I love credit cards so much!

[WVMomof3]

Being close by doesn't always mean being too close. DS goes to college just 15 minutes away. He lives on campus and was able to have growing experiences - setting a schedule, washing clothes, picking roommates, choosing his major.... He lets us know when he wants to come home (usually to catch up on sleep) or needs something. I will say his freshman year, he came home a lot more than his junior year.

Oldest DD lived in a dorm her first year, an apartment 2nd year and is now home this semester. I actually think I may have seen her more when she lived in the dorm than I do now with her in the house. 18 credit hours, plus about 15 working hours/week, 4 volunteer hours/week and a boyfriend = no time at home. She is going to study abroad in the spring so wanted to save on rent for the this fall by living at home. We HOPE she will be studying abroad. Let me tell everyone this Visa process is not going so well. I know I mentioned it before and it is still a pain in the #@#!. She actually had to drive to DC this week to turn all her paperwork in and they would not take one of the forms. So she must go back next week, and pray that the new FBI clearance will actually be back in time this week and that the rest of the forms will be accepted. They "looked" over everything else and said it should be OK, but no way to tell until we go back, in person, to try again. I don't know what we would do if we lived farther away. It is a little over 3 hours for us, so doable but a pain!! Oh and must be done before noon!

 

[Artygal90]

Ok now that the initial shock is over, I was going to suggest that maybe he'll feel better about Chase if you tell him he can earn the same .01% interest in the savings account and you can keep the $300 from the bonus... but then I realized I misread the .1% - so at least that's better than Chase but still

Have you looked into the Discover savings account? $200 bonus for 25k in deposits, if you don't have 25k to move you can do multiple deposits to reach the requirement (read: move the same money in and out a couple times, hehe), but what's nice about the account is it's paying 2% interest. Yep, no decimal point needed, whole numbers

But if he's not comfortable earning money the bonus posts really quick, like the next day, and there's no requirement to leave it in there so you can move it back to the .1% account after you get your bonus. (but for everyone's sanity, try not to!)

I haven't looked into that one, no. We are building our house downpayment in an Ally account but I'll look into Discover too. DH subscribes to the idea that your emergency fund is there for emergencies, not to make money for you - which I agree with, except that that advice is meant to keep people from putting their life savings into the stock market or something, not keeping your savings stuck in an account that doesn't come close to keeping up with inflation!

 

[SBWB48]

Same here. I don't think I posted on here in two days!

I've been on the fence whether to hit up Amex for my wife or myself any more before the end of the year. I've got a BGR burning in my wallet wanting its 20k MR referrals to be used this year!

I just don't think my wife is going to use the Amex Gold even if she's approved without the pop up. She eats out a lot, travels for work, so the CSR 3x is her go-to. She doesn't want to carry more cards. It took a lot just to get her to carry the CIU for "everything else," and she still doesn't consistently use the CIU for every other non-dining, non-travel charge. She won't use the Amex Gold just because it's pretty, because she doesn't want to have to worry about whether a restaurant, cafe, or food truck even takes Amex, and then whether they use Square because then it won't code 4x. She won't venture into Union Square just to buy a $10 Cheesecake Factory GC every month. I hate using these Amex credits on food delivery services, because the fees and tips pretty much eat up the value. So that potentially leaves $120 in value on the table. And she missed out on the AF waived first year offer, so we'd be paying a $250 AF. You see what I have to work with? And non-use of an Amex card is just going to land her back on the naughty list, if she's gotten off it at all.

So now I'm thinking I should just have my wife stick to Chase. She's at 2/24, with cards aging out in January and February.

Then there's the BBP for me? I have to stick to biz cards, because I'm now at 5/24, waiting for 1 more to drop off in February, then I'll be let back into Chase's playground. Then I can cancel the Marriott Biz, hit up the CIU, maybe try for the United Biz (which would then be my 4th Chase biz card), before finishing off with the United Explorer and/or Hyatt? I was paying off some bills over the weekend, and noticed I had put quite a bit more spend on my new BGR than I expected (lots of Christmas shopping!). I thought I'd have to throw a big Plastiq payment onto the BGR, but with some upcoming expenses over the holidays, that'll put me over $4k, and I can finish the <$1k left on MSR with organic spend by January. But then do I throw Plastiq onto a new BBP? I don't know if I'm hitting Amex too hard. I've gotten the (1) MB Plat, (2) SPG Personal, (3) Hilton Biz, (4) Biz Plat, (5) Biz Green, (6) SPG Lux, (7) BGR, all this year. Do I want to push it with an 8th card only a month after getting the BGR?

This. Your DW = my DH in many respects. Dining and gas are his primary uses, so the CIC has been good for him because anything more than 2 ‘cards’ (yes, GCs as well) and I start seeing charges in the wrong places. I had him carry the Hilton Biz at one point since we were working on his MSR and gas and dining were bonus categories. But, when I try to throw in a Freedom during the quarterly categories, sigh...”blue or silver card?”

This is the reason I don’t have him handle groceries, though now that I can get GCs on Amazon, it’s been easier to send him to the store with a GC and not worry about him pulling the wrong card. I almost wanted to get the Amex Gold for him, but the same reasoning you mentioned with your DW were my exact concerns...

We’ve been blowing through MSRs recently with organic spend (joys of holidays), so I’m contemplating getting him a CIU/CIC (his CIC now is an employee card) since he’s almost 3 months removed from the CIP and the CIU/CIC would be his 3rd and still at 3/24. Yet, I too want to get him (and myself eventually) a BBP. If I get a BBP, it’ll be my 8th Amex this year as well (Vanilla Plat, SPG Biz, Biz Plat, Green, Hilton Biz, SPG Lux, Gold) and I have the ED and BCP from years ago. I would also need to pick a card to close potentially since I’m at 5 Amex credit cards unless I can be the exception, or wait til March when I can cancel the SPG Biz potentially. Decisions...

And thanks for reminding me that I need to use my first $10 benefit from the new Amex Gold

 

[CyndiLouWho]

All kinds of random points promos are posting...

FYI - 3,000 of the 6,000 SW RR points have posted from the email promo (https://www.doctorofcredit.com/ymmv...t-points-by-signing-up-for-e-mail-newsletter/)

This was something you had to be targeted for and sign up for back in the late summer.

I haven’t seen any points for this yet.

 

[disneedee]

Additional comment to add - it appears that Marriott 29ways points do NOT appear to be a qualifying activity to extend your Marriott points. As a reminder, Marriott points expire after 24 months of no activity so keep that in mind.

For reference: AMEX MRs don't expire as long as you have an MR card open. Chase URs don't expire as long as you transfer them to an open card.

Most other programs have some expiration policy - examples of ones I think I know off the top of my head:

• Marriott - 24 months w/out qualifying activity
• Southwest - 24 months w/out qualifying activity
  
• Hilton - 12 months w/out qualifying activity
• IHG - 12 months w/out qualifying activity
• American - 18 months w/out qualifying activity
• Delta - NO EXPIRATION to my knowledge...hey that's one good thing about skypesos!

ADDITIONAL REMINDER: If you're starting to accrue large points balances - consider a spreadsheet to keep track of how many points you have and when they expire. This can also be good to check from time to time to make sure nobody has fraudulently used your points.

Does using a related cc once a year work as qualifying activity with all these programs?
Checking balances is good advise. Someone used my ihg for 2 nites in Shanghai. Ihg was real good about putting the points back.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Does using a related cc once a year work as qualifying activity with all these programs?
Checking balances is good advise. Someone used my ihg for 2 nites in Shanghai. Ihg was real good about putting the points back.

Yeah - I keep some of my balances active by just putting $1 on a CC (American, IHG as examples).

Also...how about IHG's 4 digit PIN code - they are asking for crap like that to occur!! I check that account VERY frequently (well...who am I kidding, I check all my accounts very frequently, lol!)

 

[wendow]

Ho. Ly. Crap. My mother would have been livid. And had I responded like that my parents would have shattered my world, I guarantee it. I do not envy your place right now.

Sounds like you were raised like me I was raised with a very healthy fear of my mother...

 

[wanderlust7]

A weird thing happened on my CSR - the parking charge at Universal Studios got 0 URs. Zero, zilch, nada. It should count as 3x travel, or at least 1x. Why?? Just sent SM asking. It's only 75 URs if I get the 3x, but it's gonna bug me, lol.

It didn’t happen to get reimbursed via your travel credit, did it? That would be an explanation.

So turns out @SouthFayetteFan was right, it did have to do with the travel credit, but was complicated by a refund.

$1030 vacation rental - $300 travel credit: got 3x UR
refunded vacation rental: but no points taken back
$25 parking charge: 0 points (due to travel credit)
$640 cruise - $275 (remainder of travel credit): got 3x UR

Interesting accounting, but works to my favor, so no complaints!

 

[wendow]

My dd18 is living at home for her first year of college. I don't regret it a bit. She is growing and maturing in leaps and bounds even while living at home. We treat her like an adult and she acts like one. And we are saving a bundle of money...or should I say, she is saving a bundle of money... Dh & I paid for our own college and we expect our kids will do the same. We will help more than our parents did (we are currently covering 1/3 of dd's tuition) but for us and our finances, it's really on them. My dd pays 1/3 of her tuition. My uncle is covering the other 1/3 for her so she is taking on no debt. Having her live at home hasn't stunted her growth or maturity in any way yet it's been so much better financially than her living at school. We are simply people who do not have the money to pay for our kids to do anything different than this. My dh works for a non-profit and I am a SAHM. Despite that and our minimal amount we can contribute, our dd is thriving, academically and socially

 

[Alexle2007]

I know that sounds like a great plan --- to you. How do you think DS will feel about it? I would not have been a happy camper had my parents moved to college with me. lol Though maybe you just mean near him and not necessarily in same town. Though I did beg middle DD to go to same University as her sister, which is right in our town and she refused. She is now 7 hours away and when she came home for Thanksgiving she told us we should move closer to her. lol A big NO thanks to northern Indiana for me.

@SouthFayetteFan
I was actually wondering the same thing. We're very close to our DD, but going away to college has been a really tremendous growth experience for her and it wouldn't have been the same if we were just down the road.

One of the things my neighbor told me when I was looking at schools, he was a HS math teacher and had raised 5 kids who all went away to school, was that even if I decided to go to UW that I should live in the dorms. That it was important to move out and not be at home. Now I understand that financially that doesn't work for everyone and for some it's better to be at home maturity wise, but I can also understand where he's coming from. Yeah it sucks when you're sick or you want your mom's help with something but you figure it out, you have friends that will help or mom sends a care package I did miss home some but there wasn't ever a point that I wished I'd been closer, at least not for an extended period of time.

DS is actually quite good with the plan, at the moment. He will be just barely 17 when he goes to college since they moved him up a grade. He’ll live on campus, where that is. Whatever the case, we’ll still be selling the house to move some place warmer since we want to escape the cold.

 

[calypso726]

I think I'd be at 1/24 (just the Hyatt card in the last 24 months). I don't have an EIN, just my SSN (I'm a contractor). Thinking about maybe the CIC next for the 50,000 URs. Would it be better to pay for the Conrad with URs or use Hilton points? I have enough Hyatt points to pay for a stay (on points) there but I think dd would prefer the Conrad so I had to change plans.

Paging @calypso726 on this one.

I'd imagine redeeming HH points for the Conrad Maldives is better than paying the cash rate (even at a 1.25x or 1.5x multiplier using UR), but if you're only 1/24, it's such a shame to use all those sub-5/24 slots on Amex's Hilton cards. Amex has the Hilton Biz (which won't add to your */24 count), and the personal Hilton, Hilton Ascend, and Hilton Aspire cards, which will take up 3 slots under */24. As we've discussed before, signing up for Amex's 4 Hilton cards at their highest welcome bonuses (while referring yourself to each new Hilton card), and referring P2 (and P2 self-referring) to the same 4 cards for the referral bonuses and signup bonuses, can net a household ~ million HH points. But again, it's probably better done once over 5/24...

Personally, I would never sacrifice URs to stay at a Hilton property. For a one week stay you are looking at $8568 roughly as most nights are $1224 per night. With a CSR that is 571,200 UR and with a CSP or CIP it is 685,440. In my head 500K+ UR represents something like first class airfare in ANA via Virgin Atlantic for 4 people which would cost over $100,000 in real money. I can't get the same value for HH points that I can for UR points. Now that is just the hotel stay. Then I am looking at $560 per person for the sea plane transfer which is charged to the hotel, so that's a straight .01 pp UR statement credit. If you don't currently have gold or diamond status with Hilton then everything is going to be OOP in terms of food during the stay.

I know I recently stated I'd use just as many, if not more UR points to pay for Ashford Castle. That is because there is no hotel loyalty program option to pay with points.

I know the Aspire card has a high AF, but it is the only card I can think of that has benefits that cover the AF and then some. A $250 resort credit can go towards a sea plane transfer and can be double dipped by pre-payment like we did. The $250 airline credit can purchase airline GCs, the free weekend night will cover a $1200+ OWB. Staying on points will get you 5th night free. The diamond status will get you free breakfast, afternoon tea, snacks, happy hour etc. Food is crazy expensive in the Maldives from what I've read and makes food in Iceland look cheap by comparison.

If I were under 5/24 and were planning a Conrad Maldives stay, I'd give up a slot for the card in a heartbeat and have P2 give up a slot. IN your shoes, I'd pick up the Aspire and a Hilton business card. Just my opinion.

 

[striker1064]

AK was banned for exposing this? Feels like I'm missing something. Haven't had time to head over there to follow, so have been reading the reader's digest version from @Lain.

I'm way late on responding to this, but the real gist is AK always inserted himself at the center of every controversy and made sure he was seen and known. You can argue the reasons why, but the prevailing belief is he was doing it for referrals. He was also withholding information for months. I think the mods just had enough - every controversy, he had a long Live Journal-style post about it, and several other users complaining about him. This was the easiest and best solution.

After I posted that I also realized that 5 other people made references too LOL! It was just to obvious.

Also...what the heck is up with r/churning anymore. Overall that place just zaps my positive mental energy anymore. All of the good contributors are starting to move into the underground and private groups.

Any good hacks and secrets pop up in r/burningbutter yet?

 

[striker1064]

Also, back onto actual churning, got P2 the Schwab Platinum on Monday to cash out her 200k MR. Met over half the MSR already on the Schwab with an estimated tax payment. Tax time is rough when you don't have any exemptions, and the few deductions you have continue to be whittled away (student loan interest, etc).

 

[calypso726]

Oh boy that would feel soooo satisfying....for about five minutes. Then I think I'd want company and cave and go get him I miiight be able to eventually convince him using that line of argument....I'll file it away for the future. Do the reluctant P2s normally see the light and call recon/open accounts when they are given the choice between coach and first?

Yes, every time. I think it is also because the P1s do not have a history of making empty threats and have no problem going off on their own. I used to show dogs and DH found dog shows boring. He plays sports and I find that boring. So we enjoyed those hobbies on our own for a little "me and my friends" time.

All of the P1s in our circle of friends has left their P2 behind when they couldn't get time off of work for a Disney trip or cruise when the rest of the group decided to go. DH had to be on call the weekend when Toy Story Land opened and a group of our friends were going to go opening day. I drove up by myself and stayed the weekend hanging out with our circle of friends and had a blast. DH stayed home, on call. One of the other women in the group drove 7 hours to join us and her DH didn't come because of work. Same thing has happened when flying out to DLR, if someone is working and can't make it, the other will still go.

Since they know we will take off for an entire weekend or longer without them, they know we will have no qualms about sitting up front in a plane, or inside a restaurant.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Woah. I couldn’t. Well, being here obviously none of us could! I know story after story of widows who ended up not having a darn clue when their husband passed because he handled all the finances & just gave them spending & household money. The worst was (a family member no less!) who knew no passwords, not even the one to get into the computer.

I used to work in family law and saw some extremely sad cases as far as finances go. One poor woman found out that her home was being foreclosed on after her neighbor showed her the notice in the local newspaper. She had been relying on her husband to mail the mortgage check each month. Little did she know that he was not mailing the check and then was intercepting all of the notices about failure to pay since he was at home during the day. She was actually able to get a handle on things and not have the home foreclosed on, but obviously went ahead and filed for divorce as well.

 

[Jaime4004]

OMG, same here. Plus I can’t understand my sister whose irrational DH controls all their finances. (He has crazy rules like no credit cards ) When I went back to school full time and worked (20+ years ago) DH took over the bill paying. 2 months and 2 late notices later, I took them back and he hasn’t paid a bill since (nor looked at an account balance)

I met DH while we were in college and he used to joke that he'd pay bills when someone (collections? company? i'm not sure) would call him and tell him it's overdue. I took over our finances when we moved in together before being married and found out that he had a car loan at 12% interest. He's been banned from finances ever since. Last year we got a new (used) car and the finance guy was impressed at his 847 credit score. I was patting myself on the back.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Dining and gas are his primary uses, so the CIC has been good for him because anything more than 2 ‘cards’ (yes, GCs as well) and I start seeing charges in the wrong places.

I do the same thing with my DH. If I'm working on a higher MSR for us (SPG Biz 5k) I'll put that in his wallet, but otherwise I just leave the CIC in there and pay everything else on our MSR card. DH mostly spends on restaurants and gas, so the little bit he spends on other categories earning 1x isn't enough to justify having to try to get him to remember which card to use.

I used to show dogs and DH found dog shows boring.

You popped into my head this weekend as DH and I were talking about showing dogs. We were curious as to whether people sell their show dogs like we sell our show horses? I'm sure many people might gasp at the thought of selling their dog (I could never sell mine!) but I was just curious. While I love my horses, they are "investments" for us. We sold mine this weekend and were able to buy one for DH and one for me. I've probably owned 8 horses over the last 15 years and have only kept one who was permanently injured and has no value.

 

[miztressuz]

A little r/churning observation in light of the recent change to ban flair outside of preselected choices - namely IATA airport codes and 5/24 counts. (you can only have 2 pieces of flair and it can be any combination of the two it looks like. hence a little office space humor about counting pieces of flair ) The point of it was to eliminate the "Referrals in profile" type flair that the sub voted for. Rather than just turn flair off entirely, at the urging of some in the sub, the mods came up with this compromise so that people can see location information.

It's kind of fun to see the different combinations of airport codes you can get creative with. Of course FAT popped up a bit yesterday, I think one was FAT BOY. The one I think that is going to get the most play in the long run is Fukuoka, I see many people moving to Japan at various points (to save you the lookup, the IATA code is indeed FUK, and as we know reddit does not subscribe to the same G rated language we tend to keep on the thread here, hehe)
In fact, I see someone already commutes between Fukuoka and NC's Pine Island Airport, aka DUF... coincidentally, I'm sure, also the shortened username of one of the mods on the sub

Some other fun ones I liked:

CIP PLZ
ERN BRN
LAZ BOY
EAT PIE
DIP SHT (side note, little sad that's "taken" already, I'd have probably considered it)
TPG SUX

and a couple others that may stray from G ratings But it only took a couple of hours for someone to find this combination -

RFR ALL

and just like that the plan shatters...

 

[tink1970]

You popped into my head this weekend as DH and I were talking about showing dogs. We were curious as to whether people sell their show dogs like we sell our show horses? I'm sure many people might gasp at the thought of selling their dog (I could never sell mine!) but I was just curious. While I love my horses, they are "investments" for us. We sold mine this weekend and were able to buy one for DH and one for me. I've probably owned 8 horses over the last 15 years and have only kept one who was permanently injured and has no value

Enabling your OT...my aunt is a breeder/owner/handler (one of her guys was Best in Breed at Westminster this year but she didn't show him b/c she had injured herself) and she FOR SURE sells the puppies, I know. Also my beloved Cookie dog was "pet quality" but her 3 sisters were show dogs and I know the breeders sold them. Poor Cookie was hauled to the shows and ignored during them...so glad she's Queen here! Okay, back on topic.

ps-IIRC @calypso726 showed goldens...they are considered boring at our house because they are so dang well behaved unlike my mangy pack

and a couple others that may stray from G ratings But it only took a couple of hours for someone to find this combination -

RFR ALL

and just like that the plan shatters...

Thanks for the LOL this am! I've noticed IATA codes for a while since we fly out of PNS (which some might read into) and my parents live in HSV (which is an abbreviation for herpes simplex virus). The two can be connected This is purely medical of course! You can take the girl out of medicine...

 

[DisneyMandC]

Enabling your OT...my aunt is a breeder/owner/handler (one of her guys was Best in Breed at Westminster this year but she didn't show him b/c she had injured herself) and she FOR SURE sells the puppies, I know. Also my beloved Cookie dog was "pet quality" but her 3 sisters were show dogs and I know the breeders sold them. Poor Cookie was hauled to the shows and ignored during them...so glad she's Queen here! Okay, back on topic.

ps-IIRC @calypso726 showed goldens...they are considered boring at our house because they are so dang well behaved unlike my mangy pack

Wow, Best in Breed! That's certainly impressive! I knew Calypso showed goldens because we also have a golden I wish he was well-behaved... lol! He's such a sweet dog and is absolutely hilarious, and there's no one to blame for his "bad" behavior except us. He's a farm dog and doesn't have a lot of socialization with other people/dogs, so he just gets SO EXCITED whenever somebody does come over. Not a mean bone in his body, but he doesn't understand the concept that he weighs 80 pounds and not everyone wants him to sit in their lap lol.