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Malek posted:Actually I never tried, didn't know what to try for, granted I have good income. Sign up for credit karma and tell us what it says your new account score is and we can give you some estimates on your chances for a real card.
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May 25, 2014 18:44
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I've found credit karma to be pretty unreliable. Around 60-120 points off FICO and the 3 bureaus for me and my friends. If you don't already know your real scores it may be worth a few bux to find out, depending on your situation. From my experience, CK will tell you your score is significantly lower than it really is, but I guess that could be different for different people.
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May 25, 2014 18:56
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It's still useful to figure out a tranche; if it says his score is 790 that tells us something no matter how far off from FICO it is. Same if it says it's 520 -- he has no idea and there's no point in paying or wasting one of your yearly pulls when CK provides you with data that is 'good enough'.
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May 25, 2014 19:10
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100% Dundee posted:Theres a Mastercard verison of the CapitalOne Quicksilver card that still has the 1.5% cashback on everything. I'm not sure if it has a penalty at the warehouse clubs but even if it does have a .25% penalty, that would still be 1.25% which is pretty rockin. Unfortunately I think the mastercard version of the quicksilver has an annual fee whereas the Visa version does not, but it might still be worth it depending on how much you spend. Yep, I found that one and I was about to apply for it but then I found the Barclaycard Arrival PlusTM World Elite MasterCard. Jesus this is a good card. 2x miles for all purchases (basically 2% when used to redeem travel expenses as statement credit, which is insanely good). $89 annual fee (waived first year) but 40k miles signing bonus.
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May 25, 2014 19:50
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So I've got only one credit card, a Visa with a $4,000 limit (never bothered asking them to raise it) from my old credit union I no longer use and I'm looking at getting another card. I've got an excellent credit score, would pay off the card balance in full at the end of each month, and would use it mainly for groceries, Amazon purchases, and some department store purchases. I've been looking at the following cards: PenFed Platinum Rewards Visa Signature Card. Earns 5 points on gas, 3 points on supermarket purchases, and 1 point on everything else. No annual fee. 9.99% APR. American Express Blue Cash Preferred Card. Earns 6% cash back on supermarket purchases up to $6,000/year, 3% cash back on gas and "select" department stores, and 1% cash back on other purchases. $75 annual fee. 12.99%-21.99% APR. AFAIK, cash back rewards cards tend to be better than points rewards cards. Even with the annual fee it seems like the Amex Blue Preferred card would be better, but Visa is more widely accepted than Amex and it's through my credit union. Thoughts?
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May 25, 2014 20:25
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CheshireCat posted:So I've got only one credit card, a Visa with a $4,000 limit (never bothered asking them to raise it) from my old credit union I no longer use and I'm looking at getting another card. I've got an excellent credit score, would pay off the card balance in full at the end of each month, and would use it mainly for groceries, Amazon purchases, and some department store purchases. I've been looking at the following cards: I've got the Amex and it owns. You also get free shoprunner and occasional other deals thru the amex website. They messed up last year and offered $5 off $25 at BP pumps, unlimited uses for like three months. Hope something like that happens again. The penfed looks pretty sweet as well but IDK how their points work. amex is straight up cash, no conversion rate. Two good cards. No annual fee on the penfed might make it worth it if the points equal cents or better on redemption.
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May 25, 2014 21:17
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Juche Box Hero posted:They messed up last year and offered $5 off $25 at BP pumps, unlimited uses for like three months. Hope something like that happens again. I just checked and they have $5 cash back on a $30 at the pump there, but its one time.
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May 25, 2014 22:19
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Bisty Q. posted:Sign up for credit karma and tell us what it says your new account score is and we can give you some estimates on your chances for a real card. If it's what I think it is, it's 588 Apparently I have some work to do... plus Malek fucked around with this message at 23:19 on May 25, 2014 |
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May 25, 2014 23:11
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Malek posted:If it's what I think it is, it's 588 Your chances of a rewards card or even a non-student no-AF card from a major issuer are very low. Look at what your bank offers and start there.
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May 25, 2014 23:24
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I believe the penfed points got devalued.
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May 25, 2014 23:48
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Okay, I'm ready, hit me with advice. I'm planning a big (6-8k) vacation at the beginning of next year that I'll be paying for in a few months, and I will be taking a few smaller trips this year that'll probably be 3-4k total. Some flying will be involved, but just inside the US, and the flights themselves will be 5-10% of the total costs. I'm looking at a card that will give me good travel rewards. My partner has the amex blue preferred that we use for gas/groceries and my Discover does the rolling category thing for various purchases, so I think that a travel card will fit in nicely. I'll take a flat cashback if it's better, obviously. I have been looking at the barclaycard arrival plus for its 2.2% back plus that sweet signing bonus. I have to spend just over 4k yearly to cover the annual fee, which I will be able to do just fine, though if I'm hitting about 12k a year it's only a net gain of $175, so about 1.46%. I'm young in my career so I know more money and nicer trips are in my future, so it's probably going to be easy to top that, but I would like to see what else is out there. I don't mind the annual fees, as long as the rewards make it worth it. My FICO is 760 (thanks to Discover for giving it to me monthly) so I think I've got a good chance with most cards. E: I'm not familiar at all with arline clubs, frequent flyer, how miles work, whatever. Richard M Nixon fucked around with this message at 00:12 on May 26, 2014 |
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May 25, 2014 23:53
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Where are you staying? A credit card bonus for a hotel chain can get you 5 nights free.
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May 26, 2014 00:03
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Harry posted:Where are you staying? A credit card bonus for a hotel chain can get you 5 nights free. My big trip next year is going to be at Disney World in Florida. I haven't really developed an affinity with any particular hotel chain so I don't know the ups and downs of each. Lately I've found I have been staying at Starwood hotels, but that's been more of a coincidence that my last 3 stays at different hotels have happened to be owned by them. I usually just book through Hotels.com. E: Same with airlines. I haven't developed any love/hate for anyone, so I fly whoever has the shortest flights from Austin to wherever.
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May 26, 2014 00:14
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Harry posted:Where are you staying? A credit card bonus for a hotel chain can get you 5 nights free. So, I looked into Hotel cards when looking for a general use card, and based on this page, Hilton HHonors would be the best. But, my concern is, I usually stay with people or at cheap hotels when flying domestically. My vacations where I'd splurge on lodging are usually in Europe etc, does anyone know if these points work on Hilton hotels internationally?
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May 26, 2014 00:21
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Rurutia posted:So, I looked into Hotel cards when looking for a general use card, and based on this page, Hilton HHonors would be the best. But, my concern is, I usually stay with people or at cheap hotels when flying domestically. My vacations where I'd splurge on lodging are usually in Europe etc, does anyone know if these points work on Hilton hotels internationally? Yes, they do. All of the hotel chains (major ones anyway) use categories. Hilton specifically will label each hotel with a category 1-10 (1 = pathetic, 10 = great location and/or fit for kings), and then each category has a range of points that can be charged (that's kind of bullshit if you ask me). Region doesn't change anything. Which makes sense - for flyer miles, everything is categorized by region just because the cost to fly to everywhere in that region will be comparable. Hotels are always just buildings with normal operating costs no matter where they're at. http://hhonors3.hilton.com/en/earn-use-points/hotel/using/index.html I'm not real current on Hilton's points; I did my evaluation of the major chains a couple of years ago and basically decided that I'm a Starwood guy, followed by Club Carlson. Hilton points were already my third place last year and then they devalued them further (I think they massively overhauled the point ranges AND categorized a ton of hotels into more expensive categories). Brian Fellows fucked around with this message at 01:31 on May 26, 2014 |
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May 26, 2014 01:28
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The point value is definitely low (I think NerdWallet says .5c per point, giving 1.5% base) but I really liked the anniversary gift (2 free weekends). Starwood's not available right now.  That's why I went with the Barclay's in the end since it's a 2.2% base and I'd have more flexibility anyways.
Rurutia fucked around with this message at 01:47 on May 26, 2014 |
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May 26, 2014 01:44
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You're right about the value of an individual point, but you earn a lot more Hilton points at a faster rate than any of the other points programs. But yeah, hard to go wrong with free nights. I usually just Priceline it for hotels if I'm by myself, so I never played around with hotel credit cards except for the homerun ones I've got. I also have the sweet, no-fee Priceline rewards card (with William Shatner on it!) that gives me 2x points on everything. Shortly after I got that I was trying to spread the word of how good it is, and I was confused at why no one else was talking about it. Turns out I got it about a month before they got rid of that offer. Still works though.
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May 26, 2014 02:15
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Rurutia posted:The point value is definitely low (I think NerdWallet says .5c per point, giving 1.5% base) but I really liked the anniversary gift (2 free weekends). Why do you say Starwood isn't available? Here's a (non-referral) link for the standard 25K/$5K offer.
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May 26, 2014 03:05
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Bisty Q. posted:Why do you say Starwood isn't available? Here's a (non-referral) link for the standard 25K/$5K offer. Oh whoops. Nerdwallet said it wasn't available anymore and I didn't double check. Oh well. It wouldn't have worked at Sam's Club anyways. It does seem like it is pretty much the best rewards card given all the benefits and an average base rate of 2.3%.
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May 26, 2014 13:33
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If you don't actually stay much at hotels and also don't care much about what hotel you stay at when you do you might consider the Chase IHG Mastercard for the Holiday Inn family of hotels. You get 60,000 points for your sign up bonus (enough for multiple nights) and no annual fee the first year. After the first year the fee is $49, but comes with a free night certificate that can be used at any of their hotels, including an Intercontinental.
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May 26, 2014 13:50
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My second oldest card is a student blue AMEX that I opened in 2007 and haven't used in forever since my main card is a Fidelity Visa. What's the best way thing to convert my old student Amex in to something that I'd actually use? I feel like I should keep my student card open since I don't want to lower the average age of my accounts, but I'm not sure what the best way/card to convert it in to is, or if I should just leave it alone.
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May 26, 2014 19:55
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Residency Evil posted:My second oldest card is a student blue AMEX that I opened in 2007 and haven't used in forever since my main card is a Fidelity Visa. What's the best way thing to convert my old student Amex in to something that I'd actually use? I feel like I should keep my student card open since I don't want to lower the average age of my accounts, but I'm not sure what the best way/card to convert it in to is, or if I should just leave it alone. Just call AMEX and ask them to convert it to a Blue Card Express or whatever you want.
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May 26, 2014 20:35
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Residency Evil posted:My second oldest card is a student blue AMEX that I opened in 2007 and haven't used in forever since my main card is a Fidelity Visa. What's the best way thing to convert my old student Amex in to something that I'd actually use? I feel like I should keep my student card open since I don't want to lower the average age of my accounts, but I'm not sure what the best way/card to convert it in to is, or if I should just leave it alone.
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May 26, 2014 21:06
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Animal posted:Just call AMEX and ask them to convert it to a Blue Card Express or whatever you want. The Leck posted:Just a reminder that American Express will backdate new credit cards to the open date of your oldest active card, so having it around (or converted into something else) will help your average age if you get other Amex cards in the future. That's where my question's coming from, since I want to make sure that I don't lose the 7 years I've had it. Sounds like I can just convert to the Blue Cash Everyday Card and I'll be fine though (that or the Preferred one are probably the one to get, right?)
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May 26, 2014 21:15
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You will still keep your original age, and any new AMEX cards you open will have that original age too. So you may wanna keep it and open a BCE which will be backdated, and so your average age of account will increase from now having two old accounts.
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May 26, 2014 21:28
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Residency Evil posted:That's where my question's coming from, since I want to make sure that I don't lose the 7 years I've had it. Sounds like I can just convert to the Blue Cash Everyday Card and I'll be fine though (that or the Preferred one are probably the one to get, right?) The preferred one has a $75 annual fee, so if you're maxing out your $6k in spending on grocery stores, you come out $100 ahead with the preferred card. Break-even point is $2500 in spending. You also get an extra percent back at gas stations and some department stores. It generally seems to be a good deal as long as you use it religiously for its categories.
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May 26, 2014 22:39
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So I'm supposed to close on my house next month and thinking about apping for a card or two to celebrate. After the closing of course. Chase Sapphire Preferred is a very solid card, but I feel like now is a good time to take advantage of airline miles cards because I think Amex blocking churners is going to become industry wide soon. May as well soak up them up now and then switch to something like Arrival+ or BlueSky for long term keepers. E: Anyone else think this is going to happen? I don't travel frequently but I successfully used the MileagePlus Explorer signup bonus to get to Hawaii and back for $80 and would like to try to do something like that again. I'm thinking US Airways while they still offer it. Bulky Bartokomous fucked around with this message at 01:23 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 01:21
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baquerd posted:The preferred one has a $75 annual fee, so if you're maxing out your $6k in spending on grocery stores, you come out $100 ahead with the preferred card. Break-even point is $2500 in spending. You also get an extra percent back at gas stations and some department stores. Also, if your grocery store sells Amazon/iTunes/etc. gift cards, you can effectively extend your 6% to all those things. Strictly speaking, you're not supposed to be able to earn rewards on gift cards, but as long as you're not charging suspiciously large or round amounts, there's no real way for them to tell.
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May 29, 2014 13:02
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Dantu posted:So I'm supposed to close on my house next month and thinking about apping for a card or two to celebrate. After the closing of course. Different issuers are all over the map right now and from everything I've read, it's a cyclical thing where most of them have had once in a lifetime limits in the past, but undid them because ultimately all of them compete against each other. I would not be surprised if Chase follows suit, but Citi seems unlikely. They could increase the amount of time between cards five fold and it would still be every 6 months. They don't seem to care at any level if you churn their cards out. Pick a goal, it sounds like travel. Figure out what you need to do it, and then target cards that get you there. Even if you know like I do that I want to travel, without any other specifics, you can optimize what you are doing.
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May 29, 2014 17:13
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IIRC, Chase has a two year period before you can get the bonus again, and its seems like this is serving them adequately. So far.
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May 29, 2014 22:02
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I have great credit and currently have 4 credit cards. I've been using my Chase United Mileage card to stack up miles with United but this new limited time offer that the Chase Freedom Card is offering looks pretty enticing.... $200 cash back after you spend $500 in the first 3 months, 5% cash back (Max $1500 a quarter) on rotating categories, 1% cash back all the time, and no annual fee. There's no harm in signing up for it, not keeping a balance, and just having it for the perks?
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May 30, 2014 01:35
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Busy Bee posted:I have great credit and currently have 4 credit cards. I've been using my Chase United Mileage card to stack up miles with United but this new limited time offer that the Chase Freedom Card is offering looks pretty enticing.... $200 cash back after you spend $500 in the first 3 months, 5% cash back (Max $1500 a quarter) on rotating categories, 1% cash back all the time, and no annual fee. IMO do it. The only downside is avg age of accounts. So if you're about to get a mortgage, don't do it, otherwise, do it. I only got $100 for my Freedom card in Feb. $200 sounds twice as nice!
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May 30, 2014 01:40
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I'm now looking at the Chase Sapphire Preferred and it seems that I can transfer the 40,000 bonus points (After you spend $3,000) to certain Airlines including United Mileage. So does that mean I can transfer 40k miles towards my United Account or? edit: So after doing some research, it seems that the 40,000 bonus points I get can be transferred to my United Mileage account at 1:1 so 40k miles. This is a much better deal then the Chase Freedom account I was looking into since I can still accrue miles for my United account. Busy Bee fucked around with this message at 01:58 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 01:44
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Busy Bee posted:I'm now looking at the Chase Sapphire Preferred and it seems that I can transfer the 40,000 bonus points (After you spend $3,000) to certain Airlines including United Mileage. So does that mean I can transfer 40k miles towards my United Account or?
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May 30, 2014 07:26
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Small White Dragon posted:Incidentally, if you have both the Freedom and Sapphire Preferred, you can transfer points from the Freedom to the Sapphire Preferred, and from the Sapphire Preferred to your United account. So those 5x categories can translate into 5 points per dollar. Wow, that's good to know. Once I hit the $3,000 mark to get the 40,000 points on my Sapphire Preferred card, I'll look into getting the Freedom card. Can't mess with too many cards right now.
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May 30, 2014 07:45
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Busy Bee posted:Wow, that's good to know. Once I hit the $3,000 mark to get the 40,000 points on my Sapphire Preferred card, I'll look into getting the Freedom card. Can't mess with too many cards right now. Sapphire Preferred + Freedom is one of the absolute best combos for people that don't want to churn cards.
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May 30, 2014 12:30
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Busy Bee posted:Wow, that's good to know. Once I hit the $3,000 mark to get the 40,000 points on my Sapphire Preferred card, I'll look into getting the Freedom card. Can't mess with too many cards right now.
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May 30, 2014 17:29
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The Leck posted:By doing this, any points you earn on the Freedom also become worth 1.25 points if you spend them directly on travel as well, which may or may not be more valuable than United miles for you. It's a pretty sweet system, and the Freedom has been awesome to have recently - 5% on Amazon, gas, and restaurants in recent quarters (among other things). The $200 (really 20,000 points) bonuses seem to come and go a bit, so you may not want to wait too long. Yea, I get that. I just need to fully concentrate on hitting $3,000 in the next 3 months and I know it'll probably be a stretch but I'll be able to do it. Just have to talk to my parents in letting me pay their bills for a few months to meet the spend requirements. Are there any ways to use my new credit card to meet the spend requirements without effectively "spending" any cash. Maybe by using gift cards or eBay / PayPal? I'm sure Chase knows all the tricks but I bet there are ways to get around that?
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May 30, 2014 18:07
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Busy Bee posted:Yea, I get that. I just need to fully concentrate on hitting $3,000 in the next 3 months and I know it'll probably be a stretch but I'll be able to do it. Just have to talk to my parents in letting me pay their bills for a few months to meet the spend requirements.
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May 30, 2014 18:19
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SiGmA_X posted:There was chat a few posts back about throwing gift cards into grocery store shopping trips, and Chase not catching that. I haven't tried but I hope this is true. But I thought you couldn't purchase gift cards with credit cards? Similar to how you can't do cash back or buy Lotto tickets with CC's.
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May 30, 2014 18:21
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