I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[biochemgirl]

I'm hoping for some advice on leveraging my very small ebay sales ($300 over 5 months) into a business for the purposes of getting a business credit card. Specifically, I use Alaska Airlines and would want their card through BofA. I want the associated companion fair but of course will use the points too.

Can anyone provide instruction on how to increase approval odds? What do business applications use in determining credit worthines? Can it help or hurt that I already have their personal card?

Thanks for your help

 

[Judique]

Booked a Disney Trip this weekend for May 9-16th. We rent points from friend of ours (he basically just charges us the annual dues he pays). We like staying at BWV and there was not much left already in any of the DVC rooms. So, we got a 1 Bedroom Pool/Garden View at BWV. Usually get a Studio - only me and DS21 and DD19 (DH is not a fan). Will be nice to have the extra room and full kitchen and washer/dryer. Fingers crossed that park hopping will be back by then and hopefully masks will be relaxed a bit (at least outside).

There really was no other times as DS will be graduating college the day before we leave so not sure where he will be job wise and DD hopefully will be in the Nursing Program (she applies in February) so she could be pretty busy too. We will make the best of it - not matter what is going on.

I have Citi Points I am using for the tickets and have around $1700 in Disney Gift Cards - so that will cover food and anything else.

It's difficult to go back to studios once you do a one bedroom. I now almost always do 1 bedrooms or two bedrooms at Hilton Head, but still mostly studios at Disney.

The times I've done a larger unit at Disney were when I knew in advance I'd have at least 3 people. But even as a single I look at the one bedrooms when I go and have many times considered splitting the stay to make a more affordable trip, points wise. (Cash is not happening - not paying $5 to 600 for it.)

Hope it all works out perfectly and you get to enjoy this trip with your kids. At that age the space will be amazing for their ages.

 

[alryan]

We have never used the priority benefits, any tips? We are a family of 4 and DH has the CSR & Brilliant which both have the benefits.

I've only used PP at a lounge where you have to pay per person, unlike the restaurant like @ski_mom mentioned. In the case of the Club Lounge at MCO they would only let me use one card at a time. So with the CSR you get the cardholder plus 2 guests. So that wouldn't get our family of five in. I'm not sure what the Brilliant benefit is, but AmEx Hilton Biz is 10 visits/year, so we used that instead. I'd love to use the restaurant benefit, but haven't been to an airport that offers it. Sounds like for you the Pasta House restaurant would work well.

 

[Judique]

I'm hoping for some advice on leveraging my very small ebay sales ($300 over 5 months) into a business for the purposes of getting a business credit card. Specifically, I use Alaska Airlines and would want their card through BofA. I want the associated companion fair but of course will use the points too.

Can anyone provide instruction on how to increase approval odds? What do business applications use in determining credit worthines? Can it help or hurt that I already have their personal card?

Thanks for your help

Others will jump in about the business part, but with BOA having the personal card should help, not hurt. Good luck!

 

[elgerber]

I'm sorry, is the credit non-transferable?

Yes it's non-transferable. Better than paying cash for a flight and getting a credit I can never use.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

I have my Biz Aviator card in hand! Wooooo! Shouldn't be hard to hit that spending. And then I need to figure out how to get DD a card for the extra miles bonus.

My two Staples are out of VGC. Grrrr. I think I'll hit OD today and see if I can get lucky there. I'm $3100 away from the FNC with Hilton, which has been my goal w/ the VGC. I guess if I can get a few of the OD cards, every little bit helps. I need to cancel my Hilton Biz card as I think the AF posts next month. That will give me 3 Amex cards, and the opportunity to add a new card at some point.

And now I need to choose how I want to hit Chase. Debating the CIC or the IHG(free). I think I've ruled out the Bonvoy offer. With nothing planned the 5 FNC doesn't make sense right now. And as a teacher, I can't always do off season offers to maximize the value. I'm at 3/24. So I guess I could do the IHG now (since it's an elevated offer), and hold off on the CIC. That's not going anywhere and I don't need an URs anytime soon. And then I can attack the list of other cards I want to do, LOL.

CIC/CIU
Citi AA (personal)
Hilton Amex (free)
Hyatt? (I never stay at them)
Get back into Bonvoy?

 

[alryan]

I'm hoping for some advice on leveraging my very small ebay sales ($300 over 5 months) into a business for the purposes of getting a business credit card. Specifically, I use Alaska Airlines and would want their card through BofA. I want the associated companion fair but of course will use the points too.

Can anyone provide instruction on how to increase approval odds? What do business applications use in determining credit worthines? Can it help or hurt that I already have their personal card?

Thanks for your help

You should have enough there to apply for a biz card. For the most part they are really looking at you personal credit score and personal factors. When you fill out the application make sure you just use your first and last name for the business name and SSN instead of EIN. Bank of America is kind of hit or miss. Should help that you have a personal. Here is some general info on BoA.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/things-everybody-should-know-about-bank-of-america/

 

[wanderlust7]

We have never used the priority benefits, any tips? We are a family of 4 and DH has the CSR & Brilliant which both have the benefits.

You can't use the Amex Priority Pass at restaurants. You can use your CSR PP though. The PP cards will look the same. There's some way to tell from the numbering, but easier to stick a sticker on it.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

We are flying out of STL on Friday. We usually use our Priority Pass at the pasta house restaurant and get $56 to use. There is a new lounge that is open called Wingtips Lounge. I was wondering if anyone has by chance used it. I'd like to check it out, but hate to not eat at the Pasta House! Can we use the pass at the Pasta House and then use it to check out the new lounge? I checked and they are both open. I was happy to see that, we flew in July and they were both closed at that time, so we had to pay to eat at Burger King .

I don't see why not. You might even want to consider entering the lounge and getting food from Pasta House to eat on the plane (take out). I have had success at one of the PP restaurants in MIA allowing take-out with my PP. Just keep in mind these restaurants can be slow during busy times and leave enough time to get the food and board.

 

[Amex RAT]

FYI: reports of Amex shutdowns circulating. Anybody here hit??

No details on what’s causing it yet...

https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/jenawd/_/g9hti0i

Me.

I’d be shocked that anybody in here was doing anything shady enough to get shutdown by AMEX. This isn’t based on application velocity or bust out. It’s gotta be abuse of some sort.

Don’t be so sure.

The takeaway here is keep your nose clean with Amex.

Always a good idea.

 

[becauseimnew]

Me.

Ouch! I'm sorry.

 

[LynnTH]

Just booked my Disney Tickets with Citi Thank You Points. Called Citi and got connected to Cruise and Tours. She was able to do it no problem, although the computers were very slow and probably on the line for 50 minutes. I had just enough points for 3- 7 Day tickets using my Citi Premier so points were worth an extra 25%. (Had 400 points to spare...). Got the confirmation from them right away and was able to connect the tickets to My Disney Experience. Now to reserve park days for each day.

 

[LB002]

We are thinking of redeeming our remaining URs on resurfacing our deck with composite planks. Has anyone here installed the basic Trex Enhance (Lowe’s) or Veranda (Home Depot) decking and been happy with the results?

I know this post was from last week, so I'm not sure if you are still in decision mode. We redid our deck last summer, and after comparing various products went with basic gray Trex from Lowes (there was an amex promo!) With brown Trex accent (it was a more specialty color so more $). When comparing to TimberTek we could do the deck 2x for the price difference and decided to go with the more budget friendly Trex.

 

[Amex RAT]

Ouch! I'm sorry.

I think you misunderstand what I was respond to.

No details on what’s causing it yet...

It was me.

 

[becauseimnew]

I think you misunderstand what I was respond to.

ohh... I thought you were saying you got hit.

 

[jaysraptor]

Just booked my Disney Tickets with Citi Thank You Points. Called Citi and got connected to Cruise and Tours. She was able to do it no problem, although the computers were very slow and probably on the line for 50 minutes. I had just enough points for 3- 7 Day tickets using my Citi Premier so points were worth an extra 25%. (Had 400 points to spare...). Got the confirmation from them right away and was able to connect the tickets to My Disney Experience. Now to reserve park days for each day.

That is pretty much the same plan we are following. P2 finished her Citi Premier MSR last week and my card should be here this week. We need 4 tickets, but will only be doing Disney parks for 4 days and not park hopping. We are also planning on hitting USO for 2 days.

 

[LynnTH]

That is pretty much the same plan we are following. P2 finished her Citi Premier MSR last week and my card should be here this week. We need 4 tickets, but will only be doing Disney parks for 4 days and not park hopping. We are also planning on hitting USO for 2 days.

That was the main reason for getting these cards was for the Disney Tickets. Didn't want to use my precious UR's for these - I like to hoard them. And I didn't have any other redemptions for these so worked out great.

 

[afan]

ohh... I thought you were saying you got hit.

Someone trying to be funny. Imagine it's the same person that has that handle doing it on r churning too.

 

[disfanforlife]

That is pretty much the same plan we are following. P2 finished her Citi Premier MSR last week and my card should be here this week. We need 4 tickets, but will only be doing Disney parks for 4 days and not park hopping. We are also planning on hitting USO for 2 days.

Sounds like a good idea to me!

 

[IFlossU]

Just booked my Disney Tickets with Citi Thank You Points. Called Citi and got connected to Cruise and Tours. She was able to do it no problem, although the computers were very slow and probably on the line for 50 minutes. I had just enough points for 3- 7 Day tickets using my Citi Premier so points were worth an extra 25%. (Had 400 points to spare...). Got the confirmation from them right away and was able to connect the tickets to My Disney Experience. Now to reserve park days for each day.

Did I read that the extra 25% redemption benefit is going away next year?