Credit Card Rewards and Recommendations

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Credit Card Rewards and Recommendations

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George H.W. Cunt: Oct 6, 2010

Damnit I use my BoA credit card once every 6 months or so for some bullshit purchase just to keep it in good standing. I want free money

# ? Oct 6, 2016 16:29

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# ? Apr 28, 2024 22:33

asur: Dec 28, 2012

George H.W. oval office posted:

Damnit I use my BoA credit card once every 6 months or so for some bullshit purchase just to keep it in good standing. I want free money

I do as well and still got the offer. It might be tied to overall spend per month. For reference my bullshit purchase is $1 at Amazon every couple months.

# ? Oct 6, 2016 16:33

asur: Dec 28, 2012

Baddog posted:

Predictit redeposit

Is there a fee to deposit into Predictit with a credit card?

# ? Oct 6, 2016 16:59

Baddog: May 12, 2001

asur posted:

Is there a fee to deposit into Predictit with a credit card?

5% on withdrawal, so its not like you can MS it.

I know vox just took his roll out and said he was done for a bit, so I was just suggesting this might be a sign to get some money back on.

# ? Oct 6, 2016 17:25

Vox Nihili: May 28, 2008

Baddog posted:

5% on withdrawal, so its not like you can MS it.

I know vox just took his roll out and said he was done for a bit, so I was just suggesting this might be a sign to get some money back on.

Yeah, that would be an efficient use, assuming I'm going to play election day at least.

# ? Oct 6, 2016 18:54

Vox Nihili: May 28, 2008

Ended up pulling the trigger on the BoA deal. Took about 5 minutes on the phone with their rep. They tried to sell me on a balance transfer even after I told them I don't carry any balances on my other cards.

Whatever, free money!

# ? Oct 6, 2016 22:23

pig slut lisa: Mar 5, 2012; irl is good

I mentioned in the financial goals thread that my wife and I have booked a trip to Asia next year using miles for first class on ANA (Chicago to Tokyo), Korean (Tokyo to Seoul to Bangkok), and Cathay Pacific (Bangkok to Hong Kong to Chicago). I received a couple PMs asking about this, so I figured I'd write a summary to show people what's possible. NB: there are definitely plenty of people out there who have done more than I have in less time!

My wife and I have received about 40 credit card bonuses since February '14. This number is a little misleading, however, because we started very slow. I applied my for my first card in Feb '14, my second in Oct '14, and it wasn't til Jan '15 that we started moving more quickly. I'll also note that 24 of these are mine, while 16 or so are in my wife's name.

Here is a list of cards I've received bonuses on, as well as the application date, active/cancelled, and any notes:

code:

2/14	Chase Sapphire Preferred	Active			Earned a lot of extra URs on this since I put all our Nov '14 wedding spending on it
8/14	Chase Southwest Plus		Cancelled		
1/15	Barclay US Airways		Cancelled		Got this right before it stopped existing; converted to AAviator
1/15	Amex Premier Rew. Gold		Cancelled
1/15	Citi AA Platinum		Downgraded		First Citi AA Platinum; downgraded to Doublecash
4/15	BofA Alaska			Cancelled		First Alaska card
4/15	Chase IHG			Active
7/15	BofA Alaska			Cancelled		Second Alaska card
7/15	Amex Everyday			Active
7/15	Citi HHonors Signature		Active
8/15	Amex Personal Plat		Active			100,000 MR bonus; will cancel this week (annual fee came due)
8/15	Citi AA Biz			Cancelled		Opened for co-op
10/15	BofA Alaska			Active			Third Alaska card; will cancel at year
10/15	Chase Southwest Prem.		Active			Companion Pass through end of '17; will cancel at year
11/15	Citi AA Platinum		Active			May leave open despite annual fee
1/16	Amex Gold Biz			Active			Opened under fictitious consulting business name; will cancel at year
2/16	Chase Southwest Biz		Active			Opened for co-op; will cancel at year
2/16	BofA Alaska			Active			Fourth Alaska card; may leave open despite annual fee
3/16	Amex SPG Personal		Active			Will cancel at year
4/16	Chase British Airways		Active			Will cancel at year
4/16	TD Aeroplan			Active			Will cancel at year
5/16	Amex SPG Biz			Active			Opened for co-op; reached large bonus by paying building property taxes; will cancel at year
6/16	Citi Premier			Active			Will likely cancel at year, depends on what I'm thinking with my TYP
6/16	Elan Amex			Active			Only cash back card ($350 bonus); run by Elan through one of my local banks

I don't have my wife's full list here but it includes 3 BofA Alaska cards, two AA cards (one was originally the US Airways card), a couple Amex MR cards (Everyday and PRG), Chase IHG, TD Aeroplan, and SPG Personal.

Our credit scores have consistently hung around the 760-780 range (depending on bureau) and we've never had a late payment, carried a balance, or paid an annual fee we didn't mean to.

I met the minimum spend on these with a combination of natural spend and manufactured spend. Our combined natural credit card spend is maybe a little north of $2,000/month, so some MS was definitely necessary. Spending outside of natural spend included:
-Using Serve to reach at least one Amex minimum spend (Personal Plat I think) and generating additional spend until Serve shutdown in Jan '16
-I had a good fee-free MS loop going for a while in mid-'16 where I would buy a Visa gift card on giftcards.com, load it to my Serve at Walmart, and then pay off my CC with Serve. Unfortunately the fee-free nature of this loop was eliminated in late '16.
-Right when my Serve got shut down, I discovered a fee-free source of Reloadits in my area. This was clutch for meeting the minimum spend on my Amex Gold Biz. I bought Reloadits at the grocery store for no fee, loaded them to a Meijer prepaid debit (run by PayPower, I think), and paid off my CC from there. The grocery store stopped stocking Reloadits right after I finished this minimum.
-As the president of my co-op board, I occasionally have the opportunity to pay for large building expenses on credit cards
-In Spring '16, I did the VGC->Money Order loop a few times at a 2% cost, strictly to meet a couple minimums
-I met one bonus by funding a Citigold checking account, which itself carried a 50,000 AAdvantage bonus. Hell of a time getting the bonus and closing the account, though I eventually got out after filing a CFPB complaint

There are definitely people who go way harder at this stuff than I do, know better MS methods, etc. More power to them! For me, the overriding goal was to keep it easy. I always expanded slowly, only trying out one new MS method at a time. I also always left myself an out in case an MS method dried up. The only time I've really ever had to scramble was when my Serve got shutdown right as I was facing a huge Amex minimum spend, but fortunately I found the Reloadit path a couple weeks later and it lasted just long enough for my needs.

My wife and I are planning on applying for a mortgage in Spring/Summer '17, so we're not applying for any new cards til then. We may just wait til July '18 so that we have a two year gap since our most recent credit card applications. We still are swimming in more points than we could use by then, so I don't feel like I need to rush. It's been fun!

E: formatting of my table looks fine on desktop but is crap on mobile for some reason :[

pig slut lisa fucked around with this message at 14:23 on Oct 11, 2016

# ? Oct 11, 2016 04:28

Cacafuego: Jul 22, 2007

Congrats, that's quite a haul! Always good to hear success stories. I think I topped out at 14 or 15 successful card bonuses last year until serve cut me off and then only sporadically got some new ones throughout this year.

# ? Oct 11, 2016 14:01

Baddog: May 12, 2001

Nice work!

I was gathering up airline miles for first class to asia as well, and then I realized that it is so goddamn hard to get three first class seats on the same flight. Seems hard to even get two some times! And my kid isn't old enough to appreciate it anyways. So I just switched to hotels after getting southwest companion.

Although I think it is worth it to to pay for IHG ambassador (with points), and maybe ebay some more of the weekend bogo certificates instead of using reward nights. At least at the intercontinentals in asia, the upgrades, club level amenities, and service were really drat good. We stayed in some monster suites at some of the best hotels I've ever been at for an average of ~$120/night (+the points to buy ambassador status).

# ? Oct 11, 2016 14:53

pig slut lisa: Mar 5, 2012; irl is good

Baddog posted:

I was gathering up airline miles for first class to asia as well, and then I realized that it is so goddamn hard to get three first class seats on the same flight. Seems hard to even get two some times! And my kid isn't old enough to appreciate it anyways.

Three is really tough. Our itinerary is definitely built around where we were able to find two seats together. For example, ANA (booked with Aeroplan miles) releases two seats ORD-NRT, but not for the Friday or Saturday flights, so we're leaving on a Sunday. Korean releases a ton of award space, but I think two seats is still more common than three. And on Cathay, we're actually split between business and first, though there's a strong possibility a second first class seat will be released a week or two beforehand so my wife can upgrade.

I think what a lot of people getting into this game don't realize at first is that it's not just about building huge mileage balances, but knowing how (and how easily) they can be spent. That was certainly the last piece of the puzzle for me.

Glad you found something that works for you. We are planning on starting a family in a year or two, at which point the hotels + Southwest miles strategy becomes way more appealing.

# ? Oct 11, 2016 15:17

The Mantis: Jul 19, 2004; what is yall sayin?

that's hella dope -- congrats

a min/maxy noob question: I'm booking round trip ADD-SEZ flights on EAL for six travelers. My goal is to max out UR/UA miles, and I'll be booking on my CSR. I can buy the tickets direct from EAL, or via United's website because they're Star Alliance.

Assuming equal pricing, does buying from United offer any advantage?

# ? Oct 11, 2016 21:07

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Does anyone know how those Paypal money gift cards work?

Chase Freedom 5% is at Drug stores this quarter. Would it be possible to load up on Paypal cards and send them to yourself or a friend?

# ? Oct 11, 2016 22:40

Cacafuego: Jul 22, 2007

Leon Trotsky 2012 posted:

Does anyone know how those Paypal money gift cards work?

Chase Freedom 5% is at Drug stores this quarter. Would it be possible to load up on Paypal cards and send them to yourself or a friend?

That's pretty much it. I think CVS still allows you to buy them with credit cards. Although, don't do it too much if you value your PayPal account, reports are they'll shut you down

# ? Oct 12, 2016 02:36

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

Cacafuego posted:

That's pretty much it. I think CVS still allows you to buy them with credit cards. Although, don't do it too much if you value your PayPal account, reports are they'll shut you down

Does Paypal charge a fee to transfer money loaded from a card instead of directly from a bank? Has anyone actually done it to confirm or has any datapoints from another site?

My Walgreens seems to let me use a credit card for Visa Gift cards, so I would assume they would let me use it for Paypal.

Leon Trotsky 2012 fucked around with this message at 14:56 on Oct 12, 2016

# ? Oct 12, 2016 14:54

extravadanza: Oct 19, 2007

I don't do any MS, but that seems like a pretty sweet way to get a quick $500 towards the bonus if I can just buy a paypal GC and re-deposit it in my bank...

# ? Oct 14, 2016 20:25

FunOne: Aug 20, 2000; I am a slimey vat of concentrated stupidity; Fun Shoe

Tangentially related, but is there any way to get an item added to the Citi Price rewind feature?

Or am I stuck doing my own search and completing the form?

# ? Oct 14, 2016 22:17

ETB: Nov 8, 2009; Yeah, I'm that guy.

FunOne posted:

Tangentially related, but is there any way to get an item added to the Citi Price rewind feature?

Or am I stuck doing my own search and completing the form?

Either wait for it to show up or you gotta fill the form out. Sometimes it's worth filling the form if you know it's a good price.

# ? Oct 14, 2016 22:33

Leon Trotsky 2012: Aug 27, 2009; YOU CAN TRUST ME!*

_{*Israeli Government-affiliated poster}

extravadanza posted:

I don't do any MS, but that seems like a pretty sweet way to get a quick $500 towards the bonus if I can just buy a paypal GC and re-deposit it in my bank...

I looked into it and there is a 3.95 fee to activate each $500 card and it works, but I'm nervous to do it because people say that Paypal considers it "suspicious activity" and can limit your account for doing it.

# ? Oct 15, 2016 00:24

BEHOLD: MY CAPE: Jan 11, 2004

FunOne posted:

Tangentially related, but is there any way to get an item added to the Citi Price rewind feature?

Or am I stuck doing my own search and completing the form?

Do the form and fax it in, it will be approved in like 3 business days. The stupid price searcher is missing tons of items and store sales and also takes much longer to index a sale price even if it is current.

# ? Oct 15, 2016 17:20

Boxman: Sep 27, 2004; Big fan of

I have a straightforward question - Can I book on Southwest through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal (thus earning the 25/50% redemption bonus on the Sapphire Cards?)

Contextual explanation if someone wants to double check to see I'm making the correct calls: I currently use the Southwest premium card. Southwest points don't have fixed values, but hover between 1.2-1.7 cents depending on the flight. Even though I'm pretty much only getting 1 point per dollar, the redemption value makes it a solid reward. The $100 fee is blunted by the 6k annual point bonus, which goes a long way toward recouping the fee.

With the Sapphire cards having such a great reputation I'm considering jumping ship, but I'd like to make sure I'd get my value worth before discontinuing my Southwest card. Being able to get that bonus would go a long way toward that. Because the Sapphire cards carry significantly higher annual fees (due to the lack of an annual bonus for the Preferred card), I think I'd have to get that 25/50% bonus to make them worthwhile.

The other thing worth noting is that I'm in a city where Southwest absolutely dominates the airport. The extra flexibility from being able to use airlines that aren't Southwest is functionally irrelevant to me, since I'm all but guaranteed to use Southwest anyway.

Boxman fucked around with this message at 14:36 on Oct 17, 2016

# ? Oct 17, 2016 14:04

Hashtag Banterzone: Dec 8, 2005; Lifetime Winner of the willkill4food Honorary Bad Posting Award in PWM

Boxman posted:

I have a straightforward question - Can I book on Southwest through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal (thus earning the 25/50% redemption bonus on the Sapphire Cards?)

Contextual explanation if someone wants to double check to see I'm making the correct calls: I currently use the Southwest premium card. Southwest points don't have fixed values, but hover between 1.2-1.7 cents depending on the flight. Even though I'm pretty much only getting 1 point per dollar, the redemption value makes it a solid reward. The $100 fee is blunted by the 6k annual point bonus, which goes a long way toward recouping the fee.

With the Sapphire cards having such a great reputation I'm considering jumping ship, but I'd like to make sure I'd get my value worth before discontinuing my Southwest card. Being able to get that bonus would go a long way toward that. Because the Sapphire cards carry significantly higher annual fees (due to the lack of an annual bonus for the Preferred card), I think I'd have to get that 25/50% bonus to make them worthwhile.

The other thing worth noting is that I'm in a city where Southwest absolutely dominates the airport. The extra flexibility from being able to use airlines that aren't Southwest is functionally irrelevant to me, since I'm all but guaranteed to use Southwest anyway.

You can't use the chase portal, but you can transfer points if you have the CSR or CSP (or Ink) to Southwest, which is likely a better value anyway.

Sapphire is only really a good daily use card if you use the extra benefits, but the signup bonus is good enough that you don't have to worry about figuring that out for another year or so.

Have you looked into trying to get the SW Companion pass?

# ? Oct 17, 2016 16:03

DeceasedHorse: Nov 11, 2005

Can't book using SW flights using the UR portal, might be able to by calling in (southwest isn't listed on any treacle agency website, which the UR portal basically is).

Keep in mind the sapphire preferred's annual fee is waived first year, so you could get it for a year then downgrade/ cancel and enjoy your extra 55,000 points plus whatever you earn on dining an other travel. There's also the sapphire reserve...

# ? Oct 17, 2016 16:17

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

New chase card offering called ink business preferred

quote:

The card will offer a sign-up bonus of 80,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5,000 within three months
The card will offer triple points on the first $150,000 spent annually on travel, telecommunications, shipping and advertising on social-media and search engines
The card will have a $95 annual fee, which is waived the first year if applying in-branch

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-19/jpmorgan-turns-up-heat-on-amex-with-richer-reward-business-card

Chase has been killing it with the higher end cards, I'd expect Citi and BAC to start copying them and offering more options along these lines next year.

I wonder how many pallets of cash Google gave JPMC for the 3x points on advertising spending.

Pryor on Fire fucked around with this message at 15:23 on Oct 20, 2016

# ? Oct 20, 2016 15:19

THF13: Sep 26, 2007; Keep an adversary in the dark about what you're capable of, and he has to assume the worst.

I'll be under 5/24 next and able to get a new Chase card and considering a strategy a little more advanced than I'm used to.

In November get the Chase Sapphire Preferred, spend $4k for 50,000 Chase Unlimited Points
In April of next year get the Reserve for an additional 100,000 points.
In June get the Chase Freedom Unlimited for $150 (15,000 points when transferred)

Transferring everything to the Reserve gets me 165,000 points which can be redeemed for 1.5x their value, so that's $2,475 in sign up bonuses alone. It also is helpful because I have the Amex Platinum until May of next year and I'm not planning to travel this calendar year so I would lose most of the $300 travel credit.

Trying to weigh these benefits against the likelihood Chase lowers the Reserve benefits before April.

# ? Oct 25, 2016 21:05

EugeneJ: Feb 5, 2012; by FactsAreUseless

Can I add a card to my credit account but limit how much is on the new card?

Like if I want to give my girlfriend a card with a $200 monthly cap, is that possible?

# ? Oct 25, 2016 22:44

skipdogg: Nov 29, 2004; Resident SRT-4 Expert

EugeneJ posted:

Can I add a card to my credit account but limit how much is on the new card?

Like if I want to give my girlfriend a card with a $200 monthly cap, is that possible?

Depends on the company. I think I can do this with my Citi cards, but I don't think I can do it with any other cards I have. Maybe Amex, but my wife isn't an AU on my Amex so I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure I can't do it on my credit union cards, Chase, or any of the others.

# ? Oct 25, 2016 22:55

Vox Nihili: May 28, 2008

Vox Nihili posted:

Ended up pulling the trigger on the BoA deal. Took about 5 minutes on the phone with their rep. They tried to sell me on a balance transfer even after I told them I don't carry any balances on my other cards.

Whatever, free money!

The $150 credit already came through and I also turned the $500 spend into $1200 on Predictit.

# ? Oct 27, 2016 22:11

Pryor on Fire: May 14, 2013; they don't know all alien abduction experiences can be explained by people thinking saving private ryan was a documentary

SA Forums > Discussion > Ask / Tell > BFC > Credit Card Rewards I also turned the $500 spend into $1200 on Predictit

# ? Oct 27, 2016 22:54

becoming: Aug 25, 2004

EugeneJ posted:

Can I add a card to my credit account but limit how much is on the new card?

Like if I want to give my girlfriend a card with a $200 monthly cap, is that possible?

You can definitely do this with American Express. It is not possible with Chase. Unsure about other issuers but in general, if AU cards don't have their own separate numbers, you won't be able to do it.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 00:07

Cacafuego: Jul 22, 2007

Vox Nihili posted:

The $150 credit already came through

# ? Oct 28, 2016 02:12

Pixelboy: Sep 13, 2005; Now, I know what you're thinking...

I called AMEX, told them I threw away a 75k platinum offer -- but wanted to reconsider.
They said, "Well, we sent to a 100k offer."

I'll take it!

100k points in the bank, and Centurion lounges being abused monthly...

Back to my Fidelity 2% everything-cash-back....

# ? Oct 28, 2016 02:39

FunOne: Aug 20, 2000; I am a slimey vat of concentrated stupidity; Fun Shoe

Just got a long rear end survey from Amex. The WHOLE thing was about acceptance, with a big focus on Discover for some reason. I don't know what those idiots are thinking.

The problem with my Amex is the rewards aren't as sweet as my other no-fee cards, it either has the same or lesser travel and purchase benefits, and it has intl' transaction fees. Bonus, upgrading to fix these is exorbitant and still doesn't bring it up to par.

I don't know why they think acceptance is the issue. gently caress, BofA for no fee at all will throw 2.6% cash back my way. I pay a big 'ol fee to Citi to get my entire family into the lounge, even when we're travelling separately.

If I upgraded to the platinum I have per-person extra card fees, I still don't get the same benes as the Citi card, and the rewards only get a tad better. Not worth it.

I think I've got 30k Amex points hanging out cause I haven't figure out anything worthwhile to spend them on.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 17:52

22 Eargesplitten: Oct 10, 2010

Is the Discover IT card still good for people without good credit? I want to get a balance transfer card so I can pay off the last $1500-2000 on my card without paying interest. I've got around a 600, hopefully that will get higher once I pay down the card from 5600. They have an 18-month 0% APR offer, which will hopefully be enough even if things get lovely financially. I haven't had a late payment in almost 3 years now, hopefully that helps. Nerd Wallet says 690-800, though.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 19:56

Cacafuego: Jul 22, 2007

FunOne posted:

I think I've got 30k Amex points hanging out cause I haven't figure out anything worthwhile to spend them on.

Wasn't there something recently about using ~30k MR>Plenti points to buy an iPhone 7? I know I read that somewhere, but forgot about it

# ? Oct 28, 2016 20:06

Thufir: May 19, 2004; "The fucking Mayans were right."

Cacafuego posted:

Wasn't there something recently about using ~30k MR>Plenti points to buy an iPhone 7? I know I read that somewhere, but forgot about it

seems like maybe not https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/51lx6m/transferring_mr_to_plenti_for_purchase_of_a_phone/

# ? Oct 28, 2016 20:28

DeceasedHorse: Nov 11, 2005

Later Reddit threads report success w the iPhone. Gotta have an att account though

I used some points to cover a new pair of work shoes and a few months of gas; plenti works at rite aide, Macy's, Exxon, etc.

# ? Oct 28, 2016 22:50

Tyro: Nov 10, 2009

drat. I'm an ATT customer with ~60k Amex points to burn and my phone is starting to die. I'll have to see if they have any decent deals on current Android phones.

# ? Oct 29, 2016 02:52

Devian666: Aug 20, 2008; Take some advice Chris.; Fun Shoe

New Zealand always has the worst credit card deals. A reasonable AirNZ Amex Platinum offer turned up. What surprised me was that I applied for the card and 5 hours later I got a text saying I was approved. Even though I have an existing Amex card the speed of the turn around on that application surprised me (especially on a Saturday).

# ? Oct 30, 2016 22:44

Fuzzie Dunlop: Apr 14, 2013

So I've had a Southwest Credit card for about 5 years and I'm thinking of moving on. My annual fee of $99 kicks in tomorrow so I'm about to cancel. I'm trying to get out of the annual fee game. I have about $800 in unused points and I'd rather either switch to a straight cash card or something with a better than 1.6% bonus. I have found the SW flights from my city just aren't always the best price-wise. This may be more of a question for the newbie financial thread (and I think the answer is "no") but is closing out a 5 year old card going to negatively impact my credit score? I have excellent credit now and my oldest credit card is like 14 years old and I still have that open and use it once in a while to keep it active.

If I cancel, what should I go with for a new card? I'm intrigued about getting into the flipping from card to card and following the bonuses. I always pay off the balances. I have a Citi Double Cash card that I use with my fiance for shared expenses. I'll probably spend about $10k per year. I don't do much travel and I prefer the cash over travel rewards since it feels like travel always comes with more added costs direct and things like vacation time etc. But if the bonus is enough, why not? This card will basically see no gas or grocery spending.

After a brief search of Nerdwallet, I guess right now I'm looking at the chase Sapphire preferred and the $625 travel bonus (1% on other transactions), which I'd cancel before the first annual fee.. Or the Chase Freedom Unlimited if I want to go the cashback route (1.5%).

# ? Nov 1, 2016 01:09

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# ? Apr 28, 2024 22:33

pig slut lisa: Mar 5, 2012; irl is good

Fuzzie Dunlop posted:

So I've had a Southwest Credit card for about 5 years and I'm thinking of moving on. My annual fee of $99 kicks in tomorrow so I'm about to cancel. I'm trying to get out of the annual fee game. I have about $800 in unused points and I'd rather either switch to a straight cash card or something with a better than 1.6% bonus. I have found the SW flights from my city just aren't always the best price-wise.

Have your anniversary bonus points posted yet? If not, I'd wait to cancel the card until a few days before the fee is actually due.

Fuzzie Dunlop posted:

This may be more of a question for the newbie financial thread (and I think the answer is "no") but is closing out a 5 year old card going to negatively impact my credit score? I have excellent credit now and my oldest credit card is like 14 years old and I still have that open and use it once in a while to keep it active.

Pretty much no. Maybe a few points. Maybe a few points again 10 years from now when the closed account falls off your report. Certainly nothing to worry about.

Fuzzie Dunlop posted:

If I cancel, what should I go with for a new card? I'm intrigued about getting into the flipping from card to card and following the bonuses. I always pay off the balances. I have a Citi Double Cash card that I use with my fiance for shared expenses. I'll probably spend about $10k per year. I don't do much travel and I prefer the cash over travel rewards since it feels like travel always comes with more added costs direct and things like vacation time etc. But if the bonus is enough, why not? This card will basically see no gas or grocery spending.

After a brief search of Nerdwallet, I guess right now I'm looking at the chase Sapphire preferred and the $625 travel bonus (1% on other transactions), which I'd cancel before the first annual fee.. Or the Chase Freedom Unlimited if I want to go the cashback route (1.5%).

It looks like you plan on putting $800-$850 per month on whatever card you get? If so, the Chase Sapphire Preferred spending requirement may be out of reach for you.

# ? Nov 1, 2016 02:00

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Credit Card Rewards and Recommendations

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