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

[IFlossU]

Apparently someone went shopping with my Costco Visa today.
Thank goodness for fraud alerts.

I haven’t used the card in almost 2 years. I often wonder where fraudsters get their information. Oh well, it was easily taken care of, but feels like such a violation. Thinking out loud, the last time this happened to me was my Costco card as well, been many years, but

 

[ski_mom]

And we both were so happy with what we got with the Sak's credit. Glad to hear you are close enough to a store and can just go the gift card route. That was the one thing that I was hoping I didn't have to return, but I messed up and ordered the wrong size Dr. Martens. And of course the correct size isn't available. I set up an alert so hopefully it comes in to use with the next credit. I really don't want to have to buy them somewhere else and spend $150. So I just ordered a $50 water bottle. I can't believe how hard it was to find something for $50 that I could actually use or want. I got an email that the item shipped 45 minutes after ordering, should be here on Wednesday. I thought about just letting the credit go.

I forget, who are our XBox experts here? @Killer Fish? My boys told me that their Xbox Live membership expired, no wonder they haven't been playing it! So I thought perfect, I'll just use some of my $460 of Xbox gift cards. But looks like the 12 month membership is no longer available, at least when trying to buy it from the Xbox. I was okay spending $60 for a year, but the $25 for 3 months seems like more than they would really make use out of it. I do see you can still buy the year Xbox Live at other places and I'm wondering if I should just buy that. But then that seems kind of silly with all the gift cards I already have.

So true, I was so happy with both of my purchases. Just that I ordered the wrong color of rims on the ray-ban sunglasses, silver instead of gold . I do love the idea of the gift card option though. I had figured next year, I was going to use one of them on Dr Martens for same (picky) DD, but this way, I can pick up a gift card with DH's credit and order them using the gift card as partial payment and charge the rest on my card to use my credit.

The xbox credit is a good question. I had a similar quandry with office depot "dollars" once. I ended up going ahead and using the credits even though the item cost more at office depot. I wasn't sure what I would be using the credit for in the end, so went ahead and spent them to get the item without any out of pocket costs.

 

[alryan]

The xbox credit is a good question. I had a similar quandry with office depot "dollars" once. I ended up going ahead and using the credits even though the item cost more at office depot. I wasn't sure what I would be using the credit for in the end, so went ahead and spent them to get the item without any out of pocket costs.

Your daughter sounds like mine Yeah, I normally just go with the no out of pocket cost option. Not sure why this one’s making me rethink my normal.

 

[calypso726]

What do you guys do with all the visa gift cards? I just bought $1k at staples and am kind of clueless where to use them when I have credit cards giving back points.

I use them for purchases anywhere that is paying me less points than what I earned from buying them in the first place. I use my Ink Plus to get the VGC for 5x at Staples. Ink Plus is no longer available but the CIC also gives 5x at office supply stores. When I need a haircut, I use the VGC to pay for it because I have no credit cards that will give me 5x at hair salons. The best I can do at the hair salon with a points earning credit card is 2x MR with an Amex BBP or 1.5x UR with a CFU. I also use the VCGs for gas since I have no 5x on gas cards. Basically anything and everything if I don't have a 5x earning with something else.

 

[WVMomof3]

My new years resolution - clean out my CCs and keep them orderly. I don't have half the CCs that some of you have and I apparently suck at keeping track of them. I just wasted an hour looking for our Barclay Arrival Plus! I am embarrassed at how many places I have cards stashed. I have my phone wallet as my main use. I hardly ever use a purse, but I currently have 2 out and had cards in both of them. I have a big wallet that is only used to store extra cards and that is stashed in my room. I also bought a special card wallet that I keep on DHs dresser that has mostly his extra cards (they were all supposed to go in here when I bought it, oops, haven't gotten around to finishing that project). My DH has his phone wallet that is his main holder. He has an extra wallet he keeps in his backpack that usually goes with him everywhere that has cards in it and he has a wallet in his car that is mostly just for store loyalty cards. I looked in all of those places twice, no Barclay. Looked in both cars. Did randomly find a CIC loose in my van. Asked both DDs if they might have it for some odd reason. Looked in my handy dandy spreadsheet and I can see it was only used this year by DD on her Lyft account, which is just stored on it, so no card needed and I used it for Plastiq at the beginning of the year so I looked through my desk area where I keep my computer. No Card anywhere!!!! A little embarrassed to say I finally found it under DH's dresser!!

 

[Judique]

Dh had the Freedom. How much is the max out?

It's the usual $1500 over the first quarter for warehouse stores, plus internet and phone I believe. That nets 7500 UR's. I'm only interested in the warehouse part as DD pays Comcast (her way) and although I cover our phones, I have that set on my Flagship for 2% plus insurance.
Next year I'll have 2 freedom's as I'll downgrade my CSP to a Freedom when it gets to it's first year. Before I downgrade, I will have transferred some UR's to book my summer Hyatt rooms. After that, who knows?

But, over the course of a year at $500 a month at 5x that's 30K UR's to transfer. More than likely it will be 40K, if my spending stays about the same. That's 2 nights that cost approximately $550 with tax in July or August.

I say $500 as a minimum, but I do at least 2 trips per month, and many are in the $300 to $400 range. December was light in store, but I ordered a lot online. CIC allows up to $25K which translates to $125K if maxed out as @havaneselover and others have done. I won't even get close to that but I'll get what I need for my goals.

In addition I do intend to close out my old Hyatt card this year and later on open up the new version since they are going to 'up' my fee to $95 anyway.

This is pretty passive point collecting.

 

[Judique]

My new years resolution - clean out my CCs and keep them orderly. I don't have half the CCs that some of you have and I apparently suck at keeping track of them. I just wasted an hour looking for our Barclay Arrival Plus! I am embarrassed at how many places I have cards stashed. I have my phone wallet as my main use. I hardly ever use a purse, but I currently have 2 out and had cards in both of them. I have a big wallet that is only used to store extra cards and that is stashed in my room. I also bought a special card wallet that I keep on DHs dresser that has mostly his extra cards (they were all supposed to go in here when I bought it, oops, haven't gotten around to finishing that project). My DH has his phone wallet that is his main holder. He has an extra wallet he keeps in his backpack that usually goes with him everywhere that has cards in it and he has a wallet in his car that is mostly just for store loyalty cards. I looked in all of those places twice, no Barclay. Looked in both cars. Did randomly find a CIC loose in my van. Asked both DDs if they might have it for some odd reason. Looked in my handy dandy spreadsheet and I can see it was only used this year by DD on her Lyft account, which is just stored on it, so no card needed and I used it for Plastiq at the beginning of the year so I looked through my desk area where I keep my computer. No Card anywhere!!!! A little embarrassed to say I finally found it under DH's dresser!!

I can appreciate your hunt! At some point I took the bedskirt off my bed. I'm notorious for climbing onto my bed with a bunch of credit cards, my laptop, pencil and paper and phone, purse and whatever else to go through my accounts. Yes, I have a perfectly good desk also.

I was missing a Citi card. Since it's also my Costco membership card, after I went to the Costco desk 3 r 4 times to get admitted into the store, they ordered me another card without my permission. (I knew it was in my house somewhere.) Eventually I found the card where it had dropped onto the bedframe and was invisible until I was using the vacuum hose to clean along the inside of the frame.

 

[ski_mom]

My new years resolution - clean out my CCs and keep them orderly. I don't have half the CCs that some of you have and I apparently suck at keeping track of them. I just wasted an hour looking for our Barclay Arrival Plus! I am embarrassed at how many places I have cards stashed. I have my phone wallet as my main use. I hardly ever use a purse, but I currently have 2 out and had cards in both of them. I have a big wallet that is only used to store extra cards and that is stashed in my room. I also bought a special card wallet that I keep on DHs dresser that has mostly his extra cards (they were all supposed to go in here when I bought it, oops, haven't gotten around to finishing that project). My DH has his phone wallet that is his main holder. He has an extra wallet he keeps in his backpack that usually goes with him everywhere that has cards in it and he has a wallet in his car that is mostly just for store loyalty cards. I looked in all of those places twice, no Barclay. Looked in both cars. Did randomly find a CIC loose in my van. Asked both DDs if they might have it for some odd reason. Looked in my handy dandy spreadsheet and I can see it was only used this year by DD on her Lyft account, which is just stored on it, so no card needed and I used it for Plastiq at the beginning of the year so I looked through my desk area where I keep my computer. No Card anywhere!!!! A little embarrassed to say I finally found it under DH's dresser!!

Good resolution - I may try to join you. I have all of my cards in one place (I think), but I'm bad about destroying old cards when new ones come in, so there are expired cards which adds to the confusion when looking for whatever card I'm needing at the time. The other thing I need to do is find out which store /misc cards are still active and decide what to do with them. I have a bunch of old store cards in my stash - American Eagle, JCPenney, Macys, etc that I've had for years (well before I started this hobby). I need to see if they are active and if they are if there is any benefit to keeping them active. I could be missing out on store discounts, but I don't think about it when I have time to dive into it to figure out exactly what's what!

 

[disneybirds]

My new years resolution - clean out my CCs and keep them orderly. I don't have half the CCs that some of you have and I apparently suck at keeping track of them. I just wasted an hour looking for our Barclay Arrival Plus! I am embarrassed at how many places I have cards stashed. I have my phone wallet as my main use. I hardly ever use a purse, but I currently have 2 out and had cards in both of them. I have a big wallet that is only used to store extra cards and that is stashed in my room. I also bought a special card wallet that I keep on DHs dresser that has mostly his extra cards (they were all supposed to go in here when I bought it, oops, haven't gotten around to finishing that project). My DH has his phone wallet that is his main holder. He has an extra wallet he keeps in his backpack that usually goes with him everywhere that has cards in it and he has a wallet in his car that is mostly just for store loyalty cards. I looked in all of those places twice, no Barclay. Looked in both cars. Did randomly find a CIC loose in my van. Asked both DDs if they might have it for some odd reason. Looked in my handy dandy spreadsheet and I can see it was only used this year by DD on her Lyft account, which is just stored on it, so no card needed and I used it for Plastiq at the beginning of the year so I looked through my desk area where I keep my computer. No Card anywhere!!!! A little embarrassed to say I finally found it under DH's dresser!!

Glad you found them! I know how frustrating it is to try and find something in the house!! I do keep a spreadsheet with all the information, but I just store all my extra cards in handy dandy ziploc bags in one of my file drawers in the office. I have two ziploc bags - one for current cards and one for expired/cancelled cards. I also write on the cancelled cards the date that I cancel them so I can keep up with them. I have two cards in my phone case (CFU, CSR) and then a few in my wallet (CIC, CF, Amex Plat, EDP, Blue Biz) that is carried in my purse. I pull out the others if I have a Chase or Amex Offer. Probably not the best system, but it works for me.

 

[Judique]

Good resolution - I may try to join you. I have all of my cards in one place (I think), but I'm bad about destroying old cards when new ones come in, so there are expired cards which adds to the confusion when looking for whatever card I'm needing at the time. The other thing I need to do is find out which store /misc cards are still active and decide what to do with them. I have a bunch of old store cards in my stash - American Eagle, JCPenney, Macys, etc that I've had for years (well before I started this hobby). I need to see if they are active and if they are if there is any benefit to keeping them active. I could be missing out on store discounts, but I don't think about it when I have time to dive into it to figure out exactly what's what!

The reasons I rarely shop at Target and Macy's, and never at Kohl's is mostly because they closed my cards (more than once) because of lack of use, during a period when I belt tightened and paid off all my outstanding debt. They let me go but Amex and Chase kept me closer, despite a much reduced spend. I was putting everything on my Navy Fed cards which had much lower interest rates and also did 0% balance transfers to the Navy Fed cards and got rid of debt in about 2 years. Divorce, education loans and kids can for sure drive up debt.

I was a regular at Macy's with my newspaper coupon almost every week. Mostly I would use my SPG card to get the points unless they tied a discount to using the credit card. In other words at the time there were rare opportunities where using the card was the best deal.

I was never a huge Kohl's shopper, but would go into the store and look around. I liked having the card because it was often tied to a discount if I did buy something.

Target gave me a card and closed it and I didn't notice for a long time, until I decided to use it for something.

Anyway, once they closed the cards and once I became aware that opening store cards could interfere with other opportunities, I didn't care anymore. Does anyone remember when Marshall's would have 2 liter cokes as an incentive for their card? Sort of like the cooler bag offer at Costco for the Citi card.

 

[LynnTH]

The wife and I talked it over and have decided this is the year we are going to try to buy a house. At least as soon as she gets back from WDW in Feb we will start looking. Of course everything around us has been gone almost as soon as it gets listed.

Our neighbors just sold their house. The weekend it went on the market - they have 48 showings and about 8 offers. Sold for $20,000 more than what they were asking. It is crazy right now if trying to buy a house.

 

[IFlossU]

Well the hits just keep on coming. The fraudsters were back at it this morning. This time it was DH’s AU card. He’s an AU user on my Costco account. Fortunately I locked his card last night when I saw the fraud on my card. Funny thing is the person I spoke to at Citi fraud said it wasn’t necessary to lock his card since the fraud happened on mine. Glad I didn’t listen to that advice. The person tried 1 charge on DH’s card this morning and it was declined immediately. I did get a little satisfaction in that but still had to call Citi again this morning. Here’s hoping the rest of the day only gets better.

 

[LynnTH]

My new years resolution - clean out my CCs and keep them orderly. I don't have half the CCs that some of you have and I apparently suck at keeping track of them. I just wasted an hour looking for our Barclay Arrival Plus! I am embarrassed at how many places I have cards stashed. I have my phone wallet as my main use. I hardly ever use a purse, but I currently have 2 out and had cards in both of them. I have a big wallet that is only used to store extra cards and that is stashed in my room. I also bought a special card wallet that I keep on DHs dresser that has mostly his extra cards (they were all supposed to go in here when I bought it, oops, haven't gotten around to finishing that project). My DH has his phone wallet that is his main holder. He has an extra wallet he keeps in his backpack that usually goes with him everywhere that has cards in it and he has a wallet in his car that is mostly just for store loyalty cards. I looked in all of those places twice, no Barclay. Looked in both cars. Did randomly find a CIC loose in my van. Asked both DDs if they might have it for some odd reason. Looked in my handy dandy spreadsheet and I can see it was only used this year by DD on her Lyft account, which is just stored on it, so no card needed and I used it for Plastiq at the beginning of the year so I looked through my desk area where I keep my computer. No Card anywhere!!!! A little embarrassed to say I finally found it under DH's dresser!!

I bought a small business card holder from Amazon and put all of our CC's in there that we are currently not using. Every now and then I go through them and shred the ones I have cancelled. At least they are all in the same place and easy to find.

 

[alryan]

I'm working on my $30k MSR for 2 Biz Plats and want to make use of PPK until they longer accept AmEx on 1/4. I stocked up on skin care products that doesn't take AmEx and I paid $1000 for my heat/electric bill. Anything else I'm missing or forgetting?

 

[DisneyMandC]

Food Lion in VA allows it. As long as it's pin-based debit.

Mine have gotten a little nasty. Started asking to see the card and then trying to compare the last 4 on the receipt to the card I showed them.

 

[havaneselover]

Mine have gotten a little nasty. Started asking to see the card and then trying to compare the last 4 on the receipt to the card I showed them.

Yikes. I have about three I go to and they are all fine.

 

[WVMomof3]

My new years resolution - clean out my CCs and keep them orderly. I don't have half the CCs that some of you have and I apparently suck at keeping track of them. I just wasted an hour looking for our Barclay Arrival Plus! I am embarrassed at how many places I have cards stashed. I have my phone wallet as my main use. I hardly ever use a purse, but I currently have 2 out and had cards in both of them. I have a big wallet that is only used to store extra cards and that is stashed in my room. I also bought a special card wallet that I keep on DHs dresser that has mostly his extra cards (they were all supposed to go in here when I bought it, oops, haven't gotten around to finishing that project). My DH has his phone wallet that is his main holder. He has an extra wallet he keeps in his backpack that usually goes with him everywhere that has cards in it and he has a wallet in his car that is mostly just for store loyalty cards. I looked in all of those places twice, no Barclay. Looked in both cars. Did randomly find a CIC loose in my van. Asked both DDs if they might have it for some odd reason. Looked in my handy dandy spreadsheet and I can see it was only used this year by DD on her Lyft account, which is just stored on it, so no card needed and I used it for Plastiq at the beginning of the year so I looked through my desk area where I keep my computer. No Card anywhere!!!! A little embarrassed to say I finally found it under DH's dresser!!

Done! The problem is when I pull them out to use for offers they don’t get put back. Thus I find them in purses, floor of the van and other random spots. But organized for now! Also found 3 that had been cancelled and they are now purged.

 

[Albort]

Our neighbors just sold their house. The weekend it went on the market - they have 48 showings and about 8 offers. Sold for $20,000 more than what they were asking. It is crazy right now if trying to buy a house.

few friends of mine were comparing how houses are like in other states outside of Los Angeles... its quite unbelievable how different every market is.
made a joke on a some people we met on a tour, us from LA, them from New Jersey i think... anyways, they asked us how many acres we live on, we're like acres? more like square feet! lol

 

[disneybirds]

Our neighbors just sold their house. The weekend it went on the market - they have 48 showings and about 8 offers. Sold for $20,000 more than what they were asking. It is crazy right now if trying to buy a house.

That is crazy, but great for your neighbors! My DH has been trying to convince me to sell our house, move into an apartment, then buy in a year or so. While that may make financial sense, I don't want to move twice and have to take the dogs out many times a day. We have been looking to buy in Hilton Head and some of those houses are going for crazy amounts.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Our neighbors just sold their house. The weekend it went on the market - they have 48 showings and about 8 offers. Sold for $20,000 more than what they were asking. It is crazy right now if trying to buy a house.

To be fair, if priced right, unless the market is very bad, houses can usually go quickly. I have sold twice. First time, never got to market. Agent had a buyer interested, full price before listed. Second time, 6 years ago, listed July 4th weekend (Thursday) and by Sunday had multiple offers over list price.
I watch real estate closely around here. There are houses that sit and sit, and others that are contingent within a day or 2 of listing. Much of it is price. Decent houses at reasonable prices get snapped up. Even crap houses priced right go quickly. The house next to my sister was on the market earlier this year.it had been rented for years then vacant for 18 months. Rough shape. Sold in days to flippers.