I love credit cards so much!

[jhoannam]

Who’s gone to Disneyland during Christmas? We want to go Christmas 2019, once Star Wars land is open. We are going to try to talk DH’s parents into spending the week of Christmas in SoCal. They are WorldMark owners so we are hoping we can stay using their points. But I’m worried about going during Christmas.

 

[elgerber]

I have a question on the AMEX offers. I have two Lowes offers on my biz card...the 10% back up to 100 and another for one additional MR points for each dollar you spend. If I buy gift cards at Lowes, willi it us both offers? How will that work, I would hate for it not to use the 10% back and use the other instead.

 

[1st*toright]

Happy Monday - looks like a busy weekend around here. Poor @speedyfishy - I had thought about Atlantis, but yuk (not just the gross sheets, sounds like the whole experience has been less than stellar).

Thanks for the heads up on Five Guys - we don't do fast food much, but $18 off would make it my go to if we wind up needing to eat on the fly this month.

I was so psyched to be able to actually use an Amex offer- we needed new blinds for our bedroom, and I needed to get a Panera gift card for a work thing, and I picked up both at Lowes! Yay, except it didn't go on DH's new CSR to meet MSR. That's ok, I should have plenty of runway on the MSR. May need to go back to Lowes for some more gift cards, though!

Starbucks is doing another of its "games" where you can get extra reward points. I enjoy checking the board and trying to time my purchases to rack up as many bonus stars as I can (esp. if I can stack a star dash and a board space or two). Yeah, its still not a good deal, but Sbux is a guilty pleasure for me, so at least there is some justification when I'm getting rewards...

 

[miztressuz]

I don’t know that anybody has ever fully figured out what that buffer needs to be. I also haven’t been tracking discussion on this for a long time since I was out of the Chase game. The General advice I recall was to try to meet the spend 4-7 days prior to statement close.

Oh yikes! I was just out doing a site search and found 7 days as well but that was back on Pg 6 Was kinda hoping something changed and then saw this.
I gave us a goal of 5 days originally to be safe but wondered if something went pear shaped I could sneak it in and still make it. Hopefully someone has better news for me, as 7 might be tight

 

[elgerber]

I just wanted to say how jealous I am of all of you eating Five Guys LOL, I LOVE Five Guys! Those Cajun fries...yum!! I always get the grilled cheese, I am a grilled cheese fiend.

 

[hsmamato2]

Passed through Winslow AZ yesterday and had song lyrics running through my head...
Well, I'm a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona

Never knew where Winslow was.

HA! When we drove thru the Painted desert on a nearby trek we couldn't stop singing about 'been thru the desert on a horse with no name' endlessly.....

 

[DisneyMandC]

Looks like my Hilton Amex is finally coming in the mail today! Hoping I can knock it out pretty easily since we'll still be in the 90 days during our DL trip! Still planning to get one for DH on probably the last available offer day.

 

[miztressuz]

I have a question on the AMEX offers. I have two Lowes offers on my biz card...the 10% back up to 100 and another for one additional MR points for each dollar you spend. If I buy gift cards at Lowes, willi it us both offers? How will that work, I would hate for it not to use the 10% back and use the other instead.

Double check the fine print on the extra point one. I have one too but it's really only for Lowes.com. If it's Lowes in store then yes it should stack, I've have others stack before.

 

[jhoannam]

Can someone help me with math here pls...

Flights on SW 25,364RR each or $378 cash

Same flights thru CSR at 1.5x... 25,200UR each ($252)

Plus thru CSR I'd earn RR right, and double since the promo is through June...so 3904RR back on each seat.

So seems booking through UR is the way to go?

The biggest benefit to booking direct is rebooking when the prices drop. I usually get better price when they have their $49 sales.

 

[BamaBoy]

Catching up on several days of reading. Plastiq question concerning CSP. As mentioned in an earlier post, I will have a $2,500.00 bill to a landscape contractor I would like to run through Plastiq. My CL on the CSP is only $8,000. With the new 20% of CL limit, that means I could only pay a bill up to $1,600.00. If I could get the contractor to agree to two separate bills-one for $1,600 and one for $900.00, would that be a work around the new Visa rules? Thanks!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Can someone help me with math here pls...

Flights on SW 25,364RR each or $378 cash

Same flights thru CSR at 1.5x... 25,200UR each ($252)

Plus thru CSR I'd earn RR right, and double since the promo is through June...so 3904RR back on each seat.

So seems booking through UR is the way to go?

With Southwest's most recent devaluation, on an absolute CPP basis, using the URs (and not converting to Southwest) will almost always provide a better value. You'll give up some of the flexibility of booking with SW points (i.e. ability to rebook and save points, cancel with no penalty whatsoever, etc.) however you can still change a flight on URs, you just end up with travel credits then.

I think your math seems accurate and if you are 100% you're going on this trip and don't need the flexibility of booking through SW RR points, then the URs will be the more lucrative option for you.

All of that said...a side comment: if you already had SW points and were debating between using existing SW points and UR points, then I'd probably go with SW points to use them and keep the URs free for future travel. Hope all of this helps

 

[disneybirds]

There was some initial excitement when it first came out...but I think we are all in agreement that CIP and CIC are better options than CIU. So it’s a distant 3rd place in terms of UR earning biz cards. Plus if you factor in other Chase biz cards (SW and Marriott being 2 major ones) it’s not really a focus card for most of us now. It’s also subject to 5/24 so that rules some people out. IF the CIC 50k UR bonus goes away and CIU stayed at 50k then I’d think it would get a lot more publicity here.

The only card of any of those mentioned here that has a “support” link is CIP I believe. But I don’t think any of us around here really make card recommendations with “support” links in mind.

Thanks for the input. Definitely some new things to think about. My DH just signed up for the CIP in branch and I already have the CIC. Right now we focus on Hilton and Delta (ATL hub). We are both well under 5/24 since we are slow churners. When I asked about the referrals, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't signing up without giving back. I think everyone on here is great about not recommending with their support links in mind! Just didn't want to miss an opportunity to give back since we signed up in branch for the CIP. Thanks everyone!

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I have a question on the AMEX offers. I have two Lowes offers on my biz card...the 10% back up to 100 and another for one additional MR points for each dollar you spend. If I buy gift cards at Lowes, willi it us both offers? How will that work, I would hate for it not to use the 10% back and use the other instead.

I was wondering too and hoping they stack.

 

[elgerber]

Double check the fine print on the extra point one. I have one too but it's really only for Lowes.com. If it's Lowes in store then yes it should stack, I've have others stack before.

Ahhh, good call, you are correct. That's fine, I am more concerned about being able to stock up on gift cards with the 10% credit.
I am thinking of getting a bunch of Target cards. I do all my grocery shopping at Target and 10% is better than a Red Card discount. Is there any reason this doesn't make sense LOL?

 

[disneymagicgirl]

The biggest benefit to booking direct is rebooking when the prices drop. I usually get better price when they have their $49 sales.

I'd usually agree, but in this case the flight is in 2 1/2 weeks so our plans are firm and doubt prices would drop.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

With Southwest's most recent devaluation, on an absolute CPP basis, using the URs (and not converting to Southwest) will almost always provide a better value. You'll give up some of the flexibility of booking with SW points (i.e. ability to rebook and save points, cancel with no penalty whatsoever, etc.) however you can still change a flight on URs, you just end up with travel credits then.

I think your math seems accurate and if you are 100% you're going on this trip and don't need the flexibility of booking through SW RR points, then the URs will be the more lucrative option for you.

All of that said...a side comment: if you already had SW points and were debating between using existing SW points and UR points, then I'd probably go with SW points to use them and keep the URs free for future travel. Hope all of this helps

Thanks you! I have some SW points, but not enough for all 5 seats, so I figured I'd hold those for another trip since we will have a couple coming up before years end and just use UR to book these through CSR. We were planning to drive (to CHS 9hrs) but are chickening out. Our kids (and us) are a bit spoiled in that they have only flown to all destinations further than a 6 hour drive. We are all dreading the drive. ha! The trip is in 2 1/2 weeks so at this point I know we are committed and it is for my dad's 60th bday so can't really change the dates.

Thanks for your assessment!

 

[miztressuz]

Ahhh, good call, you are correct. That's fine, I am more concerned about being able to stock up on gift cards with the 10% credit.
I am thinking of getting a bunch of Target cards. I do all my grocery shopping at Target and 10% is better than a Red Card discount. Is there any reason this doesn't make sense LOL?

Yeah they faked us out on that one. I was waiting for my extra points to post and when they didn't for a couple weeks I checked the fine print. The other offers are clear if they are the .com or all (like I have a Macy's one that says "Macys.com" in the title).

And is there any reason it doesn't make sense? Not to me So I might not be much help. I did the same thing a few months back when I had a 10% off Lowe's offer from BoA. I've been using 10% discounted (or free) Target ones so far all year when I need stuff. I've only used my RedCard once for like a $1 when I had a remaining balance and couldn't find the last gift card buried in my purse Now that AmEx did that offer I don't think my RedCard will be seeing much action this year.

 

[jhoannam]

I'd usually agree, but in this case the flight is in 2 1/2 weeks so our plans are firm and doubt prices would drop.

In that case I would definitely use CSR.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Another question...

So I had DH's hilton stays go onto his amex everyday card last week to take advantage of this...

It was 2 separate transactions, but I don't see where that is disallowed or that one transaction of $300 is specified. We should be fine right? Or do I need to wait until he has 2 consecutive nights somewhere so he spends enough to knock it out on one stay?

 

[miztressuz]

Another question...

So I had DH's hilton stays go onto his amex everyday card last week to take advantage of this...View attachment 327154View attachment 327155

It was 2 separate transactions, but I don't see where that is disallowed or that one transaction of $300 is specified. We should be fine right? Or do I need to wait until he has 2 consecutive nights somewhere so he spends enough to knock it out on one stay?

I'm interested to see if this works. Usually it'll state in the offer specifically if it's a cumulative spend ("one or more transactions") otherwise, without that, it's generally needed a single transaction. But you're correct they don't specifically state that either, so I'm very interested to see if it triggers it.