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

[mom2elal]

Some savings just kinda fell in my lap today. I had been thinking about refinancing but hadn’t really done much more than look at some of the websites and see that you can’t just get a quote without giving someone all of your information, which I hate doing because they never stop calling or sending emails. Today a guy from Wells Fargo home mortgage (who already has our original mortgage) called out of the blue and said we should refinance because he has finally seen movement on the VA refi rates. After I made him send me an email so I could determine whether he was actually a Wells Fargo employee and not someone trying to steal my identity, an hour later we had an application done for refi with a 2.75% rate. We originally had a 3.75% rate so I wasn’t expecting a much lower rate, but I am definitely happy with the extra savings!

credit card related: I’m guessing there is no way to get points from the closing costs.

Wow, that's awesome! Was this a streamlined refinance?

 

[Haley R]

I'm pretty shocked by that as well given what we now know about asymptomatic spreading and the role masks can play in stopping it. I suspect as the mixed message begins to clarify that will change, but it certainly doesn't help you when you are dealing with a newborn! My anxiety would have been through the roof as well. It's weird, but once you get used to the whole mask thing you really notice when people aren't wearing them, and it makes you much more anxious. Fortunately where I am, people are really starting to get the message. They are mandatory, but there were flouters. Now, I rarely see people not wearing them.



Too funny! Great minds I hadn't seen the t-shirt material ones at Love Your Melon. Might have to order a few of those. They look really comfy. DS would probably like those. He loves his USC one

I'm also pleased by the new rewards announcements. We've used our Hilton Aspire resort credit, but the 5x on the CSR for grocery stores will supplement our freedom cards. I also read on the site that shall not be named that it may work for Target's that have groceries. That would be huge. I'm also really happy about the extra Dell credits on my Plat business since we are in the market for a couple PCs. I'll do one now and one in July. I should also be able to use the streaming credits for Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and maybe prime if I buy movies? I have apple too from a phone purchase, but we have only watched it once. I'm hoping the new Chris Evans show is good.

It makes me extremely nervous going to the pediatrician even. All I can do is hope we didn’t get sick

 

[Haley R]

Heritage bank cut our interest rate by half We normally get $60-70 a month and only got $30 this month

 

[DaveL]

Are you one of us who was finally able to enter bank info? My bank never shows any deposits pending

I was finally able to enter my info right after the maintenance the other week, up until this afternoon it said it would update when it had info. Just checked it tonight and now the site has a date saying I will have it on the 6th.

 

[disneybirds]

One general word of caution if you're using Plastiq for HOA fees or anything with a deadline- make sure you schedule the payment to arrive a couple weeks before the deadline. I once got an email from Plastiq "apologizing" for a 1 week delay in payment on two payments I sent out. They went to processing, then to sent, but were never actually mailed. I didn't find out about it until they fixed it. Many others here have similar stories. Plastiq does pay the late fees that you incur in that case, but it's not worth the headache!

Completely agree with this! I scheduled an life insurance payment through them and they sent it a week late. Ended up having to call the life insurance company and pay over the phone to keep the policy active. Then numerous calls to get back the extra payment. Sometimes Plastiq just isn't worth the hassle!

 

[amcc]

New Amazon AmEx promotion. 30% off sold by Amazon when you use at least 1 point. Works even if you used the last one.

 

[snugglebug]

Are you one of us who was finally able to enter bank info? My bank never shows any deposits pending

Yep! Says it will hit on Tuesday. I've been checking the IRS site and it still doesn't show a date or anything.

Edit: Checked IRS again just now after seeing DaveL comment and it now shows the 6th.

 

[Haley R]

New Amazon AmEx promotion. 30% off sold by Amazon when you use at least 1 point. Works even if you used the last one.

Do you have a link for the offer?

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

Thanks to whoever mentioned Defending Jacob several pages back. We watched the first four episodes tonight. Man it is good!

 

[Maine_Belle]

Hi! New around here, trying to not get too confused in all the strategies and acronyms, and I have a bunch of questions! Really hope you can help a newbie out!

I'm planning for a Sept 2021 WDW trip for our family of 4 and am looking for clever ways to reduce the cost. I got the email from JetBlue about the special 60K SUB for their Plus card. Seems like a really easy way for us to get the points to pay for the trip easy-peasy, especially with point pooling. What do the experts here say?

We currently have 3 cards, I think all in my name, but DH has a card to use on all of them. We've both got great credit. We rarely travel.

• AmEx Blue Preferred: This is only used for things that get max rewards such as the 6% on groceries (we achieve the $6k max in about 6 months), 3% gas, and a few streaming subscriptions and tolls. We use it for cash back credit ($500?) at the end of the year to help pay for Christmas
• Cash Back Visa through my work (I work for a bank), no annual fee: Everything else that can go on a CC goes on this. We get 1% on most purchases, 2% on grocery (normally I swap when AmEx is exhausted), 3% on dining out; Typically bring in around $400-$500/year on cash back, again, paying towards Christmas
• LL Bean card: We only use it a LL Bean and that's maybe 1-2 times a year, if that

For the Disney vacation, we'd either fly out of Boston, Portland, ME or Manchester, NH. We're not loyal to a particular airline, but SouthWest and JetBlue have such great amenities and customer service for the value, we often choose them for our rare trips. I'll only fly non-stop flights.

Questions:

1. Looks like the annual fee easily is made up by the earned points plus the free baggage discount. Is this a no brainer to apply for?
2. Can both my husband and I each apply for one of these, earning 120k TB pooled points? We can very easily hit the MSR with groceries and not miss out on any AmEx rewards for the year.
3. I estimated that the flights will "cost" 90-120k points, but that's based off of this September. What risk is there of assuming I'd have enough points with just the initial SUB, only to find we're severely short come booking window? Covid really makes me question my estimates...
4. What is the risk of cancelling these cards after 6-9 months to avoid the annual fee next year? Is it easy enough to just do the Product Change to the no fee card, in case we need to earn extra points to meet a threshold and for use for the free checked bags?
5. Is there a better strategy you'd recommend for a non-brand specific card that could do all of this, but not lock us in to JetBlue?

So many thanks in advance! I really hope this question doesn't get lost in all the lovely chit-chat in this tight knit group! The thread really flies!

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Hi! New around here, trying to not get too confused in all the strategies and acronyms, and I have a bunch of questions! Really hope you can help a newbie out!

I'm planning for a Sept 2021 WDW trip for our family of 4 and am looking for clever ways to reduce the cost. I got the email from JetBlue about the special 60K SUB for their Plus card. Seems like a really easy way for us to get the points to pay for the trip easy-peasy, especially with point pooling. What do the experts here say?

We currently have 3 cards, I think all in my name, but DH has a card to use on all of them. We've both got great credit. We rarely travel.

• AmEx Blue Preferred: This is only used for things that get max rewards such as the 6% on groceries (we achieve the $6k max in about 6 months), 3% gas, and a few streaming subscriptions and tolls. We use it for cash back credit ($500?) at the end of the year to help pay for Christmas
• Cash Back Visa through my work (I work for a bank), no annual fee: Everything else that can go on a CC goes on this. We get 1% on most purchases, 2% on grocery (normally I swap when AmEx is exhausted), 3% on dining out; Typically bring in around $400-$500/year on cash back, again, paying towards Christmas
• LL Bean card: We only use it a LL Bean and that's maybe 1-2 times a year, if that

For the Disney vacation, we'd either fly out of Boston, Portland, ME or Manchester, NH. We're not loyal to a particular airline, but SouthWest and JetBlue have such great amenities and customer service for the value, we often choose them for our rare trips. I'll only fly non-stop flights.

Questions:

1. Looks like the annual fee easily is made up by the earned points plus the free baggage discount. Is this a no brainer to apply for?
2. Can both my husband and I each apply for one of these, earning 120k TB pooled points? We can very easily hit the MSR with groceries and not miss out on any AmEx rewards for the year.
3. I estimated that the flights will "cost" 90-120k points, but that's based off of this September. What risk is there of assuming I'd have enough points with just the initial SUB, only to find we're severely short come booking window? Covid really makes me question my estimates...
4. What is the risk of cancelling these cards after 6-9 months to avoid the annual fee next year? Is it easy enough to just do the Product Change to the no fee card, in case we need to earn extra points to meet a threshold and for use for the free checked bags?
5. Is there a better strategy you'd recommend for a non-brand specific card that could do all of this, but not lock us in to JetBlue?

So many thanks in advance! I really hope this question doesn't get lost in all the lovely chit-chat in this tight knit group! The thread really flies!

I am not familiar with the Jet Blue credit cards sign up bonus but others here may be able to let you know if the 60k points offer is a good one. Others can let you know

But most of us here start with getting Chase cards since they will not approve you for their cards if you have opened more than 5 personal cards in the last 24 months...authorized user cards count too...

You and your DH could each get a Chase Sapphire Preferred card...the bonus is 60k UR points after a 4K spend...if you get one then send a support link to your husband he can also get the 60k, plus you get 15k so after spending $8k you would have 135k URs which are more versatile than JB points.
URs can be transferred to JB, SW, used to book travel through the Chase travel portal or cashed out...

don’t cancel the card before a year, when the annual fee posts you can either cancel or product change it to a no fee version if one is available.

 

[trenty]

I have a question about using Chase UR to book a hotel. Will I be able to use my URs to book a room for DS? I will not be with him. Will he be able to check in without my credit card?

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I have a question about using Chase UR to book a hotel. Will I be able to use my URs to book a room for DS? I will not be with him. Will he be able to check in without my credit card?

I have booked Marriott Vacation Clubs with URs 4 times....then called the hotel directly to add names, when checking in they didn’t ask to see the the CC.
But when I booked Wyndham Bonnet Creek with URs, they would not add anyone’s name to the reservation.

 

[wed100105]

Am I reading the point blogs correctly? CIP is now a 100,000 bonus for $15,000 minimum spend. No referral bonus?

ETA: I finally found @SouthFayetteFan’s wonderful post in this thread. I couldn’t find it searching here, but did on Reddit. Thank you!

I’ll have $15,000 in spend with property taxes and other bills this month, but there is probably a better route to go now.

Long-term strategy-
1) We have over 1 mil HHonors points combined.

2) I have a CSR and 700,000 URs.

3) I have 105,000 miles and elite status with Frontier. I also have $600 in vouchers and $500 in Amex airline credits for this year.

4) We qualify for business cards.DH and I are both 3/24.

I’ll have to pay Plastiq or 2.8% directly through the site for my property taxEs.

I don’t really see us needing another airline card in the near future. We have plans to camp this summer and possibly the next 2 2021-Northeast, 2022-West). We’re Gold VIP owners with Wyndham as well.

Owning DVC has been on my radar for over a decade. I’m tempted to cash out some URs for a DVC purchase, but only if they offer amazing deals due to this recession.

We already have some high annual fee cards (CSR and 2 Hilton Ascends). DH is a dual status technician, which doesn’t qualify for Amex’s military annual fee waiver.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Am I reading the point blogs correctly? CIP is now a 100,000 bonus for $15,000 minimum spend. No referral bonus?

I’ll have $15,000 in spend with property taxes and other bills this month, but there is probably a better route to go now.

Long-term strategy-
1) We have over 1 mil HHonors points combined.

2) I have a CSR and 700,000 URs.

3) I have 105,000 miles and elite status with Frontier. I also have $600 in vouchers and $500 in Amex airline credits for this year.

4) We qualify for business cards.DH and I are both 3/24.

I’ll have to pay Plastiq or 2.8% directly through the site for my property taxEs.

I don’t really see us needing another airline card in the near future. We have plans to camp this summer and possibly the next 2 2021-Northeast, 2022-West). We’re Gold VIP owners with Wyndham as well.

Owning DVC has been on my radar for over a decade. I’m tempted to cash out some URs for a DVC purchase, but only if they offer amazing deals due to this recession.

We already have some high annual fee cards (CSR and 2 Hilton Ascends). DH is a dual status technician, which doesn’t qualify for Amex’s military annual fee waiver.

Any help is appreciated.

Yes the public CIP offer is now 100kURs after a $15k spend.....if you go to our DISchurners reddit group the 80k UR after a $5k spend links still work. So if you have a P2 you could earn 160k URs
With everything going on Chase has tightened up on business card approvals so sending you are approved

 

[wed100105]

I do have a P2. We’ve been spouse referring. I can’t find the way to do that now for CIP.
I’ll head over to Reddit to find a link. Thanks!

I just was approved 3/30 for my CIP. I’ll still need to figure out what card to get for the remaining spend (~$10,000 in the next two months).

 

[trenty]

I have booked Marriott Vacation Clubs with URs 4 times....then called the hotel directly to add names, when checking in they didn’t ask to see the the CC.
But when I booked Wyndham Bonnet Creek with URs, they would not add anyone’s name to the reservation.

Thanks. I was hoping to just book the hotel in his name. In the portal it lets me put in his name and does not ask for a credit card since I am paying with URs.

 

[chattadisser]

I was finally able to enter my info right after the maintenance the other week, up until this afternoon it said it would update when it had info. Just checked it tonight and now the site has a date saying I will have it on the 6th.

Yep! Says it will hit on Tuesday. I've been checking the IRS site and it still doesn't show a date or anything.

Edit: Checked IRS again just now after seeing DaveL comment and it now shows the 6th.

Thanks for posting, I checked mine and now its says the 6th too!

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I do have a P2. We’ve been spouse referring. I can’t find the way to do that now for CIP.
I’ll head over to Reddit to find a link. Thanks!

I just was approved 3/30 for my CIP. I’ll still need to figure out what card to get for the remaining spend (~$10,000 in the next two months).

Unfortunately there isn’t a way to generate a new link

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Thanks. I was hoping to just book the hotel in his name. In the portal it lets me put in his name and does not ask for a credit card since I am paying with URs.

that’s great...hadn’t looked to see If I could change names since I was always going to be checking in