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

[Lain]

 

[Judique]

We are going to Ocean City, Maryland next weekend.
Daughter and I have gone back and forth over what nights, who is booking what, etc.

Not in a bad way, just trying to maximize our points and cash return. Originally I was going mid week, not weekend and was taking advantage of a reduced price opening special at the Aloft, which is opening this weekend. There were no points rooms available, but the cash rate was low and I have the spend 200 get 40 off on my card.

So I mention I'm taking a little walk on the beach break to daughter and she says she wants to go. Now, she is booking the room - she may be able to continue her platinum status next year, due to the number of stays she will have this year, with a little help from Mom letting her have credit for my cash rooms. I will NOT be staying 35 nights by myself this year and I'm useless gold anyway.

So, she books Sunday and Monday and I will add my credit card at check in to get the $40 off $200.

And, then I'm now there Sunday, I want Saturday also. So, I go looking for a points room but Aloft isn't doing points yet.

I considered the 50K room at Bethany Suites, but although the hotel looks lovely, the location would be somewhat dead this time of year, plus I've got certificates I can burn now.

So I'm back on Aloft and I click 'use points' while on the hotel and it lets me use my certificate. I get the email to confirm.

Back a few minutes later to the site and no points rooms available for any date. I think somehow it just glitched for me, but now I'm afraid they may try canceling.

Anyway, between us we have 3 confirmed nights and will hope for no serious rain. We are driving separately as daughter has to work Monday so will just stay sat and Sun. The girls will ride home with me on Tuesday. Now, I am busy trying to decide on Mother's day brunch!

 

[kandb]

So I don't want to overlap the FIRE and CC threads, but Life Insurance is a piece of my FIRE and overall financial strategy. I don't work with a financial advisor for investments (so not my thing) BUT the guy who who handles my life insurance is a financial advisor (and because he enjoys the conversation also provides me some free consulting on my FIRE plan). I'd imagine at your stage, you're potentially looking for some simple term policies which you could really go with something cheap and easy.

I've reached a stage where I have 4 policies on me, 1 for my wife, and 1 for each of my girls. I pay almost $7,000 annually in life insurance premiums, LOL!

• The policies for my daughters are small whole life policies and they include a Guaranteed Insurability Rider which would allow them to buy additional insurance without underwriting if they had something unfortunate occur health-wise when they got older.
• My wife and I each have a term policy which is fully convertible (to whole life) up to the expiration date
• I also have 3 whole life policies. I've put them in place over the years as a part of a diversification and estate planning strategy. My most recent one there also has a long-term care rider

ALL of my policies are with Mass Mutual due to their Superior A++ financial rating, reputation, and the fact they've been around since 1851. NerdWallet ranks them third (just behind Northwestern Mutual and Pacific Life).

I previously had my term policies with Brighthouse (formerly MetLife) but when I did my most recent re-assessment of all the policies, I moved those to Mass Mutual due to the fully convertible provision.

Perhaps this is more than you bargained for in this response, lol!

If I had that much life insurance on me, I would be scared my husband would hire a hit man to do me in.

 

[nickle831]

Ugh Pretty sure I put the wrong DOB for my husband when applying with Chase on Friday for him. (His is July 24th my mom's is the 22nd ,pretty sure I used moms) So he is pending further review for approval. Is this an easy call and fix? Should I just wait for the letter and try again? Calling the hotline it just says a decision will be made in 30 days.

 

[vanjust14]

Is anyone else shocked that magical agency thread has been allowed to stay open so long??? They've been banned for so long.

Uh, yes! I couldn't believe it last night!

 

[amalone1013]

Now I feel like I should be researching life insurance today...

 

[vanjust14]

Any updates on the Serve glitch today?

 

[pillow]

Wow, I spent my morning looking at life insurance today, timely topic for me. For some reason we bought DH a 20 year policy, well, 20 years ago, and it expired in January. The $440/year bill for $1million went up to over $6000/yr for renewal. Um, no thanks. But we have been bad and have not gotten anything to replace. So every day I am thinking please don't die today. (well, I guess I always think that lol) I am looking into WAEPA. Do any of you federal people use it or know anything about it? @striker1064 @Alexle2007 who else am I missing?

When we bought our term policies many years ago, there was an online search tool that was terrific. You could input personal info, and it would spit back a list of potential options. You could see company ratings there as well. You might want to search for something like that if you can find it. It was tremendously helpful for us.

 

[Lain]

I just have to speak with Dh because I’m not sure if we want to go for another $5k MSR right away. We just have a lot on our plates right now

Perhaps put some of those moving costs towards a new card's MSR?

 

[Lain]

 

[wed100105]

It would help if you listed what cards you've opened and when you opened them for the past 24 months.

That 60k Southwest Biz "Just for You" offer looks to be the same as the public offer that's also at 60k.

You mentioned getting the CIP on 3/1, now you want to apply for 2 more Chase cards and looking forward to another CIP. You need to space these things out, or you'll risk looking like a "bust out" to Chase and will get all your cards shut down.

Me:
2/2019 Chase Ink Preferred Business
2/2019 Barclay's Frontier Airlines Mastercard
2/2019 AU on DH's AMEX Ascend Should have never done that. Doh!
9/2017 AMEX Hilton Ascend

I also have Kohls, CSR, Disney Visa, Gap Visa, Pottery Barn, GM Card, and some older cards that I don't use much if at all.

I was worreid about the bust out. Yikes. That'd be awful to get all my cards shut down. We could wait on the Southwest companion pass until next year. I don't have to have a new card now. I just have a big chunk of spend coming up and want to maximize it the best I can.

 

[pillow]

OT but slightly related to recent topics - PSA for all the young folks playing and lurking along, get some type of life insurance now. Term life is fine, get it while you are young and relatively healthy and it's cheap! Don't rely solely on a group policy from work. It's great to have but jobs change. And don't put it off until next year after X is paid off or Y happens, or even after Z amount is in the retirement account.

Find a way to pay it now, you'll appreciate it more than the Starbucks, packing cubes, and (dare I even say it) weekend trips to Disney when you're older and premiums are more expensive or worse, unobtainable.

I second this! But also want to add that its important to evaluate whether you really need it. If you're a 2 income family and can easily live off 1 income, then it may not be necessary. It really depends on where you'd be financially if you lost an income. Commissions on life insurance policies are quite large, so advisors love to sell them. While I certainly don't advocate being underinsured, being overinsured is a waste of money.

 

[Lain]

Me:
2/2019 Chase Ink Preferred Business
2/2019 Barclay's Frontier Airlines Mastercard
2/2019 AU on DH's AMEX Ascend Should have never done that. Doh!
9/2017 AMEX Hilton Ascend

I also have Kohls, CSR, Disney Visa, Gap Visa, Pottery Barn, GM Card, and some older cards that I don't use much if at all.

I was worreid about the bust out. Yikes. That'd be awful to get all my cards shut down. We could wait on the Southwest companion pass until next year. I don't have to have a new card now. I just have a big chunk of spend coming up and want to maximize it the best I can.

I'd defer to @SouthFayetteFan's advice since he's the Southwest Guru.

 

[Haley R]

Perhaps put some of those moving costs towards a new card's MSR?

I’ll talk it over with Dh

 

[platamama]

My CitiBiz#2 AA 40K miles posted, and I did a late night chat to be matched to 60K. The rep said they were successful in matching that and I should receive a letter in the mail in 7-10 business days to confirm. It's been less than 4 weeks since I opened the card. MC + Plastiq + mortgage sure is a great combo.

DH received his CitiBiz#2 last week, and I need to make a Plastiq payment with that toward our mortgage and he should be set too.

Thanks @speedyfishy, for testing out the nonmailer waters and being the DP we wanted to see!

 

[MKTokyo]

Is my math correct? I don't have to pay any fees on my next round of Plastiq. I already figured in my fees the first time and I have referral and customer service credits.

If I run $15,000 of the spend through on my CIP, I would net $600 in travel redemption, right? $15,000 x.03= $450 x 1.5 (CSR) = $675. That means if I choose to use my Amex HHonors instead, that "free night" certificate would have to be "worth" more than $675 (the amount I would have gotten in redemption on my CIP), right?

I applied for my CIP in late Feburary. The first charge was my annual fee on 3/1/19. Is it too early to apply for another one?

I've also been strongly considering the Southwest personal and business and earning a companion pass. Should I do that first?

I’m sure you have gotten more replies but here is my two cents... if you can get 3x UR on Plastiq with no fees, I would hit that hard for as long as you can, because I feel like it’s going to get reset to 1x before long, with no warning.

I would probably not go for a second CIP so soon but I am more cautious than a lot of others here & perhaps someone else can advise better because I have never set my Chase apps so close. I will be going for my second CIP next month but my first one was in September of last year.

 

[kandb]

@LuckyMamaInDE we have eaten at lots of table service and QS over the years. I just did the character meals quick review. I agree with boma it was good last time we stayed in akv. Now that our oldest dd will be considered an adult when we go next time we probably won’t be doing the dining plan. Which means less table service. Going to be an adjustment for all of us since we are used to not cooking or eating in the room at Disney.

When we go to Disney will always do a table service for dinner and do not get the DP since it doesn't save us any $$$. One thing to note. If your child that is turning to adult age (10?), they can still order off the kids menu at Disney with no problem. When we go table service we don't order overpriced sodas and desserts, just our main meals and an appetizer or two and our bill is reasonable.

 

[MKTokyo]

2020: WDW in March with our kids and ds's fiancee; Australia (and maybe New Zealand) in September/October
2021: We're thinking either a combo Machu Picchu/Galapagos trip OR Africa with a safari portion. Those Seychelles pictures were gorgeous! Last summer we hosted a young adult from the Seychelles though the Mandela Washington Fellowship who would like us to visit her home. it'd be awesome to combine a visit with a safari.



See above our 2021 plans which I would change in a hot minute to go to Egypt! The price is honestly not that bad. Dd might be in Jordan studying during 2021-22

We are not going to book anything just yet because we want to see how the first tours go & make sure we feel comfortable before committing to it. I think the trips will be popular, so if that means we can’t go until 2022 then so be it. I am just super excited that Egypt is now back on the list of possibilities because I had told myself it may not happen for many years, if at all. I get goosebumps thinking about it.

 

[south park]

I am curious too. I’ve had FEGLI for almost 28 years. But I am hoping to take early out in 5/6 years when DS graduates.

FEGLI is an easy option for Feds. It is not always the least expensive. Definitely research other plans. I retired in 2016 from Federal Service and researched policies and went in that direction. Only realized the cost difference after I retired.

 

[Lain]

So I have a #Bonvoyed story to share.

As many of you know, Amex Offers recently came out with a Marriott Bonvoy offer for $40 off $200. On our recent stay, we did a split tender of our room charge between my Amex Plat and my wife's SPG cards. However, both charges somehow ended up on my wife's card! So we've only gotten one statement credit. Now, both my card and my wife's card have the same last 4 digits (argh! Amex!) so maybe the hotel was confused? I don't know whether to blame the hotel for getting #bonvoyed, or Amex for its stupid numbering system.

It's been a chore calling the hotel's accounting department to correct this. When I called early last week and explained the situation, went over the billing, our cards and statements, he took my name and number, said he'd talk to his supervisor, and call me back. Nope. Called again, got to lots of voicemails, finally got person, redirected a few times, talked it over, they sent me a credit card authorization form to authorize a new payment on my Plat, then they'll charge the Plat and refund the SPG, filled it out and faxed back. That was Friday. No movement since. All this trouble for $40.