I love credit cards so much!

[disneymagicgirl]

So we tried paying our mortgage with Plastiq and it won't work since we are using a Visa card. We are trying to think of another way to make that $5000 without counting the mortgage. I was banking on the mortgage counting towards it so this may be tough. DH thinks we should use Plastiq to pay ourselves (via check) and then pay the mortgage. Would that be a way to work around the system?

If you share your mortgage co name, we may be able to come up with a work around.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

@calypso726, that looks great! Hope you are having a blast!

 

[bernina]

Can someone check my math? Comparing VGC options using Chase Ink Plus (or could be CIC too, anything with 5x office supplies).

Am I missing any other VGC options that take advantage of 2x, 3x, 5x with Chase cards?

*The headers may be confusing. The 3rd column that says URx1 is really x1 for Simon and x5 for Staples. I basically meant assuming no premium card multiplier in that column.

 

[khmorgan]

That's not that long. I wouldn't sweat it. I've gotten the 30 day message for several days on all four Chase cards I currently have.

I wouldn't 2nd guess anything on those facts alone It's widely known that biz apps can sit pending for a week at times.

My wife's application sat pending at 30 days for awhile last month. We applied on Thursday April 5th late morning, status line was immediately at 30 days. It remained that way for 5 days, then the status line changed to approved between 2am and 9am on Wednesday April 11th (so it was almost 6 full days at the "30 days" status).

I'd just continue to try to stay patient (lol!).

Thanks for helping me reign in my crazy.

 

[MrPTato]

Went to Disney for 10 days and see that I have 102 pages to catch up on...yikes!

 

[Lain]

What is MPX?

MileagePlus X.

It’s an eGift card app (not a shopping portal, that’s MileagePlus Shopping), similar to Gyft and Swych, but you earn United miles on gift card purchases depending on merchant plus whatever points or miles you earn on your credit card; and unlike Gyft and Swych, which sells gift cards in fixed denominations, MPX allows you to buy the exact amount down to the penny for many retailers, so you’re not left with less or more gift card balance than you need (some merchants still sell only fixed amounts).

For a while, it was the MR points earning monster for a lot of us with personal Amex Platinums, because MPX would code as an airline ticket and earn 5x MR on the Plat, United miles depending on merchant, and whatever else cash/points/miles you could earn when you spent the gift cards through shopping portals.

Less lucrative, but still a good deal, was how MPX behaved on Chase cards. MPX would pass through how a gift card purchase coded to the category of the merchant for which you were buying the gift card.

So if you bought a gift card for Panera Bread or Starbucks, MPX would code that transaction on the CSP and CSR as dining and trigger their dining category bonuses (2x and 3x respectively). If you bought Uber or AirBnB gift cards, MPX would code that purchase as travel and earn you 2x on the CSP and 3x on the CSR/CIP. MPX or Chase stopped coding this way a few months ago... but it may be back!

(By contrast, Gyft and Swych never distinguished the merchant category coding for each gift card they sold; these two apps code as platforms and I believe trigger something in the internet/cable/phone category so earn 3x on the CIP, 5x on the CIC/Ink+ for every merchant’s gift card purchased on the platform.)

So just an example of how this might work: if I’m out for lunch at Panera Bread and my cashier rings me up for $9.80, instead of pulling out my CSR and earning only 3x UR, or paying with a Panera Bread gift card I bought at an office supply store for 5x UR on the CIC/Ink+ or grocery store for 5x UR on the Freedom this quarter (and then having an odd balance left over), I pull up the MPX app see that it earns me 5 UA miles/$1, buy an exactly $9.80 eGift card using my linked CSR for 3x UR (if it’s really passing on the coding again) — and because I have a United MileagePlus credit card linked to my MPX account (but don’t have to pay with it), I get a 25% bonus in miles — then show the eGift card on my phone to the cashier to pay. So in all, I’d earn about 61 UA miles and 29.4 UR from lunch.

 

[calypso726]

If you don't mind, what do you put on the card? I pay cable and cell phone and have bought gift cards at Staples for the 5x.

Don’t mind at all. The same as you, cable, internet, phone and gift cards. Disney related expenses encompasses a large portion of our vacation budget and expenses in general. Therefore, we buy a lot of Disney gift cards at 5x. We have 1300 DVC points, so that alone is $8,000 a year in annual dues that we pay with Disney gift cards. We do one or two Adventures by Disney trips each year and a Disney Cruise or two each year. Next year’s ABD is Japan with the post add on to the parks which totaled over $25,000 on opening day for 2 people. Add in annual passes and a multitude of WDW trips throughout the year, next years cruise and you get the picture. If we pay all the Disney vacation expenses next year with gift cards at 5x and we will be earning well over 175k UR.

 

[bernina]

Don’t mind at all. The same as you, cable, internet, phone and gift cards. Disney related expenses encompasses a large portion of our vacation budget and expenses in general. Therefore, we buy a lot of Disney gift cards at 5x. We have 1300 DVC points, so that alone is $8,000 a year in annual dues that we pay with Disney gift cards. We do one or two Adventures by Disney trips each year and a Disney Cruise or two each year. Next year’s ABD is Japan with the post add on to the parks which totaled over $25,000 on opening day for 2 people. M Add in annual passes and a multitude of WDW trips throughout the year, next years cruise and you get the picture. If we pay all the Disney vacation expenses next year with gift cards at 5x and we will be earning well over 175k UR.

Awesome!! And I have major vacation envy which is exactly why this board is so helpful!! I'm going to be putting a lot more spend on the CIP/Chase Ink and pay better attention to the 5x Freedom categories. I've been putting everything else pretty much on our 2x (cash) earning Priceline card, and while not terrible (and super easy), I can do better thanks to you guys!

 

[Lain]

So we tried paying our mortgage with Plastiq and it won't work since we are using a Visa card. We are trying to think of another way to make that $5000 without counting the mortgage. I was banking on the mortgage counting towards it so this may be tough. DH thinks we should use Plastiq to pay ourselves (via check) and then pay the mortgage. Would that be a way to work around the system?

This is a very bad idea and there’s a high likelihood Plastiq will catch it.

Did you try to pay Firstland and get an error? Or did your payment go through, but Plastiq held it for review and declined it? If the former, then try the following:

I wrote a very detailed guide for you that you quoted here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/i-love-credit-cards-so-much.3528202/page-1400#post-59221523

 

[speedyfishy]

Am I missing any other VGC options that take advantage of 2x, 3x, 5x with Chase cards?

Nice chart! giftcards.com codes as 3x if you have the CIP.

 

[bernina]

Nice chart! giftcardmall codes as 3x if you have the CIP.

Awesome, will definitely look into, thank you!

 

[speedyfishy]

Awesome, will definitely look into, thank you!

It’s actually giftcards.com that codes at 3x with the CIP, sorry.

 

[Albort]

@amalone1013 your the only one i know with samsung pay. anyone else with samsung pay, theres a use ur eligible chase card with samsung pay, get a $10 amazon gc.

 

[Haley R]

Open a PNC checking account and fund with up to $2k on CIP. You can also open a Savings and do the same. The best part is they have a $200 or $300 promo as well! Quick and easy.

After you posted that earlier, I showed DH and he doesn't see the point in opening one there. He thinks the interest rate is too low.

 

[Haley R]

If you share your mortgage co name, we may be able to come up with a work around.

The company name is Firstland. That would be great if we could find a work around.

 

[Lain]

FWIW I just posted a support link for the Amex Hilton biz card. Would appreciate any support if you are going for this card thanks. I did not see any links when I applied for it last week. I think it maybe new. thanks

oh yay! DH had a link too. I posted it. Thanks for sharing!

Congrats, you two. I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of these links pop up in the next month, and hopefully some of those will have sprung from your links.

 

[Haley R]

This is a very bad idea and there’s a high likelihood Plastiq will catch it.

Did you try to pay Firstland and get an error? Or did your payment go through, but Plastiq held it for review and declined it? If the former, then try the following:

I wrote a very detailed guide for you that you quoted here: https://www.disboards.com/threads/i-love-credit-cards-so-much.3528202/page-1400#post-59221523

I wasn't sure it was a good idea either. I sent your response to DH (he is asleep right now).

I don't know for sure because he was the one trying tonight, but I think he was trying to make a schedule for payments and it declined him after he got through all of the steps. We tried previously with a Visa card that we already had and he made it sound like it worked.

 

[wendow]

The company name is Firstland. That would be great if we could find a work around.

Is it just Firstland? How do you actually address the first line to mail the check? Easiest thing to try is separate First Land. If that doesn't go through, we can put on our thinking caps. We've been able to get most through with some work around.

 

[bernina]

After you posted that earlier, I showed DH and he doesn't see the point in opening one there. He thinks the interest rate is too low.

Oops, hope I didn’t reply to you twice about this, the thread moves so fast I can barely catch up

I opened only for the easy funding and nice $300 bonus for pretty easy requirements. I plan to close as soon as I have open for the required amount of time. I’ll just keep 5k in there to keep fee free. This is the second PNC account I’ve opened (other was closed more than 2 years ago so I can get the bonus again).

 

[gottalovepluto]

DH’s CIC and my employee card arrived today! Let the MSR begin! One question: I tried to add it to ApplePay and got an error message that Chase does not support this payment mechanism for this card, or something like that. That’s jogging a memory of maybe reading on here that Chase biz cards don’t work with ApplePay? Can someone confirm? No biggie if that’s the case. Just though I’d add because I’ve become a pretty heavy ApplePaynuser wherever it’s accepted.

LOVE Apple Pay. That no Ink cards are supported on Apple Pay or Chase Pay is one of the dumbest things! I expected them to get on that a long time ago honestly but there has been no word on bringing mobile payment abilities to the Ink family