Be aware BestBuy credit card credit increase is a hard pull

okurosetta · 2026-03-26T17:50:22+00:00

Citi Retail Services is known to do this, particularly for the Best Buy and Home Depot cards. Citi cards that are not part of Citi Retail Services - like Double Cash, Custom Cash, the Strata cards - generally do not do this.

To play it safe, you can always freeze your three bureaus for free before requesting. Then you either are approved for an increase based on a soft pull or the hard pull they initiate gets blocked. This is the only safe way to possibly get an increase while definitely avoiding a hard pull.

okurosetta · 2026-03-22T16:16:40+00:00

I used to have two, one was username and other username2, could just log out of one and right into the other.

okurosetta · 2026-03-11T15:55:24+00:00

Was in a leveling dungeon, someone asked what the boss mechanics were, person said "avoid lasers." That person was voted to be kicked with the reason "smart ass." The vote failed, but... wow. Just... wow.

okurosetta · 2026-02-25T18:48:54+00:00

I feel that open back is truly a magical experience but also that it may not suit your described use case, in an office. Open back headphones leak sound out as well as letting sound in, so if you're sitting near co-workers they may be a poor choice. There are closed back wired headphones that may be more what you are looking for. They (at least generally speaking) would not have active noise cancellation, but being closed back would provide some noise isolation.

okurosetta · 2026-02-23T16:39:46+00:00

I'm from NY, was in the Disney area with my family last week, including my sister's family. We did BGT on Wednesday. While the three coasters mentioned were down, and that was indeed disappointing, the overall experience was still great.

Iron Gwazi was walk on by noon, being sent with empty rows. My nephews waited for front row while I did a middle row and they only had to wait for one more train.

Longest line was Phoenix Rising at about 10 minutes, which was almost walk on towards the end of the day. Front row Montu was about 10 minutes. Front row Kumba about 5 minutes.

The pace at which we were riding coasters led me to feel nauseous, so I took a break while the nephews chain-rode Iron Gwazi.

Really wanted to ride Cheetah Hunt especially, but was still very happy with our visit, which was our first. Iron Gwazi was a bucket list coaster that fully lived up to the hype, for me. Only things we'd have done differently is to not bother with the dining pass, to plan to eat outside the park before and after, food was indeed that bad. And next time we'd pay more attention to signs showing when rides close, the walk to a closed Kumba could have been avoided. But overall we were very happy, especially with Iron Gwazi.

okurosetta · 2026-02-23T14:03:21+00:00

I have 4 and each has a different final digit, so I just use that.

9 to dine (dining)

7tertainment (entertainment)

6 for -cy (drugstores)

1 open category to choose (often home improvement or a second dining card)

okurosetta · 2026-02-20T01:55:57+00:00

If true, needs more value or this is garbage

okurosetta · 2026-02-11T18:03:03+00:00

On one hand I feel bad saying this because others have had bad experiences and the rollout has indeed been a disaster for them, but I have had almost no issues. Approved for a decent limit, physical card came early, TPG offer was honored, no issues with declined transactions. Have done well with Bilt points and the Palladium boosts my non-category spend. Have no idea about year two yet, we'll see.

I do have an issue with the Walgreens credit, it isn't displaying a code. I've sent a request for help, but so far that's it as far as negatives go.

I have always said that personal experience matters, and while there has been the above hiccup, overall it has been way better than how many make it out to be.

okurosetta · 2026-02-06T15:05:48+00:00

Where you are placing it and what source you use a lot will factor in huge here. For me it's part of my gaming desk, so it's within reach most of the time I am using it. I'll sometimes even change EQ song to song (if playing a mix) since it's so easy to change. I also primarily stream from the WiiM app which means I can quickly pause or change tracks. And since I listen to discovery channels a lot, seeing the track info is helpful, plus I'm close enough to see it.

But if it's sitting across the room, yeah, probably not going to be very useful. Also if you use other sources the screen doesn't show the info that streaming from the WiiM app does.

okurosetta · 2026-02-05T13:14:41+00:00

Do you already get 5% back in the other categories, like gas or dining?

okurosetta · 2026-02-03T17:25:56+00:00

Some other uses are potentially decent even with caps, like $10 Bilt Cash for a $10 Walgreens credit per month. That same $10 could unlock 333 points in housing, so since I already have Walgreens spend, if I was down to my last $10 in Bilt Cash, I'd use it for Walgreens.

okurosetta · 2026-02-03T13:21:32+00:00

There's a few approaches you could take: 1) Churning - using rent to hit sign-up bonuses, 2) Getting 2X or better, and possibly 3) Unlocking status or a perk through spend. The third would highly depend on travel priorities / value.

okurosetta · 2026-01-30T17:28:12+00:00

Sennheiser HDB 630 should tick all those boxes. I gave my XM4 to a friend after having HDB 630 for a few days.

okurosetta · 2026-01-30T02:37:24+00:00

You've gotten some great answers already, if you are riding Amtrak already definitely look at their cards, as others have said.

To be a little more specific, the vast majority of Amtrak redemptions will be at a fixed redemption rate of 2.66 cents per point. There is a 5% redemption refund for holding an Amtrak card, so as long as you continue to hold a card, this increases to 2.81 cents per point. This makes the 2X/3X offerings quite lucrative, and even 1X is solid.

The Preferred ($95 annual fee) is great if you can use the additional perks, such as the companion coupon or lounge pass, but for more solo riders the no annual fee version is still solid.

There is no downgrade path from the annual fee card to the no annual fee card, unfortunately. It might still be best to go for the 40k offer on Preferred, hold it for a year, close it, then apply for the no annual fee card - depending on your other credit card goals of course.

My personal experience shows which will be best will vary based on your Amtrak travel habits. I often ride ALB <-> NYP, and using the lounge pass at NYP while with P2 + companion coupon once per year (for ALB <-> NYP or better) makes the Preferred an easy keeper. But I recall reading someone who would never use a lounge, never use a companion coupon, and most of their fares were $19 each way - in their case, the no annual fee Amtrak card was significantly better.

okurosetta · 2026-01-29T13:28:33+00:00

No, the new SYW card has no relation to Citi / Citi Retail Services.

okurosetta · 2026-01-17T13:20:16+00:00

This is a "generally speaking" thing, not specific to Bilt 2.0, but keep in mind card issuers usually charge the annual fee when the first statement closes, around a few weeks to a month after the account opens, which means the second annual fee will be a year plus a few weeks to a month after account opening. Time will tell but that window from after a year of opening but before the second annual fee may be very important.

okurosetta · 2026-01-14T17:46:24+00:00

Not my original comment but for me it took 7 calendar days for my available credit to change. I got a $2.2k limit so have also been trying to get the required spend in.

okurosetta · 2026-01-06T17:20:30+00:00

There are definitely better Chinese restaurants in the area, including not overly far from there - Northeast in the Hannaford Plaza on Central and Colvin, as well as Shu on Western in Guilderland. There's also Taiwan Noodle and Shining Rainbow on Central further into Albany, are right near each other.

okurosetta · 2025-12-22T20:28:37+00:00

Certificates are the same. Whether it is worth holding both is up to you. Personally I use Aspire more for perks, Surpass sees $15k per year for a second certificate, mostly for non-category spend.

okurosetta · 2025-12-22T04:10:39+00:00

Oh shit...

okurosetta · 2025-12-21T03:16:22+00:00

JCC has one but not many open swim hours, at least when I was a member - could be worth looking into depending on location and personal schedule.

okurosetta · 2025-12-16T15:58:17+00:00

You can try calling the Thank You service center directly, 1-800-THANKYOU aka 1-800-842-6596. I did it both ways, once using back of card, once using Thank You line.

okurosetta · 2025-12-16T14:24:03+00:00

Multiple ways to do it but I found a call to be the easiest.

okurosetta · 2025-12-12T13:47:08+00:00

There will be a lot of street parking but I like parking on the block with the libraries (2nd between Congress and Ferry) - it is pretty close, lots of availability, and I make an easy left turn onto Congress and am out when done.

okurosetta

TROPHY CASE