I love credit cards so much!

[Lain]

Had to take car into the shop and they do not take AMEX. So should I buy a VGC for this? They haven't called me with a total yet, but guessing a couple hundred dollars. Is there a better place or specific kind I should buy?

Are you trying to meet MSR on the Amex? If so, avoid buying VGCs from Staples, Office Max, Office Depot because theyre known to send Level 3 data to Amex that will detail what you bought. So far these purchases are still earning points, but I wouldn’t risk the RATs looking at your purchases and deciding to exclude a few hundred in spend because you bought VGCs.

Your local grocery store should be fine. Mix in some regular shopping so your purchase amount isn’t an obvious $xx5.95. Do you have a Stop&Shop, Giant, or Martin’s in your neighborhood? They’re running a deal on VGCs for the next two weeks: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/gian...a-giftcards-get-15-off-next-grocery-purchase/

 

[jhoannam]

Me too! IHG and Hyatt and CIC now, and CIP, and the Marriotts before they go away... and a CF!!

I want all those cards (minus the CIP as we both have them), but trying to stay under 5/24 and under Chase's shutdown radar makes it really difficult.
I have a plan, but it doesn't include any of those cards I want.

Before the CIC bonus increased I was going to double dip the CSP/CSR, but now I'm thinking I want to go for the CIC (no fee), and then CSP with DH's referral and upgrade his CSP to CRS. I will be 5/24 at that point, but could drop down to 4/24 in Dec if I go this route, if I go with the original plan I would be at 5/24 until July 2019. In which case I would just go LOL/24.

DH is 3/24, he will be 2/24 in September - he needs to stay under 5/24 to get the SW CP in 2019. We will probably squeeze in 2 Amex Hilton Biz cards and the Hilton Aspire card for our Hawaii trip.

So many cards, not enough time or spend.

 

[WVMomof3]

Are you trying to meet MSR on the Amex? If so, avoid buying VGCs from Staples, Office Max, Office Depot because theyre known to send Level 3 data to Amex that will detail what you bought. So far these purchases are still earning points, but I wouldn’t risk the RATs looking at your purchases and deciding to exclude a few hundred in spend because you bought VGCs.

Your local grocery store should be fine. Mix in some regular shopping so your purchase amount isn’t an obvious $xx5.95. Do you have a Stop&Shop, Giant, or Martin’s in your neighborhood? They’re running a deal on VGCs for the next two weeks: https://www.doctorofcredit.com/gian...a-giftcards-get-15-off-next-grocery-purchase/

Yes, meeting SPG biz spend. Kroger has 4x fuel points for visa GC but it looks like it is for $25/$50/$100 only and the car place just called me and they are up to $500 in repairs and they are not done yet. Is there a maximum amount you can put on a VGC? I know there is a fee, so I should get the highest amount possible on one card, correct? And if they take visa, they should take a VGC, correct??

 

[hsmamato2]

If this is true, then Christmas just came early for me!

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/rumor-barclaycard-to-launch-barclays-arrival-premiere

what would these points be worth? 15k points for 15k spend? that seems like a lot of spend for a few points(?) what am I missing on the excitement here?

 

[pillow]

Word on reddit is if you’ve been eyeing the current IHG card with the free night certificate for $0 AF first year/$49 AF, you’d better seriously think about jumping now while you can. New cards may not have the free night benefit, or have a free night with a higher AF.

THANK YOU! I had been waiting to reapply for IHG cards. Had canceled cause I wanted to sync up DH's and my cards for free night purposes + wanted bonus again. I just applied after seeing this.

 

[peel]

Tell me if I'm off here..... when I have no MSR I use
Groceries-BCP=6%
Restaurants-CSR=3x points(not the type that take gc's)
Discover It for categories=10x points (1st year)
FR (x3) for categories =5x points
everything else- FU=1.5 points (or should I be using spg for uncategorized?)
this is my general go-to usage....any advice or does it sound right?

Other than the Discover It, which I don't have, I've been following this same pattern until now. I've been having DH use the FU for everything else, but after considering some of the chatter here about FU, last night I pulled it from his wallet and replaced it with the SPG Personal. We currently have close to 500K UR and I'd like to build up our SPG stash some more.

 

[afan]

what would these points be worth? 15k points for 15k spend? that seems like a lot of spend for a few points(?) what am I missing on the excitement here?

That's for an annual spend bonus, the blog post doesn't mention the sign up bonus.

 

[pillow]

The IHG is no longer on the Chase site. But it is still on the IHG site, and also with an extra 5K for your first authorized user. I wonder if that ap would go through?

Yes, it just worked for me. 80K points + $50 statement credit. Log in to your IHG account and simulate a booking. Should have the offer at bottom of page. I did not see verbiage regarding the 5K for an auth user though. Happy to get $50 back!

 

[liloca]

Not quite. Any flight you find on AA that is a SAVER AWARD flight is bookable on BA. If not on their website and there are connections, search by segment as @Albort suggested. If not searchabel that way, then call BA with the flight info you find for the saver flight on AA. Let's take a look at my flights to and from Santiago, Chile for the Antarctica trip I'm doing later this year. We play this game to fly international business or first lie flat seats. If I wanted to book the fights on BA using Avios or UR transferred to BA Avios and was unable to find them on BA, I'd search AA for saver awards. Our trip departs 12/25 and we return 1/6. When I search AA for a saver business award this is what I get. The only saver awards available in business/first are for 12/27-12/31. I would not be able to book a flight on AA with BA Avios for 12/25. I would not even be able to book the flight with AA miles as a saver award. I would have to book it as an Anytime Award. If I change my trip to 12/27 then I can book on BA with Avios. This is an 8 hour flight and Avios is distance based so it won't be 57.5K AVios, it is 75K Avios one way.

View attachment 310771

My dates are fixed so I cannot change my departure. I'm stuck booking an Anytime Award. When I click on the Anytime Award I can see how many AA miles this will cost me. 150,000 AA miles per person, one way.

View attachment 310772

When I check flights back home 1/6. I see that there are absolutely NO business/first saver awards for the entire month! Plus the Anytime Awards for my date is 195K per person. So, I could not book this with BA Avios.

View attachment 310773

This is why it is important to plan a couple of years in advance if you know you will have fixed dates. You need to get a general idea of how many miles/points you will need and in what program(s). You want to start a search for the dates you will need in advance. If you know you are going to Timbuktu in February of 2020, then you begin searching for award flights in March of 2018 (330~ days out) that depart to Timbuktu in February 2019. This will give you a rough idea of how many miles you will need and in what program. You also have about a year to get those miles in place for March of 2019 to book your February 2020 award flights.

I knew well in advance that flights for our Antarctica trip would likely be at the Anytime level and that saver levels would be highly unlikely. This is actually the first time I've EVER booked AA flights at the Anytime level. I planned for blowing through about 800,000 AA miles for this trip and made sure to have a cushion in case of a devaluation as well as a plan B which was AA gift cards and UR points. Silver lining was that it only cost me 690K AA miles. DH and I will each get back 10K miles since we have the Barclay Aviator business cards and AA Citi cards. It was a better value to us use our AA miles over UR points for this. Having depleted our 1,000,000 + AA miles balance we will be focusing on the AA shopping portal for the foreseeable future to beef it back up. Hope this helps.

Wowww @calypso726
Thank you sooooooo much for your detailed AA points usage. I am thinking that I should get the Citi card after I get 1 chase UR earning card.
From Bos to GRU I can get the 30k saver awards - so one card could get me almost 2 free RT tickets . Since the kids are still little we are very flexible with dates!

 

[Judique]

Yes, it just worked for me. 80K points + $50 statement credit. Log in to your IHG account and simulate a booking. Should have the offer at bottom of page. I did not see verbiage regarding the 5K for an auth user though. Happy to get $50 back!

You did well! I got the 80K offer when I did it but that was 3 years ago. I just looked on the website and saw the 60K offer, but since I already have the card, it's probably not trying to give me anything else. If I were you, I would call after I get the card and offer met, and ask them about points for authorized users.

 

[liloca]

except when it's not. B/c I tried last week to book an available flight using Avios by phone, rep insisted I couldn't book anything unless it showed up on BA website...(I could see it available on AA site) it was kind of frustrating,and I really dislike using Avios after this experience (still waiting for a return on some points I canceled on yesterday,and extremely annoyed) so it's not a straightforward use of points like a general flight using Southwest or Jetblue,that's for sure. I did end up booking some flights (for not ideal times on our return) so it all worked out, but I don't plan to use these again anytime soon.And a week after I did all this the actual flights I called about showed up on BA website, but now I had to pay $55 pp to change anything.... (first world problems)

Thanks for your input! It does seems like a lot of work. I think I will stick with the AA rewards for now and save the UR for Disney

 

[1GoldenSun]

So many cards, not enough time or spend.

Yes, exactly!

 

[GlamMistress]

what would these points be worth? 15k points for 15k spend? that seems like a lot of spend for a few points(?) what am I missing on the excitement here?

It's about the transfer partners. I'm very excited about this too!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Tell me if I'm off here..... when I have no MSR I use
Groceries-BCP=6%
Restaurants-CSR=3x points(not the type that take gc's)
Discover It for categories=10x points (1st year)
FR (x3) for categories =5x points
everything else- FU=1.5 points (or should I be using spg for uncategorized?)
this is my general go-to usage....any advice or does it sound right?

I think it’s a good plan. As far as CFU vs SPG, that’s really more an individual decision. It’s basically what kind of points do you need to accumulate based on your goals currently. Oh and the right answer to all of this is just to have a MSR to work on hahaha

what would these points be worth? 15k points for 15k spend? that seems like a lot of spend for a few points(?) what am I missing on the excitement here?

I think this was already answered but that’s an annual spend bonus - not the signup bonus.

 

[hsmamato2]

got it,annual spend- thanks. I do MSR,but not as often as the 'norm' on here- and I think I value my UR a LOT,as I can always transfer some to SPg if needed,but not the other way around.....kwim?
BTW there's a deal posted on the gc thread about $50 statement credit using visa checkout at costco! I used it to buy store gc for future use,and since my visa of choice is the FU, that's the cherry on the sundae for 1.5 points back too!

 

[Lain]

Yes, meeting SPG biz spend. Kroger has 4x fuel points for visa GC but it looks like it is for $25/$50/$100 only and the car place just called me and they are up to $500 in repairs and they are not done yet. Is there a maximum amount you can put on a VGC? I know there is a fee, so I should get the highest amount possible on one card, correct? And if they take visa, they should take a VGC, correct??

VGCs have variable loads cards that max out at $500. You’ll want to buy the biggest denomination because it’s a flat fee (usually $5.95) whether you buy $50 or $500. Just look for that on the packaging. If a place takes Visa, they’ll take VGCs although it may run as a Visa debit and you’ll have to type in a PIN (usually the last four digits of the card) (no, you won’t be able to get cash back on the card). Good luck! And I’m sorry about the escalating repairs...

 

[pillow]

You did well! I got the 80K offer when I did it but that was 3 years ago. I just looked on the website and saw the 60K offer, but since I already have the card, it's probably not trying to give me anything else. If I were you, I would call after I get the card and offer met, and ask them about points for authorized users.

Good idea - will call and see if they'll do the 5K. Bitter sweet cause really REALLY hate to burn 5/24 slot. But worth it I think - love their annual free nights!

 

[gottalovepluto]

If this is true, then Christmas just came early for me!

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/rumor-barclaycard-to-launch-barclays-arrival-premiere

Idk, the arrival plus was hard to grab in the last 6 months as barclay instituted a 6/24 rule just for that card..

 

[CyndiLouWho]

got it,annual spend- thanks. I do MSR,but not as often as the 'norm' on here- and I think I value my UR a LOT,as I can always transfer some to SPg if needed,but not the other way around.....kwim?
BTW there's a deal posted on the gc thread about $50 statement credit using visa checkout at costco! I used it to buy store gc for future use,and since my visa of choice is the FU, that's the cherry on the sundae for 1.5 points back too!

Report back if you don’t get the credit. One of the blogs was saying they were sure if Costco cash cards counted.

 

[gottalovepluto]

For anyone who does Costco and Visa Checkout, if you use Visa Checkout you get $50 statement credit on a $250 or more purchase.: https://slickdeals.net/f/11413007-costco-50-statement-credit-on-250-with-visa-checkout-online-only
Deal direct link: https://www.costco.com/visa-checkout.html

Everyone is snapping up costco cash cards since they are not excluded in the deal fine print. I've included the SD link because there are some issues getting the order to go through so you may need to skim the last few pages of comments. The Costco site is being overloaded, I got a simple could not process order try again later or call customer service on try #1, try #2 went through fine. FYI SD says costco visas don't work on visa checkout so I used my cfu. Also keep in mind (if Costco doesn't mass delete all these orders in an "oh- crap guys, what did we do?!" moment) Costco cash cards arrive standard post, no tracking and can take 2 weeks to show up.

ETA: @hsmamato2 beat me to it and I did not notice, gah! And I swear I skimmed the comments first before posting this time guys!