I love credit cards so much!

[hsmamato2]

travel and carryon question..... I'm usually on SWA (easy) and have a few questions...upcoming trip is using Jetblue, American,and Alaska. We usually just carryon a suitcase in the overhead. I just measured our carryons,and without the wheel added they fit into the smallest criteria(Jetblue) for height (21.5") but if I include the wheels, it comes to another inch. Will they make us check these? JB and AA are both 21.5"....does this include wheels?

 

[havaneselover]

I'm glad the gift card is working for Cheesecake Factory. I have one seven minutes from my house. The kids love the Cajun Chicken Littles (ginormous mound of chicken tenders with mashed potatoes). I'm thankful that I don't like cheesecake (but do like their strawberry shortcake). And last time we were visiting my parents, my mom took us to Cheesecake Factory (we rarely eat out) and my son wanted to pay. He got the bill, looked at it and pushed it away saying "Never mind." It still cracks me up

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

Well, I did it... I took a $977 statement credit to cover the payments and gift card purchases I've made for our 2019 Disney trip. How long will I continue to mourn the loss of Disney using URs?

 

[eeyoreland]

Sorry it took a while to get back to you. There’s a LOT here, so I wanted to take some time to unpack this. I’ll start out with getting more Ultimate Rewards (“UR”) points first --


Don’t cancel your Sapphire cards! The age of these cards will generally help your credit scores. You can product change (“PC” aka downgrade) them to no fee Chase Freedom Unlimited (“CFU”) or Chase Freedom (“CF”) cards (even if you already currently hold a CF card. If you or DH received a bonus on your Sapphire cards more than 48 months ago, PCing your Sapphire card to a CF/CFU card would get you around that part of the one Sapphire card limitation because you’d no longer have a Sapphire card.


In the meantime, do you have a reddit account? If not, you can create one and message me, @SouthFayetteFan, or @Albort, and we’ll get you invited to DISchurners.

Hi! I hope the way I cut out some of your post works . I have a question about the PC part of your response. My husband and I have the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
When time comes, I don’t want to pay the annual fee. Is this where we would “PC” to a no fee Chase card? Do we do this now, a month before, right after the fee posts? How does all of this affect the bonuses? Thank you!

 

[amalone1013]

Oh my gosh. My raise is approved and starts next Monday. And it's even for the original amount I was told, not the nonsense 1% less because HR doesn't want to advocate for me blah blah blah.

This is not a make it or break it thing for this job, but I honestly was giving up hope it would even happen at all.

 

[Albort]

Hi! I hope the way I cut out some of your post works . I have a question about the PC part of your response. My husband and I have the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
When time comes, I don’t want to pay the annual fee. Is this where we would “PC” to a no fee Chase card? Do we do this now, a month before, right after the fee posts? How does all of this affect the bonuses? Thank you!

no bonuses should be affected unless you are talking about the earning power(2x on dining). Depending on what your biggest category is, you have a couple of choices... Chase Sapphire, Chase Freedom, Chase Freedom Unlimited. You could wait for your AF to hit, then cancel it(just remember to do it within 30 days). I for one, SM them when is my date, call on the date they provide to downgrade.

 

[ericf70]

Once you've accepted an upgrade offer, and your card is converted to the upgraded card, you will have or have had the card to which you upgraded for the purposes of Amex's once per lifetime welcome bonus rule. That means, you won't be eligible for a signup bonus on the Hilton card if you ever decide to apply for it separately; and if you accept the upgrade offer for the Green card, you won't be eligible for a separate signup bonus on the Green card in the future. Usually, the signup bonuses are higher than the upgrade bonuses, so it's usually recommended to not upgrade and apply for the card separately. This is even more true now that Amex cards have the ability to self-refer, so you could pocket both a self-referral and the signup bonus.

good to know, thank you

 

[amalone1013]

I think I'm going to pull the trigger on my Marriott upgrade offer today. 50k points now for 1 purchase and delays me from getting SPG Lux or churning Marriott by 8mths, vs being able to do one of those things 8mths earlier and hoping things don't change/getting 100kish points for a $5k spend or something? A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, right? I was really leaning towards cancelling but I don't think I can turn down essentially paying $95 for 50k points, since my AF just posted 10/1.

Also, I'm glad I have an easy plan for my CIP spend. Today is two weeks from my app date, and one week from approval, and it's STILL NOT HERE. I mean, hopefully it comes in the mail today. But dang Chase, taking at least 14 of my "90" days for MSR... must be why it's unofficially 115 days.

 

[Lain]

Hi! I hope the way I cut out some of your post works . I have a question about the PC part of your response. My husband and I have the Chase Sapphire Preferred.
When time comes, I don’t want to pay the annual fee. Is this where we would “PC” to a no fee Chase card? Do we do this now, a month before, right after the fee posts? How does all of this affect the bonuses? Thank you!

The general rule is to keep your credit card open for one year before you close or product change the card. This keeps the banks happy.

Another rule of thumb is if there is a "downgrade" option, i.e., product changing a card with an annual fee ("AF") to a card with no AF, that's a better option than closing the card. By PCing, you keep that card account open at no cost and it will continue to age and help your Average Age of Accounts ("AAoA"), which is a factor in your credit score. But be sure to put a charge on your no fee card every 6-12 months to keep it active, because the issuer can close the card due to inactivity.

Fortunately, the CSP (and CSR) have very useful downgrade options between the Freedom (5x UR rotating category bonuses every quarter) and Freedom Unlimited (1.5x UR on every purchase).

Once it's been a year since you opened the CSP, you can call the number on the back of your CSP and request a PC to either the Freedom or Freedom Unlimited. (You have to call; Chase stopped allowing PCs over secure message a while back.) You can even wait until your AF posts on the CSP before requesting a PC. I believe the AF will be billed on the first day of the month following your anniversary. You have 30 days after your AF is billed to product change or cancel and receive a refund. After those 30 days, you'll receive a prorated refund. If you request a PC during those 30 days after your AF is billed, you'll see a refund credit for the AF on your statement and your card is now a CF or CFU.

A PC doesn't affect the signup bonus that you got when you first signed up for the CSP and met the MSR. What a PC does do is change your CSP into either a CF or CFU. You will not have any of the bonus categories or benefits of the CSP, e.g., no 2x UR on dining or travel, no 1.25x redemption bonus on travel booked through Chase, no transferring UR points to partners. Your card becomes a CF, with its 5x UR rotating categories, or a CFU, with 1.5x UR on every purchase.

 

[SBWB48]

But did you use a business or personal card? That's what I'm trying to figure out because I only have a biz card.

I used both my SPG Biz and DH's SPG biz for the $200 credit. Both posted and both were payments made to personal cell phone accounts.

 

[Lain]

Interesting DP: "P2 chatted with a rep who said the rose gold has a 10 day delay. I know chat reps aren’t always correct, but it’s been a week since application and they confirmed it hasn’t shipped."

How did I know this was going to happen?

 

[amalone1013]

Looking at credit karma... I see one of DHs Sears cards has been closed for inactivity. They talked him into opening two back in 2014 when he was buying a bunch of tools for a new job. Is it bad my first thought was, good? Even without the bankruptcy thing, those accounts drove me batty because he didn't even activate the new cards and it was two more cards/accounts to track... hopefully the other closes soon here

 

[pillow]

Never been so happy to get to work where I actually have power. Still out at my house and they're saying we won't get it back until between 6-11 PM tomorrow night. Now I'm trying to do ALL THE THINGS at work since cell phone service has been spotty at our house. I did see there were some new Amex offers and I got the one for the Amex gift cards. I'm also planning to call Chase and PC my CSP today. Hoping to also book our magical Disney trip for next year today... Fingers crossed!

Wow! We were out for about 24 hours. I was pleasantly surprised it came back that quickly. Keeping fingers crossed for you!

 

[amalone1013]

Interesting DP: "P2 chatted with a rep who said the rose gold has a 10 day delay. I know chat reps aren’t always correct, but it’s been a week since application and they confirmed it hasn’t shipped."

How did I know this was going to happen?

Because they ran out of SPG Lux cards

 

[Lain]

Because they ran out of SPG Lux cards

They also ran out of metal Platinum cards when they first came out.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Well, I did it... I took a $977 statement credit to cover the payments and gift card purchases I've made for our 2019 Disney trip. How long will I continue to mourn the loss of Disney using URs?

Now that you've done this they'll probably bring it back on URs... by the way, I called to PC my CSP earlier and when she asked why I was canceling and would I like to keep the card for the travel benefits, I told her that I only got the card to be able to use it for Disney and now that they don't have that I'm no longer interested. Figure I'll tell them every which way I can...

 

[pillow]

Anyone?

I tried making a $200 payment this morning via the AT&T app for Directv. I did not get the typical Amex "congrats" email + the pending charge looks odd - says something about "phone payment." So I'm skeptical that we'll get the credit. But I will report back in a few days.

 

[Fischstick]

Hello All!

TOTAL newbie here (as evidenced by generic profile pic!)....but a long time lurker across many of these threads.
After MUCH reading, I'm excited to try this hobby. But, would love some guidance, given the ever changing nature of the game. And, you guys always seem so nice to the new folks.

Would love a starting point given what I've got on my desk at the moment, so here goes!

I am currently 0/24
Holding one (*gasp*) Visa for too many years to count

Credit score in the 800s
Not against business cards

Reluctant P2--though I'm hoping to convince as this goes along

Am sitting on the coveted 100K Amex Plat mailer--it expires mid November, was thinking I could attempt the triple dip credit if I timed it correctly? (I understand this only works if I don't plan to KEEP it)

Was originally considering the CSR, but given I'm starting at 0 URs, maybe need to save that for redemption down the road and start with CSP, especially as the referrals come into play?
Not interested in the Southwest offers for now. They just aren't the best airline for the airports near me....too many stops to get where we need to go!
Would like to focus on travel abroad--either Europe, or further, but not opposed to other trips, either. No hurry to plan the trip. I get that it takes time to accumulate points. Prob not until mid 2020 at least.

What seems to be the best strategy for maximizing my 5/24 slots, given the Amex Plat thrown in there?
CSP now
Amex Plat
CIP
?
?

I'm hopeful to throw a referral to P2 as the MSRs allow.

I'm anxious to hear your thoughts. Thanks so much!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Wow! We were out for about 24 hours. I was pleasantly surprised it came back that quickly. Keeping fingers crossed for you!

My mom texted me about 2 hours ago that it was finally back on!! A Dominion guy came down her driveway and said that the tree cutting guys were too busy to get down our road, but he was just going to cut them himself. Very thankful for linemen. I gripe about not having electricity, but I know they're out there working as hard and fast as they can-- and that a lot of them are still in NC dealing with Florence fallout, or have gone south to help with Michael in more heavily impacted areas.

 

[miztressuz]

Looking at credit karma... I see one of DHs Sears cards has been closed for inactivity. They talked him into opening two back in 2014 when he was buying a bunch of tools for a new job. Is it bad my first thought was, good? Even without the bankruptcy thing, those accounts drove me batty because he didn't even activate the new cards and it was two more cards/accounts to track... hopefully the other closes soon here

This prompts a question I've been wondering as I don't religiously follow all the credit score news. Is it still better to proactively close the account before it gets closed for inactivity? At some point in the not too distant past, it was better for your score for accounts to be reported "account closed by consumer" rather than "account closed by creditor". Does that matter any more, is closed just closed regardless now?