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

[afan]

Prime at 3.25%!

Made me finally look up my mortgage rate, 4.875 with PNC whom I hate. Probably is rental is in NC so if I do anything it's got to be with a bank that's there which might mean not here. Also not sure how it all works since it's a rental and not my primary home. But it might be getting close to time to figure out if it's something worth doing, still owe 44k on it, rents $695/mo currently if that can continue. Mortgage is like $397/mo but I pay 400-410 depending on my mood that month Rental co takes 10%.

Does it not being my primary residence affect how I refinance? I did it once in 2010 to get the current rate but was living there at the time.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Got a notice earlier from dd's school about how online school will work. She will have several classes "online" with teacher interaction and participation, with assignments and assessments as usual (even told to wear an appropriate shirt -- doesn't have to be a uniform shirt). Except her desk is in the loft (open to downstairs), not too far from my desk (also in the open). She needs silence to work and I talk on the phone most of the day (though I expect I won't be busy the next few weeks). This is not going to be fun. I may move my 'office' during the day to the den, where I can shut the doors to help stifle my voice.

 

[kylenne]

Just checking in on everyone, fam. How are we doing here?
I'm glad DeWine closed the bars and restaurants for in-service dining here in Ohio. People are selfish and are not taking this seriously. He also said closing all daycares is coming and schools may not resume normal session this entire academic year.

We are living through a once-in-a-lifetime black swan event. Please consider putting more cash aside if you can.

Mayor De Blasio announced with the State of Emergency that 10% of city employees will be working from home, and that includes support staff at my agency. I always wanted to work from home but it's a little bittersweet, I never would have wanted this to be the reason. On Friday my boss forwarded our team remote access instructions. The city is transitioning more and more to Cloud-based platforms anyway so this is not as difficult as it could have been even 6 months ago. I'm just uncertain because me and a couple other trainers literally just started teaching a new hire class last week. We have been moving forward as normal until we hear otherwise but I'm not sure if it will continue. I am getting my home iMac set up for Bootcamp and remote access because I'm fairly certain as soon as the class is over that's it.

The silver lining is the sheer money I'm going to save. I try to bring lunch but so often being stressed and running late means I can't do that as much as I like, and where I work everything is crazy expensive. I figure I will save at least $500 a month between subway fare; I am cancelling my auto refill unlimited Metrocard ASAP since I just renewed for the month. I plan to squirrel that away and when the market settles I'm going to buy some more stocks. I have a decent nest egg built up from when my mom purchased some for me as a minor many moons ago, but I'm thinking it's time to dust off my Ameritrade account. Aside from that, being away from the chaos and 24/7 corona talk in my office will do wonders for my deteriorating mental health. We are on the frontlines in many ways and it's taking its toll. The uncertainty of when we can feasibly reschedule our big May trip is not helping.

 

[KPK02090]

Our IL governor just annouced all restaurants and bars to close starting tomorrow through Mar 31!
Might still allow delivery, drive through. Crazy times.

I know Ohio also just announced it too.

MA just announced all schools in the state will be closed for the next 3 weeks - it had been town by town.
I’m hoping they hold off on closing any restaurants until at least after Tuesday, March 17. I have to go to McDonald’s on St. Patrick’s Day for Shamrock Shakes!

 

[Lain]

FYI: Chase Ultimate Rewards now has an online form to request cancellation of your reservations booked through Chase Travel. If you have upcoming travel that you want or need to cancel, you may want to try this route to avoid long hold times instead of, or in addition to calling on the phone. Chase says they’ll try to get back to you within 7 business days, which isn’t very assuring so be sure to call if you’re traveling in the next 72 hours.

By submitting a cancellation request, you authorize Chase to cancel your reservation(s).

Submitting a cancellation request does not guarantee a full refund. Cancellation policies differ depending upon the airline and if you wish to cancel, not all airlines allow for a full refund at this time.

If your airline does not offer a full refund, our customer support team will contact you to advise you of your options prior to cancelling your booking.

https://www.reddit.com/r/awardtravel/comments/fj633l

 

[mamathompson]

Got a notice earlier from dd's school about how online school will work. She will have several classes "online" with teacher interaction and participation, with assignments and assessments as usual (even told to wear an appropriate shirt -- doesn't have to be a uniform shirt). Except her desk is in the loft (open to downstairs), not too far from my desk (also in the open). She needs silence to work and I talk on the phone most of the day (though I expect I won't be busy the next few weeks). This is not going to be fun. I may move my 'office' during the day to the den, where I can shut the doors to help stifle my voice.

We homeschool, but my kids take 1-3 year long classes online. It sounds very much like what your school is planning to do. Teacher and students are live and interacting with each other. My kids use headphones. It helps to avoid the distraction of everyone else in the house/room while they are taking their class.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

My friend is en route to the UK now to see his mom. He texted me a photo of the airport. No people. There are 20 people on his flight.

He said someone sneezed in a bar in the terminal and EVERYONE visibly flinched.

Wow. DD said that Heathrow was packed to the gills yesterday and that that was the worst place in terms of crowds. Maybe everyone already got out. Her cabin was half full, but I'm not sure about the regular seats. She flew "upper class" and that name did not sit well with her sensibilities.

We came back from LHR on Thursday, which was the first day of the European Travel ban. We had an afternoon flight but the agent said it had been a madhouse in the morning. DD is flying out tomorrow and we are all very anxious--we rescheduled her flight after her school announced they were sending everyone home BEFORE the UK travel ban was announced. She flies from NCL to LHR and then on to SFO. If she arrives in time she will *not* have the new health lines, etc. which go into effect at 9 pm our time (she's due to arrive at 7:15pm). I'm worried about cancelled flights, etc. But I'm hoping BA doesn't redo their schedule until later this week. Needless to say I will be having a sleepless night until I get her texts. When we checked her in, it looks like they moved her to business class on the flight from LHR to SFO, but we'll see. Cross your fingers for her everyone. The images of those crowds is making me crazy. That's the worst thing for this.

 

[Hoosier John]

Made me finally look up my mortgage rate, 4.875 with PNC whom I hate. Probably is rental is in NC so if I do anything it's got to be with a bank that's there which might mean not here. Also not sure how it all works since it's a rental and not my primary home. But it might be getting close to time to figure out if it's something worth doing, still owe 44k on it, rents $695/mo currently if that can continue. Mortgage is like $397/mo but I pay 400-410 depending on my mood that month Rental co takes 10%.

Does it not being my primary residence affect how I refinance? I did it once in 2010 to get the current rate but was living there at the time.

Yes, investment property won't get as good a rate. Maybe a percent or so higher.

 

[GlamMistress]

PHL international departures (fixed) right now, per my friend:

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Made me finally look up my mortgage rate, 4.875 with PNC whom I hate. Probably is rental is in NC so if I do anything it's got to be with a bank that's there which might mean not here. Also not sure how it all works since it's a rental and not my primary home. But it might be getting close to time to figure out if it's something worth doing, still owe 44k on it, rents $695/mo currently if that can continue. Mortgage is like $397/mo but I pay 400-410 depending on my mood that month Rental co takes 10%.

Does it not being my primary residence affect how I refinance? I did it once in 2010 to get the current rate but was living there at the time.

With a $44k balance remaining I’d honestly be surprised if there’s any savings to be had anyways. A 1% savings in rate would only get you $400 a year in savings.

 

[afan]

Yes, investment property won't get as good a rate. Maybe a percent or so higher.

With a $44k balance remaining I’d honestly be surprised if there’s any savings to be had anyways. A 1% savings in rate would only get you $400 a year in savings.

OK so it'd have to go way down for it to be helpful. And I get only $400 in savings but if the house is empty I'm paying for it myself so that $400 would be more than one month's mortgage payment. Worth it, hard to say but 6 months ago I would have said absolutely. When my tenant almost gets evicted twice in the past 5 months, maybe yes.

If the mortgage was way higher and the savings was only $400 I wouldn't but over one month payment is a lot. But I'll continue to not worry about it unless they go crazy low

 

[kylenne]

PHL international departures (fixed) right now, per my friend:

Wild. My one experience with PHL was connecting there years ago to get US Air (lol) to FCO for an Eastern Med cruise out of Civitavecchia and it was nuts.

 

[punkin]

Worked online for me. My flights were in March and April. Originally it tried to charge me a fee a couple days ago but then they fixed that and there was no charge mentioned online.

Is United doing the same? Do you know?

 

[platamama]

News

https://twitter.com/x/status/1239295675059372037

I will admit to not understanding the full significance of this. However, doesn't this mean the Fed has almost no more tools to use after this? Dow futures are now down over 1000, stopped only by the down limit (which I interpret as being the same as the circuit breaker). The Fed dropped the rate 0.5% less than two weeks ago and tanked the Dow futures then too. Can this be viewed as a sign of desperation?

 

[WVMomof3]

My friend is en route to the UK now to see his mom. He texted me a photo of the airport. No people. There are 20 people on his flight.

He said someone sneezed in a bar in the terminal and EVERYONE visibly flinched.

What airport? My DD flew Denver to BWI and she said Denver was very crowded and her flight was full.

 

[Oscar Madison]

It was so weird watching church on the tv but I can’t say I hated it lol. Sitting in pjs, feet up in the recliner, having some eggs. Different but still good

Agreed...we enjoyed it all under our individual blankies.

 

[havaneselover]

I will admit to not understanding the full significance of this. However, doesn't this mean the Fed has almost no more tools to use after this? Dow futures are now down over 1000, stopped only by the down limit (which I interpret as being the same as the circuit breaker). The Fed dropped the rate 0.5% less than two weeks ago and tanked the Dow futures then too. Can this be viewed as a sign of desperation?

So I am someone who tends to trust the Fed (I've mentioned before but my dad was a Fed economist).

This was a coordinated move with other central banks. All but one voting member supported it so I trust it was the best thing for our economy.

But yes, it's totally scary.

 

[WVMomof3]

PHL international departures (fixed) right now, per my friend: View attachment 481174

Oh yes, I can imagine the international area being dead. Though aren't there a lot of arrivals still happening? The pics I saw of International arrivals today looked like a nightmare.

 

[DisMommyTX]

Received an email from department chair about all the work we have to do to transition our university courses to online delivery, try to prevent the spread, be flexible, etc. My favorite line "We are very fortunate to have the option to work remotely and still get paid...please record each day as 8 hours (annual leave) if you choose to work remotely during the coming week." So, we still have to do all the work, but also use leave time if we do it while working remotely. Isn't that illegal??

Definitely need another vacation. Back to accruing points!

 

[wendow]

What airport? My DD flew Denver to BWI and she said Denver was very crowded and her flight was full.

I fly out Tuesday morning. Hoping for once to get a mostly empty flight. That never happens.