Winter Incentives Released and Fall/Early Winter 09/30/25 archive

[AstroBlasters]

There's a lot of Mickey Math going on.

I would not personally allocate a "new card" bonus to a DVC purchase unless I couldn't meet the required spend any other way. For example, suppose I wanted to open a CSR for a DVC purchase. 125K UR points! Awesome! Fine, but it only requires $6K over three months to hit the bonus, and I can EASILY do that WITHOUT buying DVC.

So, really the only "extra" thing that DVC gets me is the standard earn for the purchase (which is still worth something!), plus any difference in earnings I got to keep by putting the required $6K on some other card vs. the CSR, which in most cases probably is not much. Depending on the spend category and the other cards in my wallet, that delta might be negative. In other words, I might still have $6K of spend over three months that is best placed on the CSR anyway.

Rather than bend over backwards to justify a purchase that I want to make, I've gotten to the point where I can buy it simply because I want it. It doesn't also have to be the Best Deal.

There is a LOT of that “Mickey Math” value assignment going on these boards.

 

[PolyRob]

What's your strategy for the the annual fee?

I was also looking at CSR for a direct purchase, but read you need to hold it for 12+ months to minimize risk of clawback. That's $1600 for two years. I was debating if that's worth it

You don’t need to hold it two years.

If you wait 12 months and a day and close it Chase won’t claw the bonus back. Chase doesn’t charge the annual fee the day you’re approved either. It’s charged the first day of the next month.

Chase will also refund the annual fee if you close the account within 30 days of the annual fee posting.

Another option is downgrading within the same product family after a year to keep the account open, but not pay the fee. The CSR for business is new and I am not sure if Chase will allow any product changes to its other business cards like Inks that have lower/no annual fee since no one has held it for a year.

Honestly the Chase Ink Preferred has a much smaller annual fee and higher return for spend requirement and also codes 3x travel. The Chase Ink Cash and Chase Ink Unlimited have elevated bonuses making them even higher returns compared to spend in addition to no annual fee and 0% APR. You just lose the category spend for travel.

 

[atthebeachclub]

I figured since I was buying anyway, might as well maximize a signup bonus or two at the same time.

 

[PolyRob]

There's a lot of Mickey Math going on.

I would not personally allocate a "new card" bonus to a DVC purchase unless I couldn't meet the required spend any other way. For example, suppose I wanted to open a CSR for a DVC purchase. 125K UR points! Awesome! Fine, but it only requires $6K over three months to hit the bonus, and I can EASILY do that WITHOUT buying DVC.

So, really the only "extra" thing that DVC gets me is the standard earn for the purchase (which is still worth something!), plus any difference in earnings I got to keep by putting the required $6K on some other card vs. the CSR, which in most cases probably is not much. Depending on the spend category and the other cards in my wallet, that delta might be negative. In other words, I might still have $6K of spend over three months that is best placed on the CSR anyway.

Rather than bend over backwards to justify a purchase that I want to make, I've gotten to the point where I can buy it simply because I want it. It doesn't also have to be the Best Deal.

I churn credit card cards so I personally look for the maximum return in cash after annual fees when I am purchasing direct and factor that into the final price per point out of pocket. I've been able to save at least 10% on my direct purchase price 1:1. Some people prefer airline miles or status.

I wouldn't purchase more points or over extend myself if I couldn't pay for the contract cash out of my account, I just like getting the most "bang for my buck."

 

[VGCgroupie]

There's a lot of Mickey Math going on.

I would not personally allocate a "new card" bonus to a DVC purchase unless I couldn't meet the required spend any other way. For example, suppose I wanted to open a CSR for a DVC purchase. 125K UR points! Awesome! Fine, but it only requires $6K over three months to hit the bonus, and I can EASILY do that WITHOUT buying DVC.

So, really the only "extra" thing that DVC gets me is the standard earn for the purchase (which is still worth something!), plus any difference in earnings I got to keep by putting the required $6K on some other card vs. the CSR, which in most cases probably is not much. Depending on the spend category and the other cards in my wallet, that delta might be negative. In other words, I might still have $6K of spend over three months that is best placed on the CSR anyway.

Rather than bend over backwards to justify a purchase that I want to make, I've gotten to the point where I can buy it simply because I want it. It doesn't also have to be the Best Deal.

I can easily spend 6k to get a bonus. For me my Mickey Math was that if I didnt get signup bonuses I could not justify buying direct. I put the entire $52,000 on various new cards with bonuses and netted well over 1 million points. I can say while I spend a lot of money I would not have been casually spending $52,000 on anything else so for me that is actual math savings no Mickey about it.

 

[davidhr]

TBF, we’re discussing this on a forum dedicated to a timeshare. 99% of us are doing some magical math one way or another. Including a credit card SUB is at the bottom of the list of crazy things I’ve seen.

 

[Cfabar1]

TBF, we’re discussing this on a forum dedicated to a timeshare. 99% of us are doing some magical math one way or another. Including a credit card SUB is at the bottom of the list of crazy things I’ve seen.

I'd just love for Dave Ramsey to read this thread.... A bunch of people using credit cards to buy a timeshare! Stop the madness!

...it's not at all like I did exactly this thing earlier this afternoon.. at all...

Or that I came home to invitations to join the Marriott Vacation Club and the Hyatt Vacation Club... at all...

 

[Girlstar30]

I'd just love for Dave Ramsey to read this thread.... A bunch of people using credit cards to buy a timeshare! Stop the madness!

...it's not at all like I did exactly this thing earlier this afternoon.. at all...

Or that I came home to invitations to join the Marriott Vacation Club and the Hyatt Vacation Club... at all...

They send me those from time to time, Wyndham too, offering the cheap trip to stay at their hotel for a timeshare presentation.

I am scarred from timeshare presentations that aren't Disney. I went to one before, I forgot who it was, but they told us if we attended we would get 7 nights in Puerto Rico and pictures of a nice hotel room, a known chain hotel. We were at the county fair and signed up, why not.

Omg it was literally like those horror stories you hear about them, super high pressure and wouldn't give us our 7 nights without saying no a million times and thought about Escaping

They finally gave us the voucher and told us it would not be the hotel pictured. It was so shady we had to mail a check to get the process going and jump through all these hoops. My wife told me to just ask for our check back and I said no, im determined to ride this thing out and make them give us our free stay!

As we went thru the hoops and got towards the finish line they first told us someone would mail us information and we needed to receive this mail in order to book. Ok no problem, got the mail. Then they said someone would call us to arrange booking, BUT if we missed the phone call and couldnt connect with them then we couldnt go. Ok no problem I will answer every call. Then they called and told me I wouldnt know where I was staying until two weeks before. Ok sure let's keep going Then they said that it would actually be on the outskirts of San Juan and not in the center. At this point i did give up and asked for our check back, they win So I said id never buy a timeshare and here I am

 

[DoubleBaconBLT]

What's your strategy for the the annual fee?

I was also looking at CSR for a direct purchase, but read you need to hold it for 12+ months to minimize risk of clawback. That's $1600 for two years. I was debating if that's worth it

You absolutely must hold it for a year to avoid clawback. BUT, if you cancel within 30 days of the annual fee hitting, they will refund it to you. So the optimal strategy (which I probably won't quite pull off), is to plan ahead a bit with point redemptions and such for that 30 day period so you can use more of the annual credits and perks, then cancel right after you've done that. It's really $795 for 13 months, not 1600 for 2 years.

When I signed up, the card came with the $300 travel credit (used on DVC), a $300 StubHub credit (which I already used half of), $120 Lyft credit (which I'll probably use at some point while at Disney), a $100 gift card credit, and a bunch of other credits which I may or may not get to use. I think overall I'll be close to breakeven on those vs the annual fee.

 

[DoubleBaconBLT]

There's a lot of Mickey Math going on.

Hiya pals! Today's Mystery Mouseketool is an Excel spreadsheet, and we're going to use it to justify irresponsible financial decisions!

 

[DoubleBaconBLT]

I'd just love for Dave Ramsey to read this thread.... A bunch of people using credit cards to buy a timeshare! Stop the madness!

...it's not at all like I did exactly this thing earlier this afternoon.. at all...

Or that I came home to invitations to join the Marriott Vacation Club and the Hyatt Vacation Club... at all...

Lol, Dave would absolutely die, then immediately roll over in his grave if he saw my credit card statements over the last two years filtered on "Disney." Let's just say DVC is definitely going to be saving me a lot of money.

I think when you're trying to get to point of financial freedom, things like credit cards and timeshares are super dangerous. When you're already there though, they can give you a rather significant boost in spending power. The money isn't there to give you a larger number on a screen; it's there to make your life better. At a certain point, you stop worrying about whether the number is high enough and start thinking about how to make the most of it. Sure, there's a lot of Mickey Math that justifies it, but as Brian Noble said, sometimes you buy things because you want them. I have to remind myself that many of my spreadsheets would also recommend beans and rice for every meal.

 

[VGCgroupie]

Lol, Dave would absolutely die, then immediately roll over in his grave if he saw my credit card statements over the last two years filtered on "Disney." Let's just say DVC is definitely going to be saving me a lot of money.

I think when you're trying to get to point of financial freedom, things like credit cards and timeshares are super dangerous. When you're already there though, they can give you a rather significant boost in spending power. The money isn't there to give you a larger number on a screen; it's there to make your life better. At a certain point, you stop worrying about whether the number is high enough and start thinking about how to make the most of it. Sure, there's a lot of Mickey Math that justifies it, but as Brian Noble said, sometimes you buy things because you want them. I have to remind myself that many of my spreadsheets would also recommend beans and rice for every meal.

I do have a spreadsheet that told me I spend way too much money eating out. I no longer use that spreadsheet.

 

[CallMeAFlower]

After years of crunching the numbers, my family is finally ready to buy direct at PVB- and why not get some extra points while we're at it? My husband opened a CSR and I opened a CIP as I wasn't qualified since I already have a CSP.

I was a little shocked with how low the credit limit was as it's my first business card and will need to charge to the limit at least twice to hit the minimum requirement for the bonus. Has anyone had issues with a guide charging multiple cards over a short period of time? We have the cash, we just want to filter it through cards to make sure the flights for the next few years are taken care of too.

I also know we're going to be a pain since we're taking advantage of d23, a referral, and MB too.

 

[VGCgroupie]

After years of crunching the numbers, my family is finally ready to buy direct at PVB- and why not get some extra points while we're at it? My husband opened a CSR and I opened a CIP as I wasn't qualified since I already have a CSP.

I was a little shocked with how low the credit limit was as it's my first business card and will need to charge to the limit at least twice to hit the minimum requirement for the bonus. Has anyone had issues with a guide charging multiple cards over a short period of time? We have the cash, we just want to filter it through cards to make sure the flights for the next few years are taken care of too.

I also know we're going to be a pain since we're taking advantage of d23, a referral, and MB too.

Nope my guide ran cards for me many many times. But I think they recently rolled out a way to pay yourself online too

 

[pzw90]

I do have a spreadsheet that told me I spend way too much money eating out. I no longer use that spreadsheet.

Easy, just jack up the prices of ingredients to cook at home, and increase the value of your time it takes to cook.
Manipulate it until it tells you what you want it to say.

 

[PolyRob]

After years of crunching the numbers, my family is finally ready to buy direct at PVB- and why not get some extra points while we're at it? My husband opened a CSR and I opened a CIP as I wasn't qualified since I already have a CSP.

I was a little shocked with how low the credit limit was as it's my first business card and will need to charge to the limit at least twice to hit the minimum requirement for the bonus. Has anyone had issues with a guide charging multiple cards over a short period of time? We have the cash, we just want to filter it through cards to make sure the flights for the next few years are taken care of too.

I also know we're going to be a pain since we're taking advantage of d23, a referral, and MB too.

Are you paying the DVC contract over 60 days? If so you shouldn't have to cycle your CL on the new CIP multiple times.

 

[CallMeAFlower]

Are you paying the DVC contract over 60 days? If so you shouldn't have to cycle your CL on the new CIP multiple times.

This was my plan, but with the credit limits at least one of the cards will need to be run more than once during a pay cycle. I never purchased dvc before, so I guess I was assuming they break up the remainder after the deposit to be charged automatically on a schedule. Sounds like that's not the case?

 

[atthebeachclub]

You could always finance and then pay off right away too. That’s my plan, so I have a little time to shuffle money around.

 

[PolyRob]

This was my plan, but with the credit limits at least one of the cards will need to be run more than once during a pay cycle. I never purchased dvc before, so I guess I was assuming they break up the remainder after the deposit to be charged automatically on a schedule. Sounds like that's not the case?

Currently your guide will just mark a final payment date on the initial card you make your deposit with at 60 days. You could have a 30k balance remaining and a 5k credit card limit and it's totally fine.

You can then call your guide or Quality Assurance and either make payments at your leisure prior to that final payment date or automatically schedule them to charge X amount on X date.

As @VGCgroupie pointed out there is a new deposit section online. I have not personally had an open contract since that popped up and I haven't seen anyone use it yet, but it would be very nice if it works!

 

[VGCgroupie]

This was my plan, but with the credit limits at least one of the cards will need to be run more than once during a pay cycle. I never purchased dvc before, so I guess I was assuming they break up the remainder after the deposit to be charged automatically on a schedule. Sounds like that's not the case?

No not on a schedule you can pay when you want.

Credit cycling isnt something you should do unless absolutely necessary, it causes red flags for the credit issuer. If you have any other chase cards you can transfer credit to this new card, or ask for a credit increase before credit cycling (paying bill before the statement cycles)