Madison MoneySports - Personal Finance Thread

[HAULN-SS]

I forgot if I already complained here, but I bought about 10 shares of Boeing about 3 weeks ago. Womp.

[Sully]

Best way to consolidate and eliminate credit card debt...? I have one zero interest card but it has a low limit and is maxed out pretty much and two other cards I need to get down. I'm making a little more money now (but not that much) and hoping to get a jump on paying them down.

Would it be bad to try and find and open another zero percent card and transfer some balance to that? Should I look into personal loans or something else I'm not aware of?

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[Sijray21]

Pay off the smallest account first and make minimum payments on the others. That'll get you going. Don't use them to buy anything else.

[Senor_Taylor]

How many credit cards does everyone have? I have one from my bank (3k limit, stupid low rate), a Cap One Quicksilver I've had for almost 2 years with about a 10k limit, and I just applied for the Cap One Savor card last night and got approved for 10k. I think I'll email my bank today to get that card bumped up too but I honestly haven't used it in a year.

How many cards is normal? How do you manage to spread the spending around?

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[Sijray21]

How many credit cards does everyone have?

I have 3, $59k limit between all three, no idea on the apr. None of them carry a balance for more than 1-2 weeks.

A joint amex (amex points, no annual fee)
A joint mastercard (jet blue points because not everyone takes amex, may switch to visa)
A personal usaa visa tied to my personal usaa account

[JPolen01]

We have one card. I see people with multiple cards for different rewards. Personally, I think that would be more of a hassle for our situation. I am more of a fan of a card that gives a decent reward on all categories of spending rather than a tiered structure or rotating structure.

[.RJ]

3 here.

2 with NFCU - I only use one mostly, the second one is more of a backup for loss/fraud/etc - have $80k in available credit between the two. One with REI with an absurd low limit that they refused to raise for me even with an 800+ credit score. I just use it to get double dividend points at the store and pay it off immediately.

[WRXtranceformed]

2, but we only use one with a $103k limit and pay off the balance every month. I average about $2,000+ per year in rewards points. The second one has a limit of $40k and I just keep it open to keep my limit ratio high. Which reminds me after reading the conversation above, I need to put a few charges on that other card so they don't close it on me ha

[Jake]

I have six, but only use three (and most stuff only goes on one). I've done some "churning" to get new signup bonuses but it takes some effort to make sure you aren't applying for too many at once/closing them too soon. Also takes effort to remember which benefits are located where. I've got a Google Sheet for it but the perks are worth it if you can spare the effort.

One of the six will be closed once I finish burning the airline miles I earned on it. Another has been open since I was 20, has a $1k limit but helps overall length of credit history. The third "non-used" was a 0% card that I used to buy a lot of new furniture when I moved. It'll be paid off next week and ignored after that. I set notifications for each card to alert me if $1 is spent, so I know immediately if the number is somehow stolen (as they all sit at home in a drawer...).

I primarily use a Chase Sapphire Reserve as their Ultimate Rewards program is great and the other perks are worth it as well. I also have a Chase Freedom and Discover It, both of which have rotating 5% cash-back categories that somehow don't overlap, so I'm always getting 5% off groceries, gas, etc depending on which card I use. The Freedom's 5% "cash back" can also be converted to "Ultimate Rewards points back" - and because I also have the CSP, those points are worth more than if I just had the Freedom. So it's a tricky way of making another percentage point or so on the earnings.

[Apoc]

Pay off the smallest account first and make minimum payments on the others. That'll get you going. Don't use them to buy anything else.

Pay down the highest interest charge (function of APR and balance) first. It may feel like a win to have a zero balance on something, but paying off $500 at 15% isn't as good as paying $500 at 29%. The exception to that is if you're having trouble keeping track of multiple accounts or you're recovering a delinquent account.

I have three credit cards. 

Alaska Airlines, since we live at a hub - individual purchases* - $42k limit
Citi Prestige, for exceptional travel rewards - family purchases - $46.5k limit
Capital One Venture, old card kept for backup/scoring - $33k limit

* My wife and I both have personal cards that the other person doesn't see.

[Steve85]

Three cards here, two in my name (Citi/NFCU) one in my wife's mostly because we've been too lazy to consolidate or just add each other to the others cards. I think it's about 60K total between them.

Citi Premier - only used for concert tix these days since they seem to have some deal that we can buy before they go on sale and sellout in 14.5 seconds. Has a long history so I keep it for that, rate is high since it's tied to a not great history but no balance, no care. (maybe I should?)
Capital One - "Rewards" card, looking to replace this with Venture or something similar for more travel rewards.
NFCU Flagship - Got this when I started at NFCU, good rewards but don't use it often.

[Apoc]

Capital One - "Rewards" card, looking to replace this with Venture or something similar for more travel rewards.

Check out the Citi Prestige MC. We switched from Venture to this because of things like free lounge access and 4th night in hotels free. There's also 5x for all air travel and restaurants, as well as 3x for hotels.

[V1GiLaNtE]

Total credit limit is $77k for personal cards. I have one small business card I opened to get reward points with Chase that has an $8k limit. Once it's time for the yearly fee I'll downgrade to one of the free Chase cards. 99% of my purchases are made on my Chase Sapphire. It holds the most benefit to me for points which I redeem annually for some international trip. Everything else has some small reoccurring charge to keep the account active. I never carry a balance.

- Chase Sapphire Preferred
- Chase Ink Small Business
- WF Visa CC
- Discover IT (1st CC)
- Amex Blue Cash Everyday

[Steve85]

Capital One - "Rewards" card, looking to replace this with Venture or something similar for more travel rewards.

Check out the Citi Prestige MC. We switched from Venture to this because of things like free lounge access and 4th night in hotels free. There's also 5x for all air travel and restaurants, as well as 3x for hotels.

:thumbsup:

[Ken]

I have 5 but really only use 3 of them.

Amazon Prime - Linked to mine and wife's amazon account for all Amazon purchases so we get 5% back
Chase Sapphire - "my" account but wife has linked card. Use for all dining and travel (includes Uber) for 3% back
Capital One Venture - "wife's" account, i have linked card. Use for everything else so we get 2% back
Citi Simplicity - Highest credit line, keep in case i need to make a larger purchase since they always offer 1.99% interest or something to that effect
Citi Thank-You - Keep just because i don't want to close

All are paid off completely each month. Thanks to this system between Sapphire and Venture our travel is always greatly subsidized. Sapphire's reward system is great when redeeming for travel since you get a 1.5x multiplier when booking through Chase, and since they use expedia as their search engine it's no different from regular booking.

Either way, money that we'd be spending anyway is guaranteed to give us back 2%. Win-win in IMO.

[Ryan T]

I've got 3, but only use one.

Highlands Union Bank card my mom got me while I was in college with a limit of like...$1,500. It's never been used.
Wells Fargo Rewards that I used to use, but the rewards suck so I quit.
Marriott Rewards Visa that I have along with my wife. We put pretty much all large purchases on it and use the points for free rooms when we travel. I also use that card for all work related travel and get reimbursed.

[V1GiLaNtE]

I have 5 but really only use 3 of them.

Amazon Prime - Linked to mine and wife's amazon account for all Amazon purchases so we get 5% back
Chase Sapphire - "my" account but wife has linked card. Use for all dining and travel (includes Uber) for 3% back
Capital One Venture - "wife's" account, i have linked card. Use for everything else so we get 2% back
Citi Simplicity - Highest credit line, keep in case i need to make a larger purchase since they always offer 1.99% interest or something to that effect
Citi Thank-You - Keep just because i don't want to close

All are paid off completely each month. Thanks to this system between Sapphire and Venture our travel is always greatly subsidized. Sapphire's reward system is great when redeeming for travel since you get a 1.5x multiplier when booking through Chase, and since they use expedia as their search engine it's no different from regular booking.

Either way, money that we'd be spending anyway is guaranteed to give us back 2%. Win-win in IMO.

How do yo like the CaptialOne Venture points systems? How do miles translate into dollars?

[BLINGMW]

One Chase Amazon rewards card for my wife and I that we use for everything. I have another for my business.

[davej]

Down to one, the Costco visa through Citi. We run it for both business and personal stuff, which I know is ill-advised, but found it's easier for me to separate charges in QB than switching cards at checkout.

[JPolen01]

Just got our Citi Double Cash cards in the mail. We are keeping the Venture card open as it's the longest card we've had open (about 4-5 years). But man the Citi card is flimsy. I have a nice thick, metal Venture card. Going back to the cheap plastic card sucks.