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Girbot posted:If you see a balance transfer promotion coming on another card (e.g. DCU's yearly January promo) that allows you to transfer a balance for free with no APR for 6 - 18 month, you can plan large Target purchases around this and get some additional "cashback" through the APY of a high-yield savings or checking account by transferring the balance and putting the money into the savings/checking account and turning on auto-pay for the minimum payment for the duration of the promo. This can be chained if another promo comes up before expiration. I've been floating between 10K - 15K this way for years now for an additional $300 - $450 a year. As someone who churns bank accounts, this is basically and easy way to get 1 or 2 bonuses worth of risk free cash each year. Neat! I was going to chide you that most people don't have easy access to that 3% rate that makes this worth doing, but then I glanced at LMCU's membership requirements and had a good laugh. Why are Floridians included for free in Lake Michigan Federal Credit Union?  That juggling act is a rad idea if you have the bandwidth for it, but I feel like it's on the diminishing returns side of what's available out there in the rewards world, and it opens up a much bigger risk of slipping into poor habits like adding to the balance with something you don't actually have the money set aside for yet (speaking from experience there, and I thought I would never make that mistake). I would rather just leave my cash nest egg in HMBradley for a similar 3% sans the float, and save the CC app for something bigger. I think the activity requirements for that account would be difficult/annoying for some people (me) to stay on top of all year long, and I don't personally have quite as much liquid cash to leverage with it. So for me, it exceeds the effort per reward threshold. All of that is majorly YMMV, though. It's good to know that checking account option exists at least; I hadn't heard of it! Where did you find out about this one? Girbot posted:My Cash+ was my 8th card and my previous 7 were opened within 2 years prior. I had 700+ credit and not a high level of income. Unless you're talking about a different US Bank card or they've become more stringent, I'd be surprised if you're unable to get it in the future. The vibe I've gotten from reading elsewhere is that they definitely have tightened up, but I believe it was the Business Cash Rewards that I got rejected for, not the Cash+. 770ish and low/med income as well. I didn't hang onto the rejection letter (probably should have, because I surprisingly can't find any email record of the app) but I remember the list of reasons for rejection was surprisingly specific and included things like my overall number of accounts being too high (at the time I only had 6 personal cards they could see), applications, etc. Have you messed with their business cards, or just the personal ones? I feel like it'll be a minute before I get the Cash+ anyway (unless I decide to say gently caress it, ignore 5/24 for two years, and grab every noteworthy ongoing card once I re-do the CSP bonus). I don't see anything in their category choices where I have enough currently unbonused organic spend that I need it. Are people just maxing out the department store category by buying gift cards or something?
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Mar 22, 2021 00:44
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Unsinkabear posted:I feel like it'll be a minute before I get the Cash+ anyway (unless I decide to say gently caress it, ignore 5/24 for two years, and grab every noteworthy ongoing card once I re-do the CSP bonus). I don't see anything in their category choices where I have enough currently unbonused organic spend that I need it. Are people just maxing out the department store category by buying gift cards or something? Home utilities (water, power, gas, garbage, etc.) and cable/internet/streaming are popular, though the latter are sometimes covered by rotating category cards.
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Mar 22, 2021 01:31
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How picky is Amex about approving a new Gold? I’ve had a credit card with them for just under a month but I’m already hitting my bonus spend and I don’t know how long the referral offer with the added statement credit is going to last
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Mar 22, 2021 02:13
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Unsinkabear posted:I think the activity requirements for that account would be difficult/annoying for some people (me) to stay on top of all year long, and I don't personally have quite as much liquid cash to leverage with it. So for me, it exceeds the effort per reward threshold. All of that is majorly YMMV, though. I just push $3 to cashapp 10 times at the beginning of each month and then withdraw it back. Takes about 5 minutes while watching youtube or listening to a podcast or something. I check Personal Capital countless times a month to keep track of all my finances and that counts for the logins, and I have an automatic transfer of $5 from my main checking accounts to cover the direct deposit (although the cashapp withdrawal might cover that anyway, not sure). LMCU is on DoC's list of high yield accounts. Girbot fucked around with this message at 04:08 on Mar 22, 2021 |
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Mar 22, 2021 04:05
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im on the net me boys posted:The Target card literally only works at target so I’m not exactly concerned about someone skimming it and doing fraudulent purchases The newer Target cards are regular mastercards that can be used anywhere.
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Mar 22, 2021 06:02
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lampey posted:The newer Target cards are regular mastercards that can be used anywhere. For both the debit and credit? Also when did they change this because I got my card from them in maybe December
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Mar 22, 2021 06:10
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Girbot posted:I just push $3 to cashapp 10 times at the beginning of each month and then withdraw it back. Takes about 5 minutes while watching youtube or listening to a podcast or something. I check Personal Capital countless times a month to keep track of all my finances and that counts for the logins, and I have an automatic transfer of $5 from my main checking accounts to cover the direct deposit (although the cashapp withdrawal might cover that anyway, not sure). Interesting, I missed it somehow. I can split my DD, so it's no problem to drop $5/week there like I was planning to do with HMBradley. I might try it. I'd heard using cashapp/venmo/etc that way and pulling back exactly what you just pushed was causing cashapp account freezes these days, so I was picturing you doing ten individual self-checkout transactions at the grocery store or something. Personal Capital is another new one to me, but I have begun to be concerned that I'm going to lose track of all the spinning plates in my financial picture (see previous post advocating for simplicity, lol) so I might give their free tools a whirl too. Interesting that it counts as an actual login for each of your individual banks each time you open it; I always assumed those kinds of tools did something like an API pull. I guess that's expecting a lot from the finance industry in terms of standardization and connectivity, though Unsinkabear fucked around with this message at 13:28 on Mar 22, 2021 |
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Mar 22, 2021 13:22
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Unsinkabear posted:
Just wanted to also say Personal Capital is awesome just to track what's going on financially when you have lots of accounts. The only problem I have is that they don't sync with my bank correctly, so it doesn't pull all my transactions (smaller bank who is behind on the tech stuff). It's just my checking and a small savings account I intended to close before COVID happened, so not a huge deal. My workaround is once a quarter I email Personal Capital and they fix it so everything looks correct for a couple months.
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Mar 22, 2021 15:02
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Haha, I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the second data point! Re: high yield accounts and LMCU, it looks like Evansville Teachers Federal Credit Union has a 3.30% checking account with a $20k cap that can be funded via credit card for up to $1.2k, so that's probably the way to go for new signups. Requirements are similar, more transactions but fewer logins. Unsinkabear fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Mar 22, 2021 |
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Mar 22, 2021 15:49
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Unsinkabear posted:Interesting that it counts as an actual login for each of your individual banks each time you open it; I always assumed those kinds of tools did something like an API pull. I guess that's expecting a lot from the finance industry in terms of standardization and connectivity, though At this point, most major banks use OAuth and allow Mint and I'd imagine Personal Capital/others to pull from an API. Finally. It took far too long for them all to figure things out. Of course, plenty of smaller places will likely never bother.
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Mar 23, 2021 04:47
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lampey posted:The newer Target cards are regular mastercards that can be used anywhere. I think they are two separate programs, but they randomly upgraded mine to the MasterCard a few years back. The only time I used it outside a Target though was when they had a pretty good discount with hotels.com
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Mar 24, 2021 12:46
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I plugged all my poo poo into Personal Capital and my Chase Business cards are showing up twice. Two sets with identical balances and slightly different card numbers, only one of which is real afaik. Has anyone else had this happen?
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Mar 25, 2021 07:02
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Unsinkabear posted:I plugged all my poo poo into Personal Capital and my Chase Business cards are showing up twice. Two sets with identical balances and slightly different card numbers, only one of which is real afaik. Has anyone else had this happen? My DCU card showed up as both a loan and Credit Card. I was able to just remove the loan account and the CC stayed.
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Mar 25, 2021 14:11
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What's the current 0% balance transfer recommendation card
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Mar 26, 2021 08:19
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Hadlock posted:What's the current 0% balance transfer recommendation card I know the Citi Double Cash has been running a 18 mo 0% BT promo recently
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Mar 26, 2021 18:26
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Yeah, it seems to be becoming a more common perk. Depending on how long you need the window to be, you may be able to just use one of the cards on your existing get list?
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Mar 26, 2021 18:45
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Hadlock posted:What's the current 0% balance transfer recommendation card They may require an existing relationship, but First Tech FCU has a 12-mo 0% APR no fee on their rewards mastercard and a minimum credit limit of 10K which is nice. Card itself is nothing special though.
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Mar 28, 2021 05:58
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If I have the CSP and my wife is a user on my card, does she need to be removed from my account before she can sign up for a CSP when the 80k bonus hits? I was planning for her to sign up for one, spend the 4k, get the bonus, transfer the bonus into our joint checking, then cancel her CSP. Edit: Also read on SlickDeals... 80K points + $50 cash back: $95 annual fee (waived) if applied at branch is this a thing? obi_ant fucked around with this message at 20:54 on Mar 28, 2021 |
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Mar 28, 2021 20:52
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I am in my early thirties and I have never had a credit card. I have significant student loans (two post-graduate degrees, over $100,000) and I am current on all accounts, have never defaulted or declared bankruptcy, and as far as I can tell my credit reports do not currently contain any late payments (I believe I had a few payments that were less than five days late about five years ago, but I can't see them on the reports). I have an income that reflects my status as a fairly junior professional. My credit score is towards the high end of the "fair" range. As far as I can tell, the main reasons that my credit isn't better are 1. the high balance of my student loans, with some accounts owing more than was disbursed. There's nothing I can do about this. I had to defer a lot of loans while I was in school for eight years and I just cannot afford to pay more than my payment amount. 2. My lack of real estate accounts. Again, nothing can be done about this in the short term because I am not in a place in my life where buying a home makes sense (and not only because of my fair credit). 3. I have basically no credit or revolving accounts. I know finance people often tell people in their twenties with no credit history to get a credit card and pay it off every month to build credit, but I'm worried that won't help me because I have a decade of credit history paying installment loans, and am held back by the high balances of those loans. Would I benefit? How long would it take to build my credit score into at least the "good" range? What card should I get? Keep in mind I probably won't qualify for your most recommended cards. Ogmius815 fucked around with this message at 15:52 on Mar 29, 2021 |
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Mar 29, 2021 15:48
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I would seek the best cash rewards card you can or something from your credit union. And yes just charge your normal monthly spend to it and pay it off monthly. Just keep on it and the score will get better. Edit, rereading your last paragraph, it will help and maybe you can shave a quick $10-20 a month in cash back too. It's not much but it's taking it back from Visa so it's praxis. StormDrain fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Mar 29, 2021 |
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Mar 29, 2021 16:06
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Why do you want a credit card?
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Mar 29, 2021 16:13
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Ogmius815 posted:I am in my early thirties and I have never had a credit card. I have significant student loans (two post-graduate degrees, over $100,000) and I am current on all accounts, have never defaulted or declared bankruptcy, and as far as I can tell my credit reports do not currently contain any late payments (I believe I had a few payments that were less than five days late about five years ago, but I can't see them on the reports). I have an income that reflects my status as a fairly junior professional. Yes, you will substantially benefit. Your loans are just one factor lowering your score; they don't invalidate expert advice on how to improve it. Your credit scores are the result of automated formulas that look at a variety of factors, and always look at every factor. Number of revolving accounts is a big one, as is how long you have had them, and beginning to use them is the biggest improvement to your score that you have access to right now. Imo the go-to for people who have no/poor credit is the Discover It Secured, which has some decent rewards earning (rare for a secured card) and has the option to upgrade the same line of credit into a non-secured card and get your deposit back after 8 months. The regular Discover It is a card that has long-term value, and once you graduate to non-secured, you should be able to product to that one and get it without interrupting the credit history of the first card (product conversions keep the same line of credit on file, just as a new product). Alternately, if you don't want to gently caress with a bank holding your deposit for that long, you probably qualify for whatever entry-level card your existing bank offers. Lenders are generally more likely to approve people who have an existing relationship with their company. You may even qualify for something decent, because ranges like "fair" are not standardized anywhere and mean a different thing at every bank and score provider afaik. At that point, you're doing your own legwork based on the specifics of your own situation/needs, though. Sites like NerdWallet and DoctorOfCredit will have data points on the actual score range that a bank or credit union will want for a given card, so just shop around and check your scores (ideally, find out which bureaus that institution pulls from and check those) against their requirements before applying. I don't think having student loans is ever a hard disqualifying factor on top of the effect it has on your score, like some other things like # of recent credit inquiries can be, but I've never had them so someone correct me if I'm wrong. Unsinkabear fucked around with this message at 16:28 on Mar 29, 2021 |
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Mar 29, 2021 16:15
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CubicalSucrose posted:Why do you want a credit card? I want to prove that I can handle different types of credit, including revolving accounts, in the hope of improving my credit score. That way, in the future when I need a home or auto loan (and unfortunately I think that day is coming soon with respect to the auto loan), I won't be penalized for my fair credit. EDIT: Like, to get a bit libidinal about it it's aggravating to me that I'm considered a bad bet for loans even though I've behaved responsibly and always paid back what I owed purely because my loan balances are high, even though I'm current on payments. I want to fight that somehow. Unsinkabear posted:Yes, you will substantially benefit. Your loans are just one factor lowering your score; they don't invalidate expert advice on how to improve it. Your credit scores are the result of automated formulas that look at a variety of factors, and always look at every factor. Number of revolving accounts is a big one, as is how long you have had them, and beginning to use them is the biggest improvement to your score that you have access to right now. I don't think I'm in bad enough shape that I need to resort to a secured card. How do you guys feel about something like Capital One Platinum? Ogmius815 fucked around with this message at 16:46 on Mar 29, 2021 |
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Mar 29, 2021 16:36
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Do you know what your scores actually are? It's a lot easier to provide guidance around approval likelihood there. The forums at myfico have a ton of detail around this. Same as those links posted earlier.
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Mar 29, 2021 19:22
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CubicalSucrose posted:Do you know what your scores actually are? It's a lot easier to provide guidance around approval likelihood there. The forums at myfico have a ton of detail around this. Same as those links posted earlier. My VantageScore 3.0 is ~680. I would like to be over 700 at least, because that is the point where most lenders seem to consider your credit acceptable. EDIT: I'm sorry if I'm not providing the right information. I'm kind of a personal finance novice. I don't know my exact FICO. I see myself applying for an auto loan within the next six months. Is that going to be possible for me, credit wise? Ogmius815 fucked around with this message at 20:23 on Mar 29, 2021 |
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Mar 29, 2021 20:19
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Do you have an existing banking relationship with a Credit Union? That's going to be your best bet. Some of them have really good products. My primary CC is a 2% cash back card from my credit union. Rather give them the business than Citi. Establishing a good relationship with them will help when it comes to mortgages, auto loans, personal loans, etc. Once you get your credit file established you can chase some of the more popular cards.
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Mar 29, 2021 20:35
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CapitalOne or Discover are both likely to be possibilities. You might be able to check some of the no-pull pre-qualification sites before actually applying.
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Mar 29, 2021 20:41
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CubicalSucrose posted:CapitalOne or Discover are both likely to be possibilities. You might be able to check some of the no-pull pre-qualification sites before actually applying. both of these ppl gave me cards with WAY shittier credit than that. Badly predatory APRs tho. 23.9% or whatever. CapitalOne even jacked up the balance from $500 to $3500 after a short time of making payments lol. -_- hmmm
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Mar 29, 2021 21:04
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Unfortunately I do my banking with a regular retail bank, not a credit union. I know about how credit unions are better, but I haven't looked into moving my money. I'll get to it someday.
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Mar 29, 2021 21:29
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Ogmius815 posted:Unfortunately I do my banking with a regular retail bank, not a credit union. I know about how credit unions are better, but I haven't looked into moving my money. I'll get to it someday. Does this regular retail bank offer credit cards? CubicalSucrose posted:CapitalOne or Discover are both likely to be possibilities. You might be able to check some of the no-pull pre-qualification sites before actually applying. Prequalify check is a good idea. Ogmius is just barely under the score range that Discover supposedly likes to see for their better cards (according to NerdWallet, although it sounds like Smythe got in with less so who knows), and since they only allow you to have a maximum of two cards from them, I would hold off on applying there unless you can get those handy ones or can upgrade to them later. Can someone confirm whether Discover will product convert upwards? Unsinkabear fucked around with this message at 15:34 on Mar 30, 2021 |
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Mar 29, 2021 21:59
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Discover or Capital One Secured are traditionally good options for people with zero credit, but with some credit it might be possible to get a real credit card right off the bat. Some/low/no credit aren't really areas I keep up on the news for, so I can't give much better advice than that, other than in general Capital One does seem to be biased towards people with less/lower credit. They still pull all 3 bureaus, last I heard, which still sucks.
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Mar 30, 2021 21:01
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Capital One secured takes six years to convert to a regular card, and there's no way to speed up the process AFAIK the discover converts faster, but I could be wrong. The capital one secured card works fine but it's nothing special
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Mar 30, 2021 22:52
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Discover IT was the first card I got without credit history.
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Mar 30, 2021 23:41
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I know some people have managed to land Apple Card as their first card
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Mar 31, 2021 00:22
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I'm going to suggest going a different route and joining PenFed. Don't worry if you aren't military or have military family, you will just be out around $20 as a donation to a group like Voices for America's Troops and you will be eligible to join. Much easier than, say, NavyFed. You'll also lose $5 that will need to sit in a savings account forever as a member share. They give high credit limits and they aren't going to blink at you for applying for your first credit card. And when you need that auto loan in six months they will also probably be hard for you to beat even with just a six month positive relationship with them.
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Mar 31, 2021 00:30
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According to DoC, the CSR $300 travel credit will be good on groceries and gas through 2021, and 1.5x Pay Yourself Back rate on "grocery and home improvement stores, dining at restaurants, including takeout and delivery services and contributions to eligible charitable organizations" through September 30, 2021.
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Mar 31, 2021 07:40
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Sub Rosa posted:I'm going to suggest going a different route and joining PenFed. Don't worry if you aren't military or have military family, you will just be out around $20 as a donation to a group like Voices for America's Troops and you will be eligible to join. Much easier than, say, NavyFed. You'll also lose $5 that will need to sit in a savings account forever as a member share. This is a pretty good idea. PenFed's Power Cash is a good, simple 1.5% cash back on everything to start off with, and once you can afford to leave $500 of your emergency savings in a checking account with them, it upgrades to 2%. That doesn't sound like a big deal, but having that on all spending as your starting point will typically add up to more cash back than you can get with a card that does 5% on just one or two categories. 2% is the highest flat rate you can get right now without an annual fee (which cancels out a higher rewards rate for most people), outside of one credit union in Alabama (AODCU) who does 3% if you're willing to jump through some hoops to apply. I can go into how to qualify if you want to try for them. I don't know what they look for in terms of score and income, but there was a lot of buzz about the card last year so I'm sure we could dig through the MyFico thread and find out. Among the more standard 2% cards, PenFed is the most no-nonsense with absolutely zero restrictions on your rewards earned, auto-redemption, no foreign transaction fees, etc. The only other place I might recommend is SDFCU, whose card is identical as far as I know (I'm hoping we see this offered at more credit unions, it's looking like it might be a new boilerplate Visa thing) except that you need to build up $5+ rewards before you can redeem (not sure if still true) and you can make it prefer to use a PIN for security rather than a signature, which is very rare. Both cards are Chip-and-PIN enabled, but PenFed and most other American cards will try to verify with a signature first and only fall back on the PIN if the terminal rejects that. The State Department one has an option to do it the other way around for people who travel internationally and don't want to glitch out kiosks or confuse/annoy cashiers with receipt signing (no one but the US signs freakin' receipts). More importantly, you can get the SDFCU membership for free. They don't like people who have a ton of cards open, so you have a better shot at it than most of us.
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Mar 31, 2021 12:21
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astral posted:According to DoC, the CSR $300 travel credit will be good on groceries and gas through 2021, and 1.5x Pay Yourself Back rate on "grocery and home improvement stores, dining at restaurants, including takeout and delivery services and contributions to eligible charitable organizations" through September 30, 2021. Awesome. That's the only reason I've kept that card. Chase really has been going out of thier way to make that worthwhile. I've been using the Flex for groceries for the effective 7.5% back and then just using it to pay for all of my takeout/doordash purchases.
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Mar 31, 2021 18:44
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Limiting Pay Yourself Back to certain categories seems a bit silly when the categories include restaurants and groceries. Basically not even a limit if you use the card at all. I’m guessing after COVID it will only be available for travel expenses?
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Apr 2, 2021 12:39
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I've had a lot of experience with Chase and American Express but never Capital One. I wanted to sign up for one or two of their CC's for their welcome bonus. How does Capital One experience compare with Chase and American Express? I haven't opened any new credit cards in the last 2 years so I'm not worried about 5/24 - or is that just for Chase cards? Seem like Capital One might have a 1 card every 6 months rule? I remember when I opened a card with AmEx they instantly gave me the number of the credit card - does Capital One do this too?
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Apr 2, 2021 14:16
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