H
hsmomof6
Guest
Ditto on all this.
What rewards cc do you use
- Thread starter tiffu22
- Start date
Ditto on all this.
I do this with Discover: you can send money to friends and family (to Chase bank ccount or Paypal) and earn points (maximum $1000 per month). I send money to me from DH's account, that's $10/month, $120/year per account for rolling your money back and forth.
- Messages
- 3,137
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 402
Are you constantly opening up new CC to get so many sign up bonuses? And then what are you doing with your existing cards then? I want to take advantage of new offers but have so many existing cards ... I really need to close some and then I can sign up for 2 new ones that will net me 350.00 right after my first purchase.
We made about 900, maybe 1000 last year from cash back/gift card redemptions from Discover/Chase. We also opened up 3 new CC accounts and got another 350 from the sign up bonuses (100, 100, both from Chase and 150 from 5th Discover account) but we have a lot of CC in our household now. I probably have 15 cards and DH has maybe 10. We only use about 5 or 6 of them and pay them off every month and have excellent credit, but I just feel like that's a lot of open credit KWIM.
I am constantly bombarded with CC offers. The scary thing is that I don't work outside the home (and haven't for at least 6 years) but I have stacks of preapproved offers for 10K, 15K, 25K, etc credit limits.
ETA: I forgot that I had heard they were passing some legislation about credit card approvals for non-working spouses (i.e. no earned income) so maybe that will change but as of last week, I was still getting offers.
- Messages
- 4,913
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 602
Also to consider (we do not qualify for Chase Freedom since no one in our house has a W2 job at the moment)
Discover just increased their limits to be comparable with Chase freedom (guess those TV commercials were working).
I also have a Paypal debit card that pays 1 o/o cash back when swiped as a credit (non-pin) so when I top out Discover I use the PP debit until Discover resets.
We used to have an Amex blue card but we gave it up because of the annual fee.
Discover just increased their limits to be comparable with Chase freedom (guess those TV commercials were working).
I also have a Paypal debit card that pays 1 o/o cash back when swiped as a credit (non-pin) so when I top out Discover I use the PP debit until Discover resets.
We used to have an Amex blue card but we gave it up because of the annual fee.
- Messages
- 3,137
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 402
We have a AMEX/Costco Tru Earnings card that we use too.
It's combined with our executive membership and earns 3 percent for gas, 2 percent for restaurants and travel, and 1 percent everywhere else including Costco. There is no limit on what you can earn and there is no fee when you have the Costco membership.
I can't say that it's good or bad but when neither Discover or Chase is doing the gas or restaurants bonus, I charge it on the AMEX and get 3 or 2 percent back instead of 1 percent. But, the rebate is in the form of a check that has to be used at Costco. However, our rebate check was like 90 bucks last year, we ran in and got milk and fruit, and they gave us the balance back in cash (maybe 75 dollars or so) so it is basically a cash back bonus too if you look at it that way.
It's combined with our executive membership and earns 3 percent for gas, 2 percent for restaurants and travel, and 1 percent everywhere else including Costco. There is no limit on what you can earn and there is no fee when you have the Costco membership.
I can't say that it's good or bad but when neither Discover or Chase is doing the gas or restaurants bonus, I charge it on the AMEX and get 3 or 2 percent back instead of 1 percent. But, the rebate is in the form of a check that has to be used at Costco. However, our rebate check was like 90 bucks last year, we ran in and got milk and fruit, and they gave us the balance back in cash (maybe 75 dollars or so) so it is basically a cash back bonus too if you look at it that way.
My citicard earns 1 point (thank you reward) for every $1 I spend. I do get bonus points but I'm not sure why. They have a huge list of gift cards that I can cash in for at www.thankyou.com. I usually wait until I have 10,000 points so I can get a $100 gift card (this is the best deal on the gift cards). This is not hard for me to do since I pay for everything (including bills) on the card and then pay it off every month. It usually takes about 6 months for me to get to 10,000 points. So I get about $200 per year back in gift cards. I also do not pay an annual fee.
How much do some of you put on your cards annually? After reading what some of you are getting back, maybe my card is not as good as I thought! But I guess it would depend on how much you spend on the card.
I only signed up credit cards that pays at least $200-$300 sign up bonus, I have 4 and DH 5. I only did that after we bought a house and know we don't need our scores or credit reports for a while. Yup, actively applying for credit can be bad when applying for mortgage.
It's scary! I have not been working outside the home at all, and I have all this credit card offers and checks sent to me. DH freaks out initially because he had a girl friend who store his identity to apply for credit cards and left him with a lot of credit card debts when they broke off. He is relief after my explaination, but he doesn't fully understand, still thinks it's not a great idea. Well, as long we do not get in debt, I am ok with having multiple cards.
- Messages
- 3,137
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 402
LOL, I will have to be more selective in my offers too. I knew I should have waited on the Chase. I have a preapproved offer for a Disney CC and it gives a 200.00 GC after first purchase. Since we are going to Disney in the spring, I'll definitely do that one. And I'm not too worried about credit scores either ... DH just bought a new Camry and no problems getting good financing and we only have 4 years left on our mortgage and we will own our house.
But, I hate those **** checks they send out. Whenever I get them, I run them thru my cross cut shredder until they are itty bitty pieces!
I average about 2.5k a month in purchases. We pay all bills and dh pays all his business expenses we get reimbursed for. So it is more so his spending as we can't pay mortgage, car, light and gas, water on a card.
- Messages
- 708
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 402
- #31
Thread Owner
Seems like a lot like chase. I have a chase card and don't really like them because they increased all my rates lowered my limit (did not have much on them) and closed one account when the economy got really bad a few years ago. I wonder if they would transfer my account to the freedom one or will I have to open a new account. We do have a discover, and a bank one the offers money back
No **** eh?!!!
I only charge my bus tickets, gas and food on my card. I'm going to look into if my other bills can get charged instead. Electric, association fees and any other crap I can.
I feel ripped off at only 4 $50 cards and other people are seriously racking up. lol
I feel ripped off at only 4 $50 cards and other people are seriously racking up. lol
H
hsmomof6
Guest
I have a Chase Freedom, but I also do not like Chase. They did the same thing to us with a Chase CC a few years back when the economy got bad. We had a very, very low fixed for life rate on a balance transfer. So, they decided they were going to start charging a monthly fee on the account but if you transferred to a higher rate you would not be charged a fee. Of course they knew you would have to transfer because the fee would cost more than the rate increase. Then, after you transfer they send a letter saying the new rate is only for 2 years. I probably swore I would never do business with them again. Eventually they had to reinstate the original terms of my balance transfer and credit me the extra I had paid. I figure they probably had a class action suit going or something. I sold out because they offered a good amount for opening the account. Maybe it was $300 or so. I still don't trust them whatsoever and have a tough time deciding between Discover and Chase. I'm glad Discover changed their cash back amounts from $300 a quarter in spending to $1500 (I checked online after I read it here and saw the change starting in January).
- Messages
- 292
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 102
I know a lot of people say they aren't worried about how opening the extra cards will effect their credit, etc. But one thing to keep in mind is an unexpected. For instance, we decided to refinance - we will end up saving almost what we pay in taxes a month - unreal! So anyway, we have only a mortgage, no car payments, no credit card balances (we use our chase visa but pay each month, no student loans, etc). So we had a very high credit score but to then we were asked about why was their an inquiry into our credit by bank of america. Well we had opened a credit card back in September because of a good deal when you opened it. Long story short, we had to write a letter why the inquiry happened and then show proof that the new card has a zero balance. It was not a big deal - but they needed to know and needed a written statement from us.
Likewise, a friend's DH works for the airlines and is now very worried about his job. They decided to now refinance - they were never expecting to - but rates are lower and can lower their payment which need to do in case he is laid off.
Just something to think about....
Likewise, a friend's DH works for the airlines and is now very worried about his job. They decided to now refinance - they were never expecting to - but rates are lower and can lower their payment which need to do in case he is laid off.
Just something to think about....
- Messages
- 18,763
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 602
Me too. The only regular bill I charge to my cc is my Verizon bill (phone, cable, internet).
I also end up spreading things out on about 4 cc's I use so that slows down the rewards. I really should start to mainly use one.
Guess I should add this to my resolution list.
just recently discover. but i realize i also spent $1000 more than i intended monthly when i use 2 credit cards
so i will try to limit it to just autopayments already set up :\
so i will try to limit it to just autopayments already set up :\
Inquiries stay on for 2 years. It's the standard practice now that you have to write a statement to explain all the inquiries on your credit report. We had opened trading accounts prior to that and the investment firms pulled our credit reports, we had to explain that in writing. We also shopped for mortgage before we bought a house, so they were a couple of inquiries on our credit reports. We had to write a statement that it was due to the mortgage shopping. That's why it's good not to let the lenders do the hard pull on your credits until you decided to commit to one, we didn't know better.
Right now I'm using a Citi card; I get 30,000 bonus ThankYou points ($300 in GCs) if I spend $1500 in the first 3 months. After I hit the threshold, I'll probably go back to using my Chase Freedom until I find another sign-up bonus. Sometimes I use my Discover (or DH's), but we use Discover only for the bonus categories, and only up to the $300 limit. Other than the bonus categories Discover's cash back program sucks!
We bought a car in June and paid as much as the dealership would allow on CC (paying it off before the due date so no finance charges) for the cash back.
We bought a car in June and paid as much as the dealership would allow on CC (paying it off before the due date so no finance charges) for the cash back.
