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My buddy lets me use his priority pass via screenshot. They don't check the name here usually so they just scan it and I'm good for like $30 I think including tip. I'll typically pick up a meal for each of us free if I'm passing by his area. I can even booze up before a flight.
That is weird.
They checked my ID (domestic) and my passport (international) every single time at every lounge i had visited.
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I got into "the game" few years ago and I really do it quite mildly. I don't do lot of churning or MSing. Got the CSR when it was still 100k and nice to have GE and access to PP lounges. pent a good amount on lot of travel and essentially my Japan honeymoon was paid for using points. Doing a small weekend hop over to the Big Island using chase points as well.
The 5/24 rule is annoying for Chase and some banks are cutting back on rewards (ie you cannot get the bonus if you've gotten it before or you can get account shut down if they deem you to "game the system") Used up a few Barclays cards for AA/Frontier/Hawaiian Airlines bonuses.
There are people who are LOT more hardcore than me and do lot of airline mile/pts transfers and hunt for optimal cents/per point redemption value. Or they splurge on business/first class or high end hotels...to me I value frequency of trip rather than high luxury on 1 trip.
Also not fond of all those hard credit report pulls since I'm also looking at taking out loans for investment real estate as well in the next few years.
I'll probably keep the CSR, close out a few other cards that I don't use much and maybe look into a high cash back card for long-term use.
To some it's almost like a game/recreation, which is fine. But others can see the time researching this stuff better used for other things (ie, improving real life earning potential so you can afford all these luxuries without lot of card bonuses....)
3% for the first year and 2.5% back every year after.. It does have a $59 annual fee though but my spending far covers that.. I even use it at Costco because 2.5% beats the 2% the Costco CIti card pays Plus since I'm an Exec member, I"ll still get the 2% Exec bonus on top of the 2.5%
A 3% cash back first year with no cap on upper limit?
SO here's my question with this card: Do you know if I use Plastiq (an online service can you can use to pay for things using credit cards that otherwise may not be allowable....ie you can use credit card payment through them to pay rent/loans/bills and other places that normally may not accept credit card payments, they generally can send a physical check) that it will be under a qualified purchase? With these cards they usually disallow purchase of things that can be easily converted to cash (to prevent MSing) like money orders or some form of checks:
This is their card term agreement on what is disqualified for cashback:
So my situation is...I was using my Chase Business Ink Preferred through Plastiq to pay off my federal student loans and I was earning 3X pts from that but it was nerfed a few months ago after some douche bag who is 1 of those big points bloggers put an entire Tesla Model 3 on his Chase business ink card and got like 150k pts and the article went everywhere and blew up nationally.
So now IF this Alliant Visa also earns 3% in the first year......it can be lucrative as Plastiq's fee is 2.5%. It would be nice since I'm looking at how best to pay down about 200k worth of loans in the next 1-1.5yrs and get max rewards from that now that the Chase Ink Preferred with Plastiq 3x is dead....
I got into "the game" few years ago and I really do it quite mildly. I don't do lot of churning or MSing.
Also not fond of all those hard credit report pulls since I'm also looking at taking out loans for investment real estate as well in the next few years.
Hit to FICO score is small and short term. But if you don't want to deal with that, you can also churn checking and savings accounts which are usually soft pulls.
Citibank has one where if you deposit $15K for 60 days, you get $400. Do a direct deposit during 60 days and you get an extra $100. You might need to keep money in account for extra 30 days to wait for bonuses to post to account before closing though. $500 in 90 days works out to a little over 13.3% interest.
And Chase has one that's $600 bonus for $15K deposit for 6 months. Works out to 8% interest.
I'm tempted to get the Amex platinum.....we're going to a wedding in Vietnam in April (probably stay for 1 week) so...I still have about 50K Chase UR....but may be time to try out the Amex rewards program....hmmm decisions.
Hit to FICO score is small and short term. But if you don't want to deal with that, you can also churn checking and savings accounts which are usually soft pulls.
Citibank has one where if you deposit $15K for 60 days, you get $400. Do a direct deposit during 60 days and you get an extra $100. You might need to keep money in account for extra 30 days to wait for bonuses to post to account before closing though. $500 in 90 days works out to a little over 13.3% interest.
And Chase has one that's $600 bonus for $15K deposit for 6 months. Works out to 8% interest.
Oh yeah for sure, I did start seeing some of those as well. Man that $500 in 90 days seems like a incredible deal! I've seen some bank account bonuses where you have to keep it there for quite a long time...so that's good to hear. I'll definitely look into those as well. Only thing is have to keep track of the 1099-INT IRS statements for reporting for 2020 when you file for the 2019 taxes....
But looks like the hard pull isn't too big of a deal after I looked into it. I never carry a CC debt/balance and my FICO scores are in the upper 700s for a while now.
Going to a 1 week trip in Vietnam in April so I might start researching which cards to sign up for .....maybe dip my toes into the Amex world since I been doing mostly chase. Their 5/24 rule is annoying....
Oh yeah for sure, I did start seeing some of those as well. Man that $500 in 90 days seems like a incredible deal! I've seen some bank account bonuses where you have to keep it there for quite a long time...so that's good to hear. I'll definitely look into those as well. Only thing is have to keep track of the 1099-INT IRS statements for reporting for 2020 when you file for the 2019 taxes....
Another really easy one to do is the Discover savings account. Deposit $15K, get $150. Deposit $25K, get $200.
You can pull the $15K or $25K out the next day too. All they care is that you meet the deposit requirement. And account has no minimum balance or early termination fees, so you can close out account once you get the bonus.
I did it a year ago when it was deposit $20K and get $200 bonus. $200 bonus posted after 17 days. Closed out after I got my month's interest. Worked out to a little over 12% interest if you factor in the 2.0% interest on the $20K deposit too.
AmEx has cut down big time on their rewards offers, and whatever they do offer now sucks.
Hmmm...I'll have to look more into them. I assume Amex pts are kinda similar to Chase UR pts/travel portal?
Originally Posted by Midnight Mystery
Best of luck guys, stay out of debt!
Only debt I have now is my student loans (which...while sizeable, was well worth the investment) and then of course future debt is only likely real estate and maaaaybe car loan if the interest rate makes sense.
Otherwise I never have and never will carry any credit card debt......these are only for the money you were going to use anyway....might as well get rewarded for them
Originally Posted by AZuser
Another really easy one to do is the Discover savings account. Deposit $15K, get $150. Deposit $25K, get $200.
You can pull the $15K or $25K out the next day too. All they care is that you meet the deposit requirement. And account has no minimum balance or early termination fees, so you can close out account once you get the bonus.
I did it a year ago when it was deposit $20K and get $200 bonus. $200 bonus posted after 17 days. Closed out after I got my month's interest. Worked out to a little over 12% interest if you factor in the 2.0% interest on the $20K deposit too.
Wow, ok that one with no length requirement...friggin best ever. I'm gonna have to jump on it tomorrow since that's the last day to open an account....gonna grab that free $200 and get out!!!
yeah been reading DoC...great blog/site. Thanks man
A 3% cash back first year with no cap on upper limit?
SO here's my question with this card: Do you know if I use Plastiq (an online service can you can use to pay for things using credit cards that otherwise may not be allowable....ie you can use credit card payment through them to pay rent/loans/bills and other places that normally may not accept credit card payments, they generally can send a physical check) that it will be under a qualified purchase? With these cards they usually disallow purchase of things that can be easily converted to cash (to prevent MSing) like money orders or some form of checks:
This is their card term agreement on what is disqualified for cashback:
So my situation is...I was using my Chase Business Ink Preferred through Plastiq to pay off my federal student loans and I was earning 3X pts from that but it was nerfed a few months ago after some douche bag who is 1 of those big points bloggers put an entire Tesla Model 3 on his Chase business ink card and got like 150k pts and the article went everywhere and blew up nationally.
So now IF this Alliant Visa also earns 3% in the first year......it can be lucrative as Plastiq's fee is 2.5%. It would be nice since I'm looking at how best to pay down about 200k worth of loans in the next 1-1.5yrs and get max rewards from that now that the Chase Ink Preferred with Plastiq 3x is dead....
I'm familiar with Plastiq.. But recall, Alliant is 3% cash, not Ultimate rewards nor Membership rewards .. but .5% of 200K is still a pretty penny
I just finished my first year with the Alliant and got charged the AF but I have like 1200$ in cashback (All natural spending too).
Originally Posted by nist7
I'm tempted to get the Amex platinum.....we're going to a wedding in Vietnam in April (probably stay for 1 week) so...I still have about 50K Chase UR....but may be time to try out the Amex rewards program....hmmm decisions.
I have about 400K in Chase UR and 400K in Amex MR. Plan to transfer to airline miles to redeem for business tickets, it's truly the best way to utilize those points.
Originally Posted by AZuser
AmEx has cut down big time on their rewards offers, and whatever they do offer now sucks.
They still have the 100K offer once in a while for the Plat.. I got in (my wife did again 2 years later)
I'm familiar with Plastiq.. But recall, Alliant is 3% cash, not Ultimate rewards nor Membership rewards .. but .5% of 200K is still a pretty penny
I just finished my first year with the Alliant and got charged the AF but I have like 1200$ in cashback (All natural spending too).
Oh yeah for sure. I would going for Plastiq if I stlil earned 3x Chase UR with the CIP, but since that's nerfed....my other cards don't redeem as much Chase UR (CFU is 1.5x, and Plastiq is 2.5% fee....)
So maybe doing a straight cash rewards I can still come out ahead about $1000 with a 200k total spend.
Originally Posted by thoiboi
I have about 400K in Chase UR and 400K in Amex MR. Plan to transfer to airline miles to redeem for business tickets, it's truly the best way to utilize those points.
They still have the 100K offer once in a while for the Plat.. I got in (my wife did again 2 years later)
Nice. I think I had around that much in chase UR and spent lot of it already on things in the past couple years....have about 50k left.
I might start getting Amex pts now....I see most recent is the 75k for Amex Plat. Let me know if you have a referral link or anything to get the 100k bonus....
75K is middle of the line for Amex Plat.. 100K will come again, I believe... I just checked my account and my referral nets me 15K but you only get 60K
Looks like it's acknowledged directly by Plastiq time as a working CC for what it's worth
Nice. Thanks.
I just hope the Chase Business Ink Preferred 3x through Plastiq comes back. Got nerfed a while ago and its only earning 1x which is not worth it for the 2.5% fee....we'll see....
Re position to LA/SEA/SF and fly from there perhaps Chase UR for hotel is typically a ridiculous value proposition
hmmm...good idea...I'll have to look into it. Didn't even occur to me. WIll have to plan it out appropriately....should I do multi city search and route through west coast, or just look for a 1 way from HNL to west coast, and then west coast to SGN?
hmmm...good idea...I'll have to look into it. Didn't even occur to me. WIll have to plan it out appropriately....should I do multi city search and route through west coast, or just look for a 1 way from HNL to west coast, and then west coast to SGN?
The latter, that's what a "re-positioning" flight means. You fly to a place on your own and then find cheaper flights from that locale. It wouldn't necessarily be a one way because you'll need to eventually get back to HNL anyway Just two separate roundtrips with the INTL leg nested in the domestic one
The latter, that's what a "re-positioning" flight means. You fly to a place on your own and then find cheaper flights from that locale. It wouldn't necessarily be a one way because you'll need to eventually get back to HNL anyway Just two separate roundtrips with the INTL leg nested in the domestic one
Right right. Looking at fares...timing may not work so we'll see....I hate to take off more time than I need to....so may be better to just fly the full RT from HNL-SGN.
Also, in my search and prodding around...I found something VERY interesting with regards to flight "hacking" ANd this is apparently more than just what skiplagged made popular (ie, find a flight that connects in a city you want to go, with a destination you don't care for, and just skip out out of the airport at the connection point if that flight overall is cheaper than flying direct to that city).
Apparently there's something called "fuel dumping" and using "1x, 2x, 3x" flight segments to trick the airfare into dropping fuel surcharges by adding a "3rd" destination to the end of the itinerary that you don't fly but this causes the other flight segments to become much cheaper. Apparently it's a very closed off society/community and they all talk in code...things like "13miler" or "pineapple poke", C1, C2, 1x, 3x, etc. etc. And also they use currency arbitrage and other crazy tricks as well....
Right right. Looking at fares...timing may not work so we'll see....I hate to take off more time than I need to....so may be better to just fly the full RT from HNL-SGN.
Also, in my search and prodding around...I found something VERY interesting with regards to flight "hacking" ANd this is apparently more than just what skiplagged made popular (ie, find a flight that connects in a city you want to go, with a destination you don't care for, and just skip out out of the airport at the connection point if that flight overall is cheaper than flying direct to that city).
Apparently there's something called "fuel dumping" and using "1x, 2x, 3x" flight segments to trick the airfare into dropping fuel surcharges by adding a "3rd" destination to the end of the itinerary that you don't fly but this causes the other flight segments to become much cheaper. Apparently it's a very closed off society/community and they all talk in code...things like "13miler" or "pineapple poke", C1, C2, 1x, 3x, etc. etc. And also they use currency arbitrage and other crazy tricks as well....
Apparently international flights can be found for insanely cheap.....
VERY intriguing......I'm happy to have PM conversation with anyone on here who knows more about this..............
Sounds like the term "Hidden City Ticketing" that airlines hate a lot.. (e.g. I used to fly to ATL all the time and also CAE (Columbia, SC) I sometimes found it cheaper to fly to CAE (connecting in ATL) than flying to ATL directly, it was odd..
Just keep in mind that there are times when that won't work for you (i.e. HNL-SGN -DAD RT ) might be cheaper and you might think "oh, i'll just drop the SGN -DAD leg and be okay". You WOULD be okay if it were two one-ways, but if it were a round trip, the airline will cancel the return itinerary too . There are times that booking two one-way tickets are comparable to a round trip and then you can utilize the hack above but I'd be wary of abusing it as it can cause you to breach the airline's Contract of Carriage and ban you from them
I applied for that Amex and was approved but then learned AFTER that you can't do a BT from Amex to Amex :noob: I mean I get it, it makes sense, I wouldn't do it if I were them either, just the thought hadn't crossed my mind until right after I was approved.
So then I tried to signup for the Barclays card and they were like "we'll get back to you", got a letter in the mail saying because I had tried to open too many accounts within a short period of time.
But then I got a 15mo BT offer from my Chase Slate card that I already had. 4% fee but whatever I took it.
I applied for that Amex and was approved but then learned AFTER that you can't do a BT from Amex to Amex :noob: I mean I get it, it makes sense, I wouldn't do it if I were them either, just the thought hadn't crossed my mind until right after I was approved.
So then I tried to signup for the Barclays card and they were like "we'll get back to you", got a letter in the mail saying because I had tried to open too many accounts within a short period of time.
But then I got a 15mo BT offer from my Chase Slate card that I already had. 4% fee but whatever I took it.
I stay stacking points. Have another 20,000 points coming in when I meet my spend bonus
I'll be up there above 200k again after my two chase biz card bonuses post here shortly.
Got approved for Chase Ink Preferred #2 and Chase Ink Unlimited, 2 days in a row (should be just 1 hard pull though....had to temporarily unlock my report since I forgot I had set that freeze in place after the bit equifax breach)
I'm looking to get the World of Hyatt card (probably use the pts to stay at Park Hyatt Saigon for friends wedding in april) but looking at reddit and flyertalk forums, looks like Chase is pretty strict on their velocity rules with 1/30 and 2/30. Looks like I'll need to wait about 30 days before applying for another chase card.
Barclays Arrival+ has a nice 70k mile offer, and I've had the Arrivals+ card 2-3 years ago and already closed for a while. BUT this language scares me:
Bonus Miles: Primary Cardmembers will earn 70,000 bonus miles if you use your new credit card account to make $5,000 in Net Purchases within ninety (90) days of your credit card account being opened. This one-time 70,000 miles offer is valid for first-time cardmembers with new accounts only. Existing cardmembers and existing accounts are not eligible for this offer. This is a limited time offer and may be cancelled at any time without notice.
Anyone know if you've had an Arrivals+ before that can you still get the bonus miles? That language implies you cannot even if it's been quite a while since you've had it....
Barclays Arrival+ has a nice 70k mile offer, and I've had the Arrivals+ card 2-3 years ago and already closed for a while. BUT this language scares me:
Anyone know if you've had an Arrivals+ before that can you still get the bonus miles? That language implies you cannot even if it's been quite a while since you've had it....
You churners are going to ruin it for the rest of us..
While rules coming from Barclays bank are fairly vague, you can earn the signup bonus on at least some of their cards more than once.
On the application for the Barclaycard Arrival Plus® World Elite Mastercard®, for example, the fine print says, “you may not be eligible for this offer if you currently have or previously had an account with us in this Program.” However, it appears you can get approved for this card and earn the signup bonus more than once provided the bank doesn’t decide you’ve had too many new credit cards within the last 24 months.
If you’re in the market for a new signup bonus and it’s been a while since you had this card, consider trying it for a second time.
Heh yeah the big banks already know all this stuff. I'm sure they look at reddit r/churning and flyertalk forums.
Chase has that 48 month rule for the sapphire card bonuses....lol. Looks like this whole area really took off in the past 3-4 years. Lot of blogs/youtubers.
Ok looks like Barclays is safe probably......at least I'm not like some dude who already had at least 2 Arrivals+ and said he got denied for having had too many in the past...lol
I think I'm fairly mild compared to others: currently 1/24. CSP (PCed to CFU), CSR. 1 chase biz card (just got 2 just now, biz cards dont count toward 5/24 afaik). 1 hawaiian barclays closed about 1yr ago. 2 Barclays card years ago (Arrivals+ and a AA Advantage Aviator...)
01-09-2019, 11:52 AM
Plus since I'm an Exec member, I"ll still get the 2% Exec bonus on top of the 2.5% 
I know it, right?
because I had tried to open too many accounts within a short period of time.
