I love credit cards so much!

[SouthFayetteFan]

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 .

Are you paying your cards off each month? If you are, your utilization is just a simple point in time. If they are Chase cards then pay them off a little early before you apply and your utilization will be at 0.

No red flags lowering credit limits. I am advocate for proactively reducing limits to encourage auto-approval on new cards.

How many points you have in your Southwest acct has no bearing on earning CP. To earn CP you have to earn 110,000 SW RR points in one calendar year (Jan1-Dec31). How many points are you earning from your Premier offer? Signing up for the Biz card might get you there.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

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 $$$!

Hey there! Have you gotten ANY personal cards in the past 24 months?

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

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 just posted a long question about this before I saw your post. too funny. What an amazing deal, especially since I have a Marriott that I regularly pay for anyway. I'm thinking I must be doing something wrong. If I'm not, I may be joining you with buying Starpoints!

 

[bernina]

Hey there! Have you gotten ANY personal cards in the past 24 months?

Nope! It’s been a slow couple of years for me. I did a few bank bonuses and some ms on existing cards with visa gc -> money order but that’s about it. Just verified and I have 1 hard inquiry on TU for the CIP. That’s it. DH is in the same boat.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

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?

Your math on the SPG transfer is spot on. 20k=25k so 100k=125k (obviously pretty simply) It's basically a 1:1.25 ratio (or a 2.4:1 ratio expressed in Marriott terms)

So there's 2 schools of thought on Marriott Nights & Flights in my opinion. (1) People who have a 7 night hotel stay in mind and are getting the airline points as a bonus AND (2) People who are doing it purely for the miles (and the nights are a throw-in bonus of sorts). The People in #1 or doing it as Marriott intended. Let me analyze both here (for option 1 we'll use your cat 6 as our example):

(1) People with a 7 night hotel stay in mind

• I am planning a 7 night stay at a category 6 property. Without Nights & Flights this would cost me 30k points per night.
• Since I get the 5th night free, 7 nights costs 180,000 Marriott points (30kx6 + 1 free)
• Now I can also look at a Nights & Flights...and I can transfer 50k, 70k, 100k or 120k add'l Marriott points at a 1:1 ratio to most of my favorite airlines
• So 180k (for nights) + 120k (for flights) gets me 7 nights at a hotel AND 120k air miles/points

(2) People with no stay in mind

• I just want the best redemption rate possible - who cares if I ever even use the nights (hopefully I do)
• I can transfer 270k Marriott points and get 120k airline miles/points at 2.25:1 (compare that the earlier 2.4:1 and it even beats that)
• Oh yay, I also get 7 nights at a Cat1-5 property. If I only use 4 of those nights, who cares...I did it solely for the miles.

Option 2 isn't bad and as you can see at the right level even beats the SPG transfers. HOWEVER if you're an option 1 person you are using this program as intended and you have won the day my friend!! If somebody is an option 1 person, the more efficiently they use the free nights will increase their actual savings/return.

Obviously the United deal is even better since Marriott has that special deal with them that gives you a 10% bump on miles when you use these transfer programs.

I do not know the answer on booking ahead of time but my guess is YES you could do it. I would book it now so it's locked in and then see what happens from there Let me know if you have any other questions.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Nope! It’s been a slow couple of years for me. I did a few bank bonuses and some ms on existing cards with visa gc -> money order but that’s about it. Just verified and I have 1 hard inquiry on TU for the CIP. That’s it. DH is in the same boat.

You are the envy of all...a knowledgeable churner at 0/24. My wife will be there in June (after a long period of celibacy, LOL). If you got a CIP...the next step would be to look into that CSP/CSR double dip (getting both of these cards on the same day). That's $8,000 in min spend but would earn a min. of 108,000 URs!!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

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.

I don't see a downside on it...yet for some reason I never do anything like that LOL. I just like having it all paid off, haha - on a biz card at 0% it doesn't make financial sense and yet it's one area where the numbers don't convince me psychologically.

 

[platamama]

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?

You're not doing anything wrong! It really is that good of a deal! And it's why I've bought Starpoints when they go on sale.

I assume you can have 0 Marriott points to book a reward - I currently have 2112 points and have booked (6) Cat 8 weeks (because I'm not sure if I'm going to Costa Rica or Hawaii for Thanksgiving and spring break next year plus a couple other trips). That's 1,440,000 worth of Marriott points I have currently booked but I only have 2112. Try it and see if it will let you. Or transfer over 1000 Starpoints (1000 is the min., the transfer is instant) and try it. All the Starpoints are going to be converted to Marriott points on 8/1 anyway...

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

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.

Yes. 0% for 12 months. We are using these cards for gift cards to Lowes/Home Depot for our basement finish project. We got a Chase HELOC, but plan to put as much as possible on DH’s CIC and mine (if approved), so that we end up paying less interest and don’t have to draw as much from the HELOC right away. It is awesome.

 

[SBWB48]

Is it crazy if I buy some cheap phones to have more Venmo accounts lol?

That is a lot of cards to max. I don’t have any Freedoms yet. MSing is a lot of work, but it is so fun when it works and then you get to enjoy amazing vacations for practically free.

MS really does make you think creatively, doesn’t it?

In theory, I guess all you need is a phone that can text LOL.

MS has definitely turned into an adrenaline rush, especially whenever it works so flawlessly. I’m basically close to being done with the Spark Biz 10k MSR, though I did have medical bills for my parents I threw in. Close to finished on SPG Biz as well and ready for CICs!

 

[bernina]

You are the envy of all...a knowledgeable churner at 0/24. My wife will be there in June (after a long period of celibacy, LOL). If you got a CIP...the next step would be to look into that CSP/CSR double dip (getting both of these cards on the same day). That's $8,000 in min spend but would earn a min. of 108,000 URs!!

If I were to do the CSP/CSR should I proactively lower my limits with chase? Another card or two would definitely put me with greater than 30% compared to income (me + DH).

 

[Ngwira]

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.

Great idea. Looks like I will max out my discover it with Disney gift card purchases at the supermarket and apply those to my AP upgrade.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Your math on the SPG transfer is spot on. 20k=25k so 100k=125k (obviously pretty simply) It's basically a 1:1.25 ratio (or a 2.4:1 ratio expressed in Marriott terms)

So there's 2 schools of thought on Marriott Nights & Flights in my opinion. (1) People who have a 7 night hotel stay in mind and are getting the airline points as a bonus AND (2) People who are doing it purely for the miles (and the nights are a throw-in bonus of sorts). The People in #1 or doing it as Marriott intended. Let me analyze both here (for option 1 we'll use your cat 6 as our example):

(1) People with a 7 night hotel stay in mind

• I am planning a 7 night stay at a category 6 property. Without Nights & Flights this would cost me 30k points per night.
• Since I get the 5th night free, 7 nights costs 180,000 Marriott points (30kx6 + 1 free)
• Now I can also look at a Nights & Flights...and I can transfer 50k, 70k, 100k or 120k add'l Marriott points at a 1:1 ratio to most of my favorite airlines
• So 180k (for nights) + 120k (for flights) gets me 7 nights at a hotel AND 120k air miles/points

(2) People with no stay in mind

• I just want the best redemption rate possible - who cares if I ever even use the nights (hopefully I do)
• I can transfer 270k Marriott points and get 120k airline miles/points at 2.25:1 (compare that the earlier 2.4:1 and it even beats that)
• Oh yay, I also get 7 nights at a Cat1-5 property. If I only use 4 of those nights, who cares...I did it solely for the miles.

Option 2 isn't bad and as you can see at the right level even beats the SPG transfers. HOWEVER if you're an option 1 person you are using this program as intended and you have won the day my friend!! If somebody is an option 1 person, the more efficiently they use the free nights will increase their actual savings/return.

Obviously the United deal is even better since Marriott has that special deal with them that gives you a 10% bump on miles when you use these transfer programs.

I do not know the answer on booking ahead of time but my guess is YES you could do it. I would book it now so it's locked in and then see what happens from there Let me know if you have any other questions.

You're not doing anything wrong! It really is that good of a deal! And it's why I've bought Starpoints when they go on sale.

I assume you can have 0 Marriott points to book a reward - I currently have 2112 points and have booked (6) Cat 8 weeks (because I'm not sure if I'm going to Costa Rica or Hawaii for Thanksgiving and spring break next year plus a couple other trips). That's 1,440,000 worth of Marriott points I have currently booked but I only have 2112. Try it and see if it will let you. Or transfer over 1000 Starpoints (1000 is the min., the transfer is instant) and try it. All the Starpoints are going to be converted to Marriott points on 8/1 anyway...

Wow. Double wow. I'm on my phone right now, but when I get home I will see how much that Category 6 stay (that I was going to do anyway) would cost me and add that into the mix. I think I'm going to have to buy the household starpoints, too! Is there any prohibition about transferring purchased starpoints into an account that has already purchased starpoints? In other words if I have DH buy starpoints and maybe my 18 year old daughter buy starpoints, can I transfer them all into my Starwood account if I've also purchased some?

The hotel and flight package has been hard for me to get my head around, but I feel as if I've just had some kind of revelation. Thank you guys for all the help!!!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

If I were to do the CSP/CSR should I proactively lower my limits with chase? Another card or two would definitely put me with greater than 30% compared to income (me + DH).

If you’re already under 30% now you’re safe. When I approached 50% I reduced back down to 30%.

 

[speedyfishy]

Yes. 0% for 12 months. We are using these cards for gift cards to Lowes/Home Depot for our basement finish project. We got a Chase HELOC, but plan to put as much as possible on DH’s CIC and mine (if approved), so that we end up paying less interest and don’t have to draw as much from the HELOC right away. It is awesome.

Yeah, it makes sense with the 0% and it not showing on the credit report. I’m going to see if Discover will give me another savings account so I can keep the card funds in a separate account. That may keep me from forgetting about it over the year and spending that money.

 

[Psychodisney]

Just saw an interesting offer on DOC regarding a Visa gift card promotion at Office Max/Depot. "Buy $300 in select Visa gift cards and get $15 off." Says Metabank . I generally don't do MS(because I spend too much organically! lol) but this might be interesting to a lot of people.

 

[speedyfishy]

MS really does make you think creatively, doesn’t it?

In theory, I guess all you need is a phone that can text LOL.

MS has definitely turned into an adrenaline rush, especially whenever it works so flawlessly. I’m basically close to being done with the Spark Biz 10k MSR, though I did have medical bills for my parents I threw in. Close to finished on SPG Biz as well and ready for CICs!

I think I’ll start with recruiting my siblings to get Venmo and add cards for me lol.

You had a lot of MS like me these past few months. I’m $1,500 away from spending 25k since the end of February.

I had the Delta Biz (3k)
Two SPG Biz (14k)
CIP(5k)
CIC(3)

I have to start outlining my next plan...

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Of course he does.

Everyone I know “prefers” cash does it for tax reasons but I don’t need to support that plus it offers me no protection if something goes wrong. At least cc I can protest and check I can stop payment. I think I’m going to call him as soon as the CIP arrives and charge half, then Plastiq the remainder.

 

[SBWB48]

I think I’ll start with recruiting my siblings to get Venmo and add cards for me lol.

You had a lot of MS like me these past few months. I’m $1,500 away from spending 25k since the end of February.

I had the Delta Biz (3k)
Two SPG Biz (14k)
CIP(5k)
CIC(3)

I have to start outlining my next plan...

It didn’t help that as I was planning to slow down (having prepaid a ton of stuff and amassing gift cards), the offers I wanted kept trickling in lol. Got targeted for the Spark Biz, then the rumors of the SPG Biz, the no fee Marriott Biz, and now the CIC. Only one I missed was the MB Plat since I needed to preserve my 5/24 status for SW CP possibly later this year. Then when I did my first MS, and found the tricks with Venmo, I knew it COULD be done while still maxing out the quarterly categories. My dad’s medical bills are helpful too since they don’t like dealing with bills and cancer is stressful enough as is while I can use some of the cashback from my Spark to help out without them knowing they wouldn’t allow me to help out with bills because they feel they are more than capable, so this way I can at least make it a “help me help you”.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

So I am now considering my options for DL in November.

The Four Points Sheraton is the same distance as the Sheraton Park Hotel, but it is 3k SPG cheaper per night. Also, I could consider booking a DL package, transferring to Chase and paying with URs. It doesn't seem that any offers are active for our dates in November. Any ideas when these usually launch?

Plan is to book one of the Sheraton hotels now, since I can easily cancel if we decide to go the package route. Also looking at IHG and Marriott hotels. Any thoughts on the ones close to DL?