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Space Gopher posted:They give 5 points per dollar, but MR points only redeem for cash at 0.6 cents/point. Total cash back is still just 3%.
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Jan 30, 2019 07:58
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gvibes posted:Is there a card that pays more than 3% cash back on travel (airfare and hotels)? Barclay Uber NVM, you said more than 3%
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Jan 30, 2019 13:29
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Space Gopher posted:They give 5 points per dollar, but MR points only redeem for cash at 0.6 cents/point. Total cash back is still just 3%. The Schwab version gives 1.25 cents/point, on all versions Amazon is 0.7, gift cards are around 1 and travel for airfare is 1 as well. You can definitely get better than 3%.
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Jan 30, 2019 18:08
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asur posted:The Schwab version gives 1.25 cents/point, on all versions Amazon is 0.7, gift cards are around 1 and travel for airfare is 1 as well. You can definitely get better than 3%. What's the disbursement process? I need another investment account like I need a whole in my heat, but another 3% on my fairly absurd annual travel spending would be sweet. e: Looks like just need to disburse into a Schwab brokerage account. gvibes fucked around with this message at 22:24 on Jan 30, 2019 |
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Jan 30, 2019 22:20
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Hi thread! I used to follow along with credit card offers a while back, but once the 2% cash back Fidelity card came out, I just got lazy and started using that for everything, so I'm pretty out of the loop now. In a few months my wife and I will be going to Croatia. We're normally pretty frugal travelers, but her company has a perk where they are reimbursing for this trip. As such, we'll be spending more on flights and other travel costs this year than we normally would. I figure it's worth investigating if getting one of the big sign up bonuses is worthwhile. What I'm looking for is the best one time offer combined with travel bonus points so we can hopefully take advantage of this trip to help fund our next trip. I probably wouldn't keep the card open once it comes time to pay an annual fee, unless it's really worth our while. I'm not averse to paying a large annual fee if it is worth it, but with our spending habits, I doubt it will be. We don't have any of the big name cards, nor have we hit any of the company's limits of open cards, so I think just about anything is open to us. We don't normally stay at any of the big hotel chains (AirBnB is more our jam), but if it makes sense to pick one, we have stayed at various Marriott properties before. We don't have a preference for any specific airline, but as mentioned, we're cheap, we will be flying economy, and with the exception of this trip, we buy tickets with price as a major factor. We both have great credit and are reasonably well paid, and we'll be able to hit a reasonable minimum spend (I've seen 3k over 3 months or 6k over 6 months, either would be fine). Maybe the Chase Sapphire Reserve? It's only 2x points on travel, but the signup bonus alone seems like it's worth it. Ideally, we'd also like a card with no foreign transaction fees with bonuses for Travel/Restaurants/Entertainment for spending when we get there, but that could be a second card or we could just use the Amazon card we already have that doesn't have a fee. Maybe that Uber card for this? I spent some time reading The Points Guy, and Nerdwallet but my head is spinning a bit with the complexities of some points transferring, and every point worth a different amount... makes me want to go back to the straight 2% cash back. We have some time here before we have to do this, so if there isn't a slam dunk bonus at the moment, we can wait. What should we do? Thanks! Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Jan 31, 2019 |
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Jan 30, 2019 23:54
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gvibes posted:Is that the Platinum card here - https://www.schwab.com/public/schwab/investing/accounts_products/credit_cards It's just into a Schwab brokerage which I believe is free. I assume a lost of people have one open since Schwab's checking product is pretty good for travel.
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Jan 31, 2019 00:35
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Wow, US Bank denied me for the Cash+ card. A little surprised, but what can you do. Their letter said that the denial was due to the number of inquiries on my credit report. According to my Chase app* I have had 2 credit inquiries in the past 2 years. And a credit score of 793 and a 6% utilization. Seems like a slam dunk, but I guess not? It does make me wonder - how do people like that guy earlier in this thread open 20+ cards when just having 2 credit inquiries is enough to deny you for some cards? *Chase uses TransUnion, while US Bank uses Experian, but they should be all more or less the same
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Jan 31, 2019 01:09
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That is weird. Maybe call and try to get them to reconsider? 2 hard pulls is nothing.
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Jan 31, 2019 01:34
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Grumpwagon posted:Hi thread! I used to follow along with credit card offers a while back, but once the 2% cash back Fidelity card came out, I just got lazy and started using that for everything, so I'm pretty out of the loop now. Sorry, in a bit of a hurry so I can't post this as carefully as I'd like, but: If you don't want to spend any annual fees whatsoever and are fine with changing it to a no-AF card after a year, the Chase Sapphire Preferred will give you: *no AF first year *50k points (=$500 cash, or more if redeemed for travel) after you spend $4k in 3 months *no foreign transaction fees, which could be quite useful while you're there depending on Visa card acceptance *2x points on dining and travel *1x points on everything else *points are worth 1.25 cents each when used to buy travel through Chase's travel portal, or 1c each if redeemed for cash. They can also be transferred to participating airline and hotel partners. You might have a family member or friend with this card; if so, you can get them to refer you and they'll get some cool points for doing so. If not, there's a goon spreadsheet with referral links floating around the last pages of this thread. Another option is the Chase Sapphire Reserve; that one is front-loaded with a $450 AF, same 50k point signup bonus as the Preferred, this one will give you a $300 cardmember year travel credit, will give you (once you activate the benefit) a priority pass card giving you and guests (check terms re: any guest limitations) access to participating airport lounges, earns 3x on dining/travel, and reimburses you for one global entry or TSA precheck fee every 4 or 5 years. Points redeemed for travel via Chase's travel portal with this card get a 1.5x multiplier instead of the Preferred's 1.25x. Same airline and hotel partners.
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Jan 31, 2019 02:22
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OldSenileGuy posted:Wow, US Bank denied me for the Cash+ card. A little surprised, but what can you do. Their letter said that the denial was due to the number of inquiries on my credit report. According to my Chase app* I have had 2 credit inquiries in the past 2 years. And a credit score of 793 and a 6% utilization. Seems like a slam dunk, but I guess not? It does make me wonder - how do people like that guy earlier in this thread open 20+ cards when just having 2 credit inquiries is enough to deny you for some cards? In my area Chase pulls Experian always and US Bank usually uses TransUnion. I'd call US Bank reconsideration. 2 inquiries in 2 years is nothing, unless your file is paper-thin. How many cards do you have, and how old's the oldest one? Do you already have any cards open with US Bank?
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Jan 31, 2019 02:24
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OldSenileGuy posted:Wow, US Bank denied me for the Cash+ card. A little surprised, but what can you do. Their letter said that the denial was due to the number of inquiries on my credit report. According to my Chase app* I have had 2 credit inquiries in the past 2 years. And a credit score of 793 and a 6% utilization. Seems like a slam dunk, but I guess not? It does make me wonder - how do people like that guy earlier in this thread open 20+ cards when just having 2 credit inquiries is enough to deny you for some cards? I got the same thing. I have maybe four pulls in the past year.
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Jan 31, 2019 02:30
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Jerk McJerkface posted:I got the same thing. I have maybe four pulls in the past year. Did you apply recently or a few months ago? I ask because I've seen a handful of reports online of people that got a letter saying they'd been denied, then about a week later got their welcome packet, and a week after that got their card. Seems like US Bank isn't the tightest-run ship around, so I might wait a couple weeks and see what happens. If I still want the card then, I'll call their reconsideration department. I didn't even know that was a thing.
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Jan 31, 2019 17:21
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OldSenileGuy posted:Did you apply recently or a few months ago? I ask because I've seen a handful of reports online of people that got a letter saying they'd been denied, then about a week later got their welcome packet, and a week after that got their card. Seems like US Bank isn't the tightest-run ship around, so I might wait a couple weeks and see what happens. If I still want the card then, I'll call their reconsideration department. I didn't even know that was a thing. I actually just got off the phone with them. The issue was I just bought a car, and the dealer did a huge number of inquiries to figure out what financing company to go with. The CS Agent (who was very nice) said their computer will see a certain number of hits, and instantly reject the app, but he can bypass it and get it to an underwriter if in general my credit look good (FICO is 815) so he can route it manually and get it looked at by a human.
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Jan 31, 2019 17:47
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Ha, you must be my twin. I also just bought a car, so that’s probably the same thing that happened with me. I guess I’ll call them today to take care of this while it’s still fresh in that case. Did you have to talk to a few different people before getting to the right department, or is there a direct number for the reconsideration department?
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Jan 31, 2019 17:56
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OldSenileGuy posted:Ha, you must be my twin. I also just bought a car, so that’s probably the same thing that happened with me. I guess I’ll call them today to take care of this while it’s still fresh in that case. Did you have to talk to a few different people before getting to the right department, or is there a direct number for the reconsideration department? Called this number: 8009471444 Entered my SSN, *which is 123-45-6789, then zip, *which is 02931 Then it said I was denied, and to press 1 to speak to someone. I pressed 1, waiting a second and got to someone that helped me right away. Pretty easy. You can try my info if you want to get right to someone. Somebody fucked around with this message at 13:01 on Feb 1, 2019 |
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Jan 31, 2019 18:00
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Jerk McJerkface posted:my SSN, *which is 
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Jan 31, 2019 18:51
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Jan 31, 2019 19:52
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Hmm.
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Feb 1, 2019 03:29
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astral posted:Another option is the Chase Sapphire Reserve; that one is front-loaded with a $450 AF, same 50k point signup bonus as the Preferred, this one will give you a $300 cardmember year travel credit, will give you (once you activate the benefit) a priority pass card giving you and guests (check terms re: any guest limitations) access to participating airport lounges, earns 3x on dining/travel, and reimburses you for one global entry or TSA precheck fee every 4 or 5 years. Points redeemed for travel via Chase's travel portal with this card get a 1.5x multiplier instead of the Preferred's 1.25x. Same airline and hotel partners. I think I'm going to try for the Reserve. Is there a referral for that? I saw the goon spreadsheet, but it only had the preferred (if I get denied for the reserve, I'll definitely use a preferred link).
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Feb 3, 2019 21:56
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Grumpwagon posted:I think I'm going to try for the Reserve. Is there a referral for that? I saw the goon spreadsheet, but it only had the preferred (if I get denied for the reserve, I'll definitely use a preferred link). Sorry for the double post here, but this is too long to ninja edit into my initial post.  Warning, many  ahead for a pretty obvious conclusion After actually doing the math on this, I'm changing my mind back to the Premier. I'm sure a lot of you have already thought this through, but for those of you who haven't, the conclusion I've come to is that for someone who doesn't travel for business, or eat out a ton, the main value of a travel points credit card when you already have a 2% cash back card is in the sign up bonus (plus the various side insurance benefits and such, but for the purposes of this analysis, I'm leaving those aside. This is dollars spent on travel/dining to travel value received only). Here's why I think that. Please feel free to point out any errors I have made. It has been a loooong time since I've been in school, so my math is rusty, and my knowledge of credit card perks is spotty. Errors likely. Comparing the Reserve card to my 2% card. The Reserve has to bring me $150 dollars in value a year to recoup the annual fee. However, that just brings me back to 0. If I were to have spent that same money on the 2% card, it would have also given me value. In order to recoup the annual fee AND catch back up to the 2% card, I'd need to spend $6000 on travel/dining each year to break even. The formula for that is: (X * 3 * 1.5)/100 - 150 = X * .02 The left side of the formula is the Reserve card where X is dollars spent on travel/dining, 3 is 3 points per dollar spent on travel/dining, 1.5 is cents per point if used on the portal (then divided by 100 to be dollars), and 150 is the annual fee differential ($450 fee minus $300 travel credit). Solving for X gives 6000. So at first glance it appears that if I spend over $6000 on travel/dining, the Reserve is better than the 2% card. Any less than that and the 2% card is better. HOWEVER, if I've read the terms right, the $450 fee applies immediately, whereas the $300 credit is awarded every anniversary (i.e. it applies on day 366 and every year after, not day 0), so you're starting out -$450 in the hole that you have to make up over the lifetime of the card. By our formula above (subbing in 450 for 150), you have to spend $18000 to make that up. So, you have to spend $6000 on travel/dining every year to make up the $150 fee, AND an additional $18000 lifetime before you get out ahead of the 2% card's lifetime value. The same formula for the Preferred vs 2% after the first year would be (In the first year, when the fee is waived, the Preferred is strictly better, as long as you're spending your cash back on travel): (X * 2 * 1.25)/100 -95 = X * .02 Which solves to $19000, so you'd have to spend $19000 a year on travel/dining to equal the 2% cash back card. This also doesn't account for the fact that when you book travel with points, you don't get points, whereas when you book travel with cash, you do get cash back (at least.. I don't think it does. My brain hurts). So, to conclude I don't travel for business, and I definitely don't spend $19000 on personal travel per year. I might spend $6000 on travel/dining a year, considering Chase's broad definition of travel, but it's not a lot more than that (I have a YNAB "blow" category that includes dining out, but also many other things, so getting an exact dollar value is hard), so my break even time from the initial $450 fee is too long to make the Reserve worthwhile. Obviously, the value of the initial 50,000 points outweighs the annual fee, but both cards have the same bonus, so claiming the bonus on the Preferred makes more sense to me. My current plan is to get the Preferred, spend the money needed to claim the bonus (because the 2% cashback equivalent of $4000 is $80, much less than the value of the bonus alone, not counting any points), then cancel or line change the card when the first annual fee comes due. TL;DR: That's a whole lot of to come to what is probably a pretty obvious conclusion that most/all of you probably already know already: It's all about the sign up bonuses.
Grumpwagon fucked around with this message at 23:46 on Feb 3, 2019 |
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Feb 3, 2019 23:38
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You get the $300 travel credit in the first year too. Assuming you can use up that $300 travel credit, it's really a question of whether the lounge access from the Priority Pass, the one-time funding of Global Entry ($100 value) OR TSA precheck ($85 value), the increased travel portal point redemption value, and the extra point per dollar earned on dining and travel is worth $150 to you. edit: To answer your other question I don't believe the Reserve has referrals currently. astral fucked around with this message at 23:53 on Feb 3, 2019 |
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Feb 3, 2019 23:50
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astral posted:You get the $300 travel credit in the first year too. Assuming you can use up that $300 travel credit, it's really a question of whether the lounge access from the Priority Pass, the one-time funding of Global Entry ($100 value) OR TSA precheck ($85 value), the increased travel portal point redemption value, and the extra point per dollar earned on dining and travel is worth $150 to you. Oh, yeah. That makes a huge difference. Basically, it's back to if you spend $6000 on Dining/Travel a year, it's worthwhile (as that calculation already includes the increased redemption value). Cool, thanks for that.
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Feb 4, 2019 00:15
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Grumpwagon posted:I think I'm going to try for the Reserve. Is there a referral for that? I saw the goon spreadsheet, but it only had the preferred (if I get denied for the reserve, I'll definitely use a preferred link). Hey a plug for this: Goon Credit Card random referral page: https://goo.gl/aA5mzHIf someone gives me a CRS Link I'll add it on.
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Feb 4, 2019 02:25
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For me, the value of the CSR comes from the travel insurance and protections. We went to England recently and scratched up a rental car, and I'm in the final stages of getting the damages reimbursed by Chase. We have another trip to Europe coming up next month, and we used the CSR for all the flights and rental cars for the travel protections. It's hard to place a value on that for me, as we'll be traveling with 4 small children and if things go left I love knowing we have a layer of protection.
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Feb 4, 2019 08:41
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 but with the CSP. I use it to book all of our travel for that reason. After Chase paid the $1400 when I crashed a rental car and I didn’t have to involve my insurance, I was impressed.
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Feb 4, 2019 13:00
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Grumpwagon posted:I think I'm going to try for the Reserve. Is there a referral for that? I saw the goon spreadsheet, but it only had the preferred (if I get denied for the reserve, I'll definitely use a preferred link). No referrals for the CSR anymore; see https://www.chase.com/referafriend/chasesapphirereserve
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Feb 5, 2019 04:07
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I have some spend coming up so I'm going to try the Chase Modified Double Dip to get 100k UR on $8k spend in 3 months. Applied for CSR this evening. Approved. Next step is to apply for CSP the next day but within 24 hours of the of the other approval so I guess I'll find out tomorrow if it's still working.
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Feb 7, 2019 01:37
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Diva Cupcake posted:I have some spend coming up so I'm going to try the Chase Modified Double Dip to get 100k UR on $8k spend in 3 months. Godspeed
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Feb 7, 2019 17:22
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astral posted:A bunch of helpful stuff. Hey, thanks for all that stuff, it was really awesome. I ended up going with the Freedom Unlimited and the Prime Rewards cards, receiving them both about a week ago. Timing turned out to be almost excellent, as I had just done a redemption from my Wells Fargo card and got them just in time to use the Freedom Unlimited on a few of my monthly things. The fact that Amazon uses the Chase system actually makes it all pretty simple for me, which is a nice plus. I do have another dumb question for you (Or anyone who can answer). astral posted:2) From your regular bank account, you could use what's called their "Bill Pay" feature to fill in various information (usually found in each statement you receive from the credit card bank in the 'payment coupon' part, like their P.O. Box and your credit card account number so they know who to credit the payment to) about your credit card bill. Then, each time you receive a bill from your credit card bank, you'd have to manually enter how much to pay on your regular bank's site. This is called a 'push' payment, where you are pushing the money over from your regular bank. Because the credit card bank doesn't know about it immediately, and because it takes a couple of business days to send the money, it's important to do this a while before the due date. This is the method I use.. Do you have any idea where I would go on the Chase website to view find that information? Both cards say their payments aren't due until March 24th, but I'd like to set up the bill pay via Wells Fargo sooner than that, and potentially pay off various things that come up between now and then. In the past, I usually paid stuff off pretty quickly (Usually within a week of it posting, if not sooner), and I don't particularly like the idea of waiting for whenever the first actual statement will be ready (And cause I'm doing paperless and don't know if I'll actually get the 'coupon' thing you referred to).
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Feb 11, 2019 01:12
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looking at the chase sapphire preferred with an intro offer that kicks in when $4000 is spent in the first three months. i pay my rent via paypal and i take it this means my original plan of putting my rent on the card and eating the tacked on paypal fee for doing so to make sure i'm safe won't work and i better wait until i have a major purchase planned? quote:50,000 Bonus Points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening
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Feb 12, 2019 01:53
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You should be able to use Plastiq to hit your minimum spend. https://www.google.com/amp/s/thepointsguy.com/guide/ways-to-meet-minimum-spending-requirement/amp/
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Feb 12, 2019 04:39
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Got my Schwab Amex platinum to get my sweet effective 6.25% cash back on travel. The card itself is utterly ridiculous.
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Feb 12, 2019 05:20
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gvibes posted:Got my Schwab Amex platinum to get my sweet effective 6.25% cash back on travel. The card itself is utterly ridiculous. drat, $550 annual fee only mitigated with a $100 statement credit if you hit big minimum asset numbers. That's a large fee. I guess you get the Uber credits.
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Feb 12, 2019 21:17
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Something Offal posted:drat, $550 annual fee only mitigated with a $100 statement credit if you hit big minimum asset numbers. That's a large fee.
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Feb 12, 2019 22:49
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gvibes posted:I expect to use all the uber credits and the $200 airline fee credit. And I expect to put at least 30k in airline/hotel expenses in there a year. I don't know, we'll try it a year and see if it makes sense. Oh alright. I don't find airline fee credits to be worth it because I don't do international travel a lot so no need to check bags, but I see it being worth it if you do. That's if you don't have an airline credit card that gives you free bags. Something Offal fucked around with this message at 22:55 on Feb 12, 2019 |
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Feb 12, 2019 22:53
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Something Offal posted:Oh alright. I don't find airline fee credits to be worth it because I don't do international travel a lot so no need to check bags, but I see it being worth it if you do. That's if you don't have an airline credit card that gives you free bags. e: nm, I get free checked bags due to status. gvibes fucked around with this message at 23:51 on Feb 12, 2019 |
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Feb 12, 2019 23:08
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You can get the Amex airline credit basically back as cash, there are several strategies out there. Gift cards work on some airlines. I personally buy tickets for <$100 on Alaska and cancel next day within 24hrs for full refund, the credit still posts. If you're MVP Gold you can also just deposit the funds to your wallet.
hostile apostle fucked around with this message at 23:17 on Feb 12, 2019 |
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Feb 12, 2019 23:15
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Is there any reason to have both the CSR and the Amex Platinum?
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Feb 13, 2019 15:46
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Probably only if you're churning the signup bonuses for each. You can also make a case for both if you're lowering the effective annual fee with travel credits you'd be using anyways and you really want Centurion/SkyClub over Priority Pass?
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Feb 13, 2019 16:12
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Question - does Citi Double still earn 2% cash back when you use it outside of the United States? The foreign transaction fee is 3%, so if I still get 2% cash back then the foreign transaction fee would effectively be 1%...right?
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Feb 13, 2019 16:52
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