I love credit cards so much!

[Alexle2007]

now the question is... who got their points!?

Just checked and the points are still MIA.

 

[3 DD love princesses]

Hoping the points post and it’s not a back and forth messaging contest to get them credited

 

[schmass]

The test DVC loan payment I put on my CSR just posted and I got the 3x points on it - success!

 

[jhoannam]

I wish he would go for that but so far no go! I had previously tried to convince him but he gets irritable when I even bring it up. If we had a clear goal in mind then he might be more open to it. Maybe after this year's trip and once I've done more research for next year. Part of his resistance is that he's just not into Disney and most of my travel plans involve Disney

You need to plan a vacation He would enjoy, that will convert him. For the first time in years we were able to spend Christmas - thanks SW - and since then he’s been saving credit card offers, which he used to toss. He also doesn’t mind calling Chase to get his cards expedited.

 

[Alexle2007]

SPG and Marriott gurus: Do you keep all of your points in one account and then move then when needed? I was thinking I should be moving my Marriott points to SPG since I could transfer them to other places. Kind of like what I have been doing with the UR points and moving DH's Freedom and CIP to my CSR and my CIP to my CSR.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Slightly off topic, but I know Google Express has been discussed here before. I made my second Google Express order last week for a 20% off deal for Petsmart. Order went through no problem, received my box of cat food in two days. This morning I wake up to a full refund for the purchase on my CSP... thoughts? What's going on here?

 

[uksaint]

Slightly off topic, but I know Google Express has been discussed here before. I made my second Google Express order last week for a 20% off deal for Petsmart. Order went through no problem, received my box of cat food in two days. This morning I wake up to a full refund for the purchase on my CSP... thoughts? What's going on here?

Full refund posted? Or the charge just disappeared? I have certainly seen the charge disappear for a few days, and then reappear up to a week later.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Full refund posted? Or the charge just disappeared? I have certainly seen the charge disappear for a few days, and then reappear up to a week later.

Full refund. I was charged $27.06 on January 30. That charge is now gone and a refund of $27.06 has appeared in my pending transactions dated today.

 

[Lain]

SPG and Marriott gurus: Do you keep all of your points in one account and then move then when needed? I was thinking I should be moving my Marriott points to SPG since I could transfer them to other places. Kind of like what I have been doing with the UR points and moving DH's Freedom and CIP to my CSR and my CIP to my CSR.

Totally superficial reason here -- I value SPG more than Marriott and I like the design of SPG's app/website more than Marriott's. But because of the 3:1 conversion ratio, it'll look like you have "more" points if you keep Marriott points where they are.

Practically speaking, you may want to just leave the points where they are until you need them. When you transfer Marriott to SPG, you can only do so in increments of 1000, so you'll likely have some amount <1000 that will remain in your Marriott account. Same with SPG to Marriott -- increments of 1000. And because 1000 Marriott = 333 SPG (which is <1000), if you keep transferring back and forth, you may end up leaving points "stuck" in one program or the other. Transferring points is nearly instantaneous; you'll see Marriott points moved to SPG or vice versa reflected within a few minutes so there's no rush to consolidate ahead of time.

 

[3 DD love princesses]

Marriott posted you got it points will be credited in 72 hours

 

[gottalovepluto]

Marriott posted you got it points will be credited in 72 hours

Ditto. About 2 hours ago I got a reply to Q1 "You got it! Due to high demand, your points will post within 72 hours."

 

[Alexle2007]

Ditto. About 2 hours ago I got a reply to Q1 "You got it! Due to high demand, your points will post within 72 hours."

I see that in my Twitter feed also. I guess I can stop checking every 20 minutes or so to see if they have shown up yet.

 

[marsh0013]

I only got a reply to my 2nd answer, the 1992 one. Hopefully they get them all. Of course they're overloaded!

 

[miztressuz]

For all international travelers, what do you do for money once in foreign country? My daughter is possibly flying to Thailand, without me. She is a AU on my CSP, but I know I always see stuff about Chip and Pin cards, which I don't think the CSP is, and truthfully, don't fully understand or I have also seen things about no fee Debit cards and just use local ATMs. Any tips for spending money abroad?

I'm not much of an international traveler, but when we did the Mediterranean in 2013 the best advice at the time is to use the local ATM's for cash when needed. You'll get the bank exchange rate which is better than the exchange brokers and only pay an ATM fee, if you have one. I don't know about Asia, but at least at the time in Europe banks didn't charge ATM fees and we had a no fee debit card from CaptialOne360 account (formerly ING). So whatever we couldn't use a CC with no foreign transaction fees on, we used the cash we took out for no fees. You may want to have some local currency for when you get off the plane, but otherwise it's mostly best to just get some when there.
As for Chip and Pin, again not been to Asia, but we only had trouble at self-service areas. Like I was in Canada and tried to use the self service gas pump but I couldn't use my card at the pump because it didn't have a PIN. I just had to go inside. I think in Europe we were mostly places that were ok with a swipe, and if not we had the cash as backup. But I haven't been anywhere more international than the Caribbean since so stuff may have changed.
If you have a Target RedCard you have a Chip and Pin card, where you run it as credit but you must enter your PIN to complete the transaction. Otherwise it's called a Chip and Signature card. You can tell when even though you put the chip in the card reader, it will ask for your signature still.
I don't think Chase ever completed their Chip and Pin upgrades. I know some cards you can have both signature and PIN for backup, but it'll depend on how it defaults in the card reader. I'm not too familiar with those anymore since I haven't had to research in a while. I figured by the time I went to an international destination everything would have changed anyway and I'd be researching all over again

I don't know anything about how Capital One would view your 24/24 status, but since they pull from all 3 credit bureaus (and report their business cards on your personal credit history) my guess is that they don't have a lax attitude about extending credit.

I have the BoA Premium Rewards card and think it is a worthy contender especially if you can get their Preferred Rewards tiered bonus; at the highest level you get 2.625% back on everything and 3.5% on dining/travel, plus the $500 sign up bonus. DoC has a good list of what works for the travel reimbursement even though some charges seem YMMV. EBCI on SW has gotten reimbursed for me. I like that you can redeem any amount of points over 2500, so if you want to get cash back down to the penny you can. In addition, there are BankAmeriDeals which are kind of like AMEX Offers that you activate for your card. I used it to pay some estimated taxes and made a profit on paying taxes so that was nice. Even with Plastiq, I can make a small spread.

What about the Discover card? If you can max out the 5% categories and get double points your first year then you're looking at 3% everywhere (hey, use it with Plastiq for a small profit!) and 10% in the categories. I got $1160 out of my first year with Discover (before Plastiq ever existed, man I could have done so much better if I were a new Discover card holder these days), which is pretty great for a no AF card. They've just nixed some of the card benefits (like extended warranties, purchase protection, some others) so I'd be careful about what gets purchased on that card.

Speaking of no AF cards, the Uber Visa looks pretty interesting (I don't like that it's issued by Barclays, but that's just me, I find their cust svc poor). Really great for folks who eat out a lot.

I'm trying to understand the "3% everywhere" comment for the new Discover card. I figure it's 2% everywhere (1% now, then additional 1% when it doubles at the end of the year), with the 10% on rotating categories, am I thinking about this wrong?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I don't know anything about how Capital One would view your 24/24 status, but since they pull from all 3 credit bureaus (and report their business cards on your personal credit history) my guess is that they don't have a lax attitude about extending credit.

I have the BoA Premium Rewards card and think it is a worthy contender especially if you can get their Preferred Rewards tiered bonus; at the highest level you get 2.625% back on everything and 3.5% on dining/travel, plus the $500 sign up bonus. DoC has a good list of what works for the travel reimbursement even though some charges seem YMMV. EBCI on SW has gotten reimbursed for me. I like that you can redeem any amount of points over 2500, so if you want to get cash back down to the penny you can. In addition, there are BankAmeriDeals which are kind of like AMEX Offers that you activate for your card. I used it to pay some estimated taxes and made a profit on paying taxes so that was nice. Even with Plastiq, I can make a small spread.

What about the Discover card? If you can max out the 5% categories and get double points your first year then you're looking at 3% everywhere (hey, use it with Plastiq for a small profit!) and 10% in the categories. I got $1160 out of my first year with Discover (before Plastiq ever existed, man I could have done so much better if I were a new Discover card holder these days), which is pretty great for a no AF card. They've just nixed some of the card benefits (like extended warranties, purchase protection, some others) so I'd be careful about what gets purchased on that card.

Speaking of no AF cards, the Uber Visa looks pretty interesting (I don't like that it's issued by Barclays, but that's just me, I find their cust svc poor). Really great for folks who eat out a lot.

I'm strongly considering a BofA Premium Rewards - we don't buy EBCI so that one doesn't do it for me, Could just buy a bunch of tickets on points for $5.60 then cancel them for a refund later, haha. I have nothing with Cap1 so that's why I was considering them too. Obviously a lot of my inquiries and cards are over a year old, since this is the last card I plan to apply for in my name in the near future three inquiries and a denial wouldn't be the end of the world, haha.

I really only pay attention to signup bonuses as once I hit the bonus I move on so Discover isn't really a contender IMO. Once we get to April I have a detailed plan of cards for the next 2-3 years so just looking to bridge the gap of the next couple of months.

 

[FredtheDuck]

Good morning! I feel like I've learned so much following this board, and now I've got a bit of a plan to put in place, but wanted to see if my order of operations makes sense.

Some context first: We have two big trips on the horizon: one to WDW in October (not yet booked) and one to Germany for the Christmas markets in December 2019 (so next year). We live across the country from our families, so the three of us (me, DH, and DD, who is 2) fly back a couple of times a year to see them. When we go to Germany, it'll be us plus my dad, so four travelers.

We have a handful of cards now, here are the ones that might be relevant to this story:
- We both have Alaska Visa Signature cards, and we want to keep them because the companion fare is really helpful for those cross-country trips. We also have enough points still sitting for a free domestic flight (or half-ish of an international through partners).
- I have the AmEx SPG (picked up at the rec of this thread!). I just hit the minimum spend for the bonus.
- I have a United Card and an American card. The benefits on the American card are garbage and we don't fly them often anymore, so I'm going to cancel that. Thinking I'll keep United for the free checked bags, but am not wedded to it (except that it's a generous line, which is always nice for the credit score)... we're starting to lean towards loyalty to Alaska/Virgin, with Southwest as a second option.

For Disney this year, I'll have a little over 33k points after I hit this spend. I had originally planned on referring DH and hitting a spend on his, but then got to thinking about the CSR for him. So now my plan is to use their current point purchase promo to purchase the last 7k points I need for my free stay. From there:

• Have DH (who is fewer/24 than me) apply for CSR
• Use CSR travel credit to pay the last $200 I need for airfare for that Disney trip (we have $400 in vouchers sitting with one airline)
• Hit the spend on his CSR and hold those points for Germany bookings next year.
• Have him apply for Blue Cash preferred (the 6x groceries would be a big deal for us)
• Have him apply for the Alliant Visa (3x cash back on other purchases, including daycare) as recommended on this board.
• Later this year, when I'm back under 5/24, apply via referral for CSR and hit spend on that. Or do I do that early next year, since I don't have an immediate use for the $300 travel credit if his is covering Disney, which is our only second half 2018 trip? I think I read that travel credits are tied to application date, not calendar year, so the timing is probably important. Would just be banking URs to use for Germany.
• Once I apply for CSR, is it worth keeping his CSR, or should one be PCd down? Biggest spending categories for us are daycare (would go on that Alliant Visa) and groceries, which would go to AmEx Preferred until we max the category (less than six months), then... I'm not sure where we would charge them... If CSR makes sense, CSR, otherwise another good cash back card.
• I still think there'd be value in referring him to AmEx SPG and hitting the spend on that ahead of Germany, too. So maybe do that after we hit spend on my CSR?

So I feel like our priorities right now are: finish dealing with spends/point buys for Disney so that I can book that. Then start dealing with applications/spends for Germany. Once we hit spends on CSRs, SPGs, move spending to cash back rewards cards until categories are maxed, then figure out the best way to get some benefit from charging.

Anything that you'd do differently? Note that we can't do biz cards (no biz, and industries we work in are strict about it).

 

[AmyAnne]

Full refund. I was charged $27.06 on January 30. That charge is now gone and a refund of $27.06 has appeared in my pending transactions dated today.

Google Express was horrible about posting charges -- it took about two weeks for it all to eventually post properly. The final posted charge will say something like Google Express: [Name of Store]. Although my experience was from the AmEx deal around Christmastime, so this could be different.

 

[amalone1013]

Why not both? You have what, two more months to meet the MSR on the SPG Biz? If you got a new card, you’d likely have three months to meet the MSR on that card. It sounds like you have enough spend in the next few months to do both. If you put your taxes towards finishing the MSR on the SPG Biz, you’d be in the market for a new card anyway. The Marriott Biz is a good choice. That’s my next card coming as I’m finishing up the MSR on my SPG Biz. Money is fungible. It ultimately doesn’t matter if you put your everyday expenses and taxes on the SPG Biz or a new card, as long as you can meet the spend on both.

(Of course, if you have an urgent need for those Starpoints, wrap up the spend on the SPG Biz ASAP and get those points deposited into your account.)

All good points. I've got about 6 weeks left, I believe. And I haven't tapped into any of my 'backup purchases' like paying ahead on auto insurance, etc. I'll probably just keep plugging away on SPG until we do our taxes this month - I'm waiting on one more form. Then I'll work on convincing DH it's okay to get a Marriott Biz card for our ebay business... I'd rather put the taxes on the new card since I could easily split an insurance payment to get really close to that exact $10k MS on the SPG

No urgent needs for the Starpoints, but I'm close to having enough SPG/Marriott points for 10 nights at the Dolphin, which is very tempting to book as a one year anniversary trip...

 

[DisneyMandC]

Google Express was horrible about posting charges -- it took about two weeks for it all to eventually post properly. The final posted charge will say something like Google Express: [Name of Store]. Although my experience was from the AmEx deal around Christmastime, so this could be different.

Thanks! Going to keep this in mind before relying on it for meeting any MSRs...

 

[platamama]

For all international travelers, what do you do for money once in foreign country? My daughter is possibly flying to Thailand, without me. She is a AU on my CSP, but I know I always see stuff about Chip and Pin cards, which I don't think the CSP is, and truthfully, don't fully understand or I have also seen things about no fee Debit cards and just use local ATMs. Any tips for spending money abroad?

I'll echo @Albort's suggestions on the Charles Schwab debit card for ATM withdrawals (and as a backup to the CSP). With Charles Schwab, you could have just $15 sitting in the investment account, and then enough in the checking account for her cash withdrawals to cover her trip. There are no ATM withdrawal fees with Charles Schwab and the card is a Chip & PIN so in case she's at a place that won't accept the CSP, she can use the Charles Schwab debit card as a back up (as long as there's enough money in that checking account).

The biggest advantage Chip & PIN has over Chip & Signature when you're in foreign countries is at automated kiosks where there is no physical person around to hand you a slip to sign. Usually these are things like transportation ticket stations (trains, buses, etc.) or gas stations or toll booths, spots like that. I think in most places a Chip & Sig like the CSP are fine. This thread at FlyerTalk goes into it ad nauseum but it might be worth searching that thread for Thailand to see what others have experienced. https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cre...availability-q-chip-pin-signature-2017-a.html

I'm trying to understand the "3% everywhere" comment for the new Discover card. I figure it's 2% everywhere (1% now, then additional 1% when it doubles at the end of the year), with the 10% on rotating categories, am I thinking about this wrong?

OOPs, sorry, you're right, I mixed up the two products! The Discover It Miles card is 1.5%, doubled the first year. The Discover is 1%, w the 5% bonus categories, doubled the first year. Thanks for catching that!