Quote :

"card came in the mail today. I called in to verify the promo...the lady sounds pretty surprised at the 50,000/$2,500 "

Nice! It gets addicting fast! Just finished up my AmEx Platinum 100K MR spend and got the points in my account yesterday. Perfect timing with the British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and HHonors transfer bonuses going on right now.




[Edited on December 7, 2012 at 4:53 PM. Reason : new page]

12/7/2012 4:52:47 PM

Nice, I'd love to get that targeted offer. Just finished my second starwood card. The 30K pts should hit tomorrow and working on the two Citi AA cards now. Very addicting indeed.

12/7/2012 6:39:25 PM

i actually messed up and only got one card (I accidentally excited out of the other tab with the visa card and didnt realize till I went to click on it)

still, 50,000 points aint bad

12/7/2012 7:02:21 PM

Yeah, I think you can apply for another one in 18 months or the business card in 65? days.
My second starwood bonus just hit. I'm still churning my two citi AAs and waiting on my Hawaii Airlines card.

[Edited on December 11, 2012 at 11:28 AM. Reason : ]

12/11/2012 11:23:38 AM

Hilton points hit and just got my two Hawaiian cards.

12/21/2012 10:12:00 PM

Just applied for Chase Ink Plus Business and got approved after calling the reconsideration line.

1/2/2013 11:06:25 AM

Is the Mortgage Payment the only way to get $100/10,000 points out of Citi?

If so now it's saying I have to call to redeem, which sounds annoying.

1/3/2013 10:38:51 AM

Yeah, last I checked. They made out the checks to my bank and I just deposited them directly into my savings account.

1/3/2013 11:06:38 AM

so i hit the bonus-spending limit thing on my citi card. Just waiting on the points to post to book my flight to Europe this summer. Any idea how long it takes to post? I called in to AAdvantage yesterday, got transfered to another person, and had to hang up after waiting 30 min to go to a meeting.

1/3/2013 11:20:42 AM

Usually they post when you get your next statement after you hit the requirement.

1/3/2013 11:25:31 AM

so it stinks, i will have 50,000 miles plus about 2,500 from spending. Of course they up the miles needed to fly over the summer, so to get to europe and back i'll need 60,000 points. I figured that I would just pay my rent using the card, that way earn the rest of the miles I need, or atleast have less miles I have to purchase.

But of course my apartment complex doesnt accept Amex. I had to go with the Amex because NCSU doesnt accept VISA anymore, and i didnt get both cards.

1/3/2013 11:28:43 AM

You can buy AA miles, convert pts from another account to AA miles, or just buy a ton of prepaid cards with your AA CC.

1/3/2013 12:14:29 PM

Any good airline credit cards available that give you a ticket or two when opening? Preferably US Air as I'm in Charlotte, but open to others.

1/3/2013 12:23:46 PM

40K should be enough for a ticket

http://www.mostmiles.com/Chairmans

[Edited on January 3, 2013 at 12:37 PM. Reason : ]

1/3/2013 12:34:20 PM

yea i'd like to build up as many miles as I can. I was really bummed out when I found out I couldnt pay rent with the card And i dont know if I make enough other purchases with my card to really make much of a difference. I'll definitely try and get the miles to an even thousand number, and buy whatever I need.

I actually just saw where they are doing a promotion this month for buying miles (purchase between 5-14k, get 1k free, etc). That could help out https://buy.points.com/PointsPartnerFrames/partners/aadvantage/container.html?language=EN&product=BUY&CAMPAIGNCODE=AAMktPgUS40909

I guess another option I could have is to keep and ear out for anyone making a big purchase, and see if they can use my card for it and give me the cash.

1/3/2013 1:26:12 PM

Yeah, I'm always happy to organize trips for friends.
I still don't understand why you didn't go for two cards.

[Edited on January 3, 2013 at 1:49 PM. Reason : ]

1/3/2013 1:48:04 PM

Yay, AMEX just called.

Approved for the AMERICAN EXPRESS HILTON HHONORS SURPASS

[Edited on January 3, 2013 at 5:35 PM. Reason : ]

1/3/2013 5:32:59 PM

^nice!

I have trouble finding places to make my big purchases that accept american express. I'd pay my rent, but of course they dont accept american express. I need to earn 7,000 miles within the next few months. Here is one option I came up with.

Option 1: Buy 7k miles. With the bonus 1k miles, it would cost $212
Option 2: Pay my federal taxes off using my amex (NC doesnt accept amex, so i couldnt pay nc taxes with it). I havent paid any taxes in yet (independent contractor) and I dont make enough so that they give me a late fee if I wait until the end of the year. If I pay $3,500 with my amex which is my credit limit, the fee would be $66, but I would earn 3,500 miles.
So 3,500 miles $66
Purchase another 3,000 miles $130
$196 total

hum...

1/5/2013 3:42:41 PM

I was able to prepay $1000 toward my electric bill for something ridiculous, like $1.50
Read up on amazon payments on the pts/miles message boards. You can clear 1K a month that way.
Buy prepaid cards from drug store/wherever if possible.

1/5/2013 4:38:12 PM

Credit Card -> Vanilla Reload at CVS -> Bluebird -> Pay Bill

1/7/2013 9:59:57 PM

the problem is the biggest thing I'd spend money on - rent - you cant pay with amex. So bluebird wouldnt work. Post I have seen also have said not to use an amex card with amazon payments.

I will however look into the vanilla and bluebird for other purchases. Its basically the same thing as buying a gift card. The one thing about bluebird is there is no foreign transaction fee, which might be good traveling around europe this summer. except for its american express and I dont know how much they will take it there.

1/7/2013 10:56:46 PM

How about this?

http://millionmilesecrets.com/2012/10/30/us-bank-visa-buxx-card/

1/8/2013 1:10:18 AM

Bluebird will let you mail a check to anyone and I'm guessing you can pay your rent with a check?

1/8/2013 7:36:48 AM

I have successfully used AmEx cards on Amazon payments for about 5 months now (both the AA Advantage Amex and an AmEx Platinum). I got the bonus on the AmEx Platinum by doing this, and there were no issues.

1/8/2013 7:58:45 AM

Yeah, I've used Starwood Amex on Amazon Payments with no problems too.

1/8/2013 10:02:25 AM

Quote :

"Credit Card -> Vanilla Reload at CVS -> Bluebird -> Pay "

Any CVS's in the Raleigh area confirmed to have the vanilla reloads? Checked the one in garner since this quarter is 5% cash back at pharmacies with Chase and they only have the vanilla visa prepaid cards which are no good for bluebird.

1/10/2013 12:15:41 PM

I've had zero luck with the vanilla reloads. I just go for the prepaid cards at CVS.

1/10/2013 12:30:13 PM

yeah, seems pretty hit or miss from looking online. Some have them and will take a credit card, others have them and are cash/debit only and even more seem to not even have them at all.

1/10/2013 1:02:31 PM

As far as the Vanilla Reload cards go, do people just try and get them from CVS because everywhere else wont let them use credit cards to buy them?

On the Vanilla website there are tons of stores that "carry" them. Anyone had any luck at any of the other ones using a CC?
List is:
Walmart 7-11 Handee Mart 7-11 SW7-11 Garbko 7-11 Cogo's Co.Co Mac, Inc.TEVIS OIL, INC. DANDY MINI MARTS Nouria Energy 12E and C Enterprises Office Depot Nittany Oil Co., Inc. Family Dollar Dollar General Save Mart United Dairy Farmers Walgreens SuperAmerica Everyday Shop Li'l Cricket Young'sNext Door Store Village Pantry Cigarette City Flash Foods Hucks Fasmart CVS Valero Dash In Dodge's Joe's Kwik Marts Murphy Freds Cumberland Farms TA Petro Kwik Trip Scotchman Circle M

1/10/2013 1:04:13 PM

Chase Freedom is doing 5% cash back this quarter for pharmacies so CVS is preferred.
Office Depot was popular among the online community but I never saw vanilla reloads there.
Walgreens front cashiers were setup so you literally could not purchase prepaid cards with a CC (it just let you pay the fee for the card with your cc if you tried swiping it)

[Edited on January 10, 2013 at 1:27 PM. Reason : ]

1/10/2013 1:25:11 PM

yeah, office depot was popular with the people that had Chase Ink since it gave 5% back on office supplies on the first 25 or 50k you spend depending on the card. Office Depot seems to have completely quit carrying them now though so wonder how accurate that list is.

1/10/2013 2:25:15 PM

Question-

Credit was ruined in the 2000-2007 range. Since then nothing, except Car Payment, Student Loan Payment, maybe something else?

Credit Score in the 600's.

Bank of America has their secured credit card. Want to put 1000 on it and it basically hides a 1000 in a savings for you and as long as you pay it on time you get the 1000 back next year. APR is 22 so I would pay in full each month, but my question is

IS IT WORTH IT

Will it actually increase your credit score by that much?


Thanks WW

1/10/2013 7:34:30 PM

Yes.

1/10/2013 8:50:18 PM

I cant get any credit card apps to go through because I have a PO box and soem shit about the patriot act. :/

1/10/2013 9:17:32 PM

Anyone having problems with AMEX's site today?

1/11/2013 2:19:15 PM

yup cant see charges, balance etc...must be down

1/11/2013 2:27:26 PM

well fuckna. Found them at walgreens but they're cash only.

1/11/2013 2:43:27 PM

Hah, yeah. I've been using my debit card a lot lately.
SUNTRUST SKYMILES WORLD CARD - PURCHASES
JAN 04 2013
7,998
Total Miles
DEC 04 2012
7,702
Total Miles
NOV 04 2012
6,973
Total Miles


TOTAL AVAILABLE MILES

86,458

[Edited on January 11, 2013 at 3:11 PM. Reason : formatting]

1/11/2013 3:10:49 PM

Had to go to BFE but finally got one. Luckily I go by it everytime I go to my parents' near Wilmington so that'll do. Now let's see how long it'll actually work.

1/11/2013 7:19:13 PM

Just got approved for the Chase United Card. It hadn't been on my radar, but 55K pts for $1000 spend seemed like a pretty good roi.

1/16/2013 1:36:41 PM

can someone confirm/deny if I can pay my rent (via check) somehow using my AMEX? and/or car payment (via Chase autoloan)? I have no idea what this bluebird/vanilla thing is, nor do I live in NC.

also - did the delta AMEX change their sky priority status requirements? I used to be sky priority with my gold and platinum card, but yesterday at SFO the gate agent told me I wasn't (was using the boarding pass on the delta app, so didn't have an actual paper one that usually denotes it). wondering if it's worth a phone call since the flyertalk and amex forums didn't really help. and if I'm not, if they'll bump me back up. AMEX has generally been very good to me.

[Edited on January 16, 2013 at 3:25 PM. Reason : new2iu called me]

1/16/2013 3:23:13 PM

I thought sky priority was based on flying in a calendar year, so maybe it reset with the new year?
You have sky priority if you are Gold Medallion. I don't think it's related to the Delta Gold credit card.

1/16/2013 4:57:45 PM

Cant answer 100% for sure but whenever I book flights for work with my AMEX delta skymiles gold (4-8 times a year) for the past 3 years I always get zone 1 boarding even though I'm nowhere near even silver medallion, unless I get the obvious 1st class upgrade or seat. You are only guaranteed 'priority boarding', free first bag, and the discount on random inflight crap. The consensus over at flyertalk in a recent forum I saw - see below- was the Sky Priority label was left on certain types of electronic boarding passes over time and may have been accidental but has been removed completely ever since their main website was redone a while back. Based on that with no formal announcement, plus the fact the AMEX/Skymiles CC never promised Sky Priority benefits specifically, Im thinking it was one of those things they just waited and left on eboarding passes until they overhauled their computer system.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta-skymiles/1384138-gold-amex-gives-sky-priority-3.html

1/17/2013 12:26:55 AM

my citi miles just posted! About to book my flight to Spain. So excited

1/18/2013 10:24:01 AM

Any complications with balance transfers? I have a Citi Card with around $3900 (honeymoon reservations) on it. The 0% interest period runs out in March. I just got an American Express offer in the mail with 0% interest on balance transfers for 18 months.

Worth the move?

1/18/2013 10:30:22 AM

Heh, my citi AA miles just posted as well.

Mileage Balance:
93,780

Isn't there usually a fee for balance transfers? I mean, it would be worth it if you can't pay it off by March, but not really ideal to put a honeymoon on your cc.

1/18/2013 10:36:39 AM

i think i've got around 53,000 miles on my AA. I'll be spending every one of them on this trip to Europe


I do have a question about credit. Does having multiple cards affect your credit score. Most all of these cards come with the first year free. Do you cancel the cards after the first year? If so, doesnt that affect your credit? Honestly ive never checked my credit before. I did get immediately approved for the Citi AA Amex card for $3,500, so im assuming that means I have decent credit. I'd love to churn cards, but I dont want to screw up my credit for one day when I really need it (aka buying a house or something).

[Edited on January 18, 2013 at 11:47 AM. Reason : question]

1/18/2013 11:43:36 AM

First off, I'd check your credit just for good measure. It's free. It won't have your score but it's just something smart to do at least once a year. Aside from that I use

https://www.creditkarma.com/ and http://www.creditsesame.com/

to keep tabs on my credit score and other misc details. Having multiple cards most certainly affects your credit score. My score goes down when I open a card b/c of the hard inquiry as well as lowering the average age of my open credit lines, however it keeps my utilization extremely low as a result of having ~80K in credit. My score only goes down 5-10 points and it usually rebounds in a few months, although I'm constantly opening cards so it fluctuates. I always cancel the fee cards before the year is up. Sometimes I barter with an agent to close one of my other cards before the year time period is up in order to open up a new card. It you are looking to buy a house or get a loan any time soon I'd avoid churning.

1/18/2013 12:04:31 PM

^http://www.annualcreditreport.com

1/18/2013 11:12:35 PM

US Bank Cash+ looks like an interesting 5% cash back card, but it seems like you have to go to a branch to apply, and there aren't any within 100 miles. Anyone have success getting this by calling them?

1/19/2013 5:25:48 PM