I use a spreadsheet myself. Once upon a time I used Quicken, but I prefer the spreadsheet. It's a little clunky, but I feel like having to be hands-on with it keeps me more tuned in.

You should get another premium Chase card while you're still under 5/24, preferably one that allows you to transfer URs that you're earning on your CFU. CSR or CSP are the best options, depending on your tolerance of annual fees and how useful the associated perks would be.

Cool, will look into those.

Chase checking bonus clearly states "not available to existing Chase customers."

any chance i bink a bonus if I closed an account a couple years ago ?

I was able to get the checking and savings bonus already having a Freedom card.

Check drofcredit. Afaik chase checking savings bonuses require a year between. Seems like you'd be fine.

I opened a Chase checking account and got the bonus earlier this year. This is the 3rd time I've received the bonus. As JL said, it's a year in between.

I really need to get around to closing my chase accts... I always kept them open because chase had the best cards and I wanted the relationship advantage but now that there's 5/24 I need to shut these down and churn a yearly bonus.

Yeah, they usually have a $300 checking and $200 savings that are very easy to meet reqs for. I think the checking is simply 1 DD, while the savings is move $15k over for 3 months or something. I typically only do the checking, as the 15k req usually doesn't work out to a good rate.

Also, if there's not currently a public offer, you can buy a code on ebay for a few $, or PM me and I can grab one, as I get them in the mail quite a bit and just throw them away (if there's a public offer, or sell them for like .99 on ebay).

public offer, plan on binking the $500

15k sitting for 3 months for $200 seems reasonable to me

didn't do it


could use a bit of clarification. I want to take advantage of a balance transfer with $0 fee. The lady told me the quickest way would be used one of the "attached checks." I am supposed to write it out to myself and deposit it to my checking account. Now, evidently, and obviously, this check can be written for any amount up to my current credit limit, in this case, $9k. So, I can write this out for $9k, deposit it, and have all this free cash for a year? wtf did I just discover?

Yes, just make sure you do not charge anything else on that card until the balance is paid off in full.

Since you are not paying your balance in full , interest will be charged on any other use, unless the deal specifies that they will keep balances separate

Are you sure that there is absolutely no balance transfer fee? There are a handful of cards that allow this, but they usually don't give you large credit lines. People used to take advantage of these all of the time and would put the money in high interest savings accounts, but the rates have been so low and the $0 transfers went away for the high limit cards.

Chase Slate is one such card that comes to mind that has a true $0 Balance Transfer fee.

Keep in mind that if you do take advantage of this, your credit score will take a negative hit, as your utilization will go up. For example, if you transfer all $9k of the limit on this card, and only have $20k credit available, you'll be sitting at nearly 50% for a year, which will hurt. If you have over $100k in credit available (as many churners do), and get a large credit line, or don't plan on getting any cards soon, it won't hurt you as much. This (and making sure you pay the card off on time) are the only negatives I can think of with BTs.
Keep in mind.

IME cards will offer a $0 transfer fee but charge interest from the beginning or charge a transfer fee with a period of zero interest, usually not both. I had an existing USAA card that offered both recently though, I hit that for all it was worth since I don't use the card for anything else.

customer rep confirmed $0 fee and 0% apr for one year as it states on the hard piece of mail I received.

thanks for the insights. Not sure which route I will go but I am leaning toward the BT option. my wife and I have a ton of combined credit (296k for me according to creditsesame) across a lot of cards so utilization will spike but it won't be that high at all. in the foreseeable future, i shouldn't need a prime credit score anyway.

Over the years I have done several $0 fee and 0% balance transfers, right now I am getting such an offer from the Total rewards Visa.

the catch is that after the first month carrying the balance, any other charges accrue interest for the transaction date, which is why I mentioned earlier to make sure card is not used

Maybe I missed it, but what's so good about transferring a balance like is being talked about if not to pay it off?

What's the current best signup offer? I've already done CSR back at the beginning of the year, but other than that just have a bunch of basic of basic entry level cash back cards (Discover IT, Amex Everyday, Chase Freedom), and then a couple of random store cards that I probably shouldn't have signed up for since if they all show up, they would have put me over 5/24, which I didn't know about at the time.

Interest free cash for a year, or sometimes longer.

I write a check to myself, then buy a dividend paying stock with the money.

I did the CSR for 100k points at the beginning of the year, and was just wondering the same this as you. I'm not sure I'm going to keep the CSR past February (when the next fee hits), since I don't really have the opportunity to fully take advantage of the perks, so I was considering downgrading to CSP. But, I was surprised to learn that I was allowed to open up a new CSP while simultaneously having a CSR, to cash in on the 50k point CSP signup bonus.

You should check your credit reports and see if those store cards show up or not. It makes a big deal when you're considering your next card (s). If you still are below 5/24, the CIP (business card) has an 80k UR bonus, while the CSP has a 50k UR bonus. When combining these with the CSR, you end up with quite good value towards travel. They're still great if you want to convert to cash, as $500 for a signup bonus is hard to beat.

It depends what your goal for new cards is. Is it cash? Is it specific travel, like to Hawaii? Are you just trying to rack up some rewards for future travel whenever you decide you want to go somewhere? Some of the best signup bonuses are going to have really great value, or possibly very little value to you depending on this.

Barclays Arrival+ has a 50k ($500) signup bonus that's good for travel. I churn the Arrival+ every year to year and a half. I just got the WF World Propel for 40k ($400 cash) + $100 in travel credits, as I have plenty of airline miles, and hotel points for the near future.

newb question about amex rewards points-it seems like points post after the billing cycle ends. I've been immediately paying things off as soon as I charge them, will I still get the points or do I have to wait until the bill is posted and then pay to get the points?

Amex points are 1 cycle delayed. You can pay off all early and you will still get the points.

Paying off each individual charge as it posts seems a bit obsessive, though, unless I misread what you wrote.

you didn't

it's not every time i use it but i log on probably once every week or two more just when im bored playing cards

thanks for the info

Anyone have any thoughts on the Amex "high-yield? savings account?

I just got an email that says they'll give me 1.05% on savings, with no fees, and I don't even have to actually move money around -- I can just link an existing savings account. It says I can only make 6 withdrawals a month, which appears to be the only downside.

I'm considering setting this up for the account into which I'm just holding cash for a down payment, and wondering if anyone's done this or has a similar but better thing set up for holding say $50k-$200k?