Like most here, I carry no credit card debt over from month-to-month. If I can’t pay for something with less than 1 month’s take home plus some existing savings, I save up until I can (my house being an obvious exception, but I didn’t put that on a CC).
what do you guys spend most of your money on? for me its food and alcohol, mortgage, and stocks
If you play it right, you can rock 5% cash back on certain credit cards. Otherwise I use certain credit cards for gas, groceries, and so forth to get some cash back. I don’t really go for miles or points, I like the cash back.
Citi and Chase have two cards in particular that give good cash back. Often they have a special $100 for signing up as well.
I use my card for all my spending, can’t remember the last time I used debit. I’ll spend probably $100 a month with cash, mostly on taxi’s, but everything else goes on the Avion so I can rack up the points.
$1 spent = 1 point, $120 annual fee waived once by group banking benefit, 20,000 bonus points for switching to avion, 35,000 points to fly anywhere in mainland north america. So in a few more months I should have my free flight, take it, cancel the avion for a no-fee RBC card, and then grab a decent cashback fee card to use. If you’re willing to switch cards around annually you can usually get enough signing bonus to net out the fee, so long as you use the rewards.
Speaking of rewards cards, what are some good travel cards? Not for the flights, but with exchange rate benefits? Or are there any…? I’ve got a few big international trips coming up in the 1F1 period so thats something I’m keeping an eye out for.
Also, I feel like being a finance forum, we probably carry less debt than the typical user.
You’re kidding, right?
If you have the discipline to pay them off every month, the rewards are great. Got a United Airlines card a while back and it came with 20k miles upfront. Spent another $5000 on the card and I had a free airline ticket. I ended up accumulating 75k miles through travel/using the card and spent the miles to buy airline tickets for a family vacation. So the only out of pocket fees for $1000 of airline tickets were a couple of annual fees for the card totaling $120.
^ Capitalone has several. Chase Sapphire is not bad.
Isn’t this going to hurt your credit score (continually opening and closing accounts)?
^ Get CreditKarma. I open and close all the time to take free new accout opening promotions and what not. I still rock a high 700s despite having over 10 hard inquiries this year alone.
^ Thanks.
I messed up in college and maxed them out. Back in the glorious years of 06- 09 free money. What they expect giving me a 20k limit. I was balln like a bytch in college! No lie, I rcently applied for a prepaid $500 CC and got decline lol.
All part of the white man plan to keep a nigga down.
I’ve thought about that but the basic plan is just once annually (to minimize any annual fees), and I’m pretty sure the inquiries only count over 6 month periods? And from what I’ve heard (and I’m open to input here), if I just switch the account within the same bank (ie. switching RBC Avion to RBC Platinum) there’s no change in account, which is always good (builds history)?
How about max # cards? I’ve heard some people say the more the merrier, so long as you keep the balances down, but then other people say you don’t want more than 3-4.
^ Gotcha.
Re number of cards, I’m not sure. Obviously applying for a lot of cards at one time is a bad idea (more hard hits), but once the accounts are up and running, I don’t know if more would hurt you.
I’ve heard rumors that certain cards can actually decrease your score, even if you don’t carry a balance (for instance a lot of the cards issued by retailers) - anyone know if this is valid?
Respect.
That white man seems to be doing a decent job of keeping a whole lotta other white men down too. Misery loves company.
I’d say it’s about money more than race.
Number of cards can go either way. Two of the main contributors to your credit score are: 1. Amount of available credit (too much relative to you income is bad) and 2. Percentage of available credit utilized (a high percentage is bad). For example, let’s take 2 people with the same decent income and credit card debt outstanding. Person A has 2 cards each with a $10,000 limit and carries $1,000 on each. Person B has one card with a $15,000 limit and carries a $2,000 balance. All else equal and assuming $20,000 of available credit is well within the limit of their incomes, person B will actually have a lower credit score because he uses more of his available credit.
Two reasons:
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Psychological. Treating my credit card as a debit card reduces my available cash flow, affecting my spending habits depending on the level.
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I monitor my credit score. My credit score responds favorably to always paying off my bill before the bill comes. I don’t know why, I just see how it helps me a few points.
This is an area I know a fair bit about. What are you trying to do? You won’t get rich off of credit cards, but you can build up a bit of a savings without trying – especially if you incur a lot of reimbursed business expenses. This is the heavy hitters in my wallet:
Pentagon Federal Credit Union - 5% cash back on all gas purchases all year (no ceiling for rewards) – which roughly means 15 cent or so discount every gallon of gas. No annual fee, no foreign transaction fee. 3% Cash back on Walmarts/Targets that are coded as “Grocery store” in Visa’s system. This means I get 3% cash back on my 1,000 HDTV. I use this card in my foreign travels.
US Bank Cash + – 6.25% Cash Back on all Restaurants (no ceiling) and 6.25% Cash Back on Hotel Expenses (no ceiling). 2.5% Cash back at Drugstores (No ceiling). 1.25 percent bank at everything else. (Rewards increased due to redemption bonus of $25 per $100). Free Experian Score Monitoring
Unlike the Penfed, US Bank Cash + allows you to choose your two 5% categories. I spend ungodly amounts on Restaurants and Hotels every month ($3-4K).
CFAvsMBA has the right idea, but wrong cards. Those cards limit your point potential due to ceiling caps. If you are trying to get free hotel points or airline points, let me know. There is an entire community devoted to manipulating reward cards. I’m on the fringes of it, but still much more knowledgable than most.
I’ve never heard #1 before and am 90% sure its incorrect. One of the reasons my credit score is so high for my age (I’m only 24) is the fact I have SO MUCH available credit and never carry balance. I think I have $75,000 in revolving credit capacity – which compared to the average 24 year old, is fairly high (although not the highest).
From an EHow article:
“No, there’s nothing about having a lot of credit available that can hurt your score,” says Paperno. “In fact, all other things being equal, more revolving credit availability can, for some, mean a lower credit utilization ratio (balances compared to credit limits), which can actually help the credit score.”
From my Experian Credit Score Report:
Your average credit card limit is more than $5,000.
Lenders recognize that with higher credit limits comes increased responsibility, and that you have managed to build strong relationships with other lenders. Your relatively high credit limits signal to lenders that you are a trustworthy candidate for new lines of credit.
If for some unknown reason, you had to get 5 credit cards today. You should apply for them all at once – the credit inquiries won’t show up until after you’ve been approved for all 5. Sure your score will take a hit when they all hit at once, but you have a window where its not reported. You can also attempt manipulate the system by learning which credit report gets pulled/reported by each card. It’s not advisable for 5, but say you wanted to get 2 cards at once its a viable strategy.
@ rawraw - open up another $75,000 worth of credit cards and let me know what happens to your credit score.