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You probably should include Chase Sapphire Preferred; it has a nice signup bonus and Ultimate Rewards points are great to redeem for travel. I'd also mention Blue Cash Everyday as a companion to BCP, and that the cutoff for where it is worth it to pay the AF is $2500 a year in grocery spending (or lots more on gas/dept stores.)
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Nov 6, 2014 23:45
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Richard M Nixon posted:I'm looking at picking up a new card for signup bonuses. I already have a discover, chase, citi, and amex card so I've covered most of the big names. I thought I heard that one of the large companies back-dates new cards to be the same as your oldest line of credit with them so a new card wouldn't affect credit age - is this true? It's Amex. Impact on your score depends on utilization. If you are spending near the CL on your current cards, your score will probably go up, as util is worth a lot more of your score than age of accounts/# of inquiries.
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Nov 8, 2014 05:18
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ETB posted:Also, if you have a decent interest-bearing checking/savings account, it technically will outperform credit card rewards. After hitting that sign-up bonus, I would just convert back to ACH or whatever for your rent.  Even the highest interest-bearing savings account yields are 1% or barely above. The FIA Amex gives you 2% on everything. How do you figure a savings account outperforms rewards?
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Nov 19, 2014 20:55
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ETB posted:You're forgetting about the flat fee which negates the rewards... Yeah, I misread that you were talking about after the signup bonus. It's a no brainer to pay $105 to get $400, which is why I was confused.
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Nov 20, 2014 03:04
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PittPanther posted:What is the best airline to transfer Amex membership reward points to? Living in NYC, Delta has hubs at LGA and JFK, so I have been using them the most, but their rewards aren't great. Delta is pretty much the worst one. The 'pro' thing to do is to transfer them to British Airways when there's a transfer bonus in effect, then use those Avios to book trips on American. If you mostly take short-hauls (to the midwest or shorter), you'll come out way ahead this way, since Avios redemptions start at 7500 miles each way (yep, you read that right) and you book on regular American flights.
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Nov 26, 2014 00:23
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Also, appathons don't even work. The inqs show up immediately now. hbf: you should know your credit score before you apply, and go for the best card you are likely to get. With only one other card, it is possible/likely that you'd only get approved for one more and if you burn that approval on a stinker, you're bummed for a while longer then.
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Dec 3, 2014 11:34
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Pryor on Fire posted:Nope, number of accounts open is one of the factors. It's generally not a huge factor unless you regularly have balances on a large number of accounts but it still holds your score down. And the utilization is calculated on each individual line as well as across all cards. Having a high number of open accounts is a positive factor. Utilization is not taken into account on individual accounts for FICO scores. Do you even have any idea what you're talking about?
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Dec 11, 2014 05:57
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Not a Children posted:Just keep using other peoples' cards by asking for stuff in Imp Zone, imo, seems to be working pretty well so far pls giev soj
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Dec 12, 2014 20:34
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QuarkJets posted:Bank of America just sent me an offer for a card that's 1% cash back, 2% on groceries, and 3% on gas. But then I saw this: You're talking about the BOA 1-2-3 card, right? This one? https://www.bankofamerica.com/credit-cards/credit-cards-terms-and-conditions.go?cid=2111824&po=P5&request_locale=en_US It is "purchases of wire transfers", bro. e.g. you use your card to buy a Western Union transaction.
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Dec 18, 2014 04:07
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khysanth posted:Quick question just to make sure I understand 100%. You can wait to earn the interest or have it for emergencies or whatever else. There's no advantage to paying it early either. Just make sure they've received your payment (in full, please) by the due date. That said, sure, you can pay it whenever you want.
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Dec 19, 2014 03:41
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Lelorox posted:Has anyone had any luck getting annual fees comped by calling the credit card company. Probably you can get it waived, but just call and ask for a 'product change' to a no-AF, rewards card, like their Travel Rewards card. That will help maintain your average account age, as well, instead of stopping it now.
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Dec 24, 2014 02:08
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asur posted:You earn $4. Merchants don't report what is in the transaction. Well, some do. Google "Level 3 data". Office supply stores and airlines, especially, report this. But yeah, for the posed question, you're fine. Buy all the gift cards you want, just try not to make purchases of exactly gift card amounts excessively or risk some fun questioning from your credit card. Cacafuego posted:I'm looking for a good airline/travel rewards card. Using your miles for domestic travel generally does not make a miles-earning card worthwhile. You probably want a straight cashback card that you can then spend the points on other stuff. The Citi Double Cash is probably the best choice for that; 2% on all your purchases which you can then use to buy whatever you want, including your flights. If you plan on international travel, then miles cards may become more worthwhile for the signup bonuses, but if not, especially American/US's domestic award charts are not worth getting the miles card given the cheap prices of domestic flights, IMO. Bisty Q. fucked around with this message at 16:02 on Jan 2, 2015 |
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Jan 2, 2015 16:00
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Easychair Bootson posted:Can someone educate me on the whole AmEx Membership Rewards program? Does one dollar equal one point or what? I can't for the life of me figure out how to compare it to something like a simple "2% cash back." MR points are not good for cash; you only redeem them for cashback at 0.5 cents per point. Instead, MR points have their value when you transfer them (on a 1:1 basis) to airlines or hotel companies. If you are looking for cash back, get a Citi Double Cash or FIA 2% Amex. Depending on how you redeem MR points, they can end up being worth anywhere between 1.5 and 3.5 (or more) cents per point. People generally think MR points are one of the most valuable reward currencies out there because of this. Residency Evil posted:How does Amex calculate average account age? I've had an Amex since college in 2007 and still have that original card as well as a platinum card. Do I have 1 account with an age of 8 years? If I close the old college card will that decrease the age of my account? Amex is unique among issuers in that every account is (or can be if it isn't by default for some reason) backdated to the date of your first relationship with Amex. You have 2 accounts, each with an age of 8 years. If you close one, you will have one account with an age of 8 years. Opening up additional Amex cards is a great way to game the average age of account calculation if you were smart enough to open one early in your credit life, which it sounds like you were. Mr.AARP posted:I have a question about whether to open up a new college card. I tried applying for the Double Cash card but was declined right off the bat since I only work part time during school. You can try the FIA 2% Amex, but here's a pro tip: use your credit card less one month - i.e. keep the utilization for that month below about $550. Wait maybe 2 weeks after your statement cuts for it to report to the credit bureaus, then try again. Utilization above 30% is actually a red flag, so you want to avoid going above 30% utilization on your cards, especially if you're applying for more credit and even more especially if you only have one card. FIA 2% Amex: https://www.fidelity.com/cash-management/american-express-cards
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Jan 19, 2015 17:10
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So I'm valuing UR points about 1.75 cents each right now. If I do that, it makes more sense to me to use my BOA card (2.625% on everything - it's the 1.5% travel rewards card and I'm in their highest "preferred rewards" tier) than it does to acquire UR, based on my spend. Can anybody convince me that valuation is wrong? I don't spend on hotels, it's all on flight, and I feel like it's more valuable to just keep churning for flights and to throw all the spend into cashback since I can get such a high rate.
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Jan 24, 2015 22:53
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Yes, the miles will combine 1:1. AA domestic roundtrips are 25K miles for 'saver' awards, which are the only ones you'd want to take. If you spent 40K AA miles on a domestic RT, people would cry.
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Jan 25, 2015 20:15
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Cousin Balki posted:Being pretty dumb on the finer points of credit scores, I was kind of surprised to get rejected by the Double Cash card. Obviously the 2% would be nice to have over the 1.5% on the Quicksilver. I checked my info via CreditKarma and saw I'm in the "good" range and just below the average credit score normally accepted by the card. One thing I noticed is they show an open collections entry for some medical bill I thought I had paid months and months ago. I'm guessing this would cause a pretty good ding in my score? Yes, but your 'seeking' credit by making multiple apps so quickly together is also not helping.
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Jan 26, 2015 04:23
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SiGmA_X posted:Last year I averaged 2.12% cash back over a card from each Chase Freedom, Amazon, and Amex Blue. But now I want a travel card (in large part for sign up points), and it's looking like the best deal is a Barclaycard Arrival Plus at 2.2% redemption value for statement credits against travel. I do not travel much at all, but it would be nice to maximize points, and I have some tickets to buy this and next year to go visit family members graduating from college. If I get the BAP and buy my tickets as soon as I receive it, and then spend for other stuff to hit the $3k in 3mo for the 40k points (no issue there), can I redeem the 40k points against the prior ticket purchase? I am guessing yes, but I've never dealt with a non-cashback card. You have 180 days after the travel purchase to redeem against it, but you can only redeem against each purchase one time. You also can't spend your 10% back immediately; you have to redeem it on a subsequent redemption. PNW to SoCal might be worth using Avios, depending on where specifically for each of those.
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Jan 30, 2015 04:39
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SiGmA_X posted:PDX but it looks like BA doesn't do PDX. Too bad. I was approved for an Arrival+, I will utilize that. Perhaps get one in my gf's name also, we could buy both of our tickets for this summer for free... Thanks for prior and current input, thread! PDX-SNA is a nonstop on AA. You should be able to use BA Avios to go on that route, but the calculators are all refusing to route it, which is weird. It's 860 miles, which means it SHOULD be 15k Avios roundtrip + token fees. You can get 40K avios by signing up with a Chase Sapphire Preferred and making the minimum buy, which would you get 2 round trips. However, I'd avoid doing this until someone can figure out why no PDX-SNA flights will price on the Avios checker. I'm seeing availability on Kayak, but it might just be that I was checking too soon and availability is constrained. The main takeaway here is really "why not both"? Use the Arrival for stuff where you can't get a better deal by using an airline program.
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Jan 31, 2015 00:01
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Blinkman987 posted:For all the new Sapphire users, remember that you can get 5k extra points for signing up a secondary authorized user on the card during the bonus window and then using that card. For funsies, I use the name of someone who's dead and therefore doesn't exist. Just use the card at a gas station once and you're done. You don't ever actually have to use the AU card. It has the same account number as yours, so they can't tell them apart.
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Feb 1, 2015 14:33
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baquerd posted:Hmm, don't know about the Chase card, but I know that secondary users on Amex can be differentiated, so there's definitely the potential for metadata. The cards could have different CVV1s, but if "your AU" makes a purchase online, there's no way to tell them apart. The account number, expiry, and CVV2 are all the same for the Chase products I've seen. (Amex issues different account numbered cards to AUs.) I have done this with 2 chase cards and my AU (who is a legit AU) has never used either card. I still got the bonus. It's for 'adding an AU' and 'making a purchase', not 'having the AU make a purchase', even though people tend to interpret it that way.
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Feb 1, 2015 16:48
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khysanth posted:Barclaycard Arrival+ is chip and pin. Well. It's signature preferred, so it will only go to PIN if it can't do signature, which means you won't be PINning lots of places. This includes a lot of Europe, where people say that they've had transactions voided when a signature slip prints out. If you are ultra ultra paranoid, the only 'real' Chip & PIN cards in the US that anybody can get are Diner's Club (applications temporarily closed) and UNFCU. There are a few other CUs that will issue PIN-preference cards, but they require military affiliation.
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Feb 3, 2015 00:02
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Good Will Hrunting posted:Does anyone with Amex Blue shop at The Vitamin Shoppe? Cause if that counts as a Supermarket like it does on Discover I'm probably around $2500 on "groceries" for the year and believe it would be worth it to get the Preferred. The ones that I saw are all over the map in classifications, but nowhere food-related. We've got 5499 (convenience stores), 5999 (general merchandise), and 7999 (recreation/amusement facilities  ). Each store is franchised so can pick its category code. It doesn't seem like any of them are going to be anywhere near grocery. I don't know why you're getting it at Discover, except if the one you go to is 5499, Discover might lump those together (since it uses a different categorization system). Amex does not include convenience stores in grocery stores. In fact, it often misses bodegas, IME.
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Feb 3, 2015 05:46
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Buzz, Arrival Plus. Citi Double Cash doesn't have a signup bonus. You will need to make a ~$500 travel purchase to get the value, but it's definitely worth doing. "Travel purchase" is a pretty wide category on that card, too.
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Feb 4, 2015 06:02
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hitachi posted:Using there calculator thing online it looks like this Keep in mind "carrier charges" can be hundreds of dollars depending on airline and route. If you're looking for longhauls on BA, you're going to be looking at another $700+ per person in 'fuel surcharges', despite fuel being the cheapest for airlines it's been in 15 years.
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Feb 6, 2015 00:03
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Xandu posted:I...they're Visa, so they're accepted everywhere Visa is accepted. Well, the Double Cash is a MasterCard  But yeah... anywhere. But Costco.
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Feb 7, 2015 04:09
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Blinky2099 posted:Is there anything else I should be considering in terms of sign-up bonuses, or airfare, etc? Racking up miles would be nice, but I don't think I fully understand why someone would use a 1.5% cash back card that can only be used on airfare rather than 2% cash back that can be used on everything. Frequent flyer program points or flexible rewards points can be 'worth' more than 1 cent per point, so if you're getting 1.5 points per dollar but each point is worth 2 cents, you're really getting 3 cents per dollar vs. 2. The calculation for how to value each point is personal and depends on your travel style and other stuff, so a flat cashback card certainly wins for simplicity. But, if you like staying at fancy hotels or flying outside of coach, flexible points/FF points can end up being a way better value.
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Feb 8, 2015 00:46
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Bloody Queef posted:Is the Sallie Mae card true cash back or is it only applicable to you student loan? Yeah, it's real cash back (well, statement credits). You don't need any relationship with Sallie Mae to get the card, you just can't live in Iowa.
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Feb 8, 2015 17:22
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Further disclaimer about MS is that you should only do this if you're okay with having your relationship with that bank/card axed if they find out about it. Amex and Chase have both been known to fire customers who excessively MS, and the definition of 'excessive' can change on a day-to-day basis.
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Feb 15, 2015 18:42
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You better hurry, Serve is shutting down CC loads online for non-Amex cards on 4/16. Most Amex cards don't earn any points when used for Serve, though some third-party Amex cards (FIA 2% Amex, etc.) apparently do. quote:Note: Starting April 16, 2015 you will only be able to use an American Express® Card if you want to load your account with a credit card. Discover, MasterCard and Visa credit cards will no longer be supported after April 16. Bisty Q. fucked around with this message at 03:21 on Mar 14, 2015 |
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Mar 13, 2015 23:29
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SiGmA_X posted:Disappointing, but it sounds like 4/16/15 from your quote, which is better than 4/1/15. I can load another grand in the first week of April. I need to get on the RedCard Prepaid bandwagon (aka harass my friend to have his mom send me one.. Its been a month since she said she would!) Yeah, I missed the 6. No redbirds in my area, and none in the areas I travel either. It's a conspiracy against big cities.
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Mar 14, 2015 03:22
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pig slut lisa posted:In my experience, many of the application websites automatically tell you "3 reasons your score isn't higher" or whatever, regardless of your actual creditworthiness. For instance, during my last application the card provider site said my score is lower than it otherwise would be since I "don't have several types of credit". And it's true, my score would probably be higher if I was paying off a mortgage, an auto loan, etc. But my credit score was 801 at the time of that application, so it was really just the computer program identifying my three "worst" features, even though they aren't "bad" at all in my case. Discover even says that - see the text in blue. 
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Mar 16, 2015 22:12
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pig slut lisa posted:Argh, what the hell. I applied for the Alaska Airlines BofA card yesterday and got a screen that said my application was receiving further consideration and I'd be hearing from them in the mail. My credit score is slightly over 800, I have five cards with a combined limit of ~$25,000 (and like ~$3,000 current utilization), and I haven't applied for anything since January. I did recently lower the limit on a couple cards, but I can't imagine that's the problem. You may be approaching your exposure limit with BoA, especially depending on your current income. You should call the recon number and talk to them now. 1-866-865-7843 (they will answer in Spanish, just say "English, por favor?" and then you're good to go. They will speak English.) Just tell them you recently applied for a card and got the pending review screen and wanted to see if there was anything you could to accelerate the process.
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Apr 3, 2015 22:07
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pig slut lisa posted:Thanks. I was thinking about calling reconsideration, but I've heard (at least wrt other cards) that calling recon can draw too much attention to your profile. Have you had this happen with BoA before? I've used BOA recon twice with no problems. I don't do anything they wouldn't like (no MS, for example), though. A pending from most issuers is a no, so it can't really hurt to call in advance and try to get it fixed before the letters go out.
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Apr 4, 2015 14:35
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Boris Galerkin posted:Looks like US Airways Dividends MasterCard got expressed mailed to me and it did come with a piece of paper saying I should receive 50k miles after paying the dues and making a purchase. Still waiting on the other card to come in. They made a Dividend Miles (or AAdvantage account, maybe) for you. The number will appear on your first statement, and you can then call AA and ask them to merge that account with your 'real' one. You have to pay the annual fee all at once before you get the miles. The AF will show up on your first statement and not be due for another 20+ days after that, and you won't get the points until you pay for it and the subsequent statement (plus at least one purchase) generates. I'd recommend making a small purchase you know the amount of, then sending a bank bill pay to the card for $89 + that purchase amount, to accelerate the miles posting if you're in a hurry.
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Apr 4, 2015 14:38
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Insane Totoro posted:I know that there's the AA card and a poo poo ton of ways to get AA points. But what are some good ways to earn United points? https://www.theexplorercard.com/30k50AFWIC 30k + $50 is the best public offer right now.
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Apr 7, 2015 02:49
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EugeneJ posted:I think we've discussed here that this can backfire because ChexSystems can blacklist you for opening too many accounts in a short period 'Too many' is like 15+ in a year though. Highly highly highly unlikely you'll ever get near the thresholds even with significant gaming (since most of the bonuses are one per customer per year at the MOST generous)
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Apr 14, 2015 04:54
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Insane Totoro posted:TL;DR it depends
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Apr 26, 2015 21:06
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fruit loop posted:Got an American Express green card offer in the mail. I generally want to have several credit cards for the boost to my credit score, but Green card is a waste; if you want an amex charge card, get the PRG and the 50K bonus membership rewards points.
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May 23, 2015 02:50
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extravadanza posted:No catch. I was the 'referral' for my wife and we both got the bonus. I don't think there has ever been a better deal than 20K on the Freedom.
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Jun 4, 2015 13:48
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smackfu posted:I'd be surprised. No foreign transaction fee is a pretty valuable service, once you start spending a few thousand bucks overseas. BOA Travel Rewards is also 1.5%, no FTF, EMV, etc. Currently running a $100 signup bonus; I don't think QS is running any. The potential can be even higher; at least 10% higher if you have a BOA account at all and up to 75% higher if you have a lot of money there. (I get 2.63% back on everything on that card.)
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Jun 24, 2015 02:07
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