I love credit cards so much!

[pillow]

Wow, I wish my parents helped me set up a Roth when I was a teen. I’m 23 now. I hope to max it this year. I am a year behind though. It’s hard when you are young.

I was clueless when I was 23. The fact that you're doing it at all is terrific!

 

[amalone1013]

I think I forgot to mention here, MIL is good with trying the double dip. I just realized we can refer her to the CSR. And then hopefully I can become un-shunned because neither of us have a CSP...

 

[Haley R]

This is where MIYF comes in, fortunately or unfortunately depending on your feeling in the matter. I doubt it's an actual acronym, but Math Is Your Friend will tell you to add up the 3% you're currently getting on the checking account between now and your trip, then compare it to what you could get with the credit card bonuses. @Lain and @SouthFayetteFan I think have drawn out your potential in $$ for the couple credit cards, but not knowing your checking account rules and earnings, so you'll have to see what you expect to get there and compare it.

Might have to run a few scenarios, but I'd have to think the sign up bonuses will net you more than the 3%. Maybe the checking wins out on everyday CC usage, but those sign up bonuses are pretty big and might be worth temporary changes. Something to ponder.

DH and I will have to run some numbers and see what we come up with. I told him today that we need to think about applying for the CIP as soon as possible so I think we will be doing that sometime this week.

 

[Haley R]

If you are happy with your points being worth 1.25 instead of 1.5 then yes. Take it one card at a time. You don’t have to dive head first into this hobby. It’s ok to wade in and feel things out.



Not at all, especially if you are going to pay for travel via the UR portal. If you are looking at award flights, that always depends on the airlines. If your dates are flexible and you are traveling economy you may still be just fine.



If that is what you are comfortable with then yes, of course. The two cards will earn you over $2,000 , which is awesome, and if that is good enough for you then that will make it perfect.



Will the 3% back total over $1,062 (value of 85,000 UR points with CIP) in 3 months. If the answer is yes, then stick with the checking account. If you are getting 3% back on $3500 in debit card transactions then the checking account is earning $105 per month. So, $315 over 3 months. I’d forego $315 to get $1062.50 any day.



Don’t bank on it completely though. A good rule of thumb to be safe is count 3 months from date of application and allow time for transactions to post. You don’t want to go through the trouble of hitting the MSR and then not get a bonus because you were off by a day. Oh, and do not count the AF as part of the MSR. I try to hit all my MSR a week early at a minimum and add a small cushion in case I added wrong, made a return and forgot it some such.

We typically make $50/month off of that 3% because you can only have up to $20,000 in your checking account to get the 3%. DH is thinking we should try to still get the 10 transactions in our checking to make the 3% work AND the $5000 for the CIP. He's the money guy and knows more than I about our budget so I'll trust his judgement lol. I could see us just sticking with the two CIP cards and probably not getting any others.

Do they have something that helps keep track of how much you have spent out of the spending requirement?

 

[amalone1013]

Running some numbers, trying to decide which card to start with for MIL, CSR or CSP...

CSR: $4k spend/50kpts = 54kpts earned @ 1.5cpp = $810 + $300 TC - $450 AF = $660 + 10k referral pts ($150) + possible $300 double dip TC = $1110

CSP: $4k spend/50kpts = 54kpts earned @ 1.5cpp (transferred to CSR) = $810 + 5kpts AU ($75) - $0 AF first year = $885

Am I missing anything? I think I should be able to double dip the travel credit for something trip related or on board credit for them on the cruise, cruise date is June 23rd.

 

[Haley R]

Check your email I found the plastiq email in my spam that was offering a lower % fee for the first three months if you did it for reoccurring payments.



Shocked he told you to call tomorrow. Good luck. I’m waiting for my letter before I try calling back.



If you can do more I’d go for it to get more than your flights free.
If your DH is okay applying for the CIP I’d do that and when you are almost finished meeting the spend then have him refer you for a CIP. Then once you are have almost met your spend have DH double dip the CSR and CSP. Then you can redeem your ur points at 1.5x.
Plastiq helped meet our spend. Met it in less than the first month thanks to all student loans, toy hauler loan, van loan, Mortage it doesn’t take long add it up.


Does a your checking have a bill pay? Does that count as a transaction? Paying your cc bill you could do it in multiple payments to get the 15 transactions


I like using points to book tickets since swa changes prices. This way if it goes lower the points go back to your account. If you pay for the flight you get the money on a voucher good for 1 year from the date you First booked.

I'll look out for the plastiq emails when we decide to start that. DH thinks paying the 2.5% fee is worth it to make our $5,000 spend requirement.

Our checking does have automatic bill pay, but it doesn't count toward our 3% back because those have to be actual card swipes. DH said we might just get gas in $10 increments to make the 15 transactions.

I think our mortgage, student loans, utilities, and other charges will get us up to that $5000 pretty fast. I was worried at first, but DH and I talked and think it will be easily achievable. I'm getting really excited at the thought of saving so much money for our trip!

 

[pillow]

We typically make $50/month off of that 3% because you can only have up to $20,000 in your checking account to get the 3%. DH is thinking we should try to still get the 10 transactions in our checking to make the 3% work AND the $5000 for the CIP. He's the money guy and knows more than I about our budget so I'll trust his judgement lol. I could see us just sticking with the two CIP cards and probably not getting any others.

Do they have something that helps keep track of how much you have spent out of the spending requirement?

I think that makes sense. You only have to charge $150 to "earn" your 3% rate - and thats a decent savings rate these days. I would strategically make those charges though - trying not to go much over the $10 per. I might even buy 15 x $10 separate gift card transactions somewhere just to get it over with.

Typically, I just download all of my transactions to Excel and sum them to check my MSR progress.

 

[Haley R]

I think that makes sense. You only have to charge $150 to "earn" your 3% rate - and thats a decent savings rate these days. I would strategically make those charges though - trying not to go much over the $10 per. I might even buy 15 x $10 separate gift card transactions somewhere just to get it over with.

Typically, I just download all of my transactions to Excel and sum them to check my MSR progress.

I'm definitely an Excel type of person so I will probably keep track of our transactions to make sure we are meeting both our $5000 minimum spend and our 15 transactions for our checking account.

 

[Lain]

I'll look out for the plastiq emails when we decide to start that. DH thinks paying the 2.5% fee is worth it to make our $5,000 spend requirement.

I think our mortgage, student loans, utilities, and other charges will get us up to that $5000 pretty fast. I was worried at first, but DH and I talked and think it will be easily achievable. I'm getting really excited at the thought of saving so much money for our trip!

Just a few things to keep in mind about using Plastiq on the CIP:

• Plastiq earns 3x UR on the payments and fees when charged to the CIP, which more than offsets the 2.5% fee. The CIP is the only card that earns this 3x UR bonus on Plastiq. It's been coding this way since last summer, but could change in the future if Plastiq or Visa decide that the merchant category code needs to be changed.
• Visa's guidelines to Plastiq prohibits mortgage payments through the service on Visa cards (Amex has similar restrictions). If your mortgage is through a small bank or credit union, it may not be blocked. If it is blocked, you'll get an error message on Plastiq when trying to make a mortgage payment, something to the effect that this payment type is not supported, use a different credit card (you can still pay mortgages using MasterCards and Discover). Even if your lender is blocked, many of us have had success creatively addressing the payment to slip through Plastiq's restrictions. Who holds or services your mortgage? Maybe we can help.
• Student loans and utilities are fine on Plastiq with Visas. Other popular types of payments are contractors, school tuition and daycare.
• Remember, if you sign up for Plastiq through one of the links on DISchurners, you'll get $500 fee free dollars, which waives the fee on $500 worth of payments after you've made your first $500 in payments. And you'll be showing your appreciation to the wonderful people in this thread.

Our checking does have automatic bill pay, but it doesn't count toward our 3% back because those have to be actual card swipes. DH said we might just get gas in $10 increments to make the 15 transactions.

Great idea!

 

[Haley R]

Just a few things to keep in mind about using Plastiq on the CIP:

• Plastiq earns 3x UR on the payments and fees when charged to the CIP, which more than offsets the 2.5% fee. The CIP is the only card that earns this 3x UR bonus on Plastiq. It's been coding this way since last summer, but could change in the future if Plastiq or Visa decide that the merchant category code needs to be changed.
• Visa's guidelines to Plastiq prohibits mortgage payments through the service on Visa cards (Amex has similar restrictions). If your mortgage is through a small lender, bank or credit union, it may not be blocked. If it is blocked, you'll get an error message on Plastiq when trying to make a mortgage payment, something to the effect that this payment type is not supported, use a different credit card (you can still pay mortgages using MasterCards and Discover). Even if your lender is blocked, many of us have had success creatively addressing the payment to slip through Plastiq's restrictions. Who holds or services your mortgage? Maybe we can help.
• Student loans and utilities are fine on Plastiq with Visas. Other popular types of payments are contractors, school tuition and daycare.

Great idea!

We use FirstLand mortgage servicing. DH is trying to check if we can use our Visa to pay for that on Plastiq. That might be a problem if we can't because that would be where a large portion of our minimum spend will come from.

 

[liloca]

Did everyone finish up those SPG spends early? Leave you people alone for Mother's Day and you go application crazy! I love it!!

I only have $500 left on my spend! Should be done this week and get be ready for the 8k spend

 

[jujubiee4]

Anyone ever find the frustration planning a vacation by cheaper dates? I will get these emails for great airfares
but i get the dates and look around for hotels....and they are high. Same when i see specials for hotels. I get the
dates and......the flights are high.

I wonder if hotels and airlines are in cahoots??

 

[Lain]

[info in quotation if you need it]

 

[Haley R]

Plastiq basically has a blacklist of mortgage companies that you can't send a payment made on a Visa to. I've never heard of FirstLand Mortgage Servicing, so it's possible it's not on the blacklist. [Edit, maybe not: https://www.plastiq.com/pay-firstland-mortgage-servicing/v49286/ Funny that the Visa logo is displayed as if you can use it to pay Firstland. Maybe you can?]

However, the word "mortgage" is in the name of the company, which is a dead giveaway to what you're trying to pay. Like I said, a lot of us have had success being creative with how we address the "Recipient" so that it gets around Plastiq's blacklist. If "Firstland Mortgage Servicing" is blocked, you could try setting up your payment like this:

Recipient Name, maybe "First Land Mtg. Serv'ing" (Other abbreviations for Mortgage are Mtge. or Mortg.) Or "Mtg./Mtge./Mortg. Serv." for Mortgage Servicing. I don't like the Mtge. or Mortg. abbreviations as much, even if they're more accurate, because they're also more obvious.

Recipient Street Address: "7060 S Yale Ave"

Tulsa and OK as usual. For ZIP, use only 74136; don't include the last four digits (Plastiq seems to have a problem with that).

Allow 7-10 business days for delivery of the payment. When you're scheduling a payment, you click a date on the calendar by which payment must arrive. Plastiq offers a delivery guarantee if the payment is late and they'll pay your late fee, but put yourself in that situation and give yourself extra time. Even though the link about says delivered in 2-3 business day, that's only if you use direct deposit to the default Recipient information already preloaded for Firstland, which will probably reject payments on Visas. You want to bypass what's in the system, so you'll want to set up the payment yourself for delivery by check.

DH tried to "pay" through Firstland with a Visa we already have and apparently it let him do that. He went and canceled it right away, but I think it might just work.

 

[WVMomof3]

We typically make $50/month off of that 3% because you can only have up to $20,000 in your checking account to get the 3%. DH is thinking we should try to still get the 10 transactions in our checking to make the 3% work AND the $5000 for the CIP. He's the money guy and knows more than I about our budget so I'll trust his judgement lol. I could see us just sticking with the two CIP cards and probably not getting any others.

Do they have something that helps keep track of how much you have spent out of the spending requirement?

Why don't you make several transactions at the grocery store each time you shop. I would just say you need 2 or 3 separate orders that way you hit your 10 faster. You can have your produce receipt, your meat receipt, your frozen foods receipt.....

 

[Lain]

DH tried to "pay" through Firstland with a Visa we already have and apparently it let him do that. He went and canceled it right away, but I think it might just work.

Awesome! That's kind of a unicorn you want to keep a secret as much as you can. If it stops working, there are workarounds.

 

[Haley R]

Awesome! That's kind of a unicorn you want to keep a secret as much as you can. If it stops working, there are workarounds.

Hopefully it works until we go to Japan and then they can take it off if they want lol

 

[Haley R]

Well DH just applied for the CIP so now we just wait! He seems very excited about it now. We both are the type of people that circle things in weekly grocery ads just to save any penny possible so the idea of saving this much money to make our Japan trip possible is exciting!

 

[Lain]

Well DH just applied for the CIP so now we just wait! He seems very excited about it now. We both are the type of people that circle things in weekly grocery ads just to save any penny possible so the idea of saving this much money to make our Japan trip possible is exciting!

Sounds like DH is onboard! I'm so glad you two didn't find all this too overwhelming. Good luck on the CIP application!

 

[Haley R]

Sounds like DH is onboard! I'm so glad you two didn't find all this too overwhelming. Good luck on the CIP application!

Thanks! Are the CIP cards the ones that are easy to get approved for?