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Zero VGS posted:I figure this is the closest thread to what I'm looking for. I don't want a credit card recommendation, but rather an online bank recommendation: You don’t need a bank; you need a bookkeeper. That might be you, but somebody should be doing the bookkeeping work for your business, and “the bank” is not an acceptable answer. Banks, large and small, screw things up surprisingly often - you’ve already experienced this. You need to keep your own records, both for your own sake and your tenants’. You should not depend on the bank holding a permanent record every transaction back to the beginning of time. You should be the one keeping those records, and you should be reconciling them against what the bank tells you. You should probably talk to a lawyer about the specific requirements for holding security deposits in your state (and maybe city/county). If you are required to hold each tenant’s deposit in a separate account, there will be a standard process, and banks and lawyers will be familiar with it. There are also other potential requirements around escrow, which vary widely by location, that you should at least look into.
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Oct 12, 2020 14:37
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I would look into business checking accounts, if your bank detects activity that looks like a business it could close the account immediately without warning.
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Oct 12, 2020 15:07
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FunOne posted:BofA has 18m history and mobile check deposits cap at 50 or 100k a month. Something like that. The named account thing might be more of a pain though. I thought local banks were usually the ones setup for these kind of businesses. I use Fidelity, which has a 50k/month deposit cap for virtual check deposits, checking/savings history goes back for at least 2+ years (since I started with them), and I'm not sure if you can make subaccounts, but you can make infinite checking/savings accounts and rename them however you want. Downside is obviously that they don't have branches nationally - only their investment offices in select locations. edit: quote:I would look into business checking accounts, if your bank detects activity that looks like a business it could close the account immediately without warning. This is the real answer.
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Oct 12, 2020 16:13
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Hadlock posted:I guess I'm on the hook for buying a bunch of apple poo poo It's a premium card, but if you are in their region, you could look into the USBank Altitude Reserve.. If you pay with Apple Pay and redeem for travel (whenever that becomes palatable again), you can get roughly 4.5% back on your Apple purchases.
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Oct 13, 2020 06:36
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Just as an FYI, last year I renewed YNAB through the iOS app and kind of forgot about it. I got an Apple Card last month and was pleasantly surprised when I found out at that the 3% cashback applied to my YNAB renewal, which is not something I can usually get coded as anything more than 1% back on any card.
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Oct 13, 2020 16:54
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Amex sent me the latest copies of their "Departures" magazines, typically featuring high end travel to exotic destinations like Bali and Tanzania etc October is "The America Issue" Fall 2020 is "Home remodeling"  
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Oct 16, 2020 08:45
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Goon Credit Card random referral page:  https://goo.gl/aA5mzHI did some housekeeping on this. I'm considering going through every month and checking to see if links are still active, but I really care too much. I may automate it. I'll let you know.
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Oct 16, 2020 13:54
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Discover It links weren't working for me last night either. I just got stuck on a "We're checking your referral link, please wait" sort of page.
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Oct 16, 2020 15:21
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literally this big posted:Discover It links weren't working for me last night either. I just got stuck on a "We're checking your referral link, please wait" sort of page. I noticed that. I think it's a system issue. I'll click em all and check tomorrow.
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Oct 16, 2020 19:06
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I'm out of CC debt because my mom's life insurance wiped out everything but very low interest student loans and the last 2-3 years on my car loan. I still have a shitload of credit cards. I'd love to close at least anything with a with 30% and get either rewards or points (whatever those two terms mean) when I spend money on my 2% cash back card so I can do whatever travel and reward poo poo they offer. Any advice is appreciated.
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Oct 16, 2020 22:30
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GWBBQ posted:I'm out of CC debt because my mom's life insurance wiped out everything but very low interest student loans and the last 2-3 years on my car loan. I still have a shitload of credit cards. I'd love to close at least anything with a with 30% and get either rewards or points (whatever those two terms mean) when I spend money on my 2% cash back card so I can do whatever travel and reward poo poo they offer. Any advice is appreciated. Not sure how to say this in a tactful manner, but maybe credit cards are not for you.
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Oct 16, 2020 23:01
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As long as they are being paid off immediately (pay in full each statement), it's fine to use them as a replacement for debit cards. There are a lot of good rewards cards out there; if OP doesn't have a Chase Freedom Flex that's a pretty solid choice this quarter with 5% back on Walmart and Paypal. As a one-time special offer it also comes with 5% back on your first $12k of grocery purchases during the first year, and there's a $200 signup bonus on the first $500 spent in the first 3 months on whatever.
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Oct 16, 2020 23:29
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CubicalSucrose posted:Not sure how to say this in a tactful manner, but maybe credit cards are not for you. Or anyone who is considering them based on interest rates.
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Oct 16, 2020 23:34
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I have more than a dozen credit cards and I honestly don't know what the APR is on any of them. It'll never matter because the whole point of credit card rewards is to never, ever run a balance from month to month.
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Oct 16, 2020 23:41
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saintonan posted:I have more than a dozen credit cards and I honestly don't know what the APR is on any of them. It'll never matter because the whole point of credit card rewards is to never, ever run a balance from month to month.
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Oct 16, 2020 23:45
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GWBBQ posted:I'm out of CC debt because my mom's life insurance wiped out everything but very low interest student loans and the last 2-3 years on my car loan. I still have a shitload of credit cards. I'd love to close at least anything with a with 30% and get either rewards or points (whatever those two terms mean) when I spend money on my 2% cash back card so I can do whatever travel and reward poo poo they offer. Any advice is appreciated. First off, condolences regarding your mom, I hope my kids never have to use my life insurance policy but that's what it's there for. Second, it's quite alright to use credit cards for normal every day spending, but hearing someone say they have "a shitload" of credit cards who is also eyeing the APR on them, doesn't sound great from a financial fitness perspective. I'd really focus on paying off all your debt if possible. 2-3 years on a car loan is a long time left. The first car I bought out of college had a 3 year loan and I paid it off in 2 because I didn't like staring at the debt every month. Now I try to buy cars outright or get whatever 0% financing they offer. If you are really focused on paying off debt, try to find a 0% balance transfer offer. Off the cuff I found that that Citibank Double Cash card (https://citicards.citi.com/usc/LPACA/Citi/Cards/DoubleCash/External_HA/index.html) offers 2% cashback on everything (assuming you pay at least the minimum balance every month), and gives you an 18 month 0% interest offer on balance transfers. What this typically means is you pay a nominal fee (3% or so) on money you want to draw out, and use to pay existing debt. Some places will offer you a few checks to write to the loan companies, others will let you just write a check to yourself. You absolutely have to pay the minimum payment every month during the intro period, and pay off everything by the end of the intro period, otherwise you'll be in a worse spot than you are in now. If you are dedicated to wiping off your debt, this can be a great way to do it, but that's assuming you can qualify for the card, a high enough credit line to cover existing debt, and be responsible. If you can't commit to paying things off in 18 months, don't do it. Once debt is taken care of, close out whatever cards you don't plan on using anymore, except maybe a small handful (ideally 3-4 of your oldest/highest line cards to maintain history), and look for some cards based on your goals. If you have some big things coming up, look into cards with sign up bonuses, if you just want straight cash back, that Citi card or a Fidelity 2% card are good bets. Bank fucked around with this message at 00:58 on Oct 17, 2020 |
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Oct 17, 2020 00:09
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WRT closing cards: - You should avoid closing a card that is your oldest by a margin, because credit history length is a significant factor in a credit score. You can request your credit report to find out the issue dates of your cards. - Aside from that, cards should be kept or closed according to the terms they offer you going forward. - You should not carry a balance at all, but you especially should not do it on a card that has a penalty rate (upper 20s). You can typically renegotiate such a rate after six months of good behavior, making it clear to the service rep that you are in the process of adjusting your card lineup. Gazpacho fucked around with this message at 04:05 on Oct 17, 2020 |
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Oct 17, 2020 03:58
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Jerk McJerkface posted:Goon Credit Card random referral page: FYI you have a "Hilton Surpass" and "Hilton Ascend" tab, but they're the same card?
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Oct 17, 2020 06:06
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Small White Dragon posted:FYI you have a "Hilton Surpass" and "Hilton Ascend" tab, but they're the same card? Ascend doesn't exist anymore. There are three Amex Hilton cards - the base one, Surpass, and Aspire.
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Oct 17, 2020 16:05
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saintonan posted:Ascend doesn't exist anymore. There are three Amex Hilton cards - the base one, Surpass, and Aspire. I mean the Ascend used to be called Surpass, and then was changed back to Surpass. Point is there's two tabs for the same card.
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Oct 18, 2020 02:48
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Small White Dragon posted:I mean the Ascend used to be called Surpass, and then was changed back to Surpass. I think I fixed this as requested. Please feel free to keep PMing me minute things to tweak on this page, thanks.
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Oct 19, 2020 16:59
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I don't know if there's a general "bank account" thread, but I wanted to note that Ally recently hosed with their CD rules for their online banking. I wanted to close out one of my no-penalty CDs, but they no longer let you do so through their website and explicitly require that you do so by phone. For some reason they jerked me around on the call and it ended up taking 30 minutes to empty the stupid no-penalty CD into my savings account. I asked why they were making me call to do this and the rep let me know that they were informed about the change last month and given no explanation. Huge PITA.
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Oct 21, 2020 02:52
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YMMV I think. I closed a no penalty CD to get a sweet bonus from Chase and also had to call. I think they are just trying to make it a bit harder to take cash out. Honestly it almost worked for me as I was feeling lazy. The CSR asked a bunch of questions but it was all for security and all said and done it took about 10 minutes including hold time. 30 minutes is a long time to get access to your own money though, and I really preferred doing it all on the website/app.
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Oct 21, 2020 03:21
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CubicalSucrose posted:Not sure how to say this in a tactful manner, but maybe credit cards are not for you. Motronic posted:Or anyone who is considering them based on interest rates. Bank posted:First off, condolences regarding your mom, I hope my kids never have to use my life insurance policy but that's what it's there for. I'm asking because I honestly don't know whether it's better to leave them open and sitting there unused or close them. I got a big insurance check for a relatively minor accident in August and I decided to suck it up and just put that money toward the loan (paid off almost a quarter of it) and live with the dents and scratches. I'll treat myself to the body work and paint correction once the loan is paid off assuming it's within my budget. Right now I can comfortably pay off everything I spend each month (any spending goes on whatever gets the most cash back) so based on everyone's advice I'm going to close any cards I don't use (like the ones opened for first purchase bonuses) and just keep the oldest two for the 20 year credit history and continue doing any spending I would normally do with cash on the cards that do give rewards and keep them paid off every month. My big uncertainty was whether it's better to have a higher utilization to limit ratio (currently <1%) or just get rid of the cards I don't use or plan to use. I'm also jealous of family and friends who say things like "oh, we just travel for free on points" but I guess that's not really something I should worry about as long as I'm not getting back into debt. Not like it's any fun to travel these days anyway. GWBBQ fucked around with this message at 03:33 on Oct 21, 2020 |
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Oct 21, 2020 03:30
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GWBBQ posted:I'm asking because I honestly don't know whether it's better to leave them open and sitting there unused or close them. I got a big insurance check for a relatively minor accident in August and I decided to suck it up and just put that money toward the loan (paid off almost a quarter of it) and live with the dents and scratches. I'll treat myself to the body work and paint correction once the loan is paid off assuming it's within my budget. Sorry to hear about your mom. If the cards don't have annual fees, and you're willing to deal with the tiny hassle of keeping an eye on them for odd charges, then you might as well keep them open. But, with 20 years of good history on other cards, it's also not going to kill you to close anything with an annual fee or even just consolidate down to a couple of cards. Utilization typically doesn't have a history in credit score calculations, so if you find yourself planning to take out a car loan or mortgage a house, you can just aggressively pay down your cards and use debit for a couple of months to drive utilization super low. The banks don't mind this - by dropping your utilization on demand, you're actively showing that you can keep your debt under control and manipulate your credit card balances, which makes loaning you money a low-risk affair. I'd probably close any card you don't expect to ever use again, but either way, it's not going to be a big deal. Regularly traveling for free on points really only happens for people who can put a lot of money through their cards, or who have some other way to rack up loyalty points and miles (usually, regular work travel on an expense account, living that Mon-Thurs consultant/sales/traveling trainer life). Without pumping a bunch of other people's money through your accounts, travel points picked up though credit card spend might help pay for an economy flight every once in a while, or a few hotel nights, but they're not going to make you a fixture in your local airport first class lounge or at five-star hotel suites in exotic destinations. Given the state of the world and the tourism industry right now, I'd probably avoid trying to game travel loyalty programs right now, and just take cash back and budget separately for travel. Take it from somebody who's seen a bunch of Marriott suite night awards evaporate in 2020: travel benefits are nice, but cash is king.
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Oct 21, 2020 05:04
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Makes sense. I already closed the ones with fees, and I check for odd charges when I pay monthly bills. I do pretty much all of my spending on either my Amazon Chase card for 1% cashback or 5% on Amazon, and anything covered under the quarterly 5% back on Discover IT. I do not carry a balance on anything anymore. You're right about traveling now, I'm not planning on until things calm down and there's a COVID vaccine available. I'm just looking forward to it because my family has been broke and in loads of debt most of my life and I was never able to afford to travel. I'll just settle down and throw extra money at student loans and the car loan to get those out of the way faster.
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Oct 21, 2020 15:35
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What's a good setup for 2020 as far as every day cards go? I have: Discover It for whatever 5% categories that quarter Chase Freedom for same Citi Double Cash for everything else. I have a Chase Sapphire Preferred but I think I'm going to cancel, because I'm not going to be using its main draw anytime soon (lol traveling) so the extra .25% when redeeming points for traveling is not worth the $95.
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Oct 21, 2020 16:05
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GWBBQ posted:You're right about traveling now, I'm not planning on until things calm down and there's a COVID vaccine available. I'm just looking forward to it because my family has been broke and in loads of debt most of my life and I was never able to afford to travel. I'll just settle down and throw extra money at student loans and the car loan to get those out of the way faster. This isn't really about "travel vs. no-travel" - if you want to travel, you have the means, and you're willing to sacrifice other potential goals, then you should be able to make that work! It's just about the best way to go about actually saving up resources - points or cash - that you can use when you want to go somewhere. I'd argue that you should be dreaming about where you might want to go, looking at prices occasionally, and saving at least a token amount of cash every month in your travel dream fund. When you burn the loans to the ground, then use some of that newly freed cash flow to step up your contribution to your travel savings. But - points aren't going to get you there by themselves, unless you're either already traveling on other people's money and scooping the points off the top, or spending poo poo-tons of money elsewhere. Credit card companies, and the travel companies that sell them points for their cardholders, love to promote the idea that you, an ordinary person who just happens to use their card for everyday expenses, will be able to take fantastic luxury vacations at no cost to you. That's a lie. People love to chase the dream, but the real purpose of those programs is to reward big, frequent spenders - almost exclusively business travelers who are in the air or a hotel several times per month at minimum. As a non-big-spender, the biggest benefits you'll see from travel cards will be signup bonuses, followed by ancillary perks (status bumps, insurance coverage, Priority Pass in Asia, etc). You can get those a few months before you leave - and you won't be sitting around trying to figure out how to use your Marriott points when you really want to stay in a Hyatt property, wishing you could book flights on a SkyTeam airline with your OneWorld-friendly miles, or staring in horror at a point devaluation notice that wrecks your plans. And, if any financial emergency comes up between when you start saving and your departure date, you can always break into a cash piggy bank. Cashing out loyalty points usually ranges from a kind-of-bad deal (Chase) to effectively impossible (any hotel or airline). So: dream about travel, save up for travel, and work card perks and signup bonuses before you leave, because leisure travel is loving amazing - but use cash-back cards and save up cash to book your trip.
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Oct 21, 2020 16:26
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Moneyball posted:I have a Chase Sapphire Preferred but I think I'm going to cancel, because I'm not going to be using its main draw anytime soon (lol traveling) so the extra .25% when redeeming points for traveling is not worth the $95. The Pay Yourself Back thing has really redeemed that card for me - I can take the 5% cb I get on the freedom cards, transfer it to the Sapphire, then use those points with the bonus to offset restaurant purchases that I'm getting 2% back on anyway. Otherwise you've got a decent setup, about the only thing I could suggest is an AMEX Blue Cash card for percentages off groceries. Blue Cash Everyday is 3% back with no annual fee, and Blue Cash Preferred is 6% back up to $6k a year with a $95 annual fee. If you spend less than $3166 a year (~60 a week) on groceries, get the Everyday. If you spend between $60 and ~$120 a week on groceries, get the Preferred, since the additional cash back will more than offset the annual fee. If you spend considerably more than $120 a week on groceries, you probably have a family, and you should look into getting your spouse/partner a Preferred of their own so you can max out double the $6000 annual grocery cap.
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Oct 21, 2020 16:27
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I like the Citi Costco card. It has: 4% gas (ok maybe not relevant for remote workers) 3% restaurant 3% travel (ok not relevant now) 2% Costco (can’t use the MasterCard Citi DoubleCash in US Costco’s, I think) With no annual fee (except for Costco membership fee—although someone in the Costco thread was explaining that you don’t have to auto-bill the Costco membership on the card, like I do) Cash back is only redeemable once a year, in physical cash though. silence_kit fucked around with this message at 16:47 on Oct 21, 2020 |
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Oct 21, 2020 16:44
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saintonan posted:The Pay Yourself Back thing has really redeemed that card for me - I can take the 5% cb I get on the freedom cards, transfer it to the Sapphire, then use those points with the bonus to offset restaurant purchases that I'm getting 2% back on anyway. Saw this at TPG - https://thepointsguy.com/news/chase-sapphire-grocery-bonus/ quote:Today, Chase is announcing new grocery benefits for Sapphire cardholders that will last well into 2021.
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Oct 21, 2020 16:51
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I'm going to wait two years and maybe get the Reserve. Actually with my future plans to get a condo in a place where the only parking option is a monthly garage pass, it's a no brainer. That trick still works right? 48 months and you're eligible for a signup bonus again?
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Oct 21, 2020 16:55
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Chase has a new card called "Freedom Flex" that has a signup bonus of 5% on groceries for the first year or like $10k spending whichever comes first
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Oct 21, 2020 17:07
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Moneyball posted:What's a good setup for 2020 as far as every day cards go? I have: Consider a US Bank Cash+, you choose two 5% categories from their list: https://cashplus.usbank.com/merchants/index Recommended picks: Home Utilities TV, Internet, and Streaming Moneyball posted:I'm going to wait two years and maybe get the Reserve. Actually with my future plans to get a condo in a place where the only parking option is a monthly garage pass, it's a no brainer. 48 months since you last got any Sapphire card's bonus, as far as I know.
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Oct 21, 2020 17:11
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Got denied a couple times for the US Bank card. Looked nice for things other cards don't cover. Took me a couple tries to get the Discover card, so I'm sure I'll be approved eventually.
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Oct 21, 2020 17:14
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The Paypal 5% on Chase is so bittersweet when I have to pay an extra bunch of charges to use the CC to send F&F compared to my regular account, but still works out worthwhile. Grumble grumble. (My mother in law doesn't have a working Paypal account so I send up to about $1,000 in charity donations for her and she pays me back at the end of the month, having the bonus money from it is nice at least!)
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Oct 21, 2020 17:18
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GTJustin posted:Saw this at TPG - https://thepointsguy.com/news/chase-sapphire-grocery-bonus/ Note that the 6% and 4% are based on TPG valuing UR at 2 points each, which only really counts if you're redeeming them for specific travel redemptions. Since I won't be traveling soon, for me UR are worth 1.5 for the CSR and 1.25 for the CSP as long as Pay Yourself Back lasts, so the grocery benefit is 4.5 and 2.5, respectively. That's a fair bit below 3% and 6% of the Amex BCE/BCP, with lower annual fees.
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Oct 21, 2020 17:18
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Space Gopher posted:This isn't really about "travel vs. no-travel" - if you want to travel, you have the means, and you're willing to sacrifice other potential goals, then you should be able to make that work! It's just about the best way to go about actually saving up resources - points or cash - that you can use when you want to go somewhere. Listen to this guy. The corollary is that when you DO become a big spender or are traveling on other people's money is that the points then DO give you that opportunity to travel solely on points since you're playing with a much larger pool of points. Also people who travel solely on points but don't have the accompanying income to take advantage of said luxury booking.... Uh let's just say you don't even enjoy that anyway since the incidentals are well EXPENSIVE?
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Oct 21, 2020 19:54
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EL BROMANCE posted:The Paypal 5% on Chase is so bittersweet when I have to pay an extra bunch of charges to use the CC to send F&F compared to my regular account, but still works out worthwhile. Grumble grumble. (My mother in law doesn't have a working Paypal account so I send up to about $1,000 in charity donations for her and she pays me back at the end of the month, having the bonus money from it is nice at least!) I try not to do that until the last few days of the bonus period. There are so many websites out there that take Paypal. Even this morning I needed some supplies from Home Depot, buying them online for delivery worked better for me and I used Paypal. You'll never know if a last minute purchase comes up that qualifies, so don't burn through it if you don't have to.
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Oct 21, 2020 21:45
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| # ? May 17, 2024 20:36 |
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And if you're near your quarterly limit and only have the classic Freedom, Chase doesn't prevent you from also getting the Flex for another $1500/quarter in bonus spending + the signup bonus. I'm still shocked they didn't try to tell people "YOU ALREADY HAVE THE FREEDOM, WOULD YOU LIKE TO PRODUCT CHANGE?" It's especially cool that you can have both because some places, like Costco, come up in the Warehouse Clubs category but only take Visa (regular Freedom), while MasterCard (Freedom Flex) has pretty decent cell phone insurance. I'm still wondering if something will change with the CSP/CSR soon since 3% back on dining is on all the Freedom cards now.
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Oct 21, 2020 21:59
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