I love credit cards so much!

[wendow]

Okay, I STLL don't totally get this. It seems like a super easy way to make spend in a short period of time. Can you please walk me through this step by step? Like you're speaking to a child?

I opened a checking account with Midwest National Bank to meet the minimum spend on my CSR. I was trying to get dh his own CSR quickly after mine so I went the opening a bank account route. There are only a few banks that allow this and the one that was mentioned upthread (PNC??) doesn't allow accounts from my state.

Anyways, I applied online and then when it came time to fund the account, it gave me the option to use a credit card. I had already contacted Chase through SM'ing to make sure the cash advance limit was as low as it could be set so that if it did code as an advance, it would be denied. I funded with $2500.

I had to fax in copies of license and print some paperwork off and fax that. The money was not accessible to me for a couple of weeks but once it was, I moved $2400 through a bank transfer back to my main checking and paid my CSR bill. The Midwest National Account has a $100 min and has to be open for a year or I get hit with some fee. So, just leaving it there and will close the account after a year.

 

[elgerber]

I see so many of you who do this churning thing so well, post that you are at 5/24 with Chase so you are going to open some other XYZ bank card...Doesn't that just delay when you can get more Chase cards? All cards count for Chase, right? So, if you keep opening other cards (Amex, Citi, BoA, etc), when will you be below 5/24 for Chase again?

What am I missing here?

You aren't missing anything. Yes, I am perpetually delaying anymore Chase cards LOL, but I had large expeditures and I can't stand to pay large bills that I know would meet a minimum spend for some kind of large bonus. I'm sure eventually I will be annoyed with myself but for now it works.

 

[tinytinkmom]

I see so many of you who do this churning thing so well, post that you are at 5/24 with Chase so you are going to open some other XYZ bank card...Doesn't that just delay when you can get more Chase cards? All cards count for Chase, right? So, if you keep opening other cards (Amex, Citi, BoA, etc), when will you be below 5/24 for Chase again?

What am I missing here?

So, I'm using the strategy of applying for other cards in my name, since I've blown past the 5/24... And I save the Chase cards to get under my husband's name, as I've managed to get him to under 5/24.

 

[Albort]

Okay, I STLL don't totally get this. It seems like a super easy way to make spend in a short period of time. Can you please walk me through this step by step? Like you're speaking to a child?

1) Drop your Cash advanced limit to $0. If you dont, u run the risk of bank to pull cash advanced, this wont give u points and it woull charge u the 20% interest fee. By dropping the limit down to $0, it will decline the transaction.

2) pick a bank. PNC, Consumer Credit, Midwest National Bank... Here is a giant list to look at. this will tell u how much u can fund, which card posts as purchases, which posts as cash advanced.

3) sign up. At a certain point in your sign up, it will ask you how u would like to fund your account. You will select credit card.

4) leave money in account. At least for a month, T&C will tell u if there is a fee if u cancel early. You will need cash to float there so if you dont have the extra cash, might not be a good idea.

5) Connect your new bank account with ur main account. All you need is whats on your check, the bank's routing number, and your account.

6) ACH money back to your account. Close the extra account if you like.

I see so many of you who do this churning thing so well, post that you are at 5/24 with Chase so you are going to open some other XYZ bank card...Doesn't that just delay when you can get more Chase cards? All cards count for Chase, right? So, if you keep opening other cards (Amex, Citi, BoA, etc), when will you be below 5/24 for Chase again?

What am I missing here?

well, at a certain point, i think enough is enough with Chase. I think all i have left is the Marriott card which im thinking about applying. i got the CSR, CSP, Freedom, FreedomU, Ink+. i was at 4/24 when i applied for the amex SPG card. i think marriott redemptions are pretty crappy but transferring them to SPG might be worth it. i dunno. i worry that one day, Chase shuts me down, i lose 90% of my credit cards too. i think branching out might be a good idea. I am infact MSin my CSR atm.

 

[peel]

Also, if you get Chase cards in quick succession, they will also fall off in quick succession. So, it isn't necessarily that you'll perpetually be over 5/24. You might be 6/24 for two years but then within a few months you'd drop to 3/24 and then you can start the process again. Does that make sense?

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Yeah, she will never use an app. I am just going to make a wallet sized card for her.

My mom doesn't even have a smart phone. I won't let her. She would hound me with texts.

 

[WDWRook]

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this. I'm hoping to book airfare DTW to MCO via points. I have around 250,000 UR points and 25,000 Spirit air points. Our trip is Oct 15-21 Sun-Sat. Not dates that typically have low bookings for Spirit points, so I'm looking at using UR points. I can book the Spirit flight for 57,000 points or pay $815. Delta is double that. Is that a waste of points?

Next... if I book via the UR portal, how do I book baggage, or print my boarding pass? Will it register on the Spirit website so I can add on extras there?

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I can answer the second part. The flight should show up on the Spirit website or app. I booked an AA flight thru UR portal, the confirmation email had all the info I needed to find the record on AA app.

 

[WVMomof3]

Similar question about the Chase portal bookings. I have booked several hotels for our upcoming trip through the portal. I put in my marriott number when booking but none of the hotels show up in my marriott account as upcoming reservations. I would just feel a lot better if I could "see" the reservations. Any one know if they should be showing? Or since I made through portal I won't be able to see through hotels sites?

 

[tink1970]

I would just feel a lot better if I could "see" the reservations. Any one know if they should be showing? Or since I made through portal I won't be able to see through hotels sites?

I did several hotel reservations via the portal and none of them showed up on my accounts. So I called and made sure with a Marriott rep (who was not too happy but sorry) that they were in Marriott's system, which they were. I believe that since they are non revenue/non point earning stays that's why they don't show up (or something like that). However, didn't want to arrive at the hotel and not have a room so I printed up the confirmation numbers from the travel portal ("my trips") and feel like I've done everything I can do! My first (of 5) went smoothly last month.

 

[wendow]

Also, if you get Chase cards in quick succession, they will also fall off in quick succession. So, it isn't necessarily that you'll perpetually be over 5/24. You might be 6/24 for two years but then within a few months you'd drop to 3/24 and then you can start the process again. Does that make sense?

That does make sense. My cc apps have been very spread out cause I cannot meet the min spend very quickly so while I am at 5/24 right now, I will drop to 4/24 in June so applying for another bank card would put me over 5/24 and keep me at 5/24 until the end of the year. I was just curious how others are managing this as I'd like to have some non-Chase cards in the mix.

 

[wendow]

So, I'm using the strategy of applying for other cards in my name, since I've blown past the 5/24... And I save the Chase cards to get under my husband's name, as I've managed to get him to under 5/24.

Maybe this is a strategy I can work with. I need to think more through it. My dh isn't under 5/24 right now though either. We both have until June. I curse the days I added us both so freely to each other's cards as AU's!!

 

[calypso726]

I see so many of you who do this churning thing so well, post that you are at 5/24 with Chase so you are going to open some other XYZ bank card...Doesn't that just delay when you can get more Chase cards? All cards count for Chase, right? So, if you keep opening other cards (Amex, Citi, BoA, etc), when will you be below 5/24 for Chase again?
What am I missing here?

Some, I suppose are willing to wait until they are under 5/24 again to churn a Chase card. I'm not one of those. I don't churn Chase cards. I currently have 9 of them and am waaaay beyond 5/24. I have resigned myself to the fact that I have all the Chase cards that I'm going to have and that's all there is to it.

 

[Alice Sr.]

I don't know how it works if you're financing a card, but my daughter's father and I bought her a car (in cash) and each one of us was allowed to charge $5000.00 toward the purchase. I think it varies by the dealer but it doesn't hurt to ask. He gave us a song and dance but 5,000 is 5,000 (plus they still received two large checks so everyone won!).

Good to know, thanks. At least it has been done so I can make that part of the negotiations if I get approved for INK and need the spend.

 

[GPC0321]

Discover was my first card aalmost 20 yrs ago. Charges normally show up as pending so your gc thing is weird. The cash back has always been that way.

I just got my Hyatt chase card, my first chase, and waited and waited for stuff to not be pending so I could pay the entire balance and I gave up after 3 days and paid it all. I know what I paid so it's ok but a similar annoyance.

It may also be ts and I say this cause my barclay card got ran at ford for car repairs and I signed the receipt. It took over a week before it finally showed up on my account to pay. It will also depend on the store not just the card.

Yeah, I think a lot of it is because of what we're used to. I started out with Chase 25 years ago, so I'm more used to their way of doing things. I added more Chase cards over the past 6 months, and it was just easy because they all work the same.

The gift card finally showed up on my balance and transactions this morning.

I think I hit a wall with the credit card game when applying for these last two cards (Discover and Barclaycard CashForward). I've reached a point where there are too many to juggle (along with four Chase cards and the Sam's Club Mastercard), and it's no longer "fun".

Plus I'm tired, overworked, and hormonal, so that doesn't help, LOL!

 

[eeyoresmom]

Where is everyone going with their miles? I need some suggestions for international trips that are a good value points wise. We want to see the world so I'm open to anything and am trying to maximize the points we have. We currently have 180,000 pts and have the CSR so can redeem 130,000 at 1.5x the other 50,000 at 1.25x. We live on the east coast and will definitely fly coach. 2 adults....where would you go??

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Where is everyone going with their miles? I need some suggestions for international trips that are a good value points wise. We want to see the world so I'm open to anything and am trying to maximize the points we have. We currently have 180,000 pts and have the CSR so can redeem 130,000 at 1.5x the other 50,000 at 1.25x. We live on the east coast and will definitely fly coach. 2 adults....where would you go??

There was an amazing deal on flights to Singapore that I got an alert about this morning. $330 round trip on Japan Airlines. Not sure if the fare is still active. Since you are open to going anywhere, I would consider joining some deal sites with alerts to find cheap deals on airfare and then use your points to book hotel arrangements and/or activities.

 

[eeyoresmom]

There was an amazing deal on flights to Singapore that I got an alert about this morning. $330 round trip on Japan Airlines. Not sure if the fare is still active. Since you are open to going anywhere, I would consider joining some deal sites with alerts to find cheap deals on airfare and then use your points to book hotel arrangements and/or activities.

Thank you. I was under the assumption that flights were the almost always the best redemption value. I got a great fare to Paris last fall, around $450 rt and we then used easy jet to get to Italy for around $100. Paid a lot for our hotel in Venice and I wish I had points for that hotel then.....

 

[tink1970]

We currently have 180,000 pts and have the CSR so can redeem 130,000 at 1.5x the other 50,000 at 1.25x.

Why wouldn't you combine your points (adding all from CSP to CSR) so that they would all be worth 1.5 on travel? As soon as I earn Freedom points they are immediately transferred and combined with my CSR points so they are worth more. Just a thought

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Thank you. I was under the assumption that flights were the almost always the best redemption value. I got a great fare to Paris last fall, around $450 rt and we then used easy jet to get to Italy for around $100. Paid a lot for our hotel in Venice and I wish I had points for that hotel then.....

I think it depends. Flights can be a very good value, but I think the best comes from finding expensive first class fares for flyer miles. We don't care about first class and would rather spend fewer points than splurging on a FC ticket. If you can find amazing deals on hotel, then you can consider using points for airfare. We used points for flights to Copenhagen because we didn't want to spend the cash, since we couldn't pay our cruise with points.

I am now saving points for our 2018 trip, but not sure if I will use UR points or Delta miles for flights to Venice. I will figure that out once we get closer to a booking window. But I am planning to book our Venice hotel with SPG points because the Gritti Palace is $1,200+ euros per night, but I can get a room for 40,000 SPG points, which is a very good value and a bit of a splurge for DH and I to enjoy some relaxing time without the baby (baby is due in October 2017, my parents have already agreed to watch baby during our trip in October 2018). I don't think I have the bandwidth to make sure that every single redemption is THE BEST every single time, but rather that it is good value and it meets our needs.