In terms of the the business Ink, obv YMMV but I found it super easy to get. I made up a dog walking business and although it wasn't an instant approval it was approved within 24 hours without having to answer any questions.

Any travel cash back cards out there besides capital one venture and barclay arrival plus? Haven't had any luck getting either and am looking for a way to get some travel expenses paid for and not be out cash.

Bank of America seems to be pretty lenient on approvals, TravelRewards card could be an option, it is nothing too extravagant though.

guys, can you double check something for me? My PNC card is offering 40 points per $1 spend at Starbucks. I currently have 11,586 points worth $23.17 cashback which means right at .02 a point.

The deal is 40 points per $1 spend at Starbucks. If a point is worth 2 cents, seems I am getting 80% off at Starbucks, correct?

At 1cpp 11586 would be worth $115.86. Your value is one fifth of that. So your points are worth 0.2cpp not 2cpp. So you're getting 8% off at starbucks

wow. when I did my math I saw .0019 and simply assumed two cents, whereas, you are right, they are 1/5th of a cent, FML

Yep, I can confirm now it does instantly come off. I only took one vacation this year and it was a Home Away roadtrip booked under someone else's name where I just wrote a check for my portion, so I managed to only received $25 worth of travel credits in 2017. But just snuck in a $275 airline gift card for 2017 right before my December statement closes in a few days and it did instantly rebate, so no problem doing the same thing for 2018 in a few days and then cancelling.

I recently inherited about 500k Starwood points. Does anyone know if they ever expire? Would like to use them for a European vacation with the wife and kids, but not for like 5 years.

yes, they expire.

Add to award wallet and pay the $10 to track your expiry, or make a monthly reminder to login to your account.
Best way to make them not expire is to transfer 1k to the program of your choice every 11 months to reset the clock, or get the startwood Amex if it makes sense to you.

I would also test transferring 1k starwood points to your linked marriott account, then back, and see if that resets the clock.

Popping in to say thank you to JL514 and the other contributors to this thread. I did almost nothing and still learned enough to collect at least $500 this year in credit card cash back. Credit score up nicely too.

Thanks guys.

So if I get the Starwood Amex and link the account they never expire? Seems like a no brainer.

^^agree. This thread is a rare gem in many ways.

Eh, my credit score went from 740 to 670 over 1 month after I bought a new car... is that normal?

Mine only dropped like 10 pts after my latest car purchase.

Thanks for the feedback guys. This thread has been pretty satisfying for me, and even though it started out as education about credit I'm much more content with the current topics of credit cards and rewards. Thanks to all the other regular contributors as well.

Well, you need to use the card (to earn some points) every now and then, and it has an annual fee. To me, if you didn't have a need for the card or the bonus, I would try 1:3 transfer to Marriott, see if it resets the clock. If not, try 3:1 transfer back to Marriott, see if that resets the clock. And if not, Transfer 1k points to an airline. That will definitely reset the expiry. Then just set a yearly reminder to do the same.

Not normal. Did you happen to pay for part of the down payment with a credit card? If so, did you end up using 50+% of the credit limit to do so? That's the only way I could imagine such an impact.

Looking for best card for hotel stays. I've already done 100,000 points Hilton. The best I am seeing is 80,000 points with Marriott with $85/yr fee. Any recommendations?

Marriott card comes with an “anniversary” cert for a night at a cat 1-5 every year when your annual fee hits which can be worth > $85 fwiw

Anyone doing the Barclay Uber card? Signup bonus sucks but feels like it might be worth it for more casual everyday use. Maybe best to wait until they allow PC but prolly awhile before they let you PC to a card so new

it's a great card for people who just want one card.
For me the categories are largely duplicated by my other cards and I prefer points to cashback.

3UR worth more to me than 4% on restaurants, worth more than 3% on travel.
1.5UR worth more than 2% online purchases, etc.

But a easy to recommend card. As long as you don't use the cb for uber credit or gcs lol

So I have about $120 of travel credit left on my CSR that I should take advantage of. What is my best option for this? The only travel we have planned for next year is a trip to Fort Myers in April, but we are driving and staying at a friend's condo. Not sure I can really do anything with that. Any other options besides an airline gift card? Maybe an Uber gift card?

My wife just reminded me that we are taking the kids to Great Wolf Lodge sometime this spring. Anyone know if something like that would work?

Edit: just logged in to see that I had to do this before statement close in December, so it's already reset. Will be downgrading in January, so advice is still appreciated for what to spend $300 on.

I used my wife's travel credit at the beginning of December, as I realized the same thing that you did that it needs to be spent by the time the December statement comes out. Without anything being needed to book, we ended up buying a $298 Marriott gift card (there's a $1.5 fee or something and we wanted to make sure it was right under $300, but I'm pretty sure you could go over $300 and it'll still count).

If you're planning on cancelling/downgrading in January, I doubt a lodge would trigger it, as hotels usually don't charge the final amount until the first night or last night of the stay. If you can't think of anything else, gift cards with AA and a few other airlines work as well.

I know Uber works for the travel credit, I assume an Uber gift card would work fine?

The travel credit is very broad. My subway fares are currently getting reimbursed under it.

Also, if you are going to downgrade be sure and get the TSA Global entry credit if you haven't already.

UberEats bro

Applied for Starwood Amex, got "your application is pending." Called, they said "oh, glad you called, wanted to make sure it was actually you applying."

WTF? They already have my contact number from other Amex cards, maybe just call me and ask? Or email or something?