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Credit Cards (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter RC94
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FUBAR
Footballguy
RUSF18
Footballguy
Dentist
***Official FBG Dentist***
Bank of America just requires 100k in total assets with them including their brokerage arm Merrill Edge.
So if you have your Roth IRA, checking, savings, 529, UTMA accounts, cash management accounts, etc. it all can be combined together.
Also you get 100 free trades a month if you're into insane trading. I think i use 10 a year at most.. using 1200 a year would be...lol
mquinnjr
Footballguy
5% back on up to $250 in gas or groceries and $750 at Amazon ("bookstore") spend per month with the Sallie Mae Barclays MasterCard. I'm grandfathered in, but it's no longer taking on new customers. Who'd ever thought 5% back even on capped spend would be unprofitable if that's all one utilized the card for? I
every time I open up one of those statements.
RUSF18
Footballguy
If you choose United as your airline, you can use their app to buy the gift card and it will get reimbursed. See below.
http://thepointsguy.com/2016/01/amex-airline-credits-for-amazon-gift-cards/
Dentist
***Official FBG Dentist***
the new costco visa seems great, one of the best cards i've seen.
Only surpassed by the BoA Cash rewards visa if you have platinum preferred privaleges
brun
Footballguy
WOW! Sallie Mae rewards are outstanding.
I have 2. PenFed Visa with 5% gas, 3% groceries, 1% everything else. I use this for nearly everything. PenFed is also very competitive with other products and I'm considering a refi right now.
CITI MasterCard. Rewards aren't great, but I've had it a long time and use it for ~$200 monthly in recurring bills to keep it active as a long standing account is good for the credit score.
Seems pretty solid. 2% at Costco, 3% travel/restaurant so nice for business travelers and 4% gas which is nice. Unfortunately or fortunately, Harris Teeter gives us a gas credit for every $50 purchase which allows you to get a $50 gift card for $40, so I'll keep doing that to get 20% off gas.
Amex also gave me another card which is pretty decent since I used my Costco Amex a ton. I'll have to look it up. I checked 2% gas, 2% department stores (who cares) and 3% groceries. Also a $300 credit for first $2500 so I'll use it until I get the visa and just use it for groceries.
Chadstroma
Footballguy
I will be getting the new Costco Visa. 4% on gas anywhere is nice. It will be my gas and Costco card. I will say though if you are thinking along these lines the Sams CC offers 5% on gas anywhere. For us, we are not switching to Sams just so I have another 1% on gas purchases.
2% on Costco is nice on top of what you get back on the Members card. More than pay for membership.
Ministry of Pain
Footballguy
Random
Footballguy
Basically a CC company will offer you XX,XXX (50-100 thousand) bonus points (or miles) after you spend X,XXX (1,000 3,000 5,000 etc). After that you earn 1 point per dollar (a point is worth .5 to 3 cents). Why on earth would anyone like a card enough to keep using that card? Hit the min spend to get the bonus then get a new card, with a new bonus.
And no, it doesn't hurt your credit score.
And no, it doesn't hurt your credit score.
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Ministry of Pain
Footballguy
Very Good to know...what could one max if they were going to spend say $10,000-$15,0000 in the next 90-120 days on a bunch of stuff from in home to travel, what's the best IYO?
We did Chase Sapphire, do not want to spend $100 renewal, closing that one. Chase Freedom, which ones am I overlooking IYO?
Thanks, really appreciate the info.
Poke_4_Life
Footballguy
I have a Marriott Rewards Signature card. I travel often for work (3-4 nights/week/26 weeks/year) and stay normally in Marriott properties. My flights/cars are paid by company travel agent so that doesn't provide any benefit to me. Haven't paid for a hotel on vacation in years. Also get free food and other benefits when on business travel that allows me to save per diem. I could probably make more $ w/ other cards, but I like the food/points perks w/ Marriott.
mquinnjr
Footballguy
Don't a number of hard inquiries and open accounts hurt your score? I thought it did, suggesting potentially overextended credit.
Random
Footballguy
Thats an incredibly difficult question to answer not knowing what you want to do. Any trips planned you want the points to cover? Could easily end up with 150K points with that spend. There are lots of ins and outs (max cards issuers will approve in a given time frame, good vs bad redemptions) as well. If I had to blindly suggest a card, I would say the Saphire Preferred (CSP) for both you and the wife, Ink, Citi AA (when the bonus is 50K and AF waived), Amex SPG. Chase Hyatt card is good for 2 nights anywhere (4 if you both get one), etc.
And those URs are worth more with your Saphire card open. Look at the transfer partners. They only exist with the annual fee cards and will go away with the freedom only (the transfer partners, not the points). How many URs do you have? It may be worth transferring them (United and Hyatt are my favorites) before you close the CSP.
Random
Footballguy
mquinnjr
Footballguy
ex-ghost
Footballguy
Your credit score will drop a few points, but it rebounds quickly. Also, as said above, credit utilization drops:
1 credit card, $10k credit, $2000 spent = 20% utilization
2 credit cards, $20k credit, $2000 spent= 10% utilization
Now imagine 10-20 cards open. You are not spending on most of them, your utilization is probably 3-5%. Good for credit score.
1 credit card, $10k credit, $2000 spent = 20% utilization
2 credit cards, $20k credit, $2000 spent= 10% utilization
Now imagine 10-20 cards open. You are not spending on most of them, your utilization is probably 3-5%. Good for credit score.
ex-ghost
Footballguy
Also this is correct. If you want to get the most out of the rewards game, you do it with travel. I started doing sign-ups this January and just bought 4 round trip tickets to Italy next summer, all on points. Plus have about $2000 to cover Airbnb stays. And 4 free hotel nights.
It takes some work, but so worth it.
ETA: plus I find it fun, kind of a hobby.
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Ministry of Pain
Footballguy
ex-ghost
Footballguy
Here is what we have between my wife and I so far, all this year (just started this January). UR=Ultimate Rewards (Chase reward pts)
Chase Sapphire (2): UR for airfare - United
Chase Freedom (2): UR for airfare - United
Chase United (2): for airfare - United
Chase Freedom Unlimited: UR for airfare - United
Chase IHG: for limited hotel stays (maybe not for Italy)
Chase British Airways: not sure yet
AMEX Hilton: for limited hotel stays (maybe not for Italy)
Barclay Arrival Plus (2): for travel reimbursements (air bnb)
Capital One Venture: for travel reimbursements (air bnb)
Since I started late and did some research, I was able to hit the Chase cards early and often. Now it looks like I am out of the game, unless I apply for business cards.
If you want to see more, this is a link to Bogleheads.org, a great financial site, but with a good thread about credit card rewards: credit card rewards
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FreeBaGeL
Footballguy
OK this is kind of my game. I travel all the time and have barely paid for more than half a flight in half a decade and have stayed at some pretty sweet places on the house. I've scaled back on my CC shenanigans as of late because #### flying with two small kids but here's the rundown anyway.
General strategy: Acquire Chase Ultimate Rewards points, and pair them with a Chase card that grants you access to the premium transfers. Want to fly to the orient in a private suite with a bed for no money out of pocket? It's either this or AMEX Membership Rewards points that are going to do that for you and AMEX cards have high annual fees and most earn like #### beyond the sign-up bonus. People get giggity over earning 1c or 2c per point but with the right transfers you can get 10c - 40c per point out of these. And you're much better off stockpiling your points all in one place to be transferred out in bulk rather than having a few points here and a few points there in all the different rewards programs. That's not even to mention the flexibility of being tied to one rewards program for years and then watching it turn to #### after you've built up a ton of points like may happen here shortly to Starwood folks. Lastly, it means you can combine sign-up bonuses if you need to build up points quickly since there are a ton of chase cards.
On that front, to do that I have:
Chase Freedom: No fee so no brainer with the 5x points in rotating categories. And rotating categories that you actually use, at that (restaurants, Amazon, gas, groceries, etc). The points on their own are crap, worth 1c each but that value shoots through the roof when paired with...
Chase Ink Bold (would also work with the Chase Sapphire): This is one of the premium fee Chase cards that gets you access to the premium transfer partners (pretty much all the airlines that matter). The bonus in this is that you can transfer points between your UR (ultimate rewards) banks so you can transfer all your points from the Freedom account into your Ink Bold UR account and bammo, now all those 5x points you've been earning with the Freedom are worth a ton instead of being just redeemable for ####ty cash at 1c each. Plus your Ink Bold earns 2x points on utilities, etc so put all of those on auto-pay and forget about it.
Chase Hyatt Card: Remember when I talked about flexibility above? This is one of the reasons why. UR points transfer to Hyatt at 1:1, but Hyatt redemptions are quite cheap compared to other hotel chains. Their HIGHEST redemption category is 30,000 points/night. That means their top of the line, best $1000+/night hotels redeem for only 30,000 points, transferable from your UR account where you're earning 2x-5x points on many of your purchases. This is the dream, people. By focusing on point transfers you're able to combine the cheapest hotel redemptions with the fastest points earnings. So all told you can rack up enough points to stay a night at a freaking category 1000 Hyatt on the beach in Kauai after just $15,000 - $20,000 in spending (roughly 1 weeks worth of spending for a FBG). Having the credit card here just gets you a few extra perks while you're staying there, earns you a few extra points on your purchases while staying there (because let's face it FBG's are dropping $300+ at the hotel bar and golf course daily) and as a bonus it comes with 2 free nights at any Hyatt hotel. Yes, again, any hotel. Times Square, Paris, whatever. You also get 1 free night at a cat 1-4 annually.
AMEX Business Platinum: Don't necessarily have to have a real business. This is one of the cards with bigtime travel perks. First class lounges at the airport, elite status at the rental car companies, etc. It comes with a hefty price tag at $450/yr, but for one year you can easily make that up. Firstly it comes with a $200/year credit at an airline of your choice. Technically for incidentals (baggage fees, wi-fi, drinks, etc) but for some airlines you can use it on gift cards that you use to make ticket purchases (I used Delta). The trick is that the credit is once per CALENDAR year. So if you sign up for the card in August you can redeem for $200 then and then redeem again in January for another $200. On top of that you get a $100 credit back if you sign up for global entry, so at this point you're at +$50 in your pocket not even counting all the elite perks. Additionally, if you get targeted for it you can get offers of 100k up to 150k Membership Rewards points on sign-up which are in the same category as Chase Ultimate Rewards for buying power.
Chase Southwest Preferred and Southwest Preferred Business: Simply put, these are here to get you a SW companion pass, which means if you buy a ticket on SW your spouse gets a ticket for free (BOGO!). Basically when you accrue 110,000 rapid rewards points in a year you get a companion pass for the rest of that year and all of next year. Each of these two SW credit cards (again, you don't need a real business) has a 50,000 RR point sign-up bonus. So by the time you spend 10k you're at the companion pass. You've now got 110k points to spend on tickets and each of those ticket purchases comes with a free ticket for your wife. Good luck using those up so you have to pay for a flight again before your companion pass expires, which if you time it right can be 2 years away (get your 100k credit in January and then you'll have your pass for all of the 11 months left in that year plus the next full year).
So at this point where are we? WIth a year's worth of spending you're now flying to New York by using 25k of your 110k Rapid Rewards points for your ticket. Your wife's ticket is free thanks to your companion pass. You arrive at the airport and head to the first class lounge thanks to your business platinum card. If you need a car rental when you arrive you skip the counter and go straight to the executive area where you take your pick of premium class cars. Then you head to the Park Hyatt New York hotel with average daily rates of $800/night, but F that noise you're staying on the house for 5 nights courtesy of the two free nights from your Hyatt card paired with a mere 90k points out of your UR account that you built up in no time thanks to just one sign-up bonus and some smartly strategized card usage to manage your plethora of bonus earnings categories. And when you get home you've still got enough RR points for like 3 more domestic flights for you and the wife and probably a nice bucket of UR and MR points still sitting there as well either for another hotel or if you want to fly something like Emirates or Singapore Airlines (where the really lucrative rewards redemptions are) overseas.
I have a bunch of other cards too for various sign-up bonuses and bonus categories but my fingers are tired now so I'm going to go ice them.
General strategy: Acquire Chase Ultimate Rewards points, and pair them with a Chase card that grants you access to the premium transfers. Want to fly to the orient in a private suite with a bed for no money out of pocket? It's either this or AMEX Membership Rewards points that are going to do that for you and AMEX cards have high annual fees and most earn like #### beyond the sign-up bonus. People get giggity over earning 1c or 2c per point but with the right transfers you can get 10c - 40c per point out of these. And you're much better off stockpiling your points all in one place to be transferred out in bulk rather than having a few points here and a few points there in all the different rewards programs. That's not even to mention the flexibility of being tied to one rewards program for years and then watching it turn to #### after you've built up a ton of points like may happen here shortly to Starwood folks. Lastly, it means you can combine sign-up bonuses if you need to build up points quickly since there are a ton of chase cards.
On that front, to do that I have:
Chase Freedom: No fee so no brainer with the 5x points in rotating categories. And rotating categories that you actually use, at that (restaurants, Amazon, gas, groceries, etc). The points on their own are crap, worth 1c each but that value shoots through the roof when paired with...
Chase Ink Bold (would also work with the Chase Sapphire): This is one of the premium fee Chase cards that gets you access to the premium transfer partners (pretty much all the airlines that matter). The bonus in this is that you can transfer points between your UR (ultimate rewards) banks so you can transfer all your points from the Freedom account into your Ink Bold UR account and bammo, now all those 5x points you've been earning with the Freedom are worth a ton instead of being just redeemable for ####ty cash at 1c each. Plus your Ink Bold earns 2x points on utilities, etc so put all of those on auto-pay and forget about it.
Chase Hyatt Card: Remember when I talked about flexibility above? This is one of the reasons why. UR points transfer to Hyatt at 1:1, but Hyatt redemptions are quite cheap compared to other hotel chains. Their HIGHEST redemption category is 30,000 points/night. That means their top of the line, best $1000+/night hotels redeem for only 30,000 points, transferable from your UR account where you're earning 2x-5x points on many of your purchases. This is the dream, people. By focusing on point transfers you're able to combine the cheapest hotel redemptions with the fastest points earnings. So all told you can rack up enough points to stay a night at a freaking category 1000 Hyatt on the beach in Kauai after just $15,000 - $20,000 in spending (roughly 1 weeks worth of spending for a FBG). Having the credit card here just gets you a few extra perks while you're staying there, earns you a few extra points on your purchases while staying there (because let's face it FBG's are dropping $300+ at the hotel bar and golf course daily) and as a bonus it comes with 2 free nights at any Hyatt hotel. Yes, again, any hotel. Times Square, Paris, whatever. You also get 1 free night at a cat 1-4 annually.
AMEX Business Platinum: Don't necessarily have to have a real business. This is one of the cards with bigtime travel perks. First class lounges at the airport, elite status at the rental car companies, etc. It comes with a hefty price tag at $450/yr, but for one year you can easily make that up. Firstly it comes with a $200/year credit at an airline of your choice. Technically for incidentals (baggage fees, wi-fi, drinks, etc) but for some airlines you can use it on gift cards that you use to make ticket purchases (I used Delta). The trick is that the credit is once per CALENDAR year. So if you sign up for the card in August you can redeem for $200 then and then redeem again in January for another $200. On top of that you get a $100 credit back if you sign up for global entry, so at this point you're at +$50 in your pocket not even counting all the elite perks. Additionally, if you get targeted for it you can get offers of 100k up to 150k Membership Rewards points on sign-up which are in the same category as Chase Ultimate Rewards for buying power.
Chase Southwest Preferred and Southwest Preferred Business: Simply put, these are here to get you a SW companion pass, which means if you buy a ticket on SW your spouse gets a ticket for free (BOGO!). Basically when you accrue 110,000 rapid rewards points in a year you get a companion pass for the rest of that year and all of next year. Each of these two SW credit cards (again, you don't need a real business) has a 50,000 RR point sign-up bonus. So by the time you spend 10k you're at the companion pass. You've now got 110k points to spend on tickets and each of those ticket purchases comes with a free ticket for your wife. Good luck using those up so you have to pay for a flight again before your companion pass expires, which if you time it right can be 2 years away (get your 100k credit in January and then you'll have your pass for all of the 11 months left in that year plus the next full year).
So at this point where are we? WIth a year's worth of spending you're now flying to New York by using 25k of your 110k Rapid Rewards points for your ticket. Your wife's ticket is free thanks to your companion pass. You arrive at the airport and head to the first class lounge thanks to your business platinum card. If you need a car rental when you arrive you skip the counter and go straight to the executive area where you take your pick of premium class cars. Then you head to the Park Hyatt New York hotel with average daily rates of $800/night, but F that noise you're staying on the house for 5 nights courtesy of the two free nights from your Hyatt card paired with a mere 90k points out of your UR account that you built up in no time thanks to just one sign-up bonus and some smartly strategized card usage to manage your plethora of bonus earnings categories. And when you get home you've still got enough RR points for like 3 more domestic flights for you and the wife and probably a nice bucket of UR and MR points still sitting there as well either for another hotel or if you want to fly something like Emirates or Singapore Airlines (where the really lucrative rewards redemptions are) overseas.
I have a bunch of other cards too for various sign-up bonuses and bonus categories but my fingers are tired now so I'm going to go ice them.
ex-ghost
Footballguy
Chase is the way to go, for sure, but they have put rules in place to slow down the churning of cards. It is called the 5/24 rule - if you have opened 5 cards in the last 24 months you are no longer eligible to get MOST Chase cards. It seems that 5/24 is still being figured out a bit, but it definitely is in place. Google for more info, but you can start here: 5/24 rule Chase
Fat Nick
Footballguy
If Discover was taken everywhere, I'd use it almost exclusively. It may not be for everyone, but I love stacking coupons/deals, and that's the best card for that IMO.
1% cash back on everything
5% cash back on select categories each quarter
Use that to build up a decent cash-back bonus pile. Then, typically for bigger purchases, you can often turn cash back into gift cards at a discount. Several good retailers offer 5-20% cash back on stuff.
I got a $3,500 75" TV for $2,800 a few months ago. It was on sale at Crutchfield for $3,100, then I cashed in all my cash-back bonus on Crutchfield Gift Cards at a 20% discount and used them to buy the TV. I didn't have enough to cover the full cost or the discount would have been bigger...Buying that TV got me $95 in rewards points through Crutchfield, then a few months laster I needed a small TV for my gym...got Crutchfield to price-match a $399 TV with Amazon to get it down to $349, then stacked it with the $95 rewards points to get it to $254, and then used the same 20% off gift card method to pay $200 in cash-back bonus to get the TV.
I totally agree there are better rewards cards if you travel or for certain needs, but for me, Discover works the best. By far. Not because it has the highest cash back %, but because there are a ton of useful ways to turn your cash back into even more money. You have to just let it sit and build up and use it for the right purchase though.
1% cash back on everything
5% cash back on select categories each quarter
Use that to build up a decent cash-back bonus pile. Then, typically for bigger purchases, you can often turn cash back into gift cards at a discount. Several good retailers offer 5-20% cash back on stuff.
I got a $3,500 75" TV for $2,800 a few months ago. It was on sale at Crutchfield for $3,100, then I cashed in all my cash-back bonus on Crutchfield Gift Cards at a 20% discount and used them to buy the TV. I didn't have enough to cover the full cost or the discount would have been bigger...Buying that TV got me $95 in rewards points through Crutchfield, then a few months laster I needed a small TV for my gym...got Crutchfield to price-match a $399 TV with Amazon to get it down to $349, then stacked it with the $95 rewards points to get it to $254, and then used the same 20% off gift card method to pay $200 in cash-back bonus to get the TV.
I totally agree there are better rewards cards if you travel or for certain needs, but for me, Discover works the best. By far. Not because it has the highest cash back %, but because there are a ton of useful ways to turn your cash back into even more money. You have to just let it sit and build up and use it for the right purchase though.
Yeah, and when you call Discover, you actually get an American voice you can understand.
Fat Nick
Footballguy
I completely forgot about this - VERY good point. 99.9% of issues are solved with 1 quick call. Oh, and it's pretty sweet to be able to get a new card design whenever you want for free.
Arizona Ron
Footballguy
Phil Elliott
Footballguy
Deepster
Footballguy
So, I have a question on something like 5% back for gas purchases.
Assume for clean math, I spend 100.00 a gas a week for 50 weeks in a year for a total annual gas spend of 5,000.00.
With 5% back, I would get 250.00 back per year or 20.83 per month (against 416.66 of gas purchased).
I looked up a couple of the cards linked in this thread and annual interest rates were 14% to 24%.
How do you save money when you get back 5% but pay 14% on the card's balance? Do you just have to use that card solely for gas, then pay it off completely each month to prevent interest charges? I would think (and maybe I'm wrong) that if you carry a balance, they hit the whole balance with that 14-24%, right? Just curious.
Assume for clean math, I spend 100.00 a gas a week for 50 weeks in a year for a total annual gas spend of 5,000.00.
With 5% back, I would get 250.00 back per year or 20.83 per month (against 416.66 of gas purchased).
I looked up a couple of the cards linked in this thread and annual interest rates were 14% to 24%.
How do you save money when you get back 5% but pay 14% on the card's balance? Do you just have to use that card solely for gas, then pay it off completely each month to prevent interest charges? I would think (and maybe I'm wrong) that if you carry a balance, they hit the whole balance with that 14-24%, right? Just curious.
FreeBaGeL
Footballguy
Yea there is an assumption to this thread that you are paying off your balance in full every month, otherwise none of these cards are good deals. If you plan on carrying a balance you're better off churning a new 0% card every 12 months than worrying about rewards that are a fraction of the interest rates.
mquinnjr
Footballguy
Yep, folks hawking out CC deals on spend rewards are paying as if in cash to get the rewards via card usage. That's the rub, for every 1 person in this thread who's on top of their finances and trying to get a small edge via the rewards that the CC company doesn't make money on (they still get swipe fees, but it's a net loss if you always pay on time in full), there are more than one person to offset who are financially irresponsible, where the CC company makes their money.
Ministry of Pain
Footballguy
Wife and I do not pay off in full each month when we get 0% for 12-18 months...we don't just keep rolling cards or debt but we will commit to paying off say $2500 purchase over 12 months or 6 months since it really isn't that much money.
We will not pay interest though so when cards go to some outrageous APR we tend to find a new card and rewards. We have 1 or 2 we keep because of the points even with higher interest rates, we just pay those off in full each month.
-Wife has a Macy's card and she gets a lot of discounts with it but it also has a high interest rate so I pay that one in full each month.
mquinnjr
Footballguy
I just paid for an MRI on my foot from my HSA with my credit card instead of my HSA. I have all documentation to support the HSA usage, and the MRI was $932. On my Citi Double cash card, that's a 2% cash reward for $18.64. I spend 2 minutes filing a claim for reimbursement on the HSA admin's site, and the funds to pay the CC will be in my checking account from the HSA in 3 business days to pay my CC company.
That's the mindset, really - no one's giving you money to spend cash, but if you use CC's responsibly, CC companies will give you cash for doing so. Find the best rewards that suit how you want to spend them, and enjoy the ride!
That's the mindset, really - no one's giving you money to spend cash, but if you use CC's responsibly, CC companies will give you cash for doing so. Find the best rewards that suit how you want to spend them, and enjoy the ride!
pollardsvision
Footballguy
Any ideas on a decent rewards card that doesn't require great credit? I'm not your typical FBG. My credit's not horrible, just not great and I don't have a lot of it. 657 score, 1 card is only account on credit reports, no mortgage at the moment, business was bought via owner-financing. No bankruptcy or defaults or anything. Just lived cash only for too long (accept for doing the boatload of stupid CC's in college thing, but those were paid off long ago).
So, still very much in the building/re-building phase, and looking to try to buy a house in the next 6 months-year. Probably need to get a Sam's Mastercard whenever I'd get accepted, as I spend $40,000 a year there anyway.
Got denied recently for the Capital One Quicksilver (the good one, pre-approved for the ghetto Quicksilver with a $39 annual fee but obviously not doing that). Probably means no dice yet on Citi Double Cash or Chase Freedom for now too, right?
Any other options on a low-end rewards card or just wait a bit?
Also, and this might be a really stupid question, but when applying for these, should I wait until the day after the autopay goes through each month on my current card? During the month, my utilization rate will be in the 15-20% range, but goes to 0% after the autopay.
So, still very much in the building/re-building phase, and looking to try to buy a house in the next 6 months-year. Probably need to get a Sam's Mastercard whenever I'd get accepted, as I spend $40,000 a year there anyway.
Got denied recently for the Capital One Quicksilver (the good one, pre-approved for the ghetto Quicksilver with a $39 annual fee but obviously not doing that). Probably means no dice yet on Citi Double Cash or Chase Freedom for now too, right?
Any other options on a low-end rewards card or just wait a bit?
Also, and this might be a really stupid question, but when applying for these, should I wait until the day after the autopay goes through each month on my current card? During the month, my utilization rate will be in the 15-20% range, but goes to 0% after the autopay.
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RUSF18
Footballguy
Utilization rate is likely based on average daily balance than any given point in time, so I don't think that will help you much.
You might be able to get a Chase Freedom card. My wife had zero credit history when we met but qualified for one. Could have changed recently though.
You might be able to get a Chase Freedom card. My wife had zero credit history when we met but qualified for one. Could have changed recently though.
Random
Footballguy
Actually, I would pass. If you are accepting the "max" they are going to give you, if you plan on applying for any further chase cards your apps will go pending and you will need to call them to reallocate credit. Not a big deal, but if your utilization is already really low, I don't see how this helps you.Matthias said:
Chadstroma
Footballguy
Chadstroma
Footballguy
Use rewards cards for what you would pay for anyways. Pay off balance in full.
For things you need to borrow money to pay for over time use other options.
Ministry of Pain
Footballguy
Chase Sapphire, we easily met their spending requirements and folks its as easy as just having your bills on auto pay for 90 days thru many of these cards or planned purchases anyways that are immediately paid in full.
We just booked 2 non stop flights from South FL to NYC next month, paid nothing.
We just booked 2 non stop flights from South FL to NYC next month, paid nothing.
That's the key to any credit card rewards program.Chadstroma said:
I still use by debit card way too much as a default, but using your credit card and then logging on to pay it right way means you're get the points/rewards and no interest. There are plenty of people who do carry balances over though so that's where they make their money (and with late payments).
