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4/13/2012 2:38:17 PM

Quote :

"Its all so seasonal, its hard to point to any particular location."

Ok then, what are some good deals you've seen people use their Delta points for? Hard to figure out what is reasonable when trying to book a ticket, since the ticket prices vary so much

4/13/2012 5:56:04 PM

Quote :

"Chase is offering up to 100,000 bonus miles (equal to one roundtrip business class ticket) as a new British Airways Visa Signature Card cardmember. You receive 50,000 miles after your first purchase, 25k after you spend $10,000 in the first 12 months and another 25k if you spend another $10,000 in the first 12 months. Annual fee is $95. "

http://bensbargains.net/deal/up-to-100-000-bonus-miles-w-british-airways-visa-at-chase-251635/

4/23/2012 12:46:30 PM

Eh, the initial bonus looks good but not sure those additional pts are worth $10,000

4/23/2012 5:13:49 PM

important disclaimer about that card:

For some reason, the taxes on BA's 'free' flights end up in the $200-$300 range. It might me because they're based out of the UK and therefore taxed at a different rate, not sure. But I've never found a reward BA flight that was anywhere close to free.

That said, I believe you can transfer or use them on American Airlines. Not sure though. Personally, I'd pass on that card.

4/24/2012 8:54:43 AM

i got that ba card a couple years ago when the bonus was much easier to get, i don't remember what it was but i got 100k points (now called avios) out of it and then cancelled it

edit: i found the flyer, it was: 50k miles for first purchase, then another 50k for spending $2k within three months. so a way better deal than currently.

it is useless for BA flights as ^ mentioned, but it is awesome for using on AA provided there is availability, which in my experience has been pretty good

a round trip ticket RDU-DCA is 9000 avios plus $5. this year my girlfriend and i have flown twice to DC, so four round trip tickets, for a grand total of $20, and i still had ~65k . . . then i flew (paid) to europe on AA/BA and put my miles on my BA account, ended up totaling like 9400 miles, so: another $5 trip!


[Edited on April 24, 2012 at 9:28 AM. Reason : found the old deal]

4/24/2012 9:20:25 AM

ADD TO MY TOPICS

just found out that my no-rewards card can't be upgraded without closing out that account. so FUCK that, i'm going with an entirely different company.

now to go shopping...

4/24/2012 3:28:06 PM

^^,^^^ I haven't used BA but from what I've been reading, it totally depends on where you are trying to fly. If you use the miles to go to Europe from USA, you're going to pay a ton in fuel surcharges. But supposedly if you use them to go to South America or somewhere, it's really cheap.

I've been debating on whether I'm gonna sign up for that one or not. The spend requirements are pretty ridiculous but a free 50,000 miles ain't bad.

4/24/2012 3:33:48 PM

yeah i haven't tried using avios for any international flights besides us-europe.

i flew RDU-LHR-MUC and then BUD-LHR-RDU with it being an AA flight RDU-LHR and BA within europe

my options were either $830 or ($670 + 60k avios)

given the value of the avios for domestic AA flights i chose to just pay straight up at treat it as a "buy one intl RT, get one short domestic RT free"

by the way, bad news on the RDU-LHR nonstop:



[Edited on April 24, 2012 at 4:23 PM. Reason : fwp]

4/24/2012 4:17:40 PM

aaaawwwww yeeah

just applied for my new Capital One 'Cash' Credit Card.

Gonna transfer my balance from my current Capital One credit card to this baby when I get it and close out my NO GOODIES card.

The good news:
- 50% bonus on the cash back you earn every year
- 1% cash back on all purchases
-12.9%

can't wait!

4/24/2012 7:01:23 PM

Quote :

"- 50% bonus on the cash back you earn every year - 1% cash back on all purchases"

so that's essentially 1.5% on all purchases right?

4/24/2012 7:20:18 PM

^^ no foreign transaction fees, too. The CapOne is my 'main' card.

I like deals like this, where you can get 5% for 6 months:

https://creditcards.citi.com/credit-cards/citi-thankyou-preferred-card/


[Edited on April 24, 2012 at 7:32 PM. Reason : s]

4/24/2012 7:29:27 PM

^ Why not this one?

http://personal.fidelity.com/products/checking/content/amex_retirement_card.shtml

Are there others that give 2%, or at least do 1.5% without having to wait a year for the extra .5%?

4/24/2012 7:32:10 PM

Foreign transaction fees. and Amex is just less universally accepted.

I chose the CapOne very reluctantly, but it has most of the features that fit the fallback card criteria. That Amex is actually the only one I know of that even gives a straight 2% anymore.

[Edited on April 24, 2012 at 7:34 PM. Reason : s]

4/24/2012 7:33:03 PM

I have an AmEx too but that is only for speshul stuffs, not for my everyday purchases. Although, after I closeout this old Capital One card, it will be my oldest account.

So it won't hurt me to close my oldest credit card account?? RIGHT FOLKS? My new one has almost 4x the cred limit anyways so hopefully it won't hurt me to close the old one.

4/24/2012 10:48:09 PM

I would never close old accounts...unless your credit score is awesome and you won't mind the hit/won't be trying to apply for credit anytime soon. But in general, just leave it open.

One of the factors in your credit score is the average age of your revolving credit accounts. I wouldn't do anything to mess up that number imo.

4/25/2012 1:05:55 AM

Likewise.

4/25/2012 9:12:07 AM

^agree 100%. Never, ever, ever close old accounts, especially if you have limited credit history. There is literally no downside to keeping it open.

I need to start looking for enticing airline mile sign-up bonuses. My frequent flyer accounts are running low. Southwest has a decent one for 50k points, but they don't (yet) fly out of Charlotte.

[Edited on April 25, 2012 at 9:22 AM. Reason : f]

4/25/2012 9:18:34 AM

Only reason to cancel it is if you're worried you might get spend happy; otherwise, keeping it would help average age and total amount of credit available.

4/25/2012 9:25:06 AM

i really want to close it mostly for OCD simplicity purposes. the limit on the old card is negligible, its by far my lowest credit limit because it was a basic card. i think im gonna close it and just pray for the best. and i do have excellent credit. i also now have a car loan which hopefully will help secure my credit score some. the old card's allowance is 5% my total credit allowance... the account is close to 8yo and my next oldest acct is 7yo. But I'll do some more interwebs research.

4/25/2012 10:40:47 AM

^can you instead request a replacement card/number and then cut it up the moment it arrives? no access!

4/25/2012 10:42:49 AM

i called yesterday to request a replacement card for the old acct. LOL i accidentally dropped the card in the toilet and flushed it a few months ago, but never had the card replaced cuz i rarely use it physically (the number is just tied to several online accts that automatically draw from it, e.g. amazon).

I guess I could keep it open... but do not want. I mean what is the point of having a card with a zero balance that I never use?

4/25/2012 10:48:16 AM

^ Age of account and available credit are treated as separate factors. As previously mentioned if you aren't paying an annual fee there really isn't an upside to closing it out. The amount of impact closing your oldest account would have depends on the age of all your other accounts.

Scenario 1:
Card A: 8 yrs old
Card B: 2 yr old
Avg account age: 5 yrs
If you close out Card A your avg age moves to 2 years.

Scenario 2:
Card A: 8 yrs old
Card B: 7 yrs old
Card C: 6 yrs old
Avg account age: 7 yrs
If you close out Card A your avg moves to 6.5 years.

Either way your average age decreases, but Scenario 1 is going to hurt more.

4/25/2012 10:52:51 AM

Ok so if you count retail cards, the change in the avg age of my credit cards is 0.2yrs.

if you only count major credit cards however...
the difference is 0.5yrs of age

i think we can make this happen!

4/25/2012 11:17:03 AM

^you shouldn't really count retail cards... they kind of fall in a different category for a variety of reasons.

Even without them, you'll be fine closing the account if you reallly have to. Sounds like you have a sufficiently long history for it not to matter too much, but you're only hurting yourself by doing it.

4/25/2012 12:30:01 PM

Just got a united mileage plus credit card with the wife.

Seems like a pretty sweet card. Anyone have one?

4/26/2012 8:44:14 PM

^I've had many over the years. Milked the 50k point sign-up bonus more times than I can count.

4/27/2012 9:07:10 AM

^ Milked for the airline miles or did you do something else with the miles/points?

4/27/2012 11:19:47 AM

Also do you mind posting a list of which particular cards are prime for the milking/which ones you've had success with?

4/27/2012 2:14:56 PM

^^Strictly for the miles. I go on vacation every chance I get, and up until very recently I never paid for plane tickets.

Chase has totally shut down the card churning. So Southwest, United, (Continental?) are pretty much a no go. If you've held this card before, they'll either give you a reduced bonus (25k) or no bonus at all. You might be able to squeak by if you wait long enough (I'm thinking years), but I don't know because I haven't tried it. I think you can still get away with it at Citi to some extent (They do the American and US Air cards, off the top of my head).

I'm mostly into the 5% for 6 months deals, as I posted earlier in the thread. Depending on how creative you get, you can earn thousands of dollars in CB. Much more lucrative than the average sign-up bonus.

You can usually churn AmEx sign up bonuses, especially with their charge cards. I've had dozens of them and never had an issue getting my bonus. Of course, those are MR points but you can use them for flights.

I've been on the lookout for enticing miles offers recently since my accounts are running low. I'll update here if I find one.

4/27/2012 3:30:31 PM

The United card ended up saving me $50 on my flight to Seattle and I get a free checked bag so I'm already happy with it

4/27/2012 3:47:48 PM

call me crazy but i just found out that miles don't actually equal real miles and that it takes like 10,000 miles to get a basic 200 dollar flight.

4/27/2012 3:55:14 PM

^you usually need ~25k minimum for a round trip flight. Sometimes, much more than that. Your miles usually end up being worth more if you use them on international flights.

[Edited on April 28, 2012 at 10:27 AM. Reason : s]

4/28/2012 10:26:36 AM

^^^^ cool thanks for the info.

This look likes a cool site: http://millionmilesecrets.com/

Here's some more:

http://boardingarea.com/blogs/frequentmiler/best-credit-card-sign-up-offers/
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/mommypoints/2012/01/24/ive-got-credit-card-churning-fever/
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfromthewing/2011/11/03/a-lesson-in-credit-card-churning-what-cards-do-you-cancel-and-when/
http://millionmilesecrets.com/credit-cards/

4/28/2012 3:21:10 PM

Def liking the MMS site. Going to look into the companion ticket deal. Looks quite nice.

4/29/2012 9:15:15 PM

Just wondering if anyone got one of the PenFed Platinum Visa cards mentioned a few pages back.

https://www.penfed.org/Platinum-Rewards/

I'm fed up with BP now and would like to see if I could find something which works in about the same way as their previous 5% rewards program did.

4/30/2012 10:37:27 AM

^ yep i got it and have been very happy so far. They do Amazon instant e-certs so I've been using the rewards to partially fund my reckless Amazon.com spending. Or you can get Visa Gift cards.

I too left BP for this card as my primary.

4/30/2012 10:53:20 AM

So I just cleared out all my BofA Visa points by getting a new ipad. Thinking of looking for another credit card that gives me better rewards. I think BofA is okay (basic rewards points that you can redeem for cash, airline miles, and merchandise), but I'm sure there's better. Here are my spending habits and situation:

- I pay off my credit car every month, therefore I never carry a balance (so interest rate isn't a big deal).
- I buy a lot of groceries and go out to eat/drink a decent amount
- Fill up my gas tank about once every two weeks.
- Haven't traveled a lot in the past 5 years, but I think that will be changing soon. So if a card is great for airlines miles, I'll look into.

4/30/2012 10:56:52 AM

I'd get the chase sapphire if you want to make a quick few hundred and southwest for two free flights.

4/30/2012 11:35:19 AM

Sweet. I'll take a look at it...thanks.

4/30/2012 11:55:56 AM

Quote :

"^ yep i got it and have been very happy so far. They do Amazon instant e-certs so I've been using the rewards to partially fund my reckless Amazon.com spending. Or you can get Visa Gift cards. I too left BP for this card as my primary."

OK, can you tell me a little about the points system? Am I understanding correctly that 100 points = $1 back? I typically only buy gas with my credit card and pay it off every month, but I could certainly consolidate other things onto it in order to maximize the points.

This is one of the things which has pissed me off about the BP card. If I'm understanding that fiasco correctly, you only get the maximum "pump rewards" by having a large balance on the card. So when I pay it off every month, I'm not getting jack squat for "rewards." I've seen the value at the pump fluctuate from $0.03 up to $0.15, but I think I've only seen $0.15 twice in two months. It's just not worth it any more.

4/30/2012 12:02:39 PM

Yeah, it's kind of a weird system. I don't have the card but did some quick reading. Traditionally 100 pts = $1, but the BP system is odd. You get cash back based on gallons bought, not money spent. At $.15 per gallon, you are essentially getting a 4% return.

4/30/2012 12:16:38 PM

Hmmm. Well, I reckon I could probably get near 250 points per month on just gas if I got that PenFed card.

I wasn't clear that the BP card was on gallons purchased. Since I'm only buying maybe 12 gallons at a time for 3-4 times per month, it's still not very good for me. I think I only get close to the maximum return at the end of the month on the last tank fill.

(I think I'm doing the estimation on this correctly, if very loosely.)

4/30/2012 1:27:32 PM

Bleh

Thank you for applying. Your application requires further review before we make a decision.

Here is what you can expect:

Our goal is to notify you in writing within 10 days; however, in some circumstances it may take up to 30 days.
If you are approved, you will receive your card and other important information in the mail.
Please do not resubmit this application.

5/1/2012 5:46:01 PM

I just got approved for the Citi Preferred with 5% back on everything for 6 months, linked earlier in the thread. The offer expires tomorrow, so jump on it if you want it.

5/2/2012 11:39:03 AM

^ I don't think that is 5% back... you get 5 points per $1 spent. Their conversion rate appears to be $.01 per 1.6pts, which I believe equates to 3.125%. I mean it's still decent, and there may be some better deals with the rewards... I didn't look through all of them. Just wanted to clarify.

https://creditcards.citi.com/credit-cards/citi-thankyou-preferred-card/

http://tinyurl.com/7znuz5y

Upon further inspection they do appear to have a "mortgage payment" reward that does seem to be $.01 per 1 point, so that would be 5%.

5/2/2012 1:18:31 PM

We've been through this. The card in question gives you a better rate on conversions to GCs, as well. Giving you 5% for mortgage credits, student loan credits, or any GC they carry.

Last day to get it!

[Edited on May 3, 2012 at 8:39 AM. Reason : l]

5/3/2012 8:38:15 AM

Wait, 5% mortgage.....what?

5/3/2012 11:57:18 AM

^^ So what's your plan...get this card and use it as your primary for 6 months, then not use it any more/ cancel it?

^^^ Check out the gift cards: https://www.thankyou.com/

5/3/2012 12:09:17 PM

Damn I was gonna sign up for it but the offer switched over at COB? to 15,000 points instead of 5% for 6 months

5/3/2012 8:07:42 PM