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

[wendow]

My parents live at del Webb and really like it. The monthly HOA is super high though, to cover all those activities.

I'm glad they got good medical news/hope!!

I think the HOA is definitely going to be a problem. My aunt and uncle live in one north of Dallas and their HOA is crazy high too. Some parts are required and some (like golf) are optional. I think my aunt and uncle pay the highest level cause my uncle golfs but even the low level is $$$.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

It will get harder as your girls get older. Unless you don't mind pulling them from school. I was not OK pulling for more than 2 days in a row. My kids were top of the class students, so it is not like they would fall behind, but they just didn't want to have to make up work. And our High school policy is more than 3 days absent and they take finals, so they also didn't want to miss because of that. Add in that our school district refuses to put out our school calendar until the end of the school year, we just now got our next years schedule, super frustrating. Add in sports, mandatory practices, tournaments, mandatory band camp, and and and it was super hard to plan ahead! Our Yellowstone trip, that I already was way behind in planning for this July, was able to snag some in park rooms just last month is already in jeopardy of being cancelled. If DD does this Australia thing it totally messes up my plans. She would fly back home while we were in middle of trip. Grrrrrr I can't plan anything in advance. Trying to see if I can rearrange some things, fly into SLC instead of Denver, but it is super pricey. And I still think it may just be DH and I. Oldest DD won't be back, other DD will be working and DS is still waiting to hear from a summer job he applied for.

Yeah - I don't see any of our kids doing any of this overseas stuff. TOTALLY not saying this in a judging way but there's no way my wife and I would support that, haha. (again not judging...just not for our family). We're always going to prioritize church and family time over sports and tournaments and other stuff like that. We're already starting to pull back on sports things because of the schedule paying no mind to our Sunday morning church schedule. School schedules and summer activities are announced well in advance here so I don't see an issue planning around them. We typically have the school schedule for the next year before we go on our trip in January each year. We plan to stop that trip in the next 2-3 years (don't want to keep pulling out of school) so this will really become about 2-3 summer trips and something over a long weekend in the fall. I'm pretty sure we'll have no issues but I'm just generally optimistic that things will work out in our favor because they always seem to

 

[miztressuz]

I'm new to this thread and you guys are in pretty deep to the topic. I have the Costco card, the Bank of America 123 card. Looking for the best offers out there right now to open a new card or 2. We usually do cash rewards instead of points but interested in best return either points or cash. Thanks for the guidance

DoC puts out a list of best CC offers out there you can look though:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/best-current-credit-card-sign-bonuses/

It's best to have some type of goal for their use though, especially if you only want a couple new cards, as it would suck to earn a "highest offer ever!" amount of points and then they sit there while you try to make your plans fit around them. I like DoC's list as he reviews each card and gives you what the points would be worth with their redemption methods, and a little analysis of the offer. Best return/best card can be subjective as everyone has different goals and there's different ways to achieve that. Some value AmEx Membership Rewards points (MR) highly and will get their best return out of their use, while others don't and so even a high offer MR card might not be the best return for them and will take a lower offer of Chase Ultimate Rewards points (UR) instead.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

AmEx offer for Staples! $25 off a $100 purchase, expire 6/30.

I only had it on my ED card I'd have liked to be greedy and had it on the BBP so I could stack it with the 10% I haven't used yet.

They're also tempting me with another Casper's offer, $300 off $1500, expires 9/2. I think that's a higher spend than the last one right? Guess they want you to throw in some pillows. @Lain , how is your mattress making out so far?

dang it, we are 0/9. I did have a couple of $30/$99 shipt though!

 

[wendow]

THIS!!!!! I've had our summer plans locked for months at this point - as soon as summer camp schedules come out, we figure out what the summer looks like. None of my siblings have figured out their schedules yet - makes me crazy. We live closest to my parents' summer place, where we all meet up - we can drive, most of my siblings have to fly, so there are certain people that want us to just adjust our dates to match whenever they will be showing up (on a few weeks notice). I've had to just say "well, this is when we will be there - hope we get to see you!"

Vacation planning is my favorite hobby (the churning is really just to facilitate the travel, although it does have charms of its own), so I want to enjoy the planning for as long as possible!

We just got several of our dance and theater camp dates in the last month. Well, because we've had Disney booked for way longer than that, my ds10 has to miss the theater camp he loves doing. I'm so bummed but we cannot shift our disney dates now. Had the camp dates come out months ago, I would have moved WDW. I honestly feel like we are one of the few people who plan vacations so far out. BUT most of our friends don't go to WDW, where you need tons and tons of time to plan in advance. Most are just going on road trips to see parks or renting a beach house.

 

[Lain]

 

[miztressuz]

know if this works for SW too? My kids all have a handful of points expiring soon b/c we never actually pay for flights.

Yes, SW is rewardsforopinions, but they take much longer to post the earned points. IHG is almost instant, with SW it takes a few weeks.
https://www.southwest.com/html/rapidrewards/partners/specialty/rewards-for-opinions.html

 

[3 DD love princesses]

Thank you. I bet you are right that they are not yet ticketed. Didn't even think about that since I can see them on his SW account. I am definitely there as his companion also. I will have DH call as soon as they are ticketed and hope that it works.

you can call swa if you have his confirmation number. they can tell you if its ticketed yet. if it is you can book your flight with them when you talk to them.

I’m a bit out of the loop today. Are you going for CIP3?

yes hoping it gets approved I hated spending all the money this past week without working on a spend and knowing that dd surgery is next week I need a card in my hands now

 

[palhockeymomof2]

So the risk is obviously 10,000 points within your family. If denied the match you don't have to spend $2k but I'd guess the $1k vs $2k MSR means very little to you. Tough call for sure...it's a 10k points swing...could make one card worth 70k (awesome) or 50k (booo no match)...or you just take the 60k that's guaranteed....

I have been debating the same issue and came to the conclusion...I’ll go for the 60k offer and be happy

 

[DisneyMandC]

Did anyone else do the BB&T checking account bonus a couple months ago? @striker1064 I feel like maybe you did? I'm more than 45 days out now and no bonus. I confirmed early on that the offer was attached to both accounts.

 

[kmc8826]

Yes business and personal limits both count....i don’t think it can’t hurt to lower them now...I alway do it via SM on my husbands cards since he will not make phone calls...

Since you don’t have a CIP..have him generate a link to apply from....once the points post he can PC to a no fee card and Chase will do a pro-rated refund ....don’t cancel or you will lose the 20k support URs

I.e. Don't be like me and cancel the card before the points move from pending to posted. My support link is still showing as pending...and the statement would have closed today. We will see if by some minor miracle they post or if they disappear (as I expect they probably will).

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Did anyone receive an email from Chase Innovations Community inviting them to participate in a survey on new redemption options for SW cards ?

They asked my opinion on using RR points to pay for the SW cards annual fee.

Also if they offered the option to book flights using points and cash on the same reservation

should of done screenshots but didn’t think of it...sorry

 

[striker1064]

Did anyone else do the BB&T checking account bonus a couple months ago? @striker1064 I feel like maybe you did? I'm more than 45 days out now and no bonus. I confirmed early on that the offer was attached to both accounts.

Yep, I seem to remember we signed up around the same time. Also no bonus, but that's not unexpected - BB&T will take the full 75 days (which is the requirements period), plus a few days most likely.

 

[havaneselover]

Did anyone else do the BB&T checking account bonus a couple months ago? @striker1064 I feel like maybe you did? I'm more than 45 days out now and no bonus. I confirmed early on that the offer was attached to both accounts.

I did and haven’t seen my bonus.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I.e. Don't be like me and cancel the card before the points move from pending to posted. My support link is still showing as pending...and the statement would have closed today. We will see if by some minor miracle or if they disappear (as I expect they probably will).

You can move them to another card

 

[Lain]

you can do RMN for 10% back at shop disney. I wouldn't go $3k at once though. There is a limit of I think 3x per month per store.

Does RMN track Disney GCs at ShopDisney? Not that it matters to me since RMN banned both me and P2. Just curious.

 

[WVMomof3]

Yeah - I don't see any of our kids doing any of this overseas stuff. TOTALLY not saying this in a judging way but there's no way my wife and I would support that, haha. (again not judging...just not for our family). We're always going to prioritize church and family time over sports and tournaments and other stuff like that. We're already starting to pull back on sports things because of the schedule paying no mind to our Sunday morning church schedule. School schedules and summer activities are announced well in advance here so I don't see an issue planning around them. We typically have the school schedule for the next year before we go on our trip in January each year. We plan to stop that trip in the next 2-3 years (don't want to keep pulling out of school) so this will really become about 2-3 summer trips and something over a long weekend in the fall. I'm pretty sure we'll have no issues but I'm just generally optimistic that things will work out in our favor because they always seem to

Well if you can control a 21 year old ADULT then more power to you, and maybe let me know how it is done. haha My friends DD is going to the DRC in a few weeks. I said the same thing, OMG how can you let her go, you need to tell her no. Well, yes, in theory that sounds great, but when they are an adult then you don't have much say. It is hard when they are in the age where you still feel like you should be able to control them, but yet you really can not. I am super proud of DD for doing her trip. I never ever would have done that at her age. Truthfully, I would never do it by myself now! I am definitely a cautious chicken and have to admit I am a little sad for myself that I would never get to experience the things she is doing. In theory I want my kids to explore the great big world, but in practice I really would prefer to say nope, stay at home where I can protect you. DD18 got picked to go to Ecuador in the fall for a one week trip so joy for that.

I did stop DD's travel soccer though for similar reasons as yours. It just got to be too much travel and time away from all of us together. We are Catholic, so we were somewhat adaptable when they had games on Sundays, fine we will do church on Saturday night. One year I even changed churches because the games were interfering with Sunday School times so I switched to a church with before Church classes instead of after. I tried to adapt a lot then finally said enough. It took her awhile to get over that I made her quit, maybe she still hasn't. lol

Since your trips are pretty predictable then you do have much better chances of not having schedules mess them up. Just say not to sports and band. lol Wait, weren't you in band? High school and middle school band was terrible with band camp in the summer. I was pretty happy that mine were quitters after 9th grade.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Yep, I seem to remember we signed up around the same time. Also no bonus, but that's not unexpected - BB&T will take the full 75 days (which is the requirements period), plus a few days most likely.

Thanks! I remembered you telling me it would post, but for some reason I thought you said 45 days. No problem then, I'll just check back on it mid-June.

 

[wendow]

DD18 approved for a SW plus!! Went with the 60k offer!

ETA: she gets approved for cards easier than my dh lol! Tempted to try an aviator biz for her.

 

[speedyfishy]

I did have a couple of $30/$99 shipt though

You can request specific items so I’m going to try and request a $100 Disney Gift Card from target.