I love credit cards so much!

[Haley R]

Amex MRs can be used with several domestic and international carriers. They often run a "bonus" when you transfer to one of their partners. DH and I have flown British Air in first at Christmas on Amex MRs, will be flying home business on Aer Lingus thanks to MRs (both of these with a generous 40% transfer bonus last fall), and have topped off Delta Skymiles to fly two of us Business to London. Also, there is the option for use with Hilton and Marriott (while some feel that is not a good use of points it could come in handy in a pinch). So if you're at all interested in flying up front overseas it's a good program to investigate. If you are a mostly domestic flier then perhaps not.

t

I agree, life without the Pats (especially in the play offs...again) would be nice.



Are you confusing the products of Amex BGR and Biz Gold? They are two separate products and unlike the personal gold, the new changes are for the new product and the BGR is not grandfathered into it, although you can call to convert it if you want. So if your DH has the BGR there won't be the 25% points redemption. Just was a little unsure since you were discussing both products. See lucky's discussion: https://onemileatatime.com/new-amex-business-gold-card/ Otherwise, keeping amex happy in order to get the Schwab is a great idea.



I love YC and CL ! I think you made a great decision--you have a place to exercise, the BW is close, if you like sand in the pool there's that...YC and WL are probably my favorite resorts so I am biased. Hope you have a great time!

I think we made a good choice too! Dh said if money wasn’t an issue which would you choose? I said of course I’d pick yc. Then he said well money isn’t an issue so why shouldn’t we stay at yc? I plan to use the gym quite a bit as well as the walking paths around the bw. We also plan to do the regatta run at yc where you get a pin at the end!

 

[platamama]

Are you confusing the products of Amex BGR and Biz Gold? They are two separate products and unlike the personal gold, the new changes are for the new product and the BGR is not grandfathered into it, although you can call to convert it if you want. So if your DH has the BGR there won't be the 25% points redemption. Just was a little unsure since you were discussing both products. See lucky's discussion: https://onemileatatime.com/new-amex-business-gold-card/ Otherwise, keeping amex happy in order to get the Schwab is a great idea.

Oh, thank you for the link. You're right that I am mixing them up, I just assumed they would update existing BGRs to the new Gold structure like they did with the PGR to Gold (at least that's what I thought happened with the PGR to Gold - or am I dreaming that?). Hmm. And I'm supposing if I want to go to the new structure that I have to pay the new fee. Blech.

 

[Lain]

This is me now. I have 19 cc's with payments due this month. If my dh knew, he would croak. And I do feel like I am spending more to keep Amex happy and use offers that are, many times for me, something I would not have purchased if not for the offer and my desire to use the offer plus put spend on the card. I need to back off a bit on my spend and I will be in a cancelling frenzy for the next 8 mos with Amex cards, with the exception of the couple I will keep. So, I may never get another Amex again after that as they will put me on their naughty list.

I also realize that, for us, the spg cards were maybe not the smartest move. I got caught up in the FOMO here (no one's fault but my own!) thinking I *needed* those cards. In the end, there aren't really too many properties that I think we will use the points at. I was able to redeem a boatload of points and get the N&F package. The 7-night cert isn't too valuable but I love getting the 120k SW RR's. So not a total loss at all!

I'll find somewhere to use the points (and the cert hopefully) but it is a lesson to make sure you have a use for points before just blindly going for them because everyone else has a good use and therefore, thinks they are great. Each of us travel differently, have different family sizes, are in different seasons of life that may limit our traveling, etc. I get a bit mad at myself for using up so much Amex 'grace' (??) getting all those spg cards but I learned a valuable lesson so I'm glad for that.

It's not your fault; Amex changed the rules. Last year, I remember you said Amex was like the nice old guy in your neighborhood who hands out buckets of candy on Halloween and tells the kids to take all they want. We were all lining up to sign up for Amex's cards because they had a new, best offer on this card or that every month; and why not, because Amex handed their cards out like candy. Who knew the old man would flip and turn card Nazi: "No bonus for you!"

 

[elgerber]

Sorry another PNC question. So, I cc funded the initial $2000 and will try pushing the $5k from Cap One. My question is, can I take the $2000 right back out, leaving a balance of $5k and still get the bonus? Or should I leave it all there until the bonus posts?

 

[FloridaNative8]

And finally caught up! Between crazy busy at work and getting ready to go to WDW I had not read for a couple days.

I vote for a new thread if this one is locked. Because this thread is a monster. A good monster. But still.

I posted earlier how I had a weird call upgrading DH's Freedom back to a CSR. Rep would not say if she would do it and call ended with "you will get a letter." BUT then yesterday I get on his account and it is a CSR. So go figure. @GlamMistress @palhockeymomof2 if you call and then just have DH on speaker phone while you do most of the talking it works. Even if you are following DH around in your attempt to get them to talk.

And the sad news whole reason if I have time to catch up and post is that we just got notice our flight to MCO is delayed 2.5 hours. So now we will be getting in at 2 am. I guess it is the snow you all are talking about on the east coast?

I am hoping this is not a sign of a not great trip. Girls have all been fighting off being sick, work and school is so busy, my husband's knee has been bad. And this is our first DVC trip. Split stay at AKV Kidani and BLT one bedrooms. I really hope I don't find out that I dumped all this money into DVC and do not even like it. Starting everyone off completely exhausted is not good.

And credit card news...applied for Hyatt card for DH and still pending. No calls at all. It has been 4 days. Geez.

We stayed at AKL Kidani this past weekend for the races, and I LOVED it!! We rented points, paid for standard view, and were pixie-dusted with a partial savannah view near the pool which was super convenient.

I hope the delayed flight is the only snag in your trip!

 

[Lain]

Or change it to a Freedom

Speaking of which, I need to make that call too.

 

[miztressuz]

Sorry another PNC question. So, I cc funded the initial $2000 and will try pushing the $5k from Cap One. My question is, can I take the $2000 right back out, leaving a balance of $5k and still get the bonus? Or should I leave it all there until the bonus posts?

Yep, can pull it out. Don't need to leave the money in there to get the bonus. The bonus is only looking for the DD and the debit purchases... don't forget to do the debit transactions

 

[tink1970]

Oh, thank you for the link. You're right that I am mixing them up, I just assumed they would update existing BGRs to the new Gold structure like they did with the PGR to Gold (at least that's what I thought happened with the PGR to Gold - or am I dreaming that?). Hmm. And I'm supposing if I want to go to the new structure that I have to pay the new fee. Blech.

Actually, glad I could help! The old personal gold did flip automatically, which is why this is confusing.

My plan is to pc my biz plat to the NEW biz gold when my biz plat is due next month, then when my BGR AF is due, pc that to green and hope that keeps Amex happy. To me, a $595 (biz plat) to $295 (new biz gold) is a savings while still keeping a 25% redemption and a $175 (BGR) to $95 (biz green) is decent savings to keep a card (biz green) for another year to make amex happy. I don't know if pc will trigger the pop ups so trying to get all the Amexes I can before I really start pc ing/canceling.

 

[Haley R]

And finally caught up! Between crazy busy at work and getting ready to go to WDW I had not read for a couple days.

I vote for a new thread if this one is locked. Because this thread is a monster. A good monster. But still.

I posted earlier how I had a weird call upgrading DH's Freedom back to a CSR. Rep would not say if she would do it and call ended with "you will get a letter." BUT then yesterday I get on his account and it is a CSR. So go figure. @GlamMistress @palhockeymomof2 if you call and then just have DH on speaker phone while you do most of the talking it works. Even if you are following DH around in your attempt to get them to talk.

And the sad news whole reason if I have time to catch up and post is that we just got notice our flight to MCO is delayed 2.5 hours. So now we will be getting in at 2 am. I guess it is the snow you all are talking about on the east coast?

I am hoping this is not a sign of a not great trip. Girls have all been fighting off being sick, work and school is so busy, my husband's knee has been bad. And this is our first DVC trip. Split stay at AKV Kidani and BLT one bedrooms. I really hope I don't find out that I dumped all this money into DVC and do not even like it. Starting everyone off completely exhausted is not good.

And credit card news...applied for Hyatt card for DH and still pending. No calls at all. It has been 4 days. Geez.

I’m sorry your flight was delayed. I’m really hoping this doesn’t happen to us because we plan to go to mk dah the day we land. We are supposed to land at 3 pm so hopefully it all works out

 

[Haley R]

Has anyone else used the Walmart grocery pick up discount? For your first pick up you can get $10 off. I think you have to spend $50 to get it. We’ve used it like 6 times by using different email accounts. We just got a card in the mail from Walmart for another $10 off addressed to the “grocery hero”

 

[elgerber]

Yep, can pull it out. Don't need to leave the money in there to get the bonus. The bonus is only looking for the DD and the debit purchases... don't forget to do the debit transactions

Will do, as soon as I get the debit card!! Thanks!

 

[tink1970]

I think we made a good choice too! Dh said if money wasn’t an issue which would you choose? I said of course I’d pick yc. Then he said well money isn’t an issue so why shouldn’t we stay at yc? I plan to use the gym quite a bit as well as the walking paths around the bw. We also plan to do the regatta run at yc where you get a pin at the end!

That sounds like so much fun! I've never heard of the regatta run, but the last time I stayed at YC I ran the Marathon so wasn't in any shape to run any more after that. We also love Beaches and Cream and Yachtsman Steak House. Glad your DH helped you decide to keep it.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

I was at 8 cards at the beginning of last year and now with the 2 new cards this month I am at 16. It is getting to be too much. And I do feel like these Amex and Chase offers make me spend more to "save more". I do try to be good about only buying what we would anyway. But I now have $300 in Amazon credit. True that I got it for 30% off with the Staples offers, but it is not something I was budgeting for all in January. I think I will be cancelling my SW next month as soon as the points post. I also think I will cancel DHs FU (hmm, is that really the abbreviation for that lol?). We will both have the regular Freedom, I now have the Unlimited and we never max out one Freedom, so I don't think we need 3 of them. I also plan on canceling my CIP in June, but I am nervous about only having the cash UR cards. so still pondering on that one. We are both still only at 1 Amex each, so still have many cards to get.

You can always PC one of your freedoms to a CSP or CSR if you wanted to do a transfer or book with URs

 

[snugglebug]

I almost forgot this... used my CSR for the first time in quite a while over the weekend... It's peeling apart! Like the plastic pieces are peeling off the metal

Mine's been that way for awhile.

 

[Haley R]

That sounds like so much fun! I've never heard of the regatta run, but the last time I stayed at YC I ran the Marathon so wasn't in any shape to run any more after that. We also love Beaches and Cream and Yachtsman Steak House. Glad your DH helped you decide to keep it.

It’s just a 3k around the bw area. I think it’s like $15 maybe? I used to run a bunch but have knee problems now so I can’t get much further than 2 miles. The 3k will be perfect for me. We love beaches and cream too but aren’t doing it this trip. We ate there in October and tried the no way Jose and on another night had the Mickey pants sundae. I want to try ample hills this time. We don’t plan on eating at yachtsman either although I’d like to try it sometime. Dah is costing us $750ish so we are going light on the food budget

 

[kidsfirsttrip]

Thanks for the vote of confidence. Totally in admiration along with @SouthFayetteFan at your impressive run of cards. DW got the pop up on 10/3, the night before the Amex Gold refresh. She's only had 2 Amex cards in her name. I think what contributed to the pop up was DW has only been an Amex customer, herself, since 2018, and in that time signed up for 2 biz cards, met MSR, and had a drop off (not entirely sock drawer) in spend. No biggie, since we're having her hit Chase cards right now. Next up, the United Biz in February.

Aw thanks. It was all the awesome guidance I got from this group but I’m really happy with all the cards and bonuses I’ve gotten up to now.
See again it might be someone with little history trying for a gold product? But you’d think amex would just do a straight denial. Makes no sense.....

Ah, well I got myself a BGR last week and DH a United Biz this week so we have 10K MSR in ~90 days between those two, plus I'm still finishing up my MSR on SW for the CP and my BBP so I don't want to bite off more than I can chew at the moment. The AF on the BGR already posted and is due in a week. I probably should've triple dipped the Schwab at the end of last year but I was handling a lot of MSR then (9 cards) and even though I do some MS I honestly don't enjoy it. Right now I'm trying to find a $500 MCGC that I seem to have misplaced somewhere. That seems to be a weak point in my MS system.

yes that’s a lot of MSR. Lol. I MS a bit too and am getting tired of it. Found a $500 vanilla in my glove box two days ago so I’m terrible too!!! Oops! Try your glovebox lol!

 

[Lain]

And I'm supposing if I want to go to the new structure that I have to pay the new fee.

Yup.

 

[wendow]

Seems to be a common opinion for non NE with the no love for the Pats. I actually dislike Tom Brady. Respect him as a player but I’ve heard one too many stories about how arrogant he is IRL

This is true. Unlike the Cowboys, Steelers and even the Broncos, who have more of a nationwide fanbase, pretty much only NE people like the Pats. Most of that centers around Tom Brady's arrogance and the stain of previous cheating (whether it happened or not...). I also do respect Brady as a player.

 

[wendow]

Well we decided....we are going to keep our yc club level room. We were really excited to try club level and had an Epcot day planned plus a day to walk to Fantasia putt putt and use the little sea raycers if the weather is nice. We used our CSR to book so we will get 3x points for it being travel. We aren’t breaking the budget or anything by spending $900 more and we were already okay spending that much in the first place. Thanks everyone for your inputs. I’ve started getting really excited about the festival of the arts!

I'm so glad you guys are doing what you really want to do!

 

[Judique]

I got a $500 sign up in 2017. My wife gets mailers all the time for them too.

I just checked the website and didn't see anything.