I hadn’t added info because already looked figured out. But when I got the business address verification letter for sole proprietor, all I took in was a utility bill. They didn’t require anything else from me. I took it in rather than mail and they verified it over the phone at the Chase bank. No idea if mailing would have been easier. Good you got it all sorted.
Lets not go down this rabbit hole, ok?
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Ok understood. Thanks for the explanation!!
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Finally, seemed they approved since I"m seeing a new card in my account but never got any notification.
DCU offering totally free balance transfers, up to your credit limit, between now and July:
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This is just 6 months at 0%, one of the shortest deals around. You might post it in the balance transfer thread:
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Agreed. Done. Thank you, Argyll. I was unaware of the BT thread else I would have posted the offer there in the first place.
Freedom paid me my 5% on my first purchases with the funds credited Jan. 1, 2019, quicker than promised) which were primarily charitable donations made to the Foundation for Metabolic Cancer Research through the Paypal site (so the charity did not have to pay fees for using credit cards).
Their failure to use account numbers on checking accounts that are of the usual length, complicated setting up ACT transfers, but it can be made to work for some firms, with Freedom knowing what to do with the funds received (at least for two banks) designed for checking (from when payments to the VISA card can be made).
A wire transfer also got to them. A phone representative was not helpful, merely telling me questions about wires could only be answered by the sending firm only (I had some confidence in the ability of some banks to process wires transfers to them, but wanted to know what would happen when Freedom received the funds, and how long it would take them to get the funds into the right account, especially since the funds would come in with only your member number attached).
Experimentally, wire instructions submitted about 2PM on Dec. 31 got funds into my checking account that day, and could be transferred to pay off part of my credit card debt, so I could use the card later on Dec. 31 to make a large donation in time to create a tax deduction for 2018, and hopefully get the 1% Paypal giving Fund bonus.
They seem to have no way to initiate ACT transfers, but a couple of banks could make them if given the account number (which is your member number) for your checking account. As discussed in the thread on brokerage bonuses, Merrill lacked the ability to handle their non-standard checking account numbering system on their online sites, although BOA at least accepted the instructions (not tested to see if it works however), since BOA charges for transfer out over $1,000, and appears not set up to handle customers without cell phones, or unwilling to disclose their numbers.
Amex Blue Cash Everyday card has $150 back on $1K spending in the first 3 months. It is 3% back on groceries with no annual fee. If you spend $6K at the grocery store the first year that works out to 5.5% cash back.
Slickdeals offers an additional $125 bonus if you apply from their site, meaning $275 total.
With a combined $275 bonus, If you spend $6K at the grocery store the first year that works out to 7.5% cash back.
This card also has Introductory 0% APR for 15 Months on purchases.
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Just curious, what is the logic of combining opening spend bonus with the category into a single percent?
In that case, would an equivalent statement would be: Chase ink preferred, 80k pts ($800 cash or more as transfer) $95 fee after $5k purchases. 3x points on travel, shipping, internet cable and phone, 1x everything else.
If you spend $5k at Taco Bell in the first three months, that works out to 15.1% cash back on tacos.
Or substitute: “If you spend $5k at grocery stores in the first three months, that works out to 15.1% cash back.”
(arbitrary card and unrelated purchase “category” example)
It seems to not make sense to me to express things that way, but my brain seems to be wired unusually, so maybe I’m just not seeing it.
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I see $250 for Blue Cash Preferred, and $200 for Blue Cash Everyday.
Amex T&C has this clause: “if you cancel or downgrade your account within 12 months after acquiring it”, so plan to pay for the second annual fee as well for the BCP.
It’s something to consider when getting a new card. For example: the Amex Preferred card nets a current cardholder 4.4% back on groceries, If one applies for the Amex Everyday card and uses it instead, one would net 5.5% back on groceries the first year.
Everyday has no annual fee.
I didn’t say anything about Everyday having an annual fee.
I may have a data point on that shortly, although it wasn’t intentional to create one. First of all, BCP annual fee runs calendar year, so first year you pay a prorated amount (e.g. $79.16 on February 9 for 2018). And the timing of that is interesting because I upgraded from BCE to BCP on 11/24/17. On 12/15/18 I downgraded back to BCE because it was over the 12-month mark, and the rep did say my new $95 annual fee would be refunded. There was no mention of the $250 clawback.
I’m a little uncomfortable they haven’t posted the $95 refund yet, but at least no mention still of the clawback.
In which case, you should only consider the $1k spending necessary to trigger the bonus. The additional $5k spending beyond that will only be earning 3% since the bonus will have already been earned.
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Not really. You have to hold the card a year anyway to keep the bonus, so why pay $95 for the BCP card? It’s the only other card with a higher regular rate for groceries and I don’t need two cards. After a year I’d then upgrade the Everyday card to the BCP if possible, but if you still have one you can’t do that.
Yes, really. After the first $1k, which earns the bonus, the rest only earns 3%. That may or may not still be your best option, but the bonus is no longer a factor in what using that card is getting you.
According to a rep, if you downgrade within 30 days of the fee date, you get the whole thing refunded. If it’s longer than 30 days, it’s pro-rated.
I count everything as a factor: multiple bonuses, regular rewards, 0% APR for 15 months, money that can be kept in savings, and time factors in applying for and changing cards,
Plus I might downgrade the BCP card and get a pro-rated refund.