I love credit cards so much!

[trenty]

I think I would have him apply for both CSP and CF on same day, ASAP. You have less than 3 months to meet your spend anyway, no sense in waiting to meet spend on one first. That way you have more time for points to post. If you can meet spend on all 3 then go ahead and also do your CFU now.

Not a bad idea for DH. But I am over 5/24 right now. So I have to wait. I want the Chase United Card first anyway since I will get more bonus points.

 

[WVMomof3]

Ok. He will be at 0/24 this month. He has not applied for any cards in many years. He was AU on two of my cards in the past 2.5 years.
I will have him do the CSP soon. Then I will get the Chase United. Then after MSR is met on those I will have him do the CF. After that I will reevealute.

Thanks everyone for your help and advice.

I think I would have him apply for both CSP and CF on same day, ASAP. You have less than 3 months to meet your spend anyway, no sense in waiting to meet spend on one first. That way you have more time for points to post. If you can meet spend on all 3 then go ahead and also do your CFU now.

Then do CSP and United same day.

 

[trenty]

Then do CSP and United same day.

United is for me and CSP is for DH. I cannot do United until I am under 5/24 (soon).

 

[WVMomof3]

I just think you need to allow 2 months from when you open card till when you get your points, even if you meet spend right away. Probably will not be that long, but it could, depending on when you hit billing cycles.

 

[WVMomof3]

United is for me and CSP is for DH. I cannot do United until I am under 5/24 (soon).

Can he not also get the United?

 

[trenty]

Can he not also get the United?

I don't think I can combine United Points easily or at least without a fee. Ultimate goal is to have as many United points in one United account with little out of pocket expense.

 

[wendow]

Just wanted to say that we stayed at CS last summer for 5 nights and really enjoyed it. We had a refurbished room, and it was very light and bright and thought it had a nice layout. The location was very nice too, it seemed close to all of the parks (we had a car so drove everywhere). We usually stay at DVC resorts for comparison. I've never stayed at POFQ though so can't comment on it.

We also stayed at CS last Sept in a refurbed room and I was wow'ed! It was beautifully done!! We've stayed at all the mods except CBR and the CS room was nicer than either of the PO resorts, imo.

We also typically stay deluxe for part of our trip. We had just been at BC for 5 nights and then moved to CS for 4 nights. The CS made the BC room look a bit beat up lol!

 

[wendow]

Thank you! @3 DD love princesses @CyndiLouWho my mil was recently diagnosed with terminal melanoma. I wasn’t sure what would happen if we need to cancel our cruise.

I'm so very sorry

 

[tink1970]

I had no idea you couldn't buy gift cards at Walgreens with a credit card. I went to go use my freedom for some Disney GCs and was totally shot down. Not sure how we'll max out our two freedoms now.

Another DP if you want to come visit Florida...ours has a limit of $500/day but possible. Which reminds me... I need to get to it!

Since I'm (sadly) not working on a minimum spend, I tried to make lemonade out of the Amex offers I have. I went on a trip to Durham to drop DD off for 2 weeks and split the Hilton Curio Chapel Hill hotel into a 250/250/167 charge (DMs and DDs had the offers) so $100 off the $500; plus 400 MRs plus the $167 on CSR (so 501 URs). I also used Discover for dining (10% cash back) and CSR for the rental car (345 URs). Then DM and I flew to DTW (working on miles and MQMs for status...got about 9,000 skypesos and 4,000 MQMs) PLUS finished off TWO SPG $60 off $300 (had a little left needed for 1 offer from Denver mileage run plus the hotel charge for the night)- so $120 back from Amex for that.

SPG and Delta end their "double dip" relationship July 15 but flying Delta and staying at SPG property will earn a few more starpoints/skypesos as well.

They are small amounts but add up...I had a list for each expense (food, rental car, both hotels) and listed the offer card and just followed along. I have added DD, DH and DM to my Amex Platinum account and estimate that 6 skyclub trips (since a guest is $29/visit) pay off the $175 fee (annually). This weekend, DD and DM had a total of 5 visits so next weekend on the way to BCN with DH we'll have gotten our value out of this perk in 1 month after the AF (with more trips to come!).

My wallet was heavy with cards and DM and DD thought I was a little obsessed about following the rules but with a senior in high school (aka college tuition in sight) every little bit counts!

I appreciate this thread so much for its support and a BIG THANK YOU to whomever posted that the Amex hotel offers can be split among payments...this strategy netted me about $170, if not more. Y'all are great!!

(ps--our flight to Barcelona will put me over Gold Medallion status and then I'll play around with being Platinum again...of course I'm sure it won't take me too long to decide to go for it ).

 

[wendow]

@disneymagicgirl
Have you decided where y'all will stay at DLR? There are so many options for larger families, unlike most places. Some places will sleep 6 but only have 1 bathroom and that is a no-go for us.

 

[snugglebug]

I had no idea you couldn't buy gift cards at Walgreens with a credit card. I went to go use my freedom for some Disney GCs and was totally shot down. Not sure how we'll max out our two freedoms now.

On a different subject ... I just signed up for ShippingEasy. Have any of you used it before? Anything to watch out for? I put my CIP in, I'm hoping it codes 3x.

I stopped in one day and bought $100 Amazon and a lighter my husband wanted to test the waters. Then went back and spent $275 on just GCs. No id, no questions, no issues. While there is one closer to home, I think I'll stick with this particular store. There was a sign with a dollar per day limit, I think $300, maybe $500, but that's it.

 

[Lain]

I had no idea you couldn't buy gift cards at Walgreens with a credit card. I went to go use my freedom for some Disney GCs and was totally shot down. Not sure how we'll max out our two freedoms now.

Really? I was so mad after being shut down at two Walgreens stores in Northern California that I called corporate and they said it applied to all stores. I guess not! If anyone knows of a Walgreens in Northern California that will sell gift cards let me know!

YMMV. There’s nothing in Walgreens’ system prohibiting paying for gift cards with a credit card, except for a $500 daily limit that’s hard coded into their POS, but each store may have their own policies. I made a big dent in our CF 5x by buying a $500 gift card at Walgreens (in Daly City) just last week. I’ve purchased $500 VGCs, Best Buy, Disney, Amazon, and eBay gift cards from Walgreens with a credit card, no problem. This was in and around San Francisco, Daly City, SSF, San Bruno, Millbrae, and Burlingame. (Seriously, just travel down El Camino Real, and I’ve had success with every Walgreens store from South City down to Burlingame. A lot of the Walgreens in the city have limited selections and cashiers more likely to give me a hard time, so I tend to pop into Walgreens when I happen to be on the Peninsula to do my shopping.) Try another store, or another city over. Good luck!

 

[mmmears]

Really? I was so mad after being shut down at two Walgreens stores in Northern California that I called corporate and they said it applied to all stores. I guess not! If anyone knows of a Walgreens in Northern California that will sell gift cards let me know!

This is so odd. Do they expect you to pay cash for gift cards? (I'm in NorCal, too, but haven't bought any gift cards from Walgreens).

 

[snugglebug]

Why do you suppose I can't move dh's UR from his CSR to my CSR? Do I need to go through my CIP? I've updated our address for both accounts. I put in my CSR number and tick the box and it comes to say: This card is not eligible to receive points from you at this time.

 

[Lain]

This is so odd. Do they expect you to pay cash for gift cards? (I'm in NorCal, too, but haven't bought any gift cards from Walgreens).

Hi, neighbor.

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

Thank you! @3 DD love princesses @CyndiLouWho my mil was recently diagnosed with terminal melanoma. I wasn’t sure what would happen if we need to cancel our cruise.

I’m so sorry to hear this news. I lost my parents within 18 months of each other (ovarian cancer; broken heart). I hope your family is able to sieve much time together.

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

I had no idea you couldn't buy gift cards at Walgreens with a credit card. I went to go use my freedom for some Disney GCs and was totally shot down. Not sure how we'll max out our two freedoms now.

On a different subject ... I just signed up for ShippingEasy. Have any of you used it before? Anything to watch out for? I put my CIP in, I'm hoping it codes 3x.

I just bought a Starbucks gc yesterday w my CF at Walgreens.

 

[Lain]

@SouthFayetteFan @Lain @Albort
Will DH applying for 3 Chase cards in 3 months be possible? Will he be suspect for a shutdown?

Coming from 0/24 to 3/3? Yeah, that sounds risky.

 

[Lain]

Is the Chase United Explorer card subject to 5/24? Is there a better bonus than 40,000 points?

Yes, it reads like you’ve already found out that the United Explorer card is subject to 5/24.

I’m pasting something I posted a few weeks back with some helpful info about the current offers on the Explorer card. The 40k UA miles offer is the lowest, public offer. There are higher targeted offers of 50k and 60k right now, and there are tricks to get yourself targeted for these higher offers.

The Explorer (new MPE) card gets you priority boarding, free carry-on for basic economy, first checked bag free (must pay for tickets with card), 2 United Club lounge passes, up to $100 credit for Global Entry or TSA Precheck, a 25% mileage bonus on United’s MPX gift card app, and probably most importantly, increased award space availability. You get access to additional award seats that United blocks off for their cardholders and elite members. The $95 AF is waived for the first year. Chase has no fee United cards you can product change to after your first year that’ll still give you increased award availability.

But wait until you can get a good signup bonus on the MPE. Chase is known to deny matching to better offers on United cards.

The current public offer on the MPE is only 40k UA miles + $100 statement credit after you spend $2k/3 months. For much of last year, the public offer was 50k UA miles, with a targeted offer of 70k UA miles. There's buzz that there are better 50k and 60k UA miles offers out there (https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/8q8d13/daily_discussion_thread_june_11_2018/), but these are likely targeted and you'll have to log into your UA account to see if you qualify.

If you don't see a targeted higher offer, don’t settle for the public 40k UA miles offer just yet; there are some tricks that have worked to get you targeted for higher offers on the MPE:

• Fly on United. After you’ve flown on United, many people report getting targeted with higher than public signup offers for the MPE (and Club card) via mailers and on their United account in the following weeks.
• Make a dummy booking on United. Log into your United account and go through the motions of making a flight booking, and you may see a popup offer for the MPE with a higher mileage offer (and possibly statement credit).
• Make a purchase through the UnitedMileagePlus Shopping portal. People have generally received a targeted mailer a few weeks after their portal purchase. The MileagePlus Shopping portal includes iTunes, so you could possibly trigger a higher credit card offer by buying a cheap song.
• Make a purchase on the United MileagePlus X (“MPX”) gift card app. The MPX app is available for iOS and Android devices andsells e-gift cards at face value, often in the exact amount you need, but allows you to earn 0.5-5x UA miles/$1 depending onmerchant (more during promos) and passes the coding of the purchase on to the merchant’s category allowing you to trigger category bonuses on your Chase Visa credit cards.

These tricks may trigger a higher offer immediately or could take several weeks to work, if at all. Since you're looking to apply soon, you should probably start with the above. Keep playing around with the above tricks, as there seems to have been a lot of success with them last year. It probably helps if you don’t already have a United credit card.

 

[amalone1013]

If DH got CIP in May, think its pushing it to try for CIC?

DHs cards (3/24):

• Disney 9/16, SPG personal 9/16, CSR 8/17, SPG biz 3/18, CIP 5/18
• Older cards: Barclay Arrival Plus, Discover it