I love credit cards so much!

[jhoannam]

DH just got an email for Amex gold biz card...75k MRs for $5k spend. Is that good?

Wait it is 50k/$5k then 25k/$5k (same time frame). So 75k/$10k.
That’s a lot of Amex spending.

A few of us have gotten the 75k/$5k mail offer. I would hold off.

 

[Judique]

Depending on the age of the accounts I’d keep the Disney open but just alter it to a $500 or $1,000 credit limit. With no annual fee and the possibility of a referral from a friend (the Disney card seems to be the easiest one to find somebody I know to recommend, lol).

Don’t make a decision to keep or cancel based on limit. With a call you can move all of those limits around

But not to a business account, right? I agree - the Disney card is the easiest to get a referral out of!

 

[jhoannam]

I would love to combine my URs from my CF (used to be CSR) and my CIP to my DHs CSR, but I keep getting an error. I definitely had my CIP connected to my CSR, but I have disconnected that and I still can't transfer. Any suggestions? The Chase rep I talked to said I should add myself as an employee on DHs CIP and then I should be able to transfer the points. Should I try and call back in?

You need to create a chain:
CF —> Your CIP—> your CSR—>DH CIP —>DH’s CSR. And you always have to follow that chair or whatever chain you have established.

 

[Judique]

Depending on the age of the accounts I’d keep the Disney open but just alter it to a $500 or $1,000 credit limit. With no annual fee and the possibility of a referral from a friend (the Disney card seems to be the easiest one to find somebody I know to recommend, lol).

Don’t make a decision to keep or cancel based on limit. With a call you can move all of those limits around

Age of accounts - I've got 5 cards that are 20 plus years old, and then I've got 5 cards (5/24) that are under two years old. The Southwest is from 2013 and the Disney is from 2015. 12 open cards.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

But not to a business account, right? I agree - the Disney card is the easiest to get a referral out of!

Age of accounts - I've got 5 cards that are 20 plus years old, and then I've got 5 cards (5/24) that are under two years old. The Southwest is from 2013 and the Disney is from 2015. 12 open cards.

12 open Chase cards? Or 12 total??

In either case I with 5 >20 years I probably wouldn’t be too worried about closing either or both of those 2 lol.

 

[calypso726]

Does Chase have a limit on the number of cards you can actually keep like Amex does? I probably should cancel a couple....

No hard and fast number. It's arbitrary. I've seen DPs of folks being told they have too many Chase cards to get a new one and they had 5 or 6. At the time I saw those DPs years ago, I had 7. I currently have 10.

Why did he say they did away with the 50% back on the Amex Biz Platinum? Living in a Delta hub, that option was fantastic!! Still use it at the 35%, but not as often. Got the Blue Business when it came out.

He said the perk was being abused, so I asked how so. He explained that people would book and cancel a flight in 24 hours which resulted in both a 50% points back and statement credit. They lost a couple of million on abuse. I still think there could have been a different solution. But that was also one of the reasons the 50% points reimbursement switched from posting in a day or two to being delayed by several weeks. Blue business is on my radar too.

 

[WardFam]

You need to create a chain:
CF —> Your CIP—> your CSR—>DH CIP —>DH’s CSR. And you always have to follow that chair or whatever chain you have established.

When I first got my cards I think I transferred between the CF and CIP back and forth (I no longer have the CSR). Does that mean I am now out of luck to transfer to DH?

 

[miztressuz]

OK, I did it! Thanks for the nudge. It is a very simple one, but maybe when I have more time I can figure out how to make it calculate the value of my point redemptions. I just really started this churning in January, so adding up my travel thus far was pretty easy.

We are at $3223 of free travel.
That includes our trip to Cali for spring break (2nights hotel, rental car, SW flights x5) as well as a soccer tournament in Memphis last weekend.
In full disclosure, I had hilton, hertz, and some URs before I got involved in the churning, so I'm not sure we can say it is really since January since I am sure some of the points for those trips were already in my accounts before I started churning.

Next, I'd like to figure out a way to make one of these spreadsheets add up my costs/savings towards my Alaska 2019 cruise. Right now I just have it tracking on a 'note' on my phone. For example, bought a $25 Disney gc with a $20 BB gift certificate, savings $20. I'm not hard core churning for that cruise, but would like to save some money off the sailing with discounted gift cards, and also flights and pre/post hotel and rental car on points.

If it would help, I put a template of my basic Gift Card Tracker out on Google Sheets to download, if it helps anyone get started. Just a couple simple formulas for discounts and GC use you can copy or re-purpose. If you want to use the Used For totals, just change the text in the formula within the quotes to match the label you used in the column. Link: Gift Card Tracker

 

[3 DD love princesses]

So I cancelled my SW card today and that brought my CL on Chase down to about 35%. You recommend waiting a few weeks to try for the CIP? I think I may be screwed. With 2 in college this fall and new roof and a few other things my DH wants to apply for a HELOC just in case we need it. From reading, I believe that counts as a Credit on my report so as soon as that goes through I will be back up to 5 until next January. I was thinking of trying to squeeze the CIP in there, but I don't want to mess up the HELOC either.

Loans haven’t hurt us in applying for cards.

The reply didn't seem to work ... "When I called to book the Disneyland hotel the rep said I could add tickets and pay cash since I didn’t have enough points. She also said I could even use only some of my points and pay the rest cash. I didn’t take advantage though."
"Yeah, my understanding was that you could use as many/few URs as you want at the time of booking, but that if you called back to add tickets later when you had more points to your package that you couldn't use URs again on the same package. I wonder if a viable work around could be buying tickets separately through Cruise and Tour? Of course, that wouldn't work for the OP's plan to purchase a dining plan."


Thanks for all the info. Since the room is still available, I guess that I can cancel and rebook over the phone. Still debating whether it is worth the money for the dining plan. Years ago it made sense, but now it seems like you basically break even and have to eat too much food! Thanks!

Check the prices of the items you would probably order and see if it would save you. We have always broken even or come ahead.

 

[Albort]

Im not sure who MSin in here... but Simons mall is having fee free vgc. u just pay for shipping.

@speedyfishy

 

[Lain]

Im not sure who MSin in here... but Simons mall is having fee free vgc. u just pay for shipping.

@speedyfishy

Remember, Simon Mall doesn’t count for Amex MSR.

 

[Judique]

12 open Chase cards? Or 12 total??

In either case I with 5 >20 years I probably wouldn’t be too worried about closing either or both of those 2 lol.

12 total open cards, 5 of them are Chase.​

Ok - I'm not sure how to report my income on an application now that I am retired. How do you report available money from retirement savings accounts if you don't take disbursements yet?

No hard and fast number. It's arbitrary. I've seen DPs of folks being told they have too many Chase cards to get a new one and they had 5 or 6. At the time I saw those DPs years ago, I had 7. I currently have 10.

Good to know! Thanks for the reply.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Just did my CIP application using DH's referral link! 30 days, as usual for me. Time to start obsessively calling... hoping I'll have an answer by the end of this week.

 

[linzjane88]

That was my very favorite spreadsheet. I track all the GC numbers/pins and so I added a column for cost. It's so fun to put a "$0" in that column and watch the % off jump Since I pay no fees for my cashback cards I count all that money as free, so between that and rewards programs and free target GC's, it's amazing to watch the values all add up without increasing the cost
Since my next trip isn't Disney, I'm mostly tracking cash which isn't quite as fun for now. But I think I'll be amazed at the end though when I break it all down like @speedyfishy did.

Man, I had the most bomb diggity spreadsheet for tracking gift cards when the Ebay ->Target loophole was still open. Those were the days. Don't get me wrong, I do love me some churning. I just preferred the thrill of waiting for those ebay sales and then watching my gift card values grow and grow vs stressing about my MSRs.

I am now a SAHM, but prior to that, a nurse. So I have never really needed them. I think the last I used excel was in high school...and I am 37 now...so yeah, need a major refresher.

I was an office administrator before I became a nurse so I ended up becoming the go to in our department anytime my manager wants a spreadsheet .

 

[calypso726]

I know some of you picked up Hilton cards and some are planning for Hawaii. There is an Amex offer for Hilton in Hawaii that may also stack with the new Hilton Amex offer released today for 3,500 MR on $300 for US Hiltons. DH and I each had it on 2 cards.

 

[hsmamato2]

CSR is obviously Chase’s premium travel card. The comparables would be AMEX platinum, Citi Prestige, and US bank Altitude Reserve. All of these have a “super high” annual fee and come with similar premium benefits.

BofA’s highest end premium travel card is more a comparable towards CSP in my opinion so they aren’t in the conversation with CSR.

I'm look at that card currently- I bank at boA but my accts aren't gold level. what is a 20k points bonus valued at? or is it cash back?

 

[hsmamato2]

So it’s been about 13 months since SO and I have started this hobby we started with the Freedom Unlimited lol. I didn’t MS back then so I started will a small bonus.

Since then I have redeemed over $8,000 in travel plus I received $1,000 in bank bonuses.

I still have 137k SPG, 63k Delta, 12,000 URs and 8,000 Rapid Rewards. I have $400 in bank bonuses pending.


My breakdown is as follows:

Disney World-$600 Two flights to Orlando and three nights in a value.
Disneyland flights- $1500 (3 tickets from the east coast to LAX)
Flights to look at apartments for my move -$400 (3 tickets)
Disneyland flights-$800(2 tickets from east cost to LAX)
Disneyland hotel for six nights- $3000
Flights to Bahamas-$800 (2 tickets)
Royal Towers for five nights- $1,400

I love it!!! Every once in a while I total my numbers too..... if this 'game' stops right here and right now.....we still got AMAZING value from playing the past few years! on average we 'spend' points for travel that average 10-20k,and that's just the simple stuff (4 people) I can't even imagine what it would look like if we got 'fancy' like @calypso726 heck, just this past trip we 'spent' almost 9,000 on hotel and flights alone (would never have happened without the points!)

 

[jhoannam]

When I first got my cards I think I transferred between the CF and CIP back and forth (I no longer have the CSR). Does that mean I am now out of luck to transfer to DH?

No... I would disconnect all the cards, let it reset for 24 hours and the start a new connection. It's just easier for the system to transfer to once card. CF —> Your CIP—>DH CIP —>DH’s CSR

 

[DisneyMandC]

Just called Chase and got the "two week" status message for CIP!!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

12 total open cards, 5 of them are Chase.​

Ok - I'm not sure how to report my income on an application now that I am retired. How do you report available money from retirement savings accounts if you don't take disbursements yet?



Good to know! Thanks for the reply.

Oh cool. I thought for a moment you had 12 Chase hahaha.

On the income thing - I’d just report what you expect to take in distributions for the year. Or maybe gross it up a little higher lol - other than AMEX, nobody seems to ever verify income (and with Amex only during a financial review).

I'm look at that card currently- I bank at boA but my accts aren't gold level. what is a 20k points bonus valued at? or is it cash back?

I’m not sure you’re looking at the card I was referencing. Look at the Bank of America Premium Rewards (which has a 50,000 point bonus).