I love credit cards so much!

[SBWB48]

I think I’m going to go for the Biz Plat tomorrow. I’m only currently working on the Citi Biz. (Still hasn’t arrived yet though) I wanted to focus more on just MSing this month, like using giftcardmall with the CIP and maxing the Amex offers, but I’ll try and do both. I’m not really doing anything right now except job hunting.

Now do I have SO go for this too? Both of us going for the plats and BGR would mean 30k MSR in three months plus the 2.5k I have for the citi Biz. That’s going to Walmart everyday for at least two months and getting an MO with a VGC. Back in February/March I did some crazy MS, but it is exhausting. What do you guys think?

This. I was in the same camp around that time as well. It was exhausting indeed, but if you have time in between job hunting, you may find it less taxing lol. I'll be MS'ing for my Biz Plat, but likely won't have two since I'm not sure I can swing two Biz Plat, Citi Biz AA, and possibly two Hiltons (or the Marriott Premier before I am disqualified come 8/26). And cause I need DH to call in for the offer and it's one thing if I apply with his info (he doesn't care and is willing to call in when I need him to), but another if he hears $10K MSR. Like @Lain and his DW, he might kill me lol. And cause I already have a personal Plat from May and I don't need 3 plats overlapping

For you, if the time to MS is there, why not I guess since it's possible it could be back later, but it's possible it may not be. If you can be opportunistic with a great offer esp with Amex, I would. I've just met critical mass as far as MSR in 3 months given where I am with existing offers...

So, I’ve just started using Plastiq and got a couple of payments set up, including my student loan payment. However, when I set up my car loan payments, it is rejecting it saying it is a mortgage payment. Is there any way around this?

If you have the word "Finance' in your payee, it will recognize it as a mortgage for some reason. A few of us have American Honda Finance Corp as our car loan payments and personally, I changed "Finance" to "Fin." and it works fine. Who has your car loan?

Hm. No HPs on either the Biz Plat or Biz Green.

My guess is it's because we got the SPG Biz a few months ago, though, I recall no HPs for that either. Amex, I heart you even more, except the fact that so few places take your cards

 

[SBWB48]

This would actually be a good time to have a new MSR since miraculously, after four kids and four colleges, finally my DS's grad school takes credit cards for tuition with no fee.

This alone justifies it all lol. Tuition is such a big expense that with a fee, it can require some mathing to see if it's worth it. NO FEE??

As for Amex, I doubt they will blink an eye esp. if the Green is a charge card, so it doesn't count towards your 5 card limit. Your explanation sounds perfectly logical IMO. Risk reduction and just cancel them one at a time when you cross that bridge

 

[amalone1013]

I think I’m going to go for the Biz Plat tomorrow. I’m only currently working on the Citi Biz. (Still hasn’t arrived yet though) I wanted to focus more on just MSing this month, like using giftcardmall with the CIP and maxing the Amex offers, but I’ll try and do both. I’m not really doing anything right now except job hunting.

Now do I have SO go for this too? Both of us going for the plats and BGR would mean 30k MSR in three months plus the 2.5k I have for the citi Biz. That’s going to Walmart everyday for at least two months and getting an MO with a VGC. Back in February/March I did some crazy MS, but it is exhausting. What do you guys think?

I see two main things to consider here. The first is what you decide your time is worth. If you're meeting a MSR organically, you're basically making whatever the sign up bonus is worth in the time it takes to apply for the card, and maybe research which one to get, because beyond that you're just paying with that card instead of another so that's not saving time. That's an easy decision.

How long do you Walmart/MO runs take, on average? I know my Walmart always has long customer service lines, and sometimes I've waited 30min to legitimately return something, and there's only 5 people in line So I'd get an average for that, figure out your base value for the MRs you're earning (that's 330k MRs total including from spend, right?), minus your MO fees, and divide your MR "profit" by your time invested. I'm sure that will come out with some crazy high 'hourly wage' number. So it seems like a no brainer, right?

This is where the other part comes in, at least for me. I don't think I'd want to go that many times even for that much $ in points. This isn't quite the same, but I'm going to use my job as an example. Last summer I had a coworker quite with no notice, so my other coworker and I had to work 12hrs to cover. On top of that we were working 2 weekends on, 1 off, so 19 days straight... so most days I'd work 7am-7pm, and on the Mondays after a weekend off I went in at 3am. We were limited to 72hrs a week, and I averaged 68hrs a week for this period (because of every 3rd weekend off). My department manager was horribly out of touch with reality, and when she would come by and say things like, "Look at all of the OT you're making!" "It's only up to 72 hours a week, that's not that bad!" "It's only hard until your paycheck comes!" I was ready to claw her eyes out. If I hadn't been putting all of that money into paying my student loans off completely, I probably would have walked out for my sanity. I was at a point where no money in the world was worth what I was doing Obviously this is not directly the same, and pretty extreme, but I just wanted to throw this idea in as something to think about so you can figure out where your own sanity saving point is!

These are my personal examples for making some decisions

• Grabbing a gift card at the grocery store for 20% off during Discover's 5% back, and selling it to card pool for a $6 profit was worth it to me, because it only took a few mins total to throw it in my cart and list it. It was like making $6 for 5mins work.
• Getting DH to stop by Walgreens this quarter to get a restaurant GC on our way to that restaurant so we can earn 2 more URs/$ is not worth it, because the argument with DH is not worth it - it's not enough of a difference to go out of the way. And I agree with it most of the time anyways.
• Stopping at Best Buy each day to do the swagbucks deal plus the AMEX offer is worth it to me, because BB is directly on the way home (and we're carpooling so we can do 2 $50s each time). Estimating it adds 15min to our commute home (but probably more like 10min), we make/save $22 for that time. That's better than what I make at work, and no taxes

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Wow, 10k spend for the biz Plat!?! I just don't think I can do it. I just got the Amex BBP so still have 2k on that. How are you guys doing this? MS? Even if I could get my mortgage through, which I did with all our SPG's, I'm still not sure.

Same. I would have to do some serious MS which makes me uncomfortable

 

[SBWB48]

@Lain and @speedyfishy I just logged on and saw Amex Offers for Staples and Lowe's (Get one additional Membership Rewards® point for each dollar you spend; leveling the playing field with the BBP now when it comes to GCs) and Amazon (3x MR) on my Biz Plat. Won't be messing with Staples since it's a L3 situation, but Lowe's and Amazon could be opportunities to help with the MSR if you want to try VGCs and third-party GCs at the other two. Slightly better return.

 

[Lain]

@Lain and @speedyfishy I just logged on and saw Amex Offers for Staples and Lowe's (Get one additional Membership Rewards® point for each dollar you spend; leveling the playing field with the BBP now when it comes to GCs) and Amazon (3x MR) on my Biz Plat. Won't be messing with Staples since it's a L3 situation, but Lowe's and Amazon could be opportunities to help with the MSR if you want to try VGCs and third-party GCs at the other two. Slightly better return.

I think VGCs and MCGCs at Lowe’s (at least near me) cap out at $200, but has a $5.95 (2.98%) or $6.95 fee (3.48%) fee. I think it may have been the higher fee because I remember recoiling at the thought of wasting my 10% statement credit Amex Offer on these cards.

 

[Lain]

My guess is it's because we got the SPG Biz a few months ago, though, I recall no HPs for that either. Amex, I heart you even more, except the fact that so few places take your cards

My last Amex inquiry was back in April for the MB Plat. They haven’t pulled for the Hilton Biz, Biz Plat, or Biz Green. My last inquiry was back in May from Chase for the CIC. Looking good if I want to snag the Marriott Premier Plus in August before the new restrictions disqualify me.

 

[Lain]

Ugh I am seriously tempted to do this (the BGR and Green). I have the Biz Plat that I had planned to cancel earlier this year but kept despite a lame retention offer. Honestly the one thing that is holding me back is having to explain all these cards to AmEx when I call to cancel them. I guess I could just say I overestimated how much business credit I needed. I have seven AmEx cards already -- how many is too many?!

This would actually be a good time to have a new MSR since miraculously, after four kids and four colleges, finally my DS's grad school takes credit cards for tuition with no fee.

You can cancel Amex cards via chat.

I think self referral for the Biz Green is a no brainer.

The BGR requires a little more math. The offer via referral is 50k MR/$5k/3 months, but you’ll get an additional 20k MR for the referral. You can call into the number listed on DoC and ask for the 75k MR/$10k/4 months offer if you have the spend, which will put you 5k MR ahead of the self referral offer.

 

[speedyfishy]

I see two main things to consider here. The first is what you decide your time is worth. If you're meeting a MSR organically, you're basically making whatever the sign up bonus is worth in the time it takes to apply for the card, and maybe research which one to get, because beyond that you're just paying with that card instead of another so that's not saving time. That's an easy decision.

How long do you Walmart/MO runs take, on average? I know my Walmart always has long customer service lines, and sometimes I've waited 30min to legitimately return something, and there's only 5 people in line So I'd get an average for that, figure out your base value for the MRs you're earning (that's 330k MRs total including from spend, right?), minus your MO fees, and divide your MR "profit" by your time invested. I'm sure that will come out with some crazy high 'hourly wage' number. So it seems like a no brainer, right?

This is where the other part comes in, at least for me. I don't think I'd want to go that many times even for that much $ in points. This isn't quite the same, but I'm going to use my job as an example. Last summer I had a coworker quite with no notice, so my other coworker and I had to work 12hrs to cover. On top of that we were working 2 weekends on, 1 off, so 19 days straight... so most days I'd work 7am-7pm, and on the Mondays after a weekend off I went in at 3am. We were limited to 72hrs a week, and I averaged 68hrs a week for this period (because of every 3rd weekend off). My department manager was horribly out of touch with reality, and when she would come by and say things like, "Look at all of the OT you're making!" "It's only up to 72 hours a week, that's not that bad!" "It's only hard until your paycheck comes!" I was ready to claw her eyes out. If I hadn't been putting all of that money into paying my student loans off completely, I probably would have walked out for my sanity. I was at a point where no money in the world was worth what I was doing Obviously this is not directly the same, and pretty extreme, but I just wanted to throw this idea in as something to think about so you can figure out where your own sanity saving point is!

These are my personal examples for making some decisions

• Grabbing a gift card at the grocery store for 20% off during Discover's 5% back, and selling it to card pool for a $6 profit was worth it to me, because it only took a few mins total to throw it in my cart and list it. It was like making $6 for 5mins work.
• Getting DH to stop by Walgreens this quarter to get a restaurant GC on our way to that restaurant so we can earn 2 more URs/$ is not worth it, because the argument with DH is not worth it - it's not enough of a difference to go out of the way. And I agree with it most of the time anyways.
• Stopping at Best Buy each day to do the swagbucks deal plus the AMEX offer is worth it to me, because BB is directly on the way home (and we're carpooling so we can do 2 $50s each time). Estimating it adds 15min to our commute home (but probably more like 10min), we make/save $22 for that time. That's better than what I make at work, and no taxes

Hmmm interesting points...


My Walmart is a 10 min drive and the lines aren’t too bad maybe 10 mins max. I tend to go early in the day and on weekdays. So let’s say half hour a day. There is also a grocery store down the road (2 mins away) that I found that isn’t checking the card so maybe I could possibly get two MOs in a trip, I’ve only been twice and they had no line) but I think 30 mins is conservative for how long it takes to get an MO. I deposit them when I go grocery shopping on Friday. There is a PNC bank right inside the Giant. Or I can do mobile deposit. Wells Fargo works.


The profit for 30k would be 370,000 MRs right? (100,000x2 (Biz Plat) plus (50,000x2 for the BRG) plus (20,000x2 for the self referrals) and then 30,000 MR for the spend 10k on two plats and 5k on the BRG)


The fees would be $420. I’d need 60 giftcards so 5.95 for a card and then $1 a MO.


Let’s just say the MRs are worth 1 cent per point so $3,700 minus $420. $3,280


And if each trip is 30 mins at 60 trips that’s 30 hours that’s $109 an hour. Not bad lol.


The problem of course is going everyday. I also will be on vacation in August and September and I won’t want to go on the weekends when my SO is home.


There is also the possibility I could go twice a day. Once in the AM after I bring SO to the train and once before I pick him up. I could also get serve and load $500 to that when I’m there.


I currently basically stay home and apply for jobs while my SO is at work. I don’t have any family or real friends here. So it’s also a way to get me out of the house. lol


I’d probably stop doing the Amex 10% deals if I go the route for a bit tho. I hope I could still do CIP MS. I use those card at grocery stores right by my house because it has my name on them so no one questions it.


I may just compromise and do 1 Plat and 2 BRGs.

 

[speedyfishy]

@Lain and @speedyfishy I just logged on and saw Amex Offers for Staples and Lowe's (Get one additional Membership Rewards® point for each dollar you spend; leveling the playing field with the BBP now when it comes to GCs) and Amazon (3x MR) on my Biz Plat. Won't be messing with Staples since it's a L3 situation, but Lowe's and Amazon could be opportunities to help with the MSR if you want to try VGCs and third-party GCs at the other two. Slightly better return.

I got the bonus for the Delta Plat with buying VGCs at Staples. MR earning cards is risky tho.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Anyone here doing an M&T Bank bonus? Having lots of trouble getting the bonus to trigger. It looks like they've (justifiably) battered down on what counts as a DD for the bonus.

So far, pushes from Ally Checking, Ally Savings, and Schwab Brokerage have not worked. My next attempts will likely be Schwab Checking and Alliant Checking (just opened), but unless I start going down the accounts I have open for other bonuses I'm running out of ideas. If necessary I can use a legit DD, but it'll be another couple weeks before that takes effect so I might as well keep trying.

I’d get the legit DD set up. M&T keeps getting stricter and stricter.

 

[amalone1013]

The profit for 30k would be 370,000 MRs right? (100,000x2 (Biz Plat) plus (50,000x2 for the BRG) plus (20,000x2 for the self referrals) and then 30,000 MR for the spend 10k on two plats and 5k on the BRG)

Oops, forgot the referrals!

I currently basically stay home and apply for jobs while my SO is at work. I don’t have any family or real friends here. So it’s also a way to get me out of the house. lol

I've been here!

 

[SBWB48]

I think VGCs and MCGCs at Lowe’s (at least near me) cap out at $200, but has a $5.95 (2.98%) or $6.95 fee (3.48%) fee. I think it may have been the higher fee because I remember recoiling at the thought of wasting my 10% statement credit Amex Offer on these cards.

Agreed on the Lowe's. Considering Amazon since it's 3x, so close enough to a wash.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I had to make sure to go up in the Empire State building due to "An Affair to Remember" (not sure if any other oldie movie fans here)...

 

[gottalovepluto]

I'd like to be a fly on the wall of that biz recon phone call

Pretty sure it’s one of the reasons I was denied my BoA biz card. Obviously I said retail was my biz but they required my tax returns which don’t show any extra income there since I have a “biz” but they also required my schedules where I diligently listed out my almost 20 bank bonuses from last year. Gonna say lending figured out what my actual biz was pretty fast and didn’t care for it...

 

[gottalovepluto]

What bank bonuses is everyone working on these days? I did PNC and Fidelity for player 1 and 2 and already have Chase. DH has pretty straightforward offer for $300 on a new Chase Biz checking that I think he’ll go for. We have a $5k MSR for DH’s new Amex Plat, are there any banks that allow Amex funding and does Amex count that towards MSR?

So far for July I’m up $578 which is primarily due to the 2 Fidelity accounts plus some gift card deals.

For June I had the PNC bonus x2 for $600 and earned about $70 in URs buying gc for 5x at Staples. We had a big redemption of URs to pay off a cruise, $3600 for around 245k URs.

I’m scrapping the bottom of the barrel a bit these days currently working Elements (I slipped in when they slipped up for a few days and let some people in with a bunch of Chex hits, now they’ve gotten super strict), waiting on Incredible (should post 7/31 and they owe me a $5 starbucks card then too), Denizen (weird as heck deal there, required video of me and my passport because it’s an international focused bank and changed the bonus requirements a few days after they opened my account and didn’t tell me), Citi, BoA (got a referral off DoC, desperately hoping I can use this to get into their good graces for a BoA credit card), impatiently waiting for my PNC bonus clock to reset next month, considering another Chase personal account (I’ve done 2 and 1 savings and 1 biz though so am getting nervous. No DPs say I should be nervous though, I saw one person shut down by Chase banking and they were on account #8. Unfortunately I’m a signer on a legit business account at Chase now for work and REALLY can’t afford to cause anything to go wrong there if I get myself shut down for playing around with their personal accounts so quandary...)

 

[gottalovepluto]

Where is this magical chat feature?

http://www3.hilton.com/en/index.html?xch=1805719593,SG4UXK50KY3GKCSQA0P2VCQ

(On mobile right now so if the link doesn’t work go to the Hilton page and click a contact us section.)

 

[gottalovepluto]

Here's a fun fact for my ebay listings: This time I put USPS and Fedex as the shipping options... both people's addresses came up with Fedex being lower this time One is CA and one VA.

Do you have the FedEx offer on any Amex cards to get a little extra back?!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Just finished MS on an Alaska and Amtrak card, at 4/24 and have about $1000 worth of organic spending left to do. Hmm I wonder what to try for next?

Have you looked into Chase Ultimare Rewards? If not now is your last chance! I see a Chase Ink Preferred in your future for your business if you can do more spend...

 

[bernina]

Just applied for global entry for myself using DH’s new Amex Plat. He applied a few weeks ago using his CSR.

For anyone that has experience with Global Entry, I know it also provides TSA Pre Check, will we be able to use the pre check line with our 7 yo daughter who does not have Global Entry? We don’t have any upcoming international flights so would only be using pre check. If I decide to apply for the Biz Plat then I’d use that credit to purchase Global Entry for her.

One other question, how long from application to interview on average?