I love credit cards so much!

[Albort]

Just set up a second Apple Pay account using another iPhone 6 we had (dad didn’t need it anymore after he upgraded). Will be using Apple Pay/Cash to send money back to myself as a means to wrap up the 1Q category spending on FOUR CFs thanks for the idea @SouthFayetteFan and @Albort. Thought I could max out by prepaying and use Apple Pay organically, but it’s tough with 4 and I prepaid a bit previously to finish up the SPG Biz.

Think I should be putting through roughly 2K for a small gain with the 3% fee, but all from the couch

if u dont mind floating money, i would suggest gyft.com gift cards. then u will have the rest of the year to buy gift cards on gyft.com. 5x, no 3% fees.

 

[speedyfishy]

My travel party are three children 16, 15, and 8 and myself
We want to travel to London, Jamaica but mostly Florida
No spouse signing up for cards
I have not applied for any cards within the last 24 months.
How does getting a card and canceling it affect your credit? My credit is very good to excellent.
Several airlines fly out of our airport.
Thanks

Every time you apply for a credit card your score will dip a few points since you opened a new account. It will rebound shortly after the application. When I started this my score was a 744 now I am at a 767. I am young so my length of credit history isn’t that long. Some of us here have 800+ credit scores. You shouldn’t cancel a card unless it has an annual fee or if you want to cancel and reapply for the bonus. Having lots of cards helps keep your utilization low.

How much can you spend in 3 months? If you can do 8k id recommend the CSR/CSP on the same day. Apply for the one you want the most first. That would give you 100k UR points which can be used for travel through chases travel portal or transferred to 9 airline programs (British Airways, Flying Blue, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, Southwest, United, Virgin Atlantic and Aer Lingus and Iberia) and four hotel programs (Hyatt, IHG, Marriott and Ritz-Carlton). All transfer ratios are 1:1. You can also book flights and hotels on the chase travel portal. You can also call the chase cruise department to use points to book a cruise and Disney packages.

Do you have a business? It can be a “Business” The CIP will give you 80,000 UR points after you spend 5k in three months. The CIC also will give you $500 back for 3k in spend.

The Southwest cards are also good options if you fly Southwest. I’d recommend getting two Southwest cards at the same time. You can get the business card for 60k Rapid Rewards or get the Plus with 50k rapid rewards or premier for 50k rapid rewards. If you get 110k points in the same calendar year you get a companion pass that means every time you fly your companion flys free. So pick two and try and get 110k points. Your companion pass is good for the year that you earn it plus the following colander year. If you get it now it expires at the end of 2019.

 

[jujubiee4]

How do you check your Amex account to see if gift cards are earning rewards? I have the Amex BCP which gives me 6% at grocery stores. I have been getting a Disney gc with my weekly grocery store trip for a few years and just assumed I was earning 6% on the gc.

I just got this card in December. I'm suspicious because the rewards seem to come very slowly. I make sure when i get a
gift card i get something else so the amount charged is not whole number. I'm also noting separately every grocery charge
to make sure im getting 6x. After calling Amex i get told it is pending. Discover and Chase you can see very fast. Not sure
if i will keep this card when AF comes up.

 

[jhoannam]

Well poop, just pulled the SPG 30K, $3k MSR. We just got the CIP, so that means we have to spend $8k in 3 months.

What are the odds that offer will go public? Or should I just go for it?

 

[jujubiee4]

Ever feel like you "wasted" a credit card app? This is how i feel after applying for Alaskan Air card.
We always fly Virgin America or JetBlue direct non stop from LAX to MCO. Was told originally after the merger
they will still keep that route. Now come to find out they are discontinuing it. Not considered profitable. Wow
no one wants direct from Cali to Orlando huh? When AF comes up..buh bye.

 

[thevalley]

I went to a Walmart that was further south from DC since I was going out to eat in that area. But I’ll try a different Walmart closer to me eventually. If I knew GCM for Amex wouldn’t be a problem I’d just do that since it would be hard saying it’s a giftcard when it has my name on it. Also, I’m thinking after I go to a place a few times and show them a card with my name on it they will recognize me and stop asking.

Hold on there....Don't come to far south. That would be my territory. lol. I'm only 30 miles away form DC.

 

[amalone1013]

Logged into DHs Amex account and there's two business cards listed... If I got an employee card for him on my SPG Biz account, would it show under his? Im worried about duplicate apps but we didnt have any trouble submitting it.

 

[SBWB48]

if u dont mind floating money, i would suggest gyft.com gift cards. then u will have the rest of the year to buy gift cards on gyft.com. 5x, no 3% fees.

Actually, I’m already floating a bunch of giftcards (gas, restaurants, Uber, you name it, etc.) from the ChasePay deals and Q4 categories lol. That’s the only reason I need to pump the brakes and just stop accumulating them. Figured I’d take the 2xUR/2% profit for doing nothing and pushing a few buttons rather than tying up myself in more giftcards.

 

[speedyfishy]

Hold on there....Don't come to far south. That would be my territory. lol. I'm only 30 miles away form DC.

I’d be willing to travel for easy MS. I’m in Alexandria. You went to a Walmart and it was .25 cents?

 

[thevalley]

I’d be willing to travel for easy MS. I’m in Alexandria. You went to a Walmart and it was .25 cents?

Wow, I'm in Woodbridge.

 

[speedyfishy]

Wow, I'm in Woodbridge.

I was just over there today by the Potomac mills mall. The Walmart there was charging .88 cents and as soon as I asked for a MO as 999.12 she shut me down. I’ll keep looking around the area. I go to a Harris Teeter in Alexandria to get my MOs and Shoppers. Giants like to see the card.

 

[thevalley]

I was just over there today by the Potomac mills mall. The Walmart there was charging .88 cents and as soon as I asked for a MO as 999.12 she shut me down. I’ll keep looking around the area. I go to a Harris Teeter in Alexandria to get my MOs and Shoppers. Giants like to see the card.

Thanks for the heads up. I am just starting to dip my toes into the MO thing. I may just buy one with my bank card and just see how it goes. I got to start somewhere lol.

 

[karmomof3]

Every time you apply for a credit card your score will dip a few points since you opened a new account. It will rebound shortly after the application. When I started this my score was a 744 now I am at a 767. I am young so my length of credit history isn’t that long. Some of us here have 800+ credit scores. You shouldn’t cancel a card unless it has an annual fee or if you want to cancel and reapply for the bonus. Having lots of cards helps keep your utilization low.

How much can you spend in 3 months? If you can do 8k id recommend the CSR/CSP on the same day. Apply for the one you want the most first. That would give you 100k UR points which can be used for travel through chases travel portal or transferred to 9 airline programs (British Airways, Flying Blue, Korean Air, Singapore Airlines, Southwest, United, Virgin Atlantic and Aer Lingus and Iberia) and four hotel programs (Hyatt, IHG, Marriott and Ritz-Carlton). All transfer ratios are 1:1. You can also book flights and hotels on the chase travel portal. You can also call the chase cruise department to use points to book a cruise and Disney packages.

Do you have a business? It can be a “Business” The CIP will give you 80,000 UR points after you spend 5k in three months. The CIC also will give you $500 back for 3k in spend.

The Southwest cards are also good options if you fly Southwest. I’d recommend getting two Southwest cards at the same time. You can get the business card for 60k Rapid Rewards or get the Plus with 50k rapid rewards or premier for 50k rapid rewards. If you get 110k points in the same calendar year you get a companion pass that means every time you fly your companion flys free. So pick two and try and get 110k points. Your companion pass is good for the year that you earn it plus the following colander year. If you get it now it expires at the end of 2019.

Thank you.

 

[speedyfishy]

Thanks for the heads up. I am just starting to dip my toes into the MO thing. I may just buy one with my bank card and just see how it goes. I got to start somewhere lol.

I’m just starting out too. It’s fun trying new avenues. I was trying to use a VCG at Giant to get cashback, but that doesn’t work even though it has a pin. I also tried to buy a 711 card that had free cash withdrawals at 711 ATMs but those couldn’t be purchased with a credit card. It’s a lot of trial and error. I’m sure this information is all online already, but I like trying to think of things to try.

 

[wendow]

How does getting a card and canceling it affect your credit? My credit is very good to excellent.

Our credit scores were mid 700's prior to CC churning (that was with occasionally churning SW and Disney but no others) and are now around 830 for each of us. Like @speedyfishy said, you can see a small dip when you apply for a new card but it bounces back up and many times, climbs another couple of points when it goes back up.

We've refi'ed our house twice and bought a new car in the 2 years we've been churning and it always cracks me up how giddy the loan people are to tell us what great credit scores we have lol!

 

[thevalley]

Any idea about what happens if I am creative and can get my mortgage to go through on line but for some reason plastiq doesn't like it and it get rejected. will they reimburse you or refund the amount.

 

[Lain]

Any idea about what happens if I am creative and can get my mortgage to go through on line but for some reason plastiq doesn't like it and it get rejected. will they reimburse you or refund the amount.

Very small chance they’ll ask for documentation like a bill, statement, or invoice; and if you don’t provide it within the given time, they’ll cancel the payment.

P.S. I like the idea someone suggested upthread. When scheduling your first payment to a new Recipient, schedule it for the earliest available delivery date on the calendar. This will force your payment to process today/same day so it may give Plastiq less time to pick it for manual review. (It being a weekend too, there might even be less eyes on payments processing.)

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

My travel party are three children 16, 15, and 8 and myself
We want to travel to London, Jamaica but mostly Florida
No spouse signing up for cards
I have not applied for any cards within the last 24 months.
How does getting a card and canceling it affect your credit? My credit is very good to excellent.
Several airlines fly out of our airport.
Thanks

Ok - so first off, let me warn you that a lot of the advice we will give here will be very detailed. It will entail applying for numerous cards, sometimes use acronyms you may not be familiar with, and the volume of information may be overwhelming. Just tell us to slow down and ask lots of questions if that happens We all just want to help you provide free or deeply discounted travel for your family. Some of our advice may conflict at times, we all have different perspectives, it's up to you ultimately to make an educated decision on what works best for you.

Impact on credit
A few have already answered this - but I'll reiterate that this should have very little effect on your credit score. I've been doing this over 3 years, applied for over 40 cards and have seen no negative score change (basically my score bounces between 790 and 835 - and it used to bounce around too before I did this in the same range).

Since you have no Spouse signing up for cards - what does that mean?
You'll want to ignore comments where we discuss 2 player mode. You aren't in 2 player mode, and that's ok! Many people here aren't, it may affect your strategy somewhat vs. someone who has 2 players but rest assured a single player can still get a lot of points in the game

Do you have a business...or maybe a "business"
If you sell items on eBay, teach lessons on the side, or basically have any side-job source of income you can likely qualify for a business credit card. You can really put anything you want on a business credit card. Some of the most lucrative offers are on business cards which is why we recommend exploring it. If you aren't comfortable with this then make sure you tell us that, otherwise we'll just keep recommending business cards.

So What Now?
Well - we need to help you develop a strategy. Due to a rule known as "5/24" we often recommend you start by focusing on cards issued by CHASE. Basically it's a limitation specific to Chase cards. I'll spare you all the details of the rule (you can look it up) but just know that for 99% of people starting with Chase is the right answer. You are starting at 0/24 which is the best spot of all!

With a family of 4 it seems that focusing on free flights and free hotels would be a good plan. I'm going to ask a bunch of questions here - the more detail you give us the more customized the advice you'll receive. It's very easy for me to tell you that you should get a Chase Ink Preferred (CIP) first but perhaps depending on how you answer these questions we may have a different recommendation.

• What amount of spend would you put on a card monthly (i.e. groceries, gas, insurance, cable, cell phone, other expenses)?
• Do you currently payoff your CCs in full every month or do you carry any balances/pay any interest?
• What airport do you fly out of?
• Do you have an airline preference?
• Does SOUTHWEST service your airport?
• Do you have a hotel chain preference?
  
• Do you currently have any travel points in any program? (if so, which programs and how much)
• When you say Florida - are you going to Disney, other locations or both?ll
• IF Disney, do you stay on property, off property, or open to both?
• When do you plan to take your next trips? Ideally if you can tell us your next 2-3 vacation destinations with approx travel dates (month and year) that is helpful...
• Would all 3 children accompany you on all of these trips?

 

[calypso726]

Questions for the experts:
1. Points that expire and points that don't. Is there a good guide out there to which points expire and how to keep them from expiring? I have 7K IHG points that are going to expire in August. Looking at how to keep them. I have a BW booked for one night by the Denver airport in May. I'll look for a HIE/HI that I can use. I don't want to pay a lot more than the current price I have, though. Any other options?

Attaching expiration and transfer PDF. All you have to do is earn or use some points. Go online and purchase some points or use your points for something and that will extend them another year.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Attaching expiration and transfer PDF. All you have to do is earn or use some points. Go online and purchase some points or use your points for something and that will extend them another year.

Did you create this??? - it's awesome!