|
I thought I was done with new cards for the time being, Chase sent me the 50k offer on the United Mileage Explorer. Temptation, such a good offer, ugh.
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2013 01:57
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 08:58 |
|
|
Do it. You can be done with cards when you aren't allowed to get anymore.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2013 02:39
|
|
|
This seems like the best place to ask, I'm out of town a lot and my girlfriend doesn't have a bank account and I've been helping her out with money on occasion, I want to find an easier way than making her go to Walmart to get a Moneygram when I'm out of town so I've been looking into prepaid debit cards and it's overwhelming. I want a card I can load money on with my bank account or my own debit card that she can carry around, there's so many choices and it seems there's fees everywhere, anyone know of where I should be looking? Edit: can't get her on with my bank yet until we get hitched, private credit union. That's the plan for later. antisocial86 fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Sep 11, 2013 |
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2013 03:39
|
|
|
Just get a joint checking account (no fee preferably, obviously). That's what married couples do, or what parents do with their kids when they send them to school and want to be able to send money if necessary, etc. I'm confused at how there's a person that doesn't have a bank account, but whatever. Shifty edit, eh? Not sure then, but I feel like most banks will let you do whatever you want with authorized users. I remember in school my roommate had an account he authorized us on so we could add funds easily from our accounts. Taking money out of that fund was looked down upon for some reason. Brian Fellows fucked around with this message at 03:47 on Sep 11, 2013 |
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2013 03:45
|
|
|
antisocial86 posted:This seems like the best place to ask, I'm out of town a lot and my girlfriend doesn't have a bank account and I've been helping her out with money on occasion, I want to find an easier way than making her go to Walmart to get a Moneygram when I'm out of town so I've been looking into prepaid debit cards and it's overwhelming. Not my area of expertise, but I recommend checking out American Express Blue Bird prepaid cards. In general it has received very good reviews.
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2013 04:14
|
|
|
Amex Serve is pretty basic and no maintenance fees as far as I know. They even had a $25 sign up bonus for a while and still might. You just attach a bank account to it and can load it through your web interface whenever you want. Here's the fee schedule: https://serve.com/legal.html#fees
|
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2013 04:55
|
|
|
My credit score recently jumped about 115 points, now around 720, guess it's time to apply for Amex again. E: Blue Sky is worse in every way from Blue Cash, right? Or am I missing something? I end up doing a moderate amount of travel so I could make use of the $100 vouchers, but with 1 point per dollar and 7500 for a $100 voucher, that's 1.3%. The cash has opportunities for higher earnings, and it's just straight cash. Right? FISHMANPET fucked around with this message at 16:59 on Sep 11, 2013 |
|
#
?
Sep 11, 2013 16:54
|
|
|
FISHMANPET posted:My credit score recently jumped about 115 points, now around 720, guess it's time to apply for Amex again. It's probably not a card I'd suggest for most people. If you're looking for an Amex other than Blue Cash, the most talked about reward cards seem to be: - Starwood Preferred Guest (1x point on everything, but has a 25% transfer bonus in big batches. $65 annual fee) - Premier Rewards Gold (3x pts on airfare, 2x pts on gas, large annual bonus at $30k spend, but high $175 annual fee) - Mercedez Benz Card (3x pts on gas, 2x pts on restaurants. $95 annual fee) Points from all three of these cards can be transferred to a variety of airline frequent flier programs.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 04:24
|
|
|
Yeah I don't actually fly much. I suppose I should qualify "moderate." My wife and I like to take staycations on occasion, getting a nice hotel for the night, or maybe we'll stay somewhere for the weekend. Sometimes I book those through hotels.com but I think more often than not I book directly with the hotel. The double points on restaurant purchases sounds nice as well, since most of the restaraunts around here started taking Amex since Delta bought Northwest and now their miles credit card was an Amex. There's also the $100 airline allowance for stuff like baggage fees, so if you use all of that you've more than made up for the higher annual fee. But I probably only fly 2-3 times a year so I probably wouldn't come out ahead there. Also you can only redeem in $100 increments, which can be a pain. I just applied for Blue Cash Everyday, and got instant approval, so that's nice.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 05:00
|
|
|
According to the site, for redemption purposes "eligible travel purchases" means purchases at airlines, hotels, car rental companies, cruise lines, travel agencies, tour operators, commuter railways & trains and online travel sites that are billed to your account and submitted by the merchant using the appropriate industry or merchant code. So it's pretty broad. If hotels are more your thing, it might be useful, and there are a lot of creative ways you can use the Amex incidental credits other than baggage, but I guess that's moot now. Anyway, the Blue Cash card is pretty good, hope it works well for you!
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 06:05
|
|
|
I'm a cheapskate so I don't buy any extras. If I had the credit to burn I might, but then I'm not saving money so welp. Now that I'm an Amex holder I assume it would be easier in the future to get an additional card if life dictates it. If I was really going to start travelling I'd probably go with the Delta card since I live a 25 minute train ride away from Delta hub.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 06:17
|
|
|
FISHMANPET posted:I'm a cheapskate so I don't buy any extras. If I had the credit to burn I might, but then I'm not saving money so welp. Once you're in with AMEX it's a lot easier to get more of their cards. I've been approved for the Premier Rewards Gold (Dec '12), Starwood preferred guest (Jan), Blue Cash Everyday (Mar), and Hilton HHonors (May). I've never been declined by AMEX for a new card, but can't get a credit line increase on any of them. Thankfully after you have one of their cards, if you're ever declined for a new card or CLI, it only counts as a "soft" inquiry on your credit report, which is a lot better than using a "hard pull" to end up with only a denial letter.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 16:06
|
|
|
The old 61 day 3x CLI trick didn't work for you? Those credit card forums are lying to us. I really want the Blue Cash Preferred card but I'm waiting a little while for as I've heard it's hard to get and I recently opened a couple new accounts. Our annual spend at grocery and gas would more than cover the annual fee. I did get targeted mail offers from Amex for the Gold Rewards charge (50K MR bonus) and Delta Skymiles but those I've read are easier to get while the BCP and Costco Amex are supposedly more difficult. My wife declared BK on Amex back in 2006, so I'm not sure if that will affect me either. I'm not sure how their blacklist works.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 19:46
|
|
|
nickutz posted:Once you're in with AMEX it's a lot easier to get more of their cards. I've been approved for the Premier Rewards Gold (Dec '12), Starwood preferred guest (Jan), Blue Cash Everyday (Mar), and Hilton HHonors (May). I've never been declined by AMEX for a new card, but can't get a credit line increase on any of them. Thankfully after you have one of their cards, if you're ever declined for a new card or CLI, it only counts as a "soft" inquiry on your credit report, which is a lot better than using a "hard pull" to end up with only a denial letter. Does opening 4 new lines of credit within 6 months look bad on your credit score/history or anything? I would imagine not since you said if they are all Amex then they just have to do soft-pulls of your credit instead of a hard-pull. Why did you need 4 new Amex cards? Or were you just doing it so that you could open the subsequent cards that are more premium cards that you might have gotten denied for?
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 20:07
|
|
|
If he did it right (and I'm remembering it right), he got probably something along the lines of like $2000 in points/cash.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 20:14
|
|
|
Wait, what? I currently have a fidelity amex but don't know anything about 2k in rewards.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 20:52
|
|
|
All of those have had some pretty hefty sign up bonuses in the past year.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 21:07
|
|
|
50,000 Membership rewards points after $1,000 spend for Premier Rewards, $150 cash back after $500 spend for BCE, 10,000 Starpoints after first purchase with SPG, (Kicking myself that I couldn't meet the higher spend bonus...) 40,000 HHonors points after $750 for Hilton. mastershakeman - The Fidelity AMEX doesn't have a signup bonus (I have that card too). It's issued by FIA Card Services not American Express Bank. It just uses AMEX's payment network. 100% Dundee - I did it for the sign up bonuses. And since I knew that if I was declined it would be a soft pull I just decided to apply for the hell of it. I really don't worry much about inquiries anyway as they are a pretty small portion of your credit score. Since all four cards are being backdated on my credit report to March 2006 that addition to my average age of accounts will easily eclipse the slight hit I took on inquiries. skipdogg - No the 61 day 3x CLI trick has not worked in three tries. I'm going to try again on the SPG once it gets backdated to 06. And from what I've read, AMEX can hold some grudges against those who burned them in BK.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 21:41
|
|
|
I've noticed one you're around 740 or so your score really doesn't seem to matter. Without all the inq's someones score might be 805, but with the inq's you'd be down to maybe 750 or so. Most places top credit tier cuts off at 740 or so, so why not make a grand or two on sign up bonuses.
|
|
#
?
Sep 12, 2013 21:49
|
|
|
nickutz posted:50,000 Membership rewards points after $1,000 spend for Premier Rewards, Uggh, boy did I sell myself short. I applied through Amex's website instead of a good bonus link and apparently my only promo offer on my Premier Rewards card is.....annual fee waived for first year. I have an open inquiry on why I didn't get a better bonus offer, I'm fighting to get the 25,000 MR points with $2,000 spend in 3 months. I had a representative on the phone that I'm pretty sure was going to apply it and the call dropped. When I called back I get the least responsive Amex employee I've ever talked to and all they would do was "open an inquiry" and told me to expect an email in 7-10 days. E: Also out, just out of curiosity, do you plan on keeping them all open? I love their cards but the prospect of paying multiple annual fees is holding me back. I've had my SPG for years now, and love my Premier Rewards so far, just wondering if I will keep both when I have to pony up for annual fees next summer. Bulky Bartokomous fucked around with this message at 13:52 on Sep 13, 2013 |
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2013 13:49
|
|
|
Yeah I got that offer in the mail. Started the landslide of my relationship with AMEX. I will be downgrading my Premier Rewards to the basic Green card later this year and just keep that open. As a charge card it adds another mix of credit to my report. Will likely cancel my SPG before January 2014 and try to transfer the credit to another card. The HHonors and BCE don't have annual fees so I won't close those.
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2013 15:35
|
|
|
I have a friend who is in the US on a student visa, with no credit history. She hopes to be a permanent resident at some point, and wants to get started building her credit history. She was declined for a couple of student cards, and the emails received pointed to her status as being the reason. Is there a way she can get a credit card or is it just very hard as an international student to get one?
|
|
#
?
Sep 13, 2013 22:56
|
|
|
nickutz posted:Yeah I got that offer in the mail. Started the landslide of my relationship with AMEX. I may actually keep Premier Rewards after some number crunching I just did. I spend average of $300 a month on gas and groceries each. Given the 2x points on those categories that would get me 14400 MR per year. If you value an MR point at $0.01, it would effectively mean that I am paying $31.00 per year. Many points sites estimate the value of the MR at closer to $0.02, which would mean the awards cover the fee at that and NET $113.00 in value with that level of spending. E: Same spending on Green, assuming $0.01 per MR would mean effective fee of $23.00. So for $8.00 higher fee I would get double the MR. Bulky Bartokomous fucked around with this message at 03:00 on Sep 14, 2013 |
|
#
?
Sep 14, 2013 02:44
|
|
|
cannibustacap posted:I'm thinking of getting an American Express card because I heard they really look after you if you make a purchase and the merchant pulls a fast one on you if something goes wrong. For example, I ordered a Verizon Samsung Galaxy S4 phone over the mail and when it came, it was stolen. I was insured, but lo-and-behold, the insurance only kicks in after the phone has been activated. Verizon nor FedEx would reimburse me (well actually Verizon gave me $140 towards a new phone) but I lose out on the original discount. I ended up having to pay full price (minus $140) on a new phone, plus fully lose out on the original $330 of the stolen one. Your friend is right, Amex has superb customer service. They offer a number of features that can protect you in the event of a problem: 1) Purchase protection - item gets broke/stolen/damaged/etc. in the first (I think) 90 days and they will replace it 2) Return protection - you want to return an item and the merchant won't take it back (or they will only give you store credit)? Amex will cover you 3) Extended warranty - Amex doubles the manufacturer's warranty on a wide variety of items, up to 1 additional year. The warranties run consecutively, not concurrently. Although not an advertised benefit, Amex generally is regarded as being more favorable towards the consumer in the event of a chargeback. I filed an extended warranty claim on a $400 laptop that stopped working approx. 18 months after purchase. The 1 year manuf. warranty hard run out, but I was covered by the Amex extended warranty. I called to file a claim, the rep took down my information, and a credit for the laptop price appeared on my account about a week later. Since then, I have used Amex for virtually all my purchases.
|
|
#
?
Sep 14, 2013 03:41
|
|
|
Funny enough, I recently lost a chargeback with Amex. I stayed at a hotel and brought bed bugs home with me. After I tried unsuccessfully to get a refund from the hotel, I called Amex and did a chargeback. Amex sided with the hotel because I didn't report the problem before I had checked out and because the hotel claimed to have had an exterminator inspect the room without finding any bugs. I doubt that this inspection even took place because it took me about a month to get a hotel manager to call me back and that was the first time anyone at the hotel asked for my name and room number I stayed in. Not even 2 hours later after I gave them this info, they made the claim that an exterminator didn't find anything. Unless they have an on-site exterminator, I don't see how that would be possible to get it done so fast. Anyway, Amex should have at taken the $150 hit themselves to keep me a happy customer.
|
|
#
?
Sep 14, 2013 17:23
|
|
|
That doesn't really sound like the thing chargeback cover so I can see why they wouldn't go through with it.
|
|
#
?
Sep 14, 2013 17:30
|
|
|
Marble posted:Your friend is right, Amex has superb customer service. They offer a number of features that can protect you in the event of a problem: I received 299.00 from AMEX for the extended warranty service in May (Received the discount 3 days after I submitted). Used the Purchase Protection in July for $450 (Received 7 days after I submitted). Thank you AMEX!
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2013 02:02
|
|
|
I got married about 4 months ago and Men's Wearhouse tried to keep $40 of my $60 deposit on a tux, claiming it wasn't a deposit. I charged back and at first amex sided with men's wearhouse after they showed me some stupid proof of charges that didn't even say anything except showed my amex charges. I called amex immediately and explained how the woman in the store had told me they were deposits when I put down the $60, and just yesterday finally got a check in the mail for $40 from men's wearhouse. Moral of the story - if they don't side with you at first, push back.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2013 12:03
|
|
|
Dantu posted:I may actually keep Premier Rewards after some number crunching I just did. I spend average of $300 a month on gas and groceries each. Given the 2x points on those categories that would get me 14400 MR per year. If you value an MR point at $0.01, it would effectively mean that I am paying $31.00 per year. Many points sites estimate the value of the MR at closer to $0.02, which would mean the awards cover the fee at that and NET $113.00 in value with that level of spending. I don't spend near enough on groceries or gas for the double points to offset the fee.
|
|
#
?
Sep 15, 2013 21:33
|
|
|
Never thought I'd say this, but the card I'm having trouble justifying is the SPG, may downgrade to Blue Cash after I transfer my Starpoints.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2013 14:29
|
|
|
Dantu posted:Never thought I'd say this, but the card I'm having trouble justifying is the SPG, may downgrade to Blue Cash after I transfer my Starpoints. Imho the SPG card doesn't really make sense to keep past the first year unless you stay at SPG hotels regularly. The nice thing is that you can cancel the card without losing your SPG points. Just remember to use or add to your SPG points once a year or they will be lost.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2013 14:55
|
|
|
If you have another MR-earning card, the Blue for Business is kind of fun, given that has no annual fee and it gets an annual 30% bonus.
|
|
#
?
Sep 16, 2013 20:21
|
|
|
Is there such a thing as a card with favorable treatment of vehicle related expenses other then gas?
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2013 04:35
|
|
|
Like repairs? Nothing comes to mind. There is a GM card out there that accrues points towards a new GM vehicle but that's really the only Auto related card I can think of (and its not a very good card) I found a Nationwide Credit Card that gives 0% on auto repairs for 12 billing cycles.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2013 05:03
|
|
|
the yeti posted:Is there such a thing as a card with favorable treatment of vehicle related expenses other then gas? Get a good gas card and then only service your car at gas stations with an attached garage? Its likely they run it though the same merchnat ID so it probably gets coded as a gas station.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2013 05:49
|
|
|
the yeti posted:Is there such a thing as a card with favorable treatment of vehicle related expenses other then gas? 
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2013 06:08
|
|
|
the yeti posted:Is there such a thing as a card with favorable treatment of vehicle related expenses other then gas? BMW Financial has a family of Visas that get bonus points for $ spent at the dealership. Otherwise they are very average cards. The no fee on is 3 points per $ at BMW centers and 1 point per $ everywhere else.
|
|
#
?
Sep 18, 2013 12:02
|
|
|
Hey so I just saw an ad for the HHonors Amex Surpass card. With 12 points per dollar spent at Hilton properties I'm starting to think that it might be worth looking into in addition to my Chase Sapphire Preferred. The annual fee is 75$ but I can stay at Hilton properties at least 80 nights a year. Since the value of HHonors points seems to be a little under half that of traditional points, that would still equate to just under 6 points instead of the 2.14 I get with the sapphire card. My question is that I am wondering if you still get the traditional points at Hilton in addition to the 12 points per dollar through the card? If so this card seems like a no brainer.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 18:10
|
|
|
oxsnard posted:Hey so I just saw an ad for the HHonors Amex Surpass card. With 12 points per dollar spent at Hilton properties I'm starting to think that it might be worth looking into in addition to my Chase Sapphire Preferred. The annual fee is 75$ but I can stay at Hilton properties at least 80 nights a year. Since the value of HHonors points seems to be a little under half that of traditional points, that would still equate to just under 6 points instead of the 2.14 I get with the sapphire card. Just to be clear, you stay in hotels roughly 80 nights a year? Definitely sounds like a no-brainer.
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 19:00
|
|
|
|
| # ? Jun 3, 2024 08:58 |
|
|
I just got my Chase Sapphire Preferred in the mail, I'm planning on getting the free 40,000 points. My other credit card is the Fidelity Investment Rewards amex with the 2% cash back. Are there any other cards I should consider getting? Is Chase Freedom better than the Fidelity with the Sapphire Preferred because of the points?
|
|
#
?
Sep 21, 2013 19:35
|
|
