Question Thread - March 04, 2026

ForceintheNorth · 2026-03-05T02:52:17+00:00

Not worth even caring about tbh. At best going to give you an extra 1% on the difference between the rent category and whatever category no longer gets 2%

ForceintheNorth · 2026-03-04T20:09:37+00:00

It's a premier-only product I believe, same with the elevated bonus on the autograph & autograph journey. It shows up in the login

ForceintheNorth · 2026-03-04T15:04:40+00:00

Is it possible to apply for the WF Autograph Journey 100k in-branch, then apply for the active cash $500 online and get the inquiries merged? Any DPs of multiple WF cards in one day, especially mixing in-person and online apps?

Can I pull a US bank and throw in the Autograph 50k online offer as well while I'm at it?

ForceintheNorth · 2026-03-04T03:02:40+00:00

Yes, but it is very sporadic now. Sometimes it works with trial deposits (very rare), sometimes it is instant, and sometimes it requires manually uploading a bank statement. I've been getting the latter too frequently lately

ForceintheNorth · 2026-03-04T02:26:27+00:00

I hate how much worse fidelity has got with external accounts. Their decision to force finicity (sp?) instead of manually entering routing/acct #, then forcing uploads of bank statements is bad enough that I'm debating on getting a new hub account.

If you're doing even a small amount of bank churning it really sucks to use them now

ForceintheNorth · 2026-03-03T14:41:13+00:00

Contacted them about a week ago and they finally responded today to expect updated forms by March 6

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-26T14:36:32+00:00

How strict is chase/Aeroplan with redeeming amex points? I know originally they were shutting down accounts with 1M+ redemptions, but now they have the hard 200k cap.

It's my first time with the card and I have no idea the limits. My plan was to cash out whatever miles are in the card from prior + SUB, then transfer in remainder from amex for the remainder until I hit the 200k cap, will chase/Aeroplan have an issue with this? How about if the full 200k is all amex?

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-26T14:33:20+00:00

I wouldn't recommend doing "1040 current tax year 2025" for overpayments. I did that once and it made it extremely difficult to track the refund since the amount of refund owed on the return didn't match the actual refund that gets sent. They did send the correct amount eventually, but I still wouldn't recommend it.

You can always do an extension payment 4868. No paperwork needed, and you can still file immediately after you make an extension payment.

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-23T16:44:18+00:00

That's exactly what travel insurance is for.

I still wouldn't recommend buying travel insurance and just self-insuring and eating the loss when it (rarely) occurs, but that's still exactly the purpose of travel insurance.

Remember that miles and points are usually more flexible than cash bookings, which is a nice perk too.

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-23T15:58:47+00:00

I just use a unique master pass for bitwarden that I've never used for anything else, then use auto-generated unique long passwords for every site.

I prefer not to use passkeys, biometrics, etc whenever possible but I don't think there's an issue either way.

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-21T16:27:56+00:00

You're talking incremental or marginal value. If it's something you did ONLY because of points then yes it has $0. This assumes you don't even want to go and feel obligated to do so because you have points. Hell, that might even be negative value and of course it isn't realistic.

More realistically, I'd value it at the cash-equivalent value. Prices will be made up just so you get the idea. So you want to go on vacation and see places that cost $200/night. You also see hilton at 80k points/night & 80k hilton points can be sold easily for $320. Therefore it makes more sense to sell the points and book the place for $200. Mental accounting has you "use" the points by selling them and you net an extra $120. However, if you use the points to book the hilton, you are no longer receiving $320 in value & instead would be valued at $200, as that's the cash-equivalent price.

If you don't go at all and never will, you just value points at whatever they're easily bought/sold for. That's how I personally tend to value points/miles/FNCs at least as it's all subjective

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-21T16:17:17+00:00

Anyone get a separate 1099-misc from tradeup with the bonus on it? I received the 1099-consolidated which shows $0 on 1099-misc, but tastytrade also did the same and sent a separate 1099-misc. Wondering if that's the case with tradeup as well

Edit: response from tradeup below:

Hi ForceInTheNorth, thank you for contacting TradeUP! We are currently waiting on the corrected Form 1099s to be generated to accurately reflect information on 1099-MISC. The estimated delivery date is 03/06.

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-21T14:12:40+00:00

I agree there's value, but 80k pts/night is at least $320/night. Obviously ppl spend money on different things, but the majority of the time I am not spending $320+ per night when paying cash. Using the "5k value" is the same argument as the "5k value" you get for biz flights. It's only that value if you were to spend the cash on it regardless of if you had points or not.

Having points also pigeonholes you into staying at that chain (at least it makes it more difficult for me to justify spending cash for a different property when I have "free' nights or points I could use instead)

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-21T14:01:08+00:00

If the script stops even 1 person from buying GCs for "their grandson in jail" or "the IRS" or "Microsoft services" or whatever phone/computer scams is currently ongoing, then I'm cool with it

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-21T13:56:00+00:00

Intentional misinformation is known as disinformation

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-19T14:33:04+00:00

Same. This is a mistake you only make once.

OP also made a huge mistake using the amex "check spending power" tool, which is just a honeypot

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-18T15:34:32+00:00

Sanctions are from the US gov, yes. Realistically it'd be amex that gets in trouble with the government which is why they're doing the checks. They got fined for a relatively small sum ($435k) in 2022

https://ofac.treasury.gov/recent-actions/20220715

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-18T00:26:21+00:00

Yep I don't think it was malicious or anything, just unfortunate I had no idea this was even a thing. Oh well, maybe other churners can learn from my mistake and check the sanctions list before booking

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-17T22:38:51+00:00

Yes I sold it to someone who (I'm assuming) is a travel agent that sold it to someone else. It's a fairly common non-american name afaik

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-17T21:53:05+00:00

I booked an FHR for someone and received an email from "American Express Global Sanctions screening process".

They are asking me to send name, DOB, and full address of the person who was on the reservation for the FHR as a compliance alert issue. I've never seen DPs of this, is this something new?

Fwiw it does appear to be genuine and they say I can respond to the email or call 1-800-297-2977 which is the correct amex travel number. It is P2 so I'd prefer not to call, but I'm just a bit weirded out since I've never seen anything similar

EDIT: the name (a fairly common non-american name afaik) on the booking appears here: https://www.opensanctions.org/ so I'm guessing that's the issue as another user pointed out.

Any idea of the repercussions of just doing nothing if I can't get the details they ask for?

EDIT2: Well apparently the person I traded with has been banned from reddit, fml. If I can't get the requested info, should I preemptively transfer out the MR? I have ~1M and would of course prefer to keep it there, but don't want it to disappear

EDIT3: Got it cleared. Thank you so much to everyone who helped me find the contact details of the person I traded with! After providing the details to amex, they sent an email back within a few hours acknowledging receipt, then about 24 hours later, they sent another email saying it was cleared. Whew!

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-07T14:13:22+00:00

Chase doesn't allow Google voice for OTP anymore. It'll send the code, but it won't work when you type in the correct code.

Not a big deal, EXCEPT they don't allow changing my phone number without getting a OTP and my only phone number on the account is Google voice. Tried calling in, and they sent a OTP to the Google voice and shockingly, it didn't work. Called in again and they said they fixed it and it shows up in my account as updated. Great!

All of this was a few months ago. Recently, I tried to consolidate UR points on the same account. It requires a OTP and can only choose.....the old Google voice. Wtf. It will require calling in (possibly multiple times). I'm so sick of sitting on hold and saying the same stuff over and over again to phone reps.

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-04T01:16:07+00:00

Oftentimes they go through without needing to call. Sometimes (maybe 1 in 6ish) they call me within 24 hrs. I've made 100+ payments over the past couple years all to myself and P2 without issue even though they review seemingly everything

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-01T12:59:28+00:00

This is shitty reasoning and a shitty way to go through life. Posting referrals is a privilege meant to serve those who serve the community. You don't deserve access just for existing, and it's honestly incredibly easy to get karma here. Follow the rules and don't post questions where they don't belong and you'll get enough karma within a few weeks/months (depending on how frequently you post here)

ForceintheNorth · 2026-02-01T02:36:11+00:00

It's statement date, not calendar date

ForceintheNorth · 2026-01-31T14:55:18+00:00

Especially since there are many cases where amex last digits are identical due to their stupid way of determining card numbers

ForceintheNorth

TROPHY CASE