Anyone going to go for the new and "improved" Citi Prestige? 75,000 points after 7,500$ in spend in first 3 months + 250 in airfare credit each year. I don't think the annual fee's waived for first year.
I was thinking the same thing also. My wife spends about $30-50 a month on tolls driving to/from work at the hospital. I just hate putting up the $450 all at once. That always stings. With that said has anybody tried to get the $450 fee lowered, or asked for points, etc before renewing? I doubt it but just asking.
Yeah I know renewal will be coming up in August for me I believe. I know they're not waiving the fee but you don't think they'll do anything likely? Just don't want to waste my time if the consensus is nah.
Its the end of August for everyone, that's when it dropped. Nah they're not gonna do shit. It's a brand new card that they had like a 10 year projection to break even on. Probably pushed that back even more when 10-15 times the amount of people applied for it at release than expected.
Got an offer in the mail for the Amex Platinum. I don't fly/Uber/use hotels enough for it to be worthwhile, but it's nice to be wanted.
More of a credit question: If I'm looking to a buy a house, how far in advance should I stop credit card applications?
I applied for CSR in August 2016, started house shopping in March. no issues on credit score or static from lender one thing i'd recommend is keeping your lender in the loop. i totaled my car after we had an offer accepted but two months before close. I asked him about when i could apply for a car loan, thinking he'd say after close. he told me as long as the total monthly payment is the same or less than what i had when i initially applied for the mortgage i'd be fine.
To help with your credit score, you need at least 2 years for them to drop off your credit report. To help get a loan, probably 6-12 months. I think this is more of a case-by-case basis with whatever lender you're working with.
They'll ask you to explain each credit inquiry / new accounts. I just wrote "rewards / bonus / increased credit line" wherever applicable. I'd stop signing up for new accounts 6 months ahead of applying for loans. Some lenders are pretty sensitive about multiple new accounts within a short period of time.
Thanks all. I'm probably a year out right now from buying, but I was hoping to open one or two more. I'll probably just hold off and let stuff clear.
I doubt it's a big deal if your credit is good. I opened a card in like February not planning on closing on a house in April, which I did, and everything was fine
I think this is the right decision. There's not a sign up bonus out there worth risking even an 1/8 of a percentage point on your loan rate. I would utilize whatever cards you already have until your closing date.
There are so many factors with mortgages (income, current debts, downpayment $, available assets, location of the property, etc.) that a new account may or may not be worth going after.
Yeah - my credit is very good (as is my wife's) and no one asked a single question about our credit cards. Much more focus on our jobs.
I don't churn as much as some but I do have about 6 cards active right now, and my wife has probably 5 - so I never really slowed down and didn't have a problem at all getting a mortgage, it was never even brought up.
Just did the Chase Hyatt with 40K points and $50 statement credit ($75 AF). Never realized the value of those.
we companion pass now my wife and I booked trips to nashville and denver when SWA had their $49 one way sale earlier this summer. happy to find out that those flights are eligible for companion pass, so we'll get travel vouchers back for my wife
I have a bank card that gives me 2.5 points for every dollar spent with a 20% annual bonus if you spend enough, so 3 points per dollar spent. Points = .01, so essentially 3% cash back. Also comes with other benefits like 10 checked bag fees reimbursed per year, etc. I haven't been able to find anything I think is better. Am I missing something?
I am about to do this too. Currently working towards the $2k spend on the plus card for 60,000 points. About to apply for the premier card to get those 40k this year, too
Not much travel anymore. Used to travel a bunch for work, but that has slowed down. I just put everything on the card. Groceries and eating out make up big chunks along with business expenses and bills like cell phone, insurance, home service stuff. I like the simplicity of it as well. Points can be used for anything, but they are always just worth the .01 per point.
We are pretty close to getting companion pass and already have a couple flights booked for later this year. Is it easy to exchange the tickets I already bought for my wife with the companion pass? Or do I have to cancel those reservations and redo it?
once i designated my wife for companion pass, i told her to cancel her flights then i went into my account, and there is a new option to "add companion" to any of my existing reservations. just clicked that, confirmed flight date, and hit book. voila round trip flight for $11.20
So I booked my wife's and my flight together. Am I able to just cancel her ticket and not have to cancel the entire reservation? There's only one nonstop flight to Oakland that day from Nashville and I definitely don't wanna mess around and lose our seats.
i would just check if there are still seats available for that particular flight, if so, you're good to go. you should be able to call and talk to swa to straighten it out as far as cancelling just your wife's part of the reservation and putting her on companion.
I didn't get $50 statement credit, but mine was 2 free nights anywhere (certain room types are blacked out, I looked), better value, but it is phased out afaik.
Some cards offer 5x points per dollar in certain categories. Other cards offer 3x as your card does but also provide other various perks. Some cards point are more valuable than others as they can be transferred/redeemed at very good values. In short, a 3x cash back card (no max spend limit?, any annual fee?) certainly isn't bad but there are better cards for various scenarios depending on how you spend/travel/etc
AMEX Blue Cash Preferred is great if you spend a lot on gas (3x)/groceries (6x). It was the first reward CC I got right after college and it was my everyday card up until I started getting into the travel points game 18 months ago. Honestly, it's hard to say there's one card that's great for everything. I regularly use 4-5.
It depends what you like to spend your rewards on. If you value travel then the chase family of ultimate rewards is the definitive leader. If you just want cash then there can be lots of options
If you don't mind being on the phone for 15-20 minutes, you call SW and have them do it all for you. They'll even switch it over to a points flight if you want your money back.
Good to hear. I previously booked with points anyway, so I'll simply need to drop my wife's ticket for the companion pass. I'm assuming I'll have to wait for my credit card statement to come out for the sign-up bonuses to show up on southwest, right? I just recently passed the $2k mark in spending on both cards.
This a good example of why it makes sense, when flying SW, to book separate flights for each leg of the trip separately. If you have to change part of your itinerary, you don't have to cancel everything and start over.
Expired on 6/30 I believe. I signed up when it was 40k and they bumped me to 60k since they switched to that not long after. For some reason only they have only given me 50k of the bonus so far.
Nextadvisor . com has a cashback card calculator that is pretty cool if you can make reasonable estimates. I'm currently using the Discover It Cashback Match card based on those and my own calculations. If you can put most everything on your card, that card by itself will beat anything out there through year 1. The only downside is that to maximize it you really need to use it and only it for a full year. Signing up for 3-4 different cards and getting those intro bonuses may net more over 12 months. I'm using just it for the next year until I'm clear of the 5/24 rule, then may go with whatever Chase's best offer is at that time.
Lots of articles out about Chase being concerned about the CSR ever making a profit. Makes me worry about URs being devalued or they will change the ability to transfer URs from Freedom to CSR.
reddit had a user who got a survey about that last point. whether they'd be OK with it. so they're definitely exploring the option
That would suck but I don't think I would cancel my CSR. I would just never use my Freedom Unlimited again.