Current Events > I do this because I love you, CE: USE A CREDIT CARD, not a debit card or cash.

(+) Yeah! (+)

LostForest posted...

I have a car loan, so that's probably what built it back up.

724 is great credit.

Apply for Citi Double or Chase Freedom (Not Chase Freedom Unlimited, Citi Double Cash is better imo)

Stagmar posted...

I'm not talking interest. I'm talking mandatory monthly balance protection fees.

What the hell is even that? None of the major cards have that.

Discover also has a cashback DEBIT card for those pesky bills and student loans.

But the general public just like leaving money on the table ig lol.

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EndOfDiscOne posted...

I literally just applied for Citi Double Cash thanks to this topic.

It's something I've been meaning to do for a while, but this topic made me finally do it.

Most of my finance game is pretty good, but I need to up by credit card game.

I do have one good use for debit card--I have a checking acct with a local credit union that pays 3.3% "dividends" on balances up to $20,000. As part of that I need a certain # of debit card transactions.

Great.

Seriously, Citi Double's 2% cash back is great for all purchases. Also get Chase Freedom for the 5% cashback rotating categories. Use the Citi for all transactions except for when you gotta buy something that is in category for Chase's 5%.

Chase's rotating categories are gas purchases, restaurants, department shopping, or groceries that I can think of off the top of my head. Again, it's stuff you're going to spend the money on anyways.

XxKrebsxX posted...

Chase's rotating categories are gas purchases, restaurants, department shopping, or groceries that I can think of off the top of my head. Again, it's stuff you're going to spend the money on anyways.

Combine it with the Discover it which does the same thing and you can get nasty combos like 6 months of 5% back on restaurants or gas. Plus the Discover card matches your first years cashback a year later.

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A credit card under ideal use conditions is great, but there are so many caveats. The bare essentials:

1) You always need to pay the monthly balance in full before the due date
2) You must ensure the annual card fee is less than whatever you can get back in rewards

But beyond that, there's huge variation around the world in which cards are available, where they are accepted (many small businesses here don't accept CC at all, and if they do they'll charge like 2% surcharge for it to cover interchange fees, which often means the fee alone is higher than any rewards to be earned), and what rewards programs they offer.
These programs with like 3-5% cashback are unheard of in my country, even in the cards with a high annual fee. I've never seen better than $1 back for $60 spend (about 1.7%)

On the other hand, electronic payments in general (EFTPOS and debit) are accepted almost universally and are free. Even the tiniest dollar stores, food trucks etc. will accept these cards, but not credit.

EDIT: One extra added bonus of using a CC, it combines well with my home loan since I have an offset facility on the floating rate component. Holding the extra money in my account for a few weeks is effectively earning interest at the floating mortgage rate

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I think I'm gonna do the city double cash back card.
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Stagmar posted...

I'm not talking interest. I'm talking mandatory monthly balance protection fees.

I have literally never heard of that. Googling only turns up optional insurance you can purchase

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What TC is saying is 100% accurate. I use the majority of my spending point for flying business class internationally or staying at 5 start hotels. It's literally free money/experiences for your normal spend. It also protects your actual cash if someone steals it they aren't hitting you bank account directly. Also, always pay statement balance in full.

This year I've flow to Europe 3 times and Canada in business lie flat seats for free By just using points and transfer partners.

https://m.imgur.com/gallery/4bPOJKy

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PIITB415 posted...

What TC is saying is 100% accurate. I use the majority of my spending point for flying business class internationally or staying at 5 start hotels. It's literally free money/experiences for your normal spend. It also protects your actual cash if someone steals it they aren't hitting you bank account directly. Also, always pay statement balance in full.

This year I've flow to Europe 3 times and Canada in business lie flat seats for free By just using points and transfer partners.

https://m.imgur.com/gallery/4bPOJKy

$60k annual spend is huge though. Are you in one of those situations where you can put stuff on your card and then get it reimbursed by an eomployer or something?

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never use a debit card anyway because if someone clones it they have direct access to my liquid assets and I wont be able to pay bills if my account gets drained. if someone clones my credit card my finances are fine and I can still pay bills. Just gotta be smart about using credit cards and pay off the full balance monthly to avoid interests and also don't apply for cards that have annual fees.

Sonic Cannon posted...

$60k annual spend is huge though. Are you in one of those situations where you can put stuff on your card and then get it reimbursed by an eomployer or something?

No, that's personal spend. It's actually just a tad over 75k with my other cards.

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L0Z posted...

never use a debit card anyway because if someone clones it they have direct access to my liquid assets and I wont be able to pay bills if my account gets drained. if someone clones my credit card my finances are fine and I can still pay bills. Just gotta be smart about using credit cards and pay off the full balance monthly to avoid interests and also don't apply for cards that have annual fees.

This exactly. I had a coworker that had his entire bank account drained.

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PIITB415 posted...

This exactly. I had a coworker that had his entire bank account drained.

I go a step further I literally leave my Debit Card completely locked except for the ability to pull $100 cash from it. (Which I grab when ever I run out of tip money. I like to personally give the cash to my waitress/waiter so they don't have to share that shit. My tip is for them, not all the kitchen staff in back.)

Well damn, my credit score is only 681 and it's not good enough to get these cards. :/
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spanky1 posted...

Well damn, my credit score is only 681 and it's not good enough to get these cards. :/

You still can, youll just get them with a lower limit.

XxKrebsxX posted...

You still can, youll just get them with a lower limit.

I got rejected already.
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spanky1 posted...

I got rejected already.

Can you get some low limit card from your current bank? That's what I did. I even had to call back after getting auto-rejected and the human on the other line was like sure here ya go.

Do something like that to build your credit, the rewards are likely nonexistent but it will get your score higher. I only had to use mine for like six months before I built enough history to get a CFU
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Ex-Kefiroth posted...

https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/

one of my favorite subreddits

This is always fun to browse but I could never have the stones to start churning myself. Too scared of messing up.
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spanky1 posted...

I got rejected already.

Fuck.

Do you already have cards and/or have large debts?

I don't see how a 680+ credit score gets flat out denied. Maybe a card with a $3,000 limit or something but not denied.

I'll probably look over this topic when I'm done with finals and on my winter break.

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Does APR matter as long as you pay it off in a timely manner? The APR percentages for many cards are very high, even if they start off at 0% for the first year or so.

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AceAttorneyist posted...

Does APR matter as long as you pay it off in a timely manner? The APR percentages for many cards are very high, even if they start off at 0% for the first year or so.

No, if you pay off the balance every month, you never have to worry about the APR

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CableZL posted...

No, if you pay off the balance every month, you never have to worry about the APR

https://www.td.com/us/en/personal-banking/credit-cards/cash-card/

So is this a good card? TD is my bank, so my guess is even though my credit isn't superb they'd probably issue me the card without trouble. I tried applying for the Prime card awhile back and was denied.

Groceries are definitely my most major expense after rent, so 2% on that seems decent.

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AceAttorneyist posted...

https://www.td.com/us/en/personal-banking/credit-cards/cash-card/

So is this a good card? TD is my bank, so my guess is even though my credit isn't superb they'd probably issue me the card without trouble. I tried applying for the Prime card awhile back and was denied.

Groceries are definitely my most major expense after rent, so 2% on that seems decent.

Check a credit monitoring site to see how many hard inquiries you have on your credit at the moment. Your bank may or may not approve you, either, but you may be able to talk to them about getting a secured credit card until you can fix your credit.

Too many hard inquiries within 2 years hurts your credit and also makes lenders less likely to approve you for credit cards.

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XxKrebsxX posted...

Fuck.

Do you already have cards and/or have large debts?

I don't see how a 680+ credit score gets flat out denied. Maybe a card with a $3,000 limit or something but not denied.

No other cards, zero debt, never been late on any kind of payment. I honestly dont even know how my credit score is that low, it used to be higher.
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No I have not considered spending all my cash back on a whole foods gift card

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If you have Amazon Prime, get the Amazon credit card. 5% cash back on Amazon purchases. We're able to buy free shit all the time on Amazon.

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EndOfDiscOne posted...

If you have Amazon Prime, get the Amazon credit card. 5% cash back on Amazon purchases. We're able to buy free shit all the time on Amazon.

I don't have prime but that sounds like a nice boost. Paying for Prime would be like the annual fee but it actually comes with tangible benefits lol

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