I'm pretty sure I got rejected for the CSR. It's under further review. I have a credit monitoring service that shows Experian first and it only showed 4 CC's in the last 2 years so I pulled the trigger on the app. I checked my Equifax report after and it shows a 5th card, which is accurate. I signed up for 3 cards in January 2015. Can I reapply in a few months or did I blacklist myself forever?

deep breaths!
maybe you're fine and you can always try calling in after.

You didn't blacklist yourself forever, lol.

Interesting data point. I went to a walgreens since it was on the way home after picking up my car from getting the airbags replaced from the recall that affects like every car in existence. My card got declined when trying to buy a gift card. I later noticed I got a text from chase asking me to confirm if I attempted the purchase.

I needed to speak to a CSR about a purchase on another card regarding not getting bonus points and brought this up to them (fibbed a story about it being a gift) and asked why something like that would happen. I said I was planning on getting a bunch of giftcards for people for the holidays so I didn't want to run into any problems. The rep basically said they auto deny any purchases at drug stores for abnormal amounts.

We couldn't make it yesterday, but just now got back from the branch near us. Instantly approved! The banker was this guy I have a little rapport with from previous interactions. He's fully aware of the points game and all the forums. We'll be hitting the travel credit with a car rental for Hawaii as soon as the card comes.

I hit my Q4 bonus with Chase Freedom at a CVS a couple days ago with $1500 in VGC. It declined as a fraud alert. I got the text from Chase, authorized it and then it went though. The same thing happened when I bought VGC at Sam's Club for the Q3 bonus.

Not that it really matters for you now, but bonus for Q4 still includes warehouse clubs

i dont understand how going in branch changes things. are they not digging deeper into your credit report or what?

my wife and I have signed up for everything under the sun in the last three years but the last 7 ~ 10 months have slowed down quite a lot because we weren't getting approved or good preapprovals.

I think we should both be going in branch though because damn, that CSR is a nice bonus. advice? do i/she walk in and start asking about credit cards?

She has recently cancelled three Chase cards(CSP, United Ex, and Hyatt), within the last three to four months. She still has Amazon and Freedom with Chase and a checking account that gets direct deposited into every two weeks but then transferred elsewhere for a better rate. I have cancelled a CSP within the last three months but own two SW cards(on personal and one business), Hyatt, UEx, and Freedom. Just wanted to give a backbone about our Chase history.

I guess i should also ask, do we each qualify for CSR bonus having closed CSP accounts within last ~4 months?

you can qualify regardless of CSP activity.

You go to the branch because they can see your in-branch preapproved offers which can get you around 5/24. They don't dive deeper or anything - they seem to be special offers to help earn the banker commissions which have less restrictions.

Apologies for being lazy, but there's a lot of advice and information in this thread, and it moves at a pretty good clip. So...

Not including my mortgage, I'm spending like 2500/mo, which does include a car payment, in case that's relevant. I like to pay literally everything with CC's, so which of the many strategies which have been covered would be good for me, just to make some extra cash. And how much can be "gamed," like a few hundred a month? I have good credit. Thanks.

yes, easily a few hundred a month. keep signing up for new cards and knocking out signup bonuses. Chase Sapphire Reserve card is probably a good place to start

The most profitable thing would be to sign up for new cards with large spending bonuses, as p2 dog said. There are quite a few cards with 50k point signup bonuses that can be pretty valuable. You can focus on hotel points, airline points, general travel rewards, or straight cash back. It just depends on your goals.

You can also try to maximize category rewards. For example, if the majority of your spend is at grocery stores, get an Amex Blue Cash Preferred. If you spend a lot on gas, get a Freedom and IT (5% rotation categories) as well as a Blue Preferred, or some other card that gets 3% cashback on gas. If all of your spend is at walmart or other places that can't get bonuses, get a 2% cashback card like the Arrival+ or Citi Double Cash Back.

Guess I thought there was more money available. If the effort of getting new cards all the time and such is only chasing 5% or 3% cash back, i'm thinking it may not really be worth it for an old like myself. Not really interested in chasing $70/month, and having to change any habits to get there. I thought it was more in the hundreds per month.

I mean it depends on how you actually spend and how much work you want to do. There are plenty of people manufacturing 100k+/mo of spend as a full or part time job.

Easy low hanging fruit for you is to buy 4k in paypal cash cards each month with a card that gets 5% in drugstores, then do all your normal spending on the paypal debit card, which pulls directly from your balance.

These AMEX offers are sick. What is the next best card to get after BCP and BCE? Wife and I each have BCE and are each other's AU, and i have BCP and she is my AU, for 6 cards total. What's another good free AMEX to go after that gets the AMEX offers?

Old Blue Cash
HHonors basic
Everyday basic (not bce)

Can you still sign up for old blue cash card?

Edit, looks like these would be my options: https://www.americanexpress.com/us/c...ards-GlobalNav

- BCE (have)
- Hilton HHonors
- Amex Everyday
- Blue Sky
- Blue
- Plenti

so long as those are all eligible for the AMEX Offers

I guess the Hilton one is ideal since its the only one that appears to have a worthwhile signup bonus

When you're clearing bonuses it'll be in the hundreds per month. CSR alone is worth a minimum of $1150 if you get it before yeas end if you just took straight up cash for the points - a good amount more than that if you use it for travel.

Long term without bonuses, yeah you're looking at 3-5% a month without MS as JL said.

sign up bonuses can be anywhere from 25-50 pct cash and in some cases even more depending on how much you value airline miles for example.

i love amex. had a 100 of 300 offer on dell.com on three of my amex cards.

just bought a 70 inch samsung tv that was 1300 dollars.
i split in on 3 amex cards which makes it 1000 dollars. it also came with a 250 dollar dell gift card and 5 pct dell rewards totaling 315. i'll buy an xbox one bundle on dell and ebay it to recoup that money.

and ebates is giving 12 pct cashback on dell and i get that on the full 1300 dollar purchase price.

lmao.

I LITERALLY just did this exact deal yesterday.

Samsung 70 Inch 4K Ultra HD Smart TV UN70KU6300F UHD TV

The ebates hit for the full list price as well.... wonder if that will stay :O [$336 on $2800 list]

And I split on 3 AMEX cards. Then today I saw I had 25 off 100 verizon on all 6 of my cards. That's what motivated me to make the post saying i love amex offers

Yeah, I promised my wife I wouldn't buy anymore TVs to flip - broke that promise today when I read about ebates posting on the list price of the TVs...

Still have 4 more cards w/ the Dell offer.
Used 14 cards for the bespoke post offer - Now I will have go to gifts for people and myself throughout the year.
Used 14 cards for the ebags offer - now have 2 pairs of Bose QC 35s to flip
used 10 cards for the newegg offer - resold on computer forums for $10 profit each

Not sure any of this stuff is worht it from the time perspective but I sure love chasing the deals...

yup same tv. if the ebates 336 cashback holds it will make it 550ish total for me with tax after all is said and done

I still have another 3 AMEX to use as well. Trying to find some good monitor deals but not seeing anything I'm really liking so far. I love the thrill of the chase w.r.t. the deals as well. It's fun

Damn, may have to do that. Been in the market for a tv for a while. Bought a samnsung back in like 2010 using a 1k onecall.com gift card through pokerstars lol.

Does dell have it set up easily to split the bill on 3 cards?

yes it's very easy.

and lol i bought a 52 inch tv in 2008 for 2000 dollars with a onecall.com gift card.
and back then it was considered cheap.

my plan is to mount that 52 above this new 70 for when i want to watch 2 games at once.