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

[bernina]

Amazing!

How are the ballpoint pens? The Strings by Intercontinental in Tokyo have these nice, heavy metal casing pens that have a good weight and writes really smooth. They're my favorite souvenir to have DW bring home. The Intercontinental LA has similar looking pens, but their casing is made of plastic and feels cheap.

I might have a slight problem with swiping good hotel pens.

These are just the ones I had in my kitchen. The Waldorf (from Vegas) is the heaviest and the Park Hyatt Paris is my favorite.

 

[trstno1]

Just to chime in with you folks who went crazy on the Amex biz charge cards last year.

I already took the 50k MR upgrade offer on the Biz Green and upgraded it to a Biz Plat. I was trying to avoid paying too much of a prorated AF and had a bit of a churning fail in calculating it. I should have upgraded sooner, to take advantage of the Jan-June Dell credit that would've helped to offset the prorated AF; or later, after the Biz Green AF posted, then upgrade to the Biz Plat for the higher AF. Instead, I missed out on the Jan-June Dell credit and got hit with a $97.80 prorated AF.

I'll be closing my original Biz Plat next month.

My Biz Gold comes up on a year in November, with the AF hitting some time after that. If the 50k MR upgrade offer is still around in November/December, I'm planning to upgrade the Biz Gold to another Biz Plat to triple dip the $200 airline fee credit (even though it's not as easy as buying GCs anymore), this year's July-Dec $100 Dell credit, next year's two $100 Dell credits, and Jan-June 2021's $100 Dell credit.

I don't know if closures matter so much as maintaining (preferably high levels of) spend on the cards you have.

So far I've been lucky with regards to the RAT, knock on wood. I don't know if it's because my oldest Amex is 17 years old, or if it's because I've paid AFs over the years on the BCP (now a BCE) and SPG cards, or what. So I'll preface my DPs with acknowledging that P2 & I have a long history with Amex that they can see.

Between P1 & P2 we have ~12 open Amex cards. P2 got Biz Gold (12/17), Biz Plat (3/18) and Biz Green (7/18). Canceled the Biz Gold (1/19) and Biz Plat (3/19) within 30 days of AFs posting. Got a letter last week that Amex closed the Biz Green because I didn't contact them with business information that they wanted. I ignored the requests because I was planning on canceling that card anyway. The strange thing with that Biz Green is that the AF never posted, it still shows up on login as an open card, and I got the 10K Pay over Time popup the week before and enrolled in that so got 10K MRs right before Amex closed (?) it. P2 has gotten two more Amex cards (vanilla Plat 6/19 and Hilton Biz 8/19) since canceling the Biz Gold and Biz Plat, and never has gotten the pop-ups about not getting a SUB. The SUB for the Plat has posted and I'm still working on MSR for Hilton Biz.

For me, I opened Biz Plat (7/18), Biz Green (8/18) and Biz Gold (1/19). Based on what's happened with P2's account, I plan on canceling the Biz Plat, will cancel the Biz Green when the AF posts, and am still considering what to do with the Biz Gold. It has a 20K support link, and I've used it twice this year to cross-refer P2 so that's gotten me 40K MRs alone.

I haven't seen the upgrade offers for me or P2 on the Biz cards. But I wouldn't take them anyway because 50K on $10K of spend is not appealing to me. Do you have a BBP and a P2? I would try to get a BBP thru a Gold support link so that you get the 20K support and a no-fee MR card before doing anything with your Gold. You need to ask yourself if you're going to get $595 worth of value out of a Biz Plat, especially now that the airline credit is harder to get. And also consider if there are other Amex cards you want for the long haul going forward. IMO the BBP is the best MR card out there, a forever card that anyone with MRs should have. You can always put spend on the BBP if the pop-ups are a matter of spending with Amex.

Thanks for your replies, and thank you to everyone else who has chimed in. A lot of us are in the same boat. I didn't realize I could hold multiple AmEx Business Platinums at the same time, so now I have more options to think through. I also wasn't factoring in the BGR's 20K MR referral bonus. The Platinums offer the same bonus, but the BGR has a $175 annual fee. If I upgrade the BGR to a Platinum, I won't be able to go back to the BGR - the new Business Gold has a $295 annual fee. My wife and I have worked through most AmEx card SUB's, but there are still a handful we could sign up for, and there will probably be new cards in the next few years.

@Lain - I have a question about triple dipping the airline credit. If my card's original issue date was 8/18, and I upgrade to Platinum in 12/19, will my 2020 annual fee post in August or December?


ETA: @platamama - thanks for your recommendation about the BBP. My wife and I already have it, and it is our goto everyday card. It's the one AmEx card that I consider permanent. Everything else is probably temporary as the rules change. Also, my oldest daughter's university accepts credit payments for tuition for a flat $3 fee, my younger daughters' dance studio accepts credit card payments, and I pay estimated federal taxes for my wife, who is an independent contractor. I don't think I can new cards fast enough to meet that organic spending.

 

[havaneselover]

@havaneselover would virtual school for a semester while you look for more options be possible? I of course don’t know the specifics for your son, but my friend’s daughter did virtual school for a year and she had a private tutor come by for some hours during the week and had a nanny/babysitter (weird to say nanny for a 13 year old) for the rest of the work hours. The nanny took her to field trip type things so they weren’t home all day. My friend’s daughter has significant social anxiety that plays into her school performance so while they looked for a smaller school that she’d feel comfortable in this was what they did. I’m sorry you are in this position and hope y’all find the perfect fit soon!

I will look into this. Thanks! We are definitely dealing with anxiety. Today he told me he really doesn’t want to go back. I thought he’d want to see his friends but except for playing with them on Xbox he’s totally isolated himself this summer.

 

[Lain]

Thanks for your replies, and thank you to everyone else who has chimed in. A lot of us are in the same boat. I didn't realize I could hold multiple AmEx Business Platinums at the same time, so now I have more options to think through. I also wasn't factoring in the BGR's 20K MR referral bonus. The Platinums offer the same bonus, but the BGR has a $175 annual fee. If I upgrade the BGR to a Platinum, I won't be able to go back to the BGR - the new Business Gold has a $295 annual fee. My wife and I have worked through most AmEx card SUB's, but there are still a handful we could sign up for, and there will probably be new cards in the next few years.

@Lain - I have a question about triple dipping the airline credit. If my card's original issue date was 8/18, and I upgrade to Platinum in 12/19, will my 2020 annual fee post in August or December?

So I kind of touched on it in a reply today to @wendow.

What I think happens with the AFs on the upgraded card (and someone please check me on this), is if your Biz Green was opened in 8/18, and you pay the $95 AF to keep it open, then in 12/19 you upgrade the Biz Green to the Biz Plat, the $95 AF is refunded to you pro rata and you're charged a prorated AF on the Biz Plat's $595 AF for the remainder of your Biz Green cardmember year. Then around 9/20, you are charged a full $595 upon the upgraded card's original anniversary, but you can't cancel or downgrade the upgraded Biz Plat at that point until one year after you accepted the upgrade or risk a clawback of the upgrade bonus.

It doesn't make sense to close to upgraded Biz Plat after 12/20, since you've already paid for another year and you don't get a (full or prorated) refund for canceling after the 30 days from when the AF posts. You might as well reap another $200 airline credit and $100 Dell credit in 01/21, then you should be able to downgrade your Biz Plat back to a Biz Green, get a prorated refund of some of that $595 AF, and pay a prorated AF on the Biz Green until you're ready to close it.

 

[shairpdrh]

Can you send me the link? I think right after Thanksgiving may work. Flights look good. Only prob is DD20 can't come, I don't think. What is going on btwn 11/29 and 12/4 at wdw that I should know about? Is that the pop Warner time?

We are there 12/1-12/7 and Pop Warner is 12/6-12/13 this year (phew). The only other thing I know that you might want to consider is that 12/2 MK closes at 4:30 because of a cast event. That shouldn't be so bad for your dates as there aren't as many MVMCPs during that stretch so there are other nights to visit MK if desired.

 

[havaneselover]

I can only imagine what a challenging time this must be for you and my heart goes out to you.

MD must be very different because I even have a friend whose daughter goes to school in a different county and another friend whose son was having some issues and they moved to another high school in the county.

Could you take the funds and get him some extra services outside of the school? Do they have IEP advocates where you live to help you get the support he needs? It is always great to have someone else on your side.

In my county we have home schools and specialty centers. For the most part the specialty centers are for gifted/high-performing students.

I am looking into an iep advocate. It’s hard to advocate for your child without looking like you’re nuts/unreasonable. I stink at walking that line! And yes we will also put the resources we were going to spend toward tutoring.

 

[KPK02090]

My $200 OD card says the same thing. I haven't used it yet so not sure what to do.

SUCCESS!
I went to two Family Dollars today. The first one I used a MC Gift card that I did not set the PIN on. I used the last 4 on the card and it worked.
Then I went to the 2nd FD and used the card that I had set the PIN on and that worked too!
So looks like you don't have to set the PIN, but if you want to you can - both ways worked for me.

Thanks again @speedyfishy

 

[wendow]

Good news. Amex works for tuition via Plastiq!

If tuition is >$5,000, the Biz Plat earns 1.5x on single transactions >$5k.

The conundrum is, do you take the offer to upgrade the Biz Green to a Biz Plat for "only" 50k MR on $10k spend, but have 5 months to meet MSR; and lock yourself out of getting 100k MR on a new Biz Plat by calling in?

Or do you call in and open a new Biz Plat for 100k MR with a $10k MSR that has to be completed in 3 months? (Hopefully no pop ups over the phone.)

If the latter, what are you going to do with the Biz Green?

You could close it, since you'll have just opened up a new Biz Plat.

You could keep it open and pay the AF, and hope that the 50k MR upgrade offer to a Biz Plat is still available on that card in late November/December to triple dip the airline fee credit ("$600" value) and get the June-Dec 2019, Jan-June 2020, July-Dec 2020, and Jan-June 2021 Dell credits ("$400" value).

But what I think happens with the AFs on the upgraded card (and someone please check me on this), is the Biz Green's $95 AF is refunded to you pro rata, then you are charged a prorated AF on the Biz Plat's $595 AF for the remainder of your Biz Green cardmember year; then you are charged a full $595 upon the upgraded card's original anniversary, but you can't cancel or downgrade the upgraded Biz Plat at that point until one year after you accepted the upgrade or risk a clawback. So yeah... fees.

As for the Dell credit, wait until Ebates pays out 12%, 14% or 15%. Try to stack it with the Amex Offer for 10% back at Dell, and maybe even the 1 additional MR point at Dell. Dell sells all sorts of electronics, including headphones, cameras, lenses, video game consoles (Playstation, Nintendo Switch, Xbox), Xbox gift cards that you can load into your Microsoft account and spend at the Microsoft Store. You can use up to 3 credit cards per transaction. So if you happen to have 2 or 3 Biz Plats, you could use the credits on all of them on the same order. Or if you have your Dell Amex Offers scattered across different cards, stack them. Happy Guy GCs also have Dell as a select merchant, and you could probably enter it as one of the 3 credit card payments.

Hope this helps.

ETA: I know your family flies Southwest. As you know the airline credit still works on <$100 tickets, and there are ways to apply that value towards more expensive tickets you'll actually use. If you choose Southwest as your selected airline, the Biz Plat rebates 35% of MR points used towards flights on your selected airline, which works out to a 1.53 cpp redemption. That's a feature not available on the personal Plats.

Thanks Lain. This is helpful! I’m not sure if we can do 10k in 3 mos. For some reason I thought it was 5 mos. I’ll need to look at what all we have coming up besides tuition. And all those fees

Thankfully my dd’s School takes Amex so no need for plastiq!

 

[Judique]

I am looking into an iep advocate.

This is probably your best path to follow.

Best of luck in getting the services your child will need. An advocate should know what the options are, what the laws are and how they are interpreted in your state.

Of course you are your own child's best advocate, but you can't do it alone and expect to be fully successful. You are smart to step back and get the help your son needs to move forward.

 

[orangecuse]

For those who have redeemed Arrival+ points- how long did it take to actually credit your statement? The points are gone, the bonus redemption points have posted, charge is still there though

 

[1st*toright]

I will look into this. Thanks! We are definitely dealing with anxiety. Today he told me he really doesn’t want to go back. I thought he’d want to see his friends but except for playing with them on Xbox he’s totally isolated himself this summer.

Just a for you as you try to figure this out. Kid stuff is so hard -you just want to fix it all, but so much of it is out of your control. And there is no way to avoid getting emotional about it - its your kid! I will say that while our teen continues to have some challenges, high school has been soooooo much better than late elementary/middle school. Wishing you (and your son) all the best.

 

[WVMomof3]

SUCCESS!
I went to two Family Dollars today. The first one I used a MC Gift card that I did not set the PIN on. I used the last 4 on the card and it worked.
Then I went to the 2nd FD and used the card that I had set the PIN on and that worked too!
So looks like you don't have to set the PIN, but if you want to you can - both ways worked for me.

Thanks again @speedyfishy

I had to drop DS off and run to store and also sitting right in front of a Family Dollar while I am reading this! Unfortunately I don’t have my Serve card or my GCs with me! Fail! I also noticed my Serve card still has the activate sticker on it. I THINK I activated it?? Not sure! Fail again for me.

 

[havaneselover]

This is probably your best path to follow.

Best of luck in getting the services your child will need. An advocate should know what the options are, what the laws are and how they are interpreted in your state.

Of course you are your own child's best advocate, but you can't do it alone and expect to be fully successful. You are smart to step back and get the help your son needs to move forward.

I'm too emotional to be a good advocate. New school and I don't want them to think of me as a crazy mom right off the bat!

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

I (dh) got a mailer today for the Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite MC -- 60,000 miles for $6,000 MSR in 3 months . It has a 12 digit code. I can't see any 24 month language restriction on it. I might encourage dh to use it as he flies AA from April through November at least twice per week, most weeks 4 times or more and he wouldn't even consider any other type of card. It has an expiry date of October 15th.
It does have this language: "If you are an existing Citi / AAdvantage cardmember, you are not eligible for this offer on your existing account".

Benefits suck: lounge access, first bag free and 10,000 EQM after $40,000 spend.

 

[havaneselover]

I think I'm trying to distract myself but I'm considering switching our Western Caribbean cruise next August to Alaskan (on DCL). DS hated flying to Vancouver because I booked flights with two connections (trying to optimize UR points) but I can fly SWA nonstop from BWI to Seattle and spend a few days in Seattle with the kids before taking Amtrak to Vancouver. Living in Central VA a trip somewhere cooler in August is nice. My cruise fare would go up $800 or so but we wouldn't be doing any pricey excursions this time since we've done the floatplane and whale watching before. I just feel a lot more excited about this than going to Jamaica in August!

 

[GlamMistress]

For those who have redeemed Arrival+ points- how long did it take to actually credit your statement? The points are gone, the bonus redemption points have posted, charge is still there though

Around two weeks.

 

[disneybirds]

So I kind of touched on it in a reply today to @wendow.

What I think happens with the AFs on the upgraded card (and someone please check me on this), is if your Biz Green was opened in 8/18, and you pay the $95 AF to keep it open, then in 12/19 you upgrade the Biz Green to the Biz Plat, the $95 AF is refunded to you pro rata and you're charged a prorated AF on the Biz Plat's $595 AF for the remainder of your Biz Green cardmember year. Then around 9/20, you are charged a full $595 upon the upgraded card's original anniversary, but you can't cancel or downgrade the upgraded Biz Plat at that point until one year after you accepted the upgrade or risk a clawback of the upgrade bonus.

It doesn't make sense to close to upgraded Biz Plat after 12/20, since you've already paid for another year and you don't get a (full or prorated) refund for canceling after the 30 days from when the AF posts. You might as well reap another $200 airline credit and $100 Dell credit in 01/21, then you should be able to downgrade your Biz Plat back to a Biz Green, get a prorated refund of some of that $595 AF, and pay a prorated AF on the Biz Green until you're ready to close it.

Thanks for all the advice today on those Biz Green cards. Certainly wishing I hadn't signed up last year for those 20K points. Here is my situation and maybe you have some thoughts on this as well.

Amex Cards: (also have 5 or so cards that I have closed since 2012 - mainly Delta)
EDP (2014)
Biz Plat (10/12/16)
BBP (2017)
Biz Green (8/8/18)
Hilton (9/11/18)

Originally, I was thinking that I would close the Biz Green and ask for retention points on the Hilton. Now I am wondering if I close the Hilton and renew the Biz Green, then closer to December upgrade to Biz Plat. But I don't need two Biz Plat, so I would close the old one. Not sure closing two cards is such a great idea so close together. We spend lots on the EDP and BBP every month as well as a decent amount on the Biz Plat. The Biz Green and Hilton have gotten very little love. We have lots of bills coming up, so hitting the spend won't be a problem. Any thoughts?

 

[afan]

I think I'm trying to distract myself but I'm considering switching our Western Caribbean cruise next August to Alaskan (on DCL). DS hated flying to Vancouver because I booked flights with two connections (trying to optimize UR points) but I can fly SWA nonstop from BWI to Seattle and spend a few days in Seattle with the kids before taking Amtrak to Vancouver. Living in Central VA a trip somewhere cooler in August is nice. My cruise fare would go up $800 or so but we wouldn't be doing any pricey excursions this time since we've done the floatplane and whale watching before. I just feel a lot more excited about this than going to Jamaica in August!

When in August? Seafair will be the 1st weekend that month not that it fills hotels with people but the fleet is in for at least a few days. I think some got kicked out thurs so the HUGE cruise ships could dock. Blue angels should be back too I would imagine.

 

[orangecuse]

@GlamMistress in the immortal words of Zenon- Zetus Lapetus!

 

[FloridaNative8]

In my county we have home schools and specialty centers. For the most part the specialty centers are for gifted/high-performing students.

I am looking into an iep advocate. It’s hard to advocate for your child without looking like you’re nuts/unreasonable. I stink at walking that line! And yes we will also put the resources we were going to spend toward tutoring.

My son has an IEP (3 LDs, anxiety, depression) and I totally feel you on the advocating front. I was fortunate to have a friend that teaches in our county that told me what to ask for, and what verbiage to use. We went through a lot to get him what he needed, as far as the testing went. We got lucky when he went into middle school last year - his team anticipated what accommodations he would need, and he got everything I asked for. There were several meetings near the end of elementary school where I almost went full momma-bear, because i was so frustrated!

We've had a tutor for him the past 4 years - it has helped immensely.

Sending prayers and good thoughts your way.