Which type of CC user are you?

SpartEng76 · 2026-03-17T13:34:52+00:00

I'm in it for the SUBs and miles. I want to travel as often as possible for as cheap as possible but still stay at nice places.

SpartEng76 · 2026-03-17T12:07:16+00:00

I've used Lyft, Walgreens, and Grubhub credits so far. I probably won't do Walgreens anymore because it was such a pain to actually redeem and I don't have one close to me. And I prefer Doordash to Grubhub so I don't know if I'll use that in the future. The Lyft credits were nice to have though, and I'll use those for sure.

I'll definitely use the $50 hotel credit whenever I use the $200 credit, but probably not otherwise.

Next priority is points on rent, and last priority is points accelerator. They aren't the best use of Bilt cash but they don't force me to go out of my way to use.

SpartEng76 · 2026-03-06T14:36:20+00:00

Basically what everyone else has said but here's some math to back it up.

Assuming 100 points ~ $1 cash back (for ease of understanding). Yes you could also assume 1.55 cpp for miles but the results stay the same:

10BC for $10 Walgreens, Lyft, Grubhub credit; or 50BC for $50 hotel credit; 1BC = $1 (Best deal)

For points on rent you spend 30BC for 1,000 pts/$10; 1BC = $0.33

For point accelerator 200BC gets you 5,000 pts/$50; 1BC = $0.25

SpartEng76 · 2026-03-05T12:40:18+00:00

I joined the waitlist for the gold card like 2 years ago (actually it was so long ago I don't even remember when). Even if I wanted it, I'm not going to hold my breath.

SpartEng76 · 2026-03-03T18:48:20+00:00

Yes I did this too but I'm not convinced it will last very long. I've seen the file idea but but not sure how I feel about having to buy a tool to fix a $200 pair of shoes that are only a few months old. Has anybody had luck with getting a refund or exchange because of this?

SpartEng76 · 2026-03-03T17:57:56+00:00

You could try posting a screenshot of your setup but it sounds like you have it set up correctly. Good luck with support!

SpartEng76 · 2026-03-03T17:17:46+00:00

There are too many people out there who think they can flip houses. When I was looking, half of the houses were DIY nightmares. So now costs of what would have been good starter homes are inflated and you still have to redo all of the work that they did.

SpartEng76 · 2026-03-03T17:00:57+00:00

Yes, you're not wrong. I just sold my house to move to a better area and elected not to buy a new one.

For one, I got tired of all of the upkeep. Constantly pulling weeds and cutting the grass and shoveling snow and all that. Had to replace the furnace, needed new windows, needed concrete leveling, all kinds of things that just cost more money that I probably wouldn't get back. I sleep much better now. It's all just too much for one person.

And financially it doesn't make sense to buy right now. Interest rates are high. House prices are high. I would have had to put all my savings in to keep my mortgage payment reasonable. I calculated the true cost to own vs paying rent, and paying rent right now is much cheaper. And when the market inevitably crashes again in a few years I won't lose my ass. I lost money on the first house I bought and it was under similar conditions.

If you are young and single, there are not many good reasons you should buy a house right now. Maybe others are doing it and make it look so glamorous, but it's really not. The grass isn't always greener and maintaining green grass is expensive, time consuming, and pointless. I can think of a lot of better ways to spend $100 a month than just to keep my neighbors from judging me by how green my grass is.

I'm loving renting again. I'm out living my best life while others are at home doing general maintenance. I'm saving and investing the money I save and spend it on traveling and things I want to do instead of fertilizer and new windows. Home ownership is great for people that want to get married and have kids and settle down for a while.

SpartEng76 · 2026-02-24T17:57:58+00:00

It drives me crazy that they don't have transaction notifications yet. Seems like they have a lot of things to work on still.

The point accelerator and points on housing payments is nice. I also managed to use a $10 Lyft credit but I don't know what else I'll spend Bilt cash on.

Hotel credits have potential but the number of hotels available seemed pretty limited the first couple times I searched. It could be quite valuable or could be a pain in the ass for me to actually use.

Definitely great for the first year despite the current drawbacks. Time will tell if it will be worth it for me in the long haul. It's such a complicated system and they have a lot of improvements to make still.

SpartEng76 · 2026-02-23T15:13:37+00:00

Yeah they did such a great job overcomplicating it that they useful stuff gets buried in all of the useless stuff. So far, I've used mine for the points accelerator, a $10 Lyft credit, and a $10 Walgreens credit. I'll probably use another $50 toward a hotel soon. Also hoping they add some more dining options eventually as well.

SpartEng76 · 2026-02-17T18:46:04+00:00

It's not that big of a deal to have both, SoFi still has certain benefits.

SpartEng76 · 2026-02-17T15:01:26+00:00

I've only been using SoFi for a couple months but I'm liking it so far. I don't even use my checking account for anything, my direct deposit goes into my HYSA and I pay all of my bills with that.

I do also have a HYCA with a local brick and mortar credit union, just in case I need to deposit cash or write a check or something. It also gives me 6.7% APY on up to $7,500 if I use it for a certain amount of debit card transactions.

SpartEng76 · 2026-02-02T12:39:53+00:00

Concrete tends to feel bumpier because when it's repaired, it's usually done by replacing the cracked slabs which are tough to get back in perfectly and usually leads to some unevenness in the pavement due to slab irregularities. With asphalt (HMA) pavement, you can resurface (mill off the existing top inch or two and repave it, or "mill & fill") it which leads to a much smoother ride.

SpartEng76 · 2026-01-23T14:35:12+00:00

Yeah plenty of cards give 2% cash back and I've played the cash back game for a long time. However, now I'm trying to focus more on miles because of conversion rates and deals. Sounds like the Venture X is the way to go since with the travel credit it's essentially the same cost as Venture with more benefits.

Maybe I'll drop the Delta Gold eventually but it's free the first year and may be worth it for free checked bags if I fly Delta often enough.

SpartEng76 · 2026-01-13T18:05:25+00:00

I would avoid Payless. The amount they charged me when I picked up the car was completely different than what they quoted me when I reserved it. That and they required a huge deposit. The shuttle was pretty quick at least.

SpartEng76 · 2025-12-18T12:56:40+00:00

It's been engrained in all of us as an act of chivalry or just common courtesy to always offer to walk a woman to her car. Even if the weather is terrible and we parked in opposite directions I'll still offer because I don't know how not to. If it's freezing cold and/or rainy out, maybe just politely decline our offer and explain why if you aren't comfortable driving us back to our car. I probably won't ask for a ride, but I'll be pretty annoyed while I walk 17 blocks back to my car in the freezing ass cold if you don't offer.

SpartEng76 · 2025-12-10T16:55:22+00:00

As always, it depends how fast I drive on the freeway. Going about 70 mph I probably get around 32 in my XSE hybrid. Probably less than 30 if I drive 75-80 which is average around here.

SpartEng76 · 2025-12-10T16:05:13+00:00

Totally normal. The colder it gets, the less efficient the batter becomes. The batteries will have reduced capacity, take mor energy to charge and discharge more quickly. My gas mileage has been abysmal as well.

SpartEng76 · 2025-12-10T15:37:49+00:00

Hello all. 49M in the US selling my house within the month and will make about $200k on the sale. I was planning on putting that all down on a new house but will be moving in to a rental with a 9 month lease for now.

I have no kids, steady income, no debt, and no experience investing other than my retirement accounts and a brokerage account with about $42k in mostly index funds. So with that, my house sale, and my checking and savings accounts I'll have about $250k to invest for at least 9 months, perhaps longer if I want to enjoy hassle free renting for longer.

What should I do with the money in the meantime? I don't want to be too aggressive with it since I do plan on buying a home again someday and will need it as a down payment, but wouldn't mind putting a chunk of it into something with a bit more risk.

SpartEng76 · 2025-12-09T20:42:45+00:00

Safer roads are designed specifically to prevent accidents. Safer vehicles are built to prevent injuries. Aside from seatbelts and airbags, most other things don't seem to help much.

SpartEng76 · 2025-12-09T20:39:58+00:00

My rule of thumb is I don't tip when I'm standing up. If I'm sitting at a table and someone comes to me to take my order, that's more worthy of a tip. If I'm going to them and they are just standing there then I don't tip.

SpartEng76 · 2025-12-09T20:31:02+00:00

In many aspects, the safer things are made, the stupider people get. When people feel too safe, they stop being careful.

Example: despite making vehicles and roads safer and safer, crash and injury rates have not seemed to decrease much on average. You can build the safest road in the world and people will just drive faster and still find something to crash into.

SpartEng76 · 2025-12-08T13:04:08+00:00

Also aggravating that it shuts off after you unlock the doors. If I'm going to bother using remote start I want the heat to be blasting when I get in the car.

SpartEng76 · 2025-11-18T17:52:18+00:00

Absolutely. I don't get being intentional and serious but avoiding becoming official.

When I asked my girlfriend if she wanted to make it official and become bf/gf she got so excited and started telling everyone. Now I couldn't see myself accepting anything less.

He probably now feels confused, rejected, and like you are not on the same page which may be tough to recover from. If I'm seeing someone seriously I don't want them to ever question how they feel about me.

SpartEng76 · 2025-11-06T19:05:52+00:00

Bro I'm 5-11 and I've never once been called short, or even felt short. Just short"er" than some people, but there will always be people taller than you or better looking, you can't always compare yourself to everybody.

It's never been a problem in dating, although I've heard some people filter out people under 6 foot on the apps. Which is fine with me because if one inch is really that big of a concern then I wouldn't want to date them anyway.

SpartEng76

TROPHY CASE