I love credit cards so much!

[linzjane88]

Not entirely off topic as we are on the Disboards after all...I would just rather ask you all than do a separate post somewhere else on the forum. If you don't want to clutter this thread than pm me. I just feel like I "know" you guys and appreciate your input. We are counting down the days to our next WDW. Leave in a month for 6 nights. I booked it as a bounce back with 2 rooms at CBR. Travel party is myself, husband, 3 girls who are 11, 9, 7. We stayed at CBR in January with UR points and it worked really well being in the two rooms. Everyone got their own bed and 2 bathrooms so that was the huge plus. The construction was not a big issue as we always rent a car. Last couple of years we have been off site only so being in the Disney bubble was nice. Sad but true. Now I am thinking about switching the CBR reservation to a one bedroom at Old Key West. We have never stayed there. It would cost $350 more but I think it is probably a wash as we would be able to buy some food and not eat out all the time. Bad part is girls would have to share bed and only one bathroom. Possible drama for sure. Worth it?!? Would give us a chance to stay DVC which leads me to my next question:

I keep obsessing about just buying into DVC with a small contract. Prices keep going up! I know @calypso726 you have DVC points as do a couple of you others. Are you glad you are in? Buyers regret? Worth buying at least the 75 for benefits direct from Disney? Is it bad that I am more than partially swayed to buy direct so I can put the money on cards? (Sweet UR"s coming our way).

At any rate any thoughts appreciated. I realize this is a huge tangent and if you want to just PM me responses that's great too. Thanks guys!

We own DVC and have zero regrets....and I get buyers remorse over buying stupid things like brooms and curtain rods. I just wish we would have snatched up points when the economy was in the tank and they were dirt cheap. We got in 2ish years ago resale for 75$ per point (like the month before they changed resale benefits). We have enjoyed the heck out of it. I would give OKW a try. I didn't think I would become such a deluxe snob but I SO did. Being able to sit out on a balcony is huge on my book. You don't realize how disappointing it is to have your windows facing a walkway (Mods/Value) vs waking up to open curtains, sunshine, and a balcony. Having a kitchen is really nice as well. You could definitely do cheaper options with offsite stays--either rental houses or hotel stays on points but if you are Disney obsessed you will fall in love with the deluxe accommodations on site.

Worth is it entirely subjective. Two bathrooms is really nice! We bring an air mattress to avoid the bed sharing.
I have owned DVC since 2002 (not nearly as many points as some people , we only have 230) and I don't regret it for a second! Of course we paid less than half per point than what they charge now. I bought resale back then, but I have full benefits because they didn't have resale/direct separation back then. I love the AP discount, that's really about the only benefit I use. The Moonlight Magic events are fun too.

We have 225 and I have been in a perpetual state of borrowing since we got it! I plan to add more in the next year or two. And I am sure that will still not be enough ...and when I do? it is SO going on a CC!

 

[thevalley]

Need some advice. Just wondering if I should try my luck with Amex. Should I try for a spa biz card or have my wife go for the personal. I already have the personal spg.

Secondly, I got shot down with a retention offer from my personal SW card. When I applied for that I never knew about the companion pass. I regret just dipping my toes in and not the whole foot.

 

[linzjane88]

ummmm.....so good news and bad news.

My SPG personal just arrived via ups overnight. Great, I can spend away.

EXCEPT, the credit line is $1k!?!?!?!? Is that some kind of error!? I am insulted. Score in 800s, income well into 6 figures, and all my limits on chase cards are more like $30k and I pay them off monthly. Do I call them or what? Even my Costco amex was $10k probably 10 years ago. Only other amex is SPG biz with $5k limit but I attributed that to the fact that I put $5k business revenue so seemed fine.

Any insight?

Thats going to make that minimum spend a little more tough if you have to be conscious of maxing it out! What a pain. I wish CC companies would be more reasonable with the limits-- No Amex, we don't want a limit of 1k. And no Chase, I don't need a 33k limit on my CSR TYVM! Now you'll make more work for me later on shifting limits around.

Ten. Ten thousand is totally reasonable.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Need some advice. Just wondering if I should try my luck with Amex. Should I try for a spa biz card or have my wife go for the personal. I already have the personal spg.

Secondly, I got shot down with a retention offer from my personal SW card. When I applied for that I never knew about the companion pass. I regret just dipping my toes in and not the whole foot.

I'd go for both the biz and personal...and do it today...assuming you don't need that personal slot for something with chase.

When did you get the SW card and which one? You can cancel and do the other SW personal plus the SW biz and get CP. Assess whether you want it asap or wait til late this year so you can get the CP for 2019/2020.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Thats going to make that minimum spend a little more tough if you have to be conscious of maxing it out! What a pain. I wish CC companies would be more reasonable with the limits-- No Amex, we don't want a limit of 1k. And no Chase, I don't need a 33k limit on my CSR TYVM! Now you'll make more work for me later on shifting limits around.

Ten. Ten thousand is totally reasonable.

seriously. what in the world!?!? That is less than my first cards when I was early 20s.

I'm going to have to make daily payments I guess...and then to the sock drawer it goes until my free night rolls around.

ETA: it even says on my card member since 2008. ummm, well way to treat your long time customers.

 

[Ava]

Of course I had to go to a meeting and when I came back the SPG 30K offer link said it had expired and I can't get it to pull up again.

 

[thevalley]

I'd go for both the biz and personal...and do it today...assuming you don't need that personal slot for something with chase.

When did you get the SW card and which one? You can cancel and do the other SW personal plus the SW biz and get CP. Assess whether you want it asap or wait til late this year so you can get the CP for 2019/2020.

I got the premier card. I have enough points to pay for our WDW trip this November. I have Hawaii on my mind for 2020. It would be our 10 year anniversary surprise for my wife and kids. Lol.
I got the card Feb. 2017.

 

[Lain]

Hah! I just pulled the trigger on the SPG biz. Instant approval! And I set up my online account. I wonder how long the card will take to arrive! Now, I start mapping out my spend. Should be no problem. I wonder if they did a HP. How should I check on this?

Amex cards usually take 2-3 statement before it posts to your credit report. You just have to check it in 3 months to be sure. Doubt it though. If you already have an amex card, they might not even pull the report. my Amex SPG biz isnt on mine, i got it in Nov last year.
Card will take a week to arrive. People have gotten it expedited if u call them directly(wont work with chat). If the front line wont do it, speak with a supervisor, they can expedite it.

CONGRATULATIONS, @Disneyonmymind! I think you made a great choice to go for the SPG Biz while you can still earn all those Starpoints.

I just wanted to clarify @Albort's comments. You got the SPG Biz, so the SPG Biz will not report to your credit report. (If you got an Amex personal card, Amex would report it to the credit reporting agencies usually after 1-2 billing statements, so you'd have 1-2 months -- more or less -- before a new Amex personal card showed up on your credit report and Chase finds out about it.) I know you were concerned about a SPG card possibly messing with your plans for Chase cards. The SPG Biz won't add to your */24 count and you'll keep all your otherwise available slots open with Chase.

As for whether Amex made a hard pull/inquiry, if you have access to a credit monitoring service, a hard inquiry would show up on the same day as or a day after your application in your alerts/notifications/updates. I use myfico and I did not have a hard pull for either my SPG Biz or Personal cards. I think a lot of people here reported no hard pull for their SPG Biz applications. To be sure, you can check by getting a free copy of your credit report once a year from each of the three major credit reporting agencies through annualcreditreport.com.

Whether or not Amex did a hard pull on your SPG Biz application doesn't really matter for your plans with Chase. As a practical matter, Chase isn't known to be very inquiry sensitive. Chase doesn't tend to deny applications due to "too many recent inquiries"; although I have seen Chase use that reason in combination with not enough activity on existing card accounts because those two factors kind of suggest "churning" behavior -- applying for lots of cards, meeting the MSR on them for the bonus, then tossing them into the sock drawer.

Moreover, a hard pull might drop your credit score temporarily by a few points (personally, a hard pull hits my score by about 2 to 6 points), but it recovers pretty quickly. Adding a business card to your wallet also has an indirect effect that can raise your credit score. When you shift spend from your personal credit cards to a business card, you lower your % of utilization of credit that is reported, which is a factor that increases your credit score. And because business cards are generally not reported to your credit report, any spend you put on them also isn't reported or factored into your personal credit score.

 

[Lain]

Ah, okay. My grocery store doesn't allow you to purchase Visa/MC GCs with a credit card, so if I ever need one I get them from Staples or Walgreens. Do you know if Target sends L3 data to AMEX? That's my other option for GCs, as no WalMarts here either.

Just checked a recent purchase on SPG Biz with Apple Pay at Walgreens: no data given.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I got the premier card. I have enough points to pay for our WDW trip this November. I have Hawaii on my mind for 2020. It would be our 10 year anniversary surprise for my wife and kids. Lol.
I got the card Feb. 2017.

So you can cancel the premier now. Then in Nov app for the plus and the biz. Make sure you don't hit the spends until 2019. You'll have the CP for 2019 and 2020.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Of course I had to go to a meeting and when I came back the SPG 30K offer link said it had expired and I can't get it to pull up again.

Keep trying - it might come back. Sometimes I've had to try 10+ times to get an incognito offer to trigger. Also maybe try it on a phone, ipad, work computer, etc. to see if it shows there. Good Luck!!

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Of course I had to go to a meeting and when I came back the SPG 30K offer link said it had expired and I can't get it to pull up again.

What was your method? Incognito on chrome is where I found it.

 

[Lain]

Of course I had to go to a meeting and when I came back the SPG 30K offer link said it had expired and I can't get it to pull up again.

Clear your history of bookmarks/cookies/cache and open a new window directly in incognito mode?

Lots of people say they've had luck with incognito on the Opera browser?

 

[Albort]

Clear your history of bookmarks/cookies/cache and open a new window directly in incognito mode?

Lots of people say they've had luck with incognito on the Opera browser?

also lots of Edge(IE) browser reports... my friend tried it on a different PC too to get the 30k to pull up.

 

[Ava]

Keep trying - it might come back. Sometimes I've had to try 10+ times to get an incognito offer to trigger. Also maybe try it on a phone, ipad, work computer, etc. to see if it shows there. Good Luck!!

I've been on my work computer, and tried my phone. I'll try my laptop & iPad when I get home later. If I can't get it back I'll apply for the 25K - that's better than nothing, and it will teach me not to hesitate next time!

What was your method? Incognito on chrome is where I found it.

I got it on Internet Explorer. Chrome is the main browser I use, I cleared history/cookies/cache and went incognito but couldn't get it there. Then tried IE and got it after a couple tries.

 

[peel]

Personally, I'm in the cancel camp. Assuming the free night won't come into play until next years annual fee hits, that is potentially $180 in fees for that 'free' night - you could potentially cancel after next years AF and get it refunded, but who knows how quickly the free night will post. I just can't see myself using the SPG Personal for any spend, so I think freeing up a slot for another Amex product is a better option for me.

As for the 'upgrade' bonus - has there ever been a time when the upgrade has offered a better bonus than applying new outright? I know for some the upgrade may be more attractive due to 5/24 considerations, but otherwise I would expect to see a larger bonus for new apps.

My Amex personal SPG annual fee posted 5 days ago. Paid off outstanding balance last night and called today about cancelling it. A lot of scripted talk about how my "points will now be 3 times as much!" And a free night (less than 35,000 points). So question for you experts offer to keep it was spend $500 in 30 days and get 7000 star points. I asked if I would still have to pay annual fee. She said the alternative offer was a $75 statement credit if spend $2000 in 90 days (much worse in my opinion). Any thoughts of keep or cancel? Since I just got SPG business plus DH has a personal as well.

Edited to add stupidest part of conversation: "I see you have taken advantage of many categories. Did you take advantage of no foreign transaction fees?" I wanted to say "no of course not there are better cards for that and overseas it is hard to find places that take Amex!"

DH's personal AF posted 7 days ago. I think we'll try for the Biz tonight (don't want to do it from work) and have him call to cancel the personal. Fingers crossed for the retention offer that @kmc8826 was offered.

 

[Lain]

So you can cancel the premier now. Then in Nov app for the plus and the biz. Make sure you don't hit the spends until 2019. You'll have the CP for 2019 and 2020.

I don't think @thevalley can go for the SW Plus bonus later this year because the new rules say:

The product is not available to either (i) current Cardmembers of any Southwest Rapids Rewards® Credit Card, or (ii) previous Cardmembers of any Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card who received a new Cardmember bonus within the last 24 months. This does not apply to Cardmembers of the Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Card and Employee Credit Card

So if @thevalley received a bonus for his SW Premier card sometime after February 2017, then he's not eligible for another SW personal card until 24 months after that bonus posted (so sometime in early 2019). That's unless the rumored premium SW personal card coming later this year doesn't contain the above "one Sapphire rule" language.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I don't think @thevalley can go for the SW Plus bonus later this year because the new rules say:

The product is not available to either (i) current Cardmembers of any Southwest Rapids Rewards® Credit Card, or (ii) previous Cardmembers of any Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card who received a new Cardmember bonus within the last 24 months. This does not apply to Cardmembers of the Southwest Rapid Rewards Business Card and Employee Credit Card

So if @thevalley received a bonus for his SW Premier card sometime after February 2017, then he's not eligible for another SW personal card until 24 months after that bonus posted (so sometime in early 2019). That's unless the rumored premium SW personal card coming later this year doesn't contain the above "one Sapphire rule" language.

Yeah - I think you nailed it here! This is the extremely frustrating part of that rule for anybody who has opened 1 Southwest personal card in the past year or so. If you've opened no Southwest personal cards it's not as big of a deal. If you opened 2 personal southwest cards then you were waiting anyways.

 

[schmass]

I keep obsessing about just buying into DVC with a small contract. Prices keep going up! I know @calypso726 you have DVC points as do a couple of you others. Are you glad you are in? Buyers regret? Worth buying at least the 75 for benefits direct from Disney? Is it bad that I am more than partially swayed to buy direct so I can put the money on cards? (Sweet UR"s coming our way).

At any rate any thoughts appreciated. I realize this is a huge tangent and if you want to just PM me responses that's great too. Thanks guys!

We rented points for a few years and then purchased 100 points direct from Disney in 2012. We then purchased a 81 point contract resale about 2 years ago. For our family it has been a great investment. We took advantage of the DVC AP pricing plus they had a deal where we could get the pass that included the waterparks for the Gold price so we saved quite a bit of money. However, in my opinion the amount that you'd save by buying resale outweighs any DVC discounts you'd get by buying direct.

ummmm.....so good news and bad news.

My SPG personal just arrived via ups overnight. Great, I can spend away.

EXCEPT, the credit line is $1k!?!?!?!? Is that some kind of error!? I am insulted. Score in 800s, income well into 6 figures, and all my limits on chase cards are more like $30k and I pay them off monthly. Do I call them or what? Even my Costco amex was $10k probably 10 years ago. Only other amex is SPG biz with $5k limit but I attributed that to the fact that I put $5k business revenue so seemed fine.

Any insight?

I'm sorry, that really stinks. I was wondering myself if Amex just has really low credit limits. Both my DH and I received $5000 limits on our Biz cards, which is a lot lower than we are used to.

 

[Psychodisney]

Hmmm received a Capital One mailed for the Venture card. 75,000 "miles" for $5000 spend in the first 3 months. Anyone have this card and can talk to me about using the miles? I know it can be tough to get and the miles don't work the same as UR or anything, but I was actually considering applying for it before and it would be nice if I could figure out a way to use it to cover the cost of our Universal trip in November.

I have had this card for many years. It basically works like a statement credit towards items that code as travel. To figure out how many miles you need, just move the decimal point over 2 places. Capital One's travel category is not as broad as Chase's. I've been able to erase rental cars, airfare, miscellaneous airline charges and hotel charges.