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

[Haley R]

RE this, don't forget biz cards have offers too now. I got the 15% on my CSR and CIP. ( Didn't notice if anyone found it on a biz yet).

Thank you for mentioning this. I didn’t even looking thinking we would just have the ADT offers and other junk. Dh had the 15% on his CIP

 

[mmmears]

Dang... so many Chase cards and not one offer for Lowes. Seriously, Chase?

 

[Limes96]

So here is a question I've been meaning to ask.

I was purchasing some used books online at thriftbooks dot com (free shipping on orders over $15! Saves me the long annoying drive to Bookman's, where I just was last weekend but won't be near again any time soon) and I was going to use Amex. "We're sorry but we don't accept American Express at this time." That was actually surprising to me, because I thought (well, I assumed) that Amex was more widely accepted these days. (I remember all those Olympics commercials when I was younger for Visa and MC... "and they don't take American Express").

So my question for the Amex users here is, where have you tried to use Amex and NOT been able to?

Only place we haven’t been able to use Amex that was a real issue was at the dentist office.

I haven’t seen any offers on any of my Chase biz cards yet. Do they not show up on iPad? That’s the only place I check for offers. It always works on my personal cards.

 

[Lain]

Wow, he just gets slimier and slimier all the time.

Curious what you think of the new card? I like the bonus points for travel, but DH and I are both at 4/24and trying to keep that one slot open for something really amazing, and I'm not sure that this is worth it for either of us.

The 45k MR incognito offer makes this a worthwhile card, at least for the first year. If you’re in the market for an Away bag, the $100 credit helps with the AF but the $150 you’d get from the supportal offer may be better even with a haul split between a 35k MR SUB and a 15k MR supportal bonus.

Is it worth a <5/24 spot? It’s different if you’re at 1-3/24 vs. being at 4/24. Then it kind of depends when your next card(s) will age past 24 months. And also allow for the fact that while the Green card will add to your 5/24 status, Amex doesn’t typically report a new card to your credit reports until the close of the second statement so that’s another 1.5-2 months that this card won’t yet count against Chase. The gap between those two factors is the lost opportunity of being under 5/24.

I think the Green has a solid earning structure with 3x MR on dining and travel. However, it has a relatively high $150 AF that’s not waived in the first year.

Of course, Amex includes these $100 credits to CLEAR, LoungeBuddy, and for the first year Away as offsets for prospective applicants to justify the AF. As I noted earlier, they’re highly specific credits to things you might not have spent money on otherwise, but now you feel like you kind of have to or you’re leaving money on the table. The $100 credit for CLEAR won’t cover the $179 fee per person, unless you stack on some other discount, not to mention $50 for each additional family member. The LoungeBuddy credit seems unnecessary if you already have cards that get you access to Priority Pass, Centurion, Escape, Delta or United Club lounges; and even if you find yourself somewhere you don’t have lounge access, it doesn’t seem like LoungeBuddy’s network of paid lounges fills in all the gaps. The Away credit will get you half a carry-on in your first year. I can’t in good conscience value these credits anywhere close to $300, and wouldn’t count them in weighing the AF — especially in year 2 onward.

So if we’re just looking at the earning structure of 3x MR for dining and travel, I think anyone who has the Amex Gold or is planning to open a Gold card faces a dilemma. The Gold earns 4x MR at supermarkets and restaurants; the Green earns 3x MR on travel and dining. Are we going to keep both cards when one bonus category (restaurants) overlaps so much? Are we really going to shift dining spend from the Gold (4x) to the Green (3x)? If so (but why would you?), then can you spend enough at 4x supermarkets to justify keeping the Gold at $250 AF? If not, then are you going to close the Gold and lose the 4x MR supermarket bonus category? If you’re going to keep the Gold and keep your dining spend on its 4x, then the Green is just your 3x travel card. Do you think you’ll spend enough on 3x travel to justify a $150 AF? Assuming a conservative 1 cpp value for MR, $150 is 15k MR. You’d need to spend $5k on travel in subsequent years to break even on the 3x travel category.

I am somewhat concerned how broadly “travel” will code. When the Gold relaunched last October, a lot of non-restaurant eateries like cafes, bakeries, bars, food trucks, etc. didn’t code for 4x, cardmembers complained to Amex, and Amex slowly added these merchants to the 4x coding. I worry Amex 3x travel won’t be as broad as Chase 3x travel.

The above assumes Amex cards in a vacuum. In reality, there are other cards out there with MSRs to hit, not to mention Chase’s CSP and CSR that have similar earn rates in like bonus categories that are keepers for most people. Unless you’ve come up with more travel related spend to put on the Green, you’re likely going to be diverting travel spend from Chase to Amex. I’m all for diversifying your points wallets, but just consider that by diluting your spend across cards you’re probably making keeping AF cards harder to justify based on organic spend alone. However, if you’re interested in earning MRs and perhaps value MRs more than URs, the Green could be a good compliment to the Gold and BBP to earn a lot of MR from your organic spend if constantly chasing MSRs isn’t your thing.

I will say I’m considering having my wife get the Green. But my wife is 1/24 with no MR cards in her own name, and I’m 4/24. We also happen to be in the market for an Away carry-on. The Green’s travel and dining bonus categories could work well for my wife’s spending habits, and we could swap the CSR out of her wallet with the Green to keep up her spend with Amex and appease the RATs.

 

[mmmears]

The 45k MR incognito offer makes this a worthwhile card, at least for the first year. If you’re in the market for an Away bag, the $100 credit helps with the AF but the $150 you’d get from the supportal offer may be better even with a haul split between a 35k MR SUB and a 15k MR supportal bonus.

Is it worth a <5/24 spot? It’s different if you’re at 1-3/24 vs. being at 4/24. Then it kind of depends when your next card(s) will age past 24 months. And also allow for the fact that while the Green card will add to your 5/24 status, Amex doesn’t typically report a new card to your credit reports until the close of the second statement so that’s another 1.5-2 months that this card won’t yet count against Chase. The gap between those two factors is the lost opportunity of being under 5/24.

I think the Green has a solid earning structure with 3x MR on dining and travel. However, it has a relatively high $150 AF that’s not waived in the first year.

Of course, Amex includes these $100 credits to CLEAR, LoungeBuddy, and for the first year Away as offsets for prospective applicants to justify the AF. As I noted earlier, they’re highly specific credits to things you might not have spent money on otherwise, but now you feel like you kind of have to or you’re leaving money on the table. The $100 credit for CLEAR won’t cover the $179 fee per person, unless you stack on some other discount, not to mention $50 for each additional family member. The LoungeBuddy credit seems unnecessary if you already have cards that get you access to Priority Pass, Centurion, Escape, Delta or United Club lounges; and even if you find yourself somewhere you don’t have lounge access, it doesn’t seem like LoungeBuddy’s network of paid lounges fills in all the gaps. The Away credit will get you half a carry-on in your first year. I can’t in good conscience value these credits anywhere close to $300, and wouldn’t count them in weighing the AF — especially in year 2 onward.

So if we’re just looking at the earning structure of 3x MR for dining and travel, I think anyone who has the Amex Gold or is planning to open a Gold card faces a dilemma. The Gold earns 4x MR at supermarkets and restaurants; the Green earns 3x MR on travel and dining. Are we going to keep both cards when one bonus category (restaurants) overlaps so much? Are we really going to shift dining spend from the Gold (4x) to the Green (3x)? If so (but why would you?), then can you spend enough at 4x supermarkets to justify keeping the Gold at $250 AF? If not, then are you going to close the Gold and lose the 4x MR supermarket bonus category? If you’re going to keep the Gold and keep your dining spend on its 4x, then the Green is just your 3x travel card. Do you think you’ll spend enough on 3x travel to justify a $150 AF? Assuming a conservative 1 cpp value for MR, $150 is 15k MR. You’d need to spend $5k on travel in subsequent years to break even on the 3x travel category.

I am somewhat concerned how broadly “travel” will code. When the Gold relaunched last October, a lot of non-restaurant eateries like cafes, bakeries, bars, food trucks, etc. didn’t code for 4x, cardmembers complained to Amex, and Amex slowly added these merchants to the 4x coding. I worry Amex 3x travel won’t be as broad as Chase 3x travel.

The above assumes Amex cards in a vacuum. In reality, there are other cards out there with MSRs to hit, not to mention Chase’s CSP and CSR that have similar earn rates in like bonus categories that are keepers for most people. Unless you’ve come up with more travel related spend to put on the Green, you’re likely going to be diverting travel spend from Chase to Amex. I’m all for diversifying your points wallets, but just consider that by diluting your spend across cards you’re probably making keeping AF cards harder to justify based on organic spend alone. However, if you’re interested in earning MRs and perhaps value MRs more than URs, the Green could be a good compliment to the Gold and BBP to earn a lot of MR from your organic spend if constantly chasing MSRs isn’t your thing.

I will say I’m considering having my wife get the Green. But my wife is 1/24 with no MR cards in her own name, and I’m 4/24. We also happen to be in the market for an Away carry-on. The Green’s travel and dining bonus categories could work well for my wife’s spending habits, and we could swap the CSR out of her wallet with the Green to keep up her spend with Amex and appease the RATs.

Thank you so much for sharing your analysis. It's pretty much in line with what I've been thinking. Maybe one of us could cancel a gold and get a green instead, but at this point we spend more in groceries than dining. We also have a $$$ DCL cruise to pay for (and it's not all going to go on GCs) so we were planning to pay for it with the CSR for the 3x points.

DH has issues with AMEX not counting his work cafe (which only sells food) as it is, so I'm not hopeful that this card would even get used there. And we don't need an Away since the B&R bags that we've had for years are still going strong, so I can't say it would "save" us money.

All in all, if we weren't both at 4/24 I would probably jump at the offer (esp. when we could get support points from one another), but it's hard to fill that last spot. DH got 2 cards early July, 2018 when we started playing this game, so I'm assuming those won't be cleared until next August, and my first one won't drop until the Fall.

Much to think about... We do value MRs much more than many people here, and do much better than 1¢ per point when redeeming (or we have so far). But we also value URs. And I like the points diversified, since it gives us more options when it comes to airline bookings.

 

[mmmears]

In record time, I met my CIP MSR yesterday and 80K points posted into my account today. Usually I have to wait weeks!

 

[Mopedmom1]

So my question for the Amex users here is, where have you tried to use Amex and NOT been able to?

Here in the south, I rarely have a merchant not take Amex. The place I hear "we don't take Amex" the most is Portland, Oregon!

Lol! I'm in the Portland area and today tried to use my Amex at Bi-Mart, a local employee owned general store. (Think Kmart, but waaay smaller.) No dice. My accountant, however, had no problem putting $720 on it.

 

[miztressuz]

Opportunity for some support on CapOne Spark cards. DoC has made a post where you can share your link in the comments. Since it looks like you have to be invited to generate an offer, and it's not a mainstream card to begin with, and they posted kinda late night (comments start around 11pm EST) if you get in soon there's a good chance at a click. Clicking on a couple links, looks like CapOne did like AmEx and shows your first name on the application page.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/capital-one-2000-spark-cash-share-your-referrals/
I think @Psychodisney and @LynnTH have a flavor of this? Probably a couple others that I'm missing, sorry!

 

[wanderlust7]

So my question for the Amex users here is, where have you tried to use Amex and NOT been able to?

So many places! My new chiropractor, certain restaurants, some of the kids' summer camps, and many (most?) places overseas. Costco Travel will take other cards besides Visa, but just not Amex.

 

[MKTokyo]

Just wanted to say to those who have posted tips for Hawaii here & on DISchurners. You have helped us and our wedding guests tremendously

 

[wendow]

So my question for the Amex users here is, where have you tried to use Amex and NOT been able to?

Our church, our optometrist, our car dealership, our mechanic, and maybe the most annoying, Costco. I'm sure I'm missing some people that I have forgotten about but these are the biggies that stand out to me.

 

[wendow]

What is the actual etiquette on family boarding? We haven't used it in a while but will have a three year old and baby on our next trip. Should a family like mine with a variety of ages split up and I do family boarding and DH does regular boarding with the older kids? I guess I just assumed it would be ok for us all to board together but I wouldn't want to be upsetting other passengers or breaking the rules.

So, your fam is larger than ours and we 'outgrew' fam boarding a year ago but we all boarded together. I saw no reason to leave some kids and dh behind since we'd be saving seats anyways. Yep, we got side-eyed by some travelers but who cares?!? I sure don't.

This last trip when we were at WDW, our flight home got cancelled. We had diligently set our clocks to check in 24 hours in advance and had early B boarding. Then our flight was cancelled and SW got us on a not-so-desirable flight home but at least we were getting home. WELL, when we checked in for that flight, we got late in C boarding, which was not surprising. SO, even though I do not have an under 7 kiddo, I asked the gate attendant if we could board with family boarding (explaining what had happened to us) and she was like 'Sure, that is no big deal at all'. All that to say, I think you whole fam is fine to board together in family boarding.

 

[Tikitoi]

Online stores work for the online shopping category. I've found some other odd things that work, like my son's Minecraft server subscription. Also, Walmart in-store purchases work if you pay with the app and have the card linked there.

Was wondering about something like this with my BoA but it would be for online pharmacy. I have mine set at drugstores so hoping that includes online rx as well. Such as express scripts. I have to pay a few hundred in co pays so wanting to do this right.

I lost $200 recently too. I’m hoping they show up but I think they got thrown out. I hope you find yours.

Yikes...Makes me not feel so bad about losing a $15 In Out gc I acquired

 

[Judique]

Yikes...Makes me not feel so bad about losing a $15 In Out gc I acquired

Sorry to hear you lost a card also. Today I am going to search for mine again. After I get a cup of coffee, that is.

 

[Judique]

Thanks for this! I just checked last night but now have the 15% on 2 cards. Plus I have the 35% Olive Garden on a couple cards (already had it in one, but now see more) I’m not a huge OG fan but my mom likes it, so I’ll take her out a couple times when DH won’t be home for dinner.

So, I've got 2 Olive garden offers on my Amex Gold card, one for cash and one for points and suggested to DD that we do Olive Garden. We haven't eaten there in a long time.

And now today I've just gotten another 25 off 75 at America Eats.

Plus 3 Hilton offers. One on Embassy, one on Hilton, one on Hampton.

 

[havaneselover]

Found the Lowe’s offer (15%) on my ciu

 

[kmc8826]

On the whole where can you not use Amex issue my two big ones are our insurance company and Costco. In fact Costco hates Amex so much that you can’t even use Amex online to buy gift cards. You can use a MasterCard or Discover to get a Costco gift card (handy if trying to make a MSR on one of those cards and have a big purchase coming up).

 

[EACarlson]

So my question for the Amex users here is, where have you tried to use Amex and NOT been able to?

Chinese restaurant, Little Ceaser's, doggy day care. Not all that many places, but it is annoying when you run into one. It annoys my wife, who just wants to carry one card but can't.

 

[Psychodisney]

Opportunity for some support on CapOne Spark cards. DoC has made a post where you can share your link in the comments. Since it looks like you have to be invited to generate an offer, and it's not a mainstream card to begin with, and they posted kinda late night (comments start around 11pm EST) if you get in soon there's a good chance at a click. Clicking on a couple links, looks like CapOne did like AmEx and shows your first name on the application page.

https://www.doctorofcredit.com/capital-one-2000-spark-cash-share-your-referrals/
I think @Psychodisney and @LynnTH have a flavor of this? Probably a couple others that I'm missing, sorry!

Thanks for the tip! I added my link there and on Dischurners.

 

[elgerber]

There is a brewery and a small local shop in a northern town we take weekend trips to, that don't take Amex. And my dd just had her first encounter with someone who doesn't take it, but I can't remember where.

My Venmo payment to my DD posted on my CIP this morning, as office and shipping