Fellow Dave Ramsey follower here although - he would probably yell at us for having a credit card in the first place HA
We put everything on our Disney Chase - including utilities, groceries, gas, etc. If we buy something, it goes on the card. Then we pay off the entire balance monthly. We have the yearly fee card - in less than a year weāve accumulated over $900 in points ( we opened the card last year in July), not including the $250 credit we were given when we opened the card. So, for us, the card has been very much worth it. Plus - canāt forget about the countless compliments weāve gotten on the card design itself - seriously - so many compliments.
I have never carried a balance on a credit card, ever. Iāve had some friends say it changed their lives (good for them) and then insist that I take it because thereās no way it wouldnāt change my life (which I found insultingā¦itās pretty straight forward budgeting practices). We have a no-fee 2% back on everything card through Fidelity, but we also have a pretty substantial amount of assets invested with them so I have no idea what the qualifications are. I think weāre going to try for the Southwest companion card (or 2) next January, though.
If you are able to do it, and Southwest flies from an airport near you, there is no better credit card offer out there. We did this 2 years ago. Get 2 cards, get the signup bonuses, maybe get a little more spend to reach 110,000 points and you get a companion pass.
What 2 cards did you use? I still puzzled about whether I can do a personal and business for myself and then a personal and business for my wife or how to arrange the whole thing. What cards and what signup bonuses can I get for whom?
Yes, you should be able to do the personal and the business, especially if you have a legitimate business. I got both for myself and my wife.
Chase is very particular about how many cards you can get in what period of time, and I havenāt looked at the rules lately. But it doesnāt sound like youāve signed up for any cards recently, so that shouldnāt be a problem. There are resources out there that will tell what the rules are today, but essentially, they donāt want to be a part of anyoneās plans to sign up for 20 cards a year and churn them for signup bonuses, so they made a limit of no more than 5 cards in 24 months, from any bank.
At the time I did it, there were 2 personal cards, the Plus and the Premiere (only difference was annual fee, I think) and then a business card. In the last year, they introduced a third one with a bigger signup bonus and fee. The most important thing is to watch for 50,000 point signup bonuses. sometimes it is only 30,000. At 50,000 each on 2 cards, you get 100,000, plus the 3000x2 you get for meeting the minimum spend. Then you spend a little more and you hit 110,000. You just need to make sure you do it all in one calendar year. Then, your companion pass is good for the rest of that year and all of the next one.
The Disney card is offered through Chase Bank and there are two levels, the Visa card(no fee) and the Premier Visa Card ($49 fee) . You get a $50 reward first time for the Visa and a $200 reward on the Premier if you spend $500 in first three months.
If you apply through the WDW website for the Premier Card, it goes up to $250 Reward.
We got the Premier Card in 2015 when we booked a WDW vacation. Just used it for booking a trip, put $500 downpayment, got six months free financing on the trip and got (at that time) $200 reward. Also got $60 Disney Rewards Dollars that we used while at WDW.
After one year, we downgraded to the standard Visa to avoid the annual fee.
My personal opinion, if you are booking a trip, have the financial discipline to pay off the credit card and avoid interest, I would get the Premier card, get the $200-250 reward which more than offsets the $49 fee and earn the 2% Rewards Dollars, which you can use either to pay for the trip itself or to pay other items while in the parks.
One thing, to use the Rewards Dollars, you need to get a Rewards Card. But that is no big deal, you can request one online or you can get a Rewards Card at the Guest Relations at the Parks. Thatās where I got my card from.
I think Iāll probably be getting Annual Passes for my wife and I since hopefully we will go on 2 trips. So what Iām trying to figure out is if there are any discounts outside of what I can get with that or with TiW. Although, I really like mobile ordering for QS, and Iām guessing that even if there is a discount available, I probably canāt use it with mobile order.
Yes! Although we arenāt purists that way. We tried doing the cash thing for a time but it just was a huge pain. We still do cash on vacations (or gift cards). Keeps us on budget. But now thereās mobile order.
This was my experience, as well. The Visa discounts seem to come out earlier, but are the same as the general public offers. For my timeframe, there was no Disney Visa discount, but there was a general public discount and an AP discount.
I ended up buying the AP, it paid for itself in terms of the room discount alone.
I did benefit from the $250 signup bonus for the Disney Premier Visa card but Iāll be canceling it, as I have a Chase Sapphire that gives me 2% on travel related purchases but a 25% increase in value of the points if you book air travel through them. Thatās pretty huge.
At this point, thereās no real benefit to keeping the Chase Disney card when I have the Chase Sapphire.
Charter member of Disney Visa. We had no annual fee one for years and went to the annual fee one a long while back as the 2% does include Walmart as a grocer and thatās where we do most of our shopping.
The Disney card is my main card but I also churn credit cards. Iāve churned 5 cards since November and have time to churn a few more with upcoming expenses.
Choosing credit cards is like buying mattresses. Hard to compare two. I only churn cards with no annual fees and large sign on bonuses. We charge everything we buy. Everything. And pay it all off each month. We have a family of eight and gas and groceries alone top over $1000. We also are able to charge our car and home insurance and kids take community college classes.
All this to say the Disney visa is only a -meh- card over all. Even the higher level card doesnāt waive international fees. GoOd GriEfā:astonished: Thankfully Iām always in the process of churning one I can use elsewhere.
We charge absolutely everything, too. I remember the good old days when my medication. was considered āexperimentalā so I would charge it & have the insurance company pay me back- it was like being able to charge the mortgage every month.
The tricky part with international fees was finding a checking account with fee-free international ATM privileges. For that I have a capital one 360 and itās the only reason I have it, the interest rates are crappy but I keep a little bit of money in there to keep it open, and transfer more before we travel overseas. Sometimes you do just need cash. Also, our bank is regional so it does help in some parts of the US, too.
I donāt churn cards but I read the fine print- I know what each one is good for- like free trip insurance, doubled factory warranties, perks on a certain airline, etc. DH has one card he has proudly held for over 30 years so we donāt let that one go, itās tied to the Amazon account. Theyāve also been making a mistake for 30 years by never charging him the annual fee it was supposed to have after the first year. Oops.
He never looks at the rewards, so every couple of years I dig around in there and find enough for a first-class airfare. Oops again.
Technically it does. When I have a hard pull I sometimes see a drop, but itās never gone less than 810ā¦ so IMO it doesnāt matter.
We have been getting the occasionally turn down lately bc weāve been so active. But thereās a new player every month it seems
Currently the Barclaycard is a nice one.
I follow the Points Guy and I have a friend who also turned so we keep each other informed. We finished our basement, build the deck, and funded Umpteen vacations this way. It does require some effort. But that makes me feel like it was earned.
I am new to the churning game, but right now have 2 cards that each earn 5% in different categories (will be looking into the US Bank one that does 5% in two categories soon), as well as the Barclaycard for most anything else. We also have a Disney Visa that we put 2% category items on when they arenāt one of the 5% categories. We could just as easily put them on the Barclaycard, but I like having the dedicated Disney money. We may cancel that card once we approach the next annual payment though. Then get one for my husband!! My mom, who travels with us, also got a Barclay card, and my husband will be getting one soon. We will pay off at least $2500 of our trip just from getting these cards. I had my husband get a Chase preferred and we used the bonus points to pay for our car rental. Itās tough keeping track of it all, but so worth it!! I put little label stickers on all the cards for my husband so he knows what to use when. Itās a little tiresome switching them out each quarter, as well as changing any necessary autopays, but Iām ok with it.
My friend has an impressive Excel sheet he uses.
I just started a notebook this year.
I just booked our flight 10 minutes ago with my Barclaycard and will have $818 of the $990 paid for with reward points.
I will get the car with our CitiPremier and have some left over?
I will get the campsite with our Savor card and have some left over.
I will get the MVMCP tickets with our other Citi card and have some left over.
The leftovers get tricky. Sometimes I can never really use it down to zero. Sometimes I can get Target gift cards which I convert to Disney gift cards. Or we just get some Lowes card for real-life-house stuff (how boring - I know).
Itās work. But we are willing to work at it for such a high ROI.
DH and I did cash for a few years when the kids were little. The envelopes. Man it was a lot of work to get to the bank for the cash. Divvy it up into envelopes. Remember to go to the envelopes before leaving the house. We maybe did it 18 months before we stopped throwing away all the credit card offers and started reading them. We still budget, but itās on paper. (and plastic?)
I too have the Disney Visa - got 250 statement credit when opened. It does give you discounts, but only on all things Disney. I always pay my credit cards off every month, because as @ryan1 says, if you end up paying interest, the rewards are pointless. Also there is a 49 annual fee which I donāt have on my other card. So, I could technically use rewards on non Disney card towards ANYTHING, including Disney. I find it 6 in one/half dozen in the other. After my next trip (which I say will be my last for a long while), I plan on cancelling the Disney cardā¦because it will be pointless to have it especially with the annual fee
GoOd GriEfā:astonished: Thankfully Iām always in the process of churning one I can use elsewhere.
Oops again.