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

[mfly]

I’ve been dutifully tracking along, despite things being crazy at work!

When I last posted, the recommendation from a number of you was to go for CIP #2 (sorry for not tagging you here - but thank you for your advice!)

In preparation, I reduced my CL on all my Chase cards. It’s now been just over a month since I did that, so I’m ready to apply.

Couple quick questions:
1) Is there a minimum business income I need to list for the CIP app? At some point in the past I remember 4 figures being brought up as a minimum, but I don’t know if that held.
2) How loose can I be in my listed income? Can it be “projected,” or should I stick to what I have documentation for?
3) Can I apply in the same category as my original CIP, or should I pick a new one?

Thanks all!

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I honestly think planning our own Japan trip made everything more personal because we had a hand in every aspect of the trip. We got to pick things we were most interested in and don’t have to work off someone else’s schedule. Was it a lot of work? Yes. But in the end I really do think it was worth it and there are so many good resources out there for planning your own trip.

Its much easier now than 10 or even 5 years ago. When we went to China, there was a little info online but not a lot. We used an actual book version of Fodor’s and a few other resources

 

[wanderlust7]

Ok I need help with travel insurance. The CSR and the Plat includes medical/death travel insurance?? Does anyone know what the travel insurance through Dreams covers? It is $450. does this normally include more things like financial loss or something?

I haven't really looked into the Plat coverage since the CSR is supposed to be pretty good. It has trip cancellation/interruption - covers things like if you get sick and have to miss the trip. Also has travel accident (death and dismemberment) and medical evacuation up to 100k. I don't think any credit card covers medical care, if that's what you were asking?

Is this for the ABD Backstage Magic you mentioned? Then you probably don't need to worry about medical since your own medical insurance would cover it. If you do need medical, then check out Insure My Trip. I don't know about the Dreams insurance, but for cruises, the insurance through the cruise line is usually more expensive.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I’ve been dutifully tracking along, despite things being crazy at work!

When I last posted, the recommendation from a number of you was to go for CIP #2 (sorry for not tagging you here - but thank you for your advice!)

In preparation, I reduced my CL on all my Chase cards. It’s now been just over a month since I did that, so I’m ready to apply.

Couple quick questions:
1) Is there a minimum business income I need to list for the CIP app? At some point in the past I remember 4 figures being brought up as a minimum, but I don’t know if that held.
2) How loose can I be in my listed income? Can it be “projected,” or should I stick to what I have documentation for?
3) Can I apply in the same category as my original CIP, or should I pick a new one?

Thanks all!

-I don’t believe there is a minimum income to list
-if you think you are going to earn more this year you could list it..I have never had them ask for documentation
- Yes

 

[speedyfishy]

I haven't really looked into the Plat coverage since the CSR is supposed to be pretty good. It has trip cancellation/interruption - covers things like if you get sick and have to miss the trip. Also has travel accident (death and dismemberment) and medical evacuation up to 100k. I don't think any credit card covers medical care, if that's what you were asking?

Is this for the ABD Backstage Magic you mentioned? Then you probably don't need to worry about medical since your own medical insurance would cover it. If you do need medical, then check out Insure My Trip. I don't know about the Dreams insurance, but for cruises, the insurance through the cruise line is usually more expensive.

Thank you! Yes it’s for the ABD CA trip so I think we will be skipping the extra insurance

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I think it actually works for our cats. The problem is if the cat doesn’t want to eat at the time lol. I can’t just leave the food out because then the other cat wants to eat it which means she’ll be getting two doses. We’re gonna try tuna and a smaller serving of food and that might work. It might also help if we don’t put their dry food out right before

Did you say it is a powder? A small amount of tuna or favorite food might work.
Or maybe this Pill a Pet https://www.greencoastpet.com/product-page/pill-a-pet
I’ve found that some pets will refuse anything where they can smell the med. So the trick is to totally encase it. The Pill a Pet (there are other similar brands) is like play doh. You can flatten it into a tiny pancake, put the med in the middle, then wash your hands (to remove med smell) and pull the edges together to form a ball, making sure none of the med gets on the outside. My mom uses the Pill a Pet for her dog who has heart failure and takes a number of meds.

 

[chattadisser]

You know you talk points too much in your house when DH gets up in the morning and he says he had a dream that he was on a flight and it was going to crash and all he could think was "how many points are they going to give me for this"! I was like umm...make it through the crash first and then wonder about the points. Although if that ever really happened it might take a lot to get me back on a plane and I typically am not bothered at all about flying.

 

[bernina]

I was approved after sending in utility bill, license, etc.

Good to hear and thank you for the datapoint. Do you remember what department you ultimately had success with and if you emailed or faxed the documentation in?

DH called again today and explained he applied as a sole proprietor and doesn’t have articles of incorporation. The rep didn’t seem to have a clue but sent it over to another department and said he’d hear something in 48 hours explaining what he needed to send.

Oh Barclays....

 

[Mopedmom1]

For Costa Rica, try https://www.caravan.com/tour/costa-rica
Excellent tour company in business over 50 years. Everything about their tour was top notch from accommodations to the bus to the tour guide. We had an incident with one of the members of our tour being injured at the hotel. The guide took her to the hospital, stayed with her as an interpreter and the company sent another guide for our group. They also sent another guide to help the injured woman and make sure all was ok (she rejoined our group after 2 days and was fine. ) Caravan was not happy with the way the hotel handled the problem (it was a Doubletree) and subsequently pulled all their tours from that hotel. When we went, the tour included the east coast as well but it seems they no longer do that. You might want to add it depending on time of year as we were there during turtle hatching season. Caravan is an all inclusive tour, longer and cheaper than ABD. Best vacation I’ve ever taken.

This looks like something I could spend the money on. Since I am a GIANT penny pincher I could never pay the ABD prices. Thanks for posting this. Have you done any other tours with them?

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I have 260k AA miles and dh has 109k AA miles (we had to use some of his).

Looking at booking:
aavacations.com
POFQ 8/6-8/10 for 118k (x2)
(includes car we won't be picking up)

useaamiles.com
Swan 8/10-8/15 Room# 1 75.5k (2 queens) and Room# 2 84.5k (1king/sofabed)

Seems best to book one POFQ room and both Swan rooms using my 260k, leaving about $180 OOP and then book the other POFQ room using dh's 109k leaving about $90 OOP.

@SouthFayetteFan or anyone else 'mathy', does this make the most sense or is there something else I should consider?

Ok - so it's worth noting that you could actually book 2 rooms with only 1 rental car on AAvacations.com and that cuts your cost of those two rooms from 237,200 points (or your roughly 118k x 2) down to 227,200. This doesn't help in your situation (I can't come up with a scenario where it actually costs you less OOP) but is something interesting for those following along.

That said, I believe what you've outlined is best. I ran the scenarios a few different ways and could not come up with anything that cost less OOP. You probably want to book the last 3 rooms in the order I detail below as it saves you a little money:

• POFQ Room 1 = 118,600 pts = booked with your husband's points, I show the OOP cost to $105.60
• POFQ Room 2 = 118,600 pts = booked with your points, no OOP cost
• Swan Room 1 = 75,500 pts = booked with your points, no OOP cost
• Swan Room 2 = 84,500 pts = booked with your remaining 65,900 pts, OOP cost = $186

By leaving the last room (where you only partially cover the cost with points) to useAAmiles.com you actually save yourself a little bit out of pocket. That's because the OOP cost formula is slightly better for you on UseAAmiles vs. AAvacations.

Now, I also know you previously mentioned that you might have some AA gift cards. Is that still true? If so, I'd want to call both AAvacations and UseAAmiles to see if they'll accept an AA gift card as payment. That could affect the order you want to book (i.e. say if AAvacations accepts the gift card but UseAAmiles does not).

 

[orangecuse]

I just got a letter saying my application for the Amex Hilton was denied because I already have that card. Y’all...I did not apply twice? I’m calling now hoping its a goof and not someone using my info?

 

[pillow]

If you pursue the dummy offer you have to spend $2,000 to find out if you get your bonus. If you don't get it...you wasted $2k in MSR, but that's perhaps not that terrible. If you happened to buy the $250 AA eGC and the statement credit didn't post, you could still sell it on Raise and get >$200 back so you'd be out <$50 and get no miles. This is your worst case scenario - if you get the miles and stmt credit you're in great shape.

I guess it's really a personal decision but if you have NO other card to go for at this point, what do you have to lose.

I could always meet the 2k MSR first to see if the bonus posts before purchasing the AA gc. I guess you're right - $2k of spend really isn't a lot.

The only other card on my radar right now is CIP#2, but I need to wait a bit before applying for that one. And I really should investigate MR earning cards, but at this point, I have more points than I can use, so I'm not in a rush.

 

[Haley R]

Did you say it is a powder? A small amount of tuna or favorite food might work.
Or maybe this Pill a Pet https://www.greencoastpet.com/product-page/pill-a-pet
I’ve found that some pets will refuse anything where they can smell the med. So the trick is to totally encase it. The Pill a Pet (there are other similar brands) is like play doh. You can flatten it into a tiny pancake, put the med in the middle, then wash your hands (to remove med smell) and pull the edges together to form a ball, making sure none of the med gets on the outside. My mom uses the Pill a Pet for her dog who has heart failure and takes a number of meds.

It’s a pill but you break it open and dump the powder out. I poured it on their food and then I mixed it in kind of like you said. Either he’s too smart or he wasn’t hungry which I’m thinking might have been the case.

 

[mmmears]

Now, I also know you previously mentioned that you might have some AA gift cards. Is that still true? If so, I'd want to call both AAvacations and UseAAmiles to see if they'll accept an AA gift card as payment. That could affect the order you want to book (i.e. say if AAvacations accepts the gift card but UseAAmiles does not).

Oh now that's really interesting, seeing as I have almost 1K in AA GCs that I don't want to use for flights. If I could use them for the balance on a Disney room that would be nice...

 

[pillow]

Now, I also know you previously mentioned that you might have some AA gift cards. Is that still true? If so, I'd want to call both AAvacations and UseAAmiles to see if they'll accept an AA gift card as payment. That could affect the order you want to book (i.e. say if AAvacations accepts the gift card but UseAAmiles does not).

@wendow Please post back if you get an answer to this. I have a stash and was trying to decide whether to keep or sell.

 

[PolyRob]

Thank you! Yes it’s for the ABD CA trip so I think we will be skipping the extra insurance

Is this the 6-day one with Walt Disney Studios, The Jim Henson Company, and Disneyland?

 

[3 DD love princesses]

I’ve been dutifully tracking along, despite things being crazy at work!

When I last posted, the recommendation from a number of you was to go for CIP #2 (sorry for not tagging you here - but thank you for your advice!)

In preparation, I reduced my CL on all my Chase cards. It’s now been just over a month since I did that, so I’m ready to apply.

Couple quick questions:
1) Is there a minimum business income I need to list for the CIP app? At some point in the past I remember 4 figures being brought up as a minimum, but I don’t know if that held.
2) How loose can I be in my listed income? Can it be “projected,” or should I stick to what I have documentation for?
3) Can I apply in the same category as my original CIP, or should I pick a new one?

Thanks all!

difference between 2 and 3
1.I did 50 more
2. I did $500 more
3. mine was a the same

 

[PolyRob]

Omg, the bands are like all gone. I was trying to checkout yesterday and it was giving me problems and now everything is gone. I hope they get more options up. If I don't get one for our June trip I hope we can get some for December.

Oh wow, a ton of stuff is gone! I hope they restock soon. I still have a while to order ours but I'm definitely planning on getting them.

Darn, I didn't end up ordering yesterday because I couldn't decide and figured I had plenty of time.

Oh no! I was thinking about that yesterday, I'm worried they will 'sell out' and then we will have problems for the people who did get an order through and there not being enough stock... especially close trips

Yes...quite a few have sold out....hopefully they will restock soon

That’s ridiculous. For a company that appears solely driven by money...they should be selling every magic band under the sun thru this medium. Disney, you make no sense sometimes. They could probably get more than the $10 for them too I bet. Wild...

I was waiting on these to be released before we got our AP bands, guess I'll wait longer - by the time everything is back in stock it'll be time for renewal anyway!

How ridiculous about the MagicBands! The Stitch one I added is still in stock, but on principle I am no longer upgrading my bands this trip. I'll take two free solid colors on my split thank you very much. I don't really need them and if I upgraded both it would be the cost of my rapid refill mug. Take that Disney

 

[DrFacilier]

I listed 2 $250 AA gift cards on Raise 4 days ago and they are still pending. It is my first-ever listing. Is this normal or do I need to contact them about it?

 

[pillow]

Yes, ABDs lol. I kinda don’t want to do any domestic after CA. I lived in NY so zero interest in that. I’m thinking of stuff I probably can’t/too scared to do on my own. China seems awesome and I want to do italy so bad but I was thinking I could do it on my own but it may just be easier to have Disney handle it lol. Have you done my short list Costa Rica, Galapagos, Vietnam, South Africa? I was thinking of those and China. But I may also only be able to afford a short escape. So I was thinking of doing the Rome and Paris or something.

Its incredibly easy to travel in Costa Rica on your own. Driving there is a bit tricky, but it can be done. If you don't want to drive, you can take shared shuttles from town to town - or even arrange private transportation. We flew Southwest on points and then used UR's for most hotels and a few activities. For 4 of us, our cash out of pocket was $2k for 10 days. You'd probably want to avoid the rainy season, which starts about now I believe.

Funny you should mention South Africa. I'm exploring options there now. You can self drive through Kruger park, and there are quite a few Marriott properties there. The price seems reasonable (although I may have to splurge and stay 2-3 nights at a private game reserve). First class on AA each way is 75k points into Johannesburg from the east coast. Or 80k on United/Ethiopian (and less flying time). This is a fun read - https://www.neverendingvoyage.com/south-africa-road-trip-itinerary/