I love credit cards so much! v2.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[Haley R]

I get the “avoid tolls mentality”. I’m so cheap - I usually will avoid tolls unless it’s a necessity. Spending $3 or $5 and Saving 10-20 minutes doesn’t compute for me LOL!

Yeah that’s what I’m wondering. We keep going back and forth about which way we want to go. I think we’re just gonna go the toll road and pay the darn tolls. It’s not a huge deal but kind of a waste of money in my opinion.

 

[amalone1013]

Guyyysssss where is my ebags AMEX offer? I'm impatient and want a fancy travel backpack..

 

[amalone1013]

It’s in Georgia so definitely better weather! And closer to the mouse! Idk if we could just pack up and move though

Ha the other night DH was telling his brother at dinner that he sold a job in KC, so he will probably be out there about 2 weeks total over several trips... His brother goes, that's halfway to Florida!

I always get DH's GC leftovers. Last one was a Giant Eagle GC with $0.88 on it. No problem, I'll use it on my next trip! He probably would have thrown it away before having to use 2 forms of payments.

I always use them up too. The other day the kid at the fast food register was like really, did you just give me a gift card for 23 cents?

I get the “avoid tolls mentality”. I’m so cheap - I usually will avoid tolls unless it’s a necessity. Spending $3 or $5 and Saving 10-20 minutes doesn’t compute for me LOL!

Me too. I hate the toll road that goes around Denver, because I feel like it's usually pricey for time saved. DH likes to use it to get to the big mall. We don't go out that way too often now so I just don't argue.

But we were really slow getting out of bed a couple times in the past few weeks, and used the toll road to get to work (different one that runs down I25 for the north metro) and that was $1 to save us 30+min (and make sure I was at work on time) - that one I was okay with

 

[GZanta77]

I get the “avoid tolls mentality”. I’m so cheap - I usually will avoid tolls unless it’s a necessity. Spending $3 or $5 and Saving 10-20 minutes doesn’t compute for me LOL!

Reminds of a friend who refused to use toll roads on principle - deceptive taxes by the state etc, etc. One time he was going to the airport, leaving the required 15 minutes early to take the longer route. There was an accident on his the usual off-ramp which threw him into a panic, ended up in downtown traffic, and barely made it to the airport in time. Time was so tight he had to park at the terminal lot instead of the off-airport place he had planned to use which cost him almost $150 in extra parking fees.

The best part though was that his flight ended up being delayed an hour.

 

[vanjust14]

have you guys considered trying Serve? Those should drain your VGCs pretty easily... u just need a walmart, family dollar or dollar general in the area to do so.

I have all of those in my area and my local Stop and Shop stopped working. I just don't know what Serve is. Any quick tips?

 

[CyndiLouWho]

for WoH question....nobody here familiar with the program/cc?

I have the card. And have stayed at Hyatt once. Have one future stay booked.

 

[miztressuz]

Darn, I wanted to go to this today but the DirectTV technician is at our house setting up our upgrade. We will finally have DVR at our house and all of our TVs will have HD instead of just two of them.

Well it's good through 2/26 so you can have DVR and VGCs, the best of both worlds
I'm not sure I could live without DVR of some kind anymore. We've had it on at least one TV since the TiVo DirectTV days. It's very convenient.

 

[Lain]

New upgrade offers rolling out for the AmEx SPG cards -
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/targ...ess-marriott-bonvoy-brilliant-upgrade-offers/

Targeted as before but up to 100k again. I wonder if my 2 day old card will get picked

No upgrade offer on my 10 month old SPG Personal, and I would’ve totally jumped on it too!

So you went ahead and FOMO’ed the SPG Personal before it went away? Did the pop up ever go away, or are you in it for the FN?

 

[AmyAnne]

have you guys considered trying Serve? Those should drain your VGCs pretty easily... u just need a walmart, family dollar or dollar general in the area to do so.

I have been trying to figure out the whole Serve process. But Serve is an AmEx product that requires a SSN, correct? And is subject to shutdown for too many deposits? Seems a bit risky.

 

[Haley R]

Ha the other night DH was telling his brother at dinner that he sold a job in KC, so he will probably be out there about 2 weeks total over several trips... His brother goes, that's halfway to Florida!

I always use them up too. The other day the kid at the fast food register was like really, did you just give me a gift card for 23 cents?

Me too. I hate the toll road that goes around Denver, because I feel like it's usually pricey for time saved. DH likes to use it to get to the big mall. We don't go out that way too often now so I just don't argue.

But we were really slow getting out of bed a couple times in the past few weeks, and used the toll road to get to work (different one that runs down I25 for the north metro) and that was $1 to save us 30+min (and make sure I was at work on time) - that one I was okay with

Lol there was a potential job for Dh awhile back in Kansas. It didn’t go anywhere but I keep telling him if we move I’d prefer it to be a lot warmer than here and Kansas wouldn’t give us that. At one point they asked him about Louisiana but it was in such a bad area

 

[Louie7080]

Ugh, they took away the RAF on the biz card again. My current link that I just used earlier this week errors out and the RAF option is gone. Guess I'll have to setup the new card if I want a shot at any Bonvoy points... bleh, after saying that word I'm on the fence about that now, it might mean I'll have to say or look at it again in the future...

Same thing happened to me - I did a RAF 5 days ago with the amex spg business card and now I can't. Are you saying this means it won't come back for the life of the card and that you would have to get a new card in order to do a RAF again?

I also looked at my husband signing up for the business card without the RAF and when I get to the Amex application site through various links found with google searches, it is blank. Maybe that is why there is no RAF right now because they aren't letting people apply for the card at all?

Sorry, kind of new to the ins and outs of credit card bonuses, etc...

 

[Albort]

I have been trying to figure out the whole Serve process. But Serve is an AmEx product that requires a SSN, correct? And is subject to shutdown for too many deposits? Seems a bit risky.

hence why u open and close one every month or 2 monthish.

 

[GZanta77]

for WoH question....nobody here familiar with the program/cc?

Familiar with program/cc but not your specific problem as I already had an account before the cc. Think you might have to call WoH for this one.

 

[amalone1013]

Reminds of a friend who refused to use toll roads on principle - deceptive taxes by the state etc, etc. One time he was going to the airport, leaving the required 15 minutes early to take the longer route. There was an accident on his the usual off-ramp which threw him into a panic, ended up in downtown traffic, and barely made it to the airport in time. Time was so tight he had to park at the terminal lot instead of the off-airport place he had planned to use which cost him almost $150 in extra parking fees.

The best part though was that his flight ended up being delayed an hour.

Ha! I forgot, we do always take the toll to the airport. $5 and 15min vs an hour or more. DHs cousin has a toll pass... but he won't take the toll road to drop people at the airport (like he usually ends up taking ILs and aunt if we have already left)... even if they are trying to give him cash to use the toll road... and something always seems to happen where they are running late anyways, and the non-toll route has traffic, or construction... and everyone is super stressed to save $5.

I'm hoping that since they will be leaving on Saturday in June, that if BIL doesn't come he will drop them off and he can just take one of our cars or FILs (we put a toll pass in that and put it on our account since he's always dropping us off at the airport).

 

[Angrose]

Did anyone do the BBVA $200 nationwide checking bonus? I signed up in November with a legit DD and they are giving me the runaround. There's a discussion in the r/churning bank account bonus thread but I'm interested in any and all DPs.

I also opened a BBVA acct in November, but my "DD" was from Schwab so I don't think it counted. The $200 bonus has not posted. I'm not going to push it though considering mine wasn't a legit DD. Good luck!

 

[wanderlust7]

Same thing happened to me - I did a RAF 5 days ago with the amex spg business card and now I can't. Are you saying this means it won't come back for the life of the card and that you would have to get a new card in order to do a RAF again?

I also looked at my husband signing up for the business card without the RAF and when I get to the Amex application site through various links found with google searches, it is blank. Maybe that is why there is no RAF right now because they aren't letting people apply for the card at all?

Sorry, kind of new to the ins and outs of credit card bonuses, etc...

Just tried on the regular AmEx site and the Bonvoy business pulls up for me (with 100k offer). I'm going to wait a few days and hope the RAF shows up though. BTW, if you have other non-cobranded AmEx cards, those will have the referral too (if/when they show up).

 

[miztressuz]

No upgrade offer on my 10 month old SPG Personal, and I would’ve totally jumped on it too!

So you went ahead and FOMO’ed the SPG Personal before it went away? Did the pop up ever go away, or are you in it for the FN?

Pop up would not go away but yeah I went for it. I tried the no SPG number trick someone reported over on r/churning, no go, but I didn't change my name along with it so maybe that's why. (I really just didn't want a nickname that I never ever use showing up on my CR later, I'm probably too OCD for this game ) We'll use the FN every year and I already got my RAF points deposited into my Bonbarf account. That'll mostly pay for the 2 nights I'm booking next month, so it hurts that it's not 75k but I'm not paying cash now, which is the point of it all.

 

[Haley R]

We've been checking our flights every so often to LAX for our Japan trip. I checked today and we can get there at 5 pm instead of 9 pm and it's a shorter flight. I tried to do it online, but it gave me an error so I called and he was able to do it. We got 3,048 points refunded too!!!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Too early to panic but there is a DP in the r/churning DD thread today of somebody being billed $100 from their airline credit reimbursement. Apparently they got the reimbursement and then closed the card prompting AMEX to “claw it back”.

This would be something to follow as it could affect triple dip strategies on AMEX cards. That darn RAT is really messing with things if this starts to become a thing...

Meanwhile, I continue to be happy I’ve ended my relationship with AMEX.

 

[amalone1013]

Bonbarf