The Swamp

Cross post from facebook, figured I'd get the frog opinions.

I think I'm giving up potential in getting things for using my credit card. Anyone have any great reward suggestions? Everything I'm looking at says Chase Sapphire Preferred is great, but I'm more looking to achieve status for travel/frequent flyer/hotel points. I pump quite a bit of purchases through my card every month but never carry a balance, so I don't care if its a billion %APR.

You travel a lot for work. Which airline and/or hotel chain do you stay with mostly? If it's Southwest or Marriott, etc they probably have a card. I've heard good things about Southwest's credit card as far as accumulating status and "miles" (though they use points). They have promotional offers sometimes where you can spend like $2000 in three months and get a free companion pass for a year.

I rarely fly for work. Twice a year maybe. For leisure I typically fly Southwest, for business I fly Delta.

As far as hotels go I've been terrible at it and usually just scoop up whatever is cheap on hotels.com wherever I end up at for the night but I'd like to start making the change to build status somewhere considering all the hotels are basically owned by 3 groups.

BSF21 wrote:I rarely fly for work. Twice a year maybe. For leisure I typically fly Southwest, for business I fly Delta.

As far as hotels go I've been terrible at it and usually just scoop up whatever is cheap on hotels.com wherever I end up at for the night but I'd like to start making the change to build status somewhere considering all the hotels are basically owned by 3 groups.

Yeah, Sabo should jump in because he travels a lot still but when I was on the road a couple hundred days a year I preferred Marriott because they have a decent range of hotels across the luxury-ish to cheaper spectrum and you can usually count on most towns to at least have a Courtyard or Fairfield. I had their card when I travelled and I remember thinking it was a pretty good deal as far as accumulating free nights, etc. That may have changed. Other people I worked with like Hilton's hotels and card, but even the Hampton Inns are usually more pricey than Courtyards depending on what kind of issues you have with your accounting department.

Have you checked out a "comparison" site like bankrate.com?

FWIW, I don't travel at all for work, and haven't done research on which cards are better than others, but I charge everything that I possibly can on my Delta AMEX, then pay it all off each month. I've been able to use the Delta miles to travel for pleasure quite a bit.

govmentchedda wrote:FWIW, I don't travel at all for work, and haven't done research on which cards are better than others, but I charge everything that I possibly can on my Delta AMEX, then pay it all off each month. I've been able to use the Delta miles to travel for pleasure quite a bit.

Delta's been pissing me off lately by adding extra fees during the booking process. But I personally have the Platinum Delta AMEX and despite the $150 annual fee it's worth it for the free bags and most importantly, I get one companion certificate a year. Since my wife and I take at least one trip back to Michigan every year I get at least about $300 of value out of that.

brian wrote:

govmentchedda wrote:FWIW, I don't travel at all for work, and haven't done research on which cards are better than others, but I charge everything that I possibly can on my Delta AMEX, then pay it all off each month. I've been able to use the Delta miles to travel for pleasure quite a bit.

Delta's been pissing me off lately by adding extra fees during the booking process. But I personally have the Platinum Delta AMEX and despite the $150 annual fee it's worth it for the free bags and most importantly, I get one companion certificate a year. Since my wife and I take at least one trip back to Michigan every year I get at least about $300 of value out of that.

I feel like I have the Gold card, and not the Platinum. I get the free bags, and connecting through Atlanta is easy for me. I don't get the companion certificate, but if it's only $50 more per year, I may need to upgrade.

That's why I did. The Gold was $95 and they used to have a $150 companion voucher (IIRC). When they dropped that, it wasn't worth the annual fee any more, but the $150 for the Platinum with the free companion voucher is worth it. I've never had an issue redeeming it and used at least four at this point.

It's probably not the best*, but I use an American Airlines rewards card that pretty much allows me to fly for an international vacation once a year for free.

(*at the time I signed up for it I was already invested in their rewards system, so it made sense to roll with it)

If it's not Spirit, it's probably fine.

Gunpowder wrote:If it's not Spirit, it's probably fine.

Yeah, I think this is the key point (both Spirit sucking and that you should just pick an airline or hotel chain you like and stick with it, both for the credit card and patronizing it when you travel).

brian wrote:That's why I did. The Gold was $95 and they used to have a $150 companion voucher (IIRC). When they dropped that, it wasn't worth the annual fee any more, but the $150 for the Platinum with the free companion voucher is worth it. I've never had an issue redeeming it and used at least four at this point.

Looking at the comparison, I don't see free companion vouchers as a perk for any of the Delta AMEX cards, including the one with the $450/yr fee.

I have a table for revolving specials on all of our cards but when I'm not sure, I use that clear AMEX card from the Tina Fey commercials. I also have a Capital One card for international and car rentals (since it covers the fees the car insurance won't).

brian wrote:

Gunpowder wrote:If it's not Spirit, it's probably fine.

Yeah, I think this is the key point (both Spirit sucking and that you should just pick an airline or hotel chain you like and stick with it, both for the credit card and patronizing it when you travel).

Yeah, while I like JetBlue and Delta is still ok with me, I wouldn't mind American. They offer a ton of flights and aren't sub-human fucks like Spirit.

govmentchedda wrote:

brian wrote:That's why I did. The Gold was $95 and they used to have a $150 companion voucher (IIRC). When they dropped that, it wasn't worth the annual fee any more, but the $150 for the Platinum with the free companion voucher is worth it. I've never had an issue redeeming it and used at least four at this point.

Looking at the comparison, I don't see free companion vouchers as a perk for any of the Delta AMEX cards, including the one with the $450/yr fee.

Not sure why they bury it, but it's in there for the Platinum AMEX (though the fee is $195 now).

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/cred ... rdbenefits

Platinum Delta Companion Certificate at Renewal
Taxes/fees/restrictions: Companion Certificate is valid for one round-trip Economy Class Companion ticket with the payment of applicable taxes and fees detailed below and the purchase of certain adult round-trip fares on published routings within the 48 contiguous United States. Residents of Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico or the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) must originate from there to the 48 contiguous United States and have an address on their SkyMiles account in Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico or the USVI. Each year, the Companion Certificate will be made available for redemption on delta.com in your renewal month.

Yeah, you'd think they wouldn't bury that. Thanks for finding that. A companion flight for about $100 more a year is worth it, IMO, even without whatever other upgrades you get.

The Marriott card can get fucked. It used to be solid, but now its like $79 annual fee and they've put two tiers into their hotel system since we signed up like 8 years ago which means they've devauled both the points themselves and the free night or two you get annually (which can only be tier 1-4). We just switched over to the Citi Double which seems about as good as you'll find; its 1% on purchase, another 1% when you pay and no annual fee. Straight cash.

A companion ticket makes more sense if you don't have kids. Otherwise I have had difficulties making those things work.

Delta fucked us over last year by switching seats around without telling us, so we largely stopped using the Delta Platinum card and have been using Capital One instead. This year will be the first time using it in Europe.

The best one I have is a Sam's club Mastercard that you get 5% back on gas. You can use it at any gas station. The normal card is a Bank of america points card that we use to get cash back. Also have a disney card that we haven't't really used yet.

Anyone else have a Citi card with Price Rewinds (basically they price shop something you already bought on the card)? I accidentally found it and now they're saying there's $40 in "potential savings" on the new washing machine I didn't want to have to get. Do you have to trigger at a low point or do you wait until the end of 60 days and get the best price? Anything hidden or any downside here?

So I just read this story about a guy buying a car on his credit card and getting back a bunch of points that translates to free travel and such.

It brings up this service that lets you pay anything with your credit card: https://www.plastiq.com (I've researched it before seems amazing.)

I now have a mortgage and if I can funnel my payment through a credit card with that service I can do what he did on a smaller scale.

As luck would have it, the laundry list of military friendly credit cards is fucking amazing: https://www.creditcardinsider.com/credi ... /military/

The best seem to be either the Chase Sapphire Reserve, Platinum AMEX, or United Mileage Plus. All have great mileage bonuses and waive the yearly fees because I'm active duty.

So I should totally do this, right? Seems like it's too good to pass up. And if I'm reading all of this right which one do I choose?

If you go CSR, use my link, (I think I get 10k points). I've been very happy with it. The annual fee is high, but they automatically take $300 out of anything listed as travel. If you do any travel at all, it is not hard at all to hit that. Plus, the $100 credit towards either Precheck or Global entry makes it even cheaper. There are a few FB groups that I follow regarding best ways to maximize your rewards.

Holy shit, you get the $450 annual fee for free? That's a no brainer.

Earn 50,000 bonus points with Chase Sapphire Reserve. I can be rewarded too if you apply here and are approved for the card. Learn more.
https://www.referyourchasecard.com/19/C6DL96R93D

Yea, bud. They know they can take us military guys to the cleaners if we don't make payments. I'm going to do it and I'm going to use your link.

I just have to look into Plastiq. I want to pay my mortgage through my card at the very least. (And like all of my bills too.)

My first payment begins in August, so I'll let you know.

If that Plastiq site charges a 2.5 percent fee I don’t see how you’re coming out ahead. The best cashback cards will give you about 2 percent back.

That's what I gotta figure out. I think it's the points accumulation via mandated cost of living allowances for hotels/airlines so you get some extra bang for your buck and not necessarily the cash back bonus that makes this work.

<Stephen A Smith voice>HOWEVAHHHH</voice>

If I'm getting a bit of the difference in cash back, then that reduces costs to me and I get the points regardless.

Edit:

Checked the fine print. You can't pay your mortgage with a Visa via Plastiq. You think they'd put that nugget in the section of their website as a caveat to "put virtually any expense on your credit card." Dicks.

Clearly, they thought through someone like me would find the obvious and try to exploit it.

The only card I use, I got under a program from my alma mater's alumni association. Under which program, the alumni association, not me, receives benefits the more I use my card. Yeah, I'm that clever... ;-)

Check out this blast from the past.

I have recently purchased a small business. Anyone got a good CC recommendation to run expenses through? Preferable no fee. I will never carry a balance and charges will be minimal (travel, meals, hotels, vehicle maintenance, etc) Just want to get something for "the company" and not worry about reimbursing myself to my personal card if I can help it.

Thoughts? Do I just call Amex or my bank or Discover or something?

Holy shit. RSmith.

BSF21 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 3:55 pm Check out this blast from the past.

I have recently purchased a small business. Anyone got a good CC recommendation to run expenses through? Preferable no fee. I will never carry a balance and charges will be minimal (travel, meals, hotels, vehicle maintenance, etc) Just want to get something for "the company" and not worry about reimbursing myself to my personal card if I can help it.

Thoughts? Do I just call Amex or my bank or Discover or something?

I would skip Discover in the event you ever need to travel abroad. Otherwise, pick something with good rewards for yourself (what you want - like, if you don't choose to do a lot of personal travel, airline miles may not be for you), if you will actually reap them.

DSafetyGuy wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 4:07 pm

BSF21 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 3:55 pm Check out this blast from the past.

I have recently purchased a small business. Anyone got a good CC recommendation to run expenses through? Preferable no fee. I will never carry a balance and charges will be minimal (travel, meals, hotels, vehicle maintenance, etc) Just want to get something for "the company" and not worry about reimbursing myself to my personal card if I can help it.

Thoughts? Do I just call Amex or my bank or Discover or something?

I would skip Discover in the event you ever need to travel abroad. Otherwise, pick something with good rewards for yourself (what you want - like, if you don't choose to do a lot of personal travel, airline miles may not be for you), if you will actually reap them.

This can be considered a no-no for tax reasons I think.

I'd get an Amex and pay for the fee for one of the better cards. You'll easily recoup the fee with rewards (that again, you probably should put towards the business).

Someone send up the HDO signal.

Not sure on the tax legalities, but I went for whatever would give me the most points. Capital One had a great deal when we set up the new firm a year or so ago, and we easily hit the minimum spend in whatever the months were to get like 100,000 miles. I've also been happy with Chase for personal cards. There was a recent article about The Points Guy in NYT. Someone on her knows/knew that guy (was it Ryan?). I'd look there and see what cards are offering good deals right now.

govmentchedda wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 4:59 pm Not sure on the tax legalities, but I went for whatever would give me the most points. Capital One had a great deal when we set up the new firm a year or so ago, and we easily hit the minimum spend in whatever the months were to get like 100,000 miles. I've also been happy with Chase for personal cards. There was a recent article about The Points Guy in NYT. Someone on her knows/knew that guy (was it Ryan?). I'd look there and see what cards are offering good deals right now.

I am friends with a guy who was an editor/writer for TPG who is now at CNN.

Southwest card? Can earn you A list and companion passes, depending on how much you spend/travel. May or may not be worth it given the covid situation, of course. We've got the companion pass, but nowhere to go.

You can find referrals for 50,000 bonus points from cardholders if you go that way.

BSF21 wrote: ↑Thu Jan 07, 2021 3:55 pm Check out this blast from the past.

I have recently purchased a small business. Anyone got a good CC recommendation to run expenses through? Preferable no fee. I will never carry a balance and charges will be minimal (travel, meals, hotels, vehicle maintenance, etc) Just want to get something for "the company" and not worry about reimbursing myself to my personal card if I can help it.

Thoughts? Do I just call Amex or my bank or Discover or something?

Every small business I’ve ever worked at has used Amex...the rewards are allegedly the best.

I did a bit of digging and it looks like there's no real rule about using the points for personal use. Sorry for the confusion.

at the risk of inciting a riot ... the costco visa is legit. 4% back on gas and money back on every other purchase plus the card fee is your business membership fee.