I love credit cards so much! v7.0 - 2025 (see first page for add'l details)

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

We recently purchased 150 DVC points direct and charged to our CSR. The expense counted as travel (3pts per dollar) for UR points. Very nice.
We're considering ditching (actually downgrading CSR to a no fee Chase card to save our credit scores) and moving onto AMEX Platinum. We'll wait to see what AMEX makes for changes beforehand however.

Once we know about the changes (hopefully before they happen), get the cards before the AF increase!

And yes, it's nice that DVC direct codes as travel, that's been useful for us in the past

 

[NewbieMom]

What were your kids’ favorite things in London? We’re going next week for the first time

This might not be so helpful to you because my kids loved everything! Their favorites: riding the double decker bus (always sitting up top), tower bridge*, london eye*, shreks adventure*, thames river cruise*, tower of london*, science museum, changing of the guard at buckingham palace, princess diana playground, memorial fountain. They also loved seeing the Lion King at Lyceum theater and picking out treats at the food hall in Harrods. If I had to pick a couple of things they didn't enjoy, I'd say the English afternoon tea and the borough market. They are more chicken nuggets/fries eaters, so the food offerings at those two places were only ok to them.

*These were all in the same area and you can all on the same day.

 

[reliev]

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/rumo...o-695-adds-new-benefits-effective-august-1st/

 

[eticketplease]

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/rumo...o-695-adds-new-benefits-effective-august-1st/

I know I just saw this. Of course tomorrow is the day when I finally can apply for the Chase card after getting the brilliant. Hope it is not true but the way that Chase has been acting it probably is true

 

[Haley R]

This might not be so helpful to you because my kids loved everything! Their favorites: riding the double decker bus (always sitting up top), tower bridge*, london eye*, shreks adventure*, thames river cruise*, tower of london*, science museum, changing of the guard at buckingham palace, princess diana playground, memorial fountain. They also loved seeing the Lion King at Lyceum theater and picking out treats at the food hall in Harrods. If I had to pick a couple of things they didn't enjoy, I'd say the English afternoon tea and the borough market. They are more chicken nuggets/fries eaters, so the food offerings at those two places were only ok to them.

*These were all in the same area and you can all on the same day.

Did you go up in the London Eye? We can’t decide if we should. Our hotel is next to it so we’ll see it but I’m worried ds will get bored on it. He keeps saying he wants to ride it though.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Did you go up in the London Eye? We can’t decide if we should. Our hotel is next to it so we’ll see it but I’m worried ds will get bored on it. He keeps saying he wants to ride it though.

It's really such a tourist scam! It's so so expensive and it just isn't worth it. We did it and I immediately regretted it. There's a great area around it with food vendors that your son will probably like and maybe it will be enough to just be in that area and see the London Eye.

 

[hsmamato2]

Well after years of Amex giving me the middle finger I finally had a biz gold offer pop up in my account. Not great 125k MR for $15k spend. I tried a few higher offers first for the biz gold and biz platinum but got the pop up. Went with the 125k offer and was approved. Hopefully this will help Amex realize that it's not so bad letting me have a welcome bonus every now and then.

I just got this via email...is it a good/bad deal?

 

[Haley R]

It's really such a tourist scam! It's so so expensive and it just isn't worth it. We did it and I immediately regretted it. There's a great area around it with food vendors that your son will probably like and maybe it will be enough to just be in that area and see the London Eye.

It seems so expensive for what it is especially if we get fast track tickets and I’m thinking we would need to.

Our other thing we can’t decide is what time to schedule the Tower of London. We’re doing it our first morning but idk if we’ll be up at 9 am to get the first time slot. We land in London at 8 pm the night before and I’m sure we won’t be asleep until 11 or 12.

 

[EACarlson]

We recently purchased 150 DVC points direct and charged to our CSR. The expense counted as travel (3pts per dollar) for UR points. Very nice.
We're considering ditching (actually downgrading CSR to a no fee Chase card to save our credit scores) and moving onto AMEX Platinum. We'll wait to see what AMEX makes for changes beforehand however.

If you have at least three other cards and the CSR isn't your oldest card by at least two years, the odds of it affecting your credit score are minimal. The card will still report for 10 years and count for average age of accounts and age of oldest account, it will drop off for utilization purposes and average age of open accounts.

 

[hsmamato2]

AA cc's.... I have the basic Barclays...can I hold multiples ? I'm also eyeing the Citi version.... thoughts and opinions? I'm finding AA to be quite valuable.... (I already got an ASair cc and combined them in my AA acct)

 

[NewbieMom]

Did you go up in the London Eye? We can’t decide if we should. Our hotel is next to it so we’ll see it but I’m worried ds will get bored on it. He keeps saying he wants to ride it though.

We did go up, but again my kids love experiencing everything. As soon as they saw it, they wanted to go up. That's how we ended up going to Shrek's adventure too. They're not even big fans of the movie, but we walked by it to the Eye and they wanted to go in (and to London Dungeon). We settled on Shrek.

Having said that, you know your ds best. It is a 30 min ride just looking down at London. I don't think you need the fast tickets. We had regular ones, and the line looked long but moved very quickly. Also, if you're doing several activities in that area look into a package. When we were walking around the area, a lot of people were selling packaged tickets to several of the attractions so it might give you a discount if you're doing a few things. We got ours from Viator when there was an amex offer and it included the London eye, river cruise, and tower of london.

 

[djmeredith]

Did you go up in the London Eye? We can’t decide if we should. Our hotel is next to it so we’ll see it but I’m worried ds will get bored on it. He keeps saying he wants to ride it though.

It is a tourist trap, but we enjoyed it. It's only a 30 minute ride so the novelty would be enough to hold his interest.

AA cc's.... I have the basic Barclays...can I hold multiples ? I'm also eyeing the Citi version.... thoughts and opinions? I'm finding AA to be quite valuable.... (I already got an ASair cc and combined them in my AA acct)

I got the Barclay and Citi biz cards in Dec and have also found the pts to be valuable for domestic travel. I hope someone can provide some info about holding more cards or accumulating pts.

 

[georgina]

AA cc's.... I have the basic Barclays...can I hold multiples ? I'm also eyeing the Citi version.... thoughts and opinions? I'm finding AA to be quite valuable.... (I already got an ASair cc and combined them in my AA acct)

I have held both the Citi and Barclays AA personal cards. They didn't overlap for long, I applied for barclays on 4/28/2025 and cancelled the Citi on 5/17/2025. It was no problem being approved for the Barclays while having the CIti, but I have read that AA and Barclay were going to part ways in 2026, then it will only be Citi.

https://viewfromthewing.com/barclay...an-airlines-will-reshape-your-miles-strategy/

 

[VGCgroupie]

If you need any larger purchases from Ikea. I just got 10% back up to $270 spend on every single one of my Chase cards.

 

[HooperSnag]

We have three Chase cards for gathering points: CSR for travel and restaurant expenses (and cashing URs), CF for select quarterly categories, and CFU for 1.5 points per dollar on everything else. We also have Chase Disney but only use that for Disney-related expenses when it makes sense.
I have no idea if I have to do the same sort to selection with a group of AMEX cards. I know nothing about their ecosystem although I've read that transferring points to partners is the best way to go.

 

[EACarlson]

We have three Chase cards for gathering points: CSR for travel and restaurant expenses (and cashing URs), CF for select quarterly categories, and CFU for 1.5 points per dollar on everything else. We also have Chase Disney but only use that for Disney-related expenses when it makes sense.
I have no idea if I have to do the same sort to selection with a group of AMEX cards. I know nothing about their ecosystem although I've read that transferring points to partners is the best way to go.

You need one of the charge cards, either Platinum or Gold, and then the Blue Business Plus. The BBP is 2x MR on everything, the Gold gives 4x on restaurants and grocery stores, Platinum is pretty much benefits only, not useful category multipliers.

 

[AmyAnne]

Any AirTag experts here? After misplacing my keys for 20 minutes a few days ago, I decided that I needed to get an AirTag to attach to the keychain. (I rarely misplace my keys, but my routine got thrown off and I absent-mindedly set them down in a random place. I realized I didn't have them after about ten minutes and then spent ten more minutes retracing my path. I did find them but that's an experience I'd like not to repeat.)

Here's my question: is the AirTag that is now attached to my keychain, and linked to my iPhone, going to actually help me find my keys if I happen to set them down in a random place? From what I understand, the AirTag isn't using GPS, so how will the app on my phone know where it is?

Related question: has anyone used their AirTags to locate randomly misplaced things?

 

[afan]

Any AirTag experts here? After misplacing my keys for 20 minutes a few days ago, I decided that I needed to get an AirTag to attach to the keychain. (I rarely misplace my keys, but my routine got thrown off and I absent-mindedly set them down in a random place. I realized I didn't have them after about ten minutes and then spent ten more minutes retracing my path. I did find them but that's an experience I'd like not to repeat.)

Here's my question: is the AirTag that is now attached to my keychain, and linked to my iPhone, going to actually help me find my keys if I happen to set them down in a random place? From what I understand, the AirTag isn't using GPS, so how will the app on my phone know where it is?

Related question: has anyone used their AirTags to locate randomly misplaced things?

You can make the air tag beep from the app. I've only used the app to find them in my room mostly because I have a bad habit of leaving one in a suitcase and I don't always take the same one.

Otherwise I've used them to track bags in Japan when shipping or similar.

I have had to replace batteries in them, but it's easy to do and the app will let you know.

 

[Haley R]

Any AirTag experts here? After misplacing my keys for 20 minutes a few days ago, I decided that I needed to get an AirTag to attach to the keychain. (I rarely misplace my keys, but my routine got thrown off and I absent-mindedly set them down in a random place. I realized I didn't have them after about ten minutes and then spent ten more minutes retracing my path. I did find them but that's an experience I'd like not to repeat.)

Here's my question: is the AirTag that is now attached to my keychain, and linked to my iPhone, going to actually help me find my keys if I happen to set them down in a random place? From what I understand, the AirTag isn't using GPS, so how will the app on my phone know where it is?

Related question: has anyone used their AirTags to locate randomly misplaced things?

I have an AirTag on my car keys. Right now when I look it shows me an outline of my house and a little key icon in the general area of where it is in the house. Then I can play a sound on the AirTag to find it.

We also use them to track luggage if we’re checking bags

 

[EACarlson]

Any AirTag experts here? After misplacing my keys for 20 minutes a few days ago, I decided that I needed to get an AirTag to attach to the keychain. (I rarely misplace my keys, but my routine got thrown off and I absent-mindedly set them down in a random place. I realized I didn't have them after about ten minutes and then spent ten more minutes retracing my path. I did find them but that's an experience I'd like not to repeat.)

Here's my question: is the AirTag that is now attached to my keychain, and linked to my iPhone, going to actually help me find my keys if I happen to set them down in a random place? From what I understand, the AirTag isn't using GPS, so how will the app on my phone know where it is?

Related question: has anyone used their AirTags to locate randomly misplaced things?

This is my understanding, I'm not an Apple user. I have Samsung SmarTags that from my research act very similarly. The Airtags don't use GPS themselves, they connect to other people's passing devices and use the GPS in those devices to determine where they are. Then once you get close you have it make noise so you can find it. I use them in all of my bags when I travel. As soon as I turn airplane off on my phone, it's always shown me my bags in the same city, and let me know when my bags were coming out at MCO.