I love credit cards so much!

[amalone1013]

Dh found out it has to be through the RMN shopping portal and doesn’t apply to gift cards...darn

I've never had trouble with RMN and gift cards at Staples personally. Do you have the new AMEX offer? I used the old one going through the RMN portal for gift cards and got RMN credit and AMEX credit multiple times

Yes, I opened the Arrival+ back in 9/17 (bonus received 12/17). I PC'ed to the Barclays rewards card in 10/18 when my AF posted. Applied 12/18 (about 5 weeks after PC'ing) for another Arrival+. Approved

You will be my idol next month... think I'm going to cancel my Arrival, and apply for Arrival plus next month

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Just waiting for my bonus to post. You need to keep the funds in the account for 60 days and then they won't pay the bonus for 90 days after you meet the requirements, need to keep in 1500 to keep the account fee free.

ETA: looks like for the 400 bonus you have to keep 10,000 to keep fee free, would have to check how much money you have to keep tied up to keep fee free or if you can downgrade the account.

After reading the Discover one, I might go for that, since it seems that the bonus posts fast. And then maybe do this citibank one. That would give me $150 from Discover and then possibly $500 from Citi. Not bad if I can do it for money I'm earning a whopping $.10 on right now, LOL.

 

[mmmears]

It took me all day to catch up. For those of you who are stressed every time you apply, add me to the club. I don't find it fun until after there is an approval.

This might be my last set of pics from Antarctica since we are heading back to the Drake passage

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Thank you for sharing your fabulous pics every day! I really enjoy seeing them, and I'm glad to hear that you are having such an amazing time in Antarctica!

Does anyone here know anything about Alaska Cruises? Next year will by our 25th Anniversary. (not sure how that happens when your only 30..) I always plan our vacations and DH and kids just go wherever. (Usually Disney or Caribbean Cruises) DH has always wanted to do an Alaskan Cruise - I have always been hesitant because it does not have really warm weather and palm trees. But I hear they are great. So, I was going to surprise him next year with this cruise. Our anniversary is in March but would go in June/July. I still have CSR so could book on points at 1.5 redemption. I started doing some research and just keep getting more confused on where to go. I did read not to go out of Seattle but go out of Vancouver as it is more scenic and calmer. Any suggestions would be great... Thanks.

We cruised Alaska with DCL in 2011 (the first year there). With it being 1/2 sea days, we were very happy to be on DCL as we enjoy the shows and activities they offer, but they don't go to Glacier Bay. We needed to do a RT cruise and yes, Vancouver is the way to go. The passage is really beautiful and you miss it if you sail from other ports. We used our balcony a lot, so to me it was totally worth it. I'm a warm weather beach lover, and I was a bit apprehensive, but honestly it was so amazing and worth the cold. I liked it so much I was willing to do the Norway/Iceland cruise last summer, another cold cruise, and I'd be happy to take either one again. So I guess I like the cold weather cruises now.

 

[GusGus16]

After reading the Discover one, I might go for that, since it seems that the bonus posts fast. And then maybe do this citibank one. That would give me $150 from Discover and then possibly $500 from Citi. Not bad if I can do it for money I'm earning a whopping $.10 on right now, LOL.

That sounds like a good plan, the citi bonus used to post quickly from what i gather from prior dp's. As you go you should be able to open some accounts with a 2% interest rate and hold most of your funds there when you aren't chasing a bonus, amex and cap1 I know off the top of my head both offer about 2% interest rates right now.

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

Yes mine are all SSN...

Got greedy for the 100,000 URs and went outside my comfort zone with DH application for a second CIP with EIN...it’s at 7-10 days so either verification or denied

Well you ARE only human lol. Can’t blame you for trying!!

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

Yes, I opened the Arrival+ back in 9/17 (bonus received 12/17). I PC'ed to the Barclays rewards card in 10/18 when my AF posted. Applied 12/18 (about 5 weeks after PC'ing) for another Arrival+. Approved

Did you cancel the other arrival or leave it open?

 

[gottalovepluto]

I went into my AS account to book a short hop to see a friend and saw a little notice on my HKG flights saying a schedule change has occurred which requires you to call us. Since I don’t want to be caught off guard I searched it up myself- Cathay Pacific cancelled my JNB-HKG flight I booked with AS miles. It isn’t running that day, it’s running the day before and the day after but nothing is running the day I booked. I’m not even sure if I have any options here besides leaving South Africa a day earlier or later?... Since Cathay isn’t running anything that day, their website only shows partner flights via Qatar and that’s totally against AS award routing rules... I’ve already bought my hopper flight into JNB from CPT that day (thank goodness it’s only like $50). If they can’t get me on a partner flight maybe I just add a day in JNB to my plans and cut back one day in HKG... But that will involve calling Marriott to shift my HK 7 night cert by a day and honestly after reading your stories that sounds worse than this call with AS is going be... gah!!!! ...Maybe this will be clearer after some wine

 

[elgerber]

Anyone done this? https://www.doctorofcredit.com/citi...lable-nationwide-direct-deposit-not-required/

I'm thinking of kicking off my venture into bank bonuses with this as I have the $20k now but that will dwindle in the months to come as I pay off some store cards that have 0% offers expiring.

I should be able to get the $500 bonus I think. Just wondering if anyone else has done a Citi Offer before.

I have looked at this one before but all of the comments have scared me off.

 

[wendow]

Did you cancel the other arrival or leave it open?

I had PC'ed it to a Barclay rewards card (no AF) about 5 weeks before applying for the new one.

 

[wendow]

You will be my idol next month... think I'm going to cancel my Arrival, and apply for Arrival plus next month

I used up a 5/24 spot last year for my first Arrival+ and went to 6/24 for my new Arrival+. I bought two DLR tickets last year with the bonus and will buy two WDW tickets with this new bonus. I think it's a great card with a good bonus and worth using a 5/24 spot for me. I'll be under 5/24 in June so that is perfect timing for me to hit up Chase for another biz card (may try to churn the CIP if no 48 mos rule in place yet).

Good luck on your app!

 

[CyndiLouWho]

We did the Alaska cruise in and out of Vancouver with DCL. We actually considered other less expensive cruises but stuck with DCL for one main reason. We have Platinum status with them. Some excursions are going to get booked by Platinum members before anyone else can book them. We don’t have status with other cruise lines. The cruise was amazing and I’d do it again. Maybe with DCL and maybe not. No matter what cruise line you pick, do make sure you have a balcony! I could care less if we have a balcony or not on Caribbean cruises. I think it is worth it to have on an Alaska cruise. If you sail in or out of Vancouver do spend a day or two extra exploring the city. It’s wonderful and reminds me of San Francisco as far as the vibe. There’s lots to do and we really enjoyed ourselves. We stayed at a Westin on SPG points back in 2014.

We are first time cruisers, Alaska booked on DCL for next May/June. As a first time cruiser, I have no status. I know the chances are I could be locked out of our preferred excursions so I did it the churner way. I booked 2 excursions thru UR portal, float plane and Mendenhall Glacier and whale watching tour. For the 3rd, I couldn’t find what we wanted on UR portal, so I booked Yukon adventure and Dogsled ride with Chilkoot Charters which is pretty highly recommended over on the DCL section here on DIS. It was $410 for 3 people, so I used 40k URs as a statement credit on CSR which I used to book it. The vendors for the other 2, I researched both here and on places like TripAdvisor to make sure they had good ratings.
As for a balcony, that was way out of our budget, but even though it’s a long shot, I’ll ask about upgrades at the port.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

I have looked at this one before but all of the comments have scared me off.

I read some, but I guess I need to go back and read more of them. What comments did you see that scared you?

 

[Haley R]

I've never had trouble with RMN and gift cards at Staples personally. Do you have the new AMEX offer? I used the old one going through the RMN portal for gift cards and got RMN credit and AMEX credit multiple times

You will be my idol next month... think I'm going to cancel my Arrival, and apply for Arrival plus next month

We have the AMEX deal on both of our Hilton cards that says 10% back. Here is the info from RMN:


When I go through RMN to Staples.com I can see the Airbnb gift cards so I think it should work, but I would hate to buy a ton in gcs and it not work.

 

[elgerber]

I read some, but I guess I need to go back and read more of them. What comments did you see that scared you?

Post after post about people having to contact the CFPB, after numerous discussions with Citi, before they got the bonus.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Just FYI, it pays off to complain via multiple venues. My 7+ hour delay yesterday I messaged on Twitter and via DM was given $150 voucher (which honestly I felt was BS, especially since people were getting 15k miles for a broken TV). I had also filed a complaint on the AA website while waiting. Today I got notice that they put miles back into my account. They gave me 7.5k miles. When my BF was delayed and his was shorter than mine but more of a mess, he got 15k miles. They diverted from Greenville, NC to Raleigh at midnight after trying to land in Greenville. Then bused them to Greenville at like 6am...it was only his second flight ever. Talk about a nightmare for him.

I feel like between the voucher and miles now they kinda did a better job of rectifying the delay. But it still sucked butt and I had to burn a personal day which in teacher world is a terrible thing to waste!

 

[SBWB48]

@SBWB48 has 4 open Chase Biz cards all under her SSN (no EIN), so she might have some suggestions.

If you want to keep your SW Biz (and Marriott Biz and CIP), or its not time yet to cancel other cards, but you want to go for the CIU/CIC, the trick is to lower your credit limits on your Chase cards to as low as it’s acceptable to you (one billing cycle on the cards before you apply for a new card), and space out the timing of your apps.

Yes, as Chase looks at the total credit lines that it’s extended to you across personal and business cards (your exposure risk to Chase).

I guess I should call Chase and see if I even have a retention offer on my SW Biz. If not it's kind of a moot point and I'll go ahead and cancel. If they do offer it then I'll decide. I'm planning on cancelling my Marriott Biz, but it doesn't renew until the end of June and the CIP I just got in Nov. I'll most likely be cancelling my SW Premier within the next month also, which will leave me with no Chase personal cards (will go for CSP or CSR after CIU/CIC). Thanks for the input!

@Lain already provided the most important part piece of advice: lower CLs in advance of the app. My timeline for the four Chase Biz cards was such:

7/17 - CIP
2/18 - Marriott Biz
5/18 - CIC
10/18 - SW Biz

I had 4 Amex Biz, Plat, and the SPG Lux in between them as well.

Before I applied for the SW Biz, I lowered my overall CLs with Chase across business and personal to ~28% of income. My CIC came with a 5K limit, so I knew I was snug, then after reducing prior to the SW Biz, I still only got 5K on the SW. But, when it became time to get the SW Priority, Chase decided to throw me 26K

It could be since I was on Biz card #3-4, they were going to stick with a conservative 5K limit.

 

[Haley R]

Okay so I've been doing my research (or trying to) about the Barclay Arrival + and the Capital One Venture cards. It looks like both would be good options to help us save on our train tickets for Japan. Lower MSR on Venture, but more miles earned with the Arrival + so I'm not sure which one will end up being better.

The main thing I need to figure out is if JTBUSA will come through as a travel expense. I plan on emailing/chatting with both companies to see if they know. Does anyone have a preference for one card over the other?

Also, can you product change the Venture to a no AF card?

ETA: Apparently the Japan Rail Pass does NOT count as travel with the Barclay card. I'm glad I checked. Now I'm looking into the Venture card.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Okay so I've been doing my research (or trying to) about the Barclay Arrival + and the Capital One Venture cards. It looks like both would be good options to help us save on our train tickets for Japan. Lower MSR on Venture, but more miles earned with the Arrival + so I'm not sure which one will end up being better.

The main thing I need to figure out is if JTBUSA will come through as a travel expense. I plan on emailing/chatting with both companies to see if they know. Does anyone have a preference for one card over the other?

Also, can you product change the Venture to a no AF card?

Have you tried the cap1 prequalified tool to make sure you have a shot at the Venture? We’ve yet to figure out what makes Cap1 tick but it seems the card showing on your prequalified gives you better chance of approval.

 

[LynnTH]

I LOVED having a balcony on the cruise! Dh and I spent so much time out there---and also a lot of time out on a "secret" forward deck on the Coral Princess. That was our first (and so far, only) cruise. We used Costco Travel and ended up with a ton of OBC

I knew that I wanted Glacier Bay, which limited my cruise line choices to Princess and Holland America. I compared the northerly one-way itineraries and available ships. Basically the only itinerary choices were the ending port and the choice of Skagway or Haines. Dh wanted Skagway because he had always wanted to ride the train into Canada. I decided that going into Whittier (Princess port for Anchorage) would be more interesting than into Seward (Holland America's port for Anchorage) because of the glaciers in Prince William Sound. So that's how we chose our ports

Thanks. Didn’t know I that Whittier and Seward were both ports into Anchorage. I will have to check Costco but that would mean not using the CSR points.

 

[alryan]

I used up a 5/24 spot last year for my first Arrival+ and went to 6/24 for my new Arrival+. I bought two DLR tickets last year with the bonus and will buy two WDW tickets with this new bonus. I think it's a great card with a good bonus and worth using a 5/24 spot for me. I'll be under 5/24 in June so that is perfect timing for me to hit up Chase for another biz card (may try to churn the CIP if no 48 mos rule in place yet).

Good luck on your app!

I'm interested in this card as well. So the Disney tickets coded as travel for reimbursement at the full 1%?