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

[becauseimnew]

No partners / not big chain hotels
Drury Inn, Lake Louise Inn, Banff Inn, Jasper Inn and Suites, Silver Dart Lodge (Baddeck, NS)

I am glad you called me on this. I see I have two ressies for Lake Louise Inn. I must have forgot to cancel one when the price went down and I rebooked. So just 5 hotels.
I am using Bonvoy points in Halifax and IHG cert in Charlottetown. I mix and match depending on prices.

I too have 5 reservations through the Chase Portal.

 

[tink1970]

I’m full of questions today. Trying to help a friend. Her college age son just applied for his first credit card, a CF, and was denied. What should he apply for and how soon? Or should he be a AU on his parents card(s)? Thanks for any insight.

Ideally he would have been an AU on his parents cards for years (DD's oldest account is 14 years old and she's 21)...but since you can't go back in time, I agree with @Psychodisney.

DD got the Discover student card and Capital One student card at 18 before she left for college, then a year later qualified for the Chase student card. Last year, after turning 21 (so she could use some of the household income for her income), she was approved for the Chase freedom flex and the Amex Platinum. Chase likes to see a credit history with someone else before they'll approve a non-student card in my observation and experience

 

[georgina]

I’m full of questions today. Trying to help a friend. Her college age son just applied for his first credit card, a CF, and was denied. What should he apply for and how soon? Or should he be a AU on his parents card(s)? Thanks for any insight.

In addition to what has been suggested, another possibility is Capital One. They have a place on their website that you can check if you would be approved before applying, and have some student cards. My DD had some credit history and a decent salary and was denied for something, she got a quicksilver from Cap One this way.

 

[chattadisser]

Do you do 10 when it's the VGC offer is running?

You mean the VGC's at Staples? I only get 2-3 of those at a time and never have a problem getting those. Occasionally they ask for ID.

I've never had any issues until this last time I went. I bought 2 GCs and told her I was going to use 2 different CCs to pay for them, separate transactions. She tried to tell me she couldn't do that, I laughed and said I could buy one, go out the door, come back in and buy the 2nd one with a different card. She then called her manager who said it was ok. SMH

It's always amazing when you point out their absurdity and they still don't get it.

 

[wanderlust7]

So I just got a surpass and am new to Hilton. Why is the free night so valuable?

The Hilton FNC are great because they work for any standard award, there is no cap. So you can potentially get a night worth 120k Hilton points (I think that's still the highest standard awards go for). I love them for the aspirational properties. I'd even value it more than a Hyatt Cat 7 FNC since many of the places I want to stay at have gone up to Cat 8.

 

[NewbieMom]

Any more details of your stay would be welcome. We are booked for Spring Break next March. Not planning on a rental car. I am following a local CR guide on Instagram so will probably be booking some stuff through him. Also hoping to book a tour through Chase portal to use URs. Any tours you did that you'd recommend?

I think a lot of us are going to be in Costa Rica next year and many staying at the Andaz. I think @CyndiLouWho, @reliev, @NewbieMom and maybe @wanderlust7 ? My flights are pretty terrible and I don't think I even have a return booked (though I have a placeholder SW fare in hopes of a free change) and so far I've only booked for 5 nights between the Andaz and Tabacon, so I still have a lot of planning to do if we are actually going to make it there.

All this talk is making me excited for our trip, and looking at the Andaz. We are staying at Tabacon for the entire week. Now I'm wondering if that's too much? I haven't planned anything, but that area seems to have the most activities (coffee farms, zip lines, hikes, etc).

 

[jenmsmith]

I've never had any issues until this last time I went. I bought 2 GCs and told her I was going to use 2 different CCs to pay for them, separate transactions. She tried to tell me she couldn't do that, I laughed and said I could buy one, go out the door, come back in and buy the 2nd one with a different card. She then called her manager who said it was ok. SMH

I had several OD offers and stopped at one on my way to the airport. No problems there using multiple cards, but the line started to get long, so after four I left. I still had more to use, so stopped at one about 15 minutes from there. That cashier said only one card per person per day and that it was “company policy”. Ironically, there was no one else in the store and would have not been disruptive at all to do multiple transactions.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Question for Hyatt experts: If I am not certain of extending a trip, is it best to leave my current reservation and add another reservation for the additional speculative days? I know with some award programs, you can't remove days. You have to cancel and rebook and hope the days you had go back into inventory. Not sure how Hyatt works.

 

[FreeDiningFanatic]

Just a DP for using Airbnb GC for an existing reservation (which was reserved with a CC). It was my understanding that this was now possible. I decided to go ahead and load 3 $100 GCs I had laying around. That worked fine. Then I went to 1 of my Ireland reservations (for June) that had ~$500+ left to pay (in May). I saw where you clicked to apply the gift cards and then I toggled each $100 gc and exited the screen.

This is where it was kind of confusing. It updated the final amount due correctly, but there was also a Button that seemed like I should click to Apply (I wish I had a screen shot). Anyway, I clicked it and it showed "The remaining balance of $237 will be processed on May 26, 2023" with a complete button (not sure 100% of the buttons labels on all this, but something like that). As soon as I hit "complete" (or whatever), my applewatch had a notification that $237 was going to be processed to my Cap1 VentureX. The reservation does reflect that the reservation is now completely paid, so it's not the end of the world, but the behavior and what it said on the screen was not consistent.

So, ymmv, but wanted to share. I'm not sure if I could have left the screen where it looked like it applied the GCs or not. I didn't think toggling the thing next to each GC would have actually applied it since you could go back and forth. Anyway -- glad the GCs were applied, but it was definitely clunky.

Okay, so I just paid off an existing reservation with gift cards as well. In my case, my gcs covered the remaining balance, so once I went through the process, it took the gcs but I didn't owe additional. So the good news is that gcs are working on existing ressies now! Sorry they took your cc payment early- that's junky bc I bet you could have accumulated more gcs at a discount before May.

Maybe to help others in the future, you can add your gcs to your account and they'll store/accumulate there. Once you are ready to complete full payment of your existing reservation, you can then apply your gift cards and process any remaining cc balance. There shouldn't be any need to process the gift cards more than a day before you balance is due, so that you don't run into the situation where they take your cc payment as well. I don't think AirBNB has ever been good about partial payments; it seems it's just initial and final payments. But maybe there is a special trick to apply gcs and still leave the balance outstanding?

 

[catsinawindow]

I'm ready to start on another SUB and am thinking of one of the Chase Ink cards. The only thing holding me back is that I'm floating a balance on two of my existing Inks with 0% interest (CIC and CIU) since DH was without a paycheck for 2 months while switching jobs (background check and credentials took forever to come through)! Now he's getting his first paycheck tomorrow and I'll start paying them down, but it will likely take a few months until they are at zero balance.

Will the balance on these two cards hurt my chances of a successful application? It's only a few thousand dollars, but the credit lines are low so it's a fairly high percentage utilization on those two cards. Wondering if I should wait a month or two before applying until I can get the balance partially paid off?

 

[CyndiLouWho]

All this talk is making me excited for our trip, and looking at the Andaz. We are staying at Tabacon for the entire week. Now I'm wondering if that's too much? I haven't planned anything, but that area seems to have the most activities (coffee farms, zip lines, hikes, etc).

If you haven’t been to CR before, I’d consider some time on a coast to see a beach. Different flora and fauna there. There’s loads to do wherever you are. Our first trip was 10 nights, beginning and ending in San Jose. We hit both coasts and loads in between.

 

[havaneselover]

The Hilton FNC are great because they work for any standard award, there is no cap. So you can potentially get a night worth 120k Hilton points (I think that's still the highest standard awards go for). I love them for the aspirational properties. I'd even value it more than a Hyatt Cat 7 FNC since many of the places I want to stay at have gone up to Cat 8.

Thank you! My next big trip will be London/Paris so points plus a free night would be great for a few nights in Paris. I’ll use Bonvoy for London.

 

[AmyAnne]

I’m full of questions today. Trying to help a friend. Her college age son just applied for his first credit card, a CF, and was denied. What should he apply for and how soon? Or should he be a AU on his parents card(s)? Thanks for any insight.

Discover. Two of my kids started with a secured card and then it gets converted to an unsecured after some number of payments (I can't recall if it's a year or six months).

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

I opened a CIC in August, as well. Please report back if you are successful and maybe I'll give it a shot

Reports of Chase matching elevated CSR and Ink offers, so you might want to SM if you've apped recently. Sounds like speculation is closer to apps within the last 30 days, but previously Chase would match up to 90 days. Worth a SM, imo.

Thanks. Opened a CIU for DH on 9/10, still working on MSR, will give it a try.

I opened 8/11 and got the message they will match the 90k!!! So go try if it's been under 3 months!!!!

So I just got a surpass and am new to Hilton. Why is the free night so valuable?

As long as there is a standard room, you can use them. I've used them at the Waldorf Astoria in chicago and at Hilton PDC (all inclusive).

I'm ready to start on another SUB and am thinking of one of the Chase Ink cards. The only thing holding me back is that I'm floating a balance on two of my existing Inks with 0% interest (CIC and CIU) since DH was without a paycheck for 2 months while switching jobs (background check and credentials took forever to come through)! Now he's getting his first paycheck tomorrow and I'll start paying them down, but it will likely take a few months until they are at zero balance.

Will the balance on these two cards hurt my chances of a successful application? It's only a few thousand dollars, but the credit lines are low so it's a fairly high percentage utilization on those two cards. Wondering if I should wait a month or two before applying until I can get the balance partially paid off?

I've had balances on my Inks and gotten approved for another one.

 

[NewbieMom]

If you haven’t been to CR before, I’d consider some time on a coast to see a beach. Different flora and fauna there. There’s loads to do wherever you are. Our first trip was 10 nights, beginning and ending in San Jose. We hit both coasts and loads in between.

This will be our 1st trip to CR! I have heard the beaches are a must. I'm just worried about transportation. Not sure we want to rent a car and drive, but 7 nights do sound a bit long to stay in one area... How are you traveling between your 2 hotels?

 

[mom2febgirls]

I opened 8/11 and got the message they will match the 90k!!! So go try if it's been under 3 months!!!!

That's when I opened mine! What did you reference when you asked? It looks like the website is still showing 75k. Where did you find the 90k?

 

[CyndiLouWho]

This will be our 1st trip to CR! I have heard the beaches are a must. I'm just worried about transportation. Not sure we want to rent a car and drive, but 7 nights do sound a bit long to stay in one area... How are you traveling between your 2 hotels?

Haven't arranged it yet but there are car services that you can arrange.

 

[wanderlust7]

Question for Hyatt experts: If I am not certain of extending a trip, is it best to leave my current reservation and add another reservation for the additional speculative days? I know with some award programs, you can't remove days. You have to cancel and rebook and hope the days you had go back into inventory. Not sure how Hyatt works.

My understanding is that in general you can shorten. But if the points rate changes it'll get repriced.

It seems easier to just do a separate booking though, especially if you're very unsure about it.

 

[kmc8826]

I'm ready to start on another SUB and am thinking of one of the Chase Ink cards. The only thing holding me back is that I'm floating a balance on two of my existing Inks with 0% interest (CIC and CIU) since DH was without a paycheck for 2 months while switching jobs (background check and credentials took forever to come through)! Now he's getting his first paycheck tomorrow and I'll start paying them down, but it will likely take a few months until they are at zero balance.

Will the balance on these two cards hurt my chances of a successful application? It's only a few thousand dollars, but the credit lines are low so it's a fairly high percentage utilization on those two cards. Wondering if I should wait a month or two before applying until I can get the balance partially paid off?

Personally I would just apply now. I have been approved for another chase biz when floating balance on the other 0% cards. If you are denied the it just means wait another 30 days and try again.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I'm ready to start on another SUB and am thinking of one of the Chase Ink cards. The only thing holding me back is that I'm floating a balance on two of my existing Inks with 0% interest (CIC and CIU) since DH was without a paycheck for 2 months while switching jobs (background check and credentials took forever to come through)! Now he's getting his first paycheck tomorrow and I'll start paying them down, but it will likely take a few months until they are at zero balance.

Will the balance on these two cards hurt my chances of a successful application? It's only a few thousand dollars, but the credit lines are low so it's a fairly high percentage utilization on those two cards. Wondering if I should wait a month or two before applying until I can get the balance partially paid off?

I’d wait a couple months and pay them off first. The future has a wicked way of screwing with us when we think we know what’s in store.