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I've been out of the country for 2 of the last 4 years and I think the crediting agencies put some sort of hold on my reports. Apparently I need to prove my identity to the agencies past just providing SSN DOB NAME ADD etc. Anyone have any experience with this/ have dealt with remedying the situation?
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Aug 14, 2015 17:27
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dead lettuce posted:I don't see an Amazon offer on my BCE either. Dang. Mine took a few weeks, but I have just moved, so they had to take a week to inform me that they needed a paystub and a proof of new address. If you call in after you get a screen telling you to wait for additional communication, you can expedite the process.
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Aug 14, 2015 17:42
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I used to have an Amex SPG for years, and then got my fiance to sign up for one to get the sign-up bonus. Then I cancelled mine in Dec 2013 because having two was pretty pointless. I'm a secondary user on her card though. So the question is, can I get a sign-up bonus by signing up for the card under my name, or would I have to do the business version now?
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Aug 17, 2015 19:18
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Sign up bonuses for personal cards for AMEX are once per lifetime. You can try for the business version.
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Aug 17, 2015 19:25
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Speaking of once-per-lifetime Amex bonuses, the Amex JetBlue card offers 20,000 points for $1,000 spend in 3 months. This is enough for a roundtrip flight, and would be a great end-of-year pickup for anybody who has useful JetBlue flights out of their home base. Why should you get it before the end of the year? The Amex/JetBlue relationship terminates at the end of the year, and thus this card will stop taking new applications. Much like the US Airways Barclaycard at the beginning of this year, it can make sense to pick this one up before it disappears forever.
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Aug 18, 2015 04:08
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pig slut lisa posted:Speaking of once-per-lifetime Amex bonuses, the Amex JetBlue card offers 20,000 points for $1,000 spend in 3 months. This is enough for a roundtrip flight, and would be a great end-of-year pickup for anybody who has useful JetBlue flights out of their home base. Why should you get it before the end of the year? The Amex/JetBlue relationship terminates at the end of the year, and thus this card will stop taking new applications. Much like the US Airways Barclaycard at the beginning of this year, it can make sense to pick this one up before it disappears forever. Great, thanks. I'll try to take advantage of this for holiday flying. I'll probably end up canceling it before the end of the year to avoid the $40 annual fee. Is it possible to just downgrade it to a free card instead?
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Aug 18, 2015 06:36
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Blinky2099 posted:Great, thanks. I'll try to take advantage of this for holiday flying. I'll probably end up canceling it before the end of the year to avoid the $40 annual fee. Is it possible to just downgrade it to a free card instead? Hard to say. I've never done a retention call or product change with Amex before.
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Aug 18, 2015 13:30
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dead lettuce posted:Does anyone know roughly how long it would take to get a Citi DoubleCash card after applying? I have a 738 FICO, 765 TransUnion/Experian according CreditKarma, so there shouldn't be any hold-ups on my application. followup: I got mine after exactly a week. baram. fucked around with this message at 14:41 on Aug 26, 2015 |
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Aug 18, 2015 19:08
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If I get the Amex/JetBlue card, will my points disappear when their relationship terminates?
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Aug 18, 2015 19:09
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Otis Reddit posted:If I get the Amex/JetBlue card, will my points disappear when their relationship terminates? No. You accrue points with the card but every statement cycle AMEX sends the points to JetBlue.
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Aug 18, 2015 19:23
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Blinky2099 posted:Great, thanks. I'll try to take advantage of this for holiday flying. I'll probably end up canceling it before the end of the year to avoid the $40 annual fee. Is it possible to just downgrade it to a free card instead? When I tried to downgrade my Delta Plat, I could only downgrade into other branded cards like SPG. They wouldn't let me do any of the Amex products.
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Aug 18, 2015 20:46
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Does it impact your credit score to keep a balance on a new card while it's at 0% interest?
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Aug 19, 2015 05:45
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gandlethorpe posted:Does it impact your credit score to keep a balance on a new card while it's at 0% interest? Any and all utilization affects your credit score, but maintaining under 10-15% overall utilization will have little to no effect.
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Aug 19, 2015 06:15
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gandlethorpe posted:Does it impact your credit score to keep a balance on a new card while it's at 0% interest? It's also worth pointing out that there's no history component to utilization, so as soon as it's paid off, it is no longer affecting your score (unlike inquiries or late payments, which age off). So the answer is "yes, but only as long as you actually are carrying the balance".
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Aug 19, 2015 06:19
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Also the credit score is unimportant unless you are applying for a loan or credit card at the time. That 0% is there for you to utilise. One of the student loan documentaries I watched there was a graduate transfering debt from one 0% credit card to another while paying down an enormous amount of debt. She didn't seem to have any problem getting new cards as she was making payments despite the massive administrative task involved.
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Aug 19, 2015 23:31
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nickutz posted:I've experienced the same, SM results in immediate account closure while the phone reps will make an offer for retention.
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Aug 21, 2015 17:00
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When the Amex SPG offer went up to 30,000, a couple weeks ago, I applied for it and the PRG at the same time. I have yet to get the SPG card, but the PRG is backdated to 2012. I thought Amex stopped doing that earlier this year?
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Aug 22, 2015 22:00
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Cacafuego posted:When the Amex SPG offer went up to 30,000, a couple weeks ago, I applied for it and the PRG at the same time. I have yet to get the SPG card, but the PRG is backdated to 2012. I thought Amex stopped doing that earlier this year? Nah, IIRC they stopped doing it for authorized users. So if you get an AmEx for your kid in 20 years, it'll be Member Since 2035, not Member Since 2012.
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Aug 22, 2015 22:32
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Cacafuego posted:When the Amex SPG offer went up to 30,000, a couple weeks ago, I applied for it and the PRG at the same time. I have yet to get the SPG card, but the PRG is backdated to 2012. I thought Amex stopped doing that earlier this year? The member since date on the card is backdated but the date they report to the credit bureau is no longer backdated and will accurately reflect when you opened the card.
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Aug 23, 2015 00:07
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Ahh, ok. Thanks for the clarification.
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Aug 23, 2015 02:16
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Can I ask s general credit card question here? I recently got the Discovery IT card and have been using it a good bit. The budget program I started using says that I should keep my spending in the 30% of max credit range to increase my credit score. Is that actually correct?
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Aug 24, 2015 18:07
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Sonata Mused posted:Can I ask s general credit card question here? I recently got the Discovery IT card and have been using it a good bit. The budget program I started using says that I should keep my spending in the 30% of max credit range to increase my credit score. Is that actually correct? Utilization over 30% negatively impacts your FICO scores, yes. Utilization is 30% of your score, which is huge. However, there is no history to the utilization component. If you ran your utilization up to 100% (assuming it's your only card), your FICO scores might drop by 150 points. However, if you paid it all off the next month, your FICO scores would rebound. This is unlike inquiries and late payments, which age off your account after two and seven years, respectively. If you're going to be getting other loans, don't run a high utilization. If you aren't getting other loans, and your Discover It card has 0%, then it's not a problem FICO-wise to have higher utilization, because you can pay off the card and immediately raise your FICO. All that having been said, please don't get into the habit of running balances on rewards cards. The APR is way too high. If you can't pay it off every month, buy less, or get a card with a very low APR.
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Aug 24, 2015 18:23
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Okay, cool. Thanks for the info. Yeah, I'm paying off the card before it's due, so hopefully that means I won't ruin my FICO and stuff. I'll probably look into getting a low APR card next.
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Aug 24, 2015 18:45
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Sonata Mused posted:Okay, cool. Thanks for the info. If you pay your entire statement balance before the due date you will always pay 0% interest, so the APR does not matter at all. This is how you should be using credit cards and the only reason why credit cards are worth bothering with. If you're in a situation where you need to carry debt on a credit card you might want to check out the Newbie Personal Finance thread or How to Create a Budget thread depending on your circumstances.
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Aug 24, 2015 19:45
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Oh, ok. I don't have any real reason to carry over anything, so maybe I don't need a low-apr then. I've been building a budget this last month too, but I'll still take a look at those threads. Thanks!
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Aug 24, 2015 21:56
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I think I got targeted for a 50k Delta sky miles card for 1k spend in 3 months. I still have about 10k MR points from an old Amex. Are the Delta points worth it? I haven't tried lately.
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Aug 24, 2015 22:57
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Residency Evil posted:I think I got targeted for a 50k Delta sky miles card for 1k spend in 3 months. I still have about 10k MR points from an old Amex. Are the Delta points worth it? I haven't tried lately. The skypeso is lovely even compared to other FF program points, but you'll still be able to do something with 50k miles and that's a really low spend. There's no rush to do it, though. Remember, you can only get Amex sign-up bonuses once in a lifetime.
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Aug 24, 2015 22:59
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Just got my AMEX jet blue card and I'm confused about bonuses/cashback. It looks like.. - Trueblue points are the only type of reward available (correct?) - These come in as 1 point per 1$ spent on any purchase(?), extra bonuses available for jetblue purchases - That's 0.5% cashback if you're buying American Express gift cards (5k points = $25 gift card)... 1% for other gift cards (5k points = $50 barnes n noble)... I assume it's a little better than 1.0% cashback towards jet blue flights? From digging around online it looks like 1.3 or 1.4%. It's looking like I'm going to spend $1k for the 20k trueblue points and then scrap the card. Blinky2099 fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Aug 25, 2015 |
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Aug 25, 2015 03:26
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Air cards for revenue-based programs (that don't have gigantic bonuses) are generally a bad idea. Hell, even 20k TB points isn't really worth a hard pull, IMO. As an example, I found a few heavily-restricted flights that are 12K points or $164 each way. 1.4cpp. Mint was $1099 or 120500 pts; 0.88cpp. But I did find $829 or 63100 pts for a different mint flight, 1.3cpp again. So...
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Aug 25, 2015 03:56
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Bisty Q. posted:Air cards for revenue-based programs (that don't have gigantic bonuses) are generally a bad idea. Not bad. I don't care about hard pulls for the next 1-2 years so w/e, free money, kinda. Thanks.
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Aug 25, 2015 04:00
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My new property manager lets us pay rent with credit cards now, and while there is a small fee, I think I'm gonna have to use that to jump on some sign up bonuses and replenish my airline miles.
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Aug 25, 2015 16:14
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How small is the fee?
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Aug 25, 2015 16:40
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About $17
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Aug 25, 2015 17:06
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How much is your rent? That's probably worth doing.
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Aug 25, 2015 17:46
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Barry posted:How much is your rent? That's probably worth doing. Well, assuming rent is more than $850, he's making money on a Citi Double Cash card; throw in sign-up bonuses, and it's even more lucrative. It's almost certainly worth doing, and the moment it's not, nickutz can always revert to checks.
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Aug 25, 2015 18:10
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Checks cost money. Are you sure he wouldn't break even more with the fee? 
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Aug 25, 2015 18:15
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becoming posted:Well, assuming rent is more than $850, he's making money on a Citi Double Cash card; throw in sign-up bonuses, and it's even more lucrative. It's almost certainly worth doing, and the moment it's not, nickutz can always revert to checks. Yeah it likely is, just wanted to make sure. You could do a bit better buying/liquidating GC's but it's certainly not worth the extra effort.
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Aug 25, 2015 18:16
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edit: vvv oh, maybe I missed the joke  As "becoming" mentioned, it's straight up profit with doublecash 2% cashback if rent is above $850, so that sounds worthwhile.. not to mention the added 30+ day extension you get to actually pay it. Blinky2099 fucked around with this message at 19:47 on Aug 25, 2015 |
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Aug 25, 2015 18:21
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Insane Totoro posted:Checks cost money. Are you sure he wouldn't break even more with the fee? I know you're joking, but the trick there is to use a Serve or Redbird that you load up with prepaid debit cards, then use the AmEx billpay to send a check, which is free. It's all still a hassle, but depending on your rent/mortgage/whatever utilities you need to pay by check, it can be worth it. I personally can't be hassled because I don't like loving around trying to load the prepaid debit cards and really my only payment I can't make with credit is daycare.
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Aug 25, 2015 19:42
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My share of the rent is 575, so after I hit the sign up bonus I would switch back to my bank bill pay. edit: Or I could cover the whole rent at 1150 but then I imagine the fee doubles with it.
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Aug 25, 2015 21:47
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