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+--- Thread: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit (/showthread.php?tid=8821)
Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - Ryan T - 12-04-2016
So I've changed my tune, but only slightly, since page 2/2012. I don't carry a balance from month to month, because fuck paying interest, but I do use a credit card more than I used too. I still have the same card from the bank my mom works at that I never use. It has a $15k limit and she got it for me when I went to college as an "oh shit" card. The only time it's been out of my wallet is to replace it when it expires. I have a Wells Fargo Visa rewards card I use for all work related travel as well as purchases over ~$250. Points aren't great, basically 1 point per dollar spent, but I like that it's tied to my checking and savings accounts for convenience. I need to start using it for daily purchases to earn more points, but I doubt I will. It currently has a 10k limit, but after reading the previous few posts I may ask for it to be raised.
The govt. offers a credit card but I want to keep all my points for myself, so I never signed up for it. Basically anytime I travel for work I put everything on my credit card, when I get back I give my clerk my hotel receipt and in a week I get a check and pay it off. We get a flat perdiem regardless of what we actually spend so no need to keep receipts. I generally just use the points for travel or gift cards.
Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - JPolen01 - 12-04-2016
Interesting conversation here. I know nothing about credit limit increases but I will have to read up on that now. We have the Capital One Venture card which gives 2x miles for every dollar spent. It has a $150 yearly fee which pays for itself with the rewards. I would recommend this card simply for the ease of use. All we had to do to book our trip to San Diego was book the trip however we wanted, pay for it on the card, and then submit a receipt to Capital One and they credit if off your bill. No black out dates, no using their travel agency, nothing.
We never carry a balance and use this card for absolutely everything from gas to groceries to eating out. At this day in age it's absurd not to use your credit card for everything to reap the rewards. It's also safer than using your debit card for security reasons. I have no problem putting a 5 figure sum on the card because I know I have the cash to pay it off. We put both down payments for the CX 5 (gone now) and the new CRV on the credit card. It's a little shocking to see the bill but what's the difference if it comes out of my checking account immediately or in a month?
Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - WRXtranceformed - 12-04-2016
That's definitely the way to go as far as travel reward redemption. Our main card is a travel rewards card as well (no fees, about 2.675 points per dollar), with BoA you just log in through the online platform, hit rewards, select the travel related charge you want to fully or partially apply your points to and it's credited within a few days. So money. There's definitely nothing to worry about when you put big charges on a card when you know it's going to get paid off (I've done down payments, etc too) but there's just something irrationally unnerving about it to me. I guess I'm too conservative. It is nice to get that huge points credit though, it's almost like giving yourself an instant refund. If I could put our mortgage payments on the card I would!
Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - JPolen01 - 12-04-2016
You sound like my wife. When the bill starts getting high she has the urge to put things on our debit card. I have to explain every single time they it's the same money except we get paid to use one versus the other.
Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - HAULN-SS - 12-04-2016
I've been pretty impressed so far with the Barclay World Elite card I've had for the last 3 years. First year was free, so I've paid $180 total for owning the card. Pay it off every month. I just checked and I've redeemed $2500 in travel credits from it. The rewards system used to be 2% cash back, plus a 10% rebate on points used towards travel. I travel enough that was essentially like getting 2.2% back on all purchases which was the best deal going at the time I got the card. They recently changed their rewards to only give a %5 rebate, so I might look about changing to something else, but last time I looked that was still the best rewards I could find.
Does anyone know what the good ratios are for balance to available credit total? I put all my bills on one card, and pay it off every month. This particular card that takes about 30% of my limit to float my bills every month. I basically never use the other 2 I have. I guess I'm asking how you determine a stopping point when asking for an increase in limit on a card?
Me and the fiance are in the middle of buying a house, so I am probably not going to tweak anything until the mortgage is finalized - the fucking trump bump knocked rates up like 1/3 - 1/2 point in the short amount of time it took between us putting in an offer, and trying to get the final mortgage.
Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - rherold9 - 12-04-2016
Having a higher balance on one card than another doesn't matter. They use the average balance vs limit across all your debt. According to credit karma less than 10% is amazing balance to limit. But going to 20% or something like that won't affect your score greatly. It's when you start pushing 50, 60, 70% of your limit it starts to take a bigger hit on your score.
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Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - Apoc - 12-04-2016
We've got the Capital One Venture card, but our yearly fee is only like $65 and I just redeemed an ass load of points last night to credit our account for a $1300 airbnb rental on the Oregon Coast next summer.
Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - davej - 12-04-2016
Since we haven't traveled in forever, we switched our primary card to the Costco visa this summer (when they dropped amex). Interest rate blows at 15+%, but no balance carried, so don't care. It only pays out a Costco gift card, but between a family of 5 and a preschool, it's our candy store.
I think the break out is 4% on gas, 4 at Costco and 3-1% on everything else.
Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - Senor_Taylor - 12-04-2016
rherold9 Wrote:Having a higher balance on one card than another doesn't matter. They use the average balance vs limit across all your debt. According to credit karma less than 10% is amazing balance to limit. But going to 20% or something like that won't affect your score greatly. It's when you start pushing 50, 60, 70% of your limit it starts to take a bigger hit on your score.
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The loan officer at my bank has said that 60% is usually the magic number. Stay under that and you're golden. Of course I'm sure this varies. Makes me want to up my limit so I can buy tires or something and not worry.
Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - Apoc - 12-04-2016
I routinely check my credit given it's included in the Capital One card. They are looking for under 10% to be "great," but you can still be considered "good" with 2-3x that.
Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - Senor_Taylor - 12-04-2016
Apoc Wrote:I routinely check my credit given it's included in the Capital One card. They are looking for under 10% to be "great," but you can still be considered "good" with 2-3x that.
Isn't that bad for your credit? Or is it just "hard" checks??
Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - Apoc - 12-04-2016
Hard checks. This is technically just getting your credit score and telling you the reasons why it is what it is. They're not actually running your credit.
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Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - Sully - 12-07-2016
So is it safe to run a check through credit karma? Is there a better place? I swore my gBus professor told us freshman year that you could check it through the IRS once a year but I have not been able to find such a website in searches. I get nervous about using sites like credit karma but I am curious if I've built any type of decent credit rating yet.
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Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - Ryan T - 12-07-2016
I've used credit karma for several years and it's a useful tool. It will let you know if your score suddenly starts dropping or something, but it's also used to push credit cards and other services at you. I understand why though, the service is free so they have to make money somehow, so they do it through advertising. It will also give you all the other info that is handy, debt to income, total credit use, loan balances, etc. It's worthwhile.
Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - Apoc - 12-07-2016
Sully Wrote:So is it safe to run a check through credit karma? Is there a better place? I swore my gBus professor told us freshman year that you could check it through the IRS once a year but I have not been able to find such a website in searches. I get nervous about using sites like credit karma but I am curious if I've built any type of decent credit rating yet.
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I don't think you looked very hard.
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Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - Sully - 12-07-2016
Oh yea I found that page awhile back which was also the last time I looked. I thought that site was a basically a credit karma site and got sketched out again
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Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - rherold9 - 12-08-2016
Why are people sketched out by credit karma?
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Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - Senor_Taylor - 12-08-2016
rherold9 Wrote:Why are people sketched out by credit karma?Don't you know your credit changes? Here, check out credit karma! You get your score in minutes and look, it's even free!
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Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - Apoc - 12-08-2016
Sully Wrote:Oh yea I found that page awhile back which was also the last time I looked. I thought that site was a basically a credit karma site and got sketched out again
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You were sketched out by ftc.gov?
Re: Credit Cards - Intrest, Fees, and Bullshit - Sully - 12-08-2016
No but i didn't understand why it linked you to a dot com instead of staying on a dot gov or something maybe. Idk, it was a long time ago I tried to check.
And I'm sketched out by sites like credit karma because I don't want a million phone calls a day or a thousand credit card applications in the mail. I like providing websites with personal information just because they say I should
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