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

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Oh I totally missed that! I was just skimming earlier and was quickly drawn to the 135. Sorry to make you explain your joke haha. I think many people here just skim though since there’s so much content posted daily so a lot might have missed that 🤣
I figured when I saw the “wow” reaction so much that people weren’t looking at the pictures haha
 
@smallsy Loved that pic with Kevin!!

We left Epcot early afternoon. Just so packed. Went to HS. Not a lot better there but enjoyed the outfits of everybody dressed up for Dapper Day! DD liked that too. Rode swirling saucers and walked about SW land for the first time. Way bigger than I expected! So cool! We’re taking a break back at the room now before heading to MK for the evening. Having a great time!
Same with us, Epcot in the morning then DHS afternoon. Loved watching the people dressed up and caught a few shows with Citizens of Hollywood. Good day!
 
We’re on our way home now. We played pinball in the arcade at the contemporary and looked at the gingerbread house. Then we went to MK. We got the Christmas Cookie Sundae in Tomorrowland and I HIGHLY recommend it. We both loved it! We rode jingle cruise with a fp for the first time and it was really funny. We left MK and had dinner at Cici’s lol. I am so glad we don’t live in Orlando. Traffic is always horrible there
We did the Jingle cruise couple days ago and loved it too. Going back to MK tomorrow. We are down here until Thursday.
 


Which locations did you hit in Australia? We are headed there next Aug. The plan is to fly into Sydney spend the night, take a flight to Cairns and 3-4 days, see the Great Barrier Reef, fly to Brisbane and maybe go up to Coff’s Harbour for a night or two and then drive to the Gold for 2 nights spend a couple of nights driving to Sydney then stay in Sydney 4-5 nights at the Park Hyatt Sydney before heading back to the US.

I was trying to post tips etc along the way on the reddit planning thread, but when I realized I was posting in the wrong place on Reddit I gave up ha ha!

We were in NZ for a few days, did the Rydges SYD airport hotel for one night, continued our flights the next day to Alice Springs. Did Kangaroo Sanctuary tour and a night in Alice, went to Kings Canyon and did one night there, went to Yulara/Uluru/KJ and did 2 nights there, drove back to Alice and did 1 night before catching flights the next day.

Girls and I flew from Alice Springs to Cairns, DH popped back to the states for a few days to check on our farm. My mom flew in and met us in Cairns. We stayed in Port Douglas, didn’t bother staying in Cairnes. We did NOT do the reef, totally my own personal opinion but right now I felt like the best thing we could do was NOT pay tour boats money to go out there and disrupt things, I sort of feel like tourism is really hurting the reef. I also do not love the ocean, and my girls have been very lucky to snorkel in some beautiful places, so we skipped that. I totally understand others doing differently, that is just an explanation for our personal choices that we made.

We stayed at the Sheraton Port Douglas and LOVED it. Great little town (although the resort is not right in town), beautiful beach to walk along (the resort IS right on the beach but swimming is further down towards town). It WAS stinger season and they also have salt water crocs, so you can only swim in the ocean where there are nets, but we just stuck with the resort pools...plenty of pool space there!! We had one of the rooms on the bottom floor where you could swim straight from the back porch, my girls loved that! We also did the Skyrail in Cairns one day and hiked Mossman Gorge one day, so we felt we had plenty to do to keep us busy instead of visiting the reef. Pretty much everyone assumed we were there to do the reef though, so it certainly is common!

From there we just worked our way south to Sydney. Stopped in Airlie Beach, which I love, but we had really stinky weather this time. Did a trip out to famous Whitehaven Beach (using UR). Stopped in Rainbow Beach, the main reason for that was to go horseback riding for my girls. Also did the Carlo Sandblows there, was super cool to walk around, although very hard to explain how a bunch of sand is really that cool. I think the views of the coastline there were the best views we had the entire trip! It was also a really busy paraglider day, so was cool to watch them take off and fly.

From there think we went to Brisbane and my mom flew back to the states and DH arrived back in from the states, stayed there for 5 nights. I like Brisbane, I have spent a decent amount of time there and we have family there. We did Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary this time and LOVED it!! It is VERY different from Australia Zoo, but it fit the style of my family better. (Also used UR to buy those tickets, but if you are going to go that route message me because we definitely had some drama trying to redeem and I can explain it all to you more).

From Brisbane, we battled the horrible wildfires that were ravaging the East Coast and had to change our plans around a bit. We were supposed to do Port Macquarie and Koala Hospital, but ended up at the very last minute literally turning around on the highway and heading back to Coffs Harbour. At which point, we were pretty much only left with a very overpriced hotel because around here and NZ it is not uncommon for most places to have their reception/check in not open at all hours. So we stayed at the only place on UR pints I could find that was still open at 9pm. Our hotel in Port Macquarie was great and refunded us our non refundable rate due to the circumstances.

So all I can really say about Coffs Harbour is that we were hardly there except for about 14 hours, and that we reeked of smoke by the time we left. I think our hotel was actually on the beach, but we were anxious to get on the roads before things got worse. We were lucky to be able to get through back roads around Port Macquarie to get to Sydney, but trying to plan around wildfires and highway closures in a foreign country not knowing at of the points of reference given in news broadcasts was not the easiest experience I have ever had!!

Sydney was ok, I had never been to Sydney (despite multiple trips to Australia ha ha) and it really wasn’t my favorite. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job of planning this trip, but in literally every place we stayed, I felt that we could have stayed longer. EXCEPT Sydney ha ha! Different strokes for different folks, but I can’t see me ever going back there again. Park Hyatt will be great I’m sure, the location certainly can’t be beat! We just did a lot of wandering, which we are totally happy with, since at that point we had ticked most of the boxes of “must do’s” so we didn’t need to do Zoo, aquarium etc. We took the ferry out to Manly Beach one afternoon/evening, but sadly it was pretty smoggy due to fires. We also did the coastal walk over by Bondi, it was nice but after all of the really “natural” hiking we had done at Kings Canton, Valley of the Winds, Mossman Gorge, it had too many people and houses around for my personal preference (but obviously I’m not a city girl).

We definitely did NOT need the car in Sydney, I should have returned it on arrival into the city and just arranged a shuttle to the airport. Would have been cheaper that way. Oh well.

Sydney airport - not sure if you saw my attempted Reddit post (apparently in the wrong place ha ha) but Amex Priority Pass did not work anywhere, I had no problem with Chase PP though. Also used it in BNE airport during a layover. My husband did find the Amex lounge in SYD though, and they let us in twice (once just him when he flew back to states and second time all 4 of us on our way to Fiji) on his BGR card, which I am fairly sure is not a “platinum” card and should not have been eligible. Even worse, I had literally cancelled his card the night before we flew out to Fiji because the AF hit and we didn’t want to keep his employee card, so I’m REALLY hoping we don’t eventually receive a bill of some sort charging us for the visit because although they ran the card for entry it was technically cancelled. He legitimately did not know that I had cancelled it, so we weren’t trying to be dishonest, my husband just misunderstood what I told him about the card.

I hope some of that was helpful and not too boring, I have a hard time being succinct, so I hope that wasn’t too much for everyone!
 
FYI - If you’re at or over 5/24 and locked out of Chase cards, you may want to check your Chase personal and business accounts for “Just For You”/“Selected For You” green check mark offers or black star “For Business Owners” offers. The key to these targeted offers bypassing the 5/24 rule is a fixed % APR (vs. an APR range, which will not), so check the offer terms.

There are reports on r/churning that these targeted offers are back.

See DoC’s write up about this for more information.

Note that these green/black star offers with fixed APRs bypass only the 5/24 rule; other rules that may restrict bonuses based on how long ago you received your last bonus and the cards you have or have had still apply.

I have two of these black-star offers which are definitely new in the past month or so.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure the CIP offer is not a bypass 5/24 offer because it says this:
Purchase Annual Percentage Rate (APR)17.74% to 22.74%, based on your creditworthiness. These APRs will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate.a

However, I am not sure about the CIC offer, which says this:
Purchase Annual Percentage Rate (APR)0% fixed Intro APR for the first 12 months that your Account is open.
After that, 14.99% to 20.99%, based on your creditworthiness.

I'm guessing that this also is not a bypass 5/24 offer because of the variable rate after the fixed-rate promo, but I'd be curious what the experts think.
 


I was trying to post tips etc along the way on the reddit planning thread, but when I realized I was posting in the wrong place on Reddit I gave up ha ha!

We were in NZ for a few days, did the Rydges SYD airport hotel for one night, continued our flights the next day to Alice Springs. Did Kangaroo Sanctuary tour and a night in Alice, went to Kings Canyon and did one night there, went to Yulara/Uluru/KJ and did 2 nights there, drove back to Alice and did 1 night before catching flights the next day.

Girls and I flew from Alice Springs to Cairns, DH popped back to the states for a few days to check on our farm. My mom flew in and met us in Cairns. We stayed in Port Douglas, didn’t bother staying in Cairnes. We did NOT do the reef, totally my own personal opinion but right now I felt like the best thing we could do was NOT pay tour boats money to go out there and disrupt things, I sort of feel like tourism is really hurting the reef. I also do not love the ocean, and my girls have been very lucky to snorkel in some beautiful places, so we skipped that. I totally understand others doing differently, that is just an explanation for our personal choices that we made.

We stayed at the Sheraton Port Douglas and LOVED it. Great little town (although the resort is not right in town), beautiful beach to walk along (the resort IS right on the beach but swimming is further down towards town). It WAS stinger season and they also have salt water crocs, so you can only swim in the ocean where there are nets, but we just stuck with the resort pools...plenty of pool space there!! We had one of the rooms on the bottom floor where you could swim straight from the back porch, my girls loved that! We also did the Skyrail in Cairns one day and hiked Mossman Gorge one day, so we felt we had plenty to do to keep us busy instead of visiting the reef. Pretty much everyone assumed we were there to do the reef though, so it certainly is common!

From there we just worked our way south to Sydney. Stopped in Airlie Beach, which I love, but we had really stinky weather this time. Did a trip out to famous Whitehaven Beach (using UR). Stopped in Rainbow Beach, the main reason for that was to go horseback riding for my girls. Also did the Carlo Sandblows there, was super cool to walk around, although very hard to explain how a bunch of sand is really that cool. I think the views of the coastline there were the best views we had the entire trip! It was also a really busy paraglider day, so was cool to watch them take off and fly.

From there think we went to Brisbane and my mom flew back to the states and DH arrived back in from the states, stayed there for 5 nights. I like Brisbane, I have spent a decent amount of time there and we have family there. We did Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary this time and LOVED it!! It is VERY different from Australia Zoo, but it fit the style of my family better. (Also used UR to buy those tickets, but if you are going to go that route message me because we definitely had some drama trying to redeem and I can explain it all to you more).

From Brisbane, we battled the horrible wildfires that were ravaging the East Coast and had to change our plans around a bit. We were supposed to do Port Macquarie and Koala Hospital, but ended up at the very last minute literally turning around on the highway and heading back to Coffs Harbour. At which point, we were pretty much only left with a very overpriced hotel because around here and NZ it is not uncommon for most places to have their reception/check in not open at all hours. So we stayed at the only place on UR pints I could find that was still open at 9pm. Our hotel in Port Macquarie was great and refunded us our non refundable rate due to the circumstances.

So all I can really say about Coffs Harbour is that we were hardly there except for about 14 hours, and that we reeked of smoke by the time we left. I think our hotel was actually on the beach, but we were anxious to get on the roads before things got worse. We were lucky to be able to get through back roads around Port Macquarie to get to Sydney, but trying to plan around wildfires and highway closures in a foreign country not knowing at of the points of reference given in news broadcasts was not the easiest experience I have ever had!!

Sydney was ok, I had never been to Sydney (despite multiple trips to Australia ha ha) and it really wasn’t my favorite. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job of planning this trip, but in literally every place we stayed, I felt that we could have stayed longer. EXCEPT Sydney ha ha! Different strokes for different folks, but I can’t see me ever going back there again. Park Hyatt will be great I’m sure, the location certainly can’t be beat! We just did a lot of wandering, which we are totally happy with, since at that point we had ticked most of the boxes of “must do’s” so we didn’t need to do Zoo, aquarium etc. We took the ferry out to Manly Beach one afternoon/evening, but sadly it was pretty smoggy due to fires. We also did the coastal walk over by Bondi, it was nice but after all of the really “natural” hiking we had done at Kings Canton, Valley of the Winds, Mossman Gorge, it had too many people and houses around for my personal preference (but obviously I’m not a city girl).

We definitely did NOT need the car in Sydney, I should have returned it on arrival into the city and just arranged a shuttle to the airport. Would have been cheaper that way. Oh well.

Sydney airport - not sure if you saw my attempted Reddit post (apparently in the wrong place ha ha) but Amex Priority Pass did not work anywhere, I had no problem with Chase PP though. Also used it in BNE airport during a layover. My husband did find the Amex lounge in SYD though, and they let us in twice (once just him when he flew back to states and second time all 4 of us on our way to Fiji) on his BGR card, which I am fairly sure is not a “platinum” card and should not have been eligible. Even worse, I had literally cancelled his card the night before we flew out to Fiji because the AF hit and we didn’t want to keep his employee card, so I’m REALLY hoping we don’t eventually receive a bill of some sort charging us for the visit because although they ran the card for entry it was technically cancelled. He legitimately did not know that I had cancelled it, so we weren’t trying to be dishonest, my husband just misunderstood what I told him about the card.

I hope some of that was helpful and not too boring, I have a hard time being succinct, so I hope that wasn’t too much for everyone!
Thanks! We went to Australia 19 years ago for our honeymoon and hit all of those locations (except Alice Springs) plus we spent some time in rainforest North of Cairns. We are looking forward to experiencing Australia with DS now.

We are definitely doing the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary so DS can hold a koala. I am trying to make sure all of our hotels and flights are covered before tours especially if the AUS $ remains low.

i get you about the Great Barrier Reef but it is sudden a magical place. To be me, it’s like going to Egypt and not going to the pyramids.

We’ll be there during their winter so that will also play into what we do.
 
I have two of these black-star offers which are definitely new in the past month or so.

Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure the CIP offer is not a bypass 5/24 offer because it says this:
Purchase Annual Percentage Rate (APR)17.74% to 22.74%, based on your creditworthiness. These APRs will vary with the market based on the Prime Rate.a

However, I am not sure about the CIC offer, which says this:
Purchase Annual Percentage Rate (APR)0% fixed Intro APR for the first 12 months that your Account is open.
After that, 14.99% to 20.99%, based on your creditworthiness.

I'm guessing that this also is not a bypass 5/24 offer because of the variable rate after the fixed-rate promo, but I'd be curious what the experts think.

No go for both. 😕
 
We did the Jingle cruise couple days ago and loved it too. Going back to MK tomorrow. We are down here until Thursday.
I think our skipper’s name was Terry. He was great. We did get stopped for a little bit at the end because one boat broke down but they got it out really fast. Have fun at MK tomorrow!
 
Ok I double checked..... -80.00 balance on 10/4- statement closed 10/25, AF charged 11/1, account page says balance due is 19.00 by 11/22. This looks like I have to pay by then or lose my options/pay finance charges etc. (I do tend to pay early at times b/c I'm unsure if I owe now or after next statement- if my acct page says balance due then I have to pay amount by that date....don't I?)
@SouthFayetteFan - Do you think -80 is an $80 credit on the account? Because $80 and $19 sounds like an annual fee amount.

If I'm understanding this right, you're saying:

10/04 ($80.00) balance on your card - did you have a refund, or make an overpayment?
10/25 statement closed with a credit balance: ($80.00)
11/01 $99 AF posted. Now your balance is sitting at $19.00 since $99-$80 = $19
11/22 $19 balance due

Is this correct?

Then what I expect will happen is that when your 11/22 statement closes, you'll receive your anniversary points. You pay your $19 balance due on 11/22. You wait for the RR points to show up on your RR account. Call to cancel the card before 12/1. $99 AF gets refunded, so now you'll have a credit balance: ($99.00) or maybe ($118.00) since you made the $19 payment toward the AF.

At that point you can call Chase to ask for a refund check.
 
I took advantage of the Hilton points bonus. Bought 100k{500 dollars} to top off the 50k I have. It was enough to book a 5 star Hilton in Old Town Prague. The cash cost would have been 1k for the three nights. This hotel has an executive lounge which is a nice perk with my Aspire. When I get my Hilton Biz I'll use the SUB for my other plans. I worked out the math and I came ahead doing this. I also decided I didn't want to get a Marriott Card just for Prague. There are better Chase cards I can get and I prefer Hyatt and Hilton over Marriott.
There are no Hyatts in Prague in case your wondering.
 
Sigh. Feel like I've been Bonvoyed. Last night I booked the Sheraton Grand Seattle on points advance. It was 35k points. I want to use my Bonvoy Biz free night (when I get it in April). Today I see it's gone up to 40k.

Back to the drawing board....

Same thing happened to us but with Copenhagen. It was 50K when we booked, which would work for our one free night whenever that shows up, but now it's either 55 or 60K (sorry I can't remember which). #Bonvoyed :sad2:
 
10/04 ($80.00) balance on your card - did you have a refund, or make an overpayment?
10/25 statement closed with a credit balance: ($80.00)
11/01 $99 AF posted. Now your balance is sitting at $19.00 since $99-$80 = $19
11/22 $19 balance due

Maybe something like this:

10/04 ($-80.00) balance on your card - did you have a refund, or make an overpayment?
10/25 statement closed with a credit balance: ($-80.00) This payment due date is 11/22 but you don't owe since it seems you have a credit.
11/01 $99 AF posted. Now your balance is sitting at $19.00 since $99-$80 = $19 Now you owe $19, however this is not on the previous statement, therefore not due 11/22
11/22 $19 balance due No payment due since statement closed with a credit to the acct.
11/25 statement will close with you owing the $19 remaining for AF, this being due 12/22 Your annual points should post shortly after this. You do not have to pay this, just leave it there.
12/01 Cancel before this date as I believe Chase is 30 days from AF posting in order to get a refund. You have a short window from statement close (which triggers your points) to your 30 days from AF posting.


Card should be closed, within a few days you should see a credit of $80 ($-80 is how it should look in your acct) because you paid $80 with your previous credit, you have $19 due, $99 AF was credited which covers that $19 due leaving you with $80 they owe you. You can ask them to move that credit to a different card or send you a check.

Your acct should show you the amount due from the previously closed statement. As long as you pay that by your due date, 11/22 in this case, you are fine as far as interest goes.
453081
 
Maybe something like this:

10/04 ($-80.00) balance on your card - did you have a refund, or make an overpayment?
10/25 statement closed with a credit balance: ($-80.00) This payment due date is 11/22 but you don't owe since it seems you have a credit.
11/01 $99 AF posted. Now your balance is sitting at $19.00 since $99-$80 = $19 Now you owe $19, however this is not on the previous statement, therefore not due 11/22
11/22 $19 balance due No payment due since statement closed with a credit to the acct.
11/25 statement will close with you owing the $19 remaining for AF, this being due 12/22 Your annual points should post shortly after this. You do not have to pay this, just leave it there.
12/01 Cancel before this date as I believe Chase is 30 days from AF posting in order to get a refund. You have a short window from statement close (which triggers your points) to your 30 days from AF posting.


Card should be closed, within a few days you should see a credit of $80 ($-80 is how it should look in your acct) because you paid $80 with your previous credit, you have $19 due, $99 AF was credited which covers that $19 due leaving you with $80 they owe you. You can ask them to move that credit to a different card or send you a check.

Your acct should show you the amount due from the previously closed statement. As long as you pay that by your due date, 11/22 in this case, you are fine as far as interest goes.
View attachment 453081
Ah, yes, I think you're totally right. This makes the most sense @hsmamato2
 
So got my dh's MDE all figured out. Those IT people are consistently fabulous! She got his AP back, his resort reservation back and all his FP's back and on our 1 hour convo with this sweet gal chatted about our love of DVC. She even tried to fix our Disney+. She wanted to help us so badly. I love her for it! In the end, she couldn't and expressed her frustration that no only had they 'broke' my dh's MDE but to be careful what they touch of this as they try to fix Disney+. She said make sure they know before they touch anything that we have a trip coming up soon with a resort reservation and FP's. She was so great.

I think, I guess...after the "high" of this awesome and lovely IT lady, my dh decides to try to tackle the Disney+ problem again. He initiates the chat. FIVE+ hours later, he gets someone. This guy proceeds to assure him he knows he can help....blah, blah, blah. I warned my dh but he had high expectations. He's an IT guy and has worked help desk many times. They go over and above and beyond to help the customer. But I tried to tell him, 'oh hey, hon, they aren't gonna try so hard.' SOOOO, the guy is like going through all the beginner level stuff and I'm saying "just wait, it's coming where he will try to blow you off". And my IT dh knows but he's optimistic about this situation. And the guy says that he has the answer!! The reason we've not been able to log in for 5 days is cause of "all the excitement' surrounding Disney+" and everyone is so "excited" about the "amazing content" and that we are just caught up in high traffic. Uhhh, ya......NO :rotfl2:My dh says "I don't think so, friend."DIsney+ guy keeps assuring dh that just wait a couple hours and all will be well. My dh is like, "no, my account is somehow locked." Guy says, "no, your account looks perfect. It's just high traffic". They went back and forth. My dh was so mad...

So here we are...still cannot log in to Disney+ . We will keep making free accounts for as long as we can. After than, maybe I will use the friend's account who offered to let me use hers. Thank you!! I'm completely shocked and saddened at Disney's complete lack of customer service.

But our FP's are good and everything else so trying to keep that positive in mind!
 
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Hey. I got some really good advice a few months ago about CCs and now my DH and I have got some UR points to spend! We want to go to Ireland for the first time next May or June. We plan to fly into London, maybe go to Scotland for a couple of days, and then spend a week in Ireland. Has anyone here traveled there recently and want to share their experience? I would love to know what we should absolutely not miss! Thank you!


Below is a trip report I did on Ireland with many must do

https://www.disboards.com/threads/danube-river-cruise-with-a-pre-trip-to-ireland.3522400/
As for Scotland I’d say the Isle of Skye is a must do. Edinburgh is an amazing city. The Real Mary King Close tour is good. If you go during August you can’t miss the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. I love the Isle of Lewis because the Callanish Standing stones are there. Orkney has some world heritage sites as well. Orkney I’ve cream is my favorite ice cream ever! I could happily go back to Scotland every year.
 
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