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Gothmog1065 posted:I called up and asked to upgrade to the Discover It card. The process was really painless. My no interest promotion ran out in February, and I dropped from 15% to 11% APR (variable, bla blah). My current Discover card is a "Discover More" card. What's the difference between that and a Discover It? I can't find anything on the Discover Web site that breaks down the different cards they offer. It looks like "It" may just be fancy new branding, but I really can't tell for sure.
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Jun 18, 2013 20:27
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nickutz posted:
i looked at the no-annual fee cards, but the hilton reserve card is more compelling and easily makes up its annual fee, given the bonus of 2 weekend night certificates at any property and gold status. the reserve does have a decent spend requirement, but there are ways to manufacture or front load spending. if you're looking for a backdoor to get AA miles, app for the Barclays US Airways card. certain referral links have 1st year waived, and since they're merging it's widely speculated that they'll be converted to AA miles. SPG Amex is also another way, with a lower annual fee.
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Jun 20, 2013 18:25
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PsychoAndy posted:i looked at the no-annual fee cards, but the hilton reserve card is more compelling and easily makes up its annual fee, given the bonus of 2 weekend night certificates at any property and gold status. the reserve does have a decent spend requirement, but there are ways to manufacture or front load spending. I actually already have the AMEX SPG which I got 10k starpoints after the first purchase but couldn't meet the higher spend for 15K extra starpoints. I may end up keeping that card because starpoints are so much more valuable than HHonors. Once I get the 40k Hhonors points from my spend requirement I'm not sure how much more I'll use it. I've never bothered to manufacture spending but if I could pay my rent with my card I would rack up points like crazy.
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Jun 20, 2013 19:31
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Harry posted:Are you sure you heard them right? That sounds pretty stupid. Also, have you tried to activate it again? I did and they insisted I was permanently locked out. I called one last time to ask them to just mail me the check, but I somehow got an American on the line and I chatted him about about dance music and he overrode the system and let me retake the identity verification, which worked this time. Glad I'll never have to deal with that bullshit again though.
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Jun 20, 2013 19:36
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nickutz posted:I actually already have the AMEX SPG which I got 10k starpoints after the first purchase but couldn't meet the higher spend for 15K extra starpoints. I may end up keeping that card because starpoints are so much more valuable than HHonors. Once I get the 40k Hhonors points from my spend requirement I'm not sure how much more I'll use it. I did a sign up bonus for Priority rewards (Holiday Inn basically) and for the annual fee it works out to basically be one night per year for $30, which is pretty much worth it for the lightest traveler.
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Jun 20, 2013 20:01
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The SPG points are tough to come by if you're not staying in the hotels, that's their only weakness. I always feel like I should be using that card to buy things, but since it has no bonuses for any non-Starwood spend, I always find myself using a Chase card that's got a multiplyer or my Priceline card that's got 2% cashback on everything. The SPG card just gets some pity use every once in awhile. But I probably had to call Amex customer service seriously 10 times to make sure I GOT my drat signup bonus, so I'm going to hold onto that thing until the last second.
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Jun 20, 2013 23:05
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Weird Uncle Dave posted:My current Discover card is a "Discover More" card. What's the difference between that and a Discover It? I can't find anything on the Discover Web site that breaks down the different cards they offer. It looks like "It" may just be fancy new branding, but I really can't tell for sure. Of what I can tell it's a Discover More with less fees. American call center, no late fees, no interest increase when late, etc etc. APR is slightly lower, APR doesn't increase when late. I think the rewards system is about the same. 1% cash back on everything (Or what I've been told not 1%, but whatever) and 5% on rotating bonus categories. e: Of what I can tell there's no reason not to change over, but the benefits are minor. Gothmog1065 fucked around with this message at 14:53 on Jun 21, 2013 |
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Jun 21, 2013 14:48
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If you want AA miles, as has been posted, your options are basically Citi AA cards, Barclays US cards, or SPG Amex. If you've tapped all three, you can try for a business version of any of those, complete with a separate signup bonus. Keep in mind that Citi offers like 10 versions of AA cards, and they'll generally give you a second, different one after a while, complete with a signup bonus. Barclays too, sometimes.nickutz posted:I actually already have the AMEX SPG which I got 10k starpoints after the first purchase but couldn't meet the higher spend for 15K extra starpoints. I may end up keeping that card because starpoints are so much more valuable than HHonors. Once I get the 40k Hhonors points from my spend requirement I'm not sure how much more I'll use it. nickutz posted:I've never bothered to manufacture spending but if I could pay my rent with my card I would rack up points like crazy.
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Jun 23, 2013 04:37
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I am wondering if anyone has run into this, and if it sounds as bullshitty as I think it is. I have a Chase Freedom card, and added my then-fiance to it like a year ago. He got his own physical card, etc. I could have sworn that I added him as a "joint" account holder maybe 6 months ago. In all this time, he has been unable to view the card's info on his Chase "My Accounts" tab. Cannot view purchases, make payments, anything. I called Customer Service this afternoon to see if I could add him to have equal control over the account as me, and the lady said yes but she needed my husband to speak with in order to do it. He wasn't home, so we called back together later in the night. The new guy we got on the phone said that it's not possible to have both cardholders view the account online, just the "primary" account holder. It is a "security feature". Um, bullshit?! Surely a pair of spouses can manage their joint account together, so that they both may keep tabs on how much money they spend, and if they are approaching their limit, or if a payment is due soon. SURELY. It sounds absolutely retarded, if not. This is our main credit card. We each have a personal Discover or MasterCard, but hardly ever use them. This Chase card is our bread and butter. We've liked the card, and its reward program up until now, but this may be a really dumb breaking point for us.
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Jun 27, 2013 03:14
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I bet he could make a separate login with the info from that card. Chase definitely is a hang up and call back if you get the wrong answer type of place. They've got good customer service, but you don't always get the best of the best. Alternatively can't you just share your login information with him? If you trust each other enough to share a credit card I don't see why that would be an issue. As a THIRD alternative, just have him sign up for a new account/Freedom card and get the signup bonus again.
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Jun 27, 2013 03:50
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Brian Fellows posted:I bet he could make a separate login with the info from that card. Chase definitely is a hang up and call back if you get the wrong answer type of place. They've got good customer service, but you don't always get the best of the best. We both already have established logins that are attached to our individual checkings, join checking, joint saving, and a joint CD. I have shared my login with him, but my password is very long/complicated and I'd prefer him to not write it down and he's never been able to memorize more than the first character of it. The issue isn't really that he can't ever see the account, it's that he isn't confronted with it each time he logs in like I am. I am trying very hard to form a budget for us because IMO our spending is out of control, and it is hard to get him truly on board if he doesn't log on randomly and go "holy poo poo we've spent $2000 in 11 days?! Our monthly payment isn't due for another 3 weeks but we're at our limit!" like I do depressingly often. And if he signs up for a new account, then we have the same problem because I cannot see what he spends and he cannot see what I spend. Unless we want to devote the entire budgeting responsibility to one party, we really need to both be able to see all activity. I do not understand the "security feature" - him having access to spending the money is more of a security concern IMO than him being able to pay off the account. Stupid Chase. I'll call back in the morning and see if I can get another person. Or maybe the retention department - I hear they have fancier buttons to push than the average customer service rep. 
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Jun 27, 2013 04:07
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First you need to find out if he's an AU or Joint Owner for sure. If he is only an authorized user, he can add the card to his chase login and only see his charges. If he's a joint owner, he should be able to see his charges and your charges after adding the account to his chase login. I'm not sure why you need to call customer service at all for this unless he is getting an error message of some kind when he is trying to add the account to his chase login.
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Jun 27, 2013 04:50
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foundtomorrow posted:First you need to find out if he's an AU or Joint Owner for sure. If he is only an authorized user, he can add the card to his chase login and only see his charges. If he's a joint owner, he should be able to see his charges and your charges after adding the account to his chase login. He's a joint owner and it turns out the guy we talked to last night was FOS. I didn't realize you could add your own account to your Chase account online (wouldn't it make sense to link them automatically?), so I was able to do that this morning with the new CS rep's help. And I called customer service because when I talked to a banker in person he told me that all card questions have to be answered by their customer service because I guess they're a separate entity. I have no idea. But it's fixed now, yay!
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Jun 27, 2013 14:38
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My wife and I pay people sometimes through a paper check and other times through Chase's bill pay where Chase mails a check themselves and debits your account. Once she accidentally scheduled a rent payment for the next month even though we were moving out through her online account from our joint checking. She was out of the country so I was trying to cancel the payment but was unable because of a 'security feature' where only she could cancel despite the fact I was the primary account holder, had her login and password, social security number. If she had written a paper check I could have canceled it but not her online check. 'Security feature'
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Jun 27, 2013 15:06
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My story is a worse Chase story but I still love Chase right now. I graduated from school with about $4,000 to my name, and then took 10 months to find a job (12 before I started that job). I had to move cross country for it. I was fortunate enough that I had parents that could help me out, and my dad wrote me a $5000 check as a loan basically to help me pay the first month's rent, get furniture, etc. My money was all with a local bank, so I closed down that account and went to Chase, where I wasn't a customer, with $1,200 cash in hand and a $5000 check from my dad. I opened a Chase checking account with this and didn't think much of it. As my moving date got closer, my deposit kept saying pending. I had to call up customer service. They said there was a three MONTH hold on the money because the computer had detected: 1. This is a bigger deposit amount than this account typically makes. 2. This is a bigger check than this account typically writes (so if my dad didn't ALSO have a Chase account, this 'security feature' wouldn't have been tripped at all). So if you're taking notes, MY FIRST DEPOSIT EVER was bigger than the AVERAGE DEPOSIT ON THE ACCOUNT, and a check from a guy that had the same last name (and middle name, and initials) as me was written at too high an amount for that account. They refused to help us on the phone so I had to drive with my dad to a local branch. The reps there easily sorted it out. My dad took all of his money out of Chase the next day. Other than that though, they've always been very good to me. The only other problem I ever had with them was somehow my Freedom card statements and emails started coming to me in Spanish, and somehow that is a hard enough thing to fix that several CSRs and supervisors couldn't fix it. So I just started using a different bank's card until finally the "fix" someone had come up with came through. It got very annoying walking up to my roommate with a bank statement in hand and asking him "does this say anything important?"
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Jun 27, 2013 17:51
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Brian Fellows posted:They said there was a three MONTH hold on the money because the computer had detected: This is against the law (Regulation CC )...check clearing and cash availibility is highly regulated, just in case this happens to anyone else. Even cases of EXTREMLY obvious fraud need to have a reasonable timeframe (three months is not reasonable by any definition). EDIT: Just looked it up...9 Business days is the max they can hold your money under the law, and that is actually called a new account hold. LorneReams fucked around with this message at 19:03 on Jun 27, 2013 |
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Jun 27, 2013 19:01
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Can anyone recommend a good card that has a a 0% intro APR on balance transfers and no balance transfer fees? I am having to carry a bit of a balance for a while and need to keep cash on hand for a large purchase in the next few months. With just a quick look around it looks like the Chase Slate card might be a decent choice. Anyone have any input or other recommendations.
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Jun 30, 2013 04:27
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It's pretty hard to find a 0% transfer fee these days. You might want to try the city simplicity card, it has a 3% transfer fee but it's for 18 months.
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Jun 30, 2013 16:43
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cracker posted:Can anyone recommend a good card that has a a 0% intro APR on balance transfers and no balance transfer fees? I am having to carry a bit of a balance for a while and need to keep cash on hand for a large purchase in the next few months. Take a look at the Chase Slate. That's what I've been using for my balance transfer that I'm now completing. You may even be able to convert it to a Chase Freedom once you're done with the payoff.
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Jul 1, 2013 16:55
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So I just started a new job where I'll be traveling for 3-4 nights at a time 25-30 weeks per year. All of it (flights, hotel, food, rental car, gas) goes on my personal accounts for reimbursement. Basically I'm looking at easily 30-40k a year on cards. I have a chase freedom and amazon visa. I signed up for a sapphire preferred today and was approved with a 23k limit. It seems like the benefits are awesome for travelers but wasn't sure if anyone here had a better suggestion. The sign up bonus is huge at 40,000 points but after the first year the $95 annual fee seems kind of big.
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Jul 2, 2013 03:28
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oxsnard posted:So I just started a new job where I'll be traveling for 3-4 nights at a time 25-30 weeks per year. All of it (flights, hotel, food, rental car, gas) goes on my personal accounts for reimbursement. Basically I'm looking at easily 30-40k a year on cards. I have a chase freedom and amazon visa. I think the sapphire is the way to go. You should more than make up for the annual fee. Also consider the Amex platinum. Even steeper fee but gets you into airport lounges which is really great if you're flying.
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Jul 2, 2013 03:47
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I believe capital one venture is the top dog when it comes to airline travel perks. You might want to combine it with a hotel brand card of some sort.
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Jul 2, 2013 05:22
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oxsnard posted:So I just started a new job where I'll be traveling for 3-4 nights at a time 25-30 weeks per year. All of it (flights, hotel, food, rental car, gas) goes on my personal accounts for reimbursement. Basically I'm looking at easily 30-40k a year on cards. I have a chase freedom and amazon visa. Most likely your best bet will be to get the hotel card that is aligned to your hotel program. Typically these are hands down the best value for spend at hotels. Airline is more of a crapshoot but Amex SPG is a pretty good card even if you want to end up with miles because of the conversation rate when you move more than 20k points over at once.
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Jul 2, 2013 05:36
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I think he has the perfect combination of the Sapphire Preferred and Chase Freedom card. Double points on Travel and Dining plus rotating 5x points from the Freedom that can now be transferred to partner programs. All of his example spending of flights, hotels, eating out, rental cars and gas are all 2x points on the Sapphire with restaurants and gas stations being frequent 5x categories on the Freedom. The AMEX Platinum would be a good addition because of the great travel perks if you can stomach the $450 annual fee. You also get automatic Starwood Preferred Guest Gold status for having the Platinum card so you'll earn 5x starpoints at their properties. Starpoints are probably the most valuable hotel points, and like kansas said, you can transfer them to airline partners just like Chase Ultimate Rewards.
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Jul 2, 2013 14:41
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Thanks for the feedback. I looked at the Amex platinum but it looks like I should mostly be staying at Hamptons and holiday inns based on my company's "preferred" list. I have a hard time gauging the value of miles so the capital one venture card (which offers 2 miles per dollar) is less concrete than the chase ultimate rewards which I have used for years.
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Jul 2, 2013 15:09
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It depends on what you're looking to get from the cards. I would say Freedom + Sapphire is the best way to go because you can transfer those points instantly to United or Hyatt. If you're just looking for random economy flights around the US Capital One may be fine, but if you're talking about trying to go to foreign countries (in economy or coach) Capital One is terrible. Like you said, not all miles are created equal. Capital One is really not miles- it's % cash back that you can only apply to travel purchases. So for example, if you're going anywhere in Europe, a round trip with United miles will cost you 60,000 miles. The random flight I just checked, United flight from Houston (a hub) to Munich is $1,321. So that would cost you 132,000 Capital One "miles." So if you're mainly using Priceline to find the cheapest flights within the US you could be better off using Capital One... but even then, since Freedom gets you 5% sometimes and Sapphire still earns 2% on a lot of purchases, you're still usually better off doing that. And at least with Chase there's the easy, hard-set floor of cashing out for 1 cent per point if you decide screw travel, just pay me. Capital One can only be applied against travel purchases.
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Jul 2, 2013 18:51
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The Sapphire also has the yearly points dividend of 7% of UR points earned through spending.
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Jul 2, 2013 18:59
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Freedom and Sapphire is a pretty good combo. This page actually describes a number of pretty lucrative combos: http://www.drcreditcard.net/fr-best-combos.html
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Jul 2, 2013 22:42
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Small White Dragon posted:Freedom and Sapphire is a pretty good combo. That's a fantastic site but all the Internet nerding out on credit cars makes me feel like that time I tried to build a warhammer 40k army back in high school.
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Jul 3, 2013 04:22
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oxsnard posted:That's a fantastic site but all the Internet nerding out on credit cars makes me feel like that time I tried to build a warhammer 40k army back in high school.
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Jul 3, 2013 04:44
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oxsnard posted:That's a fantastic site but all the Internet nerding out on credit cars makes me feel like that time I tried to build a warhammer 40k army back in high school. You're in a spot where with careful planning you could have free flight/hotel stays for like years worth of vacations. Sperg a little.
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Jul 3, 2013 05:01
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Small White Dragon posted:I find the difference is that women care very much about free vacations. Hah I was going to post this exact same sentiment. I got a bit of crap when I first started chasing the mile dragon, but my wife stopped complaining when we were flying to Asia first class on Cathay... Then you get into arguments on the internet about What is your max amount of caviar?
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Jul 3, 2013 05:12
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Jeez those caviar threads are #firstworldproblems to the max. Do cards with permanent 2% cash rewards exist anymore? All I can ever find is 1% and the Discover special offers stuff.
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Jul 5, 2013 18:56
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Zero VGS posted:Jeez those caviar threads are #firstworldproblems to the max. Fidelity amex.
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Jul 5, 2013 19:03
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I'm a recent college grad and I'm looking to build credit. Currently I have none, so I'm having trouble even getting a store credit card (applied for a student card and a local grocery store card, both denied due to a lack of credit references.) I figure the best route is to get a secured credit card, but my bank (Ally) doesn't offer one and the terms for cards I've looked at seem a bit dicey/I'm unsure if they'll actually help build credit. Is there any goon consensus on the best secured credit card that'll help me build credit so I can get a real adult credit card someday? And how long does it take to build credit to the point where banks will take me seriously?
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Jul 7, 2013 19:58
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I had the same problem when I graduated. I never had a credit card and the only thing on my report was from a bullshit Comcast collections. I first got a $500 secured credit card through chase and did that for a few months. I think my score went from the low 500s to almost 600 in that time. Honestly though the single best thing I had happen for me to get my score up was to hitch my credit to my dad's. I know it's not an option for everyone, but worth it if you can. My dad told me while I was in college that he would immediately stop helping with tuition (he paid 50%) if I got a credit card while in school. We signed up for a $5000 limit chase freedom as joint owners. The deal was that he'd cancel the card if I missed or was late on a single payment. Within a year my credit was in the 700s I think just from my 400-500 dollar spending per month. Tldr get a small amount of credit and pay off it all every month. With no credit you can jack that score up quickly. Also ask for limit increases every 6 or so months when you do finally get an unsecured card
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Jul 7, 2013 23:02
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Diabetes By Sundown posted:I'm a recent college grad and I'm looking to build credit. Currently I have none, so I'm having trouble even getting a store credit card (applied for a student card and a local grocery store card, both denied due to a lack of credit references.) Looking around, apparently there aren't any that don't charge annual fees, and they all have high APR (which is crazy since you're spending your own money when you use the card). If you have any kind of military affiliation NavyFed and USAA are good choices, otherwise the Capital One card looks OK, or maybe US Bank. Honestly they are all going to be pretty similar at this tier (poo poo-tier). Just go with a place you've heard of before, and read the terms and conditions. There shouldn't be any mandatory fees aside from the annual fee and the APR. Get a secured card, use it once in a while, pay it off every month that you use it and you'll be able to get low to mid end unsecured cards (like store cards and decent rewards cards) in a year. I wouldn't apply for anything until the year is up though.
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Jul 7, 2013 23:54
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Diabetes By Sundown posted:I'm a recent college grad and I'm looking to build credit. Currently I have none, so I'm having trouble even getting a store credit card (applied for a student card and a local grocery store card, both denied due to a lack of credit references.) When I had no credit history in college I ended up applying for my college's credit union's credit card. Only a $500 limit, but it was unsecured and allowed me to build my credit up fairly quickly to the point that I could be pretty much approved for any card by graduation. Obviously YMMW but it may be worth checking out if this is an option for you.
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Jul 8, 2013 01:47
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oxsnard posted:My dad told me while I was in college that he would immediately stop helping with tuition (he paid 50%) if I got a credit card while in school. Heh, that's so American. "You're not responsible enough to manage a credit card, but you are responsible enough to spend tens of thousands of dollars and actually go to class and not fail out." I got sick of my dad asking why I kept buying Burger King with my debit card (it was a joint account, supposedly for emergency money if he needed to give me some, but in reality it was for spying). So I promptly just set up a separate account for myself that he didn't know about. Et voila.
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Jul 8, 2013 01:48
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Brian Fellows posted:Heh, that's so American. "You're not responsible enough to manage a credit card, but you are responsible enough to spend tens of thousands of dollars and actually go to class and not fail out." Honestly, next to paying for school, it was the best thing my parents ever did for me. My parents knew I was good at school but impetuous with purchases so they made it so I had to watch what I spend and earn money from jobs to pay for everything else. My credit is what it is today six plus years after graduation specifically because I didn't rack up retarded college kid debt. I can literally get any loan or line of credit I want without worries. Pay your drat bill every month and don't buy poo poo you don't need that you can't afford 
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Jul 8, 2013 04:45
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