Quote :

"Yeah but you're still only getting 1% back. "

5% on amazon/restaurants

[Edited on March 16, 2015 at 3:26 PM. Reason : and with my spending habits, that adds up to a lot!]

3/16/2015 3:23:33 PM

Quote :

"David, let me know if Staples has any of those promo's in stock B&M, they usually are out by noon the day that promo begins for the $200 VGC's. "

They had a ton assuming I got the correct ones.
The picture looked the same so I think I did but this is my first time buying VGCs
I have to go in person to Walmart to load it onto my Serve, right?

3/16/2015 8:51:17 PM

So I can use my Chase Ink card to buy $1000 worth of VGCs at Staples, and get 5000 UR points which I can sell to Bruce for something around $85?

And then what...load into Serve and transfer the money into my bank with no fees?

[Edited on March 16, 2015 at 9:21 PM. Reason : I must have something wrong here.]

[Edited on March 16, 2015 at 9:21 PM. Reason : ^ how much did you buy?]

3/16/2015 9:20:18 PM

Is he still offering that much for pts?
Don't forget each card costs about $7
I just bought $400

[Edited on March 16, 2015 at 9:23 PM. Reason : ]

3/16/2015 9:22:07 PM

Some of you will do lots of things for very little return. Also doesn't Bruce usually need a minimum point amount to use for a flight or something? You can't sell him just 5000 points.

3/16/2015 9:29:30 PM

Quote :

"Is he still offering that much for pts?"

Got me. I assume so.

Quote :

"Some of you will do lots of things for very little return."

lol so judgy.

Quote :

"You can't sell him just 5000 points."

Correct.

3/16/2015 9:38:28 PM

Yeah, I'm just doing it to meet min spend requirement.

3/16/2015 9:56:42 PM

Yeah I figured that's why u were doing it...was considering something like a $5k buy for $425 profit, but assuming $100 cards it would probably get old having to deal with 50 of them. Maybe I could farm that piece out to someone else

3/16/2015 10:20:26 PM

Yeah, then you'll be like those suckers who got stuck with 5K of reloads?

3/16/2015 10:47:25 PM

[Edited on March 16, 2015 at 10:51 PM. Reason : nm]

3/16/2015 10:51:11 PM

Any snazzy limited credit card offers? Feel like I haven't seen one in a while.

3/17/2015 8:47:50 AM

Quote :

"Yeah I figured that's why u were doing it...was considering something like a $5k buy for $425 profit, but assuming $100 cards it would probably get old having to deal with 50 of them. Maybe I could farm that piece out to someone else"

Not quite that profitable since you're paying $6.95 for every $200 which takes out a good chunk of the return but still not too bad if you have a Staples and Walmart (with a working money center machine - Kate) nearby. Apparently Kate can be bitchy though and doesn't like doing more than $1999 in 10 min.

3/17/2015 8:48:47 AM

Quote :

"They had a ton assuming I got the correct ones. The picture looked the same so I think I did but this is my first time buying VGCs I have to go in person to Walmart to load it onto my Serve, right?"

Never used Serve, but from what I've read you can do $1500 a month and never leave the house. But I did just read serve is going by the wayside. Anyhow, BB is much better and higher limit, 5k per month...For the Staples B&M promo, you'd want the highest VGC, which is $200 to minimize fees. Visa Savings Edge, which ran in 2014 was also nice, gave you 1% back on all staples purchases greater than $200 (Online ordering was gold for that). Could virtually get UR's for $.0048 and a half hour of your time.

Quote :

"Some of you will do lots of things for very little return"

I don't consider the UR to Avios transfer and flying to Chicago/NY/Philly/DC (on 24 hours notice many times) from RDU at a clip of $44 per RT plus a half hour of my time to be little return, to each his own though, perhaps you make $300 an hour in your profession. In that case, $150 (half hour) + 44 would still be a good price = $194, maybe you make more so as to constitute "very little return." If so, are you hiring?

I think Bruce is at $0.0138 per UR, down quite a bit and Chase has updated their T&C for that type of thing

[Edited on March 17, 2015 at 9:13 AM. Reason : .]

3/17/2015 9:09:50 AM

Quote :

"Never used Serve, but from what I've read you can do $1500 a month and never leave the house. But I did just read serve is going by the wayside. Anyhow, BB is much better and higher limit, 5k per month"

Serve is also 5k/mo (2500/day) for in person loads. The $1500 limit is the monthly CC load limit if you signed up with Serve/ISIS ($1k without). Starting April 16th, they're cutting out that option and only allowing loads online with Amex cards which don't earn points for loads.

3/17/2015 9:20:42 AM

^

3/17/2015 9:55:22 AM

Only if you only earn one point per dollar!

3/17/2015 11:23:39 PM

Headed to Aruba tomorrow. 130,000 pts redeemed for about $3,000 flight/hotel.

3/19/2015 5:25:30 PM

2.3 cents a point! Nice! The real question is how much money did it take you to earn those 130k points to get your roi.

3/19/2015 5:29:50 PM

Whatever the fee is for the club carlson card, plus the fee for the southwest card.

3/19/2015 6:10:56 PM

On a new 787 Dreamliner tomorrow to London. Looking forward to it!

3/26/2015 10:13:45 PM

Such a fun trip. After my poker winnings it was essentially a free trip.

3/27/2015 3:34:31 PM

^ can you break down how that worked -- did you book the hotel and flights separately, or were you able to roll the points from SW and Calson together for a package?

3/28/2015 7:28:55 PM

30K points for 1 southwest flight + companion pass
50k points for 1 club carlson night + 1 free night
50K points for 1 club carlson night + 1 free night

3/29/2015 1:13:31 PM

Need to beef up my hotel balances now that the club carlson bonus night is going away
Barclay Wyndham - approved
Chase IHG - approved
Capital One Venture - denied
Barclay US Air - denied
Chase United Explorer Business - denied
Still thinking about applying for the Citi Premier again but slipped my mind when I did all of these apps

4/5/2015 11:28:36 AM

IHG is a good one...that's on my short list too.

Why do you think you got all those denieds? Calling the reconsideration lines?

4/5/2015 11:30:32 AM

It was my 3rd time going for us air so wasn't too surprised
Still churning my Chase Ink Biz, but was hoping to get another one before mid month so I could make use of the serve $1500 load
Capital One pulls on three so that's par for the course

4/5/2015 11:37:17 AM

I can't get the Venture card to save my life

4/5/2015 9:14:45 PM

If I cancel 2 of my 4 Southwest Cards tomorrow (I have 2 personnel and 2 business), what are the odds I'll be approved for them again with 50k point bonuses in 6-8 months from now? I can only assume pretty low...


[Edited on April 6, 2015 at 9:02 PM. Reason : Reason : sounds like you need 24 months between bonuses, per card.gonna see how old my older two are]

4/6/2015 8:49:17 PM

Like you said, you need 24 months to pass...

[Edited on April 6, 2015 at 11:55 PM. Reason : why the hell do you have all four at once???]

4/6/2015 11:55:17 PM

I've had 2 for a while now (hopefully >24 months!)...guess I signed up for them way back for the miles. Then towards the end of 2013 I signed up for the remaining 2 to obtain the companion pass for CY 2014 and 2015.

[Edited on April 7, 2015 at 10:38 AM. Reason : V I'm a lazy man.]

4/7/2015 10:16:21 AM

Yeah, just wasn't sure why you never cancelled the first two.

4/7/2015 10:35:53 AM

Last day of Serve online credit card loads. NC Targets need to get their redcard crap together.

4/15/2015 4:33:18 PM

Agreed!!!

4/15/2015 10:19:36 PM

Also looks like Staples is doing their gift card deal again next week. Buy $300 of Visa OR Mastercard gift cards and get a $20 staples gift card.

4/16/2015 2:32:47 PM

Just realized the Club Carlson Premier doesn't waive FTF... dumb. Wish they weren't doing away with the bonus night but I was running out of cards for my London vacation later this year so this is at least 2 nights for free.

4/16/2015 6:12:19 PM

Should be more if you book before May 31

4/17/2015 12:09:42 AM

oh man I could've sworn I read it was stays before then, not bookings. Not sure I'll have the bonus points by then though.


Nevermind. I'll have 50k from initial bonus at minimum so i can use that for one award plus one night free. And then I can book another night when I get the other bonus... so 3 nights but just in two separate bookings.


[Edited on April 17, 2015 at 9:44 AM. Reason : .]

4/17/2015 9:32:16 AM

Anything good here? http://mobile.nytimes.com/2015/04/26/travel/finding-the-right-credit-card-no-matter-how-much-you-travel.html

4/23/2015 12:06:40 AM

Nothing really new. TPG always pushes those high fee cards like the Prestige and the Platinum and I just don't value the lounge access enough to consider them. I'll consider the plat next time the bonus gets up to 100k probably. I also hate the new trend in cards with the "airline incidental credits". I'm usually flying on points because I have that airline's card at the time so my bags are free anyway and I don't typically spend money on in-flight stuff.

4/23/2015 8:44:38 AM

Quote :

"Nothing really new. "

4/23/2015 7:55:24 PM

https://www.citi.com/credit-cards/credit-card-details/detail.do?ID=citi-att-access-more-credit-card&category=view-all-credit-cards&afc=14Z

Thoughts?

$555 ($650 credit less annual fee) for a new phone without a 2 year contract seems pretty appealing right now and I was planning on getting a new phone this summer anyway. I'll probably wait to see some reviews before I try it though.

[Edited on April 28, 2015 at 11:29 AM. Reason : annual fee]

4/28/2015 11:28:05 AM

Maybe...seems like some hoops to jump through though. If you like Android, there are some nice phones in the $300-$400 range these days, but if you've got your eye on a $650 phone (here or upcoming) then that might be a compelling way to get one for free-ish

4/28/2015 11:42:37 AM

New iphone without a contract is $650+ right?

4/28/2015 11:44:33 AM

Is Award Wallet the way to go for tracking cards/points, or is there something better (or additional) out there?

4/28/2015 11:47:23 AM

I use award wallet.

4/28/2015 11:34:23 PM

Club Carlson bonus received and used for 3 nights in London (2 + 1 bonus). Nice little $1185 return on that bonus/req spend.


Are Serve CC loads dead? I was reading somewhere that if you signed up thru Isis, you still can

5/6/2015 8:42:35 AM

Signed up through ISIS/Softcard and my non-amex card is still there. Haven't tried it yet though but seems that it still works based on reports from others. At least for now anyways.

Also looks like CC loads at target on the Redcard are now dead. Flyertalk is in full panic mode. Kind of a moot point if you're in NC though since it hasn't worked in forever here. Glad I signed up for Redcard under my parents instead of cancelling my Serve/Softcard.

5/6/2015 9:06:16 AM

Had planned to get a red card.
Just called today to reactivate my serve/softcard/isis/whatever

5/7/2015 7:03:19 PM

amex has started sending me offers to upgrade to delta platinum plus 5k points with another 10k if I meet spending limits. Might take it since it offers a free companion every year which is worth the fee. I need to ask if thats valid with a points-redemption ticket, or only a purchased ticket.

5/8/2015 12:30:07 PM

http://thepointsguy.com/2012/05/the-platinum-amex-companion-ticket-benefit-is-it-worth-it/

5/9/2015 1:32:41 PM