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

[disfanforlife]

This works. I did it when DH got an upgrade offer to the Plat. You would apply for the new card first, after approval quickly take the upgrade offer before it goes away. If you have a P2, use a support link for the new card.

The new card would take up an Amex credit card slot (don't count charge cards in this) and a 5/24 slot. The upgraded card would not. For the new card, you may need to unlock your credit reports, though Amex often doesn't do hard pulls on existing customers. If you've gotten other Amex cards recently, that would give you a good idea.

Ok! Thanks. The upgrade said its good until 7/31. Is the regular public offer of 35000 pretty standard? I haven’t watched it to know. I haven’t gotten a new Amex card in many years and I am currently at 2/24.

 

[platamama]

This is really great news about redeeming URs at 1.5x at grocery stores. With proper stacking on my various card accounts and MSing, I can see getting a total of 15% back on the $1500 grocery category on CSR. I shared my plan over on Dischurners MS thread, but realize it won't work for everyone.

 

[snugglebug]

Finished my numbers for the day.

I'm $104 short of maxing the 5x grocery on CSR, will move on to Freedom after that. I went to Whole Foods and purchased a few items (shelves are still not quite fully stocked) and a $500 Amazon GC last week. Tossed a $400 Lowe's GC into the cart with my last HEB order (finished the Amex Offer already, still need ceiling fan and carpet for the stairs), plus a few other grocery trips. CSR codes 5x currently at my Walmart and Target as well, I wonder if Freedom is coding those as grocery too?

I was prepared to cash out 42900 URs to cover Shades of Green, that will now only be 32800 if my math is correct. I'm really, really happy about this new cashout. Hmm, I was thinking of adding a day to our November trip. I could book onsite direct and then cashout to cover.
Edit: Totally missed the cash-out for certain categories, which is fine, I'll "shift spend" and cash out for grocery to cover my hotel stays.

I've been buying Costco GCs online with Discover, I've got another $325 to go to max that out this quarter.

I'm really loving the grocery bonuses right now, I kind of hope they extend them. If I happen to max Freedom, then I will probably choose one of our Surps over IHG. From my notes Surp grocery bonus is until end of July.

 

[wendow]

I’m sorry.

I personally ended UR for Disney by starting with Chase, killed AA by starting on the train. I got 2 SW companion passes this year and bought my family WDW APs to coincide with the SW passes.... blame me for the virus. This was strike 3, hopefully I’m done ruining things for y’all.

Lol no, don't worry, it was me. I was just about to book an onsite WDW trip for 6 people when Chase ended. I booked my ill-fated flights to Japan for this year and then the AA shutdowns started happening. And then I tried to take my first ever international trip, instead of just going to Disney again, and a global pandemic occurred.

We can definitely all blame me.

Uh, those are my stats lol First time APers here and have only used them once so far, 2 CPs as well. Still sitting on my measly AA hoping to eventually book something with them and now I just cash out UR to cover my non-DVC stays.

Oh, I thought it was my first ever CP that did it.

I'm not letting y'all steal my thunder! Pretty sure I can take credit for this. My dd got into the DCP after trying 3x. We bought our whole family AP's for the first time ever so we could go down there and enjoy CM discounted rooms and seeing her get to live the dream down there. We got our first SW CP ever. And we made lots and lots of plans...Dh & I even had a trip planned for just the two of us trying two new dvc resorts. Sorry y'all!

However, I do not take credit for the UR & Disney breakup nor the grAAvy train ending. Someone else can claim that lol!

 

[DisneyMandC]

I'd have to send money from my bank account to pay the $1,500 credit card bill, so its pretty much the same thing as cashing out for me. Interesting . . .

I think it depends on how you usually redeem your UR's or what your future plans are. We often get about 1.5x value since we tend to book lots of hotels and car rentals on the portal. I think if you're often transferring to partners for outsized value (think Hyatt), then you wouldn't want to cash in at 1.5x. It really depends on your situation. Personally, we have too many UR points anyway I think + DH is possibly looking at a furlough. Its a nice option to have right now.

basically. but @ a redemption rate of 1.5x...

Yeah, I'm basically planning to cash out 100k URs to pay the bill and get $1500 in Disney GCs. I'm sitting on 330k URs right now with another 50k getting ready to post. Plus, I know I want to do another family trip next year, so the GCs will be a great way to use them while maxing UR-redemption value.

I guess I need to do a $300 grocery test purchase and see if it immediately credits as the $300 travel credit normally would. If it does, then I'll just add that to the stack lol.

 

[becauseimnew]

Finished my numbers for the day.

I'm $104 short of maxing the 5x grocery on CSR, will move on to Freedom after that. I went to Whole Foods and purchased a few items (shelves are still not quite fully stocked) and a $500 Amazon GC last week. Tossed a $400 Lowe's GC into the cart with my last HEB order (finished the Amex Offer already, still need ceiling fan and carpet for the stairs), plus a few other grocery trips. CSR codes 5x currently at my Walmart and Target as well, I wonder if Freedom is coding those as grocery too?

I was prepared to cash out 42900 URs to cover Shades of Green, that will now only be 32800 if my math is correct. I'm really, really happy about this new cashout. Hmm, I was thinking of adding a day to our November trip. I could book onsite direct and then cashout to cover.
Edit: Totally missed the cash-out for certain categories, which is fine, I'll "shift spend" and cash out for grocery to cover my hotel stays.

I've been buying Costco GCs online with Discover, I've got another $325 to go to max that out this quarter.

I'm really loving the grocery bonuses right now, I kind of hope they extend them. If I happen to max Freedom, then I will probably choose one of our Surps over IHG. From my notes Surp grocery bonus is until end of July.

Could you just buy VGC at the grocery store to pay for the Shades/Disney reservation and cash out those transactions?

 

[amcc]

My department was all laid off or furloughed today except me. Totally unexpected the breadth of it. I'm just hoping kids come back to the University in some fashion in the fall and things can start looking like they will turn up. I'm thankful for my job but so sad that my work family is gone.

 

[wanderlust7]

Ok! Thanks. The upgrade said its good until 7/31. Is the regular public offer of 35000 pretty standard? I haven’t watched it to know. I haven’t gotten a new Amex card in many years and I am currently at 2/24.

I think the standard is 15k. I don't know if 35k is the highest ever, but it seems pretty high for a $95 AF card. The EDP gets 3x on groceries up to $6000, so if you really maximize it, having 2 of them might actually come in handy. There's also a 50% bonus if you do 30+ transactions a month. As with all Amex cards, you'll want to keep spending after MSR to avoid the dreaded pop-up. Shouldn't be too hard with the grocery category.

You'll want to unlock your credit reports since you don't know if they'll do the hard pull or not. Hopefully it's an instant approval (which is often the case) and you can immediately grab the upgrade offer.

Do you have a P2 with Amex cards? Non-cobranded cards can support to any other card. The support offer may not be as good, so you'll have to check.

 

[wendow]

Yeah, I'm basically planning to cash out 100k URs to pay the bill and get $1500 in Disney GCs. I'm sitting on 330k URs right now with another 50k getting ready to post. Plus, I know I want to do another family trip next year, so the GCs will be a great way to use them while maxing UR-redemption value.

I guess I need to do a $300 grocery test purchase and see if it immediately credits as the $300 travel credit normally would. If it does, then I'll just add that to the stack lol.

I'm liking the idea of buying Disney GC's at the grocery store as well.

We're also remodeling our master bath and could use the home improvement store cash out. I'm spending the money already and have been cashing out UR's at 1x to help cover the cost of the bathroom so this is a win-win for us.

 

[DisneyMandC]

I'm liking the idea of buying Disney GC's at the grocery store as well.

We're also remodeling our master bath and could use the home improvement store cash out. I'm spending the money already and have been cashing out UR's at 1x to help cover the cost of the bathroom so this is a win-win for us.

I still have like $1700 in Lowe's 10% Amex Offers to use... We have a couple things we can buy to redo a section of our garden, but honestly I'm just going to have to do GCs and VGCs with most of them.

 

[snugglebug]

Could you just buy VGC at the grocery store to pay for the Shades/Disney reservation and cash out those transactions?

Could, but I'll pay for it with CSR (earning 3x). I've used up almost all of CSR 5x grocery on actual grocery, Amazon and Lowes (those would code 1x on anything else I have). Within Chase, I will cash out the UR toward grocery, but in my spreadsheet I will attribute it toward this hotel stay. I try to only use GC/VGC toward things that would normally code as 1x.

 

[Babars_Wife]

I'm not letting y'all steal my thunder! Pretty sure I can take credit for this.

But if this isn’t my churning fault, we all have to keep waiting for my third strike. I don’t think we want to test how crazy my bad luck can get.

 

[wisconsinmom]

And ugh--going to have to call SW because my return flight is 1/3 and they are saying my companion pass expires but it's been extended.

Any update? Were they able to fix the issue? I'm having the same problem.

 

[havaneselover]

My department was all laid off or furloughed today except me. Totally unexpected the breadth of it. I'm just hoping kids come back to the University in some fashion in the fall and things can start looking like they will turn up. I'm thankful for my job but so sad that my work family is gone.

Oh my gosh. I'm sorry. That's awful I do think this is going to be a major disruptor for higher ed. We have a lot of higher ed clients and I'm nervous. And state and local government clients.

 

[CyndiLouWho]

What about buying Disney gift cards at grocery and offsetting it with statement credit. Kind of like using UR for Disney, right?

Now if I didn't already have $1500 in Disney GCs for the trip I'm supposed to be on right now, that would be brilliant.

 

[wendow]

I still have like $1700 in Lowe's 10% Amex Offers to use... We have a couple things we can buy to redo a section of our garden, but honestly I'm just going to have to do GCs and VGCs with most of them.

I still have about $500 Amex lowes to use. We haven't been buying our bathroom stuff from them so it has all been for Disney & Amazon GC's. I definitely want to make sure I get in for the last $500.

 

[Oscar Madison]

I'm not letting y'all steal my thunder! Pretty sure I can take credit for this. My dd got into the DCP after trying 3x. We bought our whole family AP's for the first time ever so we could go down there and enjoy CM discounted rooms and seeing her get to live the dream down there. We got our first SW CP ever. And we made lots and lots of plans...Dh & I even had a trip planned for just the two of us trying two new dvc resorts. Sorry y'all!

However, I do not take credit for the UR & Disney breakup nor the grAAvy train ending. Someone else can claim that lol!

Yes, you win (lost). You convinced me. Seriously feeling so bad for you guys.

 

[wendow]

But if this isn’t my churning fault, we all have to keep waiting for my third strike. I don’t think we want to test how crazy my bad luck can get.

Had you recently applied for a CIP? Began to drink from that cup??

 

[wendow]

Yes, you win (lost). You convinced me. Seriously feeling so bad for you guys.

I still hate it so much for my dd but others have lost far more and she knows that. At least she can try again whenever Disney opens the program back up!

 

[CyndiLouWho]

CSR codes 5x currently at my Walmart and Target as well, I wonder if Freedom is coding those as grocery too?

Not in my experience but I've had trouble with CF coding this quarter. I had 4 InstaCart/Aldi purchases so far. 2 had 5% credit, 2 had 1%. Walmart had 1%.
I did SM Chase about the Instacart/Aldi issue. The response I got was that those coded "Men's Clothing". What? 2 purchases of 4 were correct, 2 were not? From the same app/same store, when Chase's own T&C list both Instacart and Aldi as qualifying grocery stores?