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drk posted:Sure, $39/year in isolation does not matter. But the attitude that small things don't matter in general is exactly how some people get into thousands of dollars of high interest credit card debt. Yup. Credit card companies don't make money on the people who pay off their balance every month and use their sweet rewards. They make money on the people who carry a balance for years, who think they're different because they're not irresponsible, it's just that things didn't go like they planned, who think, "I can put this on the card, what does one more thing matter?", who pay annual fees higher than the actual benefits they get out of the card on top of the interest they're paying. There are more than enough of these marks to cover what they're not getting from the first group of beneficiaries. It's obviously possible to get out of credit card debt, millions of people have done it. I'm one of them! It's possible for marks to become beneficiaries with effort and planning. But if you've got thousands of dollars on cards with annual fees and 25+% APRs, and the questions you're asking are "why shouldn't I keep the card?" and "why is it irresponsible to be thinking about international travel?" then you should at least take a step back and ask yourself if you're still a mark and if what you're doing risks keeping you among them or dropping you back into them.
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Oct 4, 2023 21:54
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I’m tracking. And my retort is I stopped being a mark on September 30th, 2023, at 11:58 AM. And I won’t go back to being one. The most extravagant thing I want to do is “be a good son to my mother” and give her a priceless memory or two. And that’s it. Everything else is about gearing up to survive on my own and to make sure she’s covered when the time comes. This happened to be a part of that equation or so I thought. Your post in particular is a game changer as far as mindset goes. All of you have been heard out. I’m following. Let’s talk again when I’ve actually paid off those cards. Then when that happens you’ll see me in the newbies thread talking about “ok now what” and laying the bullshit out. I’m Audi 5000 till then. Thanks again y’all. Be easy. TheWeedNumber fucked around with this message at 22:33 on Oct 4, 2023 |
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Oct 4, 2023 22:25
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Unsinkabear posted:Out of curiosity, why product change down to a plain Sapphire (I didn't even know you could still do this) instead of the older Freedom version you don't already have? Is there any benefit to keeping travel portal access even when you no longer get a 25%/50% bonus for using it? Big thanks to this comment from much later in the year, now that the basic Freedom earns 5% back at Costco through the end of the year. Because it is a Visa card, it is compatible with in-store purchases, while the Flex as a MasterCard only works through the website. Getting $15 back on a $300 grocery run is the equivalent of getting a free six-pack of frozen yakisoba - thanks again!
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Oct 8, 2023 17:45
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Anniversary time on the chase sapphire reserve, think I want to get rid of it. Wife signed up for a preferred last year, so can still transfer points to hyatt at 1:1 - think I need to try to get the points transferred to her account *before* cancelling though. Anything else I'm missing? Saw something about trying to take advantage of the 300 travel credit and *then* cancel, I dunno about that tho. What should I downgrade to? Saw something about the old chase freedom? Not sure what to ask for though, or why?
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Oct 18, 2023 18:35
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Baddog posted:Anniversary time on the chase sapphire reserve, think I want to get rid of it. Wife signed up for a preferred last year, so can still transfer points to hyatt at 1:1 - think I need to try to get the points transferred to her account *before* cancelling though. Not sure if anything has changed, but I was able to downgrade to either of the freedom cards. You should be able to transfer points from your CSP to freedom or freedom unlimited and then to your wife's account, if you want. Maybe considering checking for some signup bonus on the freedom unlimited or freedom instead of 'downgrading', so you can get a signup bonus and transfer your points to the new card?
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Oct 18, 2023 19:00
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extravadanza posted:Not sure if anything has changed, but I was able to downgrade to either of the freedom cards. You should be able to transfer points from your CSP to freedom or freedom unlimited and then to your wife's account, if you want. Pretty small signup bonuses (200 bucks) for either. I was thinking I wouldn't get hit with the 5 cards in 2 years limit if I downgraded (quick search *seems* to confirm that...)
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Oct 18, 2023 19:15
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yeah i'm looking to do this as well since i have a freedom unlimited and a CSR and have a bunch of points in the CSR.. i haven't applied for more than 5 cards in 2 years though but not sure i want to have 3 open freedom unlimited cards
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Oct 18, 2023 19:21
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Baddog posted:Anniversary time on the chase sapphire reserve, think I want to get rid of it. Wife signed up for a preferred last year, so can still transfer points to hyatt at 1:1 - think I need to try to get the points transferred to her account *before* cancelling though. I've done this twice (opened a 2nd CSR 4 years later for the SUB), and both times it was no issue to use the 2nd year's $300 travel credit before I cancelled. If you cancel within a month they waive the annual fee. I've also done the same with various Amex credits, and they've never clawed them back. I downgraded mine to a Freedom Unlimited (1.5% on everything) and Freedom Flex (rotating 5% categories). If you're willing to keep in mind what the categories are, the rotating ones are occasionally pretty good! Right now, it's 5% on Paypal (and I guess Walmart). When I canceled the first CSR, I moved all remaining my points to a Freedom, and they pretty much just sat there until I opened a new CSR. Then I just moved them back and turned them back into Ultimate Points again. It may still be safer to try to transfer to your wife's though.
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Oct 18, 2023 19:30
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It doesn't really hurt, other than that Chase (and other banks I assume) have a maximum amount of credit they will extend to you across all cards. OTOH, keeping long-running accounts open helps your credit score - to point, I guess. I've opened up like 10+ credit cards in the last year which tanked my AOA and inquiry count, but my score still hovered around 810 throughout.
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Oct 18, 2023 19:31
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I am having the damndest time booking something with the 69k (nice) Avios burning a hole in my pocket. The BA website is really slow and frequently bugs out (tells me I have another tab open when I don't). When I do actually manage to search up an award flight, it keeps routing me through Heathrow (even when including partners like American and JAL on the itinerary); I'm in Denver and was looking for flights to Tokyo next summer, although was also thinking of a trip to Honolulu to visit family at some point before then. I feel like there has to be a better way to do this, but I've taken a couple stabs at it and gotten nowhere.
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Oct 21, 2023 22:29
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Ethics_Gradient posted:I am having the damndest time booking something with the 69k (nice) Avios burning a hole in my pocket. Have you tried searching with AA? JAL inventory should be the same. For AA inventory you need to find saver fares.
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Oct 22, 2023 00:57
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asur posted:Have you tried searching with AA? JAL inventory should be the same. For AA inventory you need to find saver fares. That definitely works for finding them; pretty stoked I can get my partner and I OW to Tokyo on my preferred date for just another 4k miles and $11 in fees (assuming "Economy - Main Cabin" is OK, it comes in at 74k for two of us), but I have no AA miles*. edit: So it looks like I can call the BA Executive Club and book over the phone once I find an itinerary? *They very quietly expired, was not too happy when that happened. Say what you want about BA, they at least send you regular nagging emails a year out to use them.
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Oct 22, 2023 14:22
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Strong Sauce posted:yeah i'm looking to do this as well since i have a freedom unlimited and a CSR and have a bunch of points in the CSR.. i haven't applied for more than 5 cards in 2 years though but not sure i want to have 3 open freedom unlimited cards i was able to downgrade and combine my chase freedom cards on the oldest one that now has the limit of the two i had before, something to discuss with a rep
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Oct 22, 2023 14:32
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Follow up question now that I've got a better picture: I've got the 69k in BA which is currently enough for two OW's (after adding 5k miles) to Japan. I've got enough on a Chase Sapphire for a single return trip through United*, their availablity looks to be going kinda fast for the dates I'm looking at, and redemption is significantly higher than BA. It looks like the move is to transfer the Chase points to BA and book through them. Surprising because I've had these BA miles for like 7 years because they were supposed to be so expensive/not great to use, but not complaining! More to the specifically credit card part of the thread: I'm a US citizen with a decent credit score but have spent all but ~6 months of the last twelve years overseas. I made OK money overseas (doesn't look great with the current exchange rate, around USD60k), but right now I'm earning very little (moved back a few months ago for family reasons, very little luck finding a job so far). My partner's been back since December and is on around USD 55k at her current job. Is there a CC one or both of us could sign up for that'd net enough points for a OW Japan-US on any program? Hitting a high min spend would be tricky as we pay rent by cheque and don't have a lot of high bills/expenses otherwise. (Neither of us really care about our US credit scores: we deffo cannot afford a house here and I'm never going to have an auto loan, she doesn't drive). *this isn't a huge deal since she'll likely need to be back at work before me, so I'll stay another week or two.
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Oct 22, 2023 19:06
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Ethics_Gradient posted:Follow up question now that I've got a better picture: Barclays AA red, 75k with no min spend if you add an AU. AA JAL redemptions are 35k for economy and 60k for business. https://www.doctorofcredit.com/barclays-aviator-red-world-elite-mastercard-75000-miles-no-minimum-spend-required/
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Oct 26, 2023 12:46
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mightygerm posted:Barclays AA red, 75k with no min spend if you add an AU. AA JAL redemptions are 35k for economy and 60k for business. Oh snap, that’s perfect! Had a Barclays card a million years ago when I was churning, forgot they existed.
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Oct 26, 2023 19:50
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I tried using one of the chase flex referrals in the thread but they all seem broken. Anyone got a working one or did the new promo mess it all up.
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Nov 5, 2023 16:06
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I PM'd you one.
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Nov 5, 2023 16:38
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Preparing to join Redstone FCU and I see they have a refer-a-friend promotion, both sides get $100. I don't see any Redstone offers in the referrals spreadsheet, but if any member goons would like to make an easy hundo, I'm game. Yes, this is a blatant credit card grab, since Redstone's Visa Signature is up next on my hit list. A lot of you are no doubt familiar, but just in case: 5% back on restaurants and gas 3% back on groceries, discount stores, wholesale clubs, utilities, phone and streaming services 1.5% back on everything else No foreign transaction fee I can slot in the Custom Cash for groceries and my local Elan card for phone and streaming, which gets me to 5% back in nearly everything, then Alliant gets me 2.5% on everything else. Space Fish fucked around with this message at 21:39 on Nov 5, 2023 |
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Nov 5, 2023 17:23
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Veskit posted:I tried using one of the chase flex referrals in the thread but they all seem broken. Anyone got a working one or did the new promo mess it all up. I'll make a pass on the ref sheet later today.
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Nov 5, 2023 19:28
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Two related questions. I am now finishing up my "permanent" wallet. My rule is that I want to maximize cash back, without rotating categories, annual fees, or direct deposit shenanigans. Basically, I am fine carrying 6+ cards around and switching based on the store I'm in, but I don't want to swap which cards do what on a regular basis. To do that, I plan to use: Citi Custom Cash*2: Gas and Drugstores BoA Customized Cash*2: Online and Dining AAA Daily Advantage: Groceries US Bank: Utilities and Gym Citi Rewards + Alliant 2.5% BoA Unlimited Cash Rewards Bilt I have gotten all these cards except the BoA cards. I am currently transferring assets to Merrill to qualify for preferred rewards, so I should get them eventually. Are there any other 5%+, no fee cash back rewards cards I'm missing? I'm really running out of categories to hit on cards, I guess I could use a dedicated travel card or something for insurance? Also, good sources of additional Customized Cash cards would be helpful, BoA only has two on their website. After I finish up the permanent cards, I'd look into churning again. I did it before a little bit, but hated switching cards that frequently and I'd forget to cancel them sometimes. Does anyone pay estimated quarterly taxes by credit card? My tax bill comes to around 30k per year, which should be plenty of money to hit some spending requirements. Being able to knock a card's requirements out in a single transaction should be easy enough for me to manage, so that is the best source of non-category spend I can think of.
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Nov 8, 2023 02:58
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You can pay taxes with a credit card but they charge a fee for it.
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Nov 8, 2023 03:03
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I think it's like 1.5-2%, so there is a little spread with a good straight cashback card. Depending on the minspend, seems like that'd eat into a big chunk of the SUB, but could still be a good route to go down if you want to just make one transaction and sock drawer it.
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Nov 8, 2023 03:25
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CubicalSucrose posted:I think it's like 1.5-2%, so there is a little spread with a good straight cashback card. Depending on the minspend, seems like that'd eat into a big chunk of the SUB, but could still be a good route to go down if you want to just make one transaction and sock drawer it. https://www.irs.gov/payments/pay-your-taxes-by-debit-or-credit-card This page says it is a little under 2%. So there is a little bit of wiggle room. I need to find cards with a good SUB, a low annual fee (or an annual fee and coupons for things I was going to buy anyway), and 4-8k in spending requirements. They exist, Chase Ink and Capital One Venture come to mind, but my question is mostly about how much time/bookkeeping goes into paying taxes in estimated quarterly payments, as opposed to payroll deductions.
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Nov 8, 2023 03:52
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pointlesspart posted:https://www.irs.gov/payments/pay-your-taxes-by-debit-or-credit-card This page says it is a little under 2%. So there is a little bit of wiggle room. I need to find cards with a good SUB, a low annual fee (or an annual fee and coupons for things I was going to buy anyway), and 4-8k in spending requirements. They exist, Chase Ink and Capital One Venture come to mind, but my question is mostly about how much time/bookkeeping goes into paying taxes in estimated quarterly payments, as opposed to payroll deductions. The form is here: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040es.pdf It doesnt look *that* complicated, but you do have to remember to actually make the payments and keep records of all of it. If I read the rules correctly, so long as you pay at least as much tax as you owed in the previous year, you wont be penalized for underpayment. So, if you are lazy, you can just skip the calculation worksheet and use last years tax return to calculate your quarterly payments (this is obviously not tax advice and you should almost certainly take the time to do the calculation). If you can find a decent SUB and/or a 0% APR for 12 months deal, it could certainly be worth it.
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Nov 8, 2023 18:19
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Thank you. I ran the calculations and it looks like I will owe about $500 this year, next year I need to lower my withholdings (I plan to make a large charitable contribution and already have money set aside for it), and the year after I should be able to use the safe harbor provision. Which is good to know, since I can plan to start churning cards again in 2025. I guess I could look into using charitable contributions to meet SUBs. But I would have to be sure that the charity isn't eating any of the extra fees. Seems hard to do.
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Nov 8, 2023 21:28
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pointlesspart posted:Thank you. I ran the calculations and it looks like I will owe about $500 this year, next year I need to lower my withholdings (I plan to make a large charitable contribution and already have money set aside for it), and the year after I should be able to use the safe harbor provision. Which is good to know, since I can plan to start churning cards again in 2025. Any merchant is going to eat fees by accepting credit cards, it’s a cost of accepting that payment method. Some processors like PayPal will charge us lower fees if we go through a certification process.
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Nov 9, 2023 03:19
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pseudanonymous posted:Any merchant is going to eat fees by accepting credit cards, it’s a cost of accepting that payment method. Some processors like PayPal will charge us lower fees if we go through a certification process. Anecdotal, but as a someone who does purchasing as part of my job, I would say at least in the B2B world credit card surcharges are becoming increasingly common. Pretty rare to see them as a consumer though.
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Nov 9, 2023 03:37
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disaster pastor posted:Yup. Credit card companies don't make money on the people who pay off their balance every month and use their sweet rewards. well...they always make money let's be honest. The people who pay in full each month are still racking up money for the credit card companies because every merchant transaction is costing the business owner something. Then there's the spending data itself, which gets sold off to a million data brokers and ad companies. Then there's probably a few other arcane ways that are totally opaque to everyone but some finance bro with a Phd.
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Nov 9, 2023 05:34
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El Mero Mero posted:well...they always make money let's be honest. The people who pay in full each month are still racking up money for the credit card companies because every merchant transaction is costing the business owner something. Then there's the spending data itself, which gets sold off to a million data brokers and ad companies. Granted, but that's not how they make most of it. Credit card profits were ~$260 billion in 2022. $145 billion of that was interest, another $16 billion was late fees. Transaction fees from merchants were under $86 billion. That's a lot of money, of course, but it's less than a third of their total profit. If 2/3 of their revenue just vanished, things would change fast and there would be far fewer sweet credit card deals available. (In fact, it looks like estimated rewards payouts for 2022 were $68 billion across the industry, which would eat up the majority of those merchant transaction revenues.)
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Nov 9, 2023 14:56
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drk posted:Anecdotal, but as a someone who does purchasing as part of my job, I would say at least in the B2B world credit card surcharges are becoming increasingly common. Pretty rare to see them as a consumer though. In my area, a whole bunch of restaurants started offering cash discounts on paying your bill.
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Nov 9, 2023 19:27
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My Experian credit score has dropped 50 points from 10/8 to 11/11, the most recent dates Chase displays for me on their site. What could possibly have caused that? It's way higher than any drop I've seen previously, even when I picked up several new credit cards last year. I haven't missed any payments, opened up any new lines of credit since August, or had any accounts closed. The only change I can think of is that might be relevant is that I paid off the statement balance on my Citi card this month instead of making the minimum payment since the 0% APR period is ending. (And if anything that seems like it should increase my score since my utilization would be lower.) TransUnion and Equifax scores have not budged, though the most recent data on is from 10/30 or earlier so I'm not sure if that's just because whatever this is hasn't hit them yet. I'm planning to request a copy of my Experian report next, just wondering if anyone else in the thread has seen anything similar.
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Nov 11, 2023 19:03
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Your August card may not have reported right away. Often takes a statement or two, which could easily have landed after 10/8.
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Nov 11, 2023 19:20
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Chase Freedom Unlimited is doing double cash back for a year for new sign ups via this link: https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/freedom-unlimited/affiliates2023matchtest This makes it 3% on everything, 6% on dining and 10% on travel (via the chase portal only). 15 months of 0% APR too. Im not personally looking to open another card at the moment, but this is a really strong offer for a no annual fee card.
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Nov 12, 2023 07:19
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drk posted:Chase Freedom Unlimited is doing double cash back for a year for new sign ups via this link: https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/freedom-unlimited/affiliates2023matchtest
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Nov 12, 2023 18:45
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Thanks for this one. I was thinking of getting a CFU already as I already have a CSR. With the double cash back though, it's a no-brainer.
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Nov 12, 2023 19:59
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Josh Lyman posted:Considering most of my spend is dining, this is really compelling. It seems like I’d need to PC my current CFU to a Flex then apply for a new CFU. Aside from a CSP in May, I haven’t opened a new Chase card in like a decade.
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Nov 13, 2023 18:15
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Josh Lyman posted:Called today to PC my CFU to a CFF. Reddit suggests waiting 1 week before applying for a new CFU. I wonder if I can start that clock today or I should wait until after I receive and activate the CFF. I'm just a little anxious since I don't know how long the double cash back offer will last for. Presumably at least through the end of the month. Do not let yourself get FOMOed about credit cards or it will lead to you making bad decisions.
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Nov 13, 2023 18:56
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Veskit posted:I tried using one of the chase flex referrals in the thread but they all seem broken. Anyone got a working one or did the new promo mess it all up. Updated my links on the spreadsheet. The Chase ones change very frequently so it's hard to keep them up to date.
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Nov 13, 2023 19:12
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THF13 posted:Goon Credit Card random referral page: Heyo, I made a pass on this if anyone has tried to use it. I removed all the dead links and fixed some functionality. If anyone has a problem PM me (I'm Jerk McJerkface)
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Nov 13, 2023 21:21
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