Just got my first Chase statement. $223 cash back right off the bat. Went ahead and put that straight back to the statement amount because I'm a simple, lazy man.
Smart. I disagree with the people who leave their cash back in there for great lengths of time ("I wait till Christmas and then use it to buy everyone's xmas gifts" etc). Apply your earned cash back against the balance, as you don't earn interest in any form by accruing a large cash back balance. I think it partly plays into the 'future value of money' principle.
With chase freedom? Aren't points equivalent to dollars ie 20,000 pts = $200? It's not like the rates through their rewards travel site are better than what you find on kayak.
After more research it looks like Freedom is redeemed at 1 cent = 1 point. All the other chase cards give better rewards as they are travel cards and not cash back.
Ah word. I transfer my freedom points to my sapphire account and they redeem like I earned them via sapphire
Don't like it nearly as much as the Sapphire. Going to get it knocked down to a freedom card or something.
Service sucks and nothing comes close to ultimate rewards. Although I use ultimate rewards a fair amount.
Yeah saw that as an option. I always say I don't travel much and never look at travel rewards, but now here I am booking my sixth flight of the year. Seems like they all have annual fees? You keep the card and pay those?
Thinking about upgrading my Amex blue cash to either the blue cash preferred or the gold. Any recommendations/suggestions? Also is it true that getting a charge card(gold) instead of a credit card actually hurts your credit score? I'm currently sitting around 790 and obviously don't want it to be hurt any.
The fee is 99 bucks and waived for the first year. I've got over a grand worth of travel points and don't pay a fee until like March on the sapphire. I'll be keeping that. Paid 99 bucks once on my southwest and been to houston, Chicago, and Denver and have enough for another flight currently. Been thinking about canceling that one after I use up the points though. In the end it'll have been 200 bucks for 4 flights
I think the difference with the charge card is that it doesn't increase your overall line of credit. It won't hurt your credit in and of itself, but having a card with a high credit limit will probably help more.
Probably been discussed here before, but the one mile at a time site has a lot of really good info on rewards cards. It is more geared towards the hardcore points/travel folks but there is a lot of really good info on cards as well (look under "Best Credit Cards" link) and links to other deal blogs, etc. They also provide fairly timely point valuation information (which most people tend to overlook in favor of the number of points) http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com
Supposedly the best approach on the SW card is to wait for the free annual miles to post (should be 6k), then cancel within 30 or 60 days, which can get you a refund on the annual fee
I used to apply my Amex points to purchases but then I realized I might as well save them for vacation purposes. If I can pay for a large chunk of my hotel stay on points, I'll be a happy camper.
I love the Blue Cash Preferred. It's especially good if you spend a lot on groceries and gas (certain department stores also get 3%).
My plan is to use CSP for dining and travel, Freedom for the 5% categories, and the BAP for everything else since it gets 2% on everything. Just got CSP about a month or so ago and figured I'd do it like this since it only gets 2% on those two categories.
Anyone that has an Amex check your offers on the home page. My Business gold card got an offer for an extra point per dollar spent up to 250k on just about any regular purchases till the end of november. Basically now I get 4x points on gas, 3x on advertising, shipping, and computer supplies, and 2x on everything else. Seemed like a too good to be true offer to I called Amex to confirm and the lady was super excited and said it was a great promotion they were running, but its not automatic, you have to enroll. I know its not on all amex though bc my Platinum card wasn't given the same offer but figured everyone should check because its free extra points for the next few months if you have the offer.
I graduated college in May and am looking at getting my first credit card. I have little to no knowledge of credit cards and am looking for any tips/suggestions.
So I just applied for the Marriot Rewards credit card to round out my rewards cards. Now I have 4 cards total. One is 12 years old and my first ever card, one is Delta Skymiles, one is general travel and now this one is for Marriot Rewards. Upon completing the application, the Marriot card immediately awarded me a credit line of $22,000. WTF?? My 12 year old card has that limit but it started at $500 and went up slowly. Is it uncommon to start at such a high number? I'd like to ask them to bump it down but am concerned that may negatively ding my credit score. Thoughts? A new $22k line puts me with about $55k in available credit across 4 cards and a current utilization ratio of like 5%
I guess I shouldn't care. It won't hurt me or anything, it's just unnecessarily high. Is credit vs income ratio a factor for credit score? Combined with my existing credit that's $55K in available credit, or about 60% of my base salary. That seems unusually high to me, but I may be just underestimating average credit limits.
Credit available vs credit utilized is a factor. Looks good for you to have a ton of available credit and not use much of it
All of this. You should know how much you can afford to spend but you want your credit limit to be as high as humanly possible. My credit limit is X but I know I can only spent a certain percentage of it, and keep paying it off. Low utilization on high credit limit/long credit history = high credit score.
Thanks for the advice. My credit limit was already higher than I'd likely ever need, so the new credit won't affect me, I just wanted to make sure it wouldn't negatively hurt my score in any way. Final question. Will total available credit affect in any way what I get approved for in a mortgage application? Or is it again solely based on the actual debt or utilized credit?
Available credit (IE-low utilization and a high limit) will translate to a better FICO which should translate into a better application. That's my very average knowledge of the situation. Other variables are things like BKs, L&Js, late payments, etc.
http://www.doctorofcredit.com/22-cashback-with-discover-and-apple-pay/ Time to raid the Visa Giftcard racks.
Answered my own question, so instead I'll leave it at this: anyone in here that is a Discover customer have the It miles card instead of just the cash back?
I know this is credit card talk, but what does everyone use for checking? Tired of Wells Fargo. Thinking about possibly going to a bank with no brick and mortar locations. Not really sure. Gotta be better benefits out there than what I'm getting at WF.
Charles Schwab. No foreign transaction fees, ATM fee reimbursement, .10% interest. I'm very happy with them.
Question here.. I have 2,000 dollars on a Chase Freedom card right now. With having to move for a new job, the most I'm able to pay off is the minimum each month. All that takes care of is the interest at the end of the day, so I'm not really paying down my debt. APR is 23% Went to Chase yesterday and they checked about lowering it, but no go. Can anyone recommend a card with a lower APR I can transfer to?
Got approved for the CSP two fucking weeks ago and it's still not here. I should've called and got them to expedited but shit, send it first class you cheap cunts
There are a lot of cards that will give you a 0% balance transfer rate but you have to pay a fee to do it, hell discover will basically send you cash
I am leaning this direction over Chase, question for you in depositing cash I am guessing you deposit it at an ATM and that is how things work?
Only thing I don't like about Schwab checking is that it takes so long for checks to deposit via the app.