Quote :

"can you clarify this for me? transfer points to "where" vs. redeem for travel? can't you transfer UR points to various other points systems for 1:1?"

Think that's what he means by transferring to a partner like United, etc. You can also book travel directly through ultimate rewards and get a 20% discount assuming you have one of the annual fee cards.

7/31/2014 3:25:29 PM

wahoowa,

As stated earlier in the thread - I'm not eligible for either cc bonus as I already have them.

Synapse - that link you sent - Ive pretty much had all the travel cards. If I apply for any of them again I would qualify for the bonus

[Edited on July 31, 2014 at 3:28 PM. Reason : ]

7/31/2014 3:26:15 PM

Quote :

"Didn't you just redeem a bunch of points for international travel?"

No, I redeemed miles for travel.

Quote :

"Think that's what he means by transferring to a partner like United, etc. You can also book travel directly through ultimate rewards and get a 20% discount assuming you have one of the annual fee cards."

Ding Ding Ding
------------------------------
What about the citi AA 100K card? Is that still around?
Have you gotten both starwood cards?

[Edited on July 31, 2014 at 5:06 PM. Reason : ]

7/31/2014 5:03:36 PM

Quote :

"This is interesting: http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2014/03/21/churning-crackdown-worries-credit-card-rewards-chasers/ Also I've never been here before but it looks pretty interesting: http://www.dansdeals.com/"

Yeah, I've looked at dans a few times when other sites cite him but I don't read it regularly.
I read that article back in March and applied for my last duplicate amex card the last day possible. I think it's just on personal cards last I checked.

7/31/2014 5:11:44 PM

Just obtained my first ever credit card through Bank of America (BankAmericard Cash Rewards). Yeah, a little late in the game, but my parents really didn't help with building up my credit growing up and I've had to learn to be financially responsible on my own. Have a $1k limit to start out w/ $300 cash credit line, and I'm hoping to build up enough credit to hopefully purchase a house at least by next year. Any recommendations for a credit card newbie?

8/1/2014 10:23:09 AM

Chase United Cards are offering 50k until Sept 1 I believe

8/5/2014 10:08:40 AM

So I'm looking at a Europe trip in the spring. What's my best play...stock up on AA cards?

Any other ideas?

8/5/2014 10:13:15 AM

I'm planning for a trip to Europe next fall/winter too and I was thinking about stocking up on Hilton points by throwing in a Citi HHonors every time I go through a round of apps and then get the Reserve for two weekend nights. If my wife and I each get 2-3 of them, that should be enough for 5-6 nights somewhere decent, I think.

We should have enough miles through CSP/United cards for the flights after I get us each one of these 50k United offers.

8/5/2014 10:25:46 AM

^^ No more stopovers allowed with AA. I'd do united + chase pts if possible.

^ You could also get the citi hilton with 2 free nights each in addition to just pts cards

8/5/2014 10:48:46 AM

What's a stopover? Why is that a negative?

8/5/2014 10:52:29 AM

^^ Isn't that the Reserve?

8/5/2014 10:55:50 AM

^ Yes, I believe so.

^^ A stopover is a free stop where you initially enter a new region.
So, I had planned to go to Paris for 4 days, but since I get a free stopover I'm going to go for Munich for 2 days first and then Paris for 4 days, for the same amount of miles.

8/5/2014 11:13:22 AM

Blarg, chase wouldn't match the mariott offer I signed up for to give me the free night
Got pre-approved for Global Entry but no appts the day I'll be in Charlotte

8/5/2014 3:54:18 PM

pre approval is amazing - I thought I heard you could do it in raleigh now

8/5/2014 10:02:29 PM

Nah, not the interview.

8/6/2014 9:33:49 AM

Need to get on my next churn before Europe.
I'm eyeing the Capital One Venture card but don't really have any others picked out
Any thoughts on Avios (British Airways) vs Alaska miles?
Don't really know a ton about each of their programs specifically partners.
May look into getting the IHG rewards card as well.

8/6/2014 9:47:22 AM

My opinion shouldn't be worth anything, but I feel Avios are a pain in the ass to use. Everything has high fees, limited seats, and sometimes the only way to Europe was out of PHILLY/NYC in which case I had to get myself there.

^what is the current Venture bonus?

[Edited on August 6, 2014 at 9:53 AM. Reason : ]

8/6/2014 9:53:09 AM

Yeah, I had planned to most likely use Avios for short domestic flights out of Southwest's range or Central/South America. Flights which would incur no fuel surcharges

http://milevalue.com/when-does-british-airways-add-fuel-surcharges-to-avios-awards/

" The current offer gives you 40,000 miles when you spend $3,000 on purchases within the first 3 months. 40,000 miles is equal to $400 towards travel, and the $59 annual fee is waived for the first year. This is the primo Capital One card, and the bonus has been as low as 10,000 miles for over a year. "

Also need to find a new citi and amex card to go along with the churn.

8/6/2014 9:59:12 AM

ok going to dip my toe in MS with Amazon...

Question: if I'm only sending via CC and my wife's account will be doing all the withdrawing to our bank account, will our joint checking account work to both of us so I can get to the $1000 limit? I don't want to have to open a new checking account if I don't have to.

Everywhere else has all this crazy shit going on with 6 different accounts so I was getting confused.

[Edited on August 6, 2014 at 4:24 PM. Reason : .]

8/6/2014 4:23:34 PM

I wouldn't use the same account for two different profiles.

8/6/2014 4:56:41 PM

Think it's risky to have her use a joint one too?

8/6/2014 4:59:09 PM

If you're only doing A -> B, and withdrawing at B, I don't see why it would matter what bank account you withdraw to. I don't think Amazon is going to be checking with the bank to see whose name(s) is on the bank account. They don't even look at far more obvious similarities between AP accounts...

If you're going to be doing this on a larger scale, set up a 3rd Amazon account and get a triangle going on for $3000/month MS.

8/6/2014 5:33:23 PM

http://slickdeals.net/f/7123444-discover-it-credit-card-150-off-750-or-100-off-500-in-3-months-phone-application-and-offer-code?v=1

finally a good offer on the Discover IT card, if anyone has been waiting for a signup bonus

8/9/2014 3:00:20 PM

Thanks. I'll probably add that to the list of cards I plan on applying for next week.
Looks like my 40K wells fargo propel points just hit. I can convert that to straight cash which is nice.
Also finally got my 30K pts from US Bank from their olympics promo, but I have to redeem them through their damn portal.

8/9/2014 10:12:30 PM

So wait what's so great about that card? Isn't it just $100?

8/9/2014 10:18:08 PM

$150, but it's a good 5% rotating card and Discover offers excellent additional cash back on online orders if you order through their portal

8/9/2014 10:25:16 PM

Oh I missed the rotating 5% thing.

I have a Freedom though and don't use it much Maybe I should pay closer attention to the categories, but I already get 5% or close to it on most categories. I know the rotating ones do home improvement places from time to time and that would be pretty helpful for me.

8/9/2014 11:14:59 PM

this will be my third 5% rotating (Chase Freedom and Citi Dividend World), but the big seller to this one is the Shop Discover portal

https://www.discover.com/credit-cards/cashback-bonus/shopdiscover.html

I think for a while, Advanced Auto was at 25% total. Lowes and Home Depot get covered a lot too since you mentioned home improvement

8/9/2014 11:33:35 PM

Nice. I'm back up to 1 million pts/miles so trying to grab as much straight cash as possible each churn.

8/9/2014 11:53:44 PM

Annual fee hit for the bold. Called in and got a free 3K pts.

8/10/2014 1:54:11 AM

is this offer any good?

https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/marriottpremier/naep50p1kshv1/promo?CELL=6H8X&AFFID=NKa3hZyYoHA-GLlLN4bOwWX6luuebdMCEw&pvid=VUBkcjh3b0JDalFBQUZNM2l2WUFBQUE0&jp_cmp=cc/341704/aff/3-10002258/na

8/10/2014 8:56:57 AM

read the last two pages

8/10/2014 9:25:37 AM

This might have already been posted, but just a heads up for anyone with the Southwest cards....once you receive your anniversary bonus points in your account, call to cancel the card and they drop the annual fee charge so you end up getting free points.

8/12/2014 10:16:19 AM

^^^^i still don't get how you're always able to do that. The last time I threatened to cancel she offered to transfer me to the cancellation dept

8/12/2014 11:12:47 PM

I just cancelled like 5 cards. On the ones where I had just paid a fee they offered to send me a check for the fee, with no strings. They gave me the $ that I had just given them, and still let me cancel the card. Blew my mind.

[Edited on August 13, 2014 at 12:52 AM. Reason : and I'm sure I was talking to the "cancellation department" when that happened]

8/13/2014 12:52:09 AM

^^ I never threatened to cancel. Just asked for the fee to be reimbursed. When she couldn't do that she offered 3k pts. With my two citi AA personal cards the fee was completely reimbursed.

8/13/2014 10:02:57 AM

Anyone have recommendations on a card to open to earn money for a future cruise (May/June 2015)? I saw something online about the Barclay Arrival Plus card. Anyone have any experience with that card or recommend something else? Preferably looking for $0 annual fee or at least the first year waived. Minimums and APR don't really matter.

8/13/2014 1:24:29 PM

Each year on my Citi AA Visa card when the $85 annual fee is charged I call in and threaten to cancel and they credit me $95 each time. Not sure why they keep giving me $10 for free and why they dont catch that, but Ill take it.

8/13/2014 1:27:21 PM

And then if you cancel the card after they charge the fee they will give you that money back too

8/13/2014 1:48:34 PM

^^^

I'd def recommend that card.
Also looking to get the Capital One® Venture® Rewards Credit Card for my next cruise too.

^^ Hah. They did the same thing for me too. Thought it was pretty weird.

[Edited on August 13, 2014 at 1:59 PM. Reason : ]

8/13/2014 1:59:08 PM

^
Looking at the Capital One Venture card, it looks like it has the same set up as the Barclay card, with a lower annual fee. Am I missing something? Seems like that's the way to go. Although I do see you get 10% miles back with travel purchases on the Barclay card. Not sure it would really add up to much, but maybe I'm wrong.

8/13/2014 3:02:27 PM

From what I've read, it seems to me redeeming for travel is a lot easier thru Arrival than Venture (more things qualify, better customer service, etc.). If it's a card you're going to keep long-term, I'd take that into consideration as well.

FWIW, I have the Arrival Plus and I'm probably going to get the Venture too.

8/13/2014 3:12:37 PM

^^

Quote :

"Arrival Plus recently added chip and pin technology, which allows you to use the card in many locations abroad that don’t accept the swipe-and-sign style of credit card common in the US. The Capital One card doesn’t even have Chip + Signature yet (like many other travel cards)"

http://thepointsguy.com/2014/06/capital-one-venture-rewards-vs-barclaycard-arrival-plus/

8/13/2014 3:42:04 PM

^
That helped a lot, thanks. Just got approved for the Barclay card.

8/13/2014 4:02:33 PM

just got my Discover It in the mail; it's so nice to have US based customer service to talk to. yet another perk about this card for those on the fence

8/13/2014 4:25:36 PM

Don't put too much stock in chip-and-pin. I didn't have any trouble over in Europe with swiping cards. A few times I had issues with the chip and found it faster and easier to just swipe. The only place you will definitely need a chip is some automated ticket booths in the Paris metro.

8/13/2014 11:11:06 PM

Which is exactly where I'm going in 3 weeks

8/13/2014 11:22:03 PM

So what's the deal with cruises? Looks like that Barclay card gets you $400 of travel? Is there some way to exploit that award for a cruise?

8/13/2014 11:32:16 PM

Yes, if you charge cruise stuff to your card.
There's no stupid portal to go through if that's what you're asking.

[Edited on August 13, 2014 at 11:47 PM. Reason : ]

8/13/2014 11:46:51 PM

^^^ enjoy! My wife and I had a blast in Paris (spent a week there) and are ready to go back. Hell, she wants to move there permanently haha.

8/14/2014 2:50:06 PM