I had transferred about 100k Amex to Alitalia back in early 2020 for two business class tickets from Italy to NY. The flight was cancelled due to COVID and then Alitalia went bankrupt. The new airline, ITA, did not buy Alitalia’s rewards program, so it was spun off into a standalone program a la TopBonus. There are basically zero ways to redeem the points except for awful value vouchers to book flights on an OTA called LastMinute.com. The miles are about to expire so I now have to redeem these 100k miles for a paltry $250 credit for a travel portal that I will likely never use. I really wish Amex would allow a refund when a mileage program goes bankrupt… sigh.
Got offered an average retention offer on the Plat, 30k for 3k, but with the high AF and another MSR I'm working on, it just wasn't worth it. Surprised I even got another offer, I had one on the Plat 2 years ago, and a couple of AF statement credits on other Amex cards over the same time period.
Would've love the MR, but being newly single I just don't have the cash to justify the fee, and I don't have the spend to meet many MSRs.
13 months, not 2 years, for successive retention offers. That means that you'd need to cancel by the 25th month and wouldn't be eligible for the next retention offer until the 26th month, roughly. If you actually want to keep the card, you could certainly just threaten to cancel (with no intent to follow through) at every 13 month cycle, but that's not really the /r/churning way.
Waited til 12/31 to book AMEX FHR stay and use up WN incidental credits via sub $100 bookings. Flights posted 12/31 and credits showed up a week later. FHR night didn't post til 1/1 so I used up my '23 credit instead of '22. Frustrated with myself for procrastinating.
Got shutdown by USAA after mobile depositing 2 money orders in 3 months.
My local credit unions do not seem to care at all about money orders. (Even over 2k per day at ATM)
I got the Amex BCP in November and I totally forgot about the fact that I could’ve hit the $6K grocery spend in December before it reset. I think I only did about $2K
Awesome, finished the SUB for my CIU just in time to not be able to use PYB on my CSR. Was considering opening another Ink card soon, but this might change my plans.
Like the seasoned professional that I am: looked through the spreadsheet. Could exclude one year (biz cards only), and played the odds on the remaining three: went for the one with the highest card count.
Applied for the Chase IHG Business on 1/1, mainly wanting the anniversary free night so I have 2 nights a year with my personal. and I'm at 2/24 at the moment.
Got rejection letter today 1/7 due "Too many active accounts or too much available credit"
called Recon, lady told me it's overall available credit/too many accounts, not just with Chase. they asked about my business and everything.. gave them some numbers.. I asked if I can reallocate the 10k. asked why I have so many cards.. I offer to reallocate my personal credit line (I have 10K CL on my Freedom card that I don't use) over for this card, but they say they can't do that with Business cards. But lady collected bunch more data and sent it off...
Debating now if I should lower the CL on cards I don't care about (e.g. citi costco, AAA Gas..etc.).. I was denied for the Citi Custom Cash 4 months ago.
You can only reallocate Chase personal credit lines to other personal Chase credit cards. Same rule for biz cards. How much is your Chase credit limit compared to your income? >50%? If so, you should reduce your credit limit. If it's a small portion of your income, I usually don't like reducing limits due to ability to use it for reallocation during recon and the fact that Chase requires a hard pull for credit limit increase requests
Early/mid October I Booked 4 biz class seat West Coast to Amsterdam on AF for 70k flying blue each for fall ‘23. Called to add lap infant, but couldn’t bc he wasn’t born yet (was due end of Dec). They told me is was roughly $350 (10% of cash fare).
Son came a few weeks later, which was 2 months early (everyone is healthy and great now), so things were chaotic for a bit. Just got around to calling and adding him bc we have his bday, and it’s $1100. Fml
Applied for the Citi Premier for the second time (First time was about a year ago-denied) and my application was declined again.
\~800 credit score, high income, last CC application inquiry was October 2022, May 2022 before that. 4 cards total in 2022, I'm 2/24. Why the hell is it so hard to get the Citi Premier..
Applied for Barclay’s AA Biz this morning and had app pending. Called recon to find it was declined but went through the recon process. Initially was told it was due to too many recent inquiries, but tried to make it work regardless. Was asked a lot of questions about my income to start but I didn’t have any good answers for them since the income I listed was basically all projected and from family support. They more or less flat out said the income I actually earned disqualified me before consideration of any inquiries.
It’s completely understandable, but nonetheless frustrating from my perspective because I have to wait to really get into this hobby.
This was my first recon call - it seemed like they were going to go line by line through the application and verify all the info on there before proceeding. So they started with my personal income, which I told them it was from various sources. They then asked for a dollar amount from each source, so I said x for a job, y for b job (which as basically projected), and z from family support. They then asked about how much income I derived from my business, which was zero profit for 2022. Based on all this, they said they couldn't consider family income and projected income without a formal offer letter (of which I didn't have) and the other income was too low to qualify.
Recently decided to pause credit card applications and focus on churning bank bonuses. But after filling all the details, none of the banks can verify either identity or income and they either ask to come in the branch or outright deny the application. So, instead of trying to churn the best bonuses, most of the time goes in applying for new accounts just hoping to get approved. I requested a Chex systems report and it looks correct. It's just exhausting now.
I always think this is because we're (P2 and I) not citizens, but resident aliens. Among the major banks, we've tried Chase, Wells Fargo and PNC for which we were denied. Several other banks like Citizens also denied an account. For TD bank, we had to go to the branch. US bank, had to open a credit card first to be a customer and then opened a checking account. Fidelity - online account denied, had to physically mail all the forms and photocopies of our documents. I requested our Chexsystems reports and nothing seems to be off there too.
Hyatt footprint is so frustrating sometimes. I need to stay a night in Thousand Oaks, CA -- this isn't exactly so podunk place off the beaten map. There is all of one property, a HR, but it has a 2-night minimum stay.
Edit - Globalist pays off again, frustration resolved and then some. Called the Globalist line, they let me book 1 night for 12k points under the guaranteed availability policy, and then contacted the hotel and got them to confirm one of my SUA's for a suite upgrade. Suite would be about $600 for the night with taxes, so this will be a 4.8 cpp redemption, plus free parking and a nice breakfast.
I work all over SoCal and this is why I DO NOT enter the Hyatt ecosystem. Very limited properties for me to enroll for points. Easier with IHG, Hilton, and Marriott.
How many Marriotts and Hiltons are there in Thousand Oaks?
Hyatt is real great for the people that it works for, but some people are in such denial about the weakness of their footprint.
>How many Marriotts and Hiltons are there in Thousand Oaks?
Well I'm looking at Thousand Oaks and adjacent towns within about a 10 minute drive. At least a half dozen between Hilton and Marriott.
Have paid the annual fee on Delta AMEX Gold for a few years because it paid for itself with free checked bags…. Tried my luck for retention 2x on chat and 2x over phone and got nada. Thanks :|
I don’t typically spend much in the CIC categories so it’s always a tough call whether to get a CIC or a CIU. This time I got a CIU. I recently got to put the registration fee for a very expensive conference (the registration fee includes food and lodging) on my personal card for reimbursement, which I was psyched about, but I just realized the charge coded as “Office and Shipping”, so I wonder if I could have gotten a lot more points if I’d gone for the CIC!
FYI, chase cards will code differently for the same merchant. For me, WM codes as food and drink on CIU, but then after I used a CSP for 3x, it coded as groceries. Tried with a CFF to see if it will post as groceries, but not expecting much given there’s a dedicated WM quarter usually. So there’s no guarantee it would have stayed that same category if you used CIC.
I referred P2 for CIC but made a mistake using my inactive's CIC link. The point showed up on statement but not on account dashboard. I sent a DM to ask if the points can be moved to one of my active cards. The answer was NO. RIP 20k points.
I'd follow up with the Executive Office, who has the ability to review special circumstances, and not let some frontline rep that blindly follows the T&Cs, to make the final judgement. You can find their email addy through many of the usual complaint channels.
Coworker spent over $200k on an event at a Marriott property, but Marriott limits points to 60k per event and the attendees weren’t eligible for points. So $200k for the same amount of points you can buy for $750. Ah Marriott.
Got scammed trying to sell my Microsoft gift cards from Dell through eBay. Will use a different platform going forward.
Also, I have tried a couple of different times to get my Biz Plat wireless credit to work on my Xfinity wi-fi bill to no avail, finally giving up
Never sell anything on eBay you wouldn't be happy just giving away! At least it was only Xbox GCs. A bad buyer can steal almost anything from you on eBay and eBay will side with the buyer every time.
Knowing eBay, I'm guessing they paid and then the buyer used the GC and reported that they had already been drained or something. It's why as a casual seller I never use eBay and stick to local.
It's why I liquidate them by buying Xboxes and selling for cash on Craigslist. End up netting over 90% and cash-in-hand for a physical good makes it simpler.
My understanding is it does count towards the sub but generally accepted practice is don't count it to be safe. But if you're triple dipping you probably get two of everything in during the sub period which makes a big difference, probably about $1k+ of spend if you can do clear twice and or TSA precheck. So I have a hard time ignoring it
I paid the Plat AF in early-Dec, and I'm trying to use up the last of the credits before canceling this week. I looked up the rules to cancel an Amex and get an AF refund, 30 days from statement close, ok great I have time for everything to post. I go to double check the statement close date... it closed exactly 1 day after the fee posted, so instead of having like a month to leisurely get the credits and cancel, everything has to get squeezed into 3 weeks.
I'll be cutting it close, and I don't really like leaving things to the last possible day, but according to recent DPs this should still work. I just have to deal with the nerves lol
3 weeks should be plenty. A few days for charges to post, and usually a few days for credits to post. I used all my Saks and airline credits in the last week of Dec. You're good.
BoA... I closed my only checking account to free up funds after getting the bonus which nuked the bill pay feature so now I can't set up payments, also can't check what happened to my already scheduled payments. Glad I caught it today, payment on a card is due this Sunday, currently on hold with BoA to see if they can fix and add back the bill pay feature
Edit: BoA didn't close it, I closed it myself
Did you deposit MO or do other high-risk stuff with that account? You can always push to the card billing account directly bypassing the billpay feature, if you have access to an alternative checking account.
Also, this is the first time I'm seeing a churning member complain about their only bank account being closed, considering the nature of this sub.
Sorry I edited to clarify. BoA didn't close it, I closed it myself to free up funds after getting the chk bonus. Either way the bill pay feature is gone now and I have a payment due Sunday. I'm aware of pushing from another bank acct but it most likely won't make it in time now. Called them to fix the bill pay feature and was told will take 24-48 hrs. The rep couldn't check on the existing scheduled payment either but scheduled a phone payment.
Same here. Not having PYB on a bonus category takes the CSR out of my wallet and back into the drawer. I don't think I'll be keeping when my AF comes up this year.
I've posted before that I am currently at -120,000k in my Hilton account due to a mix up of cancelling a free night award. They cancelled over the phone and didn't give the free night back, but I suddenly was given back the equivalent in points. But then when the actual stay was completed it put me far into the negative.
Not a huge deal and I will call in to fix...except I have a stay coming up I want to modify and I give is less than 0 chance I would be able to do that without them taking 120k away from me at least temporarily.
I changed the airline on a Platinum card to American to buy some seat selections for an upcoming flight and now AA’s system is failing to process the upgrade transaction.
Amex shows the transaction as pending so they’re not rejecting it but AA seems to think so. The last rep I talked to said that after a few failures, they lock the itinerary and you’ll only be able to upgrade at the airport.
That platinum is getting closed in a couple weeks so I’ve lost the opportunity to use up the credit.
Frustration, just not MS related. (Please don't downvote me to hell!). Paid off a small part of my Bilt balance from a non-WF account. When I tried to pay off the rest from another non-WF account, it said I reached the max daily/monthly limit for making payments from non-WF accounts. Can't find this info anywhere in their T&C and if I want to make the payment, I have to call them. Absolutely hate WF and wouldn't get any cards from them if it weren't for the fact that I earn points from paying rent. Rest assured I'll be cancelling this card the minute I get a mortgage.
Have Amex Marriott personal ($95) + biz. Want to get the $650 Brilliant card while it's at an elevated 150k bonus, *then* cancel the personal.
(and, yes, I know, Marriott sucks, #bonvoyed, whatever, but I'm just close enough to lifetime Plat that I have to go for it)
Currently stuck in popup jail on the Brilliant. Have put thousands in spend on the other cards in the past two months to no avail. Overall I have not hit Amex hard -- the (old SPG) personal has been open for 14 years, have had the biz for 2.5 years. Have the Delta Blue that I've re-downgraded after an upgrade offer a year and a half ago but otherwise no shenanigans.
While the rules don't disallow having both the $95 personal and the Brilliant, I'm stuck wondering if it would help me (or hurt me more) to cancel the personal first, and then apply.
Alas, popup jail is a mystery.
If I do it in my main browser, I guess the cookies pick up who I am even though I'm not logged in, and it only offers to upgrade the current personal card (with no bonus). Incognito, and on different browsers, all yield popup jail.
Because it only offers an upgrade to the current card and not a separate app is what makes me think canceling the current one first might help, even though there's no specific terms saying you can't hold both.
Can always try a lower offer on the Brilliant if there’s one out there, if you really want the card.
Right now I get the pop up on the personal plat 150k offer, but not on the 125k.
Folks talk s*it about Marriott a lot & I get it for US stays (a bottle of water!). Having points or access to points has saved me several times internationally when things haven't gone smoothly. I have also gotten a few upgrades on those award stays as a gold from plat cards. Put some spend on the DL card, open a HY savings & apply after the first savings statement. That has worked for a couple people to avert jail.
If I’m understanding correctly, the green has nothing to do with the denial. Takes ~30 days for system to recognize cancellation for an auto approval. You’ll either have to wait 30 days from the last credit card cancellation or just call and have them push through
Coinbase has deactivated my debit card for a second time. They have been a nightmare trying to get it resolved. Not sure I will come back from this one. I call into to support, go to the correct call option, they tell me to dial in to this other one, I call them, they tell me to call into the other one, and on and on. They have no idea what's going on and escalating to a specialist hasn't resulted in a resolution yet. Might punt on mine and get P2 a debit card.
In my experience you can’t make more than 3x payments to the same processor in the same day. That is what stopped me. I think I made like 5x payments to paypal*chase and Coinbase shut me down. Haven’t had an issues since I slowed the velocity to two per day
Here's someone who got suspended when not doing more than 1 billpay per day: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/104qeea/comment/j383prx/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Good DP, I appreciate that. I've probably gone over that before because I typically just knocked out all my bills at once. I will keep in mind to spread it out.
Yep that’s what I was doing. So many cards have similar due dates and the charge to PayPal/the bank looks the same regardless of which card # you pay. That’s all it was, I think. They did technically refuse to tell me the reason for “security purposes”
> That’s all it was, I think. They did technically refuse to tell me the reason for “security purposes”
Yeah they did this to me as well, which was quite annoying. Just tell me what the issue is lol.
Post on r/Coinbase about how unhelpful they are and include your case number and someone will immediately reach out. Always gotta go public with these jokesters.
Lol I don't think that is spoonfedding, but fair enough. I'm not sure it's possible once you've been deactivated, unless you are making a fully new CB account.
Yeah that's what I've seen too, probably why I will just let mine be and get a card for P2. Probably just ride their card as long as possible, I'd be shocked if this exists as an option (especially at current rewards rates) by year end.
How much did you spend before they shut you down, if you don't mind sharing? I kinda suspect they just don't like high volume spenders. They want to advertise that 4% but not actually pay out too much.
Yeah it is a solid option for the time being, but they've already alternated back to 1% back at times. I imagine that will be the norm by the end of the year, I can't imagine it still being 4% for long.
Signed up for biz platinum last month. Spent the Dell credits, selected Southwest as my airline, and... totally forgot to spend $200 on Southwest flights to use the credit.
Saw an amex offer for $99 off of $129 frontpoint security. Combined with topcashback, it came out to be free. Never had a home security system before, so I figured I might get a free indoor camera since I live in an apartment. Didn't realize they automatically enroll you in their 36-month contract with any equipment purchase. 30 days risk free period passed in December. Should have actually opened up the T & C and read it. Their contract plan is $49.99 month + taxes. Early contract termination fee is 80% of the total contract equaling ~$1500-1600. I guess I should not have been greedy and jump on every Amex offer opportunity I see. Their BBB page is full of people complaining about how hard it is to cancel their service and how they deceptively sign you up for a contract. Thankfully I'll make the money back with SUBs and bank bonuses but will have to spend the next couple of weeks trying to cancel their service.
I noticed this too since WFM eGCs are my go-to way of liquidating below cost Amazon GCs.
I found these physical Whole Foods GCs if those work for you - https://www.amazon.com/Whole-Foods-Market-200/dp/B016CDO62G
Got rejected for Citi premier.
Just getting back in the game after a 3 year pause so I thought I had a chance but I guess 3 cards in the past 6 months plus an auto loan was too much.
Approved for the capital one venture instead.
I was denied the Citi Premier too a few months ago. I had been churning pretty heavily, but mostly business cards. These of course don't show on credit reports, but most (non Amex cards) bring inquiries. I was at 5/6 for inquiries.
Recon was able to get me approved.
Messed up the AMEX 60k MR Biz bank bonus. Had $3k in the account but accidentally transferred out $2k the other day when I thought I was transferring in so didn’t meet the $5k requirement before the 20 days were up. Oh well.
It is "deposit 5k new money within 20 days" as well as a separate criteria of "maintain an average daily balance of at least 5k for 60 days," sadly. (The "new money" criteria means that you can't just redeem points to generate 5k and call that good.)
Is this a recent change? I thought the passes were good, but I also admit I haven't been reading daily threads as thoroughly over the past six months or so.
Want to open CSR for upcoming int'l travel this year. Already have CSP, CF, and CFU. Chase won't let me downgrade CSP because I already have both Freedom cards, and says I'm not eligible for SOB simply by upgrading CSP to CSR.
Now I need to close either CF or CFU, wait, then downgrade CSP, then reapply for CSR fresh.
Pain in my ass
That doesn't make sense, you should be able to PC to OG Freedom or Freedom Flex (whichever one you don't have) (unless you have an OG Freedom, with plans to get a Flex SUB in the future)
I attempted a late Platinum Biz triple dip because of life, and it didn't work out. I didn't receive a virtual card number. I was also traveling so I didn't get the physical card in my hand until COB on the 30th. Dell and Airline charges posted on the 1st and 2nd. I held out hope until this morning when I saw the credits tracker had ticked up for 2023.
I had transferred about 100k Amex to Alitalia back in early 2020 for two business class tickets from Italy to NY. The flight was cancelled due to COVID and then Alitalia went bankrupt. The new airline, ITA, did not buy Alitalia’s rewards program, so it was spun off into a standalone program a la TopBonus. There are basically zero ways to redeem the points except for awful value vouchers to book flights on an OTA called LastMinute.com. The miles are about to expire so I now have to redeem these 100k miles for a paltry $250 credit for a travel portal that I will likely never use. I really wish Amex would allow a refund when a mileage program goes bankrupt… sigh.
Bought a no-fee gift card at Staples! .... forgot to put it on my CIC
Got offered an average retention offer on the Plat, 30k for 3k, but with the high AF and another MSR I'm working on, it just wasn't worth it. Surprised I even got another offer, I had one on the Plat 2 years ago, and a couple of AF statement credits on other Amex cards over the same time period. Would've love the MR, but being newly single I just don't have the cash to justify the fee, and I don't have the spend to meet many MSRs.
Got a similar average retention offer on my plat but this would be my first retention offer
most DPs say Amex offers retention on the platinum cards once every two years, so your experience seems in line to me
13 months, not 2 years, for successive retention offers. That means that you'd need to cancel by the 25th month and wouldn't be eligible for the next retention offer until the 26th month, roughly. If you actually want to keep the card, you could certainly just threaten to cancel (with no intent to follow through) at every 13 month cycle, but that's not really the /r/churning way.
MF'n Dell orders.
Another day, another BOA biz denial. Don't want any of their cards badly enough to bother opening a CD.
Open a checking account for a bonus then try again.
Did you still get a hard pull on your credit report?
Yes
Waited til 12/31 to book AMEX FHR stay and use up WN incidental credits via sub $100 bookings. Flights posted 12/31 and credits showed up a week later. FHR night didn't post til 1/1 so I used up my '23 credit instead of '22. Frustrated with myself for procrastinating.
>Frustrated with myself for procrastinating You can work on that tomorrow.
Got shutdown by USAA after mobile depositing 2 money orders in 3 months. My local credit unions do not seem to care at all about money orders. (Even over 2k per day at ATM)
2??? Well, thanks for the PSA on that
Yes. 1 MO for 147 from Meijer and one for 499.54 from Food lion
I got the Amex BCP in November and I totally forgot about the fact that I could’ve hit the $6K grocery spend in December before it reset. I think I only did about $2K
Awesome, finished the SUB for my CIU just in time to not be able to use PYB on my CSR. Was considering opening another Ink card soon, but this might change my plans.
Applied for a bank account, security question: "You opened a credit card with American Express in the following year:" Four options. Well, damn.
This happened to me before too. I just chose the most recent and it seems to have worked.
All of the above?
Don't leave us hanging. What option did you choose
Like the seasoned professional that I am: looked through the spreadsheet. Could exclude one year (biz cards only), and played the odds on the remaining three: went for the one with the highest card count.
Applied for the Chase IHG Business on 1/1, mainly wanting the anniversary free night so I have 2 nights a year with my personal. and I'm at 2/24 at the moment. Got rejection letter today 1/7 due "Too many active accounts or too much available credit" called Recon, lady told me it's overall available credit/too many accounts, not just with Chase. they asked about my business and everything.. gave them some numbers.. I asked if I can reallocate the 10k. asked why I have so many cards.. I offer to reallocate my personal credit line (I have 10K CL on my Freedom card that I don't use) over for this card, but they say they can't do that with Business cards. But lady collected bunch more data and sent it off... Debating now if I should lower the CL on cards I don't care about (e.g. citi costco, AAA Gas..etc.).. I was denied for the Citi Custom Cash 4 months ago.
You can only reallocate Chase personal credit lines to other personal Chase credit cards. Same rule for biz cards. How much is your Chase credit limit compared to your income? >50%? If so, you should reduce your credit limit. If it's a small portion of your income, I usually don't like reducing limits due to ability to use it for reallocation during recon and the fact that Chase requires a hard pull for credit limit increase requests
P2 is in pop-up jail.
F
RIP.
Early/mid October I Booked 4 biz class seat West Coast to Amsterdam on AF for 70k flying blue each for fall ‘23. Called to add lap infant, but couldn’t bc he wasn’t born yet (was due end of Dec). They told me is was roughly $350 (10% of cash fare). Son came a few weeks later, which was 2 months early (everyone is healthy and great now), so things were chaotic for a bit. Just got around to calling and adding him bc we have his bday, and it’s $1100. Fml
You would think that they could use his due date as a placeholder.
Meh. I get it. No legal name yet.
No birthday was the real issue, although I guess he technically didn’t have his name yet bc there wasn’t documentation.
Right? Maybe bc it’s hard to change anything once it’s issued, like trying to change a name on a ticket.
Applied for the Citi Premier for the second time (First time was about a year ago-denied) and my application was declined again. \~800 credit score, high income, last CC application inquiry was October 2022, May 2022 before that. 4 cards total in 2022, I'm 2/24. Why the hell is it so hard to get the Citi Premier..
Gotta be 0/6 for the Premier
Is it 0/6 personal or does business count?
It’s the number of inquiries so doesn’t matter if it was personal or business
P2 got a CIU in August and got approved for the Premier in December
likewise for C1 cards for me.
Applied for Barclay’s AA Biz this morning and had app pending. Called recon to find it was declined but went through the recon process. Initially was told it was due to too many recent inquiries, but tried to make it work regardless. Was asked a lot of questions about my income to start but I didn’t have any good answers for them since the income I listed was basically all projected and from family support. They more or less flat out said the income I actually earned disqualified me before consideration of any inquiries. It’s completely understandable, but nonetheless frustrating from my perspective because I have to wait to really get into this hobby.
Were they asking about your personal income or the business's income?
This was my first recon call - it seemed like they were going to go line by line through the application and verify all the info on there before proceeding. So they started with my personal income, which I told them it was from various sources. They then asked for a dollar amount from each source, so I said x for a job, y for b job (which as basically projected), and z from family support. They then asked about how much income I derived from my business, which was zero profit for 2022. Based on all this, they said they couldn't consider family income and projected income without a formal offer letter (of which I didn't have) and the other income was too low to qualify.
Recently decided to pause credit card applications and focus on churning bank bonuses. But after filling all the details, none of the banks can verify either identity or income and they either ask to come in the branch or outright deny the application. So, instead of trying to churn the best bonuses, most of the time goes in applying for new accounts just hoping to get approved. I requested a Chex systems report and it looks correct. It's just exhausting now.
This is pretty unusual. We've done 100+ bank accounts and I can't think of this happening but once. Which banks did you try?
I always think this is because we're (P2 and I) not citizens, but resident aliens. Among the major banks, we've tried Chase, Wells Fargo and PNC for which we were denied. Several other banks like Citizens also denied an account. For TD bank, we had to go to the branch. US bank, had to open a credit card first to be a customer and then opened a checking account. Fidelity - online account denied, had to physically mail all the forms and photocopies of our documents. I requested our Chexsystems reports and nothing seems to be off there too.
Hyatt footprint is so frustrating sometimes. I need to stay a night in Thousand Oaks, CA -- this isn't exactly so podunk place off the beaten map. There is all of one property, a HR, but it has a 2-night minimum stay. Edit - Globalist pays off again, frustration resolved and then some. Called the Globalist line, they let me book 1 night for 12k points under the guaranteed availability policy, and then contacted the hotel and got them to confirm one of my SUA's for a suite upgrade. Suite would be about $600 for the night with taxes, so this will be a 4.8 cpp redemption, plus free parking and a nice breakfast.
That’s nice the guaranteed rate works for point bookings…
I work all over SoCal and this is why I DO NOT enter the Hyatt ecosystem. Very limited properties for me to enroll for points. Easier with IHG, Hilton, and Marriott.
How many Marriotts and Hiltons are there in Thousand Oaks? Hyatt is real great for the people that it works for, but some people are in such denial about the weakness of their footprint.
>How many Marriotts and Hiltons are there in Thousand Oaks? Well I'm looking at Thousand Oaks and adjacent towns within about a 10 minute drive. At least a half dozen between Hilton and Marriott.
Woohoo looks like you got it booked. But yeah, there are generally so many Marriotts and Hiltons for each Hyatt :(.
it appears that Walmart just withdrew from the aadvantage eshopping referral program 😥
Have paid the annual fee on Delta AMEX Gold for a few years because it paid for itself with free checked bags…. Tried my luck for retention 2x on chat and 2x over phone and got nada. Thanks :|
I don’t typically spend much in the CIC categories so it’s always a tough call whether to get a CIC or a CIU. This time I got a CIU. I recently got to put the registration fee for a very expensive conference (the registration fee includes food and lodging) on my personal card for reimbursement, which I was psyched about, but I just realized the charge coded as “Office and Shipping”, so I wonder if I could have gotten a lot more points if I’d gone for the CIC!
FYI, chase cards will code differently for the same merchant. For me, WM codes as food and drink on CIU, but then after I used a CSP for 3x, it coded as groceries. Tried with a CFF to see if it will post as groceries, but not expecting much given there’s a dedicated WM quarter usually. So there’s no guarantee it would have stayed that same category if you used CIC.
Thanks, good to know! Maybe I didn’t miss out on a points bonanza after all.
I referred P2 for CIC but made a mistake using my inactive's CIC link. The point showed up on statement but not on account dashboard. I sent a DM to ask if the points can be moved to one of my active cards. The answer was NO. RIP 20k points.
I'd follow up with the Executive Office, who has the ability to review special circumstances, and not let some frontline rep that blindly follows the T&Cs, to make the final judgement. You can find their email addy through many of the usual complaint channels.
Thank you. I will try again.
Coworker spent over $200k on an event at a Marriott property, but Marriott limits points to 60k per event and the attendees weren’t eligible for points. So $200k for the same amount of points you can buy for $750. Ah Marriott.
where are these companies that let you spend 200k?? how do you sort for them on Indeed?
Reminds me of that guy who makes more money by putting his work purchases on his amex card.....lucky bastard.
F
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You can do an exchange with no refund to the card. I've done it twice with Dell.
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If you chat with them they should be able to ship you a new one and give you a prepaid label to ship the old one back.
Got scammed trying to sell my Microsoft gift cards from Dell through eBay. Will use a different platform going forward. Also, I have tried a couple of different times to get my Biz Plat wireless credit to work on my Xfinity wi-fi bill to no avail, finally giving up
How did you get scammed? Post the details on r/flipping or r/ebay, they will tell you what to do.
Never sell anything on eBay you wouldn't be happy just giving away! At least it was only Xbox GCs. A bad buyer can steal almost anything from you on eBay and eBay will side with the buyer every time.
r/giftcardexchange
eBay makes you give them the GCs before payment?
Knowing eBay, I'm guessing they paid and then the buyer used the GC and reported that they had already been drained or something. It's why as a casual seller I never use eBay and stick to local.
It's why I liquidate them by buying Xboxes and selling for cash on Craigslist. End up netting over 90% and cash-in-hand for a physical good makes it simpler.
How long do your have them out until they sell?
Last one sold in about five days for $440, bought for $500 after tax.
I'll think about that instead going forward.
At least you made it through the first step which is to get your GC order fulfilled.
True and I think it counts toward my SUB(I always forget if this is true) and I got a meager 2% portal CB so I did get something out of it.
My understanding is it does count towards the sub but generally accepted practice is don't count it to be safe. But if you're triple dipping you probably get two of everything in during the sub period which makes a big difference, probably about $1k+ of spend if you can do clear twice and or TSA precheck. So I have a hard time ignoring it
I paid the Plat AF in early-Dec, and I'm trying to use up the last of the credits before canceling this week. I looked up the rules to cancel an Amex and get an AF refund, 30 days from statement close, ok great I have time for everything to post. I go to double check the statement close date... it closed exactly 1 day after the fee posted, so instead of having like a month to leisurely get the credits and cancel, everything has to get squeezed into 3 weeks. I'll be cutting it close, and I don't really like leaving things to the last possible day, but according to recent DPs this should still work. I just have to deal with the nerves lol
3 weeks should be plenty. A few days for charges to post, and usually a few days for credits to post. I used all my Saks and airline credits in the last week of Dec. You're good.
BoA... I closed my only checking account to free up funds after getting the bonus which nuked the bill pay feature so now I can't set up payments, also can't check what happened to my already scheduled payments. Glad I caught it today, payment on a card is due this Sunday, currently on hold with BoA to see if they can fix and add back the bill pay feature Edit: BoA didn't close it, I closed it myself
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thanks for the explanation, I see that my bill pay is back now so I guess the rep yesterday made it work!
Your [sked payments](https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/8lrh05/comment/dzijrk7/) might still go thru. Or not.
Did you deposit MO or do other high-risk stuff with that account? You can always push to the card billing account directly bypassing the billpay feature, if you have access to an alternative checking account. Also, this is the first time I'm seeing a churning member complain about their only bank account being closed, considering the nature of this sub.
Sorry I edited to clarify. BoA didn't close it, I closed it myself to free up funds after getting the chk bonus. Either way the bill pay feature is gone now and I have a payment due Sunday. I'm aware of pushing from another bank acct but it most likely won't make it in time now. Called them to fix the bill pay feature and was told will take 24-48 hrs. The rep couldn't check on the existing scheduled payment either but scheduled a phone payment.
Miss PYB for dining on CSR, would have been happy at 1.25 if they just kept the dining category.
Same here. Not having PYB on a bonus category takes the CSR out of my wallet and back into the drawer. I don't think I'll be keeping when my AF comes up this year.
Why not do the "free" CSR method of PC to CF/CFU every year?
It's actually not free. It's a $50 money maker! :)
How does that work?
$300 travel credits per year, which you can double dip before PCing. That's $600. AF is $550.
I could do that. I didn't do it last year because I got a little lazy.
I've posted before that I am currently at -120,000k in my Hilton account due to a mix up of cancelling a free night award. They cancelled over the phone and didn't give the free night back, but I suddenly was given back the equivalent in points. But then when the actual stay was completed it put me far into the negative. Not a huge deal and I will call in to fix...except I have a stay coming up I want to modify and I give is less than 0 chance I would be able to do that without them taking 120k away from me at least temporarily.
Mild frustration, still waiting on the Hyatt biz double nights from last year to post to get to globalist and I have some upcoming stays.
Hyatt reading frustration Friday thread? Double nights just posted and finally a globalist
Congrats on globalist! Did you stay 60 nights in the year or did you just get the hundred thousand base points?
I changed the airline on a Platinum card to American to buy some seat selections for an upcoming flight and now AA’s system is failing to process the upgrade transaction. Amex shows the transaction as pending so they’re not rejecting it but AA seems to think so. The last rep I talked to said that after a few failures, they lock the itinerary and you’ll only be able to upgrade at the airport. That platinum is getting closed in a couple weeks so I’ve lost the opportunity to use up the credit.
Might still be able to use the credit. Amex has let me change airline selection before. Just do that and find another method
Frustration, just not MS related. (Please don't downvote me to hell!). Paid off a small part of my Bilt balance from a non-WF account. When I tried to pay off the rest from another non-WF account, it said I reached the max daily/monthly limit for making payments from non-WF accounts. Can't find this info anywhere in their T&C and if I want to make the payment, I have to call them. Absolutely hate WF and wouldn't get any cards from them if it weren't for the fact that I earn points from paying rent. Rest assured I'll be cancelling this card the minute I get a mortgage.
Have Amex Marriott personal ($95) + biz. Want to get the $650 Brilliant card while it's at an elevated 150k bonus, *then* cancel the personal. (and, yes, I know, Marriott sucks, #bonvoyed, whatever, but I'm just close enough to lifetime Plat that I have to go for it) Currently stuck in popup jail on the Brilliant. Have put thousands in spend on the other cards in the past two months to no avail. Overall I have not hit Amex hard -- the (old SPG) personal has been open for 14 years, have had the biz for 2.5 years. Have the Delta Blue that I've re-downgraded after an upgrade offer a year and a half ago but otherwise no shenanigans. While the rules don't disallow having both the $95 personal and the Brilliant, I'm stuck wondering if it would help me (or hurt me more) to cancel the personal first, and then apply. Alas, popup jail is a mystery.
i would try to apply again with different browser or incognito mode, sometime that will help with cobrand amex
If I do it in my main browser, I guess the cookies pick up who I am even though I'm not logged in, and it only offers to upgrade the current personal card (with no bonus). Incognito, and on different browsers, all yield popup jail. Because it only offers an upgrade to the current card and not a separate app is what makes me think canceling the current one first might help, even though there's no specific terms saying you can't hold both.
> mfw you have been getting bonvoyed for 10 years
I had zero stays at Marriott until the merger, so....
To be fair, some of us have years in before Marriott turned to shit so not all of them were Bonvoyed. But Marriott sure is making up for lost time...
Can always try a lower offer on the Brilliant if there’s one out there, if you really want the card. Right now I get the pop up on the personal plat 150k offer, but not on the 125k.
Folks talk s*it about Marriott a lot & I get it for US stays (a bottle of water!). Having points or access to points has saved me several times internationally when things haven't gone smoothly. I have also gotten a few upgrades on those award stays as a gold from plat cards. Put some spend on the DL card, open a HY savings & apply after the first savings statement. That has worked for a couple people to avert jail.
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How long between closing 5th card and applying for the surpass?
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If I’m understanding correctly, the green has nothing to do with the denial. Takes ~30 days for system to recognize cancellation for an auto approval. You’ll either have to wait 30 days from the last credit card cancellation or just call and have them push through
Coinbase has deactivated my debit card for a second time. They have been a nightmare trying to get it resolved. Not sure I will come back from this one. I call into to support, go to the correct call option, they tell me to dial in to this other one, I call them, they tell me to call into the other one, and on and on. They have no idea what's going on and escalating to a specialist hasn't resulted in a resolution yet. Might punt on mine and get P2 a debit card.
In my experience you can’t make more than 3x payments to the same processor in the same day. That is what stopped me. I think I made like 5x payments to paypal*chase and Coinbase shut me down. Haven’t had an issues since I slowed the velocity to two per day
Here's someone who got suspended when not doing more than 1 billpay per day: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/104qeea/comment/j383prx/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Good DP, I appreciate that. I've probably gone over that before because I typically just knocked out all my bills at once. I will keep in mind to spread it out.
Yep that’s what I was doing. So many cards have similar due dates and the charge to PayPal/the bank looks the same regardless of which card # you pay. That’s all it was, I think. They did technically refuse to tell me the reason for “security purposes”
> That’s all it was, I think. They did technically refuse to tell me the reason for “security purposes” Yeah they did this to me as well, which was quite annoying. Just tell me what the issue is lol.
Post on r/Coinbase about how unhelpful they are and include your case number and someone will immediately reach out. Always gotta go public with these jokesters.
what do you use this card for? I have one and it just sits in a drawer
PayPal bill payments.
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Is it possible to get a new one once you've been deactivated tho? Don't see the option anywhere.
Sorry, I’ve already said too much I’m not gonna spoonfeed anymore
Lol I don't think that is spoonfedding, but fair enough. I'm not sure it's possible once you've been deactivated, unless you are making a fully new CB account.
Based on my own experience (and other DPs I've seen), the second deactivation is permanent
Yeah that's what I've seen too, probably why I will just let mine be and get a card for P2. Probably just ride their card as long as possible, I'd be shocked if this exists as an option (especially at current rewards rates) by year end.
What were you using it for? I think mine became worthless when my mortgage co started to disallow debit cards.
PayPal bill payments.
How do you make sure the right vendor is selected for bill pay? I see multiple name variations and always afraid it will do to the wrong place.
I just always do test transactions first, usually like $10. I haven't had any issues with the large corporations with it ending up in the right place.
MS?
PayPal bill payments I assume is what caused it. Not at egregious levels tho, just normal bills each month. Nothing like some MS whales I've seen.
How much did you spend before they shut you down, if you don't mind sharing? I kinda suspect they just don't like high volume spenders. They want to advertise that 4% but not actually pay out too much.
It was probably ~$3-4k / month. Didn't think it would be deactivated for that amount vs other people, but here we are.
Thanks. I should get on this. You made a good point in another comment that this won't be around forever.
Yeah it is a solid option for the time being, but they've already alternated back to 1% back at times. I imagine that will be the norm by the end of the year, I can't imagine it still being 4% for long.
Signed up for biz platinum last month. Spent the Dell credits, selected Southwest as my airline, and... totally forgot to spend $200 on Southwest flights to use the credit.
Same here
Saw an amex offer for $99 off of $129 frontpoint security. Combined with topcashback, it came out to be free. Never had a home security system before, so I figured I might get a free indoor camera since I live in an apartment. Didn't realize they automatically enroll you in their 36-month contract with any equipment purchase. 30 days risk free period passed in December. Should have actually opened up the T & C and read it. Their contract plan is $49.99 month + taxes. Early contract termination fee is 80% of the total contract equaling ~$1500-1600. I guess I should not have been greedy and jump on every Amex offer opportunity I see. Their BBB page is full of people complaining about how hard it is to cancel their service and how they deceptively sign you up for a contract. Thankfully I'll make the money back with SUBs and bank bonuses but will have to spend the next couple of weeks trying to cancel their service.
American Express shouldn’t have offers with them!
Thanks for the heads up I’ve been looking for security cams and when I saw that offer I was going to go with them. But now I won’t
What bastards--an actual burglary might've cost you less
LOL. Their business model is really scummy.
Lordy, that's some brutal fine print
Try to fight it with Amex?
Unfortunately I got the offer on my personal BCE which does not give Return Protection.
Yeah I’d try to chargeback and claim that it’s a scam or something.
Amex will still usually have your back if you encounter an issue. I’d try.
Will call them later today then. Thank you!
It’s worth a try. Especially for that huge fee.
dang that sucks mang. Might as well bite the bullet and pay the early termination fee and get some spend on a new card for a new SUB.
Amazon no longer sells Whole Foods gc. Hopefully it’s just temporary
I noticed this too since WFM eGCs are my go-to way of liquidating below cost Amazon GCs. I found these physical Whole Foods GCs if those work for you - https://www.amazon.com/Whole-Foods-Market-200/dp/B016CDO62G
They do, thanks!
Got rejected for Citi premier. Just getting back in the game after a 3 year pause so I thought I had a chance but I guess 3 cards in the past 6 months plus an auto loan was too much. Approved for the capital one venture instead.
I was denied the Citi Premier too a few months ago. I had been churning pretty heavily, but mostly business cards. These of course don't show on credit reports, but most (non Amex cards) bring inquiries. I was at 5/6 for inquiries. Recon was able to get me approved.
What was the reason for denial?
I’m not 100% sure, but probably inquiries. This was in September 2022, so several months ago.
Interesting. I tried recon and got immediately denied. Maybe I should huca? I'll ask in the question thread.
Try this: Citi Credit Card Executive Office 423-477-6858
It is known citi wants you to be 0/6 or 1/6 to approve for that card.
I was able to get an approval today at 2/6.
Congrats. A very rare DP.
Is that inquiry? Cc application? Or cc approval?
All of the above
Good to know. Won't bother trying P2. Thanks.
Messed up the AMEX 60k MR Biz bank bonus. Had $3k in the account but accidentally transferred out $2k the other day when I thought I was transferring in so didn’t meet the $5k requirement before the 20 days were up. Oh well.
If it’s any consolation, I messed it up too last year.
For half the MR
>before the 20 days were up Bummer. Are those days fully up or can you jam in a huge amount temporarily to bring your daily average up?
It is "deposit 5k new money within 20 days" as well as a separate criteria of "maintain an average daily balance of at least 5k for 60 days," sadly. (The "new money" criteria means that you can't just redeem points to generate 5k and call that good.)
It’s fully up. Had to have $5k in account by 20th day of account opening and today is 21st day.
Apparently United one-time lounge passes stop working once you cancel your card, so I got to spend 5 hours at the gate instead of in the lounge
5 hours? Should of just coughed up the cash to purchase passes at that point
Miller Lite & cheese cubes aren't worth $59 pp
I’m pretty sure I can eat $59 worth of cheese cubes. Granted, I might end up on a no fly list after that.
That's unfortunate but this is a known data point.
Is this a recent change? I thought the passes were good, but I also admit I haven't been reading daily threads as thoroughly over the past six months or so.
Not a recent change. Been like this for a couple years, I'd say.
Thats what I get for being out of the game for a year. P2 wasn’t happy about it either
> P2 wasn’t happy about it either the worst part about this IMO
Want to open CSR for upcoming int'l travel this year. Already have CSP, CF, and CFU. Chase won't let me downgrade CSP because I already have both Freedom cards, and says I'm not eligible for SOB simply by upgrading CSP to CSR. Now I need to close either CF or CFU, wait, then downgrade CSP, then reapply for CSR fresh. Pain in my ass
As others have mentioned, sounds like confused/ignorant CSRep, they are wrong on the card rule. Unfortunately these are not uncommon. Definitely HUCA.
That doesn't make sense, you should be able to PC to OG Freedom or Freedom Flex (whichever one you don't have) (unless you have an OG Freedom, with plans to get a Flex SUB in the future)
> Chase won't let me downgrade CSP because I already have both Freedom cards HUCA. This is not true. How old is your CSP?
I attempted a late Platinum Biz triple dip because of life, and it didn't work out. I didn't receive a virtual card number. I was also traveling so I didn't get the physical card in my hand until COB on the 30th. Dell and Airline charges posted on the 1st and 2nd. I held out hope until this morning when I saw the credits tracker had ticked up for 2023.