Vinyl Me Please (store, exclusives, swaps, etc)

[Tyr]

Starting off with a low balance is key, especially while you are getting used to them. I would never be one to say don't put things like Vinyl purchases or emergencies on there. Just make sure it's never more than you can pay off by the time your statement balance is due. If you're paying interest, you're hurting yourself and cancelling out any perks.

My two main Credit Cards I couldnt live without are my Chase Sapphire and my Chase Freedom Unlimited cards. Sapphire is the one with the excellent reward benefits. Every purchase on Dining or travel gives you extra points and it has an excellent sign up bonus. If you cash in the points through their own travel portal they are worth more for any flights/hotels and as an added bonus you can transfer them to most airline reward programs for at a 1:1 rate (never use the points for gift cards or cash back even though its offered, it's not worth it).
I use my Chase Freedom card along with it and for any purchase that is not Dining or Travel related (i.e. monthly bills, Vinyl, streaming services, grocery shopping, etc). That card gives you 1.5x points for literally anything else and Chase allows you to transfer those points over to your Sapphire card so you can take advantage of the awesome travel redemption perks offered there.

Between using them both, like I said, I havent paid for any flights in years. That includes my honeymoon, both mine and my wifes Bachelor and Bachelorette parties, and at least 1-2 more trips a year, both international and domestic.

It take a bit of practice and savvy and if you want to research what is best for you and your spending habits, I highly recommend the sites Nerdwallet and The Points Guy. Just make sure you can exhibit that self control before jumping into high credit limits and multiple cards ( I have like 7 or 8 currently)

I second the site ThePointsGuy. It really gives great guidance on playing the points game to maximize card benefits and ensure you don’t have to pay for the majority of your vacations, etc. Obviously the self control that others have espoused is paramount, but if you have enough restraint you can always come out on top. At least here in the US anyway.

I used to have the Chase cards but switched over to an AmEx for everyday spending due to a ridiculous promotion they were running. It pays to keep an eye on the points guy to see the promotions at any given time.

 

[Tortured Diaper Baby Dept]

Yeah, that's literally the only downside so if you don't even have to worry about that it's a no brainer.
Just make sure to sign up at a time when you know you'll spend enough for the sign up bonus, since it's incredible and you're only eligible once. It's 60k bonus points (sometimes higher during promotions) if you spend $4000 in the first 3 months. I personally signed up when I bought my wife's engagement ring so I was able to easily surpass that $4000 dollars in one shot and already had the cash, so just paid it off as soon as it posted. Those bonus points paid for both our honeymoon flights. And then points from the Freedom Unlimited card (which i used for wedding expenses) paid for the honeymoon ones and a return trip to France the following year.

I like the Freedom Unlimited more than the pure freedom, since it's just a straight 1.5x points for everything all year round, as opposed to restricted quarterly categories and I think that works better in tandem with the Sapphire. But it's all preference and what you spend on reguarly.

Oh, so your Chase has no categories just the 1.5? I'm pretty sure mine has some sort of flat points as well (not sure, I never use it for that). Oh...just looked it up...1% on all other purchases (but, again, not really a factor for me).

Yea, I know how to play the sign-up game. I forget what I had to buy when I got the Chase but I made sure to get the bonus. It's 60K for the preferred; looks like the reserve is 50K bonus points (same spending qualification); my assumption is they give you less points b/c of the higher overall rewards pay out on the reserve.

 

[Joe Mac]

I second the site ThePointsGuy. It really gives great guidance on playing the points game to maximize card benefits and ensure you don’t have to pay for the majority of your vacations, etc. Obviously the self control that others have espoused is paramount, but if you have enough restraint you can always come out on top. At least here in the US anyway.

I used to have the Chase cards but switched over to an AmEx for everyday spending due to a ridiculous promotion they were running. It pays to keep an eye on the points guy to see the promotions at any given time.

No one over here takes AmEx, their merchant fees are insane next to Visa/MasterCard!

 

[wynn72]

I should also note, since I'm coming across as this big Credit Card advocate, that I am in a position different than many where I am in a dual income, no children marriage with no student loan debt.

Both of us have average to above average salaries (though new york cost of living) and do not want children ever. So we bought a house that is a reasonable size for us with a reasonable mortgage, travel is cheaper, dining out is cheaper, we have no large life milestone purchases to save for anymore except retirement (which is automatically deducted from paychecks), and any potential emergency situations are much less of an emergency when it's only the two of us we have to worry about and not children. I will thankfully never really be put in the tough situation of having to choose debt to be able to support my family.

If we did have or wanted children and all these life expenses were higher, I would likely be much much more apprehensive about Credit Cards.
Despite being able to rack up points even faster, it would require alot more fiscal responsibility and budgeting that I'm not sure I am capable of.

 

[Joe Mac]

@Joe Mac This is how the VMP thread non-consolidation consolidation will work:

This thread will naturally just become the finance and Spoon appreciation thread. The VMP RHH will become the N&G RHH thread. The Essentials thread will, of course, become the John Mayer appreciation thread. And, Classics...TBD.

None of them will be renamed though (a last F* you to the company)

Sounds good to me. I do feel sorry for the implied shade being cast on Knives and Forks though...

 

[wynn72]

No one over here takes AmEx, their merchant fees are insane next to Visa/MasterCard!

Yeah I have a super Basic Amex card that I never use except if they are having a promotion (like this small business one currently) or for concert tickets that have Amex pre-sales. I have found their customer service to be absolute garbage, and it's accepted the least amount of places. I can only imagine how much worse that is in Ireland as opposed to America.

I'm sure YMMV, especially with those more premium Amex cards but I'm already locked into the Chase ecosystem and quite happy.

 

[wynn72]

Oh, so your Chase has no categories just the 1.5? I'm pretty sure mine has some sort of flat points as well (not sure, I never use it for that). Oh...just looked it up...1% on all other purchases (but, again, not really a factor for me).

Yea, I know how to play the sign-up game. I forget what I had to buy when I got the Chase but I made sure to get the bonus. It's 60K for the preferred; looks like the reserve is 50K bonus points (same spending qualification); my assumption is they give you less points b/c of the higher overall rewards pay out on the reserve.

Yeah those sign up bonuses change too. And theres even sometimes ways to get the higher sign up offers and tricks if you do the research on it beforehand.

 

[mdmost]

There were fewer more satisfying times in my life than when I made the final payment to a card I foolishly carried a large balance on for years. I look back on how much free money I gave to banks and credit card companies because I simply couldn't tell myself no on purchasing things and feel so foolish. I can't tell you 3/4 of what that stuff was now a days.

 

[resik]

New to the world of rewards credit cards, I have only used my credit card thus far for the occasional vinyl purchase and emergencies/unexpected costs like parking tickets or vet bills and stuff like that. My credit is pretty good all things considered (750 neighborhood) ... are there any specific rewards cards you advocate for or that are the most popular options. I’m sure I can ask google but since I got ya here!

Others have already spoke up, but I use a combo of Citi Double Cash (2% on everything), the chase Amazon card (5% on amazon purchases), and the Citi Costco card (4% on gas, 3% on food and travel, 2% on Costco purchases, 1% everything else).

I’ve never got into the churning game or meticulously planned to get the most points back. However, I think these three are an easy to manage middle ground

 

[wynn72]

There were few more satisfying times in my life than when I made the final payment to a card I foolishly carried a large balance on for years. I look back on how much free money I gave to banks and credit card companies because I simply couldn't tell myself no on purchasing things and feel so foolish. I can't tell you 3/4 of what that stuff was now a days.

Been there. I'm happy with where I'm at now but it hurts to think about how much less my mortgage or how much higher my retirement would be, if I learned some of these lessons earlier.
Still think basic financial management and investment concepts should be taught as general requirements in school as opposed to things like Algebra and Cursive, but whatever.

 

[Smansmith]

I still don't have White Stripes.

Same here.

Same here.

 

[MikeH]

Yes. Its the one downside. The Chase Sapphire Preferred is a $95/year fee but is well worth it if you use it enough to redeem the rewards.

If you are a frequent traveler and dine out enough (like myself) then Chase Sapphire reserve is worth it. It's a $550/year fee which is hefty. But you get 3x points on Dining/Travel purchases as opposed to 2x, Free access to travel lounges, and most importantly a $300/yr travel credit, which pretty much means that fee is cut down to $250 year. Again, definitely worth it if you eat out and travel frequently OR especially if you travel alot for business and can put Hotels, flights, client dinners on the card that just get reimbursed by your company anyway. If not, the Preferred is the way to go.

In both cases, I think having the Freedom Unlimited Card in tandem to rack up those points on non-travel and dining is essential.

Edit: IF you live in a city where you have to purchase monthly mass transit passes regardless then one of these is a no brainer. When I lived in NYC, I was getting about 1k points a month just for my regular train and subway passes.

I have the Reserve as well. The fee more than pays for itself in my case and I believe when I signed up, it was something like 100,000 points bonus. $300/year travel credit living in the city was used for subway + uber/lyft/taxis. It seems that the travel credit this year now applies to gas station and grocery store purchases. I have to use Lyft quite a bit for work and I get 10% cash back on that now. It also gave me free global entry + TSA precheck. The majority of my credit card purchases for the past few years have been dining and travel related which all have 3% cash back (oh and vinyl purchasing...but that's only 1% cash back...). There is also no foreign transaction fees, which is great for me since my fiancee is British and we go back to the UK at least once a year when it's not a pandemic.

I have the Reserve card and an Amazon CC for work which I only use on amazon purchases. Overall, I just make sure to pay off my entire statement every month. It can get easy to start putting a lot on your card without noticing but I try to take a look once a week or so to see what my balance is.

 

[wynn72]

I have the Reserve as well. The fee more than pays for itself in my case and I believe when I signed up, it was something like 100,000 points bonus. $300/year travel credit living in the city was used for subway + uber/lyft/taxis. It seems that the travel credit this year now applies to gas station and grocery store purchases. I have to use Lyft quite a bit for work and I get 10% cash back on that now. It also gave me free global entry + TSA precheck. The majority of my credit card purchases for the past few years have been dining and travel related which all have 3% cash back (oh and vinyl purchasing...but that's only 1% cash back...). There is also no foreign transaction fees, which is great for me since my fiancee is British and we go back to the UK at least once a year when it's not a pandemic.

I have the Reserve card and an Amazon CC for work which I only use on amazon purchases. Overall, I just make sure to pay off my entire statement every month. It can get easy to start putting a lot on your card without noticing but I try to take a look once a week or so to see what my balance is.

Yep, you're the type of person who it's meant for. You have to fit a certain criteria and have the right expenses or interests, but if you do fit that, it's really an incredible card.
I unfortunately only have the preferred since the reserve didnt exist yet when I signed up. Chase allows you to upgrade, which would probably be worth it for me, but I'm not eligible for the sign up promotion unless I straight up cancel and re-sign up again. And that would screw up my average years of credit way too much to do. I'll probably still do the upgrade, but I'll wait until travel is really an option again (especially since I now lives in the suburbs and don't have those monthly metro fees or regular need for lyft)

 

[Tortured Diaper Baby Dept]

I have the Reserve as well. The fee more than pays for itself in my case and I believe when I signed up, it was something like 100,000 points bonus. $300/year travel credit living in the city was used for subway + uber/lyft/taxis. It seems that the travel credit this year now applies to gas station and grocery store purchases. I have to use Lyft quite a bit for work and I get 10% cash back on that now. It also gave me free global entry + TSA precheck. The majority of my credit card purchases for the past few years have been dining and travel related which all have 3% cash back (oh and vinyl purchasing...but that's only 1% cash back...). There is also no foreign transaction fees, which is great for me since my fiancee is British and we go back to the UK at least once a year when it's not a pandemic.

I have the Reserve card and an Amazon CC for work which I only use on amazon purchases. Overall, I just make sure to pay off my entire statement every month. It can get easy to start putting a lot on your card without noticing but I try to take a look once a week or so to see what my balance is.

As far as keeping track of what you're spending - and I admit my technique may be a little OCD but it works - I use the calculator and notepad on my phone.

Every time I make a purchase (only discretionary spending; this does not include constants like bills, mortgage, savings, etc) - be it in-person or online; cash or credit - I add it to a running tally on the calculator. It only takes a second. Then when I have a moment I'll quickly add it to the notepad (in case the calculator erases by accident) - usually I give it the notepad treatment at the end of the day or after a larger purchase.

This way I know exactly where I am with my weekly WANTS spending budget; rather than a bunch of vague numbers floating around where I'm unsure of how well I'm staying on track w/ budget, I know (down to the cent) how much I've spent.

Like I said it's perhaps a bit anal, but it works and it allows me to keep a ledger where I know exactly how much money I have to my name (cause a bank statement isn't going to include pending credit card payments). Albeit I don't live anywhere close to the financial edge, but it's a habit I adopted in my 20's and I find it has kept me fiscally honest and have to face up to tangible proof if I'm spending too crazy.

 

[Tyr]

No one over here takes AmEx, their merchant fees are insane next to Visa/MasterCard!

That is understandable. Their merchant fees over here are just as exorbitant but most places take AmEx.

Yeah I have a super Basic Amex card that I never use except if they are having a promotion (like this small business one currently) or for concert tickets that have Amex pre-sales. I have found their customer service to be absolute garbage, and it's accepted the least amount of places. I can only imagine how much worse that is in Ireland as opposed to America.

I'm sure YMMV, especially with those more premium Amex cards but I'm already locked into the Chase ecosystem and quite happy.

Yeah, the promotion they ran for the AmEx Platinum a few years ago was insane. 100k points if you spent 5k within 3 months. PLUS all purchases are at 5% instead of just sub-sections of purchases (gas, dining out, etc.). To me, that made it way more than worth it as I am earning 5% back on pretty much damned near everything.The downside is that the annual fee is $549 a year which is STEEP. They make up for it with $200 in Uber credits (which I use a lot when traveling) and they cover the fee for either TSA Precheck OR Global Entry which is around $200 something anyway. So those two, plus the 5% more than makeup the annual fee for me.

 

[Tyr]

As far as keeping track of what you're spending - and I admit my technique may be a little OCD but it works - I use the calculator and notepad on my phone.

Every time I make a purchase (only discretionary spending; this does not include constants like bills, mortgage, savings, etc) - be it in-person or online; cash or credit - I add it to a running tally on the calculator. It only takes a second. Then when I have a moment I'll quickly add it to the notepad (in case the calculator erases by accident) - usually I give it the notepad treatment at the end of the day or after a larger purchase.

This way I know exactly where I am with my weekly WANTS spending budget; rather than a bunch of vague numbers floating around where I'm unsure of how well I'm staying on track w/ budget, I know (down to the cent) how much I've spent.

Like I said it's perhaps a bit anal, but it works and it allows me to keep a ledger where I know exactly how much money I have to my name (cause a bank statement isn't going to include pending credit card payments). Albeit I don't live anywhere close to the financial edge, but it's a habit I adopted in my 20's and I find it has kept me fiscally honest and have to face up to tangible proof if I'm spending too crazy.

This is a great system, and one that I used to use as well to track everyday spending. I've since migrated my tracking to Mint budget tracker. It compiles all my online accounts and gives me real-time snapshots of where I am broken out by financial class or customizable categories. It also tracks certain assets as well which can give you an overview of your debt to asset ratio which can be helpful at times. I just take a look at my reports a couple times a week to ensure that I'm not getting near my self-imposed budget on any of my FIN classes. Then once a month I'll do a deep dive.

So far, its been working well.

 

[mdmost]

Been there. I'm happy with where I'm at now but it hurts to think about how much less my mortgage or how much higher my retirement would be, if I learned some of these lessons earlier.
Still think basic financial management and investment concepts should be taught as general requirements in school as opposed to things like Algebra and Cursive, but whatever.

I think it should be a requirement like Health or Phys Ed. You're going to get lots of glazed over faces as the kids don't care except making money, money, money. But if you could plant some seeds, it would help. I say that but my dad was a very frugal man. He never splurged on things short of vacations. My grandmother once joked with him that he wasn't going to take his money with him when he moved on from this life. You would think that would've trickled down to me but it really didn't. I was caught up in wanting things but not being patient enough to buy them when I could afford to. And then credit cards became an option. Each person has to find out the hard way just how good and bad credit can be. I'm just happy to be at a point where we only spend what we have. We do use credit cards with points for pretty much any purchase, even utilities. But we don't ever carry a balance or if we did in the past couple years, we'd put it on a zero % balance transfer card.

 

[Tortured Diaper Baby Dept]

This is a great system, and one that I used to use as well to track everyday spending. I've since migrated my tracking to Mint budget tracker. It compiles all my online accounts and gives me real-time snapshots of where I am broken out by financial class or customizable categories. It also tracks certain assets as well which can give you an overview of your debt to asset ratio which can be helpful at times. I just take a look at my reports a couple times a week to ensure that I'm not getting near my self-imposed budget on any of my FIN classes. Then once a month I'll do a deep dive.

So far, its been working well.

I'll have to take a look at that. Admittedly, mine is a very rudimentary system but I'm super comfortable with it and never wished it could do more for me - I mean, it's a calculator and notepad so it's pretty much at its ceiling.

I do keep an excel tracker tabbed out for my budget calculations (that only changes when I get a raise or new recurring expense) and breakdown; a ledger tab where I deduct expenses and keep a real account of how much money I have ('cause as discussed, a bank statement is not accurate); ROTH IRA (I should also add a tab for my employer 401K but I never have); mutual funds; brokerage account; and monthly utility expenses.

It's not high tech but I feel like I always have an exact pulse on where I am financially and I like that.

 

[Tortured Diaper Baby Dept]

I think it should be a requirement like Health or Phys Ed. You're going to get lots of glazed over faces as the kids don't care except making money, money, money. But if you could plant some seeds, it would help. I say that but my dad was a very frugal man. He never splurged on things short of vacations. My grandmother once joked with him that he wasn't going to take his money with him when he moved on from this life. You would think that would've trickled down to me but it really didn't. I was caught up in wanting things but not being patient enough to buy them when I could afford to. And then credit cards became an option. Each person has to find out the hard way just how good and bad credit can be. I'm just happy to be at a point where we only spend what we have. We do use credit cards with points for pretty much any purchase, even utilities. But we don't ever carry a balance or if we did in the past couple years, we'd put it on a zero % balance transfer card.

I feel lucky in that sense - my mother and father instilled in me a sense of financial responsibility and the very real correlation that a luxury bought represents time out of your life (i.e. the hours at work it took to earn that money). I think if people thought that way it might change the way they spend. $5 at Starbucks every morning? Well, you make (e.g.) $20 an hour so is that coffee worth 15 minutes of work to you? $30 record - gotta work 1.5 hours to buy that. I think if we thought of it that way it may change our habits. And, of course, often the answer is "yes" that it is worth that time at work. But I'd hope someone wouldn't buy, for example, every single exclusive VMP comes out with when they think of it that way and would become discerning with their expenditures.

My nana used to also tell me not to buy anything on a credit card that I couldn't afford outright. She looked at them the same way that I do - a convenience and certainly never a workaround for not having funds in hand.

Schools don't want kids to learn financial responsibility. Then they'd be, ya know, more financially responsible.

 

[Ericj32]

I don’t know much about credit cards but I’ve been happy with the Alaska Airlines card. They’re a great airline and offer good options for flights tofrom the west coast, including coast-to-coast routes (i live in DC, but my parents are in PDX). I trust them way more than United/American/Delta. I’ve never ever experienced rudeness or lost bags with Alaska. Prices for flights are best on tuesday mornings about 10 weeks in advance of your planned trip.

Exhibit A: Last summer, I was flying from DC to PDX and, 10 hours or so before my departure time, they emailed to say my flight was oversold and would I be willing to take a different flight. They put me on another flight that left at the same exact time from the same airport and gave me $550 voucher for the “inconvenience” (which was more than the cost of the flight).

They also have usb and regular wall outlets at every seat and free streaming of hundreds of movies to your devices.

Anyway, the card has a $75 annual fee but allows you waive the $25 fee for your first checked bag, so after 2 round-trip flights in the year I’ve saved a net $25.

You also get one “companion fare“ each year where your second ticket on the same flight (if you book them together) is only like $100, regardless of how much the first ticket cost.

And you earn miles and all that good stuff.

The card is through Bank of America, and I already had a checking account with them, so it’s convenient to see both accounts in the same BofA app, and really easy to make/ schedule payments from my checking.