I love credit cards so much!

[mefordis]

Wow!!! I have so much to learn! I’d love to have more cards but DH and I are very debt averse. Nor are we big monthly spenders. And we don’t own businesses to run expenses through. We were able to meet the spend on our new Marriott card because we had some big car repair bills with money in our savings to pay for those repair bills. Our biggest monthly expenses are for 2 kids in college. But their tuition is paid directly from a prepaid 529 account. Their schools do take credit cards for board plans but charge a percentage fee, and their apartments charge big fees for cc payments.

How do you all manage to meet several minimum spends on new cards and rack up so many points on existing cards. I need more ideas.

I've often wondered the same thing about others. For us we live in the Northeast in a very expensive area. We spend a LOT on groceries and restaurants. I'd say 12k a year for each, so that's 36k UR points a year just for restaurants. Then we have kid's activities which go on our cards. That is about 15k a year. We had car maintenance of 8k this year plus braces for 4k. Just so many expenses. That's why I like accumulate points - not much is left to pay for vacations.

 

[Ava]

That is so bizarre. I know when we booked out Iceland flights we were about 330 ish days out. It could have been a few days earlier but not close to 270. The flights were available to book. If I come across something like that again and am planning to use UR, I would call not wait.

Yeah, if it’s still doing that when my dates are open for booking I will call. Are the Chase reps like travel agents? I’m open to either Delta or American (or any of their partners), whichever has the best price for the best flight times.

 

[linzjane88]

I'm a little bummed that the Marriott certificate won't be turned into points, but I knew that was a gamble when I redeemed my points for the package. Hopefully they will still let the certificates be extended.

Would 7 nights at a Disneyland area hotel be too many? We'd probably go to the parks 4-5 days and would have a car.

I know you've gotten some answers already but I would be plenty happy 7 nights in Anaheim. We did 6 nights at the Park Vue Inn (not even a particularly fancy place) and ended up adding on to our tickets. We did only Disney for 6 days! it was nice because we went back and forth for naps and breaks-not something we do in WDW because of the time suck it ends up being--but we loved it! If you had a car I think it would be even better.

make stick figure drawings and call it art

 

[amalone1013]

Safeway has some $10 and $15 off Visa GC coupons. I know some here like to take advantage of those. I probably will!

 

[jhoannam]

I just wanted to make sure you realize an old cat 5 and a new cat 5 aren’t the same. So you def want that cert attached to the hotel if it is currently a cat 5, ASAP. Because if it is going to be a new cat 5, that means itnis going up in points and there is a very good chance (although we don’t technically know exactly how the certs will map) that you wouldn’t be able to attach it after whatever the magic date is now (8/18?). I am concerned you won’t be able to transfer it to a diff cat 5 post magic date because of the same...new cat 5 is higher points.

This is my problem as well. I’m not sure what cat to upgrade my cert to so that I can attach it to a SPG hotel post magic date. I’m not sure why they don’t just release the mapping info. Super frustrating.

ETA: Here is a visual...
View attachment 343216

So I am eyeing some hotels that are new cat 6. Soooo what do I upgrade to? Current cat 9 or would a cat 8 suffice? Will I even make it to these hotels or will that be a waste of points in the end? Who knows. lol. Whatever, I got my SW points and that was the important part.

I understand that a current Cat5 (25k) doesn’t mean it will be a Cat5, but in this case it does become a new Cat5 (35k). I’m hoping that by attaching it to that specific hotel when the conversion happens the original value isn’t associated and it maintains its new value (35k). If it doesn’t, there are plenty of other places it can be used.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

you mean you didn't get the bonus from a new spg app? And for the Hilton Ascend our upgrade points posted almost instantly a few weeks back

I was offered a statement credit for renewing SPG personal card for 2k spend. Met spend, no credit yet.

 

[calypso726]

Yeah, if it’s still doing that when my dates are open for booking I will call. Are the Chase reps like travel agents? I’m open to either Delta or American (or any of their partners), whichever has the best price for the best flight times.

The UR portal is Chase's online travel agency. Please let us know the outcome if you run into that and call.

I am sure you know this but I am mentioning it for the newer folks and the lurkers so they understand the difference. You don't need to stick with the Chase transfer partners to pay with points. That is only when transferring points directly to the airline to secure an award booking. When paying with points in the UR portal, you can choose any airline's flight.

In my example earlier, if we assume that AA did have saver awards in business/first class (they didn't), they would have likely been about 25k AA miles. I still would not have used AA miles, MR points or UR points to book the flight. Instead, I would have transferred 15,000 UR points to British Airways. BA is an AA partner and because AA had the flights showing as saver award in my fictitious scenario, I know I can book those flights with BA Avios miles. I also know that BA is distance based. JFK is not that far away from MIA, despite what the Plane Princess thinks and that flight on BA is 15,000 Avios.

I stuck with just searching AA flights because we managed to get Gold status last year and will likely get it again this year since we paid for quite a few flights with AA gift cards, Chase UR and Amex MR. AA also happened to have the best flight in terms of price, so that worked out well. But, if the price was a lot greater or the flight time inconvenient, I would have chosen another flight.

 

[GusGus16]

I was offered a statement credit for renewing SPG personal card for 2k spend. Met spend, no credit yet.

I had the same retention offer, I was warned it would take up to 1-2 statements to post. I don't think it took that long but it did take a bit after I met spend, if you are worried about it I would call.

 

[linzjane88]

Safeway has some $10 and $15 off Visa GC coupons. I know some here like to take advantage of those. I probably will!

I need to think about whether I forgive them for charging me for TWENTY TWO watermelons last week when I bought two. I looked away from the register for a second and when I looked back I was like but the girl didn't review reciept for more than about 3 seconds before she handed it to me and told me to look myself and go to customer service if I found a mistake. I ended up getting a refund for like $125 bucks back.

 

[amalone1013]

I need to think about whether I forgive them for charging me for TWENTY TWO watermelons last week when I bought two. I looked away from the register for a second and when I looked back I was like but the girl didn't review reciept for more than about 3 seconds before she handed it to me and told me to look myself and go to customer service if I found a mistake. I ended up getting a refund for like $125 bucks back.

Whatttttttttttt.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Does anyone know anything about the Citi AT&T Access card? Relevant link

I've seen a few people here and there on r/churning talking about it. It earns TY points but does not have a restriction if you previously signed up for another TY card in the last 24 months (it only restricts you if you received an Access or Access More card in the last 24 months). I guess there are often spend bonuses on this card? Since I got the Premier, I've learned a bit more about TY points, and since they're hard to accumulate, it caught my interest. 10,000 TY isn't a lot, but neither is $1k spend, and if easy spend offers really are common it might not be a bad idea.

Can’t speak to that one but I have a Sears Citi Card, converted to TY points. I get offers all the time, most frequently 10x points on gas/grocery/restaurants but I find them really hard to keep track of. They sometimes offer multiple bonuses simultaneously, so it’s hard to know what offer your purchases are earning. Points can be slow to post also, but 10k points =$100Target GC which I’ve done a couple times.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

That is so bizarre. I know when we booked out Iceland flights we were about 330 ish days out. It could have been a few days earlier but not close to 270. The flights were available to book. If I come across something like that again and am planning to use UR, I would call not wait.

Maybe it’s glithcy because I looked this morning for flights from ORD to MCO in September and nothing. No flights at all. Which is weird, because clearly all flights for September are not sold out.

 

[Lvsdisney]

So planning a quick trip to Philly for a weekend in September...driving from RI to meet friends coming up from WV. What things are there to see in Philly? Food?

Big question...thinking about Airbnb for the first time. I was going to signup but does anyone know if they have referral links that I could help someone out with here? I didn't see any over on our other reddit group.

Not sure what you're interested in but I would start at visitphilly.com Lots of info on there about the city. If it's your first time and you like history, definitely check out independence hall and liberty bell (both free but you can reserve tix to IH for a small fee). If you do the LB, get there early since the line gets long quickly. Do you like Benjamin Franklin? On Market street a few block from independence hall, you can visit the first post office (He started it!) and also where his house once stood. There is a small museum on the property about him that take an hour or so to do. There is a great ice cream place (Franklin fountain) a few more blocks down Market. If you're into museums, we have one for whatever you're interested in, I swear! Franklin Institute (since museum), Natural History museum, many art museums (Philly art you can run up the steps like Rocky!, Barnes foundation, Rodin musuem, etc etc etc). The PhillyZoo is the first zoo, you can wander around center city and see the famous LOVE statue, South street still has a fun, unique vibe with lots of shops/restaurants/bars, the riverfront (Penns landing) has been overhauled to have more things to do, and from there you can take a ferry across the river to Camden where there is an aquarium, and also an old ship (I think an aircraft carrier?). Also, there are the traditional boat dinner rides up/down the Delaware.

Whatever you end up doing, have fun!! I love my city and I think it offers so much to do!

ETA: Not sure what your food budget is, but we have some awesome restaurants. My favorite are the Steven Starr restaurants. Amazing food and varied menus. A few to name arr Buddakan (asian fusion), El Vez (mexcan inspired), Parc (french inspired), and the Contintental (2 locations, amazing martinis!)

 

[DisneyMandC]

I need to think about whether I forgive them for charging me for TWENTY TWO watermelons last week when I bought two. I looked away from the register for a second and when I looked back I was like but the girl didn't review reciept for more than about 3 seconds before she handed it to me and told me to look myself and go to customer service if I found a mistake. I ended up getting a refund for like $125 bucks back.

LOL that sounds like a math problem! "If @linzjane88 has 22 watermelons, and DisChurners tells her to buy 37 more for maximum UR earning value..."

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Wow!!! I have so much to learn! I’d love to have more cards but DH and I are very debt averse. Nor are we big monthly spenders. And we don’t own businesses to run expenses through. We were able to meet the spend on our new Marriott card because we had some big car repair bills with money in our savings to pay for those repair bills. Our biggest monthly expenses are for 2 kids in college. But their tuition is paid directly from a prepaid 529 account. Their schools do take credit cards for board plans but charge a percentage fee, and their apartments charge big fees for cc payments.

How do you all manage to meet several minimum spends on new cards and rack up so many points on existing cards. I need more ideas.

You might be excited to know that since 2011, my wife and I have opened 65 cards in this game. AND we are debt averse, AND we are not big monthly spenders, AND we don't have a true business to run expenses through.

I am big in the Early Retirement movement which is largely focused on keeping expenses low and saving A LOT of money. Our average TOTAL annual expenses per year over the past decade are $42,000 (for a family of 4). AND I project our expenses this year to be < $40k. We are able to run approx. $25k of those expenses a year through cards so I am very strategic to ALWAYS be working on an MSR. (Mind you...included in those annual expenses is our expense of taking 4-5 vacations a year...because vacations cost us nothing ).

The only expenses I don't run through CCs are Mortgage, Life Insurance, 1 Utility that won't take card, car payments (which we now have none) and medical insurance premiums (which are a direct payroll deduction).

If we play our cards right (haha, get it?) - we can turn that $25k in expenses into > $6k in travel credits, cash back, points, etc. I'd be happy to work more specifically on a strategy with you, if you want to share some details. Don't hesitate to PM me if you'd like

 

[tink1970]

How do you all manage to meet several minimum spends on new cards and rack up so many points on existing cards. I need more ideas.

I mentioned this in an earlier post but this year we had to pre pay quarterly taxes. So...that has accounted for 3 minimum spends. Yes, there is a fee but I'm happy to pay a small fee (for 55,000 MR I paid a $108 convenience fee...if you value MRs between 1-2 cents that's still coming out ahead).

I also know that windstorm/flood/flood overage/general home insurance is due in June, so I can apply for a card for me (or DH if he's not looking) and meet MS easily (our insurance runs about $5k).

In November, we have property taxes due...another ~$4,000.

In February, due to tax codes changing...we will probably get back the $22 from our quarterly taxes so I'll pay off a trip or two with a new card meeting MS for either DH, myself or both.

In June, back to insurance, November property taxes. IF, for some reason I don't have other large bills I usually prepay gas, water, sanitation and electricity...that eats up a MS (or two).

DD is headed to college in the fall of 2019 so while I'm hoping for an instate school the reality is that isn't going to happen. I'll eat the fees if whatever university she attends accepts credit cards or Plastiq...again, if I'm meeting MS then the fee is worth the bonus to me.

Those are a few ideas.

 

[Albort]

LOL that sounds like a math problem! "If @linzjane88 has 22 watermelons, and DisChurners tells her to buy 37 more for maximum UR earning value..."

im thinking... is @linzjane88 working on some kind of a MS angle? :]
wonder is she gonna resell those watermelons to her family or at the local farmers market.

/s

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

You know what's so cool. @calypso726 and I are probably two of the most hardcore churners in this thread... And we live VERY different lives and yet both find a way to generate the points needed to do the travel we love! She's a woman, I'm a man. I have kids, she doesn't. I think her and her plane princess are a bit older than me and my plane-fearing wife. I'd guess she spends significantly more annually than we do, BUT she has the means to do so and certainly has a grasp on her finances. She enjoys big international trips, we don't leave the country. She doesn't seem to ever fly SW, I only fly SW... She pays A LOT of annual fees, I avoid them like the plague... The list could go on and on...

BUT we both are able to harness the power of our spending to generate maximum points return and achieve amazing, memorable trips! Look at what others are doing different - see if you can learn from them. IF it's not your style, don't judge, just be you! We have a lot of newer folks in this thread and it's super important to NOT try to be somebody else here. Find your own churning path - you may find you're similar to me, you may find your similar to @calypso726 OR you may find you're someone else entirely, and that's ok!

 

[CyndiLouWho]

My plan for SW CP at the beginning of 2019 was foiled by the requirement for 24 months between bonuses.
So I kind of have a new plan. Goals include Universal and Disney in 2020 (undecided on which coast) maybe a 3 day weekend at WDW fall 2019. China in 2021 or beyond.
Fly mostly SW & AA out of MDW/ORD. Always love more URs

DH has
CFU 10/16 (was CSR)
CSP 5/17 (will upgrade to CSR this fall)
SW 7/17
CIP 5/18
CitiBiz AA 2/17
BOA Premium Rewards 1/18

I have
CitiBiz AA 7/18
SW 7/16
Marriott 3/17
Disney 7/17
Hyatt 9/17
Hilton Amex 5/17
SPG Biz 2/18
Discover 12/17
Barclay AA 9/17

Working on MSR for CitiBiz and Hilton Amex(upgrade) now
Tentative plan is for DH to get CIC in a few months, and maybe CIU.
I’m thinking I’d be able to get CP before DH, so maybe SW cards for me. In the meantime, maybe I should get Amex biz cards for MR? No MR earning cards yet. Suggestions?
I need a long term plan like @SouthFayetteFan lol.

 

[linzjane88]

I *think* I kept the fuel points on that overcharge

Although I would have gladly not dealt with the customer service line and all the crabby people behind me while I got my refund! I don't know that 20 minutes of my life was worth the $2.00 off my next fill up. @Albort @DisneyMandC