Credit Card Thread - Now with a Beginner's Guide to free travel/FAQ

Discussion in 'The Mainboard' started by blind dog, Apr 10, 2015.

  1. gordon bombay

    gordon bombay magician's alliance enthusiast
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    Unless it is a targeted upgrade. However, I have never seen a targeted upgrade be a better deal than the public offer.
     
  2. texasraider

    texasraider thanks
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    What if I legitimately own two businesses?
     
  3. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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    I think you're SOL
     
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  4. ButchCassidy

    ButchCassidy Well-Known Member
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    My GF got a venture card and got her 50k bonus. What’s the best way to redeem? She wanted to use cash back to help pay off other things, or something like that; our flights are covered for awhile; I was thinking booking a hotel this weekend for the local rock festival in Columbus.
     
  5. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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    It's fixed value so there's no wrong way to do it really besides straight cash back
     
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  6. ButchCassidy

    ButchCassidy Well-Known Member
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    I saw that hotels.com/venture was the way to book and redeem rewards.
     
  7. tjosu

    tjosu This is kind of like the breakfast club, huh?
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    Oklahoma State CowboysHouston AstrosHouston TexansTiger Woods

    I thought that just earned you 10x points when you book. The redemption value on that card is the same for everything I think
     
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  8. ButchCassidy

    ButchCassidy Well-Known Member
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    I was super confused by their redemption portal. I’ve only used Chase, and we were looking on her phone.
     
  9. tjosu

    tjosu This is kind of like the breakfast club, huh?
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    Oklahoma State CowboysHouston AstrosHouston TexansTiger Woods

    Yeah, full disclosure here I've never seen their site
     
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  10. Menelaus

    Menelaus The Red-Haired King
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    Alabama Crimson TideReal Madrid

    Does Chase closely watch spend on the Ink? Like I'm not going to get booted for putting a bunch of personal stuff on there right? Of course I plan on paying cable and phones with it.
     
  11. texasraider

    texasraider thanks
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    They typically only let you pay for widgets and raw material and the occasional ball bearing
     
  12. Menelaus

    Menelaus The Red-Haired King
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    Alabama Crimson TideReal Madrid

    I'm in the market for some aluminum ingot
     
  13. BrickTamland

    BrickTamland You're not Ron...
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    Florida State Seminoles

    I want to live in a world where you were making a Fletch reference.
     
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  14. texasraider

    texasraider thanks
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    It’s all ball bearings these days
     
  15. GoodForAnother

    GoodForAnother I’d rather be down the allotment
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  16. pratyk

    pratyk Arsenal FC, Rutgers Scarlet Knights
    Rutgers Scarlet KnightsArsenal

    Flyertalk ones can be absolute cunts. I just Google flyertalk threads for specific info I'm looking for. Not worth spending time on the forum per se or the meetups. Although it is deflating and fascinating to find out how much some of them on there MS.
     
    #5516 pratyk, May 16, 2018
    Last edited: May 16, 2018
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  17. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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    Reddit is all over the place. Sometimes the most helpful, sometimes dicks
     
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  18. GoodForAnother

    GoodForAnother I’d rather be down the allotment
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    Kansas State WildcatsKansas City RoyalsKansas City ChiefsSporting Kansas CityTottenham HotspurBig 8 ConferenceBig 12 ConferenceCoors LightFormula 1

    Marriott insiders is like rivals but instead of football teams they’re all fans of the same international hotel conglomerate
     
  19. Parts unknown

    Parts unknown New Member

    Why the same day? I thought you said since one was a business card it didn't matter?
     
  20. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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    It's not mandatory but I always play it safe with Chase
     
  21. Menelaus

    Menelaus The Red-Haired King
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    Alabama Crimson TideReal Madrid

  22. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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    As if I needed another reason to hate Mike Pence, in his disclosure today it was revealed that he carries a credit card balance
     
  23. GoodForAnother

    GoodForAnother I’d rather be down the allotment
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    Kansas State WildcatsKansas City RoyalsKansas City ChiefsSporting Kansas CityTottenham HotspurBig 8 ConferenceBig 12 ConferenceCoors LightFormula 1

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  24. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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    Update: exit row seats came available on my flight to Japan but my seats weren't editable at the time so my fish bought himself a fight to Japan in exit row to hold the seat for me

    I then cancelled his flight and took the seats myself

    Good fishy.
     
  25. Det. Frank Bullitt

    Det. Frank Bullitt God Bless Texas
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    Isn't your SSN required on applications? I guess you are using your own, but there is no mechanism/review to stop the same SSN from being used for multiple> many instances of exact same card???
     
  26. Arkadin

    Arkadin inefficiently efficent and unclearly clear
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    His fish doesn't have a credit card. It has an aadvantage account
     
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  27. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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    He*
     
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  28. Tiger Tiger Woods Y'all

    Tiger Tiger Woods Y'all Putting big balls in little holes, circa 1995
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    Yes but then @ohhaithur_fishy did not buy the ticket himself, ohhaithur bought the ticket for @ohhaithur_fishy under his AA account and then cancelled it.

    edit: unless @ohhaithu_fishy has enough points on his own for the ticket????

    edit edit: :runforrest:
     
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  29. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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    Ohhswimthur has a gift card, plus AA has holds so his payment never posted
     
  30. ButchCassidy

    ButchCassidy Well-Known Member
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    this thread still confuses me so much, but i cant stay out of it.
     
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  31. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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    We help anyone who asks, so ask away if you have questions not answered in the OP
     
  32. pratyk

    pratyk Arsenal FC, Rutgers Scarlet Knights
    Rutgers Scarlet KnightsArsenal

    Now that I hit the Freedom 5x UR categories for the quarter, I've started using the SPG Amex for everything but restaurants & travel (CSR) until August 1. Anyone else doing the same?
     
  33. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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    I use doublecash over SPG but otherwise yes

    I value SPG points more than 2 cents, but I have so many points that money > more points
     
  34. pratyk

    pratyk Arsenal FC, Rutgers Scarlet Knights
    Rutgers Scarlet KnightsArsenal

    I've recently used some of my points to book hotels - figured i'd stock up before the devaluation hits August 1. I can always go back to Citi Double Cash or Freedom U depending on the usecase. SPG's also adding more partners for point transfers (JetBlue esp. is of interest).
     
  35. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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    All fair points

    CFU, Doublecash and SPG are all reasonable daily cards paired with CSR and Freedom
     
  36. allothersnsused

    allothersnsused Wow that’s crazy
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    Virginia CavaliersAtlanta BravesAtlanta HawksWashington Football TeamChelsea

    May be a weird place for this question but I'm wondering if there's anything I can do:

    I got Invisalign a couple months ago and intended to pay for it with my HSA for the tax benefit. But I've been at my new company less than a year, so I didn't have enough in the account from last year + the HSA limit this year to cover it all. The dentist office offered 12 months interest free financing through a company called Synchrony so I took them up on it. I'm currently making monthly payments through the end of this year, then in early January 2019 I'll pay the balance and get it reimbursed through my HSA.

    The issue is that apparently my credit took an enormous hit from taking on this debt. It's down over a hundred points, and the only thing that has changed is this card. I think the algorithm is reading it as carrying a balance on a credit card, even though it's at 0%. I could also just be completely missing something about how the HSA works, but I still don't think I can pay it off this year. To be clear, I have plenty of liquidity to pay off the card whenever I want - it's just a matter of paying for it with pre-tax dollars.

    Is there anything I can do about it? Or should I just wait to apply for debt until next January? I can probably do that, but I've been monitoring my credit as I'm in the early stages of thinking about buying a house and it's a huge pain in the ass.
     
  37. Tiger Tiger Woods Y'all

    Tiger Tiger Woods Y'all Putting big balls in little holes, circa 1995
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    Clemson TigersGolden State WarriorsPGA

    Your actual credit or your creditkarma, credit? Not equal. You took a hard inquiry, a new line of credit (which makes overall profile younger) and probably took high utilization on that revolving line of credit (what do you owe vs total you could have taken out).

    It will recover. Unless it went from 680 to 580, I wouldn't worry about it.
     
  38. allothersnsused

    allothersnsused Wow that’s crazy
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    Virginia CavaliersAtlanta BravesAtlanta HawksWashington Football TeamChelsea

    That's probably it. Credit limit on the account is exactly what I paid, so it's still at almost full utilization.
     
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  39. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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  40. PJP3

    PJP3 Well-Known Member
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    Your question was already answered, but just FYI with those 0% synchrony loans, make absolute sure it is paid off before the 0% interest rate period is over, because if you even owe a dollar, they will back charge you the total interest accumulated at whatever rate they decided (usually teens to 20s) for the entire year. Its a shitty fine print thing with synchrony where people can get screwed big time if they aren't careful.
     
  41. allothersnsused

    allothersnsused Wow that’s crazy
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    Virginia CavaliersAtlanta BravesAtlanta HawksWashington Football TeamChelsea

    Yep, I anticipated as much. Thanks for the heads up.
     
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  42. Det. Frank Bullitt

    Det. Frank Bullitt God Bless Texas
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    Texas LonghornsManchester United

    I was going to ask best use for 100k Amex points, but I googled first - the below blog post has solid options. The 100k Amex pts seem to go much further than 100k Chase UR pts (I have mine from CSR), based on partner point redemption I'm seeing. Anything this post misses?
    https://thepointsguy.com/guide/redeeming-american-express-membership-rewards-maximum-value/



    and here is a link to a specific redemption available - first class suite on A380 on Singapore Airlines > https://thepointsguy.com/2015/06/singapore-a380-suites-review/
    With some hoops it looks like you can redeem this for 57k-67k points
    [​IMG]

    middle row for 2
    [​IMG]
     
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  43. Arkadin

    Arkadin inefficiently efficent and unclearly clear
    Donor

    Chase is a Singapore transfer partner, too.
     
  44. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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    everyone is different but my personal long-standing stance is that AMEX is significantly better for higher end redemptions well Chase is better at the lower level
     
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  45. Arkadin

    Arkadin inefficiently efficent and unclearly clear
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    Could be true, but 67.5k amex points to Singapore is the same as 67.5k chase points to Singapore.
     
  46. Arkadin

    Arkadin inefficiently efficent and unclearly clear
    Donor

    Though I can earn the chase ones faster after the sign up bonuses
     
  47. ohhaithur

    ohhaithur e-Batman
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    True but ANA is a nice one if you want a business-class redemption for cheap
     
  48. Arkadin

    Arkadin inefficiently efficent and unclearly clear
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    So is korean. There's lots of good shit out there with all the transfer partners. I was mostly pointing out that the value he pointed out for amex is also a transfer partner for his chase points, there is no difference
     
  49. Menelaus

    Menelaus The Red-Haired King
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    Alabama Crimson TideReal Madrid

    I didn’t use points (work paid for it) but did round trip on business to Tokyo last year on ANA. Absolutely fantastic experience.
     
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  50. Menelaus

    Menelaus The Red-Haired King
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    Alabama Crimson TideReal Madrid

    And the United points I accumulated as a result of the trip paid for almost all of a round trip ticket to London in December.