I love credit cards so much!

[Haley R]

All our bills are autopay but I still like to see it all on paper. So I write out everything each month. Like I posted last night, this month I have 19 cards with balances to pay (used an offer on pretty much all 13 of our Amex cards!) so writing that all out just made me realize that I think I have too many cards in use.

Yeah we don’t have that many cards right now. I could see the benefit of writing it down for the offers because that would be hard to track with that many cards

 

[usakiwi]

Which airline portals did you use? I received my United bonus, but not Southwest or Alaska yet.

I did United. Wish I would have also done the others...next time!

 

[Limes96]

I don’t use auto pay on the credit card bills just because our payments come from our checking account, and the balance fluctuates so much that I like to make sure the funds are available before a payment is made. If not I can transfer from another account first. I enter all my payments and due dates in a spreadsheet at the end of the month for the following month and then print that out. Then if I miss any or my statement hasn’t closed yet I can add it in later with a pen. That way I can see everything at a glance without logging on to anything. So I guess that’s a mix of old and new school methods. My phone, internet, and electric bills are all on autopay though, because those are all relatively low $.

 

[AmyAnne]

Back from our week at WDW/Universal. Thanks to those who helped educate me about the fastpass plus system on the MDE app -- despite horrible crowds, we managed to get in more rides than I thought we would. I still prefer the old system but I dislike the new system less than I did before our trip. Also, I'm not as good at spreadsheets as many here, but I'm estimating that credit card rewards paid for at least half of our trip (including flights, resorts, tickets, and food).

Already thinking about a possible destination for next Christmas. Criteria are warm but not beach-focused (need some museums or castles or something). I have looked briefly at cruises to Cuba but so far they are all longer than DH can get away (which is about 4-5 days) or the wrong dates (can't count on kids being finished with exams until December 20-something). Any suggestions? I need a new excuse for a new MSR

 

[AmyAnne]

Also, I am terribly behind here, but condolences to those who have lost family and best wishes to those who are recovering from unexpected things.

 

[usakiwi]

Quick help. I have a Master Card Gift Card for $200 that I have been holding onto, that I got from Dish this year. I just looked and it expires 1/19, yikes, so now I have to spend it asap. I know I could buy some target/chipotle etc gift cards (at least I think I can??), but would it work to buy another Visa gift card with this, so I can not have to decide right now what way to spend it? I know the $200 balance won't cover the fee, is there a way/place I could buy this way, and use another card to cover the fee?

Thanks!

Could you pay ahead on your power bill maybe? Or car/health/life insurance? These are all things I pay ahead if I have MSR to meet, which I know is not exactly the same as your situation, but maybe a possibility?

 

[georgina]

I should see if I can find the articles I read....https://thepointsguy.com/guide/chase-freedom-vs-chase-freedom-unlimited/

This is where I kinda went, well I guess the CFU is better
"As you can see above, even if you earn every available bonus point with the Chase Freedom, you still come out ahead spending less than $2,000 a month on the Freedom Unlimited. I’ll assume that most people (myself included) aren’t able to max out every quarter, which is something you’ll need to consider when deciding for yourself."

I would use gas stations, as I go to Costco for gas and can't use any of my amex bonuses there. But there are some categories I don't think I'll spend much in. So I'm not sure. I got the message to call in to switch. I guess I have a few days to decide.

Thanks for the link to the article. I hadn't thought about the unlimited, I have the Freedom now, but will be PC-ing DH's Sapphire Preferred next year. Now we put all our basic 1% rewards on the Sapphires because of the UR redemption bonus, but I can see where using the Unlimited 1.5% back on his card, then transferring to the Sapphire Reserve would be a better deal for those charges, and I will keep my Freedom for the 5% categories.

 

[miztressuz]

Quick help. I have a Master Card Gift Card for $200 that I have been holding onto, that I got from Dish this year. I just looked and it expires 1/19, yikes, so now I have to spend it asap. I know I could buy some target/chipotle etc gift cards (at least I think I can??), but would it work to buy another Visa gift card with this, so I can not have to decide right now what way to spend it? I know the $200 balance won't cover the fee, is there a way/place I could buy this way, and use another card to cover the fee?

Thanks!

I think I quoted the wrong post, but, unless things have changed that means you have until the end of Jan 2019 to use it. I know on my regular credit cards they work until the end of the month listed. Like a card expired 8/2016, I tried to use it 9/1/2016 and it declined but a couple days before it worked just fine. (I was dopey and didn't realize I didn't switch out for the new card) AFAIK that how card expiration dates work, they're good until the last day of the month listed.

But if you're concerned, as long as the store takes a CC to buy a GC, then you should be able to use it to buy another. Personally when I had a couple from focus group payments that expired soon I just made payments on bills and transferred the bill money into another fund. I think I prepaid the internet and the trash bill just to use them up and moved the money into the vaca fund.

With the new Chase offers, I see that Staples is 30%; however there is a disclaimer that says no third party sales.
Does this mean gift cards would be excluded? I’d plan on going and getting $75 worth of gift cards and some printer paper to max it out...

Not in this case. As long as the charge comes through as Staples then it'll trigger the offer. If something like 'Kinkos at Staples' gets charged, as a third party operating within Staples, then it probably wouldn't work. (just making up a name, I thought back in the day the copy/print center was outsourced so it's the only example I could think of.)

 

[usakiwi]

Thank you!!! I'm going to try it!


Hmmmm, shipping charge on physical card, puts me back to the same issue. Guess I could do the virtual card?

It looks like you might go with other options anyway, but I would be careful going the virtual route. From reading a few things I think the virtual ones can be tricky to use...

 

[palhockeymomof2]

@disneymagicgirl mentioned the Hilton Bonnet Creek and I will say we stayed there and at the Waldorf Bonnet Creek and I'd stay at both again in a heartbeat. I would probably pick them both over any of the Disney resorts except a couple of the deluxe's and those would be more due to sentimental reasons than anything else. Both Bonnet Creek properties had nice big rooms and, to me, the amenities are just as plentiful as the Disney resorts. They also still seem to understand the hospitality side of their business more than Disney does anymore. I would say the drawback to staying there is the bus service, while a nice large motor coach, stops at each park so depending on which park your going to it can be quite a trip. If it works out price wise/point wise I'd stay there.

Another vote for Wyndham Bonnet Creek we just stayed in a 2 br there, it was larger than the DVC villas we usually stay in....the pools were very nice as well...we had a car And are annual pass holders so drove to the parks
We would definitely book it again with our UR points

 

[Psychodisney]

Okay color me stupid.....why are ya'll cutting your credit limits. I have a CRAZY amount of credit to my name between my personal and business accounts. I wanna say I have $150k out there, LOL. I am carrying $8500 in credit card debt I'm paying down. And I've got $300k mortgage. So my thought is the more credit I have to me, the lower my ratio is and the better my score. My SPG Biz account I think has a $25k limit, I have several other cards around $15-18k. What's the perk in having lower lines?

I'm outside of the chase 5/24 and will be for awhile. If y'all are lowering to get Chase cards.

Yes, it has to do with keeping your CL at 50% or less of your income for Chase purposes to increase your odds of approval.
Go Blue!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Finally saw my 20k Hilton points from the Amex spend promo. I met the spend 12/4 if my memory bank spending counted. 12/13 if it didn’t (got nervous it might not work & put more spend on the card to make up for my bank funding).

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Okay color me stupid.....why are ya'll cutting your credit limits. I have a CRAZY amount of credit to my name between my personal and business accounts. I wanna say I have $150k out there, LOL. I am carrying $8500 in credit card debt I'm paying down. And I've got $300k mortgage. So my thought is the more credit I have to me, the lower my ratio is and the better my score. My SPG Biz account I think has a $25k limit, I have several other cards around $15-18k. What's the perk in having lower lines?

I'm outside of the chase 5/24 and will be for awhile. If y'all are lowering to get Chase cards.

I just lower mine Chase CLs to get approved for additional Chase cards.......my credit score stays around 835..

 

[amalone1013]

I should see if I can find the articles I read....https://thepointsguy.com/guide/chase-freedom-vs-chase-freedom-unlimited/

This is where I kinda went, well I guess the CFU is better
"As you can see above, even if you earn every available bonus point with the Chase Freedom, you still come out ahead spending less than $2,000 a month on the Freedom Unlimited. I’ll assume that most people (myself included) aren’t able to max out every quarter, which is something you’ll need to consider when deciding for yourself."

I would use gas stations, as I go to Costco for gas and can't use any of my amex bonuses there. But there are some categories I don't think I'll spend much in. So I'm not sure. I got the message to call in to switch. I guess I have a few days to decide.

It depends on your plans too. Plan to keep going for new bonuses? I read that article and know that at this point in my life, I'm not going to put any of those break even numbers on a Freedom or Unlimited in a year. Part of it is I've got other cards to spread my spending out on, because things will go on cards that earn bonus points for whatever category they're in. Also, I plan to keep getting cards. And unless other spending needs to move to the new card to get the spending bonus, I will keep charging things to their category cards and non-category spending will go on the new card. I went through this debate for myself and went with an Unlimited for a non-category spend card. Of course I couldn't have predicted what the Freedom categories were going to be, but it turns out they were very useful to me, and I almost never found myself reaching for the CFU because I'd grab the new card I was meeting spend on. I peeked through my statements: in the 6 months I had CFU, I put $2700 on it. Then back in April, I was sitting here all jealous of those with Freedoms because Q1 was easy to max, and so was Q2... when I thought, there's no reason I can't switch! So I did Now I've put about $3500 on it, but I'd guess over 90% of that was category spend, so I'm way ahead on points. I put most non-category spend on a new card still. It's enough that I might turn my CSR into a 2nd Freedom card vs CFU for me.

So it comes down to: are you going to get new cards? maximize your points earning on your regular spending? carry multiple cards on you to maximize the spend? do you have tons of non-category spend? And if you pick one and decide in a couple months you want the other card, it's really easy to call in and switch

 

[amalone1013]

Another vote for Wyndham Bonnet Creek we just stayed in a 2 br there, it was larger than the DVC villas we usually stay in....the pools were very nice as well...we had a car And are annual pass holders so drove to the parks
We would definitely book it again with our UR points

Good to hear - I need to look at this again for summer...

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Yes, it has to do with keeping your CL at 50% or less of your income for Chase purposes to increase your odds of approval.
Go Blue!

Sadly Blue looked HORRID once again. I'm not drinking from Harbough's Kool Aid. I'm a Lloyd girl through and through!

 

[calypso726]

That helps a lot! I can try and find those articles for her.

She's got time. The flights aren't until mid march, but - she has 4 flights so its quite a lot of points. She can easily get the hotel points refunded.

Thank you and I can't wait for more ice and penguin pics and reports! My cousin once went to the geographical North Pole as an engineer during his job at the time, but you are my only South Pole visitor!

Penguins and a leopard seal!

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

It depends on your plans too. Plan to keep going for new bonuses? I read that article and know that at this point in my life, I'm not going to put any of those break even numbers on a Freedom or Unlimited in a year. Part of it is I've got other cards to spread my spending out on, because things will go on cards that earn bonus points for whatever category they're in. Also, I plan to keep getting cards. And unless other spending needs to move to the new card to get the spending bonus, I will keep charging things to their category cards and non-category spending will go on the new card. I went through this debate for myself and went with an Unlimited for a non-category spend card. Of course I couldn't have predicted what the Freedom categories were going to be, but it turns out they were very useful to me, and I almost never found myself reaching for the CFU because I'd grab the new card I was meeting spend on. I peeked through my statements: in the 6 months I had CFU, I put $2700 on it. Then back in April, I was sitting here all jealous of those with Freedoms because Q1 was easy to max, and so was Q2... when I thought, there's no reason I can't switch! So I did Now I've put about $3500 on it, but I'd guess over 90% of that was category spend, so I'm way ahead on points. I put most non-category spend on a new card still. It's enough that I might turn my CSR into a 2nd Freedom card vs CFU for me.

So it comes down to: are you going to get new cards? maximize your points earning on your regular spending? carry multiple cards on you to maximize the spend? do you have tons of non-category spend? And if you pick one and decide in a couple months you want the other card, it's really easy to call in and switch

Well right now I'm hitting the MSR on the Aspire. After that, not sure if I'm going for another card anytime soon. I just met the spend on the IHG and the AA Citi Biz. I'm out of any Chase cards. I was denied the Barclay AA Biz. I could MAYBE do the HH Biz, that'll make 3 Hilton Amex though. And honestly it'll put me over on the Amex allotment. Hell, I don't even know what I would be eligible for at this point. I'm about to be maxed on Amex slots, I'm out of Chase. Barclay doesn't like me (I have the AA Aviator and I'm keeping it for the 10% back...atleast until the BF moves here).

So once I hit the spend on the Aspire, I don't think there is anything I can go for. I have the Discover IT I can do category spends on, so I guess I was looking for something to earn higher UR than my CSR. I guess an "everyday" card. I'll likely still do a Hilton card at grocery since that's 6x's,

 

[disneymagicgirl]

Looks really nice but we can’t use our certs here, or could we?

Only if they let us upgrade or we trick them into upgrading. It is a cat 5.

I am leaning towards cancelling my package and using the points for 5 nights somewhere I'd actually like.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

@disneymagicgirl - I’m sorry to read about the way your Disney cruise ended. But can I say that you have a seriously good looking family? Your DD3 is completely adorable, especially when she’s all dressed up as a princess. And your DH looks like Aaron Eckhart or something.

why thank you! (googles Aaron Eckhart...)