I love credit cards so much!

[CyndiLouWho]

Wow, I wish ours ended that early. Thanks to our governor we now don’t go back to school until after Labor Day and have to be finished by 6/15. Which means Spring Break is a whopping 2 days that they are required to have off for the Fri before Easter and the Mon after. Now that we have a middle schooler, that sucks since we don’t want to pull him out like we would in elementary school.

What? 2 days for Spring Break?
School may get out by Memorial Day but they are back in school by August 15.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I don't know if anyone else is doing the Wells Fargo Biz checking account and WF Biz Plat bonuses at the same time but fyi or for future reference... The WF Cashback Platinum credit card issues out the cashback once a quarter to your WF Biz checking account.. Alas this means that because I didn't meet the spend by the end of the first calendar quarter I have to keep the biz checking account open and fee free for the next 3 months until all the cashback posts. Annoying but doable, Amazon reloads here I come!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Welcome Back! How was F&W? I was there a few weeks ago but couldn't get over to CA until after 8pm and a lot of the food huts were already closing up for the night, boo!

Hey, how do you like the Altitude Reserve? I was recently thinking of closing my US Bank checking account but I keep delaying it thinking I might want the Altitude. I also just read about the new real-time mobile rewards that allows you to redeem rewards towards a travel charge at 1.5x as soon as you make the purchase. No need to use their travel portal, so now I'm seriously considering it. I'd be very interested to hear how that works for you if you use it.

It was fun, I love how easy it is to do vs WDW F&W- admittedly they only have about 1/3 the selection of WDW. Still, no regrets and we did a couple wine seminars, one was ok and one was great so I'd do that again too. I'm not like "omg I have to go back to that again!!!!" like I am about WDW F&W but should the opportunity present itself in the future I'd take it.

I grabbed the AR just because I saw it under pre-qualified offers. I NEVER thought I'd qualify for it (low income), so check your pre-qualified offers first if interested. I have a USB checking account aging with them because I want to establish a long term "relationship" with them for other reasons. Since I see them as a potential long term partner for other aspects of my life I don't want to burn this bridge and thought I'd just avoid the AR... but pre-qualified was so tempting. And then I got approved so- cool! Pre-qual is not a guarantee as some people are still denied. I admittedly got a kick out of comparing the weight to my CSR, but as I've finished my spend out of my wallet it goes. I picked it up just for the bonus and will drop it before the year is done. I was very careful in hitting the MSR, no gift cards, plastiq, venmo- none of that. Not only is USB very sensitive to those sorts of transactions (more so than Amex, people were shut down for 1 $500 Visa gift card purchase when the card first came out!) like I said I want a long term relationship with them and cannot afford to be shutdown by them so I kept it VERY legit.

The travel credit took a few days to post after the charge posted. You do have to call in to get the Apple Pay enabled properly but it was fairly painless since I called in to activate the card and a person answered who was able to activate the card and allow the Apple Pay to establish. I was going to cash out or put points toward the annual fee but then they changed to the mobile redemptions and now that I can get 1.5x for travel that'll be my redemption route for sure!!! BUT there are restrictions, while airfare will trigger with small amounts, hotels require $500 min purchase to trigger. Reddit suggests you can call and a CSR can push through it through for lower costs but that's not something I'd bet on being able to do. Once all my points post and my travel plans finalize up I intend to put a $500+ charge (actually, I'll do it to cover all points in the account at the 1.5x rate) for my disney trip on my card. After that back in the drawer the card goes. It's just not as flexible as my CSR and the $500 threshold is killer for me because I'm more into smaller redemptions if I'm not booking at Disney or on points somewhere. I do love the 3x on all mobile purchases (paid off nicely with a state farm bill) but that's not enough for me to keep it long term.

 

[gottalovepluto]

CSP links died tonight. Update yours, if you’ve sent them to anyone send the new one. The offer of 50K UR + AF waived is the same except it now explicitly states 5K UR for adding a AU who makes a purchase.

 

[Albort]

CSP links died tonight. Update yours, if you’ve sent them to anyone send the new one. The offer of 50K UR + AF waived is the same except it now explicitly states 5K UR for adding a AU who makes a purchase.

i noticed all the CIP ones are dead now too.

 

[gottalovepluto]

i noticed all the CIP ones are dead now too.

WHY CHASE? WHY?! I have a 2nd glass of wine I really want to dig into but these churning changes are demanding I stay almost completely sober because I’m just not that great at details if I’m not 100% sober. Very annoying Chase!

 

[gottalovepluto]

i noticed all the CIP ones are dead now too.

Weird. Just checked and mine still works, I don’t remember when I last refreshed but it was at least a couple weeks ago. Are you sure yours is dead?

 

[peel]

How soon so SPG points post after meeting the MSR? I met the personal card spend a few days ago and everything has posted so just curious when I might see the 30k

My points posted today, and I think the charge that put me over the top posted Friday.

 

[Albort]

Weird. Just checked and mine still works, I don’t remember when I last refreshed but it was at least a couple weeks ago. Are you sure yours is dead?

yeah, mine died, i had to grab another one. i clicked on a few other ppl's CIP links and they also show up dead. was checking the old ref thread.

 

[StephPlum]

@1st*toright. I made my reservations a while ago before any of this churning took over my life!! I am renting a condo in Moab when I visit Arches and Canyonlands. No points on this trip except for my Southwest flights.

In other news....I was looking up the benefits on the SPG Biz and see I can get 2x points on certain Marriott stays. I have a business stay in Atlanta in 2 weeks at a Marriott. Woohoo! I can expense on my new CC for min spend and get extra points and best of all get reimbursed from the professional society sponsoring the trip!!! (did I mention this is taking over my life?!). It is hard to believe I went from simply cashing out my CF points to getting two new credit cards in the last two months and pouring over the different benefits to use the best card.

Thanks again to everyone on this thread for their help.

 

[SBWB48]

I think the lowest amount you can do is $5 on a gift card, is there a reason people are going for $10?

No particular reason. I have 4 CF cards and haven’t maxed out the 5x UR for this quarter yet, so just topping off to be perfectly honest lol. $10 was also a nice round number

 

[linzjane88]

Nurse? I am too, but stay home now. The 12hr shifts don't work well with a DH who travels all week.
/QUOTE]
Yup! Labor and delivery. I have fantasies of being stay at home but I have an even bigger vacation fetish so I guess part time is my happy medium. I just pretend I'm a SAHM on my days off

 

[wendow]

Well, I guess me and those 300 stars were not meant to be lol. I had my dh go look for the offer on his CP and it had disappeared. Checked dd17's CP, who did the offer on Saturday, and her activation notice of the offer was gone. DD15 had activated the offer but had not been able to get in yet due to her wisdom tooth surgery, and the offer was now gone from her phone. She decided to still try it tonight and see if she gets gold but there was no way to activate on my dh's CP.

And in better news, I got my Amex Delta Gold biz today and immediately paid the oral surgeon bill. Half the MSR...done

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Well, I guess me and those 300 stars were not meant to be lol. I had my dh go look for the offer on his CP and it had disappeared. Checked dd17's CP, who did the offer on Saturday, and her activation notice of the offer was gone. DD15 had activated the offer but had not been able to get in yet due to her wisdom tooth surgery, and the offer was now gone from her phone. She decided to still try it tonight and see if she gets gold but there was no way to activate on my dh's CP.

And in better news, I got my Amex Delta Gold biz today and immediately paid the oral surgeon bill. Half the MSR...done

Awesome! This is a story we all should remember Sometimes you just have to ask for some special circumstances - of course they could say no, but when you come with a completely reasonable request...why not say yes!

 

[wendow]

Awesome! This is a story we all should remember Sometimes you just have to ask for some special circumstances - of course they could say no, but when you come with a completely reasonable request...why not say yes!

And the bad news from already being half-way with the Delta MSR is that I will be done with the spend soon. New card time. I am definitely leaning towards SPG biz. Just gotta decide on an offer

 

[linzjane88]

And the bad news from already being half-way with the Delta MSR is that I will be done with the spend soon. New card time. I am definitely leaning towards SPG biz. Just gotta decide on an offer

Bad news?! That sounds like good news in my book

 

[wendow]

Bad news?! That sounds like good news in my book

I know! It is. Just this spg biz card has been stressing me out for weeks with the different offers. Thought I bought myself a reprieve from thinking about it. Now, it's back on my mind. Probably just going to go for the bigger offer. Go big or go home, right!?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

This year we had a 3 day weekend at end of Feb/beginning of March. Pulled kid out of school another 2 days (well, one is an early dismissal day) and went to WDW. He is in 3rd grade so not too big a deal (plus he’s a good student, not struggling which also influenced my decision) but we’ve decided after this year to avoid taking him out of school for vacations, so it would help to have the dang calendar. Last years school year ended the day after Memorial Day. That’s right, they had to go to school one day after the Holiday.

We have pulled our older daughter out for a week in K, 1 & 2. Next year we’ve said it’s our last week long Jan/Feb trip. After that she’ll be in 4th and our younger in K and we will stop. It’s going to be quite sad though as we’ve done this trip every since we got married (except the yr older daughter was born) so it will be 12 out of 13 years. No worries tho - we’ve decided to replace that trip with a short Disney Cruise over MLK or Prez weekend And yes I know I have a problem...I’m planning vacations for 2020 already haha

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

And the bad news from already being half-way with the Delta MSR is that I will be done with the spend soon. New card time. I am definitely leaning towards SPG biz. Just gotta decide on an offer

Are you trying to decide between the increased offer and the regular 25k offer?

 

[wendow]

Are you trying to decide between the increased offer and the regular 25k offer?

Yes, the 7k spend just concerns me unless i can do plastiq and then I am not worried at all. Our mortgage, which I pay through plastiq using the CIP, is $2161 mo. and then add in monthly dance tuition, which I also pay the same way, and we are at 7k+ in 3 mos.