I love credit cards so much! v5.0 - 2022 (see first page for add'l details)

[afan]

Go figure, p2 and I were both denied for the Citi Thank You premier, and today my 26 yr old DD, get a pre-selected offer in the mail for that card. She'd never meet the spend, but found it very interesting.

They want people with very few recent new cards.

 

[Alexle2007]

I have been looking at the Sirata, and was also looking at the SandPearl (I think) and a Hilton down that way in Clearwater. The Sirata is much more affordable.
I looked at the Don Cesar, yeah, not a chance in heck.
Don't want party central, at all, would like to be able to walk to dinner/bar, and maybe shops/gift shops?

Our first trip to CB we stayed at the SandPearl and it is absolutely lovely! I booked directly with the SandPearl and did the breakfast package. We got a huge upgrade to a one bedroom suite. The kitchen had Kitchen Aid appliances and washer/dryer. I would stay there again.

Our go to though has been the Hyatt Regency. I don’t mind the walk across the street to the beach. We have always had great service and terrific rooms. I was just there last week. I definitely recommmend Frenchy’s for dinner if you like seafood.

 

[Alexle2007]

Staying at the Chicago Athletic Association ( Hyatt category 4) for a night in the city. What a cool place! Amazing views from the rooftop!

Very nice! I had that booked for my girls trip but my friends felt it was too far out plus only double beds. I currently have the Hyatt Regency, Hyatt Centric and Park Hyatt booked because I can’t pick! I had to book a suite at the Park Hyatt but the cpps ridiculous at 4.8 (Not that I would ever pay $4800 for 2 nights.) The HR has the lounge so free wine in The evening is nice and Centric seems to be a nice location and another brand to check off. Decisions, decisions.

 

[Babars_Wife]

I just got full on rejected for a CIC today. Last Chase app was 5/17/22 and I am at 3/24. I used the same information about my "business" that I always do. Only thing I can think is that I was recently added onto a business banking account and had to give them all my information. Did they run my credit and that somehow upset Chase?

ETA: Well poop, I went to apply for a Citi Premier and was rejected there too. Should have checked my credit report first I guess.

ETA2: Credit score 831/812. And I'm not seeing any inquiries or anything in the last 3 months. What the heck.

 

[becauseimnew]

I just got full on rejected for a CIC today. Last Chase app was 5/17/22 and I am at 3/24. I used the same information about my "business" that I always do. Only thing I can think is that I was recently added onto a business banking account and had to give them all my information. Did they run my credit and that somehow upset Chase?

ETA: Well poop, I went to apply for a Citi Premier and was rejected there too. Should have checked my credit report first I guess.

ETA2: Credit score 831/812. And I'm not seeing any inquiries or anything in the last 3 months. What the heck.

What does the Chase rejection letter say?

Citi Premier is normal to reject people with great credit, too many cards and low utilization ratio.

 

[Babars_Wife]

What does the Chase rejection letter say?

Citi Premier is normal to reject people with great credit, too many cards and low utilization ratio.

Re: Citi, yeah that clearly defines me.

Re: Chase. Oddly I didn't get a rejection email nor do I see a message in my chase account. Should I have gotten one? I've never been rejected before so I'm a newbie.

 

[becauseimnew]

Re: Citi, yeah that clearly defines me.

Re: Chase. Oddly I didn't get a rejection email nor do I see a message in my chase account. Should I have gotten one? I've never been rejected before so I'm a newbie.

How do you know you Chase declined you?

 

[NewbieMom]

I am about to book an overnight trip to Legoland New York. It is non-refundable. They have a protection plan that cost 10% which allows you cancel or switch dates. It would be a little over $100 to do this. I’m mostly considered with weather. Getting rained out or a hurricane.
I am so used to Disney which works with you if weather cancels your trip. Should I get get the protection? I really hate spending $100+ when nothing will probably happen to cancel it. But then I really don’t want to lose $1100 if it is pouring rain that weekend.

What do you smarter, savy travelers do?

Is the protection plan for tickets, hotel, or the full package? Not exactly your scenario, but here's what happened to us last year that may/may not help you make a decision. We bought date-based tickets (no hotel) to Legoland CA last year and it says non-refundable. Come our trip date, we got covid and had to reschedule. The customer rep just asked me when we want to reschedule to and he changed the date of the tickets (could be up to 1 year from the original date). So in my case, there was no reason to pay extra as they're willing to adjust the tickets for free. Not sure if they would be willing to do so for a non-refundable hotel room though.

 

[Babars_Wife]

How do you know you Chase declined you?

After I clicked submit it said "Unfortunately we can't accept you at this time. We'll let you know why in 7-10 days." or something similar. Is that a "under review" response?

 

[pinkxray]

Is the protection plan for tickets, hotel, or the full package? Not exactly your scenario, but here's what happened to us last year that may/may not help you make a decision. We bought date-based tickets (no hotel) to Legoland CA last year and it says non-refundable. Come our trip date, we got covid and had to reschedule. The customer rep just asked me when we want to reschedule to and he changed the date of the tickets (could be up to 1 year from the original date). So in my case, there was no reason to pay extra as they're willing to adjust the tickets for free. Not sure if they would be willing to do so for a non-refundable hotel room though.

Interesting. I think it all of it since bundled together it is a little over $1000.
I didn’t even think about Covid. I was more worried about the weather. We have had a few hurricanes in Ct around that time. I’ll probably just suck it up and pay it. Or maybe book the room/tickets separate. Need to check the math for that.

 

[becauseimnew]

After I clicked submit it said "Unfortunately we can't accept you at this time. We'll let you know why in 7-10 days." or something similar. Is that a "under review" response?

You should be able to see the denial letter in your documents tomorrow.

 

[happ]

After I clicked submit it said "Unfortunately we can't accept you at this time. We'll let you know why in 7-10 days." or something similar. Is that a "under review" response?

This may sound like a dumb question, but is your credit frozen? I've made that mistake and gotten a similar message.

 

[jujubiee4]

Hi. For those that fly out of MCO what airport lounge do you suggest? Anything with the
Amex Platinum or Chase Saph Preferred? Even if we take the latest DCL bus from port to
Airport we are still looking at 3-4 hours before flight leaves. Thank you.

 

[afan]

Hi. For those that fly out of MCO what airport lounge do you suggest? Anything with the
Amex Platinum or Chase Saph Preferred? Even if we take the latest DCL bus from port to
Airport we are still looking at 3-4 hours before flight leaves. Thank you.

If not flying delta I think the club is the only option, at least for the side I fly from. Both are fine.

 

[kalag]

Hi all - I'm new to the credit card game and would really appreciate your input and help. I'm erring on the side of giving perhaps too much info.

I'll start with the info from post #2:

Last 24 month approvals:

10/20 GOLDMAN SACHS apple card (for me but not my wife)
07/22 CHASE freedom unlimited (for both my wife and me)

Older existing cards:
Target red card (my wife's only)
Marriott Bonvoy Amex (was the old SPG Amex, converted to $95/yr Bonvoy)
PNC cashbuilder visa (pays flat 1.75% cash back no points)
Amazon store card (Synchrony bank - mine)

*Monthly total cc spend approximately $6000 though quite variable (groceries about $800/mo, restaurants about $800/mo, gas about $200/mo, internet $100/mo, auto insurance $100/mo)
*Full balance paid monthly, no interest or late fees
*Chicago area airports (ORD, MDW)
*No Frequent Flyer preference
*Southwest does service both airports
*Slight preference for Marriott rewards program but we're flexible
*About 474,000 Marriott Bonvoy points and about 23,000 chase UR points including the sign-on bonus
*Primary goal now: family trip to Hawaii (airfare) within next 2-3 years
*Travel wife, me, + 4 kids (ages 14, 12, nearly 8, nearly 8)

A bit more info: we are in the process of buying a 300 point DVC contract. Given that the contract is fairly loaded we'll have over 500 points at our disposal.

That made my wheels turn. One of these years, if we keep the right balance of use and banking, we can get about a week in a 2br at Aulani, a very exciting prospect to me!

Because buying this DVC contract is going to pull a lot of cash out of us, I'm trying to figure out how to make a trip to Hawaii happen on points.

I have done some preliminary searching for award travel from Chicago to Hawaii and found availability difficult unless going through United's program. But in that case, the cost is 45k points/economy ticket.

As noted above, we have over 470k Bonvoy points. Even if we converted our Bonvoy to Mileage Plus, we would come up well short of 6 economy tickets (420k Bonvoy = 175k Mileage Plus. But 270k Mileage Plus is needed for 6 x 45k tickets). I also suspect this is poor use of Bonvoy points (?).

I'd love to hear feedback. Is it always very hard to get saver award travel to Hawaii from Chicago and hence should I abandon the idea of landing 6 such tickets? Any other strategies to consider? I'm open to gaming cards as needed as long as I don't mess up our credit (both my wife and I are over 800).

Timing-wise we'd travel during school holiday weeks, which are roughly June 10-Aug 15 for summer, last week of March for spring, and the weeks of Dec 25-Jan 1 and Jan 1-Jan 8.

 

[Albort]

Re: Citi, yeah that clearly defines me.

Re: Chase. Oddly I didn't get a rejection email nor do I see a message in my chase account. Should I have gotten one? I've never been rejected before so I'm a newbie.

Citi wants ppl to be at 0/6 these days... 1/6 is you won the lottery recently.
Chase rejection letter will tell u why u were denied. u either get a letter or the letter is sitting in the statement and letter section on your online account.

 

[becauseimnew]

Hi all - I'm new to the credit card game and would really appreciate your input and help. I'm erring on the side of giving perhaps too much info.

I'll start with the info from post #2:

Last 24 month approvals:

10/20 GOLDMAN SACHS apple card (for me but not my wife)
07/22 CHASE freedom unlimited (for both my wife and me)

Older existing cards:
Target red card (my wife's only)
Marriott Bonvoy Amex (was the old SPG Amex, converted to $95/yr Bonvoy)
PNC cashbuilder visa (pays flat 1.75% cash back no points)
Amazon store card (Synchrony bank - mine)

*Monthly total cc spend approximately $6000 though quite variable (groceries about $800/mo, restaurants about $800/mo, gas about $200/mo, internet $100/mo, auto insurance $100/mo)
*Full balance paid monthly, no interest or late fees
*Chicago area airports (ORD, MDW)
*No Frequent Flyer preference
*Southwest does service both airports
*Slight preference for Marriott rewards program but we're flexible
*About 474,000 Marriott Bonvoy points and about 23,000 chase UR points including the sign-on bonus
*Primary goal now: family trip to Hawaii (airfare) within next 2-3 years
*Travel wife, me, + 4 kids (ages 14, 12, nearly 8, nearly 8)

A bit more info: we are in the process of buying a 300 point DVC contract. Given that the contract is fairly loaded we'll have over 500 points at our disposal.

That made my wheels turn. One of these years, if we keep the right balance of use and banking, we can get about a week in a 2br at Aulani, a very exciting prospect to me!

Because buying this DVC contract is going to pull a lot of cash out of us, I'm trying to figure out how to make a trip to Hawaii happen on points.

I have done some preliminary searching for award travel from Chicago to Hawaii and found availability difficult unless going through United's program. But in that case, the cost is 45k points/economy ticket.

As noted above, we have over 470k Bonvoy points. Even if we converted our Bonvoy to Mileage Plus, we would come up well short of 6 economy tickets (420k Bonvoy = 175k Mileage Plus. But 270k Mileage Plus is needed for 6 x 45k tickets). I also suspect this is poor use of Bonvoy points (?).

I'd love to hear feedback. Is it always very hard to get saver award travel to Hawaii from Chicago and hence should I abandon the idea of landing 6 such tickets? Any other strategies to consider? I'm open to gaming cards as needed as long as I don't mess up our credit (both my wife and I are over 800).

Timing-wise we'd travel during school holiday weeks, which are roughly June 10-Aug 15 for summer, last week of March for spring, and the weeks of Dec 25-Jan 1 and Jan 1-Jan 8.

Hi welcome and congratulations on your new purchase, that's so exciting.

Since you don't need to use your Bonvoy points on hotels I don't see why you wouldn't convert those to United points. But you are short 95K points, you could get a United card, which would get you close to what you need. The current offer on the United Explorer Card is 70K miles, annual fee waived the first year. You'll need to spend $6,000 in 3 months but that sounds like it's doable. Then you could refer you wife and she would earn the same points, you won't be able to combine points but you could just use her points to book one RT ticket. So you would convert your Marriott points to United points plus the 76K (70K SUB + 6K for the MSR) for the card, you would have 251K United miles, plus the 76K from your wife. With the United card you have access to extra Saver tickets, so you might be able to get 6 Saver ticket. Of course, you could just go the Southwest route and save your Marriott points for hotels.

Another option would be to fly SW, those points are just as easy to earn. Right now isn't the best time to get a SW card, because with 2 SW cards in Oct/Nov time frame you could get the SW Companion pass. Here is the Mega thread with all the details on what it takes to earn the Companion Pass. It would be a great idea for you and your wife to each earn your own CP that would be good for 2023 & 2024.

Also, I always tell me friends that EVERYONE NEEDS the Chase Sapphire Preferred in their wallet, and you should ALWAYS pay for flights (including 911 $5.60 fee) with the CSP for the travel delay benefits. Here are details on the delay benefits.
The current sign up bonus (SUB) is 60K URs for $4,000 MSR (minimum spending requirement), also the best part is that you can use your CSP to transfer all your URs (including Freedom URs) to the travel partners, including United, SW, Marriott and many other. List here

We have a DISChurners Reddit group where we share support links. I don't recall who has access to adding you but someone here will let you in the group. https://www.reddit.com/r/DISchurners/

One thing to keep in mind is that Chase has a rule known as the 5/24 rule, meaning they won't approve you if you have opened more than 4 personal cards in 24 months. Keep that in mind since you are 2/24 and your wife is 1/24. Do not add each other as Authorized users because that counts towards 5/24.

 

[kalag]

Hi welcome and congratulations on your new purchase, that's so exciting.

Since you don't need to use your Bonvoy points on hotels I don't see why you wouldn't convert those to United points. But you are short 95K points, you could get a United card, which would get you close to what you need. The current offer on the United Explorer Card is 70K miles, annual fee waived the first year. You'll need to spend $6,000 in 3 months but that sounds like it's doable. Then you could refer you wife and she would earn the same points, you won't be able to combine points but you could just use her points to book one RT ticket. So you would convert your Marriott points to United points plus the 76K (70K SUB + 6K for the MSR) for the card, you would have 251K United miles, plus the 76K from your wife. With the United card you have access to extra Saver tickets, so you might be able to get 6 Saver ticket. Of course, you could just go the Southwest route and save your Marriott points for hotels.

Another option would be to fly SW, those points are just as easy to earn. Right now isn't the best time to get a SW card, because with 2 SW cards in Oct/Nov time frame you could get the SW Companion pass. Here is the Mega thread with all the details on what it takes to earn the Companion Pass. It would be a great idea for you and your wife to each earn your own CP that would be good for 2023 & 2024.

Also, I always tell me friends that EVERYONE NEEDS the Chase Sapphire Preferred in their wallet, and you should ALWAYS pay for flights (including 911 $5.60 fee) with the CSP for the travel delay benefits. Here are details on the delay benefits.
The current sign up bonus (SUB) is 60K URs for $4,000 MSR (minimum spending requirement), also the best part is that you can use your CSP to transfer all your URs (including Freedom URs) to the travel partners, including United, SW, Marriott and many other. List here

We have a DISChurners Reddit group where we share support links. I don't recall who has access to adding you but someone here will let you in the group. https://www.reddit.com/r/DISchurners/

One thing to keep in mind is that Chase has a rule known as the 5/24 rule, meaning they won't approve you if you have opened more than 4 personal cards in 24 months. Keep that in mind since you are 2/24 and your wife is 1/24. Do not add each other as Authorized users because that counts towards 5/24.

Thank you, this is very helpful. I have some homework reading to do, looking forward to digging into the links you shared.

 

[smallsy]

Update: Finally called a live person at chase and they said the CIU was denied (womp womp), and I should get a letter in 7-10 days... um... it's been 7-10 days already but ok. This is my second CIU denial, despite getting approved for everything else so I guess it just isn't meant to be. While I was on the phone I had them PC my last CIP to a CIU so at least I can get out of the AF and not lose my points. Sucks to not get the SUB though.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Thank you, this is very helpful. I have some homework reading to do, looking forward to digging into the links you shared.

Hey welcome to the thread. I see @becauseimnew gave you loads of info.
I'm also in Chicago area! You have the exact same school schedule we do.
Few things to add, United is probably the best service to Hawaii as they have non stop flights but SW is also an option. Plus I think Delta & AA but have not looked into those.
When are you planning this trip? Generally takes over a year to plan a trip like this so you can look for those seats the day the bookings open and have points ready. Many people here plan 2+ years out to accumulate points/miles needed.
Are you sure you have no use for those Marriott points? With your spend you can hit quite a few cards between you and your spouse, P2, and accumulate enough miles plus some MRs (AMEX) or URs(Chase) to pay for other parts of the trip. I would plan for 2024 and lay out a roadmap to get the points needed for the specific dates you're looking at (ie spring break vs summer vs Christmas).