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Interesting blog post by a guy who works at stripe about credit card rewards: https://www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/anatomy-of-credit-card-rewards-programs/quote:This is as simple as it gets and we’re already necessarily handwaving away libraries worth of complexity. (For example, calculation of net purchases needs to be fairly robust against adversarial collaboration of users and merchants or the issuer gets turned into a money pump within a matter of days and will not likely be able to detect or reverse this condition for at least several weeks. This has happened many, many times. Credit card issuers, when they screw this up, lose millions of dollars and dry their tears on money.)
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Apr 21, 2024 18:24
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Venmo offered me $200 on $1000 spend in 6 months. It has 3% back on your top category and 2% on the rest of these categories: Dining & Nightlife, Grocery, Travel, Bills & Utilities, Health & Beauty, Gas, Transportation, and Entertainment. I'm trying to look for a house/condo come late June/July.. is there a way to estimate how much of a hit this will give to my credit score / loan amount?
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Apr 23, 2024 18:39
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Whatever hit it might be, you're going to spend more over the life of that condo loan due to higher rate you'll be paying than the $200 you'd get from that deal. Wait to apply for that credit card until after. If the deal runs out then oh well.
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Apr 23, 2024 19:49
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Generally, credit pulls are pretty low on the “hit” scale. For example - I had 3 hard checks in march. My score dipped from 780+ to 769 at the beginning of April. It is now back up to 785+. Granting that credit scores are stupidly opaque, generally, if you get a hard pull AND it results in a new line of credit, your score recovers quite quickly. So, if it were me, I would not worry unless your score is in the border between two “rate categories. Like if the score is gonna dip below 700, maybe don’t. But if your score is higher, it’s not likely to meaningfully shift lending rates. If you’re applying next week for a mortgage - don’t do it. But if it’s in 2 months, I wouldn’t think too hard about it. Usual caveats apply: I’m not a loan officer, my info is anecdotal, and our risk models are not the same.
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Apr 23, 2024 20:49
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Question for the folks who travel lots - what cards do you have and why? I have an AMEX Plat and Gold that I've been using forever but I'm playing with the idea of getting a Delta SkyMiles card because my partner and I have tons of trips this year. I may drop the Plat for the Delta Reserve but I have had the Plat for forever and do enjoy the benefits a lot. We prefer to travel Delta and it would be nice to have some sort of flying status, double dipping on the AMEX points has been nice because we usually save them up to get our flights for super cheap when we do big trips, or to get a hefty discount on a luxury hotel.
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Apr 23, 2024 21:23
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New credit cards can impact your score a few different ways. Applying causes a hard pull, which is a very minor mark against your score and generally you don't need to worry about these unless you're churning bonuses and have like 8+. The biggest impact is to your average age of accounts. If you only have 1 card, adding a 2nd will drop your average age in half. The more cards you have though, the less effect this has. Someone with 9 cards adding a 10th is only reducing their average by 10%. On a positive side, adding a new card will increase your available credit and therefore lower your utilization (assuming same level of spending), which can boost your score. Credit Karma has a credit score simulator, I think there are other similar tools available as well. I don't know how accurate they are.
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Apr 23, 2024 22:05
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Triggs posted:Question for the folks who travel lots - what cards do you have and why? We have an Amex platinum, chase sapphire preferred and Citi AA executive. I fly a ton for work, so having a centurion or AA lounge available at We collect points mainly for international travel. Last year, we flew to Japan and back in business class and stayed in Conrad hotels while there at little to no cost. Next year, I’ve booked business class flights to an African safari at about $250 cost in fees, although we have to pay for the safari lodging, they don’t take hotel/airline/credit card points.
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Apr 23, 2024 22:05
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My American Express card ditched the Priority Pass perk, which is pretty much the last feature I was using. It's a Hilton Honors Amex, and I used to travel for a living. Amex tried to talk me into applying for a platinum card, which is $695 a year!!! That can't be worth it, right? Plus, I can't upgrade, I have to keep the Hilton Amex separate, and apply anew for the Platinum card.
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Apr 26, 2024 19:14
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Squashy Nipples posted:My American Express card ditched the Priority Pass perk, which is pretty much the last feature I was using. It's a Hilton Honors Amex, and I used to travel for a living. Ehhh, I think it used to be better, now the credits are all for stuff I mostly don't use. Except for the 200 in airline fee credit, that ones easy. I think you can even get a giftcard and get credit. But I can see some people might get value, if you already use some of this stuff $200 credit for uber $240 credit for disney+/hulu/espn/NYT/WSJ (meh) $155 credit for a walmart+ sub (weird, is this the amazon prime equivalent?) $189 for clear, if your airport has it - and denver it seems like the lines for clear are worse than precheck now $200 hotel (if you book through amex, gently caress that tho) Signing up for the miles is worth it though if you can get good value out of maybe one of these. To justify it on a recurring basis..... eh.
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Apr 26, 2024 19:33
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Squashy Nipples posted:My American Express card ditched the Priority Pass perk, which is pretty much the last feature I was using. It's a Hilton Honors Amex, and I used to travel for a living. https://thepointsguy.com/credit-cards/american-express/maximizing-amex-platinum/ The card has a lot of perks. Up to you to decide if the perks outweigh the $700. Personally I'd 100% make use of the $200 Uber credit and $240 streaming credit. If I traveled more the $100-$189 credit for Global Entry / TSA PreCheck / Clear and $200 in airline fee credit would be enough for me.
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Apr 26, 2024 19:34
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Baddog posted:Signing up for the miles is worth it though if you can get good value out of maybe one of these. To justify it on a recurring basis..... eh. A lot of things I use, but there is always small print. Part of the problem with bonus miles is that I fly JetBlue pretty much exclusively, and have their card with a lot of miles on it. Baddog posted:$200 hotel (if you book through amex, gently caress that tho) Never used it for a hotel, but I used to use it quite a bit for cars and trains when I did business travel.
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Apr 26, 2024 19:47
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Baddog posted:Ehhh, I think it used to be better, now the credits are all for stuff I mostly don't use. Except for the 200 in airline fee credit, that ones easy. I think you can even get a giftcard and get credit. We use all of these plus a lot of the centurion lounges for frequent (weekly) travel. The plat still retains the priority pass lounges, I believe. The Walmart+ sub also gives you paramount+ streaming service free. The $200 hotel credit booking through Amex is nice for the fine hotels and resorts program with all the benefits it provides (~$100 resort credit, free breakfasts for every day you stay, upgrades, early check in/late check out). For the past few years we’ve used it for 4+ night stays at Conrad hotels where they give you the 4th night free.
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Apr 26, 2024 21:09
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How do co-signers affect the success% of an application? I make ~70k, only $3k debt, but a score in the low-mid 600s. The other individual has a score of 799, but is retired. I wanted to apply for the Citi Custom Cash. Is the Citi Double Cash now just beaten by the Venmo card?
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Apr 27, 2024 00:40
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