justme
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Post by justme on Oct 27, 2022 18:08:58 GMT -5
So I never got into churning credit cards for rewards. I have a lot of em but was always meh on getting a new card just for points (have to redeem them, ugh) especially if it has a fee after the first year.
But for whatever reason lately I've noticed a lot of brokerage places offering free money. Like I got a schwab debit account to have a backup for my trip to Europe (reimburse all atm fees 0% foreign trx) and noticed they had an open an account and deposit $50 and we'll give you $120 free in stock slices. Jumped on that.
Now I happened across a deal with fidelity. I already have a lot of accounts with them, but they'll give me $100 if I open a new account and put in $50.
Sitting here wondering if I'm going to have a bazillion small $ accounts doing this and if that'll get annoying. I guess eventually I could consolidate.
So anyone here do this? BTW the fidelity offer includes youth accounts.
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jerseygirl
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Post by jerseygirl on Oct 27, 2022 18:42:55 GMT -5
Used to collect bonus points especially for frequent flyer and hotel accounts But my travel is way down . Also I put a hold/lock on my credit reports. So I’ve seen 2 good bonus offers but was turned down then realized the hold stopped the process
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 27, 2022 19:10:03 GMT -5
I've frozen my credit as well and I like to keep my finances simple. I have 3 brokerage accounts (one is just for the 529s) but two credit cards, a Fidelity Visa and a Costco Visa. Both are straight cash back and I prefer that to airline and hotel points, which can be devalued at any moment (and have been) and even discounts on travel purchased through the credit card company's portal since I'm never sure whether the sticker prices are competitive.
I did get the Costco card after the credit freeze- I think they notified me and I had to jump through some hoops to temporarily unlock it but then it was approved. Still, it puts a damper on my enthusiasm for applying for new cards. Will do that only if I have some reason to drop one of the ones I have.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Oct 27, 2022 20:37:55 GMT -5
If I can get over $300-$400 I might sign up. For $50-$100 I probably won't bother.
I can easily sign hubby up too, so double the bonuses. Sometimes I refer each other and we get extra referral $$$ lol.
I used to worry about it affecting my credit score, but my score is like 837 out of 850, so what's it really gonna matter, anyway?
I think MPL signed up for that Fidelity bonus a while back. She's an expert at signup bonuses.
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Oct 27, 2022 21:50:48 GMT -5
I did get the Fidelity bonus. I don't really do a lot of account sign on bonuses though because they usually require you jump through a lot of hoops, like set up direct deposit and keep a certain balance for a while. I have been tempted by the Chase one for $600 but I don't have 15K to park there for 3 months without cashing in I bonds and that seems pointless since I'm probably making more on the money in there right now. I do still churn the credit cards quite a bit for sign on bonuses though. I tend to time them to vacations and when I have big bills and then burn the points right away. The last three years of road trips had zero costs for hotels and I still have several nights banked. After booking the cruise for next year I got the card to get the $250 on board credit. I have a LOT of cards, but most I just get the bonus and never use them again. One year I got over 3K in credit card bonuses.
I do need to figure out what to do with these Chase cards next year though before the fees kick in again.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 28, 2022 7:25:22 GMT -5
I did get the Fidelity bonus. I don't really do a lot of account sign on bonuses though because they usually require you jump through a lot of hoops, like set up direct deposit and keep a certain balance for a while. I have been tempted by the Chase one for $600 but I don't have 15K to park there for 3 months without cashing in I bonds and that seems pointless since I'm probably making more on the money in there right now. I think B of A has something similar- open a brokerage account, keep a certain amount on deposit for X months, spend $Y in the first Z months... and the bonus is in many pieces including a travel credit, credit for TSA Pre-check, etc. Way too many moving parts. I just checked their site- I think it's the Preferred Rewards card- but they want you to call. As it is I'll probably start getting banner ads from them. So many of these cards, even if they waive the fee for the first year, reward you with their generic "points" that have a lower cash value than the 2% cash back I get from Fidelity and the 3% on travel/4% on gas I get at Costco. The exception is if you use them to purchase travel through the credit card company portal and, as I said, I don't know if there are good deals there or not.
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Oct 28, 2022 8:05:45 GMT -5
I did get the Fidelity bonus. I don't really do a lot of account sign on bonuses though because they usually require you jump through a lot of hoops, like set up direct deposit and keep a certain balance for a while. I have been tempted by the Chase one for $600 but I don't have 15K to park there for 3 months without cashing in I bonds and that seems pointless since I'm probably making more on the money in there right now. I think B of A has something similar- open a brokerage account, keep a certain amount on deposit for X months, spend $Y in the first Z months... and the bonus is in many pieces including a travel credit, credit for TSA Pre-check, etc. Way too many moving parts. I just checked their site- I think it's the Preferred Rewards card- but they want you to call. As it is I'll probably start getting banner ads from them. So many of these cards, even if they waive the fee for the first year, reward you with their generic "points" that have a lower cash value than the 2% cash back I get from Fidelity and the 3% on travel/4% on gas I get at Costco. The exception is if you use them to purchase travel through the credit card company portal and, as I said, I don't know if there are good deals there or not. I don't use the cards for ongoing points. Just the sign on bonus. Last year I got the Chase Sapphire and the Choice Privileges card and got something like 11 nights hotel stays out of the deal. I had to charge 4K on the Chase and 1K on the CP to get the bonus. Those 11 nights "cost" me about $150, when you factor in what I would have gotten in rewards on the 2% card charging 5K and the annual fee on the Chase Card minus the $50 travel credit you get. This year for vacation I opened the Marriott card and got 7 nights. I can take the kids on fun 11 day road trips like this for under 2K if the hotels are "free". The Royal Caribbean card I had to charge $1000 so lost $20 not using my normal cash back card, but got $250 onboard credit. I'll probably never use it again. For day to day I use Sam's Club for gas (5%) and eating out (3%) and Fidelity for everything else (2%). I also have a 5% back Target card for purchases there. I had an account with JCPenny for years, but since they closed the one in town hadn't used it for a long time and they closed it. A few weeks ago I went to one in the next town and they offered me 35% off my order to open again. Uh. Yep. Sign me up!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 28, 2022 8:44:55 GMT -5
I guess it's too much of a pain now for me to unlock and lock my credit. One of the credit bureaus (and I think it was Experian, which had the giant data breach) wanted me to SNAIL MAIL them copies of my birth certificate and driver's license, even though I'd kept meticulous records of passwords and PINs. Until they simplify that process I'm not bothering with new cc applications.
A bit OT but last year I went to the bank with Garden Club officers since I was the new Treasurer and needed to be added to the account. Lots of paperwork, needed a copy of my driver's license, my SSN, etc. After I got home they called me. They tried to run my credit but it was locked. Busted! He claimed they weren't snooping around my finances- just wanted to verify that I was who I said I was. So they didn't trust the driver's license? Fortunately it was one of the bureaus I could lock and unlock easily but I was still annoyed that they tried that without telling me beforehand.
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justme
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Post by justme on Oct 28, 2022 11:59:54 GMT -5
I did get the Fidelity bonus. I don't really do a lot of account sign on bonuses though because they usually require you jump through a lot of hoops, like set up direct deposit and keep a certain balance for a while. I have been tempted by the Chase one for $600 but I don't have 15K to park there for 3 months without cashing in I bonds and that seems pointless since I'm probably making more on the money in there right now. I do still churn the credit cards quite a bit for sign on bonuses though. I tend to time them to vacations and when I have big bills and then burn the points right away. The last three years of road trips had zero costs for hotels and I still have several nights banked. After booking the cruise for next year I got the card to get the $250 on board credit. I have a LOT of cards, but most I just get the bonus and never use them again. One year I got over 3K in credit card bonuses.
I do need to figure out what to do with these Chase cards next year though before the fees kick in again.
The schwab and fidelity were just one time deposit requirements. I'm with you on not dealing with the ones that need a direct deposit. For the cc that have an annual fee - do you just use all the points before you cancel it or what? I have one card with an annual fee, but I'm keeping it due to perks (travel insurance and priority pass) that is worth the fee.
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Oct 28, 2022 12:26:10 GMT -5
For the cc that have an annual fee - do you just use all the points before you cancel it or what? I have one card with an annual fee, but I'm keeping it due to perks (travel insurance and priority pass) that is worth the fee. I usually do use all the points pretty soon after because getting the card normally just falls in my trip planning. Going somewhere in June? Open a card in Jan/Feb when all my big insurance bills are due so I can meet the spend with just a few purchases then use the rewards for the trip. But, the points don't go anywhere if you cancel the card. The only one that is a little tricky is Chase. The Chase are Ultimate Rewards which are linked to the card, not the hotel chain or airline, so you have to have an UR card to use them, but even if it's a no annual fee one you can still use the points (although you won't get the bump on reward point value for travel without a Sapphire or Reserve open). Most people park them in the Chase Freedom if canceling the Reserve or Sapphire.
The other cards like Marriott and Choice Privileges and all the airline miles cards, you don't need to still have the card to use them.
Right now I have two Chase cards with annual fees. Sapphire that I go in 2021 (third time!) and Marriott that I got in 22 (second time). I'm probably going to cancel the Marriott and keep the Sapphire. The Marriott comes with a voucher for free night with the $95 renewal so it's kind of a wash, but I don't think I'll use it next year. The Sapphire is also $95 but has a $50 travel credit bringing it to $45 and has good trip insurance. I'm also thinking of putting my cruise on the card with the Chase Plan which is 18 months no interest no fees if I do it by December 31st and I assume if I cancel the card that deal is off the table. I'd like to get the Chase Reserve again, but I think they now have the $450 fee due right off the bat. Last time it was waived for a year and I got something like $1000 in cash for opening it.
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finnime
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Post by finnime on Oct 28, 2022 12:45:00 GMT -5
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Oct 28, 2022 12:57:58 GMT -5
I keep my Chase Sapphire for the travel insurance. I normally use that one to book my hotels, usually Hiltons, then when I'm getting ready to check out I have them switch cards and bill to my Hilton card. So I have the insurance, but then I still get my 12x Hilton points. When we went to Hawaii I got enough points to stay 2 weeks in Florida. I had the Chase Marriott card for a while, but canceled because I could only find 1 hotel I would actually use the free night at. I think I still have the 1 free night from 2020 cause they extended the deadline til 12/31 due to Covid. I probably won't get down to Florida to use it by then
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Oct 28, 2022 13:05:14 GMT -5
I keep my Chase Sapphire for the travel insurance. I normally use that one to book my hotels, usually Hiltons, then when I'm getting ready to check out I have them switch cards and bill to my Hilton card. So I have the insurance, but then I still get my 12x Hilton points. When we went to Hawaii I got enough points to stay 2 weeks in Florida. I had the Chase Marriott card for a while, but canceled because I could only find 1 hotel I would actually use the free night at. I think I still have the 1 free night from 2020 cause they extended the deadline til 12/31 due to Covid. I probably won't get down to Florida to use it by then [img src="https://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff155/JiminiChristmas/ymamsmiles/sad.png" class="smile" src="//storage.proboards.com/forum/images/smiley/sad.png" alt=" "] We have Fairfield Inns everywhere which is what I normally use the Marriott points for. Sometimes we go somewhere for a day trip and decide to spend the night instead of driving home the same day.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Oct 28, 2022 14:30:34 GMT -5
We stay at Marriott condos when we go to Hilton Head, but they usually take a lot of points and in the past I've been able to book them at a big discount. Don't want to use my points when I can stay in a 2 bdrm oceanfront condo for a great price.
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azucena
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Post by azucena on Oct 28, 2022 18:52:47 GMT -5
We stay at Marriott condos when we go to Hilton Head, but they usually take a lot of points and in the past I've been able to book them at a big discount. Don't want to use my points when I can stay in a 2 bdrm oceanfront condo for a great price. How do you get a discount for Hilton head?
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Oct 28, 2022 21:28:12 GMT -5
We stay at Marriott condos when we go to Hilton Head, but they usually take a lot of points and in the past I've been able to book them at a big discount. Don't want to use my points when I can stay in a 2 bdrm oceanfront condo for a great price. How do you get a discount for Hilton head? To start, we always go down in January or February, so not as much demand for rooms. I know that won't work for most people, especially those with kids. We're retired, so can go anytime we want. Usually by then I can't stand another day of the cold and we head south. I usually find the best deals by checking various websites a month or so prior to when I plan to go. I've also gotten some great discounts by going to their timeshare presentations lol.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 29, 2022 11:37:43 GMT -5
Another thought on some of the travel loyalty cards I used to carry: the perks aren't worth that much if you have status already. I'm lifetime Gold with American, Hilton and Marriott and am currently Diamond with Hilton because I stayed in a lot of them on road trips during the pandemic. This is from decades of business and personal travel and watching the programs carefully for special bonus offers. OK, you made me look. A Hilton card with no annual fee gives me 7 points per dollar (plus Silver status, which I don't need) and an 80,000-point sign-on bonus. Hmmm... I don't like Amex because they gouge small businesses but even if I used it only at Hilton it would be worth it. I hope I don't have any trouble unlocking my credit! Update: I had to go back to Experian and un-freeze my credit. Ridiculously easy. Called Amex, had some hold time, reps accent was a bit hard to understand but she was very nice and knew her stuff. After putting me on Hold a couple of times (informing me it would be 1-2 minutes, which it was), I am approved. The limit will be $37,500. She was positively gushy in her congratulations. Ooh, think of all the points I'd get if I spent all that!
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justme
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Post by justme on Oct 30, 2022 0:01:01 GMT -5
Another thought on some of the travel loyalty cards I used to carry: the perks aren't worth that much if you have status already. I'm lifetime Gold with American, Hilton and Marriott and am currently Diamond with Hilton because I stayed in a lot of them on road trips during the pandemic. This is from decades of business and personal travel and watching the programs carefully for special bonus offers. OK, you made me look. A Hilton card with no annual fee gives me 7 points per dollar (plus Silver status, which I don't need) and an 80,000-point sign-on bonus. Hmmm... I don't like Amex because they gouge small businesses but even if I used it only at Hilton it would be worth it. I hope I don't have any trouble unlocking my credit! Update: I had to go back to Experian and un-freeze my credit. Ridiculously easy. Called Amex, had some hold time, reps accent was a bit hard to understand but she was very nice and knew her stuff. After putting me on Hold a couple of times (informing me it would be 1-2 minutes, which it was), I am approved. The limit will be $37,500. She was positively gushy in her congratulations. Ooh, think of all the points I'd get if I spent all that! Brag about it why don't ya! 😉 The closest I get to status right now is through my cruise status. Middle of the road mgm and second highest Hyatt is all I got. The lifetime status is hard for us youngins unless you travel a lot for work.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2022 7:43:48 GMT -5
The lifetime status is hard for us youngins unless you travel a lot for work. And they keep changing the rules and making it harder. I hung out a lot on FlyerTalk, which really helped. American Airlines awarded Lifetime Gold if you accumulated 1 million miles back then- at first it didn't matter how you got them, whether flying, credit card spending, shopping through their on-line portal, etc. Then they announced about 6 months ahead of time that all the miles you had now counted but in 6 months they'd add only actual flight miles. Many of us were close to 1 million and we were making donations to the Susan G. Komen foundation (10 miles per $$), etc. I made it and now they're back to counting every "loyalty point" again. Airlines and hotels make a ton of $$ selling their points to banks and other entities. Starbucks is no awarding Delta miles! No idea how I got Gold with the hotels- there must be some magic threshold of X lifetime nights stayed that I didn't know about. I did travel a lot for work. Business Class from KC to Bangalore to Zurich and home will get you a lot of miles! And I just realized that an AA credit card would get me enough loyalty points to take me to Platinum. Nope- not gonna play. I fly Business Class on long hauls anyway where I get plenty of perks and it's not worth much extra on the short trips- maybe an upgrade to Business Class but half the time it's on an AM flight where taking advantage of the free booze would be a Bad Idea.
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jerseygirl
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Post by jerseygirl on Oct 30, 2022 7:57:47 GMT -5
Yep ff miles really increased a lot to get flights on United. I did travel a lot for work internationally. I’m a million miler on united and platinum with Marriot Personal travel down a lot and stopped working so mostly just mikes for CC. Looked last week at business for Hawaii and miles needed are greatly increased. I’ve been to Hawaii about dozen times in business. It’s a fairly long trip (11 hrs) so might need to pay the also significantly increased price in January- ugh
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2022 8:25:21 GMT -5
Yep ff miles really increased a lot to get flights on United. I did travel a lot for work internationally. I’m a million miler on united and platinum with Marriot. Personal travel down a lot and stopped working so mostly just mikes for CC. Looked last week at business for Hawaii and miles needed are greatly increased. I’ve been to Hawaii about dozen times in business. It’s a fairly long trip (11 hrs) so might need to pay the also significantly increased price in January- ugh I'd like to visit Australia and NZ but it's out of the question. Last time I looked (pre-COVID) it was $8,000 RT in Business. I'm not flying there in Coach. My brother had a conference there and he took my SIL. He also flew a lot on AA and it took 400,000 miles to get her there and back in Business. No way. Plenty of other good places to visit where the airfares aren't pure extortion. I flew to Hawaii in Business Class in 2019. Airfare wasn't too awful but it helps that I travel solo. Add up the flight costs for a married couple on some of these trips and it exceeds my annual salary in my first job out of college. It did occur to me that if I have an upcoming trip on AA where Platinum would be an advantage, I could get the card then, but my next flight is likely to be another Des Moines-Chicago round trip with my ganddaughters.
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CCL
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Post by CCL on Oct 30, 2022 11:28:39 GMT -5
Yep ff miles really increased a lot to get flights on United. I did travel a lot for work internationally. I’m a million miler on united and platinum with Marriot. Personal travel down a lot and stopped working so mostly just mikes for CC. Looked last week at business for Hawaii and miles needed are greatly increased. I’ve been to Hawaii about dozen times in business. It’s a fairly long trip (11 hrs) so might need to pay the also significantly increased price in January- ugh I'd like to visit Australia and NZ but it's out of the question. Last time I looked (pre-COVID) it was $8,000 RT in Business. I'm not flying there in Coach. My brother had a conference there and he took my SIL. He also flew a lot on AA and it took 400,000 miles to get her there and back in Business. No way. Plenty of other good places to visit where the airfares aren't pure extortion. I flew to Hawaii in Business Class in 2019. Airfare wasn't too awful but it helps that I travel solo. Add up the flight costs for a married couple on some of these trips and it exceeds my annual salary in my first job out of college. It did occur to me that if I have an upcoming trip on AA where Platinum would be an advantage, I could get the card then, but my next flight is likely to be another Des Moines-Chicago round trip with my ganddaughters. If you want to go, I think you should. That's a lot of money, but if you have it, why not? No need to use points. You can just pay for it. You never know when it will be too late.
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Opti
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Post by Opti on Oct 30, 2022 11:34:39 GMT -5
I'd like to visit Australia and NZ but it's out of the question. Last time I looked (pre-COVID) it was $8,000 RT in Business. I'm not flying there in Coach. My brother had a conference there and he took my SIL. He also flew a lot on AA and it took 400,000 miles to get her there and back in Business. No way. Plenty of other good places to visit where the airfares aren't pure extortion. I flew to Hawaii in Business Class in 2019. Airfare wasn't too awful but it helps that I travel solo. Add up the flight costs for a married couple on some of these trips and it exceeds my annual salary in my first job out of college. It did occur to me that if I have an upcoming trip on AA where Platinum would be an advantage, I could get the card then, but my next flight is likely to be another Des Moines-Chicago round trip with my ganddaughters. If you want to go, I think you should. That's a lot of money, but if you have it, why not? No need to use points. You can just pay for it. You never know when it will be too late. I agree. If you have the money and want to go, I'd go. I would love to see both and who knows what the political climate will bring in the future. Gas could get more expensive, or NZ could shut out the world again.
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Post by minnesotapaintlady on Oct 30, 2022 11:38:59 GMT -5
Coach is $1800 to 2K out of MPLS. For 6K savings I would do that. Heck, you can buy the whole row of seats and still be 2K cheaper than business class.
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Knee Deep in Water Chloe
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Post by Knee Deep in Water Chloe on Oct 30, 2022 12:01:55 GMT -5
I don't open new cards, but I do try to maximize the cash back rewards. I should get about $1500 total in cash back for 2022.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 30, 2022 14:50:02 GMT -5
If you want to go, I think you should. That's a lot of money, but if you have it, why not? No need to use points. You can just pay for it. You never know when it will be too late. I have the money. I know that. Spending it wouldn't jeopardize my retirement or force me to rely on Medicaid for LTC. My reasoning is that there are plenty of places in Europe, Central and South America I'd be happy to visit instead- and maybe even India again. I love India. At some level, and $8K is pushing it, airfare is extortion and I can choose to spend my money elsewhere.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Oct 30, 2022 20:09:13 GMT -5
I have the Marriott card. I try to get enough points to pay for football weekends on points. I got 3/5 this year. We skipped one game bc it was a Thursday. I only have lifetime silver on Marriott. It was 250 nights stayed and 5 years at silver or higher.
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finnime
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Post by finnime on Oct 31, 2022 4:44:23 GMT -5
I got the Fidelity deal when it first came out.
For rewards, I'm a piker compared with many of you. I do accrue the rewards from Discover and my Verizon visa and use them, the second to apply to my cell phone bill. I get about $50 to $75/month back on that.
In the bad old days I traveled a lot for work and used the resulting AmEx and Marriott points for many things including travel, vacations and related activities. It's been 15 years since I was able to do that. Not enough travel any more.
I recently got a Southwest airline Chase card and with it received 75000 miles plus some additional bonus miles. We'll use the points to fly to Albuqurque next year and visit friends we haven't seen in years. I like Southwest for domestic leisure travel anyway, so this works.
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Post by Deleted on Oct 31, 2022 7:23:21 GMT -5
I just did a calculation of what Hilton points would have been worth if I'd used them for my upcoming booking for 2 nights in Des Moines. It's about half a cent per point! Not too great. I do better if I choose my reward stays carefully- I think I got a better redemption value the nights I stayed n London to and from E. Europe.
So... if I charge the stay on the Hilton card I'll lose 3% cash back from the Costco Visa (about $10) but get about 2,600 Hilton points from the Amex card (over and above points for the actual stay) worth $13. Not a bad trade-off but no way to get rich! The 80,000-point sign-on bonus is what really makes it worthwhile.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Oct 31, 2022 7:28:19 GMT -5
I try to only use my Marriott points for football weekends where they want $800-1000 prepaid and non-refundable of course. When it's $100ish, I just pay with the Marriott card.
I'll probably have DH get the Southwest card soon. I already have 2 Chase cards, Freedom and Marriott. Unfortunately Chase issues 99% of the ones I would ever consider.
Last time I did self check out at Sam's Club the lady helping was giving a hard sell on their credit card. I was buying alcohol so I needed help. Travel is one of our biggest bills so I would rather rack up Marriott or Southwest points. I have the plus membership anyway so I'm getting cash back already.
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