I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[FloridaNative8]

Happy Monday everyone!!

Thanks to the advice here, we are almost done with the MSR for P2's Aspire, I applied today via P2's support link (instant approval, yay!), I'll knock out the MSR this week as I've decided to finally get LASIK (and will pay myself back with HSA funds).

We should go for the Hilton Biz next, correct? We're accumulating HH points for a Grand Wailea stay in the summer. That would give us 445k points and 2 FNC, if I understand correctly. Any concerns about velocity? Aspire #1 was 8/28.

Also, for you east coasters - I'm thinking of using URs --> KrisFlyer for the flights. We'd be fine with economy (we'd love to swing biz/first class, but ugh, so many points!), and we can utilize either MCO or TPA to maximize departure/arrival times. The 35K round trip seems like the best deal I can find at the moment. Does that sound right? Southwest isn't feasible since it basically requires us to do a positioning flight, which we'd like to avoid.

Thank you!!

 

[ten6mom]

I feel like my Staples offer expires on 12/31. Have you given it a week yet? If not, you may have nothing to worry about. Amex Offers take 2-5 days to credit.

My purchases posted on September 19 and 22 so..... good chance I did something wrong I think.

Wouldn't be the first time!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

My purchases posted on September 19 and 22 so..... good chance I did something wrong I think.

Wouldn't be the first time!

yeah - that does not sound good. I can still see mine in my “added to card”. Get 10% back, up to $40. Expires 12/31/2020”.

 

[ten6mom]

yeah - that does not sound good. I can still see mine in my “added to card”. Get 10% back, up to $40. Expires 12/31/2020”.

OK well this is weird.

On my "offers" area there is an "available," "added to card," and "redeemed," right?

Check this out:



But neither of those shows yet in my actual list of transactions.

 

[Babars_Wife]

Yikes, that’s tough with such low CLs! My general rule of thumb is to keep at least $1k per card with an extra $10k above that (housed somewhere... whether all on one card or across multiple cards). But in theory it should work for you.

Hmm Interesting. At some point when I was applying to something I went around lowering credit limits everywhere.

To resolve my PC, I will repeat some good advice: You should always HUCA (Hang up and Call again) when you don't like what the person tells you. Second call, person did the product change without mentioning credit limits at all. *shrug*

 

[havaneselover]

First trip to OD. Bought two $200 visa gift cards for $399. Got $8 back from Dosh and should get 2000 UR points. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to have a ton so I'm thinking I may not be able to get $400/day through Saturday. There are other stores but this one is super close.

 

[linzjane88]

A random side point I forgot to share when it was relevant a few months back. I had the Chase Disney store offer of 10% on 2 cards. One I did like a $150 purchase all on one card and the other I split up the gift cards into something like $25, $25, and $100 but still in one purchase because I wanted to give the smaller amounts to my girls. DON'T do that! I think they must have shipped them separatly and Chase seemed to only see the first one sent so only got credit from for a $25 gift card instead of the whole $150 order.

Thought I would throw it out there in case they offered it again. I also vaguely remember someone having the problem with BJ's so it seems that online orders of small denominations of gift cards are a bad idea for Chase offers.

Side note: still no word on CIC applications for DH and I. Status line still says no record of any new application. I put in my application through my logged in account and put DH's in as a new card member. I figured both were a long shot but tried anyway.

 

[afan]

A random side point I forgot to share when it was relevant a few months back. I had the Chase Disney store offer of 10% on 2 cards. One I did like a $150 purchase all on one card and the other I split up the gift cards into something like $25, $25, and $100 but still in one purchase because I wanted to give the smaller amounts to my girls. DON'T do that! I think they must have shipped them separatly and Chase seemed to only see the first one sent so only got credit from for a $25 gift card instead of the whole $150 order.

Thought I would throw it out there in case they offered it again. I also vaguely remember someone having the problem with BJ's so it seems that online orders of small denominations of gift cards are a bad idea for Chase offers.

Side note: still no word on CIC applications for DH and I. Status line still says no record of any new application. I put in my application through my logged in account and put DH's in as a new card member. I figured both were a long shot but tried anyway.

I had the same issue. Charge from shop Disney posted as one pending then changed when they sent the two items separately. So I got it off the cheaper one. I sent screen shots of my order and explained what happened and they still denied me my extra 9 bucks I should've gotten. I should have screenahot the original pending charge but didn't. You could see what happened with the order I sent. I think it's messed up that they do it this way, not my fault Disney didn't send 2 dooney items together in one shipment like I thought would happen.

 

[wed100105]

Thanks @SouthFayetteFan about the home improvement and grocery store 1.5 CSR. We need some home remodeling and I have about 900,000 Chase URs. Time to really consider using them this way. We travel mostly with our timeshare and military promos. The only downside is that was my piggy bank for a big, big trip.

SIL called last night that they are going to join us Christmas week. It totally lifted my spirits. Who cares if it's crowded?! (Me, still, if I'm being honest.) It'll be better with them though!

 

[MyGoofy26]

Hi All! I've peeked in here every now and then but I totally need some hand holding! Hopefully you guys take some pity on a lurker and give me some direction.

I'll provide some background on what I'm hoping to do after the details:

Current Credit Cards:

• Chase Southwest - 12/2017 (with DH)
• Chase Disney - 4/2020 (with DH)

Other than my student loans (autopaid for years, so positive history there), that's it for what's on my credit reports. Actually Chase isn't even reporting those to one of my reports, so that one has a lower score since it looks like I have squat as far as credit history aside from the student loan. So ideally whatever new card I go with I'd like to branch out from Chase.

• What amount of spend would you put on a card monthly? We put all groceries and gas on Disney Chase and all bills/utilities that can be paid by card without incurring a fee on Southwest. It's about $1500 a month.
• Do you currently payoff your CCs in full every month or do you carry any balances/pay any interest? Pay in full each month.
• What airport(s) do you typically fly out of? Pittsburgh
• Do you have a preference of Frequent Flyer program? Southwest Rapid Rewards (obviously, haha)
• Does SOUTHWEST Airline service your airport? Yes
• Do you have a Hotel Rewards program preference? No
• Do you currently have travel points or miles in any program? Rapid Rewards and Disney
• What at your specific goals for churning credit cards? Mostly travel to reduce costs. Disney highest priority, but we would like to travel other places as well eventually so open to travel rewards that don't expire or cash back that we can funnel into travel savings.
• When do you plan to take these trips? Not planning to travel til Covid is under control, with a tentative December 2021 Disney trip in mind.
• Who does your travel party consist of? Me, DH, DD1 (born in 2018) and DD2 (due in January)

Okay, for background, DH and I have been renting for years. We had a good deal and great landlords, and had to go through infertility treatments for DD1, so we didn't want to take on a mortgage not knowing what treatment would eat up of our savings (luckily I have great insurance and it really only took a few thousand dollars out of pocket--new baby was a cliched natural pregnancy after infertility). We are newly under contract for a house. Our mortgage broker ran numbers several ways, and since DH's score is a little higher than mine putting him in the "Excellent" range, and he makes less than me, he qualified for a certain product that gave us a 2.75% interest rate. Our combined income apparently put us at making more than over 80% of those in our area and DQed us for that product if I'm included on the loan. Interest would've been 3.175% with me. So obviously we went with the option that means less money.

So my goals here are three-fold. Obviously, I want to find a card with good rewards that we'll actually use. I need to make sure I have some sort of credit showing on all of my reports if I want to bring my score up (I'm lower 700s) since I'm not going to have the power of a mortgage to leverage (I will need a new car soon--we're drive them into the ground people so my loan fell off a few years ago). And we were hoping to divert some charges away from those joint cards (and any random purchases for, say, moving and organization supplies) so that we can keep DH's financials as clear as possible while he's under the banking microscope for the next couple months. Obviously they'll see payments coming out of the bank account, but if I time it right we might have one payment at most due before closing, and worst case scenario I'm fine with minimum payment and paying interest for one month then pay it off after we close (though ideally not even that).

If you made it through all of that, thank you! If you guys have recommendations for a flexible travel rewards or cash back card for someone in the low 700s, I'd be grateful!

 

[DisneyMandC]

First trip to OD. Bought two $200 visa gift cards for $399. Got $8 back from Dosh and should get 2000 UR points. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to have a ton so I'm thinking I may not be able to get $400/day through Saturday. There are other stores but this one is super close.

The one at Westchester had a bunch when I went yesterday. Just FYI, any of the variable load ones work too, not just the straight $200 ones.

 

[happ]

Hi All! I've peeked in here every now and then but I totally need some hand holding! Hopefully you guys take some pity on a lurker and give me some direction.

I'll provide some background on what I'm hoping to do after the details:

Current Credit Cards:

• Chase Southwest - 12/2017 (with DH)
• Chase Disney - 4/2020 (with DH)

Other than my student loans (autopaid for years, so positive history there), that's it for what's on my credit reports. Actually Chase isn't even reporting those to one of my reports, so that one has a lower score since it looks like I have squat as far as credit history aside from the student loan. So ideally whatever new card I go with I'd like to branch out from Chase.

• What amount of spend would you put on a card monthly? We put all groceries and gas on Disney Chase and all bills/utilities that can be paid by card without incurring a fee on Southwest. It's about $1500 a month.
• Do you currently payoff your CCs in full every month or do you carry any balances/pay any interest? Pay in full each month.
• What airport(s) do you typically fly out of? Pittsburgh
• Do you have a preference of Frequent Flyer program? Southwest Rapid Rewards (obviously, haha)
• Does SOUTHWEST Airline service your airport? Yes
• Do you have a Hotel Rewards program preference? No
• Do you currently have travel points or miles in any program? Rapid Rewards and Disney
• What at your specific goals for churning credit cards? Mostly travel to reduce costs. Disney highest priority, but we would like to travel other places as well eventually so open to travel rewards that don't expire or cash back that we can funnel into travel savings.
• When do you plan to take these trips? Not planning to travel til Covid is under control, with a tentative December 2021 Disney trip in mind.
• Who does your travel party consist of? Me, DH, DD1 (born in 2018) and DD2 (due in January)

Okay, for background, DH and I have been renting for years. We had a good deal and great landlords, and had to go through infertility treatments for DD1, so we didn't want to take on a mortgage not knowing what treatment would eat up of our savings (luckily I have great insurance and it really only took a few thousand dollars out of pocket--new baby was a cliched natural pregnancy after infertility). We are newly under contract for a house. Our mortgage broker ran numbers several ways, and since DH's score is a little higher than mine putting him in the "Excellent" range, and he makes less than me, he qualified for a certain product that gave us a 2.75% interest rate. Our combined income apparently put us at making more than over 80% of those in our area and DQed us for that product if I'm included on the loan. Interest would've been 3.175% with me. So obviously we went with the option that means less money.

So my goals here are three-fold. Obviously, I want to find a card with good rewards that we'll actually use. I need to make sure I have some sort of credit showing on all of my reports if I want to bring my score up (I'm lower 700s) since I'm not going to have the power of a mortgage to leverage (I will need a new car soon--we're drive them into the ground people so my loan fell off a few years ago). And we were hoping to divert some charges away from those joint cards (and any random purchases for, say, moving and organization supplies) so that we can keep DH's financials as clear as possible while he's under the banking microscope for the next couple months. Obviously they'll see payments coming out of the bank account, but if I time it right we might have one payment at most due before closing, and worst case scenario I'm fine with minimum payment and paying interest for one month then pay it off after we close (though ideally not even that).

If you made it through all of that, thank you! If you guys have recommendations for a flexible travel rewards or cash back card for someone in the low 700s, I'd be grateful!

Welcome and congratulations on the house! I think I would be concerned about seeking credit before the closing. Maybe it won't matter since your name's not on the loan, but I would think it might since you're married.

 

[Judique]

That's actually a very good question. I did think about that just around the time I posted my question above.

I don't actually see the offer in either page (available or added) and now I cannot remember when it expired! Ugh I am so dumb.

Maybe I never added it.

This is why screen shots are important!

If you used it, (after actually adding it) it would also disappear. Hopefully you added it!

 

[Judique]

I feel like my Staples offer expires on 12/31. Have you given it a week yet? If not, you may have nothing to worry about. Amex Offers take 2-5 days to credit.

And sometimes a lot longer. There have been times they've posted asap and times they've taken weeks. Case in point - our trip to Bethany Beach and using the small business credits. I started with the crab something restaurant and then also did a couple other small businesses. Kept waiting on the crab restaurant to post, while the others posted in days. About a month later, the carb one posted.

And I agree - I think the Staples offer went to 12/31. I've used it already on the fee free Visa's 2 of the $200 ones.

 

[havaneselover]

The one at Westchester had a bunch when I went yesterday. Just FYI, any of the variable load ones work too, not just the straight $200 ones.

Good to know! Yes, I have been buying the varialbe load ones (I bought the one with the pink flowers today).

 

[mamathompson]

I'm finally getting excited about our November trip. I'm so glad we will be continuing the tradition of celebrating our kids 13th birthdays in Magic Kingdom! But honestly a little nervous that something will change between now and then to make the trip not possible. We know the parks won't be the same this time, but we will make the best of what we can! Here is my breakdown of points I'm using for it so far:
(Side note- I'm aware these may not be the "best" use of my points but at this point in time I would rather use them for something we are doing vs save them for something better)
-Hard Rock Hotel 2 nights- two rooms using SW points
-7 nights Copper Creek 2 bedroom using DVC points
-2 day park to park tickets to Universal x8 using UR's.
-$1800 in PYB to offset almost half of our Disney tickets
-8 flights to Orlando using 2 CPs and SW points
-8 flights home using Alaska credits


And now I'm nearly wiped out! As soon as this trip is done I will be focusing on some major earning.

All in all we have planned a trip for 9 people over 10 days and my out of pocket will consist of food and half our Disney tickets, which is absolutely amazing to me. We could not afford to travel this way without the expertise of this group. So thank you all again for the help and advice you give freely.

 

[MyGoofy26]

Welcome and congratulations on the house! I think I would be concerned about seeking credit before the closing. Maybe it won't matter since your name's not on the loan, but I would think it might since you're married.

I was worried about that too, but then when finalizing our approval and locking in our rate, our broker said he didn't care about anything on my reports. He's not looking at me at all anymore now that we're locked in under DH's name only. He and his wife are friends, so I trust him not to lead us astray. So my plan to try to get some more activity on my reports after the first of the year to help boost me over this hump became an idea to maybe pull some charges away from DH's finances.

 

[becauseimnew]

I was worried about that too, but then when finalizing our approval and locking in our rate, our broker said he didn't care about anything on my reports. He's not looking at me at all anymore now that we're locked in under DH's name only. He and his wife are friends, so I trust him not to lead us astray. So my plan to try to get some more activity on my reports after the first of the year to help boost me over this hump became an idea to maybe pull some charges away from DH's finances.

They didn't even pull our credit report a second time. I think you are fine applying for cards. Welcome!

 

[KPK02090]

My Hilton Biz $95 annual fee just posted. I think I’m going to cancel. With Amex do you still get the full annual fee refunded if cancelled within the month? Or am I already too late?
I’d like to accumulate Hilton points so will eventually go for other Hilton cards but I have some Chase I want to go for first. I know cancelling could lead to pop-ups later, but it doesn’t seem worth the fee. Any thoughts?

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

And here I wait at the end of ANOTHER month to see will I be closing before my mortgage is pulled. Back in Aug they had me as a 9/1 closing. Now it's 9/28 and we're still not closed. And of course since it's been MONTHS since I started this back in June/July I keep having to give them new updated info. I swear I have the worst luck w/ underwriting.

I see the Chase offer got extended. I'm torn on if I want to use this or if I want to keep saving my URs. I'm up for a Sapphire offer in Dec I think if I want one. But for now I plan on keeping my CSR since they are offering the $450 AF still. I might try for a CIC, but that's not much in URs. Maybe I'll go for a CFF (I have the CF now). I just don't see a ton of URs coming my way anytime soon. Maybe if I knew I'd be good and put the money saved to some kind of good purpose I'd be more willing to use the UR to PIB. On my discover card I try to save all my cashback for the year and then use it to pay the Nov/Dec bill when amazing is the cashback category and I run up a lot of charges for Christmas, LOL.