I love credit cards so much!

[speedyfishy]

Hey @speedyfishy - I don't have that @Lain spreadsheet handy. Was it you who just grabbed the Amazon biz card via Amex? If so, did you self refer? I can't seem to make that happen.

I couldn’t self refer and I’m not even seeing a way to generate a link now that I have the card.

 

[hsmamato2]

Mary Poppins was interesting. DD liked it and I got a nice nap (but I fall asleep in almost any movie). I love Colin Firth so hate him playing a villian. The little boy and girl were adorable. I didn’t love the guy playing mr. banks. Angela Landsbury was great. Overall it was okay but too long.

I saw it.... I liked it but I need to see it again.... I love some of the songs, but I didn't like some of the cringey scenes lol.... some of it was just ridiculous IMHO but I won't say which parts so I don't ruin it for anyone here.....

 

[hsmamato2]

Well I didit. Cancelled cable today. Comcast was $192 per month for tv, Internet and phone. Cancelled phone and tv. Internet only is $92. Hulu for $40/mo (but $5 off x 4 months with Amex offer) and an antenna for local channels (free from BIL).
DH and I have cell phones. DS9 does not but he is never home without one of us. I am planning on activating my old iPhone for him, probably in March for his bday, which will add $10/ mo to our Sprint bill. Still saving money though.

how is Hulu $40 a month? I pay 5.99 a month....

 

[hsmamato2]

I think my SWA question got lost over the holiday season... So a (silly) friend of mine got a personal card last summer,and never hit MSR,so no bonus. Can she cancel sooner than a year and try again for personal,or just try for a biz now that she's serious about it? I know the rule is bonus every 24 mos,but she never got it....

 

[elgerber]

how is Hulu $40 a month? I pay 5.99 a month....

I'm guessing it's Hulu Live, that can go well over $40 a month depending on your package and options.

I guess I am the oddball, I LOVED Mary Poppins!! My neighbor didn't like it so much, but I didn't drag him there, he came willingly. I sniffled once or twice and I swear my heart almost exploded when Dick Van Dyke started dancing (he has always been my favorite). I hated Colin Firth as a villain though, he's always so lovable. He was pretty good at it though LOL.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I think my SWA question got lost over the holiday season... So a (silly) friend of mine got a personal card last summer,and never hit MSR,so no bonus. Can she cancel sooner than a year and try again for personal,or just try for a biz now that she's serious about it? I know the rule is bonus every 24 mos,but she never got it....

She can definitely try for the business....but I don’t know the answer about the personal...sorry

 

[trenty]

How often can the CSP be churned? Is it 48 months now?

I was planning to PC DH's CSP in July once he has had it for a year. Now thinking I should PC mine. I opened mine in March of 2016. We don't need to pay the annual fee on two CSPs but one of us has to keep it. Not sure which one I should PC. If we keep his CSP, I would transfer all of my URs to his account. We both have SW and United accounts if/WHEN needed to transfer URs. I have IHG with about 15,000 points from surveys, so if we need to transfer URs to IHG at any point, that could a problem. That would be the only "transfer" issue though we have no plans to stay in a hotel soon. If I wanted the CSP again for myself, when would I be able to get the bonus again?

(I would still have the CF and would PC CSP to CFU.)

ETA: anything else I should consider before deciding which one to PC?

 

[schmass]

Yes thats a perfect time. I am looking at 4th of July week for this year. Last year we did the last week of June. It will be hot and humid, but thats good beach weather. Good thing about coastal cities is you get that breeze off the water. Just take a midday break, like at Disney.
Maybe we will meet in passing!
If you stay there, eat at California Dreaming. It is technically a chain, but I like the food and more importantly, the view there is lovely. Also do Fleet landing for a waterfront restaurant. 82 queen is great. We LOVE home team bbq...they catered our wedding. Andolinis pizza. Oh man, I am hungry now.
Happy to help!

This is awesome, thank you! 4th of July week is also a possibility for us. I originally had been thinking mid-June, but I can't plan that too far ahead since the last day of school will depend on how many snow days we end up having.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

yeah, your gonna have to use a chasepay accepted location 5x times @ $25 a time.

when does this end?

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Welcome back, my friend!!! Been wondering where you were but too busy to send a note asking. Your trip sounds amazing! I love BLT! How neat that you had a fireworks view. We've stayed there three times and never gotten that even though I requested it (now I know to fax through TP's ).

Sorry you have been sick. Tis the season, right?? My dd16 was up in the middle of the night throwing up a couple of days before Christmas. I was like, oh no, here it comes. But, fingers crossed, none of the rest of us have caught it. She works at Target and apparently, they had a lot of cashiers get the same bug. Next time she worked, they had box of Emergency-C's in the break room with a note encouraging everyone to drink one

AP, huh?? You go girl!! If my dd gets into the DCP next year, you have to come down when we are there!!!

We have had a bunch of sick kids at our house too. No vomiting, thank goodness, just really bad colds. When my DS9 spends more than 10 mins on a couch you know something is wrong. He didn't get off the couch for an entire day....both boys actually...on Christmas Eve.

My DH wrapped me up some mickey ears for Christmas and when I opened them, told me I could buy my AP. Soooo exciting! Bucket list! I am getting the discounted GC so I can upgrade my 2 day ticket to an AP when I am there in Jan. When do apps open for the next round of DCP?

 

[disneymagicgirl]

DSm

DS might die without sports. Lol. Every weekend Bears, Packers, Blackhawks and English Premier League soccer. I made sure Hulu had them all. Plus the one or two channels I watch. Direct Tv now and Sling neither had the combo of channels we watch unless I added packages which defeats the purpose of cost cutting.

Yeah, thats my house too...well the bears and Blackhawks. So annoying, but thats another topic. They are really obsessed with all NFL games to see how their fantasy teams (I refer to as imaginary) are doing on any given week. Ugh.
I know they can order the NHL package direct. Can't remember what I figured out for football. Frankly, I don't care. I am sick of the exorbitant bill. DH has the NHL package and NFL package through directv right now so it is crazy expensive.

 

[StephPlum]

I have plenty of Staples stores by me (at least 4 about 15 - 20 minutes away). I have never once used a Chase card there and received both the 10% and 30% offers on my CSP and CSR.





I'm thinking of going to a Staples tomorrow night to do this with $150 in Disney and splitting pay over CSP and CSR. Curious if the 10% and 30% will stack. The DP on Doc mentioned the higher percentage tracked for Panera even though it was added after a lower percentage offer and they did not stack. I guess worst case scenario is $120 will trigger the 10% and $30 will trigger the 30%. I can always go back and get $100 more to finish off the 30%.

I need plenty of Disney gift cards. I have a trip coming in a few months and have room deposits and dining to pay for!

Check the fine print. If you trigger the 30% with only $30 I am not sure you can go back for more. Unlike AMEX which you can use up until you max out, Chase has language that says one time use. I know my Panera offer says redeemed and I didn’t max that one out. Let us know if you go this route, would be a good DP. I did two $75 transactions yesterday and waiting to see if they stack.

 

[amalone1013]

oops...

 

[StephPlum]

Small failure today. See I have another staples 10% off on my IHG. Was just there to buy non-GC stuff but didn’t have my IHG card (why is my large card wallet at home????). So I missed out on $1.50.

 

[1st*toright]

What is the best way to open a savings account for a minor (DS11) in his name with me as a co-owner? He has several thousand $ in cash at our house. Bonus if he can get an opening account bonus.

The only bonuses I've done that didn't require direct deposit were pretty high $$$ (like the Discover Savings one, which was awesome and quick and I really like their service, so I have actually kept the account after the bonus posted). You could potentially seed the account for him with enough cash to get the bonus, then withdraw. I don't know about their rules with kids.

We have USAA, and I opened a teen account for my daughter, which has worked out great except for the issue of cash - there are no USAA branches anywhere near us, and she got tips at her summer job. I would take her cash, then transfer money from my account into hers (and then I had a huge pile of cash, because of course most of the tips were in $1s and $5s). Not ideal - I expect a Discover account would create the same issue.

We recently used an offer to open an account with Santander- the offer was for $350, but it requires something like $1000 in direct deposits in the first 90 days. We got this one because my husband has a sales job where customers sometimes pay him in cash, and we needed a place to put it! His job is all remote, so when he gets cash, the company treats it as an advance on his paycheck. He was super surprised the first time he got cash, but yes, there are people out there who mostly use cash, so he comes home with several hundred dollars in cash pretty regularly. So next summer it will be easier for us to help DD manage her cash.

 

[PolyRob]

Check the fine print. If you trigger the 30% with only $30 I am not sure you can go back for more. Unlike AMEX which you can use up until you max out, Chase has language that says one time use. I know my Panera offer says redeemed and I didn’t max that one out. Let us know if you go this route, would be a good DP. I did two $75 transactions yesterday and waiting to see if they stack.

Ahh I do see "offer valid one time only" text. Hmm interesting. I used the Vudu one what I thought was multiple times, but am realizing it was once on the CSR and once on the CSP. Maybe I will take one for the team to be a DP! Whats the worst that could happen, more Disney gift cards? lol

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

when does this end?

12/31

 

[chattadisser]

when does this end?

I believe, and someone correct me if I'm wrong, it ends 12.31.18. I'm trying to get it done ASAP.

 

[GlamMistress]

I just did an Uber Eats order for the first time ever. Needed to use the $35 in credits. I'm exhausted. Ordered subs for 4 of us in the office for lunch. Seemed overly complicated but that might have been the restaurant we chose - and the fact that one coworker wanted EVERYTHING custom. Good grief.
Free lunch tho, yay!

 

[amalone1013]

Went on my GC run...

$250 for the $50 back at Lowes on DH's spg biz. Got the redemption email.

Hit up Best Buy for $100. Need to do it twice more in the next couple days for the amex $30/$300 offer plus swagbucks.

Lastly did staples. I had the 30%+10% on 3 cards. I only want disney at this time so I just did 3 cards for $50 each since they didn't have variable load. He let me do it all in 1 transaction and split pay on all 3 cc, so it triggered $5 back for RMN. Yay for that. Hopefully it tracks fine for chase offers. If not, I will be following up.

@amalone1013 is it you with the gift card spreadsheet?

We stopped at BB last night.... was just going to do the last ~$55 on DHs card and was thinking I'd let my offer go... then DH decided he wanted to buy the new Jurassic World movie in 4k. Which then turned into wanting to buy the 5 movie collection in 4k, which was $70. Soooo we went back to the car to get my wallet, doing the movies plus a $30 Disney GC on my card, and then I picked up 2 classic Christmas movies I've been wanting plus a $40 Disney GC to finish his card. So two more stops to go!

Here is my probably overly complicated method, let me know if anything isn't clear.

Here is my gift card spreadsheet:


Date, store, type (purchase/RMN/AMEX rebate, etc). Details - here I will note if I used gift cards I cashed out for from Swagbucks, or if it was buying a Happy GC, Visa GC, etc to use. On my previous spreadsheet I would note that on 11/20 I got a Happy Guy GC for the $22.50, for example, and then have a separate line where I would record when I flipped it to a Disney GC and that's where I would add the $25 in value, but I haven't been doing that on this spreadsheet. I track the RMN/AMEX rebates on separate lines, that way I remember to watch for them to post. I turn the line green when it is complete, and then if I have rebates I'm expecting I have them bolded with an approximate date to go through. Then I just let it run a percentage of paid vs actual value. Then when I use some of my stash... I see how much I used, ie in the below thumb I used $282 off my GC for our Labor Day weekend trip. At the time my overall savings % was 75.58%, so that's how I got the $213 number.



I don't include the swagbucks earnings from BB on here. I have a separate spreadsheet for $$ for travel and it goes there only when I cash out for Paypal from them. Basically this spreadsheet is strictly for GCs, so I only include things that are directly against them ie AMEX offer rebates or RMN triggered when I buy a GC.

ETA: I also will put planned purchases on the GC spreadsheet, like now that I'll be using my BB AMEX offer too I'm going to add those to see where it will actually put me - the other two $100 purchases plus $30 offer rebate.

For the full picture, here is my travel fund spreadsheet:


Any RMN/Chase/AMEX offers not related to GCs go here, shopping portal cashback, swagbucks when cashing out paypal, gas savings from fuel points, CSR travel credits that are triggered against non-trip expenses ie tolls. Money spent out of the fund can be towards GCs I'm flipping for more $$, travel things like a deal on Uber/Hotels.com GCs, Swagbucks offers... also I move money out of here to cover cash expenses on trips. I keep a pending list of big offers on the right side. Swagbucks offers just depend on if they end up here... if it fits a budget category I might have bought anyways then it just goes there (like Sirius XM, DH was thinking of signing up again so it went in hobbies) but if it's something I wouldn't have done, Barkbox, Fanduel, nJoy... it goes here against my travel money.

Really I need to take off the $180 buying swagbucks deal from 12/21... I got in on the buy 2000 for $18, up to 5 times. Did both accounts and got referral 10%, so 21,000sb. Cashed out for $190 in Visa GCs plus have ~$25 left in sb currently. I'll probably just use them to buy Disney GCs from Sam's so that $180 should go on my GC spreadsheet.

Giordano’s Pizza

Yummy. Ended up here on a whim on a Chicago trip

General timeline I've seen is cancel the no-fee Arrival and wait 4-6 weeks.

Think I might be giving it a try... I've only got ~$2 left on my card so I'm not worried about losing it. DH has around $220 on his Arrival Plus and AF is due in March so we need to decide what we're doing with that...