I love credit cards so much!

[bernina]

@Lain has provided some great write-ups! Thanks to him I am loving gyft/PayPal and of course paying my mortgage through Plastiq after following his instructions. Speaking of which, I'm sorry @disneymagicgirl yours stopped working all of a sudden I was going to ask which company but @Lain remembered for me

Can you point me to any posts regarding the benefit of gyft/PayPal in terms of our sport?

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Mine isn't going through now either....grrrr

ut-oh, they may be cracking down. sorry you are having trouble too. boo for us.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Can you point me to any posts regarding the benefit of gyft/PayPal in terms of our sport?

Gyft/paypal/CIP combo earns 3x points on the app. At the moment gyft/paypal/freedom earns 5x until last day of June. If I am going on a target run, I buy a gift card on gyft and use that to pay at the store. So instead of 1UR/$ I got 3 or 5. Same with everywhere that normally earns 1UR/$...home depot, walmart, whole foods etc.

ETA: Another one is Swytch. I am not sure I have actually bought anything on that one.
Back in the good ole days...2 months or so ago, ha....we could by amazon cards on these apps too.

 

[MrPTato]

ut-oh, they may be cracking down. sorry you are having trouble too. boo for us.

Stinky for sure...I was trying to meet the bonus on my Navy Federal Amex.

 

[vanjust14]

Can you point me to any posts regarding the benefit of gyft/PayPal in terms of our sport?

Here is a post by @Lain I found https://disboards.com/threads/i-love-credit-cards-so-much.3528202/page-669#post-58713447. Just ignore the stuff about Cashstar, that isn't working anymore.

ETA: Just saw @disneymagicgirl has it covered

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I thought I was going to be sneaky and book a *GT rate on a June cruise for me and the kiddos using CSR/URs...double discount. Then I realized DCL won't let me put DD18 in the room with a kid and *GT rates aren't bookable for more than 4 to a room...at least not that I have ever seen. So the only way I could do it is to put her in a room alone (or let her bring a friend since I'd have to pay double occupancy anyways) and me with the 3 littles in another room. Well, paying for a 6th person kinda eats up the discount. Churning fail.

 

[Lain]

Can you point me to any posts regarding the benefit of gyft/PayPal in terms of our sport?

Gyft/paypal/CIP combo earns 3x points on the app. At the moment gyft/paypal/freedom earns 5x until last day of June. If I am going on a target run, I buy a gift card on gyft and use that to pay at the store. So instead of 1UR/$ I got 3 or 5. Same with everywhere that normally earns 1UR/$...home depot, walmart, whole foods etc.

ETA: Another one is Swytch. I am not sure I have actually bought anything on that one.
Back in the good ole days...2 months or so ago, ha....we could by amazon cards on these apps too.

Here is a post by @Lain I found https://disboards.com/threads/i-love-credit-cards-so-much.3528202/page-669#post-58713447. Just ignore the stuff about Cashstar, that isn't working anymore.

ETA: Just saw @disneymagicgirl has it covered

@bernina, you still have the old Chase Ink Plus, right? You know how you can go into Staples to buy gift cards and earn 5x UR? Gyft (and Swych) lets you buy third party electronic gift cards from where ever you are on your smartphone.

Both platforms have apps for iOS and Android and have their own catalog of merchants (with a lot of overlap). (Unfortunately, Amazon pulled their gift cards off online gift card malls like Gyft last month. There’s no Disney; but there is Target, Walmart, and lots others.)

When you checkout on Gyft or Swych through PayPal using your Ink+ or CIC, you earn 5x UR on the transaction; if using a CIP through PayPal checkout, you’d earn 3x UR. There’s something about Gyft and Swych through PayPal checkout* that triggers the internet/cable/phone bonus category on the CIP/CIC/Ink+. (It doesn’t seem to earn bonus points when charged directly to the Ink cards.) Because this quarter’s Freedom 5x category includes PayPal, if you use Gyft or Swych and checkout through PayPal using Freedom, you’d earn 5x UR too.

Because Gyft and Swych sell gift cards to a very wide variety of merchants, many that would earn you <5x UR if you purchased something from them directly on your credit card, buying a gift card to use at the same merchants for 5x UR maximizes your spend.

You can take this one step further by using the gift cards to shop online through a shopping portal that’ll earn you cash back, points, or miles. When shopping online, always check with CashBackMonitor.com to see what portal offers the best rewards for the merchant where you want to shop. Although many shopping portals say they exclude purchases paid for with gift cards, in practice my purchases have almost always tracked and credited with cash back, points, or miles rewards.

*I’d note that PayPal Digital Gifts also sells a lot of eGift cards and used to earn 3x UR on CIP and 5x UR on CIC/Ink+ through ... PayPal, but changed the way it coded last October and no longer triggers these bonuses. So Gyft and Swych could change the way it codes, but it’s still earning bonuses on Ink cards Last I checked.

 

[wendow]

I feel the same way! I get approximately 4 weeks of PTO each year, but I don’t have separate sick leave. So if I get sick back like I did over the winter with the flu, it can really derail my plans. I also use a lot of my leave for horse shows. I’m taking 11 days between now and the end of August just for horse shows, plus another 3 for DL in there.

This is our problem too! We homeschool so school schedules aren't really an issue (though it's harder with my dd17 taking college classes this past year and that will continue, of course). Our problem is really my dh's vacation time. He gets 25 days a year plus every other Friday plus the week between Christmas & New year's (works for a school so they close). He gets tons of time but that is his sick time too. This year he got sick several times in Jan & Feb and he had eye surgery that required about a week of vacation time. We'd already used 2 weeks when we went to Disney last Sept (his year is July-June) so there has been no time really. Since we live in CO, it's an almost 4-hour flight. We can't really do that just for a 3-night trip. Which is one reason I am trying to get us moved closer

 

[wendow]

I thought I was going to be sneaky and book a *GT rate on a June cruise for me and the kiddos using CSR/URs...double discount. Then I realized DCL won't let me put DD18 in the room with a kid and *GT rates aren't bookable for more than 4 to a room...at least not that I have ever seen. So the only way I could do it is to put her in a room alone (or let her bring a friend since I'd have to pay double occupancy anyways) and me with the 3 littles in another room. Well, paying for a 6th person kinda eats up the discount. Churning fail.

Why won't they allow an 18yo in a room with a child?

And what is a GT rate?

 

[wendow]

Mine isn't going through now either....grrrr

Oh no! Getting nervous our hacks have been discovered

 

[wendow]

Hmm so I’m thinking about changing my hotel reservation for DL in July to the Hilton Anaheim. The Hilton Honors cash rate is $124 a night, plus taxes puts us at $294 total. We were planning to stay at one of the Best Westerns (Pavillions maybe?) for $250 total. I’m thinking that maybe I could put my booking together for the Hilton and see if it triggers the $50 statement credit, 125k business card offer. I think that would be a pretty good deal. Anyone see any downsides? Anyone stay at the Hilton? The walk to DL doesnt look bad at all plus I think there’s a shuttle.

I think @Lain has stayed at that Hilton and likes it.

 

[wendow]

Anyone ever get the $50 credit from Visa Checkout for the $250 Costco purchase? I've not been able to keep up as well lately so I may have missed if anyone posted about it.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Speculation from a source on FlyerTalk about what happens to outstanding marriott flight/night packages in Aug...

As per Starwood Lurker from Flyertalk ,

"Floater certificates, including outstanding Marriott Travel Packages, will be cancelled and converted to equivalent points, credited to the member’s account for future redemption"

Basically if you have cat1-5 travel package certificate, you will be getting 45k Marriott points back

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Speculation from a source on FlyerTalk about what happens to outstanding marriott flight/night packages in Aug...

As per Starwood Lurker from Flyertalk ,

"Floater certificates, including outstanding Marriott Travel Packages, will be cancelled and converted to equivalent points, credited to the member’s account for future redemption"

Basically if you have cat1-5 travel package certificate, you will be getting 45k Marriott points back

FYI - I think this is wild speculation based on what currently happens when YOU cancel. They refund this way now to prevent people from exploiting a loophole to transfer Marriott points to Air Miles at 1:1.

I would be utterly shocked if Marriott cancelled these and refunded at those rates as part of this conversion.

 

[Alexle2007]

Just saw the news that Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge is scheduled to open at WDW in late fall 2019. I told DH we would probably be too early to see it on our trip that September, but that maybe that would work out better for us because crowds might be lower right before it opens. Then I said “we’ll just have to go back in spring 2020 to see it on a long weekend.” His response: “how are we going to afford that after our big trip?” Clearly, he doesn’t listen to a thing I say about credit cards

And my DH is on the other side of the spectrum. He says to me last night why are you worried about all of these bonuses when we can afford to go on the vacation without them?---Um, because we are already spending the money on credit cards anyhow so we should get more out of them and I want to see how much of our trip to Australia I can get for "free." He was complaining because he now needs to move all of the bills over the CIC from CIP which he was going to have to do anyhow since he didn't to pay the AF come July. You just can't win.

 

[3 DD love princesses]

I'm ready to engage player 2! So, DH is also 0/24, nothing but a downgrade on his Amex Delta to a lower fee option in the last 2 years. He does have an employee card on my recent CIP, will that cause any issues? He's at around 30% of combined income (that I will use on the apps) with Chase credit limits (including $5K on 1 business card, Chase Ink Plus). He has 5+ years excellent credit history with Chase.

I'd like to refer him to CIP for the 80K + 20K (referral bonus).
CSP/CSR double dip (will use Reddit links if any out there).
Then maybe also the Amex Hilton Biz 125k offer since I plan to get that and 250k is better than 125k I'll be using one of the Reddit links when we apply for that.

Need some help on timing for him. I had planned to do the CIP first, but I'd really like access to the 1.5 redemption multiplier that comes with CSR so does anyone see issues with doing the double dip first? Anything I need to know/plan if I plan to use the travel credits and global entry credits?

So, refresh my mind, apply early enough on a business day to allow for a recon call if needed for card #2. Do I need to use separate browsers/incognito? Anything else?

Double dip should be fine but I would def put time between the CIP. I did my CIP in sept and double dip in Nov. for the double dip I used incognito for both and closed all windows after the CSR was approved then applied for the csp. I used the same income on both. If you aren’t approved immediately for the CSR I’d call to get it approved before applying for the csp.

My family suddenly decided that we should go to WDW over Christmas break! I am totally on board with this but never, for a second, did I ever think they would go along. Has anyone gone during Christmas week? Where would I even start?

We only just started earning points and I know nothing about using them as I thought I’d have plenty of time to learn that later lol. We have about 100K UR from CIP and working on MSR for CIC and SPG biz. Because it’s the busiest time of the year, I feel like I would have to book something ASAP. Can I book now and still earn more points and use them to pay on the trip later? What is the best practice for this? I was planning to get the CIP any day now but maybe I should get CSR/CSP instead?

I know everyone has probably been discussing this but I can only absorb so much info at once so I focused on info regarding getting cards/points lol.

We have done dec 20-26 once. I will say we went with knowing we would only do our fp choices and if a line wasn’t long we would do more. We only did our fp Bc the crowds were insane while we were there. Parks closed admission since they were at capacity by 10.

Hello and Thank you!

Right now we have no fee Disney Visas. I also have the USAA Chase Visa and the Costco Chase Visa.

I am earning rewards on my Disney Visa, buying GC at Sams every so often, and I just started Swagbucks (boy that seems to take forever!).

Otherwise, I really have not come up with any other saving ideas.

Carrie

I’d go for the CIP and the csr/csp double dip. Earn lots of points on the CIP and redeem through the CSR. Basically using points on CSR redemption take the cost/1.5 and that’s how many points are needed. So a $1000 trip would cost you $666.67 = 66,667 points.
If you haven’t joined our reddit group message @SouthFayetteFan or @Albort to join. There are support links there when signing up for new cards. Pick someone who has been helpful to you to show some support. Then once you have your cards post your links

 

[bernina]

Gyft/paypal/CIP combo earns 3x points on the app. At the moment gyft/paypal/freedom earns 5x until last day of June. If I am going on a target run, I buy a gift card on gyft and use that to pay at the store. So instead of 1UR/$ I got 3 or 5. Same with everywhere that normally earns 1UR/$...home depot, walmart, whole foods etc.

ETA: Another one is Swytch. I am not sure I have actually bought anything on that one.
Back in the good ole days...2 months or so ago, ha....we could by amazon cards on these apps too.

Here is a post by @Lain I found https://disboards.com/threads/i-love-credit-cards-so-much.3528202/page-669#post-58713447. Just ignore the stuff about Cashstar, that isn't working anymore.

ETA: Just saw @disneymagicgirl has it covered

@bernina, you still have the old Chase Ink Plus, right? You know how you can go into Staples to buy gift cards and earn 5x UR? Gyft (and Swych) lets you buy third party electronic gift cards from where ever you are on your smartphone.

Both platforms have apps for iOS and Android and have their own catalog of merchants (with a lot of overlap). (Unfortunately, Amazon pulled their gift cards off online gift card malls like Gyft last month. There’s no Disney; but there is Target, Walmart, and lots others.)

When you checkout on Gyft or Swych through PayPal using your Ink+ or CIC, you earn 5x UR on the transaction; if using a CIP through PayPal checkout, you’d earn 3x UR. There’s something about Gyft and Swych through PayPal checkout* that triggers the internet/cable/phone bonus category on the CIP/CIC/Ink+. (It doesn’t seem to earn bonus points when charged directly to the Ink cards.) Because this quarter’s Freedom 5x category includes PayPal, if you use Gyft or Swych and checkout through PayPal using Freedom, you’d earn 5x UR too.

Because Gyft and Swych sell gift cards to a very wide variety of merchants, many that would earn you <5x UR if you purchased something from them directly on your credit card, buying a gift card to use at the same merchants for 5x UR maximizes your spend.

You can take this one step further by using the gift cards to shop online through a shopping portal that’ll earn you cash back, points, or miles. When shopping online, always check with CashBackMonitor.com to see what portal offers the best rewards for the merchant where you want to shop. Although many shopping portals say they exclude purchases paid for with gift cards, in practice my purchases have almost always tracked and credited with cash back, points, or miles rewards.

*I’d note that PayPal Digital Gifts also sells a lot of eGift cards and used to earn 3x UR on CIP and 5x UR on CIC/Ink+ through ... PayPal, but changed the way it coded last October and no longer triggers these bonuses. So Gyft and Swych could change the way it codes, but it’s still earning bonuses on Ink cards Last I checked.

Thank you all so much for the info on gyft/switch. Just took a look and lots of great options. Are the e gift cards available for immediate use? Do you use the app or just the website?

 

[GZanta77]

Anyone ever get the $50 credit from Visa Checkout for the $250 Costco purchase? I've not been able to keep up as well lately so I may have missed if anyone posted about it.

Doesn't look like anyone has received it yet. The thread over on SlickDeals seems to suggest you may need to call VisaCheckout with order number etc to get it escalated. However, some folks are getting told that VISA is processing the credits right now and to give it another couple days.

 

[bernina]

Double dip should be fine but I would def put time between the CIP. I did my CIP in sept and double dip in Nov. for the double dip I used incognito for both and closed all windows after the CSR was approved then applied for the csp. I used the same income on both. If you aren’t approved immediately for the CSR I’d call to get it approved before applying for the csp

Thank you. Today is my work from home day so as long as DH can make himself available for a recon call or two, I’m hoping to try the double dip today. I’ve decided CSR first as I really want that multiplier!

On an unrelated note, has anyone here used SkooshKarma travel booking site? It was recommended to me on another Disney hacking type message board and so far I’ve found their hotel prices to be quite good compared to direct with hotel or other OTA like Orbitz, etc. Status doesn’t really matter for the hotels I’m looking at and other than UR I don’t have points to redeem towards these properties.

For example I found the Hard Rock all Inclusive in Cancun for $3400 vs. $5300 direct with hotel. Admittedly I haven’t shopped around too much on this one, so maybe there are similar prices online.

We’re taking a short trip to Orlando in Oct to meet up with friends from England we met on our cruise to Norway (DCL friends are the best!) and I saved $377 on a 3 night stay at Omni Champions Gate (I shopped around a ton on this one!). Same exact room type. Whenever I book hotels other than direct I always email them and ask to confirm my reservation. I contacted the Omni and they were able to see and confirm the reservation. I should note Omni charges a resort fee and all prices quoted exclude the fee.

And another positive on this site is that you can pay later. For both those hotels all you provide is name, email and billing address. You have until closer to travel time to pay (or cancel with no fees).

Of course this feels a bit too good to be true which is why I’d love to find others who have used.

 

[DisneyMandC]

This is us, except I don’t actually stay at dumpy hotels. At DL, we stayed at one of the motels right across the street. Couldn’t beat the walk, we watched fireworks from our room and spent most of the days at the parks. We did manage the pool for an hour one day (and you can see the park/fireworks from the pool as well) but otherwise dropped off to sleep a few minutes after getting back to the room each night and woke up to McDs coffee in the am.

Yeah we tend to stay a little better places when we actually vacation, but I have no problem staying at some of the lower level hotels since we do it so frequently for horse shows. When your head isn't hitting the pillow until 10 pm (if you're lucky) and you're back out the door at 6 am, none of the fanciness is needed.

Ironically, the only time I've ever gotten bed bugs was at a fancy ski resort in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.