@RhubarbPie wrote:
@Dustink wrote:
@RhubarbPie wrote:
@Dustink wrote:I think limits have a lot to do in leading to a "trophy" card.
Pretty much every card mentioned so far can be easily obtained. I am only 21 have an income around $50k and have a sort history. For a card to be a "trophy" card, it should be out of reach to me. I think @CreditScholar said it perfectly.
The cards would be a lot more of a "trophy" if they carried a harder to obtain limit like $50k. So, to me a "trophy" card would be something like a CSP or BCP with a $50k limit, not one with a 4 digit limit.
A AMEX charge card that declines a small charge of like $5k is not a "trophy" card. One that you can go out an charge a 6 figure car would be.
An average person can build relations with banks to get to these limits and NPS capabilities. It just takes time, great credit, and decent income combined with structured saving/investing.
But then again, it comes down to who you are. If a card does what you need it to do. Be content and call it your "trophy".
Generally speaking, you can't pay for a car with a credit card. When we bought our BMW, they let us put $5000 or so on a card. The remainder we had to pay via bank check. This is the experience of most people we know, the policy of most luxury car dealerships, and I'd assume most dealerships in general. You'll have to find a different 6 figure charge as the initiation for your 'trophy card'!
Haha it was figurative, but yes they will let you charge the car. Just offer to pay whatever fee they get charged. When I was car shopping, I brought it up. They said no until I offered to pay an extra 3%, then they were cool with it.
This is rare for a number of reasons, beyond the fees that the merchant will pay to the card company. Generally speaking, its more complicated than just saying I'll pay a little extra. Seems like you got lucky
Out of sheer curiosity, was this an actual dealership (i.e. Mercedes, BMW, or any other actual car dealership) or was it a used car lot/business?
I was working with a mitsubishi dealer, an audi dealer, an infiniti dealer, and a subau dealer so it seemed to generally be the case. They weren't concerned about charge backs, they were just worried about the fee's. I did not end up putting it on a credit card. I ended up getting 0% financing through the dealer. None of them mentioned a limit, but the mitsubishi dealer was the one that said I would have to pay the fee's on anything over $3k. The rest basically said money is money. I had a trade in, so maybe that was part of it. They knew I wasn't just a scammer coming in with a stolen credit card...idk...Seems like people buying cars with credit cards for rewards isn't all that uncommon
I think in some sense, if the dealer is okay with taking a credit card for the purchase. You didn't do a good enough job negotiating..haha
Negotiate the deal. Whip out the credit card. When they say no, you walk. They will either stop you, or give you a call back. Most likely they won't let it be a deal breaker. They may call you bank to make sure all is well.
I drive the "cheap Beemer" (the one that's around $30k base price, 3 series), and they - the local BMW dealer - would have let me use plastic for the entire car (I asked), but I would have had to have paid a surcharge of around 3-4% (probably to recoup interchange fees), which makes it useless (I wanted to do it for the massive amount of MR points - half of a first-class transatlantic - even if it would have been a sure-fire way to trigger FR). I was allowed to put tax-title-etc. on credit, and would be allowed to put the down payment on it.
As is, it's far cheaper (and less risky of an FR) to buy MR points than pay 3-4% for them.
Goal: 760 by End of Year
@distantarray wrote:
@ryanbush wrote:
I've always got 3.5 - 4 cents per out of my skymiles, it's typicall ymmv but they can be valuable if used properly.
I have NO Idea how your pulling that kinda miracle off, but if you are then do this for a lot of Skymiles
@Bigcrumbs -> Amex gift cards $3,000 @1.4% cash rebate -> williamspaid to pay your rent or mortgage @ 2.9% + get 500 delta skymiles for every time you pay your mortgage with williamspaid promo is going on.
Your paying 1.5% per delta skymile + 500 bonus miles each month.
No sh*t. I've never heard of Skypesos being worth even a penny. The only points on earth that are even close to the "3c" range (and are still quite a bit below it) are SPG, followed probably by SW RR (1.44c each) and Chase UR (~1.5c each). Some points, like Hilton, you can consider yourself lucky if it takes less than 6 of them to fill a penny.
In 2007, fresh out of bankruptcy, Delta's books valued each SkyPeso as a liability of $0.0083. In 2010, their books valued them at $0.0054, just over one-half of one cent. I don't think they've become more valuable in the last two years, either. (Of course they're worth more than 1/6 of a cent - I was talking about certain hotel cards there.) That's a devaluation of over 30% in 3 years. SkyMiles are, liberally, valued at about half of a penny, seeing as an award for 200k costs about $10k USD (if you're looking for transatlantics, first class cabin, not having to call support constantly, and not arranging your schedule around when Delta condescends to make award travel available).
Maybe if you have Medallion status and do nothing but contiguous 48 flights, maybe they might be worth a little more. Delta's calendar is still buggy, award availability is crap, their miles are still next-to-worthless, and I've rarely seen an award for under 40k (sometimes 32.5k - double those numbers if you want to buy out of the stingy capacity controls), that couldn't be had on any other airline for 25k - and that's for domestic (but I don't have medallion). However bankrupt Delta may have been, I think their books put a good fix on the actual, average value of the points - for each man that gets 3.5c per mile (if that was recently, and not ten years ago), there are a dozen that get one-quarter of a cent. I haven't flown Delta since around 2010, so, they may have become more valuable - but they'd be the only point on earth that ever went in the right direction.
One thing we can agree on is focussing spend on programs like UR and SPG (and to a lesser extent MR), which transfer wherever, whenever. If DL happens to have the good award the week you want to travel, you can take it, but you're not locked in - you can also fly any other of fifty other carriers.
@Chrysostom wrote:In 2007, fresh out of bankruptcy, Delta's books valued each SkyPeso as a liability of $0.0083. In 2010, their books valued them at $0.0054, just over one-half of one cent. I don't think they've become more valuable in the last two years, either. (Of course they're worth more than 1/6 of a cent - I was talking about certain hotel cards there.) That's a devaluation of over 30% in 3 years. SkyMiles are, liberally, valued at about half of a penny, seeing as an award for 200k costs about $10k USD (if you're looking for transatlantics, first class cabin, not having to call support constantly, and not arranging your schedule around when Delta condescends to make award travel available).
Maybe if you have Medallion status and do nothing but contiguous 48 flights, maybe they might be worth a little more. Delta's calendar is still buggy, award availability is crap, their miles are still next-to-worthless, and I've rarely seen an award for under 40k (sometimes 32.5k), that couldn't be had on any other airline for 25k - and that's for domestic (but I don't have medallion). However bankrupt Delta may have been, I think their books put a good fix on the actual, average value of the points - for each man that gets 3.5c per mile (if that was recently, and not ten years ago), there are a dozen that get one-quarter of a cent.
I agree with you completly that they can be very hard to redeem, but I come upon quite a few of them through business spend so it doesn't really matter what they're worth to me 
I was just pointing out that they can be valuable if you find the right redemption.
Again for my personal spend I use my UR cards and just put a little bit each month on my MR and Skymiles cards just to keep earning.
If SkyMiles were free, I'd take a hundred million of them and never fly on another carrier. Agreed.