I love credit cards so much! v5.0 - 2022 (see first page for add'l details)

[MouseOfCards]

It was a big problem when Hawaii first opened up. I was pretty worried about it since we weren't staying somewhere that we could get by without a car and taxis/Ubers aren't that readily available on Kauai. I had 2 backup reservations that were a lot more, though one was with the same parent company, so not sure if that would have helped. There were reports that people couldn't find a car at all, so they ended up coming back early the next morning to try again. Luckily, things were better by the time we went.

We visited Hawaii last year and again a couple of months ago. Both times, we made very pricey car rental reservations, and kept checking and hoping that the prices would drop, but they just kept moving higher.

I strongly recommend that anyone renting a car should sign up for the car rental company's membership program (often free to join). For example, for Budget, we signed up for their FastBreak program, which required a credit card and driver's license on file, and accepting or declining their options (e.g. insurance) in advance. When we arrived to the car rental location, their was a line of 80-100 persons long waiting to get to the counter to get their cars. But the FastBreak line had only 1 person and we got our car within a few minutes.

 

[EACarlson]

Yeah, I understand the rental car shortage has been around since most of Covid. This was the first time I heard of actual people prepaying reservations and not getting a car, however. Everything else I had heard in the past 2 years was just people not being able to find reservations at all, them being hard to come by. But to book a reservation, pay for it, and then there is no car when you arrive? That's like you booking a hotel and then when you get there, there is no room! They shouldn't be allowed to reserve out more cars than they have, in my opinion. Maybe there have been stories out there of the same thing happening in the past, not sure. This was the first time we've seen a segment on the news about not being able to get a car when it's paid for though, and we watch the news nightly, lol. Just shook us up a little!

It was a huge story of exactly that, people with reservations that didn't have a car, which led to a surge of people booking two or three reservations and the prices going out of sight. The issue is that there is no disincentive for the rental companies, and they really can't control when exactly people bring back the cars, if at all.

i have been doing turo lately its been cheaper, not to mention i feel in my head at least its reliable

Check your personal insurance to make sure that is covered. I know most CC insurance won't cover it because you're renting from a person and not a company. I've also heard lots of reports of people that have their reservation cancelled due to "problems with the vehicle" and the problem turns out to be the owner rented it to someone else for a higher price.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Y'all probably already know this but the Southwest priority card covers three boarding upgrades, even the $40 ones! I was under the impression it only covered the $25 early bird upgrade.

I got stuck In Nashville last weekend due to a storm. Changed my 9 hour delayed flight to the first one out the next day. There were 6 people on stand by and i was in C boarding. Upgraded at the airport using my SW card. To my surprise, it was immediately credited!

The different cards have differing benefits.
The Priority has 4 upgraded boardings (at the gate) and a travel credit. The Premier has the EBCI.

 

[StephPlum]

Odd question, but anyone travel on SW with an injury like broken arm or leg? Trying to figure out if I will be allowed priority boarding since my arm is in a sling. I really need a window seat on port (L) side of the plane so no one can bump my arm. I do have a SW biz card with upgraded boarding I can also use.

Not a broken bone, but the first trip after my torn miniscus I was using a cane. I asked for pre boarding. They asked me if I needed extra time to board. No getting into why. I would use that vs I need a certain seat.

Yeah, I understand the rental car shortage has been around since most of Covid. This was the first time I heard of actual people prepaying reservations and not getting a car, however. Everything else I had heard in the past 2 years was just people not being able to find reservations at all, them being hard to come by. But to book a reservation, pay for it, and then there is no car when you arrive? That's like you booking a hotel and then when you get there, there is no room! They shouldn't be allowed to reserve out more cars than they have, in my opinion. Maybe there have been stories out there of the same thing happening in the past, not sure. This was the first time we've seen a segment on the news about not being able to get a car when it's paid for though, and we watch the news nightly, lol. Just shook us up a little!

It is probably worse now, but I experienced this pre Covid. Showed in Vegas with a reservation. and Avis had no cars for me. I had to go over to Alamo to get a Car. Luckily it was only $50 more than my reservation.

There is a bigger shortage now and they really can’t guarantee when someone will bring back cars. I agree it sucks if it happens to you.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Great pics! How did you book this? Directly or through a portal or agency?

I booked through my Virtuoso TA because I was in Amsterdam when I amended our itinerary to include Ireland and didn't want to mess around with booking. For next year I'll use URs to pay for the room.

Very nice! Was the town deserted or was your photographer that good?

Our photo shoot was at 9:30am and Old Town was pretty deserted.

 

[gottalovepluto]

EDIT2: WARNING! @onelove8187
reported here their account was locked, meaning the opening funds in the account are not accessible! Read the latest comments on DoC and really think whether you want to risk this mess as some others also reporting locked accounts. If I were to find out about this bonus today (6/2) and read these issues I would NOT apply for the account.

Original post:
DoC has a fat checking bonus for anyone who likes bank bonuses for up to $450 with Teachers Federal Credit Union and like under $5k of non-Amex cc funding allowed link

If you can generate a link don't forget to post to DISchurners! Never know, maybe someone else here will want to apply as well!
I was denied halfway through the app so I don't get to participate in this one, better luck anyone else who tries! (might be restricted against CA- Edit: nope. Others in CA got approval)

 

[mmmears]

As I may have mentioned dd is seriously thinking of becoming a vet. She knows that she needs to spend dozens of hours working with animals or at a vet clinic, so she has been sourcing a vet to shadow for the summer (this should help her decide if she really wants to pursue this career path -- she will enter her 3rd year of bio chem eng in the fall). She has been communicating with our vet and they have agreed to let her shadow as often as she wants over the summer! She's over-the-moon excited! She's going to spend as many hours as she can with the vet this week, then go directly after work when she starts at the Zoo next week! Finding a vet to shadow wasn't easy -- my good friend's daughter is a vet and they have so many requests that they have adopted a lottery system and they limit how much time you can spend shadowing the vet.

I love all your photos! Thanks for sharing your trip with us. My DD wanted med school and it was shocking that getting in some shadowing hours was harder than the rest of the million hoops they want them to jump through. I'm glad you know a vet since that can really make all the difference. With doctors now it's extra difficult because of HIPAA and the doctors saying that the shadowing can be an issue with patient privacy (even though they ask them first) yet the requirement remains. In the end she got some from her pediatrician and another doctor she met through a HS career day several years earlier.

 

[Etonduf]

Is anyone here a member of Digital Credit Union (DCU.org)? I'm likely to join fairly soon and I believe there's a chance to use a refe-- *ahem* -- a chance for me to support someone. I checked dischurners and wasn't able to find anything there.

Send me a DM since I think it requires my email address, though I'm not sure since it's tough to find information about it.

 

[nhgirl]

Is anyone here a member of Digital Credit Union (DCU.org)? I'm likely to join fairly soon and I believe there's a chance to use a refe-- *ahem* -- a chance for me to support someone. I checked dischurners and wasn't able to find anything there.

Send me a DM since I think it requires my email address, though I'm not sure since it's tough to find information about it.

I’m a member but when I tried to generate a code this is what I found.


Member Referral (Coming Soon!)
Our Member Referral feature is currently unavailable while we work to integrate it into our new Digital Banking experience. We'll announce as soon as this is available again.

I appreciate you checking.

 

[Etonduf]

I’m a member but when I tried to generate a code this is what I found.


Member Referral (Coming Soon!)
Our Member Referral feature is currently unavailable while we work to integrate it into our new Digital Banking experience. We'll announce as soon as this is available again.

I appreciate you checking.

Thanks for taking the time to check--this explains why I had a tough time finding more information about it!

 

[snugglebug]

Anyone else hear about the rental car shortage, and how a reservation doesn’t guarantee anything? Saw a segment on the world news last night that has me concerned about our Yellowstone trip. If a reservation, even a prepaid one, doesn’t guarantee that a car will be available when you get to your destination, what are you supposed to do??? That would be the worst! Not to mention, youd have to likely get a car from whoever had one available and pay the highest rate… which right now is around double what we reserved for.

CSR gives Emerald Elite status at National so for travel that's how I book and I've never had an issue of no car or a long wait, even during the height of Covid when lines were hours long for cars. I think having, and using, status is helpful even if the rental costs a little more.

It did take almost a week to get a rental car after my auto accident, that is through Enterprise. Since insurance is paying I couldn't use any status anywhere. It was impossible to call around so we finally actually visited 3 locations before finding one with a 2 day wait.

 

[reliev]

Check your personal insurance to make sure that is covered. I know most CC insurance won't cover it because you're renting from a person and not a company. I've also heard lots of reports of people that have their reservation cancelled due to "problems with the vehicle" and the problem turns out to be the owner rented it to someone else for a higher price.

yea my insurance covers (not CSR ) it I checked, and I haven't had that happen yet.. knock on wood. I've done it 3x now for 1/3rd the price of hertz.. and they deliver it to the airport not sure why I would go back. I haven't done this abroad yet but ill compare. It's hard to rent a chevy malibu when I got a tesla model y for 1k less for 8 days in Hawaii, and when I visited a buddy in san Diego got a tesla for under 200$ for 3 days when again they wanted 800$+ for 3 days. I'm willing to roll the dice to not spend double or triple.

 

[georgina]

I am all out of SW points so decided to jump on the 75,000 card offer. Of course I recently bought some SW GC to use the Chase Office Depot 10% and Amex 15% Happy Card offers. DH has a couple of Caribbean trips coming up with the June 16 release, I would rather use the GC and CSR for those for the CSR travel insurance anyway. My trips to Orlando I will use the SW card for.

Rental cars - just paid a huge amount to book an automatic car out of Oxford/return at Heathrow in July. Glad the CSR coverage works there.

 

[sinnika]

Does anyone have a word document to keep track of credit cards, sign up dates, SUB, payment due dates, etc? I need a better way to keep track of everything.

 

[georgina]

Does anyone have a word document to keep track of credit cards, sign up dates, SUB, payment due dates, etc? I need a better way to keep track of everything.

. My DD laughs at me because I keep everything on paper. I have a list of when DH and I each got credit cards, (dating back to 2017) I have a small notebook where I record each monthly payment including utility bills, CC payments, etc. Between the homeowners association fees, income, taxes, CC payments, each page has over 30 entries. I am just better with paper.

 

[Etonduf]

Does anyone have a word document to keep track of credit cards, sign up dates, SUB, payment due dates, etc? I need a better way to keep track of everything.

I use this one:

https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/9430cv

I haven't checked to see if the original author has updated it, but it's been great for me.

 

[GZanta77]

. My DD laughs at me because I keep everything on paper. I have a list of when DH and I each got credit cards, (dating back to 2017) I have a small notebook where I record each monthly payment including utility bills, CC payments, etc. Between the homeowners association fees, income, taxes, CC payments, each page has over 30 entries. I am just better with paper.

Between DW, DD, DS and myself we have 38 open CC accounts. I manage the payments for all of them and my notebook recording the payments is an essential tool. I tried migrating to using Mint to keep track of payments but I just find it so much easier to have the notebook.

Note to self: Must add 'credit cards' to decluttering exercise. Way too much 'stuff'.

 

[havaneselover]

So my trip home isn’t going smoothly and we are going to miss our connection at Dulles. It’s about a 2 hour drive home. I’m going to rent a car one way. I have trip insurance and used my csr. Worst case I’m out $100 plus gas. But anyone know if insurance might cover this? United will only put us up overnight and get us out in the morning but dd has work ar 9 and I need to be in my own bed.

 

[wanderlust7]

So my trip home isn’t going smoothly and we are going to miss our connection at Dulles. It’s about a 2 hour drive home. I’m going to rent a car one way. I have trip insurance and used my csr. Worst case I’m out $100 plus gas. But anyone know if insurance might cover this? United will only put us up overnight and get us out in the morning but dd has work ar 9 and I need to be in my own bed.

CSP insurance paid for our one-way rental from Tampa to Orlando. I forgot to claim for gas.

Your purchased trip insurance might cover any common carrier delay. The CSR has specific reasons like equipment or weather.

 

[Psychodisney]

So my trip home isn’t going smoothly and we are going to miss our connection at Dulles. It’s about a 2 hour drive home. I’m going to rent a car one way. I have trip insurance and used my csr. Worst case I’m out $100 plus gas. But anyone know if insurance might cover this? United will only put us up overnight and get us out in the morning but dd has work ar 9 and I need to be in my own bed.

CSR covered my rental and gas to drive to a different airport. I think yours should be covered. Definitely submit it but it sounds worth it anyway!