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

[platamama]

Hi - I just discovered this board and I love it! I found my people!

So... we have a WDW trip booked for late Sept. I have a 2 bedroom villa booked at Beach Club, which we got through DVC rental. DH and I are taking (treating) DD10, DD6, my parents, and my sister & her boyfriend. We will do 1 day/night at Universal and 5 days/6 nights at WDW.

Airfare has been booked using all miles.

I still have to book the dining plan for all of us, and I need to purchase WDW tickets for my sis & BF. My new plan to save on those charges has been to accumulate DGC at a discount (so far I've accumulated a few hundred, at 10-17% off). I found the DGC board which has been super helpful.

Now I'm trying to identify the best CC for cash back rewards, to maximize our trip spending cash (or to buy more DGCs). We are typically AmEx people - we have the Platinum (we love the uber credits and airport lounges) and the AmEx Gold that gives 4x on restaurants and groceries (we spend at least $2k on those 2 categories alone every month). But I'd like to switch to a cash back rewards card for the next few months. We already have the Blue Amex Cash that gives 6% on groceries, so I will start using that again (we actually have 2 of these, so we can go up to $12k of groceries). I also have the Barclays Arrival+ that effectively gives 2.2% cash back on travel purchases. But I don't think I will have "travel" charges to put on that card for a while (are WDW park charges considered travel?).

Right now I'm eyeing the Chase Freedom Unlimited with 3% on the first $20,000. We spend $5-10k/month on our cards (paying it all off in full).

Thoughts/suggestions/tips? Thanks!

Welcome to the thread!

Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on things. Any chance you have a side "business" like dog-walking, selling things on FB/CL/eBay, stuff like that which you could call a business in order to apply for business credit cards? The highest sign up bonus on things right now is the 80K URs from CIP, but you need a business and have to have applied for less than 5 (personal) credit cards in the past 24 months. If you can list your cards for us, we can better help you. A lot of us are sole proprietors of our "business" and get business cards, which opens up many more possibilities.

ETA: The Chase Freedom Unlimited 3% on the first 20K isn't going to last you long based on your monthly spend. If you don't want to go the business card route, I'd look into the Alliant Visa 3% card that is uncapped. But really the big money is in the sign up bonuses.

 

[elgerber]

I just got a pre-approved offer for PenFed credit union Pathfinder Amex card. Where did they find me? LOL. No fee and a global entry credit and travel credit. Interesting, but not sure I'd want to go back to 4/24 for it. Huh, offer good until end of July when I drop to 1/24

 

[havaneselover]

Chase fraud is mad at me again. Today I did two separate Kroger transactions. The second pushed my luck. What a pain.

Going home to buy Christmas Spectacular tickets. Tomorrow I’ll knock out most of my citi aa biz minimum spend for a psycho educational eval for ds. Thankfully I can reimburse myself from my HSA.

At chick fil a picking up my grub hub order. Seriously their system is terribly inefficient.

 

[mamalovesdis]

I'm guessing "clean" means not too many inquiries and TU= transunion, which is the credit report Barclay's pulls. HTH!

Thank you!!

 

[striker1064]

Received the Citi AA Bus card today. Activated, requested the match to 60,000. 'Pearl' said she sent an e-mail to the appropriate dept. and I will hear back in 3-5 days. Fingers crossed.

I want to purchase $250.00 in AA GCs. Can I do a single card for the full amount or do I have to break it up into 5 x $50.00?

I purchased a single $200 AA GC when that was the offer, and it credited fine. My guess is $250 by itself will also be fine.

 

[wendow]

Chase fraud is mad at me again. Today I did two separate Kroger transactions. The second pushed my luck. What a pain.

Going home to buy Christmas Spectacular tickets. Tomorrow I’ll knock out most of my citi aa biz minimum spend for a psycho educational eval for ds. Thankfully I can reimburse myself from my HSA.

At chick fil a picking up my grub hub order. Seriously their system is terribly inefficient.

I'm so sorry you keep running into so many issues with fraud

Never used grubhub but is that not like ubereats and doordash, where they bring you the food??

 

[Albort]

I'm so sorry you keep running into so many issues with fraud

Never used grubhub but is that not like ubereats and doordash, where they bring you the food??

both grubhub and doordash has options to let u go pick up. currently doing grubhub more. both earn pretty high rates for MR currently.
i believe ubereats is all delivery.

 

[havaneselover]

I'm so sorry you keep running into so many issues with fraud

Never used grubhub but is that not like ubereats and doordash, where they bring you the food??

Yes. Like @Albort said pickup is an option so I use it once a month and get the kids chick fil a on my way home to use my monthly Amex dining credit. The thing is I still have to wait in line then it took 10 minutes from the time I left the cashier until my food was ready.

 

[nickle831]

Welcome to the thread!

Sounds like you have a pretty good handle on things. Any chance you have a side "business" like dog-walking, selling things on FB/CL/eBay, stuff like that which you could call a business in order to apply for business credit cards? The highest sign up bonus on things right now is the 80K URs from CIP, but you need a business and have to have applied for less than 5 (personal) credit cards in the past 24 months. If you can list your cards for us, we can better help you. A lot of us are sole proprietors of our "business" and get business cards, which opens up many more possibilities.

ETA: The Chase Freedom Unlimited 3% on the first 20K isn't going to last you long based on your monthly spend. If you don't want to go the business card route, I'd look into the Alliant Visa 3% card that is uncapped. But really the big money is in the sign up bonuses.

I thought the 5/24 didn't matter for the Chase business cards?

 

[MKTokyo]

I thought the 5/24 didn't matter for the Chase business cards?

They don't count against 5/24 but you need to be under 5/24 in order to be approved for them.

 

[miztressuz]

Just got a call from the Chase fraud dept on my CIP#2 that I was approved for on Wednesday, expedited and received Friday, activated online like I normally do. Used it today for the first time and they called my landline? which I don't answer but when I heard her start leaving a message I picked up. I always put my cell phone # on the applications. Made me think of the question about what could not be made a business expense - my charges were at a State store and beer distributor (yeah I live in backwards PA!). Hosting a large business party perhaps?

Yep! Hubby was in charge of buying the beer and wine for his company's summer picnic, back when they were cool and did stuff like that. I cried when he said they had to use one of the corporate purchasing cards

My "business" just bought some libations for "team" at the State store too.

 

[havaneselover]

Omg I’m having a night. Just bought rockettes tickets for the wrong time. I meant to buy 7:30 pm tickets and somehow I bought tickets for 10:30 am the day after thanksgiving.

Any suggestions for reselling? I would probably hold them until September. I did call Ticketmaster and they can't do anything. Will try calling the box office tomorrow but I'm not hopeful.

 

[Natgridenergy]

Another question about timing for a second CIP. I know the usual advice about 2-3 months between applications, but just need someone to say go for it or wait! I will be finishing up MSR on my CIC this week with the Staples $200 gift cards so I'm getting antsy. This would be for my DH, he's just over two months since last card, but I'd like to get it in time to purchase our Disneyland tickets from UCT for our trip May 11.

03/28/18 CHASE SW Plus
08/17/18 CHASE SW Biz
11/07/19 CHASE Ink Preferred
02/18/19 CHASE Ink Unlimited

What would I do? Wait. Too much Chase going on here in a relatively short amount of time. I wouldn't feel comfortable with a CIP for a few months.

 

[MKTokyo]

If anyone is doing the $300 PNC bank bonus, I just got an offer for a $15 bonus if I used their bill pay twice. So, I paid $1 each to a Chase card & an Amex card, and we will see if/when it posts.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Per DoC: Hawaiian Airlines Makes Zero Notice Change To Award Charts, Moves To A ‘Range’ Award Chart

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/hawa...to-award-charts-moves-to-a-range-award-chart/

Not sure who all this will affect here... Hawaiian is moving from having a fixed award chart to a dynamic award chart of sorts.

 

[Natgridenergy]

Received the Citi AA Bus card today. Activated, requested the match to 60,000. 'Pearl' said she sent an e-mail to the appropriate dept. and I will hear back in 3-5 days. Fingers crossed.

I want to purchase $250.00 in AA GCs. Can I do a single card for the full amount or do I have to break it up into 5 x $50.00?

I have purchased one and it credited fine.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Knocked out my CIP#2 spend in just under a month. Unfortunately, not likely quick enough for the bonus to post at statement close, but no big deal.

So onto the next card...
Looking at Barclays AA biz or arrival+. It isn’t quite time yet for another citi AA biz, but that will probably be next.
My TU report has zero inquiries, so that’s good.

Travel goals: Disney of course, and 4 weeks in Charleston this summer. Next big trip likely Hawai’i or possibly Med cruise...probably Hawai’i and probably not until next May unless I get courage to do it during the holidays.

Barclays is a one card per person place, right? Pretty hard to get 2?

 

[Lain]

Per DoC: Hawaiian Airlines Makes Zero Notice Change To Award Charts, Moves To A ‘Range’ Award Chart

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/hawa...to-award-charts-moves-to-a-range-award-chart/

Not sure who all this will affect here... Hawaiian is moving from having a fixed award chart to a dynamic award chart of sorts.

I was very sorry to see this and was coming here to post. Seems like a trend for airlines to move towards more dynamic pricing.

I don't yet know what the practical effect of this change is. Hawaiian has always kind of had a range of award availability as you can see from the old award chart. I logged in to check some of the holiday pricing because that's what I was searching last, and there was no change; still requires lots of points. We always have my wife book award travel on Hawaiian because she holds the credit card, so we can pool all our points to her for free, and she has access to the (slightly) discounted awards that's mentioned as available to Hawaiian credit card holders.

ETA: I know @MrPTato was looking at flying to Hawaii in lie-flat first class, and Hawaiian was an option now that they've started up BOS<>HNL flights. I replied with some suggestions and a look at award pricing here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/i...r-addl-details.3729982/page-748#post-60402220

I just did a similar search and see economy award seats are now 26,250 HawaiianMiles each way (vs. 17.5k previously). It could be that the SuperSaver fares are gone, and these are the Saver fares available; or it could be the new pricing. [I’m probably seeing the discounted SuperSaver fares to the East Coast, which appears to have been added under the new chart.] I'm still seeing lie-flat first class one-way from BOS>HNL available at 130k HawaiianMiles (which is the ceiling for this class of fare anyway).

I'll need to look closer at this when I have more than a moment.

 

[Lain]

Per DoC: Hawaiian Airlines Makes Zero Notice Change To Award Charts, Moves To A ‘Range’ Award Chart

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/hawa...to-award-charts-moves-to-a-range-award-chart/

Not sure who all this will affect here... Hawaiian is moving from having a fixed award chart to a dynamic award chart of sorts.

Finally got to reading the comments in the DoC article, and this is my initial impression as well:

It’s hard to tell from a quick skim, so I may have missed something…

It looks like the lowest levels saver extreme of economy and the business/first match the minimum/maximum redemptions as the old chart. What seems to be higher is the flex economy has the possibility of being higher.

What will probably matter to most is whether availability on the levels stays the same or changes, and how many tiers in between it has going forwards, which isn’t something that we can tell from just the chart.

Don’t hold out hopes, but at least it’s not a guaranteed devaluation if you are typically able to hit the cheapest within the fare classes.​

 

[chattadisser]

How long does it typically take Amex to refund AFs? Downgraded DH's Delta Gold to whatever the no AF card is about 10 days ago and haven't seen a refund on the card yet.

I downgraded my Delta personal Gold and it took them about 3 weeks till they refunded the AF.

I think it takes like 6 weeks. You’ll probably have to pay the AF and you’ll get 11 months credited back unfortunately.

And, then it was only a portion of the AF which would probably amount to about 11 months of the AF credited. Do they only credit 11 months of it? I was going to call/chat tonight with them but I'd like to make sure I'm arguing the correct point..LOL!