I love credit cards so much!

[jujubiee4]

hi not sure if this has been posted. For those struggling to max out grocery category on Discover/Chase.
I saw on DOC's thread someone posted how Walmart neighborhood grocer counts. I have never heard
of these. I googled and the nearest one to me was 20 miles away. I went and got 500 worth of gift cards.
It did post as supermarket on my Discover statement. More importantly i CAN use them at Sams Club
for gas etc not to mention regular Walmart. For those that have multiple discovers/chase this may help.

 

[jujubiee4]

Noticed on the Safeway app as I was doing some grocery shopping that Safeway has two deals for Visa gift cards until 6/30/18:

$15 off when you buy TWO $100 Visa gift cards; and

$10 off when you buy TWO $50 Visa gift cards.

Even better deal if you’ve still got some room left in this quarter’s Chase Freedom 5x UR grocery stores category.

I like to pick up Visa gift cards when they go on sale like this to shift spend to places that only accept Visa magnify: Costco), or code under a lower bonus category or no bonus.

Do you know what the activation fee is? thx

 

[jujubiee4]

Yes between the room checks, paying for parking, and then for my upcoming October trip with my folks uncertainty about getting connecting rooms, I feel good about the decision to rent a house in Windsor Hills again. Can’t use points but I am such a point hoarder lately it is probably for the best. Person we are renting from did let the payment go through PayPal. So at least we were able to not only save a bunch of points but gain some as well with the Freedom!

Yeah we were staying at Boardwalk next year and I just canceled and booked Windsor Hills. I understand security concern but this would
irritate me to no end. Im a very early riser but everyone else in family sleeps late and will roll into the parks around noon and stay late.
To have sleep interrupted is a no no here.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Noticed on the Safeway app as I was doing some grocery shopping that Safeway has two deals for Visa gift cards until 6/30/18:

$15 off when you buy TWO $100 Visa gift cards; and

$10 off when you buy TWO $50 Visa gift cards.

Even better deal if you’ve still got some room left in this quarter’s Chase Freedom 5x UR grocery stores category.

I like to pick up Visa gift cards when they go on sale like this to shift spend to places that only accept Visa magnify: Costco), or code under a lower bonus category or no bonus.

Publix had a $10/$100 Visa card that ended yesterday. I grabbed one with my CF to use at Costco, because you had mentioned doing it before.

 

[miztressuz]

Do you know what the activation fee is? thx

4.95 for the $50's and $5.95 for the $100's. So it basically covers the fees on the 50's and small money maker on the 100's ($3.10).

 

[Ngwira]

Wow amazing! Nice way to start the trip. Have a "Grand" time and happy bday/Father's Day to your DH.

ETA: did you book the GF on points?

No I booked my tickets with points. Standing in guest relations line at Epcot now to upgrade to APs. I used the summer room offer to book the Grand Floridian.

 

[Ngwira]

Real Housewives of New Jersey?

This made me laugh. Nope. I’m not shaking or flipping any tables here. I actually prefer the Potomac and Atlanta ladies actually.

 

[jujubiee4]

I don't believe there's anything to product change to without an annual fee, so far as I recall all charge cards have an AF. so if you don't have another MR card apply for the blue everyday first (not the cash ones) then once that's in place you can look at closing the gold. you have 30 days from the annual fee posting (I think it's the post date at least) to get a refund.​

Any idea how Amex handles a card closing with a long history? I actually have a green with an A/F that i never use. I want to close
it but have had it 20 years. Is that a good idea? I want to get one with no A/F but I can stash points. Right now have a PRG but
may close that end of year. Will that 20 years poof go away?

 

[jujubiee4]

No I booked my tickets with points. Standing in guest relations line at Epcot now to upgrade to APs. I used the summer room offer to book the Grand Floridian.

I liked your post about Hyatt. My free night just posted also which im using for San Fran. I debated closing card also but because
of the outstanding service we got in Hawaii and the ease when dealing with them I am keeping. I have never even stayed at a
Hyatt before but now they are quickly becoming my chain of choice.

I hope you have a good time.

 

[miztressuz]

Any idea how Amex handles a card closing with a long history? I actually have a green with an A/F that i never use. I want to close it but have had it 20 years. Is that a good idea? I want to get one with no A/F but I can stash points. Right now have a PRG but
may close that end of year. Will that 20 years poof go away?

I don't have a good answer for you as I still have my very first AmEx card too I applied for their credit card before I picked up a charge card, so it didn't bother me to kick the charge card to the curb when it wasn't working for me anymore and they wanted to increase the AF on it. (I thought it was crazy when they wanted $125 for the Gold card up from $95 I was only interested in the points and they kept decreasing the extra points opportunities and replaced it with more concierge services I didn't care about)

But so far as I know in terms of AmEx you should still have that 20 year history with them, and be treated accordingly, like your "member since" date would still be the oldest date and whatnot. However with the credit bureau's it'll still be a closed card. It's part of the reason why hubby has been reluctant to close his Green card because it's his longest held card on his CR, but he doesn't use it as much as he used to so he's not making an equivalent's worth of points to cover the AF. (Although he is getting better AmEx offers on it now so it may finally do more than just pay for itself this year.) So I guess have to look at what's the next oldest card and how much will that really affect your stats to determine if it's worth the money to keep it open just for the history. For a while when hubby was rebuilding credit from a ding he didn't even know about it was totally worth the AF to keep the age of accounts long. Now that that's over I think he's convinced to get a no AF card to hold his points and finally cancel the Green after many years of service It is a shame there's no compelling reason to hold a Green card, I really can't figure out what you're getting from that AF that can't be had with the no fee credit card?

 

[pillow]

Yeah mommy points did a blog post on this resort a few weeks ago. That couldn’t have helped availability as she advertised that she spent spring break there with her family “for free”. I bet you lots of people awash in UR are trying to book this resort on points.

TPG and Frequent Miler have both done posts on this resort as well. I keep waiting for them to move the hotel to a higher category as 15K for this place is a great deal! There is a gorgeous Marriott not too far away that has a better beach but I don't think its quite as luxurious. Its a cat 8 and would be a great option for the Marriott package - although 7 nights in one place is a tough one for me. Still thinking . . .

 

[pillow]

I was thinking it was some sort of bizarre Schrodingers Cat-type scenario where they would only find something of concern if they got into your room

Is it sad that I only know what this means because of Sheldon Cooper!!??

 

[jujubiee4]

I don't have a good answer for you as I still have my very first AmEx card too I applied for their credit card before I picked up a charge card, so it didn't bother me to kick the charge card to the curb when it wasn't working for me anymore and they wanted to increase the AF on it. (I thought it was crazy when they wanted $125 for the Gold card up from $95 I was only interested in the points and they kept decreasing the extra points opportunities and replaced it with more concierge services I didn't care about)

But so far as I know in terms of AmEx you should still have that 20 year history with them, and be treated accordingly, like your "member since" date would still be the oldest date and whatnot. However with the credit bureau's it'll still be a closed card. It's part of the reason why hubby has been reluctant to close his Green card because it's his longest held card on his CR, but he doesn't use it as much as he used to so he's not making an equivalent's worth of points to cover the AF. (Although he is getting better AmEx offers on it now so it may finally do more than just pay for itself this year.) So I guess have to look at what's the next oldest card and how much will that really affect your stats to determine if it's worth the money to keep it open just for the history. For a while when hubby was rebuilding credit from a ding he didn't even know about it was totally worth the AF to keep the age of accounts long. Now that that's over I think he's convinced to get a no AF card to hold his points and finally cancel the Green after many years of service It is a shame there's no compelling reason to hold a Green card, I really can't figure out what you're getting from that AF that can't be had with the no fee credit card?

It's funny because I really only hold on to it for sentimental reasons. Blindly i have kept paying the fee well...just because.
This year with a kid entering college disposable income will be WAYYY down so pinching penny time and that green will prob
fall by the wayside.

Something else I just logged into my amex site and noticed the new offers over half maybe even even 3/4's were cash back
offers instead of points. I like the cards to earn/stash points so if they are going this route now I will prob close one or two.

 

[Ngwira]

No I booked my tickets with points. Standing in guest relations line at Epcot now to upgrade to APs. I used the summer room offer to book the Grand Floridian.

Upgrade to AP went smoothly using tickets purchased through Chase cruise and tour department. Cast member bridged the AP ticket value to the value of the tickets paid for with UR.
I also bought the tables in wonderland card which we are now using at Via Napoli for lunch.

 

[Albort]

Interesting about the credit unions -- what's the best way to find out whether they allow credit card funding? Do you call and ask?

theres a list u can check first --> https://www.doctorofcredit.com/does...dit-card-count-as-a-purchase-or-cash-advance/

 

[amalone1013]

Noticed on the Safeway app as I was doing some grocery shopping that Safeway has two deals for Visa gift cards until 6/30/18:

$15 off when you buy TWO $100 Visa gift cards; and

$10 off when you buy TWO $50 Visa gift cards.



Even better deal if you’ve still got some room left in this quarter’s Chase Freedom 5x UR grocery stores category.

I like to pick up Visa gift cards when they go on sale like this to shift spend to places that only accept Visa magnify: Costco), or code under a lower bonus category or no bonus.

Thanks! This will help max the Discovers and CF... I still need to use the $10 off $150 or more, which I've heard works on variable loads.

 

[Ngwira]

I liked your post about Hyatt. My free night just posted also which im using for San Fran. I debated closing card also but because
of the outstanding service we got in Hawaii and the ease when dealing with them I am keeping. I have never even stayed at a
Hyatt before but now they are quickly becoming my chain of choice.

I hope you have a good time.

Yeah I am really impressed with the Hyatt brand. They went above and beyond for me.

 

[miztressuz]

It's funny because I really only hold on to it for sentimental reasons. Blindly i have kept paying the fee well...just because.
This year with a kid entering college disposable income will be WAYYY down so pinching penny time and that green will prob
fall by the wayside.

Something else I just logged into my amex site and noticed the new offers over half maybe even even 3/4's were cash back
offers instead of points. I like the cards to earn/stash points so if they are going this route now I will prob close one or two.

Hm, that's interesting about the offers. About 50/50 if hubby has an offer on his Green card that can earn either points or cash back he gets offered the points option. I mostly get the cash back options. Which works for me as I like discounts. We started wondering if he gets more points options because if we both had the same points offer we did it on his card because he's got the bigger points stash (and we can't combine household points ). So last year there was a pattern of redeeming more points offers than statement credits, and now I wonder if that's why he gets points offers when there's a "choice". Like for the Lowe's $10 stmt credit off $50 or more earlier this year. On my 2 cards I got the stmt credit, on his Green he got offered 10,000 points instead of the cash. (and no offer on his blue cash card ) Or it could just be luck of the draw.

But yeah I think sentiment played a part in him keeping the card so long too. It's been a while since his credit's been good and he doesn't really need it but still kept hanging on to the card anyway AmEx got us good there

 

[Lain]

Thanks! This will help max the Discovers and CF... I still need to use the $10 off $150 or more, which I've heard works on variable loads.

Can confirm the $10 off $150 or more MCGC works on variable loads. Bought 2x $500 variable load MCGCs (on DW and my accounts) and the discount applied just fine. Better get on it! Doesn’t that expire in a day or two?

 

[miztressuz]

Thanks! This will help max the Discovers and CF... I still need to use the $10 off $150 or more, which I've heard works on variable loads.

I think that one was only good until the 19th, so don't wait too long I did it twice at Acme, one on my account and one from another account, and did the variable load for $500 no problem. Got each GC for $495.95 after the coupon.