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

[Alexle2007]

Thank you! I followed most of what you said. I’m assuming SUB is sign up bonus. So...even if we downgrade a card, we still will not be eligible for the SUB for 4 years, but we could still upgrade to the card if we choose to?

My biggest concern with the Reserve is that I’m not sure we travel enough to benefit from it. I know we will easily recover the $300 travel credit, but GE would never get used. I mean, we go to Canada pretty regularly, but that’s about it. We take 2-3 family trips a year. A couple fairly decent ones and a couple weekend type ones. This past year we went to Myrtle Beach, Lake Placid, Syracuse, Burlington, Disney and Universal and will round off the year at Dollywood in TN. We take frequent dat and sometimes overnight trips to Canada, but we do not do any overseas travel—not yet, anyway. One of our trips was by air.

CL = credit limit

 

[EACarlson]

CL is credit limit, yes SUB is Sign Up Bonus. Do you fly regularly? TSA Pre makes it much easier to go through security. Depending on how long your husband has had the CSP, he may be able to downgrade that to a Freedom and apply for another one, I wouldn't do that too quickly together though. If you spend a lot on what Chase considers travel and restaurants the Reserve can make sense. I forgot that you can book through the Chase travel portal at 1.25cpp with the CSP and 1.5cpp with the CSR. I haven't reached that level yet so I'm very content with my CSP.

 

[Alexle2007]

@wendow I believe you have your mortgage with Provident also. We have ours set to auto withdraw on it due date. How were you handling the payment using Plastiq?

 

[PolyRob]

I have $83.33 left of my CIP MSR. Is it bad that I just want to charge something... ANYTHING to finish it?!

 

[Artygal90]

False alarm. Baby is asleep! Post on the DIS and ye shall receive!

Still taking recommendations for a magic baby-rocker that will make my life as babysitter to a fuss-budget easier

Edited to add: not four minutes after writing this updated post, the baby wakes up again. I jinxed myself.

Send help!

 

[Artygal90]

I have $83.33 left of my CIP MSR. Is it bad that I just want to charge something... ANYTHING to finish it?!

I know the feeling! DH had to get new tires unexpectedly and rather than freak out I was like “cool that’s a good chunk of your Plat MSR I don’t have to figure out.”

 

[miztressuz]

Ok all you Priority Pass Peeps and Lounge Lords/Ladies out there, I'm ready for you to burst my bubble! (or should it have been all y'all, or you/youse guys? but definitely not bursting my water fountain, thank you very much, that would be messy )

Due to Southwest's extremely generous March flight change policy, I was able to change my flight next week so we're not getting in after midnight AND I changed it so we have an hour and a half layover in ATL instead, which has a Priority Pass lounge and BONUS, it'll actually be open while we're there

Now, the lounge is in the International terminal/Concourse F. Southwest is in Concourse C. Is there any problem getting access to Concourse F to visit the lounge there???

OK this was short lived. The DIS made my bubble float high on Monday and SW burst it on Saturday

They cancelled the flight I selected with the ATL layover. We're now having an hour and a quarter layover in Midway. Yuck. But I keep trying to tell myself it's better than getting in after midnight or leaving before the buttcrack of dawn.

None of the flights for our trip that day are scheduled on a 737Max but it seems there may be farther reaching effects as they have to replace aircraft. I don't think this is the end of the cancellations, if anyone is flying in the next few weeks I'd think about a backup plan in case you're randomly affected. SW is big in PHL, so it's not usually hard to move to another flight for us. I know that's not the case everywhere.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Thank you! I followed most of what you said. I’m assuming SUB is sign up bonus. So...even if we downgrade a card, we still will not be eligible for the SUB for 4 years, but we could still upgrade to the card if we choose to?

My biggest concern with the Reserve is that I’m not sure we travel enough to benefit from it. I know we will easily recover the $300 travel credit, but GE would never get used. I mean, we go to Canada pretty regularly, but that’s about it. We take 2-3 family trips a year. A couple fairly decent ones and a couple weekend type ones. This past year we went to Myrtle Beach, Lake Placid, Syracuse, Burlington, Disney and Universal and will round off the year at Dollywood in TN. We take frequent dat and sometimes overnight trips to Canada, but we do not do any overseas travel—not yet, anyway. One of our trips was by air.

Sub??

Sub??

It confuses me too

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

No time to read now. Just checked in to Swan, on the Preferred Guest Floor. Upgraded to resort view with balcony! View attachment 390288View attachment 390289

Awesome!!! Have a great time

 

[PolyRob]

I know the feeling! DH had to get new tires unexpectedly and rather than freak out I was like “cool that’s a good chunk of your Plat MSR I don’t have to figure out.”

I did all my normal shopping last night/today and I thought I would have finished it, but not quite. If I don't think it will be done before I go to WDW next week, I am just going to throw $100 on my cable bill. LOL 3x UR and not having to think about it while I am away sounds good to me

 

[NewbieMom]

Very off-topic but I’m in desperate straits and I know there are parents on this board....ANY advice would help!

I often babysit an 18-month old who has been rocked to sleep every night of her life (and plenty of naps too). Recently she has really started resisting sleep when I rock her. I’ll get her passed out (per Mom and Dad’s institutions) in my arms and then she wakes up and starts sobbing the second I put her down in the crib. The only thing that works sometimes is a solid 2+ hours of rocking. Occasionally the parents will come home and she is still awake refusing to let me put her to sleep in her crib! Then Dad takes over as he seems to have better luck.

Any tips? Currently taking a sanity/chocolate break since I first tried to put her down about 1 1/2 hours ago. She’s not hungry, doesn’t need a diaper change, her room is nice and cool, white noise machine is on. Parents just say to keep trying the usual routine. I’m supposed to do this every night this week! Augh! Help!

Edited to add: to make this slightly more on-topic, is there some kind of magic automatic baby-rocker I could convince her parents to let me buy as part of my Amex Plat MSR?

Both my kids are held to sleep for hours at a time, and as soon as they get put in the crib, they wake up. I don't have any good tips because I literally held my DD all night sitting slightly angled on the bed. I did think about buying this just before DS grew out of it: https://www.happiestbaby.com/pages/snoo

ETA: 18 months is too old for the snoo. Wow I feel for the parents. My kids were only held all night for the first few months.

 

[have2getaway]

I have not figured out how to delete a message yet!

 

[Artygal90]

Both my kids are held to sleep for hours at a time, and as soon as they get put in the crib, they wake up. I don't have any good tips because I literally held my DD all night sitting slightly angled on the bed. I did think about buying this just before DS grew out of it: https://www.happiestbaby.com/pages/snoo

ETA: 18 months is too old for the snoo. Wow I feel for the parents. My kids were only held all night for the first few months.

They are so tired all. The. Time. And they both have demanding jobs with somewhat irregular hours. At least she’s an only child for now and they have friends and family nearby to help some.

She’s back asleep now so IDK but I guess what I did worked for now!

 

[have2getaway]

CL is credit limit, yes SUB is Sign Up Bonus. Do you fly regularly? TSA Pre makes it much easier to go through security. Depending on how long your husband has had the CSP, he may be able to downgrade that to a Freedom and apply for another one, I wouldn't do that too quickly together though. If you spend a lot on what Chase considers travel and restaurants the Reserve can make sense. I forgot that you can book through the Chase travel portal at 1.25cpp with the CSP and 1.5cpp with the CSR. I haven't reached that level yet so I'm very content with my CSP.

He opened his in September, but we usually don’t move too fast with applying for new cards. I have transferred some points from my CIB to DH’s Sapphire Preferred. Can they be transferred to a CSR and converted to a higher point value for travel rewards purposes? Is that what people do? We have around 180k in UR points now.

 

[EACarlson]

Depends on what you want to do with them. I generally transfer mine out to travel partners which is the same between both cards. I've gotten 3cpp on SW. If you get a CSR he could transfer all of his points to you and you could redeem them through the travel portal for 1.5cpp.

 

[miztressuz]

Thank you! I followed most of what you said. I’m assuming SUB is sign up bonus. So...even if we downgrade a card, we still will not be eligible for the SUB for 4 years, but we could still upgrade to the card if we choose to?

My biggest concern with the Reserve is that I’m not sure we travel enough to benefit from it. I know we will easily recover the $300 travel credit, but GE would never get used. I mean, we go to Canada pretty regularly, but that’s about it. We take 2-3 family trips a year. A couple fairly decent ones and a couple weekend type ones. This past year we went to Myrtle Beach, Lake Placid, Syracuse, Burlington, Disney and Universal and will round off the year at Dollywood in TN. We take frequent dat and sometimes overnight trips to Canada, but we do not do any overseas travel—not yet, anyway. One of our trips was by air.

You'd want the Reserve if you know you'd be able to use the Chase portal for redemptions at the higher rate. It does have the slightly better trip insurance as it kicks in faster but you'd have to determine if that solely is worth the extra $55 a year over the Preferred.

If you're not ready for the Reserve now then the CIU would get you the same bonus amount for a lower spend while you work out the rest of the plan.

 

[have2getaway]

You'd want the Reserve if you know you'd be able to use the Chase portal for redemptions at the higher rate. It does have the slightly better trip insurance as it kicks in faster but you'd have to determine if that solely is worth the extra $55 a year over the Preferred.

If you're not ready for the Reserve now then the CIU would get you the same bonus amount for a lower spend while you work out the rest of the plan.

How much more is the Reserve worth on 180k points? I don’t completely get if it’s a straight percentage when converting to points or if I take the 180k and multiply it by 1.25 for CSP and 1.5 for CSR? I may just be overthinking it.

 

[Psychodisney]

I was thinking this might come in handy for our departing flights, I'm not planning on paying for EBCI on departing flights, just return flight so we don't have to worry about checking in right at 24 hours. But, we have multiple confirmation numbers so who know what boarding positions we'll get by the time we get everyone checked in.


That would take it from almost even to swinging in favor of the $149 card.


Ooh, good question. Hadn't thought of that. Our Florida trip has direct flights but our California flights don't.

Does anyone know if the $75 credit can be used to pay for EBCI? I did some research but can't really find a clear answer. It's not good on "upgraded boarding" but not sure if they consider EBCI that.

Yes, I can confirm I used my $75 credit for EBCI!

 

[kmc8826]

Generally, I think 2 months from the last application that Chase can see or knows about should be fine when applying for a Chase biz card, but it does depend what your velocity looked like for the prior 3, 6, to 12 months before, and how soon after this card you plan to go for the next card. At only 2/24, DH should be extremely low risk for a shutdown, and I wouldn't worry about the fact that his last app was only 2 months ago (vs. the recommended 3).

Thanks! Before the Hyatt this year his last Chase was the Ink Preferred in July and the Cash in May. He has been going slow as he was getting the pop up with Amex and then mostly being my employee helping meet the spend in my Amex application new cards “must gather all MR’s possible immediately frenzy” this fall. I guess since people are getting new CIP’s while still holding one the old idea of waiting 30 days before close/apply for new card do not need to be followed? After he gets another CIP I don’t really have any strong feelings of other Chase cards. I guess try for the other Ink cards again if that is working. (Don’t shun me...I don’t do this with a huge spreadsheet plan for the next year; just figuring it out as I go).

So, I’m still on the fence about which card to apply for. Please help me decide. DH and I each have 1 Chase Ink (I have regular and he has the 1.5%). We have good credit. My score is 814 last time I checked. He has the Sapphire Preferred. I haven’t applied for any other Chase cards in over 2 years (other than the Chase Ink). The cards I am considering:

—Sapphire Preferred (with DH referral)
—Chase Ink 1.5
—Chase Ink Preferred
—Chase Sapphire Reserve

I’m leaning towards the Sapphire Preferred or Chase Ink 1.5 because I’m ultra conservative, but I’m tempted to go with either the Ink Preferred (for the cell Phone protection & 3% bonus perks), or the Sapphire Reserve for the better trip delay benefit. We recently experienced a trip delay and so I now see the benefits of the cards and not just the bonus features.

The cons for the Ink Preferred is the annual fee that isn’t waived and the higher minimum spend. I’m fairly certain we could meet the $5k, but would prefer one I can meet sooner. The cons for the Reserve are the annual fee. I also need convincing the features versus the $450 fee make sense for my travel needs, which are primarily with family (DH and 4 kids). I do like the 6 hour trip delay instead of 12 with Preferred, but not sure that’s enough of a reason for the higher fee?

The Sapphire Preferred, overall makes the most sense, but the Chase Ink 1.5 would be pretty easy to get and meet the minimum spend, and I could still get the Preferred or Reserve later. But...I know I have to wait 24 months before I can get another Sapphire product, so I can see why timing and order of applications for each Chase card can be crucial.

Ugh! I think I’m driving myself crazy! WWYD?

The problem with the CIP is it is a good sign up bonus but not much else. The cell phone coverage is nice and I keep it for that. For an all around better business card I would go for the Ink Unlimited. It also has the 0% APR for around 12 months so that can be handy sometimes. Plus no AF. That said though if you want the UR’s the better move for now would probably be to just go for it and get the CIP now. You get your most points that way; then refer to player 2 and get even more.

Sorry...I guess that’s not much help. My clear answer would be to get CIP, meet spend, then get CIU.

 

[WVMomof3]

He opened his in September, but we usually don’t move too fast with applying for new cards. I have transferred some points from my CIB to DH’s Sapphire Preferred. Can they be transferred to a CSR and converted to a higher point value for travel rewards purposes? Is that what people do? We have around 180k in UR points now.

All UR points within your household can be moved into one pile. They should all be moved into DHs CSP as that is currently your best card for redemptions and can also be moved to travel partners from that card. I don’t think you gave us a complete list with timeline of your cards, so it is hard to say, but I would do one of 2 things.
1-Get a CIP card if you can spend $5000 in 3 months. This card will return the most UR points especially if you later on refer DH for the same card. Or
2-Have DH refer you to the CSP and try to match for the 60k point offer. After his card is one year old I would PC it up to a CSR if you think it will benefit you or downgrade to one of the no fee Freedoms. I don’t think you both need a CSP at the same time.
I will say I know the $450 fee is scary, but I had the card for a year and actually got $600 in travel credits back before I PCd it to a Freedom. So I made money from it. I wouldn’t outright apply for it yourself, because you will get more points from the CSP referral and then have him PC it. You could repeat for yourself after a year, but I wouldn’t have you both keep it beyond the year, just one of you keep it if it benefits you, or both PC it down after a year if it does not.