I love credit cards so much!

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I suppose some vague desire for diversification. All my assets are in Ultimate Rewards.
I’m not saying it’s a bad plan :) but I’d look into how you plan to redeem them before acquiring them. Many of us find them to be difficult to understand and use. I personally think Ultimate Rewards beat the heck out of MRs lol.

My opinion would be that diversification isn’t really meaningful with the flexible point systems. For a slow churner, I’d recommend to max out all UR earning opportunities before I’d look to MRs.
 
7-10 day message for DH..darn. Oh well. I’ll have to put our AP purchases on the Freedom Unlimited. Wish tickets purchased directly from Disney coded as travel on the CSR.

I will note that Undercover Tourist codes as travel for CSR. Getting a 7-day ticket and bridging to an AP can maximize your points and save you money.

This is what we have done twice now (whatever ticket was the best price through a reputable reseller). And then we use gift cards purchased at a discount to cover the difference.
 
I suppose some vague desire for diversification. All my assets are in Ultimate Rewards.

I get that. A lot of my rewards points are in the UR universe too, and using them is very straightforward and I love that but I like diversification too. @SouthFayetteFan has a great write-up about AMEX MRs in our Dischurners reddit group (you can PM him or @Albort to join), and based on what I saw there, I did sign up DH for AMEX cards when he would get really high targeted offers for opening those cards. So that's something to be aware of - you can only receive a sign-up bonus offer on a specific AMEX card once in your lifetime so if you decide to open up AMEX cards you want to try to apply through a high offer and not an average/standard offer if you can (Google historical offers on the AMEX card you're looking at - the highest offers sometimes come back randomly or via incognito browsing). It sounds like you're not really in a rush, so maybe keep an eye on things and jump in when you see something good.

The CIP's main advantage over the other UR cards you have is that it is currently earning 3x for bills paid via Plastiq (and the 80K signup bonus of course!) for payees that normally don't take credit card payments.

$100 paid on CIP thru Plastiq gets 300 UR points. That's $3 cash or $4.50 when you redeem thru your CSR UR portal due to the 1.5 CSR multiplier. Even after subtracting out the 2.5% Plastiq fee ($2.50) you've gained $.50 cash or $2.00 toward a CSR portal travel expense.

Since you're under 5/24 I would definitely go for the CIP (I plan to when I fall under 5/24) and just keep an eye out for the higher sign-up bonuses for AMEX. There's folks over on the Dischurners reddit group who have "support links" if you're so inclined to help out another DISer.
 

Hi all!

I’ve been in the MS/churn game for about 5-6 years now. Hit things pretty heavy the first two years but then life gets in the way and I’ve been pretty quiet the last 2 years (which is good when it comes to 5/24!).

The itch to get back into the game has started back up and 100+ pages on this thread doesn’t hurt either!

I applied for CIP last month and have about $600 left to meet MSR. Looking for where I should set my sights next.

I have the following:
Chase
Chase Ink Plus with business #1.
New CIP with business #2.
IHG, Hyatt and Chase Freedom.
At about 30% of income with chase credit limits

AMEX
Blue (from 1999, earns membership rewards, no fee, my oldest card)
Blue Cash Preferred
Blue Cash

Barclay Priceline

USB Flex Perks
USB REI

And a few other randoms I don’t really use.

We have a pretty hefty stash of URs (200k plus the 85k to come from the new CIP). I’m out of membership rewards points. Delta is our primary air carrier from Detroit as we prefer non stop flights. Spirit works for us as well. Not opposed to Southwest but its not as convenient for us so that’s kept me away from the SW deals so far.

Future trips could involve Aulani (we’re DVC members), Spain, DCL (or another cruise line), would love to do an Adventures by Disney trip but $$$!
 
I mean, it's not ideal, but it is "only" a $54 fee on the deposit, and does knock out 37% of your CIP's MSR. When you pay the balance of $1,800 (?) with Plastiq, you'll pay another $45 fee, but earn $55.35 in cash (worth between $69.18-$83.02 in travel redemption), and you'll be about 74% of the way through your MSR. Don't forget you're working towards 80,000 UR!

Is your contractor willing to accept Venmo?
No Venmo. I’m not sure he know what it is, but said he prefers cash. Ack.
 
Anyone have experience paying a PLUS (parent) loan with Plastiq? DS doesn't start college until fall so I don't know exactly who the loan will be from. Just trying to plan ahead!
 
Anyone have experience paying a PLUS (parent) loan with Plastiq? DS doesn't start college until fall so I don't know exactly who the loan will be from. Just trying to plan ahead!

Amex doesn’t allow loan repayments (e.g., mortgages, car loans, student loans). You should be fine paying an education loan with Visa. Hopefully, Plastiq keeps earning 3x on CIP.
 
Wait, the CIC has a 0% APR for the first 12 months. I have the money to pay the card off, but should I take advantage of the 0% and keep the money in my discover account earning 1.5% interest? This wouldn’t effect utilization because it’s a business card right? Having a balance does stress me out, but I’m not seeing another downside.
 
OK that sounds promising. To be certain though, I"d suggest checking your FICO or FAKO (Credit Karma) to see if you are at 1/24 or 3/24. Chase has what is known as a 5/24 rule. The will auto deny anyone who has opened 5 or more cards of any type over the previous 24 months. Since UR points are the most valuable this should be your launching point. I would suggest getting a CIP (Chase Ink Preferred) . This is a business card. I am not sure if you have a business, but I am certain that like most of us on this thread (myself included) you have a "business" :rolleyes1 You do not need an EIN to open a business card if you are the sole proprietor. You use your social security number and your business name is your own legal name that is on any other credit card, like your CSR card.

Some of the "businesses" people have on this thread include, consultant, bake cookies for resale, Ebay seller, Etsy seller, blogger, dog groomer, rental property, travel agent, essential oils distributor, child care etc. For revenue, I usually enter $1,000 or so since that is what I was pulling in when I was grooming show dogs as a side hustle. We have a lot of amazing people on this thread that tirelessly and joyfully help out everyone. I think this thread is probably the friendliest, positive vibe and most non judgmental thread on the entire DISboards! Everyone has their own area of expertise on travel hacking and we all (including the newbies) share what we've done and how it worked for us. Therefore, we also support each other by using the support links that are kept on https://www.reddit.com/r/DISchurners whenever one of us applies for a new credit card as a way of giving back. That group is private and open to Disboard members. All you need to do is create a reddit name if you don't already have one and PM @SouthFayetteFan or @Albort to add you to the group. Then, you can also add your support link for your CSR which someone might use and you will get extra ultimate reward points from chase when that person uses your link to get a new card. All the discussions on travel hacking take place here so you don't need to follow 2 threads. However, there is a lot of great info that is stored there as a quick way to find reference info on a given topic. Much easier than finding one post in over 1,000 pages here.

Next, you will need to find out which airline is your best bet to get to KIX or ITM from your airport. This will give you a general idea of what airline miles you need. Is ORD your airport? I think I recall reading that on the ABD threads. Getting premium award space will be tough but getting the flight paid for with UR points will be do-able. I saw flights near your dates for $1500 RT and under. That would mean you need 100,000 UR points out of your CSR card. So, you apply for the CIP business card, make the $5,000 spend in 3 months. The reddit group has explanations on how to do that by using Plastiq to pay mortgage and other various work around to meeting minimum spend requirements. That will get you 85,000 UR points after the spend in your CIP account which you can transfer to your CSR account. Then you apply for the Chase Freedom card which is 15,000 UR points after spending $500. Transfer those to your CSR account and BOOM, flight paid for!

@sayhello - I am quoting myself and tagging you since I am not sure if you saw my reply.

Is there ever a reason not to use a flight/nights package when redeeming Marriott points? I may want to book a cat 8 and can always use a topper offer to my SW account. It seems these packages are very popular, so wondering if any reason not to book that way.

Looks like cat 8 with SW is 290k/310k/340k/360k.
Gives me the cert for hotel and 50k/70k/100k/120k SW RR points.

Looks like the hotel would normally by 240k points for 7 nights. Or if did the Sheraton or Westin (this would be after the merger) I am not sure what cat, but I'd guess the same. These are all for 2019 maui.

So I don't really get the math on these, but it seems like I am basically spending 120k extra marriott points to get 120k sw rr points. Well in my case, I have spg points, so 40k spg for 120k swrr.

I don’t see any reason why not to and am currently trying to get my way to a few more night/flight packages before August.

What does everyone think of the Amex Everyday Preferred? I currently have the Blue Cash Preferred and am considering diversifying into Membership Rewards Points in addition to UR. I currently have CSR, CFU, and CF as well.

I have the Everyday no fee and DH has the Everyday Preferred. If you aren’t over 5/24, I’d suggest the CIP next. Always get your Chase cards out of the way first.

Awesome! Thanks for the link to the card combiner. That will definitely help, although it will still be a lot of cards to manage. I'll have to read the Dreams policies to see how they handle gift cards for payment (i.e. max allowed).

I looked at UA, too, and the standard Business rates are ridiculous. I love that they partner with ANA though. My strategy with four is to break up the reservation, buy saver coach and keep an eye out on openings for business going person by person. I also spend a lot of time watching for patterns to see what programs are most likely to open business awards on good flights. With the amount of time I spend on trying to find premium awards for cheap, I probably would be better off buying the tickets! (But that wouldn't be nearly as much fun). The thing with this "sport" is that it totally hits my couponing gene :) I love "saving" and getting stuff for "free." :)

I wanted to do all non-category spend for the SPG (i hate giving up 3x URs for any travel spend) BUT I wanted to get his bonus miles ASAP to give time to transfer to partners to be in place when seats are released. I'm planning to combine our Starpoints into my account and then transfer in increments of 20,000 to Alaska. They partner with JAL (among others), but they are also great for Hawaii if I end up finding award space in another program. Are most of you guys proactively transferring your Starpoints over before the merger?

So jealous of your Tokyo Sea trip. I can't wait to read all about it!

I am actually securing night and flight packages pre merger. You should too if you have enough SPG points since the best deal is UA points. 90k SPG points will get you 132k UA miles plus a 7 night cert at a cat 1-5 which you can always extend or upgrade or get some of the points put back into your account. DH and I each got one recently and used Alaska as the miles. We each just purchased 30k SPG points with the 35% bonus. Then we each invited a few family members who are now living with us (in the “business” sense) open up SPG accounts. They will be purchasing SPG points too. I’m thinking about her nights/flights package or 2 and enough to upgrade to a higher category.
 
I've come to a couple of realizations in the short time I've been following this thread. First and foremost, I need to open a few more cards for my husband LOL. His credit score dropped from excellent to good because he's at 30% utilization. Sadly for him, the majority of that 30% is stuff I've charged for work on the credit card I have with him as an authorized user. I know the thought would be to take him off of that card, but it's the only one we share so I hate to do that. DH is at 3/24 so I think I'm going to hold off on applying for anything right now as I'm thinking about double dipping the SW card when the rumored new card is released.

My credit score is excellent, but I think I should lower the limits on some of my cards. I have three Chase cards and the limit between those three has me at almost 50% of credit compared to income (mine and DH's combined). What are your thoughts on lowering those limits? Do I raise any red flags by lowering 2 of the 3 at the same time? My current credit card usage is at 22%; won't that number increase if I drop my available credit available?

Regarding the SWA companion pass, do I have to have 100,000 points in my account unused? Or just have earned 100,000, but have used some of them? I opened the premier card in March and will have met my MS when the next statement closes. I'm at 4/24 and thinking about opening the SW Business card. Does that make sense? I'll get the bonus with that correct as I now I understand I wouldn't with the plus card.

Tried to divide this into three separate thoughts so it's easier for folks to answer :-).
 
I've come to a couple of realizations in the short time I've been following this thread. First and foremost, I need to open a few more cards for my husband LOL. His credit score dropped from excellent to good because he's at 30% utilization. Sadly for him, the majority of that 30% is stuff I've charged for work on the credit card I have with him as an authorized user. I know the thought would be to take him off of that card, but it's the only one we share so I hate to do that. DH is at 3/24 so I think I'm going to hold off on applying for anything right now as I'm thinking about double dipping the SW card when the rumored new card is released.

My credit score is excellent, but I think I should lower the limits on some of my cards. I have three Chase cards and the limit between those three has me at almost 50% of credit compared to income (mine and DH's combined). What are your thoughts on lowering those limits? Do I raise any red flags by lowering 2 of the 3 at the same time? My current credit card usage is at 22%; won't that number increase if I drop my available credit available?

Regarding the SWA companion pass, do I have to have 100,000 points in my account unused? Or just have earned 100,000, but have used some of them? I opened the premier card in March and will have met my MS when the next statement closes. I'm at 4/24 and thinking about opening the SW Business card. Does that make sense? I'll get the bonus with that correct as I now I understand I wouldn't with the plus card.

Tried to divide this into three separate thoughts so it's easier for folks to answer :-).
It depends on when you earned the SW points. You need to earn 110k in a single calendar year (Jan-Dec) for the CP. If you log into your SW RR account, you’ll see a circle tracker of the amount of points that have counted towards CP since Jan 1 when the clock reset. You don’t need to have the actual points available to get CP. You could spend all 110k and earn CP. Between the personal bonus (guessing it is 40k), the biz bonus (60k) + the spend points you will be close and just potentially need a few more points this calendar to bring you to 110k.
 
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No sorry, you would need the 270k points (or whatever pts required for that level). The 120k math I was referencing was only on the “incremental” points required to take a “hotel only” booking and move to a nights and flights. If you have a specific Category in mind I’ll walk thru the math again.

I'm also considering this and having problems with the math as well. I was just going to do a straight transfer of Star Points to Alaska but I think it may make more sense for me to do the Marriott Air/Certificate route, especially as I realized I could use the hotel when I take my daughter back to University next year in September. The Marriott by her University in England is currently a Category 6.

My first issue I guess is either since the stay is in September, what happens if they recategorize? Also, can I book before I actually have a certificate with 0 points currently in my Marriott account? That would help with the recategorization issue.

Here are my examples, and I think I must be doing something wrong!

1. Straight transfer: to get 120,000 Alaska miles (the amount of the hotel package for comparison sake) I need 100,000 starpoints (which I will have as soon as DH's bonus posts). This will actually get me 125,000 Alaska miles so 5,000 more than the comparison below.

2. Hotel and Air package 1 for Category 6 with Alaska requires 300,000 Marriott points (or 100,000 starpoints). So in this scenario, I end up with 5,000 less Alaska miles than a direct transfer above, but I get the 7-night certificate for a Category 6? Can it really be that good? I feel as if I'm doing something wrong. Can I really be staying for a week for 5,000 less Alaska miles?

3. Hotel and Air Package Rewards Plus for Category 6 with United also requires 300,000 Marriott points (or 100,000 starpoints). In this scenario I'd actually end up with 132,000 United miles and the 7-night certificate? Again this feels like too good of a deal.

What am I doing wrong?
 
It depends on when you earned the SW points. You need to earn 110k in a single calendar year (Jan-Dec) for the CP. If you log into your SW RR account, you’ll see a circle tracker of the amount of points that have counted towards CP since Jan 1 when the clock reset. You don’t need to have the actual points available to get CP. You could spend all 110k and earn CP. Between the personal bonus (guessing it is 40k), the biz bonus (60k) + the spend points you will be close and just potentially need a few more points this calendar to bring you to 110k.

Thank you. I did error when I said 100,000. Mainly needed to know if I had to have them in my account and just have earned them. Thanks again.
 
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