follow up: http://milestomemories.boardingarea.com/chase-glitch/

temporarily, when logging in, some users were essentially being logged into other users accounts.

Started happening yesterday at some point. Chase confirmed it and said it's been dealt with, so it's probably ok at this point to log in.

I want to hang out in airport lounges when I travel with my GF. I have a CSR, she's not really into the credit card game, although her credit is good. It looks like my options are to add her as an authorized user to my account, or have her sign up for her own. Any advantages/disadvantages to each? She's a student with almost no income so I'm not sure if she'd even get approved right now, plus like I said she's not really into gaming cc offers so I'm hesitant to push her into a $450 card (even if it pays for itself). I'm not worried about her using my card but would she be able to get her own card later (with sign-up bonuses) if she gets a card on my account now? Or anything else I'm not thinking of.

Being an AU now would not stop her from getting her own card later. If it caused any issues later she can easily contact the bureaus and get the AU off her account.

She can get into lounges with you, she didn't need an au card

^ yea, you have unlimited guests with your CSR priority pass (though they can turn you away if it's crowded). I've brought my whole family into lounges before

good promos on Swagbucks(http://www.swagbucks.com/p/register?rb=42525667) right now for Gamefly and DollarShaveClub. New signups should receive some free Swagbucks dollars. As a user, the only thing you have to do is cancel before being charged, in reference to the offers below(set a reminder, it's easy).

At Dollarshaveclub, spend $5 get $20 Swagbucks(free $15, make sure you use the Swagbucks link obv)

Then at Gamefly, spend $10 for a 2-month subscription and get 3400 Swagbucks (worth $34), this one posted instantly to my account. free $39 total(maybe more with signup bonus to SB), and you get Gamefly for two months + Dollar Shave Club products. Again, remember to use the valid links and cancel before you are charged.

So, my girlfriend and I have 400k Chase UR points and we want to take a European vacation in August (probably the basic trip, as it will be our first time). Any recs on planning this out in the best way? We've never done something like this before.

Not sure if united still allows open jaws with stopovers but if so, use it. And use the United flights to get to/from the most expensive locations

A couple years ago we did DC to Dubrovnik, Dubrovnik to Athens, and Barcelona to DC, total price 60k points. Dubrovnik had been expensive to get into and out of at the time, but it was all the same with points

Hi Everyone! Just copying this message I posted in a different forum but this one seemed more appropriate. Any help would be great! I have an excellent credit score if that helps at all.

Been thinking about switching up credit cards. Currently have a Southwest Premier Card. It's been nice. With my spending, it allows me to have 2-3 flights per year free so that's always nice. It costs $100/year which is kind of annoying but obviously that is outweighed by the 2-3 flights. Recently, my hometown airport has been getting more and more cheap airlines (Spirit, Allegiant, and another one I can't remember) and sometimes I wonder if I can get more out of a credit card while incorporating flights from these cheaper airlines.

Southwest is nice because I've never dealt with some of the horror stories that I hear about with the cheapo airlines. It also flies to a lot of locations from my home hub which is also nice. I'm just wondering if anyone has any credit cards that they think may be better? I've heard Chase Sapphire may be better? Also, anything that will help make Vegas cheaper would be great! As I said, I currently have my flights out there paid for through my SW card but still end up paying a decent amount for rooms as I never have gotten out of the baseline TR level with my players card.

Hey all, I got a bunch of CC debt and getting a decent bonus, so I’m trying to figure out how best to allocate it to maximize short-term credit score. I’d like to max my score to request limit increases.

My situation is roughly this (all cards have the same interest)
Quicksilver: $8000 limit maxed
Freedom: $6000 lim maxed
Discover: $4000 lim maxed
AmEx: $2000 lim maxed
BoA: $2000 lim maxed
Barclays: $2000 lim maxed
Total debt: $24k

Bonus: ~$14k cash.

What’s the play?

As I understand there are a few principles:
* % debt (utilization) on a card matters more than $ amount
* Having one card near limit is worse than having debt spread (aka Max utilization matters)
* Score is roughly the same for 0-30% Utilization

Based on the above, should I get Quicksilver and Freedom down to 49% and get the rest down to 29%? Or something else?

PS, I have high income and further potential so I’m not really worried about the level of debt or interest, even though I know it’s not financially optimal. Not buying a house anytime soon and not looking to retire early.

Can’t edit above, but actually it’s probably best to max the score so I can refinance the rest of the debt.

Another question: how does utilization work on the AmEx Green (not part of the above). It doesn’t have a limit, but does the amount on it contribute to total utilization numerator?

APR is the biggest factor at play in who you look to pay down the most. For score purposes, 30% is far from the magical number. There have been some discussions at credit boards on this precise issue, with some who have played with the numbers across a period of several months (mainly because they were bored but also out of curiosity).

I know from past experience that BofA has been known to chop limits for large, out of the ordinary payments. However, with only a $2K limit, that might not be as much of a concern.

It is also worth considering the rewards structures on the various cards. Opening up a lot of the line on a card with crappy rewards gains little long-term. You need to open the available credit with those that get you the most back in the way of rewards.

Unless the maxed status came from prudent use of balance transfers, it may also be worth your while to put some of that bonus into emergency savings (or into retirement vehicles). All those cards being maxed suggest you may be one event away from having massive default issues...

I have not paid enough attention to impact of Plat on scores (same scenario as you with green) but it was my understanding that the score algorithms use the high balance field in those instances. If that is the case, then it works well for me since I had a lot of medical stuff I put on it one month that was more than three times my typical monthly spend (most of my purchases go to AXP).

Really where I don't know where to start is finding the best travel deals with transfer partners. I've never transferred UR points before.

The full answer is "it depends". Just gotta start clicking buttons on websites until you have a good sense for what's out there.

I'd start with United. Go to their website and look at booking award travel. It is (was?) 60k points per person to go US-to-Europe round trip, and you can stretch that by including a stopover (a few nights in one city then continuing to the next) and an open jaw (leave Europe from a different city than you originally arrived at). If you have multiple cities you want to go to, use your point flight to get to and from the most expensive ones.

In my experience, flights are a better bang for your UR buck than hotels - you can find cheap hotels in most European cities - so save your remaining points for your next vacation and buy hotels with cash.

Thanks this is all good advice. I have some emergency savings and a decent chunk in retirement funds, this was mostly being foolish. Many of these were once balance transfers but the offers expired now.

I also plan to just use a couple of cards for the rewards.

Wouldn't the best thing be to pay off all the smaller ones and try to get the bigger ones transferred to another 0% balance xfer card?

I just got a decent rewards card with a super easy $100 SUB from 5/3* and it got me to thinking about trying to bonus whore some of the smaller banks. I'm not talking joe bobs S&L, but really anything outside of the big 6 or 7 guys. Any suggestions?

*They've been my main checking account for years, so I don't know if they are a viable option for others, or if similar banks that I'm not in business with would be an option for me.


DW- The important part of paying $24K in maxed out CC debt down to $10K is paying the debt down. No one can tell you the exact optimal %'s here as that's a trade secret, and even if I could tell you for sure how it worked for me we're on different score cards so it might not be the same. Point being I wouldn't worry about allocation too much. I for sure would pay everything down to under 90% (maybe even 75%) and then pay off as many of the smaller cards as possible. That alone is good for a huge score bump once everything reports.

Special Connections Visa from Commerce is 1.5% cashback and $150 after $500 spend.

Wells fargo $200 back on $1k spend, also 1.5% back - CashWise Visa

Does anyone know if Lowes counts as a home furnishing store for next quarter's bonus category on Citibank cards or is it just Home Depot?

Past year of ownership on the CSR has been great. Gained a lot of points from the intro offer and other statements. It is easy booking hotels through Chase points rewards webpage. Now I have a basic AMEX blue I was debating changing to AMEX gold. Platinum just seems too high for fee. Read about the new Hilton cards that got released, but I agree that their rewards points are less attractive. Hyatt card is cheap and links over to Mlife. I noticed very few options for Mastercard out there. Citibank seems mainly all MC.

Im going to stick with my CSR. My CapOne card will prob hardly get used. Also the spotify 50% off deal is about to expire. Just a matter of deciding do I switch out the AMEX blue for a different model.

I encourage everyone, again, to sign up at Swagbucks. The money there is quite easy. I have been getting paid to buy razors. I just got two pairs of leggings on Fabletics for $5, I mentioned the Gamefly subscription where I was paid to get DVD + games for a few months(they lowered the cashback on that deal because people were pry crushing the original one). sign up, click around. I encourage you to look at these offers in particular: Gamefly, Gillette, DollarshaveClub, IMVU, Honest C.(if u need some things), there are plenty more, especially if you need products. It's a pretty nice portal, my hourly there has to be higher than at least 50% of Americans(I am equating $1 Swagbucks to 1 USD = no taxes on Swagbucks, that's why they are swag bucks(and unfortunately, you run out of deals so your logged hours hits a dead end) I also, kind of link savings with earnings(if you need a product and get it at mass dicount, that is kind of earning))

Swagbucks must be redeemed via gift card(Amazon, Paypal, ebay, Walmart, you name it(sales on ebay and Walmart at 12% right now)). each month, first $25 gift card redemption also gets 12% bonus.

I type this stuff because there is some worthwhile stuff out there for a lot of you. Manage your subscriptions if your deal includes one, it's an easy process.

http://www.swagbucks.com/p/register?rb=42525667

sign up ^^^^ today it was easy as making a $33 contribution (write-off) to ChildFund International(a supposed very good cause, I just sponsored young Awa in the Gambia) to earn $75 in gift cards