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'm super duper new here and to this whole way of savings. Question #1 was the biggest eye opener for me that my husband and I should not be applying together if we want to maximize our benefits! The only downsides I've been able to see in my month at this is managing two payments/ accounts and double the annual fees. I manage the finances, so now I have to keep track of two bills instead of one, and watch the spending in two places. But with online banking, paperless billing, and a spreadsheet, it's been no biggie. And in return we're doubling our bonuses. I will likely product change (PC) to a no annual fee card for one of them next year... depends on how that affects the 5000 point anniversary bonus! The annual fee pays for itself with one flight with free baggage.
I suppose another downside is there is no taking advantage of each other's credit wins or history. If one of you has less than stellar credit, keeping them apart means you can't piggyback off the "good" one.
Definitely take advantage of referring the other spouse once one of you gets a new card. It's essentially free money- something I never would have learned without this board!
We too don't travel much, though now that our kids are a little older and might actually remember and appreciate trips, I hope to change that. My impetus for starting in with credit cards like this is a Disney trip that is gonna cost a ton, and I was looking for ways to save. Having that goal is what is driving my current credit card plan, and it really is a plan I need to manage! If it helps another newbie, here's a loooooooooooooong post to share what *I* am doing for our family, in case it helps you think through what *you* should do!
Goal 1: Reduced or free flight to Orlando for 2022
Goal 2: Reduced or free flight options to other vaca destinations such as Vegas, San Jose, Cancun where we have family connections, for April 2021 and beyond
Goal 3: Reduced or free flights or hotel for a European anniversary trip for ??? whenever we can travel again?
Goal 4: Continue to earn cash back on existing cards (AmEx and bank Visa) to defer Christmas expenses
Plan for 1 & 2: We have no good airline hubs near us, but generally fly JetBlue and Southwest. With that in mind, I took advantage of a stellar JetBlue sign up bonus (SUB) for 60k points after only $1k of spending and the annual fee in 3 months. (Historically only 40k points.) I've also been using their shopping portal to earn extra points on things I would have bought anyway. (That's huge for us- no extraneous spending because that defeats the purpose of trying to save!) Between SUB and regular points for the $1000 spending, that's minimum 122,000 TrueBlue points.
Plan for 1, 2, & 3: I just this week got a CSP. With the $4k minimum spend requirement (MSR), it's a little higher and not just easy peasy to meet, so we'll slow up to earn that 60k points SUB. We have some big expenses on the horizon, but until it's on the books, I don't want to jump the gun. Like, our planned expense for summer camp went out the window with the 'Rona!
When I feel like we are getting close to hitting that MSR, I'll get a CSP for the hubs using a referral. That's 15k referral points and another 60k SUB. All those points plus points for $4k x 2 spending is a minimum of 143k points.
Plan for all 4: I am also thinking about tacking on a Chase Freedom card at some point, to take advantage of their quarterly 5x bonuses. We use our AmEx Blue Cash Preferred for gas (3x), grocery(6x upd to $6k) and streaming subscriptions (6x). We hit the $6k annual spend for groceries by June, so I'd like to have a different card to rack up higher points for that money we're already going to spend. The Freedom fits the bill with no annual fee. (These other 5 cards are going to cost $500 in annual fees, and that's my limit on what I want to spend for fees... I need to make sure I get back a decent amount over $500/annually to make the math work!) With the CF combined with the CSP, I can maximize earning points and then move them between cards to ensure I get the most bang for the points being cashed in. Those can be cash, hotels, or flights- I like that flexibility over JetBlue, which I'd only use for flights.
I don't relish the idea of juggling the CF to follow quarterly bonuses, so once we have accrued a stash of points, my husband and I will need to decide if earning travel points is the priority or if we want the cash back. That sounds like something you'll want to think about too- different cards are targeted for different goals, so look at where your money goes and think about how you most want to spend it before picking a card that best matches YOUR goals.
My DS19 had trouble finding a job over summer break, but guess who ended up hiring him? WM. He’s shopping pickup grocery orders. Says it’s not as bad as he thought it would be, though he always comes home with a story. Lol
I've applied and been approved for the bank account offer.
