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

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I do think I go easier than some of our friends here (ummm @speedyfishy) who do this like its a job.
And that's probably why she is so successful at this hobby/job!

I've been thinking about adding another side hustle. Here lately I've been thinking it would just be better to earn more actual "spare" cash to pay for trips and churn less... but the lure of paying for vacations without "actual" money is so seductive. Just one of the things I've been tossing around.

I have the ability to return to work and earn very good money, and still keep my retirement so long as I don't exceed x $, but I'm actually happier playing with the pennies from my credit card activity. It's extremely wonderful not to be required to work, especially at my age, and I think I worked long enough that I don't miss it.
 
And my electricity just went out....phone at low battery so will have to car charge it. Hopefully my daughter still has electric because if it doesn't come back I'm headed to her house. They went to the beach for this hot weekend.
 
Just sharing that I was able to close my Citi AA biz card through chat. He asked me if I was closing because of security concerns and then if my business was closing. I had to confirm my identity by them sending a text message with a code but then he did close the account.
 


Do you have the application or approval emails? IIRC there was a reference number included in one or both of those that's used in the "setup your account" email link so you can do it before you get the card.



I don't believe you have to pay to transfer now, so it's worth a call. FWIW, I had hubby call to transfer points from my account while we did a reservation and they transferred the points with no mention of the fee. Hubby is Plat, I'm Silver. So under the previous terms I'd have paid $10 per transfer since technically the member sending the points is supposed to call. But I figure worse case is you have to get DH to give verbal approval on the call and you having the Gold status might get around that since it was waived for Gold and Plat members, if they are still charging for transfers.

Trying to have multiple members on the reservation and getting it credited to the correct account seems very hit or miss now. I saw one report on r/churning after the merger that it worked out for someone. Someone in their party did a points+cash booking, then at check-in he added his number to the reservation to give status to the room and he got the elite night credit afterwards. So it seems like it can happen, but I have no idea what stars have to align for it to work. For me the first try was a straight points booking, second was a FNC; no joy for either. In theory a points+cash booking should look the same to the hotel because you're just buying points and the hotel still gets a e-cert, so not sure if that's a factor on why it worked for them or just luck of the draw :confused3
I didn’t know point transfers could be free now! I thought since Marriott took over that they charged, and from what I saw on their web site it’s super pricey to transfer the points. I’ll have to check it out.
Thanks again!
 
And that's probably why she is so successful at this hobby/job!



I have the ability to return to work and earn very good money, and still keep my retirement so long as I don't exceed x $, but I'm actually happier playing with the pennies from my credit card activity. It's extremely wonderful not to be required to work, especially at my age, and I think I worked long enough that I don't miss it.

I'm a workaholic tho. So is DH. We are aggressively pursing FIRE but who knows when we will actually hang it up. Having said that, I do go through periods of burnout where I fantasize about never working another day in my life.
 


It's too hot out today. But I had some errands to do, one of which was in Alexandria, Va, so I headed over there after I picked up my prescription at the local CVS. While there used $3 online coupon and $2 free extra bucks and a 25 cent coupon to buy 16 ct Tide pods and an 8oz Dawn for $2.36. This is a stop I have to make anyway so I watch for the Tide coupons on my CVS deals and I find that if I do them in a couple of weeks they'll give me a teaser $2 to repeat the cycle.

Moved on to my errand in Alexandria down by Fort Belvoir and while on my way back up Route 1 stopped at a Staples, BBB and Home Depot that are in the same shopping center. Used some Home Depot gift card left overs from my MR cash out to pick up a couple of things for a small paint project.

At Staples I bought Keurig coffee. Staples $10 off $50 from my email and Amex $10 off $40 offer. Also had the $5 coupon that came out but it wouldn't stack when the cashier tried to do it so I just bought $5 in free snacks - a Dunkin Donuts mocha cold coffee drink and Hawaiian Punch cotton candy which the grands will enjoy as a treat. So 96 coffee pods that I would have bought anyway somewhere for 36 cents each. And my receipt now has a $10 off $20. It's like CVS - they want you to keep spending, but I stopped because I had what I could use and get for free. Won't work on gift card.

Walked over to BBB where I was going to buy a gift card using the $5 of $25 Amex offer. But all they had were the BBB gift cards, so somewhat wasted stop. Will check again at another BBB that I haven't been to in a couple of months. At least all I wasted was my 10 minutes of time on this one.

Back home now enjoying cool AC. Not interested in any cooling credits today.
It is definitely scorching and I had to mow our 2 acres since we leave tomorrow morning for GWL and Va Beach. I was a soaked mess and the bugs were out of control which made it even worse.
 
So I just made that painful call to Barclay about my Aviator Biz app. They did indeed receive my documents but, apparently, an AT&T bill does not suffice as a "utility" bill so I now need to send a bank statement since the utility bills are all in DH's name. Since that isn't the same level of PII, I am just going with regular mail. Good thing I called else I would have never known. I did ask why as an 8 year customer I was now having to provide this level of documentation and she said because it was a "new account" being a business card. Just ridiculous!
I applied for this an haven’t heard anything. Why do they need these documents?
 
I applied for this an haven’t heard anything. Why do they need these documents?
They called it identity verification or something stupid. They needed front & back of SS card, front & back of driver’s license and a utility bill or bank statement.

The only options were snail mail or fax. And since I was teleworking, I had to do 🐌 mail. They won’t process without it.
 
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Conversation starter: do you value simplicity at all? Do you think you would earn as many rewards with fewer cards but more focused spending or do you enjoy the chase of new bonuses? Do you value not having to log into several different accounts and remembering due dates or do you think this is just part of the trade-off?

Hmmm, a little of both. There's a ton more I could be doing to maximize my points earning. I'm not constantly chasing various MSRs.

I tend to focus more on bonus category spending. While I have a good number of cards that I keep, I don't use them all for spend. Spending is focused on mainly two point currencies, MR and UR. My spending all goes to Amex or Chase so that's only a couple of log ins. Most of the cards I keep are sock drawered and come out once a year to reload an Amazon gift card. The wallet contains my Chase quadfecta (CSR, CF, CFU, Ink Plus). Then of course my Amex trifecta, BBP, Rose Gold and a BonBlahBlahBlah business or whatever the old SPG biz is called now. I do have a separate log in for the Amex Hilton no fee card since I'm hoping for an upgrade offer on that one once it is over a year old.

I don't feel my number of log ins, cards or new MSRs are unmanageable or stressful and it's part of the game. I couldn't do the things I do, without doing what I do to earn and keep several million points and miles at all times. For me, a few extra log ins and a few extra juggling of cards each year is a very small price to pay for the amazing experiences we have had.
 
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Looking to fly to Hawaii in 2021, family of 4. Hoping to go first class since it’s a long trip. What do you recommend is the best way to get there the cheapest? I already have Chase Reserve and use it a lot, as well as freedom unlimited to supplement. I also have citi AA (but found the miles very hard to use) and my husband has Delta Gold Amex. Willing to pay for main cabin and upgrade using points . Flying from NYC.
Sorry flying from NYC
I've been doing a similar search for my family of 4 for 2020 but we're flying from BOS. I am having a really hard time finding a way to get us all there in first on points. It's just so many points! My thinking now is that maybe we'll fly first class to the west coast and then from there on SW since we have the companion pass, but even still I'm having difficulties finding routes that might work. I found a first class fare on the Hawaiian Airlines website for about 2,000 and when I went to search for it on the UR portal, the price was closer to $7000 for the same flight. Maybe from NYC it will be easier since you have 3 major airports you can be looking to fly out of.

@schmass, have you looked any more into transferring UR or MR to VS (ideally during a transfer bonus) and booking partner awards on Hawaiian? Hawaiian flies direct to/from Hawaii at both BOS and JFK.

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Electricity came on after just one hour. Seems the Asplundh guys who trim trees may have knocked out a line. Half our street is buried lines and the other half is above ground so the trees, and we have tons of them, get trimmed to keep them from causing outages during storms. My inside temp went up 5 degrees in that 1 hour. I obviously was being punished for not doing the voluntary cut back in usage earlier in the afternoon. Joking!
 
Just a little tangent to the "simplicity" discussion.

Those of you worried or frustrated by your various logins should look into a password manager, such as LastPass or Dashlane (both commercial products with free versions), or KeePass if you prefer open source. Without intending to sound too dramatic, it greatly improves your life. You remember one password, you password manager remembers the rest.

I realize that your phone likely has some kind of password manager, but a third-party manager will sync across all of your devices and computers. Though the iOS manager is getting much better, it still pales in comparison, in my opinion.

The upside to using it is that you can have super-strong, randomized passwords for ALL of your sites because you don't have to remember them, or ever even see them. Start small and try it with just a few sites for a week or so.

And for that one password you do have to remember, do yourself a favor and use a five- or six-word pass phrase. Easy to remember, and very, very strong.
 
@schmass, have you looked any more into transferring UR or MR to VS (ideally during a transfer bonus) and booking partner awards on Hawaiian? Hawaiian flies direct to/from Hawaii at both BOS and JFK.

aXdYIqr.jpg
Nope, completely forgot about that option! :sad2: Thanks for the reminder and I’ll have to search for when we discussed this a while ago!
 
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