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Xenoborg posted:Whats the best use of a large prepaid Visa debit card? I get them at work sometimes for $50-100, and generally just dump them into my Steam or Amazon balance so I don't have to keep track of them. I just got a $1000 one though, which is quite a bit more than is useful at those places. I'd love to be able to just put it in a bank account, but that doesn't seem possible without hoops and losing several %.
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Nov 15, 2020 19:13
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I would either burn through it slowly with regular purchases or prepay my taxes with it so I got it back as a tax refund. There is both a fee (1.9%) and a time cost to the last one though.
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Nov 15, 2020 19:28
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It's worth knowing what monthly expenses can be paid with a credit card and no additional fees and just use it for that for a few months, or just keep it as a grocery card until it's used up.
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Nov 16, 2020 01:04
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Sell it to someone you trust and let them pay you with PayPal card funded by a card that offers 5% back until December; let them cover the fees. They get points on their card and probably a small discount after taking fees into account, and you get rid of the card.
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Nov 16, 2020 01:23
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It's hard or impossible to get the money out of the dumb prepaid debit cards on purpose. The point is to make you use them like a debit card so that the visa or mastercard can collect processing fees. If they let you cash out the full balance they'd be taking that away from themselves.
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Nov 16, 2020 01:30
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Yeah I usually either hang onto them and use it for everyday purchases, making my credit card balance nice and light and when it's low I'll buy an Amazon gift card. Or blow the whole thing on a huge purchase and ball out. Of course sadly now I can't remember what I got, must not have been that good.
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Nov 16, 2020 02:39
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I have had horrible experiences with Citi that I think should be mentioned here. I got the double cash card in 2017? 2018? Something like that. And I used it almost exclusively for all purchases since then. In March of this year, I had some weird activity (multiple charges from the same merchant over a very short span of time to the tune of over $1400) so I locked the card to investigate. Since the merchant was a “recurring” merchant, they were still able to charge my account, even though my account was locked. I cancelled the card number all together. The recurring merchant was still able to charge my account with the old card number. I called citi and asked them to remove all recurring merchants from my account. They do not have the power to do this, essentially giving recurring merchants free reign to charge your account even if you lock or cancel the card number. You can ask for specific merchants to be removed, but if you use the card enough it seems that every merchant can eventually become a recurring merchant. For example, I asked them to remove 7 Eleven as a recurring merchant and they did, and i was still able to charge my card at 7 Eleven with the citi rep on the loving phone with me while my card was locked.  I haven’t used the card in months because of this, it has just sat locked and I just use my Capital One Quicksilver now.Tonight I got an email that I got charged by PlayStation for my PlayStation Plus membership. I didn’t even remember that my card was tied to my PlayStation account. I do not like that lack of control of my account. A locked card should be exactly that. 
Woofer fucked around with this message at 07:31 on Nov 16, 2020 |
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Nov 16, 2020 07:22
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I suspect most people don't want locking their card to prevent them from paying their recurring phone/utility/etc. bills. Report fraud if/when it happens and report any more fraud when it occurs. It's their money that gets tied up in it, not yours. Citi's IT/systems tend to suck, but it's not in their interest to lose a lot of money and it sounds like they were eventually able to sort it out.
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Nov 16, 2020 07:44
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astral posted:I suspect most people don't want locking their card to prevent them from paying their recurring phone/utility/etc. bills. I understand that, and completely agree. But when I requested Citibank to remove all recurring merchants to prevent future charges, they were unable to, and were unable to tell me who is considered “recurring.” Also pay attention to this portion: Woofer posted:
I shouldn’t have to lock my card, request merchants removed, and then call to dispute after that merchant can charge anyway. Woofer fucked around with this message at 07:52 on Nov 16, 2020 |
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Nov 16, 2020 07:50
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Woofer posted:I understand that, and completely agree. But when I requested Citibank to remove all recurring merchants to prevent future charges, they were unable to, and were unable to tell me who is considered “recurring.” I assume their systems are set up in the most stupid way possible, so nothing about that sounds particularly strange. Even if their systems allowed them to remove recurring charges on-request (as opposed to when their internal fraud stuff flags things), making a one-off charge at 7-11 is probably not likely to be considered recurring to begin with - but, even then, would removing previous/existing recurring billing agreements prevent the formation of a new one?
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Nov 16, 2020 07:57
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Yeah I had a similar issue with Citi where the card was used fraudulently and then any card they cancelled (and them knowing why) would get reissued and hit again. The only way I was able to sort it was to just cancel the entire account and go elsewhere.
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Nov 16, 2020 14:27
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EL BROMANCE posted:The only way I was able to sort it was to just cancel the entire account and go elsewhere. The reason for this is due to things like Visa Account Updater: https://developer.visa.com/capabilities/vau I suspect the other major processors also do something similar (MC/Amex).
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Nov 16, 2020 17:30
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I just caught up on this thread and found out about PayPal Key, which has allowed me to eliminate the last 2 debit/checking account expenses I have each month and earn a ton of points. - Verizon - Rent Data points via Reddit for Verizon show that this works without losing your autopay debit discount and my property management charges a high %(I think mine comes out to ~$50+) for credit card use but nothing for debit. I hope they don't close the loophole on this one because this is pretty significant for regular monthly expenses.
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Nov 16, 2020 23:59
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How can I utilize this Amex travel credit to close the year? I've already made a few hundred off this plat card this year, might as well go ahead and net out next years attempted annual fee.
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Dec 1, 2020 03:35
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Buy Southwest flights under 100 and then cancel them after the credit posts. Cancel the flight and get southwest travel funds. Use them on United for Travel bank.
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Dec 1, 2020 05:48
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astral posted:I assume their systems are set up in the most stupid way possible, so nothing about that sounds particularly strange. Agree I worked on the inside of one of these companies, I can confirm your outrage never made it past the call center employee, and may accidentally get fixed in a bug bash in 2 years by somebody looking for a promotion internally, but you'll never know how/when/why it was fixed You're tapping into a feature used by less than 1% of the customer base and made the mistake of looking under the covers
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Dec 1, 2020 09:57
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Looking around Chase and seeing what gets me the best bang for my buck on my rewards, and had to laugh when I clicked Amazonquote:Your 17,366 points are worth $138.93 at Amazon.com. Congrats on finding a new way to be garbage, Bezos.
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Dec 3, 2020 22:16
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EL BROMANCE posted:Looking around Chase and seeing what gets me the best bang for my buck on my rewards, and had to laugh when I clicked Amazon Considering Amazon gift cards are often available to other companies at less than face value, I'd be surprised if it was Amazon who decided that and not Chase, Amex, etc. trying to make 'easy' redemptions more of a rip-off. Interestingly, Discover's cashback bonus is equal-value at Amazon, but it's still a worse deal than redeeming cashback for money and then getting rewards again on a new purchase.
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Dec 3, 2020 22:31
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astral posted:Considering Amazon gift cards are often available to other companies at less than face value, I'd be surprised if it was Amazon who decided that and not Chase, Amex, etc. trying to make 'easy' redemptions more of a rip-off. Interestingly, Discover's cashback bonus is equal-value at Amazon, but it's still a worse deal than redeeming cashback for money and then getting rewards again on a new purchase. It's definitely Chase. I mean, you get more for a statement credit don't you? I was looking at converting my big boy CSP bonus to Hyatt or similar, but with Covid going on until probably summer, it's just not worth it. I paid off about $800 worth of my statement instead using pay me back, which has a great 25% bonus redemption going on right now.
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Dec 4, 2020 03:14
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So I just cancelled my Sapphire Reserve that I originally signed up for on 12/1/2016. Can I sign up for the Sapphire Preferred and get the bonus now, or do I have to wait until 4 years after the date I actually received the bonus for the Reserve?
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Dec 4, 2020 20:07
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Elysium posted:So I just cancelled my Sapphire Reserve that I originally signed up for on 12/1/2016. Can I sign up for the Sapphire Preferred and get the bonus now, or do I have to wait until 4 years after the date I actually received the bonus for the Reserve? 4 years from the bonus.
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Dec 4, 2020 20:15
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My oldest credit card with Bank of America just got axed. I'm assuming for non-use but I haven't gotten the letter yet (just an email notice). Consider this a reminder to try and use cards you are hanging onto for credit history or what have you!
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Dec 9, 2020 21:59
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manwithoutskin posted:My oldest credit card with Bank of America just got axed. I'm assuming for non-use but I haven't gotten the letter yet (just an email notice). Consider this a reminder to try and use cards you are hanging onto for credit history or what have you! If you care about it, I'm not sure what BoA's policy is but it might be worth a call to see if they could reactivate it, product change it to a different card (sometimes this can get around an impending closure for inactivity), etc.
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Dec 9, 2020 22:04
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manwithoutskin posted:My oldest credit card with Bank of America just got axed. I'm assuming for non-use but I haven't gotten the letter yet (just an email notice). Consider this a reminder to try and use cards you are hanging onto for credit history or what have you! You could also just try charging the card to see if it works. I haven't gotten to them emailing me yet, but have gotten really effin close to them closing my card (also my oldest, but no rewards at all). I only caught it because I logged into BofA randomly and the website wasn't showing any of my credit cards. I made a transaction ($5 Amazon GC) and after a couple of days it showed up on the website again. It's been a couple of months, but the CC still shows up there, so I really lucked out. I think I had that card for 10+ years now.
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Dec 10, 2020 01:20
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I have a $5/mo ACLU/EFF/Whatever donation setup on all of my cards, and a minimum pay setup just in case I forget for some reason
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Dec 10, 2020 02:29
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I was recently approved for the Discover It card, and the card should be arriving in the mail any day now. If I activate the card now, around the end of December, will I get a few days of this quarter's cashback catagories, or will I be made to start with next quarter's catagories come January? I'd certainly like to utilize the last few days of 5% back on Amazon, I have several purchases I'd like to make by the end of the year.
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Dec 23, 2020 20:07
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literally this big posted:I was recently approved for the Discover It card, and the card should be arriving in the mail any day now. If I activate the card now, around the end of December, will I get a few days of this quarter's cashback catagories, or will I be made to start with next quarter's catagories come January? I'd certainly like to utilize the last few days of 5% back on Amazon, I have several purchases I'd like to make by the end of the year. I've always gotten them to work in the month I got them. Thanks for the ref btw.
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Dec 23, 2020 21:27
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Over the past few years, we had gone crazy with various hotel and airline cards to rack up the sign-up bonuses. Now all these cards are renewing with heavy annual fees, and I've had no juicy retention offers - not Amex Hilton Aspire, not Alaska, not US Bank Altitude. It was sad to let our Hilton Aspire go, but hopefully it will be just as nice a card on the other side of this pandemic. Our Marriott and IHG cards are coming up for renewal, but I can't see us staying in hotels anytime soon and those annual fees just seem wasteful. Our CSR renews in a few weeks, has anyone had luck getting a reduced annual fee from Chase? It's the one premium card we'll likely retain, but the $550 just hurts!
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Dec 27, 2020 11:18
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VorpalBunny posted:Our CSR renews in a few weeks, has anyone had luck getting a reduced annual fee from Chase? It's the one premium card we'll likely retain, but the $550 just hurts! The CSR is probably one of the easier ones to find value in COVID times. The 300 dollar travel credit is broad enough that you still may be able to use it even if you're not taking big trips, so that makes the AF a net $250. There's a 60 dollar Doordash credit that you may or may not use. The big selling point in the Sapphires for me has been the Pay Yourself Back. That 50% bonus to points I've earned essentially makes Freedoms 7.5% cash back cards in categories which is phenomenal even if I'm not traveling, since it dovetails with the restaurant points you get from the Sapphire itself. That additional cash back paid for the net annual fee in 2020 for me.
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Dec 27, 2020 13:37
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I just cancelled the CSR and asked if they would waive the fee for a year and they said no. They did mention that the travel credit can be obtained by groceries now though.
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Dec 27, 2020 14:49
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saintonan posted:The CSR is probably one of the easier ones to find value in COVID times. The 300 dollar travel credit is broad enough that you still may be able to use it even if you're not taking big trips, so that makes the AF a net $250. There's a 60 dollar Doordash credit that you may or may not use. I feel like they really don't want to lose a bunch of people because of the lack of travel so they've done a number of things to turn it at least temporarily in to a card that's worth it if you aren't traveling. I've been using a freedom flex to get 5% back on all my groceries and then just moving the points over to the CSR to use pay myself back at the 1.5 multiplier for any takeout I get. And they made the $300 travel credit work at gas stations so it paid for $300 worth of gas and beer instead of $300 in plane tickets. And the two years of doordash membership has been handy as well.
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Dec 27, 2020 23:56
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We also just got a very glossy year-in-review pamphlet reminding us of all the CSR benefits and how much we got back.
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Dec 28, 2020 00:00
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VorpalBunny posted:Over the past few years, we had gone crazy with various hotel and airline cards to rack up the sign-up bonuses. Now all these cards are renewing with heavy annual fees, and I've had no juicy retention offers - not Amex Hilton Aspire, not Alaska, not US Bank Altitude. It was sad to let our Hilton Aspire go, but hopefully it will be just as nice a card on the other side of this pandemic. Our Marriott and IHG cards are coming up for renewal, but I can't see us staying in hotels anytime soon and those annual fees just seem wasteful. Be aware that Amex has a "once in a lifetime" policy for signup bonuses, so you if you sign up for the Aspire again, you won't get a bonus... but you could potentially sign up for the Ascend ($95 card), wait a year, and upgrade. For other issuers, it's usually a time-based policy so you may just have to wait a couple years.
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Dec 28, 2020 04:25
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I have the Amazon rewards card thru Chase, mostly because we spend a ton at Whole Foods and it's nice getting the rewards for that. I have all my saved up points sitting in my account but never use them. Do they ever do anything where it's not 1 point = 1 cent on Amazon? I was thinking about cashing it out but was hoping for something like the Pay Yourself Back that I do with my Sapphire card. Other cards I've had in the past will have those promos where points are more valuable for a limited time and/or at certain retailers. Any chance of something like that for Amazon Rewards? I have like 89k.
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Dec 31, 2020 15:12
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I've never seen it be anything but 1:1.
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Dec 31, 2020 15:13
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I believe you can get it as statement credit or cash which is slightly better than using it at Amazon.
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Dec 31, 2020 15:16
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gamer roomie is 41 posted:I have the Amazon rewards card thru Chase, mostly because we spend a ton at Whole Foods and it's nice getting the rewards for that. I have all my saved up points sitting in my account but never use them. Do they ever do anything where it's not 1 point = 1 cent on Amazon? I was thinking about cashing it out but was hoping for something like the Pay Yourself Back that I do with my Sapphire card. Other cards I've had in the past will have those promos where points are more valuable for a limited time and/or at certain retailers. Any chance of something like that for Amazon Rewards? I have like 89k. Naw, it's straight 5% cash back and in the several years I've had it I don't recall and redemption promos, just occasional bonuses on earning at gas stations and poo poo. Just use it for a statement credit or have them cut you a check. Thoguh fucked around with this message at 17:23 on Dec 31, 2020 |
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Dec 31, 2020 17:19
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gamer roomie is 41 posted:I have the Amazon rewards card thru Chase, mostly because we spend a ton at Whole Foods and it's nice getting the rewards for that. I have all my saved up points sitting in my account but never use them. Do they ever do anything where it's not 1 point = 1 cent on Amazon? I was thinking about cashing it out but was hoping for something like the Pay Yourself Back that I do with my Sapphire card. Other cards I've had in the past will have those promos where points are more valuable for a limited time and/or at certain retailers. Any chance of something like that for Amazon Rewards? I have like 89k. Thoguh posted:Naw, it's straight 5% cash back and in the several years I've had it I don't recall and redemption promos, just occasional bonuses on earning at gas stations and poo poo. Just use it for a statement credit or have them cut you a check. Do this; you do not get rewards back on the purchases you make with your points directly on Amazon, but you would if you cashed the points in for money (this is easy to do) and then made a new purchase on Amazon with your card.
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Dec 31, 2020 18:53
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My wife has an Amex Platinum from before we were married, and I figure it's time to figure out if it makes sense for me to pay for a CSR and her to pay for an Amex Plat. She buys most of our groceries and ends up driving a lot, so buys most of the gas. Is there an "easy" way to maximize her credit card use/points? I don't think she'd remember to care about rotating reward categories/etc, but is there a relatively painless system for her? Maybe change the Amex to a Schwab Platinum for the extra redemption to a brokerage account, get an Amex Gold, and tell her to use that for groceries?
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Dec 31, 2020 19:42
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Thanks for the Amazon card replies, I’m going to cash it (and not worry about missing a promo after).
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Dec 31, 2020 23:20
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