I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[miztressuz]

For the Shakespearean woes, I usually recommend something like this
https://www.amazon.com/Romeo-Juliet-Plain-Simple-English/dp/146997374X
I can't remember the one I used in HS, I checked it out of the library and it was ok but it did the modern English on the bottom half of the page rather than line by line like that book claims. I'd have preferred the line by line I think so if I was confused I wasn't jumping back and forth and losing the pacing. (I attempted to read Othello on my own outside of class. It was not as fun )

But what was the best was my English teacher, who would stop on difficult passages and kinda act it out/explain it so we could "see" the scene in our head. We read Romeo and Juliet in class first and then when we understood the scenes, watched a movie so we could see it all strung out together as it was intended.

When I went searching for a book the SparkNotes came up that @Haley R mentioned, so I clicked on that and that seems good in a pinch for the translation aspect. What is kinda neat is the Study Guide section. The bits and pieces I've been clicking do good job of explaining the overall play and what should be your take aways from it. It obviously shouldn't take the place of reading it but it's kinda doing what my English teacher did for us.

 

[WVMomof3]

My DD has a couple of the No Fear Shakespeare editions. Sounds like what you are talking about.

 

[apollodi]

Oh this hurts though I do almost wonder if it's a biz vs personal thing for me since I have no biz. But I'd rather the biz and a personal later. So I'll load my dl with lots of spend and try again.

Do we know of that dp? Once you get a hilton popup is it across biz and personal? I know it's across all personal but the biz doesn't get much discussion or I've just missed it.

And technically I could do a personal now and still be under 5/24 for my next step. I guess either way I try it I'd have two cards I need to give more love to before applying for my 3rd amex.

ETA my own dp I still got the popup on the surpass.

Back in the fall, my DH got the popup for the Hilton Biz, and then also for the Surpass. He got the BBC instead with no popup. A few weeks later, I applied for the Hilton Biz again for him before the elevated SUB ended. He got approved without the popup, and the bonus posted just fine. I had put some spend on his BBC but not a ton at that point.

It just seems so random to me. I'm hoping to apply for the Aspire for myself around May - fingers crossed I can avoid the popup!

 

[punkin]

Keeping Amex happy is just so difficult. I only have a gold and BBP. The gold gets a lot of organic spend (groceries), but I never use the BBP if I have an MSR elsewhere, so last month my BBP bill was $10. I have future plans for amex and I'm afraid spends like that will put me in pop up hell. How much do I have to spend on a card to make them happy? Anyone know?

 

[Alexle2007]

For the Shakespearean woes, I usually recommend something like this
https://www.amazon.com/Romeo-Juliet-Plain-Simple-English/dp/146997374X
I can't remember the one I used in HS, I checked it out of the library and it was ok but it did the modern English on the bottom half of the page rather than line by line like that book claims. I'd have preferred the line by line I think so if I was confused I wasn't jumping back and forth and losing the pacing. (I attempted to read Othello on my own outside of class. It was not as fun )

But what was the best was my English teacher, who would stop on difficult passages and kinda act it out/explain it so we could "see" the scene in our head. We read Romeo and Juliet in class first and then when we understood the scenes, watched a movie so we could see it all strung out together as it was intended.

When I went searching for a book the SparkNotes came up that @Haley R mentioned, so I clicked on that and that seems good in a pinch for the translation aspect. What is kinda neat is the Study Guide section. The bits and pieces I've been clicking do good job of explaining the overall play and what should be your take aways from it. It obviously shouldn't take the place of reading it but it's kinda doing what my English teacher did for us.

Thanks and @Haley R I just ordered DS a version that has plot summaries, the modern version and some other things. Hopefully it helps. He asked me to translate something for him and I even had no idea what it was actually referring to.

His teacher seems to be pulling the questions from somewhere and we were able to find a quizlet with all of the answers except this one. Thank goodness for the Internet!

 

[Bozni]

Now to figure out MDD...

Okay, I'm pretty sure I have it figured out.

Follow up question: When MDDing, can I do different card types? For example, SW Priority and SW Plus?

 

[Judique]

Keeping Amex happy is just so difficult. I only have a gold and BBP. The gold gets a lot of organic spend (groceries), but I never use the BBP if I have an MSR elsewhere, so last month my BBP bill was $10. I have future plans for amex and I'm afraid spends like that will put me in pop up hell. How much do I have to spend on a card to make them happy? Anyone know?

I don't know but I did get a small retention offer on my gold this month. I am also one who was pop up'ed for a Hilton card. During the retention call, the rep went over my spend and savings from the card very thoroughly and concluded that I 'was' getting value from the card and that they wanted to keep me so gave me a 10K retention bonus. Her statement was that I shouldn't have any problem putting $500 a month on the card based on my past spending and could put more since 'there were usually utilities and insurance to pay' two items I never put on my gold card, because I primarily used it for restaurants and offers. I shop for all my basic groceries and part of my gas at Costco and they don't take Amex, but do buy some gift cards, groceries and gas at Safeway and Giant, plus Aldi. Anyway, the gold has consistently gotten $500 or more, but the others - 3 Marriotts have gotten very little except offer spend. My old MR card gets more than those because it gets different offers.

So my conclusion is that Amex wants all your spend and if they don't see most of what they would consider an ordinary household to be spending - a mix of food, utilities, gas, insurance - over their cards, they are not as interested. I can put as little as $500 a month or as much as $2- $3000 a month on my cards as somewhat normal spend, but - I have a lot of cards to maintain. 8 cards are hotel cards, then I have the MR cards, and then the cash cards, and 'old' cards such as my NFCU where I could quickly charge a large number with a fairly low interest rate if I ever was in need of it. I'm not going to give up those cards even though I only put tolls on one and a charge here and there on the other.

Anyway, I have an old no fee MR card, so after looking over my stash, the card that made the most sense to give up was the gold card. I didn't do it because of the extra bonus. But it will come up for chopping next year again. It's the Rose Gold and I love that card but I'll do it if I have to.

By the end of this year I'll try again for a Hilton - I will be low/24 - so we will see how it goes. Not in a rush for an Amex card, more so want UR's and always want free nights.

 

[elgerber]

On Shakespeare, my ds is also reading Romeo & Juliet and hates it. First of all he's too immature for the star-crossed lovers story. Then he doesn't understand why it's written the way it is. And he's mad the teacher won't just show them Gnomeo and Juliet. We have block scheduling and English is Day 1 and almost every day 1 DS has a terrible stomach ache and wants to come home before English class. Act 1 quiz is Monday--maybe I need to buy the Cliff Notes (do people still use those?).

I loved English, but detested Shakespeare. My dd on the other hand, LOVES Shakespeare. She just came down giddy last night, that one of our local professional theaters is doing two of her favorite, more obscure, Shakespeare plays next summer.

 

[tink1970]

I loved English, but detested Shakespeare. My dd on the other hand, LOVES Shakespeare. She just came down giddy last night, that one of our local professional theaters is doing two of her favorite, more obscure, Shakespeare plays next summer.

I loved Shakespeare in high school and it was the only English course I took in college-it was so fun to blow the curve I think it's something you like or don't, no middle ground for sure, like Hemingway or Austen (whom I do not enjoy).

 

[becauseimnew]

Okay, I'm pretty sure I have it figured out.

Follow up question: When MDDing, can I do different card types? For example, SW Priority and SW Plus?

yes! 2 different cards. Also don't do MDD today. You want to do it on a Monday. If you get auto approved today, you'll need to be approved for #2 tomorrow but I don't think the recon. lines open on the weekend.

 

[becauseimnew]

It's been so quite here this week. Is everyone on vacation?

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

It's been so quite here this week. Is everyone on vacation?

Coming down with something and trying to get through regular life stuff. I'm reading but I just don't have energy to post.

 

[Haley R]

It's been so quite here this week. Is everyone on vacation?

I was thinking the same thing

 

[ten6mom]

I am working overtime today... during the day... so I came in at the time I normally leave. Uuuugggghhhh.

Just "played along at home" to practice the boarding group thing for ROTR.

No churning news... because the current card is sort of boring! (BBP).

 

[DisMommyTX]

Y'all have perfect timing! I about lost it yesterday morning taking my daughter to school when she mentioned that she had to make-up a test on Midsummer Night's Dream. I asked if she knew what it was about. She said no, but because she missed the readings in class, the teacher would let her use the book during class. Really!?! She thought she could just figure out all the Shakespeare stuff by looking at the text for the first time while taking the test. We spent 15 minutes sitting in the parking lot looking up plot summaries and study guides questions and answers. And this is an A student!

 

[papaof3]

All this Scotland and London talk getting me depressed this morning. Hammer dropped yesterday from AA and multiple SUB. Me & P2 lost minor balences but more importantly 5 round trip tickets in prime summer season to EDI and home from Paris with a Chunnel train ride. Hotels all booked but now to piecemeal our flights back with multiple other currencies from P2 and me. Not to mention P2 is now not only off the train but out of our game after the email AA sent. I need a CIP to pick me up, and help rebook, but have to wait another couple months as I’m into earning a SW CP right now. Wish SW flew to Europe or I could book flights with Hilton points.

 

[wanderlust7]

All this Scotland and London talk getting me depressed this morning. Hammer dropped yesterday from AA and multiple SUB. Me & P2 lost minor balences but more importantly 5 round trip tickets in prime summer season to EDI and home from Paris with a Chunnel train ride. Hotels all booked but now to piecemeal our flights back with multiple other currencies from P2 and me. Not to mention P2 is now not only off the train but out of our game after the email AA sent. I need a CIP to pick me up, and help rebook, but have to wait another couple months as I’m into earning a SW CP right now. Wish SW flew to Europe or I could book flights with Hilton points.

That's awful! I'm so sorry. Hope you can make something else work.

 

[Grumpy's Gal]

Are there any cards with free nights for anniversary date other than IHG?

 

[Minnie368]

I am trying to understand the shut downs. Is this being done by AA or the credit card companies? And has there been a history of any other credit card company or loyalty program doing this before? I definitely want to keep moving forward now that I've started, but I'm wondering if I need to spread my cards across multiple reward types and multiple loyalty companies just to not have too much exposure in one program. Any advice? Currently between DH and myself we have multiple UR earning cards, one MR card, southwest cards, and a Hilton card. Should we keep going for more UR (which was our plan) or would it be better to add Marriott, Hyatt, etc? The thing is that some of them don't seem to have business card options so we would build to 5/24 faster.

 

[Albort]

Are there any cards with free nights for anniversary date other than IHG?

the majority of all hotel cards have free nights for anniversary date.
might be easier to ask which one DOESNT have it lol.