re: Credit Card Rewards and Points Discussion

My wife and I never get that offer. It's weird.

I even held an Amex account for 10/11 years WTF?

Just got approved for Chase Ink with the 50K bonus, confirming I'm under 5/24. How long should I wait before applying for the CFU? Applied 4/18 approval today 4/30.

Hey guys, figured y'all might be able to help me.

I am a Eng. Student(Should graduate Fall '19, Spring 20 at latest) and I got recently engaged. Haven't set a date yet, but if I had to bet next summer or after I graduate. We'd like to travel for the honey moon, and I'm trying to find a way to get that done without breaking the bank, and happened upon 'travel hacking'.

I have decent credit (~700) between paying off my card every month, dealing with the car note, and putting a bit towards student loans when I can. I'm thinking about trying to go for the Chase Sapphire, but I've read some comments that says it's not what it used to be. I can make and pay off the 4K over 3 months easy by putting summer tuition and books on it and then paying it off(Money I already have), but I'm wondering if Chase Sapphire is still optimal for getting my feet wet in the travel rewards.

TIA, y'all are great. Been lurking this board for a while

If you are just looking for a card(s) to help with the honeymoon, you need to be looking at cards with lucrative signup bonuses. Neither of the sapphire cards are near the top of the list of that at the moment. Looking at individual airline/hotel cards might be your best option right now.

Do you know where you want to go for the honeymoon? Any preferred airline or hotel chain?

If you're just looking to accrue points for something unplanned in the future then your best options are either chase ultimate rewards or amex membership rewards.

generally speaking, it seems chase cards are better for daily spending and earning points over time, while amex cards are better for signup bonuses. so you'll need to determine if you just want to have 1 or 2 cards that you put spend on constantly, or if you want to continue getting new cards and doing the minimum spend to get signup bonuses.

keep in mind, there is a rumor that chase will stop allowing you to pool all of your points across multiple cards into 1 single account sometime in the future. if that actually happens , the value of being a chase customer goes down substantially unless you put a TON of spend on credit cards.

Agree with the poster above, two major "currencies" to go after: Membership Rewards (Amex) and Ultimate Rewards (Chase). There are others like Citi Thank You Points, but I think the transfer partners are better with MR and UR.

There's a thousand sites on the google you can find for optimal card opening strategy. Here are a couple links that I think hit the basics :

Ultimate Rewards
LINK

Ultimate Rewards (does include a business card if you have a business)
LINK /

Membership Rewards

LINK

Looks like Chase/IHG may have actually made the correct decision and will now honor the free night up until next May.

LINK

I’ll get my free night at the Paris LeGrand after all

Still cancelling after though 40,000 is what, a free Holiday Inn night a year?

Looks like the 3x is dead. Seems like most are hypothesizing that this is a compromise after the pooling points got such bad press. This is a bummer I was planning on applying this week.


Just getting into the Ink OD/Staples gift cards. Are these everywhere cards useable truly everywhere?

Chase is getting TOUGH. I don't think you should even call recon these days or if you do, the moment the guy sounds dubious just hang up until you get a nice lady.

Comments that were made. Note: I'm under 5/24 but Chase keeps seeing an AU card that's been closed for months and I play dumb until they give me that info. Here are some comments.

The AU card is from my wife which I never mention. He kinda mumbles "Eight...wow"

Clearly he's looking at my wife's accounts which she has 7 open personals and 1 card that's closed but still visible on online account. I say nothing. That number doesn't match my relationship with Chase or banks overall. I have 3 personal/2 biz and haven't had a Chase account opened for two years.

He states he can reprocess the application so I'm feeling better. Asks the typical Employer, income, mortgage questions.

I state my mortgage. He says "I didn't see that on your credit report" (WTF this guy is eagle eye). I say truthfully, "Yes, we bought the house in my wife's name since I was changing jobs and didn't want to mess it up." He moves on.

After processing he just randomly says "You have two business cards with us?" (Mother fricker) "Yes, those were for my private practice" (I'm not self employed currently but that's what I opened those for maybe four years ago)

Anywho, hopefully I'm OK because I put tons of spend on cards. My wife uses 5/7 open cards pretty regularly, and I've paid multiple annual fees, but reports are they've even shut down folks under 5/24. Ruthless.

I'm out for a good while after this attempt that's for sure.

ETA: seriously if you call and get a dude just hang up and wait for a much nicer lady.

Between my last four calls 2 girls, 2 guys, I'm batting 1.000 for nice ladies and 1.000 for turd dudes.

TR- are you and your wife AUs on all of your Chase cards?

I always HUCA when I get a dude.