Sunday Success Stories

April 17, 2011 - Rick

Ubud, Bali, Indonesia; photo by Andrew Ingersoll

Hey Rick

I know I had informed you ahead of time that we had an oversold flight and chance for a bump on our vacation last week.. Well we got it! So here’s our complete story:

Got in on the Expedia deal this past fall, where we booked a trip to Vegas for $1 Canadian. Ended up not being able to go to Vegas, so cancelled the tickets with CO before the flight date. This left a credit with CO for $280 each. Used this credit to purchase tickets to FL last month, total was $7 extra per ticket, costing us now $8 each round trip to FL. Flight out was oversold, and we volunteered to be bumped. We were both chosen, and received $300 each on CO vouchers for doing so – AND I was moved to F for the next flight out (husband got the bulkhead behind me).

All totaled: +600 in vouchers and a seat in first class for a ticket that cost us $1 to begin with! All thanks to reading your blog and the forums J Can’t beat it!

Kim R

Hi Rick,

Because of that Capital One match promotion, I earned $1150 by doing nothing at all but spend what I normally do. It’s covering my all-inclusive hotel for four nights in Turks and Caicos in a few weeks. Thanks again. Keep up the good work!

Best,

Jessica

Sunday Funnies Coming to an End

We are revamping the Sunday blog post to include your Success Stories and removing the Funnies. If you have a successful frugal trip story you’d like to share, send it to me at

Anonymous

I just applied and was approved for the BA offer about 7-10 days ago, then applied for the continental 50000 card by chase and was told they were unable to approve the application and would soon get a written response. Used true credit and I have a score of 842. Did I break a timing rule or not good enough credit?
Nic

Which truecredit package do you get and what's the monthly cost? I always get confused by the different offers on the site and I never seem to get the one I want.
FrugalTravelGuy

NIc; My package allows me to update my creditreport and scores with all three agencies once per month. About $14.95 but you can talk them down to 9.95 by finding another offer from another company and asking for a match.

Anon: YOur CO card rejection was based on timing. YOu should wait at least 30 days between Chase apps
Anonymous

Checking out TrueCredit Now…After 18ish months of many card offers and Churning (lightly), scores in the mid-low 900's on 2 of the agencies and Mid 800's on the third lead me to believe the negative impact to my credit scores is minimal so far. Thanks for the recommendation!
Anonymous

I'm super excited for these big offers. My credit is well over 700 (FICO) but my major concern, and major question from the creditors, is NUMBER OF INQUIRIES.

I just started the credit card game just over a year ago. Since then I have 10 inquiries on Experian. Seems Experian in my area tends to get used the most.

Any tips on the number of inquiries I should maintain at for a bureau at any given time?
Carol in MN

While the lucrative offers are great, my experience lately has been that it is almost impossible to get an award flight for 25K miles. And, when I do find one, it often has a very early morning or late night departure and/or arrival, more than one stopover etc. I really don't spending an entire day of my vacation flying.

Sorry to sound so negative, but the reality seems to be that decent award flights are requiring 40K miles or more. Could it be because there is such a glut of frequent flyer miles to be redeemed? Are any of you having the same experience?
Anonymous

There are states where BY LAW you can get your credit reports for free.
Kurt

Nic: AMEX Credit Secure is $9.99 and lets you run 2 reports a month (all 3 agencies, 3 scores). For $21, you can run it 1x per day, every day
Anonymous

Which big banks are part of the rumor?
ArizonaGuy

@Ingy: Since it's TrueCredit, you should also be notified of the inquiries or added accounts to your reports as they happen – correct? And you can get your Transunion scores for every single day, both through TrueCredit or for free through CreditKarma.
Charles Clarke

@Carol – I haven't had problems finding award flights. We went to Hawaii last month on United for 40K x 2 and are planning a first class trip to St. Croix on American for 60K x 2, though 35K coach seats are available also.

It just takes some flexibility and searching.
Craig Ford

Anon #1
This year both my wife and I applied for cards at Chase within 30 days of each other. Both cards were approved for each of us. I would call Chase and see if they would shift balances around.
Dan Peake

@Anon

Every US resident is allowed their credit report for free: https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

BUT, that's different than your credit SCORE.
daniel

so is it a smart move to cancel some of those cards that I dont use in anticipation of an upcoming offer? e.g. those AA Visa personal and Biz that i dont use anymore and that DL AMEX that I dont use anymore? or would that have an adverse affect on new apps over next month or two?
Charles Clarke

Starting in July, creditors have to give you your credit score if they deny you credit or give you a worse rate than they give others.

Capital One currently, at least with the Venture card, gives you your credit score even if they gave you the best rate.

Rookie Tip: If you have several cards you are interested in, you can apply for 3 or 4 on the same day so that they don't see each other's inquiries.

Another Tip: If you have cards that you are interested in, apply first with the banks/credit unions that it is harder to get credit with. Some don't want to see inquiries on your report. PenFed and Barclays come to mind.

Another Tip: Having a card with the different issuers gives you a leg up later when you want another card with them. So if you're deciding between two offers, first try for the one from the issuer you don't have a line with.
John

Thank's for the tip in the post. My wife applied actually 3 months ago for the BA card and I called in for her to see if they would offer up the additional 50K miles. The rep looked at the account and stated that they could and the points will post on the next statement. We did book two RT tixs to Italy using the card recently and paid our taxes with it as well.

I had also applied for the BA card last week and was denied as the reason being that i just opened the Hyatt card back in January. I decided to call in hoping they would just reduce the Hyatt balance and give me the BA card. Instead they reviewed the application and approved it without any balance adjutments. Score!

Sunday Success Stories

Related Posts