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

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I can't find the Serve MS discussion that I recently read on dischurners. Did it move? Possibly (probably) I just have no clue how to use reddit properly...

So the staples MCGC that are fee free this week I can use at walmart for serve or plastiq for mortgage. correct?
And VGC that may be on sale in the future I need to use at FD or DG?

Do I have that right? This is my first week for serve...whoop whoop!

I tried at my Walmart, it was a fail. The cashier was like you have to use a debit card. I'm like the card IS debit (it says debit right on it), she's like well it isn't. So I had to go out of my way to a DG to do it. I'm not sure I'll do the $2400 I was hoping since DG and FD are not as easy to hit up as walmart.
 
If you want a nonstop flight to DUB, then Toronto (YYZ) does appear to have flights on Aer Lingus, Lufthansa and Air Canada. These are all Star Alliance members so searching through United's portal if you have United Miles/URs would work.

DTW does have nonstop flights to Europe but not to DUB and Delta is more expensive OOP and Skymiles/MR wise. I randomly did dates in Nov/Dec and miles/$ --both seem better out of YYZ with nonstop flights to DUB.

Since I don't have exact dates, this is just an approximation. If a direct flight is desired, I always start with skyscanner and check the box that says NO STOPS to get an idea of which airlines/alliances to check for flights.


THANK YOU! We'll either be going for St. Patricks Day or next summer. I'm a teacher and for whatever reason we have to work around my SAHM sister's schedule instead of my school/work....yes, insert eyeroll, lol.

Good to know my options! Like I said almost everyone has told me for Europe do Toronto.
 
What’s the staples deal that starts today? I feel like I’m having a really hard time keeping up with all of the deals lately lol. I also haven’t been paying attention to the serve discussion and I’m wondering now if I should have been
No fee on $200 MCGCs. For me, at least this time, I'm using them through Plastiq for our car payment for a CIP MSR. I could pay $200 through Plastiq with the 2.5% fee, or buy the $200 MCGC for no fee and use it on Plastiq, they've been running as debit so only 1% fee. I get to make a weird payment amount like $198.02 but come out ahead in the long run lol.

I'm with you on serve, but I am thinking of trying it out soon...
See if they’ll let you buy $2k/day.
I don't know if I'm that brave lol. But really, if Dosh will credit for me I would stop and buy one a day for the extra $5... Also I've still got $13,350 in FFD for Plastiq and about $16k left on car loans, so I don't have too much left overall to try and bring the Plastiq fee down.
 


I tried at my Walmart, it was a fail. The cashier was like you have to use a debit card. I'm like the card IS debit (it says debit right on it), she's like well it isn't. So I had to go out of my way to a DG to do it. I'm not sure I'll do the $2400 I was hoping since DG and FD are not as easy to hit up as walmart.

Did you show her the card? Did she ask? My Walmart I swipe with the strip facing me and the front of the card facing away so the cashiers never notice. I hold the card so my hand like covers the front but no one asks to see it.
 
I'm confused. If you said yes to $200, how did you end up with $1000?

American was offering a lot to bump people on our St Lucia flight in June, but no one was taking it. I never seem to get those offers when I am solo and likely to take them!

I read they often give higher than the offer you take. Plus if there are 3 spots, and 3 people "took" the bump at check-in, I put $200, and the other put $500, we all get the $500.

I go to Vegas the same time every year. I'm totally going to book the early flight every year and gamble on getting offered a bump. There are 4 flights home normally the day I fly. A few more hours in LAS was well worth $1k!
 
I might be extremely naive or stupid but why do you guys jump on the fee free visas?

Even for those without an easy, low/no cost MS liquidation method available to them, buying discounted or fee free VGCs and MCGCs can be a good way to maximize bonus categories or meet MSR by shifting spend.

Maximizing bonus categories - If you have a credit card that earns you a high bonus at supermarkets or office supply stores (e.g., the Amex Gold for 4x MR, BCP for 6% cash back, Hilton Surpass for 6x Hilton Honors points at supermarkets; or the CIC/Ink+ for 5x UR at office supply stores), then you’d use those cards to earn the high bonus multiplier on your VGC/MCGC purchases when these stores run one of these deals.

MSR - If you have to hit an MSR within a certain amount of time, you can buy VGC/MCGC and have the purchases possibly count towards your MSR. WARNING: Do not buy GC/VGC/MCGC at office supply stores with Amex cards while working on their MSR. At grocery stores should be fine as long as you throw in other items with your purchase.

Once you purchase the VGC/MCGC, you’ve shifted your spend in the sense that you made a purchase that you have to pay for, but you still have that money in the form of a VGC/MCGC. So if you’re doing this for the category bonus points, you made a purchase on your credit card that’ll get you the bonus multiplier (e.g., 4x MR or 5x UR) on your money, and shifted your money into the VGC/MCGC so that however or wherever you use up the VGC/MCGC you’re carrying over that bonus spend. If you’re doing this to meet MSR, you’ll have gotten whatever the earn rate was for the card you used at the supermarket or office supply store, and a purchase towards the MSR, but you’ve moved your money into the VGC/MCGC that you can spend at any time now or past the MSR period. (But it’s usually not advisable to be holding onto gift or prepaid cards for too long because they can be prone to hacking.)

If you have an easy liquidation method, you can use up the VGC/MCGC quickly and have the money back into a bank account to pay your credit card bill. If MS is not easily accessible to you, then you’re floating the money in VGC/MCGCs because you still have to pay your credit card bill for the purchases of those prepaid cards, but you’re likely then spending down those prepaid cards organically over a longer period of time.
 


Did you show her the card? Did she ask? My Walmart I swipe with the strip facing me and the front of the card facing away so the cashiers never notice. I hold the card so my hand like covers the front but no one asks to see it.


It was the MC, and I hid the fact it was the GC, but I told her it was totally a debit. She's like sorry it's ringing up as a credit card. There was a line, she didn't seem friendly, so I just aborted! Is there something I need to do/tell them to run the MC as Debit? I was looking on the keypad and there was no debit option....just said to swipe.
 
I'm confused. If you said yes to $200, how did you end up with $1000?

American was offering a lot to bump people on our St Lucia flight in June, but no one was taking it. I never seem to get those offers when I am solo and likely to take them!
(not who you quoted)

We were at MIA in early March. It seemed like every single AA flight leaving that day had been oversold---we were hearing almost constant offers :eek: The offers for our flight to PHL started at $250. I thought to myself, if they get up to $500 I think I'll ask dh if he wants to go for it. They went from the $250 offer right to $1000 :faint: I grabbed my stuff and told dh to follow me Right Now to the podium:rotfl:

I knew there were oodles of flights to PHL that day. It was just the two of us, with no one depending on us to get home at a particular time. The perfect opportunity! And the best part was that dh's work had paid for the original tickets :laughing:
 
It was the MC, and I hid the fact it was the GC, but I told her it was totally a debit. She's like sorry it's ringing up as a credit card. There was a line, she didn't seem friendly, so I just aborted! Is there something I need to do/tell them to run the MC as Debit? I was looking on the keypad and there was no debit option....just said to swipe.

So you used at Mastercard at Walmart? They do run as credit but if you hit the cancel button right away you can run it as debit. I only you visas at Walmart because of this.
 
I might be extremely naive or stupid but why do you guys jump on the fee free visas?
Along with the MS possibilities, it also allows greater stacking of deals. Looking at @Lain 's latest example with NewEgg a few posts back, you can take advantage of multiple deals with the same money. Not quite as good as GC churning but as close as we get now.
When I did the no fee $200 Visa promo I used 2 AmEx offers to get $35 off (17.5% savings) and now can use that buy other discounted GCs through Sam's or BJs and get shopping portal rebates too - in the end it should be at least 20% off and could about 25%. I could have just spent $200 on other GCs at Staples but then it would have been limited to the original savings. You could still do the stacking with the fee but obviously your savings would be lower.

It's also a way to move spend on a card that's not otherwise accepted somewhere - like the AmEx at Costco issue recently mentioned. You don't want to do Staples or OD/OM deals during an AmEx MSR but usually grocery stores are ok, so now you can get your Costco spend on to an AmEx.
Also a way to move spend on to a CC that wouldn't take a CC but might take debit. Since these are really prepaid debit cards, some places will take those for payment. For folks using Plastiq, a subset of them come up as debit cards and trigger the lower debit card fee for the service.

So there are a few reasons why you might want to use a prepaid card and getting them for free when you can is useful.
 
Gah....after booking my last "me" trip of the summer, a friend offered Vegas the same dates. I'd just need to get a flight as she already has the room (comped) at the Wynn. I can use 33k miles to do the flight with her, or 23k miles and pay $200, or the flight is $400.

I can move my NC trip to next week for probably $90 more. I'm just not sure what to do. She's like they are always asking for people to take a bump back (my last trip to Vegas I got $1k). I'd love to do Vegas..... Why do I hate giving up the hoard of my points, LOL
 
(not who you quoted)

We were at MIA in early March. It seemed like every single AA flight leaving that day had been oversold---we were hearing almost constant offers :eek: The offers for our flight to PHL started at $250. I thought to myself, if they get up to $500 I think I'll ask dh if he wants to go for it. They went from the $250 offer right to $1000 :faint: I grabbed my stuff and told dh to follow me Right Now to the podium:rotfl:

I knew there were oodles of flights to PHL that day. It was just the two of us, with no one depending on us to get home at a particular time. The perfect opportunity! And the best part was that dh's work had paid for the original tickets :laughing:


Yeah, school paid for my flight, LOL. But hey, I took the bump! And when the guy told me it wasn't vouchers, it was an Amex gift card, I was over the moon, LOL
 
Went on a Disney GC shopping spree this morning lol. Went to Staples and used one of the Amex offers there. Picked up a $50 Disney GC for $10 off. For some reason Staples didn't track through Dosh for me this time. It's worked with my CIP before but for some reason didn't work with my Amex. Didn't have DH's Hilton Biz so couldn't use his Staples offer. Then I went to BB&B and got $25 GCs on each of our Bonbon Biz. I even found an super old Rite Aid in my area and picked up a $40 Disney GC with the 10% off Chase offer! Finally, I stopped at Kroger and got a $100 Disney GC and $100 VGC with 4x fuel points on each plus 5% back with Dosh.

So, $240 worth of Disney GC for around $199 after I calculate fuel savings too. I'll stop at Walmart this week to liquidate the VGC to Serve- wasn't trying to stop in a Walmart on a Sunday!
Dosh is slow with my Amex. I got a notification today for my purchase on Friday.
 
Can someone give me a quick primer on Dosh?
Get the app (using a Dischurner link, of course). Set up your account. Add your credit cards to the app. For in-store offers, you just shop at the places listed in the app with the card(s) you have added. That's pretty much it. You don't have to link offers like ebates/RMN. Some offers have limits like $5 per day with Staples. There are also online offers if you shop through the app.
 
I might be extremely naive or stupid but why do you guys jump on the fee free visas?

It's also a way to move spend on a card that's not otherwise accepted somewhere - like the AmEx at Costco issue recently mentioned. You don't want to do Staples or OD/OM deals during an AmEx MSR but usually grocery stores are ok, so now you can get your Costco spend on to an AmEx.
Also a way to move spend on to a CC that wouldn't take a CC but might take debit. Since these are really prepaid debit cards, some places will take those for payment. For folks using Plastiq, a subset of them come up as debit cards and trigger the lower debit card fee for the service.

THIS!

I try to spend on Amex to appease the RATs, but also because supermarkets often run good deals on VGC/MCGC and I get 4x MR on my Amex Gold (and last quarter, 5x UR on the Chase Freedom).

I don't have an easy liquidation method, but I do carry over that grocery store bonus category wherever and whenever I spend the VGC or MCGC.

I almost always use up my VGCs at Costco (which doesn't accept Amex). But last month, DW had to renew her driver license and upgrade to California's new REAL ID, but the DMV only took cash or debit. I had her pay with a VGC and we got 5x UR at the DMV!

Certain MCGCs process as debit cards on Plastiq and incur only a 1% fee. If you're buying the MCGC for no fee or a discount, and earning 4x MR, 5x UR, 6% cash back, or even 6x Hilton points, you're coming out ahead even if you use the MCGC to pay bills on Plastiq.
 
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