Interesting. How do I go about getting rid of them?

I have nearly 2 million points with Capital One but am wary of continuing to accrue the large majority of my reward points with the one company as theoretically they could change the rules of how their reward program works at any time. Probably not a real concern, but who knows @#$^% happens??

As such I would like to find out if there is another credit card that offers a similar reward program to Capital One which I could begin using as my primary credit card.

I have several other reward cards--Chase Marriott, Barclay Arrival, Chase Rewards, Citi AAdvantage, & Southwest--but what I really like about the Capital One program is that I can redeem my reward points for ANY travel-related expenses (flights, hotels, rental cars, restaurants, etc) that I incur while traveling by simply call them when I get my bill and instructing them to pay off these charges with my points.

What I do NOT want is another card (regardless of how good the bonus sign-up offer is) which restricts me to using reward points for specific airlines, hotel chains, etc..

The only other reward cards I have which I also like are the Fidelity 2% cashback card and Chase Amazon, but for illogical reasons I prefer to accrue travel reward points versus receiving cash back or credits on Amazon.

Advice & suggestions appreciated!

I thought Barclays Arrival Plus was like that, only you don't even have to call them. It's 2.2% effective cashback redeeming travel and they even include stuff like monthly subway passes in travel category.

Us bank altitude allows for real-time redemption against charges as you make them also

What do you mean by the last one in regards to medical? My wife has three collection agencies come after her for the same bill within the last two years. All hitting her report with delinquent account while active with them.

We've never seen anything from the hospital they are claiming the bill is from anywhere close to the amount (9k) hospital doesn't have record of it either.

What we've done is dispute the report and send certified letter asking for proof of debt. She's won the dispute each time. But within 3-6 months after the letter is sent another collection agency has the bill and is hitting her report with it.

The last company we sent the letter to sent her back a pay off offer for 1.5k of the 9k. That's the last we've heard from them (about 6 months ago) and it's currently not on the report.

Is there anything we can do about this to get it to stop coming back up? No one can provide any valid proof of the debt yet her credit score is taking big hits twice a year because of it. It cost us a chance at a home loan with a good interest rate earlier this year when the most recent company to hold it just happened to hit her report with it the day before the bank ran the credit

For utilities, the process is to get the original company to accept payment. Once you do that, the collection agency no longer legally owns the debt. YMMV if it's been resold to a junk debt buyer, they do not GAF and you may have to go so far as to file suit, but if it's only been sold once or twice, a couple of letters might do the job. Here's a thread on a credit forum with some guidance on how to word it - https://creditboards.com/forums/inde...owtopic=538754

Getting rid of medical collections hinges on HIPAA. Essentially, medical data on a credit report constitutes a violation of privacy. This process is more hairy, and there are a lot more steps and letters to send. If the debt is valid and in the statute of limitations, you will likely need to pay in full (NOT to the collector, but to the doctor, hospital, ambulance company, etc.) But if you want it bad enough and follow the process to the letter, you can get those medical collections off your reports. The process is detailed on this website (I know, it looks like a geocities website circa 1996, but the actual info is good - https://whychat.me/hipltr.html ) Additionally, the creator of this program (WhyChat) will answer questions and correspond with you, so long as you follow the instructions and provide ample detail. https://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showforum=39

Hawk, in your specific situation, if the original bill doesn't even exist and you have written proof, I think you might be able to send a FOAD (f off and die) letter with that proof any time it comes up. Threatening legal action might be an option that would stop that debt from being continually resold, though perhaps not. I would post about your situation in the medical forum on creditboards and see what they think. https://creditboards.com/forums/index.php?showforum=39 You might even be able to nail them on some FCRA violations and win some money from it if you really want to stick it to them.

The last one we sent a cease and desist letter after they sent us the pay off offer in response to the proof request. I think we may just start sending that first if it continues to come up.

Appreciate the advice. I'll follow up with the credit boards in the future if it comes back around again.

Will look into this, thanks.

Used up my first work expense card bonus, a CSP. Looking to move on, and I wouldn't mind trying to get this Southwest companion pass if possible but wait until next year so I get it for a good portion of next year and the year after. I've only ever had 2 chase cards so I could get another now and then do the two Southwest ones in January without going over 5/24?

Wondering what would be the best card to fill that gap until early next year, and if the Southwest companion thing is a realistic possibility.

See above, where I'm in a similar situation and went with United MileagePlus, 60K bonus when I signed up through the existing United account portal.

I suppose I'll go with SW after this since those points are valuable outside of the SW system? (Not that interested in flying SW most of the time.)

The 60k bonuses according to r/churning are going away beginning of oct, so if I were you I'd get the two southwest cards at the very end of September and don't complete the 2k min spends until late dec/early Jan that way the points hit in Jan and you have the companion pass for 2018/2019.

If you don't wanna fly southwest I wouldn't get the southwest cards. Southwest points can only be used on southwest. If you want flexible points you will want a card that will give you UR (ultimate reward) points.

Wow, good call. I'll see if I can make this happen. Would be huge!

According to potentially out of date information on this Reddit infographic: http://i.imgur.com/6wgaCVx.png, you can redeem SW for Amazon. Thought I saw that elsewhere too and it was touted as a reason for going for the SW, although I may be mixing it up with something else.

Edit: more up to date Reddit flowchart still mentions the conversion to Amazon points: https://i.imgur.com/2CEZuS5.png

Interesting, I had never seen that before. Personally am going for the companion pass as well but I fly southwest a fair bit so I'll prob just use them for southwest flights.

sw portal offers gift cards (amazon is there) at 5k points/$50 gift cards, right in line with the industry standard

Assumedly a better rate using them towards flights?

yes, will definitely get more than .01/point when booking flights

Usually ~0.015 ime

Although I would highly recommend using SW points for flights, getting 1cent per point still equates to some pretty big bonuses. 60k pts, minus the ~$100 AF, turns into a $500 signup bonus for $3k spend. (Don't quote me on these, going off old memory as I'm at lol/24, so don't even look at Chase cards any more).

I've never redeemed SW points for less than 1.5 cents per point, and have gotten as high as 3 cents per point. The majority of the time I find that I get roughly 2 cents per point, so if you're near a SW hub and flying to a SW destination, that signup bonus could be ~$1000 in flights. And the best part is that you can do one of the other SW cards to double it up (assuming you're under 5/24).

My SO will probably end up keeping her CSR and paying the AF, simply so we can continue transferring URs to SW. She uses her CSR for primary spend and has an old Freedom for 5% rotating categories. I have two old Freedoms, so between the two of us, we can rack up quite a few URs.

TLDR: If you are considering the SW cards, they hold great value.

So I got an email from Citi saying I can transfer my Thank You Points to Jetblue and recieve a 25% bonus. Think the breakdown was 1000 Thank You Points for 500 Jetblue points + 125 points (25%). Worth the transfer?

I think the ratio is typically 1.25:1 (TYP to JB) so a 25% bonus would be 1:1 transfer.

There was a 50% bonus earlier this year (link), so not a huge opportunity. But if your AF is coming up and you need to dump your TYP and you'll use it, sure it's not a bad idea.

I only have the Thank You Preferred so no AF. From some reading it looks like a bad play.

Just in case any of you are living under a rock and missed it - Equifax (one of the big three credit bureaus) was hacked and data for 143 million people was stolen. If you are an adult citizen of USA#1, your data has almost certainly been stolen.

Here's a good article from a security journalist about what happened, and what you might want to do.


Here are a few bits from the article:


Unless you are a churner trying to make money from credit card bonuses or are about to do something that requires a credit pull, you should almost certainly have your credit accounts frozen. Now more than ever.

I'll freeze my credit when Equifax pays for it, and if any creditors want to give money away to thieves because they can't reliably verify identities anymore that's their own problem. I realize that may not be the best practical stance to take but I have to do it out of principle.