topic Re: Got to thinking... in Credit Cards

Got to thinking...

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 01:11:17 GMT

...tonight because everyone here is a bad influence. :-D ;-) My original plan had been to app for a travel card in 2020, but I will be gutting and remodeling a house and wondering for allllll the expense it is going to be, if running it through a card for great travel returns would be a solid idea or sticking to one of the two rewards cards I have: AMEX BCP & Costco Citi. I really want to be able to travel with my three kids to Europe so if I am spending the money on supplies and workers, what can give me my biggest bang for the expense?

Re: Got to thinking...

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 01:42:47 GMT

citi DC. I don't know any travel card has a bonus home improvement category.

Re: Got to thinking...

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 01:44:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
citi DC. I don't know any travel card has a bonus home improvement category.

Right, but I'm assuming OP is also thinking of SUB that can be met with this expense

Re: Got to thinking...

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 01:47:04 GMT

ah. that make sense.

Just go for biggest SUB then. CSR, Platinum.

Re: Got to thinking...

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 02:45:22 GMT

Sub and beyond. Like I saw the Venture has 2 miles per $1 and seemed to pay out at $700 for 50,000 miles. What else would give more points for this spend or if you have a better suggestion, I am happy to hear it. I just want money to go on and the most I can get from what I am spending.

Re: Got to thinking...

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 03:00:13 GMT

Altitude Reserve with Samsung pay will get you 4.5 % ( 3% x 1.5 when redeemed for travel) at Home Depot and Lowe's, plus you get a 50k sub worth $750 in travel

Re: Got to thinking...

Loquat — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 03:01:37 GMT

Hi OP. I understand your want for a travel card...and with your upcoming expenses you may be able to actually knock out a spend bonus depending on the actual amount. However, I will caution that I don't know of many (if any) travel cards that offer bonus in home improvement. Occasionally Amex will have an extra MR point earning for Lowes and even that's rare.

With that being said, you mentioned that you'd like to do some travel with family. Even with the highest spend bonus out there (thinking 100k Amex offer on Platinum) those points don't go as far as one may think. You may already be aware of this but I thought it was worth mentioning. Traveling, especially if the goal is to do so for free, takes a LOT and I mean a LOT of points. Even the most basic, domestic flight in main cabin can cost 25-40K (and sometimes more) points for a round trip.

I'm mentioning this because I'd hate to see you go in on a travel card only to realize that it takes a LOT to get to even the most basic places here in the country. Best of luck in whatever you decide to do.

Re: Got to thinking...

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 03:09:46 GMT

I'm flying out to Peru back from Bolivia for about 43k points total so it depends on what kind of deal you can find. I also got a 25% bonus transferring TY points to avianca so actually a bit less than that.

Might also consider Amex blue business plus if you can get a business card, 20k sub can be had and gets 2x mr points on everything, solid long term card with 15 months 0% interest

Re: Got to thinking...

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 03:13:41 GMT

I was seeing it takes a lot of points/miles. Do you have a suggestion for getting cash back or something else for the spend that can be applied even through statement credit? I am hoping to not spend more than $50,000 on this remodel, but I would like to get everything I can out of the money through some means. Better than just spending it and having nothing (but the house of course) to show for it.

Re: Got to thinking...

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 03:22:13 GMT

for that much bend as mentioned your best bet is probably something like that home Depot or Lowe's credit card which gets 5% off at those stores assuming you are going to be doing all of your purchasing at said store. Otherwise the rotating category cash back cards are usually going to be capped at like $1,500 per quarter even if it rotates into home improvement. there are a couple of general cash back cards like I believe it's alliance which gets 2.5% I think even 3% the first year, the PayPal cashback MasterCard linked with a PayPal business debit card can get 3% back on all purchases but it is a Comenity credit card and they seem to be pretty stingy with credit limit increases so I'm not sure about the ease of running 50 grand through that card. Of course there is the option of doing several cards with signup bonuses, I have like 9 AMEX card so I know it's totally possible to get several of those without much trouble. 50 Grand could be like 10 $5,000 minimum spends.

Re: Got to thinking...

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 03:46:01 GMT

I was thinking about that with multiple cards. Weighing the draw backs against the gain.

Re: Got to thinking...

red259 — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 03:56:04 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I was thinking about that with multiple cards. Weighing the draw backs against the gain.

Booking multiple award tickets is a lot tougher than booking for one or even two people. It can be done but requires a massive amount of flexibility. Since it will require a lot of points you will need to figure out your target airlines and destinations to crunch the numbers. With 50k spend you can easily pick up a number of cards and meet the SUBs. You need to know what airline programs you want to go for. If there is an airline that works for you that accepts point currencies from multiple credit card companies that is probably your best bet so you can pool all the points into one account and to not have too many apps with one card company. Maybe consider airline cards as well as general point cards since its a large amount of spend. This is one of those things that can be done if you are methodical with planning out your apps and keeping your eye on the finish line.

Re: Got to thinking...

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 03:59:04 GMT

This might help: This 54-Year-Old Mom Used Credit Card Points to Take a $12,000 Dream Vacation to Norway for Only $217

"Phillips began her credit card rewards research the way many people do—hunting online for deals and advice. Soon she came across the website 10xTravel.com, an online community that shares travel-hacking know-how through a Facebook group and blog posts."

Re: Got to thinking...

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 04:23:12 GMT

It's doable man, I opened 21 cards between Nov 2017 and Nov 2018 and all of them are worthwhile to me lol

Re: Got to thinking...

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 04:33:53 GMT

What happened to your AAOA and scores? Are you banned from applying for anything new for the next 20 years, LOL ;-)

Re: Got to thinking...

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 05:10:50 GMT

My score actually went up ultimately, last I checked it was 740 - 750. I just have to be cautious about application rules like 5/24 now, but that's ok cuz I took all of that into account when I set out, and there's only 1 more card that I really want to get which I'm apping for in January. Im riding on the notion that their approval is based on financial status and not how many cards I've opened but hey win some lose some...then I'm apping for 2 more Amex cards later in the year rofl. I actually really want one of those and regular want the other one too lolol. Amex seems pretty chill for me though, opened up 5 cards with them last month so I have 9 AMEX cards total now.

Re: Got to thinking...

CreditInspired — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 08:09:34 GMT

I learned a lot from everyones’ posts.

My only concern is that a $50K spend is a lot of dough if you don’t PIF. So, if you end up paying any kind of interest, that wipes out the value of rewards. Or am I overthinking this?

Here is my elementary thought. Get 2-3, 0% APR and CB cards for 12-15 months that have nice SUBs. And take the money you would have been paying monthly on interest bearing CCs and put it into a savings acct for your travel plans. .

Just my 2cents.

Re: Got to thinking...

Anonymous — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 08:29:27 GMT

Yes, all of this assumes that you would otherwise be able to pay this $50k outright in cash. With that kind of volume though, if you couldn't then I'd assume you'd get a personal loan to front the $50k. In which case you'd still benefit from the CCs as you can pay them off with the loan then you're where you would be, owing a $50k loan, but would have earned $50k in CC rewards as well.

Re: Got to thinking...

redpat — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 09:43:04 GMT

AA Barclays 50k, Citi AA 50k, Amex Plat 100k (if you can get it) and Amex gold 50k that’s 250k in subs for AA / Avios plus 50k in spend. Also, you should be able to get 40% Amex transfer bonus to Avios by 2020.

In addition, AA shopping portal has Home Depot for and additional mile or two.

You don’t have to apply for the cards all at once.

Re: Got to thinking...

red259 — Sun, 30 Dec 2018 09:34:55 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Yes, all of this assumes that you would otherwise be able to pay this $50k outright in cash. With that kind of volume though, if you couldn't then I'd assume you'd get a personal loan to front the $50k. In which case you'd still benefit from the CCs as you can pay them off with the loan then you're where you would be, owing a $50k loan, but would have earned $50k in CC rewards as well.

Credit card rewards are rather pointless if someone carries a large balance and pays interest. I'm assuming OP knows this already and wasn't planning on carrying balances where they had to pay interest.