I love credit cards so much!

[CyndiLouWho]

Wow. I just... wow. I wish I was your competition looking to hire right now!

There is no competition, it’s a hospital. I mean there is, but they all suck. I’m kind of stuck because I have the exact hours in the exact position I prefer. I am only 5 hours per day, which many don’t want. It’s a teaching hospital, so I do some resident teaching. Most other teaching hospitals are farther from my house (too far) The one that is closer is our new owner, plus they just laid off some dietitians which I hope they don’t plan for us. Ugh.

 

[Limes96]

looked once at that collection...didn’t think I saw an option to pay with URs....

The same hotel is in both portals. I guess the question is, do you have to book through the Luxury portal to get the benefits of the membership?

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Thanks for the link. Some good information there.

I would like the CP to use for a flight on 3/16 but would love to get it as early as possible without being too risky. Earning the CP is definitely my goal.

If I can call chase to match the offer would it make sense for me to get the Plus right now (at 40k points) and then get the Biz in a couple of months? My fear would be that I get the Biz card today and then the Plus goes to 50k tomorrow. I would miss the window and have to stick with the regular 40k bonus. Does this make sense or am I getting it wrong?

I don’t think Chase will match since the 50,000 offer is applying on the plane connected to SW WiFi....but doesn’t hurt to ask

 

[mmmears]

Yes you’d have to apply for the CIP before the gold card hits his credit report....

As far as closing,the CIP...you wouldn’t close it before the year is up...just if you didn’t want it after the annual fee hits next year....I’ve been opening and closing SW Chase cards for years now to get the companion pass and my credit score has stayed the same....

That's great to hear. And yeah, we figured after the first year it wasn't worth the AF.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

The same hotel is in both portals. I guess the question is, do you have to book through the Luxury portal to get the benefits of the membership?

Just a guess...but probably...maybe call Chase unless someone else here has experience with this

 

[mmmears]

CIP nor CIC will hit your credit report as accounts. They're merely inquiries alone. Opening a CIP won't help your utilization or score, BUT closing one won't hurt it either. I plan to open a CIP, CIC and CIU for both me and my wife. As long as I space out the applications, no big deal. And as far as closing them goes, who cares - the credit agencies didn't know they existed in the first place

Great. So are we ok to apply for the CIP now. Last Chase application was a DD in early July. If not, when should we apply. I figure it has to be before the AMEX hits the credit report.

 

[kmc8826]

OK, hivemind, I am asking for advice, understanding that things change (I'm looking at YOU Chase). Any insight would be appreciated. DH and I finally went through all the cards we could see out there that we might want to look into and these are the ones that really appealed to us. We are cautious by nature, and also need to cut back on some spending, so we won't be rushing into any of this.

Background is that we each have 2 dumb store cards that will be over 24 months in (1) March/April and (2) July of 2019.

Goal is to keep building our MR stash so we can fly comfortably overseas again, while also getting some Chase or hotel points so we don't spend a ton on hotels (which we did this last trip).

This is what looked good to us, but we can be flexible if there is a better way. P2's #3, #4, and #5 are iffy at best. And we have to take MSR into account.


P2 (currently at 4/5 until March or April 2019)


1) Chase Ink – apply for the CIP now and try to change it to a CIC in one year (after looking carefully this combo seems to max out the benefits for us with our spending habits).

2) AMEX SPG Lux – we have an offer that expires early Dec. for 125K bonus points.

3) Chase Hyatt – we would like the Hyatt points

4) AMEX – Hilton Aspire (or other Hilton) – again we would like the points.

5) AMEX Plat Business - if we could get the 100K but that 10K MSR is what's stopping us from trying so far



P1 (currently at 3/5 until March or April 2019)


1) AMEX gold – would like it for the grocery MRs, plus will pay for itself basically (would like to get this in 2018)

2) CSP – using a referral from P2 (assuming we can still combine the points).


thanks in advance! :

I like having my Hyatt but I would definitely get all the UR cards you want first. Hyatt is an awesome UR transfer partner.

My DH has all three Ink cards now. I have the CIP. I have thought about product changing it to the CIC but since he has one and I am the employee and have a card I don’t need it. My plan is to cancel my CIP and then eventually try for my own CIC. I am keeping the CIP for him for the phone insurance.

I still haven't used all of my 10% credit at lowes and staples, but I don't know how to maximize that. Any tips?

As long as you aren’t working on a minimum spend you are good to max out on gift cards. Staples they did claw back the bonus when it was added and used on multiple cards.

 

[Lain]

Please join in. All ideas are welcome. I'm new at this. DH was thinking that CIP was better short term, CIC better for spend long term, so we could turn the CIP into a CIC. Bad idea? I keep saying we don't want too many cards, but we keep adding more anyway.

Since DH is still technically at 4/24, get the CIP for the bigger 80k UR signup bonus and the ability to refer you later for another 20k UR. DH is right that this is a good short term play.

Ideally, DH should sign up for the CIC and CIU separately, but that requires him to remain (or get back) under 5/24. It’s usually advised to space out Chase (and any other “reported”) apps by about 2-3 months. Unfortunately, DH’s Amex Gold will report in about 2 months, and that might be pushing it to get both a CIP and CIC during that time. (It’s possible. Technically, you can be approved for 1 Chase business card every 30 days — so DH could apply for the CIP now, and the CIC a month later, all before the Amex Gold shows up on the credit report — but it’s considered a little risky. And that’s a combined $8k in additional MSR, on top of the $2k MSR on the Amex Gold.)

If DH can get back under 5/24 next year, applying for the CIC (and maybe even the CIU) would be a good move. However, if he cannot, downgrading the CIP after a year to the CIC would give you a no fee card with strong UR earning ability.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

That's great to hear. And yeah, we figured after the first year it wasn't worth the AF.

I’m actually in the process of doing what @SouthFayetteFan mentioned earlier....
opening a CIP, CIC and CIU for myself and DH....spacing applications out every 3 months and alternating Chase personal cards and business card applications

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Great. So are we ok to apply for the CIP now. Last Chase application was a DD in early July. If not, when should we apply. I figure it has to be before the AMEX hits the credit report.

Your 3 months past the DD so should be fine to apply

 

[disneedee]

OK, hivemind, I am asking for advice, understanding that things change (I'm looking at YOU Chase). Any insight would be appreciated. DH and I finally went through all the cards we could see out there that we might want to look into and these are the ones that really appealed to us. We are cautious by nature, and also need to cut back on some spending, so we won't be rushing into any of this.

Background is that we each have 2 dumb store cards that will be over 24 months in (1) March/April and (2) July of 2019.

Goal is to keep building our MR stash so we can fly comfortably overseas again, while also getting some Chase or hotel points so we don't spend a ton on hotels (which we did this last trip).

This is what looked good to us, but we can be flexible if there is a better way. P2's #3, #4, and #5 are iffy at best. And we have to take MSR into account.


P2 (currently at 4/5 until March or April 2019)


1) Chase Ink – apply for the CIP now and try to change it to a CIC in one year (after looking carefully this combo seems to max out the benefits for us with our spending habits).

2) AMEX SPG Lux – we have an offer that expires early Dec. for 125K bonus points.

3) Chase Hyatt – we would like the Hyatt points

4) AMEX – Hilton Aspire (or other Hilton) – again we would like the points.

5) AMEX Plat Business - if we could get the 100K but that 10K MSR is what's stopping us from trying so far



P1 (currently at 3/5 until March or April 2019)


1) AMEX gold – would like it for the grocery MRs, plus will pay for itself basically (would like to get this in 2018)

2) CSP – using a referral from P2 (assuming we can still combine the points).


thanks in advance! :

i want that hilton aspire card too but am going to collect hilton points on other cards first and when i have enough saved up (maybe a year or two) go for it so i will have status when using hilton points and not have to pay that huge annual fee until then.

 

[Haley R]

Can I use my Hilton biz on plastiq to pay for our mortgage?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Thanks for the link. Some good information there.

I would like the CP to use for a flight on 3/16 but would love to get it as early as possible without being too risky. Earning the CP is definitely my goal.

If I can call chase to match the offer would it make sense for me to get the Plus right now (at 40k points) and then get the Biz in a couple of months? My fear would be that I get the Biz card today and then the Plus goes to 50k tomorrow. I would miss the window and have to stick with the regular 40k bonus. Does this make sense or am I getting it wrong?

I cannot come up with a good reason to apply for the personal card first. You want to get the business card first, it is the harder of the 2 cards to be approved for. Also, the biz card clearly has a 60k offer right now. That handles more than 1/2 of your CP points. What if you wait and the biz card offer goes down...that would be a very bad outcome. Take the known 60k points now If the Plus goes to 50k tomorrow, that would be GREAT! You can apply for the Plus in a couple weeks then, or probably even wait a month. IF they increase the personal offers to 50k, they won't go away in a matter of days, you should have time to react to that.

EDIT: I'll also add that if you truly won't use the CP until 3/16 then don't rush the personal card. You should have plenty of time to get it figured out

I don’t think Chase will match since the 50,000 offer is applying on the plane connected to SW WiFi....but doesn’t hurt to ask

We actually aren't talking about matching an in-flight offer. We were discussing if he applied for example on Nov 3rd for a 40k offer and then they increased the public bonus to 50k on Nov 20th, he could attempt a match.

 

[tink1970]

Glad to hear you are doing ok. Hopefully things around your dh’s work aren’t too bad. It’s so weird how hurricanes destroy some places and completely spare others. My family got hit By Harvey last summer. But it was weird. My grandma had no water in her house and yet the very next neighborhood over had water to the rooftops. My cousins house flooded but my aunt, a couple streets over, did not.

I have a friend in Crawfordville and I’ve not been able to get an update. Guessing they are without power.

Yep, these storms are funny. In Ivan our across the street neighbor and BOTH next door neighbors lost their roofs whereas we did not. Hard to predict the damage for sure!

I'm sure your friend is out of power...Crawfordville (FL) is in one of the counties that's getting a lot of flooding, wind, etc. Hoping she is safe!

I'm glad it's better than what they were reporting. Please stay safe.

Thanks so much. Other people have it quite bad, we just were on the "right side" of the storm, if that makes sense.

Usually if you're to the west of a storm you fare much better. For example, last month Tropical Storm Gordon was 2 hours west of us in Alabama/Mississippi, and we got high winds, lots and lots of rain, and several branches down. We lost power and had rain and wind from Katrina, which hit 3 hours away-we were on the east side of both of those. Ivan was catastrophic to Pensacola/Gulf Breeze-it struck about 45 minutes west of us.

Mexico City (where Michael just made landfall) is about 3 1/2 hours east of us and we had some light rain and wind. It's kind of crazy the different experiences based on where the storm hits.

Thanks again to all for their thoughts! This is such a wonderful group

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Great. So are we ok to apply for the CIP now. Last Chase application was a DD in early July. If not, when should we apply. I figure it has to be before the AMEX hits the credit report.

If the last applications your credit report shows is a double dip in July, you're probably good to apply now. If you wanted to be ultra-safe you'd wait until November BUT your problem is if those AMEX cards report then it sounds like you're in bad shape...so probably not worth waiting.

 

[DrFacilier]

I don’t think Chase will match since the 50,000 offer is applying on the plane connected to SW WiFi....but doesn’t hurt to ask

Ok. Good to know. We will be flying SW on 12/23. Seems like that would be an ok time to apply for the plus. Is that an ongoing offer?

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I cannot come up with a good reason to apply for the personal card first. You want to get the business card first, it is the harder of the 2 cards to be approved for. Also, the biz card clearly has a 60k offer right now. That handles more than 1/2 of your CP points. What if you wait and the biz card offer goes down...that would be a very bad outcome. Take the known 60k points now If the Plus goes to 50k tomorrow, that would be GREAT! You can apply for the Plus in a couple weeks then, or probably even wait a month. IF they increase the personal offers to 50k, they won't go away in a matter of days, you should have time to react to that.


We actually aren't talking about matching an in-flight offer. We were discussing if he applied for example on Nov 3rd for a 40k offer and then they increased the public bonus to 50k on Nov 20th, he could attempt a match.

Got it...sorry...thought it was in in flight match question

 

[amalone1013]

I still haven't used all of my 10% credit at lowes and staples, but I don't know how to maximize that. Any tips?

What some have done is buy a $300 Visa GC at Staples (My Lowe's sells up to $200)... Then they buy Disney GCs somewhere based on what rewards they want. Do you do swagbucks or grocery store fuel points? Do you have a Sam's membership?

Buy a $300 Visa GC from Staples, fee is $8.95, get 10% back = OOP $278.05

• Do Best Buy/Swagbucks deal 3 times = get $300 in Disney GC + $28.50 in Swagbucks credits (14.4%)
• Kroger 4x Fuel Points = $300 in Disney GC + $1.20 off per gallon of gas, up to 35 gallons... for us we can use ~27 gallons so $32.40 savings in gas (16.4%)
• Use somewhere like Sam's where they are slightly discounted already = $300 in Disney GC + $14.04 remains on the Visa GC (11.5%)

I'd also try using the RMN offers. My Staples have all credited... right now that is $5 back on $80 online, Sam's is $5 back on $60 online.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Ok. Good to know. We will be flying SW on 12/23. Seems like that would be an ok time to apply for the plus. Is that an ongoing offer?

I’ve seen it on all 4 flights since August...sometimes it’s offered on all 3 personal cards...other times it’s on just 1 or 2

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Ok. Good to know. We will be flying SW on 12/23. Seems like that would be an ok time to apply for the plus. Is that an ongoing offer?

Wait...you're going to be on a flight on 12/23?? That changes everything.

DEFINITELY apply for the Biz card now for the 60k public offer. (Make sure to delay your MSR until Jan and be careful of all those warnings in that link I sent you)

If a referral offer of 50k comes out on the Plus card before 12/23 then take advantage of that. If not apply while in-flight and just hit your $2k MSR quickly after that.

This is easy now my friend