Credit Card Rewards and Recommendations

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WarMECH: Dec 23, 2004

OldSenileGuy posted:

FAKE EDIT: That brings me to another question - since I'm now planning on doing more grocery shopping at Costco, I was thinking about changing my Amex Blue Cash Preferred card to the Blue Cash Everyday card to get rid of that annual fee. Will Amex let me just change this card over, or do I have to cancel the Preferred card and re-apply for the Everyday card? My annual membership fee renews in January so I probably wouldn't do it until then anyway.

You can have AMEX convert the Preferred to the normal Blue Cash, I did this last year. I just called them up and told them I wanted to do it. It kept the same account number and credit limit, they just sent new cards in the mail without the "Preferred" stamp on them and new expiration dates.

# ? Jul 12, 2016 20:37

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# ? May 14, 2024 19:34

No Butt Stuff: Jun 10, 2004

So my Citi Costco card didn't come when it was supposed to. My wife's did, via Fedex, but mine never arrived.

I called and they sent me a new one and cancelled the old one. I activated what I thought was the new one and moved on with my life. Cut to Costco. Can't actually scan the card at the register because it has my old membership number (apparently I was assigned a new one?) Yesterday I got another card in the mail. It is the exact same card number, same CVV code, the only difference is the Costco membership number on the back. I'm going to test it to see if it works without activation today, because I'm not sure how I would activate it, given that the process just asks for the number.

It's just weird and definitely not as smooth as it could have been.

# ? Jul 12, 2016 20:46

THF13: Sep 26, 2007; Keep an adversary in the dark about what you're capable of, and he has to assume the worst.

Not technically a credit card but the Charles Schwab Checking account currently has a $100 signup bonus. No requirements to get it but it's only available if you don't have an account with Schwab already. Their checking account is great because it refunds 100% of all ATM fees, including international ones. It also doesn't charge a foreign transaction fee so you can use it when traveling to get money in the local currency for no fee at all from any ATM. No minimum balance or monthly fees to worry about with the account either.

They do pull your credit when you apply for the account though.

http://schwab.com/referred

Referral link is just to get the offer, there's no bonus for referring people.

# ? Jul 13, 2016 16:51

No Butt Stuff: Jun 10, 2004

No Butt Stuff posted:

So my Citi Costco card didn't come when it was supposed to. My wife's did, via Fedex, but mine never arrived.

I called and they sent me a new one and cancelled the old one. I activated what I thought was the new one and moved on with my life. Cut to Costco. Can't actually scan the card at the register because it has my old membership number (apparently I was assigned a new one?) Yesterday I got another card in the mail. It is the exact same card number, same CVV code, the only difference is the Costco membership number on the back. I'm going to test it to see if it works without activation today, because I'm not sure how I would activate it, given that the process just asks for the number.

It's just weird and definitely not as smooth as it could have been.

Update: Both cards scan. I have no idea WTF citi is doing.

# ? Jul 13, 2016 18:31

Puppy Galaxy: Aug 1, 2004

Got an email from Capital One, apparently someone tried to use my card to donate $3865.60 to United Way and $2000 to the Red Cross. No other fraudulent activity occurred.

Everything's all set on my end (card cancelled, no charges) but I'm wondering what the heck happened? I thought thieves would try and make small purchases to test the card and then rack up big charges? Why the hell did someone try and donate 6 grand of my money to charity?

# ? Jul 18, 2016 03:40

Untagged: Mar 29, 2004; Hey, does your planet have wiper fluid yet or you gonna freak out and start worshiping us?

Guess they didn't want your money, just a higher tax deduction.

# ? Jul 18, 2016 04:57

Virtue: Jan 7, 2009

Puppy Galaxy posted:

Got an email from Capital One, apparently someone tried to use my card to donate $3865.60 to United Way and $2000 to the Red Cross. No other fraudulent activity occurred.

Everything's all set on my end (card cancelled, no charges) but I'm wondering what the heck happened? I thought thieves would try and make small purchases to test the card and then rack up big charges? Why the hell did someone try and donate 6 grand of my money to charity?

Robin Hood is real

# ? Jul 18, 2016 19:25

opposable thumbs.db: Jan 7, 2008; It's hard to say that it's wrong that my life revolves around my dog when she is cuter and more interesting than me; Pillbug

Has anyone used Chase's Refer-A-Friend system for the Chase Sapphire Preferred? My buddy referred me two and a half weeks ago and I haven't heard anything from Chase yet. I don't know if the system is just incredibly slow, or if it matters that I already have a Chase Freedom card.

# ? Jul 19, 2016 02:32

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

opposable thumbs.db posted:

Has anyone used Chase's Refer-A-Friend system for the Chase Sapphire Preferred? My buddy referred me two and a half weeks ago and I haven't heard anything from Chase yet. I don't know if the system is just incredibly slow, or if it matters that I already have a Chase Freedom card.

It's really slow. A goon sent a referral to me when I was talking about signing up for CSP, and it took weeks before it showed up. I got tired of waiting and ended up applying on my own and of course the referral showed up the next day

# ? Jul 19, 2016 02:37

opposable thumbs.db: Jan 7, 2008; It's hard to say that it's wrong that my life revolves around my dog when she is cuter and more interesting than me; Pillbug

Star War Sex Parrot posted:

It's really slow. A goon sent a referral to me when I was talking about signing up for CSP, and it took weeks before it showed up. I got tired of waiting and ended up applying on my own and of course the referral showed up the next day

Oh, that's a bit unfortunate but thanks for the info. I suppose I'll just have to give it more time.

# ? Jul 19, 2016 03:45

Blinkman987: Jul 10, 2008; Gender roles guilt me into being fat.

I always provide the social referral URLs which appear immediately.

# ? Jul 19, 2016 07:52

pig slut lisa: Mar 5, 2012; irl is good

Star War Sex Parrot posted:

It's really slow. A goon sent a referral to me when I was talking about signing up for CSP, and it took weeks before it showed up. I got tired of waiting and ended up applying on my own and of course the referral showed up the next day

I think that was me. No worries :v:

# ? Jul 19, 2016 13:17

gregday: May 23, 2003

Is BoA usually fine with merging credit lines between two card and only keeping one open?

# ? Jul 19, 2016 15:20

FunOne: Aug 20, 2000; I am a slimey vat of concentrated stupidity; Fun Shoe

gregday posted:

Is BoA usually fine with merging credit lines between two card and only keeping one open?

I've never had a problem. They'll make you leave $100 on the old card.

# ? Jul 19, 2016 15:22

Residency Evil: Jul 28, 2003; 4/5 godo... Schumi

My Amex Gold PRG card is coming up for renewal in the next few months ($195 AF). I just got an offer for a Delta Amex Gold card: 50k bonus miles for $2k spend + 6 months of Delta Gold Medallion status. Is there any reason not to take this? I average flying about 1-2x/month and will probably only make it to Delta Silver this year otherwise, although maybe might make it with the additional miles I get for Gold?

# ? Jul 20, 2016 17:20

Fallorn: Apr 14, 2005

Mom got a Chase Sapphire Preferred so she could change her Ink and Freedom ultimate rewards points into hotel points for when she takes little sister to cheer competitions. If you get one make sure you have your additional card added and they make a purchase for the 5k bonus points. Turning ultimate reward points into Hyatt points is going to save her well over $1000+ this year. Also no one in my family had any issue with the citi costco transfer and their online site worked easily and well.

# ? Jul 23, 2016 05:01

Pompous Rhombus: Mar 11, 2007

I've got that US Airways Barclay card that turned into the AAviator, do my miles go "poof" when I cancel it? I've noticed a few offers lately have included that little poison pill.

Fallorn posted:

Mom got a Chase Sapphire Preferred so she could change her Ink and Freedom ultimate rewards points into hotel points for when she takes little sister to cheer competitions. If you get one make sure you have your additional card added and they make a purchase for the 5k bonus points. Turning ultimate reward points into Hyatt points is going to save her well over $1000+ this year. Also no one in my family had any issue with the citi costco transfer and their online site worked easily and well.

Has she also looked in to that Hyatt card? I was considering it when I thought I'd run out of airline cards, it's "only" good for two nights, but you can stretch that to their most baller properties ($700-1000/night). It doesn't match my partner and my's lifestyle or travel style (we'd rather spend that $1k on several weeks in Southeast Asia or something), but it might be a nice treat for the really big competitions.

Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 07:49 on Jul 23, 2016

# ? Jul 23, 2016 07:08

pig slut lisa: Mar 5, 2012; irl is good

Pompous Rhombus posted:

I've got that US Airways Barclay card that turned into the AAviator, do my miles go "poof" when I cancel it? I've noticed a few offers lately have included that little poison pill.

The only miles that would potentially disappear would be any you'd expect to earn from spending that occurs in the statement period in which you close your card. Otherwise, any miles that have already posted to your AAdvantage account will stick around subject to AA's own rules for expiration.

The phenomenon you're talking about is only an issue with flexible points currencies (MR, UR, TYP), to my knowledge anyway. And even then there's nuance. UR and MR will not disappear so long as you still have some other active UR/MR card. TYP I think is the only one that gives you a certain amount of time to spend the specific TYP earned with a now-canceled card, but I'm not too familiar with the TYP program.

Long story short, wrap up the spending on your AAviator card before the end of a statement cycle and then cancel once the statement (and points) posts.

# ? Jul 23, 2016 13:55

pig slut lisa: Mar 5, 2012; irl is good

pig slut lisa posted:

Word to the wise: never try to link Citi credit card accounts online under the same user profile. I recently tried to do this with my new Citi Premier card (I had three existing user profiles) and now none of my logins work. The credit card division sees that all of my cards are unified under one profiles as well as now having two vacant/dormant profiles, whereas the checking division can only see one user profile that's different from the one the CC division sees and it only shows my checking and one of my credit cards. Four hours of phone calls in the last 24 hours and now I'm at a point where my checking account PIN has been reset and I need to wait til a new one comes in the mail before I can call in and try again.

Christ.

After a month of dealing with Citi's terrible IT and probably spending 8-10 hours on phone calls and chats, I have finally been able to cancel my Citigold account and get all my Citi credit cards on the same username that functions properly. :peanut:

# ? Jul 23, 2016 23:08

gregday: May 23, 2003

Thanks, I was able to switch $13,500 of credit over to my lower interest BoA card for a combined total CL of $20,500 and close the other higher interest card. So now I'm down to 3 cards: BankAmericard, CSP, and my Amex Gold.

# ? Jul 24, 2016 20:18

Star War Sex Parrot: Oct 2, 2003

gregday posted:

So now I'm down to 3 cards: BankAmericard, CSP, and my Amex Gold.

Wouldn't you want a Freedom to pair with that CSP? It seems like the CSP becomes a lot more attractive if you're able to funnel UR points into it with the Freedom's 5% quarterly promos -- especially if you're a Costco shopper since they keep adding "warehouse stores" to the quarterly promos.

# ? Jul 24, 2016 21:30

triple sulk: Sep 17, 2014

Apparently the Citi Prestige is being gutted (from Reddit):

quote:

- 1.6 cent per point redemptions on American Airlines are being removed.
- All airline redemptions will be at a value of 1.25 cents each.
- The 4th night free will be calculated based on the average nightly rate instead of the last night rate and taxes will no longer be included.
- 3 free rounds of golf are being removed.
- Removal of Admirals Club access (confirmed)

Chase has some sort of Prestige/Platinum equivalent coming out next month. It'll probably still suck because UR points aren't all that great unless you can use them for BA -> AA or really like United/Southwest, but it'll be interesting to see what it ends up looking like.

# ? Jul 26, 2016 17:57

DeceasedHorse: Nov 11, 2005

Supposedly the changes to the prestige won't take effect until next July, but the loss of AA lounge access and the AA redemptionbonus means that there isn't relax a great reason to keep it long term anymore, barring a juicy retention offer.

Citi has been all over the place with the prestige/premier/preferred line lately. I think the premier currently has no sign up bonus at all.

The chase care might be cool but I'm at like a million/24 so no way I get it

# ? Jul 26, 2016 18:03

Virtue: Jan 7, 2009

The CSP is really sexy.

# ? Jul 26, 2016 18:21

gregday: May 23, 2003

Virtue posted:

The CSP is really sexy.

I don't want it to matter to me that it's made of metal and doesn't have the number on the front, but dammit, it does matter.

# ? Jul 26, 2016 18:50

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

gregday posted:

I don't want it to matter to me that it's made of metal and doesn't have the number on the front, but dammit, it does matter.

The sign on bonus is amazing too, but I don't spend enough to get to 4k in 3 months and don't have the time or inclination to try every Wal-Mart and CVS in the area to see which ones will let me buy Visa gift cards with a CC and if they do, how many I can get.

# ? Jul 26, 2016 18:58

Virtue: Jan 7, 2009

gregday posted:

I don't want it to matter to me that it's made of metal and doesn't have the number on the front, but dammit, it does matter.

It's going to hurt to switch to the freedom once I hit the sign on bonus. I'll probably keep using it even though it's not as good for rewards because I'm dumb

# ? Jul 26, 2016 19:23

Barry: Aug 1, 2003; Hardened Criminal

Virtue posted:

It's going to hurt to switch to the freedom once I hit the sign on bonus. I'll probably keep using it even though it's not as good for rewards because I'm dumb

A whole ton of stuff fits in the 2x categories so it's actually a pretty good daily driver.

The Citi Prestige is garbage now. I can't believe that thing will have a $450AF. Nobody is going to use it.

# ? Jul 26, 2016 19:42

wyoak: Feb 14, 2005; a glass case of emotion; Fallen Rib

Barry posted:

A whole ton of stuff fits in the 2x categories so it's actually a pretty good daily driver.

The Citi Prestige is garbage now. I can't believe that thing will have a $450AF. Nobody is going to use it.

Still has a $250 annual airline redemption and the 4th night free benefit (that got nerfed a little), but it's certainly not as attractive as before. If I could get the annual free lowered to $350 I'd probably keep it.

# ? Jul 26, 2016 21:28

Fallorn: Apr 14, 2005

Virtue posted:

It's going to hurt to switch to the freedom once I hit the sign on bonus. I'll probably keep using it even though it's not as good for rewards because I'm dumb

It has 2x points for restaurants so that works for a lot of daily use.

# ? Jul 27, 2016 16:29

spatula: Nov 6, 2004

Yep, but Freedom is already doing 5x restaurants this quarter.

# ? Jul 27, 2016 18:48

baquerd: Jul 2, 2007; by FactsAreUseless

Amex deals are out there for 10% off all pay-at-pump gas stations through September and $5 off $25 from BP gas stations. I can confirm they work together.

# ? Jul 27, 2016 21:29

gregday: May 23, 2003

There are rumors that next month Chase is launching some sort of "Chase Sapphire Elite" (or possibly Sapphire Reserve) card with a $300-400 AF and benefits to compete with the Amex Platinum and it's ilk.

# ? Jul 28, 2016 17:17

Virtue: Jan 7, 2009

gregday posted:

There are rumors that next month Chase is launching some sort of "Chase Sapphire Elite" (or possibly Sapphire Reserve) card with a $300-400 AF and benefits to compete with the Amex Platinum and it's ilk.

Is it sexier than the csp

# ? Jul 28, 2016 22:31