|
With the holidays coming up and some travel being possible again, I'm looking to see what I could be doing better cardwise, so this is a bit of an effortpost. My daily driver is the Citi Double Cash. Been great for years, no problems, good cash back, but I've had an Alliant checking and savings acct for over a decade. I've been hesitant to switch to the 2.5% Signature because it requires the $1000 average in your checking for that rate, and I'm bad at the math to tell me how good I am at hitting that (I pretty aggressively put money into savings now, so, for example, given when my bills come due, I was under $1000 for 12/30 days in September, but I was well above $1000 for most of those 18). Should I just do it? Is there an easy way to do the math to be sure? I have a bunch of other cards I don't use very much but try to use often enough to keep them active: the Amex Cash Magnet and BCE and the Capital One Quicksilver are probably the standouts here. No cards with an annual fee. I got burned here, though; two cards closed in the last two years because I forgot to use them and didn't have a recurring expense on them. Suggestions for good set-and-forget for these? I have nothing that does me any particular good when traveling, and I frankly don't know much about those cards; even when I read about them, the info mushes together in my head. A friend who does know a lot thinks I should just get an Amex Platinum and not be set, but even accounting for the signup bonus, that's a steep as hell AF when I just don't travel that often. We have one trip to Canada planned in the next few months, and we're going to a wedding in NV next year, but nothing solid beyond that. I like Amex, their customer service is wonderful, but that's still a lot of dang loving money on a card that's really only great for travel as far as I can tell, and with points that I don't think transfer to the Amex cards I have. (I considered the Amex Gold for food purposes, but I'm unsure about the fee there, too, and it doesn't really help the travel.) As far as I can tell, I could just keep doing what I'm doing and be fine, but at this point I'm interested in what I could be doing better. FICO is generally in the 820s and I've opened one card in the past two years, so my options should be open.
|
#
¿
Oct 6, 2022 20:34
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 15, 2024 22:43 |
|
|
Thanks, all!THF13 posted:Keeping $1000 in checking instead of savings at current rates costs you $17.50 a year. The extra 0.5% cashback of the Alliant Visa will make up that difference with $3500 of spending. This is valid and I'd probably start just keeping extra in checking if I was worried. pseudanonymous posted:Citi premier has an 80k points = 800$ cash back if you hit the spending requirement right now (4,000 on card) and it’s 3x points on travel (air + hotel) This is tempting, I hadn't even looked at the Premier. You'd recommend it over the Gold (4× on restaurants/groceries+3× on air, 100k points vs. 3× on restaurants/groceries/air/hotel/gas, 80k points) for the flexibility around the Citi cards? pseudanonymous posted:The Alliant bank account will tell you your avg balance if you look. This is great to know, but... do you happen to know where? 
|
|
#
¿
Oct 7, 2022 13:36
|
|
|
saintonan posted:When it posts the dividend at the end of the month, it tells you "based on average daily balance of x". Oh, fantastic, thank you! A quick search tells me I've only had an average daily balance under $1300 twice in two years (and still well above $1000) so I should be fine if I go ahead.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 7, 2022 14:29
|
|
|
On a semi-related note, is there a good app or other process for reminding you which card to use when? I've seen a couple apps that are unnecessarily complicated, require subscriptions, want you to log in to your card accounts... all I'm looking for is a better "given that I have these cards, if I'm making this kind of purchase, I should use this card" solution than my notes app.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 2, 2023 04:09
|
|
|
astral posted:If you can't remember them, you could put a little index card in your wallet or put labels on the credit cards themselves. I generally remember, but occasionally I miss edge cases and rotations and get annoyed at myself. pseudanonymous posted:Maxrewards is pretty good, though by far you get the best value if you have Amex and and Citi cards since it will auto add the merchant offers for you. It also tracks subs and the offers you can often get to keep a card. It's a pay what you will. You do have to give the app your log in / password to have it interact with your account. If it's pay-once and not subscription, I'll give it a look. Thanks!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 2, 2023 13:00
|
|
|
pseudanonymous posted:No it’s subscription but you can choose to pay 1$ as far as I know. Well, after trying every day to log in and getting "uh-oh, something went wrong, please try again later" every time, I'm unlikely to bother with them. Which is a shame, because I primarily use Citi and Amex.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 9, 2023 00:19
|
|
|
pseudanonymous posted:It can be a bit tricky and sometimes appears to net synch up right. Sometimes I have to get a code from Amex to enter. No, like, I signed up but can't get any further than that; I give it my email, my password, and I get that error. I don't have a profile yet, let alone cards to sync. But thank you!
|
|
#
¿
Jan 9, 2023 13:52
|
|
|
Unsinkabear posted:Platinum and Gold are entirely different cards. You have to travel a ton for the Platinum to be worth it as anything other than a "get the bonus and then cancel in a year" card (and even if you travel enough for the math to work out in your favor you should still do that, because you could be accomplishing sooo much more with that kind of spending power). Same goes for the Sapphire Reserve (and its bonus sucks now as well, so just don't). This and the other few recent posts have gotten me thinking. I've always looked at the Platinum as a "huge fee, only consider it if you're rich, otherwise it's an absurdity" kind of card (and I'm reluctant to cancel cards), so even when the big bonuses come around, I don't pay much attention to them. But looking around, it seems like most people think like this, not like me; the Platinum is a card you get when there's a great bonus, you spend on it to hit that bonus, then you put it away and downgrade/cancel it when the next fee posts. Am I understanding correctly that this is how it's generally used these days, and that I should consider it next time there's a great bonus? (I already have the Gold in mind for the future, as well, primarily as a restaurant/grocery card, but I got the Citi Premier in October as "spend on it for the good bonus, then use on restaurants" so I don't see much point in the Gold until I downgrade the Premier to a Custom Cash.)
|
|
#
¿
May 27, 2023 00:10
|
|
|
THF13 posted:The combine accounts button didn't work for any of my several citi thank you points cards, they were able to merge them over the phone without any fuss. Afterwards I was able to redeem my Custom Cash and Double Cash points and get the 10% points back from the Rewards+ card. Yeah, if anything at all does not 100% match between the cards, they will not show as viable merges. I was able to eventually do mine online, but it took realizing that having a blank business phone number on one and a (000) 000-0000 business phone number on the other did not count as a match. Changing that solved it.
|
|
#
¿
May 30, 2023 20:47
|
|
|
pseudanonymous posted:Citi premier ... 1 year from now when the second annual fee posts then call them and product change to custom cash which has no AF. Coming up on this. Not immediate, but soon enough that I want to prepare. I already have a Citi Double Cash as my primary. I intend, like pseudanonymous said, to change the Premier to a Custom Cash when the annual fee posts. You obviously can't apply for more than one Custom Cash but you apparently can downgrade to one even if you already have one, so I was thinking I should apply for a Custom Cash soon, get the little signup bonus, downgrade the Premier to a Custom Cash in October, relegate them to separate categories, and have two 5% category cards for Citi, which is where all my spending currently is anyway. Does that make sense? Additional: I don't yet have a Citi Rewards+, either. I know that having one means I get a 10% rebate on ThankYou Points for all cards on the same account. Should I apply around the same time as the CC (maybe a month later to split up the SUBs), or will "give me a Custom Cash," "give me a Rewards+," "make my Premier another Custom Cash" in three or four months make Citi testy? Or is there something else I'm missing that makes it less worthwhile?
|
|
#
¿
Jun 23, 2023 02:36
|
|
|
pseudanonymous posted:I think Citi is pretty strict about new cards and you'll need to wait like 91 days between cards or soemthing like that. I got rejected last year for a card and they said the only reason was I had opened a new card like a month before. Good to know, thank you. I'll work on getting a Custom open ASAP so I'm not wasting one, and I'll hold on the Rewards+ until EOY-ish.
|
|
#
¿
Jun 24, 2023 13:37
|
|
|
pseudanonymous posted:your best value in several big purchases is something with a spend requirement to earn a sign up bonus, so probably like a premium card either Chase Sapphire or Chase Sapphire Reserve or Citi Premier or Amex Plat, then once you've had the card a year and the 2nd annual fee posts you call up and ask to downgrade the card so you don't pay hte fee again. Stupid question tangential to your point: if looking to get into the AmEx ecosystem, given that their charge cards can't be downgraded to no-AF cards but can get upgrade bonuses, is it best to do the once-a-year Green>Gold>Plat signup to maximize bonuses and get potential upgrade offers? Or should you just jump into Platinum (assuming you plan to get one anyway) when there's a good SUB to make sure you get it, then downgrade to Gold/Green after the first year and not care about the missed SUBs and upgrades?
|
|
#
¿
Jul 14, 2023 17:51
|
|
|
CubicalSucrose posted:SUBs are once in a lifetime per card. Yes, but my understanding is SUB and upgrade bonus are considered separate by AmEx, so you can wait for the upgrade offer to the next level card, apply for that card on its own to get the SUB, and once you're approved, accept the upgrade. So you'd go from, e.g., having a Green to having a Gold with a SUB plus a Gold with an upgrade bonus.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 14, 2023 18:48
|
|
|
Snuff Melange posted:Okay thanks very much, I'm gonna call a credit union near me and see how this timeline would play out if I open a loan. My only concern is that they can't approve me for a loan soon enough (i.e. the car shop won't wait that long to see when and how I'll pay), but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. In case you're still reading, I just want to agree with everyone else here: Unsinkabear posted:There is functionally zero difference between putting that debt on a new credit card or putting it on your current credit card, except for two things: putting it on a new 0% card will improve your credit rating and cost you nothing to do so, while putting it on your current card will mean giving your bank $200 that you absolutely do not have to, in exchange for nothing. Please do not do this. runawayturtles posted:If you're worried about the timeline, a 0% credit card approval could very well happen more quickly. Plus, it's the cheaper option, as already mentioned. SamDabbers posted:https://www.alliantcreditunion.org/bank/visa-platinum-card Assuming you're a responsible user, and you do sound like you are, there is genuinely no downside and a lot of upside to putting this on a fresh 0% card. Make the big purchase, stick the card in your sock drawer, and pay down the balance before the intro rate wears off. Once that's done, you don't have to touch the card ever again if you don't want to, but I recommend keeping it open and setting up a tiny auto-purchase and auto-pay to keep it active. It's the best financial decision, it's best for your credit, and it gives you more leeway going forward.
|
|
#
¿
Jul 18, 2023 14:42
|
|
|
drk posted:Sure, $39/year in isolation does not matter. But the attitude that small things don't matter in general is exactly how some people get into thousands of dollars of high interest credit card debt. Yup. Credit card companies don't make money on the people who pay off their balance every month and use their sweet rewards. They make money on the people who carry a balance for years, who think they're different because they're not irresponsible, it's just that things didn't go like they planned, who think, "I can put this on the card, what does one more thing matter?", who pay annual fees higher than the actual benefits they get out of the card on top of the interest they're paying. There are more than enough of these marks to cover what they're not getting from the first group of beneficiaries. It's obviously possible to get out of credit card debt, millions of people have done it. I'm one of them! It's possible for marks to become beneficiaries with effort and planning. But if you've got thousands of dollars on cards with annual fees and 25+% APRs, and the questions you're asking are "why shouldn't I keep the card?" and "why is it irresponsible to be thinking about international travel?" then you should at least take a step back and ask yourself if you're still a mark and if what you're doing risks keeping you among them or dropping you back into them.
|
|
#
¿
Oct 4, 2023 21:54
|
|
|
El Mero Mero posted:well...they always make money let's be honest. The people who pay in full each month are still racking up money for the credit card companies because every merchant transaction is costing the business owner something. Then there's the spending data itself, which gets sold off to a million data brokers and ad companies. Granted, but that's not how they make most of it. Credit card profits were ~$260 billion in 2022. $145 billion of that was interest, another $16 billion was late fees. Transaction fees from merchants were under $86 billion. That's a lot of money, of course, but it's less than a third of their total profit. If 2/3 of their revenue just vanished, things would change fast and there would be far fewer sweet credit card deals available. (In fact, it looks like estimated rewards payouts for 2022 were $68 billion across the industry, which would eat up the majority of those merchant transaction revenues.)
|
|
#
¿
Nov 9, 2023 14:56
|
|
|
The Ink Preferred is a business card. That doesn't mean you can't get it and use it personally, though; if you don't have a business (as most people don't), you can still apply as a sole proprietor. It has a fantastic signup bonus at the moment, as do the other Ink cards, and it gives you 3× on travel with a $95 fee, but you do miss out on a bunch of the CSR bonuses. If you have a Platinum, some of those bonuses would be redundant anyway. FWIW, I'm currently looking into getting more heavily into rewards, and the consensus I've seen, though it's not at all universal, is that Chase UR are best for hotel redemptions, Amex MR are best for flights. Chase's cards are better to keep, though; many people treat the Platinum and the Business Platinum as "get for the signup bonus, keep for a year, cancel when the second annual fee hits." Also note that Amex changed their signup bonus eligibility language recently, too, and if you get a (personal) Platinum card to start with, you will not be eligible for signup bonuses on the Gold or Green if you later want those, unless you luck out and get a targeted offer. If you are interested in those bonuses, you have to go up the ladder; getting the Green first doesn't currently leave you ineligible for the other two bonuses, and getting the Gold does not leave you ineligible for the Platinum bonus. If you haven't used rewards before, I agree with saintonan that you probably shouldn't drop over a grand on annual fees right off the bat.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 26, 2023 16:36
|
|
|
saintonan posted:Generally speaking I think that transferring points (MR/UR) to an airline often works out better than using either the Chase or Amex travel portals. Completely agreed. saintonan posted:So if your home airport is a Delta hub, Amex will be your jam. If it's United or Southwest, then Chase will be easier for you. If it's American, then neither one is great (American's card is through either Citibank or Barclay, neither one of which have a well developed ecosystem or a flagship luxury card, although rumors are that Citi is trying). This is where it gets trickier IMO. It's not just about the big four, it's about their transfer partners as well. Neither Chase nor Amex has American, like you said, but both have British Airways, and you can move your points to BA and book an AA flight through them (this is, admittedly, Advanced Mode for points). United Airlines is in Star Alliance, but Amex has four other partners in Star that can potentially be used to get on a United flight, so missing out on United specifically isn't so terrible. Meanwhile, Delta is part of SkyTeam, and Chase only has one partner in there (Air France, which it shares with both Amex and Citi). And I'll admit that I don't look much into hubs because my home airport isn't one, while both Delta and United have hubs within about three hours of me. Note, however, that I am still a beginner and your literal mileage may vary. If you think you're going to be going this deep into points, absolutely do your own research, don't just listen to internet randos.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 26, 2023 17:50
|
|
|
saintonan posted:This is all true, but honestly too much bullshit for a beginner. Yeah, absolutely valid. pseudanonymous posted:It is also possible to get multiple custom cash by product changing another card into one. Note that I have heard from multiple people that Citi won't PC to a Custom Cash anymore if you already have one. I'll probably be trying this week.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 26, 2023 19:54
|
|
|
pseudanonymous posted:I did it about 2-3 months ago I did the pc right after I got my first custom cash cuz I was a bit worried about it Yeah, I heard about it around the beginning of this month. It may depend on the rep you get, but there were suddenly a ton of stories of people being told "you have a Custom Cash, you can't product change to a second one."
|
|
#
¿
Nov 26, 2023 20:10
|
|
|
disaster pastor posted:Yeah, I heard about it around the beginning of this month. It may depend on the rep you get, but there were suddenly a ton of stories of people being told "you have a Custom Cash, you can't product change to a second one." Confirmed. I called for a product change, the rep told me a Custom Cash would normally be an option, "but I see here you already have one, so you will not be able to choose that."
|
|
#
¿
Nov 27, 2023 20:56
|
|
|
Girbot posted:That is unfortunate. Getting my second Custom Cash was the next card for me, guess I'll have to settle for P2 getting one and adding myself as an authorized user. I would still try. The overall impression I got from my call to Citi was "very few of these people know what they're doing," and at one point I had to interrupt a different rep because I thought he was going to cancel all of my cards. So you might get someone who doesn't know better and who'll just do it.
|
|
#
¿
Nov 28, 2023 13:27
|
|
|
Valicious posted:I need a good cash back card that I can use as my main card to replace my lovely 2% gas and restaurants-1% all else Discover. I never eat out, so it sucks pretty hard. I don’t wanna apply and juggle for a bunch of cards and destroy my credit. Credit is low-700s. I don’t care about interest rate or promos involving that because I never carry a balance. The 2% card everyone has is the Citi Double Cash (but make sure to get direct deposits instead of statement credits). Wells Fargo has a popular 2% card if you prefer Visa, Amex has the Blue Business Cash if you prefer them. If you have or are willing to get a credit union account with Alliant, they have a 2.5% cash back card. The Chase Freedom Unlimited is currently 3% cash back for the first year, but only for the first $20,000 spent, and reverts to 1.5% when you hit that amount or after that year, so isn't as good a pick if you want to just get one card.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 19, 2024 17:22
|
|
|
The Double Cash is slightly weird in that you technically get 1% for spending and then 1% when you pay it off. Normally that's meaningless in the end, but if you apply your rewards as a statement credit, you don't get the second 1% for paying off whatever got erased by that credit.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 20, 2024 00:34
|
|
|
For convenience, I'd get a Citi Double Cash for 2% back on everyday stuff and a Citi Custom Cash for 5% back in either gas or supermarkets, whatever you spend more on (it's only 1% on everything else, so only use it for that one category). Combine your ThankYou Points and you'll have one pool of cash back you'd have to care about. If your spend is high enough, an alternative would be to get the AmEx Blue Business Cash as your 2% card and then choose either the Blue Cash Preferred, which is 3% cash back on gas and 6% cash back on supermarkets but has a $95 annual fee, so you need to spend at least $60 or so a week in groceries for it to be worthwhile, or the no-annual-fee Blue Cash Everyday, which is 3% on supermarkets and some online purchases (second category there). Note that "supermarkets" is very specific; if you buy your groceries at Target/Walmart for example, or at Costco/Sam's, you won't get the supermarket %. Note also that this is focused on cash back. If you're looking for travel rewards in the future, the Citi points would transfer over once you got an eligible card, but you can't convert AmEx cashback to Membership Rewards to my knowledge.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 22, 2024 19:34
|
|
|
Valicious posted:Thanks for this! I don't suppose there's any card that would give more than 2% at Southern Hobby Distribution? (either personal or business, they sell sports cardsand CCGs and collectables to businesses) The Blue Cash Everyday's 3% on online purchases should apply there, but that only applies to the first $6000/year, which it looks like you'd hit very quickly. So if you go that route, use the BCE until you hit $6K and then swap to your 2% card. Same with the Bank of America Customized Cash Rewards card: you can pick "online shopping" as your 3% category but it only applies to the first $2500/quarter before reverting to 1%, and unlike the BCE it doesn't have 3% on supermarkets. Boris Galerkin posted:The fine print on the Citi Custom Cash 5% card seems to suggest the 5% is applied to the highest category automatically, so in your case it would automatically be applied to your baseball cards. But I also just noticed it's only 5% up to $500, after which it's 1% which is boo. It's applied to the highest eligible category, and neither online shopping nor hobby stores count. I don't think it's going to fall into a category that the Citi Custom Cash or the US Bank Cash+ will cover at 5%, unfortunately.
|
|
#
¿
Jan 23, 2024 02:13
|
|
|
LeeMajors posted:I’m thinking the Amex BlueCash Preferred card would be best, even with the 6k grocery cap. We already use the Costco Citi card as our “gas card” for unlimited 4% back, but that 6% on groceries seems enough to offset the 95$ fee and put it above the no fee bluecash card. Agreed with this: Xenoborg posted:Always have a flat high % card. There’s plenty of stuff that is costly and won’t hit any categories. Car insurance and home repairs for example. That $10k hvac replacement system sucks but it’s a nice psychological boost to get $250 in points on it. In your case, I'd be looking to open two cards, most likely. One option is, if you want to go into AmEx and can justify the Preferred, get that; if not, get the Everyday. Once you're spending more than $65ish a week in groceries, the Preferred beats out the Everyday even with the fee, so you're probably there, assuming you get your groceries from supermarkets; any big-box like Costco (which obviously doesn't take AmEx anyway), or Target or Walmart, will not count as "groceries." Supplement with the AmEx Blue Business Cash as your 2% cashback card for everything else. The other primary option is, like you said, to lean all the way into Citi: get the Double Cash as your 2% card, then the Custom Cash for 5% on your highest category per month (from a list; supermarkets are on that list) up to $500 spend. It's 1% less than the Preferred, but no annual fee. You can also look into getting the Rewards+ to get 10% of your points back whenever you redeem them. If you do get your groceries primarily at Costco or Target or whatever, the math will change and you'll want a card primarily for that store, most likely, with a 2% for everywhere else. EDIT: Note that you generally need to wait five days between AmEx applications, and eight days between Citi applications, when applying for two cards from them. Citi then needs you to wait 65 days before applying for a third, if you wanted to get the Rewards+. AmEx needs you to wait 90 before a third, if there was another you were looking at from them. disaster pastor fucked around with this message at 15:24 on Feb 5, 2024 |
|
#
¿
Feb 5, 2024 14:59
|
|
|
DildenAnders posted:I am thinking of applying for the Chase Freedom Unlimited card (740 credit score, 1 credit card and no student loans with perfect payment history). My first credit card is only 14 months old, is that too soon to apply for a second? and any reason why they wouldn't accept my application? Chase is somewhat sensitive to short credit histories, but having had another card for 12+ months should be enough for them. No concern about "too soon" with that gap. I'd just go for it.
|
|
#
¿
Feb 29, 2024 17:58
|
|
|
|
| # ¿ May 15, 2024 22:43 |
|
|
It really is 36g of gold. They say that if you qualify and they're unable to send you one, they'll give you a "cash equivalent" they value at $1100, which is right in line with the value of 36g of gold.
|
|
#
¿
Mar 28, 2024 14:53
|
|