How Many Credit Cards Do You Have?

[kim carnes]

Do those Hyatt nights expire with the Hyatt bonus sign up?

yes, you have like a year to book them iirc

I didn't even use mine.  Didn't have time this summer.

[Cartierfor3]

mrs. dave just called to cancel her Citi AA Visa and was given a $95 statement credit and 750 miles to keep it. it wasn't to offset an annual fee or anything because it wasn't due for another 6 months. pretty baller.

I guess I don't get how credit card companies work. Don't they look at it and see that Mrs. SD isn't going to give them any money? If I was the CC company I'd be like "Oh she's a churner, we give her stuff and she never keeps a balance or pays interest, if she wants to cancel then cool with us." What's in it for them to give $95 and 750 miles?

[The Tonya Harding of Twitter Users Creep]

mrs. dave just called to cancel her Citi AA Visa and was given a $95 statement credit and 750 miles to keep it. it wasn't to offset an annual fee or anything because it wasn't due for another 6 months. pretty baller.

I guess I don't get how credit card companies work. Don't they look at it and see that Mrs. SD isn't going to give them any money? If I was the CC company I'd be like "Oh she's a churner, we give her stuff and she never keeps a balance or pays interest, if she wants to cancel then cool with us." What's in it for them to give $95 and 750 miles?

She probably spends a lot of money and visa, mastercard, etc get part of every dollar she spends. Plus, they probably believe at some point she will mess up and pay the fee, overdraw on credit, whatever it may be. They're just trying to retain cardholders because they make money on them. Maybe mrs SD will be so thrilled with citi she will take out a second mortgage through them? Idk.

That's my best guess.

[Scary Smart]

don't transfer them until you have a booking you want to make. they are more valuable left as UR points than as any single mile/point they partner with.

this is good advice. asking the original question though, is kind of like asking someone you don't know what you should have for lunch. i mean do you like seafood? cause if not, then seafood would be a pretty horrible thing to recommend. there's just too many unknown variables.

ex- i transferred 40k ur to southwest and then southwest to airtran and booked two roundtrip flights to aruba. that worked well for me because 1) i liked the idea of going to aruba and 2) it was the only way that those 40k UR points would get me there. if your plan is to go to hawaii or paris then this would be a really stupid plan because airtran does not fly there.

well, the OP did say he primarily uses SW.

thx bros

[sys]

For you people who don't like calling to cancel your cards on the phone I just cancelled three Amex cards over live chat or whatever. Was pretty quick and painless.

oh man, what a breakthrough.  i'm going to go try and chat cancel a card right now.

usbank's website lol,no'd my effort to chat cancel.

[sys]

I guess I don't get how credit card companies work. Don't they look at it and see that Mrs. SD isn't going to give them any money? If I was the CC company I'd be like "Oh she's a churner, we give her stuff and she never keeps a balance or pays interest, if she wants to cancel then cool with us." What's in it for them to give $95 and 750 miles?

my guess is it's like sat scores and colleges.  she pulls up their average on some important metrics or something like that.

[steve dave]

my guess is some bigshot at citi has an annual bonus riding on retention %

[steve dave]

michigancat alert:

http://boardingarea.com/onemileatatime/2013/07/31/mogl-almost-over/

[GoodForAnother]

got a new position and will be traveling a lot using my amex for hotels, rentals, gas, etc.  will probably be putting a lot of money on it every year.  it's a $90 fee that I'm responsible for and pays 1 point per dollar.  how usable are amex membership rewards?  worth $90 a year?

[steve dave]

Yeah, they are ok

[michigancat]

Yeah, they are ok

better than sapphire?

[steve dave]

Yeah, they are ok

better than sapphire?

No, instead of being transferable to Hyatt and united you get delta and BA which are much suckier.

[sys]

don't pay fees; bad precedent.

[GoodForAnother]

Yeah, they are ok

better than sapphire?

No, instead of being transferable to Hyatt and united you get delta and BA which are much suckier.

hmph.  well I guess it's probably worth the $90 but I'm a bit disappointed about the xfer options.

[steve dave]

You can also book travel straight up with the points. Bad value though. Basically if you are going to spend $5k or more on the card each year it's a no brainer IMO. I mean, 4,500 BA will get you to Chicago or DFW.

[Emo EMAW]

Some dude who calls himself the Frugal Traveler was on TV talking about this stuff.

[GoodForAnother]

You can also book travel straight up with the points. Bad value though. Basically if you are going to spend $5k or more on the card each year it's a no brainer IMO. I mean, 4,500 BA will get you to Chicago or DFW.

I'll definitely clear $5k on it, so I'll go for it.  Thanks SD.

[steve dave]

You can also book travel straight up with the points. Bad value though. Basically if you are going to spend $5k or more on the card each year it's a no brainer IMO. I mean, 4,500 BA will get you to Chicago or DFW.

I'll definitely clear $5k on it, so I'll go for it.  Thanks SD.

 

[sys]

You can also book travel straight up with the points. Bad value though. Basically if you are going to spend $5k or more on the card each year it's a no brainer IMO. I mean, 4,500 BA will get you to Chicago or DFW.

I'll definitely clear $5k on it, so I'll go for it.  Thanks SD.

what makes is a good value?  seems like he could get a more value with the same spend on other cards (with no fees).

[steve dave]

You can also book travel straight up with the points. Bad value though. Basically if you are going to spend $5k or more on the card each year it's a no brainer IMO. I mean, 4,500 BA will get you to Chicago or DFW.

I'll definitely clear $5k on it, so I'll go for it.  Thanks SD.

what makes is a good value?  seems like he could get a more value with the same spend on other cards (with no fees).

sure he could. but he's required to use his corporate Amex for all business spend.

['taterblast]

i could reserve a ps4 with my CSP bonus points i got. or go on a decent trip. or buy something else for ~$500. or hold on to them. 

[sys]

sure he could. but he's required to use his corporate Amex for all business spend.

oh, i missed that nugget.  why does he have to pay the fee on a corporate card?

[steve dave]

sure he could. but he's required to use his corporate Amex for all business spend.

oh, i missed that nugget.  why does he have to pay the fee on a corporate card?

ours requires us to as well. I don't know if it's just for better accounting or what. Amex also does all of our travel booking which also becomes a pain in the ass at times.

[steve dave]

i could reserve a ps4 with my CSP bonus points i got. or go on a decent trip. or buy something else for ~$500. or hold on to them. 

don't do the ps4 or buy something options. those are awful redemptions.

[sys]

ours requires us to as well. I don't know if it's just for better accounting or what. Amex also does all of our travel booking which also becomes a pain in the ass at times.

i guess if you get the points, it's fair.  sucks about amex booking, ouch.