I love credit cards so much!

[Jen and Ashwin]

damn, thats gonna complicate things for me... gonna be hard to get 2 $300 travel credit... :\

It seems that you can still get the 100,000 with if you apply in-branch.

 

[gottalovepluto]

damn, thats gonna complicate things for me... gonna be hard to get 2 $300 travel credit... :\

Right?! So bummed.

 

[gottalovepluto]

It seems that you can still get the 100,000 with if you apply in-branch.

Yeah, says that option should be around until March. Hey- that would solve the double-dip on the $300 travel credit if the report is accurate!

 

[Albort]

It seems that you can still get the 100,000 with if you apply in-branch.

yeah, but thats just a "maybe" haha. reddit seems to suggest referrals still at 100k... its risky esp for half the as many pts... might not be worth losing.

 

[havaneselover]

Maybe I'm not thinking about the travel credit properly but if you apply now you could use the 2017 credit between now and the beginning of December and the 2018 credit starting around 12/3 or so. Still can cancel/downgrade before one year. Am I missing something?

 

[Albort]

Maybe I'm not thinking about the travel credit properly but if you apply now you could use the 2017 credit between now and the beginning of December and the 2018 credit starting around 12/3 or so. Still can cancel/downgrade before one year. Am I missing something?

means, u got 1 month to use $300 credit before u downgrade... :| vs if my af is due on march, i got 3 months to use $300 credit.

 

[havaneselover]

means, u got 1 month to use $300 credit before u downgrade... :| vs if my af is due on march, i got 3 months to use $300 credit.

I see. Still better than nothing for me. I topped off my ezpass account, my parking account, and put $100 in my DVA to use mine because I had no travel plans last quarter.

 

[Albort]

I see. Still better than nothing for me. I topped off my ezpass account, my parking account, and put $100 in my DVA to use mine because I had no travel plans last quarter.

for someone like me who has churned for a year and a half, hoarding points with no redemption yet, its hard...

 

[wendow]

Do you have to be a chase banking customer to see if pre-approved for a card or apply for a credit card at the branch?

 

[wendow]

Do individuals have referral links to these credit card offers? DH has the CSR and I'm going to get it. I assume he doesn't have a referral link that would get him credit of any kind? If not, I'll go to one of the blogger's websites that I use.

Your dh can check this site to see if he can refer you:
https://www.chase.com/referafriend/catch-all

 

[ski_mom]

Your dh can check this site to see if he can refer you:
https://www.chase.com/referafriend/catch-all

Thanks for that link. He is not able to on the CSR, but there was an offer for $50 for anyone who signs up for Chase Freedom through his link. Doubt we'll use it, but a good link to have.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Thank you for your advice. Seems I can chose the dates I want on the Korean booking site, but Delta has yet to release those flights so nothing comes up. In putting in roughly the same dates for Nov, I got an idea of my flight options. Looks like if I want only 1 stop it's Detroit to Seattle or Detroit to LA then onto Maui. In reading the reviews on the first class, seems on both of the options (Sea and LA) the first class is less then desirable. Complaining about not feeling like there was much more room then a normal coach seat. Hmmmm, something to think about considering if I can pull this off it's 180K for first class vs 100K for coach. I mean, 80K is a LOT of UR points...that could be used on hotels. But 12 hours in true coach might suck butt too! LOL.

You want to start looking at booking your flights about 331 days out depending on the airline. All first class isn't created equal. Domestic first class does not compare to international first class and seats can vary widely. Check seat guru dot com to compare what the seats on different airlines, flights and routes will be. Compare both the business and first class seat offerings on seat guru. When we booked our American Airlines flights to Hawaii for this March the AA web site had business class seats for 37.5k miles pp and first class seats for 90k miles pp. When I checked seat guru for the seat configuration the business class seats were the same as the first class ones. Had I not checked I could have easily spent 57K miles more for 2 tix in first class and still been in the same business class seat. I booked the biz class seats at 37k each and the ticket when issued still coded as first class. We also made sure to choose the connection that offered a lie flat seat on the way to Hawaii. There are a few articles from the bloggers out there about flying to Hawaii using UR points. Here is one from TPG http://thepointsguy.com/2016/10/chase-sapphire-reserve-destination-hawaii/

I'll tell you what we did for our trip to Aulani in March in case it serves to help some outside the box thinking if you get stuck or need a different option. Trip from Ft. Lauderdale to Hawaii from 3/8 - 3/17, Disneyland from 3/17 - 3/21.

We used a combination of American Airline miles, Thank You Points from the Citi Prestige and Premier cards and airline gift cards that were purchased to trigger the annual airline credit redemptions from Amex Platinum cards and Thank You Prestige cards. Our flights form FLL-HNL were booked using AA miles. We couldn't find award flights from HNL-LAX or HNL-FLL with a stop over using miles that was worth the cost of the miles. So, we purchased HNL-LAX in first using Thank You points from the Thank You premier card that were transferred to the Thank You Prestige card for maximum value. We chose AA flights because TY points were worth 1.8 cents on AA vs 1.6 cents on all other airlines at the time. We will stay in Disneyland for a few days after our trip to Aulani. We are using DVC points to stay at Aulani. We don't own there but were able to book at the 7 month window. Using DVC points to stay in Villas at Grand California. Don't own there either but also managed to book it at the 7 month window which was almost as exciting as scoring tix to Hamilton Smallest DVC resort and darned near impossible for those who don't have home resort priority and flexible dates on their side. There were no decent flights for coming back home using miles and DH really wanted a direct flight back. So we used the airline gift cards to purchase direct flights back in first class. Hope this helps.

 

[wendow]

Thanks for that link. He is not able to on the CSR, but there was an offer for $50 for anyone who signs up for Chase Freedom through his link. Doubt we'll use it, but a good link to have.

That is the only referral I have also They must not mind giving that one out.

 

[calypso726]

as noted before..... how YOU value your points may differ from how I value them... I used to agonize WAY more about actual value (like the TPG calculator) then I just started booking what I needed with my clear goal in mind -travel more/spend less. For me,that sometimes means using points for 'less value' redemptions. But since they provide what I want, they have huge value to me! That said, I once used a combo of UR points plus some SWA points to stay at Universal Hard Rock Hotel and play in the parks for the weekend.... for free.totally worth it for us! I would never pay oop to stay there....

Couldn't agree more. While I do try to get the most value I can from the points and miles, I now tend to go by whether they are harder or easier to accumulate. I can earn UR points at 5x fairly consistently, therefore, they are easier to accumulate and replace so I tend to use those when all things are equal. SPG points are harder to earn so I will hoard them until I'm ready to pull the trigger for a flight on an airline that is transfer partner that I don't already have miles with in their program. When trying to save on cash out of pocket then whatever is handy works.

I think with devaluations happening so frequently, it's smart to USE your points. So I'm using mine . It may not be the BEST value but it works for me.

Yup. You're points are almost never worth more than they are today.

Do you know if they will honor my elite status at Marriott if I book my room through the UR portal?

I would think if thee is a way to add your member number then you should be good. That said, when we used UR points at Tivoli they had no record of our reservation and it took multiple emails and phone calls to find someone who was able to confirm that Chase UR travel did make a reservation for us. That could be becasue it was a hotel outside the US but I don't know for certain. Either way, once you check in you can give them your number and they should honor the status.

100,000 bonuses points for CSR dropping to 50,000 on Jan 12 according to this article! http://www.doctorofcredit.com/chase...p-bonus-50000-january-12th-branch-march-12th/

Oh, so glad we got the card before the bonus drop. Whew!

damn, thats gonna complicate things for me... gonna be hard to get 2 $300 travel credit... :\

I think you caa still pull it off. Besides, you can always change your statement closing date later to give you a bit more cushioning if needed.

I found a much better use for my Marriott points..the Marriott Marquis in Times Square! Rooms are $500 plus a night on the Saturday in July we are going and I used the points I saved from the Baltimore booking to book it for my 40th birthday trip. We were going to come home the same day but not now ! Thanks to all for your sage advice. I used 45,0000 Marriott points.

Oh wow! Awesome redemption. Congrats!!!

Thank you for your advice. Seems I can chose the dates I want on the Korean booking site, but Delta has yet to release those flights so nothing comes up. In putting in roughly the same dates for Nov, I got an idea of my flight options. Looks like if I want only 1 stop it's Detroit to Seattle or Detroit to LA then onto Maui. In reading the reviews on the first class, seems on both of the options (Sea and LA) the first class is less then desirable. Complaining about not feeling like there was much more room then a normal coach seat. Hmmmm, something to think about considering if I can pull this off it's 180K for first class vs 100K for coach. I mean, 80K is a LOT of UR points...that could be used on hotels. But 12 hours in true coach might suck butt too! LOL.

You're welcome. Yup 80k sure is a lot of UR points. Seats can be tricky and it is hard to spend so many more points for seats up front if they aren't worth it. That said, being up front does come with some benefits like free checked bags and more of them, priority boarding. Just being up front is helpful if your flight gets delayed and you need to deplane and re-book as you are one of the first ones at the counter. Check and see if it might be worth it to transfer points to BA and fly on AA if there is saver award availability. I know AA does have a flight that goes to HNL with lie flat seats. It flies out of DFW.

 

[mhartman09]

I am truly in awe of you guys...LOL. I popped over here a while back after following the Disney Gift Card thread for so long and churning avenues dropping like flies. I am a total newb at this, but very interested in learning. I've always been drawn to cash back credit cards (all 4 of my current regularly used cards are cash back cards), but I'm really seeing the appeal of other types of cards now. I guess I need to go back to the first page again and read from the beginning to try to sort all of this out.

My main beginning question is, would it be a good to close out a few of my cash back cards and replace with miles cards, or should I just keep those cards open and just not use them? It took me years to repair my credit and get my score at a great level after a few years back in college of not using credit cards wisely. I'd hate to damage that now by closing out cards if I don't need to do so.

I really think my family would benefit greatly using a miles card. Currently when we are planning vacations we check flight costs, but usually end up driving to places due to the prices of flights. I think I'd be able to get hubs on board with more flights if we could utilize miles. I also want to read up on the SW companion pass, as typically SW would be the airline we'd use when we do actually fly to destinations.

 

[peel]

Thanks for that link. He is not able to on the CSR, but there was an offer for $50 for anyone who signs up for Chase Freedom through his link. Doubt we'll use it, but a good link to have.

No referrals for the CSR right now, but the chatter is that they'll be available once the sign-up bonus drops from 100K to 50K.

 

[peel]

My main beginning question is, would it be a good to close out a few of my cash back cards and replace with miles cards, or should I just keep those cards open and just not use them? It took me years to repair my credit and get my score at a great level after a few years back in college of not using credit cards wisely. I'd hate to damage that now by closing out cards if I don't need to do so.

If you aren't paying any annual fees there isn't any reason to close them. They're helping your credit score by having older accounts, and the more available credit you have (if you don't carry balances) the better your score will be.

 

[MrPTato]

My main beginning question is, would it be a good to close out a few of my cash back cards and replace with miles cards, or should I just keep those cards open and just not use them? It took me years to repair my credit and get my score at a great level after a few years back in college of not using credit cards wisely. I'd hate to damage that now by closing out cards if I don't need to do so.

If you close a card, it reports on your credit reports for 10 years. Don't close out a card that has a balance on it if you decide to go that route. Your new ones would age by the time the old ones fall off. Also, having more unused credit line helps to lower utilization, but some lenders don't like to see a ton of available credit as that could be a means for disaster down the road.

 

[mhartman09]

If you aren't paying any annual fees there isn't any reason to close them. They're helping your credit score by having older accounts, and the more available credit you have (if you don't carry balances) the better your score will be.

If you close a card, it reports on your credit reports for 10 years. Don't close out a card that has a balance on it if you decide to go that route. Your new ones would age by the time the old ones fall off. Also, having more unused credit line helps to lower utilization, but some lenders don't like to see a ton of available credit as that could be a means for disaster down the road.

Thanks for the responses. I figured it would be best to just leave the cards open and not used, but wanted to hear what you thought. My husband has always been very leery about credit cards and I finally convinced him a couple of years ago that he needed to get some cards to build his credit. He was unhappy that I had credit trouble in my past, but my score was higher than his. I explained to him it was due to the fact that I built mine back up over time and since he hadn't had any revolving credit at all, that's why his score was probably lower. Now we have a few cards that we use regularly, but they are all cash back cards. I think I'll just finish paying out what we have on some of those, and just keep them open while changing to new miles cards for regular use. I just need to convince him of this because he gets super nervous with us having "too many cards" whether they are used or not. I typically pay our balances in full every month (with the exception of holiday shopping sometimes) and we're very good with our finances. I think it's just something that has always bothered him and always will. Took me forever to get him to use our CCs for the cash back percentages instead of using his debit card for our checking account. He's just not a fan of CCs in general I suppose.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Thanks for the responses. I figured it would be best to just leave the cards open and not used, but wanted to hear what you thought. My husband has always been very leery about credit cards and I finally convinced him a couple of years ago that he needed to get some cards to build his credit. He was unhappy that I had credit trouble in my past, but my score was higher than his. I explained to him it was due to the fact that I built mine back up over time and since he hadn't had any revolving credit at all, that's why his score was probably lower. Now we have a few cards that we use regularly, but they are all cash back cards. I think I'll just finish paying out what we have on some of those, and just keep them open while changing to new miles cards for regular use. I just need to convince him of this because he gets super nervous with us having "too many cards" whether they are used or not. I typically pay our balances in full every month (with the exception of holiday shopping sometimes) and we're very good with our finances. I think it's just something that has always bothered him and always will. Took me forever to get him to use our CCs for the cash back percentages instead of using his debit card for our checking account. He's just not a fan of CCs in general I suppose.

I agree that if the cards do not have any annual fees, don't close them. They actually help your score.

For example, I currently have two credit cards that don't make much sense for me to use anymore because the rewards aren't that great but they both are no annual fee cards so they cost me nothing to keep. They were the first two credit cards that I ever opened and so they contribute a lot towards my age of credit as well as giving a boost to my overall available credit. Instead of closing these cards, I have my Netflix subscription set up on one of them and my Hulu subscription set up on the other. I also have each card's monthly bill set up for auto-pay. This way each card is used and paid in full every single month, which keeps them active and in good standing. I monitor them via YNAB, to ensure there are so strange charges or anything. But otherwise, I don't bother with them.

I did have a card that had an annual fee and the rewards no longer made sense, so I closed that card last year. I had a small and very temporary hit to my credit score, but my score has since gone up even more upon opening my CSR card a few months ago.