Strange. Having trouble linking my social accounts to that Marriott Chirpify, as it keeps saying there's no first or last name in the required info fields. Tried clearing cookies and multiple browsers.

So what do you guys think about if there's a hotel and/or airline CC I should be getting in preparation for Eurotrip? Or is there no point of getting them along with the CSR that I have? I will be making an $1,100 purchase soon, so it's a good time to get a card and clear a bonus.

It might be too late for airline cards, as award availability is really diminished as the trip approaches. You would also have to hit the min spend and get the points before you could even consider booking.

Hotels can be a bit different. You still would need to clear the min spend and get the points, but depending on where you plan to travel, you could still easily book rooms at the last minute. A few good cards are Marriott, IHG, Hilton, Wyndham, and SPG.

You could also just go for a travel card, such as the Arrival+ that usually has a $500 bonus for hitting the min spend, but can only redeemed towards travel bookings of over $100.

Another option would be to get a card like an Amex Platinum with a 100k MR bonus. You could then transfer the points to one of many different hotels or airlines.

You could also try and get a Chas Sapphire Preferred and/or Ink card. Building up URs is always valuable, especially with the CSR's travel redemption as backup.

There are so many options out there, and it all depends what you're looking for. For example, with hotel credit cards you have to ask yourself if you want to stay as many nights free in something cheap in the outskirts of the city, or only one or two nights, but in downtown Paris. I would recommend visiting the DOC's website (doctorofcredit.com) and checking out some different options there.

Thanks for the response. I have the CSP and Ink Business Preferred already. Building up URs is the step I've taken thus far and we still have some time, so that's why I'm wondering now if there's another step I should be taking. Along with the girlfriend, we have built up 370k points over the past year. Planning to take the trip in July or August. We're probably going to do the basic tourist Eurotrip, as she's never been and I've only been to Prague.

Getting rekt by BoA, **** these people. Super shady stuff going on there.

To summarize, My end date for posting to get 50k ML+ bonus was today. I made a big 3k+ spend on Dec 2nd. It's sat pending this entire time. Never have a charge sit in pending for that long, pretty sure at this point BoA has some sort of automated system to set charges pending when you are within X days of your deadline to reach minimum spend. I've never had to wait until this close to the deadline before so I didn't realize this scam was in place. Of course I paid off the 3k+ charge immediately after it hit pending (i called in to make sure it would be approved since it was such a large amount), and as a result I've been sitting with a negative 3k+ balance for half a week now, because of course they process that instantly.

All i can do at this point is wait for charge to post the day after my deadline, then call and escalate and threaten a CFPB complaint, and threaten to cancel all of my account with them unless they give me my bonus. Because honestly how can I expect a charge to sit pending for over a week? I didn't know about their system set up to scam people prior to this.

Seems standard for BOA, for many years their system automatically processed daily transactions from largest to smallest to maximize overdraft fees. They are a horrible bank in every way.

Yep, BOA sucks. The only thing I could see is that if the merchant hadn't shipped it out yet, and they only have a pre-authorization for that amount, but won't actually charge it until it ships.

Yeah it wasn't even something like that, it was just a rent payment through my leasing office webpage. Never had an issue with it before. Usually takes a day to clear.

Getting close to pulling off the companion pass gambit with the two sw chase cards. My wife and I each signed up for both and have about $1600-1700 spend per card completed thanks in part to a lot of work travel.

I'm wondering if anyone here can confirm that if we complete the spend after the December billing cycle ends but before Jan 1st there is no way the bonus will hit this year and ruin our plot to have it hit 2018? We can wait until Jan 1st but it would be nice to manufacture less if we can safely start to use it for holiday spending at the end of the month. I'm paranoid tho.

I don't know the details about what's safe, but is it worth the risk? I would definitely wait until after Jan 1st to hit that spend. Keep in mind that any datapoints or conventional wisdom could have changed as it's been a full year since anyone did this. In that time there have been lots of crackdowns/changes, such as not being able to get a CP by way of Marriott Vacation package. If you can manage, I would just wait until the New Year to be on the safe side. It would suck to lose a full year of CP status.

Yeah that's sound advice.

I have a quick question about the CSR travel credits. So I know that they are on a calendar year basis, not your account year, so in theory you could double up on travel credits in a single year by cancelling the card before the next annual fee hits. I signed up towards the beginning of January last year, so I'm going to cancel my card before the next annual fee hits. However, if I rack up $300 bucks in travel credits on January 1st and then cancel as soon as that charge clears, will that be effectively free, or since it's given as a statement credit, will I end up not getting that benefit since the card will be closed before it appears on my statement?

I don't know the answer to that, but I do think you can get partial refunds of your annual fee if you cancel after it hits

Got my Ink Business Preferred converted to an Ink Business Cash just in time for a $1k purchase at an office store to take advantage of the 5x UR benefit. Have to wait until April to downgrade Sapphire Preferred to Freedom Unlimited. I figure I'll also add a regular Freedom next year. I think the Reserve (dining, travel), Ink Cash (phone bill, cable bill, office stores), Freedom (whatever corresponds with 5%), an Amazon card and the Freedom Unlimited (everything else) would be a nice complementary lineup of credit cards.

What do you guys think of adding an Amex Starwood Preferred Guest Card? The $95 fee is waived for the first year. Basically the only reason to get it would be the 25k Starpoints to give me a foundation for transferring over UR points for Eurotrip. Seems like a versatile hotel rewards to go for, since can be converted to Marriott. I wouldn't keep it for a second year.

Does anyone think that I can use crypto investing to open an Ink Business card? It's my only income at the moment, as I'm a student.

It's given as a statement credit, but it actually appears before the end of the statement (or at least that's my experience with other cards). Don't cancel until you've received the credit, otherwise you won't get it. You should absolutely be able to double dip. You can also wait until after your Jan statement hits to cancel (or downgrade) your CSR. You have 30 days from the time the fee hits until you need to cancel to get the refund.

It's a possibility, but I think it will be extremely difficult. Chase is notorious for quizzing people about their businesses. Seeing as how you can lose money with crypto investing, they will want to know what other income you have that you can pay off the card if you lose money on cryptos.

Are you going to claim any income from cryptos on your taxes for 2017? If not, you will be denied for the credit card because of lack of income (I always recommend to be truthful in credit applications).

Do you keep unused ur points if you cancel?

I think you need another UR card to transfer them to. Chase Freedom is a good choice since there's no AF and it can be a useful card to have anyway. If you cancel your CSR and have no other Chase cards that can serve as the basis of a UR account I think you would lose your points.

This is based on my experience canceling my CSP after I got my CSR up. The customer service rep made sure I transferred the points earned from the CSP to either my freedom or CSR before closing the account. Sounds like I would have lost them otherwise. And if you dig deep enough on the chase website you can see your UR balances split between each card (if you have multiple UR cards) so even though they show the combined total in most places that's definitely a thing. So there might be ways of saving your UR points that I'm not aware of but transferring to a card like the freedom is confirmed safe.

Yes, like $10k. I won't be taxed on it anyways, since that's all my income. I haven't had a problem getting approved for a CSR and CSP, both in the past 12 months, as a student with a 770 credit score. I put $20k for income, since I interpreted it to include various academic stipends, etc.

I will begin working in September 2018, granted, for the government with a terrible salary. But at least I can put that on a credit card application in 2018.

Since I have both the CSR and CSP, I was planning on downgrading one in the coming few months to avoid two fees, and thus I'm hoping the Ink Business is in play.

def need to transfer the point before you cancel the card or you will lose them

Maddog, all you can do is give it a try. Ink Business Preferred was kind of a pain to deal with. They initially denied me and I had to call and ***** at them, then they quizzed me on things and gave me a card. I make a full income being self-employed, doing independent contracting work.

It's worth a shot, but keep in mind that more and more often Chase will quiz new applicants about their "business". Be prepared to answer questions about income for yourself and the "business" you're applying for. Obviously an auto-approval would be great, but they're not very common. Here's a sample (stolen from reddit churning) of what you need to know for business recon with Chase:

What is your business?
What products do you sell, how much, etc.?
How old is your business?
How long have you been in the trade?
Number of employees?
Why does your business need this credit card?
What is your annual revenue, expenses, and profits?
What were your annual revenue, expenses, and profits for the previous year? Year before that?
Are you currently operating at a profit or loss?
What is your expected revenue, expenses, profits for the next year? The year after?
Why do you suspect they will increase or decrease?


So, give it a shot and the worst case scenario is that you get denied. An extra HP on your credit file doesn't mean much at all. Huge upside to getting approved obv.

If you cancel a UR card, you will lose all URs currently in that account. To keep the URs you can transfer them to other UR earning cards, you can use them up, or you can downgrade the card to another UR earning card. I recommend downgrading to either a Freedom or Freedom Unlimited (or Sapphire Preferred if you want transfer capabilities to airlines/hotels). Really no reason not to downgrade to an FU or F since they have no AF and both have good UR earning rates.

Freedom holders should have received an offer from Chase that states $20 off $20+ spend at ebags.com when using ChasePay. I stacked with a portal and pretty sure I just got paid $1.80 to order two shoulder bags for my nieces. Bought on separate accounts using my Freedom and my wife's Freedom