I love credit cards so much!

[gottalovepluto]

Always good to check bank rate. We have an account at Barclays online at 1.5%. They also give a "bonus" on savings deposits - or at least they used to - I haven't paid much attention lately. Our checking account is at a local credit union that gets .00000001% or something close to that - lol. We just use that as a bill paying account and transfer out any savings over to Barclays.

Off to google up Barclays savings account bonus!... don't see anything right now, will definitely keep an eye out though!

 

[miztressuz]

I recall some talk of Hawaii trips on here, I got an AmEx offer for Hilton in Hawaii 2018:

"Get a 1X $200 statement credit by using your enrolled Card to spend $1,000+ on room rate and room charges, when you pay for your stay with Hilton properties in Hawaii from 2/23/18 to 7/31/18. Book direct with Hilton."

 

[elgerber]

So I was about to open one of these ally savings to move our emergency fund into and I decided to check clark Howard first and see what he says. His site mentioned synchrony bank. They have a high yield savings at 1.55%, just FYI if anyone else is doing this. I don't see where they offer checking though, so it wouldn't work for anyone wanting to have both types at the same institution.

ETA: Here is a link to more.... https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/rates/

I was looking yesterday too, and saw better reviews of Synchrony as well. I am thinking of moving a few of my large balance accounts that don't get weekly contributions, and leaving the other ones at Cap One.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I am a newbie to all of this but have been reading through this thread for about a month. OMG you guys are so smart and so generous with your help and advice!!!!!

I am planning a trip to Europe summer 2019 to celebrate DD high school graduation. I like to get a card that helps me accumulate points or miles that would go toward airfare from/to Dallas to Amsterdam and from Paris. (Or possibly convert a current card to another card in that Bank's lineup--I am getting a lot of offers to do that to my Citicard and my Bank of America card). I am trying to best guess which airline I might fly, and then best guess which card would work for accumulating miles or converting points for use. Advice????

Background facts that may or may not be relevant--I do not currently own a business, so I don't think I can get a business card. I do have some frequent flyer miles on American and Delta and Southwest. I do shop through their portals and am trying to get more purposeful about it. Domestically from Dallas we usually fly American, Southwest, or less often on Delta, Spirit or United. I would love to fly business class or some version of upgraded economy on our flights to/from Europe. I already have the following cards and I have had all for a very long time (between 10 and 25 years) except as noted (and after reading and reading on this thread, I am beating myself up seeing how unwise many of these were and I could have been racking up points or miles!!!): a Barclay master card that accumulates Carnival Cruise points (I have over 100,000 points but don't see any option to use those towards air), a Chase Slate visa, a Target Red Card visa, a basic Discover, a basic Bank of America visa, a Citi ThankYou Preferred card (which I am not using at all because it has a transferred low interest balance that I am working on paying off but probably won't be paid off in time to help load up,with charges for points), and a Home Depot store card (which is about 2 years old--the only card within 24 months). About 4 months ago, I applied for a Southwest card, and was denied by Chase. It was the first time I was ever denied credit of any kind . My credit is good, though not excellent. Also, for some reason I have not been able to get to the bottom of, Experian has me scored far lower than the other two credit bureaus.

I appreciate any advice regarding a card for points or miles. Thanks !!!!!

Glad you hopped in to ask us! Welcome!! Fair warning, I'm going to take a different route than usual with my suggestion for you

You need to pull your EX report and compare it to others to find out what is going on, if there is any difference in what they are reporting. You can get your free credit report (this doesn't give you a score but the score isn't necessary for this) once a year from the bureaus. www.annualcreditreport.com is the site for this. DO NOT PAY for scores or anything else you are offered. Sites where you can see this info anytime for free include credit karma (for TU and EQ) and equifax for theirs. Again- do not pay any of them anything for this info, you can get what you need free. I use the apps for both credit karma and equifax personally.

Why did Chase deny you? EX too low? If so don't bother applying for anymore Chase cards right now. Because you have a balance you will probably not have paid off before your trip and you had trouble getting a Chase card, like I warned I'm taking a different route here and suggesting cash back is what you need at this point. The last thing you need is more points you can't convert to cash or to be stuck with a bunch of airline miles that turn out to be unusable to you. Maybe look into the Citi Double Cash? https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/credit-card-details/citi.action?ID=citi-double-cash-credit-card There's also the Discover 5% cashback in rotating categories if you can stay on top of the category rotations https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/cash-back/#launchCalendar from their website you can see this year's 5% cashback calendar.

Shopping portals for airline miles: unless you're using those miles switch your portal to something like topcashback where you can redeem for cash!

My thinking is obviously Cash is King for you. Cash is usable today, right now, no risk of devaluations or miles availability. (This won't get you business class flights to Europe, maybe upgraded economy I guess if you find a good cash price, but I'm concerned you won't qualify for the cards that would actually help get you those business class seats.)

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I am a newbie to all of this but have been reading through this thread for about a month. OMG you guys are so smart and so generous with your help and advice!!!!!

I am planning a trip to Europe summer 2019 to celebrate DD high school graduation. I like to get a card that helps me accumulate points or miles that would go toward airfare from/to Dallas to Amsterdam and from Paris. (Or possibly convert a current card to another card in that Bank's lineup--I am getting a lot of offers to do that to my Citicard and my Bank of America card). I am trying to best guess which airline I might fly, and then best guess which card would work for accumulating miles or converting points for use. Advice????

Background facts that may or may not be relevant--I do not currently own a business, so I don't think I can get a business card. I do have some frequent flyer miles on American and Delta and Southwest. I do shop through their portals and am trying to get more purposeful about it. Domestically from Dallas we usually fly American, Southwest, or less often on Delta, Spirit or United. I would love to fly business class or some version of upgraded economy on our flights to/from Europe. I already have the following cards and I have had all for a very long time (between 10 and 25 years) except as noted (and after reading and reading on this thread, I am beating myself up seeing how unwise many of these were and I could have been racking up points or miles!!!): a Barclay master card that accumulates Carnival Cruise points (I have over 100,000 points but don't see any option to use those towards air), a Chase Slate visa, a Target Red Card visa, a basic Discover, a basic Bank of America visa, a Citi ThankYou Preferred card (which I am not using at all because it has a transferred low interest balance that I am working on paying off but probably won't be paid off in time to help load up,with charges for points), and a Home Depot store card (which is about 2 years old--the only card within 24 months). About 4 months ago, I applied for a Southwest card, and was denied by Chase. It was the first time I was ever denied credit of any kind . My credit is good, though not excellent. Also, for some reason I have not been able to get to the bottom of, Experian has me scored far lower than the other two credit bureaus.

I appreciate any advice regarding a card for points or miles. Thanks !!!!!

Glad you hopped in to ask us! Welcome!! Fair warning, I'm going to take a different route than usual with my suggestion for you

You need to pull your EX report and compare it to others to find out what is going on, if there is any difference in what they are reporting. You can get your free credit report (this doesn't give you a score but the score isn't necessary for this) once a year from the bureaus. www.annualcreditreport.com is the site for this. DO NOT PAY for scores or anything else you are offered. Sites where you can see this info anytime for free include credit karma (for TU and EQ) and equifax for theirs. Again- do not pay any of them anything for this info, you can get what you need free. I use the apps for both credit karma and equifax personally.

Why did Chase deny you? EX too low? If so don't bother applying for anymore Chase cards right now. Because you have a balance you will probably not have paid off before your trip and you had trouble getting a Chase card, like I warned I'm taking a different route here and suggesting cash back is what you need at this point. The last thing you need is more points you can't convert to cash or to be stuck with a bunch of airline miles that turn out to be unusable to you. Maybe look into the Citi Double Cash? https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/credit-card-details/citi.action?ID=citi-double-cash-credit-card There's also the Discover 5% cashback in rotating categories if you can stay on top of the category rotations https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/cash-back/#launchCalendar from their website you can see this year's 5% cashback calendar.

Shopping portals for airline miles: unless you're using those miles switch your portal to something like topcashback where you can redeem for cash!

My thinking is obviously Cash is King for you. Cash is usable today, right now, no risk of devaluations or miles availability. (This won't get you business class flights to Europe, maybe upgraded economy I guess if you find a good cash price, but I'm concerned you won't qualify for the cards that would actually help get you those business class seats.)

I agree with @gottalovepluto and would add that maybe you should see if you can product change your Slate to a Freedom and hit up the 5% back categories there (gas in Q1 and we think grocery in Q2). If you're able to get a CSR card from Chase in the future that would actually make those purchases worth 7.5% back.

 

[calypso726]

I am a newbie to all of this but have been reading through this thread for about a month. OMG you guys are so smart and so generous with your help and advice!!!!!

I am planning a trip to Europe summer 2019 to celebrate DD high school graduation. I like to get a card that helps me accumulate points or miles that would go toward airfare from/to Dallas to Amsterdam and from Paris. (Or possibly convert a current card to another card in that Bank's lineup--I am getting a lot of offers to do that to my Citicard and my Bank of America card). I am trying to best guess which airline I might fly, and then best guess which card would work for accumulating miles or converting points for use. Advice????

Background facts that may or may not be relevant--I do not currently own a business, so I don't think I can get a business card. I do have some frequent flyer miles on American and Delta and Southwest. I do shop through their portals and am trying to get more purposeful about it. Domestically from Dallas we usually fly American, Southwest, or less often on Delta, Spirit or United. I would love to fly business class or some version of upgraded economy on our flights to/from Europe. I already have the following cards and I have had all for a very long time (between 10 and 25 years) except as noted (and after reading and reading on this thread, I am beating myself up seeing how unwise many of these were and I could have been racking up points or miles!!!): a Barclay master card that accumulates Carnival Cruise points (I have over 100,000 points but don't see any option to use those towards air), a Chase Slate visa, a Target Red Card visa, a basic Discover, a basic Bank of America visa, a Citi ThankYou Preferred card (which I am not using at all because it has a transferred low interest balance that I am working on paying off but probably won't be paid off in time to help load up,with charges for points), and a Home Depot store card (which is about 2 years old--the only card within 24 months). About 4 months ago, I applied for a Southwest card, and was denied by Chase. It was the first time I was ever denied credit of any kind . My credit is good, though not excellent. Also, for some reason I have not been able to get to the bottom of, Experian has me scored far lower than the other two credit bureaus.

I appreciate any advice regarding a card for points or miles. Thanks !!!!!

Hi and welcome

Before we get into strategies, please allow me to share a few of the disclaimers and general rules to this hobby. I say the following kindly and gently as we all want to see you meet your goals with success. One cannot successfully participate in this hobby unless they never carry balances. Any interest you are paying will negate the value of the points earned. Before embarking you must make sure your credit score is really good. Get your credit report from all 3 bureaus and go through it with a fine tooth comb. If something is inaccurate then get it fixed with the credit bureau before you begin applying for cards. If you are planning to secure multiple seats in business or first, you need to plan waaay in advance. Ideally you want to give yourself 2 years. A year to get all of your points in place and a year before the trip to book the flights right when they come out.

Ok, disclaimer out of the way and on to advice: We have many diverse travel styles on this thread and thus many who can give great advice on booking certain types of travel. I'm chiming in because you mentioned business class seats. We mostly book in first but we will book business on occasion if it's a lie flat seat. Getting saver award premium seats is not easy and many more miles than required for economy.

For example: DFW-AMS via AA one way only is 30k in economy on a saver award, 65k-110k on a standard economy award
57.5K business saver (if you find one, there are none for the month of June and only 2 for the month of July) and between 110k-180k for a standard award in business.


So, you need to be prepared to book a standard award if you have your heart set on it and a back up plan too. The first thing you need to find out is what airline(s) flies the most from your airport to your destination. Then, get on to that airline FF area and find out how many miles it will take for you and your traveling companions to book flights to your destination on that airline in the class of service you want. Once you determine which airline you will be booking with, then you need to accumulate miles in that program and in variable miles that transfer to that program. If you plan to use only that airline to book your flights then make sure it allows open jaw award flights, or one way flights, not all do. If you plan to pay with points, then you need to get an idea of how much the flights will cost so you can have the points in place and a strategy to accumulate them. For paying with points, I'm going to recommend a Chase trifecta or quadfecta that includes the CSR because the points will be worth more. The CIP should be included for the bonus and then PCd at a year to an Ink Cash.

Now, I believe you when you say you don't have a business. But believe me when I say that you do have a "business" Hope this helps.

 

[hsmamato2]

Then moved what I needed to Southwest to book the flights for our Utah trip in May. This will allow me to finish my Utah NP list - Arches, Canyonlands and over to Colorado for Mesa Verde.

I LOVED visiting the Utah parks.... been twice,can't wait to go back....I can't get enough of those red and orange rocks......

 

[Albort]

So I was about to open one of these ally savings to move our emergency fund into and I decided to check clark Howard first and see what he says. His site mentioned synchrony bank. They have a high yield savings at 1.55%, just FYI if anyone else is doing this. I don't see where they offer checking though, so it wouldn't work for anyone wanting to have both types at the same institution.

ETA: Here is a link to more.... https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/rates/

if you guys are looking for high interest, i suggest looking @ 3% and 5%. some do require work though, ie 12 debit transactions.
i do for one 3% account, but i make 12 $.50 transactions throughout the month.

 

[pillow]

Off to google up Barclays savings account bonus!... don't see anything right now, will definitely keep an eye out though!

I called since my memory is so bad. It was their old "Dream" account that they no longer offer. So 1.5% is the best you can do there.

 

[pillow]

I LOVED visiting the Utah parks.... been twice,can't wait to go back....I can't get enough of those red and orange rocks......

ME TOO!!! I could live in Utah . . .

Any ideas of how to stay at National Park lodges on points? We tend to pay out of pocket for those since we love them so much!

 

[DisneyMandC]

Thanks for all the helpful tips on trying to get my Miami flight refunded/changed. Unfortunately, change fee would have been $200 plus the difference of whatever other flight I would use it on eventually. Unfortunately, we have no other plans to fly anywhere this year currently, as our only other trips will be driving. There's a chance we'll go to Orlando at the end of the year, but American flights definitely aren't convenient there for us and definitely wouldn't be worth the change fee for us. So I lost the points

I'm (mostly) over my pity party. Just really wanted a mostly free vacation!!

I did feel a little better today after learning I'll be going to my first horse show of the season in two weeks. As most of my horse shows are, it's in the middle of nowhere with no good hotel chains, so I'll use this opportunity to book though hotels.com to collect nights towards a free night.

 

[amalone1013]

@disneedee few days late, but you could check out smarter Vegas for deals. Make an account, it's free. We're going for a weekend in April and are staying at Excalibur for two nights for $275 including the resort fees, and we get two buffets at any mgm property. I'm using my Barclay arrival to erase the charge. I was looking for the best deal so I was fine with Excalibur, but they've got lots of deals. You could look at UR points too.

 

[amalone1013]

Well, my Miami trip that I have been SO excited for next week just got canceled st the last minute because DH’s work just threw a huge project on him and told him to cancel the trip. Of course, I booked a non refundable ticket with UR points. Is there ANY chance I can get my points back if I call and plead my case? I’m so upset

I feel your pain! DHs trip is most likely cancelled as of yesterday. He was supposed to oversee the beginning of an install for the coworker who's job it is, because the coworker will still be on vacation. The customer a started the teardown for where the install is going, and found asbestos...

 

[amalone1013]

Think I'm around $800 away from my $10k SPG Biz spend ... just knocked out $450 of it on DHs suit for BILs wedding

 

[AmyAnne]

Thanks for all the helpful tips on trying to get my Miami flight refunded/changed. Unfortunately, change fee would have been $200 plus the difference of whatever other flight I would use it on eventually. Unfortunately, we have no other plans to fly anywhere this year currently, as our only other trips will be driving. There's a chance we'll go to Orlando at the end of the year, but American flights definitely aren't convenient there for us and definitely wouldn't be worth the change fee for us. So I lost the points

I'm (mostly) over my pity party. Just really wanted a mostly free vacation!!

I did feel a little better today after learning I'll be going to my first horse show of the season in two weeks. As most of my horse shows are, it's in the middle of nowhere with no good hotel chains, so I'll use this opportunity to book though hotels.com to collect nights towards a free night.

I feel your pain. Over the years, I have had to cancel more non-refundable tickets than I care to remember. I have come to think of the change-fees as sort of the cost of self-insuring -- I could have paid for trip insurance (or refundable tickets) but I'm sure those costs would have been more than what I have lost from having to cancel.

If you are sure that you are not going to use the ticket, you might as well cancel it -- for most airlines (I think United is an exception) you don't pay the change fee until you re-book. I have found that sometimes I could use the remaining value of the ticket, even with the change fee. Other times the canceled ticket ended up being a total loss. But you have a year from when you purchased the ticket to use the remaining value, so if you don't have to pay the change fee now, you might as well cancel -- you might find a use for the remaining ticket value sometime in the next year.

 

[kmc8826]

ME TOO!!! I could live in Utah . . .

Any ideas of how to stay at National Park lodges on points? We tend to pay out of pocket for those since we love them so much!

I’m in Utah. Problem is you are a Delta hostage!

For staying in lodges would look into the capital one or barclaycard travel purchases eraser.

 

[Ava]

I received an offer in the mail from Chase today to upgrade my Disney card to the $49 AF version, and I’m tempted to do it. They’re offering me a $100 statement credit after first purchase to upgrade. So I could buy a $100 Disney GC and only pay the $49 AF for it. Does this sound like a bad idea? I would just want to make sure I could downgrade again after a year; my Disney card is one of my older cards so I wouldn’t want to have to close this account. Anyone have experience upgrading and then downgrading cards with Chase?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I received an offer in the mail from Chase today to upgrade my Disney card to the $49 AF version, and I’m tempted to do it. They’re offering me a $100 statement credit after first purchase to upgrade. So I could buy a $100 Disney GC and only pay the $49 AF for it. Does this sound like a bad idea? I would just want to make sure I could downgrade again after a year; my Disney card is one of my older cards so I wouldn’t want to have to close this account. Anyone have experience upgrading and then downgrading cards with Chase?

There are reports of people upgrading to redeem for flights and then immediately downgrade again. I'd guess you'll have no issue with your plan but can't provide a direct DP.

I downgraded my Disney Premier last year with no issue for what it's worth.

 

[Ava]

There are reports of people upgrading to redeem for flights and then immediately downgrade again. I'd guess you'll have no issue with your plan but can't provide a direct DP.

I downgraded my Disney Premier last year with no issue for what it's worth.

Thanks, that’s all good to know. If I had to cancel it wouldn’t be the end of the world but I’d rather not.

Related question - Anyone know if purchases at the Disney Store (either physical or online) get the 2% back? The fine print just says “Disney locations that are solely owned and operated by Disney.”

 

[kmc8826]

Thanks, that’s all good to know. If I had to cancel it wouldn’t be the end of the world but I’d rather not.

Related question - Anyone know if purchases at the Disney Store (either physical or online) get the 2% back? The fine print just says “Disney locations that are solely owned and operated by Disney.”

Pretty much all Disney stuff codes as 2% back. I realize I am maybe stupid and in minority here but I put a couple hundred each month on my Disney premier. $2 for every $100 spent adds up.