I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[mmmears]

This is my first time trying to book with miles on AA, but I've been able to find availability for all the random dates I've been searching (Aug '20, Nov '20, April '21, May '21) so I'm hopeful that the same will hold true for our dates!

I hope so. We tried on 3 separate trips (2 abroad and one domestic) and couldn't find anything decent. I'm still sitting on about 200k AA miles that I have no use for at this time. It's ok, since we have other points that we can use. Maybe it was our dates (mostly but not all summer), or maybe right now it's all empty since so many people aren't booking trips. I guess there is really no way to tell. I do hope you find good seats. AA also lets you book BA through their site, but that wasn't a good deal when we tried to do it.

 

[Judique]

Instant approval for Aspire for meI was a little worried about the pop up since I just canceled the Hilton Biz this month, but I guess my 30k for 2 FNC helped.

When I started this 2 years ago I never would have believed that I’d be getting a card with a $450 AF and now I’ve got 2. I’ll use the $250 for restaurants and the airline credit for taxes on SW flights to the Dominican Republic with the next release date. And if Hawaii happens that FNC will get me a $650 room.

I'm trying to drop my fees down to just $95 ones - my Brilliant at $450 to a regular Bonvoy maybe and my Gold to a ........something else! Actually have a fee free amex I can use for points. I'm just not doing enough with my Gold to make it worth keeping another year unless it gets closer to free. Amex may see it differently - they gave me a pop up on the Hilton card some time back. But they also gave me a Gold retention offer, so I'll have to wait and see. It doesn't renew until after November.

 

[wanderlust7]

This is my first time trying to book with miles on AA, but I've been able to find availability for all the random dates I've been searching (Aug '20, Nov '20, April '21, May '21) so I'm hopeful that the same will hold true for our dates!

You can search out to June now, that might be a better gauge for summer. August this year would not reflect accurately at all due to the travel ban.

 

[wanderlust7]

Instant approval for Aspire for meI was a little worried about the pop up since I just canceled the Hilton Biz this month, but I guess my 30k for 2 FNC helped.

When I started this 2 years ago I never would have believed that I’d be getting a card with a $450 AF and now I’ve got 2. I’ll use the $250 for restaurants and the airline credit for taxes on SW flights to the Dominican Republic with the next release date. And if Hawaii happens that FNC will get me a $650 room.

Same here! Never considered high AF cards before this hobby. Now we have 8 between me and DH.

 

[ten6mom]

Just discovered that (as of now), my November plans for WDW happen to be over fall Dapper Days! That will be fun

Sadly their discounted rooms for PopCentury are sold out for a couple of the nights but I am hoping to see lots of dapperly dressed people in the parks!

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

I need some help! Dd has a great job with the City of Toronto this summer (she did her training today). She will be running a drop-in "Park Play" program in a local park. She has to come up with all the games herself and if she needs any supplies she has to ask her supervisor. It will be just her and 1 other counselor whom she hasn't met yet (hope she likes them!).

Any and all suggestions for socially distanced games (kids must be 6' apart at all times) that require minimal or no supplies are appreciated! Parents must be there, but she will be responsible for running the program.

It's her first job so she doesn't know what to expect. I keep reminding her how lucky she is to have this job as a lot of kids her age (18) lost their jobs due to the virus. She applied in February and interviewed in April.

 

[afan]

I need some help! Dd has a great job with the City of Toronto this summer (she did her training today). She will be running a drop-in "Park Play" program in a local park. She has to come up with all the games herself and if she needs any supplies she has to ask her supervisor. It will be just her and 1 other counselor whom she hasn't met yet (hope she likes them!).

Any and all suggestions for socially distanced games (kids must be 6' apart at all times) that require minimal or no supplies are appreciated! Parents must be there, but she will be responsible for running the program.

It's her first job so she doesn't know what to expect. I keep reminding her how lucky she is to have this job as a lot of kids her age (18) lost their jobs due to the virus. She applied in February and interviewed in April.

Water balloon toss? Maybe not though. How old are the kids?

If there's sidewalk let them color with chalk maybe. That's tough when it's got to be outside and apart.

 

[IFlossU]

Instant approval for Aspire for meI was a little worried about the pop up since I just canceled the Hilton Biz this month, but I guess my 30k for 2 FNC helped.

When I started this 2 years ago I never would have believed that I’d be getting a card with a $450 AF and now I’ve got 2. I’ll use the $250 for restaurants and the airline credit for taxes on SW flights to the Dominican Republic with the next release date. And if Hawaii happens that FNC will get me a $650 room.

Glad to hear this. I’m finishing up the 15k on my Hilton Biz as well and hoping to get the Aspire sometime this Fall. This gives me hope

 

[Psychodisney]

Is anyone here from Wisconsin or familiar with Wisconsin Dells? Just asking because we're considering it for a quick family trip next month. Long story short, I work in a PA nursing home. If we go to one of about 18-20 states, I have to come back and quarantine 14 days before going back to work. We are already going to be in SC the last week of July for softball's junior olympic cup for DD, so I'm stuck with a 14 day quarantine after that. During those 2 weeks we want to squeeze in a family trip- I had already scheduled vacation time for one of those weeks before all of this came about, so I'm only missing an extra week of work. Problem is, it was for the second week of what is now my quarantine time, and it was to WDW. If we keep that, then that adds two more weeks of quarantine and I just can't do that to my facility. So we're looking for a state that's not on the quarantine list. Also, looking for a place without a mask requirement that is for everywhere you go- indoors and outdoors. Mask requirement or not, we will wear one anywhere we can't distance appropriately, but I don't want to have to wear it 24/7. A friend of mine mentioned the Noah's Ark Waterpark in Wisconsin Dells and I see it's got great reviews. Also it seems like there is a nice assortment of outdoor activities we could do along the Wisconsin River. But I've never been anywhere near Wisconsin so I know nothing about it. I would appreciate anyone's insight/experience, or any other thoughts on places to go that are in states I wouldn't have to quarantine when I return.

WI might not be on your quarantine list yet...but trending that way I've never been a huge fan of the Dells myself. Just too tourist trap for me.
I live just south of the WI border and usually shop there, but not lately.

 

[wiscbugs]

I agree...Wisconsin is definitely going the wrong way in regards to covid (due to many people who don't think they should wear masks). I believe they were just added the quarantine list for NY yesterday.

 

[Judique]

This may be old news as I don't pay much attention to it.

But, I got a Chase Business card in September 2019 - the CIU.

Today, during a scan of my credit, I found that a hard inquiry had been done for this card and it is reported on both Equifax and Experian.

It was my understanding that Chase did not report business cards to your credit report??

Is this something new? My other business cards are not reported from Amex or Chase.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

Ooooh, I can jump in on the "poor house" convo. Let's see.....

As soon as we moved in here we had to drop $7k to replace the sewer pipe from the house to the road. We bought off a relocation company, so we were screwed! And we had a newborn at the time.

My house is a 1979 Pulte wonder....Since we've lived here (15.5 years) we've replaced the deck, floors, carpet, bathrooms (we had avocado green toilet/sink on the main floor, gold in the kids bath and dusty rose in the master), furnace and AC, water heater, windows on the main floor and I just had to do the roof this summer. I'm hoping (outside of a fridge) that the house is good to go now until I'm able to sell this puppy in a few years.

And on the house note, I'm moving forward on the refi. He managed to get it w/o an appraisal high enough I shouldn't have PMI I'm pretty happy. Plus the 2.99% will be nice. I guess the adult me should maybe take the savings (I think $200ish/mo) and put it towards the divorce debt I'm still paying down (I think under $5k now), or if I want to keep paying at the higher rate to pay down my mortgage. I'm guessing I'll be selling this house in 5-8 years.

Okay back to reading the 10 more pages I have.

 

[Judique]

Ooooh, I can jump in on the "poor house" convo. Let's see.....

As soon as we moved in here we had to drop $7k to replace the sewer pipe from the house to the road. We bought off a relocation company, so we were screwed! And we had a newborn at the time.

My house is a 1979 Pulte wonder....Since we've lived here (15.5 years) we've replaced the deck, floors, carpet, bathrooms (we had avocado green toilet/sink on the main floor, gold in the kids bath and dusty rose in the master), furnace and AC, water heater, windows on the main floor and I just had to do the roof this summer. I'm hoping (outside of a fridge) that the house is good to go now until I'm able to sell this puppy in a few years.

And on the house note, I'm moving forward on the refi. He managed to get it w/o an appraisal high enough I shouldn't have PMI I'm pretty happy. Plus the 2.99% will be nice. I guess the adult me should maybe take the savings (I think $200ish/mo) and put it towards the divorce debt I'm still paying down (I think under $5k now), or if I want to keep paying at the higher rate to pay down my mortgage. I'm guessing I'll be selling this house in 5-8 years.

Okay back to reading the 10 more pages I have.

I've done my kitchen in addition to all of the above and want to do it again fairly soon. I've done a deck twice - 2nd one after 23 years with the first. Fenced it twice. Houses are money pits! Oh and I converted from electric to gas so had to have gas lines run from the street and through the house. Wow, I should count up all this expense over 30 plus years and see if it was worth it. Maybe there's something to be said for renting.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

I paid more than double for a small house, and it was my lowest estimate. Yes, I know it's area we live in. My friend just got a $21k lowest estimate of 4 for her 1600 ft house. One of her estimates was 38K which was totally ridiculous.

Holy heck, are you only paying $5k for a new roof?? Mine was more than double that. And we have a dinky ranch. Nothing big at all. We paid $6k just in materials for roof and gutters. And all in checks. No credit card payment at all.

I guess I also lucked out with my roof. I'm in MI, my house 2001sqft. It's not too complicated, just a gable roof. I think I paid $4800. I used a friend from HS's husband (who's a roofer) and I know he cut me a deal. Sucked it wasn't on a credit card though

SO...closing didn't happen today...surprise, surprise....Why am I even surprised? I guess cause it felt more real this time since we got to the 'day of' before they cancelled. Hopefully this weekend. I told our closer...."I know I put this in email but we leave at 6am on Tuesday morning and will be gone for almost 2 weeks. You have to get his done...". Have I mentioned that I am so over this...

That was soooo our last refi. The first company we used took like 5 mos before we finally said screw this. We were refinancing for a pool and end up having to wait a year before we could "buy" it. Then I ended up getting a divorce instead of the pool, LOL. Once I managed to change companies we closed in under 30 days!

 

[elgerber]

This may be old news as I don't pay much attention to it.

But, I got a Chase Business card in September 2019 - the CIU.

Today, during a scan of my credit, I found that a hard inquiry had been done for this card and it is reported on both Equifax and Experian.

It was my understanding that Chase did not report business cards to your credit report??

Is this something new? My other business cards are not reported from Amex or Chase.

the inquiry or the card? All my Chase biz cards have had inquiries, but none of the cards have ever been reported.

 

[LilSweetPeaPhoto]

OKay so to add to the vaca convo....

We are set to fly to NC, RDU, on Sunday. It's a rebook of the tickets I had bought for my 15yo and I to go to Buffett in April (which got cancelled). The forecast is rain (40-80%) every day. But the locals tell me it won't be all day or a rain out. So I guess we're going to go. We're heading to my happy place. Likely spend most the time on Emerald Isle and Atlantic Beach. Might take the kids to Topsail and Carolina/Kure beach while I'm there too. I'm using my HH, and the stay 4 get the 5th free, on a Hampton Inn. So for the week it's running me only 80k! I plan on looking at some condos when I'm there. Then perhaps in the off season when prices drop again, I can look at getting serious about buying my beach house.

I'm with everyone else eager to travel. Dating a pilot in a pandemic is not fair! He doesn't want to travel anywhere on his downtime/my off weeks, since places are closing back down. He's heading to Vegas at the end of the month for training, and I wanted to go....but now I'm hearing they are requiring masks at the pools even! He's mentioned maybe flying down and joining myself and the kids in NC next week. I guess we'll see. He's met the kids a few times now. And they are okay if he joins us.

 

[Judique]

the inquiry or the card? All my Chase biz cards have had inquiries, but none of the cards have ever been reported.

Thanks! Just the inquiry, not the card. I got myself confused.

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Water balloon toss? Maybe not though. How old are the kids?

If there's sidewalk let them color with chalk maybe. That's tough when it's got to be outside and apart.

They will be ages 6 - 12. She told me there will be hockey sticks and hula hoops. No balls apparently. They have an hour between morning and afternoon sessions to clean all equipment.

 

[afan]

They will be ages 6 - 12. She told me there will be hockey sticks and hula hoops. No balls apparently. They have an hour between morning and afternoon sessions to clean all equipment.

Wait they get sticks but no balls to use with them? Oh if there's a place to do it they could use the water balloons with the hockey sticks, soft hands and all but not if the grass is bad. I always got mad when the grass popped the balloon because it was dry.

Maybe scavenger hunt for stuff that's found in the park? So hard when it's got to be distanced and cheap.

 

[Judique]

OMG...I'm just finishing another cup of coffee - Caramel Cookie. Not a morning choice but just delicious as an afternoon snack.

I've had 2 cups every day except the first day. Need to put the cup down once these are gone and just order regular morning coffee. Or I'll be posting at 2am and falling back to sleep at 4am.......