Spousal Support- Churning etc.
 

Been quietly sitting back for the last year with my mouth shut reading FT and learning the lay of the land. I have had great results "churning and burning" and implementing my learnings. Thanks to all of you. I am always impressed with the high level of intellect of the FT community.

Here is my question. It seems that every few weeks I am sitting my wife down for a briefing on which cards she should be using or switching her cards out after meeting a spend. She always does it but I always seem to get some flak with comments like "geez, another change!". In the end she knows from 16 years of marriage that there is always a method to my madness and of course the benefits are very visible to her when we travel.

Just curious how the other spouses out there respond to all that goes into churning cards etc? Thanks- Maz

I have quit banging my head against that wall and just buy the OD visa cards and let her use those...or used to until the $500 cards got pulled. With the chase biz cards, I was getting 5:1 points on them so getting the wife away from which card to use and getting the bonus points was money well spent paying the small service fee. Hopefully the $500 cards come back soon. Funny how she loves the travel but doesn't want to bother with helping cut the expense. If I could get her to churn, we might hit that 1 million mark in a year but she just will not do it.

Mrs drminn is a willing participant, both in acquiring and spending the points - she loves travelling in style. I just hand her a new card every now and then and tell her to spend on this one for a while.

The $500 gift cards are the way to go with everyday expenses and spouses. Just got another couple recently and that works well with my spouse. Otherwise, just keeping it simple is good. If I am working on a minimum spending requirement then he gets that card. I have found that trying to get reluctant spouses on board with bonus category spending can be pushing it, so assign one at a time. Most don't really care which card they are using as long as they aren't having to remember which of 8 different cards to use for any given purchase.

The other piece of it is to use miles for something they really enjoy. Nothing gets a reluctant spouse on-board faster than an amazing trip that they never dreamed possible. ;)

I too have limited my wife's involvement to just the "use this card for a while". I don't want to go down the road of having her choose one of 2 or 3 cards based on what is being purchased for x2 miles etc. Not too worried about it because I handle those decisions when we are together and the times when large charges where double miles count the most such as the Sapphire Preferred x2 on travel etc.

I don't churn cards, however, my husband has had enough free or nearly free vacations to Hawaii (& Disney) to just blindly do what I tell him to regarding with the cards and also doing mattress runs.

He even has a bookmarked section of which websites to check before he makes an online purchase.

Spousal Support- Churning etc.
 

My wife just shrugs and takes the next card. She did sorta like the Amex Gold. I'll probably get her a plat one so you can enjoy that for a while. She totally gets it on the free trips so no complaints. .

I tape a label on the back of each card 5X, amount and date needed...
We do not even need to talk about it...
After date needed to spend goes in closet safe.
Date to cance in Google Calendar

Got to watch women they keep taking things back..charge back goes on card..

Another FT had a good system that we now use: Write in Sharpie marker on the side of each card what to use it for. When the cards are in the wallet you can easily see the labels:
_____
| Gas |
| CVS |
| Rest|
| " . " |
|____|

I realize this only works with vertical wallets, but most purses/wallets for women go this direction. When quarterly bonuses change a little rubbing alcohol/nail polish remover erases the categories that change. I also write "DO NOT USE" on cards that have no real bonus spending right now.

My wife now just tells me.. " I dont care why I'm using a card, just tell me what card to use". She complains when I talk about but enjoys our free breakfast and checked bags etc..

i make all the decisions for the SO and plan her AoRs accordingly

then I usually keep track of all the spend and tell her which card to use. It gets bothersome when she needs to call in for a card, but, she loves the vacations, so she deals with it

my wife is the exact same way. hilarious.

Moderator action
 

Thread transferred to Credit Card Programs which is the preferred venue for discussing card strategy and techniques.

My wife hasn't started complaining yet..may be because we just got in this game. Her attitude is, just tell me what card to use, or better still, put it in the front in her purse :)

I have implemented a 3 card strategy for my wife's wallet:

1. Amex BCP =Groceries & gas
2. Citi Forward = Dine & Amazon
3. The every thing else card, which I swap out every couple/few of months based on min spend needs.

I am also very gracious if the above strategy is not implemented with 100% precision, as she may have misplaced a card or the like. She stays home, so I can't churn for her (no income, not in a community property state). She has expressed reluctance to have too many things hit her pristine credit. I am negotiating a number for how many cards I can apply for her in a year. I am hoping she will consent to four cards per year.

We have done it this way for about 6 months and she is fully on-board and will brag at times when she does something above and beyond (e.g. use Forward at Barnes & Noble).

I do find high spend cards (e.g. Brit Air) are good choices for card #3.

My situation is a little different because Mrs. Redtop and I live in different countries, but I keep it simple, I just have her use one card at a time (with no forex fee of course) and I don't worry too much if we are leaving a few points on the table. Every 6-12 months I tell her "give me back that card" and give her a new one. If there are minimum spends, I manage those. I have her cable/internet billed directly to my Ink Bold card for the 5x.

My husband is okay with it. He rolls his eyes now and again, but thats because 1. he doesn't get why I'm so gung ho about it, and thinks I should find a 'real' hobby lol, and 2. he's never had to worry about flying in premium cabins as he's been flying in first or business since he was born and it was always taken care of. But now that we're "grown up" :P, we have to take care of it ourselves.

He's happy to have the benefits, and is willing to go along with remembering which cards to use when. And he doesn't really care if I apply for cards in his name. I just give him the card and tell him what to do with it (but if he forgets and uses the wrong card for something, its not a big deal. I just let it go, which helps). He loves when I'm happy, and he knows I'm happy when we travel comfortably (and, dare I say, luxuriously). So he's fine with entertaining my schemes to get miles and points lol.

My fiance is exactly like the OP's spouse.

She gets defensive if she uses the wrong card at the wrong location and I call her out on it..it's funny.

But she knows, BCP=Groceries, Discover (right now)= restaurants/lunch, Chase Sapphire Pref=everything else (working on the min spend currently). She brags when she uses the "right" card at the "right" location.

I've been boring my gf with CC stories for about a month now, since I found this site and got addicted to this. Stories of what we'll get and the places we'll go, showing threads with pictures of Singapore airlines suites, describing how VRs work, etc.

Recently she had a car repair paid for by the other person's insurance. She applied online and was approved for a CSP, and met the $3K spend in one transaction after getting reimbursed with a check from the adjuster. Then this week she went on a business trip and stayed at a Hyatt. She called to tell me she signed up for the Hyatt Gold Passport program cause the girl at the front desk told her she might as well cause it was going to be 4 nights. I am so proud of her. :)

She's not on board with doing an AoR yet. Baby steps...

wow...maybe some of you should have married smarter spouses..lol. Is it really that hard to remember to use BCP for groceries, xxx for gas, ect.?

Lol, it can be confusing if you don't follow this stuff like we do..especially if you're throwing in gift cards, prepaid cards, and categories / multiple churns of 6 * per spouse every quarter :)

My spouse has done a good job on keeping up with which card to use. I try my best to make it as simple as possible.

Get her signed up for the current Hyatt promo and pick up an extra 3K points.

don't churn cars, but do MRs with spouse.
 

he always tries to distract me when I am reviewing MRs on FT. He has learned to roll his eyes and go with the flow, but it's not easy.

he just assumes that I know what I'm doing. apparently got him fooled :-)

Just tell her that You are the man - the Boss - a creature of superior intellect and worth. Then she will divorce you and you have all the lovely miles to yourself and your new young voluptous blond travel companion. Just a random thought :cool:

When I first glances at this I thought it said Don't churn cars but do spouses.

Anyway, Mr b1513 never gets it right. There have been more arguments over the years about this. Truly, it puts me over the edge sometimes. It quite simple, really, just use "this" card for now. I'm starting to think its passive-aggressive behavior :confused:.

Bobette

Already tried that. She opted to stay with me for my miles. :o

What a ridiculous statement. My spouse is incredibly smart. He's at a top 10 school in his field (with an academic scholarship), will graduate from said school with highest honors, son of 2 doctors (both of whom have MDs and PhDs, and one of whom is very well known in her specialty) etc. But obsessing about miles and points is not a priority for him. He is capable of using the correct card for the correct purchase, but he doesn't really care about it. He tries to be mindful of it because he knows that I care about it, but if he forgets or is exhausted from a 16 hour day, its truly not the end of the world and is definitely not a reflection of his intellectual capacity. :rolleyes:

lighten up, Francis. don't take everything on the net so seriously.

it's about impossible for me to tell me fiance what new card to use without her getting an attitude about it. then, of course, she thinks it's awesome when we go somewhere nice for essentially free. when it's time for a new card, attitude comes back. it's all great when we're using the rewards but complete hell to get her to help.

You tell her to lighten up and then you bash your fiancee? Take your own advice.

My SO mocks me a bit for my "hobby", but he got on board pretty quickly when we got a last minute flight and car rental for a grand total of $25. Since then, we've stayed a free night in Manhattan in December and had a trip to Paris and Madrid that cost all of a couple hundred each. Now he double-checks with me to make sure he's using the right card, and he suggested a mattress run if Club Carlson brings back their big promo this summer. :D I'm so proud.

Grand Hyatt Kuaui 4-nights free with two times $1000 spend has drawn some positive attention to the game. We don't plan on going for a year so hopefully things don't change before we get the card.

Generally though, my wife likes Starpoints and I like UR points and if we just go about our everyday spending it works out pretty well for one vacation a year. I handle airfare and she handles the hotel. She'll use the card I prefer where AMEX is not accepted and I'll use the SPG at Costco and Sheratons.

I have to say that I agree with RhubarbPie on this one; what a ridiculous statement.

This thread is fantastic.

My wife lets me churn in her name now that we have taken a few trips in F. The only rule we have is that I apply for all the cards, make the reconsideration/cancellation calls whenever I can, and keep a matrix of when the annual fees are coming up for her.

As far as daily usage I am about in line with everyone else. I keep it simple, have her use the Sapphire for most purchases, and AMEX SPG whenever it's not dining/gas. If we have a minimum spend to get through I just tell her to use that card for a while.

If you can easily remember which card to use it means you don't have enough cards. My SO is smart enough to know to buy certain things (shampoo, etc) at certain stores ( CVS, not Kroger) to really maximize the points.

And I am smart enough not to ask her to worry about it at that level.

I do almost all the shopping, so I dont have to worry much. However, I still give my wife one card to use, just in case :)

What card has the Grand Hyatt Kauai 4 nights free with two times $1000 spend?
Where can I find the info?
Thanks,

Read title to mean "need to pay alimony, how can i maximize points." :)

You each need a Chase Hyatt card in your own name as a first time user.

My husband simply can't keep track of one more thing, so I either have to get cards for him that I can meet the spend on via the internet and on-line bill pay, or skip it.

That's ok, because I have completely free rein in the points earning operational forum... I just can't bug him too much about it. I am going to hand him an Ink card and that will be the end of it. I have the secret wish to change out cards every January for him, but we'll see how that goes next year.

I was wondering if it would come off that way :)

Since you brought it up..... Anyone found a way to pay alimony and earn points? Personally I am happily married and on first marriage but maybe someone else could benefit.

What do you think an ex wife would say to being paid every month in gift cards or a 100 pound bag of coins ? :)

Good posts.

We're keeping it simple:
Costco: AMEX SPG
Flights: corresponding airline CC
All else: CSP

Not perfect, but there's beauty in simplicity.