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

[havaneselover]

Stopped by Staples at lunch today grabbed 1 $200 VGC, cashier seemed particularly friendly so I decided to ask if it would be ok if I buy more cards. She says “of course, but we do have a $2k per day limit” I like post lockdown Staples

I got one on my way home from work. Thought about getting another when I went to get dd Thai food about three hours later but the cashier and I had chatted and he told me how much he liked my mask so I was afraid he’d still be there. I have $1000 now. May go for a few more if I’m out and about. Now I have to convert to money orders,

 

[nhgirl]

Stopped by Staples at lunch today grabbed 1 $200 VGC, cashier seemed particularly friendly so I decided to ask if it would be ok if I buy more cards. She says “of course, but we do have a $2k per day limit” I like post lockdown Staples

Nice!! I got one yesterday. I plan to go back to Staples this week. I am going to try to try to get more this time. Can’t hurt to try right?

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Long time lurker, first time poster (on the CC board, anyway). The budget board helped me so much when I was planning my family's first Disney Trip two years ago, and I was hoping to ask some advice about which card(s) to open as I plan our next vacation. Here is lots of info:

Most recently opened card is Discover during the fall of 2018.
Currently also have:
AMEX blue preferred
Disney Visa
United MPE

Primarily use AMEX and charge about $2k - $2.5k/month and do not carry a balance.

We prefer to fly out of Newark, but could fly out of LGA if we needed to do Southwest. We do not travel often.

I am planning a Western Caribbean cruise (am I crazy? we put a deposit down last December) for August, 2021 leaving from Miami. We will be flying from Newark to Miami the day before cruise (Friday), and flying home the day we disembark (Saturday), so I know those are not the cheapest days for flying. I will be traveling with my husband and two kids (they will be 10 and 11 at the time). Luggage will be an issue, so I am hoping to take advantage of the United MileagePlus free baggage (or Southwest).

I currently have 10,290 United miles.

I was thinking about opening a CSP to take advantage of the 60k bonus points, which could be used to pay for the flights. I guess my questions are:
1. Should my husband and I apply separately so that we can both take advantage of the 60k points? Is there a downside to doing that?
2. Does anyone have advice about the best way to use points or cash back to pay for part of the cruise?
3. Is there another credit card that I should be looking at in addition to/instead of the CSP?
4. Anything glaring that you think I'm missing?

I so appreciate any help or thoughts you have!
Mb

I think your CSP plan is a good one...if you apply first wait until you get your card since the CSP has support links you can generate and send to your DH. This way you earn 15k additional URs...so after you both complete the MSR you would have 143k URs

 

[IFlossU]

Nice!! I got one yesterday. I plan to go back to Staples this week. I am going to try to try to get more this time. Can’t hurt to try right?

Yep! Worst that can happen is they say no. My friendly gal even walked over and grabbed them for me. I say give it a try!

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Stopped by Staples at lunch today grabbed 1 $200 VGC, cashier seemed particularly friendly so I decided to ask if it would be ok if I buy more cards. She says “of course, but we do have a $2k per day limit” I like post lockdown Staples

Nice....I have gotten $2,400 so far...today the cashier would only let me buy 1....$2k has been cashed out with serve...will try for more tomorrow

 

[dandi799]

I think your CSP plan is a good one...if you apply first wait until you get your card since the CSP has support links you can generate and send to your DH. This way you earn 15k additional URs...so after you both complete the MSR you would have 143k URs

Thank you so much! I did not know that! This is a huge help! Thank you for the welcome!

 

[dandi799]

I think you and your husband should each apply for CSP.

We booked our cruise online direct with NCL.
Next we PC’d our CF to CSR to get 1.5 redemption on our UR’s.
We called Chase Cruise and Tours and transferred out cruise over to them and used our UR points (at 1.5 redemption) to pay for $1700 of the cruise and charged the rest. We also used points on my Marriott Premiere Plus card to pay for two nights stay at a Marriott before the cruise. DH earned a FNC on his Amex for a night in Boston the night before our flight. We also had Jet Blue points to help pay for flights from my Barclays Jet Blue card.
Now we are planning Hawaii 2022. My favorite Chase card is CIC. I go to staples and charge gas gc’s , Petco gc’s and Visa GC (when they fee is waived) and get 5x.

Hopefully some of this will help you. I don’t consider myself to be an aggressive churned. Just do the best I can.

Thank you so much!!
I admit, I had to open the first page of this thread in a different tab to make sure I understood it all correctly! I appreciate your help!

 

[Haley R]

Nice....I have gotten $2,400 so far...today the cashier would only let me buy 1....$2k has been cashed out with serve...will try for more tomorrow

I hate that we’re missing out on this. Oh well

 

[lsutigers03]

Any cobranded card will ask for your ff or hotel rewards number when you apply. If you leave it blank they'll give you a new number so it's important to look for it.

The application will ask for your RR number, so the points go into your existing account

Awesome thank you.

One more question. If I sign up my wife can I also use my RR number? That way we can have everything in one account.

 

[wanderlust7]

Long time lurker, first time poster (on the CC board, anyway). The budget board helped me so much when I was planning my family's first Disney Trip two years ago, and I was hoping to ask some advice about which card(s) to open as I plan our next vacation. Here is lots of info:

Most recently opened card is Discover during the fall of 2018.
Currently also have:
AMEX blue preferred
Disney Visa
United MPE

Primarily use AMEX and charge about $2k - $2.5k/month and do not carry a balance.

We prefer to fly out of Newark, but could fly out of LGA if we needed to do Southwest. We do not travel often.

I am planning a Western Caribbean cruise (am I crazy? we put a deposit down last December) for August, 2021 leaving from Miami. We will be flying from Newark to Miami the day before cruise (Friday), and flying home the day we disembark (Saturday), so I know those are not the cheapest days for flying. I will be traveling with my husband and two kids (they will be 10 and 11 at the time). Luggage will be an issue, so I am hoping to take advantage of the United MileagePlus free baggage (or Southwest).

I currently have 10,290 United miles.

I was thinking about opening a CSP to take advantage of the 60k bonus points, which could be used to pay for the flights. I guess my questions are:
1. Should my husband and I apply separately so that we can both take advantage of the 60k points? Is there a downside to doing that?
2. Does anyone have advice about the best way to use points or cash back to pay for part of the cruise?
3. Is there another credit card that I should be looking at in addition to/instead of the CSP?
4. Anything glaring that you think I'm missing?

I so appreciate any help or thoughts you have!
Mb

Were you looking to book a Disney cruise? They can't be booked with UR since anything Disney is blocked. For other cruise lines, you would get 1.25 redemption with the CSP on the same price as booking direct. ($1000 cruise will cost 80k points) If you upgrade to a CSR after a year, you can get 1.5 redemption ($1000 cruise will cost 66.7k points). Right now due to the pandemic, you can also redeem at those same rates for groceries, restaurants, and home improvement stores. I believe that's through 9/30/20, but maybe it will get extended.

I'd argue redeeming for groceries etc is a better deal since I can usually get a better price or perks with a TA for cruises. Definitely not as satisfying as free travel though.

 

[ten6mom]

Merely popping in to share this amusing email I just got from World of Hyatt. It's very informative, don't you agree?

 

[dandi799]

Were you looking to book a Disney cruise? They can't be booked with UR since anything Disney is blocked. For other cruise lines, you would get 1.25 redemption with the CSP on the same price as booking direct. ($1000 cruise will cost 80k points) If you upgrade to a CSR after a year, you can get 1.5 redemption ($1000 cruise will cost 66.7k points). Right now due to the pandemic, you can also redeem at those same rates for groceries, restaurants, and home improvement stores. I believe that's through 9/30/20, but maybe it will get extended.

I'd argue redeeming for groceries etc is a better deal since I can usually get a better price or perks with a TA for cruises. Definitely not as satisfying as free travel though.

Thanks so much! This is helpful. We also booked using a TA, and we are going on a Royal Caribbean cruise. We paid a $500 deposit back in early December, so we have a bunch more to pay off, and are trying to be strategic about it.

 

[becauseimnew]

Is it easier now to load serve at Walmart? By that I mean are they less crowded? I need to get back into MSing

 

[StephPlum]

I haven’t MSed since March. I still have 700 on VGCs to liquidate from before Covid. I really haven’t been out of the house except for grocery shopping. All the stories of fee free VGCs is making me miss it. Maybe I’ll venture out to Walmart and Staples this week and get back to it.

 

[wanderlust7]

Thanks so much! This is helpful. We also booked using a TA, and we are going on a Royal Caribbean cruise. We paid a $500 deposit back in early December, so we have a bunch more to pay off, and are trying to be strategic about it.

In that case, you won't be able to pay with URs. When you pay with URs, Chase is the TA. So you'd have to get your TA to release the booking, which isn't likely to happen. If you book direct, you can get it transferred to Chase within a certain number of days.

You can use URs to pay for groceries and then use the money that would have gone towards that to pay down your cruise.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Is it easier now to load serve at Walmart? By that I mean are they less crowded? I need to get back into MSing

I go to FD, haven’t been to Walmart so unfortunately can’t help

 

[IFlossU]

Is it easier now to load serve at Walmart? By that I mean are they less crowded? I need to get back into MSing

I always go to the Walmart money center. There’s one particular store near me that is rarely busy. I haven’t had to wait in line yet. I do try to go at “off times” though. However, there are other stores I avoid at all costs because they’re always crowded.

 

[Oscar Madison]

First time flying Southwest with a SW Biz card tomorrow. It's the Performance Biz and the literature says I get 365 $8 Wifi credits per year. Does that mean I can buy for 4 for of us and get $32 back in credits? Can we all share 1 $8 buy?
Thank you

 

[palhockeymomof2]

First time flying Southwest with a SW Biz card tomorrow. It's the Performance Biz and the literature says I get 365 $8 Wifi credits per year. Does that mean I can buy for 4 for of us and get $32 back in credits? Can we all share 1 $8 buy?
Thank you

Both DH and I have used this..it’s per device...so you have to put the credit card info in on all 4 and you will be reimbursed for all 4

 

[DaveL]

First time flying Southwest with a SW Biz card tomorrow. It's the Performance Biz and the literature says I get 365 $8 Wifi credits per year. Does that mean I can buy for 4 for of us and get $32 back in credits? Can we all share 1 $8 buy?
Thank you

I'll let someone else with first hand answer for sure, but I asked about this awhile back because its PER device so you cannot share it to another once purchased. Someone did confirm they used multiple charges and get reimbursed for each. I followed this because we planned on doing that.

Edit: Missed it by seconds, anyway my answer was just hearsay.