You know if you pay a CC off every month you never pay any interest, right? Interest rates are basically something I never look at, because it should never be relevant. You pay it off in full every month.
Best Credit Card with Cash Back Rewards
- Thread starter Hatorade
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I've been using a Discover Card forever. They were one of the earlier cards to offer cash back rewards. I usually:
- pay for absolutely everything with Discover Card (payoff 100% every month so no interest)
- push the cash back rewards over to a Discover Bank high interest savings account. Their rates fluctuate, but they are usually onnerd wallet list of top-yield savings accounts. Not trying to make money here, rather just trying to keep up with inflation while savings just sits there.
- then near the end of the year I cap my IRA donation with money from the high-yield savings account
The reason I initially got Discover for the cash back was because more places accepted it, compared to American Express. Although that is less true now.
PS: damn that Fidelity / AMEX deal linked on the first page is pretty sweet.
- pay for absolutely everything with Discover Card (payoff 100% every month so no interest)
- push the cash back rewards over to a Discover Bank high interest savings account. Their rates fluctuate, but they are usually onnerd wallet list of top-yield savings accounts. Not trying to make money here, rather just trying to keep up with inflation while savings just sits there.
- then near the end of the year I cap my IRA donation with money from the high-yield savings account
The reason I initially got Discover for the cash back was because more places accepted it, compared to American Express. Although that is less true now.
PS: damn that Fidelity / AMEX deal linked on the first page is pretty sweet.
The Chase Sapphire card is also pretty awesome. 2 points per dollar for travel and dining, 1 point on everything else. Then you can transfer the points 1:1 to all the major frequent flyer programs with no fees. Way more flexibility than the airlines' own branded cards. Also 40,000 bonus points for spending $3k.
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Any downsides to opening a newcreditcard? Number of cards? Amount of availablecredit?
BJs just started offering a card that's 5% in store, 10 cents off at their pumps, $25 off the $100 yearly membership, and 2% at other pumps and restaurants. About as no brainer as it can get, especially since we average just over $425/month there. My only worry is that mysteriouscreditscore and what opening a new card could do to it.
Also looking to add that 3% Amazon card since Christmas has reminded me how much we buy from there.
BJs just started offering a card that's 5% in store, 10 cents off at their pumps, $25 off the $100 yearly membership, and 2% at other pumps and restaurants. About as no brainer as it can get, especially since we average just over $425/month there. My only worry is that mysteriouscreditscore and what opening a new card could do to it.
Also looking to add that 3% Amazon card since Christmas has reminded me how much we buy from there.
Blazin
Creative Title
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Having too many accounts does hurt your score some even if you don't carry balances but it's marginal, might mean the difference between a 790 vs an 810. I started my career as an underwriter and dealt with 100s and 100s ofcreditreports. There is also the fraud/identify theft issue that more accounts are hard to keep track of. Some of those store specific card deals hard to ignore though. If you shop regularly at BJs as part of your food shopping and will continue to do so in the future probably not a bad deal. There is no set number as it relates to quantity of accounts but I'd say it's around 5 or 6 as the cut off that begins to hurt the score. On ironic side having only 1-3 hurts your score as well.
Khane
Got something right about marriage
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Thecreditcheck when you first open the cards can effect your score a few points but it rebounds pretty quickly/easily. I have 6creditcards, plan on opening about 5-10 more in the next year just for sign up bonuses to create "free vacations" and maximize cash back potential. Mycreditscore is 817 currently. As long as you aren't maxing all yourcreditcards every month (even if you pay them all off) you should be fine in my experience. Availablecreditdoesn't effect anything from what I've seen personally, as long as you aren't actually highly utilizing saidcredit(getting close to maxing out your availablecreditlimits each statement period).
The truth is it all depends. It's a very "your mileage may vary" kind of thing.
You can use sites likeCompare Best:CreditCards | Car Insurance | CD Rates | Savings | Brokerages | Mortgagesto compare cards. Also, there are ways to get deals for cards that theoretically are no longer available.
For instance I just got the old version of the Amex Blue Cash card. It's 5% cash back at US supermarkets, gas stations, and select drug stores (CVS, etc). 1.5% cash back everywhere else. The card is technically no longer available.
Also, check the fine print on that card Deathwing. Make sure that isn't an introductory "only good the first 6 months" or "up to $1000 per quarter" kind of offer on that BJs card.
The truth is it all depends. It's a very "your mileage may vary" kind of thing.
You can use sites likeCompare Best:CreditCards | Car Insurance | CD Rates | Savings | Brokerages | Mortgagesto compare cards. Also, there are ways to get deals for cards that theoretically are no longer available.
For instance I just got the old version of the Amex Blue Cash card. It's 5% cash back at US supermarkets, gas stations, and select drug stores (CVS, etc). 1.5% cash back everywhere else. The card is technically no longer available.
Also, check the fine print on that card Deathwing. Make sure that isn't an introductory "only good the first 6 months" or "up to $1000 per quarter" kind of offer on that BJs card.
Khane
Got something right about marriage
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The companies pulling yourcreditscore to put it on your statements aren't doing what they call a "hard pull" (actually making acreditinquiry) as I understand it.
What are inquiries and how do they affect my FICO score?
Also, applying forcreditcards have very little effect on yourcreditrating unless you apply for a new one every 5 days for 2 months for instance (each inquiry can have a very minor effect, say 2-7 points which in the grand scheme of things is inconsequential as that usually rebounds fairly quickly). If you want to apply for somecreditcards to get good rewards sign on bonuses for instance you should apply for all of them on the same day because that's treated as only one inquiry (or at least that's what has been suggested to me by "experts").
CreditChecks: HowCreditReport Inquiries Affect YourCreditScore
Even if it did affect yourcreditscore, that's no reason to pass up "free" money. Unless you're buying a house in the next few weeks, there's really nowhere a small difference increditscores would make any difference at all.
Palum
what Suineg set it to
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Having too many open accounts won't hurt it - just recent trades. In the long run, having more open accounts in good standing with higher balances is beneficial but as you said, it may cut your score temporarily - though often opening one or two trades every once in awhile, the extra open to buy far outweighs the loss from opening an ac count.
Palum
what Suineg set it to
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Palum
what Suineg set it to
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Correct on number 1, all those are soft inquiries. They do not get specific information, so you will need a hard pull to actually open the soft-pulled 'prequalified' offer.
As for number 2, inquiries by lenders are usually a small factor as you say. However, this is mostly for anything using a score. An auto or mortgage lender will ignore clustered pulls especially (ie, you had 5 inquiries to get a good auto loan rate in 1-2 days while shopping for a new car).
The difficulty is that FICO scores vscreditreport can show two different things. You can VERY easily manipulate your score if you know how - but it will only help you with installment and revolving trades. In fact, one of the old ways was to add authorized users. Newer models don't consider it, though some lenders still use old FICO scores (4 is popular IIRC) which include authorized users - so rich mom and pop can put 50k open to buy visa card with perfect payments on their sons/daughters account and see a massive increase. However, once you are looking for real property where someone is going to actually look at your bureau, all of that manipulation won't necessarily help and can sometimes hurt.
Palum
what Suineg set it to
- 27,224
- 43,008
You can check your score at any time, for a fee. Personally sourced inquiries are not reported. Basically you always have 1-2 freebies from lenders without any penalty. 3-10 may hit your score slightly (2-10 pts) but beyond that you will see more drastic reductions (gives the impression of desperation). However, overall, lets say you get a 3k CC so that's 3k more open to buy. That right there may give you +20 points if it puts you into the next bracket, so you might only see +18 because of new trade (or maybe +15 if you had a lot of inquiries) but you will still see a significant raise in your score. Once the inquiry 'falls off' in one year, you are back to normal.
As I stated above, though, don't worry about inquiries if they are smart (ie, shopping around for the best offers) for anything major (mortgage) because lenders understand you can quickly accumulate clustered inquiries when being a savvy consumer.