I love credit cards so much! v4.0 - 2021 (see first page for add'l details)

[gottalovepluto]

Disney Visa offer hotels link. I used the offer on both parts of my split stay trip and got a great rate on a CSR Tower room too.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

What type of place did you rent? That area is actually on our list of potential retirement spots.

I love the west coast of FL...my son went to FGCU in Ft Myers, but lived in Estero....Naples was about 35 minutes south...great area

 

[disneybirds]

Just checked my BBP and there was a GF90:0008 $100 Statement Credit. Received a $50 one in December. Loving this card at the moment!

Still no restaurant credits from 2/1.

 

[Limes96]

Disney Visa offer hotels link. I used the offer on both parts of my split stay trip and got a great rate on a CSR Tower room too.

Those are some great deals! I don't have a Disney visa though

 

[staceychev]

I did it! I finished reading all 162 pages! (Thank goodness I'm off today for Presidents' Day.)

OK - bear with me because I have some questions, in no particular order. Ya'll weren't lying when you said that this is the friendliest board on the DIS.

• Do all cards from one brand (Chase, Amex) aggregate the points (URs, MRs, etc)? Is this automatic or manual?
• Related to this, are the points on the Chase Marriott Bonvoy the same? The current offer is 75K points for a 3K spend, which seems overly generous. Further - are all Chase points the same? All Amex points?
• What are the requirements for a business card? My husband has a side-business doing AV installs for people - he let his state registration lapse and it's a mostly for-cash-or-trade business at this point with existing customers. I literally do nothing, I swear. Not even selling on ebay. My FT job and raising two kids and keeping this house standing keep me occupied.
• Are there ways to pay with credit to someone who doesn't take credit? We've got a big house expense (painting-about 10K) coming up, and our chosen vendor doesn't take credit cards.
• What do you use to track? I can make a spreadsheet - I'm pretty savvy with Excel for being a former English teacher - but I'm not sure what to include. Or, are there downloads you like? I'm thinking KISS - some of the downloads I've seen have so much information!
• If DH and I are AUs on existing cards, is there any benefit to removing ourselves? Or just don't add any more AUs?

I think that's it - thank you again for your generosity! I'm leaning towards either the CSP or CSR right now, unless that CMB 75K offer is real Chase points. The business card makes me nervous - I think I need to work up to that one! I need to wait until next week to apply - my Citi card was approved on 1/22/21.

 

[becauseimnew]

I'm at 46 transactions on my Hyatt card. And 49 on DH's card.

This is your daily reminder to use your Hyatt cards.

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

Disney Gift Cards: I found that AAA sells them at 5% discount (plus 3% if you have a travel card), $25-500 variable

And of course Sam's Club sells them, I think around 4% discount

Have fun!

Thanks! That's good to know. Just wanted to double check though...if you purchase the GCs from AAA with your CSP, it should code as travel and earn 2x the points?

 

[becauseimnew]

I did it! I finished reading all 162 pages! (Thank goodness I'm off today for Presidents' Day.)

OK - bear with me because I have some questions, in no particular order. Ya'll weren't lying when you said that this is the friendliest board on the DIS. ❤

• Do all cards from one brand (Chase, Amex) aggregate the points (URs, MRs, etc)? Is this automatic or manual?
• Related to this, are the points on the Chase Marriott Bonvoy the same? The current offer is 75K points for a 3K spend, which seems overly generous. Further - are all Chase points the same? All Amex points?
• What are the requirements for a business card? My husband has a side-business doing AV installs for people - he let his state registration lapse and it's a mostly for-cash-or-trade business at this point with existing customers. I literally do nothing, I swear. Not even selling on ebay. My FT job and raising two kids and keeping this house standing keep me occupied.
• Are there ways to pay with credit to someone who doesn't take credit? We've got a big house expense (painting-about 10K) coming up, and our chosen vendor doesn't take credit cards.
• What do you use to track? I can make a spreadsheet - I'm pretty savvy with Excel for being a former English teacher - but I'm not sure what to include. Or, are there downloads you like? I'm thinking KISS - some of the downloads I've seen have so much information!
• If DH and I are AUs on existing cards, is there any benefit to removing ourselves? Or just don't add any more AUs?

I think that's it - thank you again for your generosity! I'm leaning towards either the CSP or CSR right now, unless that CMB 75K offer is real Chase points. The business card makes me nervous - I think I need to work up to that one! I need to wait until next week to apply - my Citi card was approved on 1/22/21.

• Do all cards from one brand (Chase, Amex) aggregate the points (URs, MRs, etc)? Is this automatic or manual?
  • Amex MR's combine points automatically, you can't combine household points.
  • Chase URs have to be combined manually, but you can combine household points.
• Related to this, are the points on the Chase Marriott Bonvoy the same? The current offer is 75K points for a 3K spend, which seems overly generous. Further - are all Chase points the same? All Amex points?
  • That is a lousy offer, I would wait until the 100K offer comes back, usually with $5K spend. And those points are added to your own personal Marriott account. You can transfer 100K points to anyone each year for free, you just have to call. But all Amex and Chase marriott points will be combined to the same account.
• What are the requirements for a business card? My husband has a side-business doing AV installs for people - he let his state registration lapse and it's a mostly for-cash-or-trade business at this point with existing customers. I literally do nothing, I swear. Not even selling on ebay. My FT job and raising two kids and keeping this house standing keep me occupied.
  • Nothing, most of us just use ebay sales as our side business. DH drove for Uber for a few months so we used that too. But no real business lic. required.
• Are there ways to pay with credit to someone who doesn't take credit? We've got a big house expense (painting-about 10K) coming up, and our chosen vendor doesn't take credit cards.
  • Plastiq might be an option. Plastiq will mail a check.
• What do you use to track? I can make a spreadsheet - I'm pretty savvy with Excel for being a former English teacher - but I'm not sure what to include. Or, are there downloads you like? I'm thinking KISS - some of the downloads I've seen have so much information!
  • spreadsheet. I can share mine PM me.
• If DH and I are AUs on existing cards, is there any benefit to removing ourselves? Or just don't add any more AUs?
  • No need to remove if the cards are over 24 months. Just don't add them to personal cards anymore.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I did it! I finished reading all 162 pages! (Thank goodness I'm off today for Presidents' Day.)

OK - bear with me because I have some questions, in no particular order. Ya'll weren't lying when you said that this is the friendliest board on the DIS. ❤

• Do all cards from one brand (Chase, Amex) aggregate the points (URs, MRs, etc)? Is this automatic or manual?

URs sit on ONE card, but you can transfer between cards and between spouses. Just don't close the card that has your points on it. Most of us combine them to one card (our most lucrative one, typically CSR or CSP/CIP) when each statement closes.

Amex MRs are automatically combined to one account - you can't transfer those points between spouses. And they are safe as long as you don't close your last MR earning card.

Co-Brands (Southwest, American, United, Delta, Hilton, Marriott, Hyatt, etc.) will transfer to your frequent traveler account with that program and are typically safe once transferred. So they aren't tied to keeping that card open (although you likely will want to keep cards open for numerous reasons, and always at least 12 months)

• Related to this, are the points on the Chase Marriott Bonvoy the same? The current offer is 75K points for a 3K spend, which seems overly generous. Further - are all Chase points the same? All Amex points?

Points through the various hotel and airline programs are much different than the bank's points (URs/MRs, TYPs). They work differently and are worth varying amounts. For example, I'd say that URs are worth 2x or even 3x as much as Marriott points. SW points are worth basically the same as URs. Hyatt is widely regarded as the most valuable hotel point but harder to earn.

• What are the requirements for a business card? My husband has a side-business doing AV installs for people - he let his state registration lapse and it's a mostly for-cash-or-trade business at this point with existing customers. I literally do nothing, I swear. Not even selling on ebay. My FT job and raising two kids and keeping this house standing keep me occupied.

Open up an application and start through it - you'll see. It's not hard... You do have to state how long you've been in business and how much revenue you do. That can be a gray area for most folks... If you go for one do it as a sole prop, with your (or your husband's) SSN, and DO NOT make up a fake business name. Use your own name. You can freely add each other as employee cardholders with biz cards too because they don't show up on personal credit reports. (Unlike personal cards where you want to avoid AU cards).

• Are there ways to pay with credit to someone who doesn't take credit? We've got a big house expense (painting-about 10K) coming up, and our chosen vendor doesn't take credit cards.

Plastiq would be your best bet for this. There are potentially some other options out there as well - this will depend on what card you get and how much of a fee you're willing to pay.

• What do you use to track? I can make a spreadsheet - I'm pretty savvy with Excel for being a former English teacher - but I'm not sure what to include. Or, are there downloads you like? I'm thinking KISS - some of the downloads I've seen have so much information!

Spreadsheet is a MUST! You want to track a lot of stuff to be successful in this game. I have one sheet where I track all of our card applications. Another where I track spend towards the bonus, and a third where I track the balances in our loyalty programs. I'll try to get you a screenshot of each so you can see them.

• If DH and I are AUs on existing cards, is there any benefit to removing ourselves? Or just don't add any more AUs?

Only reason to remove is if those cards were opened in the last 2 years. If they're older, leave them. And even if they are recent, unless there's a bunch of them... it's probably not an issue for you yet.

 

[Psychodisney]

So it’s the same gc website as before, just different login?

It seems that way!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

@staceychev and anybody else interested... Spreadsheet Headers and limited example data:

Tracking our applications:

(sensitive data blacked out)

Tracking our points balances:


And I think you can sort of come up with a template to track your spend. I verify all of my MSRs on my own and keep track. I don't trust trackers in apps, or chats with agents... all me! LOL!

Most of these headers should be self explanatory I'd think, BUT if any don't make sense, let me know.

 

[gottalovepluto]

@staceychev and anybody else interested... Spreadsheet Headers and limited example data:

Tracking our applications:
View attachment 556580
(sensitive data blacked out)

Tracking our points balances:
View attachment 556581

And I think you can sort of come up with a template to track your spend. I verify all of my MSRs on my own and keep track. I don't trust trackers in apps, or chats with agents... all me! LOL!

Most of these headers should be self explanatory I'd think, BUT if any don't make sense, let me know.

One of the things I also started doing is printing off a history of my points accounts, kinda of like a DIY quarterly or yearly statement, so if I need to trace back to something and the history isn’t available online I still can.

 

[punkin]

I'm at 46 transactions on my Hyatt card. And 49 on DH's card.

This is your daily reminder to use your Hyatt cards.

Ack!!! I'm so behind...

 

[LynnTH]

Ooh! Exciting! We went to Universal in Dec 18 as a surprise long weekend for my Harry Potter addicts. There were tears of joy. We stayed in Cabana Bay - I'm not an experienced enough traveler to know how to do this, but look into room refurbs. We stayed in a family suite that hadn't been refurbished, and it was pretty worn. If there's a way to get a refurbished room, definitely look into that. In addition to watching the Universal board on DIS, you can subscribe to the Universal Community by Orlando Informer on FB. Those people are really savvy!

Thanks. Yeah - Universal is a whole new world to us. We know Disney like the back of our hands... But will be fun to try something new.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

One of the things I also started doing is printing off a history of my points accounts, kinda of like a DIY quarterly or yearly statement, so if I need to trace back to something and the history isn’t available online I still can.

This is an amazing tip! It's one thing for me to know what my points balance was on a certain date... but if something truly went wrong, having that proof could be helpful too! And to your other point, they seem to wipe that history after so long - it only goes back 1 year, maybe 2 with some of these programs!

I might need to do this with my larger balances! Thanks!!

 

[LynnTH]

Ooh! Exciting! We went to Universal in Dec 18 as a surprise long weekend for my Harry Potter addicts. There were tears of joy. We stayed in Cabana Bay - I'm not an experienced enough traveler to know how to do this, but look into room refurbs. We stayed in a family suite that hadn't been refurbished, and it was pretty worn. If there's a way to get a refurbished room, definitely look into that. In addition to watching the Universal board on DIS, you can subscribe to the Universal Community by Orlando Informer on FB. Those people are really savvy!

Thanks. Yeah - Universal is a whole new world to us. We know Disney like the back of our hands... But will be fun to try something new.

Yes! You shouldn’t have any problem upgrading those tickets to APs.
VB is awesome! We went back in 2017 the day after it opened and LOVED it, DH still talks about the Not So Lazy River. We are going back this summer - DH’s request.
I would say read up on VL for Hagrids, that’s similar to thunder and 7DMT. Talk to the cast members about what time they drop new virtual tickets. We were there over thanksgiving and rode it 8 times because we kept getting passes throughout the day.

Getting excited. (just glad to get out of this polar vortex and into some warmer weather)

 

[gottalovepluto]

This is an amazing tip! It's one thing for me to know what my points balance was on a certain date... but if something truly went wrong, having that proof could be helpful too! I might need to do this with my larger balances! Thanks!!

#ThanksAA

(For those not around for the AApocalypse when AA when terminated accounts they terminated access to your history as well.)

 

[Judique]

Any chance to get any nights at all this week to rent pts for a dvc studio? We’re not members so would rent, but access to washer and dryer would be nice. Is Last minute even possible? Usually I know answer is no but not sure right now.

ETA Actually never mind, not sure I want to go that route. I’m all discombobulated thinking of possibilities.

I just took a look and there are several options. Boardwalk Villas - standard view studio, Saratoga, Animal Kingdom Villa, and Old Key West.

The BWV is probably a really recent cancelation and won't last for very long.

 

[Alexle2007]

I'm at 46 transactions on my Hyatt card. And 49 on DH's card.

This is your daily reminder to use your Hyatt cards.

Just completed 50 on mine and 10 more to go on DH’s. He had his Hyatt CC hidden in his wallet. Now to wait for my bonus to post.

 

[Haley R]

Not often you get to look up and see a blimp on your bike ride!