Here's a possible way to reduce you convenience fee by $30 and get a free credit report:

https://www.officialpayments.com/so_other.jsp

wow.. that sounds like a good deal.. Which hotel was it?

Before you get to excited, if you don't spend a lot of time in hotel rooms you may not be aware that the rate they post on the doors is the legal maximum they can charge. Most hotels never approach it, even with "rack rates." Others apply it during peak periods, such as Homecoming weekend near a university campus, but not otherwise. I've paid $65 a night for rooms that had rates of $300 and up on the doors. The "value" I'd apply to an award stay in that room might be between these figures, but much closer to $65.

Does anybody know if you have to go through a link specific to a credit card, or can you just start at the main site? For example, for SPG points, do you have to use the above link, or could you start at www.pay1040.com?

I ask because my tax software doesn't link to a credit card-specific site.

I would like to take advantage of the SPG bonus point promotion, but my 1040 balance due for 2005 is less than $5000. I don't want to pay my 2006 taxes now. So I just file an extension w/ a payment of $5000. Then, after April 17, I will file my tax return and get a refund. Would this work? Is there an easier way?

Not only will it work, I do it every year.

Problem is, you still pay the fee, and you also loose interest on the money you pay to American Express until you get your money back. I thing you value Starpoints higher than I do.

Let's see: $5,000 buys 10,000 SPG points for a fee of $124.50 and maybe you lose (not loose) $50 interest (you can always prepay the $5,000 on your credit card to stop the interest). For that you can get a Category 2 hotel room for 3 nights at the Sheraton Phoenix Airport Hotel Tempe next weekend. The very cheapest Internet rate including tax would be about $152 per night, or $454 total. So you would pay less than $175 to get a benefit of $454. That's a return of 159% on your money. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to see the value in this transaction, do you? And that is just one example. There are many others that yield similar results.

1. Prepaying the credit card with $5,000 means that you are losing the interest on that money from wherever it came.

2. Our real difference is in how much we will pay for lodging. If I were to stay in Phonix, I would look for a Motel 6 or similar. If I am staying in a foreign country, I prefer guest houses or local family run hotels. I understand that business travelers may need they type of room offered by Starwood, Hilton, and the like. But I am not a business traveler. I travel to experience local cultures when they are different than mine, and local scenery and places of interest outside of my lodging. The only thing I do in my lodgings is sleep and bathe.

3. Also, given the ease of acquiring free or very cheap miles, I always seem to have more than I need for the travel I want to do. So I see no reason to pay much for those miles, when almost all of them are free, or cost no more than around 0.25 cents each.

4. I used to want to be a math major. Then I were one. Now I are a math grad. I can't spell, especially lose, when you consider the spelling of choose.

And how much do you think the Motel 6 in Phoenix would cost? Next weekend it's $63.99 plus tax. Three nights would cost you $215. That is still $40 more than the cost of the SGP points to get a free room at the Sheraton. I think I would rather stay at the Sheraton for $40 less.

I do agree, though, that if you don't mind staying in a concrete block room the size of a jail cell (my last and only experience at a Motel 6), you aren't an SPG person and shouldn't bother staying there.

Wow. I didn't realize that Starwood room were so cheap in terms of points. Yes, I agree that conversion of points to a room might be a better use of those points than conversion of them to miles in some situations. I looked at Category 2 rooms in Europe, Asia, and South America. There are some very useful deals there, and surprisingly lots of them.

Thanks.

When you spoke of a "concrete block room the size of a jail cell, then continued, "my last and only experience...," I really did expect to hear the details of your last and only experience in jail. But you probably have no firsthand experience of jail cells, so are only imagining they are like Motel 6 rooms.

For me, it is not so much the size and furnishing of cheap rooms that is the major negative, it is the cheap bedding, in particular the the terrible pillows and covers. I am shifting some of my attention and spending toward the acquisition of SPG points rather than miles (UA). Could convert AmEx Member Award points to SPG ones, but 3:1, which I believe to be the exchange rate, does not seem like a very good deal.

I have never stayed in a jail cell, but I have seen several firsthand and they did remind me of the Motel 6 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, where I did stay a few years ago. And I agree that the mattresses at Motel 6 are very uncomfortable. They are not even remotely like the Sheraton Sweet Sleeper or Westin Heavenly Bed.

According to Official Payment's Special Offers page, one can earn double miles for paying taxes using the United Visa card.

However, they only list th Signature Visa card and the Platinum Business card. Does anyone know for sure that all United Mileage Plus Visa cards are eligible?

thanks...

Perhaps the person answering DJMeatBall's question about other United Mileage Plus Visa cards can identify those cards. The "regular" (non-business) Platinum is distinct from the Signature Visa card or one in a series of variations on that same card? (I have what I have, and I am satisfied with the product, but they have me utterly confused with all the "variations" on the card. How is a "business" version of the Platinum card different from "non-business" or personal? Call center was clueless when I tried to enroll through them rather than using link provided here on FT.)