I love credit cards so much!

[gottalovepluto]

I had just looked on the UR portal last night for an excursion in phoenix for my parents, couldn't book it because my bonus points from my CIP haven't posted yet, logged in today and the excursion has increased by over 100 dollars. I continue with my disappoint with chase ultimate rewards...

Someone on Reddit said the car rentals have gone up drastically as well
ETA: which directly contradicts @SouthFayetteFan ! Maybe all is not bad news!

 

[pillow]

Good news about Gift of College GCs. It looks like they're really expanding their retail presence: Best options for buying Gift of College gift cards (now at Target, but…)

FM's notes that we can now buy GOC GCs in-store, in amounts up to $500 at:

• Brookshire’s Grocery. (Located in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas.)
• Foodmaxx. Discount supermarket. (Located in California and Nevada.)
• Fred’s. General merchandise and pharmacy. (Located in the Southeast.)
• H-E-B Texas Grocery
• Lucky Supermarkets. (Located in California.)
• Save Mart Supermarkets. (Located in California and Nevada.)

Buying in $500 amounts maximizes the value of the $5.95 activation fee, and brings funding a 529 Plan or paying off student loans with a credit card down to 1.19%. Notably, the Amex Gold earns 4x MR at grocery stores and the Amex BCP earns 6% cash back. FM lists other high earning grocery rewards cards.

Although Target (and previously discussed, Barnes & Noble) now carry GOC GCs, it appears Target sells only $50 and $100 denominations, which makes the $5.95 fee a terrible value (although I wonder if you get a 5% REDcard discount, but probably not if these are considered "prepaid cards").

This is huge for people in California and Nevada (and folks in the Southeast), because previously only H-E-B in Texas sold $500 GOC GCs. I have several Lucky Supermarkets relatively nearby so I'll be checking for GOC GCs this week.

My dream is that they will come to Kroger in $500 denominations. I need to dump some funds into DD's 529 before I pay spring tuition in December. I sure do hate just transferring from my bank account . . .

 

[gottalovepluto]

Good news about Gift of College GCs. It looks like they're really expanding their retail presence: Best options for buying Gift of College gift cards (now at Target, but…)

FM's notes that we can now buy GOC GCs in-store, in amounts up to $500 at:

• Brookshire’s Grocery. (Located in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas.)
• Foodmaxx. Discount supermarket. (Located in California and Nevada.)
• Fred’s. General merchandise and pharmacy. (Located in the Southeast.)
• H-E-B Texas Grocery
• Lucky Supermarkets. (Located in California.)
• Save Mart Supermarkets. (Located in California and Nevada.)

Buying in $500 amounts maximizes the value of the $5.95 activation fee, and brings funding a 529 Plan or paying off student loans with a credit card down to 1.19%. Notably, the Amex Gold earns 4x MR at grocery stores and the Amex BCP earns 6% cash back. FM lists other high earning grocery rewards cards.

Although Target (and previously discussed, Barnes & Noble) now carry GOC GCs, it appears Target sells only $50 and $100 denominations, which makes the $5.95 fee a terrible value (although I wonder if you get a 5% REDcard discount, but probably not if these are considered "prepaid cards").

This is huge for people in California and Nevada (and folks in the Southeast), because previously only H-E-B in Texas sold $500 GOC GCs. I have several Lucky Supermarkets relatively nearby so I'll be checking for GOC GCs this week.

Cool! My town is all SaveMarts (don’t get me started ) so I’ll keep an eye out!

 

[amalone1013]

Thanks Lain, my non-churner friends would be like...why do you care, you didn't even waste any money. The people that "get it" know that the name of the game is to maximize the return on every dollar spent at all times, LOL!

I had a moment of feeling slightly ill last week. I ordered Happy Guy GCs from Staples to use at Home Depot for Disney GCs. $46.79 for a $50 GC - I bought 2 to trigger a $5 RMN offer and then figured with 10% AMEX offer it'd be about 20% off. And after I placed the order I realized I was over my $1000 limit on the offer (per reddit that DHs employee card purchases would count towards the limit) and I was getting convinced I wasn't getting a credit, and would only get 12% off if RMN credited, maybe less... when I could have used DHs AMEX offer that I've barely used. Luckily the credits came through on Monday... I did two orders total and one RMN did not credit, but one did

 

[pillow]

Someone on Reddit said the car rentals have gone up drastically as well

Oh geez - I hope not. The old portal has generally had great prices for car rentals. I almost always book my car with UR. Ugh.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Oh geez - I hope not. The old portal has generally had great prices for car rentals. I almost always book my car with UR. Ugh.

Just saw @SouthFayetteFan contradicted it & actually got a better rate!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Someone on Reddit said the car rentals have gone up drastically as well
ETA: which directly contradicts @SouthFayetteFan ! Maybe all is not bad news!

The problem with my DP is that I haven't been checking prices regularly. I booked this van over a month ago, now that we're a week out I wanted to check and make sure the price was still good (I should've been doing this more frequently). The fact that the new Expedia came up today is purely coincidental to when I checked. LOL.

Still not sure what to do either...Might switch to Dollar to save a 1,300 URs if I can't get this whole Skip the Counter figured out.

 

[havaneselover]

My dream is that they will come to Kroger in $500 denominations. I need to dump some funds into DD's 529 before I pay spring tuition in December. I sure do hate just transferring from my bank account . . .

Mine too!!!

 

[Mopedmom1]

Yeah, I think you should be good to go for the SPG Biz application on the 29th. Amex’s 1/5 rule is inconsistent because Amex doesn’t always do a hard pull when you apply if you’re already an Amex cardmember who they’ve done a recent inquiry on. If Amex doesn’t do a hard pull on an application, your next application isn’t affected by 1/5. But since this is your first Amex application, I’m almost certain Amex did a hard pull. (Amex has a separate rule that @Albort mentioned above, 2/90, which limits you to two credit card approvals -- not charge cards -- within a 90-day period.)

Piggybacking on this for clarification. DH is 2/24; CIP 2/18, CSR 5/18, SPG Personal 10/12/18.

Would he be able to apply for the SPG Biz around the end of this month? OR instead he could apply for a CIU in the same time frame? Is there a reason he should pick one over the other? My thought is the CIU over the SPG because I could make a partial payment on our property taxes with a Visa but not an AMEX. It's a 2.49% fee, so an effective $675 UR redeemed through the CSR. But maybe I'm missing something? (I am not planning on keeping his CIP when the AF hits.)

 

[amalone1013]

If you bought the MCGC, could you then add it as a payment method on RMN? Then reload the RMN offer and buy your Disney card with the MCGC?

Hmmm... I did run the math on using a MCGC to buy Disney at Best Buy with sb, but that was still a slightly worse deal than direct and more work. I will have to do the numbers on using MCGC/see if I can add it to RMN...

I need more Disney giftcards too (cruise in January is now paid, but I'll need more money obv) - but the last RMN deal at Staples didn't track for me so I am leery.

Staples has been mostly good for me. Once in store it didn't track for me, but did for DH - we went together. Now this time an online order - one with DHs card tracked, mine did not. In total I've had 7 out of 9 track and got $57 - would have been another $10 if the other two tracked. DH is 4 for 4, getting $25. So odds have been good enough for me to keep trying.

 

[jhoannam]

Just pulled the trigger on SW Biz for DH, time got away from me last night. Fingers crossed.

Now I'm debating how to use the Staples/RMN deal. Do I buy:

• $200 MCGC for $201.95 - 10% AMEX $20.20 - $10 RMN = $171.75 (85.9%) and use for regular spending
• $75 Disney GC - 10% AMEX $7.50 - $10 RMN = $57.50 (76.7%)

Disney is better overall, and really is there such a thing as too many Disney GCs? In all seriousness, even after wiping out over 2/3 of our stash for our Labor Day and anniversary trips, I'm back up to almost $2200 and averaging 30% off. I can't believe how quickly I've been accumulating them. I expect to need somewhere between $4000 and $5000 for the family trip.

The RMN deal doesn't end until 1/31/2019... can you do it once a week until Nov. when the Amex deal is over?

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I’m seeing Disney hotels on Expedia but when I go to the portal I’m not seeing any Disney hotels.

yes it seems they hate us. or they hate disney. or they hate both.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Still being actively blocked by Chase. That glint of hope I had they’d allow Disney bookings is slowly dying... stingy bastards.

Did any bloggers etc get any info on it? I don't understand why they'd randomly block disney.

 

[thevalley]

Just won 500 points from Marriott.
Does the CIP or Amex gold/pink do expedited shipping? Or sw biz?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Just won 500 points from Marriott.
Does the CIP or Amex gold/pink do expedited shipping? Or sw biz?

We've won 3,650 points since the promo started. In typical SFF fashion, I'm keeping track on a spreadsheet so I make sure they all post.

I honestly have no idea why I take the time to do this everyday. I have more Marriott points than any human really needs...and yet, here we are!

 

[Albort]

Just won 500 points from Marriott.
Does the CIP or Amex gold/pink do expedited shipping? Or sw biz?

CIP yes. I got mine expedited.
Amex gold/pink, i think they are having a card shortage so idk if u will get that expedited.
Pretty sure sw biz can be expedited if u ask.

No points for me today.

 

[amalone1013]

If you bought the MCGC, could you then add it as a payment method on RMN? Then reload the RMN offer and buy your Disney card with the MCGC?

Number I'm getting, assuming you use the MCGC to buy 2 Disney at $75 each and then have $50 left over for... whatever... is 75.88% vs 76.67% straight Disney.

The RMN deal doesn't end until 1/31/2019... can you do it once a week until Nov. when the Amex deal is over?

That is tempting, I didn't even think about doing it more than once!

 

[disneymagicgirl]

If you bought the MCGC, could you then add it as a payment method on RMN? Then reload the RMN offer and buy your Disney card with the MCGC?

I wonder if you could load the MCGC to dosh and go to sams and buy disney gc there for an additional 9% or so back.

 

[thevalley]

We've won 3,650 points since the promo started. In typical SFF fashion, I'm keeping track on a spreadsheet so I make sure they all post.

I honestly have no idea why I take the time to do this everyday. I have more Marriott points than any human really needs...and yet, here we are!

That’s awesome. I did notice i can only do it for my spg account. It only worked once for both spg and Marriott.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Good news about Gift of College GCs. It looks like they're really expanding their retail presence: Best options for buying Gift of College gift cards (now at Target, but…)

FM's notes that we can now buy GOC GCs in-store, in amounts up to $500 at:

• Brookshire’s Grocery. (Located in Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas.)
• Foodmaxx. Discount supermarket. (Located in California and Nevada.)
• Fred’s. General merchandise and pharmacy. (Located in the Southeast.)
• H-E-B Texas Grocery
• Lucky Supermarkets. (Located in California.)
• Save Mart Supermarkets. (Located in California and Nevada.)

Buying in $500 amounts maximizes the value of the $5.95 activation fee, and brings funding a 529 Plan or paying off student loans with a credit card down to 1.19%. Notably, the Amex Gold earns 4x MR at grocery stores and the Amex BCP earns 6% cash back. FM lists other high earning grocery rewards cards.

Although Target (and previously discussed, Barnes & Noble) now carry GOC GCs, it appears Target sells only $50 and $100 denominations, which makes the $5.95 fee a terrible value (although I wonder if you get a 5% REDcard discount, but probably not if these are considered "prepaid cards").

This is huge for people in California and Nevada (and folks in the Southeast), because previously only H-E-B in Texas sold $500 GOC GCs. I have several Lucky Supermarkets relatively nearby so I'll be checking for GOC GCs this week.

Gosh all we have here from the list is the BnN and target.