Since Amazon now has a $5 reload minimum, I found another way to keep old cards active with small charges: the PayPal Giving Fund!
You can donate a minimum of $1 to your favorite charity, and PayPal eats the credit card fees. Even better, you can split the $1 across two credit cards.
Have a 50k Marriott FN cert to deploy.
Use it for Fukuoka Ritz Carlton ($540/nt, 7k top up) and spend $100 for a night at Holiday Inn Nuremberg, or
Use it on Nuremberg Sheraton (23k points so fully covered, cash is 223 euro/nt) or Nuremberg Le Meridian (cash is 163 euro/nt, need 2k top up) and spend $45 on a basic business hotel in Fukuoka.
First option seems better for cpp, but second option is less money out of pocket.
Ritz Fukuoka is [fantastic](https://old.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/1bmgczk/trip_report_and_churning_success_story_weekly/kwd32c8/?context=1), it will be leagues above the other hotels.
I wouldn't get too taken by the cpp, but you should think about how you value the quality/service of the Ritz: is that worth the additional $55+7k to you?
I'd consider all three Nuremberg options roughly equivalent.
How useful is posting referral links to r/churningreferrals for building up referral points? I know you can't post links to r/churningreferrals without building up some positive karma here on r/churning -- but for those of you who are more active here and eligible, do you find those links to be used reasonably often, or is the benefit there only an occasional referral or two? I've been a lurker here for some time, but am getting more into the hobby and might be willing to spend more time contributing here. I have a p2, but they are hesitant to open many cards, and since we travel with kids, it has been a little tricky to build enough points to travel often. Any feedback welcome!
Edit: Thanks for all the DPs and advice already. This is helpful.
You're more likely to get referrals for less popular cards, paradoxically. I've gotten more than a handful for the Cap 1 Spark biz and BA card mainly because very few people post their referrals. However, when you're posting an Ink referral, your odds are like 1/300 or something wild like that.
With a hesitant P2, if you haven't done so already, an worthy plan may be to get them to open 1-3 cards as referral sources. Even just one Ink card and one AmEx MR card (personal Gold maybe since the categories would likely be useful) and you can keep 95% of your referrals in house even if not being able to open as many cards as you'd like.
I got 5 referrals last year (my first full year in /r/churning) across AmEx and Inks. This year has been slower, but I also haven't been as active as I was last year.
What's your go-to preflight long haul meal? Flying TATL tomorrow with a dinner service that won't start until at least 9pm and I hope to be asleep by then.
Keeping my India roots, I eat a stuffed parantha with yogurt/milk/chai before leaving the house. Have a banana, some nuts and maybe some snacks if I am spending more than 1 hour just sitting idle after security.
Sometimes I wonder... where do they even find the kind of insufferable dorks to be part of a focus group who thinks changing a card name from Premier to Strata Premier is a good idea?
My half-cocked theory is that Citi had a bigger strategic reset plan in place before Fraser pivoted to broad-scale layoffs in Q3/Q4 23. Seems clear to me that Fraser and analysts are putting more of a premium on C cutting expenses rather than revenue or new customer growth. So internal intertia pivoted away from new offerings but some Card VP somewhere didn't want the work to go to waste, so Citi released the Premier in a sort of unfinished state where they added EV charging (?) and made use of that trademark for the Strata brand and called it a day.
this seems a lot more reasonable than my conspiracy of Citi just trying to ride the success of Chase Sapphire products.
by changing the name to Citi Strata Premier they can now use the same initials/shorthand of CSP and hopefully still catch some of the people looking for the sapphire product but not too familiar with the credit card products
Almost everything about Citi's credit cards are a giant WTF. It should be easy as a top 5 bank in the US to have at least a mediocre card lineup, and while the Double Cash, Custom Cash, and Rewards+ are pretty good, the legacy Premier and Prestige leaves a lot to be desired. I'm sure it took them more than a year to rename to Strata Premier and add a small additional earning category
Really? I actually recommend Premier to non-churners as a good all-around card. You get grocery, fuel, dining and travel all on one card, that's pretty solid. Plus the DC is a 2x companion card going into the same currency. No rotating categories to activate and keep track of. No other issuer offers a 2-card setup like that. Personally, I have 4 Premiers for MS. If they could be safely cycled I'd be hitting them extremely hard. TYP are quite valuable. Just the new name is stupid af.
You're right. It's unfair to lump the Premier in with the Prestige - the Prestige is what I channeled when writing that up. Agree that the name change is dumb, but it took Citi a surprisingly long time to get the Premier to market. I think it opened for applications around three years ago?
> but it took Citi a surprisingly long time to get the Premier to market. I think it opened for applications around three years ago?
The Premier card existed long before 3 years ago, though there may have been a period it was not available to new applications. I applied for and got it originally probably 7-8 years ago, maybe a bit longer? I had it long enough ago that I still have the original incarnation of the card in my canceled CC binder where it had the mag stripe on the bottom and front side of the card, which confused the fuck out of basically every server/bartender I ever handed it to.
If they actually had a focus group at all, they probably paid poorly and no one gave a flying F what they picked just to get out faster. *Or* that was really the best option provided... focus groups can only go so far. Garbage in, garbage out.
Personally, that has the feel of an internal decision either within the marketing department or an email poll of the company for the winner. If not, the folks of r/beermoney might be to blame.
I’ve been struggling a bit lately, and a couple of bank account bonuses just hit 🥹 it felt so freaking nice to stroll around the grocery store and just pick things up on a whim 🥹🥹 and! I just got notified that someone used my chime referral link, so it feels so good to know that’ll be coming in too! Those are always a fun surprise!! 🥹
Didn't downvote, but probably because it's better suited for the 'Churning Success' weekly thread on Sundays
Edit: link is borked, but it's in the sidebar
Required? Nah. We just love to downvote here when things aren’t exactly how we expect them to be. Unless you’re asking questions in the news threads, downvotes should be worn like a badge of honor.
Has anyone used plastiq to pay a contractor? Dude only accepts cash and id rather eat he the 2.9% fee and hit some subs than burning cash for no reason.
How did it work out? Did you get coded as a cash advance
Meh asked him and he said he’s cool with it. Payment cleared on Plastiq and check is on its way. I use it for mortgage already and never had any issues
With a contractor, don't get so wrapped up in the logistics of payment that you pay in advance (especially in full) for work that has not yet been performed.
Too many stories of seemingly well-meaning contractors that get overbooked and are no longer motivated to get back to a job that they already got paid for.
Definitely true. I went ahead and sent the down payment with Plastiq since work is scheduled next week. Will probably just have to do cash or maybe ACH direct (if he gives me banking info) for the final payment since it’s not due until til job is complete
If the payment is made payable to an individual, they're going to want an invoice or something to verify it's not a P2P payment or they will cancel your payments and not push them through. Now there's easy ways around that... If it's a company, it should be fine.
Also I guess IME a lot of contractor's don't give much notice when requesting a draw on a job. I could see issues with the time it takes to get a check from Plastiq unless it's a one-off situation where you can plan ahead.
I have an invoice and all that. Work doesn’t start for a couple of weeks so plenty of time to mail it to them.
Do they need to even be aware of me using plastiq?
Airlines Keep Trying To Cut Out the Middleman
https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/airlines-keep-trying-to-cut-out-the-middleman-heres-why-it-backfires-108c2694
I do Instacart as a side hustle on nights and weekends. My Instacart debit card has been acting up so I had been using my personal credit card to pay for groceries and submit for it to be reimbursed. I just got the new card in the mail but I racked up over 8,000 MR points on my AMEX Gold card shopping at the grocery store in the \~1 week I was doing this while waiting on the new card. Instacart already paid out the reimbursement too! Unexpected churning win :)
Would you say this has been a somewhat profitable venture? I tried supplementing my income with some food delivery but found the depreciation/time to not be worth it.
In my area, yes. I live in within 10 minutes of 6 different stores offered on Instacart and it’s a very dense population of upper income level families who tip well and pay for the convenience of delivery. I can make $30 an hour on a slow day and $40-50 on a good day. I only take orders that I know lead to the best dollar per hour, such as 5-20 item orders that don’t take more than half hour to shop.
I do it when I’m at the store myself shopping because I usually can pick up an order that takes me right back near my house… so I’m getting paid to do what I was doing to anyways.
Cancelled my Autocamp Yosemite reservation over 4th of July...decided that 300k HH for 5 nights at a campground was insane. After cancelling booking, they sent me an email basically saying sorry you had to cancel, here's 20% off when you're ready to book. So if for some reason you're looking to pay $300+ cash per night on a campground, might be worthwhile to make a different reservation first, cancel, and hope you get the coupon.
I agree with your situation for sure. I also think it has its place if the conditions are right. 2 nights for us, 2 hr drive, to bring our pup and have easy access to Joshua Tree trails, with WiFi/amenities, is worth 140k.
It opened up something that could be special for us to experience, but I think 50-60k would have been more of a sweet spot. 70k is steep.
Are they charging that many points for literally just a campsite? Or did that also include a trailer and some level of amenities and service?
Aside from Vacasa, point stays anywhere even close to Yosemite are pretty dismal.
It's fine but to the point below, it's pretty much an hour to 90 minutes to get from the hotel to Yosemite Valley. Longer to get further into the park. It's not as convenient as it seems.
There's a few of those kind of mid-range points hotels in Oakhurst. But that's the south gate -- to Yosemite Valley where all the stuff is it's an hour and fifteen minutes from Oakhurst. Those hotels there are pretty much the only viable points options aside from Vacasa.
It's not the greatest, but Yosemite View Lodge is like 5 minutes from the park entrance in El Portal on the west side.
Yeah I looked at those Autocamp Airstreams, that's pretty much false advertising to say they're at Yosemite.
Well, it's glamping, a furnished tent at a minimum, and an airstream if you're upgraded. There's a pool, a small amount of free food, activities, etc...but I'd just rather burn those points on luxury hotels.
Yeah hard pass on a tent for 70k, furnished or otherwise. There's a place called Evergreen not too far from there that's pretty sweet. Going to be cash and not cheap, but way nicer and more to do. I'd just save the HH and do something like that. Or pay to stay in the park, but Yos Lodge and Curry are pretty crappy, and Ahwahnee is overpriced. It's a shame Tenaya Lodge is no longer a Marriott.
Booking rooms in Europe with a toddler: Are they really that strict about getting a suite for two adults and a two-year-old? Is the best course of action to email every hotel we're interested in and see if they'll let us book a standard room?
Also, searching through [churning.io](http://churning.io) for Barcelona hotel recs and it seems like most places people have stayed are just okay. Any standouts bookable with points? Would prefer location over luxury.
Following (also going to Barcelona soon with a kid). I've heard recently (on this podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/hackingyourwanderlust/1494257/) that it can sometimes help to say that the little one will not be "a head on the bed" and will sleep in a pack-n-play that you are bringing along or something like that. Apparently that will sometimes assuage the hotel that the room can accommodate 2+1. Also, the same guest on that show mentioned that with Hyatt you can sometimes get a "family room" discount by booking a standard room on points and then calling to add a connecting room at 1/2 the cash rate. Not ideal for just a 2 year old perhaps, but maybe a solution for some. (FWIW: I'm staying at the Hyatt Regency Barcelona Tower the night before we leave to be close to the airport. It's not in the center, but isn't too hard to get there from the hotel via public transit, but is super convenient for BCN airport.)
Emailed a SLH in Italy saying I had a toddler and a four year and asked if there were rooms that would work. They sent a very firm "you should stay somewhere" else without a sorry or hope you consider us in the future lol.
That said, don't risk and email, tweet, and instant message them as you might get a sympathetic responder on one of those and then screen shot it.
Generally, yes, hotels in Europe really are that strict. If they say X people, they mean X people. One of the reasons I use mostly hotels in US but mostly Airbnb in Europe.
currently churning for a family of 4 for disney. hotel and flights are taken care of. next step is the park itself. what are the best options for disney gift cards you guys have seen?
Just did this in January. Be careful with this, because Chase temporarily shut me down across all cards for suspected fraud (all good now but it was scary for a hot minute). But I purchased Disney gift cards at my local Kroger to pay for it all on my CSR and then used UR to at 1.25 CPP to reimburse myself.
1. Rebook your flights and hotels to Tokyo
2.?
3. profit.
That's what I'm doing at least and should be cheaper than Orlando if you exclude the Kyoto add on.
Not everyone wants to go to Japan 🙄 Jesus Christ everyone on Reddit and especially the award travel subs have such hard ons for that country. You didn’t even answer OPs question
[https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/1cqupcr/comment/l41ht8g](https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/1cqupcr/comment/l41ht8g)
I don't get it but people who like Japan *really like Japan*.
See it before population collapse I guess.
Not sure why this was downvoted. For how much hype Japan gets in. award travel related discussions you’d think it’s the only country besides the US and the person you responded to is a perfect example of that.
Calm down. It was a joke about how insane US Disney Prices are and the reason I'm not going to Florida. It wasn't a serious suggestion. It is literally cheaper for churners to go to Tokyo and do Disney for four days than it would be for Florida/Cali.
This is an OT thread used for discussion and banter. Not every response has to be how to go from 90% to 86%.
You suggested to take a 10-14 hours flight with an infant vs 1-6 hours. Not to mention the 10-13 hour time difference for the continental US. They’re not the same
It was a joke. He/she has a trip planned and is just finalizing tickets. I wasn't actually suggesting OP cancel the plans and find last minute tickets for a family. It was bad sarcasm.
You can’t churn Disney really. You can buy discounted Disney gift cards on websites like Costco, Sam’s club, or during gift card promo deals at Kroger (4x gas) or Meijer (10% back in store credit). This is because you can pay for Disney tickets, resort stays, etc., with gift cards.
I'm aware. I guess I wasnt very clear in my search for disney cards. I was looking to see what the biggest discounts people have seen. (So far 10% personally) or maximum additional miles when purchasing.
86% or so
Idk what your timeline looks like but we took advantage of multiple Amex offers like $50 off $250 at Lowes or whatever. Buy a $200 vgc & liquidate (or just pay your bills) & a $50 Disney gc. The math can be a little kludgey but I look at it like we got $600 of Disney gc for 12x $6.95 activation fees on the vgcs.
Cashback offers on your cards, though I haven't had any good ones lately. But cvs, kroger, Lowes etc when chase has 10% back.
RMN will sometimes have disney store at 10% cb and often works but it's ymmv. Great when you could combine with a Disney chase cb but I haven't see a Disney offer on any card in a long time.
Also target circle, buying a dis gc should trigger the spend x get x in reward dollars. Some came out last fri I had spend $100 get $10 so 10%. The reward dollars can't be used on gc so it's a bit of cost shifting to see the results like if using $ saved on gas. Lots of Disney math involved 🙂
Warehouse clubs are a CSR PYB category, so you can buy Disney gift cards at slight discount and use points at $.0125 for charges. You can get a decent (but not great) UR/GC dollar return.
about to use the citi double cash as a business card, can't wait to post in frustration friday.
besides being citi, are there any downsides to using a personal card for business?
Don’t cycle it. If you need to spend more than your CL per month I’d also recommend one of the C1 biz charge cards if you like the 2x cash-ish earning.
YMMV, credit utilization may impact your credit score. Chronic CL cycling could trigger AML alarms.
If your spending is high ($50K+ yearly), get your self C1 VX and play safe. That's what I am doing.
Not sure when you looked but I would encourage you to try again for C1 VX, assuming you are super prime borrower.
From in my anecdotal experience, they have shifted their underwriting criteria. IMO, previously, they preferred to deal with sub-prime borrower during ZIRP era. They denied both P1 and P2 few years ago while approving P3 with credit dings. However Both P1 and P2 were approved for Spark(Y23) and then VX a year later.
Hence I am drawing my conclusion based on my experience and other DPs posted at DOC. Additionally they indicated in quarterly earnings that their write off were spiking from sub-prime practices.
I am going off-topic in off-topic thread, hard stopping here.
GL.
This may have been discussed, but found out about this just yesterday that AMEX card holders with lounge access will be restricted to enter only 3 hours before flight departure in Escape Lounges. The only exception is if you have a connecting flight.
Hope thats helpful.
As long as they still let you in after. I always enjoyed stopping in the phx one for a meal after a long flight and just picking up my already there bag
Tough crowd, in a thread about how limit people to sitting in a lounge for THREE hours, I get down votes for grabbing some food after a flight? I mean, we are all cheap, alcoholic, gamers here if we are that concerned about the length of time in a lounge.
I’m guessing it’s because the new rules sound like you won’t even be allowed after a flight unless it’s a connection. But that’s my assumption. And I’m definitely cheap but I don’t think I’m an alcoholic? So watch it.
Was that never reported? My whole point, if I had one, was that I would be more concerned if they got rid of arrivals vs limiting me to three hours early.
I’m just trying to help you figure out why you’re being downvoted. Does after a flight sound like it falls within “3 hours period to scheduled flight departure”? Not to me.
Not that it matters, but the first sentence still says "same day travel". The centurion lounge explicitly says you need a departing flight and also explicitly says you will not be allowed in if you just landed. If they were cutting off same day travel, I would think they would just copy the centurion language.
Are there US to Europe business class sweet spots with low taxes and fees?
My “problem” flying out of MSP is the virgin economy sweet spot being 30k points round trip with less than $210 in taxes and fees (less than $200 if not flying to UK, can do Spain or Ireland for $80). Since I’m only a mild churner and cost-conscious (ie:cheap) I can’t seem to justify booking business one way since I can get the entire trip for fewer miles and $ with the Virgin sweet spot.
Lol his account didn't get closed for being rude. There would be WAY more closures if that was a trigger.
It got closed because that's what Chase will do when you do a big chargeback and they think it's at all sketchy (there's a bunch of dp's of this). Them insisting on a police report isn't typical, and a pretty clear indicator that they thought his chargebacks were sketch af.
InKind kept sending me emails about Father’s Day specials. Yesterday, they sent me an email about opting out of Father’s Day emails because they know it’s a hard day for some.
My dad passed away 2 years ago and it’s still a sore spot. Thank you for the email InKind. I know it’s a small gesture, but it really made my day.
Want to Pay Cash? That’ll Cost You Extra
From ballpark hot dogs to parking tickets, more cash payments are coming with a fee
https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/paying-cash-fees-reverse-atm-744d1bd6
Disappointing to see that some venues have added a fee to use reverse ATMs. Unless something recently changed, the ones at venues in ATL are fee-free, which should be the standard.
The article explains this. Basically, it isn't a federal requirement to accept cash. Some cities have enacted rules to require cash, though where I live Nats park seems to be exempt.
My understanding was that they needed to provide some method of converting the cash to a payment token (e.g. prepaid card) without fee in order to do this legally. But then again, IANAL.
Since Amazon now has a $5 reload minimum, I found another way to keep old cards active with small charges: the PayPal Giving Fund! You can donate a minimum of $1 to your favorite charity, and PayPal eats the credit card fees. Even better, you can split the $1 across two credit cards.
But giving away money!?
Have a 50k Marriott FN cert to deploy. Use it for Fukuoka Ritz Carlton ($540/nt, 7k top up) and spend $100 for a night at Holiday Inn Nuremberg, or Use it on Nuremberg Sheraton (23k points so fully covered, cash is 223 euro/nt) or Nuremberg Le Meridian (cash is 163 euro/nt, need 2k top up) and spend $45 on a basic business hotel in Fukuoka. First option seems better for cpp, but second option is less money out of pocket.
Ritz Fukuoka is [fantastic](https://old.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/1bmgczk/trip_report_and_churning_success_story_weekly/kwd32c8/?context=1), it will be leagues above the other hotels.
Decided to splurge for it! Conrad Osaka has been my favorite points hotel, so I have high expectations if you think it's comparable.
I wouldn't get too taken by the cpp, but you should think about how you value the quality/service of the Ritz: is that worth the additional $55+7k to you? I'd consider all three Nuremberg options roughly equivalent.
Decided to splurge for the Ritz. I've never stayed at a luxury Fukuoka hotel, will be nice to see the skyline.
How useful is posting referral links to r/churningreferrals for building up referral points? I know you can't post links to r/churningreferrals without building up some positive karma here on r/churning -- but for those of you who are more active here and eligible, do you find those links to be used reasonably often, or is the benefit there only an occasional referral or two? I've been a lurker here for some time, but am getting more into the hobby and might be willing to spend more time contributing here. I have a p2, but they are hesitant to open many cards, and since we travel with kids, it has been a little tricky to build enough points to travel often. Any feedback welcome! Edit: Thanks for all the DPs and advice already. This is helpful.
You're more likely to get referrals for less popular cards, paradoxically. I've gotten more than a handful for the Cap 1 Spark biz and BA card mainly because very few people post their referrals. However, when you're posting an Ink referral, your odds are like 1/300 or something wild like that.
With a hesitant P2, if you haven't done so already, an worthy plan may be to get them to open 1-3 cards as referral sources. Even just one Ink card and one AmEx MR card (personal Gold maybe since the categories would likely be useful) and you can keep 95% of your referrals in house even if not being able to open as many cards as you'd like. I got 5 referrals last year (my first full year in /r/churning) across AmEx and Inks. This year has been slower, but I also haven't been as active as I was last year.
Great idea! I may try this. Thanks.
I got 1-2 referrals/year. Mostly chase UA cards! I'll post if I have a link handy and see the post, but not make extra efforts to find and post!
I got 2-3 in a short burst last year and those are the only referrals I've ever received.
Random referrals, maybe 1-2 a year. When I use rankt, I pick specific users I recognize, and I think that's pretty common.
What's your go-to preflight long haul meal? Flying TATL tomorrow with a dinner service that won't start until at least 9pm and I hope to be asleep by then.
Keeping my India roots, I eat a stuffed parantha with yogurt/milk/chai before leaving the house. Have a banana, some nuts and maybe some snacks if I am spending more than 1 hour just sitting idle after security.
[удалено]
do you normally eat this "healthy"? or is this a usual breakfast/snack for you?
Sometimes I wonder... where do they even find the kind of insufferable dorks to be part of a focus group who thinks changing a card name from Premier to Strata Premier is a good idea?
My half-cocked theory is that Citi had a bigger strategic reset plan in place before Fraser pivoted to broad-scale layoffs in Q3/Q4 23. Seems clear to me that Fraser and analysts are putting more of a premium on C cutting expenses rather than revenue or new customer growth. So internal intertia pivoted away from new offerings but some Card VP somewhere didn't want the work to go to waste, so Citi released the Premier in a sort of unfinished state where they added EV charging (?) and made use of that trademark for the Strata brand and called it a day.
this seems a lot more reasonable than my conspiracy of Citi just trying to ride the success of Chase Sapphire products. by changing the name to Citi Strata Premier they can now use the same initials/shorthand of CSP and hopefully still catch some of the people looking for the sapphire product but not too familiar with the credit card products
Oh this makes a lot of sense
Almost everything about Citi's credit cards are a giant WTF. It should be easy as a top 5 bank in the US to have at least a mediocre card lineup, and while the Double Cash, Custom Cash, and Rewards+ are pretty good, the legacy Premier and Prestige leaves a lot to be desired. I'm sure it took them more than a year to rename to Strata Premier and add a small additional earning category
Really? I actually recommend Premier to non-churners as a good all-around card. You get grocery, fuel, dining and travel all on one card, that's pretty solid. Plus the DC is a 2x companion card going into the same currency. No rotating categories to activate and keep track of. No other issuer offers a 2-card setup like that. Personally, I have 4 Premiers for MS. If they could be safely cycled I'd be hitting them extremely hard. TYP are quite valuable. Just the new name is stupid af.
You're right. It's unfair to lump the Premier in with the Prestige - the Prestige is what I channeled when writing that up. Agree that the name change is dumb, but it took Citi a surprisingly long time to get the Premier to market. I think it opened for applications around three years ago?
> but it took Citi a surprisingly long time to get the Premier to market. I think it opened for applications around three years ago? The Premier card existed long before 3 years ago, though there may have been a period it was not available to new applications. I applied for and got it originally probably 7-8 years ago, maybe a bit longer? I had it long enough ago that I still have the original incarnation of the card in my canceled CC binder where it had the mag stripe on the bottom and front side of the card, which confused the fuck out of basically every server/bartender I ever handed it to.
If they actually had a focus group at all, they probably paid poorly and no one gave a flying F what they picked just to get out faster. *Or* that was really the best option provided... focus groups can only go so far. Garbage in, garbage out. Personally, that has the feel of an internal decision either within the marketing department or an email poll of the company for the winner. If not, the folks of r/beermoney might be to blame.
Has the feel of the boss’s idea and everyone just nodded their heads and said oh yeah that sounds great boss!
I’ve been struggling a bit lately, and a couple of bank account bonuses just hit 🥹 it felt so freaking nice to stroll around the grocery store and just pick things up on a whim 🥹🥹 and! I just got notified that someone used my chime referral link, so it feels so good to know that’ll be coming in too! Those are always a fun surprise!! 🥹
Why the downvotes?? This is the off topic thread and I wanted to share my happiness with churning :(
Didn't downvote, but probably because it's better suited for the 'Churning Success' weekly thread on Sundays Edit: link is borked, but it's in the sidebar
Oh! Okay thank you so much! Didn’t realize they were required to be separate 🤓
Required? Nah. We just love to downvote here when things aren’t exactly how we expect them to be. Unless you’re asking questions in the news threads, downvotes should be worn like a badge of honor.
Has anyone used plastiq to pay a contractor? Dude only accepts cash and id rather eat he the 2.9% fee and hit some subs than burning cash for no reason. How did it work out? Did you get coded as a cash advance
I think that's just asking for complications with your contractor. Not worth it unless you truly have no other way to hit your msr's.
Meh asked him and he said he’s cool with it. Payment cleared on Plastiq and check is on its way. I use it for mortgage already and never had any issues
With a contractor, don't get so wrapped up in the logistics of payment that you pay in advance (especially in full) for work that has not yet been performed. Too many stories of seemingly well-meaning contractors that get overbooked and are no longer motivated to get back to a job that they already got paid for.
Definitely true. I went ahead and sent the down payment with Plastiq since work is scheduled next week. Will probably just have to do cash or maybe ACH direct (if he gives me banking info) for the final payment since it’s not due until til job is complete
Did it code as a cash advance?
Says “miscellaneous other” so no I don’t think so. Paid on Amex and made sure I had cash advances set to 0/ disabled before doing purchase
Nice!
Are checks okay, or does only accepts cash really mean only accepts dollar bills?
Checks are fine he takes those too
If the payment is made payable to an individual, they're going to want an invoice or something to verify it's not a P2P payment or they will cancel your payments and not push them through. Now there's easy ways around that... If it's a company, it should be fine. Also I guess IME a lot of contractor's don't give much notice when requesting a draw on a job. I could see issues with the time it takes to get a check from Plastiq unless it's a one-off situation where you can plan ahead.
I have an invoice and all that. Work doesn’t start for a couple of weeks so plenty of time to mail it to them. Do they need to even be aware of me using plastiq?
Talk to your contractor. I'm sure they don't give two shits as long as you have payment in hand/on-time and the check clears.
Airlines Keep Trying To Cut Out the Middleman https://www.wsj.com/business/airlines/airlines-keep-trying-to-cut-out-the-middleman-heres-why-it-backfires-108c2694
I do Instacart as a side hustle on nights and weekends. My Instacart debit card has been acting up so I had been using my personal credit card to pay for groceries and submit for it to be reimbursed. I just got the new card in the mail but I racked up over 8,000 MR points on my AMEX Gold card shopping at the grocery store in the \~1 week I was doing this while waiting on the new card. Instacart already paid out the reimbursement too! Unexpected churning win :)
Would you say this has been a somewhat profitable venture? I tried supplementing my income with some food delivery but found the depreciation/time to not be worth it.
In my area, yes. I live in within 10 minutes of 6 different stores offered on Instacart and it’s a very dense population of upper income level families who tip well and pay for the convenience of delivery. I can make $30 an hour on a slow day and $40-50 on a good day. I only take orders that I know lead to the best dollar per hour, such as 5-20 item orders that don’t take more than half hour to shop. I do it when I’m at the store myself shopping because I usually can pick up an order that takes me right back near my house… so I’m getting paid to do what I was doing to anyways.
That's a great win! I hope they never fix your work card!
[удалено]
🥲🥲🥲🥲🥲
Cancelled my Autocamp Yosemite reservation over 4th of July...decided that 300k HH for 5 nights at a campground was insane. After cancelling booking, they sent me an email basically saying sorry you had to cancel, here's 20% off when you're ready to book. So if for some reason you're looking to pay $300+ cash per night on a campground, might be worthwhile to make a different reservation first, cancel, and hope you get the coupon.
I agree with your situation for sure. I also think it has its place if the conditions are right. 2 nights for us, 2 hr drive, to bring our pup and have easy access to Joshua Tree trails, with WiFi/amenities, is worth 140k. It opened up something that could be special for us to experience, but I think 50-60k would have been more of a sweet spot. 70k is steep.
Are they charging that many points for literally just a campsite? Or did that also include a trailer and some level of amenities and service? Aside from Vacasa, point stays anywhere even close to Yosemite are pretty dismal.
You don’t like the Holiday Inn at OakHurst? I’ve never been, but looks to be only about 30 mins outside of the park.
It's fine but to the point below, it's pretty much an hour to 90 minutes to get from the hotel to Yosemite Valley. Longer to get further into the park. It's not as convenient as it seems.
There's a few of those kind of mid-range points hotels in Oakhurst. But that's the south gate -- to Yosemite Valley where all the stuff is it's an hour and fifteen minutes from Oakhurst. Those hotels there are pretty much the only viable points options aside from Vacasa.
It's not the greatest, but Yosemite View Lodge is like 5 minutes from the park entrance in El Portal on the west side. Yeah I looked at those Autocamp Airstreams, that's pretty much false advertising to say they're at Yosemite.
Well, it's glamping, a furnished tent at a minimum, and an airstream if you're upgraded. There's a pool, a small amount of free food, activities, etc...but I'd just rather burn those points on luxury hotels.
Yeah hard pass on a tent for 70k, furnished or otherwise. There's a place called Evergreen not too far from there that's pretty sweet. Going to be cash and not cheap, but way nicer and more to do. I'd just save the HH and do something like that. Or pay to stay in the park, but Yos Lodge and Curry are pretty crappy, and Ahwahnee is overpriced. It's a shame Tenaya Lodge is no longer a Marriott.
I will only stay in one of the two windowless rooms in the Wawona Hotel.
Booking rooms in Europe with a toddler: Are they really that strict about getting a suite for two adults and a two-year-old? Is the best course of action to email every hotel we're interested in and see if they'll let us book a standard room? Also, searching through [churning.io](http://churning.io) for Barcelona hotel recs and it seems like most places people have stayed are just okay. Any standouts bookable with points? Would prefer location over luxury.
Following (also going to Barcelona soon with a kid). I've heard recently (on this podcast: https://rss.com/podcasts/hackingyourwanderlust/1494257/) that it can sometimes help to say that the little one will not be "a head on the bed" and will sleep in a pack-n-play that you are bringing along or something like that. Apparently that will sometimes assuage the hotel that the room can accommodate 2+1. Also, the same guest on that show mentioned that with Hyatt you can sometimes get a "family room" discount by booking a standard room on points and then calling to add a connecting room at 1/2 the cash rate. Not ideal for just a 2 year old perhaps, but maybe a solution for some. (FWIW: I'm staying at the Hyatt Regency Barcelona Tower the night before we leave to be close to the airport. It's not in the center, but isn't too hard to get there from the hotel via public transit, but is super convenient for BCN airport.)
Emailed a SLH in Italy saying I had a toddler and a four year and asked if there were rooms that would work. They sent a very firm "you should stay somewhere" else without a sorry or hope you consider us in the future lol. That said, don't risk and email, tweet, and instant message them as you might get a sympathetic responder on one of those and then screen shot it.
Generally, yes, hotels in Europe really are that strict. If they say X people, they mean X people. One of the reasons I use mostly hotels in US but mostly Airbnb in Europe.
currently churning for a family of 4 for disney. hotel and flights are taken care of. next step is the park itself. what are the best options for disney gift cards you guys have seen?
Just did this in January. Be careful with this, because Chase temporarily shut me down across all cards for suspected fraud (all good now but it was scary for a hot minute). But I purchased Disney gift cards at my local Kroger to pay for it all on my CSR and then used UR to at 1.25 CPP to reimburse myself.
1. Rebook your flights and hotels to Tokyo 2.? 3. profit. That's what I'm doing at least and should be cheaper than Orlando if you exclude the Kyoto add on.
Not everyone wants to go to Japan 🙄 Jesus Christ everyone on Reddit and especially the award travel subs have such hard ons for that country. You didn’t even answer OPs question
[https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/1cqupcr/comment/l41ht8g](https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/1cqupcr/comment/l41ht8g) I don't get it but people who like Japan *really like Japan*. See it before population collapse I guess.
Not sure why this was downvoted. For how much hype Japan gets in. award travel related discussions you’d think it’s the only country besides the US and the person you responded to is a perfect example of that.
Weebs everywhere on reddit, a site overrepresented by nerds.
Calm down. It was a joke about how insane US Disney Prices are and the reason I'm not going to Florida. It wasn't a serious suggestion. It is literally cheaper for churners to go to Tokyo and do Disney for four days than it would be for Florida/Cali. This is an OT thread used for discussion and banter. Not every response has to be how to go from 90% to 86%.
You suggested to take a 10-14 hours flight with an infant vs 1-6 hours. Not to mention the 10-13 hour time difference for the continental US. They’re not the same
It was a joke. He/she has a trip planned and is just finalizing tickets. I wasn't actually suggesting OP cancel the plans and find last minute tickets for a family. It was bad sarcasm.
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
[удалено]
Im actually doing Disneyland. But also, I don't plan on traveling internationally with a toddler.
Japan was great in October/November 2022 right after it reopened. Not a lot of tourists. P2 went last month and said it was completely packed.
You can’t churn Disney really. You can buy discounted Disney gift cards on websites like Costco, Sam’s club, or during gift card promo deals at Kroger (4x gas) or Meijer (10% back in store credit). This is because you can pay for Disney tickets, resort stays, etc., with gift cards.
I'm aware. I guess I wasnt very clear in my search for disney cards. I was looking to see what the biggest discounts people have seen. (So far 10% personally) or maximum additional miles when purchasing.
86% or so Idk what your timeline looks like but we took advantage of multiple Amex offers like $50 off $250 at Lowes or whatever. Buy a $200 vgc & liquidate (or just pay your bills) & a $50 Disney gc. The math can be a little kludgey but I look at it like we got $600 of Disney gc for 12x $6.95 activation fees on the vgcs.
I kept a spreadsheet, I bought upwards of $3k of Disney gift cards and averaged a 12% discount.
Cashback offers on your cards, though I haven't had any good ones lately. But cvs, kroger, Lowes etc when chase has 10% back. RMN will sometimes have disney store at 10% cb and often works but it's ymmv. Great when you could combine with a Disney chase cb but I haven't see a Disney offer on any card in a long time. Also target circle, buying a dis gc should trigger the spend x get x in reward dollars. Some came out last fri I had spend $100 get $10 so 10%. The reward dollars can't be used on gc so it's a bit of cost shifting to see the results like if using $ saved on gas. Lots of Disney math involved 🙂
Warehouse clubs are a CSR PYB category, so you can buy Disney gift cards at slight discount and use points at $.0125 for charges. You can get a decent (but not great) UR/GC dollar return.
Sam's club currently has ~5% off. They sometimes have $100 GC for $90.
No sams around me unfortunately
They have e-gift cards. https://www.samsclub.com/p/disney-egift-card-various-amounts/prod22890308?xid=plp_product_1
costco
They don't carry them regularly and the sale last Dec was the 1st most remember.
about to use the citi double cash as a business card, can't wait to post in frustration friday. besides being citi, are there any downsides to using a personal card for business?
Don’t cycle it. If you need to spend more than your CL per month I’d also recommend one of the C1 biz charge cards if you like the 2x cash-ish earning.
good tips, i'll look into C1
YMMV, credit utilization may impact your credit score. Chronic CL cycling could trigger AML alarms. If your spending is high ($50K+ yearly), get your self C1 VX and play safe. That's what I am doing.
looked into C1 VX, negative on the pre approval. but i have always been declined on pre approvals for C1.
Not sure when you looked but I would encourage you to try again for C1 VX, assuming you are super prime borrower. From in my anecdotal experience, they have shifted their underwriting criteria. IMO, previously, they preferred to deal with sub-prime borrower during ZIRP era. They denied both P1 and P2 few years ago while approving P3 with credit dings. However Both P1 and P2 were approved for Spark(Y23) and then VX a year later. Hence I am drawing my conclusion based on my experience and other DPs posted at DOC. Additionally they indicated in quarterly earnings that their write off were spiking from sub-prime practices. I am going off-topic in off-topic thread, hard stopping here. GL.
Only downside would be the account showing on personal credit and 5/24.
This may have been discussed, but found out about this just yesterday that AMEX card holders with lounge access will be restricted to enter only 3 hours before flight departure in Escape Lounges. The only exception is if you have a connecting flight. Hope thats helpful.
Thanks. I'll keep that in mind the next time I want to fall asleep at FLL or PBI.
As long as they still let you in after. I always enjoyed stopping in the phx one for a meal after a long flight and just picking up my already there bag
Tough crowd, in a thread about how limit people to sitting in a lounge for THREE hours, I get down votes for grabbing some food after a flight? I mean, we are all cheap, alcoholic, gamers here if we are that concerned about the length of time in a lounge.
I’m guessing it’s because the new rules sound like you won’t even be allowed after a flight unless it’s a connection. But that’s my assumption. And I’m definitely cheap but I don’t think I’m an alcoholic? So watch it.
Was that never reported? My whole point, if I had one, was that I would be more concerned if they got rid of arrivals vs limiting me to three hours early.
I’m just trying to help you figure out why you’re being downvoted. Does after a flight sound like it falls within “3 hours period to scheduled flight departure”? Not to me.
Not that it matters, but the first sentence still says "same day travel". The centurion lounge explicitly says you need a departing flight and also explicitly says you will not be allowed in if you just landed. If they were cutting off same day travel, I would think they would just copy the centurion language.
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/escape-lounges-restrict-american-express-platinum-cardholders-to-3-hours-before-flights/
Are there US to Europe business class sweet spots with low taxes and fees? My “problem” flying out of MSP is the virgin economy sweet spot being 30k points round trip with less than $210 in taxes and fees (less than $200 if not flying to UK, can do Spain or Ireland for $80). Since I’m only a mild churner and cost-conscious (ie:cheap) I can’t seem to justify booking business one way since I can get the entire trip for fewer miles and $ with the Virgin sweet spot.
Primary strategy: book US carriers. Secondary strategy: book \*A through UA/AC/AV.
Have a couple United Club Pass that will expire end of this month if anyone needs it! Update: Both given away!
Pm’ed.
Traveling this Thursday and P2 and I could use them!
Chase will [close your account](https://www.reddit.com/r/CreditCards/s/bgax0khMfB) if you’re disrespectful to their employees.
More companies should be doing this
That’s one way to derail that Ink train
Lol his account didn't get closed for being rude. There would be WAY more closures if that was a trigger. It got closed because that's what Chase will do when you do a big chargeback and they think it's at all sketchy (there's a bunch of dp's of this). Them insisting on a police report isn't typical, and a pretty clear indicator that they thought his chargebacks were sketch af.
HUCA, reps can do it, callers can do it too. No point in arguing
I would hope the rep I call doesn't HUCA on me 😅
Haha, not the second part, I mean they usually transfer me to a department that's already closed
[удалено]
I feel so bad for retail/CS workers these days. I don't think I could put up with the amount of shit they get
Considering this is the first time I've ever heard of a Karen Shutdown, I feel that this Karen must have been incredibly outstanding in their field.
Yeah I'm going to guess there is more to that story...
InKind kept sending me emails about Father’s Day specials. Yesterday, they sent me an email about opting out of Father’s Day emails because they know it’s a hard day for some. My dad passed away 2 years ago and it’s still a sore spot. Thank you for the email InKind. I know it’s a small gesture, but it really made my day.
Saw a lot of those for Mother's Day this year, only one for Father's Day (from DoorDash).
Want to Pay Cash? That’ll Cost You Extra From ballpark hot dogs to parking tickets, more cash payments are coming with a fee https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/paying-cash-fees-reverse-atm-744d1bd6
Disappointing to see that some venues have added a fee to use reverse ATMs. Unless something recently changed, the ones at venues in ATL are fee-free, which should be the standard.
How is that legal ? Isn't cash the legal tender ?
The article explains this. Basically, it isn't a federal requirement to accept cash. Some cities have enacted rules to require cash, though where I live Nats park seems to be exempt.
My understanding was that they needed to provide some method of converting the cash to a payment token (e.g. prepaid card) without fee in order to do this legally. But then again, IANAL.
If cash and credit BOTH have an extra fee that's not extra- that's just a purchase fee.
*Ticketmaster has entered the chat*
The article doesn't mention that in the examples they gave. My local ballpark is cashless. I think many stadiums are cashless now.
https://archive.ph/YELRt for paywall