I love credit cards so much!

[AmyAnne]

With absolutely no hard math to back me up on this, it is worth my while to pay with Marriott card for Marriott stays and Hilton card for Hilton stays- especially when there's a promotion running. There are 3x points on my Hilton card this month when I pay for my stay with that, so I'll come out pretty well on that cash booking. With Marriott at 5x and about to jump to 6x in August, I think that's a good value so long as you know you will be using that Marriott points. People on Reddit may have concrete math to prove me wrong, but I think for a lot of us we support just using it for the value we actually appreciate.

With a promotion, I can see coming out ahead using the hotel-specific card. Not so sure about the regular card benefits.

 

[Limes96]

What's the rule of thumb on what % of income your credit limits should be under? And it doesn't include the biz cards, right?

 

[calypso726]

For the Marriott Travel Package FOMO support group:

Sharing is caring so here is another blogger with fuel for the indecision fire https://tinyurl.com/yahaeguz

 

[miztressuz]

How fast does Staples send their e-giftcards? I need them by Weds, and the email is promising and says less than 1 business day so that works. But worried now that I just relooked at website where it says 1-10 business days.

Saw on DoC that Staples has Lowe's eGCs on discount $100/$90 (limit 3), so since I'm buying from there anyway figure I'll pick up some discounted GC's using my Staples 10% off and then pay the balance using the Lowe's 10%. But kind of afraid to buy all that I need and not get them in time to be useful; and I don't really want to float that much in Lowe's GC's. Hoping someone can confirm they usually come within that 1 business day.

 

[kmc8826]

What's the rule of thumb on what % of income your credit limits should be under? And it doesn't include the biz cards, right?

My understanding is under 50%. Could be completely wrong though! I do know for certain that Chase looks across the board at business and personal limits. And if too high on personal you can’t transfer credit from personal/business.

 

[WVMomof3]

Looks like Apple is 1 point per dollar in the SW portal but you can use your Hyatt card no problem. Plus you'll get extra points for the current shopping promo. You can buy a MacBook from other retailers too. There is a student coupon for Best Buy for $150 off some models. With Best Buy, you can also earn Best Buy points. I ordered a MacBook last week from BB. Came within 2 days...no slow boat!

Thanks, I will look into Best Buy. I remember now why the other took so long. She had to have a certain configuration for her major and we could only get it by going directly through the Apple website, which meant shipping from China. We had no idea when we ordered that was going to happen. It took way longer to arrive than we thought. This DD does not need any certain laptop, so hopefully will be able to order what she wants anywhere.

 

[jhoannam]

They caught onto my "Cashier" trick for Navy Federal a couple of months ago. I let the dust settle and just tried a new payment to NFC Union. It went through so far. Lets see if I get an email from Eric tomorrow!

Are you paying your NFCU mortgage?

 

[kmc8826]

I need help! @speedyfishy, @DaveL and/or whomever else!

Called Chase a week ago Wednesday to move my existing WDW package to Chase and use UR’s. The agent I talked to a Renitia (sp) seemed a little confused but willing. She took the information and said she would fill out the form herself. Based on stuff here I expected an emailed form but she didn’t want my email just a phone number and said she would call when transferred. I have been checking and it is not transferred yet.

I finally had a chance to call again today. Agent I talked too this time said former agent “on break.” But he said that “no way what you are asking cannot be done.” I left a message for Renitia anyway. Still no call.

Any recommendations of who to talk too? You can PM me if easier. It looks like room rate is still available under offer (AP offer not out yet so I haven’t even dealt with that). I guess I could call and try to get them to just book it and cancel what I have now. But I would assume not do that as it is 2 rooms under one reservation.

30 days is coming up Friday. And I really want to use the UR’s to pay for this trip. I just sent a wire transfer for my DVC resale and I am feeling poor. Points are the way to go for this October trip! Thanks...

 

[wdwcindy]

Can someone remind me how to see the purchase details on an SPG biz card? I chatted with Amex today and their total spend amount and my total spend amount are way off. The chat said some of my purchases didn't qualify. I want to go through the details before I call again. Thanks!!

 

[Limes96]

My understanding is under 50%. Could be completely wrong though! I do know for certain that Chase looks across the board at business and personal limits. And if too high on personal you can’t transfer credit from personal/business.

I will have to lower my limits then before October. My Bank of America and Amex limits are too high. Something like 19,900. Is there a minimum limit on the Amex blue Preferred?

 

[mmmears]

I'm following along and want to add that it's not just Delta. American did this to my DD - we had specifically booked a red-eye so she could get to her college in the morning (after summer break), get her keys, check into her dorm, move her stuff out of storage, etc. American decided she could get in a full 14 hours later (8pm) and that would be fine. We raised H$%# and we got a refund on that half of the RT ticket and had to rebook on another airline. Praying this doesn't happen again this year (yeah, we booked AA again since they were the only ones with the preferred schedule - but if they cancel the flight it's going to be a mess since we'll be out of the country and mostly offline up until the day before she flies out). I hate flying...

 

[Albort]

Does anyone know the best way to order a MacBook through Apple to maximize points? Last time I went through chase portal to get double points. Not sure if that was the best. This time I am using my Hyatt card I just got, wasn’t sure if the shopping portals worked on cobranded cards? Or should I do something like the Southwest portal someone mentioned earlier? Haven’t looked into this at all yet, but DD just got back from Thailand and is now in a hurry to get things ready for leaving for college. Hope we didn’t wait too long, I remember watching the tracking on my last DDs MacBook and it literally took the slow boat from China. Took forever to get here. I think it got here right before classes, but she goes to school 20 minutes from home. This DD is going 7 hours away, so needs to get here before she leaves!

I think the best policy with apple products is looking for price protection/warranty vs points. I would go for a card with warranty than points unless u plan to buy applecare. If points is what u have in mind, id probably go the best buy route. 5x on gift card, maybe save another $100 if ur DD has an edu account to play with.

Sorry, what do you mean by "push it through".. call the recon line?

Yes, what i mean by that is to get it approved... calling recon and get the app to be approved.

How fast does Staples send their e-giftcards? I need them by Weds, and the email is promising and says less than 1 business day so that works. But worried now that I just relooked at website where it says 1-10 business days.

Saw on DoC that Staples has Lowe's eGCs on discount $100/$90 (limit 3), so since I'm buying from there anyway figure I'll pick up some discounted GC's using my Staples 10% off and then pay the balance using the Lowe's 10%. But kind of afraid to buy all that I need and not get them in time to be useful; and I don't really want to float that much in Lowe's GC's. Hoping someone can confirm they usually come within that 1 business day.

i ordered some today. ordered @10:13, gc showed up at 1:02.

Can someone remind me how to see the purchase details on an SPG biz card? I chatted with Amex today and their total spend amount and my total spend amount are way off. The chat said some of my purchases didn't qualify. I want to go through the details before I call again. Thanks!!

were there any purchases u made that was in some sort of cash form in return? ie visa/mastercard gift card, gift cards? its probably easier to isolate that and then see if the company gives L3 data to amex.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Looks like Apple is 1 point per dollar in the SW portal but you can use your Hyatt card no problem. Plus you'll get extra points for the current shopping promo. You can buy a MacBook from other retailers too. There is a student coupon for Best Buy for $150 off some models. With Best Buy, you can also earn Best Buy points. I ordered a MacBook last week from BB. Came within 2 days...no slow boat!

I’ve purchased 2 on sale at BB as well.
Also, do you have that Best Buy Amex offer?

 

[Lain]

Can someone remind me how to see the purchase details on an SPG biz card? I chatted with Amex today and their total spend amount and my total spend amount are way off. The chat said some of my purchases didn't qualify. I want to go through the details before I call again. Thanks!!

1. Log into your Amex SPG account.
2. At the top nav bar, click Statements & Activity.
3. Next to the tabs, click the Preview New Version button.
4. On the popup, click the Try New Version button.
5. Click at each transaction to see the details. Here, you should see a box for STARPOINTS® earned.
6. To the left, under Card Activity, you can click for Previous Billing Statements and go through each transaction there.
7. If it's a recent transaction, your STARPOINTS® box may not reflect any points yet.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Delta did this to my daughter a few weeks ago (fortunately I had purchased the flight through the Chase UR page and they sent an email right away that the flight had been cancelled; if they hadn't, no telling when we might have happened to find out). Luckily the flight is a popular route and she actually ended up with a slightly better time, but I had purchased the economy fare but not the lowest tier economy because it was only about $25 more and it's worth $25 to get to choose a seat . . . Anyway, when Delta cancelled the flight, she logged into her "my trips" on Delta and was offered several new flights but only at the lowest level of economy. She had to call Delta (with a similar 2-hour hold time) to change the flight and keep the ability to select her seat. I thought that was pretty slimy on Delta's part.

That’s seriously messed up! Yikes, I’m glad I went the Twitter route, re-booking into Basic Economy when you booked Economy?! No excuse!

 

[Jaime4004]

Never again... I went to the same restaurant two nights in a row this weekend (only restaurant in this town where my horse show was). They let me use amex the first night and then the second night told me they didn't take it... Apparently they CAN take Amex, the boss just doesn't want them to and the waitress didn't realize it was amex the first night before she swiped it.

That's annoying. Now that you mention it, I'm not even sure the orthodontist takes amex. Hope they do, but if not I have the SW to finish anyway. My fallback is DH's grad school tuition, I'd prepay one of the courses (last resort, don't want to pay school any earlier than I have to), they take amex.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Glad your issue was resolved to your satisfaction. It's so annoying when the airlines do this, and it's not just Delta. We had something very similar happen with United recently. We had purchased United flights to Maui going through SFO from Boise for a Spring Break trip with my parents. We at least got a notification from United, but on our return, rather than an early afternoon flight out of Maui, going through SFO and getting us back to Boise around 11pm, they put us on a redeye flight to Denver (7 hour flight and totally out of the way) and then on to Boise. Um, no!! I called United, but they had nothing to offer me. Apparently, they have been demoted from the daytime flights out of Maui, so they only have the evening flights. But still, Denver??? So I just cancelled the whole reservation for a full refund and booked flights on Alaska instead. They were ridiculously more expensive than the United flights (like twice as much), but my Dad was paying and was pretty desperate for us to have something locked up given Spring Break, so he encouraged me to just go ahead and buy the Alaska flights. I actually ended up getting first class, since they weren't that much more expensive than coach, and I am paying the difference.

That is serious making lemonade out of lemons!! It’s rather important to check the cost of First and it’s just not something one normally thinks of. I’m still kicking myself over an AS flight I booked and then paid for extra legroom upgrade on only to later find out first would have been cheaper! And first class for a HI flight? Your family will love you just a little bit extra

Random thought: did SW entry to Maui have a little something to do with UA’s demotion?...

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

For the Marriott Travel Package FOMO support group:

Sharing is caring so here is another blogger with fuel for the indecision fire https://tinyurl.com/yahaeguz

You are an enabler! Lol. But seriously I’m leaning toward holding but will probably wait as long as possible to decide.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

For the Marriott Travel Package FOMO support group:

Sharing is caring so here is another blogger with fuel for the indecision fire https://tinyurl.com/yahaeguz

Thanks for sharing.
This blogger summed up nicely all the stuff I have been tossing around in my head lately. I had even drawn out on paper what mapping the certs to new categories might look like.
So much to consider and so many variables.
I am now trying to decide whether to upgrade my cert to a higher category since that’s what I will need to book or not. FOMO.

 

[speedyfishy]

I need help! @speedyfishy, @DaveL and/or whomever else!

Called Chase a week ago Wednesday to move my existing WDW package to Chase and use UR’s. The agent I talked to a Renitia (sp) seemed a little confused but willing. She took the information and said she would fill out the form herself. Based on stuff here I expected an emailed form but she didn’t want my email just a phone number and said she would call when transferred. I have been checking and it is not transferred yet.

I finally had a chance to call again today. Agent I talked too this time said former agent “on break.” But he said that “no way what you are asking cannot be done.” I left a message for Renitia anyway. Still no call.

Any recommendations of who to talk too? You can PM me if easier. It looks like room rate is still available under offer (AP offer not out yet so I haven’t even dealt with that). I guess I could call and try to get them to just book it and cancel what I have now. But I would assume not do that as it is 2 rooms under one reservation.

30 days is coming up Friday. And I really want to use the UR’s to pay for this trip. I just sent a wire transfer for my DVC resale and I am feeling poor. Points are the way to go for this October trip! Thanks...

I didn’t fill out any form for my transfer. My rep did it I forgot her name maybe Ashley? I spoke to Krystal today and she booked my hotel with the AP rate.

Just so you know if the AP rate comes out and you cancel this reservation it can take 60 days for the points to go back into your account. It really took a week when I cancelled and rebooked for me but they said 60 days. Do you have enough points to book this trip and then if the AP rate comes out would you have enough points to book that while you wait for the refund. If you have enough points I’d still book now and then cancel if the AP rate comes out and just wait for the refund. If you don’t have the points it maybe worth a gamble to wait for an AP rate and just book directly with Chase when that becomes available. Idk how flexible you are and how busy your dates are though.

If you don’t want to gamble trying to get an AP rate I’d try calling back tomorrow and speak to a different rep and check the status. As long as the transfer was initiated within 30 days it should be able to be transferred.i think it took mine transfer about two and half weeks. The rep you spoke to today was clueless. It’s probably still just being processed.