I love credit cards so much!

[schmass]

Cruise experts: I booked with CSR (using points) for our 7 day cruise in February Caribbean. Do I need the extra insurances out there. We obviously have health insurance but I know things get dodgy when you leave the country.

If yes how much coverage. Prices range from $150-$300 so quite a range

We ended up getting trip insurance on our most recent cruise in October. I wasn't as worried about something happening to us while we were on the cruise as I was worried about something happening to a family member that would prevent us from going. I was happy to have the extra insurance and even more happy that we didn't have to use it.

 

[PolyRob]

When I spoke to the fraud department yesterday regarding the unauthorized charge on my CSR the representative asked me if I had personally opened the account. I thought it an odd question but considering dh has several cc in his wallet and he has never personally applied for any of them I better just keep my mouth shut and not comment on it in any way, other than to say, "Yes I personally opened the account."

Has anyone else had this question asked of them before?

Yes, I got that question when I called last week about fraud on my CSR. The representative said he had a list of questions he had to ask me

Weird! I called about fraud on my CSP back in November and was not asked that question. Could there be an updated script or maybe its a script for CSR? Chase did reverse the payments that same day and I got a new card in the mail in less than 4 days. I received two follow-ups in the mail: 1. Letter confirming the charges we discussed and the reversal and an investigation was pending (about a week later) 2. Letter stating the investigation was complete and I am not responsible for the charges and credits are now permanent (just this past week)

 

[amalone1013]

We ended up getting trip insurance on our most recent cruise in October. I wasn't as worried about something happening to us while we were on the cruise as I was worried about something happening to a family member that would prevent us from going. I was happy to have the extra insurance and even more happy that we didn't have to use it.

I'm debating about this for our cruise, because DH has 3 elderly grandparents who aren't in the best of health.

 

[snugglebug]

Ok I have weird question (what else is new for me) regarding a bank payment and a cc..... I see a payment I made on 1/4 to a chase cc is still authorizing in my bank acct today(I'm hoping this means the payment counted on 1/4!) and another payment to a chase cc on P2 acct.... I just noticed this discrepancy and looking for some quick advice. I paid $400 to the swa cc balance,planning to finish it all this week. when I went to check the accts today- payment shows it has gone thru and credited to cc acct, but nothing shows on the back acct page.(!!!) when I look for payment details on cc page, I can see the 2 of the last 4 bank acct #'s transposed. I checked the other accts on the same chase page and it shows correctly. I'm super anxious right now about what to do and who to call. I want this payment to post and the credit to show for obvious point bonus reasons by 1/11. I'm scared if I call someone now, it'll take longer than these few days to sort out that 400.00. WWYD? Please help with advice,I'm not looking to scam anyone, I'm just concerned the bonus will be in limbo if I mess with this wight this minute. I did go in and readjust and make sure I finished paying the comple SWA balance today with the correct bank #. If I don't see it in my bank acct,then how did the payment process?

I'm not sure about the transposed numbers, but my payments almost always show as paid on the CC before the clear my bank acct (NFCU). With the 4th being Friday, I wouldn't be looking for it to clear my bank acct until tonight at the earliest.

 

[DisneyMandC]

When I spoke to the fraud department yesterday regarding the unauthorized charge on my CSR the representative asked me if I had personally opened the account. I thought it an odd question but considering dh has several cc in his wallet and he has never personally applied for any of them I better just keep my mouth shut and not comment on it in any way, other than to say, "Yes I personally opened the account."

Has anyone else had this question asked of them before?

Yes, I got that question when I called last week about fraud on my CSR. The representative said he had a list of questions he had to ask me

So weird, I called on fraud on my CFU about 10 days ago and wasn't asked that.

 

[miztressuz]

On the Bank Bonus front, we're going to have quite a bit of 1099-INT's to report this year. Besides the few we get annually for regular interest stuff, we did 9 bonuses that credited in 2018. I'm in the process of closing 2 out now to make room to babysit the 2 new guys I opened in Dec, BoA and Santander. The others are closed or have no fees so they can veg for a bit.

I completed the requirements for the BoA bonus in Dec and if they hold to recent data points I should be seeing that by the end of the week. Whoopie, $100
For this one it wasn't so much the bonus amount, but I'm mostly hoping this gets me on their good side for CCs in the future. I plan on hanging onto the account for as long as they don't annoy me so maybe later I can milk them for more lucrative CC bonuses later

For Santander, since everything I've been reading shows they don't pay out until 90 days after account opening and I'm already out $26.14 of the $300 bonus by not reading every. single. comment on DoC to find out about Chase coding as a Cash Advance now (turns out there were a couple posts in Nov that pointed to it but I guess it didn't catch the team's attention to update the CA page. although I'm now immortalized in DoC's DP list... not quite how I wanted that honor to work out...) I'm throwing the kitchen sink at it. Just pushed 1k from my Schwab brokerage which should work, I think, and thinking about taking that out, sending it over to Fidelity and hitting it from that brokerage account too. As back up, the good thing on this account is they give it 90 days to meet requirements instead of 60, so I still have some time to funnel some legit DD's over to it to make the 1k total. I think I'll have it all post in time but really hoping the Schwab works still. But I'm not going to be good as a further DP on this one as I'm not taking chances

 

[tink1970]

Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts or comments? Thanks!

I think I'd go for the DH referral for CIP--that's what, 85,000 UR after MSR and if DH got a referral bonus even more that you could use for SW RR or some other helpful way to get kids home from college. I'm no Chase expert but I think that's the way I'd lean.

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

I'm looking into applying for another card (or two) in the near future. I used to be somewhat active on this thread and always read it and am also a member of the reddit thread to see referrals and other discussions. This past summer I got a promotion at work (good thing), but it left MUCH less time to research travel hacking and keep up with this thread (bad thing). Anyway, I'm feeling much more comfortable in my new role and have more time to keep up, so I've spent the past few days reading about the past 45 pages or so - this thread moves fast!!

Anyway, here's my situation:

Me:
10/16 - Chase Ink Business - changed to CIC in 12/17 - still open
1/3/17 - CSR (still open)
3/31/17 - CSP - closed 4/9/18
8/27/17 - Citi TY Premier (still open) - probably should have closed, but missed the window
8/28/17 - AmEx Business Gold Rewards - closed 9/18
8/2/18 - AmEx - Biz Green Card - opened to move MR points from above card so I wouldn't have to pay annual fee


DH:
10/13/16 - CSR (still open)
3/6/17 - SW Premier - closed
3/6/17 - SW Plus - closed (opened both to get CP for 2017/2018)
8/4/17 - Citi TY Premier (still open) - again probably should have closed, but still have all the points from initial bonus
5/1/18 - Chase Ink Business Preferred


DH and I both have a "business", but I don't mind trying for business cards - and have had luck so far when I've tried.

I was originally thinking of trying to get the SW business and SW Personal for myself to get the CP for the rest of this year and next, but i"m not sure how much we'd use it. We only used DH's CP 3 times in the 2 years that we had it, but we are running low on SW points (keep flying our kids places) and we will probably fly domestically more these next two years than the past 2, but that's still up in the air a bit.

I was also thinking of having DH refer me for the Chase Ink Business Preferred card so I could get the 80,000 and he would get whatever referral credit is available.

I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do both though because that would leave me we three Chase Business cards unless I closed the CIC.

This summer we will probably be taking a cruise somewhere, but everything is so up in the air - our oldest graduates from college, so will hopefully have a job somewhere and middle is hoping to have an internship somewhere, so it's difficult to make any plans. I don't want to exclude them if possible, but not sure we'll all be able to go together for a full week this year .

Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts or comments? Thanks!

I’d go for DH referring you to CIP. If your unsure about SW biz, then you could lower chase limits and apply for that in 3-4 months while you decide. Do you both need CSRs? I would downgrade one so not paying 2 fees and consider another valuable personal. Maybe Personal (rose) Gold or maybe Hyatt?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

GAAAH! AND of course if I wait around...the price goes away.

I just went to rebook this and the prices went up a ton since this morning! There are non-stop flights at 7, 10 and 12 that day and SW has been playing the prices on all 3 flights the last few days I assume to try to fill all the flights. I've seen my fight at 154, 134, 125, 131, 115 (this morning) and now 154 again! Luckily I re-booked all 3 points reservations so I have the $115 price (in points) locked in right now. BUT it kinda blows upmy re-book theory because instead of $30 oop it's now $74 oop and that's just meh to me. Oh well, lol...I'll keep an eye on it. Maybe tomorrow it will go back down, lol!

$115 PRICE IS BACK

Super big thanks to @palhockeymomof2 for $10.83 on a LUV voucher

If I even attempted to explain to a normal person (i.e. non-SW expert) what I just did they'd think I'm crazy...

• Booked a dummy flight for Daughter 1 to combine $10.83 LUV voucher) and $33 flight credit (+ small CC payment)
• Changed the dummy flight for Daughter 1 to combine that flight ($45) with $47 flight credit (+ small CC payment)
• Cancelled current points flight and got $5.60 as a travel credit
• Changed the dummy flight again for Daughter 1 to our desired flight combined with $5.60 travel credit (+ final CC payment)
• Then I repeated these steps for Daughter 2 (except I didn't have to do the first step since no LUV voucher)
• Then I repeated these steps for me (with the added complication of cancelling and rebooking the companion fare for my wife)
• So yes...I just booked, changed, and cancelled flights 12 times I believe in the matter of 20 minutes and now have 7 pending charges on my CC from SW for amounts from $1.15 to $21.97...

BUT for doing all of this I save my 21,918 SW points and will earn 1,686 SW points from flying for paying $77.28 cash out of my pocket.

My one mistake...I put the charges on my SW CC instead of my CSR. So I'll earn 154 SW RRs vs. 231 URs. I guess I'll just have to get over wasting $1.19 on that move LOL!!!

 

[DisneyMandC]

How are we feeling on amex self-referrals right now? Seems like there's been some chatter about it potentially causing Amex to lay eyes on you. I'm in the very baby stages of Amex, so I don't want to burn them any time soon.

 

[trenty]

So..I was not planning to apply for any new cards anytime soon. However, both DH and I both hold a CSP. I don't need to be paying an AF on both so I was going to PC his after the year is up for him. Now I am thinking of keeping his and cancelling mine in case I want to churn it after 48 mos since mine is older than his. My AF on the CSP would hit in March. So if I cancel it within the next few weeks should I wait any amount of time before applying for the CFU? I figured I would not PC so I can get the bonus on the CFU.

I am 4/24 so that should not be an issue. Anything else I should consider before carrying this out? I would transfer all my URs to my DH before cancelling anything.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I'm looking into applying for another card (or two) in the near future. I used to be somewhat active on this thread and always read it and am also a member of the reddit thread to see referrals and other discussions. This past summer I got a promotion at work (good thing), but it left MUCH less time to research travel hacking and keep up with this thread (bad thing). Anyway, I'm feeling much more comfortable in my new role and have more time to keep up, so I've spent the past few days reading about the past 45 pages or so - this thread moves fast!!

Anyway, here's my situation:

Me:
10/16 - Chase Ink Business - changed to CIC in 12/17 - still open
1/3/17 - CSR (still open)
3/31/17 - CSP - closed 4/9/18
8/27/17 - Citi TY Premier (still open) - probably should have closed, but missed the window
8/28/17 - AmEx Business Gold Rewards - closed 9/18
8/2/18 - AmEx - Biz Green Card - opened to move MR points from above card so I wouldn't have to pay annual fee


DH:
10/13/16 - CSR (still open)
3/6/17 - SW Premier - closed
3/6/17 - SW Plus - closed (opened both to get CP for 2017/2018)
8/4/17 - Citi TY Premier (still open) - again probably should have closed, but still have all the points from initial bonus
5/1/18 - Chase Ink Business Preferred


DH and I both have a "business", but I don't mind trying for business cards - and have had luck so far when I've tried.

I was originally thinking of trying to get the SW business and SW Personal for myself to get the CP for the rest of this year and next, but i"m not sure how much we'd use it. We only used DH's CP 3 times in the 2 years that we had it, but we are running low on SW points (keep flying our kids places) and we will probably fly domestically more these next two years than the past 2, but that's still up in the air a bit.

I was also thinking of having DH refer me for the Chase Ink Business Preferred card so I could get the 80,000 and he would get whatever referral credit is available.

I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do both though because that would leave me we three Chase Business cards unless I closed the CIC.

This summer we will probably be taking a cruise somewhere, but everything is so up in the air - our oldest graduates from college, so will hopefully have a job somewhere and middle is hoping to have an internship somewhere, so it's difficult to make any plans. I don't want to exclude them if possible, but not sure we'll all be able to go together for a full week this year .

Just wondering if anyone has any thoughts or comments? Thanks!

Congrats on the promotion !

If you need the SW points and will make use of the CP...I’d suggest applying for the SW business card first.....then a few months later apply for one of the SW personal cards. If your concerned about the number of business cards you could always close the CIC...then apply for the CIP from your husbands referral....a few months after your SW personal card
Or if your not flying SW anytime soon reverse the order CIP..SW business...SW...personal

Since your husband only has one Chase business card maybe have him apply for the CIC or CIU..both get 50,000URs after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months

 

[elgerber]

We opened several AMEX Biz cards last year, the first one will have it's AF hitting soon. I really don't want to pay any annual fees, especially right now. If I close the cards as the first year ends, is AMEX going to blackball me, or claw anything back? If I can close them, when is the optimal time to do so?

Thanks!

 

[tink1970]

How are we feeling on amex self-referrals right now? Seems like there's been some chatter about it potentially causing Amex to lay eyes on you. I'm in the very baby stages of Amex, so I don't want to burn them any time soon.

I'll let you know in a week or two...I self referred for my aforementioned BBP but since it had to go to recon I don't know if it will "count" for the referral bonus. Fingers crossed but either way it will be a DP. I spoke to 3 representatives (1 Sat and 2 today) and all three thanked me for my loyalty to Amex so I'm hopefully not on their naughty list (yet).

 

[DisneyMandC]

I'll let you know in a week or two...I self referred for my aforementioned BBP but since it had to go to recon I don't know if it will "count" for the referral bonus. Fingers crossed but either way it will be a DP. I spoke to 3 representatives (1 Sat and 2 today) and all three thanked me for my loyalty to Amex so I'm hopefully not on their naughty list (yet).

Unfortunately I need to apply for that pretty rose gold card before then But thank you! I think I'm just going to use a Reddit link to pay back some people who have supported me in the past. Not worth it to anger the RATs and I'll feel better about helping someone else haha.

 

[schmass]

I'm debating about this for our cruise, because DH has 3 elderly grandparents who aren't in the best of health.

Personally I think it's worth it. Compared to the cost of the cruise, the insurance is very little money. One of the people I was worried about health-wise was my BIL and he passed away 6 weeks after we returned from our cruise. If that had happened right before the cruise and we didn't have insurance, we would have been out a lot of money.

 

[tink1970]

We opened several AMEX Biz cards last year, the first one will have it's AF hitting soon. I really don't want to pay any annual fees, especially right now. If I close the cards as the first year ends, is AMEX going to blackball me, or claw anything back? If I can close them, when is the optimal time to do so?

Thanks!

It's hard to know what Amex uses as a rubric to determine the naughty/nice list. I'm sure if someone figured it out they'd be all over MMS or TPG trumpeting it.

How much do you value your relationship with Amex? I ask because I have a couple I'm going to want to close (well 3 really) but I don't want to anger Amex so I'm planning on PCing all three to cards with lower annual fees for another year or two. If you don't mind burning bridges then some advocate waiting until the AF posts, then you have 30 days. I always look up my statements and if I'm going to close, close on the actual 1 year plus 1 day anniversary. I don't know if it really makes that big of a deal. I've not heard of MSR bonuses being clawed back for closing a card after a year but whether you'll get the dreaded pop up is anybody's guess.

 

[schmass]

Unfortunately I need to apply for that pretty rose gold card before then But thank you! I think I'm just going to use a Reddit link to pay back some people who have supported me in the past. Not worth it to anger the RATs and I'll feel better about helping someone else haha.

I think this is a wise idea. I swear it was my self-referral to the Biz Green that got me in trouble with Amex.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

How are we feeling on amex self-referrals right now? Seems like there's been some chatter about it potentially causing Amex to lay eyes on you. I'm in the very baby stages of Amex, so I don't want to burn them any time soon.

Do you each have AMEX cards and are you able to cross-refer instead of self-refer? That would be a strategy to play it safer.

 

[tink1970]

Unfortunately I need to apply for that pretty rose gold card before then But thank you! I think I'm just going to use a Reddit link to pay back some people who have supported me in the past. Not worth it to anger the RATs and I'll feel better about helping someone else haha.

Win-win! I can't wait to see the approval announcement! Go Team Rose Gold!