I love credit cards so much!

[SouthFayetteFan]

@Disneyonmymind, earlier, I mentioned the higher $5k MSR on the Amex SPG Biz vs. the Chase Marriott cards with $3k MSRs. I forgot to point out that while you do have to put more spend on the SPG Biz to meet MSR, at least until 7/31/18, every dollar spent is worth 3x more on the SPG card than on a Chase Marriott card because everyday base spend on the SPG Biz is worth 1 Starpoint per $, which will convert to 3 Marriott points once the programs officially merge on 8/1/18. The Marriott cards have a base spend of only 1 Marriott point per $. When you meet the $5k MSR on the SPG Biz, that’ll eventually convert to at least 15k Marriott points. Good luck!

It's always interesting to see the different ways you can compare offers. I really like to do this method you describe where I include the base earnings on the MSR in with my return. I'd compare these two offers as:

• SPG Biz: 25k bonus + 5k base = 30k SPG = 90k Marriott for $5,000 spend.
• Marriott Biz: 75k bonus + 3k base = 78k Marriott for $3,000 spend.
• Both waive the AF year 1 so no need to consider that in the equation
• If I assume Marriott points are with $0.01 each then this is $900 (@18%) vs. $780 (@26%)
• OR I could say I'm getting 12k extra Marriott points ($120) for $2,000 spend (@6%).
• Of course this analysis would seem to point to Marriott being the better offer BUT of course then things like how many Biz cards will Chase really give me and will the SPG biz decrease come into the equation...

 

[Lain]

Thank you for that! One hour and 6 phone representatives later, I now have 10,000 more SPG points

I wasn't quite maxed out. 10,000 more points would have maxed me out. However, I did legitimately encourage friends to apply, one just yesterday, and they did but I had no link that I could generate for them.

I’m so happy this worked out for you! One hour and six reps! You better have gotten something out of this. But how did they settle on offering you 10k SPG? A referral is 7,500 points. Do tell!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Hey I just want to give some quick kudos to @Albort - he had been on top of this SPG card thing for a long time. I know a lot of us started to pile on with the clues (especially when the recent increased offer on SPG didn't include personal) but @Albort seemed to be the first one to the party. None of us totally nailed what would happen and when it would happen but thanks for all the great advice and looking out for everybody

 

[wendow]

The best part is if you call in and complain about the email saying 2-3 and it taking a week to arrive the reps are dumbfounded and can't help you at all, lol.

If you use a credit monitoring service it should show up there pretty quickly. I have an account on Experian.com and just monitor my experian report there - I only get a once a month update on that but it's good enough for me

Yep, I called about the biz card saying the email said 2-3, and the csr actually said that what the email says (and the approval screen) aren't always right. He did "guarantee" I'd have it in 7-10 days.

I use experian too. I saw emails come in from them today but didn't read them (busy day!) so I bet Amex did a hard pull.

 

[wendow]

Congratulations on the new SPG card! But let me commiserate with you about not being able to pull up the 30k Starpoints offer again. I pulled a 100k MR Platinum offer for my wife last week, but haven’t been able to reproduce it since; best I’ve done is 75k and it’s kind of driving me nuts. As much as I love Amex, the one thing I really hate is all their targeted, incognito and otherwise hidden offers. It really doesn’t promote very much good will among their customers to find out they aren’t getting the best offer on a card. Still, 25k Starpoints > $200 statement credit, so I’m glad you were able to get in on it!

I'm sorry you cannot pull up that 100k offer again and I can totally relate to it driving you nuts! When others were struggling to pull up the 30k incognito SPG offer a few weeks back, I couldn't *NOT* pull it up. Coming up in every browser over and over again. It was bothering me that others couldn't get it, who wanted to apply, and I could easily get it but wasn't going to apply. Well, Monday night, when I decided to apply for the spg personal, I could not get that incognito offer to come up to save my life. I was so irritated and it became, at 10pm that night, my life mission to get that offer to come up or die trying lol! It took a full hour but I finally got it and never did an offer look so sweet

 

[linzjane88]

I know many folks here aren't as experienced with numerous AMEX applications. Here's some things I've noticed (after checking my records we've gotten 21 AMEX cards in the past 3 years - 10 in the last year alone):

• Unlike Chase, AMEX doesn't have a predictable pattern of auto-approval, pending, emails after applying etc.
• You can check status of your application here: https://www262.americanexpress.com/eaol/welcome.do
• Sometimes you'll get an email that your application was received - sometimes you don't
• This email varies regardless of whether you were auto-approved or not
• Sometimes you'll get an email shortly after that one that you were approved, sometimes that can take days, sometimes that email never comes
• Again this email also varies regardless of whether you were auto-approved or not
• Sometimes the email says the card will arrive in 2-3 days and instead it takes a week to arrive
• Sometimes the email says the card will arrive in a week and it shows up in 2-3 days expedited
• If you aren't auto-approved, Sometimes you go pending for a few hours, sometimes a few days
• Sometimes you get your credit number for automatic use, sometimes you don't
• Normally you can add your card to your login immediately, but on rare occasions you can't and you have to wait for the card to arrive
• Sometimes they will do a hard pull, but a lot of times they won't
• You can apply for a card today and get a tiny credit limit and then apply for another card a month later and get a huge limit

I could probably go on - but the general theme here is that AMEX marches to the beat of their own drum. I can't figure them out but they hand out cards to me like they were candy on Halloween.

So basically the same monkeys that throw darts for ROFR on DVC resale contracts are in charge of new Amex cards?

 

[Albort]

Hey I just want to give some quick kudos to @Albort - he had been on top of this SPG card thing for a long time. I know a lot of us started to pile on with the clues (especially when the recent increased offer on SPG didn't include personal) but @Albort seemed to be the first one to the party. None of us totally nailed what would happen and when it would happen but thanks for all the great advice and looking out for everybody

tbh, im still sitting here wondering what to do about this merge and SPG/Marriott credit cards... haha

 

[JKalai]

So I pulled my new CSR off the paper and realized I'm now part of the elite METAL group ! Don't know why I didn't think of it before. I like that they put the warning on the back now "Contains Metal DO NOT SHRED"
Where were they a couple months ago when the Amazon and Marriott cards just laughed at our shredder

Just wait until you start using it. People still give me weird looks when I hand it over.

"Wow, this is a heavy card"

"Where are the numbers?"

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Just woke up to see the SPG Biz at $200 statement credit. So glad I pulled the trigger last night. Personal is at $200 statement credit now too.

 

[calypso726]

I’m so happy this worked out for you! One hour and six reps! You better have gotten something out of this. But how did they settle on offering you 10k SPG? A referral is 7,500 points. Do tell!

Apparently you are allowed to receive 55,000 bonus referral points per calendar year. I had received 45,000 so far. Which meant I still had 10,000 to go before being maxed out. No one was able to determine why I could not generate a link on either the desktop or the app. I clearly was not maxed out yet. With the first 5 reps it was a matter of trying to figure out why I could not generate a referral link. Rep number 5 escalated a ticket to tech and said I should give it a few days. I asked what was going to be done about the 4 referrals that could not access the links I had sent them. This rep transferred me over to the SPG card customer support. I explained, politely and with good humor that they were rep number 6 in the last hour. I never once asked to be given courtesy points or anything. I expressed only my desire to generate a working link and dismay over the fact that I could not. This was the rep that went through my account and added up the referral bonus points and expressed incredulity over the fact that 7,500 points doesn't divide equally into 55,000 and why would they pick such an arbitrary number. I agreed. I explained that I assumed one of the referrals would not get a full 7,500 points once I reached that thresh hold. I explained that I could not in good conscience tell my friends not to apply direct from the Amex website once they discovered my link didn't work and to wait until Amex's tech team got their act together. I explained that as they got auto approvals and texted or told me about it that I was very happy for them but not so happy for me as that seemed like 7500 points going down the drain and I just wanted a link that would work so it wouldn't continue to happen as I was so close to maxing out the referral bonus offer. This rep decided that the right thing to do was to offer me the 10,000 bonus points to max out my referral offer. I was very grateful and expressed my gratitude and thanked the rep for going out of their way to make things right for me. I did have a few friends in the last week that applied for and were approved for the SPG biz but I had no working link. I could have named them if asked but they never asked me.

So basically the same monkeys that throw darts for ROFR on DVC resale contracts are in charge of new Amex cards?

Actual footage of me dodging monkeys while waiting to see where the dart would land on all 6 of my resale contracts:

tbh, im still sitting here wondering what to do about this merge and SPG/Marriott credit cards... haha

Hello, my name is "Misery". You must be "Company", nice to meet you.

 

[Pooh2]

Chase Ultimate Rewards Questions:

When booking a hotel with points through the Chase portal, the number of points increased after I clicked "Book".
Does that mean the tax and resort fee are covered by points?
Will I have any extra charges when I check into the hotel?
I assume the hotel will still want me to leave a credit card on file when I check in?

Also, for a Marriott property, points were showing about 18,000 more points when I looked directly on the Marriott site than on Chase Ultimate Rewards. Is this typical? Almost seems too good to be true. Worried I will show up a the hotel and they will say, "Just Kidding! You don't really have a room!".

Thanks for the help!

 

[jhoannam]

Both SPG Biz and personal are statement credits.
Personal & Biz $100/$1k spend. Plus, earn an additional $100 statement credit after your first purchase on the Card at a participating SPG® or Marriott Rewards® hotel within your first 6 months of Card Membership

 

[Ava]

Keep in mind that the CIC will not count against your */24, so even after that card, you will still be 4/24 (assuming you get the Marriott personal), and you could double dip that last 5/24, if you should choose to

Congrats on your new spg personal! Can't wait to break mine in

You’re right! I was just thinking about needing to be under 5/24 to apply for the CIC, not that I’d still have a slot open after that. I don’t know what I’ll use it on though, I have all the UR-earning cards (or have had them within the last 24 months) and we don’t fly Southwest or United. Maybe I’ll just do Hyatt, even though that one isn’t subject to 5/24. Hotel points are always useful to us.

Congratulations on the new SPG card! But let me commiserate with you about not being able to pull up the 30k Starpoints offer again. I pulled a 100k MR Platinum offer for my wife last week, but haven’t been able to reproduce it since; best I’ve done is 75k and it’s kind of driving me nuts. As much as I love Amex, the one thing I really hate is all their targeted, incognito and otherwise hidden offers. It really doesn’t promote very much good will among their customers to find out they aren’t getting the best offer on a card. Still, 25k Starpoints > $200 statement credit, so I’m glad you were able to get in on it!

When I was trying to get the 30K offer, I tried a couple links on DoC to expired increased offers. The instructions were to click the link, then click on “all cards” and it should show you all the increased offers available. I had increased offers in front of me for almost every AMEX card there is, except the one I wanted! (No 100K Plat offer though, I think it was giving me 75K for that one.) So frustrating. At least this process has taught me two things:
1. Do not look at AMEX cards until I’m actually in the market to apply for one.
2. If I am in the market for an AMEX card and pull up an increased offer, do not hesitate!

 

[speedyfishy]

Chase Ultimate Rewards Questions:

When booking a hotel with points through the Chase portal, the number of points increased after I clicked "Book".
Does that mean the tax and resort fee are covered by points?
Will I have any extra charges when I check into the hotel?
I assume the hotel will still want me to leave a credit card on file when I check in?

Also, for a Marriott property, points were showing about 18,000 more points when I looked directly on the Marriott site than on Chase Ultimate Rewards. Is this typical? Almost seems too good to be true. Worried I will show up a the hotel and they will say, "Just Kidding! You don't really have a room!".

Thanks for the help!

The points increase when you click book because it does include taxes and fees. You shouldn’t have any additional charges. Maybe if it’s resort and there is a resort fee? But that should be included when you book too. Parking fees typically aren’t included but not all hotels have a parking fee.

It’s not too good to be true. Marriott points are worth less than Chase UR points that’s why it never really makes sense to transfer Chase UR to Marriott but it’s good you checked to confirm.

If you are worried about not having a room just save your confirmation number.

 

[Ava]

Chase Ultimate Rewards Questions:

When booking a hotel with points through the Chase portal, the number of points increased after I clicked "Book".
Does that mean the tax and resort fee are covered by points?
Will I have any extra charges when I check into the hotel?
I assume the hotel will still want me to leave a credit card on file when I check in?

Also, for a Marriott property, points were showing about 18,000 more points when I looked directly on the Marriott site than on Chase Ultimate Rewards. Is this typical? Almost seems too good to be true. Worried I will show up a the hotel and they will say, "Just Kidding! You don't really have a room!".

Thanks for the help!

Taxes should be covered by the UR points. Resort fees can vary by hotel. If you pay the fee up front at time of booking, it should be covered by the UR. I would call the hotel and ask if all the fees have been prepaid to be sure. They will still want you to put a card on file when you check in.

In the case of the Marriott being less points with UR than it is on Marriott’s site, that’s because Marriott charges a flat number of points based on the category the hotel is in; it’s not based on the cash price of the room. When you pay with UR points, you are essentially paying the cash price. Especially if you are using CSP or CSR to get 1.25-1.5 cents per point value from your UR points, it’s very possible that the UR (i.e. cash) price would be less than the number of Marriott points required for that hotel.

 

[ctinct]

This made me laugh. Thats how I felt at the Dollar Tree today when I put a whopping $4 on my new IHG card.

Moab is on my list. I was thinking it might be a good place to use a Marriott package. Is a week too long there I wonder? We like to travel around and rarely spend that long in one place.

I can top that. $1.39 on my IHG. Felt a little silly, but whatever.

Also, we went to Moab last year to see Arches. I’m not sure we would have wanted to spend a week there, but I’m not sure how far away the other park a previous poster mentioned (canyonlands?) is from Moab. We drove from Salt Lake because my daughter wanted to see Arches; the bulk of our trip was at Yellowstone.

 

[miztressuz]

Just piling on to the group that is of the mind-set that no purchase amount is too small to charge to a cc. I charge a $0.50 oatmeal in my work cafeteria. Points are points. I detest using cash for anything and often have none on me anyway, lol. I will also admit to being dumbfounded when I see anyone use cash to pay for anything, and also annoyed with those ahead of me in line at the work cafe who pay in cash because it slows everything down. All that being said, I do understand that some people don’t trust themselves with credit cards, etc. But for anyone who can use ccs responsibly, I really don’t understand what reason there can be for using cash for any transaction that could be put on a cc.

So I'm not sure that I've spent less than $1 on a CC, but it's only certain merchants that I have hold ups on. Like the dollar store, I'm already getting something for so cheap seems rude to tack on fees for a couple dollar purchase. But otherwise it just small businesses/independent shops. McDonald's for a dollar, yep! Mom and pop shops or places with slim margins, eh maybe maybe not. Like yesterday, even though the local shop had the AmEx Shop Small window stickers, at the last minute I pulled out my Discover instead of the Amex as knowing the fees I just couldn't do it to them. The amount wouldn't make or break the MSR anyway. Although with the Amex announcement of them lowering the fees, that makes them more competitive now I guess so I should probably get over it.

Just wait until you start using it. People still give me weird looks when I hand it over.

"Wow, this is a heavy card"

"Where are the numbers?"

Yes! I'm getting used to it with the Discover card, at least the CSR has your name on the front and back. That perplexes them with the Discover even though it's been years since they started doing that. I bought VGC's at Acme earlier this week because I had a coupon and the cashier said he needed to check ID matched the CC to prevent fraud. Ok fine, I pull my ID, have them both in my hand. He called over the supervisor to double check. She asked if I had ID, I showed her my ID and the back of the card still in hand while he was ringing up the cards, she said OK and left, he tells me my total, I put the chip in to try to pay and THEN he asks for my ID ?? That he's seen already and the supervisor saw already. Then he looks at the card... and then stares for a couple seconds(although I'm not sure what he expected to see with it still in the reader, that usually covers the name anyway)... and then pulls it out to look at it, and is now perplexed for a couple more seconds before I swear I saw an actual light bulb go off over his head and he flips it to the back. And now he has to reset the transaction because he pulled the card out I totally felt sorry for hitting the express lane that day, starting with the guy in front of me it was very not express for any of us in line. ​

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

I sock-drawered DH's CSP card and replaced it with the CIC in his wallet, since he mostly uses it for the rare instance when he eats out without me. Same earnings, so does't make sense to have him keep the CSP in his wallet. He did like that the CIC gives bonus points on gas. But when he went to get gas yesterday, I notice that it posted on the CFU instead of the CIC. I think I will need to get him to label his cards again. He just can't seem to remember which ones to use where. And I told him that we would be downgrading his CSP once the annual fee hits in September. He got really sad because he likes the fancy metal feel to the card. I feel kind of bad because it is maybe the one thing that excited him about this CC game. But another CF will be nice when good categories hit.

 

[WVMomof3]

@pillow We're spending 5 days in Moab and that was cut down from an original 6 days. Here is what we are doing in Moab - 2 days in Arches for hiking; 1 day in Canyonlands and dead horse point state park; 1 day for ATV Tour; 1 day trip to a slot canyon and goblin state park (about an hour or so away). We are skipping white water rafting and biking and some scenic drives (looking for Dino sites). Definately think there is enough to do for 7 days.

We usually move around as well so this will be different for us too.

We only got to spend 2 nights in Moab on our 2 week Grand Circle trip, which wasn't nearly enough time. I think you could easily find something to do for a week, but that just seems too long knowing what else there is to see in Utah. I actually liked Canyonlands and Dead horse point more than Arches. Maybe it was because Arches was sooooooo crowded with people. We went on a hike in Canyonlands and never saw another person. I am not sure if the construction is done in Arches, but there was a lot closed there when we went, so maybe that is why the parts we saw were so crowded. Dead Horse point is so beautiful, make sure you go to the actual point, we stopped at the visitor center and thought we were at the "point" but luckily discovered it was a short drive away. I wish I knew how to add photos, I think some of the Dead horse point ones are my favorites from our whole trip.

 

[Alexle2007]

I did online chat and the guy said to request a CLI on the website. I said they aren’t going to pay attn to that on a brand new account. Google showed me they will increase limits fairly quickly so I am going to see what happens after the first statement and maybe request at that time. So frustrating. I’m literally going to have to pay it twice a week.

DH has only had his SPG Biz card for a month and did the online request to increase his limit and within seconds his limit was approved for the increase. With 7k to spend, I wanted enough room in the limit to meet the spend without having to make multiple payments.