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I don't spend much on CCs but looked into doing this for bank accounts. I decided not to bother after doing the napkin math. For example, bank offers $300 to deposit $10K and hold for half a year, I could make 3% on a safe dividend stock or 4-6% on a poorly rated but ultimately safe corporate bond over that same time span or 6-8% on a growth stock if the valuation/multiplier doesn't inflate/deflate, so $150 in excess profit (generously using 3% as a comparison), which is taxable, so about $100 post tax in excess profit, which is not worth my time to open the account, transfer money in, monitor for reward cash hitting, transfer money out, and finally shut the account.
If I spent enough on credit cards not to require manufactured spending to hit the thresholds I'd be more inclined.
Dividends aren't interest, they are forced sale of the stock, that is an absolutely horrendous way of looking at it, but to each their own.
We do it if we know we are going to have a big expense. We did it with Chase last year when we were putting new counters in the kitchen. Got us a free flight to CT to visit the wife's grandparents. Not bad for something you were going to spend on anyway. We should probably do more of it, but we actually don't spend that much in 3-4 months on stuff that isn't planned typically, so it's a decent amount of work. We'd have to change the billing cards on many of our recurring payments to get to $4k in 3 months most times.
Started last year with the Sapphire Reserve, managed to get two one way tickets on United from Paris back home in Business Class. United kept tempting me with the Explorer card so I got that and am getting another 70K miles. My plan this year is to downgrade to the Preferred because the CSR's annual fee is insanely high and I feel like I've gotten enough out of it as I could (the 100K points, global entry, etc).
Started last year with the Sapphire Reserve, managed to get two one way tickets on United from Paris back home in Business Class. United kept tempting me with the Explorer card so I got that and am getting another 70K miles. My plan this year is to downgrade to the Preferred because the CSR's annual fee is insanely high and I feel like I've gotten enough out of it as I could (the 100K points, global entry, etc).
The csr gives you higher redemption value through the chase portal if needed and you earn 3x points in travel and dining vs 2x on the csp. Additionally the 450 fee is really cut to 150.00 given the travel credit so the cost difference is only 55.00 annually. Add in the priority pass select and I think the csr is worth the differential. If a point is worth 1.5 cents you'd need 3666 in spending on restaurants and travel to break even
I'm not sure if you can downgrade from csr to csp but you should just get the csp with a 50k point sign up offer and then transfer those points to your csr account
The csr gives you higher redemption value through the chase portal if needed and you earn 3x points in travel and dining vs 2x on the csp. Additionally the 450 fee is really cut to 150.00 given the travel credit so the cost difference is only 55.00 annually. Add in the priority pass select and I think the csr is worth the differential. If a point is worth 1.5 cents you'd need 3666 in spending on restaurants and travel to break even
I'm not sure if you can downgrade from csr to csp but you should just get the csp with a 50k point sign up offer and then transfer those points to your csr account
But if all I'm using it for is to transfer miles to my United Plus account, does it really matter which one I have?
But if all I'm using it for is to transfer miles to my United Plus account, does it really matter which one I have?
Yes it does matter. The earnings rate suggest if you spend 3666 on travel and if dining the card cost is the same, if you spend more than that the csr is better for earnings. This also assigns no value to the priory pass, travel insurance or lost bag insurance. You should also be pricing through the chase portal for comparison sales as sometimes it's cheaper points/miles wise to book through chase instead of united. Also if you book trough chase, you get united credit for pqm and pds which are important for united's program
It's not hard to hit $4k a year eating out. I put a lot more on it. The $300/yr travel credit has a wide application. All the parking meters near me are electronic, reimburses me for all them.
What Amex plat card do you have that waives the first years fee?
Ameriprise Amex Platinum waives the first year's fee (as well as for an authorized user). You don't even need to be an Ameriprise financial services member.
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