I don't remember portals paying out on purchase of GCs in the past, so hopefully that works for you. Works fine when you use the GCs, but for shoebank you need to call in so no chance of using a portal anyway.

I just received the JetBlue Plus card. If I spend $1k within 90 days I get 40k points. Does anyone know if balance transfers count toward that $1k?

They don't

Just successfully used 25k of my 100k BoA Merrill points between my wife and I.

Booked $500 Alaska Air flight to NYC like 6 months in advance, single ticket, to maximize the value for 25k points.

Wait a little over a day, cancel that on AlaskaAir, get 500 bucks credit to my Alaska account. Use that 500 bucks to buy 2 tickets to Vegas.

Not bad for a card that had no annual fee at all...could still do that or something like it 3 more times.

Ok thanks. Will still be extremely easy to do, will just take a few weeks instead of instant.

I saw some people discussing how to downgrade a CSR/CSP, so I figured I'd post.

I have had a CSR for 2 years, and opened a CSP about 10.5 months ago, both to get the 50k bonus and because I was considering downgrading the CSR due to the difference in fees. I've now decided to keep the CSR, and called Chase to downgrade the CSP to a Freedom (5% CB on rotating categories). The rep first said that she "had to check if I was approved for that downgrade." She then said that I was, but could not downgrade to a freedom until I've had the CSP for a year, on July 1st. The only card that I could downgrade to at this time was a plain Sapphire. Of course, I would probably be hit with the annual CSP fee on July 1st, but once downgrading I can apparently get that refunded.

might as well try to do the spend in restaurants or supermarkets to get 2X jet blue points

I have a 734 and have one mark from around 2008. Something to do with a gym membership I think. Anyways, it is 11 years and it still shows up on there as a serious delinquency. Is this normal and am I suppose to do something?

If it's from 2008 It's prob not eleven years and you need to check the date it was last updated / refreshed.

There is one of three things going on here:
1) the account may have opened in 2008 but the delinquency is 2011 or later
2) you got sued and it is the judgment reporting
3) you have a rogue purchaser that has failed to accurately report the date of first major delinquency

None of those three are inconsistent with a legitimate 734 on an actual Fair Isaac model. Of course, knowing WHICH flavor of FICO you are looking at is ALSO critical...

I have a 735 with perfect everything except length of open accounts and hard pulls. So annoying, I went from 790 to 735 just for opening one new card.

well, in that case, if you use the new card responsibly it should get right back up to 790 or more in no time

have the $15 off $30 Amex offer for sams club online across quite a few cards(about to look exactly how many but upwards of 10 - 14 I'd say). for this reason, I am thinking of joining(10% tax on online orders for nonmembers). If I join online, will a membership trigger the Amex offer? I may join and then do about 10 - 14 orders, dependant on how many I have, does anyone see this raising any flags or should I be ok? I will be looking to aim right at $30 spend on each order. I will be buying household necessities mostly(food, paper towels, batteries, q tips, etc will look to use all offers because it's a good one)

Sams Club has way more things online then I would have ever thought, this seems like an EV move to sign up. Should be able to get $45 statement credit upon approval of the club card too(think it is a credit card). I counted 13 offers, $15 off ~$30 spend, 13 times, not bad plus I will have a membership for at least a year, in what seems to be a cool club, closest one to me is about 45 minutes away.

after some research it sounds like gift cards are the best way to go here.

735 on WHICH model of scoring? And how thin or thick is the file? And was there any sort of a balance transfer to the new card that has skewed utilization ratios?

Sam's Club spend $30 get $15 back, anyone got any data points? did a $38.75 order on the 20th for some paper towels and then $20 gift card. still pending on Amex and no email saying I used the offer. In the past gift cards worked but I am not seeing a lot of updated discussion or feedback, it would be nice to have some before I submit a bunch more orders.

I also just learned of the gift card activation issues https://milestomemories.boardingarea...chased-online/

hell, just got an invoice via email today and there was no mention of the gift card, only paper towels. Maybe not the worst thing, after reading about the activation issues. I am not sure why the gift card is not present on the invoice though. May have to go the product route or maybe third party GC's(?)

**** Sams lmao. i have done like 3-4 orders and I have yet to have one post on my AMEX and show the offer as credited. The sams invoices come as one item per invoice. order three things, get three invoices. my only gift card purchase, at the moment on AMEX, is showing as $20 and then the other item posted separately, lame. I can only hope these two things merge and then hopefully get the offer. No clue why they take so long to post, like 7 days or more. w/e, I'm done with the sams **** in this thread gf hadsgf adjksf

I recall seeing a Sams offer on AXP, but do not recall if it applied to online...some of the offers are for .com purchases while others ONLY apply to purchases actually made in a store. I don't shop at either Sams or Costco, so I never look that close at the verbiage on the offer.

That being said, when there are offers that are not fulfilled for whatever reason, I have found the AXP phone reps to be useful. Used them once while clearing a Best Western cash-back offer and the property didn't have the room available at the price point I needed (after having confirmed the reservation). They (AXP) credited me with the bonus after calling...

positive data points: signed up for the membership because I thought it would be worthwhile (to avoid the 10% tax). Signed up for entry-level first on an Amex with the offer(all of these orders or memberships were done online). That was $45, the offer was applied, finally, so $15 off = $30.

Then, as i started shopping, many items did not qualify for free shipping, FML, time to upgrade. Paid $54 to upgrade to Sam's plus on a different AMEX, offer was applied, dropping that down to $40, so I now have a plus membership for $70 and hopefully I will get some portal kickback.

I also spoke to AMEX rep today online, he said my order qualified, it was over $30. I am referring to products ordered. The discount was not applied yet but he said it should be credited soon. Things are looking up. I am still waiting to see what happens with my order of product + $20 Sam's gift card. As I have mentioned, they post separately on my CC statement(that's how it appears in the present). So, I am hoping product + gift card gets lumped and I bink another offer($15 off). It is simply this whole issue with GC and product showing as separate purchases, I don't understand, and again, hoping they lump in the end.

Lastly, I still have the offer on quite a few cards. If I purchase a $30 gift card online there will be no product so the transaction can only ring out to $30, in which case, I am hoping it triggers the offer, and I think it will.

I've never had any issues with Sam's Amex Offers. I'm just jealous that you have them and I don't

sams club cc is 5% on gas up to $6k per year, correct? there is a lot of language in the terms just want to make sure, even though I don't really think I need to

Dang, just found this: * Cash Back checks are issued each February for the Cash Back earned during the previous calendar year. Cash Back rewards are forfeited if the Sam's Club Mastercard account is not in good standing is more than two months delinquent on the minimum payment, if the Sam's Club Membership terminates or lapses, or if the Cash Back earned in a calendar year is less than $5.00. Cash Back checks will be made payable to Sam's Club and may be cashed only at a Sam's Club location. See the "How to Earn Cash Back with Your Sam's Club® Mastercard® Reward Program" terms for details. The Sam's Club Mastercard is issued by Synchrony Bank pursuant to a license by Mastercard International Incorporated. Mastercard is a registered trademark, and the circles design is a trademark of Mastercard International Incorporated.

So this card is now kind of ****ty. to get cashback, it looks like one has to physically go to a Sams? Also, to be paid cashback one must be a member at Sams. I planned on using this for gas (5%) and dining (3%). Looks like I will be using other options. I don't think I plan on renewing my membership unless I see value in doing so(my recent signup was for the Amex offers)

It's an ok card. 5% on gas is always solid, but there are other ways of getting 5% without all these hoops. Obviously if you had a Sam's membership anyways and used it, it would be solid.

I have a sam's membership and go quite often, but I still wouldn't get this card without a large signup bonus. My Freedoms always has at least one 5% gas category, as does my IT. You can also buy gas cards from grocery stores when they're on the 5% category as well. Another option is to buy discounted gas cards online when there are sales, or from a gift card site that always has them discounted.

You have plenty of options. Unless you have a very large amount of organic spend, CC signup bonuses are going to make you more money than choosing a card based on their category bonuses. If you don't like opening/closing cards though, you might be better off with a Chase Freedom Unlimited + CSR combo (+ any other UR earning cards that you might use a lot, like the regular Freedom).

If you've only had secured cards (with one upgraded to unsecure recently), you're probably only going to qualify for some of the lower tier credit cards, which can still be great! Chase Freedom is a good example of an intro card that still earns solid rewards. Capital One is known for being easy to get with a thin credit file as well.

In regards to taking a car loan out, would you keep the money invested that you're not using for the car, or just leave it in a checking account? If the latter, consider paying cash, as paying any interest doesn't make sense. If you're investing the rest of the money, you will have to make the decision of whether the interest rate you are able to get is more valuable than the interest you will make on your investments. I would recommend going to your bank or a local credit union and getting a preapproval for a loan so that you know what interest rates you're looking at before car shopping. You don't want to find your ideal car, negotiate a price, and then try and figure out financing.

If you do take a loan, you really can just put a few thousand down or nothing if you prefer, it shouldn't really change the interest rate. I prefer to put a few thousand so that I don't need GAAP insurance (which if you have plenty of cash on hand, it isn't needed either).

Depending on what you're trying to buy, you might be able to swing a sweet 0% APR from a car manufacturer. Just pay it off in full before intro period runs out.

Also, don't think closing your first card is a good idea just yet, your average credit age will suffer significantly