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Dustoph posted:Pretty sure the Double cash back promo ended on the Discover card. It didn't.
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Oct 23, 2015 00:00
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triple sulk posted:It didn't. You're right, looks like they keep extending it. Last I saw it was ending 9/30, and now available through the rest of the year.
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Oct 23, 2015 00:06
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triple sulk posted:Normally it is but I'd say that the Discover It is much better right now due to the cash back at the end of 12 months, the rotating categories, and the 10% cash back for Apple Pay in-store through the end of the year. Thank You Points are pretty good as far as transferable points go.
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Oct 23, 2015 01:24
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I see that the Sallie Mae Barclay card is no more. Will those of us that already have them be able to keep the 5% gas/grocery/bookstore benefit?
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Oct 25, 2015 01:24
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Bisty Q. posted:Thank You Points are pretty good as far as transferable points go. Thank you points I found get e best value on Amazon, so I just link it and occasionally redeem when I happen to be ordering something. Btw, here is the ultimate credit card used. 23 credit cards: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/get-there/wp/2015/10/20/the-right-way-and-the-wrong-way-to-redeem-your-travel-rewards/
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Oct 26, 2015 02:32
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Duckman2008 posted:Btw, here is the ultimate credit card used. 23 credit cards: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/WaterCooler/story?id=411883 
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Oct 26, 2015 03:01
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Bisty Q. posted:Thank You Points are pretty good as far as transferable points go. Their customer service has been nice too, at least in my experience. Related to the above article, I thought about it a bit and have a more general reason why the CSP could be justifiably revered by bloggers that isn't their referral bonuses; the reality is that most people will not capitalize on its 2x dining/travel an absurd amount, and other cards with 2x for things like fuel or supermarkets might net you an extra 3-4k points a year at most. And really, what does that end up being worth? $30? $75 if you really maximize the award flight? And I guess you can still use the no-AF Freedom which could most likely even things out. I think if you basically told people "gently caress it, just stick with 1 pt/$ and focus on portals for the airlines you give a poo poo about" that at least it'd come across as more sensible. Maybe this has been the message all along but I feel like it kind of hasn't been. I guess I've been trying to give myself reasons to keep my CSP, but the airline transfer parters are kind of poor for me, personally. On the other hand, I've gotten just about all the signup bonuses I want and I'll get more miles overall by just using portals. Just kinda spitballing but maybe someone gets where I'm going with it.
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Oct 26, 2015 03:37
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Duckman2008 posted:Thank you points I found get e best value on Amazon, so I just link it and occasionally redeem when I happen to be ordering something. Don't Thank You points redeem for 0.8 cents per point on Amazon? That's seems pretty atrocious given that you could redeem at 1 cent per point for gift cards, the same for flights, or if you have the Premier or Prestige then 1.25/1.6 cents per point on American. This is all ignoring transfer partners which should allow above 1.5 cents. Aside from referral bonuses. I think CSP is revered because Chase has the best transfer partners, it always has a decent signup bonus, and CSP + Freedom is a pretty good 2 card combination. I would guess that the combination of the referral bonus and the fact that it pretty much always has a signup bonus is what drives bloggers to post about it. If you follow TPG or MMS, you can definitely tell when they are struggling for content and it seems like CSP always seems to come up then.
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Oct 26, 2015 10:07
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triple sulk posted:Their customer service has been nice too, at least in my experience. I think the bloggers pushing of the CSP as the be all/end all is pretty disingenuous but it's about as good as it gets if you actually will capitalize on dining/travel. I use it for work travel when I'm not trying to meet a minimum spend and a large majority of my spend there (airfare, agent fees, car rental, hotels, dining, transit) is at 2x. The freedom makes it a bit nicer as well. I'm not entirely sure I'll keep it when the AF hits but for now, it's a great card. I saved a good bit on FTF's on a recent trip to Canada as well, though I realize that's a reasonably common feature. That being said, if you don't travel with it, the only thing you're probably getting 2x points on is dining, so it's probably not worth using it much beyond minimum spend and definitely not worth keeping past the first year.
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Oct 26, 2015 13:41
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asur posted:Don't Thank You points redeem for 0.8 cents per point on Amazon? That's seems pretty atrocious given that you could redeem at 1 cent per point for gift cards, the same for flights, or if you have the Premier or Prestige then 1.25/1.6 cents per point on American. This is all ignoring transfer partners which should allow above 1.5 cents. Thank You Points and AMEX Membership Rewards should not be redeemed directly through Amazon's Pay with Points.
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Oct 26, 2015 16:39
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What's a good credit card for a small business guy who spends in the low 5 figures on credit cards, and takes about 2 international business trips, 2 domestic, per year? This guy also doesn't have any patience at all for credit card fiddling, so a card that can just be set to pay off every month automatically, and the benefits work automatically.
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Oct 26, 2015 16:43
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Barry posted:I think the bloggers pushing of the CSP as the be all/end all is pretty disingenuous but it's about as good as it gets if you actually will capitalize on dining/travel. I use it for work travel when I'm not trying to meet a minimum spend and a large majority of my spend there (airfare, agent fees, car rental, hotels, dining, transit) is at 2x. The freedom makes it a bit nicer as well. I'm not entirely sure I'll keep it when the AF hits but for now, it's a great card. I saved a good bit on FTF's on a recent trip to Canada as well, though I realize that's a reasonably common feature. "Card X is only as good if you actually capitalize on spending categories it covers" I think that the card is unique in that you get to "pool" points from a no annual fee card that has unusually high point earn rates that can be transferred to other partners. I'm trying to think about other cards in the 5x point range that can "pay out" in ways other than partner gift cards and I'm coming up dry. But yeah, don't get a card that gives bonuses in categories you don't use. Or that gives rewards you aren't in a position to redeem
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Oct 26, 2015 16:50
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Insane Totoro posted:"Card X is only as good if you actually capitalize on spending categories it covers" This sort of relates to the thoughts that I was trying to convey before. If you look at the PRG, Premier, and Prestige, they all have 2x/3x categories (with a much higher AF, airline credits and other perks aside), but assuming you're capable of modest spending and apply it to an average year of fuel, groceries, entertainment, or travel, breaking that down into a monthly average is still probably going to be no more than a few hundred a month, which being generous might net you 6-8k extra points. It's not a trivial amount and can get a good return depending on how you use it, but is it any better than just using the 5x categories which over the course of a year will probably even out or possibly be greater? For me, Chase's transfer partners are pretty poor. United's the big name on their list, but award flights cost a stupid amount of miles if I remember correctly and the closest hub to where I normally live (Philly) is at Newark, which kind of makes it a wash when I could just fly with AA. Maybe there are ways to make it work but the less effort I have to expend, the better. British Airways is useful to me except for the fuel surcharges, so the only real gain is short-haul which I'm not sure I could take a ton of advantage of. However, I still have the option to book with points which maybe doesn't give me the greatest value, but considering the rate at which miles are devaluing, it might be the simplest option overall. That isn't meant to sound tunnel-visioned either since the premium AF cards can get you a lot of value in perks, but I feel like it's sometimes difficult to find the break even point of where it's worth bothering to have one.
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Oct 26, 2015 17:09
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Insane Totoro posted:"Card X is only as good if you actually capitalize on spending categories it covers" Sure, but the CSP does have a pretty large amount of categories for actual traveling. On most trips I take, it's actually the exception when something isn't on 2x. I love the Freedom combo but I don't ever seem to remember to use it for categories beyond Amazon and dining and I'm not really the type to drive around to like Bed, Bath and Beyond to buy GC's or whatever. Like you said, the big deal is the transfer partners.
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Oct 26, 2015 17:10
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triple sulk posted:This sort of relates to the thoughts that I was trying to convey before. If you look at the PRG, Premier, and Prestige, they all have 2x/3x categories (with a much higher AF, airline credits and other perks aside), but assuming you're capable of modest spending and apply it to an average year of fuel, groceries, entertainment, or travel, breaking that down into a monthly average is still probably going to be no more than a few hundred a month, which being generous might net you 6-8k extra points. It's not a trivial amount and can get a good return depending on how you use it, but is it any better than just using the 5x categories which over the course of a year will probably even out or possibly be greater? For general use, probably not, but if you're interested in min/maxing (which I assume that the type of person to post on the internet talking about this thing has at least a passing interest in), then yeah, it matters a little bit. I'm still waffling on whether it's worth the $95AF (especially now that you can't just flip flop yearly between the CSP and Ink+) but if you have a big pool of UR points and you earn them at a moderate rate, you could spend $95 on worse things than retaining flexibility to transfer them. They have a good amount of partners (not sure how you think they're poor, probably second only to SPG which are a ton harder to earn) and while some of them might not be point by point "worth it", having the ability to easily top up something for a free flight or award night is definitely nice. Which isn't exclusive to UR, but you can't do it with a Freedom alone. Like you said, United is the big one and it might not be as valuable if you aren't by a hub, but there's also SW, BA, Virgin, Korean, etc.
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Oct 26, 2015 17:22
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As far as I understand, you can transfer points to Star Alliance as well, but you have to call in or something else wacky like that but it "works" and it seems the point redemption values are a lot more favorable. And the other advice I heard was that domestic travel via points rarely had a "break even" point so don't even bother unless it's international TL;DR you can earn a lot of points via ANY travel, but the point redemption value lies in INTERNATIONAL travel. Also this doesn't apply to everyone either, but you can also transfer to hotels. Ever wanted to do the Ritz Carlton for a fraction of the price by paying with points? Park Hyatt and resorts? The last time I did a hotel transfer it was like 30k points for a $700-$1200-ish stay. But it seems the value goes down with the star rating of the hotel, maybe with the exception that Hyatt redemptions start at 5000 points.
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Oct 26, 2015 17:27
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Barry posted:For general use, probably not, but if you're interested in min/maxing (which I assume that the type of person to post on the internet talking about this thing has at least a passing interest in), then yeah, it matters a little bit. I'm still waffling on whether it's worth the $95AF (especially now that you can't just flip flop yearly between the CSP and Ink+) but if you have a big pool of UR points and you earn them at a moderate rate, you could spend $95 on worse things than retaining flexibility to transfer them. BA and VS have horrid fuel surcharges, and unless you can find something domestic/short-haul with BA then I don't know how much you can really gain. I personally won't fly SW, and Singapore/Korean are only situationally useful. For most people, it's probably United or bust. If you include the hotels, then yes, the options are great. Insane Totoro posted:As far as I understand, you can transfer points to Star Alliance as well, but you have to call in or something else wacky like that but it "works" and it seems the point redemption values are a lot more favorable. And the other advice I heard was that domestic travel via points rarely had a "break even" point so don't even bother unless it's international Like literal Star Alliance points, since I guess they have their own program? Might work, but it kind of falls into how much effort you want to put in for your redemptions.
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Oct 26, 2015 17:56
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triple sulk posted:BA and VS have horrid fuel surcharges, and unless you can find something domestic/short-haul with BA then I don't know how much you can really gain. I personally won't fly SW, and Singapore/Korean are only situationally useful. For most people, it's probably United or bust. If you include the hotels, then yes, the options are great. Definitely, but BA are good for short-haul domestic. I'm thinking about taking a last minute trip from ORD to MCI this weekend to see some family. Cash flights at this point are about $500 round trip but only 9000 avios + $11. United award flights would be at least 2x that with a lot of surcharges. A shame they just dropped the MR to BA rate because that's probably what I'm going to use.
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Oct 26, 2015 18:09
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triple sulk posted:Like literal Star Alliance points, since I guess they have their own program? Might work, but it kind of falls into how much effort you want to put in for your redemptions. It's my understanding that you transfer Chase points to United... THEN transfer them to Star Alliance (in the form of a ticket redemption on Star Alliance, not actual points).
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Oct 26, 2015 18:36
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Massasoit posted:I see that the Sallie Mae Barclay card is no more. Will those of us that already have them be able to keep the 5% gas/grocery/bookstore benefit? It looks like I was still receiving rewards as of my last statement, and the reward section of the webpage still lists 5% on gas/grocery/bookstore. Do people just mean that Amazon is no longer being categorized as a bookstore? Aside from that, I'm also curious by what people mean by the Sallie Mae Barclay card being gone. If there is a better deal out there then I'm game for switching cards.
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Oct 26, 2015 21:27
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Teeter posted:It looks like I was still receiving rewards as of my last statement, and the reward section of the webpage still lists 5% on gas/grocery/bookstore. Do people just mean that Amazon is no longer being categorized as a bookstore? Aside from that, I'm also curious by what people mean by the Sallie Mae Barclay card being gone. You can't apply for the Sallie Mae card anymore. The card itself hasn't changed if you already have it. I don't know what will happen to existing card holders. They could keep the card but change the rewards program, convert everyone to their Upromise card, or leave existing members grandfathered into the old rewards program.
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Oct 26, 2015 21:47
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Had my first gift card go sideways from a Ralphs grocery store. It wasn't "activated properly." The biggest pain in the rear end was the Visa Gift Card rep telling me I needed to find a fax machine.
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Oct 28, 2015 22:06
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What's better: 50k Skymiles for 1k spend or 50k MR points for opening up a PRG? I don't have any Amex cards currently beyond an old student card.
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Oct 28, 2015 23:36
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For just opening up a PRG? If so then it's easily the latter because they can transfer to Delta any way. I know there was the 50k/$1k offer floating around but I don't know if it's still available.
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Oct 29, 2015 00:05
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All of the Amex sign-up bonuses are once in a lifetime, so none are really a rush if you're churning. The 50k mr points have to be better than SkyPesos. It is a great time to get an Amex though because Small Business Saturday is coming up in a few weeks. Free money!
Blinkman987 fucked around with this message at 01:03 on Oct 29, 2015 |
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Oct 29, 2015 00:47
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http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/09/30/amex-small-business-saturday-2015-credits/
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Oct 29, 2015 03:53
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Barry posted:http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/09/30/amex-small-business-saturday-2015-credits/ Sad. "We'll put out more ads instead, failing to recognize that people just don't give a poo poo about ads and our ads will be worse than every other ad that weekend."
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Oct 29, 2015 04:46
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Blinkman987 posted:Sad. Small Business Saturday was designed to accomplish two goals: make people feel virtuous for buying things with their credit card, and unleash a bunch of discount-seeking Amex cardholders on Visa-and-Mastercard-only small businesses over the course of a single day. Statement credits only help with the second, which is rapidly becoming moot thanks to Square and similar payment processors that hide higher Amex fees behind a flat charge. The whole "get over your Black Friday guilt by spending even more" thing was always an advertising push anyway. What, you thought they did it out of the goodness of their hearts?
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Oct 29, 2015 06:01
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I'm thinking about opening a joint checking account with the old lady. Are there any bonuses to doing so like a credit card or should I just open any random one and put her name on it?
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Oct 30, 2015 07:30
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obi_ant posted:I'm thinking about opening a joint checking account with the old lady. Are there any bonuses to doing so like a credit card or should I just open any random one and put her name on it? Banks offer bonuses for signing up sometimes. They sometimes require a minimum deposit, a certain number of monthly transactions, or a direct deposit to get the bonus. Capital One 360 is pretty good and typically offers a bonus on black Friday if you want to wait a month. I got $200 for opening a checking and savings account with them last year. One difference between bank and credit card bonuses though is the bonus for a bank account will be considered taxable income. If it's a bank account you actually will be using I would focus more on the features of the account and what fees they charge rather than the short term bonus.
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Oct 30, 2015 15:02
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I signed up for CapitalOne 360 savings-- I assume it was some existing product purchased from a competitor-- and it has been nothing short of a disaster on the customer service end. Weeks without access to my account, misinformed CS reps, etc... I get my sign-up bonus in a few days and I'm booking it back to AMEX. On that note, though, Citi targeted me for 50K AA miles if I sign up for their elite checking account, do 2 bill pays, and spend $1000 on a debit card. With the monthly charges (unless I move 50k into their bank), it's $60 for 50k AA miles.
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Oct 30, 2015 19:20
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The Citigold offer has been going around a while. It can also lower your Prestige AF to $350 but no one seems to know how long it ends up lasting, if past the first year or not. Supposedly you can just use a Barclaycard and fund it (and I assume you just take all the money back out to pay the bill) but I don't know if it's worth the effort or I'd do it.
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Oct 30, 2015 19:52
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Blinkman987 posted:I signed up for CapitalOne 360 savings-- I assume it was some existing product purchased from a competitor-- and it has been nothing short of a disaster on the customer service end. Weeks without access to my account, misinformed CS reps, etc... I get my sign-up bonus in a few days and I'm booking it back to AMEX. Ally has been great for me since I signed up for their savings account a few months back
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Oct 31, 2015 00:49
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THF13 posted:Banks offer bonuses for signing up sometimes. They sometimes require a minimum deposit, a certain number of monthly transactions, or a direct deposit to get the bonus. Capital One 360 is pretty good and typically offers a bonus on black Friday if you want to wait a month. I got $200 for opening a checking and savings account with them last year. Thanks for the heads up about Black Friday. I'll keep a look out when it rolls around. I see this noted on Nerd Wallet "Institutions with no foreign transaction fee for debit card use". Capital One is listed as one of those. I primarily want to open a joint checking account so we can have a vacation fund. It would be cool if there really is no foreign transaction with the card when we're abroad, but I don't see it listed on their website?
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Oct 31, 2015 08:29
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triple sulk posted:The Citigold offer has been going around a while. It can also lower your Prestige AF to $350 but no one seems to know how long it ends up lasting, if past the first year or not. Supposedly you can just use a Barclaycard and fund it (and I assume you just take all the money back out to pay the bill) but I don't know if it's worth the effort or I'd do it. If you have a high limit it is absolutely worth it. Up to $2k from Barclay or 100 thousand points is worth jumping through some hoops. You can double it by signing up for a savings account too. Theres also a 50k TYP, non transferable, offer with easier terms. For a bank accounts, Schwab has no fees, including forex, reimbursement of ATM fees, and an actual chip and pin debit card. No offer, but I have an account with them specifically for those benefits and use another account, Capital One 360, for my main checking. I'd personally seperate chasing bonus and your permanent account. asur fucked around with this message at 16:16 on Oct 31, 2015 |
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Oct 31, 2015 16:11
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Discover has a pretty nice offer for checking/savings accounts right now actually. You can get $300 for opening a checking account and $100 for opening a savings account. http://www.doctorofcredit.com/do-this-now-signup-for-400-in-discover-bank-bonuses-300-checking-100-savings/ Schwab is excellent though if you're planning to travel.
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Oct 31, 2015 17:16
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The vendor for those US Bank-backed Visa gift cards is just as bad as anybody has read. After contacting them and faxing in all the required information (within an hour of buying the card!), I wait a day and get no call. I call the following day and on my way to a rep, the automated system informs me that my card only has $5 left on it. I get to a rep and explain the problem (as wall as their lovely service) and now I'm asked to fax all this information to a new number, the US Bank line. These people and faxes like it's 1997. This is on a card I'm not even churning or doing MS on with a bank I'm not even churning with or doing MS with. I've had an awful week and was mentally on tilt with other things, so I make the debatably bad call to inform the rep that I'll just be disputing the charge with my CC company. This is mostly because I'm super irritated at them for knowing that the card was likely compromised and doing nothing about it, lying to me that the funds were inaccessible, my lack of trust in their process, and because I just don't want to spend time on this poo poo anymore. At worst, Citi will just kick me back to the vendor and I'll continue the process with them. Anyway, the overall lesson for anybody getting into this game is that you NEED to save your receipts or else risk getting wrecked on a compromised gift card. Blinkman987 fucked around with this message at 18:30 on Oct 31, 2015 |
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Oct 31, 2015 18:28
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My Costco AmEx is my #1 go-to card for the last 5 years. I have other cards come and go but this is probably my longest standing account on my credit history. Costco will move from AmEx to Visa (?) in the spring. AmEx just called me to move me over to a new AmEx when that happens. It sounds like I signed up for a new card ($500 bonus after $5k in purchases in 90 days) which I'm ok with. What I want to know is what happens to this long standing account when the switchover happens. Obviously (or apparently) AmEx will no longer hold the account because it wants to move me over to a new card. So does my 6-year-history transfer over to this new Visa (?), or does that 6 year account just die (which would kinda suck to have my longest history go away).
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Oct 31, 2015 20:10
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Worst case scenario is the account is closed but it will stay in your credit report and continue to age for ten years before falling off. It will still effect your average age of accounts
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Oct 31, 2015 20:18
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I just opened a capital one credit card (my first card ever) and it has a very low 300 dollar limit because I have basically no credit history. I do, however, have a very solid income and am trying to build credit history for future purposes. Can I hit the $300 credit limit, pay online before the statement date, then continue using the card? Would that be a bad thing or a good thing in terms of persuading them to increase my limit? My medium term goal is to get a better credit card (one with rewards rather than just no fee), my long term goal is to build credit history.
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Nov 1, 2015 02:38
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