I love credit cards so much!

[SouthFayetteFan]

Oh that does sound like fun! Magic! Almost like you're not spending any money at all, haha!

I think you've figured out why card issuers and merchants like it...

 

[Lain]

We head out tonight to Cali! I’m having major anxiety over this log flight, past bedtime, with a 2 year old.

DH is taking the boys skiing at big bear lake tomorrow. We are staying in San Bernardino for 2 nights. Any way to get me and dd2 to DL for the day? They will have the rental car to get to the ski place. I didn’t plan ahead on DL because I have no idea how she will be with the time change and all the travel, but I’d like to go if I can. I also see it is supposed to rain though. Of course, I come from “rains more than Seattle nashville” and bring the rain with me to sunny Southern California.

Oh, that day trip would be so tempting! I remember when my DD was 2; she loved Disneyland and everything was magic for her!

As you're aware, there's rain in the forecast -- supposedly up to an inch. Dress warmly and accordingly. Rain usually keeps the locals away, which could be a good thing because SoCal APers may otherwise want to get their "fix" before being blocked out for the next two weeks. However, it is also spring break for a lot of visitors. I don't know how that will play into crowds.

Getting there is the tricky part. I don't know. (@Albort is in SoCal, so maybe he might know?) The easiest thing would be to rent a car for the day, but even then it'll take 2+ hours. There are public transportation options, but that would probably take more hours out of your day.

Have a wonderful trip, whatever you decide!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Chase Freedom Q1 Question...So I haven't put any spend on either of my Freedom cards this quarter. I see "Apple Pay" is one of the 5% categories...can I just send money to my wife using Apple Pay Cash? I know I'll get hit with 3% fee...so I figured I send $1,456.31 (get hit with a $43.69 fee) and then we put the money into our checking account. For doing this I earn 7,500 URs which is worth a min. of $75 cash and of course I plan to hold on to them and use them towards travel once I have a CSR so that makes them worth $112.50. Basically I can make $68.81 doing this (or alternatively you could say I bought 7,500 URs for $43.69.

Will this work? I'm not really into the whole apple pay, chase pay, etc. world so I didn't want to make a mistake...

Ok quoting myself as I did some searches on churningsearch.com on this - looks like it will work. @Albort even made some comments about it on r/churning. I'm working on setting up my Apple Pay account now

 

[Lain]

I did the middle name trick on a few Chase cards (i.e. if I'm the cardholder add one in MY middle name) and it didn't cause any issues. I plan to do that when I get a CSP later this year to earn the AU points.

Maybe I've just been reading up too much about synthetic identities.

 

[1GoldenSun]

I think you've figured out why card issuers and merchants like it...

Yeah, it seems like we're getting further and further removed from our actual money. It's automatically deposited in our accounts, and now we can just wave our phones around to spend it! Not a bad thing, as long as we remember that it's still money.

I don't remember the last time I used actual U.S. currency.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Yeah, it seems like we're getting further and further removed from our actual money. It's automatically deposited in our accounts, and now we can just wave our phones around to spend it! Not a bad thing, as long as we remember that it's still money.

I don't remember the last time I used actual U.S. currency.

My barber only takes cash. Other than that...all electronic, haha!

 

[Lain]

Chase Freedom Q1 Question...So I haven't put any spend on either of my Freedom cards this quarter. I see "Apple Pay" is one of the 5% categories...can I just send money to my wife using Apple Pay Cash? I know I'll get hit with 3% fee...so I figured I send $1,456.31 (get hit with a $43.69 fee) and then we put the money into our checking account. For doing this I earn 7,500 URs which is worth a min. of $75 cash and of course I plan to hold on to them and use them towards travel once I have a CSR so that makes them worth $112.50. Basically I can make $68.81 doing this (or alternatively you could say I bought 7,500 URs for $43.69.

Will this work? I'm not really into the whole apple pay, chase pay, etc. world so I didn't want to make a mistake...

@lark confirmed this works last month: https://www.disboards.com/threads/i-love-credit-cards-so-much.3528202/page-791#post-58848868

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

@lark confirmed this works last month: https://www.disboards.com/threads/i-love-credit-cards-so-much.3528202/page-791#post-58848868

Awesome - thanks I think we'll do it with Apple Pay in Q1 then with Paypal in Q2...It's been awhile since I did a little MS, this is definitely my kind of MS though - do it from the couch

 

[havaneselover]

Dilemma. My tire tread is at 4/32. I’m going to replace them after spring break. I can use PayPal at tire rack on get 5% or put it toward my spg biz msr. I’m struggling here.

 

[Lain]

I need to get working on the minimum spend for my new CIP. Unfortunately, I used up most of my big purchases on the last two cards, so it may take me the full three months for this one. I need to buy a Florida resident four-day pass for my mom for a trip we're taking in May. Would I be better off buying it directly from Disney--would this be travel and I'd get 3x points?--or should I buy Disney gift cards at Costco to purchase it with? I don't know what the Disney gift card discount is at Costco. I don't even have a Costco membership, but I plan on getting one now that I have the Chase card.

I'm focusing mainly on meeting minimum spends right now but I really need to learn about what cards earn the most rewards in which situations, etc.

Oh I thought that people bought them discounted there. Maybe I'm thinking of somewhere else.

Sam's Club sells discounted Disney Gift Cards at about ~4% off. Do you have membership to Sam's Club? If so, buy Walmart eGift cards from Gyft using PayPal checkout with CIP selected for 3x UR, use the Walmart gift cards at Sam's Club to buy discounted Disney Gift Cards.

Costco doesn't sell Disney Gift Cards. A few years ago, Costcos in SoCal sold Disney California Adventure tickets/passes for a short time. That's about it.

Have you looked into Undercover Tourist to buy discounted tickets and passes? UT codes as "travel" for 3x UR on CIP.

You’ll have to do the math on UT vs gift cards, because as @vanjust14 mentioned, going through UT might be cheaper.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Dilemma. My tire tread is at 4/32. I’m going to replace them after spring break. I can use PayPal at tire rack on get 5% or put it toward my spg biz msr. I’m struggling here.

Ooooh thanks for this reminder. I need two new tires on my car and that will be another good chunk of change spent on my CSR/CSP double dip.

 

[miztressuz]

What is Chase pay? For that matter, what is Apple pay? When/why would you use these? Seriously, the more I learn on this board the more I realize how much I still need to learn!

Chase Pay is an app you have to download and you can link a Chase personal card to. It works at a VERY limited number of places, and even then doesn't always work correctly. I've only used the app twice. It sounds like it has worked fairly well at Best Buy, but I haven't tried mine there. Most cashiers do not know what Chase Pay is our how to use it.

Apple Pay/Samsung Pay is more generic and will be standard on your phone if you have a newer model iPhone or Samsung. You can add your credit card of choice to your wallet in your settings and then hold your phone over certain credit scanners to pay with your credit card on your phone. Sometimes Apple Pay is also available on websites to use (Airbnb is one). They were part of the 5% category this quarter for the Chase Freedom. Unless they are part of a specific deal on one of your credit cards, I don't know of any other reason to use it that would give you any benefit. Other than it's fun to wave your phone around and pay with your fingerprint on the iPhone

With the Google Pay (formerly called Android Pay... which was formerly called Softcard, which was formerly called ISIS (yes, they changed that name right quick once a certain group made the news)... I'm hoping they've finally settled on a permanent name now ) there are also sometimes extra coupons or promotions depending on the cards in your wallet. Chase did a few before but I haven't noticed some in a while, I'm guessing maybe the Chase Pay app is being more promoted. But one of the Chase promos was pay with your card through Google pay 4 or 5 times at supermarkets and get a bunch of bonus UR points. I only found that promo in the app, I never got an email from Chase or anything. At the moment I only have my CF in there so I'm not sure what other card issuers do. I'm more familiar with Google Pay but I think Apple Pay has similar where you can put a whole bunch of rewards cards into the wallet and those programs would send promos through sometimes too. Coke at least had a program where if you bought 5 cokes using the wallet you got a free coke. I think that's probably dead now but I would think there might be other stuff like that still out there.
Samsung Pay is pretty cool as you're supposed to be able to use it at any card reader, whether it has the NFC chip or not, as it has a way to send info like a magnetic strip. They also have a whole rewards program itself where you earn points for using the app to pay that you can redeem for gift cards (I think, I'm not a Samsung person, but it is cool tech)

At the moment the big draws to using mobile payment is convenience, the promos and deals, and a little bit of security. There's a couple different ways the wallets can do it for security, but basically your card info is different on each transaction so if there was a card machine breach, in theory, the card info collected would be useless as it was only good for that transaction. But with the proliferation of chip cards now it's probably about the same security wise (for now). At least, that's all the draws for me from what I know. Admittedly I only use Google Pay sporadically anymore so I didn't keep up.

 

[hsmamato2]

Oh GREAT - the "holier than thou" churners are after me again on r/churning, lol.

I shared that post where I said I put my AMEX Everyday link on Facebook and a couple friends expressed interest (I had said that here a couple days ago). Apparently I'm a bad person for attempting to give my friends unsolicited advice...Oh and apparently I'm supposed to "vet" people before telling them anything about what I do in this hobby...and also a bunch of my friends will apparently be coming back to me in 6 months blaming me for being deep in credit card debt because I posted that...Oh and to top it off, even when friends and family ask for advice, I should probably just refrain.

I just need to shrug it off but geez, apparently I'm a bad person because I might "cause" somebody else to make a poor decision. Personal responsibility people...personal responsibility...I'm not forcing anybody to sign up for that card by simply mentioning it...

this is why I read those forums for info(and FT too) but I try to stay away from posting....too much negativity there....it's just sad. B/c there's lots of good info but this thread is the one 'friendly' place I've found where you don't get torn apart by virtual wild dogs.....(had to remind myself that this wasn't "real life" and walk away)

 

[1st*toright]

Dilemma. My tire tread is at 4/32. I’m going to replace them after spring break. I can use PayPal at tire rack on get 5% or put it toward my spg biz msr. I’m struggling here.

This is why I have a spreadsheet scheduling out my MSR - so I can figure out how much of my MSR I can manage with spend that wouldn't otherwise get me anything!

Can you link your new SPG to your paypal account and then direct the paypal spend to that card? Or is the paypal a category thing (I don't have any category cards (yet!), so I'm kinda clueless about those at the moment).

But, as @SouthFayetteFan has reminded me several times in discussions around my SPG Biz spend, the return on ANY spend meeting that MSR is pretty good, even if you are passing up other points/rewards.

 

[wendow]

Chase Freedom Q1 Question...So I haven't put any spend on either of my Freedom cards this quarter. I see "Apple Pay" is one of the 5% categories...can I just send money to my wife using Apple Pay Cash? I know I'll get hit with 3% fee...so I figured I send $1,456.31 (get hit with a $43.69 fee) and then we put the money into our checking account. For doing this I earn 7,500 URs which is worth a min. of $75 cash and of course I plan to hold on to them and use them towards travel once I have a CSR so that makes them worth $112.50. Basically I can make $68.81 doing this (or alternatively you could say I bought 7,500 URs for $43.69.

Will this work? I'm not really into the whole apple pay, chase pay, etc. world so I didn't want to make a mistake...

Yes! I did this for about $600 of the $1500. Also owed my aunt some money so paid her that way too.

 

[Lain]

Can you link your new SPG to your paypal account and then direct the paypal spend to that card? Or is the paypal a category thing (I don't have any category cards (yet!), so I'm kinda clueless about those at the moment).

The dilemma is next quarter (staring 4/1) the Chase Freedom’s bonus category includes PayPal transactions for 5x UR up to $1,500 spent. So 5x UR or SPG MSR?

 

[GlamMistress]

Help me decide if I should keep my Hilton Ascend ($95). The fee just hit. I would downgrade to no fee, not cancel the line.

I was going to keep it for the 10 priority passes… I am killing my Amex Plat when the fee hits in May. I feel like saving money right now.


I only have one trip planned the rest of this year, for October and it’s in a DVC, not Hilton. I always use the lounge but I won’t die if I can’t go in I guess.

My plan was to either apply direct for the Aspire closer to my Barcelona trip in August ‘19… to get all the goodies. Or just grab the Ameriprise Amex Plat ($550 fee waived year 1) for the goodies.

Just looking for opinions on the value of the Ascend I guess.

 

[trenty]

Samsung Pay is pretty cool as you're supposed to be able to use it at any card reader, whether it has the NFC chip or not, as it has a way to send info like a magnetic strip. They also have a whole rewards program itself where you earn points for using the app to pay that you can redeem for gift cards (I think, I'm not a Samsung person, but it is cool tech)

I just stared using Samsung Pay when CF offered 5x for using it. It does work as you say. I have never had a problem using it anywhere and like it so much I continue to use it even though I am maxed on the 5x. And yes, it does earn points but I have not earned enough to redeem anything yet. Gift cards include Sephora, AMC, Best Buy, Game Stop, and Samsung Visa Rewards cards.

 

[Calfan]

Received great news from the Chase automated status line this morning. DH has been approved for the CIP!! Super excited about this one.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

But, as @SouthFayetteFan has reminded me several times in discussions around my SPG Biz spend, the return on ANY spend meeting that MSR is pretty good, even if you are passing up other points/rewards.

Thanks for making me sound like a nagging mother LOL!!!