I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[Budzooka]

They'll email you if you gets flagged and you can just respond. They tend to fix it within hours.

They flagged my Softball payment. I expect my car loan to get flagged again too, even though it says auto and was already approved. I got the message on it today.

I’ve been paying two auto loans and student loan payments through Plastiq for over a year now. The auto loans were flagged upon setup as a mortgage because they are to a bank, but I emailed them and got them fixed and haven’t had any issues....until this month.

There is a new pop up warning that says this payment looks like it could be a mortgage and those payments cannot be paid with a Visa. If it’s not, continue the payment. When I continued the payment, it was declined. Same message with both auto loans, but my student loan was processed no problem.

I emailed Plastiq and they responded back that it should be fixed. It wasn’t and I still received the same message. Emailed them back and they told me it was an issue with my browser, and I needed to use a private browser, and clear my history/cache. Did all that and still didn’t work. Emailed them back and they told me there was an issue with my card and I am most likely “exceeding daily spending limits”. By this point, I’m pretty frustrated. I make these payments every month on the same day on the same card and I am not exceeding any limit. This is clearly an issue on their end that is flagged with the payee that needs to be resolved. Just for grins, I tried the payments with another card and still received the same message.

A few days have passed going back and forth and I’m ok on time because I make these payments early as soon as my credit card statement closes, but I’m starting to get nervous about if they are going to be able to fix it. They tell me they have escalated the issue, but cannot provide a time frame. I decide to give it a couple of days before I respond, but continue to try to process every once in awhile just to check. I also tried to add as a new layer, but still received the same error message. On Saturday (this all started on Monday), my payment finally went through! I was so relieved they fixed it. I go to process the other car payment and it was declined with the same error.

I email Plastiq and I am mad because they don’t know what the heck they are talking about, and they don’t have phone support so we are having to go back and forth via email. It’s ridiculous that one payment will work and one won’t that are both to the same bank! They respond on Monday the issue has been escalated, but they do not have a solution. I kept trying on Monday and after several declines, it finally went through last night.

Very frustrating process in that I need to know if I can pay these every month. Hopefully, this is an isolated issue, but we’ll see. It was error 2006, and hope that none of you see.

 

[disneybirds]

DoC is reporting a short-term offer on Delta Vacation Packages. Miles are worth double through 8/31/19 - 2 cents per mile.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/delt...es-worth-double-2¢-sale-2-night-stay-minimum/
I had free time while working a night shift tonight, so I played around with some dummy bookings, and I am happy to see that all Disney resorts appear to be available. Additionally, if booking a hotel plus car vacation, it lets you separate the duration of your car rental from the duration of your hotel rental. In fact, it let me shorten the car rental duration to only one hour, effectively turning the vacation package into a room-only reservation. (It required me to sign up for Magical Express because I had no car rental.) I checked a few resorts during our spring break week, and the cost was the same from Disney and from Delta.

This looks like an effective way to use AmEx MR to pay for a Disney resort at 2 cents/point, which is a pretty decent valuation. No way to tell if they will pass along discount rates when they are available.

The promotion is only through 8/31/19, but here's one more potential nugget. The terms say this: "If you cancel your reservation, miles will not be redeposited into your SkyMiles account. The SkyMiles account holder will receive a Delta Vacations voucher for the value of the miles at the time of they were applied to the booking as payment." If I'm reading this correctly, you could book a vacation now, cancel, then use the 2 cents/point value on a future reservation.

I don't have a trip planned until 2021, otherwise I'd be tempted to give this a shot.


ETA: I ran some fall dates, and it looks like Delta is offering the 20% Fall/Holiday discounted rooms.

I just looked quickly and you can also buy Universal tickets. I have never booked a Delta vacation package like this, but I am assuming that if you pay with miles and still pay some $ amount, then you will get Skymiles for the trip. Has anyone booked these with points and cash before with Delta Vacations? Definitely worth spending some time today researching future trips.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Not really. There's a reason they sell the tray with the glass holder and that people talk about mats for on top of trash cans

I'd do the latter. I never noticed any additional seating or tables, we mainly used our laps and found benches or walls to lean on. We have staked out a bench before when it was getting close to closing. I had hubby hang out while I mad dashed to the last couple of booths we hadn't hit before they closed up for Illuminations. It was an interesting balancing act bringing it all back but we had a little mini feast while watching the show

You might want to scout around for a couple places around the world that may have a table and then form mini raiding parties at each one for the nearby booths. I think around France there were little bistro tables maybe? I thought in between Canada and UK there was an area for QS. Mexico at one point had some too but I don't recall if they were still there during our last F&W - which was 2016, so little fuzzy on geography.

They have additional tables but not much seating unless you count park benches.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I hadn't thought about it until we were at a horse show this weekend eating dinner in the barn and my MIL set up a little stool as a table for FIL. Sounds like maybe we'll find a table and have him and MIL wait there and then go out to get a bunch of food and come back.

 

[DisneyMandC]

Interesting DP on r churning from someone who ended up refinancing their mortgage smack dab in the middle of churning. If a refi is in the back of anyone’s mind might be worth looking into despite your current churning activities. (They give a few places to start looking, not having a mortgage I have no opinion on if they are good or bad recommendations.)

I know very little about refinancing, so this may be a silly question, but how much equity do you need to have in your home/does that matter to refinance? We only put 5% down when buying out house (it was sort of a "surprise, you're buying a farm!" situation), so we only have about 12% equity right now. We are still paying PMI. I don't know if that would disqualify me from finding rates like these or even being able to refinance, period.

 

[happ]

DoC is reporting a short-term offer on Delta Vacation Packages. Miles are worth double through 8/31/19 - 2 cents per mile.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/delt...es-worth-double-2¢-sale-2-night-stay-minimum/
I had free time while working a night shift tonight, so I played around with some dummy bookings, and I am happy to see that all Disney resorts appear to be available. Additionally, if booking a hotel plus car vacation, it lets you separate the duration of your car rental from the duration of your hotel rental. In fact, it let me shorten the car rental duration to only one hour, effectively turning the vacation package into a room-only reservation. (It required me to sign up for Magical Express because I had no car rental.) I checked a few resorts during our spring break week, and the cost was the same from Disney and from Delta.

This looks like an effective way to use AmEx MR to pay for a Disney resort at 2 cents/point, which is a pretty decent valuation. No way to tell if they will pass along discount rates when they are available.

The promotion is only through 8/31/19, but here's one more potential nugget. The terms say this: "If you cancel your reservation, miles will not be redeposited into your SkyMiles account. The SkyMiles account holder will receive a Delta Vacations voucher for the value of the miles at the time of they were applied to the booking as payment." If I'm reading this correctly, you could book a vacation now, cancel, then use the 2 cents/point value on a future reservation.

I don't have a trip planned until 2021, otherwise I'd be tempted to give this a shot.


ETA: I ran some fall dates, and it looks like Delta is offering the 20% Fall/Holiday discounted rooms.

I received an email from Delta about this promotion and played around with a dummy booking to see what it was like. I was surprised that the prices were similar to Disney and you could even add on park tickets. I'm not planning a trip now either, but I hope they do this promotion again in the future.

 

[Budzooka]

I know very little about refinancing, so this may be a silly question, but how much equity do you need to have in your home/does that matter to refinance? We only put 5% down when buying out house (it was sort of a "surprise, you're buying a farm!" situation), so we only have about 12% equity right now. We are still paying PMI. I don't know if that would disqualify me from finding rates like these or even being able to refinance, period.

I’m no expert, but I don’t know if there is a magic number for equity in refinancing, as it will depend on what the appraisal comes in for. They will only give you a loan for x% of the value, so it may not work if there hasn’t been much appreciation on the property. On the other hand, you may be ok if there has been substantial appreciation and need to consider if the cut in interest rate outweighs the closing costs.

 

[Mswiza]

My Citi AA Biz#2 statement closed yesterday and the bonus points didn't post. My first AA Biz was with the $250 statement credit and this one was the public link 60,000 points after $3000 spend. most of the $3000 was a refundable southwest flight which I will cancel so at least it isn't wasted spend. Do you think it is worth chatting with them or just let it go?

 

[DisneyMandC]

I’m no expert, but I don’t know if there is a magic number for equity in refinancing, as it will depend on what the appraisal comes in for. They will only give you a loan for x% of the value, so it may not work if there hasn’t been much appreciation on the property. On the other hand, you may be ok if there has been substantial appreciation and need to consider if the cut in interest rate outweighs the closing costs.

Thanks! While it has appreciated some, I can't imagine it has a ton. I think we just need to be patient and wait on it.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

My Citi AA Biz#2 statement closed yesterday and the bonus points didn't post. My first AA Biz was with the $250 statement credit and this one was the public link 60,000 points after $3000 spend. most of the $3000 was a refundable southwest flight which I will cancel so at least it isn't wasted spend. Do you think it is worth chatting with them or just let it go?

Have you looked at the statement to see if it shows the bonus points
If they didn’t post...I wouldn’t contact them since you aren’t supposed to get the bonus...

 

[Mswiza]

Have you looked at the statement to see if it shows the bonus points
If they didn’t post...I wouldn’t contact them since you aren’t supposed to get the bonus...

Yes I looked at the statement and only my 3,441 points that I earned on my spend are there. Thanks for your thoughts on not contacting them, that is what I was thinking but wondered if others thought otherwise.

 

[LuckyMamaInDE]

Interesting DP on r churning from someone who ended up refinancing their mortgage smack dab in the middle of churning. If a refi is in the back of anyone’s mind might be worth looking into despite your current churning activities. (They give a few places to start looking, not having a mortgage I have no opinion on if they are good or bad recommendations.)

Good to know! We were just this weekend talking about a potential re-fi and need to run some numbers. We bought this house 13 years ago, and re-fi-d 5 or 6 years ago to a 20 at 3.275.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

DoC is reporting a short-term offer on Delta Vacation Packages. Miles are worth double through 8/31/19 - 2 cents per mile.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/delt...es-worth-double-2¢-sale-2-night-stay-minimum/
I had free time while working a night shift tonight, so I played around with some dummy bookings, and I am happy to see that all Disney resorts appear to be available. Additionally, if booking a hotel plus car vacation, it lets you separate the duration of your car rental from the duration of your hotel rental. In fact, it let me shorten the car rental duration to only one hour, effectively turning the vacation package into a room-only reservation. (It required me to sign up for Magical Express because I had no car rental.) I checked a few resorts during our spring break week, and the cost was the same from Disney and from Delta.

This looks like an effective way to use AmEx MR to pay for a Disney resort at 2 cents/point, which is a pretty decent valuation. No way to tell if they will pass along discount rates when they are available.

The promotion is only through 8/31/19, but here's one more potential nugget. The terms say this: "If you cancel your reservation, miles will not be redeposited into your SkyMiles account. The SkyMiles account holder will receive a Delta Vacations voucher for the value of the miles at the time of they were applied to the booking as payment." If I'm reading this correctly, you could book a vacation now, cancel, then use the 2 cents/point value on a future reservation.

I don't have a trip planned until 2021, otherwise I'd be tempted to give this a shot.


ETA: I ran some fall dates, and it looks like Delta is offering the 20% Fall/Holiday discounted rooms.

I was messing with this yesterday and it doesn’t seem like you can use points to pay unless you are booking a flight. Is there a way around that? I’m a little more concerned about booking a “throwaway” flight vs rental car.

 

[speedyfishy]

Does anyone know if the AA vacation package is refundable?

 

[Haley R]

Dh’s AF from his CSR was refunded. That was fast! So how long should we wait to cancel the refundable hotel we booked to get the travel credit?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Dh’s AF from his CSR was refunded. That was fast! So how long should we wait to cancel the refundable hotel we booked to get the travel credit?

Are you trying to cancel it and get it refunded before having to pay the statement? In general I’d try to wait a awhile (ie a month) just to keep things “above board”.

 

[DisneyMandC]

DP got DH AA BIZ #2, different offer/link. First was 40k spend with $250 credit. Did 3K for 60k. Did a fake Expedia refundable booking. Miles are there today!!!!

Do you just do the pay now option on Expedia as long as it says cancel by whatever date? I may try this for my new Citi card. I guess I'm just worried that somehow I won't get my money back lol!

 

[amalone1013]

DHs Plat SUB posted today! Yay! And I think his CIP SUB is due today or tomorrow, off to check!

 

[palhockeymomof2]

BJs is offering free online membership right now if anyone is interested

 

[afan]

I was messing with this yesterday and it doesn’t seem like you can use points to pay unless you are booking a flight. Is there a way around that? I’m a little more concerned about booking a “throwaway” flight vs rental car.

When I was looking at it last week I couldn't figure out how to do it for hotel/car. And what I was finding, granted for oct, made me think my 90k miles would be better served as flights. Still didn't seem helpful enough with a flight/hotel package unless it was weird because I wasn't logged in but it didn't seem to change much when I entered the miles in the box.

 

[amalone1013]

Does anyone know if the AA vacation package is refundable?

I read into it some when I booked Swolphin rooms in June for the cruise, it sounded like maybe there was a cancellation fee of $150 or $200? But if I recall correctly it talked mostly about flights...

Wait I found an email from my booking.

Spoiler: Terms and Conditions

Basic Terms & Conditions:

• Prices are guaranteed upon booking.
• There are no blackout dates.
• AAdvantage car & hotel awards are available as mileage-only awards or as a combination of AAdvantage miles plus cash, which allow you to use fewer AAdvantage miles by making up the difference in cash. If you choose to pay for your purchase with AAdvantage miles plus cash, a minimum of 1,000 AAdvantage miles must be applied towards your transaction and the cash portion must be charged to a credit card with a billing address in the United States, Canada, or U.S.V.I. Your AAdvantage miles will be deducted at the time of purchase.
• You may make changes to your reservation if the hotel is a refundable and changeable room type or the car provider allows it, but a $30 USD and other change fees may apply and changes must be made 24 hours in advance of check-in.
• If your travel dates are between December 17 and January 3, your transaction is non-refundable.
• AAdvantage Car and Hotel awards can be canceled and refunded if the request to cancel is made 5 or more days prior to your travel start date for a $150.00 USD fee payable by credit card. However, no refund or revision is allowed for non-refundable/advance purchase room categories or if your travel is between December 17 and January 3. Cancellation within 4 days of your travel start date is non-refundable and the AAdvantage miles will not be reinstated. A cancellation is defined as a complete cancellation of the purchase, change of name, changes to origin or destination cities, or changing from the initially booked hotel or car company to a different hotel or car company.
• Car or hotel awards purchased through this site do not qualify to earn AAdvantage miles from American Airlines, even for portions of payment paid with cash. Credit earned in any loyalty, recognition, or rewards program is at the discretion of the car rental company or hotel property.
• Redemptions must be made through the website https://www.useaamiles.com/carhotel/.
• For Customer Service within the United States, call 1-800-349-3244.
• If applicable, any fees or redemption-associated charges will appear on your credit card statements as "American Airlines Vacations".
• Car and hotel awards are available to all AAdvantage members. American Airlines reserves the right to revise Member eligibility. Each Member must have sufficient AAdvantage miles in his or her account to complete the AAdvantage miles portion of his or her transaction.
• Certain members may receive preferential pricing. Pricing is subject to change without notice.
• Redemptions may only be made from a single account per transaction. You may not combine AAdvantage miles from two or more accounts on a single transaction.

Hotel Terms & Conditions

• Hotel stay reservations are available through preferred suppliers of American Airlines and may not be available for all locations and destinations.
• Any charges for incidentals that you incur while traveling are not included in your original reservation and must be paid by you directly to the hotel property. These charges may include but are not limited to resort fees, hotel energy surcharges, parking fees, babysitting, room service, telephone fees, internet usage fees, in-room movies, mini-bar charges, use of fitness center, gratuities, and other incidentals. Payment for such additional charges must be made in currency, not AAdvantage miles, via a major credit card or similar form of payment, as required by the hotel property.
• In the event of an involuntary change due to weather, war, terrorism, epidemic outbreak, natural disaster, acts of civil unrest, or other acts of God, fees may be waived at the discretion of the hotel property.
• Policies for children vary by hotel property. Child benefits may be extended to you should a hotel property offer such benefits.
• Due to hotel property policies applicable to our preferred rates, your name may not be provided to the hotel property until 24 hours prior to your arrival. Please contact Customer Service for any special requests.
• Special requests made to hotel properties are on a request-only basis and cannot be guaranteed. Room assignments are based on hotel availability and are made at the hotel's discretion (number and type of beds cannot be guaranteed). If you have special requests, you must call the hotel and verify that the special requests can be met after you have made your booking. Fees and charges may apply, depending on the service request.
• The hotel property may require a major credit card, in one of the guests' names, or a cash deposit upon check-in. Valid ID is required at check-in.
• Some hotels require that guest be at least 21 years of age to check-in.
• Reservations do not include services not specified in the reservation confirmation.

I didn't mess with trying to chase down my points for ILs room for after the cruise. I thought it sounded like we were SOL anyways because we wouldn't have been canceling 5 days out. Plus we used less than $200 in AA miles so it would have been a wash.