I love credit cards so much!

[afan]

Cash makes total sense. It's the traditional debit cards I can't figure out. You'd only be issued one if you had a bank account.
Anyway, who cares as long as you're able to take advantage!
You can also max out the Freedom by buying VGC at grocery stores and heading to Walmart.

The temp agency I used to work through offered debit cards not through a bank account. There are some ways to have one .I feel like Wal-Mart has/had something like this too where they'd cash the check to a debit but it's not truly a bank account since not everyone can/will open one.

 

[mhartman09]

I had 50 after my last trip and admittedly abandoned the task after making it through about 10, there was just so much new stuff coming out each day it was too much for me.

Finally coming up for air after going through all the pages I missed, although I did skim several. Ended up being over 100 by the time I caught up. Looks like a lot happened while I was gone.

Unless something has changed, EBCI is cash only, no gift cards.

This has not changed. I actually tried to do this last week for our return flight because it was at 11:30 pm and I was afraid I'd forget to do my check-in at 24 hours. I have a GC I bought a while back that I'd been using to pay the fees on our points flights and thought I could use that to pay. Rep told me I couldn't use a GC to pay for it, had to be a CC.

 

[Albort]

Cash makes total sense. It's the traditional debit cards I can't figure out. You'd only be issued one if you had a bank account.
Anyway, who cares as long as you're able to take advantage!
You can also max out the Freedom by buying VGC at grocery stores and heading to Walmart.

if ur willing to wait, use chasepay on walmart.com and buy yourself a walmart gift card. save youself the $5 fee.

 

[peel]

The temp agency I used to work through offered debit cards not through a bank account. There are some ways to have one .I feel like Wal-Mart has/had something like this too where they'd cash the check to a debit but it's not truly a bank account since not everyone can/will open one.

Interesting. So it's more like a VGC with a set amount on it that you can use anywhere.

 

[peel]

if ur willing to wait, use chasepay on walmart.com and buy yourself a walmart gift card. save youself the $5 fee.

You can use a Walmart gift card to pay off the credit card balance, too?

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

The temp agency I used to work through offered debit cards not through a bank account. There are some ways to have one .I feel like Wal-Mart has/had something like this too where they'd cash the check to a debit but it's not truly a bank account since not everyone can/will open one.

They did offer this service. But I remember reading an article that they charged insane monthly fees and fees to access the money (atm fees, etc.). The article was describing a class action lawsuit against Walmart, since some people were required to get their paychecks this way (for some reason) and it was enriching Walmart at the employee's expense.

 

[speedyfishy]

I’m seeing a warning on Flyertalk to not do multiple Walmart billpays to Chase credit cards if you want to avoid a shutdown. You can pay your mortgage and any other bills though with the service. It also looks like Discover has a $1 fee and Amex allows some cards but the fee is $4.99

 

[Albort]

You can use a Walmart gift card to pay off the credit card balance, too?

oh, no. my bad. I need my coffee.

 

[miztressuz]

Interesting. So it's more like a VGC with a set amount on it that you can use anywhere.

Pretty much. There a large percentage of the "unbanked" that either figure out how to use all cash or get paid by debit. Even Social Security has a debit card option for those without an account to DD into. You get one card and each month they transfer your benefit money onto it. Then it gets used like a usual debit card where you can do ATM withdrawal or use it to make purchases.

 

[amalone1013]

Oh believe me that is one of the FIRST questions I ask! Is it ridiculous that I would base a car purchase on how much of the down I can put on an AMEX?

I wish I had been into this when I got my car, I put $7k down. If we end up in an apartment next I'll be checking for ones that take credit cards - it will definitely be a factor in decision making.

DP reporting that paying federal taxes through pay1040 .com with SPG Biz did not earn Starpoints or count towards MSR: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/8b6hmv/daily_discussion_thread_april_10_2018/dx59sek/

I felt panicked for a moment. Our statement should close soon and I can see if we got points for our tax payment... The beta feature won't work on that account for some reason. At least we'll have two months to make it up if it doesn't...

Just got to enjoy the PP lounge at Denver airport. Really good with big portions. Server says they are not closing. The smoking lounge next door closed and word got out the whole place was closing. He says that is not true.

This might be the best churning news all week (for me)

I'm single and it's just lame for singles to travel to places like that if I can't beg a friend along with a free hotel
Now I'm happily at "screw it, I shouldn't wait to plan trips like that any longer!" My points might devalue so I can see the world no matter what my "status" in life right now

Don't wait, do what you want! I would do lots more if I didn't have DH's ball and chain lack of vacation time holding me back

Thanks!! I’m going to show him all this stuff tonight and maybe he will be convinced. It takes some time for him to get on board with new things. He was totally against me signing him up for cards at first, but after a little convincing and some free flights he is on board with me doing my thing. Maybe one day I’ll teach him how to manufacture spend. Lol

DH needed lots of convincing, but he's come around. I read him lots of stories off the thread and that helps too. He even asked if we could always owe a bit on taxes to put towards a card bonus each year

Guys, it's been 50 pages since I got my lounge situation sorted last Thursday morning...

I made it to myself!

That's really good to know! Any issues with booking once you got it? The only restriction I see is that it has to be a standard room. Looking at the hotel website there are standard rooms available for Friday and Saturday night (which is fine), but not Saturday and Sunday night (preferred).

I got a Fri-Sat night in September with no issues. They send a form to fill out and you send it back, then they send you the confirmation. I think it asked for two date options, but I just wrote on there that if September didn't work we'd have to make other plans and try again. The only issue I had was I think they had 10 days to send the form after buying the deal, and when it didn't come on the 10th day I emailed them but heard back within a few hours.

@gottalovepluto I promise it's not sketchy! It's actually not even the sketchiest part of town, and that's only as sketchy as a midwestern town can get

@gottalovepluto @miztressuz I think I'll just stick with the not sketchy Quality Inn At first when I looked I saw availability, and then I didn't, and I think I'll take the easy way out. The good thing is nothing in town is more than 20 minutes from either hotel, and they're even the closest two hotels to the wedding festivities which are slightly out of town. I don't want to think about the gift cards I have in our safe either... We've got some that were wedding gifts and can't decided what to do with them or the cash we received since we don't have a house right now... save for buying house things in the next year or so, or use them for something like travel...

And I made it!!

And there weren't even any new posts while I finished up my replies here!​

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Yay! Just got the Florida 2-Day ticket for the 3 of us on Daily Getaways for $75 each.

Thank you so much for posting this!!!! I had forgotten about it - just bought 4 of them for our trip in November.

 

[speedyfishy]

DH needed lots of convincing, but he's come around. I read him lots of stories off the thread and that helps too. He even asked if we could always owe a bit on taxes to put towards a card bonus each year

Sounds like your DH is now a real churner. My SO was so hesitant too. He at first told me I could get him one card. He thought it would ruin his credit but his credit score is at the highest it has ever been so he doesn’t mind now. Im so happy he is on board.

 

[Jen and Ashwin]

Sounds like your DH is now a real churner. My SO was so hesitant too. He at first told me I could get him one card. He thought it would ruin his credit but his credit score is at the highest it has ever been so he doesn’t mind now. Im so happy he is on board.

It always takes me quite a bit of work to convince DH to let me open a card for him. And convincing him to let me open a business card, I thought it would be really hard since he only has a "business." After his initial no, he caved about a day or two later. I think saying that we would get at least $750 in value with no annual fee didn't hurt.

 

[speedyfishy]

I wanted to post this earlier, but figured I would be the guinea pig and test it out first. Got my USB MCGC at the store, went home, and tested with success!

I figured since you are also in the DC metro area (MD here), you should find USB MCGCs with no issue. Think I read someone on reddit, some had issues sourcing them, so who knows. Either way, it’s a few less MO trips (or save those in general if you aren’t looking to do anything crazy like multiple Venmos lol) and stress of converting. @Albort reminded me that I forgot to add a few Venmo nuances, which I just did over there, that you will want to keep in mind!

I also read someone here or maybe on reddit as well mentioning that they didn’t get fuel points from Giant on VGCs purchases. I thought I didn’t either since it didn’t show up on my receipt initially, but magically after a few days I saw 1,500 Gas points and I know i wasn’t spending THAT much on groceries while I bought 3 VGCs recently, so the math became simple.

What do you put for the zip code when you are adding the card to Venmo? It keeps saying invalid and is decline

 

[amalone1013]

Sounds like your DH is now a real churner. My SO was so hesitant too. He at first told me I could get him one card. He thought it would ruin his credit but his credit score is at the highest it has ever been so he doesn’t mind now. Im so happy he is on board.

This sounds very familiar!

It always takes me quite a bit of work to convince DH to let me open a card for him. And convincing him to let me open a business card, I thought it would be really hard since he only has a "business." After his initial no, he caved about a day or two later. I think saying that we would get at least $750 in value with no annual fee didn't hurt.

When I talked DH into his first business card, which is the SPG we're working on now, I told him that we've already redeemed $10k in value for about $1800 in AFs. We never would have spent $10k, because that's retail for everything, plus we wouldn't have taken some of these trips... but we definitely would have spent way over $2k just between the honeymoon trip and the trip for BILs wedding.

 

[amalone1013]

I was feeling very tempted by the Discover Cove packages on the Daily Getaways site, so it's good they're sold out now. If my cousin wasn't getting married Memorial Day Weekend...

 

[Alexle2007]

Thank you so much for posting this!!!! I had forgotten about it - just bought 4 of them for our trip in November.

DS11 LOVES SeaWorld and their roller coasters, especially the Mako, so he excited to get to go there 2 days!

 

[SBWB48]

@speedyfishy forgot to mention, you have to register your card on the site listed on the packaging. I either use my work or real zip code.

 

[disneymagicgirl]

I just set up a bunch of things through plastiq to send immediately and submitted our sams club pick up order and once all that posts I will have MET MY SPG BIZ SPEND!!!

...AND dh's CIP arrived today...so onward we march...

 

[kmc8826]

So DH was approved for the CIC last Wednesday. I got on Wednesday morning and since he has the CIP the CIC was already on his account. Ordered my employee card. It came today! His is still AWOL. Of course it is the card I am super excited for so I took a picture and texted it to him. "So what's this card for?" was his response. Oh well. That is the beauty of being able to be in two player mode. The one person can be doubly excited even if the other could seriously care less.