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So I'm starting grad school in Australia next year, tuition will effectively be paid in cash (personal savings). As it turns out, my university-to-be doesn't charge anything for credit card payments, so it seems like I might as well be leveraging my tuition bills into hitting the minimum spend for miles (credit score is excellent, no plans for a mortgage anytime in the next few years). Pretty much the only way I'll be able to travel anywhere at that point in my life, heh. Given that situation, what are my best bets? (FWIW, I've currently got mileage programs with AAdvantage and United.) I'm not sure if I can split the bill up into ~$3k parcels for multiple cards at the same time, although I do get billed per-semester over the 4 semesters, which seems like a good compromise in spread. Caveat is that my uni only takes Visa/MC, so no Amex or Discover. Obviously, I want to be sure there are no foreign currency transactions, although that seems to be across the board with all of the ones I've looked at. Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 03:09 on Nov 7, 2014 |
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Nov 7, 2014 03:06
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Pompous Rhombus posted:So I'm starting grad school in Australia next year, tuition will effectively be paid in cash (personal savings). As it turns out, my university-to-be doesn't charge anything for credit card payments, so it seems like I might as well be leveraging my tuition bills into hitting the minimum spend for miles (credit score is excellent, no plans for a mortgage anytime in the next few years). Pretty much the only way I'll be able to travel anywhere at that point in my life, heh. Any thoughts on this, guys? Also, did some digging, and unless poo poo goes horribly wrong and I have to move back to the US, a ding to my credit score doesn't really matter (US credit scores aren't shared internationally, my Australian one will be figured out based on my history there). I mean, I don't plan on going hog wild or anything, but nice to know.
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Nov 12, 2014 16:47
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THF13 posted:Would you need to get an Australian credit card or an American one? I'm mostly talking about American ones (when I found I'm basically starting over from scratch in Australia my immediate thought was I should get an Aussie card and start paying for stuff with that to build credit, but OTOH I have a feeling any rewards, etc are likely inferior to what I could be racking up on my American one...). Thanks for the heads-up on Southwest, but it doesn't look like they partner with anyone else, and I have basically no use for a domestic US airline once I move. Will look into the other two though!
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Nov 16, 2014 13:44
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I'm thinking of applying for the US Airways Barclay Mastercard (gonna think on it for a couple days), if so, anyone have a referral code they'd like me to use? If I go with it, do let me know if you'd like a referral code from me, nets you 5 or 10k miles for each one (max 50k) 
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Dec 20, 2014 22:54
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Brian Fellows posted:I don't think US Airways and AA miles are going to be merged until the second quarter of 2015, so you're not going to have much time to book that award. Aww crap, that blows. Wanted to fly in June, even right now the outbound leg options (for economy) are already drying up. Got 20k with AA and need 70k, was thinking that US Airways thing would work out for me.
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Dec 21, 2014 23:28
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I was just approved for a US Airways Dividend Miles World MC, which should work out nicely when AA and US Airways merge their frequent flyer miles (already have ~24k in an AA account) later this year. I've also got an AAdvantage Mastercard I received almost a year ago (going to cancel it soon, before the annual fee hits). Is it worth my time to apply for another AAdvantage card soon after (or just before), or are they likely to reject me? FWIW my credit score is a bit over 800, although the weakest area was having too few accounts. Also, if anyone has recommendations on a VISA or Mastercard with high-ish minimum spends (up to ~$8-9k) that has good mileage rewards, do tell. I can pay my university tuition with them at no additional fee (assuming the card has no foreign transaction fees, most of the travel-oriented ones seem not to), figured I ought to leverage that rather than paying with straight up cash.
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Jan 8, 2015 15:53
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Just a heads up, in case this is useful for anyone: I applied for the Chase British Airways card and was more or less instantly approved (email notification). I wanted to get the card sooner than ~10-14 days as I wanted to use it to pay an impending tuition bill (which I have the cash for, but my uni doesn't charge CC fees so why not?), so I called up Cardmember Services, who put me through to Lending since I was just an SSN and a pending application to them. As I found out, typically it depends on the awards partner (in this case, British Airways) to generate the credit card number and everything, until then Customer Service just sees your application as "pending", even if it's in fact been approved. The CSR at Lending could see I'd been approved and told me about this, and advised me to call Cardmember Services in 48 hours to see about expediting the card to me (he said it's a max of 72 hours, was a good chance it'd be ready in 48). I think it's gonna work out in time and really hope it does; in my case getting to put this initial tuition bill on it is almost certainly going to be the difference between hitting the $30k spend to get a free Companion Pass or not. Not a credit card offer, but if anyone else is interested in Avios, via reddit I found out that Iberian is teaming up with The Economist to offer 12,000 Avios if you sign up for a year at $160. Speaking from experience, my previous Economist subscription was pretty nice; they are super chill about changing your address (even to another country), and the podcast version is narrated by Classy British People  Content-wise they wear their neoliberal bias on their sleeve, but I just consider it good critical thinking skills practice, heh.Even if you're not using Avios now, 12,000 is enough for a decent shorter flight. BA's program has some disadvantages (getting hit with taxes/fees sometimes, sometimes a pain booking with partner airlines, not-great redemptions rates for longer hauls), but it's rated very highly for getting bang for your miles on shorter trips, and you can "top up" award flights with cash at a very competitive rate. Offer's good through the end of January. asur posted:No one is going to not sign up for a card because the bonus miles take to the next billing cycle or longer to deposit. It's an inconvenience, but it's not what the two cards are competing on. Well, you say that, but in my case there is a trip I'd like to take this summer and availability on AAdvantage is rapidly blacking out (already would have to fly Business for the return leg). It'd absolutely be the difference for me, I am probably going to wind up just paying for it out of pocket. I was briefly flirting with getting that $450 AAdvantage card with the 50k signup on $5k spend*, but I wouldn't use the benefits enough to make it worth it. *I got the AAdvantage card last year around this time, and just recently got the US Airways one in anticipation of being able to merge those points into American's programme. Should be noted that AA and I think US Airways each now have an 18 month wait between your last activation or cancellation of their cards before they'll accept a new application (doesn't apply with different types of card, my $95 annual fee one didn't exclude me from the $450 annual fee one). So in response to the poster asking about cancelling them ASAP, if you're trying to churn, I think it might be in your best interests to do so, although I can't speak for what it would do to your credit score vs waiting. Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 05:33 on Jan 12, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 05:22
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100% Dundee posted:From what I've gathered in the thread it's in your best interests to leave them open as long as possible so that it doesn't mess with your average account age as much. If they don't have fee's associated with them then it's probably advisable to just let them remain open as this will also increase your overall available credit and lower utilization. I'm just parroting what I've read elsewhere, but 3-4 new cards per 3 months seems to be standard. I'm not sure how fast they're closing them though.
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Jan 13, 2015 05:08
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Ugh. I applied for the Chase British Airways card a week ago. It was approved by Chase within a few hours, BA still has yet to generate me a rewards account so they will actually issue me the card, and Chase apparently can't do anything to contact them or hurry it along. If I want to hit the $30k spend for the Companion Pass I need to get this first tuition payment on it, which I also need to get my student visa issued (electronically, thank god), and I leave in 15 days. Might give it until Wednesday morning (they said 48-72 hours a week ago), then call up Chase and cancel the application if nothing's happened yet. 
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Jan 19, 2015 15:53
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Thoguh posted:Why don't you just create the account yourself, which should take 5 minutes tops, and then tell Chase what your number is? They're also in charge of the credit card number, it sounds like.
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Jan 19, 2015 18:53
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asur posted:It took less than a week to recieve my Chase BA card with a previous Avios account. I called up again this morning and got an unusually forthright CSR; she said the airline cards usually take the max allotted 2 weeks to get set up. Like you guys are saying, I think if I had created the BA account first and added it to my application it'd have been faster, but at this point it's probably the same to just wait it out. I also did some reading on the fine print for the Companion Pass and it's only good for travel originating in and returning to the US and only good for flights on BA, not partner airlines. That made an already iffy proposition (putting all my spends in one basket to hit the 30k) even less attractive, since I'll be based in Australia from next month and not being able to use partner airlines makes routing lovely for me, not to mention getting hit with all of BA's fees and surcharges for awards (you can sidestep a lot of them by using Avios on partner airlines). For all the bother, in my personal case I don't think I'd wind up coming out much ahead. I'm still gonna get the card and hit the spend (have a fair number of setting up expenses when I get there, plus it's time to replace my laptop), as well as do that Economist deal I linked, but it's not worth delaying my student visa any further over it.
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Jan 20, 2015 17:51
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Small White Dragon posted:Qantas is pretty stingy on award seats between the Australia and US if that's what you were planning to use it for, just FYI. Good to know, thanks! I'm on one in two weeks (through AA), booked it about ~8 months ago.
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Jan 20, 2015 21:56
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Brian Fellows posted:Make sure anyone that reads this learns the lesson - ALWAYS set up the third party rewards program membership before signing up for the associated credit card. It took a few weeks to get a Starwood rewards card when I applied for it without a preexisting Starwood account. It's always worth it to spend the five minutes setting up an account. Oh, mine was instantly approved as well, but to the CSR's at Chase's regular credit card line it still appears to be pending. The folks at Lending can see that it's approved, but that they're still waiting on BA to get back to them.
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Jan 21, 2015 00:32
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...and of course, when I go to check one last time yesterday afternoon, it's been approved  They were able to send it rush delivery (1-2 business days) for no extra charge. I also cancelled my Citi Platinum AAdvantage World Mastercard this morning, just before the first annual fee hit. Was surprised at how easy it was, took less than two minutes and fully automated.
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Jan 22, 2015 14:50
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dexter6 posted:This may be common knowledge, but thought I'd put it in this thread just for other peoples information How long has it been since you opened the last one? I've noticed American and United have introduced an 18 month waiting period (since last opening OR closing of an account).
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Jan 22, 2015 20:48
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Brian Fellows posted:I had always heard that Barclays is a company that'll shut you down if you don't use their cards regularly too. Actually, just yesterday I got an email from them saying they were going to shut down an old card (about 2.5 years since I've used it for anything) if I didn't contact them or use it within the next 30. Not that I blame them, I just used it to buy a new Mac at 0% right before I moved/was starting a new job and money was a little tight.
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Jan 23, 2015 00:19
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semicolonsrock posted:What's the best way to get the most american airlines miles as possible via a card? AAdvantage (Citi) card + US Airways card (Barclay's) and wait for them to merge systems in Q2 (at the moment you can't combine them for a booking). The AAdvantage one has a $95 fee that's waived the first year, US Airways one is about the same buy you do have to pay it the first year (but there's no minimum spend, just "first purchase"), for a total of 100k miles. There is also a higher fee AA one ($450, not waived) if you really want another 50k, although the perks aren't really gonna be worth it unless you're a frequent traveler. From what I've been hearing, the days of taking out multiple versions of the same AA card at once to stack sign up bonuses are kinda over. Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Jan 24, 2015 |
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Jan 24, 2015 20:30
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dexter6 posted:That's close, but... Oops, forgot about the business card! It seemed like a bit of a grey area when I was looking into it myself (no business) so decided to leave it alone. That'd definitely be the smart option. I just got the US Air card and it was pretty fast. Also just cancelled my AA card a month or two before the first annual fee hit; pretty easy to do via an automated phone system.
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Jan 24, 2015 22:35
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Bisty Q. posted:Yes, the miles will combine 1:1. Yeah, seriously. I'm flying (one way, granted) from Florida to Tasmania and that's only 37.5k.
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Jan 25, 2015 21:27
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SiGmA_X posted:Last year I averaged 2.12% cash back over a card from each Chase Freedom, Amazon, and Amex Blue. But now I want a travel card (in large part for sign up points), and it's looking like the best deal is a Barclaycard Arrival Plus at 2.2% redemption value for statement credits against travel. I do not travel much at all, but it would be nice to maximize points, and I have some tickets to buy this and next year to go visit family members graduating from college. If I get the BAP and buy my tickets as soon as I receive it, and then spend for other stuff to hit the $3k in 3mo for the 40k points (no issue there), can I redeem the 40k points against the prior ticket purchase? I am guessing yes, but I've never dealt with a non-cashback card. I may have misunderstood the way the Barclay Arrival Plus points works, but it seemed like kind of a lovely deal compared to getting straight miles. True, it gives you the most freedom in booking, but 40,000 points is $400 in statement credit. For 37.5k miles on American, I'm flying (one way, granted) from Florida to... Australia. The equivalent cash tickets I was looking at were all around $1k+. Speaking of Avios, went to sign up for that Economist deal I mentioned yesterday and it had dropped to the standard 4,000 Avios on the Economist site (Iberian was still claiming the original 12,000). I called up the Economist's customer support and they said I'd have to take it up with Iberian. Almost did, but as I was Googling around looking for the original link I found another sign-up link that put me through to the Economist website and said it was good for 12k, so did that. Offer ends tomorrow, so get on it if you're interested.
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Jan 30, 2015 14:07
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Bisty Q. posted:PDX-SNA is a nonstop on AA. You should be able to use BA Avios to go on that route, but the calculators are all refusing to route it, which is weird. It's 860 miles, which means it SHOULD be 15k Avios roundtrip + token fees. You can get 40K avios by signing up with a Chase Sapphire Preferred and making the minimum buy, which would you get 2 round trips. The Avios calculators are notoriously poo poo, typically you want to call for booking those awards.
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Jan 31, 2015 05:20
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dexter6 posted:Not a credit card question, per se, but related. Like another poster said, you can pay for your classier hotels (and fancy bars/restaurants) on a credit card, primarily Thailand is going to be cash based though. It sounds kinda "duh" but be sure Wells Fargo knows you're going to be there, and always have a spare $100-200 cash or traveler's check just in case things go wrong (traveler's checks are rapidly going the way of the dodo but one is nice to have for emergencies). I studied in Bangkok for a year in college and around the 8 month mark Wells Fargo randomly decided to shut my card down for suspicious activity (  , I told them I was going to be there had been using Thai ATM's the whole time to fund myself), it took a whole week to resolve. Thailand travel tip: 7-11's are the best place to break the 1,000 baht notes you get from ATM's, they can otherwise be pretty unwieldy.
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Feb 28, 2015 12:44
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SiGmA_X posted:Q: How long has it taken you guys to get BA Avios points posted after meeting the BA Chase card signup promo? FAQ says 6-8wks, is that realistic? I got my card in late January and according to the Chase site they've posted to my account. Unfortunately can't confirm since BA ain't letting me log in, nor is it sending me the emails I need to change my password, sigh. Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 10:12 on Mar 2, 2015 |
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Mar 2, 2015 10:09
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SiGmA_X posted:Sweet. Hopefully mine posts soon too. My first billing cycle ended yesterday, received card first week of Feb. Was able to login by searching my email for my member number (said email address would have been OK on the site, but clearly not...), in case that happens to someone else Been looking at the new terms, looks like it gets crappier for earning miles via flying with BA if you're in the cheaper seats (not really an issue for me, I do fly in the cheapest seats but pretty infrequently, so they're not a big part of my overall mileage), although the new off-peak Avios rates are nice. It appears Avios spends are going up for Business/First, which doesn't effect me. Apparently both accounts need to be at least 3 months old to transfer Avios from Iberian to BA (or vice versa), so I guess I'll still have a bit of a wait once that 12k I got for the Economist sub posts to my Iberian account. BA's backwards rewards booking site basically doesn't let you see partner airlines flights, so I'll have to make a call at that point.
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Mar 3, 2015 07:20
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TraderStav posted:What is the reason for the urgency to get in on the card before it closes? A lost opportunity to get the sign on bonus since there'll be one less card in the mix? I don't generally use AA or USA so not sure if I should be interested/concerned. You can use them on codeshare/partner airlines as well. I used AA miles to fly Qantas to Australia last month, was 37.5k miles (one way). So for the guy asking about why you'd bother, uh, yeah. 100k miles is a round trip to Australia, plus an RT Australia-New Zealand leg while you're over there (AA counts Australia and NZ as the same country, so it's only a 10k "domestic" hop each way).
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Mar 20, 2015 21:14
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Insane Totoro posted:Some people have really strict vacation schedules and those miles tend to not work out well. FWIW, I think airlines are moving out from hard blackout dates. For example, I got an email recently from... I think it was BA, they guarantee at least two rewards seats on every flight they offer, just a matter of booking early enough. becoming posted:Ultimate Rewards points can transfer to BA Avios. You can book AA flights with Avios. So yeah, you can kinda sorta combine them. All of those points/miles can be used to fly AA. One thing to be aware of is each account needing to be 90 days old to transfer Avios. Got a note on my calendar in late April to transfer the Avios I got at Iberian over to BA. Speaking of BA's fees and surcharges, you can get around that by booking on one of their partner airlines with Avios, right? Once I've got all my Avios together I was going to give them a call (sigh) and try to book something for early next year.
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Mar 22, 2015 23:13
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With my last round of applications, I took out 2 CC's and canceled one of the old ones, with another just auto-cancelling after me not using it for ages. Since then, my credit score's dropped about 40 points, from low 800's down to 765. I've got zero debt (mortgage or otherwise) or history of debt, always been on time with payments, etc. I've got a sweet MS situation where I can pay my overseas university tuition by credit card without incurring any additional fees (well, paying all that money for tuition out of savings isn't sweet, but I'm trying to make lemonade here), deciding if it's worth it for next semester. I am leaning towards "yes", as I no longer live in the US so my credit score there is kind of immaterial, but OTOH I've already taken advantage of the AA, BA, and US Airways/United signup bonuses, and my remaining options are less lucrative (uni doesn't take Discover/Amex, so I'm limited to Visa/MC). It's possible something better might come along when tuition's due again next year, but then I'd be stuck with a probably-too-low credit score if I took advantage of the deals I was less jazzed about now. I should say that I'm really only interested in airline miles here. I'm thinking I should probably just go for it as a "better the bird in the hand..." thing, plus I imagine that the worst of the damage to my (probably irrelevant) credit score has probably been done. Not that I won't take a hit getting another card or two, but there's only so much one aspect of your history can bring you down. Also wondering if the credit score drop could be due to a drop in income (do credit agencies have access to tax returns?). I used to be working a salaried, lower middle class job, but quit to go back to school and have been unemployed for the last ~10 months. If I do find any work before graduation at the end of next year, it'll be part-time (thanks, student visa) and probably low-skilled/low-paid.
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May 22, 2015 05:16
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edit: Just managed to figure it out! BA didn't have a birthdate on file for me (thought for sure it was mandatory to fill it in), which prevented the transfer from going through, I guess because they couldn't conclusively match my two identities. Iberia didn't offer any clues about this, nor did BA tell me directly in the "Combine Avios" section, just gave a generic "there is a problem" message, was able to find the red flag on another section of BA's site and fix it. Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 03:50 on Jun 16, 2015 |
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Jun 16, 2015 03:17
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Boris Galerkin posted:Well I just tried to book a flight to Germany with my AA miles. 40k round trip which is great, but it's still gonna cost me $416 in taxes or some bullshit. That's like, BA bad.
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Aug 7, 2015 07:10
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Xandu posted:Amex platinum is $1200 in Australia? I assume Australian dollars, but that's a lot of money for a credit card. Do you get different benefits? I doubt it, the US is just that good by comparison. Amex Platinum operating in different countries can actually be used as a backdoor to get local credit if you haven't got any. I was thinking about doing it in Japan (they are notoriously obnoxious about issuing credit cards to resident aliens) just so I could use the Japanese AMEX to get one of the electronic toll collector cards, but wound up just borrowing my friends' for the few times I took the expressway. I wish my uni took Amex (only do Visa/MC), not sure that I have any good offers available for my next semester of tuition. Already did the AA and United/US Airways ones.
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Aug 29, 2015 00:43
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Finally had a chance to sit down and spend the afternoon rounding up my mileage balances, figure out which cards, I had... and realised I won't be able to hit most of those minimum spends until February when tuition's due anyways  Anyhow, had a few miles-related questions: I cancelled the Citi Aadvantage Platinum Select in January of this year, before the annual fee hit. Realised if I'm lucky and Citi doesn't take too long to approve it/can expedite it, I'll be eligible for it again just in time for my last semester (~$6k spend). I do remember BA's card through Chase took like 2+ weeks with me following up constantly, due to BA's sluggishness in generating an FF account, hopefully Citi won't be like that since I already have an AA account to link it to. -Am I probably OK (assuming great credit), even if I'm applying basically the instant my 18 month waiting period expires? -Does the 50k signup on it hold pretty constant, or does it dip down to 30k periodically? (Maybe I'm thinking of another card.) -As far as those business cards go (looking at United's), do people just make up a business? Dunno that I'm comfortable with that, although I have been kicking around the idea of creating an LLC or whatever for freelancing. On the other hand I haven't done any in the recent past, so my "revenue" would be zero if I'm being honest. May be a moot point as I have an upcoming purchase I could use to hit the $1k min spend on the personal, but the $2k for the business would be a stretch. If I was doing the business one I'd have to wait until tuition time, and not sure I can split the payment between two cards. Actually, could I do personal and then apply for the business one later? -Does applying for cards with the same bank (but different carriers/programs) carry a greater risk of being turned down? Eyeing the United card (which is with Chase) nowish as well as the Chase Sapphire for early next year, which does 1:1 points transfer into United. -Finally, BA. I haven't used any Avios yet (have 80k), but I already kinda hate them. Is there any sort of trick for getting a real estimate on what a partner airline flight will cost (in terms of Avios and fees), other than calling their reservation number? Their asinine website assumes you're flying out of London and won't let you tell it otherwise, and avios.com is another annoying limeycentric mess.
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Sep 3, 2015 09:30
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Boris Galerkin posted:Well drat, I just looked into non cashback cards today like the Chase Sapphire Preferred and those are actually better deals for me since I don't shop at grocery stores (often) and most of my spending is definitely restaurants and bars. Apparently bars count as restaurants. I'm not really seeing a difference between the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Citi ThankYou Premier cards, awards wise. I plugged in the Amex Rewards too but the other 2 programs seem to be better for me since the Amex program doesn't cover public transit and the occasional Uber/taxi (I don't have a car, so I don't have gas expenses). Kinda  but you'll probably do way better than any rewards program if you shift more of your spending to grocery stores/cooking for yourself than eating out.
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Oct 6, 2015 23:35
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Boris Galerkin posted:I meant I don't shop at grocery stores because I do nearly all my grocery shopping at the farmers market where they take cards through Square for the most part. I don't think these vendors are classified as a grocery store but I also didn't think bars that don't serve food are classified as "dining" so who knows. The highest category of my spending is literally booze. Haha, gotcha! At first glance it kinda read like a SloMo type situation.
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Oct 7, 2015 01:24
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Just applied for Chase Sapphire Preferred, said they need more time to review my application (probably should have fudged my income and gone with previous job, rather than the part-time salaried one I'm starting at the end of the month :-\). How bad are my chances? Coincidentally I woke up to an email from Barclay's this morning saying my credit score had changed, up to a bit over 800 now. Edit: actually, it may have been putting my rent down as $1 (parents' address, I live overseas), doh. Should not be doing this before coffee in the morning. Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Jan 14, 2016 |
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Jan 14, 2016 21:24
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Thanks for the tip on the reconsideration line, I googled that and called them this morning. First two reps I spoke to were nice, the actual Consumer Lending one I dealt with in the end was a bit curt, but I was able to clear up the stuff on my application. She still said it'd be 1-2 weeks processing, which sucks as I was planning on booking some travel for my partner soon. Would it be a bad idea to apply for another card in the meantime? Downside is the other one I was looking at (United) is also with Chase...
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Jan 15, 2016 23:51
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Blinkman987 posted:Chase is the only company that will lifetime blacklist people for promo abuse, so I tread carefully with them.  Yikes, I will too. Should I not bother with the Chase United card so soon, regardless of the outcome with Sapphire Preferred? I could wait 6mos and do it for my last semester's tuition, but was hoping to apply for another card with American as my 18 month cooldown with them is timed right around then. I was hoping to use the United one (which has a lower min spend) to book her pet's quarantine, I would otherwise have a hard time hitting the min spend on it as I seldom use credit cards for anything other than major expenses like that or tuition, especially since I live overseas and my income will now be coming from the non-US side (regardless of no foreign transaction fees, I still have to move money home to pay it off). I haven't touched AMEX before because I can't pay tuition with them (also, not nearly as commonly accepted here in Australia), however when I go to apply for a work visa early next year I can pay the fees with Amex, which will probably come out to like $4-5k. Downside is government's payment processor charges an extra 2% for processing an AMEX payment, probably not worth it to use for hitting a min spend in that case, right? With the recent-ish cooling off periods on rewards cards I think I'm getting pretty close to the bottom of the barrel of cards that would make sense for me to get (not really interested in cashback or hotels, just miles really), so I am tempted even if it comes out kinda "meh". Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 00:19 on Jan 16, 2016 |
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Jan 16, 2016 00:15
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Pompous Rhombus posted:
Update on this: approved for the Sapphire Preferred (didn't realise there was an automated number I could call to check, so I waited the suggested week until I tried calling in again)! Pro-tip: you can get delivery expedited in 1-2 business days at no additional charge if you ask. Initially the rep offered 3-5 days instead of the standard 2 weeks, when I asked if I could pay to get it a bit faster she mentioned the 1-2 day thing, and that it was free. I imagine they don't tell you outright to save themselves having everybody get it rushed at their expense. Credit limit on it is only 5k, the tuition I'd want to be charging to it plus some other expenses would be more like 7.5k. Needing that much available credit on it is a one time thing though, rather than apply for a credit limit increase, can I charge 5k, pay it off immediately, then charge more on it, or is the 5k a per-billing cycle thing? I also have the BA Visa through Chase that I am about to cancel, which has a 10k limit. If I did need to increase my credit limit on the Sapphire Preferred, do I want to do that before I cancel the BA card (move from the BA card, I guess), or just cancel the BA card first and then call up for the credit increase? I suppose it's kind of splitting hairs, but wondering if one way is smarter than the other as far as credit scores or annoying Chase. My initial plan was to apply for the Chase United Explorer card on top of that (30k miles on $1k spend, can easily manage that on top of the Sapphire Preferred $4k), but Blinkman was saying Chase will blacklist you if they think you're abusing promos. Would I likely be risking that if I cancelled the BA card so soon after getting the Sapphire (and just before its annual fee posted), and applied for the United Explorer one? To be fair, I'm getting to the end of my little hustle as I only have this semester and one more to use tuition to hit those min spends, so as long as it didn't mess with my Sapphire Preferred I don't know that it'd matter if I got blacklisted by them. The only other card I'm finding that looks remotely attractive to me (I'm still waiting on American/US Airways to cooldown, and unless the AMEX min spend is ~$1k that's out as well) is the Capital One Venture Rewards, but its "40,000 miles" is actually a $400 statement credit. I know some people like the flexibility those give, but in my book the hassle of using miles is outweighed by how far they'll take you. 40k miles is a OW trans-Pac flight, which would probably cost at least $1200 in statement credits otherwise. OTOH, might be nice for hotels/car rentals, plus I don't have any cards with Capital One, so I assume I should be approved pretty easily.
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Jan 23, 2016 04:30
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Doing some planning around how best to maximise my last tuition spend at the end of next month (final one for me, god willing), and work visa payment at the end of the year. I cancelled my AAdvantage Platinum in late January of last year. Unfortunately the 18 month cooldown on it is basically right when Semester 2 tuition is due, I don't think the university will give me an extension to wait for the application to go through, then get the card. Plan is now to wait until I need to make my visa payment ($4k spend) in December to do that. AAdvantage Platinum is usually $1k spend for 30,000 miles, I figured I'd also couple it with the AMEX Starwood (my only chance to use them as my uni doesn't take them, but the government's payment processor does) which is a $3k spend. Neatly adds up to the $4,000 for the visa, and would give me those 25k points I could transfer to the airline program of choice, probably AAdvantage. Looking at it that way, 55k miles on $4k spend isn't bad, I was actually considering doing the Admiral's Club AAdvantage card earlier ($450 fee and I'd probably not use any of the amenities) which is 60,000 miles on $5k spend. For the present: I was just instantly approved for the 50k United Explorer through Chase today, which put me at the 5 cards/24 months limit they have. I got the Sapphire Preferred through them earlier this year and had to call in to recon, pleasantly surprised at that. The 50k bonus ends on the 30th of this month if anyone else was thinking about it. I still have a bit north of $3k left on my tuition bill that I could use to hit a minimum spend, but I'm pretty much SOL on the good airline cards as I don't do any domestic flying in the US, the uni only takes Visa/MC, and I'm waiting on cooldowns for AAdvantage and BA (not to mention the United card I just got). Not sure it's worth the hard pull to do one of those "40,000 miles" (actually only $400 of travel credit) cards like the Barclay Arrival Plus or CapitalOne Venture, OTOH... free money? I do need to make a trip to Melbourne later this year, so that could cover hotel and car rental, if not airfare. Would either the AMEX or the AAdvantage card look askance at two other applications within a short time of each other 5 months prior? Also, anyone have tips on using Avios for international trips? I'm sitting on like 80,000 of them over here in Australia and have heard they're good for spending on Qantas for domestic hauls, at least. Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 05:13 on Jun 25, 2016 |
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Jun 25, 2016 03:01
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Cacafuego posted:There's always the citi aadvantage gold. It's usually 25k mi for $750 in 3mo I think. I thought I read recently that it was targeted up to 50k, but I could be mistaken. Oh, that one has slipped completely beneath my radar! Unfortunately, reading the fine print there's a 3% charge for foreign transaction fees (I pay my tuition to a foreign university), so I'd eat $22.50 on that $750 minimum spend. That's be totally worth it though; 25,000 miles is a OW to Southeast Asia. So getting the Gold now wouldn't hurt me in a few months when I go to apply for the Platinum, when its 18 month cooldown wears off?
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Jun 25, 2016 22:36
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| # ¿ Apr 29, 2024 08:51 |
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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 |
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Jul 23, 2016 07:08
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