I love credit cards so much! v6.0 - 2023 & 2024 (see first page for add'l details)

[Disdood]

I'm only going to reply to the DVC part of this (which is why I edited your post when replying).

a) Make sure you understand the DVC rental agencies' cancellation policies. Originally, renting DVC was a "no changes, no cancellations" thing. Now there is some flexibility, but you need to understand what it is.

b) Make sure you understand the layout and square footage of the room you are considering. In a DVC studio (except Old Key West), the second bed will be some type of pull-out, which takes up floor space when opened. I assume you also will need a crib or a pack & play for the baby; that takes up more floor space. If you will have a stroller or double stroller, that will take up even more floor space. Will there be room to walk around?

c) If you're sure renting points is right for you, then you need to understand the timing. DVC rooms can be booked 11 months out. Some rooms are harder to book then others; people who want to use a rental agency might contact the agency more than 11 months out to get on their list. So if you're trying to use DVC spending to meet a spending requirement for a new credit card, you have to think about:
1) When will you be paying a deposit to the agency
2) When will you be making a first partial payment to the agency
3) When will you be making a final payment to the agency
4) What's the time lag between applying for a card and having the card info so that you can start charging to it? You want to be able to charge # 1 to the card.
5) For the credit card you are considering, what are the timing rules for meeting the spending requirement? For example, if you have to meet the spend in 3 months, will you be be making payments 1-3 to the agency within 3 months? Or will payment # 3 be more than 3 months after payment 1, and thus they won't both qualify for the spend?

I assume you are thinking about using an agency to rent the points. People sometimes rent directly from an Owner they find here on the Dis, but I don't think private Owners take credit card payments. If your goal is to use your DVC rental payments to meet a minimum spend on a new credit card, I don't think renting from a private Owner will work.

Ahhh yes I forgot to mention I intended to purchase through davids/dvcrequest, they do have a cancellation policy but it isn't great so I will be buying insurance.

Those are all great pointers that I did not consider, the other CC concern Im having is deciding which card will give me a greater amount of points for this travel purchase, but also not picking a card that has a weaker point value than others.

 

[djmeredith]

I have an LG dryer(second one in 15 years) and it really should not take that long to dry. Have you ever had the dryer vent cleaned. Sometimes it’s just the vent that goes from the dryer to the wall but last time my dryer took too long to dry that part was clean. I called a dryer vent company to clean it out and it was full of lint. DH always rolled his eyes when I said we should have it done but I was right. Dryer dries really fast now.

Thank you for posting this. My 17 yr old dryer is not drying well and I didn't realize this could be an issue. I was ready to purchase a new one, but now I will clean the vent first and see if that solves it.

 

[djmeredith]

If you have booked an upcoming Disney resort stay, check emails throughout the day. I usually check my personal email once or twice during my work day, but didn't take time to do it yesterday. I missed out on a Disney resort upgrade offer for my upcoming Oct stay. Email arrived around 1:45 and I didn't see until after work. I checked online and called, but they explained all those rooms had been claimed (email said number of rooms was limited). I'm booked at All Star Sports to save money and because my teen nephew is a big sports guy. It sure would have been nice to stay at a nicer place. Maybe I will get lucky and get another offer.

 

[wanderlust7]

Thanks for all of your tips, I see you've recommended I start with a CSR or CSP. My first plan was to use my new CC to cover my purchase through DVC request so that it may jumpstart my MSR, then hopefully turn my points into flights for the trip. Are flights through the Chase Portal worth more than transferring to an airline?

If you get the CSR, the points are worth 1.5 cent per point through the portal. If you get the CSP, then it's worth 1.25 cpp. Whether you can get more value transferring to an airline depends on the cash cost of the flight and how much the award costs.

A big con of going through the portal is that it's a third party booking, so you'd need to go through Chase for any changes. It can be a big pain.

A nice thing about transferring and booking an award is that it's often very flexible. For example, if you book a United award, it can be canceled, miles and taxes refunded, plus the miles don't expire. But the con is finding award availability at a resonable cost.

Southwest is a little different in that their points have a rough fixed value about 1.3 cpp (varies depending on the taxes). I used to transfer because I really valued the flexibility. But now that their travel funds can be made to be transferable (and don't expire), it's a harder choice.

If you find yourself wanting to stay at a Hyatt, transferring can often be a great use of Chase points. That's where most of my URs go.

 

[GZanta77]

Thanks for the warm welcome! No worries about the appliances haha those are legit things to get recommendations for.

Thanks for all of your tips, I see you've recommended I start with a CSR or CSP. My first plan was to use my new CC to cover my purchase through DVC request so that it may jumpstart my MSR, then hopefully turn my points into flights for the trip. Are flights through the Chase Portal worth more than transferring to an airline?

I see @wanderlust7 has addressed this above, and I was also going to mention Southwest where I typically find southwest points to be worth 1.3 to 1.4 pts/$ so getting 1.5 pts through the chase portal can be a win.

But in general terms, the answer, as with so many things is - it depends. Airline points awards vary so much with fare sales and dynamic award pricing that it is not possible to give a definitive answer - but I can say, in my experience, it has usually been better to transfer to the airline program. However, there has also been a few times with Delta flights where I have found it cheaper to book through the Chase Portal than use my Delta miles.

 

[wanderlust7]

Thanks for those snippets. That helps a lot.

On the medical insurance, I'll check if it covers outside US. I am probably more worried about something catastrophic like a bad break, heart attack, ... something that would be a longer hospital stay and I'd want to either be moved back to the states (to be close to caregivers) or have someone able to come stay with me. I'm more apprehensive these days. I broke my ankle 2 years ago walking in my backyard and was incapacitated for 8 weeks. As I age, I am becoming more aware of my fragility.

The CSR comes with medical evacuation up to $100k, though I have no idea if that's enough.

 

[djmeredith]

If you have booked an upcoming Disney resort stay, check emails throughout the day. I usually check my personal email once or twice during my work day, but didn't take time to do it yesterday. I missed out on a Disney resort upgrade offer for my upcoming Oct stay. Email arrived around 1:45 and I didn't see until after work. I checked online and called, but they explained all those rooms had been claimed (email said number of rooms was limited). I'm booked at All Star Sports to save money and because my teen nephew is a big sports guy. It sure would have been nice to stay at a nicer place. Maybe I will get lucky and get another offer.

Quoting myself to update. I did have another upgrade offer in my account today, but it was only for Art of Animation suite (+$305/nt), POR (+$68/nt), or POFQ (+$83.35/nt). I'm not interested in any of those, so I will stay at AS Sports and save money. I did check the upgrade offer against the current sale rate for those nights and they were cheaper. I will keep hoping for a decent Deluxe upgrade offer., but I am fine without it since it's only a 2 nt stay.

 

[Disdood]

I see @wanderlust7 has addressed this above, and I was also going to mention Southwest where I typically find southwest points to be worth 1.3 to 1.4 pts/$ so getting 1.5 pts through the chase portal can be a win.

But in general terms, the answer, as with so many things is - it depends. Airline points awards vary so much with fare sales and dynamic award pricing that it is not possible to give a definitive answer - but I can say, in my experience, it has usually been better to transfer to the airline program. However, there has also been a few times with Delta flights where I have found it cheaper to book through the Chase Portal than use my Delta miles.

Do both you and @wanderlust7 recommend the CSR just for my specific situation? or is it a preferable card to you over AMEX?

Also, if I were to apply for the CSR instead of CSP, what then do you think of my current Amex Plat offer? Is that a substantial enough SUB to make you choose AMEX over CHASE?

Also, I forgot to answer one of your previous questions @GZanta77 , the wife has a Discover card opened back in 2018.

 

[Haley R]

Our new LG fridge was delivered and installed today. So far I love it. It’s very similar to our Samsung but we have finger print resistant finally! Our old one was stainless steel but not finger print resistant and I hated cleaning it. The front of this one is also magnetic which I love because we collect magnets when we travel and I like to hang up stuff ds makes. Our old one was only magnetic on the sides

 

[orangecuse]

Since Jet Blue is going to start flying 1 flight a day from our local airport ISP to MCO…I am considering cheating on SW and applying for the Jet Blue Barclays Plus card while the offer is 80,000 points with a $1,000 spend.
I have never had a Barclays cc, any thoughts on this card or Barclays would be appreciated

We love our Jetblue cards and points! 2 sign up bonuses have gotten us:

1. Roundtrip for 2 down the coast (NE to FL)
2. Roundtrip for 4 down the coast
3. One way for 4 Westcoast to Eastcoast

And free checked bags and bonus miles on anniversary, plus miles back when booking holding a card

 

[orangecuse]

Speaking of redemptions-

We decided to use our Alaska miles to fly to Portland. This took just one signup bonus and $100 in top up miles. We will rent a car and drive to *tbd* locations for about a week and then get ourselves to Vancouver (train? Ferry? Car? Can't decide). We got a flight on Jetblue home from Seattle after the cruise for a great points value too. I feel better now that the flights are booked, next step will be picking where we want to see along the west and how we want to get to/from Vancouver!

 

[georgina]

Since Jet Blue is going to start flying 1 flight a day from our local airport ISP to MCO…I am considering cheating on SW and applying for the Jet Blue Barclays Plus card while the offer is 80,000 points with a $1,000 spend.
I have never had a Barclays cc, any thoughts on this card or Barclays would be appreciated

Thanks for your post, this was not on my radar. I'm taking a break from Chase biz cards, Jet Blue flies out of my home airport (DCA) and I can make $1000 MSR easily! Approved with a $12,000 CL. DH has a Barclays AA card, I am not overjoyed with their website, but on autopay it works fine.

 

[georgina]

Speaking of redemptions-

We decided to use our Alaska miles to fly to Portland. This took just one signup bonus and $100 in top up miles. We will rent a car and drive to *tbd* locations for about a week and then get ourselves to Vancouver (train? Ferry? Car? Can't decide). We got a flight on Jetblue home from Seattle after the cruise for a great points value too. I feel better now that the flights are booked, next step will be picking where we want to see along the west and how we want to get to/from Vancouver!

We all enjoyed the train from Seattle to Vancouver when we did an Alaskan cruise. We took the train there for the cruise, and rented a car when we got off the ship, visited several Vancouver attractions before driving back to Seattle for a red eye flight home.

 

[wanderlust7]

Do both you and @wanderlust7 recommend the CSR just for my specific situation? or is it a preferable card to you over AMEX?

Also, if I were to apply for the CSR instead of CSP, what then do you think of my current Amex Plat offer? Is that a substantial enough SUB to make you choose AMEX over CHASE?

Also, I forgot to answer one of your previous questions @GZanta77 , the wife has a Discover card opened back in 2018.

Is the goal to get free flights to Orlando once or free travel in general? What airline do you want to fly to Orlando?

Chase URs tends to be easier to use than Amex MRs. Amex also has a portal, but you get less value with it than with a CSR/CSP.

The CSR $300 travel credit is super easy to use and you can use it twice on one annual fee. After it resets, you can use it quickly and then downgrade to the CSP or a no fee Freedom for a full or partial refund. With the Amex Platinum, there are a lot of benefits for the $695 annual fee, but they're not as easy to use. The airline credit is for incidentals only, though there are loopholes you can use. The $200 hotel credit is only for hotels that are part of Fine Hotels and Resorts or Hotel Collection (2 night min). It can be a challenge to find something reasonably priced to use the credit on.

There are a lot of overlap with Chase and Amex transfer partners. The different ones off the top of my head for Chase are Southwest, United, and Hyatt. Amex has Delta and Hilton (though Hilton tends to not make sense to transfer unless it's an expensive hotel).

 

[havaneselover]

CIP MSR is almost taken care of thanks to DD's appendicitis followed by wisdom teeth removal and me paying our 6-month auto insurance premium. I have q3 taxes and some flooring to pay for in the next month or so and don't know what to go for now. Probably should have gone for a Surpass in July.

 

[reliev]

I saw that Hyatt has a 20% off points purchase. I have never done this before. Is this something that would be good to look into?

so I buy Hyatt points all the time usually the max because I have a problem I tend not to go for the 20% off I tend to go for the bonus only they have had a 30% bonus but it has been a while 20% to me is an automatic buy if I have a redemption in mind. but 20% off doesn't move the needle for me if that makes sense, I should preface this they only let you buy 55k points a year so that bonus helps.

 

[GZanta77]

Do both you and @wanderlust7 recommend the CSR just for my specific situation? or is it a preferable card to you over AMEX?

Also, if I were to apply for the CSR instead of CSP, what then do you think of my current Amex Plat offer? Is that a substantial enough SUB to make you choose AMEX over CHASE?

Also, I forgot to answer one of your previous questions @GZanta77 , the wife has a Discover card opened back in 2018.

So many of us here have a preference for the Chase Ultimate Rewards program - this may be because Chase has been very generous with business cards and the associated bonuses over recent years. If you have anything you can call a business activity then this might be worth exploring.

Also, Chase has the 5/24 rule - so if you have applied for more than 5 credit cards from any lender over the last 24 months then you are likely ineligible for any further chase cards. Amex has no such rule, so it can be seen as preferable to apply for Chase cards when your 5/24 count is low (as yours is at 1/24) and then switch to Amex when you need to give Chase a break.

Remember, many of us here aim to collect as many points as possible, and recently that has been easier to do with Chase than Amex. If your goal is just focussed on paying for flights for next years trip then I think the key would be to identify which airline you would most likely fly and find cards that meet that goal. For example, if Delta is most likely, then you probably want to be getting an Amex Delta card and an Amex Plat/Gold to accumulate Amex MRs. If Southwest is more likely, then you need to be with Chase Southwest card and/or Chase URs. American Airlines tends to be the most tricky as you really need the airline credit cards but fortunately there is two - Citi and Barclays. Bear in mind, that airline credit cards often offer additional perks such as free checked bags and priority boarding.

Your Amex Plat and Gold offers are good and I would be tempted to take advantage of them - just know that once you have earned a bonus on those cards, it is difficult to earn another one unless you find some loophole. With Chase cards, you can earn a bonus - close the card and then apply again after a period of time (up to 4 years) and earn another bonus.

Ultimately, there is no wrong decision. You just need to get started somewhere. Over the next year you could easily accommodate both Chase and Amex cards into your plans if your income and expenditure allows. I may have a small preference for the Chase ecosystem, but can find value in many different programs. Between DW and I, we are usually holding somewhere in the region of 25-30 cards at any given time. You just need to make sure that you are getting value for any annual fees paid.

 

[Disdood]

@wanderlust7 @GZanta77 ultimately I would like free travel in general but definitely this trip is the first thing in my sights. I do not have a specific airline in mind, it could be Southwest, AA, United, or Delta. It ultimately depends on what I can score.

Do you recommend applying for both CSR and CSP? or try for CSP only if I get denied for CSR? also, should I wait for any promotions for higher SUB's to come in? or just make it happen? I Plan on using the card either end of October or end of November.

 

[AmyAnne]

And I don't get ice people when I order pop, unless there's free refills at a sit down, I'm asking for it without ice. I don't want watery drinks unless it's scotch/whisky on the rocks. I drink water room temp unless it's after a run or I'm out and cold is what you get.

We've never had a water or ice dispenser and we don't even make ice the old school way. I only have ice cube trays to make pup ice cream.

We bought a counter top water filtration thing a few months ago because our tap water is gross and it's great. The water tastes great but also my humidifier is so much easier to clean which tells me how useless the brita pitcher was.

Curious what filtration system you bought.

 

[afan]

Curious what filtration system you bought.

Bluevua RO100ROPOT-LITE... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BGK4BQ2D?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I got a glass pitcher for the fridge and one for the counter so we have water available in both. It's what we use for the dog and my reg drinking, the cold is for Kool aid because I use the liquid stuff and I'm 5 and that's what I drink