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Hey goons, for a while I've been in the enviable position of being able to pay my rent with a credit card (without a fee), and I'm looking to finally get a new card to take full advantage of this. My card: I just have one card, a normal Chase Sapphire (not Preferred). I've had this Chase account for 13 years and they randomly turned it into a Sapphire several years ago. I think it gives 2% back on restaurants and 1% on everything else? My spending: With my sky-high NYC rent, my average monthly credit card spend is 88% rent, 3.7% restaurants, 3% groceries, and 5.3% miscellaneous other stuff. My credit score: Equifax says 747. Because it might be relevant, I try to travel once or twice a year, for a total of 2-3 weeks. Next year will be a week in California and two weeks in Hawaii. No idea if this matters since I've only ever had/used cash back rewards. I'd appreciate any recommendations on the best card to really start raking in the rewards. Thanks!
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Dec 18, 2014 05:26
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ETB posted:Citi Cash is pretty much guaranteed to give you more bang for your buck. If your spending on credit is greater than ~$22k annually, you'd benefit more from the Barclays Arrival Plus, even with the annual fee. Thanks, I'll get one of those then. Some quick questions: For the Citi Cash, the OP mentions a sign up bonus. How much is this bonus usually, and around how often does it actually pop up? For the Barclays, it would certainly be the better deal for now. However, I'm definitely moving in a couple years, and it's not likely my next apartment will accept cards for rent, so keeping the card wouldn't be worthwhile at that point. Is it a big deal if I use it for a couple years and then cancel and switch to something without a fee? Or would it be better to just get the Citi to begin with to avoid likely having to switch later?
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Dec 20, 2014 10:34
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THF13 posted:The Citi double cash is a very new card so we don't know. They offered a limited number of people $200 after spending $1000 but this is no longer available. It's only mentioned in the OP because it takes most people a lot of time to "break even" against a good sign up bonus. The 1.5% quicksilver card for example with a $100 signup bonus stays ahead of the double cash until after you've spent $20,000 on the card. Ah, okay, sounds like going with Barclays would be the best plan then. Last question: Once I get it, it will obviously be better to put all purchases on that card rather than the Sapphire. Is it a problem if I just stop using the Sapphire altogether? Do I still need to use it once a month or something?
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Dec 20, 2014 21:21
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I currently have a Barclaycard Arrival+ (which I got in January at the suggestion of this thread) and a Chase Sapphire not-Preferred (which I never use). The Arrival+ has provided a pretty nice cash back rate over the year, but it looks like it got worse recently, and I think it'll make sense to downgrade it soon to avoid the annual fee. So, I'm looking for the next card, and I just got married recently so it'll be my first joint card as well. We're currently lucky that we can pay rent with a card, making our monthly spending around 88% rent, with the rest going to groceries, restaurants, and travel. As a result we can currently meet pretty much any bonus with a spending requirement. Unfortunately, we're likely moving in mid-2016 and at that point will lose the ability to do this. I was thinking of just getting the Citi Double Cash, since there's no fee and it's an all-around solid choice, especially when our rent spending goes away. But maybe we should get one with a big sign-up bonus while we still can, and then switch to the Double Cash after we move? Whatever we do, I just want it to be straightforward; I don't want to have to research point conversion and return rates and such, I just want to get some solid cash back. Thoughts on the best course of action?
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Nov 20, 2015 18:16
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antiga posted:I opened a citi double cash to use as a joint account with my SO for cable, phone bill, and groceries. Unfortunately I just found out citi won't do joint accounts and that's probably a deal breaker. I just opened one last month and was also disappointed that joint wasn't an option, but I just added her as an authorized user and it's close enough. I looked at others around the same time and didn't see joint as an option pretty much anywhere.
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Feb 2, 2016 23:08
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Dead Pressed posted:drat. Tried calling to get my annual fee waived on the Arrival+, had done $30k in business through them since March 2015 and they refused to waive. Had some points left to utilize, so after getting high and mighty with them, said I'd call to cancel on Monday after redeeming everything. I requested waiving again on the website just now, we'll see what they have to say, but I don't have high hopes. I did around 35k last year and just downgraded, no waive offered. Unfortunately I downgraded the day before the fee, so they ended up charging it anyway, and it's been a real pain to get it reversed. The customer service for the Arrival seems noticeably worse than the Arrival+.
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Mar 3, 2016 20:54
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Star War Sex Parrot posted:Hey, thanks Citi! First time I've tried this feature and it worked! Nice. I've used it three times so far this year for over $100 back total. Always a nice surprise to see that notice in my inbox.
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Sep 25, 2016 03:01
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Like everyone else, I've been pretty interested in the CSR, but since I can't pay rent with my card anymore I don't have a guaranteed way to hit the spend requirement for the bonus. But, I just found out today that I can pay my wife's last student loan off with a credit card. My first thought was to immediately apply for the CSR and sneak in $300 of travel spend before the end of the year to get double the travel credit. Looking at previous posts though, it looks like that won't work because my first statement would be in January. I guess it would make the most sense to wait a couple months so I can get the credit in 2017 and 2018? I'm not sure it would be worth it for me to keep the card, but the first-year value is undeniable even without much consistent spend.
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Dec 23, 2016 22:20
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Good to hear the 100k bonus for the Reserve is still available at branches. Probably going to head over to one tomorrow.
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Feb 11, 2017 08:56
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AndrewP posted:Any luck with this? Did you get the 100k? Sorry, didn't check back for a while. Yes, the person at the branch confirmed the 100k is available until March 12th. I was approved for the Reserve immediately and they overnighted the card to me. I already made the 4k purchase I was waiting on, so hopefully I get the bonus soon and can start booking some flights. Star War Sex Parrot posted:I'm a fan of pairing the no-fee Freedom with a Chase Sapphire Preferred/Reserve, since the UR points are transferrable and the 5% quarterly bonuses are usually decent. While I was there I converted my old Chase card sitting in my desk to a Freedom in order to use this combo. I have to say I rather liked only carrying around the Doublecash, though. My wallet is too small for all these cards.
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Feb 23, 2017 02:40
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I used my UR points for the first time recently for an international flight. I had just over 160k points, so I planned to transfer to United and get 4 saver legs for 40k each. Unfortunately this didn't turn out to save anything over the cash price. It was actually worse, because the better-timed flights were similarly priced but didn't have any saver seats remaining. I wanted to use the points in case I don't renew the CSR, so I just used the portal. Not a great value but oh well. As a first-time point user, all the research was a huge pain and reminded me why I avoided travel cards and stuck with simple cash back for so long.
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Aug 14, 2018 20:56
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Blinkman987 posted:Non sequitur, but I totally support the Priority Pass change with the CSR. Holy poo poo, I literally failed to get into a single Priority Pass lounge for my year and a half with the card. It was always loving full. I tried to get into two lounges listed in the Priority Pass app during my recent trip, and both required an extra charge to enter. They couldn't even tell me exactly how much it would cost, just that a charge would show up on the card. Kind of defeats the purpose. I have used Priority Pass for free lounge access in the past, so I guess it's just a portion that aren't free.
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Aug 15, 2018 08:51
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For hotel point redemption, is it common for cash + points to be a better deal than just points? I just booked a $230/8,000 point Hyatt room for $55 + 4,000 points. The difference in value was pretty surprising.
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Sep 28, 2018 07:36
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Alan Smithee posted:just curious do you still get deals when booking last minute or is that lot of blackouts? This was a last-minute booking, so apparently yes, but it might depend on how many rooms are still available. Neither the location nor the dates for my stay were very popular.
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Oct 9, 2018 19:30
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Yeah, honestly I'm often better-off putting my Amazon purchases on the DoubleCash rather than the Amazon card. I lose 3% cash back, but usually get more than that back from price rewind. Kind of a disappointing realization after getting the Amazon card earlier this year.
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Oct 15, 2018 22:38
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Yeah, I guess the fact that I have no storage space is a pretty important factor. I do get things like soap, toothpaste, etc. on Amazon, so getting 5% on that is still decent. But for everything eligible for price protection, I just check the price history, and if there's a reasonable chance it'll drop, it always goes on the DoubleCash. Often Citi will find a better price with no effort on my part, and sometimes what they find shouldn't even be valid, but they accept it anyway. The other day I got 80% off a pair of sandals from what I assume was a pricing error at a store I've never heard of, but they found it and gave me the difference no problem. 
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Oct 16, 2018 08:29
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Power of Pecota posted:How often do you guys have anything eligible for the Citi price rewind? I just recently got my Doublecash and honestly didn't realize that was a feature. Often. I don't buy much stuff, and I'm at well over $500 back for the past two years. As I mentioned in my previous post above, frequently it finds better prices without any searching on my part, sometimes including pricing errors. Some of the best were the aforementioned 80% back on sandals, and before that 70% back on a jacket. I think I've actually gotten a significant discount on all the shoes, accessories (bags, purses), and furniture I've ever put on the card. I also built my PC during Black Friday/Cyber Monday last year, and despite those heavy discounts, half the parts were discounted further through price rewind (although I think I submitted some manually after randomly checking a few weeks later). And yeah, if something is the same total price at two places, but one has a lower item cost with higher tax and shipping, you can absolutely buy at the other place and price rewind to the lower item cost anyway.
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Oct 18, 2018 23:31
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I'm gonna open a Schwab checking account to use with foreign ATMs, as many here have recommended. It looks like it requires a linked brokerage account? If that's the case, can I open one and never use it?
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Dec 31, 2018 23:12
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astral posted:Not only that, but you can get $100 for free just by opening it via a referral. (the referrer gets nothing but the satisfaction of helping someone out) Yeah, I was just reminded by the doc linked by Jerk McJerkface. So hey, thanks!
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Dec 31, 2018 23:19
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Regarding the Schwab account that I just opened, does anyone know if you have to fund the account with a certain amount in order to get the referral bonus? I searched around and saw references to both $1,000 and $10,000, but don't see either of those mentioned in the terms at the bottom of the page.
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Jan 7, 2019 19:13
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MockingQuantum posted:Oh I missed that, thanks! That actually makes it a better fit than most, since I think most of my monthly spending (that would earn me rewards on any card) is at Amazon, gas stations, and restaurants. I'm not sure what that says about me as a person. If you spend a lot at Amazon, you should probably get that card regardless. Even if you have better cards for the other categories, just tie it to your Amazon account for 5% back and leave it in a drawer.
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May 23, 2019 17:33
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This seems like a long shot, but does anyone know if the trip insurance from (e.g. Chase) credit cards covers conference fees? My wife had a refundable flight and hotel, but unless the conference itself is canceled (which it might be), she'll be out the $1200 fee.
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Mar 4, 2020 00:04
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cowtown posted:Chase's travel cancellation insurance will not cover "Event Tickets", which I think includes conference fees. Figured as much... even though "disinclination" in this case was her being forced to go for work, and then forced to not go.
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Mar 7, 2020 23:17
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FunOne posted:Yep! And invested balances at Merrill/Edge count towards your relationship bonuses, so if you have an old 401k moved to an IRA sitting around in ETFs at Edge you can get 2.6% cash-back everywhere. Pretty easy to get the 100$ travel credit to cover the $95 annual fee too. Is this worth doing if you don't already have something like a retirement account there? It seems like the loss of any sort of interest rate on that 100k would offset the fraction of a percent increase in cash back.
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Sep 2, 2020 00:47
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For referrals, Freedom is no longer available and Freedom Unlimited is now merged with Freedom Flex with a new link. I updated my links on the referral spreadsheet, but most of the others are dead. Should maybe update or make a new tab for the Flex, or merge the tab with Unlimited since it'll be the same link. And I guess clear out the dead ones at some point.
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Oct 5, 2020 20:25
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Shear Modulus posted:Great news, I was just about to apply for the Flex since I just saw the grocery store offer this morning and you're the only one in the new sheet (besides me) so I'll use your link. Thanks, that'll be my first one after all these years.  Bank posted:Since we're gonna be getting 80k in UR, is my understanding of the "order of operations" in spending the UR correct? Eh, I wouldn't put it that way exactly. Your points can be worth different amounts depending on the redemption option, so it really comes down to value vs. effort and timing. Your points are theoretically worth the most by transferring to hotels and airlines, but that depends on finding a high value booking that you want (and currently, on traveling in the first place). Many people accept the 1.5 for CSR/1.25 for CSP cents per point as an acceptable value for the convenience of just booking travel through their site (or currently using pay yourself back)... even more so right now due to the uncertainty of when those points could otherwise be used, and whether you'll still be paying for the CSR/CSP at that time.
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Oct 6, 2020 07:03
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pseudorandom posted:Right now, I've got a CSR and CSP, but are coming up on their second year annual fee. I'm thinking of dropping the CSP and getting a product change to something else. Is the Chase Freedom likely my best choice for no annual fee, but keeping Ultimate Rewards points with the 5% rotating categories? Both the Freedom Flex and Freedom Unlimited are good cards to pair with the Sapphire Reserve. With the 50% bonus redemption value of the Reserve, the 5% categories of the Flex are effectively 7.5%, and the flat 1.5% of the Unlimited is effectively 2.25%. However, both have signup bonuses (which I would recommend getting from the goon referral sheet). So if you really want to maximize your rewards, the best option would be to product change to the regular Sapphire and just not use it.
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Feb 12, 2021 21:45
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I had some pretty good Priority Pass experiences early on with the CSR, but yeah it was basically useless after that. I did get at least one restaurant credit while traveling in 2019, but no idea post-COVID. Relatedly, I was going to cancel the CSR when the annual fee increased last year, but it posted right before that happened, so I kept it. The fee just posted again this year, and it looks like they're back down to $450 again temporarily, so I suppose I'll keep it for yet another year. Just hope I can use the travel credit sometime without resorting to groceries. runawayturtles fucked around with this message at 21:51 on Mar 3, 2021 |
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Mar 3, 2021 21:44
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astral posted:Why not? Would rather put them on the Flex for the 5% this year.
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Mar 3, 2021 22:58
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astral posted:With the CSR, 3x back on groceries and also being able to redeem UR points against it at 1.5 cents per point is still pretty decent. I believe those are scheduled to end at the end of next month, though. Yeah, I mean I still get the 1.5x by transferring to CSR, but I get it, it's way better than not using the credit. I'm pretty sure I'll travel at some point this year so I don't think it's a huge risk for me personally to just wait.
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Mar 4, 2021 00:29
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Blistering Sunburn posted:I'm going to product change our CSP to something without a fee - looks like Chase Freedom Flex is probably the right play? We have the Citi Double Cash for 2% across the board so the flat 1.5% from CFU doesn't do me any good. To paraphrase myself from a couple pages ago: runawayturtles posted:Both the Freedom Flex and Freedom Unlimited are good cards ... However, both have signup bonuses (which I would recommend getting from the goon referral sheet). So if you really want to maximize your rewards, the best option would be to product change to the regular Sapphire and just not use it. But yeah, if you don't care enough to get the signup bonus, it's probably the most useful one for you to product change to.
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Mar 18, 2021 05:41
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Unsinkabear posted:Interesting that it counts as an actual login for each of your individual banks each time you open it; I always assumed those kinds of tools did something like an API pull. I guess that's expecting a lot from the finance industry in terms of standardization and connectivity, though At this point, most major banks use OAuth and allow Mint and I'd imagine Personal Capital/others to pull from an API. Finally. It took far too long for them all to figure things out. Of course, plenty of smaller places will likely never bother.
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Mar 23, 2021 04:47
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drat. Did not expect that at all.
runawayturtles fucked around with this message at 22:44 on Jun 23, 2021 |
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Jun 23, 2021 22:40
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Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:Chase Sapphire Preferred: Wow. Hope they're still doing something like this early next year when I cancel/downgrade the Reserve.
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Jul 24, 2021 04:46
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Chase came out with the new rewards added to the Sapphire Reserve. They're all only from using their portal: 10x dining, 10x hotels, 10x car rentals, 5x flights. Out of those, I've only booked flights through their portal before. It seemed fine, most flights were there for similar prices as elsewhere. So that might be worth doing more for the 5x points. Not sure if the hotel/car listings are similar, or if they're substantially worse than other sites such that it's not worth using even for 10x points. It seems for dining they use Tock, which has barely any restaurants even in the large cities I checked. So that one's basically worthless. edit: Well, there are more than just a few in some major downtown areas, but it's pretty much only upscale restaurants, not places I would go to on a regular basis. runawayturtles fucked around with this message at 23:21 on Aug 17, 2021 |
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Aug 17, 2021 23:13
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saintonan posted:Honestly I'm not seeing the issue. You can already break out expenses charged by authorized users so you can see pretty quickly what charges are hers, and you're just Scrooge McDucking into all those MR points. You're already at pretty much the optimal setup. Yeah, this, I really wouldn't complain about getting so many free points... just get used to the high balance. Pretty much the only way to optimize rewards further is to get her to start churning, i.e. frequently opening/closing new cards purely for the sign-up bonuses. It's easy to fulfill a lot of sign-up bonus requirements with so much spend, but is of course a hassle to deal with all the different cards.
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Dec 2, 2021 17:35
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Seamless codes as a restaurant on my Chase Sapphire Reserve.
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Jan 16, 2022 23:06
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I have all three (well, the Reserve, but switching to the Preferred soon), and I think the Flex is worth having. I really only use it half the year, for groceries and PayPal, but it's easy to get a lot of value out of both categories. Keep in mind that the Preferred increases your rewards redemption by 25%, so it's effectively 6.25% back. In any case, it's a free card... even if you just get the signup bonus and stick it in a drawer you've already come out ahead.
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Jan 21, 2022 07:57
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Josh Lyman posted:On a related note, should I PC my og Freedom to Freedom Flex? My understanding is the main difference is going from Visa to MC. I’d get 3% on food but I have 4% Altitude Go, also 3% on drugstores but I never shop at CVS. If I make the switch, it seems like I should do a new account for the signup bonus. Speaking of which… I still have my original Freedom in addition to the Flex. If you really want to go wild with the quarterly bonuses, you can use both to double the rewards cap. Realistically, I don't use the Freedom anymore, but the Flex signup bonus was pretty good so I didn't want to PC. I did the same thing for the Freedom Unlimited actually, I PC'd a very old basic card because I didn't feel like opening another for the bonus. It's not optimal, but not the biggest deal either way. I still use the Unlimited daily because the Reserve bonus makes it better than 2%, but after I downgrade to the Preferred it will become worse.
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Jan 21, 2022 18:45
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(I still never use the Unlimited bc of my Citi Double Cash)
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Does anyone know if the time between Sapphire Reserve Global Entry credits ("every four years") is measured by the day/month/year? I last got the credit on 10/26/2018, but am wondering if it's possible to get it again now (before I downgrade) just because it's 2022.
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Jan 26, 2022 20:45
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