I love credit cards so much!

[tink1970]

Speaking of TPG, I just calculated the AF tally of what's in his wallet . The AF are impressive, for sure! His article this am somewhat explains why he has 28 or 29 cards but I don't think I'll ever get there (well, I know I won't since some are invitation only!). Interesting for sure.

 

[peel]

But the whole open jaw thing confuses me. Plus the "use BA to book a flight on another airline" etc is above me. But I'm learning

YES! It's so much harder spending the points than it is to earn them! Especially when you go into it without a destination in mind.

There is currently a deal with Aer Lingus when flying out of BDL (my home airport)--they're giving a free RT ticket within Europe when you buy a RT ticket from BDL-DUB. Amazing deal, especially when I can transfer UR to BA. But you have to compete travel by June and I just came back from England, so I can't take another long vacation yet.

 

[elgerber]

Question for you guys on the Chase 5/24 rule. I am wayyyyy over 5/24 at this point. I got an email from Marriott offering me their card and the 80000 bonus points. I last got the Marriott Bonus in the fall of 2013. I am not quite sure when I closed it, I paid my last annual fee in October of 2015, so sometime in mid 2016 I closed it. Do you think this would be considered a targeted offer? My score is over 800 so if they deny me it's not a big deal right?

 

[Albort]

Question for you guys on the Chase 5/24 rule. I am wayyyyy over 5/24 at this point. I got an email from Marriott offering me their card and the 80000 bonus points. I last got the Marriott Bonus in the fall of 2013. I am not quite sure when I closed it, I paid my last annual fee in October of 2015, so sometime in mid 2016 I closed it. Do you think this would be considered a targeted offer? My score is over 800 so if they deny me it's not a big deal right?

bonuses usually need a 24 month break to qualify again. if your over 5/24, there is a chance you may get denied. You may need to check your chase app --> Pre approved offers to see if its offered there. if it is, you can bypass the 5/24 rule.

If your in need of Marriott points, would suggest the Starwood Amex card considered that they are both under the Marriott brand. That should get you around the 5/24.

 

[elgerber]

bonuses usually need a 24 month break to qualify again. if your over 5/24, there is a chance you may get denied. You may need to check your chase app --> Pre approved offers to see if its offered there. if it is, you can bypass the 5/24 rule.

If your in need of Marriott points, would suggest the Starwood Amex card considered that they are both under the Marriott brand. That should get you around the 5/24.

Ha, yeah, DH and I both already have the Starwood Card .

 

[disneedee]

My dad thought for sure I was doing something illegal Others swear I'm risking my credit score and then don't believe me when I tell them it from low 700's to well over 800. Those who do listen tell me it all sounds complicated and exhausting and that I should teach classes on how to do this. I try to explain that I barely know what I'm doing and it works for me. Ah well. I don't care. They can believe what they want while I plan my next trip.

Yeah, I follow TPG and a few others. I can manage booking award flights in first since that is what we usually do. What I still have a hard time wrapping my head around is how to book the free one ways available on some airlines with open jaw and stop over award tickets.

calypso726 i just got my BA award points and want to use them on AS. i know it is tricky, can you instruct me on that? think i have to check AA for AS award seats?

 

[mhartman09]

Anyone here use MS to meet minimum spends? I've been reading about this on reddit and it appears easy enough to understand. I totally get it can be risky (similar to the way churning gift cards is risky if you get stuck with all your eggs in one basket). I'm not really wanting to do this in huge amounts, maybe just enough to meet minimum spend on a card while DH is organically meeting minimum spend on a different card. I'm thinking of going the money order route, but not sure how I should handle deposits. All these wonderful banks I see folks on reddit posting about with the great bonuses are not found anywhere near me, some not anywhere near my state...LOL. Just hoping to hear from someone who might have experience with this.

 

[havaneselover]

Anyone here use MS to meet minimum spends? I've been reading about this on reddit and it appears easy enough to understand. I totally get it can be risky (similar to the way churning gift cards is risky if you get stuck with all your eggs in one basket). I'm not really wanting to do this in huge amounts, maybe just enough to meet minimum spend on a card while DH is organically meeting minimum spend on a different card. I'm thinking of going the money order route, but not sure how I should handle deposits. All these wonderful banks I see folks on reddit posting about with the great bonuses are not found anywhere near me, some not anywhere near my state...LOL. Just hoping to hear from someone who might have experience with this.

I opened a PNC bank account and used my csr to fund $2k on it to make the minimum spend on that card. I also got $200 from pnc. Just had to lower my cash advance on my csr as low as possible to protect it from being coded as a cash advance.

 

[mhartman09]

I opened a PNC bank account and used my csr to fund $2k on it to make the minimum spend on that card. I also got $200 from pnc. Just had to lower my cash advance on my csr as low as possible to protect it from being coded as a cash advance.

Thanks for the response. PNC is actually one of the banks I've seen discussed on reddit and elsewhere. However, there are no PNC banks in Louisiana at all.

 

[MrPTato]

Anyone here use MS to meet minimum spends? I've been reading about this on reddit and it appears easy enough to understand. I totally get it can be risky (similar to the way churning gift cards is risky if you get stuck with all your eggs in one basket). I'm not really wanting to do this in huge amounts, maybe just enough to meet minimum spend on a card while DH is organically meeting minimum spend on a different card. I'm thinking of going the money order route, but not sure how I should handle deposits. All these wonderful banks I see folks on reddit posting about with the great bonuses are not found anywhere near me, some not anywhere near my state...LOL. Just hoping to hear from someone who might have experience with this.

I did this for a little bit on the Target redbird when you could reload with a credit card and then pay the bill off by using its bill pay feature to pay the credit card bill. Worked nice for the 3 months I could do it, then they shut that feature off.

When I need to hit spend, I pay my mortgage with my credit card until the spend is met. The small fee is worth the bigger rewards.

 

[mhartman09]

I did this for a little bit on the Target redbird when you could reload with a credit card and then pay the bill off by using its bill pay feature to pay the credit card bill. Worked nice for the 3 months I could do it, then they shut that feature off.

When I need to hit spend, I pay my mortgage with my credit card until the spend is met. The small fee is worth the bigger rewards.

Thanks for this response also. So far for minimum spends, we've just been putting all the spend we can onto the new card. This hasn't been an issue for meeting spend on a single card at a time, but I don't think we'd be able to manage more than 1 card at a time totally organically like that. While our mortgage payment would help tremendously, unfortunately we do not have the option to make this payment via a credit card. Our home is financed through our credit union and their website only allows payment direct from a bank account. I surely wish I'd be able to put this payment on a card and reap the rewards though.

 

[MrPTato]

Thanks for this response also. So far for minimum spends, we've just been putting all the spend we can onto the new card. This hasn't been an issue for meeting spend on a single card at a time, but I don't think we'd be able to manage more than 1 card at a time totally organically like that. While our mortgage payment would help tremendously, unfortunately we do not have the option to make this payment via a credit card. Our home is financed through our credit union and their website only allows payment direct from a bank account. I surely wish I'd be able to put this payment on a card and reap the rewards though.

Sending message.

 

[Albort]

Anyone here use MS to meet minimum spends? I've been reading about this on reddit and it appears easy enough to understand. I totally get it can be risky (similar to the way churning gift cards is risky if you get stuck with all your eggs in one basket). I'm not really wanting to do this in huge amounts, maybe just enough to meet minimum spend on a card while DH is organically meeting minimum spend on a different card. I'm thinking of going the money order route, but not sure how I should handle deposits. All these wonderful banks I see folks on reddit posting about with the great bonuses are not found anywhere near me, some not anywhere near my state...LOL. Just hoping to hear from someone who might have experience with this.

MS is tricky and risky. For one, the credit card company can shut you down for it. They dont like it. The next thing you might get shut down for is depositing a lot of MO. You should probably find a burner bank for depositing and then possibly transfer them in your main bank. You should do a test run first before you go for the higher value.
Some ways to Organically meet minimums are to overpay your bills. Utility companies will allow a certain amount over. The next option is to buy gift cards.

Thanks for this response also. So far for minimum spends, we've just been putting all the spend we can onto the new card. This hasn't been an issue for meeting spend on a single card at a time, but I don't think we'd be able to manage more than 1 card at a time totally organically like that. While our mortgage payment would help tremendously, unfortunately we do not have the option to make this payment via a credit card. Our home is financed through our credit union and their website only allows payment direct from a bank account. I surely wish I'd be able to put this payment on a card and reap the rewards though.

plastiq.com should do the trick. Problem is, you will pay a 2% fee on top of whatever u pay. probably works to just make the minimum via this method. They basically send the bank a check... you can see if that works for your credit union.

 

[Aanna]

Thanks for this response also. So far for minimum spends, we've just been putting all the spend we can onto the new card. This hasn't been an issue for meeting spend on a single card at a time, but I don't think we'd be able to manage more than 1 card at a time totally organically like that. While our mortgage payment would help tremendously, unfortunately we do not have the option to make this payment via a credit card. Our home is financed through our credit union and their website only allows payment direct from a bank account. I surely wish I'd be able to put this payment on a card and reap the rewards though.

I've done a few things to accelerate spend for bonuses. Two ways simply time-shifted my spending. The best was prepaying my propane company. Leading up to winter we have a goodly bit of money stashed away to pay for propane in the cold months. I just called our company and asked to prepay $1,000. They were not only pleased, but I've actually been getting monthly interest on my balance! The second way was to buy gift cards for my regular grocery store. Again, this only worked well because I budget out 1-2 months ahead, so I bought enough gift cards to cover a future month's groceries. This might not be ideal if you need that money to organically meet a spend on another card.

As for other bills, Plastiq will take credit cards for things like mortgage and car payments. Their fees are 2.5%ish, so it's not usually worthwhile. You might also have an issue if you're trying to pay with a Visa and that payee does not yet have a relationship with Plastiq. Still, to finish off a spend it can sometimes be worth it.

Taxes can be paid for a lowish fee using credit cards, and I was surprised to find that my electric bill could be paid for a ~$2 flat fee directly through my electric company's website.

Finally, I have had luck with buying visa debit gift cards when they were fee-free and using them to load a Bluebird account and pay my bills from there, too. That process was cumbersome, and I had to get a Walmart teller to load the funds for me -- which meant I had to talk to a human being IRL <GASP>. I still have that method as a possibility if there is ever a really great deal on Visa gift cards, but I'll not go out of my way otherwise.

 

[peel]

The second way was to buy gift cards for my regular grocery store. Again, this only worked well because I budget out 1-2 months ahead, so I bought enough gift cards to cover a future month's groceries. This might not be ideal if you need that money to organically meet a spend on another card.

As for other bills, Plastiq will take credit cards for things like mortgage and car payments. Their fees are 2.5%ish, so it's not usually worthwhile. You might also have an issue if you're trying to pay with a Visa and that payee does not yet have a relationship with Plastiq. Still, to finish off a spend it can sometimes be worth it.

I've used Plastiq for my mortgage to meet minimum spend quickly. I'm fine with the 2.5% when I'm trying to quickly get the bonuses, but I don't use it for regular monthly payments because the fee outweighs the regular point accumulation.
For the Freedom 5%, I buy gift cards to get the maximum bonus points. It's easy when the categories include drug stores or grocery stores, but right now it's gas stations, which can be more tricky. I thought I was out of luck, but I just found a 7-Eleven (no gas station attached) that codes as gas and let me buy a gift card with a credit card, so I think I can max out the category this quarter after all.

I haven't tried the MS methods yet, although I found out that Webster Bank is MO friendly, and since I'm about to sign up for a checking account there for a bonus, I'm thinking I might keep the account rather than closing after the bonus posts and try some MS there. I don't know why, but the thought of it gives me anxiety.

 

[lorijohnhill]

I haven't gotten through all the pages and can't keep what I have read straight. I was trying to do the Southwest Premier and Southwest Plus strategy to work easier towards the Companion Pass. I applied for the SWPlus and got a message that said they need to look more into it and look for mail in 30 days. When I tried to apply for the SW Premier it wouldn't give me the application, it just said they had my info. Was I supposed to wait for an approval for the Plus before applying for the Premier? Is the "wait for mail in 30 days" response common or a sign I will be denied?

 

[calypso726]

calypso726 i just got my BA award points and want to use them on AS. i know it is tricky, can you instruct me on that? think i have to check AA for AS award seats?

I personally have not done it yet but have read up on it. My understanding is you use the same process for booking AA with BA Avios. Search the AA site for saver awards. If AA has an AS flight in the saver award column then the flight can be booked with BA Avios through BA.

 

[mhartman09]

MS is tricky and risky. For one, the credit card company can shut you down for it. They dont like it. The next thing you might get shut down for is depositing a lot of MO. You should probably find a burner bank for depositing and then possibly transfer them in your main bank. You should do a test run first before you go for the higher value.
Some ways to Organically meet minimums are to overpay your bills. Utility companies will allow a certain amount over. The next option is to buy gift cards.


plastiq.com should do the trick. Problem is, you will pay a 2% fee on top of whatever u pay. probably works to just make the minimum via this method. They basically send the bank a check... you can see if that works for your credit union.

I've done a few things to accelerate spend for bonuses. Two ways simply time-shifted my spending. The best was prepaying my propane company. Leading up to winter we have a goodly bit of money stashed away to pay for propane in the cold months. I just called our company and asked to prepay $1,000. They were not only pleased, but I've actually been getting monthly interest on my balance! The second way was to buy gift cards for my regular grocery store. Again, this only worked well because I budget out 1-2 months ahead, so I bought enough gift cards to cover a future month's groceries. This might not be ideal if you need that money to organically meet a spend on another card.

As for other bills, Plastiq will take credit cards for things like mortgage and car payments. Their fees are 2.5%ish, so it's not usually worthwhile. You might also have an issue if you're trying to pay with a Visa and that payee does not yet have a relationship with Plastiq. Still, to finish off a spend it can sometimes be worth it.

Taxes can be paid for a lowish fee using credit cards, and I was surprised to find that my electric bill could be paid for a ~$2 flat fee directly through my electric company's website.

Finally, I have had luck with buying visa debit gift cards when they were fee-free and using them to load a Bluebird account and pay my bills from there, too. That process was cumbersome, and I had to get a Walmart teller to load the funds for me -- which meant I had to talk to a human being IRL <GASP>. I still have that method as a possibility if there is ever a really great deal on Visa gift cards, but I'll not go out of my way otherwise.

I've used Plastiq for my mortgage to meet minimum spend quickly. I'm fine with the 2.5% when I'm trying to quickly get the bonuses, but I don't use it for regular monthly payments because the fee outweighs the regular point accumulation.
For the Freedom 5%, I buy gift cards to get the maximum bonus points. It's easy when the categories include drug stores or grocery stores, but right now it's gas stations, which can be more tricky. I thought I was out of luck, but I just found a 7-Eleven (no gas station attached) that codes as gas and let me buy a gift card with a credit card, so I think I can max out the category this quarter after all.

I haven't tried the MS methods yet, although I found out that Webster Bank is MO friendly, and since I'm about to sign up for a checking account there for a bonus, I'm thinking I might keep the account rather than closing after the bonus posts and try some MS there. I don't know why, but the thought of it gives me anxiety.

I've definitely been looking into some of the banks available in my area. I'd preferably like to locate one I've seen reported as MO friendly, but that doesn't seem to be easy at all, so I may just have to take a chance opening a new account someplace local and see what happens. I've read smaller banks and credit unions are usually more "ok" with MOs, but I definitely don't want to ruin my relationship with either my current credit union (home loan, 2 car loans, and 3 other accounts there) or my primary bank (a savings and a checking account) just to MS. There are a few other smaller local type banks in my area I might be able to try. I suppose I'm just hesitant because of the lack of data points regarding any of the institutions in my area. My plan is to definitely start small, no matter what route I take because I have to make sure it will work with what is available to me. I know the only way to find out is to actually try.

I did some research on plastiq and while it does appear to be a viable method to meet minimum spend, it's hard for me to pull the trigger with that fee. I'd imagine going the GC to MO method, then sending the MO directly to my mortgage lender would be cheaper on my end. I'm waiting on a secure message back from them to find out if they accept MO as a form of payment.

I will keep my eye out for any fee free deals on gift cards. That's definitely an option. I'll also look into possibly prepaying some of our regular monthly expenses. Thank you all for the wonderful suggestions.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

I did this for a little bit on the Target redbird when you could reload with a credit card and then pay the bill off by using its bill pay feature to pay the credit card bill. Worked nice for the 3 months I could do it, then they shut that feature off.

When I need to hit spend, I pay my mortgage with my credit card until the spend is met. The small fee is worth the bigger rewards.

How do you pay mortgage with cc? I have never figured it out. Right now Chase holds our mortgage but I've never been able to pay with CC for any mortgage company.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

How do you pay mortgage with cc? I have never figured it out. Right now Chase holds our mortgage but I've never been able to pay with CC for any mortgage company.

Ok I see plastiq mentioned above. Never even heard of it before.

I can usually meet spend paying utilities and usual bills. Cell phone & cable/internet are each almost $200 per month.
I usually end up with at least one bog bill, like taxes or insurance, due during the timeframe. Last year I spent 4K over a couple months on my sick pup, which helped meet spend on a couple card. Lucky me