I love credit cards so much! v7.0 - 2025 (see first page for add'l details)

[georgina]

Latest on my Jan 1 CIC app - denial letter today because they couldn't get a credit report. Well, duh. My credit is frozen. I did thaw it when I applied, and they did pull it then. Guess I will have to thaw again and call. Do I need to thaw all 3 bureaus?

So unfroze and called. Spent a half hour on hold only to be told my Transunion is still frozen on their end. Really hating Chase right now.

So this has moved beyond the absurd. Got a 4 page letter in my Chase account that they are worried about fraud and someone is using my identity, despite all of my verification. Yesterday the denial was because my credit was frozen, today's excuse is that my driver's license and utility bill that I sent with my name and address somehow didn't meet their standards for verification. She said take them into a branch. I'm done with Chase.

 

[StephPlum]

I see DPs for $99 statement credit for spending $99 or $1000.

I was offered $99 statement credit for $1k spend last month. Held the card for a year. Declined offer

None for me. So I chatted and they said there was a retention offer but had to call in to get it. Call in and on hold for 10+ minutes before being told all the benefits of the card and how much I'd save if I traveled with 5 people on baggage (very, very odd) to only be told no I didn't pay the fee the first year so no offer. Cancel.

 

[StephPlum]

PSA as I am researching travel in Europe. Pros may already know this. I researched train travel using seat61. This guy is a train guru and has advice on rail travel across Europe. I just booked my Italy Rome to Florence and Florence to Switzerland tickets. He has a email to the Italy state railway to use after booking and you are refunded booking fees. Easy/Peasy. $5 saved is $5 more for gelato or bellinis!

 

[jujubiee4]

OK - travel was completed 2 weeks ago so hopefully something shows up soon.

Keep us updated. Thanks

 

[AndreaDM]

Anyone see any recent AMEX offers for Celebrity? I swear, I get all the cruise offers all the time except for the one I want lol.

 

[leeniewdw]

PSA as I am researching travel in Europe. Pros may already know this. I researched train travel using seat61. This guy is a train guru and has advice on rail travel across Europe. I just booked my Italy Rome to Florence and Florence to Switzerland tickets. He has a email to the Italy state railway to use after booking and you are refunded booking fees. Easy/Peasy. $5 saved is $5 more for gelato or bellinis!

Thanks for the tip! May I ask about your Florence to Switzerland train travel plans? We will be doing this in May, but haven't figured out if we're going to fly FLR-ZRH or go by train. We have 3 nights booked in Murren, but a night between our last night in Florence and the first Murren night. So we could stop somewhere between if going by train or stop in Lucerne if we fly to Zurich and take a train to Lucerne.

What did you decide?

 

[wisconsinmom]

DH just got approved for a CIU, I was pleasantly surprised. He had two inks open at the time of app with the last one being. His last ink was approved in August. Paying DD's room and board for the semester will knock that out in one payment, LOL. Hoping they expedite it as requested. Do you think it could arrive by saturday?

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Any of the National Parks fans know if the park passes code as travel? I'm thinking no, but would use my chase TC if it does.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

Any of the National Parks fans know if the park passes code as travel? I'm thinking no, but would use my chase TC if it does.

Wish I could help, but the last NP pass we bought from REI (due to logistics of our starting park) and that definitely didn’t code as travel

 

[gottalovepluto]

Anyone see any recent AMEX offers for Celebrity? I swear, I get all the cruise offers all the time except for the one I want lol.

If you’re def going to use the dough on Celebrity and nothing pops have you checked AARP for discounted gc? I did that for HAL and got 10% off gc.

 

[SleepyatDVC]

Hello!

It is 2025. Everyone should go over to reddit and update their support links! They are all OLD.

In any case, I need another SUB. I went over to reddit but I didn't see any interesting links.

I think I want to try to start accumulating Amex MRs and give Chase a break right now. I have a Delta Biz Amex and a Hilton Amex and am an AU on my Dad's Amex's (from 1972) but have not earned a single MR for myself.

Which Amex card I should start with if I want to eventually earn all the Amex SUBs? I think I have to start with Gold cards? I used a incognito browser and was able to pull a 200k offer for a Gold Biz Card. Should I pull the trigger or try for a different card?

View attachment 931109

You can start with MR’s with the business gold. Lower than the biz gold is green but it doesn’t really ever have much of an offer.

Awwww... apparently, I'm in pop up jail...

So, we really really need a new SUB and I need to try to apply for a card for PP2 (DH). However, I can't get to replicate the 200k SUB for the Amex Biz Gold. I can get the 175k SUB incognito and he gets a 150k SUB link when I log into his Amex account.

Should I pull the trigger on one or the other or wait to try to get a bigger SUB later and find another card to apply for?

TIA for helping me figure things out...

ETA - we have school taxes of about $7k+ due at the end of the month and can pay via CC for a 2.65% fee. Worst case scenario, we will pay by check. We also have a heating oil bill of about $600 due and with it being so cold, I wouldn't be surprised if we need another fill up before the end of the month.

 

[miztressuz]

Anyone see any recent AMEX offers for Celebrity? I swear, I get all the cruise offers all the time except for the one I want lol.

Don't remember an AmEx one, but BoA has one 15% back up to $150. (So 1k charge to max it out)

That one for Celebrity, and the separate offers for RCCL and SilverSea, expires in 22 days. (Why BoA won't state a date in the offer, I dunno. )

 

[palhockeymomof2]

DH just got approved for a CIU, I was pleasantly surprised. He had two inks open at the time of app with the last one being. His last ink was approved in August. Paying DD's room and board for the semester will knock that out in one payment, LOL. Hoping they expedite it as requested. Do you think it could arrive by saturday?

Congrats On the approval….if you sent a SM it will depend on when Chase reads the request, for me if they read it on a Thursday, it’s sent on Friday and since it’s sent UPS and they don’t deliver to me on the weekends I would get it Monday.

 

[babyready]

Any of the National Parks fans know if the park passes code as travel? I'm thinking no, but would use my chase TC if it does.

I was hoping to be helpful because we just bought a park pass last month. But we bought it at the entrance of the Grand Canyon on my new BoA Alaska card to hit that MSR. Looks like it coded as Government services. Which is a bummer. Of course, it could be different with an online purchase or with a different issuer.

 

[StephPlum]

Any of the National Parks fans know if the park passes code as travel? I'm thinking no, but would use my chase TC if it does.

I'm usually using a MSR card. Just looked back and I bought my last pass at Yosemite on C1 Venture card. It coded as Yosemite NP: Other services. Not sure if that helps.

 

[jaysraptor]

Another DP here for CIU instant approval yesterday afternoon. App was for me and I had 4 open Chase cards at the time, 2 personal and 2 Biz. One Biz card had about a $400 balance on it, all others were at $0. I had lowered all available credit across all cards over the past few months, so I was well below $70,000 credit and well below 50% income. Last 2 attempts for this card were denials back in 08/24 & 10/24. At the time I of the first denial I had 5 Chase Biz cards open. Closed 2 of them and tried again 10/24 and got the second denial with 3 still open. Closed the third about 3 weeks ago and was successful with my app yesterday. It feels so good to have a new SUB to work on.

 

[StephPlum]

Thanks for the tip! May I ask about your Florence to Switzerland train travel plans? We will be doing this in May, but haven't figured out if we're going to fly FLR-ZRH or go by train. We have 3 nights booked in Murren, but a night between our last night in Florence and the first Murren night. So we could stop somewhere between if going by train or stop in Lucerne if we fly to Zurich and take a train to Lucerne.

What did you decide?

If I had an extra night, I'd stop in Milan and see the Last Supper. I almost added another day to my trip for that. If you take the train from Florence, you'll go through Milan.

I am going Florence; transfer in Milan; transfer in Spiez and end in Interlaken. I didn't really look at flying. I am hoping to see some of the countryside by taking the train. We'll see if that works or not.

I'm firming up my itinerary and feel like I need a whole week in Lauterbrunnen. Plus I am skipping Zermatt this time... I can see another trip to Switzerland in my future.

Happy travels.

 

[Duckbug.Ducktales]

Another DP here for CIU instant approval yesterday afternoon. App was for me and I had 4 open Chase cards at the time, 2 personal and 2 Biz. One Biz card had about a $400 balance on it, all others were at $0. I had lowered all available credit across all cards over the past few months, so I was well below $70,000 credit and well below 50% income. Last 2 attempts for this card were denials back in 08/24 & 10/24. At the time I of the first denial I had 5 Chase Biz cards open. Closed 2 of them and tried again 10/24 and got the second denial with 3 still open. Closed the third about 3 weeks ago and was successful with my app yesterday. It feels so good to have a new SUB to work on.

That is a lot of credit checks! Thanks for spelling out everything you did, I'm going to work on slowly decreasing credit limits as well

 

[hsmamato2]

I also make sure to use my Chase business cards, have been approved with 4 open and do think using them helps with approvals

can I SM to move some of the biz credit limit to my new one?

 

[MsOnceUponATime]

If I had an extra night, I'd stop in Milan and see the Last Supper. I almost added another day to my trip for that. If you take the train from Florence, you'll go through Milan.

I am going Florence; transfer in Milan; transfer in Spiez and end in Interlaken. I didn't really look at flying. I am hoping to see some of the countryside by taking the train. We'll see if that works or not.

I'm firming up my itinerary and feel like I need a whole week in Lauterbrunnen. Plus I am skipping Zermatt this time... I can see another trip to Switzerland in my future.

Happy travels.

Try to get over to to Bern and Zurich for a couple of days. You won't regret it!