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

[happ]

Swagbucks is doing their buy 500sb for $4.50 again. I'm finding this to be a great way to put a little spend on sock-drawered cards.

 

[speedyfishy]

Ouch prices keep going higher. I so want to get another contract but not with these high prices.

Resale is the way to go. I was just considering direct because of the 150 points up front for 2019. If I could have gotten two trips in that would have helped make it more even. Not worth it without that imo.

 

[vanjust14]

Well Tweeting AMEX got me nowhere. Just contact from someone there, who says they calculate my spend as being met on 5/22 and they cannot do anything until 12 weeks from that day. Then she said it's showing $2950 of my spend not counted yet, so she thinks maybe those charges are under review. Good lord. I don't think I will ever see these miles, and being I spent over $7k, if I don't get my 80k miles I will be done with Amex.

I feel your pain. I tweeted AMEX with my issue and got nowhere also. I took an upgrade offer on the old SPG card to the Bonblech Brilliant for 100,000 points. I've put $7,000 organic spend on this card after being told I had until June 8th to meet the MSR. I chatted last week to make sure they were counting my spend correctly and now all of a sudden I have no SUB tied to my account. I've chatted, called, and tweeted. I was told the first rep gave me incorrect info. Ridiculous! I'm going to be very upset if I get zero points for paying a $300 prorated fee and $7,000 spend that could have gone to another MSR.

 

[elgerber]

I feel your pain. I tweeted AMEX with my issue and got nowhere also. I took an upgrade offer on the old SPG card to the Bonblech Brilliant for 100,000 points. I've put $7,000 organic spend on this card after being told I had until June 8th to meet the MSR. I chatted last week to make sure they were counting my spend correctly and now all of a sudden I have no SUB tied to my account. I've chatted, called, and tweeted. I was told the first rep gave me incorrect info. Ridiculous! I'm going to be very upset if I get zero points for paying a $300 prorated fee and $7,000 spend that could have gone to another MSR.

It's ridiculous!!! I know my offer is tied, every single person has told me that, and I got the $100 statement credit a month ago. They used to be so good, what the heck are they up to now?

 

[striker1064]

I was going to buy the poly. They had a 75-490? Point contract available. He said he would check the cash inventory. I assumed that would get us just a regular room at the cash rate.

Resale is the way to go. I was just considering direct because of the 150 points up front for 2019. If I could have gotten two trips in that would have helped make it more even. Not worth it without that imo.

Frustrating I know, but I think you are doing the right thing here. Poly is absurdly expensive direct, and a lot of contracts are popping up via resale for a host of reasons, so you'd get a substantial discount going resale (or more points for the same money). I think if you can really use the direct benefits it's perfectly fine to go direct, but only on certain resorts where the spread between direct and resale isn't as drastic (and also, in the case of Poly, where a trend of more and more contracts are appearing on resale).

Cash inventory - here's how it works. Disney/DVC, by law, holds back at least 2% of each resort's points. Disney is free to do what they want with those points. Usually, they rent them out for cash. Most likely, your guide would have tried to pull from Disney-owned DVC inventory if your dates were available, and would have used the points you purchased to book the reservation. That's the only way they can do the Welcome Home booking, anyway.

My guess is all of the Disney-owned DVC units were already rented out for your dates. I'm not seeing it on Grand Californian's page for some reason, but if you look up the resorts on WDW, any room you see listed as a "Villa" on a cash booking is a Disney-owned DVC unit. They don't always pull cash-side villas for your first booking even if it's available, but if you do a search on your dates on WDW and there isn't a villa type available for your resort, they definitely can't fill it.

This is my understanding of how that first booking works, anyway. Probably everything will have changed by the time you read this.

 

[vanjust14]

It's ridiculous!!! I know my offer is tied, every single person has told me that, and I got the $100 statement credit a month ago. They used to be so good, what the heck are they up to now?

That's just unacceptable. How hard is it to add up the spend?! I hope everything works out for you. I don't know what the heck is going on with them.

 

[speedyfishy]

Frustrating I know, but I think you are doing the right thing here. Poly is absurdly expensive direct, and a lot of contracts are popping up via resale for a host of reasons, so you'd get a substantial discount going resale (or more points for the same money). I think if you can really use the direct benefits it's perfectly fine to go direct, but only on certain resorts where the spread between direct and resale isn't as drastic (and also, in the case of Poly, where a trend of more and more contracts are appearing on resale).

Cash inventory - here's how it works. Disney/DVC, by law, holds back at least 2% of each resort's points. Disney is free to do what they want with those points. Usually, they rent them out for cash. Most likely, your guide would have tried to pull from Disney-owned DVC inventory if your dates were available, and would have used the points you purchased to book the reservation. That's the only way they can do the Welcome Home booking, anyway.

My guess is all of the Disney-owned DVC units were already rented out for your dates. I'm not seeing it on Grand Californian's page for some reason, but if you look up the resorts on WDW, any room you see listed as a "Villa" on a cash booking is a Disney-owned DVC unit. They don't always pull cash-side villas for your first booking even if it's available, but if you do a search on your dates on WDW and there isn't a villa type available for your resort, they definitely can't fill it.

This is my understanding of how that first booking works, anyway. Probably everything will have changed by the time you read this.

Thanks yeah I was totally wrong with my thinking I just thought we would get a hotel room not a villa. Oops but this will probably be better for us anyway.

 

[amalone1013]

Swagbucks is doing their buy 500sb for $4.50 again. I'm finding this to be a great way to put a little spend on sock-drawered cards.

Think the limit is three times again?

 

[3 DD love princesses]

Think the limit is three times again?

Bummer don’t have this offer yet.

 

[mefordis]

Honestly, I would not be looking at United to fly to Japan unless I had bazillions of United miles and nothing better to do with them. They are following Delta’s footsteps and awards may wind up as high as 300,000 or more per person.

You can get a RT flight on ANA with MR points transferred to Virgin Atlantic or to ANA directly. You can transfer UR points to Virgin Atlantic to book ANA as well. There is also the option of AA miles to fly JAL to Tokyo. Since it seems that you are over 5/24 then Chase cards are not an option anyhow.

I would look into Amex MR earning cards or Barclay and Citi AA cards.

Since I already have enought miles in my United bank for 4 one way business class EWR to NRT tickets (if they are 70k United miles), I could apply for an AMEX card (suggestions?) to earn a MR bonus and use it while we are on vacation in two weeks to rack up points, if it makes sense. CSR gives 3x on hotels and restaurants so I'd want to find an AMEX that gives at least that. I could use those to fly ANA on our return.

However, I don't think I can book a one way ticket from NRT to EWR on ANA (I think I read you can only book RT award flights), though, but the mileage tickets look low enough that i could just sit on my United miles and book all four ANA tickets with what I accumulate from her on out. Do I have to worry about booking wayyyyyy in advance to get a reasonable award ticket with ANA, like I do with United? Or is there usually award availability, say, 4 months before departure?

Thanks so much for the info, Calypso AND Lain! I was so stuck on getting the Untied miles I didnt' consider anything else. Though Polaris does look pretty good and United makes it so easy to transfer URs and book.

 

[afan]

We have two young crows that need to finish puberty and move away from mom and dad. We've had a pair that call our yard home for over 5 years and this is the firat time for babies that we've noticed. Didn't see them small but they aren't full grown. One of them is so loud and "talks" A LOT. It's just nuts. One of them flew into the livingroom window the other day, thankfully not full out and it was more of a scratching than a thud but they are just annoying.

 

[havaneselover]

Think the limit is three times again?

It only let me do it once.

 

[AmyAnne]

Question for the ebay sellers. I know that eBay charges a fee based on an item's selling price, but are there additional fees, like for getting paid through paypal?

I sold fairly regularly years ago, but eventually the fees just made it not worth the time. I have a few items that I'm contemplating listing but I'm not sure anymore how to figure the seller's costs.

 

[Lain]

Since I already have enought miles in my United bank for 4 one way business class EWR to NRT tickets (if they are 70k United miles), I could apply for an AMEX card (suggestions?) to earn a MR bonus and use it while we are on vacation in two weeks to rack up points, if it makes sense. CSR gives 3x on hotels and restaurants so I'd want to find an AMEX that gives at least that. I could use those to fly ANA on our return.

However, I don't think I can book a one way ticket from NRT to EWR on ANA (I think I read you can only book RT award flights), though, but the mileage tickets look low enough that i could just sit on my United miles and book all four ANA tickets with what I accumulate from her on out. Do I have to worry about booking wayyyyyy in advance to get a reasonable award ticket with ANA, like I do with United? Or is there usually award availability, say, 4 months before departure?

Thanks so much for the info, Calypso AND Lain! I was so stuck on getting the Untied miles I didnt' consider anything else. Though Polaris does look pretty good and United makes it so easy to transfer URs and book.

Start by going to Cardmatch .com. Enter your information. If you see an offer for 100,000 MR after $5,000 in purchases within 3 months on the Amex Platinum card, apply for it immediately.

You're not focusing on bonus categories. If you're spending $5k and putting it all on the CSR, you'd earn at most 15k UR (assuming the entire $5k earns 3x UR). Extrapolating that, if you need to earn 276k United miles in the next 4 months, you'd need to spend at least $92k at 3x UR.

You need to start thinking about hitting MSRs for the big SUBs. If you put $5k in spend towards the Platinum's MSR you could earn up to 100k MR, depending on the offer you get.

If you don't see this 100k MR offer, you're not targeted and we need to think about what next.

ANA opens up their schedule 355 days in advance. VS opens up at 331 days out. As with all award tickets, inventory is limited so the sooner you get your points in place, the better off you'll be. Flexibility with dates also helps.

 

[Lain]

Question for the ebay sellers. I know that eBay charges a fee based on an item's selling price, but are there additional fees, like for getting paid through paypal?

I sold fairly regularly years ago, but eventually the fees just made it not worth the time. I have a few items that I'm contemplating listing but I'm not sure anymore how to figure the seller's costs.

eBay takes a 10% cut of the final sale price that's billed on a monthly invoice. Occasionally, eBay runs promos that cap their sellers fees or offer you a coupon to encourage you to sell. PayPal takes a 2.9% + []30 cents cut of the payment right as it's transferred into your PP account.

eBay seller fees used to earn 3x UR on the CIP, but that stopped a few months ago. I set my eBay Shipping to bill to PayPal and auto-pay from my CIP, which still earns 3x UR on the CIP. But withdraw your funds from your PayPal account before generating a shipping label/paying for shipping, or else eBay will deduct from your available PayPal balance first. If your PayPal balance is $0, then it'll charge your credit card.

 

[wenpop]

Does anyone know if you get denied a Chase CIP can you apply same day for another card? My sister just tried and she would like to try again for another CHase card, she only has one card a Discover card and she is an AU on 1 Amex and 1 Chase card.

 

[mefordis]

Start by going to Cardmatch .com. Enter your information. If you see an offer for 100,000 MR after $5,000 in purchases within 3 months on the Amex Platinum card, apply for it immediately.

You're not focusing on bonus categories. If you're spending $5k and putting it all on the CSR, you'd earn at most 15k UR (assuming the entire $5k earns 3x UR). Extrapolating that, if you need to earn 276k United miles in the next 4 months, you'd need to spend at least $92k at 3x UR.

You need to start thinking about hitting MSRs for the big SUBs. If you put $5k in spend towards the Platinum's MSR you could earn up to 100k MR, depending on the offer you get.

If you don't see this 100k MR offer, you're not targeted and we need to think about what next.

ANA opens up their schedule 355 days in advance. VS opens up at 331 days out. As with all award tickets, inventory is limited so the sooner you get your points in place, the better off you'll be. Flexibility with dates also helps.

I’m going to do this as soon as I get home. If both my husband and I are targeted for the AMEX platinum 100k bonus should I apply for both of us at the same time? We can definitely do the minimum spend within three months.

 

[AmyAnne]

eBay takes a 10% cut of the final sale price that's billed on a monthly invoice. Occasionally, eBay runs promos that cap their sellers fees or offer you a coupon to encourage you to sell. PayPal takes a 2.9% + 0.30 cents cut of the payment right as it's transferred into your PP account.

eBay seller fees used to earn 3x UR on the CIP, but that stopped a few months ago. I set my eBay Shipping to bill to PayPal and auto-pay from my CIP, which still earns 3x UR on the CIP. But withdraw your funds from your PayPal account before generating a shipping label/paying for shipping, or else eBay will deduct from your available PayPal balance first. If your PayPal balance is $0, then it'll charge your credit card.

Thanks. The whole eBay fees plus PayPal fees irks me for some reason. And sadly I don't have a CIP, but hopefully in November! I actually can't have a PayPal balance because I refuse to give them my SSN -- years ago it was because they kept getting hacked but now it's just stubbornness I think. As far as I can tell, they don't have a good reason for needing my SSN. So now whenever I get money through PP I have to log on and transfer it to my bank.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I need to move onto AA biz #2. I did the 70k/$4k spend offer last time. I found a link on doc for 75k/$5k spend. Using that is my 2nd best option, behind buying a mailer, correct (since it is a different offer than I used before)? I don't want to mess with the 40k/statement credit offer if I don't have to. I can plop our mortgage down and knock out almost this whole spend in one charge via plastiq.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Thanks. The whole eBay fees plus PayPal fees irks me for some reason. And sadly I don't have a CIP, but hopefully in November! I actually can't have a PayPal balance because I refuse to give them my SSN -- years ago it was because they kept getting hacked but now it's just stubbornness I think. As far as I can tell, they don't have a good reason for needing my SSN. So now whenever I get money through PP I have to log on and transfer it to my bank.

I think they ask for your SS number because if you receive over $20k and have 200 transactions in a year they have to issue a 1099