What type of credit card do you use when booking cruises?

[dd likes to cruise]

5 hours ago, DarrenM said:

But having to remember all of that and having that many cards would just fry my brain.

 

Too much. Dont need it in my life.

 

I think we all need a few credit cards. One it helps get us a credit rating, by showing we can handle credit. We pay off in full each month also, so don’t pay high interest.

 

But when we travel overseas hubby and I each take 2 cards, different cards. You never know when one will get shut down for expected fraud or something. And I don’t want to waste time dealing with that on a trip. Of course those cards are ones that do not charge foreign transaction fees.  

 

But to each there own. If you can’t handle 3 cards and know which is best to use in specific cases, maybe credit cards aren’t for you. 

[Underwatr]

It's also good advice (according to US money talk guy Clark Howard) to have cards from at least two different issuing banks. That way if an issuer revises their risk algorithm and tightens your limit or worse, you have a card from another issuer as backup.

 

I know that if I mess up and use the Amex at a restaurant the worst that happens is that I only earn 1% back on that bill rather than 3%. It's not stressful (and I look forward to picking up my $650+ at Costco in February).

[2wheelin]

7 hours ago, FlyerTalker said:

2019:  Four first class tickets on Cathay Pacific.  One half to Hong Kong, the other to Australia.

 

Retail equivalent....$30,000.

Even at an unheard of 10% “rebate” that would mean $300,000 charged. That’s 4 times my annual income! 

I use two or three different cards and usually just apply the rewards to my statement occasionally. I did get the Delta AmEx basic card just to get free bags for 5 of us on a recent trip.

[pacruise804]

32 minutes ago, 2wheelin said:

Even at an unheard of 10% “rebate” that would mean $300,000 charged. That’s 4 times my annual income! 

I use two or three different cards and usually just apply the rewards to my statement occasionally. I did get the Delta AmEx basic card just to get free bags for 5 of us on a recent trip.

 

I think that can be part of the issue with financial discussions: context of where we are coming from.  If I spent $300K per year then it might be worth using credit again.  We save and invest a large percentage of our income and while we enjoy travel it is hard to wrap my head around spending enough to get enough points to make a difference.  Those that are high spenders it does make sense.

 

While I don't use credit, I do have rewards cards with several businesses and still get cash back from them so I do understand the appeal.  Living and giving like no one else (yep, we drank the kool-aid 😉 ) works for us.

 

I do chuckle at stores when they say how much I "saved" with my card or their sale.  I know I wouldn't have bought the item at full price, and someone would have the item at a similar price.

[iancal]

Prior to switching to a cash back card we had multiple airline reward tickets.  South America, Asia, and too many Europe and North America trips.

 

Last  Feb we spent five nights at a Sheraton in Sydney, Australia.  Gratis on Marriott points.  That stay had a value of $1300 AUD.  The year prior was two nights at Sydney Pier One that had a value of $700 AUD.

[Toofarfromthesea]

It is kind of funny how credit cards and their usage seem to make so many people so proud of their ignorance about how they work.

[DarrenM]

Is anyone on here ignorant of how they work?

[clo]

3 hours ago, pacruise804 said:

it is hard to wrap my head around spending enough to get enough points to make a difference. 

ANY bill we can put on CC goes on the card. Utilities, insurance, any and everything.  I recently made a donation to a political campaign and that went on the card. We make a couple of automatic monthly donations to non-profits. On the card. $3 breakfast at McDs. Yep. It adds up over time. And depending on the card and how you use it you make get kinda bonus usage.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

4 hours ago, 2wheelin said:

Even at an unheard of 10% “rebate” that would mean $300,000 charged. That’s 4 times my annual income! 

I use two or three different cards and usually just apply the rewards to my statement occasionally. I did get the Delta AmEx basic card just to get free bags for 5 of us on a recent trip.

 

Easier to understand as a business, which is likely the more common explanation.  Let's say someone has $300,000 of expenses, $375,000 in revenue, they could make the exact same amount of money as you, with extremely higher credit card usage.

[2wheelin]

10 minutes ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

Easier to understand as a business, which is likely the more common explanation.  Let's say someone has $300,000 of expenses, $375,000 in revenue, they could make the exact same amount of money as you, with extremely higher credit card usage.

But people come on here to get personal information for the most part. A few have clarified they have business cards which puts them in a whole different ball park. If you are talking about business card expenses, claim your ball park which is irrelevant to me.

As for non-profits, that comes from my IRA so I get a better return than any CC by eliminating the taxes I would have paid.

[clo]

1 minute ago, 2wheelin said:

As for non-profits, that comes from my IRA so I get a better return than any CC by eliminating the taxes I would have paid.

I don't understand this. Please.

[pacruise804]

1 hour ago, clo said:

ANY bill we can put on CC goes on the card. Utilities, insurance, any and everything.  I recently made a donation to a political campaign and that went on the card. We make a couple of automatic monthly donations to non-profits. On the card. $3 breakfast at McDs. Yep. It adds up over time. And depending on the card and how you use it you make get kinda bonus usage.

 

We rarely process charitable donations through the Visa, but use ACH instead.  Many agencies are charged a small fee per transaction for ACH but huge for credit cards.  My insurance doesn't allow credit card payment, several vendors I deal with - from hairstylist to daughter's college - charge extra for credit.  Each person needs to do what works for them 🙂 

 

20 minutes ago, 2wheelin said:

But people come on here to get personal information for the most part. A few have clarified they have business cards which puts them in a whole different ball park. If you are talking about business card expenses, claim your ball park which is irrelevant to me.

As for non-profits, that comes from my IRA so I get a better return than any CC by eliminating the taxes I would have paid.

 

I was wondering about this.  I heard you can leave part of a traditional retirement to a non-profit tax-free for estate planning, but didn't know if you could also pay directly from it while alive with the same benefit.  We are still many years away from having to touch it, so I hadn't checked the rules.  It's good to know though since we have some traditional from early years before doing Roth.

[Underwatr]

25 minutes ago, clo said:

I don't understand this. Please.

Even when you can't deduct charitable contributions (the standard deduction is very high now) you can instead make charitable contributions directly from tax-deferred accounts and that money never counts against income so there is no income tax against it.

 

If you have tax-deferred retirement income and contribute to charity the tax savings in doing it this way dwarfs any benefit you'd realize by passing the contribution through a credit card.

 

Now back to the thread topic...

[clo]

12 minutes ago, Underwatr said:

If you have tax-deferred retirement income

Unfortunately we don't Roth's came along too late to do us any good.

[Underwatr]

Roths are a different beast entirely (money isn't taxed at withdrawal). You don't have any traditional IRAs?

[clo]

1 minute ago, Underwatr said:

Roths are a different beast entirely (money isn't taxed at withdrawal). You don't have any traditional IRAs?

Who are you replying to?

[2wheelin]

44 minutes ago, Underwatr said:

Even when you can't deduct charitable contributions (the standard deduction is very high now) you can instead make charitable contributions directly from tax-deferred accounts and that money never counts against income so there is no income tax against it.

 

If you have tax-deferred retirement income and contribute to charity the tax savings in doing it this way dwarfs any benefit you'd realize by passing the contribution through a credit card.

 

Now back to the thread topic...

Exactly. And to answer the next question, this refers to traditional IRA only. Roth IRA is not taxable. It also has to be an approved non-profit—probably most would be. It also counts toward your required minimum distribution when you reach the age that is required. (70 1/2 or 72)

NOW back to regular programming

[Stateroom_Sailor]

1 hour ago, 2wheelin said:

But people come on here to get personal information for the most part. A few have clarified they have business cards which puts them in a whole different ball park. If you are talking about business card expenses, claim your ball park which is irrelevant to me.

 

If you see a business credit card mentioned, I guess skip to the next comment.

[2wheelin]

1 minute ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

If you see a business credit card mentioned, I guess skip to the next comment.

The point being that it was not mentioned as a business card.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

10 minutes ago, 2wheelin said:

The point being that it was not mentioned as a business card.

 

I don't assume anything, a card or cards weren't mentioned at all.  The average person that spends 300K on a credit card likely does so through a business, and has nothing to do with "claiming a ball park".

[clo]

1 minute ago, Stateroom_Sailor said:

 

I don't assume anything, a card or cards weren't mentioned at all.  The average person that spends 300K on a credit card likely does so through a business, and has nothing to do with "claiming a ball park".

Hopefully the people here who are more knowledgeable than I will speak up. Realize that credit card companies frequently offer bonuses/points to sign up. I generally see 40-60,000 and currently there's one for 100,000. That gets the ball rolling 🙂 And our CSR card, as mentioned above, gives 3X points on travel and dining. What did you pay for your last cruise? Do you do two or three a year. There are loads of way to rack up points. I have two cards with 100k each and Bob has one with 200k and we're neither 'rich' nor have a business.

[Underwatr]

1 hour ago, clo said:

Who are you replying to?

 

You. You said

 

1 hour ago, clo said:

Unfortunately we don't Roth's came along too late to do us any good.

 

Roths aren't the target of the strategy of donating directly from the account, traditional IRAs are.

[clo]

3 minutes ago, Underwatr said:

 

You. You said

 

 

Roths aren't the target of the strategy of donating directly from the account, traditional IRAs are.

Sorry. I just wasn't tracking. And neither of us knew the thing about donations made straight from the IRA. We'll be checking that out. Thanks.

[Stateroom_Sailor]

2 minutes ago, clo said:

Hopefully the people here who are more knowledgeable than I will speak up. Realize that credit card companies frequently offer bonuses/points to sign up. I generally see 40-60,000 and currently there's one for 100,000. That gets the ball rolling 🙂 And our CSR card, as mentioned above, gives 3X points on travel and dining. What did you pay for your last cruise? Do you do two or three a year. There are loads of way to rack up points. I have two cards with 100k each and Bob has one with 200k and we're neither 'rich' nor have a business.

 

400K in points is generally worth $8,000 when used efficiently.  Some airlines offer even higher value with first class redemptions.  It would take an aggressive year of credit card signup bonus to reach 30K in rewards, and likely put you on the naughty list with the banks.

 

We're tending to book one 14 night reposition cruise, and one 5-7 night inexpensive cruise, per year.  I used to use Sam's Club 3% to pay for cruises, now I'm using American Express Platinum.

[DarrenM]

8 hours ago, dd likes to cruise said:

 

I think we all need a few credit cards. One it helps get us a credit rating, by showing we can handle credit. We pay off in full each month also, so don’t pay high interest.

 

But when we travel overseas hubby and I each take 2 cards, different cards. You never know when one will get shut down for expected fraud or something. And I don’t want to waste time dealing with that on a trip. Of course those cards are ones that do not charge foreign transaction fees.  

 

But to each there own. If you can’t handle 3 cards and know which is best to use in specific cases, maybe credit cards aren’t for you. 

Credit ratings were part of the problem letting people build up huge debt.

 

At my age I really dont care what some data crunching nomsrk so called business rates my credit suitability.

 

I dont have a high opinion of the banking industry.😛