I love credit cards so much! v6.0 - 2023 (see first page for add'l details)

[DogCat]

The restaurant credit is Cheesecake Factory, Shake Shack and Grubhub.

I live in a rather remote location with no CF or SS near me. Never tried Grubhub. It would have to be a pick up option. Are there any ways to hack this credit?

 

[iujen94]

I live in a rather remote location with no CF or SS near me. Never tried Grubhub. It would have to be a pick up option. Are there any ways to hack this credit?

Some people will do a $10 monthly gift card from CF and save them up. I’m not a CF fan so this credit goes unused 99% of the time. I think one time I used it on a GrubHub pickup order, but the price was inflated on GrubHub such that it ended up saving me only a couple of dollars. I personally value the restaurant credit at 0.

 

[EACarlson]

I live in a rather remote location with no CF or SS near me. Never tried Grubhub. It would have to be a pick up option. Are there any ways to hack this credit?

No way to hack the credit I'm aware of. I'm 75 miles from the nearest CF or SS. I generally use the credit once a month and end up with lunch for $1 or so when I do pick up. Both for this credit and the Uber credit.

 

[lsutigers03]

I received an email from Frequent Miler about a targeted offer for the AMEX Blue Business Plus. $75k MR points after $15k spend in 12 months. Also an additional 5k MR points when you spend $1k on an employee card. I've been waiting for an awesome offer like this to get a $0 AF AMEX card for DW. She was able to get approved so now we can get a bunch more MR points and keep them alive after I cancel her business gold next year.

 

[pinkxray]

I live in a rather remote location with no CF or SS near me. Never tried Grubhub. It would have to be a pick up option. Are there any ways to hack this credit?

I don’t live close enough to a CF factory to just pop over to grab a $10 gift card.
I tend to use my credit at grub hub. I actually just used it today at a bakery near my house that does pick up and doesn’t inflate the prices. I grab 4 cookies the size of my kids head for $11 so $1 out of pocket. Other times I’ll just use it for $10 off a pizza or Chinese. Sometimes the prices are inflated so I won’t go to certain places. One pizza place near me takes Uber eats and grub hub so I’ll use my Uber eats credit for one pizza and grub hub for a small pizza or salad to spend the $10.

DD19 also works near a Panera so everyone once in awhile when it gets late in the month and it’s not used, I’ll let her pick up something on her break. I’ll just have her text me what she wants and order it for her to pick up on break or after work for dinner.

 

[miztressuz]

Question on the Gold Card - Does the restaurant credit apply to all restaurants or only certains ones?

Only certain ones, and for a little while boxed.com was one of the merchants IIRC which seemed more useful. Right now the list is -

Participating partners are Grubhub (including Seamless), The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar, and select Shake Shack locations. Excludes Shake Shack locations in ballparks, stadiums, airports, rest areas, museums, and racetracks.

 

[Disfamilylife]

Airfare to Africa will probably be the largest expense of that future trip. I'm not experienced in international travel, so I'll defer to others that may have suggestions on which airline to target. But, once you know the airline, you can focus on one of the transferable currencies from Amex, Chase or Citi depending on which transfer partner you need.

For Amex, check out the "public" Resy offers: https://www.americanexpress.com/en-us/credit-cards/offers/resy

The Gold Card is particularly appealing since the restaurant credit wipes out the annual fee and you get 75,000 MR + 4x Groceries 4x Restaurant multipliers on your next year's worth of purchases. Amex typically has the best lineup of airline transfer partners, subject to your own research.

I appreciate the information and card suggestion. I didn’t realize points could be transferred between companies. Thank you!

 

[Disfamilylife]

Wow, thank you for the thorough advice!

Good to know that there ar

Hi Welcome,

Business cards are the way to go to earn large amount of miles and points. Most of us here have a side gig that we use to open business cards.

I just booked our summer 2025 trip, we are going to South Africa.

I booked flights using American Membership Rewards that I transferred to Qatar and American Airline miles for the return flight. To earn those points we opened an American Express Business Platinum card, we earned 150,000 points from the sign up bonus (SUB) + 15,000 from the minimum spending requirement (MSR). Then I transferred the points over to British Airways, then transferred them again to Qatar.

For the return flight we booked American Airlines, those miles we earned from several American Airline cards, both personal and business for my husband and I.
I would start with Google Flights to see what airlines fly to/from the airports you are interested in.

I booked hotels with Chase Ultimate Rewards (URs), I always book all hotels with my Chase points. Some I booked through the Chase travel portal and others I transferred to Hyatt.

My goal is to always be earning Chase points and business cards make that possible.

I would suggest applying for all Chase business cards, but there are several Chase rules that you need to know.
Chase 5/24 rule: Chase won't approve you for any card after you've opened 5 PERSONAL credit cards in the last 24 months, even personal cards that you are an Authorized User, meaning never add your spouse as an authorized user on PERSONAL cards.
Chase velocity soft rule: Space your chase cards (business and personal) every 90 days. There are exceptions, the goal is to not open more than 4 Chase cards in a 12 month period. So you could do a modified double dip (MDD) where you open 2 chase cards in consecutive days to bypass other Chase rules.

If you are going to start with personal cards I would suggest the Chase Sapphire Preferred, you'll earn 60,000 Chase URs that you can transfer. Then you can
If you want to start with a business card I would suggest the Chase Ink Preferred, you'll earn 100,000 Chase URs that you'll be able to transfer. The Preferred & Reserve cards allow you to transfer points to the hotel and airline partners, you always want to keep one of those in your household. Of course those come with a fee, the preferred annual fees (AF) is $95. There are plenty of other Chase cards that don't have AFs but those won't allow you to transfer points, you should still get those cards as you can transfer Chase points between cards and within household.


You will also earn points for referring your spouse, we have support links in our Reddit group that you can use to open your first card.

Wow, thank you for the thorough information. It’s good to know that there are options out there for businesses. Also, thanks for sharing the details of how you secured your tickets to Africa.

Regarding the Chase card suggestion, would you still recommend those cards for someone who rarely eats out? I noticed you mentioned that they can be used with airlines too but wasn’t sure if it is more focused on rewards for eating out.

Thank you! And have fun planning your trip to Africa. Will it be your first visit?

 

[pinkxray]

In the app, get into the UR portal for the CSR card. (My android app is Rewards and Benefits > Ultimate Rewards > ) On that page open the menu and go to Ultimate Rewards Home. At the bottom of that page should be the box for the credit -

Annual travel credit​

Congrats! You have received your entire $300 annual travel credit this year. Next year's travel credit will begin after your statement closing date in 10/2023. Learn more

Found it! Thank you.

 

[hsmamato2]

OK..... I'm now in a position to possibly go on an international trip next summer with friends.... Still debating on the location - I have CSP...one of my freedoms used to be a CSR (I' can't remember which) can I upgrade my CSP to CSR? I just paid the AF a couple of months ago- if I upgrade in October, will it lt immediately become CSR? And the TC will be available right away?
So when would the AF hit for that?
I assume it would be the full AF, not the CSR AF minus the CSP AF? And then I would have another TC to use by next October,correct? Anything else I need to know for this?
Also.....CSP vs CSR trip insurance.... do I need an extra insurance just in case on top of that? (I'm thinking yes, but not sure)
Thanks y'all I appreciate all the knowledge here

Quoting myself to see if I have it right.... they'll let me pc CSP-CSR even if I opened it as a CSP,right? And AF isn't usually charged for a few months?

 

[AndreaDM]

Today is the last day for the Flying Blue 25% bonus transfer from Amex. I think we are going to pull the trigger, we have no specific plans yet, but know that we are going to Europe again next year. Last year we flew AMS to ORD on KLM in biz using 56K miles. Looking ahead I do see flights to/from AMS and CDG for roughly that amount, so I think we will transfer 90K which will give us 112.5K Flying Blue miles. I LOVED our experience on KLM so would be happy to fly them again, and we have no issues with taking trains/planes within Europe to other places.

 

[becauseimnew]

Wow, thank you for the thorough advice!

Good to know that there ar

Wow, thank you for the thorough information. It’s good to know that there are options out there for businesses. Also, thanks for sharing the details of how you secured your tickets to Africa.

Regarding the Chase card suggestion, would you still recommend those cards for someone who rarely eats out? I noticed you mentioned that they can be used with airlines too but wasn’t sure if it is more focused on rewards for eating out.

Thank you! And have fun planning your trip to Africa. Will it be your first visit?

Yes, most points are earned from the SUB, we don't earn many points from the normal spend after the SUB.

I do keep the American Express Gold card that has 4X on groceries because we spend a lot on groceries.

 

[becauseimnew]

Today is the last day for the Flying Blue 25% bonus transfer from Amex. I think we are going to pull the trigger, we have no specific plans yet, but know that we are going to Europe again next year. Last year we fly AMS to ORD on KLM in biz using 56K miles. Looking ahead I do see flights to/from AMS and CDG for roughly that amount, so I think we will transfer 90K which will give us 112.5K Flying Blue miles. I LOVED our experience on KLM so would be happy to fly them again, and we have no issues with taking trains/planes within Europe to other places.

I think they always have great deals, it works great if you don't have a specific trip you are trying to book and just jump on the deals.

 

[chattadisser]

Woke up to an inch of water in my laundry room after having my hot water heater replaced yesterday. The hot water heater is in the laundry room and the plumbers are here now trying to figure out what happened. Not a fun morning for me. Pro tip, the carpet cleaner sucks up water a lot faster than a shop vac just in case your ever in this situation.

But, I do at least have an MSR that I am working on right now so there's that.

 

[punkin]

I think they always have great deals, it works great if you don't have a specific trip you are trying to book and just jump on the deals.

I'm always afraid to transfer multiuse points to a single use point currency without a specific use in mind

 

[lsutigers03]

Quoting myself to see if I have it right.... they'll let me pc CSP-CSR even if I opened it as a CSP,right? And AF isn't usually charged for a few months?

Yes you can PC a CSP to CSR. Also yes when you PC the AF doesn't hit for a few months. I PC'd a CFF to a CSR in mid July and the AF hasn't hit yet.

 

[Limes96]

I transferred points from Chase to Marriott to top off for a redemption before the transfer bonus ends and it took two days for the points to show up in my account. Not used to it taking that long so I’m relieved they’re finally in my account and I can book.

Trying to decide what to do with my CSR at renewal. I’m not really using my 1.5x benefit, just mostly transferring to travel partners and PYB to cover gift cards. I’m considering just downgrading to CSP since the inks are a better SUB. I know the PYB would change but the transfer partners would still be good. One big thing I’d miss with the CSR is the primary car rental insurance. Is that something the Venture X would give me? I’ve considered applying for that card but never went for it. I have the Amex Plat also and may be cancelling that as well after I get the air credit in January unless I can get another decent retention offer.

 

[EACarlson]

I transferred points from Chase to Marriott to top off for a redemption before the transfer bonus ends and it took two days for the points to show up in my account. Not used to it taking that long so I’m relieved they’re finally in my account and I can book.

Trying to decide what to do with my CSR at renewal. I’m not really using my 1.5x benefit, just mostly transferring to travel partners and PYB to cover gift cards. I’m considering just downgrading to CSP since the inks are a better SUB. I know the PYB would change but the transfer partners would still be good. One big thing I’d miss with the CSR is the primary car rental insurance. Is that something the Venture X would give me? I’ve considered applying for that card but never went for it. I have the Amex Plat also and may be cancelling that as well after I get the air credit in January unless I can get another decent retention offer.

CSP also offers Primary rental insurance. This is the primary reason I still have my CSP.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Just checking on this before I do it....

I have the IHG Premier and the IHG Biz. I've hit the 24 mos on the IHG Premier. My AF just posted and my FNC is already in my account. So if I cancel the IHG Premier, they don't clawback the FNC do they?

I'm thinking of cancelling and trying to time my IHG cards to have similar AF dates, so my 2 FNC are closer together. Right now they expire in April and August. I'll hit my 24 mos on the IHG Biz in March. My thoughts are cancel the premier now. Get the IHG premier again, before I cancel the IHG biz. Then cancel the biz and get it again. Then in 2025 likely cancel the IHG Premier and get the Traveler (for the points). Then cancel that in 2026 and get the Premier again, LOL.

Considering the biz card will give me all the same perks between now and April, I don't see the need to renew. But just checking to see if they clawback. I know Marriott didn't when my FNC posted w/ the boundless card.

 

[DogCat]

Regarding the primary rental insurance, the last 2 times I rented cars using Chase UR, I used mostly UR points and paid a nominal amount on my CSR. At the rental counter both Hertz and Enterprise pressured me, if I don't purchase their insurance, they would have to go through my car insurance first and not the insurance on my credit card. I still refused but I didn't appreciate the hard sell.