How Many Credit Cards Do You Have?

[michigancat]

So Mrs. WNK and I are wanting to travel to Australia around Sept. 2014.  We have a few CC's (Southwest being the one with points) and are looking to sign up for a few more to really start taking advantage of flyer miles and other rewards.  We were thinking Discover card (random rewards) and British Airways (Avios rewards) but want your expert opinions.  Looks like if I signed up for BA now, I will only get 50k Avios (which is a one-way to Brisbane for one person).  Need some help here from the CC experts on best ones to sign up for at this point in time.  Mrs. WNK just graduated from Law School back in May so we are now a two income family (DINKs - Dual Income No Kids) and we want to have a little fun before WNK Jr's start popping out.  We have great credit status and are home owners (not sure if relevant but maybe?).  I'd love to learn to be a card churner.

Have you considered going somewhere more interesting?

[ChiComCat]

I don't think that a Discover card is ever the answer but I'll refer to the experts

[The Tonya Harding of Twitter Users Creep]

has anyone ever gotten the SW companion pass?

Nope, never been done in this thread.  Too difficult to get.

thought so.

[WonderMeal]

Three questions about adding authorized users:

1) Does adding a spouse as an authorized user limit that spouse's ability to apply for the same card later?

2) If so, do I just give the card with my name on it to Mrs. WonderMeal and let her go nuts? (Meaning: have her spend frugally on our normal expenses only, but with my name on the card.)

3) Just want to make sure--if an authorized user helps hit the spend, the bonus still posts, right? It's not $3000 in three months (or whatever) by the original cardholder only, is it?

[ChiComCat]

Three questions about adding authorized users:
3) Just want to make sure--if an authorized user helps hit the spend, the bonus still posts, right? It's not $3000 in three months (or whatever) by the original cardholder only, is it?

The spend is for the account.  If you both combine to hit the 3000, you're fine.

[WildcatNkilt]

So Mrs. WNK and I are wanting to travel to Australia around Sept. 2014.  We have a few CC's (Southwest being the one with points) and are looking to sign up for a few more to really start taking advantage of flyer miles and other rewards.  We were thinking Discover card (random rewards) and British Airways (Avios rewards) but want your expert opinions.  Looks like if I signed up for BA now, I will only get 50k Avios (which is a one-way to Brisbane for one person).  Need some help here from the CC experts on best ones to sign up for at this point in time.  Mrs. WNK just graduated from Law School back in May so we are now a two income family (DINKs - Dual Income No Kids) and we want to have a little fun before WNK Jr's start popping out.  We have great credit status and are home owners (not sure if relevant but maybe?).  I'd love to learn to be a card churner.

So I'm thinking of doing the British Airways to get the easy 50k, and then Starwood.  With Starwood, I can spend 5k and get 20,000 pts.  I can transfer those to BA and that turns into 25,000 Avios.  So in a short time, I can get 75,000 Avios.

Thoughts?

[raquetcat]

has anyone ever gotten the SW companion pass?

Nope, never been done in this thread.  Too difficult to get.

thought so.

I got it at the beginning of this year

[steve dave]

So Mrs. WNK and I are wanting to travel to Australia around Sept. 2014.  We have a few CC's (Southwest being the one with points) and are looking to sign up for a few more to really start taking advantage of flyer miles and other rewards.  We were thinking Discover card (random rewards) and British Airways (Avios rewards) but want your expert opinions.  Looks like if I signed up for BA now, I will only get 50k Avios (which is a one-way to Brisbane for one person).  Need some help here from the CC experts on best ones to sign up for at this point in time.  Mrs. WNK just graduated from Law School back in May so we are now a two income family (DINKs - Dual Income No Kids) and we want to have a little fun before WNK Jr's start popping out.  We have great credit status and are home owners (not sure if relevant but maybe?).  I'd love to learn to be a card churner.

A couple Avios cards or AA cards to fly Qantas would be my suggestion. Here is the avios calculator to use to see what your point cost would be:

http://wandr.me/avios-calculator/

looks like 60k avios each way from KC (no idea where you are).

See a couple pages back about the BA card offer currently out there. Could get more miles if you can spend on it. Could also get the AA for the return flight. You better hurry though if you want to find award availability. A good protip for this thread is not to decide you want to go somewhere within a year and starting with no miles and expect to make it happen. best to get the miles now and plan to travel later.

[raquetcat]

So Mrs. WNK and I are wanting to travel to Australia around Sept. 2014.  We have a few CC's (Southwest being the one with points) and are looking to sign up for a few more to really start taking advantage of flyer miles and other rewards.  We were thinking Discover card (random rewards) and British Airways (Avios rewards) but want your expert opinions.  Looks like if I signed up for BA now, I will only get 50k Avios (which is a one-way to Brisbane for one person).  Need some help here from the CC experts on best ones to sign up for at this point in time.  Mrs. WNK just graduated from Law School back in May so we are now a two income family (DINKs - Dual Income No Kids) and we want to have a little fun before WNK Jr's start popping out.  We have great credit status and are home owners (not sure if relevant but maybe?).  I'd love to learn to be a card churner.

So I'm thinking of doing the British Airways to get the easy 50k, and then Starwood.  With Starwood, I can spend 5k and get 20,000 pts.  I can transfer those to BA and that turns into 25,000 Avios.  So in a short time, I can get 75,000 Avios.

Thoughts?

I'll let SD our somebody else weigh in on your BA strategy, but if you want a card for random rewards get a chase sapphire preferred and a chase freedom that way you can get the 5% back on random categories every quarter and transfer them to the sapphire preferred account and get better hotel/airline transfer options. UR are some of the best points to have and have a ton of flexibility

[steve dave]

yeah, nobody in the history of the earth should get a discover card unless you are just going to be using your points for gift cards or something. or if it's the only credit card you will ever use because you hate to travel or something.

[The Tonya Harding of Twitter Users Creep]

yeah, nobody in the history of the earth should get a discover card unless you are just going to be using your points for gift cards or something. or if it's the only credit card you will ever use because you hate to travel or something.

or to get your credit score up quickly because they give out a ton of available credit to people with bad credit.

[steve dave]

yeah, nobody in the history of the earth should get a discover card unless you are just going to be using your points for gift cards or something. or if it's the only credit card you will ever use because you hate to travel or something.

or to get your credit score up quickly because they give out a ton of available credit to people with bad credit.

this could be good advice. I'm not a good credit score advisor.

[Boom Roasted]

yeah, nobody in the history of the earth should get a discover card unless you are just going to be using your points for gift cards or something. or if it's the only credit card you will ever use because you hate to travel or something.

or to get your credit score up quickly because they give out a ton of available credit to people with bad credit.

this could be good advice. I'm not a good credit score advisor.

Lady BR used it as her first card ever coming out of college.  Had no credit history and seemed to be one of the only options that gave you anything at all for a new grad.

[steve dave]

yeah, I think cap one has some good cards for that as well.

[WildcatNkilt]

So Mrs. WNK and I are wanting to travel to Australia around Sept. 2014.  We have a few CC's (Southwest being the one with points) and are looking to sign up for a few more to really start taking advantage of flyer miles and other rewards.  We were thinking Discover card (random rewards) and British Airways (Avios rewards) but want your expert opinions.  Looks like if I signed up for BA now, I will only get 50k Avios (which is a one-way to Brisbane for one person).  Need some help here from the CC experts on best ones to sign up for at this point in time.  Mrs. WNK just graduated from Law School back in May so we are now a two income family (DINKs - Dual Income No Kids) and we want to have a little fun before WNK Jr's start popping out.  We have great credit status and are home owners (not sure if relevant but maybe?).  I'd love to learn to be a card churner.

A couple Avios cards or AA cards to fly Qantas would be my suggestion. Here is the avios calculator to use to see what your point cost would be:

http://wandr.me/avios-calculator/

looks like 60k avios each way from KC (no idea where you are).

See a couple pages back about the BA card offer currently out there. Could get more miles if you can spend on it. Could also get the AA for the return flight. You better hurry though if you want to find award availability. A good protip for this thread is not to decide you want to go somewhere within a year and starting with no miles and expect to make it happen. best to get the miles now and plan to travel later.

Great advice.  So I'm thinking we will get a BA (Chase) card and AA Platinum Card (Citi) and use those for spending/bills.  I think we will pay Australia out of pocket and then have another cool trip to look forward to with all the points we rack up.  Also Discover sounds like a bad choice if we like to travel.  Does this sound like a good path?

[WildcatNkilt]

Also, I read that it is possible to get 2 sign-up bonuses by applying for both Visa and Mastercard version of the  Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage

Read it here:  http://creditcardfly.com/best-credit-card-deals

Thoughts?  Does that mean I could potentially get 60,000 bonus miles instead of 30,000?

[steve dave]

you should each get a BA and each get an AA fwiw. you gotta double up with the spouse (if you can make the spend). I bet you can find some award availability if you are flexible on your dates and hurry.

[steve dave]

Also, I read that it is possible to get 2 sign-up bonuses by applying for both Visa and Mastercard version of the  Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage

Read it here:  http://creditcardfly.com/best-credit-card-deals

Thoughts?  Does that mean I could potentially get 60,000 bonus miles instead of 30,000?

there is actually a 50k AA offer. and whether you can get both is kind of a fluid situation last time I checked. historically you can.

http://www.aa.com/pubcontent/en_US/disclaimers/BP-PLATHV.jsp

[WildcatNkilt]

Also, I read that it is possible to get 2 sign-up bonuses by applying for both Visa and Mastercard version of the  Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage

Read it here:  http://creditcardfly.com/best-credit-card-deals

Thoughts?  Does that mean I could potentially get 60,000 bonus miles instead of 30,000?

there is actually a 50k AA offer. and whether you can get both is kind of a fluid situation last time I checked. historically you can.

http://www.aa.com/pubcontent/en_US/disclaimers/BP-PLATHV.jsp

Weird I only see the 50k bonus from your link and I can't seem to find that specific when I navigate myself. 

So the Mrs. and I each apply for a BA and a AA?  And start spending on them?  We have some renovations coming up within the next 6 months that will be some decent spending. 

[Boom Roasted]

Have the SW Premier card with the $99 fee and 6,000 annual bonus coming up in December.  Should I cancel this and move on to something else or keep this around and use as my standard card when i'm not trying to meet minimum spends? 

In the last year I have done 2 SW cards, 1 AA Visa, and the SPG Amex. 

Would the Saphire Preferred be the next step?  Have used almost all of my SW pts in the last year on flights and haven't received the bonus yet on the AA.  Still haven't used any of the SPG pts other than a night in MHK but am planning on either waiting for a sweet SPG moments or use on hotel for a bigger trip next year.

Would love to get enough AA to do a big trip with lady BR sometime but also end up using on domestic ones if we dont get a big trip planned. 

[steve dave]

Also, I read that it is possible to get 2 sign-up bonuses by applying for both Visa and Mastercard version of the  Citi Platinum Select AAdvantage

Read it here:  http://creditcardfly.com/best-credit-card-deals

Thoughts?  Does that mean I could potentially get 60,000 bonus miles instead of 30,000?

there is actually a 50k AA offer. and whether you can get both is kind of a fluid situation last time I checked. historically you can.

http://www.aa.com/pubcontent/en_US/disclaimers/BP-PLATHV.jsp

Weird I only see the 50k bonus from your link and I can't seem to find that specific when I navigate myself. 

So the Mrs. and I each apply for a BA and a AA?  And start spending on them?  We have some renovations coming up within the next 6 months that will be some decent spending.

try clearing your cookies or whatever or using an incognito window with chrome or something. it's there. and, yes to the plan.

[steve dave]

Have the SW Premier card with the $99 fee and 6,000 annual bonus coming up in December.  Should I cancel this and move on to something else or keep this around and use as my standard card when i'm not trying to meet minimum spends? 

In the last year I have done 2 SW cards, 1 AA Visa, and the SPG Amex. 

Would the Saphire Preferred be the next step?  Have used almost all of my SW pts in the last year on flights and haven't received the bonus yet on the AA.  Still haven't used any of the SPG pts other than a night in MHK but am planning on either waiting for a sweet SPG moments or use on hotel for a bigger trip next year.

Would love to get enough AA to do a big trip with lady BR sometime but also end up using on domestic ones if we dont get a big trip planned. 

yeah, get some inks and sapphire preferred. UR points are BITB.

[Boom Roasted]

Have the SW Premier card with the $99 fee and 6,000 annual bonus coming up in December.  Should I cancel this and move on to something else or keep this around and use as my standard card when i'm not trying to meet minimum spends? 

In the last year I have done 2 SW cards, 1 AA Visa, and the SPG Amex. 

Would the Saphire Preferred be the next step?  Have used almost all of my SW pts in the last year on flights and haven't received the bonus yet on the AA.  Still haven't used any of the SPG pts other than a night in MHK but am planning on either waiting for a sweet SPG moments or use on hotel for a bigger trip next year.

Would love to get enough AA to do a big trip with lady BR sometime but also end up using on domestic ones if we dont get a big trip planned. 

yeah, get some inks and sapphire preferred. UR points are BITB.

Cancel the SW?

[steve dave]

Have the SW Premier card with the $99 fee and 6,000 annual bonus coming up in December.  Should I cancel this and move on to something else or keep this around and use as my standard card when i'm not trying to meet minimum spends? 

In the last year I have done 2 SW cards, 1 AA Visa, and the SPG Amex. 

Would the Saphire Preferred be the next step?  Have used almost all of my SW pts in the last year on flights and haven't received the bonus yet on the AA.  Still haven't used any of the SPG pts other than a night in MHK but am planning on either waiting for a sweet SPG moments or use on hotel for a bigger trip next year.

Would love to get enough AA to do a big trip with lady BR sometime but also end up using on domestic ones if we dont get a big trip planned. 

yeah, get some inks and sapphire preferred. UR points are BITB.

Cancel the SW?

sure, why pay the annual fee if you aren't going to use it. they may let you keep the annual bonus and still cancel though. I don't know when chase credits those relative to the fee.

[sys]

Lady BR used it as her first card ever coming out of college.  Had no credit history and seemed to be one of the only options that gave you anything at all for a new grad.

my wife got a couple of barclays cards that came with decent bonuses within a couple of months of getting a ss#.  so, they're probably pretty easy too.