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

[rideswithchrist]

Hi! I a new here and thinking of getting the Disney Chase card to take advantage of the $200 bonus going on right now. I only have a Care Credit card with a 0 balance.

The goal is to use this card toward gas, bills and groceries until our trip in May 2021 and have some earned Disney Points to put toward our Campsite at the Fort
Is it worth it? Are there things it does not work well for?

 

[mmmears]

Looking at using AA miles, on 4 30K saver fares, the taxes and fees to get there were a little over $900, and the taxes and fees coming home were a little over $600. Looking at United's 30k saver fares for 4 of us, to get there would be about $22 in taxes and fees and about $550 to fly back home.

You could take UA there and AA back I guess? Or just fly United. I struggle to use my AA miles, so I always check but then end up using something else. Why are the fees so high on the return with United? The past few trips to Europe we've actually used non-US airlines like AF, BA, and KLM for some reason. I think they were just the best deals we could find.

 

[happ]

Hi! I a new here and thinking of getting the Disney Chase card to take advantage of the $200 bonus going on right now. I only have a Care Credit card with a 0 balance.

The goal is to use this card toward gas, bills and groceries until our trip in May 2021 and have some earned Disney Points to put toward our Campsite at the Fort
Is it worth it? Are there things it does not work well for?

I'm sure others will chime in, but there are much better bonuses on other cards. Do you happen to do anything that could be classified as a business? If so, you may be able to get the Chase Ink Preferred which has a bonus worth $800.

 

[amalone1013]

Sooooo if I buy a GC off Raise would I be able to use it with shoprunner free shipping at Harry and David? Or is it a "GC" which is like a promo code that won't combine?

 

[rideswithchrist]

I'm sure others will chime in, but there are much better bonuses on other cards. Do you happen to do anything that could be classified as a business? If so, you may be able to get the Chase Ink Preferred which has a bonus worth $800.

My husband is an independent contractor/ self employed but aside from utilities, and a $450 per year Adobe account, we don't really have much in the way of business expenses. That also may change when he becomes W2 this year anyway.

 

[rideswithchrist]

I'm sure others will chime in, but there are much better bonuses on other cards. Do you happen to do anything that could be classified as a business? If so, you may be able to get the Chase Ink Preferred which has a bonus worth $800.

Also, as I have no clue how all this bonus stuff works, how is the bonus "worth" $800? I have no need of points since we will be driving/towing our camper. No need for airline miles etc.

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Hi! I a new here and thinking of getting the Disney Chase card to take advantage of the $200 bonus going on right now. I only have a Care Credit card with a 0 balance.

The goal is to use this card toward gas, bills and groceries until our trip in May 2021 and have some earned Disney Points to put toward our Campsite at the Fort
Is it worth it? Are there things it does not work well for?

there are other Chase cards that offer better sign up bonus depending on how much you spend in the first 3 months....if you answer the questions on the first page we should be able to help you out more

 

[palhockeymomof2]

Also, as I have no clue how all this bonus stuff works, how is the bonus "worth" $800? I have no need of points since we will be driving/towing our camper. No need for airline miles etc.

the bonus on the Chase Ink Preferred is 80k points after you spend $5k in the first 3 months, those 80k points can be cashed out for $800.

 

[wendow]

Also, as I have no clue how all this bonus stuff works, how is the bonus "worth" $800? I have no need of points since we will be driving/towing our camper. No need for airline miles etc.

Hi and Welcome!! The card that @happ mentioned is a Chase business card that earns Chase Ultimate Rewards. These can be cashed out at 1cent per point. So the bonus on that card is 80k UR's and you can cash that out for $800 cash. Pretty sweet deal! You would need to have a business to apply for the card but chase's rules of what is a "business" is actually very, very relaxed. My dd19 has the card (which she got at 18yo) based on her babysitting "business". I have the card based on selling here and there on ebay. I see you are also a homeschool mom (same!) and my guess is maybe you sell curriculum occasionally on ebay or other homeschool swap sites...? That would, according to Chase, be considered a business.

The Chase Ink Preferred is an excellent choice for your needs. However, there is a 5k spend requirement in the first 3 mos. The Disney Visa has a very low bonus comparatively, but so is the spend requirement. The Ink Preferred also doesn't count against your 5/24. If you hope you get more cards and earn more points, this is pretty important to keep in mind!

 

[wendow]

Yes. It's fine. I find it's usually more expensive than Costco but sometimes with amex offers it makes sense to order from them (e.g., I bought two big bottles of vanilla from them last year and with the amex offer it was cheaper than buying at costco).

This is my experience too. If you can use a coupon and an Amex offer, the prices aren't so bad. Otherwise, I find them more expensive than Sam's or Costco.

 

[stitchfan18]

I'm waiting on Hilton Points to post from my Aspire MSR. I see them on my last statement, but they haven't showed up in my Hilton Honors account yet. I saw some posts on DoC mentioning that AMEX was reviewing some accounts to check for qualifying purchases, so I went back and looked at my own purchases. I redeemed the the $30 back on $300 at Best Buy offer from a couple months back on DGC and also bought a DGC from the Disney Store when there was a high cash back day on RMN. Other than that everything else was normal spend. So does AMEX see those 2 charges and know they are GC's because of the even numbers, or should my points post soon since they are showing on my statement? We're working on 2 SW MSR's right now, so add a large amount of spend to that card if it's not necessary.

 

[disfanforlife]

I went ahead and booked a lunch at Biergarten. I got the 5:30 pm concert time which would work best so we can drive home after

Great, I hope that it works out so you can go!

 

[wendow]

So sad to read that this little lady passed away. We hadn't seen her on our last few times to the Poly but I always was on the lookout for her
https://www.wdwinfo.com/news-storie...orld-cast-member-auntie-kaui-has-passed-away/

 

[disfanforlife]

So sad to read that this little lady passed away. We hadn't seen her on our last few times to the Poly but I always was on the lookout for her
https://www.wdwinfo.com/news-storie...orld-cast-member-auntie-kaui-has-passed-away/

OH! That is sad. I remember her too.

 

[WVMomof3]

So now that I've come out of lurkdom, I need advice, lol. We are going to China in October, but will only be in Shanghai for 36 hours. For those that have been, how much a priority is Disneyland? We are Disney lovers, but my DH also loves (even more) big cities and Asia, so he wants to do all the major sites as well. Would you suggest carving out time for Disneyland? If so, can the highlights (Pirates, Manor, Tron, am I missing something?) be done in half day? Or would you skip altogether?

Also, we are in the *early* stages of planning a possible Japan and Australia combined trip, a week or so at each. For those that have been, what card/airline did you use to get from US to Japan? I'm thinking the CIP for P1 & P2 will give us enough points for flights (by transferring to United?). IHG Premiere would give us enough points for hotels in Sydney. I'm left wondering what to do about Japan... I see there's a Hyatt. Is the WoH card any good? It would probably give me 4-5 nights with the sign up bonus, and then I'd have to figure out something for the rest. I'm also at a complete loss as how to get from Japan to Australia or vice versa. As I said, this is very early stages... we're planning to go in 2023 for our 15th year anniversary, so I have a few years to work on the cards we need in 2P mode. I'm currently past 5/24 and won't get down to 3/24 until April. P2 is past 5/24 until next month, when he should go down to 4/24, but had recent problems getting approved for a Chase card because of too much credit. They had to lower some to make room for the new card, so I'm thinking this should be first step... lowering all credit lines on Chase cards. Does that generally work and not throw any flags up with them? I saw previous posts that you could do this through your secure messages. So many questions, lol. I will definitely post on Reddit once we're ready to apply with strategy and to pay it forward with a referral! I'm just trying to get general ideas I guess right now.

Our travel party is just DH and I. Here's some other pertinent stats (currently have all personal cards, no biz) -
P1:
01/18 Chase United Mileage Plus Explorer
01/18 AU on P2's CSP
03/18 TD Cash
07/18 Citi Aadvantage Plat Select
12/18 Amex Hilton Honors
04/19 Barclays Aadvantage Aviator Red

P2:
01/18 AU on P2's Chase United Mileage Plus Explorer
01/18 CSP
05/18 Citi Aadvantage Plat Select
09/18 Chase United Mileage Plus Explorer
03/19 Barclays Aadvantage Aviator Red
08/19 Chase IHG Premier

We put about 2K spend on cc's each month, and pay the balance in full every month. Our home airport is CLT (Charlotte) / GSP (Greenville). Southwest does service both.
We currently combined have 130,000 AA points, along with 150,000 IHG points, and 140,000 Hilton points. We plan to wipe out the majority of these for a Europe trip in 2021.
I have 2,300 Marriott Bonvoy points that are about to expire. Anything to do with that small amounts? Can I transfer to someone? We no longer have Marriott cards.

TIA for you all!

It looks like you both go under 5/24 next month. I would definitely lower your credit with Chase NOW in preparation. It is very easy to SM. I ask please lower my credit on card x1234 from $10,000 to $2000. I try to be very specific. Had you not put each other as AU then you both would have been under already! Let that be a lesson. Though you can add each other on biz cards without a problem. Now is this what you want to do for Japan flights? I have zero idea. I know @Haley R, @ten6mom and @DisneyMandC all just bought flights to Japan recently and I have only half paid attention. So hopefully they can help you.

 

[Haley R]

I was looking at booking flights again to London and it seems like booking through Virgin is gonna be a nightmare. I'm just not having a lot of luck piecing together flights there and back. I can find flights there, but the problem is finding one back. However, I can see lots of options on the Chase portal so we could use URs. My question is if it's operated by VA, but says Delta or KLM does that mean it's a Virgin plane? Will our bags go based off VA restrictions or the other airlines? I've never booked this way before where it's operated by another company, but the flights directly through VA cost more URs than Delta or KLM

 

[Haley R]

@Crazed4DisneyinSC We flew to Japan last year with ANA. We transfered Chase points to Virgin and booked through Virgin for an ANA flight in business class. It's kind of a confusing process, but the redemption rate is fantastic. Let me know if this is something you're interested in

 

[Breck]

I'm waiting on Hilton Points to post from my Aspire MSR. I see them on my last statement, but they haven't showed up in my Hilton Honors account yet. I saw some posts on DoC mentioning that AMEX was reviewing some accounts to check for qualifying purchases, so I went back and looked at my own purchases. I redeemed the the $30 back on $300 at Best Buy offer from a couple months back on DGC and also bought a DGC from the Disney Store when there was a high cash back day on RMN. Other than that everything else was normal spend. So does AMEX see those 2 charges and know they are GC's because of the even numbers, or should my points post soon since they are showing on my statement? We're working on 2 SW MSR's right now, so add a large amount of spend to that card if it's not necessary.

Mine haven't posted yet either, but I did get an email for the free weekend night certificate

 

[stitchfan18]

Mine haven't posted yet either, but I did get an email for the free weekend night certificate

I got my free night cert last week as well! When did you finish spend for bonus points? My Hilton biz points posted a few days after I finished MSR even though it was the middle of a statement. It's probably been a month since I finished MSR on the Aspire.

 

[Crazed4DisneyinSC]

It looks like you both go under 5/24 next month. I would definitely lower your credit with Chase NOW in preparation. It is very easy to SM. I ask please lower my credit on card x1234 from $10,000 to $2000. I try to be very specific. Had you not put each other as AU then you both would have been under already! Let that be a lesson. Though you can add each other on biz cards without a problem. Now is this what you want to do for Japan flights? I have zero idea. I know @Haley R, @ten6mom and @DisneyMandC all just bought flights to Japan recently and I have only half paid attention. So hopefully they can help you.

Hey thanks for responding! Yes, adding each other as AU was definitely a hard lesson learned, lol. I think it was a case of "oh we NEED these extra 10,000 points to book a flight" kind of deal, but definitely haven't done it since and don't plan to do it again. Can't wait til those fall off next month, haha. I think I'll go ahead and SM on all of our Chase cards over the weekend to prepare now.

@Crazed4DisneyinSC We flew to Japan last year with ANA. We transfered Chase points to Virgin and booked through Virgin for an ANA flight in business class. It's kind of a confusing process, but the redemption rate is fantastic. Let me know if this is something you're interested in

Hi, yes this is kind of what we're hoping to do! I saw that one of Chase's partners to transfer UR to is United so I looked at their rewards chart and it was around 70,000 RT to Japan, but does ANA give better reward redemption rates? Is the transfer 1:1? I'd be willing to check it out. I literally have never heard of ANA airline, but I did see them as a transfer option, I just didn't pay attention cuz I had no idea who they were, lol. I'm guessing they are a Japanese airline..?