I love credit cards so much!

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

I'm doing this too. Just met the spend requirement a few days ago . How long did they take to post? My statement closes in a few days...

I got my first 10k on 12/4. I'm about to hit the second 10K soon, so I'm hoping I get the full amount.

 

[Ngwira]

I’m all set for Hawaii in ~10 days — 5 nights at the Royal Hawaiian, 3 nights at the Sheraton Waikiki, and 2 nights in between at Aulani. Unsure what we want to do next Christmas, and it’s too early to book anyway.

I’ve gotta admit we’ve been talking about doing an overwater bungalow in Bora Bora for years, and I see that I can book 5 nights in a Deluxe Overwater Bungalow with Mt. Otemanu views at the St. Regis Bora Bora in August for 240k Marriott and about a $3k cash upgrade. It’s the $3k cash upgrade that’s giving me pause. Otherwise, I could totally make it work since United has direct flights from SFO to PPT.

Lucky just did a review of this hotel on omaat.

 

[miztressuz]

Are the gift cards Marriott branded or only work on Fairfield Inn? I have the offer and while I am sure I will stay at a Marriott in the future, unsure if Fairfield Inn, Courtyard,.... the actual brand.

They would work at any Marriott brand. It won't work at the "new" SPG brands yet (and vice versa). So even if you buy it at a Fairfield you could use it at a Courtyard.

Okay yet another Amex question as I'm getting ready to AT LEAST get the Amex Everyday Credit Card (I need the 0% balance and $0 transfer offer they have). I'll be going for that one in Jan.

I currently have 3 cards myself
SPG Biz
Delta Gold
Hilton Ascend (was Surpass or whatever).

EX-Dh hasn't closed his personal SPG Amex and I was an AU on that. Can I call to remove me, or does he need to? I'm assuming that an AU counts against the 5 Amex I'm "allowed". Once I get the Everyday and hit my AA Citi Biz and IHG spends, I was looking at doing the Hilton Biz Ascend. That would absolutely be a 1 year and close card (since I'm grandfathered into the free night on the personal Ascend). The Aspire looks nice but I don't have any absolute travel plans I'm working towards right now, so I think I'll have to pass on that one for now.

So the Everyday is slotted to take spot 4, and the Ascend Biz would take slot 5, unless there's another Amex you all think is a better one to churn? (I have the CSR (my got to when not meeting a spend), IHG, Citi AA Biz, Barlcay Red AA also rotating in my wallet). I'm outside of the 5/24 til I think 11/19 so I'm not worrying about that one, LOL. I'm not really interested in the Gold or Platinum since I'm already rocking the $450 fee on the CSR unless there is some HUGE perk I'm really missing out on. Those don't count against the 5 though, right?

The AU wouldn't count against your 5 card limit on AmEx. The last slot will depend on if you are interested in generating MR points. The Everyday card is a MR card but outside of AmEx offers for points it's a slow earner as an only MR card. It gets 2x MR at grocery stores (up to 6k per year) and if you complete 20 transactions in a statement cycle they'll give a 20% bonus on the points earned. There's a MR earning Business credit card with no annual fee that gets 2x on everything (up to 50k per year) but it will take up a slot and the bonus is small, only 10k MR for 3k in spend from a referral offer (but you can get another 10k if you self refer from the Everyday card) and it'd really depend on if you wanted to accrue MR points. Or you could try for the Blue Business Plus (BBP) first and then self refer for the Everyday card. The BBP gets 15k MR for a referral so you'd get more in that order.
Mostly the perks of the charge cards are the bonuses, unless you have lots of ongoing travel like a few folks here. But the charge cards wouldn't count against your 5 card limit and with the Everyday card you'd always have a MR card to hold all the points as you close charge cards out.

I find myself to be a conundrum...

1) I hold on to URs in hopes that Disney will return of I will come up with a 1.5x use for the points when I could easily cash out at 1cpp and be done with it
2) I can't wait to cash out MRs and am so frustrated I'm potentially willing give up 60k MRs just to cash them rather than concede that 1cpp on gift cards is always possible and maybe I could find a better use for them

I can see my own hypocrisy...and I am ok with it LOL!

If you are going to rock the under 5/24 count then you can re-earn the UR for the next Disney trip. Then might ease the conundrum

@SouthFayetteFan is a Marriott millionaire.

I’m sitting on a huge stash of Marriott points, but not quite a million, eyeing the impeding implementation of Cat 8 and peak pricing next year, and I’m having a bit of FOMO. Where should I book while the gettin’s still good?!

Not sure if you saw yet but maybe the Cat 8 pricing doesn't come out until Mar 2019 now. So a little more time to decide, maybe, unless you're trying to beat out the peak pricing that might get turned on sooner. (but who knows with Marriott. not even they know what's going on)

For PNC bank bonus DD, I want to push say $1000 from my Chase Total Checking. I can push that back to Chase and then push it back to PNC for another DD right?

Yep, you should be able to do that. As a personal preference I'd probably not do every transaction as the same amount, just in case Chase goes crazy, but it should work.

 

[Mopedmom1]

Revisiting the Chase bank account bonuses.....If I go for the Sapphire 60k UR I have to pay taxes on a $600 value from a 1099. What about the regular Chase bank accounts, $200/savings, $300/checking bonus? Is there no 1099 sent out on that?

 

[miztressuz]

Revisiting the Chase bank account bonuses.....If I go for the Sapphire 60k UR I have to pay taxes on a $600 value from a 1099. What about the regular Chase bank accounts, $200/savings, $300/checking bonus? Is there no 1099 sent out on that?

Bank account bonuses are considered interest income, so you should be getting a 1099-INT from each bank you do one at. We're going to have several this year

I even got a 1099-INT back in the day for coupons/gift certs someone gave as a "bonus". I didn't even end up using some of them before they expired but I got a 1099 for the full value of them. Of course, this was the one time I decided to not be a pack rat and actually threw out the unused coupons so I couldn't turn them back in and have the 1099 reissued for the actual bonus I received... I paid tax on money I never got (lesson for everyone, don't accept something you may not use the value on. i'd have been better off declining the "bonus".)

 

[mmmears]

Here's a funny one. DD flies AA quite often. A mailer just arrived - they are offering to bump her up to "gold" status for one year. For the low, low, low price of $1600. Yeah like that's going to happen.

 

[gottalovepluto]

On the bank bonus front I wanted to highlight a couple small ones I did recently triggered by ach. Unify & Varo.

Unify $100*: despite being an LA credit union bonus is nationwide. Requires $500 DD. I triggered it with a $500 deposit from Fidelity. $100 posted a couple weeks later on the first of the month.
*YMMV get a couple Rams tickets you can immediately sell on Ticketmaster. Some people get them, some don’t, some get one, some get the code but try to purchase & nothing is available. If you get a welcome email with a ticket code a couple days after applying drop everything & try to redeem immediately. (1 game left, 12/30 vs 49ers)
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/unif...-100-checking-bonus-ca-only-maybe-nationwide/

Varo, $100: iOS only, must get a referral. (There is a comment saying a beta version is available on Android?) I used a throwaway DoC email & got a referral from there, no one here has one & they randomly emailed them to existing users. DOUBLE CHECK YOU HAVE THE $100 offer, they also pushed out $50 offers. It requires $250 DD explicitly in the terms but lots of banks are triggering it (Chase might be having issues). I sent $250 from Ally, next day my $250 & $100 bonus were pending.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/varo-money-online-bank-account-100-sign-up-bonus-ios-only/

Best of luck anyone who tries!

 

[usakiwi]

I’ve gotta admit we’ve been talking about doing an overwater bungalow in Bora Bora for years, and I see that I can book 5 nights in a Deluxe Overwater Bungalow with Mt. Otemanu views at the St. Regis Bora Bora in August for 240k Marriott and about a $3k cash upgrade. It’s the $3k cash upgrade that’s giving me pause. Otherwise, I could totally make it work since United has direct flights from SFO to PPT.

I CAN say from personal experience that that part of Bora Bora is AMAZING, possibly the most amazing place we have been. But you definitely need to be prepared to just “chill” which we do not usually do on our vacations. We stayed at Le Meridien this past Aug, which I am pretty sure is right next to St. Regis, so similar view/location/etc. We actually tried to get over to St. Regis for a meal but they told us they weren’t taking reservations from people outside of the resort (sometimes they will it just depends how busy). Le Meridien definitely had mixed reviews and I was definitely worried about how our stay was going to go, but it was great. I think sometimes people must just be looking for something to complain about!! It was supposed to be a once in a lifetime thing, but I can see this one being repeated in our future...

 

[CyndiLouWho]

Bank account bonuses are considered interest income, so you should be getting a 1099-INT from each bank you do one at. We're going to have several this year

I even got a 1099-INT back in the day for coupons/gift certs someone gave as a "bonus". I didn't even end up using some of them before they expired but I got a 1099 for the full value of them. Of course, this was the one time I decided to not be a pack rat and actually threw out the unused coupons so I couldn't turn them back in and have the 1099 reissued for the actual bonus I received... I paid tax on money I never got (lesson for everyone, don't accept something you may not use the value on. i'd have been better off declining the "bonus".)

I once won a $20 gift card from my employer. They sent me the GC and took taxes out of my paycheck. I told them I didn’t want it, but they said they couldn’t fix it. I ended up giving the GC away because it was for a restaurant that has nothing neR my house.

 

[mmmears]

I CAN say from personal experience that that part of Bora Bora is AMAZING, possibly the most amazing place we have been. But you definitely need to be prepared to just “chill” which we do not usually do on our vacations. We stayed at Le Meridien this past Aug, which I am pretty sure is right next to St. Regis, so similar view/location/etc. We actually tried to get over to St. Regis for a meal but they told us they weren’t taking reservations from people outside of the resort (sometimes they will it just depends how busy). Le Meridien definitely had mixed reviews and I was definitely worried about how our stay was going to go, but it was great. I think sometimes people must just be looking for something to complain about!! It was supposed to be a once in a lifetime thing, but I can see this one being repeated in our future...

Both of those hotels look amazing to me, as I sit here in the cold of winter (ok, it's CA so I can't complain too much but it was a very blustery day here today) dreaming of an overwater bungalow.

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Bank account bonuses are considered interest income, so you should be getting a 1099-INT from each bank you do one at. We're going to have several this year

I even got a 1099-INT back in the day for coupons/gift certs someone gave as a "bonus". I didn't even end up using some of them before they expired but I got a 1099 for the full value of them. Of course, this was the one time I decided to not be a pack rat and actually threw out the unused coupons so I couldn't turn them back in and have the 1099 reissued for the actual bonus I received... I paid tax on money I never got (lesson for everyone, don't accept something you may not use the value on. i'd have been better off declining the "bonus".)

I need to consider getting back into bank bonuses in "slow" mode. I've mentioned so many times about how I'm embracing slow churner status and it's nice and calm. I think I walked away from bank bonuses because I was just making it too stressful. We did 48 bank bonuses in 18 months time and the opening, closing, and switching of direct deposits may have been too much, lol. If I just targeted $200+ bonuses and maybe did 5 a year that would still be $1,000 and probably be less stressful. I may have compulsive tendencies sooooo sometimes I just dive into things too deep, lol. Luckily with the our FIRE habits our incremental tax rate is 12% so we don't give a lot of that back in taxes. They were definitely worth it for us as I made almost $10,000 in those 2 years.

 

[mom2elal]

Are you over 6/24? I think that's the rule the Arrival+ has. There's some debate on whether it's a hard rule...but numerous people run into it.

I am way, way behind again, but is the rule OVER 6/24? As in, if I am at 6/24, I'm okay? Thanks!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

I'd read more here (and look at the most recent comments at the bottom): https://www.doctorofcredit.com/is-b...s-similar-to-524-contribute-data-points-here/

The speculation is 6/24 would get you denied but it seems this isn't a hard rule.

 

[Alexle2007]

I am way, way behind again, but is the rule OVER 6/24? As in, if I am at 6/24, I'm okay? Thanks!

I just applied for the Arrival + and instant approval! I am 6/24. I’ve had the Barclays Choice Privileges card for a long time though but I haven’t used it in a couple of years. CreditKarma let me know they checked TransUnion.

 

[trenty]

2019 CC goals - play along if you like.

I am at 4/24; DH at 3/24

-United Mileage for me before 1/8
-once MSR met; CFU for DH
-PC DHs United Mileage and CSP on their anniversary dates

Beyond that, it depends which cards are offering the best bonuses, but I would like to start a stash of points for (in no particular order):
-IHG
-Jet Blue
-Delta
-American Airlines
and also focus on continuing to build up UR and MR and SW

Towards the end of 2019 I hope to get DH SW card(s) for the CP in 2020/21

We have no specific travel plans; hopefully Europe in 2020. Long term goal - have a diverse travel rewards portfolio in 2-3 years.

I am a slow churner so this may actually be a 2-3 year plan.

 

[GlamMistress]

FYI - DOSH is offering 8% at Sam's Club this weekend. Good for me since I have to go there to buy gift cards.

 

[speedyfishy]

2019 CC goals - play along if you like.

I am at 4/24; DH at 3/24

-United Mileage for me before 1/8
-once MSR met; CFU for DH
-PC DHs United Mileage and CSP on their anniversary dates

Beyond that, it depends which cards are offering the best bonuses, but I would like to start a stash of points for (in no particular order):
-IHG
-Jet Blue
-Delta
-American Airlines
and also focus on continuing to build up UR and MR and SW

Towards the end of 2019 I hope to get DH SW card(s) for the CP in 2020/21

We have no specific travel plans; hopefully Europe in 2020. Long term goal - have a diverse travel rewards portfolio in 2-3 years.

I am a slow churner so this may actually be a 2-3 year plan.

Yayy goals!

So for 2019 I’m going to focus on MS. I want to max 3 CIPs at 150,000 at get 1,350,000 URs. If I could do this it would be huge. I’d cash out and my wedding would be paid for without dipping into savings. I also want to max the Amex Gold 4x at grocery stores.

New cards I’m going to hop on the grAAvy train and try to rack up as many AA miles as possible. I’ll probaby also go for the delta personal cards when I cancel my business cards.

After that idk. I need to do research and see what other cards are out there.

 

[wendow]

I am way, way behind again, but is the rule OVER 6/24? As in, if I am at 6/24, I'm okay? Thanks!

I was recently approved for the arrival+ at 6/24.

 

[Lain]

@mmmears - Shake Shack opens in Palo Alto today. Here's your chance to use those Amex Gold dining credits!

 

[trenty]

Yayy goals!

So for 2019 I’m going to focus on MS. I want to max 3 CIPs at 150,000 at get 1,350,000 URs. If I could do this it would be huge. I’d cash out and my wedding would be paid for without dipping into savings. I also want to max the Amex Gold 4x at grocery stores.

New cards I’m going to hop on the grAAvy train and try to rack up as many AA miles as possible. I’ll probaby also go for the delta personal cards when I cancel my business cards.

After that idk. I need to do research and see what other cards are out there.

Good for you. I cannot MS, and even hate working on MSRs. We have said it so many times here - there are so many ways to play this game depending on comfort level. I like your way - but would be too stressed out. I need the slow and steady approach.