I love credit cards so much!

[wendow]

Ok, thanks. I need to stop reading random articles and just come here! Although I don't know why I even asked because I highly doubt I'm going to pay 50,000 points per night to stay at the Swan or Dolphin.

Me either That is just such a poor use of points. But now, I have no idea what to do with the SPG points I've been accruing. I could do an airline transfer but we mostly fly SW.

Still considering doing the cat 6 nights & flights and at least getting the SW miles...worry about using the cert another day...I tend to be a bit Scarlett O'Hara about stuff like this lol.

 

[vanjust14]

How do you fund these accounts so fast? I'm still waiting on Ally and Chase to verify Memory Bank...going on 3 days now...

I just tried to do the Fidelity one by linking my Webster Bank checking and they said they couldn't verify I was the account owner

 

[tink1970]

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for pointing this out.

Adding my thanks! I have never done a bank funding because it just seems so complicated with direct deposits, holding on, blah blah blah. This, however seemed fairly painless. According to DOC's article comments in 7 days I should see the $200. Wish DH would be supportive of any of these reindeer games. Oh well...

 

[GusGus16]

Question for you SW CP'ers: We are doing a late Jan trip to WDW with our friends. Both myself and my friend *should* be rocking a CP by travel dates (if we follow our oct/nov plan) but not likely by the time we book. There will be 4 of us total with 2 CP's. Whats the best way to accomplish it with minimal cash outlay? I am thinking if I use my UR's->RR to book all 4 tickets then when we add CP in before the trip I will just get the points back into my RR account. BUT I don't know if I will be able to use 2 CP's on one reservation. If that isn't allowed I could have my DH and BFF booked together on UR then she can use her CP for them and I will do the same for me and her husband. I don't care about having UR's committed to a SW account because that's mostly who we fly anyway.

I didn't see your question answered about the CP, each holder of the CP will need to make a reservation in their respective RR account and then once your reservation is made you can "add your companion". I've never not had the CP prior to booking a flight so I'm thinking once you earned the CP, if there are any get away fares left then you could add the companion without canceling and rebooking the 2 CP holder tickets, but would need to cancel the two companion tickets. Depending on if the flight sells out you may not be able to cancel the original bookings and rebook using the CP. Also remember with the CP you can only change your companion 3 times, so likely would be best for you and your friend to both use the CP for your respective husbands.

 

[platamama]

Ok, thanks. I need to stop reading random articles and just come here! Although I don't know why I even asked because I highly doubt I'm going to pay 50,000 points per night to stay at the Swan or Dolphin.

Can't believe it was just yesterday that I said I had a bad feeling about the travel packages. Swolphin is taking a huge devaluation. I just priced a random week (6 nt) in August at the Swan for 2A/1C and got $1581 thru Starwood (nonrefundable rate) , and 94198 UR points (nonrefundable rate) thru my CSR UR portal, and 260,000 Marriott points using their chart. It's looking like UR points are the way to go in the case of Swolphin, and just using Marriott points for airline transfers like @Albort said from August on out.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I went through Fidelity to transfer money in from my Ally savings account. It acted like everything went through fine, but I didn't get any notifications from Ally or anything. I guess I'll see if it shows up next week. It says you have 60 days to transfer the $200 in so seems like we have some time even if things don't work perfectly.

 

[platamama]

I just tried to do the Fidelity one by linking my Webster Bank checking and they said they couldn't verify I was the account owner

Are you opening an individual (vs joint) account? Is the Webster account an individual (in your name) or joint account? I've had issues in the past transferring funds if the account type didn't match.

 

[Pixiedustspreader]

if there are any get away fares left then you could add the companion

As long as there is a fare at all left (not sold out) you can add the companion. I usually wait to add the companion so I don't have to keep cancelling and rebooking them when (and more times when, knock wood - not if) the fare goes down. Someone pointed out earlier here though that you don't want to get caught having that flight sell out so keep an eye on it, especially if one was to be travelling on a heavy travel day - Sunday after Thanksgiving comes to mind.

 

[gottalovepluto]

How do you fund these accounts so fast? I'm still waiting on Ally and Chase to verify Memory Bank...going on 3 days now...

It was weird, Fidelity just took my ally info and said it was linked and let me make the transfer. No verification deposits or logging into Ally.
And weird on Memory Bank, our trial deposits showed within a couple business days.

 

[gottalovepluto]

There's a lot of confusion on how long the money needs to be left with Fidelity. I was told I needed to keep a $0 balance, a $200 net deposits into the account for 60 days and "i don't know call please call customer service". 3 different answers. I'm leaving all the money at Fidelity for 9 months until I know I'm in the clear as are most DoC comments.

 

[miztressuz]

I went through Fidelity to transfer money in from my Ally savings account. It acted like everything went through fine, but I didn't get any notifications from Ally or anything. I guess I'll see if it shows up next week. It says you have 60 days to transfer the $200 in so seems like we have some time even if things don't work perfectly.

So I just did the Fidelity and it's odd in that it's showing the money in the account as funded, but I know it hasn't been transferred yet. It did say there would be a 4 day hold on it, so they are probably showing it as completed but you can't use it until they actually get it anyway

It was a little confusing setting up the funding (the home page still listed I had another step to complete the process, which was funding, but I already made the transfer almost did it a second time.) but a ton better than the Schwab account where I didn't understand their radio buttons and managed to open 2 brokerage accounts and the checking Now I gotta get one of the brokerage accounts closed. And still wait for trial deposits to actually fund it...

 

[wendow]

It was weird, Fidelity just took my ally info and said it was linked and let me make the transfer. No verification deposits or logging into Ally.
And weird on Memory Bank, our trial deposits showed within a couple business days.

Same! That was much easier than with Memory bank (still pending...). I transferred the $200. We can do this for multiple people in the household, right? My dd18 still hasn't opened an account with her grad money so this would be perfect. Was gonna do Memory for her but it expired.

 

[platamama]

Man now that summer is here I CAN NOT keep up with this thread! Too many warm days in the pool and too many adventures to being had. I bought a new Honda Pilot a few days ago. My first brand new car EVER and my only my second car I have ever owned. I ran the wheels off my other car and was in the 'I don't want a car payment' camp very firmly but it was getting to the point where I cringed every long drive feeling like maybe today was the day the 175k mile car was going to give up on life. I am excited every day I get up to maybe go drive somewhere . It was a no go on having any part of the purchase on a credit card though . I tried!

Also, we are adding a deck onto our pool and I was trying to figure out the best use of points for it. Then I realized my newly acquired Ink Cash has a 0% financing for 1 year and I still have MSR to meet on it. I don't normally care about APR because I don't carry balances but this is going to be a big project so having a few months to cushion it will be amazing. AND the contractor is my grandpa so I just added an employee card for him to use and had it expedited. It was on my doorstep within 24 hours!


Question for you SW CP'ers: We are doing a late Jan trip to WDW with our friends. Both myself and my friend *should* be rocking a CP by travel dates (if we follow our oct/nov plan) but not likely by the time we book. There will be 4 of us total with 2 CP's. Whats the best way to accomplish it with minimal cash outlay? I am thinking if I use my UR's->RR to book all 4 tickets then when we add CP in before the trip I will just get the points back into my RR account. BUT I don't know if I will be able to use 2 CP's on one reservation. If that isn't allowed I could have my DH and BFF booked together on UR then she can use her CP for them and I will do the same for me and her husband. I don't care about having UR's committed to a SW account because that's mostly who we fly anyway.
And going further down the rabbit hole, to a place that's likely frowned upon on the Dis as a whole (but not here my miles and points swindling buddies), my friends might just be moving in with me when they renew their upcoming drivers license and then they can upgrade to the DVC Gold. Hard times, you know.

One more thing: I am not one to MS (much) or resell (at all) because I find the process time consuming and obnoxious. Until I ran into Target to acquire a cart full of unnecessary random goods and I stumbled upon the Bose SoundLink Revolve+, marked down to $149 from $299 . Bought one for myself but on a whim got home and listed it--it sold within 5 minutes for $195 (little did I know the price Ebay suggested was for the Revolve non+ edition so someone got a steal of a deal but I still made a few bucks). Went back and bought the other 3 on the shelf and one is currently at $203 with 5 days left.

That is all. Now it's back to grown upping. I get a whole lot more Disboards time when it is rainy outside. The sun comes out and I am compelled to be productive!

That all sounds good! I might need to make a trip to Target and see what they have! Congrats on your new car!

I didn't see your question answered about the CP, each holder of the CP will need to make a reservation in their respective RR account and then once your reservation is made you can "add your companion". I've never not had the CP prior to booking a flight so I'm thinking once you earned the CP, if there are any get away fares left then you could add the companion without canceling and rebooking the 2 CP holder tickets, but would need to cancel the two companion tickets. Depending on if the flight sells out you may not be able to cancel the original bookings and rebook using the CP. Also remember with the CP you can only change your companion 3 times, so likely would be best for you and your friend to both use the CP for your respective husbands.

As long as there is a fare at all left (not sold out) you can add the companion. I usually wait to add the companion so I don't have to keep cancelling and rebooking them when (and more times when, knock wood - not if) the fare goes down. Someone pointed out earlier here though that you don't want to get caught having that flight sell out so keep an eye on it, especially if one was to be travelling on a heavy travel day - Sunday after Thanksgiving comes to mind.

@GusGus16 and @Pixiedustspreader got you covered on the CP. I got burned on waiting to add my companion because my flight home from Costa Rica was sold out on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. That's the only time I've had an issue with waiting to add my companion but it's a painful lesson.

It was weird, Fidelity just took my ally info and said it was linked and let me make the transfer. No verification deposits or logging into Ally.
And weird on Memory Bank, our trial deposits showed within a couple business days.

Same here with linking my Discover account.

 

[wendow]

So I just did the Fidelity and it's odd in that it's showing the money in the account as funded, but I know it hasn't been transferred yet. It did say there would be a 4 day hold on it, so they are probably showing it as completed but you can't use it until they actually get it anyway

It was a little confusing setting up the funding (the home page still listed I had another step to complete the process, which was funding, but I already made the transfer almost did it a second time.) but a ton better than the Schwab account where I didn't understand their radio buttons and managed to open 2 brokerage accounts and the checking Now I gotta get one of the brokerage accounts closed. And still wait for trial deposits to actually fund it...

Even after I funded and had confirmation of the funding, it still shows I have another step and need to fund...!?! Will just let it sit for a few days and see what happens.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Are you opening an individual (vs joint) account? Is the Webster account an individual (in your name) or joint account? I've had issues in the past transferring funds if the account type didn't match.

Uh oh, my Ally account is a joint account and I signed for an individual account thinking it might mess things up if I do two joint accounts for me and DH to both get the bonus. I mean obviously it will be no issue if DH needs to approve it, but I hope it's not a hassle.

It was weird, Fidelity just took my ally info and said it was linked and let me make the transfer. No verification deposits or logging into Ally.
And weird on Memory Bank, our trial deposits showed within a couple business days.

Same thing for Ally for me. Mine says the funds will be transferred in on July 2. We'll see what happens.

 

[miztressuz]

There's a lot of confusion on how long the money needs to be left with Fidelity. I was told I needed to keep a $0 balance, a $200 net deposits into the account for 60 days and "i don't know call please call customer service". 3 different answers. I'm leaving all the money at Fidelity for 9 months until I know I'm in the clear as are most DoC comments.

Yeah, and I'm betting call customer service won't be very helpful because "You won’t see the bonus offer mentioned during sign-up because it’s a super special one-time deal kind of thing."
Totally warm fuzzies on that I have a bunch of screenshots of the offer, date/timestamped. But I highly doubt all of customer service is aware of the offer and all the fine details of it

But the super fine print seemed pretty definitive on the 9 month clawback…. whether it actually happens or not I'm not sure anyone knows.
"Account holders must maintain the minimum qualifying account balance (minus any losses related to trading or market volatility, or margin debit balances) at Fidelity for at least nine months from the date on which the bonus award is credited to the account, or Fidelity may charge the account the cost of the bonus award."
So I'm with you, I'm just going to leave the $200 in there for at least 9 months after the bonus posts just to be sure. This isn't something I want to be the guinea pig on

 

[GusGus16]

I didn't see your question answered about the CP, each holder of the CP will need to make a reservation in their respective RR account and then once your reservation is made you can "add your companion". I've never not had the CP prior to booking a flight so I'm thinking once you earned the CP, if there are any get away fares left then you could add the companion without canceling and rebooking the 2 CP holder tickets, but would need to cancel the two companion tickets. Depending on if the flight sells out you may not be able to cancel the original bookings and rebook using the CP. Also remember with the CP you can only change your companion 3 times, so likely would be best for you and your friend to both use the CP for your respective husbands.

I double checked with a few blogs, and it appears you could make one reservation, using transferred UR to RR from your account, with the 2 people who have/will have CP's, as long as you put their RR account number in when making the booking. You would still need to go into both of their respective online RR accounts to add each of the companions. I would make a separate or 2 separate reservations for the companions using the RR to allow for ease of cancellation once you earn the CP.

 

[Pixiedustspreader]

I got burned on waiting to add my companion because my flight home from Costa Rica was sold out on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. That's the only time I've had an issue with waiting to add my companion but it's a painful lesson.

Yep. It was you @platamama. Ugh I am sorry about this. You sharing that has really opened my eyes on the choosing "the too much trouble to cancel CP and rebook" option. There is still enough time for cancellations to happen so hopefully a seat will come available and you can add your companion. Again, sorry it happened to you but thanks for sharing that - hopefully it will help others - I know it did me.

 

[vanjust14]

Are you opening an individual (vs joint) account? Is the Webster account an individual (in your name) or joint account? I've had issues in the past transferring funds if the account type didn't match.

Individual. I think it may have to do with the fact the account was originally in my maiden name. I completed the name change but I've noticed some correspondence is still addressed to my old name. I just used my new PNC account and it worked fine!

 

[peel]

Yep. It was you @platamama. Ugh I am sorry about this. You sharing that has really opened my eyes on the choosing "the too much trouble to cancel CP and rebook" option. There is still enough time for cancellations to happen so hopefully a seat will come available and you can add your companion. Again, sorry it happened to you but thanks for sharing that - hopefully it will help others - I know it did me.

You can also call SW and have them adjust your ticket without cancelling the companion first. I've done this twice in the past couple of weeks and it's super fast and easy for them to take care of.