I love credit cards so much!

[wendow]

How hard is it to get a biz Amex.

Very, very easy.

 

[Lain]

My cards that aren't sock-drawered are;

AmEx SPG Business
AmEx Gold Business
AmEx Blue Cash Preferred
Chase Ink Business Preferred
Chase Sapphire Preferred

And I love the idea of labelling the cards, or maybe just keeping a little cheat-sheet notecard in my wallet.

AmEx SPG Business - Solid non-bonus category "everywhere" card, earns 1 Starpoint/$1 = 3 Marriott points until 8/1/18, when this card becomes neutered down to 2 Marriott points/$1.
AmEx Gold Business - what's your 3x Membership Rewards category? 2x MR for the rest.
AmEx Blue Cash Preferred - 6% cash back at GROCERY STORES up to $6,000 in purchases; 3% cash back at GAS STATIONS.
Chase Ink Business Preferred - 3x Ultimate Rewards on PLASTIQ; 3x UR on GYFT and SWYCH e-gift card apps through PayPal checkout; 3x UR on CABLE, INTERNET, and CELL PHONE bills (plus phone insurance), NETFLIX, HULU, EBAY SELLER'S FEES; 3x UR on TRAVEL; 3x UR on SHIPPING (eBay Shipping, USPS, UPS, FedEx); 3x UR on VENMO.
Chase Sapphire Preferred - 2x UR on TRAVEL (so CIP is better) and DINING.

edited to add a few more things CIP is good for.

 

[mhartman09]

CIC status is now 7-10 days. Now to wait for the letter to find out why. This is for a legit biz so I may call recon depending on what the letter says.

 

[thevalley]

Does Amex give you your account immediately? Would they expedite the card?

 

[Lain]

Does Amex give you your account immediately? Would they expedite the card?

Amex rarely expedites cards. Hit or miss on whether Amex will give you a temporary card number immediately upon approval.

 

[wendow]

Does Amex give you your account immediately? Would they expedite the card?

Agree with @Lain. Rarely do you get an account number immediately. Only card this happened to me with was my spg personal. As far as the expediting, that is rare also. Even when you call and ask, and they say they will, they don't...You would need to plan on it taking a solid 5-7 business days to arrive (though mine have been more around the 5 biz days).

 

[thevalley]

Amex rarely expedites cards. Hit or miss on whether Amex will give you a temporary card number immediately upon approval.

Thanks. Looks like now we are planning a stay at the Hilton double tree next weekend.

 

[Lain]

Thanks. Looks like now we are planning a stay at the Hilton double tree next weekend.

Amex cards usually arrive in the mail in 7-10 days.

 

[wendow]

CIC status is now 7-10 days. Now to wait for the letter to find out why. This is for a legit biz so I may call recon depending on what the letter says.

Ugh sorry If you have a legit business, I would definitely recon depending on that letter. Maybe just CL needs to be moved around?

 

[amalone1013]

If your MIL offered you the same scenario you propose to offer her, would you do it?

I would. Obviously I wouldn't do something like this for everyone, but if MIL approached me asking to open a card so she could earn sign up points, I would. MIL has been trustworthy about credit/money things, and if the offer is that she will meet the spend, get the points, pay whatever fees, then give me the card to keep or cancel... and I know how valuable travel points are, I would do it happily.

We kind of did this for them for our wedding trip to help cut costs... They each opened SPG and Disney cards, we put our charges on there to meet minimum spend (mainly wedding bills we were paying no matter what), topped off their SPG account, they got $400 in Disney gift cards and a week at the Dolphin. The cards then got sock drawered, though occasionally if there's a good AMEX offer for them I add it to the account so they can use it and save money, or if it's something we can use ie towards a Disney GC, we take the card for the day and then I login and pay off the charge on their account.

Yup, it's weird that I have logins to some of my ILs credit cards...

 

[Lain]

CIC status is now 7-10 days. Now to wait for the letter to find out why. This is for a legit biz so I may call recon depending on what the letter says.

Denials are never nice. We're here for you.

 

[thevalley]

Thanks all. Just wondering what to do next, Hilton Amex or refer DW to the CIP or go for a CIC. I was leaning toward spg/Marriott stay but things seemed to change lol. I had to accomadate other family. Lol.
Or do I just put it on my CSR or spg card.

 

[speedyfishy]

Not if you are in No Va - Alexandria area. MGM is right across the Potomac - you could take the water taxi.

Thanks! I didn’t know there was an MGM here. I need a ceasers one though, but I just looked and there is one in Baltimore.

 

[thevalley]

Thanks! I didn’t know there was an MGM here. I need a ceasers one though, but I just looked and there is one in Baltimore.

I think it’s at inner harbor. It’s pretty nice. I went last year. It’s only like 25 minutes or so from woodbridge. Didn’t know Baltimore had a Caesar’s.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Good news! I’ve been approved for the CIP I received last Thursday!!

 

[mhartman09]

Ugh sorry If you have a legit business, I would definitely recon depending on that letter. Maybe just CL needs to be moved around?

Denials are never nice. We're here for you.

Yeah, I try not to make a big deal of denials especially before I know the reason they will give, but it still stings a bit. It may be a CL issue and I probably should have reduced my limits on some of my other cards before applying (looking at CSR with $27K). I won't be allowed to move personal CL to open the CIC though, right? My only Chase biz card is CIP with $10K. My best guess is it's combined CL, which is mostly due to my personal Chase cards. It is a legit biz, but very new as I just started in January. Not sure if having a legit biz would even help in the case of CL issue.

 

[Lain]

Yeah, I try not to make a big deal of denials especially before I know the reason they will give, but it still stings a bit. It may be a CL issue and I probably should have reduced my limits on some of my other cards before applying (looking at CSR with $27K). I won't be allowed to move personal CL to open the CIC though, right? My only Chase biz card is CIP with $10K. My best guess is it's combined CL, which is mostly due to my personal Chase cards. It is a legit biz, but very new as I just started in January. Not sure if having a legit biz would even help in the case of CL issue.

Chase won't let you move personal CL to a biz card.

But Chase does look at total CL across all Chase personal and biz cards. So yeah, that CSR CL is going to weigh heavy on the total CL that Chase has already extended to you.

You could try to ask Chase to move CL from your CIP to open a CIC. DPs are mixed on that. Some reports say Chase will tell you no, can't do it; others have had more luck. The minimum CL on a CIP is $5k. I believe the minimum CL needed to open a CIC is $3k.

There are good reasons for a business to hold both CIP and CIC. CIP offers 3x on shipping and travel (don't mention 3x on Plastiq to Chase). CIC offers 5x on cable/internet/phone, and office supply stores (heh, don't mention gift cards either).

 

[calypso726]

I've got over 50 stays there since 1997. My 25 year old basically grew up there - learned to ride a bike there, fishing, crabbing, swimming. There are close to 20 families I call 'friends' that go there or went there and often, we used to meet mostly at Thanksgiving. We would have 'meets' at the beach house and have barbecued together over holidays. Now, it's dwindled down, but still I often cross paths with people from Disboards or RADP or the old AOL boards who still go and love HH.

That is awesome! We've never managed to make "vacation friends" that you wind up seeing every year at DVC resorts. We've made lots of "vacation friends" on Disney cruises and Adventures by Disney trips that we vacation with regularly now. I've always thought the idea of meeting up every year on vacation like a lot of the RV families do at Ft. Wilderness was so cool. Didn't know it was also a Hilton Head thing too. That makes me smile

I've been following this thread for a little over four months now and as much as I've learned, I'm still finding this all a little overwhelming. It's like sitting in on a calculus class when all I've had is basic arithmetic. But I have faith that I'll get there!

Right now I have a very basic question. I jumped right in when I first got started with this and got three new cards in three months. My husband was "on board" to an extent, but he doesn't understand how this all works (not that i really do either) and just doesn't have the time or the inclination to figure it all out. While he trusts me, this is making him a little nervous. So I'm putting my plans for going into two-player mode on hold just for the summer. It's been hard to go from meeting minimum spends to just "spending!"

So my question is, now that I went from only a couple cards to (what seems to me) like a wallet full, how do I decide which one to use for which purchases? I need to figure out what cards get the best returns in various spending categories. I understand from this board that this also changes from time to time?

Right now when I get to a register I feel like I'm looking into my wallet and going "pick a card, any card" and I just grab one. There must be a strategy more worthy of the excellent tutelage I've received on this thread!

I remember when you joined us here I think some of my longest, most detailed and re-quoted posts on this thread were in response to you when you first came on board. The good thing is that the thread has lots of amazing, wonderful people who are are willing to help out so keep faith and never hesitate to ask questions. Like @schmass pointed out, there are apps that are helpful. When I started out I used mini post its with the categories written on them. I did the same thing for my mom and still do ... 6 years later ... sigh. DH wouldn't put post its on his cards, so he'd call me and ask, "I'm at such and such store buying x, y z. What card do I use?" every time he went to the store. We each had the same cards starting out, so I could look at the post its on my cards and then tell him. I still do it when I have newer cards or can't keep similar ones straight in my head. I had to keep post its on the Citi Prestige and Citi Premier cards the whole time I held them because I would confuse which one got what.

Does Amex give you your account immediately? Would they expedite the card?

Only time I got an instant number was for the Aspire card.

 

[miztressuz]

Thanks all. Just wondering what to do next, Hilton Amex or refer DW to the CIP or go for a CIC. I was leaning toward spg/Marriott stay but things seemed to change lol. I had to accomadate other family. Lol.
Or do I just put it on my CSR or spg card.

With it being that close to the stay and since you have the CSR, I'd just put it on the CSR and then you can take the time to evaluate where the Hilton one come into play in your strategy. (or SPG if you're trying to meet spend... which tickles me a bit putting Hilton on SPG )

Unless by some chance you have a Hilton offer on an existing Amex card and then maybe try to split payment? I got one for spend $300+ get 3500 MR points but my understanding is some folks got a statement credit offer instead for the same. We stayed at the DoubleTree last weekend (if it's the downtown one, we were just there!) but we had a different Amex offer we used and a bunch of Hilton GC's from another Amex offer (saved $100 between the two).

Originally I was going to try to cram the Hilton card in there too as we had stays planned last weekend and this weekend at Hilton's, but the Amex offers popped up and I got the CSR meanwhile so I decided to hold off and put it back in line for later this year (or later this summer, depends on how other spends go since this is a card for P2)

 

[speedyfishy]

I think it’s at inner harbor. It’s pretty nice. I went last year. It’s only like 25 minutes or so from woodbridge. Didn’t know Baltimore had a Caesar’s.

Yeah I had no idea it’s called Horseshoe. I may take a trip since that’s not that far.