I love credit cards so much!

[hsmamato2]

Does anyone know how often Amex has the UT offer? I'm debating whether to buy the tickets now (before May 31st) or wait. I don't need the tickets until August 1st (fastpass reservations). Thanks!

I only recall it once before, it was over a year ago, I think...don't count on it often. If you're going in August, buy them now to save the $

 

[Chippy4]

How do you sign up?

If you're signed into your Amex account online, look for the section with Amex Offers. There are several money saving or points offers, you just have to click on the offer to add it to your card. I have the UT offer available to me. I don't know if the expiration dates are different for other people, but mine expires in 3 days.

If you have more than one Amex card, check all the different cards. You might have the offer on each card! My DH has an Amex that is linked to my primary card but the last five digits on his card number are different. We both had the UT offer available. He used his card to book a rental car from UT and the $30 offer credited to the account, and on my Amex card I still have the UT offer available.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Signed up for the UCT/Amex deal! Thanks guys!

Check LMT club, sometimes they are cheaper even with a discount at UCT.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Bit the bullet and applied for Hilton AMEX before the 80k bonus goes away. Went for the no AF card since DH just got CSP and we are working on spend for that too. If we can't make spend for the Hilton card it won't be a huge loss, and I'll just cancel it.

 

[Hatwriter456]

Question for all you folks here -- how often do you apply for new credit cards? How many days/months between applications?

I had not gotten a new credit cards for years so the 5/24 hasn't affected me yet. I've had the Freedom card forever - over 22 years (it was something else before) - and I was living under a rock and didn't know how to make credit cards work for me. Now I have a new hobby .

I got the Freedom Unlimited card in February and the CSP this May. I'm going to apply for the SW card after I do the spend for the CSP and the 50,000 bonus comes back - I need the points for plane tickets. My husband just qualified for the Boston Marathon in April next year and we are going WDW in June 2018. We are in CA so SW is a good airline for us.

I was thinking after the SW card to apply for the Chase Marriott card as I heard it falls under the 5/24 rule. That card would put me at 4/24. What should my next credit card be? Should it be a Chase card? I'm not interested in the Chase Sapphire Reserve at this point because of the annual fee - we travel some but mostly within CA for soccer tournaments. We are going to Europe in 2020 so that's a ways off.

I was thinking of getting the Discover card before we go to WDW next June for the 0% interest and cash back rewards to charge all of our food and trip expenses.

 

[Alice Sr.]

I went for the CIP yesterday and immediately had the 7-10 day message when I called to check on the status. This is the first decline since starting this hobby, it feels awful!

I know, I was too for the SW but I called and they approved it without really any questioning. I'm sure you won't have issues.

 

[Alice Sr.]

1) This is a really good offer- 70,000 miles is enough (usually) for a couple of tickets. As a personal example --we're in Montreal right now and Mom and DD flew from Fl to Montreal with another flight to VA then back home and each of their tickets were 45,000 miles. DH was able to fly to Orlando two weeks ago for 25,000 miles.

2) MQMs count toward medallion status level if you are a skymiles member. General skymiles member is 0-24,999 mqms; silver 50,000-74.999. and so on. MQMs are earned by flying and can also be earned via co-branded cc spend.

3) Amex only allows one sign up bonus per person per lifetime. This is probably the most important thing to know!!

I believe their unofficial rule is 4 credit cards and 4 charge cards per person.

4) The platinum Amex provides a companion ticket (there are rules and regs with this so YMMV) after the first full year of having it.

5) Sorry, no help on how it reports for credit- I'm so far out of the 5/24 I'll probably never see a Chase card application again :I

Hope this answers some of your Amex questuons!!

Great info, thank you! Is it one bonus per card per lifetime or per lifetime period?

 

[tink1970]

Great info, thank you! Is it one bonus per card per lifetime or per lifetime period?

Per card per lifetime...so for the 1 charge card and 3 credit cards I have I earned a bonus with each. I'm debating whether I need all of them but so far I'm keeping them all!

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Question for all you folks here -- how often do you apply for new credit cards? How many days/months between applications?

I had not gotten a new credit cards for years so the 5/24 hasn't affected me yet. I've had the Freedom card forever - over 22 years (it was something else before) - and I was living under a rock and didn't know how to make credit cards work for me. Now I have a new hobby .

I got the Freedom Unlimited card in February and the CSP this May. I'm going to apply for the SW card after I do the spend for the CSP and the 50,000 bonus comes back - I need the points for plane tickets. My husband just qualified for the Boston Marathon in April next year and we are going WDW in June 2018. We are in CA so SW is a good airline for us.

I was thinking after the SW card to apply for the Chase Marriott card as I heard it falls under the 5/24 rule. That card would put me at 4/24. What should my next credit card be? Should it be a Chase card? I'm not interested in the Chase Sapphire Reserve at this point because of the annual fee - we travel some but mostly within CA for soccer tournaments. We are going to Europe in 2020 so that's a ways off.

I was thinking of getting the Discover card before we go to WDW next June for the 0% interest and cash back rewards to charge all of our food and trip expenses.

General consensus is to stick with Chase cards until you're 5/24. You can double that by doing it for you & your DH. As for the Marriott card, no one knows exactly how long it will be around since Marriott is merging with SPG & their cobranded card is AMEX. So if you can handle the spend, maybe go for that one next. You can convert Marriott points to Starpoints (SPG) advantage being they include Swan/Dolphin at WDW. Or, if the CSP is yours, get that one for your DH too as you can transfer to SW as well and you can merge your points

 

[calypso726]

What is the big advantage to DVA? Tickets are much cheaper at someplace like LMT club,like $40 cheaper for a 5 day hopper, saving $20/1000 doesn't seem like much. Of course if you get the gift cards way cheaper maybe.. but I don't have a place for that.

For us it is the 2% back in Disney gift cards for money I'm going to be spending anyhow. Between the ABD trips, DCL getaways, DVC dues, special events and APs the 2% really adds up.

Question for all you folks here -- how often do you apply for new credit cards? How many days/months between applications?

I had not gotten a new credit cards for years so the 5/24 hasn't affected me yet. I've had the Freedom card forever - over 22 years (it was something else before) - and I was living under a rock and didn't know how to make credit cards work for me. Now I have a new hobby .

I got the Freedom Unlimited card in February and the CSP this May. I'm going to apply for the SW card after I do the spend for the CSP and the 50,000 bonus comes back - I need the points for plane tickets. My husband just qualified for the Boston Marathon in April next year and we are going WDW in June 2018. We are in CA so SW is a good airline for us.

I was thinking after the SW card to apply for the Chase Marriott card as I heard it falls under the 5/24 rule. That card would put me at 4/24. What should my next credit card be? Should it be a Chase card? I'm not interested in the Chase Sapphire Reserve at this point because of the annual fee - we travel some but mostly within CA for soccer tournaments. We are going to Europe in 2020 so that's a ways off.

I was thinking of getting the Discover card before we go to WDW next June for the 0% interest and cash back rewards to charge all of our food and trip expenses.

Welcome to the travel hacking hobby. If I were you, I'd still get the CSR at least for the bonus. You can transfer those 50,000 UR points to SW or use them to purchase travel at 1.5 or transfer them to your CSP account before closing or product changing your CSR next year and save them for your Europe trip. Lots of things will trigger the travel credit including tolls. After the $300 travel credit is triggered, the card is $150 and you are getting $750 worth of travel buying power for $150. Heck, even if you never triggered the travel credit, I'd still trade $450 for $750 any day. After a year, I'd ask to product change that CSR to a Freedom Unlimited.

The rule of thumb when starting out is get your Chase cards first.

If you are looking for cash back the best no fee cash back card is the Citi double cash since it is effectively a 2% cash back on everything with no cap. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a sign up bonus. Barclay Arrival Plus does though and I believe it is current;y at $500+.

 

[Hatwriter456]

For us it is the 2% back in Disney gift cards for money I'm going to be spending anyhow. Between the ABD trips, DCL getaways, DVC dues, special events and APs the 2% really adds up.



Welcome to the travel hacking hobby. If I were you, I'd still get the CSR at least for the bonus. You can transfer those 50,000 UR points to SW or use them to purchase travel at 1.5 or transfer them to your CSP account before closing or product changing your CSR next year and save them for your Europe trip. Lots of things will trigger the travel credit including tolls. After the $300 travel credit is triggered, the card is $150 and you are getting $750 worth of travel buying power for $150. Heck, even if you never triggered the travel credit, I'd still trade $450 for $750 any day. After a year, I'd ask to product change that CSR to a Freedom Unlimited.

The rule of thumb when starting out is get your Chase cards first.

If you are looking for cash back the best no fee cash back card is the Citi double cash since it is effectively a 2% cash back on everything with no cap. Unfortunately, it doesn't have a sign up bonus. Barclay Arrival Plus does though and I believe it is current;y at $500+.

Hmmm.....stuff to think about with the CSR. Maybe I will have my husband apply for that one. I already have the Freedom and Freedom Unlimited, but my husband doesn't, so he would be able to do the product change. My husband is at 0/24 for Chase. We would have no problem getting $300 travel because we stay in hotels for soccer tournaments and camp regularly. I was thinking the Marriott card because we usually stay at Marriott hotels for soccer. I had a nice plan and I've been executing it, but hadn't thought past the SW card . Right now we are flying to Boston for free and I have enough points for 4 tickets to WDW. After WDW, I need to plan on Hawaii and Europe.

 

[Tikitoi]

Question...I ended up with a few extra major cc's by way of them starting as store cards then they turned them to major cc's. So just wondering should I ask that these cards be turned back to store cards, rather than closing them. The reason is that although one is an AMEX card another a Citi card, they aren't the ones that allow me to earn points like what is offered now. Anyone ever deal with this...

 

[afan]

Question...I ended up with a few extra major cc's by way of them starting as store cards then they turned them to major cc's. So just wondering should I ask that these cards be turned back to store cards, rather than closing them. The reason is that although one is an AMEX card another a Citi card, they aren't the ones that allow me to earn points like what is offered now. Anyone ever deal with this...

Do the store cards still exist? I know back when I had a Target store card they changed over to visa and didn't have a just Target store card any more.

 

[elgerber]

Do the store cards still exist? I know back when I had a Target store card they changed over to visa and didn't have a just Target store card any more.

Target most definitely has a store card. They have for years.

 

[4Hawks]

Does anyone have the Bank of America Amex? I wonder if the twitter Amex offers work on those.

 

[calypso726]

Question...I ended up with a few extra major cc's by way of them starting as store cards then they turned them to major cc's. So just wondering should I ask that these cards be turned back to store cards, rather than closing them. The reason is that although one is an AMEX card another a Citi card, they aren't the ones that allow me to earn points like what is offered now. Anyone ever deal with this...

If these are no fee cards and you have had them for a long time, I would not close them. It would negatively affect your AAoC and impact your score. Not sure what the reasoning would be to turn them back into store cards vs leaving them as is. Unless of course you planned on maxing out your allowable Amex personal cards.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Target most definitely has a store card. They have for years.

They've gone back & forth. They now offer the Red card credit & debit cards, but a couple years ago they offered a Red card MasterCard which some people still have.
Sears converted my card to a Citibank Sears card, which recently changed to Sears Citibank card with Thank You points.

 

[afan]

Target most definitely has a store card. They have for years.

It was a visa for awhile because I had one. They changed it to the visa from the store card, if there was an option at that point to keep it as a store card they didn't tell you. So they must have gone back to it being just a store card, but they had a visa for several years.

 

[laceltris3]

For us it is the 2% back in Disney gift cards for money I'm going to be spending anyhow. Between the ABD trips, DCL getaways, DVC dues, special events and APs the 2% really adds up.

Given how much you ABD, you may know the answer to this. Does the DVA really stop paying the 2% after $500 so that I need to open another DVA (with a different email, I presume)? We are close to hitting the stated max.

 

[calypso726]

Given how much you ABD, you may know the answer to this. Does the DVA really stop paying the 2% after $500 so that I need to open another DVA (with a different email, I presume)? We are close to hitting the stated max.

The T&C does say you can have up to 2 accounts with the same log in info. We have not opened second accounts with the same info yet. We will after we have worked our way through friends and family members with different addresses. We also have not tested whether or not the DVA will stop paying out after it has been maxed out. Our friends and family don't mind us using and managing their DVA accounts and are happy to hand over the gift cards sent to them. They do go on Disney vacations with us but would never wind up maxing out a DVA.