What’s your current catch all card that you use the most?

I have recently moved quickly into travel credit cards. I’m currently in the Chase ecosystem, but I believe it’s the same for the other major credit card travel programs.
I could use my points at an advantageous rate for hotels, flights, and even all inclusive resorts. But no good deals with cruise lines and points.
Am I missing something here? I’ve been seeing some pop-ups from C1 to spend so much to get so much back and some measly 2% back on some cruise lines.
Is it just that cruise lines have a different type frequent flyer type program it is difficult to mesh with the point system?
My disclaimer: I’m not looking to get a penny a point. The whole idea of having a travel card with points is to stretch these points, at least in my mind.
Again, I ask, am I missing something?

Marriott has a trademark for MARRIOTT BONVOY BRILLIANT BUSINESS. It’s Class 036 – Insurance & Financial Services and description is:

‘Issuance of credit cards; Processing of credit card payments; Credit card authorization services; Credit card transaction processing services’

Our full post here

For those who are using (or planning to use) their Paze credits on Dunkin gift cards I figured out that you can exceed the $125 single-card limit by merging into a free Aven-issued promotional Dunkin $5 gift card.

https://www.aven.com/advisor-free-dunkin

This is probably best for people who are already using Aven, since they ask for an intrusive amount of information just to create an account. If you do create an account, you can (and should) decline to sign-off on giving them access to your tax information.

There's a good chance this will work for other promotional Dunkin gift cards. It doesn't work for regular online or store purchased virtual or physical gift cards (I tried a physical one from Walgreens), you can merge from those cards to exceed $125 but just cannot merge into those cards to exceed $125.

Practically speaking, bypassing the standard $125 limit is totally unnecessary, since you can just store excess gift cards in your email. There is also a valid argument against doing this to avoid "putting all your eggs in one basket". But a data-point is a data-point so I figured I'd share.

Travel agency demanding £1,200 after successful chargeback – can they legally do this?

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice regarding a flight booking and a travel agency.

I booked a flight through a travel agency in late 2025. The destination was in a region close to where the Iran conflict/war was taking place.

As the flight date approached, there was a lot of uncertainty around the situation and I decided that I did not feel comfortable travelling.

What happened

Before the flight was due to depart, I tried to contact the travel agency to either cancel the booking or rearrange the flight because of the circumstances.

I contacted them by email and repeatedly tried calling them, but I couldn't get through to anyone and didn't receive a response that resolved the issue.

I then contacted my bank/card issuer and explained the situation. They advised me to continue trying to resolve the matter with the travel agency. They also told me that if the flight date passed and the agency had still not dealt with the issue, I could raise a card dispute/chargeback.

I followed their advice.

The flight date passed and I subsequently raised the dispute with my card issuer.

The bank has since confirmed to me that the travel agency accepted liability for the chargeback, and that the chargeback was therefore resolved in my favour and the case was closed.

Approximately £1,200 was credited back to my card.

The travel agency has now contacted me

Several months after the chargeback was processed, the travel agency sent me an email demanding approximately £1,200.

Their argument is essentially:

- I didn't take the flight;

- the airline marked the booking as a "No Show";

- the fare was non-refundable under the terms;

- the chargeback resulted in the travel agency being debited the money;

- the agency says this caused them a loss because they had already passed the money to the airline;

- therefore they say I now owe the agency the £1,200.

They have given me 14 days to pay and are threatening to refer it to debt recovery, at which point they say an additional fee plus interest could be added.

What I'm confused about

I understand that a chargeback doesn't necessarily mean that a merchant can never pursue a customer separately.

However, I'm struggling to understand how the agency's loss automatically becomes a debt owed by me.

The bank has specifically told me that the travel agency accepted liability during the chargeback process and the chargeback case was closed.

So my questions are:

1. Can a travel agency legally pursue me separately for the £1,200 after accepting liability for the chargeback?

2. Does a successful chargeback prevent them from subsequently pursuing the customer, or can they potentially rely on their contractual terms to recover the money?

3. If they claim I owe them the money under their terms and conditions, do they need to show me the specific contractual provision allowing them to recover a chargeback from me?

4. Does it make a difference that I tried to contact them before the flight to cancel/rearrange because of the uncertainty surrounding the conflict, but couldn't get a response?

5. What significance, if any, does the fact that the travel agency accepted liability during the chargeback have?

6. Can they simply send the alleged debt to a debt collection agency, or would they need to establish that the debt is actually owed?

7. Can they legitimately add debt-recovery fees and interest?

I've been advised by my bank to speak to Citizens Advice, which I'm planning to do. I'm also considering speaking to a solicitor specialising in consumer law/civil litigation/travel disputes if necessary.

At this stage I'm not planning to pay the travel agency, but I also don't want to ignore them or accidentally make things worse.

I'd particularly appreciate advice from anyone with experience of UK consumer law, chargebacks, travel agencies, airlines or disputed debts.

Thanks in advance.

Going to be flying American Airlines a lot for the foreseeable future so I think getting one of their Citi Advantage cards is a good idea. The two options are:

1. Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select

Pro: 80,000 bonus miles via the inflight offer vs the 50,000 on the main AA website (the brochure I received in flight had the website www.applyaacard.com/inflight with the promo code 871410)

Meh: Annual fee $99 and is waived for first year

Con: Need to spend $3500 within first 4 months to get bonus miles

1. Citi AAdvantage Executive

Pro: 125,000 bonus miles, which I think is an increase from what it used to be, maybe 90,000?

Meh: Free Admiral’s Club Access, which I guess would make me visit more often, but I think they’re overcrowded and the food is decent, but nothing too extraordinary

Con: Annual fee of $695 and need to spend $15,000 to receive bonus miles

Maybe important note: I already have the Chase Sapphire Reserve and am debating cancelling it at the end of this year. Do you all think I should cancel and get one (or both) of the AA cards? Or maybe just stick with the Chase card?

Looking for advice from anyone who's actually filed a Venture X claim for trip delay and delayed baggage.

I travelled internationally with family, all booked on my Venture X. The booking was with Qatar Airways. Original AA flight got cancelled for maintenance, rebooked us a day later through Chicago instead. That AA flight into Chicago also arrived late, we missed our connection, and the airlines rebooked us a day after that, on another carrier. No hotel voucher was available (all exhausted), and we couldn't find a hotel room anywhere nearby that night despite hours of calling. On top of that, our checked bags stayed behind in Chicago and took 4 days to catch up with us after we landed.

So, we had two occurrences of airline delays, and a 2-day trip delay across the itinerary, plus a 4-day baggage delay.

Questions:

1. Do you treat a two-stage delay like this (cancelled flight → rebooked → missed connection → rebooked again) as one continuous trip delay claim, or does the carrier separation matter?

2. Anyone actually gotten baggage delay reimbursed on Venture X? The public benefit guides I have found online contradict each other on whether it is even covered. Some say no baggage delay benefit at all, only permanent-loss coverage; others cite $100/day up to 3 days.

3. We don't have hotel receipts (couldn't get a room) but do have call logs showing the attempts. Does it help?

4. Any tips or anything else that I need to know which will help my claim?

Appreciate any real experience. Trying to get this filed correctly the first time rather than deal with a denial-and-resubmit cycle.

Kindly upvote if you can for better reach.

Just FYI, I took help from AI to format the above message.

Hey everyone I had a collection from t mobile for 1100 it was put on my account on August I paid it off 3 weeks ago and just today it got deleted from all my credit bureaus checked annual credit and no collection is on my account. My credit score was 760 when the collection hit my credit went down 76 points and now since it’s gone it went back up to 760. I’m confused on what happened, will it come back? When I paid the collection agency they said they don’t do pay to delete and that they just updates status to paid has anyone came across a situation like this ?

Going to study abroad for a semester in Shanghai. I’m aware that most places in China don’t accept credit cards so you need to use Alipay with a card linked. Can anyone who has done this provide a data point on whether multipliers worked using Alipay (3x on dining, 2x on travel specifically)? If not, any recommendations for the best card to use while I’m there? Currently have the CSP, CFU, and United Explorer but am open to getting a new one for the SUB.

CREDIT PROFILE

* Current credit cards you are the primary account holder of:

* Capital One Quicsilver $10,000 limit, 01/2020

* Delta SkyMiles Blue Card $15,000 limit, 01/2021

* Discover It Miles $8,400 limit, 01/2018

* Citi AAdvantage Platinum Select World Elite Mastercard $12,400 limit, 07/2026

* FICO scores with source: 790

* Oldest credit card account age: 8

* Cards approved in the past 6 months: 1

* Cards approved in the past 12 months: 1

* Cards approved in the past 24 months: 1

* Annual income $: $130,000

CATEGORIES

* Ok with category-specific cards?: Yes

* Ok with rotating category cards?: Yes

* Estimate average monthly spend in the categories below.

* Dining $: 300

* Groceries $: 400 at HEB

* Gas $: 100

* Travel $: $300

* Using abroad?: I will only use it for short trips

* Other categories or stores:

* Other spend:

* Pay rent by card? No

MEMBERSHIPS & SUBSCRIPTIONS

* Amazon Prime member: Yes

* Disney bundle subscriber: Yes

* Big bank customer: Capital One Bank

PURPOSE

* Purpose of next card: Travel Rewards

* Travel rewards preferences: Delta or British Airways

* Cards being considered: Chase Sapphire, Venture One

ADDITIONAL INFO

I am a US citizen with a British partner living in Austin, TX. We are looking for the best travel card that will allow us to visit my wife's family in the UK twice per year. Right now my main card is the capital one quicksilver which gives a flat 1.5% cash back on everything but I am sure there is a more efficient way to earn rewards to put towards future flights to the UK.

The best options seem to be the Chase Sapphire card or Capital One Venture card but I am not sure which would be better. We have never really been interested in lounge access, but the international rental coverage on the Chase card seems good. I have also heard the Chase rewards portal is a pain to work with.

I would appreciate any advice, thank you!

I recently moved to the US for work and have only been here for about 2–3 weeks.

I opened a Chase checking account and was also approved for a Chase Freedom card, although the credit limit was surprisingly low. I have a good income and can provide employment verification/income documents if needed.

I then applied for the Chase Amazon Prime Visa because I’m setting up my new apartment and expect to use Amazon quite a bit, but the application was rejected.

A few relevant details:
1. My US credit history is extremely new.
2. I already have a recently opened Chase Freedom card.
3. I’m currently staying with a friend, so I entered $0 as my monthly rent/housing payment.
I’m moving into my own apartment next week.
4. What would be the best next step here: call Chase reconsideration and explain the situation, or wait and build some credit history first?

Mainly trying to avoid submitting another application unnecessarily.

So I just got engaged and have a lot of upcoming expenses to pay for as I am planning my wedding. I have been going back and forth on which credit card to get that’s is going to earn me the most points that I can put towards my honeymoon. The large sign up bonuses just dropped on most cards so I am not sure where to start. Please help me decide.

Trying to finish off all my cards, have 3 cardsleft but they are all getting declined, even one never used on clover before. Have wiped cookies and cache.

Of course my transactions still go through Dunkin with no issues on the same cards that are being declined on Clover. Anyone know of a workaround to get Clover working again? It's not my card declining since Dunkin has no issues.

I'm afraid of logging into another phone because that will most likely cause my Paze account to be hit with the 24 hrs ban due to suspicious activity.

Are future clover orders able to be placed for pickup tomorrow while restaurant is closed at night or are future orders only able to be placed while restaurant is open? I'm wondering if restaurants turn off incoming orders when they close for the day which might be causing this error...?

I already have 4 maxed Dunkin cards.

​

1: Other than opening a US bank account to get 1=1 rewards points redemption is there another way? I see previous post about it's 1=1 for Amazon and PayPal months and years ago, but I'm not seeing that currently.

1. I opened the US bank checking/savings account months ago and received the $450 bonus for qualifying direct deposits. However, about a month later I went to redeem points again and it showed that I no longer had a checking account with them?? I don't even know how much I had in that account. Has this happened to anyone else? No clue what happened...

Any recommendations to speed run this? Food preferably but open to other suggestions

I’m trying to understand something that seems simple, but I keep seeing confusion around it.

If I have:

• Opening balance: $1,000
• Money in: $500
• Money out: $300

Then should my closing balance simply be:

$1,000 + $500 − $300 = $1,200

So, in general:

Closing Balance = Opening Balance + Credits − Debits

Is that always the correct way to think about it?

And what happens when the statement shows things like:

• pending transactions
• bank fees
• interest
• refunds
• reversed transactions
• foreign exchange conversions
• adjustments

Can the closing balance on a credit-card or bank statement ever legitimately not match the opening balance plus the transactions shown?

Hi all! I'm from the USA and currently on a grant abroad in a country with a relatively low cost of living. I'll be traveling within Europe, and I usually take 1-2 international trips (to Europe or Asia) from the USA each year + 3-4 domestic trips. I don't rent cars and usually stay in hostels to save on costs. I have no idea where to start with trying to figure out a card. I will not hit $4,000 in spending in the first 3 months to get the points bonus on a lot of these cards.

I'm not tied to a particular airline, but tend to fly United, Lufthansa, or Turkish (based near a United hub).

I'm returning to the U.S. in June and will be looking for a corporate job, so spending will go up then.

• Current card:
  • Apple Card, $4129.95, opened June 2025
• FICO Score: 726
• Income: $2100 per month
• Average monthly spend and categories:
  • dining $100
  • groceries: $150
  • travel: $400
  • rent: $400
  • gym + Spotify subscriptions: $40
    • Rest is going into a HYSA
• What's the purpose of your next card? 
  • Building credit, travel

Thank you all!

I've been trying to get a new car purchase refinanced via a credit union, they're offering 4% APR when meeting their checking account requirements and having 730+ TransUnion score. I financed the car on 8/15 and got the pre-approval from the credit union a couple days later. They pulled me at ~750 with Credit Karma showing a little bit above 730. They said this pull is valid for 30 days. Waiting for the dealership to submit the paperwork for the title in my name before I'm able to proceed with the refinance, should be within 30 days for Ohio. The auto loan has hit my TransUnion report and CK is showing 731.

I just noticed there is a $400 Rakuten bonus for the BofA Travel Rewards card on top of the $250 SUB for the card itself. With BofA primarily pulling Experian, would it be safe to open this credit card before the refinancing is completed or does it put it at risk?

I got over $100 on this MasterCard I bought 2 days ago. I've been trying to use this on a majority of online stores, primarily DoorDash and Twitch. Tell me why this card gets DENIED. The billing address isn't even the problem, because I call customer service and they're telling me this is a "one-time payment", which is funny cuz the online stores i use also accept one-time payment. How the hell is a Visa accepted but not fucking MasterCard? What the fuck is the point of using this if I can't use it on every site?

Who's awful idea was it to change the Amazon Business Credit Card plan from American Express to US Bank?

Amex was so easy to work with and US Bank is awful. Online login isn't working, can barely get through the stupid automated call assistant, and then they can't even help because they need my account number and SS - the problem being is that with the automated change over from Amex to US Bank, I don't have my account number.

I've never had such an awful time with a credit card company. I hope whoever made the decision at Amazon to change celebrated their last day at work last month.

As of right now, my setup is Chase FU, Amex BCE, Fidelity Visa, and Amazon Prime Visa. I’m considering simplifying my setup and only use two cards (Fidelity and BCE). I applied for the Prime Visa since I’m already a Prime member, and with a newborn, we were buying a lot of stuff on Amazon. I also applied for the card as a backup for no FTF without the AF. Would it make sense to just keep two cards, or am I drowning in a glass of water when the Prime Visa only lives in my Amazon account?

I really appreciate y’all’s perspective.

Need help. I don't know what to do. Should I contact my bank or is there an alternative to this? I have a debit card but I couldn't find any subreddits dedicated specifically for debits so I hope that posting here is okay.

Working to advise my daughter, who is recent college grad, on getting new credit card. I had recommended Amex Green because of full-pay model, reasonable annual fee ($150) and rewards structure that lined up really well with her interests and spending (she uses public transit, likes travel/concerts) and the Clear membership was a real perk as she is not yet TSA pre-check.

Well, she went to apply in late July just a few days after Amex paused all applications on the Green Card. Since then, they've relaunched Green as the Classic Green Card with all the same perks and same AF, but they are not taking applications.

At this point, trying to decide if she should wait to see if they introduce a new travel perks card similar to Classic Green or pivot to something else. The other cards looked at are Chase Sapphire Preferred and Wells Fargo Autograph.

• Credit Score: 739 TransUnion
• Income: $85K
• Current Credit Card: Discover (opened Summer 2022 as a college student with 4 years credit history) and authorized user on Citi American Airlines MasteCard
• Not military
• Amazon Prime member
• Purpose of Card - Replace Discover as primary credit card to use for daily living expenses, dining out, travel, shopping, etc.
• Not ok with category-specific or rotating cards
• Cards Considered: American Express Green Card (prior to pause), Chase Sapphire Preferred and Wells Fargo Autograph
• Spend level still be established but about $500 for groceries, $200 for dining out, $125 for subscriptions, uses Uber regularly and Lime Scooters, travel right now is mostly flights (not as much hotels as she's typically staying with friends in other cities)

Does anyone know whether it is possible to upgrade from the bilt blue to bilt obsidian eventually with signing bonuses too? Or is that separate applications each time.