I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[GZanta77]

My return has been in review for four months. I hate having things hanging over my head but I know there's no use trying to contact them to find out what's up.

Yep, just over 3 months for us. Just frustrating as no information as to why the hold-up.

 

[Haley R]

I've been watching the "reopening" threads and have gained a lot of valuable information and plan to keep watching. Those aren't really for "noobs" such as myself tho

It will be mid-November. It won't make up for the loss of Japan but it's a good excuse to use this time for a first trip!



Wow, two votes each for Wilderness Lodge and Grand Floridian. Adding Beach Club!


That all sounds lovely! And BATB is my favorite so I shall have to go search that out!

Grand Floridian is awesome at Christmas time because they have a huge gingerbread house!

 

[havaneselover]

Yep, just over 3 months for us. Just frustrating as no information as to why the hold-up.

I suspect mine is because I went from an employee to a profits interest partner in q2 2019 but who knows. While I love paying estimated taxes with a credit card, everything else about being a partner has been a pain in the butt (including having to pay payroll taxes on my 401k match).

 

[wanderlust7]

I suspect mine is because I went from an employee to a profits interest partner in q2 2019 but who knows. While I love paying estimated taxes with a credit card, everything else about being a partner has been a pain in the butt (including having to pay payroll taxes on my 401k match).

My parents filed back in March and are still waiting for their refund. My mom was suspecting maybe it's the electric car tax credit holding it up, but yeah, who knows. She asked me if I think she should call, I said she'll probably have a hard time reaching anyone.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Grand Floridian is awesome at Christmas time because they have a huge gingerbread house!

Love the gingerbread house....the lobby is always so crowded wonder how they will handle it

 

[gottalovepluto]

Love the gingerbread house....the lobby is always so crowded wonder how they will handle it

Good time to mention something I think everyone should keep in the back of their mind- Disney simply might not do Christmas. Sure, they're still selling party tickets but... no holidays/limited holidays would result in cost savings and crowd cuts.

 

[mmmears]

But could you do it online? I know previously, you could book suites with points if you called.

I'm pretty sure we could book a suite online when we booked our room at the PHPV that I had to cancel recently, but I can't say 100% that it was there. The first time we stayed there, a few years back, I know it wasn't an option online.

 

[Judique]

Yikes - scare so easy these days! Gave rose gold card to daughter to order food 'early' for dinner. She's going to Cheesecake Factory because 1. I have a complimentary gift card to cover part because they forgot to put 'my' meal in the package a couple of weeks ago 2. $10 rose gold monthly credit 3. last day for 'freeslice' promo.

Anyway, get an email 'you have used your Amex offer' and since daughter was still upstairs, I immediately jumped to 'who is using my card?'.

And then I realized it was us and auto charged before pickup, but I sure got jumpy.

 

[NewbieMom]

Can I just complain for a minute how terribly incompetent Citi's customer service is? Back in the fall I moved and must have shredded their sock-drawered card in the packing process. Then come Jan 1, my company decided to no longer pay for our cell phones so I had to give up my long time phone number. Now checking my spreadsheet, I see the 1-year mark is coming up and I'm due for an AF. Tried logging in, it keeps saying invalid login and eventually locked me out. Called into customer service and because I don't have the physical card details (I know, I know, I should've kept a record in my spreadsheet of the actual account number), they have to text me a code. But because my number has changed since, the only thing they could do is mail a physical letter to my address on file with a code. Well I don't live there anymore and the letter never got forwarded (I waited the 10 days, they resent, I waited another 10 days, still no letter). Their customer service says there is nothing else they can do, and I'm just stuck with this AF??

 

[Judique]

I'm pretty sure we could book a suite online when we booked our room at the PHPV that I had to cancel recently, but I can't say 100% that it was there. The first time we stayed there, a few years back, I know it wasn't an option online.

I wasn't able to do it a few minutes ago online. I'm switching my reservation around for next week. Going to call and see what I can get done. I want the king suite with 2 separate rooms (741 sq ft.

*Stopped in the middle of posting and called - room not available for all nights I want so I'll stay with what I have. Double checked each night for cash and not available for cash either.

Also, there's a promo - get 25% of your points back -15% for being a Hyatt member and another 10% for being a card holder. As far as I read I'll get that promo.

And, there's a 15% off Chase offer on my Hyatt card, but it will expire before I can use it on a cash room. Last year I had a Hyatt Amex offer that got me $75 back..

 

[Artygal90]

Is anyone else struggling to make themselves use the "Pay Yourself Back" feature on their CSR? Right now I can redeem about 27k points to get a $400 statement credit. I could use the cash and I *rationally* know that most of my redemptions are at 1.5cpp through the Chase travel portal, so I'm technically getting the same value even if I'm redeeming them for groceries vs a rental car. My only big-ticket travel currently planned is for Japan 2021 and I don't need any more URs for that. On the other hand, I like seeing those six figures of points in my UR account as my little travel slush fund and knowing I can take trips....eventually .... without having to budget money for lodging or transportation.

 

[Judique]

Can I just complain for a minute how terribly incompetent Citi's customer service is? Back in the fall I moved and must have shredded their sock-drawered card in the packing process. Then come Jan 1, my company decided to no longer pay for our cell phones so I had to give up my long time phone number. Now checking my spreadsheet, I see the 1-year mark is coming up and I'm due for an AF. Tried logging in, it keeps saying invalid login and eventually locked me out. Called into customer service and because I don't have the physical card details (I know, I know, I should've kept a record in my spreadsheet of the actual account number), they have to text me a code. But because my number has changed since, the only thing they could do is mail a physical letter to my address on file with a code. Well I don't live there anymore and the letter never got forwarded (I waited the 10 days, they resent, I waited another 10 days, still no letter). Their customer service says there is nothing else they can do, and I'm just stuck with this AF??

Are you still in the same town or general area? Maybe your post office can help if you are? As in activate another forwarding period from your past address? Just clutching at straws for you...

 

[platamama]

My parents filed back in March and are still waiting for their refund. My mom was suspecting maybe it's the electric car tax credit holding it up, but yeah, who knows. She asked me if I think she should call, I said she'll probably have a hard time reaching anyone.

Oh, I have an electric car tax credit too, and I haven't gotten the refund yet. But we filed at the end of June so I just figured it hadn't been enough time yet. Silver lining - IRS is supposed to be paying interest on refunds: 5% until June 30, then 3% starting July. That's better than anywhere else right now. lol

 

[Haley R]

Love the gingerbread house....the lobby is always so crowded wonder how they will handle it

That’s true. I didn’t think about that. They might not be able to do it this year because it would cause crowding. We waited in line last year to buy food from the house

 

[*WDW*Groupie*]

Taking ideas from the games they do at the pools at Disney - bingo, play a song and write where it's from, trivia games, hula hoops,

Great ideas! Thank you!

 

[mmmears]

My parents filed back in March and are still waiting for their refund. My mom was suspecting maybe it's the electric car tax credit holding it up, but yeah, who knows. She asked me if I think she should call, I said she'll probably have a hard time reaching anyone.

We got ours, but it took months and months to see it. And this was an uncomplicated return.

 

[georgina]

Is anyone else struggling to make themselves use the "Pay Yourself Back" feature on their CSR? Right now I can redeem about 27k points to get a $400 statement credit. I could use the cash and I *rationally* know that most of my redemptions are at 1.5cpp through the Chase travel portal, so I'm technically getting the same value even if I'm redeeming them for groceries vs a rental car. My only big-ticket travel currently planned is for Japan 2021 and I don't need any more URs for that. On the other hand, I like seeing those six figures of points in my UR account as my little travel slush fund and knowing I can take trips....eventually .... without having to budget money for lodging or transportation.

Nope. I am thrilled to do it. Of course, I don't have much in the way of upcoming travel plans and I only ever use URs for flights, and we are not first/business class type flyers, so my 400,000+ points are just sitting around.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Is anyone else struggling to make themselves use the "Pay Yourself Back" feature on their CSR? Right now I can redeem about 27k points to get a $400 statement credit. I could use the cash and I *rationally* know that most of my redemptions are at 1.5cpp through the Chase travel portal, so I'm technically getting the same value even if I'm redeeming them for groceries vs a rental car. My only big-ticket travel currently planned is for Japan 2021 and I don't need any more URs for that. On the other hand, I like seeing those six figures of points in my UR account as my little travel slush fund and knowing I can take trips....eventually .... without having to budget money for lodging or transportation.

I have been cashing out everything at the 1.5 since that is my redemption when using the Chase travel portal, we only fly SW and have plenty of RR points.
Then I put the money saved...in your example it would be $400 into my travel account for future use.

 

[GZanta77]

Can I just complain for a minute how terribly incompetent Citi's customer service is? Back in the fall I moved and must have shredded their sock-drawered card in the packing process. Then come Jan 1, my company decided to no longer pay for our cell phones so I had to give up my long time phone number. Now checking my spreadsheet, I see the 1-year mark is coming up and I'm due for an AF. Tried logging in, it keeps saying invalid login and eventually locked me out. Called into customer service and because I don't have the physical card details (I know, I know, I should've kept a record in my spreadsheet of the actual account number), they have to text me a code. But because my number has changed since, the only thing they could do is mail a physical letter to my address on file with a code. Well I don't live there anymore and the letter never got forwarded (I waited the 10 days, they resent, I waited another 10 days, still no letter). Their customer service says there is nothing else they can do, and I'm just stuck with this AF??

I can agree on Citi's mediocre customer service, but not sure how you can get this resolved. To be fair, it seems they have given you a number of options and none of them have worked out, but that is not Citi's fault. Having lost the card and online access, changed your phone number twice and moved address - I'm guessing your situation doesn't fit the template and under the circumstances, I think many banks would have similar challenges giving you access to the account.

Any chance you can get into a branch to prove your identity there? If not, you really need to get hold of a US-based supervisor at CitiCards, it seems the offshore csr's only have a limited amount of things they can do, and anything out of the box needs escalating. Customer service has to help you find a solution, but I have to tell you, I had a recent problem with Citi that I had to make 4 calls before finally finding someone who would escalate my call back to a US based supervisor. Good luck

 

[GZanta77]

Is anyone else struggling to make themselves use the "Pay Yourself Back" feature on their CSR? Right now I can redeem about 27k points to get a $400 statement credit. I could use the cash and I *rationally* know that most of my redemptions are at 1.5cpp through the Chase travel portal, so I'm technically getting the same value even if I'm redeeming them for groceries vs a rental car. My only big-ticket travel currently planned is for Japan 2021 and I don't need any more URs for that. On the other hand, I like seeing those six figures of points in my UR account as my little travel slush fund and knowing I can take trips....eventually .... without having to budget money for lodging or transportation.

Yes, I pretty much feel the same way - those UR's are my ticket to wonderful travel experiences. However, I do like @palhockeymomof2 suggestion of taking the money saved and creating a travel fund with it. I might just do that.