|
I don't see the downside? Recon isn't going to blacklist you and you can always end the call. Anyway, my experience is that Citi gives pending applications either because you've reached the maximum amount of credit they want to extend or they need more information for the application.
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 16:16
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 20:33 |
|
|
FIA Amex hasn't told me I have to change products yet.. I hope I don't!
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 16:50
|
|
|
Haha, Serve finally cracked down on the MS idiots and did a mass shutdown of accounts. Good riddance.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 17:07
|
|
|
asur posted:I don't see the downside? Recon isn't going to blacklist you and you can always end the call. Anyway, my experience is that Citi gives pending applications either because you've reached the maximum amount of credit they want to extend or they need more information for the application. Yeah I just called and was approved. It was just moving credit limits around. She didn't even allude to it being the third of the exact same credit card. Thanks Citibank!
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 18:41
|
|
|
I thought Citi had the rule where you couldn't qualify for another bonus within 18 months of closing the card?
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 18:42
|
|
|
Blinkman987 posted:I thought Citi had the rule where you couldn't qualify for another bonus within 18 months of closing the card? http://loopholetravel.com/2015/08/24/new-citi-loophole-how-to-break-the-18-month-rule/
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 18:45
|
|
|
triple sulk posted:Haha, Serve finally cracked down on the MS idiots and did a mass shutdown of accounts. Good riddance. I can't find it now, but I saw a guy on Reddit who was worried about what to do with the $15,000 in gift cards he had recently purchased  I've lightly used Serve to accelerate hitting a couple bonuses ($500-$1000 every few months), but I can't imagine tying up five figures in manufactured spending.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 19:07
|
|
|
What if someone hacked your Serve account?
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 19:44
|
|
|
triple sulk posted:Haha, Serve finally cracked down on the MS idiots and did a mass shutdown of accounts. Good riddance. Do you frequently get irate over things which don't effect you at all? Yell at old ladies for ordering peppermint ice cream or something? Those loving cunts, right?
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 20:26
|
|
|
Baddog posted:Do you frequently get irate over things which don't effect you at all? Yell at old ladies for ordering peppermint ice cream or something? Those loving cunts, right? Woosh
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 20:28
|
|
|
Baddog posted:Do you frequently get irate over things which don't effect you at all? Yell at old ladies for ordering peppermint ice cream or something? Those loving cunts, right? Do you really think MS doesn't affect (effect? god I can never remember) the whole credit card bonus game? If there were substantially less people able to churn bonuses the card issuers would be competing harder for less customers and, likely, handing out better bonuses. Likewise, point devaluations wouldn't be nearly as often because there's less of them being spent.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 21:16
|
|
|
Baddog posted:Do you frequently get irate over things which don't effect you at all? Yell at old ladies for ordering peppermint ice cream or something? Those loving cunts, right? Surely you can see the comedy in it? Comments on Doctor of Credit: quote:No Online loads ever….Average about $1500 VISA per month loads through KATE and paid off other credit cards not used in the MS. I got the e-mail. It is within AMEX right…..but it still feels like betrayal and hypocritical. I am closing all my AMEX cards but one and may close it. quote:My question is….will I run out of relatives to bribe into opening up an account for me or will they shut me down faster. I wonder if moving forward they will be constantly monitoring accounts or was this an annual sweep. Time will tell. quote:Is it waste writing to the address they sent in the mail? We did pretty much what we were allowed to do credit card loads (allowed), gift card loads (not allowed but not my job to know, it’s Walmart’s job to gate keep) And FlyerTalk: quote:this has to be an error. theres no way they would be shutting down thousands of accounts because they would be hitting legitimate spenders. quote:I too was shut down today. quote:I strongly suggest true ms'rs carefully consider what kind of future administration they want running the country. I have no party affiliation, but recognize we need someone willing to be pro-free market and has the balls to remove/change hyper regulations that have made institutions become overzealous concerning ML concerns (when it's been legit honest business). Social issues are the least of my concerns... economy, economy, economy. quote:I called customer service and they have no clue what is going on and said they could not help me and could no reactivate the card. Got 6K of GCs sitting here and bills due in 2 weeks. =( Or reddit! quote:26/26 serves shut down. drat, memo to everyone, that's why you always have backup options
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 21:46
|
|
|
quote:I strongly suggest true ms'rs carefully consider what kind of future administration they want running the country. I have no party affiliation, but recognize we need someone willing to be pro-free market and has the balls to remove/change hyper regulations that have made institutions become overzealous concerning ML concerns (when it's been legit honest business). Social issues are the least of my concerns... economy, economy, economy. I wonder what a person like this is actually like.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 21:48
|
|
|
Barry posted:I wonder what a person like this is actually like.  Or thereabouts.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 22:00
|
|
|
Barry posted:Do you really think MS doesn't affect (effect? god I can never remember) the whole credit card bonus game? I kinda find it hard to believe that MS is more than like 1% of cc volume at most. That would be a ton of cash actually. So I guess a signup bonus can be 50200 points instead of 50000 now?
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 22:34
|
|
|
Baddog posted:I kinda find it hard to believe that MS is more than like 1% of cc volume at most. That would be a ton of cash actually. So I guess a signup bonus can be 50200 points instead of 50000 now? I'm sure MS is even less than that as a whole, but it's definitely of the highest value type. People use it to meet minimum spend for churning bonuses (that they probably wouldn't be able to otherwise) or beating the hell out of things like Chase Ink at office supply stores or whatever. I bet if there was essentially 0 way to MS (or at least if it wasn't nearly as easy as Redbird/Serve) there would be noticeable improvements in signup bonuses and award redemption rates/availability.
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 23:09
|
|
|
Barry posted:I bet if there was essentially 0 way to MS (or at least if it wasn't nearly as easy as Redbird/Serve) there would be noticeable improvements in signup bonuses and award redemption rates/availability. Well, we'll find out. I'm willing to bet no, there won't be any improvement. But I'd be glad to be wrong!
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 23:20
|
|
|
Why would banks offer substantially higher sign up bonuses out of the goodness of their hearts if MS went away? I bet things like caps in category bonuses would probably be less common, since most people aren't buying 50k of groceries. I'm kind of bummed out about losing serve, since the ability to easily meet sign up bonuses helps keep my LDR working. On the other hand, the people running hundreds of grand or more through multiple cards are terrifying, and last time I checked flyertalk they were discussing how the Serve shutdown would effect the upcoming presidential election so there's some humor that came out of it. E: also the real hardcore will just switch to money orders, so the real volume of MS, whatever it is in the grand scheme of things, will remain strong
|
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 23:38
|
|
|
Cacafuego posted:Well, we'll find out. I'm willing to bet no, there won't be any improvement. But I'd be glad to be wrong! I'm also skeptical that we'll see things get better, but I'd guess that if it was never a thing in the first place we might be sitting a bit better than we are now. I'm sure there will be new methods found out soon enough. Hard to say really, but having a ton more people get a ton more signup bonuses by virtue of MS isn't going to make them more generous, that's for sure. DeceasedHorse posted:Why would banks offer substantially higher sign up bonuses out of the goodness of their hearts if MS went away? I bet things like caps in category bonuses would probably be less common, since most people aren't buying 50k of groceries. Because the overall credit card signup volume will decrease, hence the need to compete more for less customers. DeceasedHorse posted:E: also the real hardcore will just switch to money orders, so the real volume of MS, whatever it is in the grand scheme of things, will remain strong I sincerely doubt that it will. In the redbird heydays there were lines of people at customer service swiping away thousands at a time. Even the added step of buying a VGC and then loading it to Serve/Bluebird severely curtailed things. Barry fucked around with this message at 23:48 on Jan 8, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jan 8, 2016 23:43
|
|
|
Baddog posted:Do you frequently get irate over things which don't effect you at all? Yell at old ladies for ordering peppermint ice cream or something? Those loving cunts, right? I get what you're saying, and if it actually didn't affect me, I wouldn't care. The truth is that Serve has gotten significantly less useful for us non-MSers because of the MS idiots drawing tons of attention. As an example, I used to be able to load $1,000 each month from a single credit card and then have Serve send checks to pay for my daughter's daycare. At 2% cash back, that's $240 each year that I no longer make. Not a ton of money, but at the same time, you probably wouldn't just give me the $240 to make up for it, would you? So it does affect me. Serve is still useful to me and I still happily keep an account open and use it to deposit cash (don't have a local branch for my credit union), but it is significantly less useful now. I'm not calling anybody a oval office, but MSers did cost me $240 annually.
|
|
#
?
Jan 9, 2016 19:42
|
|
|
becoming posted:Serve is still useful to me and I still happily keep an account open and use it to deposit cash (don't have a local branch for my credit union), but it is significantly less useful now.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2016 15:01
|
|
|
becoming posted:I get what you're saying, and if it actually didn't affect me, I wouldn't care. The truth is that Serve has gotten significantly less useful for us non-MSers because of the MS idiots drawing tons of attention. As an example, I used to be able to load $1,000 each month from a single credit card and then have Serve send checks to pay for my daughter's daycare. At 2% cash back, that's $240 each year that I no longer make. Not a ton of money, but at the same time, you probably wouldn't just give me the $240 to make up for it, would you? So it does affect me. Serve is still useful to me and I still happily keep an account open and use it to deposit cash (don't have a local branch for my credit union), but it is significantly less useful now. I'm not calling anybody a oval office, but MSers did cost me $240 annually. I guess you are drawing this line between getting money back by passing your cash through serve with a couple of extra steps (instead of just writing a check directly) and someone who is doing the same exact thing, but just paying the credit card bill itself. Seems like kind of an arbitrary line to me? Serve is designed for people who don't have "real" banking at all, so you were still not using it for its "intended" purpose and are not its intended audience. I think the guy who I originally replied to was laughing at *all* MS'ers getting shut down, and that includes people who were MS'ing by washing money through Serve to pay *everything* in their life like mortgage, daycare, taxes, tuition, etc etc etc for that 2% back. Like you. Personally I just kept paying that poo poo with check and did the MS gift/credit-card loop because it was easier for me to deal with.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2016 19:21
|
|
|
dexter6 posted:Could you talk about this a little more? When I switched to Ally bank I lost a way to make cash deposits so something plug in like this would be nice. Get a redcard from target (the prepaid one with 5% off target purchases if they are still offering them). Target customer support is easier/nicer/faster to deal with than Walmart. Then link your redcard to your bank. Take your fistful of cash into Target and load it onto your redcard. Then transfer the money to your bank online. Redcard and serve are both run by amex and the interface/engine is exactly the same. Just you gotta go to Walmart or Family Dollar to load serve.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2016 19:24
|
|
|
becoming posted:I get what you're saying, and if it actually didn't affect me, I wouldn't care. The truth is that Serve has gotten significantly less useful for us non-MSers because of the MS idiots drawing tons of attention. As an example, I used to be able to load $1,000 each month from a single credit card and then have Serve send checks to pay for my daughter's daycare. At 2% cash back, that's $240 each year that I no longer make. Not a ton of money, but at the same time, you probably wouldn't just give me the $240 to make up for it, would you? So it does affect me. Serve is still useful to me and I still happily keep an account open and use it to deposit cash (don't have a local branch for my credit union), but it is significantly less useful now. I'm not calling anybody a oval office, but MSers did cost me $240 annually. Oh well, $240/yr isn't going to impact me, but I did like the free cash for doing nothing.
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2016 21:35
|
|
|
SiGmA_X posted:My account was shutdown too. This is what my usage was - bill payment. Nothing illegitimate these days. I did use it to hit spend bonuses on a couple Visa cards in March and April last spring, but since then it's simply been legit bill payment. I would probably call and talk to customer service about that; that's pretty weird that they'd shut it down for bill payment. Not sure if my usage looks different than yours because I've loaded cash (and maybe even pulled from my bank account), but my account is absolutely still open and from your description, I can't think of a reason why yours wouldn't be. And yeah, it's not like $240 annually is huge money, but it was nicer to have it than not. That's four video games or... almost a week of daycare. Baddog posted:I guess you are drawing this line between getting money back by passing your cash through serve with a couple of extra steps (instead of just writing a check directly) and someone who is doing the same exact thing, but just paying the credit card bill itself. Seems like kind of an arbitrary line to me? Serve is designed for people who don't have "real" banking at all, so you were still not using it for its "intended" purpose and are not its intended audience. I am drawing a line between "obtaining goods and/or services paid for with money loaded into Serve" and "manufactured spending". My spending was not manufactured. I have a bill, and instead of buying checks, I used Serve to send checks. There is nothing manufactured about that. It's not manufactured spending. It may or may not be against the spirit of what Serve was intended for, but it definitely is not manufactured spending. I'm not whining about it getting shut down, but I do think you're kidding yourself if you think that AmEx didn't see the gift card loads/Redbird credit card loads as the issue that required action. They don't care about folks like me using it (Sigma's account notwithstanding, which sounds bizarre to me). It's peanuts and barely worth their attention. The dudes with dozens of accounts running a hundred grand a month through were the ones throwing up red flags. (Or so I suspect - I do not work for AmEx or any other financial services company, so this is all just speculation.)
|
|
#
?
Jan 10, 2016 22:42
|
|
|
What is the best use of Amex and Chase rewards for someone who doesn't travel a lot, and when doing so goes the cheap Expedia/Orbitz etc route? I don't shop on Amazon much either. I could either save the points long term for when I do take advantage of the travel programs, or just get statement credits/purchases removed each month. But I know the amount of points used for the credits are a lot less favorable than using it for travel. e: Looks like 1:1 cash back for Chase, so I might take that and pay down some interest accruing debt with it. (0% APR on the Chase card) Moneyball fucked around with this message at 17:39 on Jan 11, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 17:28
|
|
|
Moneyball posted:What is the best use of Amex and Chase rewards for someone who doesn't travel a lot, and when doing so goes the cheap Expedia/Orbitz etc route? I don't shop on Amazon much either. Edit: I didn't read the question correctly. Just use it for cash back.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 17:50
|
|
|
Looks like for Chase, I will just do cash back and hold out for Airbnb specials from Amex.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 18:16
|
|
|
https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/3dwl1z/faq_different_ways_to_use_american_express_mr/ Good FAQ on MR points. I've been using them mostly to transfer to BA for short haul domestic flights.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 18:20
|
|
|
becoming posted:I would probably call and talk to customer service about that; that's pretty weird that they'd shut it down for bill payment. Not sure if my usage looks different than yours because I've loaded cash (and maybe even pulled from my bank account), but my account is absolutely still open and from your description, I can't think of a reason why yours wouldn't be. So hang on a sec, you weren't shut down, so why are you upset at all? Just the fear you might be in the future? I don't want to get hung up on terminology, but the MS blogs/forums are full of ways to pay bills which don't usually take credit cards with a credit card round-aboutly. So maybe its not completely "MS", but its close, because its only a small step from doing that to just cutting out the in between bill and paying the credit card invoice itself. I guess your issue is more with the volume than the steps involved. 1K/month is ok, 100k is not, 10k is ?
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 18:29
|
|
|
It's hard to say for sure, but you have to imagine it's volume that shuts these things down. Probably some combination of total people doing it and those pushing the envelope, but people with 28 serve accounts or going through $10k-$100k+ certainly aren't helping.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 18:53
|
|
|
Baddog posted:So hang on a sec, you weren't shut down, so why are you upset at all? Just the fear you might be in the future? I'm not upset at all. I was simply pointing out that your assertion that MS folks don't affect others of us "at all" isn't quite true, because it does, and to demonstrate that, I showed that the termination of the Serve load-via-credit-card functionality has effectively cost me $240 annually - not huge money to the point that I would even generally lament it on a forum, but enough that it's worth pointing out when someone says that manufactured spending - and the attention it draws - doesn't affect others. I don't even really have an issue with manufactured spending, but I'm not willing to pretend that there aren't victims either. That money has to come from somewhere, and it generally comes from the poor suckers that see an ad for a rewards card, go "it sure would be nice to earn a little money back", and then can't pay it all off monthly and wind up paying the now-higher interest rates. Yes, I am aware that those are the same people that are paying me the 6% back on my groceries, too. Again, I am not saying it's wrong, just that I'm not willing to pretend that the money doesn't come from some unfortunate person that never learned better financial habits. Volume was pointed out simply because I think that is what caught AmEx's attention. A guy with a single account that he's been using for bill pay and cash deposits, and also did credit card loads when that was available, looks pretty normal. (Still not sure about Sigma's account, of course - sounds weird that Sigma got shut down.) What doesn't look normal is when six separate accounts are all loaded for $500 x 3 within ten minutes at the same Walmart, or when someone using Serve is running big money through it. Most people make at least $1k each month, so AmEx isn't gonna see that and think it's weird. Most people do not make $10k each month, and most people that do would not be in the target market for Serve, so scrutiny there is probably a bit higher. Anyone running $100k/month, even split up between dozens of cards, is going to get noticed. Lastly, I disagree that paying bills that don't directly accept credit cards by using credit cards through an intermediary is "close" to manufactured spending. It's not manufactured: it is actual spending. I did not get the money back. I did not load Serve with a credit card, withdraw the money to my bank account, and then pay off the credit card with that same money. We are talking about two very different things here, even if they use the same mechanism (Serve). It is irrelevant if blogs or forums that discuss manufactured spending also discuss paying a mortgage or a daycare with a credit card; that does not make one, the other. It is absolutely a way to leverage a service to make a bit of extra money, but it's not manufactured spending and I doubt any of the card issuers really gave a poo poo about it. becoming fucked around with this message at 20:30 on Jan 11, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 20:12
|
|
|
Have you actually loaded your Serve account this month? I only got notified that the account was disabled when I went to load it this month. I don't think it was Manufactured Spending that American Express cared about since I think Serve Loads with American Express didn't earn rewards or count towards spend requirements , just that they were stuck eating all the credit card processing fees. Not sure what the deal was with the Fidelity Amex, I think it was an Amex card that they didn't process directly so it still worked? Anyways any sort of easy way to get a fee-free cash advance from your credit card is going to be short lived since it's always costing somebody money.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 20:23
|
|
|
THF13 posted:Have you actually loaded your Serve account this month? I only got notified that the account was disabled when I went to load it this month. I haven't done anything with my Serve account this month, though I do have some cash I've been meaning to deposit, so I can test later. Since I've done all of nothing with it this month, but do have some money in it, they debited a $1 fee, which was five days ago. So, as of five days ago, they considered my account active/alive/whatever. Edit - I just added some money from my checking account and everything looks normal, so I think my Serve account is still in good standing. It's probably worth noting that I've never loaded gift cards to it. I use it to deposit cash because my credit union has no local branches, and occasionally for bill pay. Back when I could load $1k/month from my credit card and send checks to my daycare provider, I would do that, but obviously I haven't done that since they disabled that feature last spring or whatever. becoming fucked around with this message at 20:39 on Jan 11, 2016 |
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 20:33
|
|
|
I'm a current Bank of America customer who uses its Cash Rewards cards for all purchases, paying in full in month (about 800 FICO). I also have an old BOA points rewards card and a Barclays card that I just used for an apple purchase, neither of which I still use. I would like to get a travel focused card as I have several upcoming trips this spring and generally fly at least 8-9 times a year. For ticket buying, I generally shop for best price via Kayak (and others) and stay with friends/family/airbnb instead of hotels. From what I've read, it appears to me the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Barclays Arrival plus are essentially in a dead heat, with the Arrival+ providing more flexibility as what is described as a travel related expenses. Despite me being a BOA customer, it looks like their travel card is a little behind in benefits? Any thoughts on what would be the best card for me at this point would be extremely welcome, as I the more I read, the less obvious the answer it seems.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 20:49
|
|
|
becoming posted:I haven't done anything with my Serve account this month, though I do have some cash I've been meaning to deposit, so I can test later. Since I've done all of nothing with it this month, but do have some money in it, they debited a $1 fee, which was five days ago. So, as of five days ago, they considered my account active/alive/whatever. You know you can still use an amex, just wont get points for it? Easier than depositing cash I'd think. Or use a 3rd-party managed amex, like FIA or US Bank or something, and still get the rewards.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 20:51
|
|
|
BlueFootedBoobie posted:I'm a current Bank of America customer who uses its Cash Rewards cards for all purchases, paying in full in month (about 800 FICO). I also have an old BOA points rewards card and a Barclays card that I just used for an apple purchase, neither of which I still use. I recommend the CSP. I have no experience with the Arrival+, but here's my position for the CSP: 1 - The bonus is currently 10K more than the normal promo bonus. It's at 50K total. 2 - $10k in trip cancellation/interruption insurance annually 3 - Delayed baggage reimbursement on the card 4 - The Chase app is really nice and easy to use, especially on iOS 5 - Rental car coverage is primary with the CSP, not secondary. So, it kicks in before your personal car insurance. 6 - If you ever wanted the CSP, you have to do it before you have 5 apps in 2 years total across all credit card companies. Chase will deny your application if you have that many apps with no reconsideration.Therefore, it's the best card to start with. As for the points, it's been hit or miss. At times I've found that it was a better value to purchase flights with cash. At other times, I've found that the 25% redemption bonus was a good value. Their travel tool likely has different agreements with different carriers. I just cleaned out my CSP account for straight cash because I have so many airline/hotel points across partners and points in other card programs which are less versatile. I believe the only real big sell for the Arrival+ is that you could open a Citi checking account with that specific card and it wouldn't count as a cash advance, so people were finding ways to open checking accounts for like $75,000 and then using that cash to pay off their Arrival+. Navigating that level of churn is probably not for the uninitiated, though.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 21:01
|
|
|
Blinkman987 posted:I recommend the CSP. I have no experience with the Arrival+, but here's my position for the CSP: Thanks a bunch- this is a really nice run down. The primary insurance is nice and while, I'm not planning on getting into the churning game quite yet, it make sense to start with the CSP if I'm going to be upping my card game. Think I'll go ahead and finally do my application, I've been dithering enough for the past couple of weeks.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 21:19
|
|
|
Baddog posted:You know you can still use an amex, just wont get points for it? Easier than depositing cash I'd think. Yeah, I just load from my checking account. Didn't know about a third-party AmEx, might be worth looking into. I deposit cash into Serve solely because I don't have a local branch/ATM for my credit union, so I have Serve primarily to solve that issue. Deposit cash at a local Walmart, withdraw money into my checking account (or send check for daycare, etc). I don't deposit cash for the purpose of paying bills. Serve is the convenient way for me to make deposits to my checking account, as stupid as that is.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 21:23
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 14, 2024 20:33 |
|
|
Since you are legitimately using Serve for a reason Amex intended I wouldn't try to do anything credit card related with it. I think there's a good chance adding a 3rd party Amex to earn rewards will get your account closed eventually.
|
|
#
?
Jan 11, 2016 21:27
|
|