probably try to wait until he can upgrade to CSR to do portal redemptions. We have a personal checking with Chase that we use for our rental. But I'm in the process of moving it away since the daily deposit limit is annoying.

Our rental mortgage is with them too, but I don't think they can unilaterally close that??

 

[mamathompson]

We have been out house hunting today. 8 houses with ALL the kids in tow. So I'm totally exhausted and they all blur together at this point. However I saw you all were discussing bad remodels. It is driving my husband nuts! We are leaning towards an older home so that we can have more outside space, and every one of them looks like someone who didn't know what they were doing tried to flip the house. DH is in construction and he just can't take it....needless to say, none of the 8 made the cut.
In good news we did get our pre-approval and are sending in our paperwork for pre-underwriting. A very exciting first step!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Oh, voices of dissent and temptation!

Here are all cards. None of the AmEx had hard pulls.

08/17 Barclay's Arrival+
09/18 CSR
09/18 CIP
10/18 Citi Premier
11/18 CIU
12/18 CapOne Venture
01/19 AmEx Gold Biz
01/19 CIC
01/19 AmEx Hilton Biz
02/19 AmEx Plat
02/19 AmEx Bonvoy Biz
03/19 AmEx Plat Biz

I did kind of run through worst case scenario in my head. Cards shut down, I would transfer to DH's CSP. Probably try to wait until he can upgrade to CSR to do portal redemptions. We have a personal checking with Chase that we use for our rental. But I'm in the process of moving it away since the daily deposit limit is annoying.

Our rental mortgage is with them too, but I don't think they can unilaterally close that??

5 chase cards (4 biz) in 7 months I'm gonna sign off on giving it a shot with the following caveats:

• There is definitely some level of shutdown risk here (albeit small), but it seems tolerable to you with your strategy.
• If you get approved...meet the spend ASAP if you can
• IF you get shutdown DO NOT transfer to spouse, you could get them shutdown too or cause more trouble. You need to be ok with cashing all of your URs out if shutdown occurs.
• Perhaps you could outrun that risk by transferring all URs to spouse now before applying and holding them in that account until you know all is safe. Then your only risk is potentially the 105k you earn from the CIP. (I’m not saying that this would actually work...but it’s a thought...whether you think it’s a good idea or not is another story, lol).

So those are my thoughts...I WOULD NOT be recommending this to anybody playing the long game with Chase though. You have a pretty specific scenario here

 

[Ngwira]

So happy to read about your successful redemption, and your earlier posts about how you were able to earn so many points in such a short time to make these trips happen. I wish I could've helped out more with your flights today, but I was out with the family watching Captain Marvel (good movie, don't believe the haters). But it looks like everything's worked out. Congrats!

Also saw captain marvel. Great movie.

 

[Lain]

Oh, voices of dissent and temptation!

Here are all cards. None of the AmEx had hard pulls.

08/17 Barclay's Arrival+
09/18 CSR
09/18 CIP
10/18 Citi Premier
11/18 CIU
12/18 CapOne Venture
01/19 AmEx Gold Biz
01/19 CIC
01/19 AmEx Hilton Biz
02/19 AmEx Plat
02/19 AmEx Bonvoy Biz
03/19 AmEx Plat Biz

I did kind of run through worst case scenario in my head. Cards shut down, I would transfer to DH's CSP. Probably try to wait until he can upgrade to CSR to do portal redemptions. We have a personal checking with Chase that we use for our rental. But I'm in the process of moving it away since the daily deposit limit is annoying.

Our rental mortgage is with them too, but I don't think they can unilaterally close that??

It’s a tough call because there’s definitely a velocity issue. Chase can see you’ve applied for personal and Chase biz cards in 8/18, 9/18, 10/18, 11/18, 12/18, and 1/19. That’s a card or two every month for the past 6 months and looks like a bust out risk. You’re no where near LOL/24, still at 4/24 until the Plat reports, but @SouthFayetteFan’s right to point out that you’ve already gotten 4 Chase cards in the past 6 months. A 5th one in 7 months might be pushing it. If you don’t get shut down, you’ll have a long quiet period with Chase because you’ll be over 5/24. If you do, prepare to plead your case to get the decision reversed or have a plan to cash out.

If transferring URs to P2 is a no-no after you’ve been shutdown, I would not advise transferring URs to P2 preemptively if you’re worried about a shutdown. I was buying a VGC at Walgreens recently, which triggered a fraud alert and declined payment, so I had to call Chase, and the rep inquired among other things whether I transferred a few thousand UR to my wife’s UR account. (I don’t know if transferring the URs or just the large purchase factored into the fraud alert.) I confirmed I did. But that goes to show that if it gets to the point where Chase is looking that closely at your account activities, then they can look back at your UR transfers too.

 

[Artygal90]

We have been out house hunting today. 8 houses with ALL the kids in tow. So I'm totally exhausted and they all blur together at this point. However I saw you all were discussing bad remodels. It is driving my husband nuts! We are leaning towards an older home so that we can have more outside space, and every one of them looks like someone who didn't know what they were doing tried to flip the house. DH is in construction and he just can't take it....needless to say, none of the 8 made the cut.
In good news we did get our pre-approval and are sending in our paperwork for pre-underwriting. A very exciting first step!

How exciting! (but also that sounds exhausting. At first I misread and thought you went house-hunting with eight kids in tow)

We are window-shopping for houses right now. We keep going to open houses for updated 60s ranch houses that look great online, but we get inside and realize all the tile work has been done sloppily, the brand-new kitchen cabinets have crooked doors, no one bothered to tape the baseboards when repainting to get a fresh line....just disappointing. And then there are houses where no improvements have been made, and the sellers want it for the price of the fully-renovated place down the street. It's tough out there!

 

[platamama]

Ahhh, interesting to know a little background. DHs coworker moved from Cherry Creek area to Boulder for the schools for his kids. My hometown was like that, anytime the schools asked for money they got it. I feel like overall I had a more educational high school experience than DH/brothers/old roommate. Also, I would like to know how those people feel who thought the marijuana legalization money would go to schools... how do you properly tax a business that deals in cash? I'm sure they are completely honest on their tax forms Anyways, I know in MILs district that the money they have received from that did not go to the students or faculty... just to the upper officials in the district

We did not vote for the legalization of it but once it passed, I at least took consolation that our educational system would benefit. Nope. The people were completely lied to but that shouldn't surprise any of us.

It really shouldn't. I was in college when it came up, so didnt vote, but I had friends visiting that spring and ask about it because they saw the ads around town. I had a big debate with one about if it would benefit education with the $$. I was sure even then the schools wouldnt see a penny so sad terrible and frustrating

I did a little reading this afternoon to look into what happened to the pot money. The original law specifically allocated the first $40M of tax revenue to school building construction/capital improvement. Just to put that into perspective, my neighborhood high school completed a partial renovation last year and that alone cost $30M (funded by bond revenue approved by county voters so none of that came from pot taxes) and you wouldn't look at it and go "Whoa, $30M," because there was asbestos abatement (these buildings are OLD) that took a good chunk out of the original budget and energy&technology innovations that are pretty much invisible but costly. In any case, the language of the pot tax money was never to pay for teacher salaries or ongoing maintenance/programs/costs that you might perceive as beneficial to education. The total tax revenue on pot is less than 1% of the state's general budget, and only the first $40M of that was slated for schools and even then it was only for construction - and that has been spent on construction spread across the state as it was originally intended (especially rural areas that don't have the tax base to improve the buildings themselves). $40M just doesn't go far. Some of the taxes over the $40M have gone into a collection where districts can apply for grants to do things like build their anti-bullying programs, provide scholarships for needy students, and things like that but those are one-off allocations and not something school districts can depend on for a steady budget.

This is DS’s biggest and constant complaint that all he does is test, test, test. They take county tests for days and then the PARCC tests for days. And it’s all the same material since it’s all geared towards common core. I asked about opting out of the PARCC tests and was told that wasn’t an option. Just need to get through this last 1 1/2 quarters and we will no longer have that problem.

I feel some testing is important, to measure progression of skills and knowledge, but I think at this point it's a Venom version. The whole high-stakes component of it is punitive/shaming in nature and tries to force a "one size fits all" measurement. I opted out for 4 years (partly doable because CO was a hot spot of the opt-out movement which made it more possible to do), and now in HS the testing here is decreased to a PSAT in 9th and 10th, the SAT and state Science test in 11th. I forget, are you in MD? I read that MD is ending its PARCC contract after this school year.

 

[mamathompson]

How exciting! (but also that sounds exhausting. At first I misread and thought you went house-hunting with eight kids in tow)

We are window-shopping for houses right now. We keep going to open houses for updated 60s ranch houses that look great online, but we get inside and realize all the tile work has been done sloppily, the brand-new kitchen cabinets have crooked doors, no one bothered to tape the baseboards when repainting to get a fresh line....just disappointing. And then there are houses where no improvements have been made, and the sellers want it for the price of the fully-renovated place down the street. It's tough out there!

This is exactly what we are finding.

 

[wanderlust7]

5 chase cards (4 biz) in 7 months I'm gonna sign off on giving it a shot with the following caveats:

• There is definitely some level of shutdown risk here (albeit small), but it seems tolerable to you with your strategy.
• If you get approved...meet the spend ASAP if you can
• IF you get shutdown DO NOT transfer to spouse, you could get them shutdown too or cause more trouble. You need to be ok with cashing all of your URs out if shutdown occurs.
• Perhaps you could outrun that risk by transferring all URs to spouse now before applying and holding them in that account until you know all is safe. Then your only risk is potentially the 105k you earn from the CIP. (I’m not saying that this would actually work...but it’s a thought...whether you think it’s a good idea or not is another story, lol).

So those are my thoughts...I WOULD NOT be recommending this to anybody playing the long game with Chase though. You have a pretty specific scenario here

It’s a tough call because there’s definitely a velocity issue. Chase can see you’ve applied for personal and Chase biz cards in 8/18, 9/18, 10/18, 11/18, 12/18, and 1/19. That’s a card or two every month for the past 6 months and looks like a bust out risk. You’re no where near LOL/24, still at 4/24 until the Plat reports, but @SouthFayetteFan’s right to point out that you’ve already gotten 4 Chase cards in the past 6 months. A 5th one in 7 months might be pushing it. If you don’t get shut down, you’ll have a long quiet period with Chase because you’ll be over 5/24. If you do, prepare to plead your case to get the decision reversed or have a plan to cash out.

If transferring URs to P2 is a no-no after you’ve been shutdown, I would not advise transferring URs to P2 preemptively if you’re worried about a shutdown. I was buying a VGC at Walgreens recently, which triggered a fraud alert and declined payment, so I had to call Chase, and the rep inquired among other things whether I transferred a few thousand UR to my wife’s UR account. (I don’t know if transferring the URs or just the large purchase factored into the fraud alert.) I confirmed I did. But that goes to show that if it gets to the point where Chase is looking that closely at your account activities, then they can look back at your UR transfers too.

Thank you both for the analyses! Having to cash out changes the worst case scenario a bit. Leaning towards not doing it. The Plat second statement cuts on Friday. I'll probably be going back and forth in my head a thousand times between now and then or whenever it reports, lol.

 

[wendow]

We have been out house hunting today. 8 houses with ALL the kids in tow. So I'm totally exhausted and they all blur together at this point. However I saw you all were discussing bad remodels. It is driving my husband nuts! We are leaning towards an older home so that we can have more outside space, and every one of them looks like someone who didn't know what they were doing tried to flip the house. DH is in construction and he just can't take it....needless to say, none of the 8 made the cut.
In good news we did get our pre-approval and are sending in our paperwork for pre-underwriting. A very exciting first step!

Sounds totally exhausting! I hope you guys are able to find something soon. We moved into our now house almost 6 years ago but we looked for a house for like 6 mos. We had to take some breaks cause it just got overwhelming.

Btw, I love the pic you put up of your 5 munchkins!!

 

[Haley R]

We have been out house hunting today. 8 houses with ALL the kids in tow. So I'm totally exhausted and they all blur together at this point. However I saw you all were discussing bad remodels. It is driving my husband nuts! We are leaning towards an older home so that we can have more outside space, and every one of them looks like someone who didn't know what they were doing tried to flip the house. DH is in construction and he just can't take it....needless to say, none of the 8 made the cut.
In good news we did get our pre-approval and are sending in our paperwork for pre-underwriting. A very exciting first step!

That’s exciting!!!

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

The 10k MR from my second AT&T Wireless $175 pre-payment with my Biz Plat are in my Amex account this morning! I'm very happy to see them since I never got a "Congrats on using your offer" email on this one. @CaliforniaGirl09 I wouldn't worry too much about not getting the email as long as your payment was for AT&T wireless. Seems like Amex has been a little inconsistent lately on the confirming emails. A Plated payment just hit DH's Biz Green this morning that should trigger a $15 off $50, but no congrats email on that one either (at least yet). But I just double checked, and the offer is on his card and hasn't expired.

Also, my Aviator MC arrived yesterday! About to activate it and make my single purchase....

Yay! Thanks so much for DP. I’ll keep fingers crossed mine show up.

On the housing subject ... The Bay Area is almost another world now. We are in the process of downsizing and decided to rent an apartment until things cool down, although a NYT article the other day suggested it was only going to get worse with four major IPO’s slated for this year. Uber, Lyft, Pinterest and AIrbnb will be flooding the Bay Area with more young multimillionaires. But I’ve lived here my whole life and I just can’t stomach buying a 2 bedroom condo (1970s condos) in Oakland for $1.2+. That is not a typo The median home price here is well over $1 million now. Crazy sauce.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Thanks for your DP! I'm interested to hear if @CaliforniaGirl09 gets her credit as well.

I will report back!

 

[havaneselover]

My dd16 went and saw it today with her friends. She thought it was great as well!

DD 15 loved it. But she's a Marvel nut. I tease her that she will meet her future spouse at Comic Con

 

[havaneselover]

Dh and I are watching instant family and it’s so good!!!

I need to swing by Redbox and pick this up today. I really want to see it. Good way to break in my SW Priority before I use it to fund a PNC account

 

[havaneselover]

We have been out house hunting today. 8 houses with ALL the kids in tow. So I'm totally exhausted and they all blur together at this point. However I saw you all were discussing bad remodels. It is driving my husband nuts! We are leaning towards an older home so that we can have more outside space, and every one of them looks like someone who didn't know what they were doing tried to flip the house. DH is in construction and he just can't take it....needless to say, none of the 8 made the cut.
In good news we did get our pre-approval and are sending in our paperwork for pre-underwriting. A very exciting first step!

My employers remodeled their house two years ago--huge remodel (I'm guessing they put close to $1,000,000 into the remodel) They now need to spend about $350,000 fixing the remodel because several things done are causing major mold problems. They tell everyone they meet not to remodel.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

DD 15 loved it. But she's a Marvel nut. I tease her that she will meet her future spouse at Comic Con

Lol....she may..my daughter who played ice hockey reconnected with someone she first met at 3, he was playing ice hockey with my son.
They were playing a men’s league game on opposing teams...she scored a goal and he asked her out after the game...
She’s a NY Islanders fan, he’s a NY Rangers fan...so they have a mixed marriage...