I love credit cards so much!

[Haley R]

So I think I’ve convinced Dh to just go with business for our flight to Japan. We probably would have enough points for first class but they look similar to me on ANA airlines and we wouldn’t be able to book as soon if we do first class. We almost have enough to book business round trip which is super exciting!

I think Dh is going to apply for the CSR so we can keep getting points to help pay for hotels and things.

 

[mmmears]

@Lain and @calypso726 thank you both for the explanations. It definitely will help me in following along and understanding parts of the conversation here. I really appreciate it.

Thanks @mmmears
I'm definitely leaning towards DCL...my Mom may resist since it sounds like a lot of kids...but I've cruised with DCL before and should be able to allay those fears.
Good advise about close to the elevator and getting a balcony suite...
Getting around the airport will be interesting but I will pre-arrange for a cart and try for a direct flight from Chicago to Vancouver.
She's a pretty good sport...actually went alone to a dude ranch in Idaho when she turned 80...spent a week riding and camping.
Bit discouraged about the lay-flat seats....hmm
My best wishes that your Mom finds relief for her back issues and can once again travel with you...
Thanks again

My Mom had never cruised with DCL (previously sailed with Princess multiple times) and she wasn't sure she would like it. Well, she loved it! We did have to get a direct flight to Vancouver for her. Also we stayed at the Pan Pacific since it was just above the terminal (so not much walking in terms of getting to the ship). There are tons of great places to stay within normal walking distance if you don't have issues, but we did everything we could to make it easier for her so we stayed there.

There is an offer for 100k MR points after you spend $10k in 3 months on the Amex Business Platinum, but you have to be comfortable applying as a business owner and you need to call in for this offer.

You are eligible for the bonus on any Amex card you have never held as a primary cardmember. So if a good offer on the personal Platinum ever comes along for you, you’re eligible because you’re only an AU on DH’s card.

(Note Amex has introduced additional anti-churning criteria, but we’ve yet to see it have any widespread effect.)

Thanks for the explanation! I'll keep my eyes out for a personal one. Is there something I can do that helps my chances at being targeted for an offer? We still aren't ready to enter the business card game.

 

[Lain]

I'm not the original one to ask but the MPX explanation was very helpful for me! And something I am very interested in doing. A few questions:

1. Does MPX ever offer discounted gift cards like Raise? Or is the United miles bonus the usual promotion?

No. MPX sells new eGift cards at face value. United miles is the topper, and range from 0.5-5 miles per $1 regularly, and up to 10 miles/$1 during promos.

Two other big eGift card apps — Gyft and Swych — also sell their gift cards at face value, although they’ll occasionally have deals where certain cards are some % off, or you get $xx bonus value if you buy $xxx of some brand of gift card. [eta:] The draw of Gyft and Swych is that they code 3x UR on the CIP and 5x UR on the CIC when paying with these cards through PayPal.

MPX, Gyft, and Swych sell new eGift cards. They’re generated by the merchant and app for the first time at purchase. As you know, Raise is a gift card resell marketplace, so the gift cards sold on raise are secondhand, albeit with a very good purchase protection.

2. We don't fly a lot and when we do it's only domestic. Our home airport is Pensacola and we'll occasionally fly New Orleans since cash price is usually half. I book based mostly on price with some influence based on flight times. AA and Delta seem to be primary airlines we would use from Pcola and occasionally Southwest. What is my best route to build flexible stash for airlines? URs? (Which is my primary focus right now after just getting both CSP and CSR) Not sure holding United card for MPX is my best bet as I don't see United as viable airline to fly to our most probable destinations.

I’m not an AA or Delta flyer, but URs are an all around good currency to earn because, for your purposes, they do transfer 1:1 to Southwest Rapid Rewards if you want to book award flights on SW. You can also use UR points like cash to book flights on AA or Delta through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal.

3. Off topic - I added my DH as AU on my CSP then later got him a CSR. We got AU bonus for him already. Can I ask that he be removed as AU? We haven't even had the CSP for a month yet.

FWIW I'm 4/24 and DH is 4/24 because I added him as AU to CSP like a dummy.

Yes, but removing him as an AU won’t remove the AU account from his credit report. You would need to SM Chase to remove DH as an AU. Once that’s done, DH (or you from DH’s Chase account) will need to SM Chase to ask they remove the AU account from his credit reports with all the credit bureaus to which Chase reports because he is no longer an AU, and is not and has never been financially responsible for the CSP account.

 

[Haley R]

I also forgot to mention that after explaining the points to my parents and how Dh and I will be flying for free to Japan, my mom is thinking I should help them get a chase card. They currently have a credit card that does absolutely nothing for them. I told her “yes let me refer you!” Lol

 

[MrsAlexis]

No. MPX sells new eGift cards at face value. United miles is the topper, and range from 0.5-5 miles per $1 regularly, and up to 10 miles/$1 during promos.

Two other big eGift card apps — Gyft and Swych — also sell their gift cards at face value, although they’ll occasionally have deals where certain cards are some % off, or you get $xx bonus value if you buy $xxx of some brand of gift card.

MPX, Gyft, and Swych sell new eGift cards. They’re generated by the merchant and app for the first time at purchase. As you know, Raise is a gift card resell marketplace, so the gift cards sold on raise are secondhand, albeit with a very good purchase protection.



I’m not an AA or Delta flyer, but URs are an all around good currency to earn because, for your purposes, they do transfer 1:1 to Southwest Rapid Rewards if you want to book award flights on SW. You can also use UR points like cash to book flights on AA or Delta through the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal.



Yes, but removing him as an AU won’t remove the AU account from his credit report. You would need to SM Chase to remove DH as an AU. Once that’s done, DH (or you from DH’s Chase account) will need to SM Chase to ask they remove the AU account from his credit reports with all the credit bureaus to which Chase reports because he is no longer an AU, and is not and has never been financially responsible for the CSP account.

Perfect - thank you! I thought just requesting him be removed as AU would be enough to free up x/24 spot. Thanks for clarifying that is a specific request we need to make with Chase for him. Is it a problem for closing AU status so soon after collecting bonus?

 

[Lain]

I'll keep my eyes out for a personal one. Is there something I can do that helps my chances at being targeted for an offer? We still aren't ready to enter the business card game.

The most popular trick for a 100k MR offer on the personal Platinum right now is checking for prequalified offers on Cardmatch. DoC wrote a post about it here, and you can find a link and instructions.

I will caution you that if you try this, and find yourself targeted for the 100k MR Platinum, you may need to make a snap judgment whether to apply for it then and there, because if you navigate away from the offer you might not be able to pull it up again. Anecdotally, I pulled the 100k offer for my wife a few months back and was going to wait until I had more time to apply for it over the weekend — and I’ve never been able to pull the offer up again!

DoC also has a post about using Baidu (a Chinese search engine) to get a better than public offer. Similarly, you can try searching for the “American Express Platinum” while your browser is in incognito mode, which occasionally pulls up a 75k MR offer.

Another trick is to check your prequalified offers directly on the Amex site, but misspell your name, first name, last name, both; misspell your street address; or use an old address. I think the idea behind this is to mangle your name and address so Amex doesn’t associate you as an existing customer they no longer need to woo with a big signup offer, but it’s still close enough that can be associated with your credit profile to target you with an offer. A lot of people have reported success with this method, but personally I’m not a fan because all those misspelled names tend to end up as aliases on your credit reports, and you’ll need to go in and dispute those aliases off your reports eventually. You may also be applying with typos in your name or address, or an old address, that you’ll need to contact Amex about correcting.

Good luck!

 

[mmmears]

Thanks so much @Lain, especially for explaining the downside of using a misspelling of my name. I'll stay away from doing that and look for a good offer when we are ready to grab one.

 

[Lain]

Perfect - thank you! I thought just requesting him be removed as AU would be enough to free up x/24 spot. Thanks for clarifying that is a specific request we need to make with Chase for him. Is it a problem for closing AU status so soon after collecting bonus?

I’ve never held the CSP, but I had my wife as an AU on my CSR for about a month when I requested Chase remove her as an AU because we were paying a $75 fee for DW to be an AU and we decided the better move was to have DW apply for her own CSR. I told the Chase rep on the phone that I wanted to remove DW as AU because she got her own CSR. You can say you want DH off because he got his own CSR. (You can do all of this over SM.) I doubt it’ll be an issue.

 

[bernina]

The most popular trick for a 100k MR offer on the personal Platinum right now is checking for prequalified offers on Cardmatch. DoC wrote a post about it here, and you can find a link and instructions.

I will caution you that if you try this, and find yourself targeted for the 100k MR Platinum, you may need to make a snap judgment whether to apply for it then and there, because if you navigate away from the offer you might not be able to pull it up again. Anecdotally, I pulled the 100k offer for my wife a few months back and was going to wait until I had more time to apply for it over the weekend — and I’ve never been able to pull the offer up again!

DoC also has a post about using Baidu (a Chinese search engine) to get a better than public offer. Similarly, you can try searching for the “American Express Platinum” while your browser is in incognito mode, which occasionally pulls up a 75k MR offer.

Another trick is to check your prequalified offers directly on the Amex site, but misspell your name, first name, last name, both; misspell your street address; or use an old address. I think the idea behind this is to mangle your name and address so Amex doesn’t associate you as an existing customer they no longer need to woo with a big signup offer, but it’s still close enough that can be associated with your credit profile to target you with an offer. A lot of people have reported success with this method, but personally I’m not a fan because all those misspelled names tend to end up as aliases on your credit reports, and you’ll need to go in and dispute those aliases off your reports eventually. You may also be applying with typos in your name or address, or an old address, that you’ll need to contact Amex about correcting.

Good luck!

Well that about sums up my experience trying to get the Amex Plat!

I finally did get the offer to appear for DH with a misspelled name and old address. He was instantly approved but that’s when the real fun began. He called right after approval to confirm the address. Apparently this card ships (or at least is in the process of shipping) so fast that there is no way to correct address. You have to wait until delivery is confirmed then call back saying you never received it and then they’ll re send to the correct address. The name is still wrong on his card so he’ll have to tackle that next but that will likely be after we meet the MSR.

So while the name/address change up appears to have worked (I say appears since the card won’t be here until tomorrow via overnight delivery), be aware of the hoops you’ll need to jump through. Hopefully it will all be worth it and thank goodness my player 2 is a good sport!

 

[striker1064]

Anyone here doing an M&T Bank bonus? Having lots of trouble getting the bonus to trigger. It looks like they've (justifiably) battered down on what counts as a DD for the bonus.

So far, pushes from Ally Checking, Ally Savings, and Schwab Brokerage have not worked. My next attempts will likely be Schwab Checking and Alliant Checking (just opened), but unless I start going down the accounts I have open for other bonuses I'm running out of ideas. If necessary I can use a legit DD, but it'll be another couple weeks before that takes effect so I might as well keep trying.

 

[tink1970]

We don't fly a lot and when we do it's only domestic. Our home airport is Pensacola and we'll occasionally fly New Orleans since cash price is usually half. I book based mostly on price with some influence based on flight times. AA and Delta seem to be primary airlines we would use from Pcola and occasionally Southwest. What is my best route to build flexible stash for airlines? URs? (Which is my primary focus right now after just getting both CSP and CSR) Not sure holding United card for MPX is my best bet as I don't see United as viable airline to fly to our most probable destinations.

Hi neighbor! We're in PNS too If you and DH have the CSP and CSR (DH and I are the same way) then maybe the United card would be beneficial if you find you use the MPX (which I love) a lot for the 25%. That said, United does fly most places (with a connection) and I tend to keep a stash of those.

Most people find a lot of value (1.5 CSR and 1.25 CSP) by using the travel portal from Chase so that would include AA and DL flights IF you don't want to dabble in other flexible currencies. I'd look at my Chase profile, max it out (a business card maybe?) then get an AA card (if you haven't had a bonus from Citi in 2 years OR Barclay...I believe Barclay has a card with 1 purchase and current offer is 50,000 miles and paying the AF of $95). Citi also has an AA card but its website is horrible and I despise using it.

Delta miles can be used from SPG (soon Marriott), Amex MRs (flexible with other partners but I don't believe SW) and of course co-branded Amex Delta cards.

Before the Big Merge I focused on MRs and SPG for flexible points (since I primarily fly Delta and occasionally American). Now I look at Delta and MRs since again I focus mostly on Delta but do have around 250,000 united miles and until this week 350,000 American Airlines miles. I try to keep "currencies" in the 3 big ones plus MRs and URs. Since you frequently fly SW URs are still probably your best bet, then deciding which of the big 3 OR MRs to be a secondary stash.

To summarize:

Overall best is to max out UR (would a CIP/United or other card help you more with this?).

Decide whether you want to collect individual currencies (united, aa, delta) or continue to focus on general flexible stashes (Amex MRs or wait and see how the Starriott merge shakes out).

Hope this helped somehow

 

[hsmamato2]

Pretty much, the progress bar is a nice touch and can confirm if things are being tracked correctly. But since it's not exactly real time I still use the Advanced Search to see how far I have left. It doesn't have pending transactions but the search is easy if it's a straight category like this quarter. I run that rather than keep track myself.
View attachment 339787

View attachment 339788

Or if you have specific companies, like 4th qtr last year with Target and Amazon, you can use the description field. It'll search for amazon or target and bring everything up.
View attachment 339785
View attachment 339784

For this upcoming 4th qtr where it's a store and a category will have to do two different searches. If you put something in the description (amazon) and select a category (wholesale clubs) it will look for that text only in transactions listed in that category.

What I totally forgot last quarter, is that Target codes as Supermarket on discover Instead of using some gift cards I got at 10% off for my Target purchases I could have just used that toward my category spend and not have some of these VGC's sitting in my safe. (another reason I was looking forward to not having a MSR to meet I can get rid of some GC's)

Hope that helps some, and I didn't just take up space on the thread ​

very helpful..thanks!

 

[amalone1013]

Ok, bouncing some ideas off you all.

Amex cards have high MSRs that can be tough to meet. You can't pay mortgages, car or student loans with Amex via Plastiq. But you can buy $500 MCGCs with a 1.19% fee at grocery stores along with your usual shopping.

Plastiq has the Masterpass promo for fee free payments up to $250 each until 9/30/18.

Can't you load $500 MCGCs into Masterpass and make $250 payments towards your mortgage, car or student loans? Rinse and repeat until the promo is over?

Hmmm.... this would push us into being able to meet a $10k MSR. I added up my hail damage, universal tickets, paying auto insurance in full, AND upgrading our tickets to APs in September, plus moving all spend except gas to it and got to $8k. And moving all spend isn't really reasonable because I cannot for the life of me convince DH to take my card.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Well I didn't see any GCs at my buy buy baby yesterday. Granted, I went through quite quickly because the sweet scent of new squishy babies was making my ovaries twitch, so I wanted to get out quickly before I got any crazy ideas . But I didn't see them up front or by the greeting cards. Bummer. Will head to Bed/Bath next. Was hoping to get them for dining for our weekend trip next week. Backup plan is staples/lowes.

 

[hsmamato2]

speaking of too many Lowes deals this month... Ive never seen so many at once! So I got the gc deal from Staples last week,used the amex card to buy(woohoo)-used the pro coupon online to buy $150 worth of household items (save $15 plus the Amex offer of 10% back on top of that) then I spent about $400 on gc using amex card at Lowes this week($200 amazon,$200 visa card) and at checkout was given another coupon for Aug 2-5,spend $100,save $15 !!! (no gc's allowed) so now I have to drag DH in next Thursday with a list of $100 worth of items to purchase to get that $15 off(plus the final $100 on that amex offer) so from what I'm figuring..... If I spent $1550 at Lowes, I saved $190 overall...... (now I need to get DH in there to use the Lowes gc's and buy all the home repair stuff we need)

 

[MrsAlexis]

Hi neighbor! We're in PNS too If you and DH have the CSP and CSR (DH and I are the same way) then maybe the United card would be beneficial if you find you use the MPX (which I love) a lot for the 25%. That said, United does fly most places (with a connection) and I tend to keep a stash of those.

Most people find a lot of value (1.5 CSR and 1.25 CSP) by using the travel portal from Chase so that would include AA and DL flights IF you don't want to dabble in other flexible currencies. I'd look at my Chase profile, max it out (a business card maybe?) then get an AA card (if you haven't had a bonus from Citi in 2 years OR Barclay...I believe Barclay has a card with 1 purchase and current offer is 50,000 miles and paying the AF of $95). Citi also has an AA card but its website is horrible and I despise using it.

Delta miles can be used from SPG (soon Marriott), Amex MRs (flexible with other partners but I don't believe SW) and of course co-branded Amex Delta cards.

Before the Big Merge I focused on MRs and SPG for flexible points (since I primarily fly Delta and occasionally American). Now I look at Delta and MRs since again I focus mostly on Delta but do have around 250,000 united miles and until this week 350,000 American Airlines miles. I try to keep "currencies" in the 3 big ones plus MRs and URs. Since you frequently fly SW URs are still probably your best bet, then deciding which of the big 3 OR MRs to be a secondary stash.

To summarize:

Overall best is to max out UR (would a CIP/United or other card help you more with this?).

Decide whether you want to collect individual currencies (united, aa, delta) or continue to focus on general flexible stashes (Amex MRs or wait and see how the Starriott merge shakes out).

Hope this helped somehow

I'm so excited for your reply, I thought I had seen another PNS poster We don't fly much maybe once per year. However I am having thoughts about what 2020 and 2021 look like - I've considered DCL or DLR for 2020 and Las Vegas in 2021 and probably a family trip that same year. So thinking about going for SW CP to be eligible for 2020/2021. If that will even be possible for me, not sure. I've shyed away from business cards but maybe I shouldn't. Hoping to make partner at my firm in about 2 years so that makes me a business owner right? if I get up the nerve to do that, I would go for CIP I think. Then be sure cards are falling off to go for CP which I believe involves a double dip right? If that is even an option at the end of next year.

 

[hsmamato2]

any updates on the sams club amex offer? I got my credit for the purchase,yet it's still showing in my offers,can I get it more than once? I know some of you here had tried it

 

[hsmamato2]

BCP..... statemnt closes Aug 12- Aug.20 is anniversary date...I'll pc the card down to the no AF card at that point...are my points earned safe if I do that? ....and..... what is the best use of these reward points? it appears that gc is the same as cash,so I might as well apply to statement credit...I've been ignoring this card b/c of MS etc and going to hit it hard for the last 4k of this years spend to max that 6% out...(I never paid an AF and got a $200 credit for opening,so great deal)

I'm sorry...summer is so busy I can't see if anyone replied to that rewards question on a PC card..... if I go down to the no AF version, everything stays the same,including my accrued rewards?

 

[miztressuz]

Didn't notice yesterday, but seems like when they changed the Offer terms for the Marriott Biz card they also changed waiving the first year AF. So still 75k in 3 months, but the AF isn't waived if anyone was still thinking about it.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Well I didn't see any GCs at my buy buy baby yesterday. Granted, I went through quite quickly because the sweet scent of new squishy babies was making my ovaries twitch, so I wanted to get out quickly before I got any crazy ideas . But I didn't see them up front or by the greeting cards. Bummer. Will head to Bed/Bath next. Was hoping to get them for dining for our weekend trip next week. Backup plan is staples/lowes.

At the BBBaby closest to us, the GCs are in a skinny display at the front but they are essentially a divider between the store sections. I almost walked right past. However, I am immune to squishy baby scent so...