gottalovepluto
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 14, 2014
Hello Business cards! CIP. 80,000 UR, minimum spend 4K, won't count against your 5/24 status (but you can't get the card if you are over 5/24). Then, you refer your spouse 20K UR for you, 80K UR for them (but another 4K spend to meet so space them out). Yep, you'll need a business first, you can search our thread here for many ideas! We have rental owners, ebayers (hi!), etsy people, etc. anyone can have a business, just apply as a sole proprietor and use an SSN as the tax id and then wait. Most everyone has to wait after approval but approvals generally come within a couple weeks of applying. People have business revenue from $200 up I think. Worst that happens is you get denied and take a hard hit, best is 80K UR points and no hit to your 5/24 status. There are also other Chase cards but imho this is the most lucrative. (AF waived first year to boot, 1.25x point redemption and transfer partners will also remain intact!)So, I am not super new to credit cards and points but we’ve kept things pretty simple so far. We have a 4,000 orthodontist bill coming up and we want to do a few trips soon, so it is time for a new card.
I am having new card paralysis, though. Too many options, I just don’t know what to do!
I am typing it all out, mostly for my benefit but if anyone wants to give their opinion, I would love to hear it!
Here is what we had/have:
Disney Visa (1/15 or so)
Was an authorized user on DH’s CSP (rookie mistake)(1/16)
CSP (2/16) closed before annual fee hit, probably should have downgraded to Freedom
Barclay Arrival Plus (3/17) plan to close before one year
Southwest Plus (6/17)
Southwest Premier (6/17) Companion pass until the end of this year!
DH has:
CSP (1/16) He wants to cancel ASAP before we pay the annual fee again
Freedom (5/16 ish, don’t have the exact date tracked but shortly after CSP)
Arrival Plus (4/17)
Southwest Plus (9/17)
Southwest Premier (9/17) If all posts well, he will have companion pass until the end of next year
We have four kids and we use points to get as much as we can for as little as we can. So, cheap decent hotels and cheap flights are our thing. We have flights pretty well covered with the Southwest cards, so we really need hotel rooms to go with them. We also drive a lot and aren’t afraid of a roadtrip, so hotels are really our focus.
Our specific trips coming up are:
Long weekend for the boys in Chicago
A Universal Studio Trip for my Harry Potter freak daughter’s birthday. Definitely two of us will go, would love to make this a family trip if we could figure out how to get an amazing deal on tickets. Like the idea of onsite hotel via UR but would need a lot more of them, we’ve run very low.
Hawaii for me and DH at the end of 2019. Fingers crossed we can get a SW flight there.
We just did a big WDW trip but I am not against another one of those in the near future if we can swing it.
So, we usually do domestic trips that are kid friendly, nothing fancy. DH and I have done an occasional international trip but not often.
I am super familiar with Chase cards, like having Ultimate Rewards and being able to transfer them (especially to Hyatt, we get great value that way).
So, we are both close to dropping down to 4/24. My instinct is to go with a new Chase card. We considered the CSR at the beginning and really regret not getting it then with the high bonus and double dipping on credits. I just don’t know if it is worth it now. Especially since we’re anticipating some large expenses soon (see orthodontist bill above plus oral surgies! Ugh!) and that $450 would hurt a bit right now.
Considering other Chase cards (I could get another CSP after this month, I think? It is 24 months after approval or when they were awarded?) I’m a little bummed by the fact that there are no extra high bonuses right now.
Not being able to transfer UR once we cancel the CSP stinks, so it would be good to replace it with something else that would allow us to do that. We just can’t justify keeping the CSP again this year.
We are also considering the Hyatt card with bonus and statement credit. We would both really love and use those points (rooms are big enough for our big family!) but I don’t know if it is worth eating up a spot before we get another Chase card.
And now the new AMEX Hilton card is on my radar. I don’t know anything about Hilton points or what they are good for. Best for hoteI stays presumably? have always wanted one for those AMEX offers that I always miss out on, though. And 100,000 seems like a lot but I know it isn’t equal to an UR. Definitely need to research this more. Also, there were some murmurings about AMEX cards and Hawaii, would love to hear more about this.
Amex business cards. There are a slew of these and others much more knowledgeable can chime in on which ones are hot right now
As for a great deal on Univ tickets, imho nope. My last couple trips I searched and searched and there just isn't one. Univ Orlando knows they have the best Harry Potter stuff and to really experience it the obscenely price park hoppers are required... Bottom line those tickets are EXPENSIVE. Hopefully you can save up enough money elsewhere to cover the ticket costs for other fam members.