I love credit cards so much!

[speedyfishy]

Can I ask a dumb question - what does "vanilla" mean here? Trying to learn the CF stuff since I think that is where we are headed next with these new cards (or at least one of them).

It’s a type of Visa giftcard. They sell them at CVS and some other drugstores and I think 711. I’m pretty sure they don’t work at Walmart for MO, but they worked for me at grocery stores.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Uhhh... I assumed I could. I’ve never closed a Chase card tbh, only Chase bank accounts. Guess we’re about to find out!

@disneymagicgirl done! They closed my account, that was pretty quick!

 

[calypso726]

Was trying to book the return portion of our trip, one way YVR to ORD. I emailed AA and found out the flight “must depart from US, Puerto Rico or US Virgin Islands” to use a gift card. Ugh.

AH! I did not know that. I've only used them for travel in the US and Hawaii. Good to know! Thank you for sharing.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

The only reason I want to go to US Hollywood is for the Minions, I want to go to Super Silly Funland! And I think the studios tour would be fun. I also think the tours the DIS guys have done and talked about on the UO Podcast could make the park more fun, but more than I'd want to spend. I think this park would be a one and done for me, especially since there's so many other things you can do in the area that I haven't done. By area, I mean around USH.

We love the Minions! Main reason we went to UO a few years ago. DS loves roller coasters, but was too small for most at UO. He hated most of the VR/3D type stuff. Got off the Spider-Man one and 5 yo DS yells out “Not doin’ that again!”

Not to bring things down, but I didn't get the job. Trying to focus on the positive that it means I'm supposed to do something else/better

Consider it practice for the job you WILL get. My current job I interviewed at least 5 different places, one of them I didn’t get with a woman named Jill. Get my current job, 2 years later and I’m interviewing Jill for a job at my employer as she had gotten laid off. She is now my boss. (They allowed the employees to interview potential supervisors). Pretty strange that she ended up as my boss even though she didn’t hire me.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

AH! I did not know that. I've only used them for travel in the US and Hawaii. Good to know! Thank you for sharing.

They’d be good if you use for RT or one way starting US. Just not what I needed.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I caught some of this discussion in yesterday's thread, and I couldn't help but think that some of what OP is feeling is due to the fact that he recently got all his Chase cards shut down after double dipping the Hyatt cards at LOL/24. That'll mess with anyone's world view on this hobby.

I actually don't think it's the recent shutdown causing AK to feel that way. And I say that because...I think I share some similar feelings with him. I share those feelings despite the fact that my wife is at 0/24 currently and we haven't been and show no risk of shutdown. It's part of the reason I've taken a small step back from things recently. I'm not sure I'd articulate my feelings in the same manner, and I'm not saying I see eye to eye with everything said there. If I attempted to type a bunch of thoughts on it I'm sure it would be all over the place so maybe to summarize in one thought, in many ways, I miss what churning was back in 2015, and I miss what r/churning used to be like back then...but you can't put it back in the bottle and the game has grown and I'll live with what it is now.

 

[Budzooka]

i got some good news this afternoon that my CIP is back open and ready for use! It took 5 weeks, but they had incorrect information flagged to my account that caused the shutdown. They are not extending my time to meet the MSR, but he told me to call him directly once I do meet it and he will get it waived. But, he can't do anything until I actually meet the spend. I'm in the middle of an Amex Hilton spend, so going to be a little bit.

I asked for URs for all the heartache and trouble over the last few weeks. He offered up 10K and I took it. I'm such a pansy....I should have pushed for more, but it's not like I have any leverage. I just want to get my 80K signup points!

Thanks to everyone that gave advice and best wishes. Feels like an approval all over again!

Now, it's time to put Plastiq to work for my student loan payments....

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

i got some good news this afternoon that my CIP is back open and ready for use! It took 5 weeks, but they had incorrect information flagged to my account that caused the shutdown. They are not extending my time to meet the MSR, but he told me to call him directly once I do meet it and he will get it waived. But, he can't do anything until I actually meet the spend. I'm in the middle of an Amex Hilton spend, so going to be a little bit.

I asked for URs for all the heartache and trouble over the last few weeks. He offered up 10K and I took it. I'm such a pansy....I should have pushed for more, but it's not like I have any leverage. I just want to get my 80K signup points!

Thanks to everyone that gave advice and best wishes. Feels like an approval all over again!

Now, it's time to put Plastiq to work for my student loan payments....

Congrats on that great outcome!

 

[Lain]

i got some good news this afternoon that my CIP is back open and ready for use! It took 5 weeks, but they had incorrect information flagged to my account that caused the shutdown. They are not extending my time to meet the MSR, but he told me to call him directly once I do meet it and he will get it waived. But, he can't do anything until I actually meet the spend. I'm in the middle of an Amex Hilton spend, so going to be a little bit.

I asked for URs for all the heartache and trouble over the last few weeks. He offered up 10K and I took it. I'm such a pansy....I should have pushed for more, but it's not like I have any leverage. I just want to get my 80K signup points!

Thanks to everyone that gave advice and best wishes. Feels like an approval all over again!

Now, it's time to put Plastiq to work for my student loan payments....

Congratulations on getting your CIP back!

 

[AmyAnne]

My sister’s in laws only do cash. They keep it in the crawl space. You can tell because it smells all musty when they whip out their wad of cash.

This weekend I was waiting near the cash registers at Panda Express for about 10 minutes (apparently no one orders mixed veggies - I had to wait while they made them). While I waited, I watched about a dozen people check out, at least half paying with cash. I wanted to step in and ask, how about you give me the cash and I'll pay for your food with my credit card?

When I was talking to my MIL about the CSR in 2016, I logged in to my Chase account to show her how the travel credit worked. She noticed that I had charged things like $1.98 for coffee and said that she didn't know you could charge things for a dollar. I explained that with the CSR, it was like charging $3+ because of the 3x UR points for dining plus the 1.5 redemption for the CSR. Not sure if I convinced her. But I do think that 20 years ago, it was harder to charge things at places like fast food restaurants. I recall being at the mall about 20 years ago and none of the food court places took credit cards.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

It's interesting to read about these regional differences. No problem buying $500 worth of GCs at Walgreens with a CC but I can't find a gas station anywhere close that will let me buy any kind of GC with a CC.

I'm optimistic you are just running into one-off Oakland store policies and that you'll have better luck on the Peninsula or in the East Bay, but if all else fails, you and your CF can come visit me in Boise (ID is closer than FL, and we have a cider house) I just bought a $300 Amazon gift card at the Walgreens near my office without any issue. The only thing the cashier said is that gcs can't be returned.

Thanks! When I think Oakland and what I remember from when I lived in the Bay it makes sense. Like I could see stores in East San Jose doing something similar (unless that area has gotten better it's been 14 years since I lived down there).

It must be a store based decision, and I caught two in Oakland, but the weird thing is still the customer service rep at the 1-800 number. She insisted it was corporate wide. All these DPs clearly suggest she was very wrong. Oh well, I'll drive somewhere where fraud probably isn't as much of a problem and give it another go. I need to max out those Freedoms Thanks for all the comments. And @Calfan--I'll definitely be taking you up on that offer (with or without the gift cards, LOL). You said the magic word

 

[kmc8826]

So doing anything with Chase credit cards freaks me out these days, I sent an SM to close my Disney Premier today and I'm scared it's going to trigger a soft pull (there is 0 data supporting that fear) which will cause a shutdown (very little data supporting that fear) and all my plans will be ruined- I need to GET A GRIP. Logically, this fear is completely illogical! I'm closing a card for goodness sakes, I'm bring my Chase CL:income ratio down from 88% to 67%. I have to stop reading that Chase Shutdown thread, it's totally screwing with my head...

This cracked me up because lately I have been the SAME WAY! I got the CIP in April (which they didn't want to give me and finally did with the embarrassing $5000 limit) and then spontaneously got the IHG couple weeks later. THEN I screwed up when I set up the account to pay the IHG bill and put wrong routing number. Long story short payment ended up being late, they waived the fees, but then eyes were on account. In fact I got the fraud alert today on one of my cards and I didn't even want to talk to them even though legitimate stolen card number. (I picture them looking and saying "she has 7 of our cards...shut her down now!") I want to get DH the Business FU but am scared of him being tied to me! I have all the UR's on my account now but then start getting paranoid about that. At any rate I am glad that I am not the only one worried.

 

[GlamMistress]

There's an interesting thread on r/churning right now discussing burnout and generally getting too obsessed with this hobby. A lot of the comments get to what we often discuss here about how there's "no wrong way to churn" and using points however you feel is best, even if it's not the world's greatest cpp redemption.

https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/8xcnaa/discussion_frustrations_with_the_act_of_churning/

That Redditor put into words how I feel about churning most days anymore. It isn't as fun as it used to be I guess.

 

[CaliforniaGirl09]

Ugh. So I am clearly on a run of bad luck. I had DD buy 30,000 Starpoints and then transferred them into my account to try to buy one last Flight and Hotel package. After six business days they still had not shown up so we called and sure enough, the transfer didn't go through. The woman on the phone said they couldn't transfer since I had already bought points this year. My understanding was that they had this rule a few years back, but weren't enforcing it. Apparently they decided to against me! Anyway, I think I can get around it by creating a Marriott account for her, and then calling to make the Flight and Hotel package with the two Marriott accounts. Can someone correct me if I'm wrong, and/or let me know if there are any stumbling blocks to watch for. Her Starwood account is over 30 days old.

 

[Communicore1991]

Hoping the DIS community can help me figure out which card to get next.

My current portfolio:
Sapphire Reserve
Freedom Unlimited
Freedom
Amex Blue Business Preferred
Citi DoubleCash
Barclay JetBlue Plus
Discover It
Mileageplus Explorer

I have an almost $3,000 expense coming up so a min spend of $3,000 will be easily met and could probably reach to $5,000 if need be. I don't travel much (and when I do, it's for work so it's on the corporate card), so the majority of my expenses are food related/coffee (so that goes on my CSR), gas (have an Amex Offer so been using the Amex), and all other spend typically goes on the DoubleCash.

I would hate to have an expense where I can easily hit minimum spend on a new card go to waste, so I was thinking of getting a personal Platinum card to get the 60k bonus. However, with how little I travel, I feel like it is tough to justify a $550 annual fee (if it was waived the first year, this wouldn't even be a question!).

 

[afan]

Hoping the DIS community can help me figure out which card to get next.

My current portfolio:
Sapphire Reserve
Freedom Unlimited
Freedom
Amex Blue Business Preferred
Citi DoubleCash
Barclay JetBlue Plus
Discover It
Mileageplus Explorer

I have an almost $3,000 expense coming up so a min spend of $3,000 will be easily met and could probably reach to $5,000 if need be. I don't travel much (and when I do, it's for work so it's on the corporate card), so the majority of my expenses are food related/coffee (so that goes on my CSR), gas (have an Amex Offer so been using the Amex), and all other spend typically goes on the DoubleCash.

I would hate to have an expense where I can easily hit minimum spend on a new card go to waste, so I was thinking of getting a personal Platinum card to get the 60k bonus. However, with how little I travel, I feel like it is tough to justify a $550 annual fee (if it was waived the first year, this wouldn't even be a question!).

Before anyone can help we'll need to know when you got the cards for 5/24 etc.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Hoping the DIS community can help me figure out which card to get next.

My current portfolio:
Sapphire Reserve
Freedom Unlimited
Freedom
Amex Blue Business Preferred
Citi DoubleCash
Barclay JetBlue Plus
Discover It
Mileageplus Explorer

I have an almost $3,000 expense coming up so a min spend of $3,000 will be easily met and could probably reach to $5,000 if need be. I don't travel much (and when I do, it's for work so it's on the corporate card), so the majority of my expenses are food related/coffee (so that goes on my CSR), gas (have an Amex Offer so been using the Amex), and all other spend typically goes on the DoubleCash.

I would hate to have an expense where I can easily hit minimum spend on a new card go to waste, so I was thinking of getting a personal Platinum card to get the 60k bonus. However, with how little I travel, I feel like it is tough to justify a $550 annual fee (if it was waived the first year, this wouldn't even be a question!).

Would you mind listing the opening dates of those currently held cards?

 

[disneymagicgirl]

We love the Minions! Main reason we went to UO a few years ago. DS loves roller coasters, but was too small for most at UO. He hated most of the VR/3D type stuff. Got off the Spider-Man one and 5 yo DS yells out “Not doin’ that again!”

Consider it practice for the job you WILL get. My current job I interviewed at least 5 different places, one of them I didn’t get with a woman named Jill. Get my current job, 2 years later and I’m interviewing Jill for a job at my employer as she had gotten laid off. She is now my boss. (They allowed the employees to interview potential supervisors). Pretty strange that she ended up as my boss even though she didn’t hire me.

Too funny about Jill. Did you remind her of it?

This cracked me up because lately I have been the SAME WAY! I got the CIP in April (which they didn't want to give me and finally did with the embarrassing $5000 limit) and then spontaneously got the IHG couple weeks later. THEN I screwed up when I set up the account to pay the IHG bill and put wrong routing number. Long story short payment ended up being late, they waived the fees, but then eyes were on account. In fact I got the fraud alert today on one of my cards and I didn't even want to talk to them even though legitimate stolen card number. (I picture them looking and saying "she has 7 of our cards...shut her down now!") I want to get DH the Business FU but am scared of him being tied to me! I have all the UR's on my account now but then start getting paranoid about that. At any rate I am glad that I am not the only one worried.

I am holding off on getting a replacement csr for “DH” (my wallet) because he had fraud on his then a couple days later left the new card they had just sent in a restaurant somewhere in tn so had to have yet another issued. I’m scared to ask for a replacement now so just waiting til I finish my Hilton biz msr.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Too funny about Jill. Did you remind her of it?

I recognized her name right off and during the interview asked if she remembered me. She did and said why I didn’t get the job (it wasn’t in my specialty and she figured I would get bored and move on quickly. She was right.) We had just gotten rid of a terrible boss and Jill had tons of experience and is a great boss. She quickly cleaned up the mess the previous boss left. In another ironic twist, the hospital that laid her off 10 years ago, just bought the hospital where she and I currently work.

 

[jhoannam]

DP: I bought $400 Amazon gift card from Lowe’s, with my AMEX BGR - should be getting $40 credit.
Used the Amazon gift cards to buy $500 in Safeway gift cards, emailed them to my SIL since we don’t have Safeway here, she just bought a $500 Disney gift card for me.
OOP $360, $500 Disney dollars
Thank you @gottalovepluto for the tip! This is enough to cover my marathon registration and my part of the hotel for the marathon weekend!