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

[alryan]

Wait, what is this extra 5x on grocery on the Gold? Did I miss an offer?

ETA: looks like I only have a lame $5 credit on $50 for 2 transactions. So $10

I got excited for that offer too. Nothing for me Those AO take constant monitoring to keep adding ones you don't want to stop getting maxed at the 100.

 

[alryan]

How about a fun future travel dreams discussion:

Now that most of us either can't or won't travel outside of the US, how many of us are planning for when they can? What are you planning for and how will you make it happen?

When we went to Antarctica for my 50th I figured it was a one and done kind of trip. Ideally, I would have loved to have visited South Georgia and the Falklands but the time and money that would have required was not in the cards. Well, now I've decided to try and make that trip a reality. So my next batspit crazy scheme is to do it and pay for it with points. Currently there is a partnership between Hyatt and Lindblad. It is possible to book that trip with Hyatt points. It starts at an insane $25,750 per person. I'd also need over 3.2 million Hyatt points on the low end of the current pricing to cover both of us. The value works out to 1.6 cpp on those Hyatt points for the trip. Fortunately, Chase is a UR Hyatt partner and offers significantly higher bonus categories across various cards to earn at URs a faster rate than putting spend on a Hyatt card. So that's the new bucket list goal for me now that I have a whole lot of nothing to plan LOL

So what's on your bucket list?

That is quite a bucket list goal for churning! But now may be the perfect time to try. If there's anyone that can do it, it's you! With 3 kids, no bucket list travel for me right now. I'm just plugging along booking and planning trips, hoping they happen. Next one to book is the Dominican Republic at the all inclusive Hyatt Ziva over Thanksgiving. I just need the SW change to make it happen.

 

[georgina]

Bucket list for me is what it always has been, have no idea when most of it will happen as we plan to relocate next spring. The local dive club goes to a nice resort in St Lucia every other year, so hoping May 2021 will happen still. That is the only dive trip I go on, they have a nice snorkel area right off the shore and of course great drink service on the beach!
Someday - European river cruise, African safari, and New Zealand. Possibly a trip to the Scandinavian capitals and up the coast of Norway. England, Scotland, return trip to Ireland...

 

[becauseimnew]

We have a vacation list:
Washington DC
Grand Canyon
Spain
Costa Rica
Japan
Hawaii
Peru
Yellowstone
Yosemite

We already cancelled DC . We have Universal Studios booked for Thanksgiving break, I hope we can make that and Universal happen this year.
Spain was supposed to happen next summer, I really don't think that is happening. I'm hoping to move Yellowstone up, but everything for June/July is booked

 

[IFlossU]

Question for those of you that have frozen your credit, or placed fraud alerts on credit.

How much of a hassle is it to apply for credit cards with a freeze or alert on your credit?

I ask because yesterday I discovered an unauthorized inquiry on DH’s Experian report. He plans to make the necessary phone calls tomorrow to get more information and hopefully close any account that may have been requested and possibly get the inquiry removed from his account.

I’m wondering if he should bother to place a fraud alert or credit freeze on his credit. I obviously want his information to be secure, but at the same time don’t want to over react. I know several people here have their credit frozen, and I guess I’m wondering if 1 random inquiry warrants freezing DH’s credit. I plan to app him for a couple more cards in the upcoming months and don’t want to create more problems with fraud alerts and frozen credit.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated

 

[babecca1]

Question for those of you that have frozen your credit, or placed fraud alerts on credit.

How much of a hassle is it to apply for credit cards with a freeze or alert on your credit?

I ask because yesterday I discovered an unauthorized inquiry on DH’s Experian report. He plans to make the necessary phone calls tomorrow to get more information and hopefully close any account that may have been requested and possibly get the inquiry removed from his account.

I’m wondering if he should bother to place a fraud alert or credit freeze on his credit. I obviously want his information to be secure, but at the same time don’t want to over react. I know several people here have their credit frozen, and I guess I’m wondering if 1 random inquiry warrants freezing DH’s credit. I plan to app him for a couple more cards in the upcoming months and don’t want to create more problems with fraud alerts and frozen credit.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated

I actually just temporarily un-froze my credit, and it was super easy. You can set a date for it to un-freeze and another to refreeze when you do it, so it starts right back up without going back in to do that. The only tricky part is keeping good records of the PIN numbers and credentials you set up for each 3. It would have been much harder without that information handy.
I’ve had mine frozen for at least a few years now, and like the extra piece of mind.
oh ... I did forget to unfreeze it once while applying for credit once. I got the rejection, but was able to un-freeze, and call the bank and was approved right over the phone.

 

[IFlossU]

You can set a date for it to un-freeze and another to refreeze when you do it, so it starts right back up without going back in to do that.

Is this something you can do online, or do you have to call?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Upgrade offers like this can be a nice way to earn a bonus without a new account or even an inquiry. If you hold an Amex BCE or Everyday card (or possibly even Hilton & other cards), be on the lookout for upgrade offers.

They aren’t always lucrative but as we’re seeing, it’s getting tough to get new cards. Offers like this can cure a lot of problems. Be aware though that accepting an upgrade offer (for example to BCP or EDP) will cancel your ability to earn a SUB on that card in the future — An additional consideration there if you’ve never held those cards in the first place. Lots to think about on these... bit consider them, don’t just gloss over them.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/amex-everyday-to-everyday-preferred-25000-point-upgrade-offer/

 

[wendow]

I'm impressed!! DW and I hiked almost 7 miles yesterday - but was difficult, rocky terrain and a lot steep uphill (like climbing a ladder steep) - took almost 4 hours but was enjoyable.

Tell you one thing though.....there was no way we were getting off the sofa to take an evening walk!!

I was so sore today! Yet we walked 1.5+ miles to our closest FroYo shop (each way). We went and got that and hit up a few other stores. Four miles later and we were at home and napping lol. We are pretty lame! Although, we've been hitting 15k steps each day for about the last 2 weeks so I feel okay...
ETA: yesterday was a nice 23k steps..

 

[afan]

Question for those of you that have frozen your credit, or placed fraud alerts on credit.

How much of a hassle is it to apply for credit cards with a freeze or alert on your credit?

I ask because yesterday I discovered an unauthorized inquiry on DH’s Experian report. He plans to make the necessary phone calls tomorrow to get more information and hopefully close any account that may have been requested and possibly get the inquiry removed from his account.

I’m wondering if he should bother to place a fraud alert or credit freeze on his credit. I obviously want his information to be secure, but at the same time don’t want to over react. I know several people here have their credit frozen, and I guess I’m wondering if 1 random inquiry warrants freezing DH’s credit. I plan to app him for a couple more cards in the upcoming months and don’t want to create more problems with fraud alerts and frozen credit.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated

I actually just temporarily un-froze my credit, and it was super easy. You can set a date for it to un-freeze and another to refreeze when you do it, so it starts right back up without going back in to do that. The only tricky part is keeping good records of the PIN numbers and credentials you set up for each 3. It would have been much harder without that information handy.
I’ve had mine frozen for at least a few years now, and like the extra piece of mind.
oh ... I did forget to unfreeze it once while applying for credit once. I got the rejection, but was able to un-freeze, and call the bank and was approved right over the phone.

Agree with @babecca1 There's really no reason not to freeze it, and if someone's already tried, I'd have it done already. It's super easy to unfreeze as she says. You do it all online. When I get ready to app for a new card I go on to all 3, because I don't trust anything I see on a list or google about who pulls what, and I unfreeze them for 24 hours. I say I don't trust because the one time I did and only unfroze the two DoC said for my state they pulled the other. It was easy to recon, just called and said I forgot to unfreeze my credit, it's been unfrozen can you please try again and it was an instant approval.

Is this something you can do online, or do you have to call?

You should be able to do all of it online, but there can be issues sometimes verifying who you are. But like @babecca1 said it's important to keep your login info and pin numbers somewhere safe. I keep mine in my password keeper in the notes. You don't need the pin for each of them, some it's a log in but I think there's for sure one that does need the pin. I can't remember because it takes like 5 min to unfreeze all 3 and that's with going to the site, logging in and picking the date you want it to start and end.

They do also let you grant access to someone or request a pin/access code or something for a bank to get access. I imagine this would be the type of thing you'd do if you were looking for a mortgage or something where they may need to pull it more than once over a span of time so you don't need to go in and unfreeze it for them.

Really, knowing how easy it is to freeze/unfreeze it all but also how easy it is for fraud to happen, I don't understand in this day why they don't just automatically freeze everyone and then you make the effort to unfreeze. It'd save so much, and think of all the spontaneous/pressured into store cards wouldn't happen, nevermind all the fraud money the cc's and banks would save.

 

[babecca1]

Is this something you can do online, or do you have to call?

I’ve done it all online.

 

[Erica Ladd]

Disney GC’s never lose value, right? So I can buy some and not use them for 3 years and they will still be the same amount?

 

[calypso726]

Disney GC’s never lose value, right? So I can buy some and not use them for 3 years and they will still be the same amount?

That is correct.

 

[Erica Ladd]

Thank you! Just making sure since BJ’s has the 5% off but not sure when we will make it back to WDW

 

[ZoeBell]

I applied last week and was approved for Freedom Unlimited. 5% for groceries doesn’t show up anywhere in my “ways to earn” or anywhere in UR. Spoke to someone who at first couldn’t find anything about then after checking said it will automatically show up with statement balance. I get points not getting added until statement closing, but shouldn’t the offer/benefit be listed the way 1.5% for every other purchase is listed?
TIA

 

[Judique]

Thank you! Just making sure since BJ’s has the 5% off but not sure when we will make it back to WDW

For 5% off your money is better invested if you are not going to use your gift cards for 3 years. I would only take advantage of that discount last minute and for the most part you can get 5% almost always. However if you see a deal that results in 20% savings, that might be worth hanging onto for a couple of years.

Not sure what others will say, but I'm big on buying gift cards but only if I can use them within a year of purchase.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Southwest "Convert Travel Funds to Point" is now live:

Per a report on r/churning the conversion rate is 1.282 cpp

Here's an image provided. I haven't personally checked any of this myself yet and I have no credits to my name to verify the calculation.

https://imgur.com/IIDSYnf

 

[WVMomof3]

We have a vacation list:
Washington DC
Grand Canyon
Spain
Costa Rica
Japan
Hawaii
Peru
Yellowstone
Yosemite

We already cancelled DC . We have Universal Studios booked for Thanksgiving break, I hope we can make that and Universal happen this year.
Spain was supposed to happen next summer, I really don't think that is happening. I'm hoping to move Yellowstone up, but everything for June/July is booked

Keep looking at Yellowstone (and all National Parks). I was able to get ours fairly late in the game last year. Things open up all the time.

 

[Psychodisney]

Interesting offer on my Amex Plat today.
DETAILS
Get 1,500 Membership Rewards® points by using your enrolled Card to spend a minimum of $1,500+ in one or more eligible transactions. Once you add the offer to your eligible card, you will have 90 days to spend $1,500 or more, up to 3 times during the offer term. See terms for exclusions.

I'm not a huge MR earner/user but I do like the Home Depot gift cards. Looks like it makes it a 2 point card for now?

 

[Alexle2007]

Southwest "Convert Travel Funds to Point" is now live:

Per a report on r/churning the conversion rate is 1.282 cpp

Here's an image provided. I haven't personally checked any of this myself yet and I have no credits to my name to verify the calculation.

https://imgur.com/IIDSYnf

Already created a SW RR for my mom and changed for credit to points that I will use for future flights since I had purchased her ticket.