Quote :

"American Express, by far, has the best rewards You have to pay the balance every month and have a yearly fee, but they give you mad free shit""

woah woah woah WOAH WOAHWOAHWOAH.


This statement is not true for the majority of American Express card holders if their monthly expenditures does not exceed $10,000.

[Edited on December 2, 2010 at 8:55 PM. Reason : .]

12/2/2010 8:54:20 PM

I need a good credit card for groceries and gas. Blue Cash would be tempting, but I don't spend enough in just those categories to hit the bonus.

12/3/2010 10:40:28 AM

$6,500 total. Not just just in those categories.

12/3/2010 1:03:53 PM

I realize this, but I would only use this for groceries and gas. My CitiForward card gives me better rewards on pretty much everything else. It's a flat 5 points for bookstores (Amazon), movie theaters, and restaurants, and 1 point for everything else.

12/3/2010 1:38:00 PM

Quote :

"You have to be invited by Amex to get a Black card, and it carries a minimum $250k yearly spending requirement."

That's a lot of moola

12/3/2010 3:04:57 PM

If I'm not mistaken, the limit used to be higher but the economy tanked and they wanted more people to qualify.

[Edited on December 4, 2010 at 2:41 AM. Reason : Of course I could be very wrong.]

12/4/2010 2:40:32 AM

i have the charles schwab invest first visa that gives 2% cash back on everything

i think they stopped offering it though

12/4/2010 7:09:31 AM

anybody have a capital one card, or at least have any opinions

12/5/2010 1:30:25 AM

Note there is a difference between American Express Charge Cards and the American Express Credit Cards

12/5/2010 1:46:41 AM

^^ I have had a Capital One card since I turned 18. Got it mostly to build my credit, but in general I hate that account. I still have it open (as I don't have a ton of credit history, and it's my oldest account), but rarely use it. I have NEVER been late on a payment, never hit the limit, but they still hiked my interest rate up to about 29%. I have complained about it more than once, and never gotten a good explanation for it.

Also, my account with them is useless for rewards and such.

12/5/2010 10:33:12 AM

I have a Capital One No Hassle Rewards card. I use the rewards exclusively for gift cards, which is earns generally %1 (You have to spend $2,000 to get a $20 card). They have other options (like earning rewards based on how much you eat out, spend on gas, travel), but I never tried them.

12/5/2010 5:42:37 PM

Citi Forward for books, movies, music, bars, restaurants (5% in gift cards)
PenFed Platinum for gas (5% cash)
FIA Schwab Invest First for everything else (2% cash)

Quote :

"Does anyone use a Citi MtVu or City Pay Forward card? If so how exactly do the rewards work on those?"

5 points per dollar spent, most of the desirable gift cards now cost 6,000 points for a $50 card, though some can still be had at 10,000 pts / $100. So effectively 4 or 5 % depending on what you're after. You can also redeem ThankYou points for flights or CashBack, but the rates are not nearly as good.

Quote :

"American Express, by far, has the best rewards"

As much as I love AmEx (customer service is unbeatable), their membership rewards program sucks.

[Edited on December 7, 2010 at 10:51 AM. Reason : c]

12/7/2010 10:46:46 AM

Quote :

"You can also redeem ThankYou points for flights or CashBack, but the rates are not nearly as good."

For flights, it's basically 1pt = $0.01, so a $350 point will cost you 35,000 points.

12/7/2010 12:43:21 PM

^true. I guess the rates on the flights aren't so bad, but the cashback rates are awful.

I never really considered using TY points for flights, since I usually just game the airline CC bonus offers for all my traveling needs.

12/7/2010 12:46:56 PM

^ how many credit cards do you have? Doesn't having too many open revolving accounts have a negative effect on your credit score?

does closing your most recently opened account help that score?

12/7/2010 1:15:51 PM

Currently, I have a dozen open accounts. At my peak, I was up to about 25 or so.

Nothing's really that clear cut regarding how accounts affect your credit score. For example: opening a new account does 2 things: increases your available credit limit and lowers your utilization ratio (both good). BUT you take a small hit for every application you submit (not really significant), and the average age of your accounts goes down (both bad).

Having too much credit, while it will not affect your score, COULD cause a lender to consider you high risk. This happens mostly when applying for a large (house or auto) loan.

That being said, my basic strategy is this:

-ALWAYS keep your oldest accounts open, whether you use them or not. Over time, ask for credit increases on these lines. This will ensure your average account age and credit availability stay up.
-NEVER close an account outright. If I signed up for a Chase card solely for the bonus (ie won't be using it), I collect said bonus and then CONSOLIDATE that credit line into my oldest chase card. This gets rid of the old account, and boosts my credit limit on the keeper card.

I've got my 4-5 main cards that are keepers (at least one with each major bank), and I just sign up for the bonuses when they come along. Collect bonus, close account (consolidate), rinse repeat.

The accounts you close "drop off" your credit report after a while (looking at my credit reports, can't really figure out exactly when/why), which brings your average age back up.

I check my credit yearly and have always been in the top tier of credit scores. Lowest rate available on my mortgage, etc etc. So this strategy doesn't really seem to be impacting me negatively at all. But I do enjoy the hell out of those sweet, sweet rewards. The bonuses kinda died off with the big bank scare, but they have been back with a vengeance lately.

[Edited on December 7, 2010 at 1:34 PM. Reason : g]

12/7/2010 1:31:06 PM

Awesome thanks for the info.

So when you call up Chase or Citi or whoever, and tell them you want to "consolidate the credit line of card A into card B" it's always a simple, straightforward process? They usually know what to do like it's a common thing?

12/7/2010 1:45:40 PM

FanatiK would know better than I, but in the past Citi has told me I couldn't consolidate a Citi Mastercard and Citi Visa. They told me it wouldn't be an issue if they were both Visas or both Mastercards though.

12/7/2010 1:53:03 PM

Yes, they always know what I'm talking about.
A few times recently, they've told me they can't do it, and I just closed the card. They also are more reluctant to let you 'convert' one card type to another within the same bank. Chalk it up to the economy, I guess.

My oldest 'keeper' cards are getting credit limits so high that I'm worried they will draw attention. AmEx, in particular, has been known to 'come after' people with insanely high credit limits on their cards. By 'come after', I mean requiring thorough documentation of income which usually results in a severe reduction or termination of the credit line in question.

Quote :

"I couldn't consolidate a Citi Mastercard and Citi Visa"

Yeah, I've never been able to pull that off either.

[Edited on December 7, 2010 at 1:55 PM. Reason : d]

12/7/2010 1:53:16 PM

FanatiK -- how much interest do you pay on your cards each year, if you don't mind me asking?

Personally I think that playing the credit card game is a bit silly, but that's just me. Constantly positioning yourself just to get or keep a good credit score is ridiculous. It's all a scam.

12/7/2010 1:56:56 PM

Proud to say I have never spent a single dime in fees or interest in my 6 years in 'the game'.

I don't spend time agonizing over my credit score or anything, but you are right about CCs being a scam... if you play your cards right, you get to scam the bank though.

Sorry, I get really geeked up when I talk about this stuff. Most people just think CCs are bad and don't want to hear anything about them. But I've collected more than $5000 in ThankYou gift cards in the past 6 years. And that's just ONE of the rewards programs I'm active in. That's some serious FREE dough.

Not to mention the perks such as extended warranties, theft/loss protection, price protection, etc etc. Little known fact: if you can find a card without foreign transaction fees (such as the Schwab I referenced above), you actually get a better exchange rate than you would on the open market. Crazy, I know.

[Edited on December 7, 2010 at 2:03 PM. Reason : d]

12/7/2010 2:01:48 PM

Quote :

"FanatiK -- how much interest do you pay on your cards each year, if you don't mind me asking? Personally I think that playing the credit card game is a bit silly, but that's just me. Constantly positioning yourself just to get or keep a good credit score is ridiculous. It's all a scam. "

1 - if he's anything like me...nothing. you put everything on the cards to get the rewards, and pay your balance in full every month.

2 - he's not playing the credit card game to keep a good credit score. the game is for getting free cash back, airline tickets, gift cards etc

12/7/2010 2:04:11 PM

^exactly right. I'm not doing this for the credit score. In fact, I really don't care about my score anymore now that I've gotten my mortgage.

This is not an exaggeration: I can't remember the last time I paid for airline tickets.

12/7/2010 2:06:57 PM

Cool deal.

12/7/2010 2:07:01 PM

Damn, which one gave you 5K in 6 years? I charge about 12K year and get $300 cash back via chase.

12/7/2010 3:58:06 PM

mostly the Citi Forward / mtvU.

That number is really high mostly because I was flipping Wii systems for about a year when they first came out, bought hundreds of them from Amazon (5% using that card).

12/7/2010 4:42:21 PM

I used the MTVU for years but recently switched to using my Chase Freedom card...it seems to give much better rewards return for my spending /shrug

and:

Quote :

"1 - if he's anything like me...nothing. you put everything on the cards to get the rewards, and pay your balance in full every month. 2 - he's not playing the credit card game to keep a good credit score. the game is for getting free cash back, airline tickets, gift cards etc"

bingo. I just had this come up in conversation again today at work. A lady was talking about savings and retirement and such and then was telling me how she never uses any credit cards, just her debit card and was suggesting I do the same ("Don't let yourself get in credit card debt this early in life!"). When I told her that 99% of all purchases I make are with my credit card she looked horrified and I had to explain that I have never carried a balance on any card because I pay the full amount off each month and that I only do it for the rewards basically. She seemed like she had never heard that before and thought that rewards only accumulated if you carried a balance on a credit card. She was way out of the loop apparently

[Edited on December 7, 2010 at 4:51 PM. Reason : .]

12/7/2010 4:46:26 PM

Quote :

"because I was flipping Wii systems for about a year when they first came out, bought hundreds of them from Amazon (5% using that card)."

oh well that doesn't count towards rewards money

that there is hustlin' money

12/7/2010 4:49:58 PM

Citi Forward ftw. I've had it since May-ish and I love it. My rewards paid for half of my iPad

12/7/2010 5:07:48 PM

Quote :

"That number is really high mostly because I was flipping Wii systems for about a year when they first came out, bought hundreds of them from Amazon (5% using that card)."

wonder how much state tax you'd have to pay if they ever found out about your purchases

12/7/2010 8:24:25 PM

Of course, I reported all these purchases on my taxes.

Had I not, with all the purchases I've made from Amazon over the past 6 years, I'd probably have to flee the country if the taxman came knocking.

I was watching that NC vs Amazon lawsuit very closely.

12/8/2010 10:22:58 AM

The best part of the CitiForward card is that whenever you talk about it you learn about all the random things you can get off Amazon.

For example, I buy powdered mashed potatoes off Amazon.

12/8/2010 12:06:07 PM

"whenever you talk about it"?


i ordered a case of individual bags of potato chips off amazon. everybody got a kick out of that one.

12/8/2010 12:09:47 PM

True, I guess it's more the other way around -- you buy something weird off Amazon and then have to explain why it's more beneficial than just going down to the store.

12/8/2010 12:17:24 PM

Amazon Prime is crucial

12/8/2010 2:02:50 PM

agreed. speaking of which, check out how you can get a 'free' Amazon Prime membership...

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-18438_7-20024644-82.html

12/8/2010 2:30:45 PM

How is that free?

12/8/2010 2:59:18 PM

well it's free if you know someone with one

12/8/2010 3:11:07 PM

I share my Prime subscription with a few others guys, we just pool our money together. $15 per year!

You can get a free year with a .edu email account:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/student/signup/info



In other news, I just got off the phone with Chase, was canceling a United card I applied for for 15k points and a free Kindle... The guy was a total dick. Had some kind of attitude about it, and just kept saying "so you got the card just for the bonus miles, then?". I kept trying to tell him no, that I thought I would use it and turned out differently. He kept trying to convert the card to the no-annual-fee version, and I kept declining... finally he goes "so you pretty much got it just for the miles, I'll make a note of that on your account"

Haters gonna hate...

[Edited on December 8, 2010 at 3:54 PM. Reason : d]

12/8/2010 3:48:52 PM

Yea I've shared my membership with a few friends and family members over the last few years, but it seems I end up paying more and more of the fee each time

12/8/2010 5:16:40 PM

FYI - this is a pretty good deal (expires today):

http://deltaamexlimitedtimeoffer.com/

45k points after spending $3000 in 3 months. That equals $400 in Gift Cards.

12/20/2010 9:32:59 AM

damn that is a good deal...thanks for sharing. i'll try to get on the next one you find

12/21/2010 4:54:59 PM

I've found that the cashier at Waffle House thinks that my Citi Diamond Preferred is a black card.

As such it is an excellent card for looking like a baller at cheap restaurants.

1/6/2011 1:43:17 PM

does the waffle house even qualify to be called a restaurant?

1/6/2011 2:03:44 PM

As such it is an excellent card for looking like a baller at cheap restaurants places that serve waffles.

1/6/2011 2:06:24 PM

I am really debating opening up an American Express Platinum. They have a steep fee associated with this card ($500 a year), but the card has so many travel benefits, that I am considering it. Their point program is excellent, and the plan is to charge everything we can to the card, and pay in full at the end of the month. The new card will also pay $200 toward airline incidentals every year, and you get access to about every admiral's club that exist at the airports, which cost a lot to be a member of (these two benefits alone should offset the card price). I also like the rental car coverage limits for the card, which go above and beyond the other platinums.

1/6/2011 2:28:04 PM

nvm

[Edited on January 6, 2011 at 2:45 PM. Reason : .]

1/6/2011 2:45:27 PM

Whats the trick to putting as many bills on your credit card as possible?

Is it possible to pay a mortgage with a credit card? Does American Express have some sort of BillPay option?

1/6/2011 3:25:58 PM

Amex doesn't. The only way I found to do so was through an FIA Card Services card (Bank of America's CC company) if you have one, though mortgage payments didn't count for rewards or miles.

1/6/2011 3:32:22 PM

^^ We wouldnt need to charge mortgages to come up with a good amount of charges every month My only problem is finding places that actually take AMEX Otherwise I'll probably default to the same Citibank rewards card that Josh has (I have had that one for a long time).

1/6/2011 3:58:53 PM