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

[EACarlson]

ETA I checked out ParkNFly $12 per day instead of $15, so it will save me $30. The other advantage is the shuttle is nicer but it's farther, right?

It's no more than 5 minutes from MDW. With ParkNFly I've never had to wait. Everytime I've used them I land, get my bag and the shuttle has been there waiting. From walking out of the terminal to getting on 55, maybe 20 minutes.

 

[wanderlust7]

I don't know what time the appointments open, sorry.* But last month (6/25) I took DD in to get her passport renewed (expiring this November when we are supposed to go to Costa Rica - who knows if that will actually happen at this point) and decided to go ahead and pay for expedited service. The USPS had a sign posted that said passports could take 18 weeks or more with regular service. That was cutting it too close for my comfort especially since I have to decide whether or not to keep the United award tickets 30 days prior to departure if I want to get a full refund. We ended up getting her passport back in 3 weeks! In the interim I saw several news articles saying there was such a backlog with getting passports that some people couldn't go on their trips which had me worried, but DD's passport came very quickly. Was it due to expedited service? I have to assume it was.

But you're looking at April which is a lot farther out than November...

Oh, another issue I had was with the first USPS appointment, DD and I showed up and the worker insisted that both parents (with government issued documents) had to show up for the appointment to go through with processing the application for a 16 year old (it did not say anywhere in the paperwork I looked through that that was necessary). So I had to make a 2nd appointment when DH could leave work to meet us at USPS to try again...and of course that time the other USPS employee never even asked to see DH at all. Be prepared for both parents to show up, otherwise you need a notarized letter or something like that giving permission for the one parent to go through with the application.

Excellent point from @CyndiLouWho to bring your own passport photos. My Costco stopped doing them; I ended up going to AAA for DD's.

*Have you tried changing the time & date setting on your computer to push you to another time zone? I had to do that back when I was searching for covid vaccine availability and it worked great since Walmart's website populated appointments at midnight EST.

I haven't stalked in earnest yet. It crossed my mind that it might make a difference changing the date on my computer. I was able to get appointments to show for 4 weeks from Monday, enter my info, but then it errors out when I try to confirm. So it does sound like it's loaded, but there's some check that it's 4 weeks from the day.

Awesome that you got it back in 3 weeks! I might go for the expedited so I can worry about it less. Thanks!

Thanks for the photo tip @CyndiLouWho I was going to do it at the post office since it seemed convenient.

 

[Alexle2007]

Sigh. Need to get the kids' passports renewed (well, technically a new application since you can't renew them). Having trouble finding appointments at the post office. The site is so glitchy. Anyone know what time exactly at 4 weeks appointments are released? Guess I'll try midnight EST first.

Earliest we'd need them is April. But I hear they're so backed up right now. Debating if we should pay for the expedited.

Does your public library process them? That’s we went for DS’s a few years ago.

 

[Alexle2007]

I don't know what time the appointments open, sorry.* But last month (6/25) I took DD in to get her passport renewed (expiring this November when we are supposed to go to Costa Rica - who knows if that will actually happen at this point) and decided to go ahead and pay for expedited service. The USPS had a sign posted that said passports could take 18 weeks or more with regular service. That was cutting it too close for my comfort especially since I have to decide whether or not to keep the United award tickets 30 days prior to departure if I want to get a full refund. We ended up getting her passport back in 3 weeks! In the interim I saw several news articles saying there was such a backlog with getting passports that some people couldn't go on their trips which had me worried, but DD's passport came very quickly. Was it due to expedited service? I have to assume it was.

But you're looking at April which is a lot farther out than November...

Oh, another issue I had was with the first USPS appointment, DD and I showed up and the worker insisted that both parents (with government issued documents) had to show up for the appointment to go through with processing the application for a 16 year old (it did not say anywhere in the paperwork I looked through that that was necessary). So I had to make a 2nd appointment when DH could leave work to meet us at USPS to try again...and of course that time the other USPS employee never even asked to see DH at all. Be prepared for both parents to show up, otherwise you need a notarized letter or something like that giving permission for the one parent to go through with the application.

Excellent point from @CyndiLouWho to bring your own passport photos. My Costco stopped doing them; I ended up going to AAA for DD's.

*Have you tried changing the time & date setting on your computer to push you to another time zone? I had to do that back when I was searching for covid vaccine availability and it worked great since Walmart's website populated appointments at midnight EST.

I think the kids get processed much quicker than adults. DS got his back over a month before DH and me last year at the earliest stages of the pandemic. (When I was holding out hope of Australia…sigh….)

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I was able to get appointments to show for 4 weeks from Monday, enter my info, but then it errors out when I try to confirm.

If you have a post office nearby try going in and using the kiosk. It’s usually in the area with PO Boxes accessible 24/7

 

[ep1229]

Question about 18 year old students credit card apps...

What do you write down for housing? The options are Own, Rent, Other
For income, do you include scholarships and grants? Allowance? aside from summer job income. They will have work study but that hasn't started yet.

TIA

 

[MinnieMay]

I have two CICs. So I try to buy $5k/month in fee free visa gcs. I usually convert them to $499.54 money orders two at a time at food lion. I then use three money orders to pay my mortgage and deposit the other seven in my two checking accounts. So far so good.

So the money order costs $0.46? Do they limit you to buying 2, maximum of $500 each? I believe I can use money orders to pay mortgage and tuition. Is there anything I should know before I go to foodlion?

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

I am interested in your MS/VGC update. I have been trying to search your past posts (also @havaneselover) to try to come up with a plan of my own to maximize my 5X spending categories on CFF and CIC. I was also looking for newbie details on DisChurners but didn't really find it. I know things always change in that regard.

I'll update DisChurners on what I found. It seems to be back by Reddit Churning MS thread. But things change so often.

ETA- Not able to add to the MS threads on DisChurners.....Anyone know what I can do?

 

[havaneselover]

So the money order costs $0.46? Do they limit you to buying 2, maximum of $500 each? I believe I can use money orders to pay mortgage and tuition. Is there anything I should know before I go to foodlion?

Yes at Food Lion they are $0.46 (maybe up to $750). No limit that I know of but if you buy $3,000+ they have to record it. I stick to $1000. The only thing they say to me is that it has to be pin based debit and mine does check the receipt. So I do a swipe and then sometimes say something like "four more swipes."

 

[lsutigers03]

Yes at Food Lion they are $0.46 (maybe up to $750). No limit that I know of but if you buy $3,000+ they have to record it. I stick to $1000. The only thing they say to me is that it has to be pin based debit and mine does check the receipt. So I do a swipe and then sometimes say something like "four more swipes."

What bank do you use? I’ve deposited money orders once into my Chase account but I’ve heard Chase is quick to shut down accounts due to things like that.

 

[havaneselover]

What bank do you use? I’ve deposited money orders once into my Chase account but I’ve heard Chase is quick to shut down accounts due to things like that.

I split them between Wells Fargo and Bank of America.

 

[WVMomof3]

Question about 18 year old students credit card apps...

What do you write down for housing? The options are Own, Rent, Other
For income, do you include scholarships and grants? Allowance? aside from summer job income. They will have work study but that hasn't started yet.

TIA

I know the first time oldest DD tried for Discover she put her rent on it and was denied. I told her not to put it on because I was paying the rent and not her and her rent for the year was more than her income. So I’m not what she ended up putting. I would say other if those are the 3 choices.

My DS just got his first card last year and I think I told him to just add up what he would make in work study over the course of the school year and use that number. Still a pretty small number but he was approved. He had just started working when he applied. Both DDs had worked longer so they put whatever they made that year.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

I got an offer to add an AU to my DiscoverIT card and get $25. Looks like my DD is getting a discover now, LOL.

 

[iujen94]

My SW Priority card has a Best Buy offer - 10% back, up to $35 back. I thought that was a pretty good offer (especially since I need another $600 to hit the SUB)!

 

[wanderlust7]

Does your public library process them? That’s we went for DS’s a few years ago.

Only post offices around us, unfortunately.

 

[Lorana]

I've been trying to search the boards but couldn't find an answer to this, so apologies if this has been asked and answered before.

I have the AMEX Bonvoy Brilliant Card with the $300 credit. I know I can get this credit for room stays at the Swan and Dolphin, but if I were staying elsewhere but dining at one of the S&D restaurants and charged the restaurant bill to my AMEX card, would I get the credit?

We are coming in December, and I realized I hadn't used my credit yet. We had planned to stay our first night at the Poly before moving to join friends at CBR (as this is a birthday trip for a friend, we were going to stay with them). However, I'm debating switching to the Swan & Dolphin to use the credit, unless I can use it for dining at the restaurants. Thanks!!

 

[platamama]

I'll update DisChurners on what I found. It seems to be back by Reddit Churning MS thread. But things change so often.

ETA- Not able to add to the MS threads on DisChurners.....Anyone know what I can do?

I just checked, and your comment showed up fine!

 

[mmmears]

Sigh. Need to get the kids' passports renewed (well, technically a new application since you can't renew them). Having trouble finding appointments at the post office. The site is so glitchy. Anyone know what time exactly at 4 weeks appointments are released? Guess I'll try midnight EST first.

Earliest we'd need them is April. But I hear they're so backed up right now. Debating if we should pay for the expedited.

I'm pretty sure we are in the same area. Couldn't find anything available a few months ago and ours were about to expire. We ended up taking the photos ourselves, at home, and just mailing it all in. I don't think that will work for kids, though. Have you tried going out a bit (away from the more crowded areas) and checking there?

 

[atxbound]

I've been trying to search the boards but couldn't find an answer to this, so apologies if this has been asked and answered before.

I have the AMEX Bonvoy Brilliant Card with the $300 credit. I know I can get this credit for room stays at the Swan and Dolphin, but if I were staying elsewhere but dining at one of the S&D restaurants and charged the restaurant bill to my AMEX card, would I get the credit?

We are coming in December, and I realized I hadn't used my credit yet. We had planned to stay our first night at the Poly before moving to join friends at CBR (as this is a birthday trip for a friend, we were going to stay with them). However, I'm debating switching to the Swan & Dolphin to use the credit, unless I can use it for dining at the restaurants. Thanks!!

No. Have to be able to charge it to your room

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Thanks for sharing this! I was thinking of PCing DH's CSR to a CSP and then referring me to the CSP for the bonus so that he was get a referral. I would then either PC one of his or my Freedom cards back to the CSR because we also use the points at the 1.5% rate.

I was trying to think if there was any way I could refer him to the CSP after he referred me, but I don't think that would work unless the elevated bonus stuck around for quite awhile because I'd have to PC his CSP before he would apply again.

Not sure I followed all of those moves, but it’s a great concept! Hope it all works!!

Diamond breakfast definitely a plus. Travel to Hawaii not on my list, but definitely a good redemption. Aspire is a card I might upgrade to in the future, just not a great fit right now. The SW credits I used were for taxes only, so it takes a lot of $5.60 to add up. Lol. I know I could probably get a flight less than $100 to credit, but we're not taking any flights that cheap. I have to make an effort to use the credits and after not getting an upgrade at the local resort, I had a bad taste and downgraded.

We haven’t taken any $100 flights either- I wish!! Lots of DPs about booking any flight for $100, which triggers the airline credit, then cancel and get SW credit. I’ll leave it at that but flyertalk has more info.

Anyone do a refi through better with the Amex offer? It's all the talk on one of my FB pages. I refi'd last year, but people are getting 2.5% and they are getting $2k back from Amex, which likely would cover most of my closing costs. I got 2.99% last year. So getting 2.5% would be nice. There's no harm in applying right?

Also if I am looking to do a refi, but also want to do a new card, I'm guessing I should do the card before starting the refi right? I'm not too worried if I didn't get approved on the refi (though saving some money each month would be nice). This is not my forever home. I'll likely be selling it in the next 6-10 years. With how insane the market is, I owe $280ish and my house likely could sell $400k. It's funny, last year we were slightly worried about the 20% equity to refi, this year, clearly not going to be an issue.

In other news, I've gone WAY down the MS/VGC rabbit hole, if anyone needs an update w/ that. WM is not playing nice anymore with most cards. But OD/OM has cards they do like....so I've been buying those this week, LOL.

I'm also only $700 away from hitting my CIU. I never thought in millions years I'd hit a $7500 spend w/o using Venmo. But $2400 in gift card purchases helped, LOL. So now I'm starting to look at my next plan. I guess the dilemma is still, do I do the MDD and be 5/24 until at least 4/22? Do I do the IHG card, and then the MDD (hoping the 100k offer is still there)? Do I do the CSP only, then upgrade back to the CSR later, then be able to do the IHG later this year? Ahhhh, choices!


Did you get the mailer? 8/15 the biz will move to the regular Barclay site! I'm soooo happy, though I will likely close the biz. When the AF hits. I haven't decided if I want to close the Biz or the personal. I want to try churning (which I think I'd have more luck w/ the personal, since I've had that since 2017).


From what I've read, reporting 0 is as bad as being max. They say it's good to have at least a few dollars on it when they report.


So you upgraded a month later the same card you downgraded to? I'm just trying to follow as I need to downgrade my CSR and I'm debating if I try the MDD or not. Is there a reason you didn't do the MDD? I just want to make sure I have a CSR by next spring for the 1.5x as well.

Yes, CSR to CFU to CSR. Opted not to do the MDD bc I’m sort of risk adverse (sometimes). Didn’t feel 60k was worth a slot and potentially extra eyes on my account.

Sigh. Need to get the kids' passports renewed (well, technically a new application since you can't renew them). Having trouble finding appointments at the post office. The site is so glitchy. Anyone know what time exactly at 4 weeks appointments are released? Guess I'll try midnight EST first.

Earliest we'd need them is April. But I hear they're so backed up right now. Debating if we should pay for the expedited.

DD and I “renewed” at the same time, but I believe they get sent to different places. Received DD’s back in mere weeks. Mine took several months.