I sold to Chase UR points to flighthunter Bruce before and everything went well.

If you live in an area where southwest makes sense for you then that's a great deal (Baltimore, Vegas, Chicago). Sounds like you're in Houston, which is a pretty decent spot for Southwest, but obviously has a large United presence as well.

There are a lot of high spending perks on different cards, but the companion pass is pretty much the best thing out there. I guess my only advice would be to put your spending on your southwest card until you get your companion pass, and then stop spending on it. Based on your spending, you'll qualify for the CP in 11 months, in your 12th month I'd sign up for a different card or cards that has large signup bonuses and use your spend to unlock those.

The other thing to consider is if the companion pass and the flights you get are worth $2k to you. If not, you could be spending on a 2% cashback card and be doing better.

Here are a few things to read:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-spending.html
http://millionmilesecrets.com/2012/07/02/big-spenders/
http://thepointsguy.com/2013/04/vide...spending-100k/

CHASE Supports National Small Business Week

https://www.chase.com/online/busines...k-card-sbw.htm

60k points for their ink business card, up from the usual 50k. Gotta spend $5k on it in the first 3 months. I took a shot and applied. Followed a guide online for filling out their business applications. My "business" is buying and selling used books on Amazon/eBay. Put I had this business for 6 years with a revenue on average of $200 per year. Got approved for a credit line of $12,000. This is my 2nd Chase card (Freedom - $5k limit) and my first business card. Total limit across all cards now just shy of $70k.

How long between applying and approval for you? I applied 48 hours ago and it is still pending via the automated line. I will call a real person later today and try and get this thing approved. Going for 5th Chase card, so I can certainly move around lines if I have to. I'm hearing double pulls are being reported, so I better get this.

I applied late I Monday night and Wednesday morning it switched from pending to approved. And yes they pulled trans and exp

The INK Bold and Plus are great cards. If you don't want to wait any longer call their business reconsideration line, say you just wanted to make sure they have whatever information they need to approve you. Have relevant info about your business ready, be consistent, offer to move credit if you have to.

Sucks that you're getting double pulled.

1-800-453-9719

Thanks for this. I got my Ink Bold a month ago and am about $3k into the minimum spend and was able to ask and received a retroactive bonus 10k points to get the 60k.

Great thread. I didn't realize reward points were so valuable. I'm being offered 1.45/point from Bruce for Chase UR? Is that an OK clip or should I wait?

Applied on 6/18. Finally approved today, via the automated line.

How soon before your card shows up when you log on to chase? Or do you have to set up a new username for the business?

You need to set up a new username for the business account. You can call in the future to have your two accounts merged if you want. Just know that they will take the newer account name (the business account) and you will lose some preferences in the process, like you will have to signup for QuickPay again on that account, etc.

Cool thread, just catching up and will probably have more questions later.

When a credit card company raises your credit limit out of nowhere (you didn't ask) would the credit pull they presumably did before hand always be a soft hit or can they do a hard hit without your consent?

cant do hard without your consent. if you got a credit line increase out of nowhere then they gave it to you via a soft pull. though i would root for it being a hard pull because if they did hard pull without your consent i'm fairly certain you could sue them

Weird. I had a fraudulent account attempted to be opened in my name so I put the alert on, cancelled a few accounts and only kept my main CC which I increased the limit on and my credit rating jumped from 770's to 801.

well, closed accounts stay on your credit report for up to 10 years so closing cards wont decrease your current score and will still count towards your average account age until they are removed. A single credit line increase bumping a rating from 770s to 801 is pretty sick though, unless its been a while sense you checked your score and a) your average account age has increased a lot and/or B) hard inquiries have fallen off your report

On credit karma I have a D for accounts open with 9 accounts and an A for everything else (780 score). How the hell am I supposed to get 20+ accounts?

Awesome informative thread!

I have a question about my credit. When I go to creditkarma or creditsesame my score is between 780 and 795.

However I recently applied for a Target credit card and only received a $1000 limit whereas my wife whose score is between 735 and 765 got a $2500 limit for the same card.

This is not the first time that I have had trouble with getting credit from a retailer. I was rejected for a Macy's card a couple years ago. I have nothing negative on my credit that I am aware of other than 7 years ago I missed an $18 minimum payment on my credit card because I went on vacation and forgot. This should be off my credit by now.

All of the score cards on creditkarma are either A or B except for "number of accounts" I have a D because I only have 6 accounts.

Is there something I am missing, any ideas?

If you get the southwest premier card you get 50k points if you spend $2,000 within the first 3 months, also if you get the southwest plus card you get 50k points if you spend $2,000 within the first 3 months. These points can be combined, thus netting you 100k points + 4k points in the $4,000 you spent; netting you 104k points - now you only need another 6k points to receive the companion pass. You can combine the points from the two cards, it has been confirmed in another forum I post on.

I'm not sure that you need 20+ accounts. An important factor for "accounts open" is also the credit mix, ie having different types of credit extended to you (car loan, mortgage, school loan, credit cards). Another important part of it is that accounts don't have to be "open" anymore to "count". A closed and paid loan still counts here. Regardless, don't sweat it, that segment has little impact on your score.

Is your income lower than your wife's? Are you applying using your "total household income"? Are you sure that the missed payment is off your credit report? Check it.

Getting the premier and plus card is a little more difficult than getting one personal and one business card. But the poster already has the SW card, so this strategy wouldn't work for him anyway. It sounds like he has a good plan laid out and makes good use of his companion pass, so my best advice remains: stick with it.

My wife does not work. I recently switched jobs (6 months ago) but make over 100k per year. Yes I put 100k as total household income.

The missed payment occurred June 2007 so I am not sure if it is off my report. I am unable to pull up my free credit report since I last got it at the beginning of the year.

You're entitled to one report from each of the reporting agencies per year. Experian, transunion, equifax.

I know. I drew all 3 reports the beginning of this year.

If I buy food at Target, will that apply to the grocery category? Does the item or the store determine the category?

Ahh that sucks that he already applied for the card. Southwest is also offering a 50k bonus with the business cards as well and you can combine those points with the personal cards. Additioanlly, if you cant get approved for 2 chase southwest cards you can try and apply for a chase Air Tran card, which gives you 32 A+ rewards after spending 2k in 3 months.

32 A+ rewards can be converted into southwest reward points, at a rate of approximately 33k points, and those too can be used towards companion status.

no it wont

the store does

Supermarkets like kroger/publix/albertsons/safeway/aldi/wholefoods etc count for grocery rewards.

If the store sells jeans it doesn't count.