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Not in response to any specific topic, just wanted to share an interesting 5% catch-all card: https://pcmcu.org/loans/credit-card/ Restrictions: -Either pay $49 annual fee or maintain a Rewards Saving account -Rewards Saving account requires electronic statements, direct deposit, checking account, debit card (and earns 7.5% APR on the first $500 in savings) -Earn 5% back on up to $1,000 in purchases per month, therefore $600 cash back per year max -PCMCU partner organizations: https://pcmcu.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SEG-pdf-4.pdf - I don't see an easy backdoor option like with Redstone I know there are some wallet-poppin' spenders in this thread, but if anyone here is eligible for PCMCU membership and can funnel their first $1,000 in expenses through a 5% card, that's a pretty drat good return. Combined with a Redstone and/or Citi Custom Cash card, that's a lot of 5% coverage for no annual fee or mucking around with points.
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Jan 24, 2024 16:28
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That’s probably not sustainable especially if people get it en masse.
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Jan 24, 2024 17:10
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Does Rewards+ automatically apply to any points redeemed through Citi, or are there any hoops you have to jump through? I wouldn't mind getting an extra .555% on groceries but probably already spend more time than is healthy each month taking a bunch of tiny steps to optimize my budget.
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Jan 28, 2024 03:01
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You have to merge the rewards accounts as a one time process. It can be done online, but it didn't work for me so I had to call and have them do it over the phone. After that it's just automatic, though you get the extra points only after redeeming.
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Jan 28, 2024 03:59
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Only "hoop" to jump through after they are linked is making sure to REDEEM the points through the rewards+ card and not the custom cash. It just links the point pools to my knowledge. And as the poster above stated, it's technically a rebate of 10% of the points you've redeemed, which means you get the bonus added back to the pool, but that's also how you're getting the trailing decimals and 10% on the 10% on the 10%, etc. Girbot fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Jan 28, 2024 |
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Jan 28, 2024 18:00
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I don't think you need to go out of your way to redeem points through the rewards+ card once your Thank You points pools are linked. It should give you credit for any redemption from that pool, I think. Shell and Citi have some partnership where you can redeem Thank You points for fuel purchases and I accidently did that once when using my Custom Cash card, got an email saying I earned the bonus redemption for having the Rewards+ regardless. It's probably safest to just redeem rewards using the Rewards+ card though.
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Jan 28, 2024 20:35
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saintonan posted:...Since the major value of UR/MR is transferring directly to airlines (or Hyatt in the case of UR, the only hotel transfer partner I'd recommend), this is a pretty big deficiency. Fully agree that the Chase UR to Hyatt transfer gives you the best value for everyday stays. Biggest downside to Hyatt is their limited portfolio. You'll find great properties in some major cities, almost nothing to others (e.g., Austin, Philadelphia, Mexico City, etc.). Marriott has been pretty great for those cities, particularly if you get in on their 5x 50k certificates through Chase. Off-season 50k easily gets you into the Ritz, St. Regis, and boutique hotels such as the Austin Proper.
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Jan 29, 2024 14:55
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Tortilla Maker posted:Fully agree that the Chase UR to Hyatt transfer gives you the best value for everyday stays. Biggest downside to Hyatt is their limited portfolio. You'll find great properties in some major cities, almost nothing to others (e.g., Austin, Philadelphia, Mexico City, etc.). Marriott has been pretty great for those cities, particularly if you get in on their 5x 50k certificates through Chase. Off-season 50k easily gets you into the Ritz, St. Regis, and boutique hotels such as the Austin Proper. I've been ignoring Marriott for redemptions since we do pretty well with Chase->Hyatt. What's the 5x 50k trick?
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Jan 29, 2024 17:00
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Residency Evil posted:I've been ignoring Marriott for redemptions since we do pretty well with Chase->Hyatt. What's the 5x 50k trick? It's just a current offer on Chase's Bonvoy Boundless card. Non-referral link: https://creditcards.chase.com/a1/marriottbonvoydual/nonaep/LTO The card earns five 50K free night certificates after $5,000 spend in 3 months. Con for some people is that the certificates expire after 1 year, though I've read that customer service agents will give you an extension if you call in when they're close to expiring but YMMV. Peak season costs for some of their high end brands will be more than 50K per night, but Marriott allows you to apply 15K additional points per award (so if you have the points, these can be redeemed for 65K nights).
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Jan 29, 2024 18:16
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Got a bit of a weird one. I have an Amex Platinum card as well as the Capital One Venture X. I've given some friends/family an authorized user card for the Venture X for lounge access. This year both me and one of my friends have our Global Entry renewal coming up on our birthdays. I'm going to use my Amex Platinum to pay for mine, so I still have the credit on the Venture X. Can my friend use the authorized user card to pay for Global Entry, and the credit would apply? Or does it have to be off my card?
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Jan 29, 2024 21:22
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Need some guidance on which point ecosystem to choose. I’m looking to push all our spend through a credit card for redemption on business class international flights and hotel rooms. Wife travels business internationally frequently, but isn’t able to concentrate her miles on one carrier due to destination variability. Home airport is PHX so nominally an AA hub. I don’t really care about any of the lounge perks, just maxing points. Is it as simple as picking a Chase or Amex that matches our spending profile?
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Jan 31, 2024 18:27
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what's the general consensus on credit card churning? currently unemployed, so would be nice to get whatever additional income i can at the moment
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Feb 4, 2024 22:45
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Churning is fine for the subset of people with high credit scores, already have $0 in unintentional credit card debt, and are otherwise paying off their balances in full every month. If these apply to you go hog wild. Do note that you will have to pay taxes on all of your bonuses. A popular credit card forum was recently talking about how people are now getting 1099s for claiming free night stays and such with certain issuers.
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Feb 4, 2024 22:49
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I would not recommend credit card churning for someone unemployed. It's extra money if you can make the spending requirements, already have good credit, and can 100% of the time pay the balance in full every month. As to taxes. Generally you DO NOT pay taxes on credit card cash back redemptions, they're considered rebates in a kind of weird lawyer logic I just don't think the IRS cares enough to argue with. You DEFINITELY DO pay taxes on bank account bonuses, it's considered interest and taxed as ordinary income. I honestly hadn't heard about about being taxed on credit redemptions for things like free night stays, I can see it happening rarely with certain providers but probably not most.
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Feb 4, 2024 23:53
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Credit card referral bonuses are also generally taxable.
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Feb 4, 2024 23:54
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Boris Galerkin posted:Churning is fine for the subset of people with high credit scores, already have $0 in unintentional credit card debt, and are otherwise paying off their balances in full every month. I think getting a couple new cards a year, enjoying their signup bonuses and zero APR period and paying off the full balance before the zero APR intro period ends is a smart move. Free money for a little account opening legwork. You might even consider augmenting this with a rare new bank account bonuses or brokerage transfer bonuses. The actual large volume churning stuff that reddit or doctorofcredit or wherever does seems more risky. Risky either in that the credit card companies/banks wise up to your gimmicks and start limiting your credit lines or denying new accounts, or that you just fumble something up like forgetting about one of the zero APR deadlines on one of your countless new cards and take a big interest hit. Another easy to discount risk is that you start to spend beyond your ability to pay resulting in a debt snowball. Or you might become weirdly obsessed with money as your brain tries to keep track of all those bonuses and timeframes.
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Feb 5, 2024 00:08
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https://www.doctorofcredit.com/reports-chase-sending-out-1099s-for-marriott-credit-card-signup-bonus-for-points-referrals/#comments Right, in general anything that gives you a portion back after you’ve spent money isn’t counted as income, but everything else is. In those comment threads and from personal experience, you are liable to pay taxes on sign up bonuses, referral bonuses, and things like using your credit card to reimburse your precheck/global entry or whatever memberships.
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Feb 5, 2024 00:39
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Boris Galerkin posted:Churning is fine for the subset of people with high credit scores, already have $0 in unintentional credit card debt, and are otherwise paying off their balances in full every month.  THF13 posted:I would not recommend credit card churning for someone unemployed. It's extra money if you can make the spending requirements, already have good credit, and can 100% of the time pay the balance in full every month. what if i have all those other things besides a job, and also a good chunk of savings?
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Feb 5, 2024 00:42
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Mr Interweb posted:what if i have all those other things besides a job, and also a good chunk of savings? Boris Galerkin posted:https://www.doctorofcredit.com/reports-chase-sending-out-1099s-for-marriott-credit-card-signup-bonus-for-points-referrals/#comments Most sign up bonuses still should not trigger these, which seem to be more exceptions than common. Could indicate that this is going to start changing to be the norm soon I suppose.
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Feb 5, 2024 01:08
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Mr Interweb posted:what's the general consensus on credit card churning? currently unemployed, so would be nice to get whatever additional income i can at the moment Would be interesting to see which approvals you would even be able to get with 0 income. I assume the answer is "a lot more than one might expect." Agree with everyone else basically.
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Feb 5, 2024 02:34
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CubicalSucrose posted:Would be interesting to see which approvals you would even be able to get with 0 income. I assume the answer is "a lot more than one might expect." Agree with everyone else basically.
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Feb 5, 2024 03:41
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Everyone knows the secret service police are gonna bust down your door the moment you lie about your annual salary on your application.
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Feb 5, 2024 03:45
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Bank signup bonuses are another option for free money without needing to manufacture spend, generally just involves moving money around. Depending on the size of your savings, might be an option. Boris Galerkin posted:Everyone knows the secret service police are gonna bust down your door the moment you lie about your annual salary on your application. "Hey dad, I'm going to court for this credit card thing today. Can i just tell the judge I could reasonably assume you'd cover my bills any month I was short?" Every credit application I've seen explicitly states that you can include other people's income that you have reasonable access to. (e.g. parent's, spouse). They want you to inflate your income, they want you to take out more than you can handle, they want you to gently caress up. Girbot fucked around with this message at 11:52 on Feb 5, 2024 |
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Feb 5, 2024 11:48
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So after two years of Skymiles rewards we’ve found that getting ~1-2 free flights a year isn’t really worth it for the fee and we don’t have the stomach to really churn cards for rewards. Our plan is to do a product change on that particular card and use it for travel expenses alone, and snag a cash back card for daily expenses because the rewards are less abstract. We are a pretty typical suburban family with a dog and a small kiddo, so expenses are groceries and gas basically. We have excellent credit (both 820+ FICO) and no debt outside of mortgage. Intro offers aren’t the most important thing to us. I’m thinking the Amex BlueCash Preferred card would be best, even with the 6k grocery cap. We already use the Costco Citi card as our “gas card” for unlimited 4% back, but that 6% on groceries seems enough to offset the 95$ fee and put it above the no fee bluecash card. The citi double cash also looks pretty good for a flat 2% on everything but I’m having a hard time finding an advantage over the Amex. Thoughts? Other recommendations?
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Feb 5, 2024 11:49
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Always have a flat high % card. There’s plenty of stuff that is costly and won’t hit any categories. Car insurance and home repairs for example. That $10k hvac replacement system sucks but it’s a nice psychological boost to get $250 in points on it.
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Feb 5, 2024 14:21
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https://alliance.usbank.com/en-us/statefarm/credit-cards/premier-cash-rewards-visa-signature-credit-card.html 3% back on insurance premiums up to $4K/yr
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Feb 5, 2024 14:43
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LeeMajors posted:I’m thinking the Amex BlueCash Preferred card would be best, even with the 6k grocery cap. We already use the Costco Citi card as our “gas card” for unlimited 4% back, but that 6% on groceries seems enough to offset the 95$ fee and put it above the no fee bluecash card. Agreed with this: Xenoborg posted:Always have a flat high % card. There’s plenty of stuff that is costly and won’t hit any categories. Car insurance and home repairs for example. That $10k hvac replacement system sucks but it’s a nice psychological boost to get $250 in points on it. In your case, I'd be looking to open two cards, most likely. One option is, if you want to go into AmEx and can justify the Preferred, get that; if not, get the Everyday. Once you're spending more than $65ish a week in groceries, the Preferred beats out the Everyday even with the fee, so you're probably there, assuming you get your groceries from supermarkets; any big-box like Costco (which obviously doesn't take AmEx anyway), or Target or Walmart, will not count as "groceries." Supplement with the AmEx Blue Business Cash as your 2% cashback card for everything else. The other primary option is, like you said, to lean all the way into Citi: get the Double Cash as your 2% card, then the Custom Cash for 5% on your highest category per month (from a list; supermarkets are on that list) up to $500 spend. It's 1% less than the Preferred, but no annual fee. You can also look into getting the Rewards+ to get 10% of your points back whenever you redeem them. If you do get your groceries primarily at Costco or Target or whatever, the math will change and you'll want a card primarily for that store, most likely, with a 2% for everywhere else. EDIT: Note that you generally need to wait five days between AmEx applications, and eight days between Citi applications, when applying for two cards from them. Citi then needs you to wait 65 days before applying for a third, if you wanted to get the Rewards+. AmEx needs you to wait 90 before a third, if there was another you were looking at from them. disaster pastor fucked around with this message at 15:24 on Feb 5, 2024 |
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Feb 5, 2024 14:59
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Do you have $100k of assets (brokerage/IRA whatever) that you can transfer? If so, consider looking into BofA's Preferred Rewards program. Basically $100k of assets between BofA and Merrill Edge accounts gives you Platinum Honors Preferred Rewards tier, which adds a +75% rewards multiplier to BofA's otherwise underwhelming no fee rewards credit cards. For example their 1.5% unlimited cash rewards card becomes 2.62% cashback on everything. Even better is their Customized Cash Rewards card, where your 3% chosen category gets boosted to 5.25% cashback. The best thing about the CCR is that one of the categories available to choose is "online shopping", which is broadly defined to include almost everything you buy through an online portal. This results in the interesting situation where your boosted CCR gives better cashback than many store/site specific cards do when buying online (better than the Amazon Prime's 5% card, Target Redcard 5%, Costco's 2% to name a few).
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Feb 5, 2024 18:26
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Boris Galerkin posted:Right, in general anything that gives you a portion back after you’ve spent money isn’t counted as income, but everything else is. In those comment threads and from personal experience, you are liable to pay taxes on sign up bonuses, referral bonuses, and things like using your credit card to reimburse your precheck/global entry or whatever memberships. I’ve used credit card freebie TSA precheck signups a total of four times, twice for me and twice for my wife, and I’ve never been liable for taxes on it. I just charge it and after it gets posted a rebate for the charge shows up. Same for sign non-cash sign up bonuses, even if they can be cashed out for cash. No liability. The only times I have ever received a 1099 is when I got a cash bonus for opening an account.
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Feb 5, 2024 18:33
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I made a thread about churning in coupons and deals but it didn’t seem to get too much interest.
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Feb 5, 2024 20:53
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Holy poo poo, when did Chase add a Request Increase button to their site? I just hit it and got an increase on my card that hasn’t had a change in limit in 10 years. I had tried asking customer service for an increase before without it triggering a hard pull but was always told they couldn’t do so.
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Feb 5, 2024 21:26
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gregday posted:Holy poo poo, when did Chase add a Request Increase button to their site? I just hit it and got an increase on my card that hasn’t had a change in limit in 10 years. I had tried asking customer service for an increase before without it triggering a hard pull but was always told they couldn’t do so. Did it trigger a hard pull?
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Feb 6, 2024 00:12
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gregday posted:Holy poo poo, when did Chase add a Request Increase button to their site? I just hit it and got an increase on my card that hasn’t had a change in limit in 10 years. I had tried asking customer service for an increase before without it triggering a hard pull but was always told they couldn’t do so.
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Feb 6, 2024 00:47
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astral posted:Did it trigger a hard pull? Nope.
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Feb 6, 2024 00:53
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LeeMajors posted:So after two years of Skymiles rewards we’ve found that getting ~1-2 free flights a year isn’t really worth it for the fee and we don’t have the stomach to really churn cards for rewards. One other thing I'd mention aside from what others have said is that it's worth considering that the annual fee effectively makes the BCP more like 4.42% back on groceries, assuming that you spend up to the full $6000 cap for the year. (6% of $6000 is $360, minus $95 is $265, which is 4.42% of $6000.) The further you are from hitting the cap, the lower your effective % back will be. For me, using a Citi Custom Cash for groceries instead made a lot more sense, especially since the 5% back can be applied to other common spend categories as well if you decide to change things up later on, and you can boost it to 5.55...% if you pick up a Citi Rewards Plus as well. But it also may depend on other factors like whether you'd be making use of the BCP's other benefits and how your grocery trips are spaced out. The Custom Cash is 5% back on up to $500 a month rather than on up to $6000 a year - which may sound like it amounts to the same thing, but not if you're spending like $600 on groceries in January, $400 in February, etc.
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Feb 6, 2024 01:41
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Thanks for the advice everyone. We are going to sit down and look at the last two years of spending categories—probably one Costco trip a month which goes on the Costco Citi card, and 3-4 other grocery runs a month between 1-200$ per off the top of my head. So i guess we need to sit down and do some math. I wasn’t aware of the custom cash card, we may have to look in that direction since you can pick reward categories. I guess ease of redemption is a big piece too because we’d like to probably just use toward statement credit long term. We have been pretty happy with Amex overall with perks and stuff too, so those Blue cards seem pretty appealing. NFCU has a Visa that returns 1.75% on everything, unlimited as well. So assuming we move on from the skymiles, is it smarter to change products to a no-fee card, or just to close the account? I was hoping we could change to another Amex product but apparently you can’t with the loyalty piece there.
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Feb 6, 2024 02:45
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Is the AAA Daily Advantage card just straight up better than the AMEX Blue Cash Preferred if you're out of the first year no annual fee period for the AMEX and you spend a lot of money on groceries? It looks like the AAA card has no annual fee and up to 500 dollars at 5% for groceries. I got a BCP card halfway through last year and it is way better than my lovely old 1% BOFA Visa, but with the fee and my grocery expenditures, I'll hit the cap on it in about six months through the new year. It seems like the best move would be then to shift to the AAA card and maybe stick with it. Also, if I cancel the AMEX card before one year is up, can I avoid paying the annual fee? This credit card poo poo is complicated.
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Feb 6, 2024 03:13
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LeeMajors posted:Thanks for the advice everyone. We are going to sit down and look at the last two years of spending categories—probably one Costco trip a month which goes on the Costco Citi card, and 3-4 other grocery runs a month between 1-200$ per off the top of my head. So i guess we need to sit down and do some math. Unlimited 1.75% is nice but unlimited 2% with $0 AF is better? Fidelity, Wells Fargo, and PayPal.
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Feb 6, 2024 03:59
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gregday posted:Holy poo poo, when did Chase add a Request Increase button to their site? I just hit it and got an increase on my card that hasn’t had a change in limit in 10 years. I had tried asking customer service for an increase before without it triggering a hard pull but was always told they couldn’t do so. Did it come back? They used to have one then I think it went away for a while? edit: Just logged in and it's back for me. "We'll mail or email our decision in 7 to 10 business days." 
Residency Evil fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Feb 6, 2024 |
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Feb 6, 2024 16:46
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LeeMajors posted:So assuming we move on from the skymiles, is it smarter to change products to a no-fee card, or just to close the account? I was hoping we could change to another Amex product but apparently you can’t with the loyalty piece there. Just downgrade to a no-fee card when the annual fee hits again (unless you are within a 30-day window from the most recent annual fee charge). We are a boring suburban family of 6, 2 adults and 4 small kids. We used to travel more when the kids were little but life has slowed down and we take maybe one big trip a year. We keep the CSR for the $300 travel credit and the rental car & travel coverage for when we do travel, among other benefits. It's our only big-fee card. Everything else is $95 or below, mainly hotel cards for the annual free nights. We also have the Blue Cash Preferred (as well as the vanilla no-fee Blue Cash) which we use for gas and groceries. My local discount store doesn't take AMEX, so we have a Custom Cash for 5% back there which we use for supplemental grocery shopping. The beauty of the Blue Cash Preferred is the kickback for the Disney+, plus the bonus for streaming services. We have every streaming service on there, except for our regular cable bill which doesn't trigger the bonus. So we opened a Cash+ card from US Bank and chose the category to make cable 5% back and just have it auto charge there. That's a no-fee card as well. We don't do much point managing, but these basic no & low fee cards have created a little engine for us to get some rewards here and there. I always keep an eye out for interesting new cards, or increased sign-up bonuses, when we have a big bill on the horizon. Through Doctor of Credit, I discovered my own credit union had a card with a huge sign-up bonus that I never saw advertised. I used it to cover a large purchase, and it was just free money in my account after I paid the bill.
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Feb 7, 2024 22:02
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