I love credit cards so much!

[wendow]

And now I'm quoting myself...good grief... @vanjust14, to answer your question, I really can't wrap my brain around the bank account stuff. I started trying earlier today but then I had to leave for awhile so I was way behind and it all began to just sound like Charlie Brown's teacher in my head. And then @gottalovepluto said Plastiq was probably safer. IDK what to do!

 

[Albort]

I also need to figure out when/if I'm going to cancel cards with annual fees, which is pretty much all the cards I currently have. Do you pay the fee once, and then cancel it right before it comes due the following year, or do you cancel before it even comes due? Can you even do that? I'm keeping the cost of the annual fee in mind when considering the value of the signup bonus, but only for one year. I can't pay ALL of these annual fees interminably or it would eat up all my gains, so I need to figure out when it's best to cancel.

you call them, threaten to cancel, they may offer u a retention bonus to get u to keep the card.

 

[Lain]

I want to make sure I understand this CIP.

It's a business card, right? Is that why it doesn't count for the 5/24 rule? It looks like the signup bonus is 80,000 points for $5000 spend in three months. Are these UR points? I'm still not sure what you can use these URs for and what the value of them is. I tend to think in terms of Marriott points; I know what they're worth because I've been dealing with them for a while. I have some UR points on my CSP now but I've never used them for anything.

Yes, the CIP is the Chase Ink Business Preferred, a business card. You have to be under 5/24 to be approved for this card, but it will not add a card to your */24 count when you’re approved. As a business card, Chase does not report this card to your personal credit report, it does not appear on your reports, so it doesn’t count against your */24.

As @speedyfishy, already pointed out, you can transfer UR points to Chase’s many airline and hotel partners 1:1. However, UR points have additional flexibility because you can use them like cash to book flights, accommodations (even Disney resorts), and activities through Chase’s Ultimate Rewards travel portal. Think of Chase’s travel portal like Expedia (because it actually is running the Expedia platform). In addition to redeeming points through Chase’s travel portal, you can use UR points for flights, rooms, cruises, tours, Disney theme park tickets, vacation packages, car rentals, etc. with Chase’s travel agents in their Cruise and Tour Department. You can even book a Disney vacation package using PIN or other targeted offer from Disney, and transfer it over to Chase to pay the balance with UR points.

UR points are valued at 1 point = $0.01. Moving all your UR points onto the CSP or CIP, and redeeming the points from either account gives your points 25% more value when redeemed for travel through Chase. Moving all your UR points over to a CSR account gives your points 50% more value when redeemed through Chase. So if you want to book a flight that is $800, it’ll cost you 64,000 UR points on a CSP or CIP (64k x 1.25 bonus value) or 53,334 UR points (53.334k x 1.5 bonus value) on a CSR.

If you decide not to redeem UR points for travel, either by transferring them to partner programs or through Chase’s travel portal or agency, you can always cash them out at 1 point = $0.01 either as a statement credit or deposit into your bank account.

Seems like this might be a good next move. Would it be a problem that I've gotten two business cards in the last three months? Or would they not even know since they're two separate banks?

Your two recent business cards are with Amex, right? Amex may or may not have made a hard inquiry during your application, but Chase isn’t particularly inquiry-sensitive. Amex doesn’t report business credit cards to your personal credit report, so Chase will not know about your other business cards.

If you’re on the fence about applying for the CIP, don’t hesitate and just do it. It really is a great next move! The CIP has the biggest UR signup bonus right now at 80,000 UR, and amazing earning ability beyond MSR because it’s 3x UR bonus categories currently apply to so many different kinds of spend. If you can use Plastiq to help meet MSR by charging to your new CIP almost any bill you might have that you can’t otherwise pay with a credit card, you’ll earn 3x UR on those expenses. This’ll provide a really nice UR haul in addition to the 118k+ UR you’ll get in the next few months with your planned CSR+CSP double dip (CSR has a 50,000 UR bonus, CSP has a 60,000 UR bonus, with a combined $8k minimum spend).

If you have any more questions, please ask away! We’re here to help!

 

[speedyfishy]

And now I'm quoting myself...good grief... @vanjust14, to answer your question, I really can't wrap my brain around the bank account stuff. I started trying earlier today but then I had to leave for awhile so I was way behind and it all began to just sound like Charlie Brown's teacher in my head. And then @gottalovepluto said Plastiq was probably safer. IDK what to do!

Plastiq has a fee. Bank funding doesn’t. It’s really whatever you are comfortable with. If you need help I can try to help.

 

[gottalovepluto]

And now I'm quoting myself...good grief... @vanjust14, to answer your question, I really can't wrap my brain around the bank account stuff. I started trying earlier today but then I had to leave for awhile so I was way behind and it all began to just sound like Charlie Brown's teacher in my head. And then @gottalovepluto said Plastiq was probably safer. IDK what to do!

Hahaha! Oh my! Well, hopefully by the time you need to make a decision you’ll have more DPs to work with!

 

[platamama]

you call them, threaten to cancel, they may offer u a retention bonus to get u to keep the card.

I called in to cancel my Citi AA card the other day, just followed all the voice prompts figuring at some point I'd be transferred to a human. Nope! At the "Do you want to cancel this card?" question I pressed the number corresponding to "yes," and immediately got, "Your card has been cancelled." (jaw drop) Ok, then. Good thing I still have my CitiBus AA card...

 

[PrincessMom98]

I looked into it before b/c I keep seeing commercials on tv and it is for military/veterans and their families.

ETA: if you see something that says otherwise I’d love to know

I am several pages behind, so forgive me if this has been posted. We have USAA from military service, but I believe you can get it without the military service. I think it depends on the state you live in. I remember hearing that some states would not let them sell policies unless they sold to everyone. It could have changed.

 

[miztressuz]

Ok, UR sound pretty good; I'm sold! I think I'm going to go ahead and apply for the CIP (online since I have a "business"). This time I'll probably take my time and take the full three months to meet the minimum spend. I just don't have any more big purchases to make after spending $10,000 in two months to get the two AmAx biz cards. By that time, it'll be mid-June and I can downgrade my CSP to a a Freedom to hold onto the UR I have on that. Then (after a suitable interval) I can re-apply for the CSP and also the CSR. That also gives me time to plan how in the world I'm going to spend $8000 in three months.

After that I think we'll start working on DH.

I also need to figure out when/if I'm going to cancel cards with annual fees, which is pretty much all the cards I currently have. Do you pay the fee once, and then cancel it right before it comes due the following year, or do you cancel before it even comes due? Can you even do that? I'm keeping the cost of the annual fee in mind when considering the value of the signup bonus, but only for one year. I can't pay ALL of these annual fees interminably or it would eat up all my gains, so I need to figure out when it's best to cancel.

So for me on annual fees, I'm a queen of not paying any more than I have to for things. Thus far that means we only have a couple cards with AF's and that's based on the value we get on an annual basis from it. My question for each fee is "can I get greater than or equal to back from the card so that i'm not paying out of pocket for the privilege of having a card?" (long question, haha)
The easiest ones for us are the IHG and Marriott cards. I got IHG first because you get a free night each year for only $49 AF. In the 7ish years of having it I have not found a IHG property for $49 per night, so I take that annual fee out of the trip budget and consider that I got a room night for that money. Most rooms we book with the free night are at least $120 before taxes. So that "paid" for the card and now all the perks are gravy.
Same for Marriott, hubby is a Marriott guy so he picked up the Marriott card around the same time (maybe the next year, can't remember now) which is $85 AF. But again, while we've found some rooms close to $85 haven't yet actually made it that low. And we don't have to worry about trying to keep an Elite status for bonus earning. So I'm happy to let him keep that.
SW I should really churn but I just can't seem to part with it (not sure why honestly ). But I went with the Premier as at the time the 6000 anniversary points were equal to the $99 AF so I look at it like pre-paying for flights. Since they devalued the points a bit it's not quite the same anymore but close enough. But when we do pay cash for flights we get the 2x points on top of the flight earnings, plus I use it for all car rentals to get the 2x points.
Many years ago I had the AmEx Gold card, it was $95 AF but there were many things that got 2x MR and so at the end of the year I had the equivalent cash value of $120 ish, so I made $25 on that. But through various changes they made I got rid of it in year 3 because I just broke even on what I earned to what I paid, so why keep it? I had the Blue credit card with no AF and same points earning so seemed unnecessary to hang on the Gold card when I didn't use any of the "perks" they gave.
Long story short (not!) it's a personal evaluation based on how you think you'll get use out of it. For each one- If you were going to pay that money anyway, is it better to pay the fee and get a better value from it or just pay OOP?

 

[Albort]

I called in to cancel my Citi AA card the other day, just followed all the voice prompts figuring at some point I'd be transferred to a human. Nope! At the "Do you want to cancel this card?" question I pressed the number corresponding to "yes," and immediately got, "Your card has been cancelled." (jaw drop) Ok, then. Good thing I still have my CitiBus AA card...

yeah, it works sometimes... i couldnt get Citi to give me one this time around, but i got 100k sitting on it, i dont want to transfer it to a single airline just now. YMMV! SPG is the next one up, im hoping for the 10k SPG Points!

 

[wendow]

I called in to cancel my Citi AA card the other day, just followed all the voice prompts figuring at some point I'd be transferred to a human. Nope! At the "Do you want to cancel this card?" question I pressed the number corresponding to "yes," and immediately got, "Your card has been cancelled." (jaw drop) Ok, then. Good thing I still have my CitiBus AA card...

I've called to cancel many cards and never, ever been offered a retention bonus. When I read about people getting those, I just can't relate to that!

 

[Lain]

By that time, it'll be mid-June and I can downgrade my CSP to a a Freedom to hold onto the UR I have on that.

This is really important. If you have any UR points on a card, do not cancel that card! Either move those UR points to another UR-earning card that you have and are keeping open (like your soon to open CIP) first, then cancel. Or call the number on the back of your CSP and ask Chase to product change your card to a no-fee Freedom or Freedom Unlimited.

Unlike Amex’s Membership Rewards points, which are pooled across all MR-earning cards into your MR account*, Chase’s UR points reside on each individual card so you don’t want to cancel a card that still has your points on them or you lose them!

*ETA: to clarify, for MR points, you still need a MR-earning card to keep your points alive, but all the points you earn across cards are pooled to your account

 

[wendow]

Hahaha! Oh my! Well, hopefully by the time you need to make a decision you’ll have more DPs to work with!

It's not you or @speedyfishy, it's me! I didn't get much sleep last night and my dd's are going to a 'red carpet' event tonight so I'm trying to help them with their hair, makeup and dresses...they are going "Dapper"-style So, I can't really focus today.

 

[Lain]

Ok, UR sound pretty good; I'm sold! I think I'm going to go ahead and apply for the CIP (online since I have a "business").

If you’re applying online, and you feel like someone in this wonderful community helped you along the way, you can show some love in return by using their CIP link on /r/DISchurners and sending a message. I know they'll truly appreciate the kindness.

Don’t worry if you’re not approved right away and get a “we’ll let you know in 30 days message.” This is typical. Over the next few days, just call the automated status line at 1-800-432-3117, follow the prompts with #, 3, 1, SSN, periodically to check the progress of your application. When you get approved, you can call CIP's customer service line at 1-800-945-2028 to request the card expedited to you.

Good luck!

 

[Angrose]

@Angrose @vanjust14 and to everyone looking to bank fund to hit an Amex spend (from the person who did that), PLEASE REMEMBER THE RAT TEAM EXISTS. https://www.doctorofcredit.com/american-express-clawing-back-10000-platinum-bonuses-ms-related/ Personally, I took the risk on the SPG card but I would not do this on a MR card. That's because even if you don't get in trouble today, if 5 years from now Amex freezes your accounts and reviews even your closed accounts and determines you violated any rules (funding a bank can easily be considered a cash equivalent imho) they will claw back the points you just earned (even if was all on legit spend) because of your past purchases. This happened to someone who got the 100,000 MR plat bonus. I remember the story vividly, they earned the 100,000 with legit spend, got put on financial review and Amex clawed back all the new MR points because they determined years earlier the person had MSd on now closed Amex cards. Think you can get by just spending all the points super fast? Your MR balance can go negative with Amex.

I was willing to risk losing my SPG bonus because I had better offers come up that I felt I had to take immediately. I think I would consider risking it on an SPG card IF I wanted the points and had NO other way to meet the spend. I would pay bills with Plastiq over funding bank accounts because I feel that's easier to fight about (spending for goods and services, when you fund a bank account you are getting cash). I will never fund a bank account to meet an MR bonus. Yes, it's possible to do that, we've seen successful DPs on Reddit, but the risk to the MR

Thanks for this. I'll read some more DPs. I can meet the spend organically, well with the help of paying rent via Plastiq, but I'd also need to put some spend on the card (airline tix to the UK) that would normally go on the CSR, so was hoping to avoid that. Oh well, in the end I probably won't chance it. It's best not to bite the hand that feeds you!

 

[wendow]

Plastiq has a fee. Bank funding doesn’t. It’s really whatever you are comfortable with. If you need help I can try to help.

Very true about those plastiq fees! Hmm, I can't open a new card until I am further with my SPG spend...another two weeks I think...So that gives me time to make better sense of the BMO Harris stuff. I've funded a bank account with a card before but it was just one account, nothing I had to do to keep it free, no waivers, no chatting in...I think all that talk when kind of where I got lost so if I decide to go for it, I'll tag or pm you. Thank you for the offer to help!

 

[4HOLIDAYS]

I just wanted to thank everyone who answered me about putting part of a vehicle on a cc. i am calling places to ck their policies but they seem to want to discourage me from doing it, so I am going to find a couple dealerships that will do a portion and then look for the vans.

 

[trenty]

Can IHG points be used for anything but hotel stays?

I also see that you cannot book IHG hotels using just points. All the hotels I look up are points +$. For example one night at a Holiday Inn Express is 10000 points + $65. Am I undertanding that correctly?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Can IHG points be used for anything but hotel stays?

I also see that you cannot book IHG hotels using just points. All the hotels I look up are points +$. For example one night at a Holiday Inn Express is 10000 points + $65. Am I undertanding that correctly?

I have not found a good "alternate" redemption method for IHG...it seems they have no gift card option directly. I think you can redeem for gift cards thru points.com but it's a crummy return if I remember correctly.

Also they should offer a points option - they will offer multiple rates when booking...points + cash at various level and straight points. You probably just need to play around with it a bit.

EDIT: it should look like this:

 

[trenty]

I have not found a good "alternate" redemption method for IHG...it seems they have no gift card option directly. I think you can redeem for gift cards thru points.com but it's a crummy return if I remember correctly.

Also they should offer a points option - they will offer multiple rates when booking...points + cash at various level and straight points. You probably just need to play around with it a bit.

EDIT: it should look like this:

Thank you. I have no points right now and was searching from my phone so maybe that's why I didn't see it.
I received an invite to join a survey panel to earn ihg points. Don't want to invest too much time taking surveys if I then also have to lay out cash to book a room. Eventually would get the IHG card too....tyring to get back under 5/24 first for another chase card.

 

[Angrose]

So, all the bank account funding talk and chatter about AMEX clawing back points has me spooked a bit. I started reading the DPs on DoC and got nervous. What really got me was reading about those who had their bonus points clawed back because AMEX awarded them bonus after meeting the MSR but clawed them back because later they counted the travel credit as a refund and that brought them under the amount needed. The bonus points just posted on my DH's PRG which surprised me because I thought I needed to spend a bit more (I was NOT counting the travel credits). So I was thinking, great, I can put this month's cable bill on another card, but when I read the DPs I decided to overspend on the PRG so they don't have a reason to claw back the bonus. Gotta watch it with those travel credits!