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Sent some cards to the chopping block recently.   Sapphire Preferred - Mostly picked up for the 100k points but then got tired of this one.  The WF Autograph Premier has better travel insurances and the $50 airfare credit is easier to meet than the $50 Chase hotel portal.  Also better hotel and airfare multipliers, and a much nicer looking metal card.  Travel partners are not as good, but I have enough other Chase and Amex cards to cover the range.   Cap One Spark - Got the Spark Plus so no need for this one.  Also very annyoing that it reported to my personal credit.  Plus does not.  Also have a WF Signify but I need the big spending limit of the Plus at times, so not ready to make the WF my full time 2X card unless the limit goes up significantly   Amex Biz Plat - After they reduced the Dell credit and raised the fee without adding Resy credits like on the personal plat, I found it to be low value.  Replaced with Sapphire Reserve for Biz and picked up Personal Plat Schwab.  I spend alot on my Biz Gold and max out the 50k Biz Blue Plus 2X very year, so the 10% multiplier from the linked schwab makes it more than free.  Will probably get a second Biz Blue Plus once (if) I'm ever out of amex SUB jail.     Amex Biz Blue Cash - didn't like that the cashback could only be redeemed as a statement credit.  Transferred the limit to the other blue and closed after a year.  Mostly opened for the 750 bonus.   Next on the block: Apple Card - mostly sucks, but I left it open bc it's one of my older ones.  But now it's moving to Chase and I don't need it added to my aggregate Chase limit which is already too high between all my chase biz cards, and causing my new approvals to have limits that arent big enough sometimes.   Possibly Discover It - will see what Cap One does with it, but I haven't used this card in ages.  Good customer service and was a great company to deal with, but the points structure of the card jsut isn't competitive.  I'm not going to play the quarterly rotation game.  

Other day bit the bullet and applied for Rakuten Amex. 6500 dollar limit. Got the Silver one. The purple was to purple for me. Regardless of having it or not I would highly suggest if Rakuten has what your looking for buy it via that site. The Welcome Offer I recieved was spend 1k get 100 dollar cash back statement on the card. Not the greatest but better then zero.    A example of that site and cards powers is my recent purchase. They were offering 10x on iHerb.com. Using that and the 4x Rakuten gives netted me 14x on a 230 dollar order. Thats 3320 membership reward points for something I was going to buy off iHerb anyhow. Fantastic site. Even sites you traditionally do not get much on like Target has a 1x multipler. 

I sign my mortgage loan documents tomorrow afternoon and at this appointment will be handing over a cashiers check for the rest of my down payment as well. But my key hand off and deed recording are not scheduled until Friday. I was hoping that after I sign everything tomorrow I am golden and there is no going back?   I need appliances ASAP. I've already ordered my washer and dryer from Costco.com (can cancel or reschedule if I need to) but I need a full kitchen appliance package. I plan to apply for a Lowes card (pre approved for $10K right now) to take advantage of their 0% for 36 month promo. I assume after I get back from the title company tomorrow afternoon, I can apply and buy?    I am also going to bite (pun intended) and finally get an Apple card (pre approved for $4K) to get back in with Chase down the road (burned and settled for less than balance). I was also considering a  NFCU Flagship Rewards Visa or a Wells Fargo Autograph card (pre approved for these as well), but I really don't need either. I think this might be the tamest post-mortage app spree I've seen on here in a long time    Do I need to wait to apply until after the deed recording on Friday or am I good to go after tomorrow?

I was at Sam's today and filled two shopping carts with things for the new apartment, and the total came to over $900.   Two of those things were Lasko 18" stand fans, but the computer asked if I wanted an extended warranty on them for $8.99 each, and I hit the option to refuse, but then the receipt printed out and it stuck me for two extended warranties on the fans for a total of $17.98.   I went to member services and complained.   I told the lady I never buy extended warranties because they're usually just a cash cow for the store selling them and having a fan break down isn't the end of the world financially so I don't see the logic in an $8.99 plan on a $52.99 fan.   You are basically adding 20% almost in case the thing breaks down.   By the time you actually use an extended warranty you'll have paid for so many that you never used that you'll never come out ahead.   They took them off but I think it's dirty to force the customer to consider a "protection plan" on minor purchases.   The other day I had Walmart ask me if I wanted a protection plan on a pack of AA batteries.   Forget tipflation. Protection plan fatigue should be a name for what's going on and costing people money they never see again.   Even on a car, Dave Ramsey says forget the plan and put what it would cost you in a high yield savings account.

Based on others that have applied for the card and my stats, are my chances any good?   Fico scores: Experian 803, Equifax 812, Transunion 807 95k income average age of accts 6.5 yrs 2/24 new credit cards   I currenty have a csp that was opened 04/2025 and has a cl of 21,000 One worry is that I have too much available/unused credit based on income, less than 1% at $94/$168,700 Online it says already approved for the csr business but nothing for personal.

Hi all,    Looking for some wisdom. I have a 6-figure salary and don't pay rent/gas/car/anything, but didn't listen to my mom when she said that a late payment would tank my credit score (and also was just very disorganized with my accounts, so missed some payments despite being fully capable of paying them; I now have a billion finance management apps downloaded). I would like to know what I can do to improve my mortgage score within 1-2 months. Is reaching 620 possible?    Here are my FICO 5/4/2 scores as of May 31st: 599 (Equifax), 574 (TransUnion), 546 (Experian) Overall credit usage: 22%  BoA CC: 77 months, 29% usage, never late Chase CC: 13 months, 19% usage, never late  BoA CC: 44 months, 30/60/90 lates from past March-May for a $64 balance PayPal CC: 69 months, 30/60/90/120/150 lates from past Dec-May for a $35 balance, charged off + closed  Fed student loan 1: 56 months, 90 late from past April Fed student loan 2: 68 months, 90 late from past April Fed student loan 3: 80 months, 90 late from past April Fed student loan 3: 92 months, 90 late from past April Average account age: 4 years, 11 months  Oldest account age: 7 years, 9 months  Actions I have taken since: Goodwill request to Paypal CC was successful; account removed from all 3 bureaus (thanks @BrutalBodyShots) Goodwill request to BoA CC, still waiting Goodwill request to fed loan servicer x 4 (lol, let me dream) Paid down Chase CC to $0, BoA CC to near-zero Brought all student loans to current  Had my parents add me to 2 CCs: a 2008 card with near-zero utilization and perfect payment history; a 2019 card with near-zero utilization and perfect payment history (these are the only 2 accounts they had that were oldish, clean, and low-util) Actions I will take: Keep credit utilization at 0-5%, use AZEO Perfect payment history  Actions I could take: Pay off at least half of my $14.5K in student loans (either pay 2 accounts to 0, or 4 accounts to half) ????????? If anybody has any other actions I could take for a quick credit increase, let me know.   All that being said, could I realistically reach 620 by July/August?    Thanks   

When you get a credit limit increase should companies automatically do a mid cycle report to the bureaus?  in my experience, I almost always get increases right after my statement closes. So it's usually a month delay before the increase gets reported.  yes, some of the time it won't make any difference and waiting that month isn't a big deal.   But for people with higher utilization it could change their profile fairly dramatically.  for example)   someone has 2 cards, an Amex with a 9k limit and capital one with 3k   They have 7k balance on Amex and 1500 on cap one, that's a over 75% on the Amex, 50% cap one, and over 70% aggregate   they then get a 3x increase to 27,000   changing their utilization to 25% Amex and 28% aggregate 

I am trying to get approved for a mortgage for $165000. I am also trying to qualify for DPA. I need a middle score of 640. My score right now is 612. I do qualify for a loan and the mortgage lender states in order to qualify for that amount I need to pay off a larger bill to decrease my DTI. I also need my middle score at 649 for the DPA. However, I have been using the snowball method and would like to continue the route I'm going as I will be debt free minus (hopefully) a mortgage and student loans. Mortgage lender suggested to pay off my personal loan or car loan to lower my DTI.    Car Loan = $396  Personal Loan = $326 CC = $ 243 BNPL = $162   Could I not just pay off the CC and BNPL and get the same decrease in my DTI and increase my score at the same time as if I just pay my car loan or personal loan off?

Didn't need this card per say, but applied for it for the bonus. Approved for $500. I haven't seen a limit this low since the early 2000s 🤣.   In a side note, I didn't know it was metal. That's nice as I'm a sucker for these kinds of cards. Purple and metal. Let's get this card out into a tray.   Nice!   Yes, I'm old.

Have been considering this card since the BILT 2.0 introduction, trying to make heads/tails of the new rewards program and whether or not I can actually get enough value to make it work vs. annual fees.  I think I found a way to make it work for at least the first year, so I finally did the preapproval & ended up accepting their better-than-expected offer of $50K SL @ the lowest available APR (includes $500 BILT cash for signing up, $400 annual hotel credit, the usual travel insurance converages, and another Priority Pass membership for me).  They pulled Experian for me (US West Coast), and the Credit Score/Price you Pay letter showed they used my Vantage 4.0 score (800).  A virtual card number was made available immediately in the BILT app, and was able to be added to ApplePay (where there's an extra 3x bonus for mobile wallet purchases during the first week).  

My daughter is in college and has two cards. (Cap 1 and Disvover) and some student loans.  Scores are in the 730-750 range. Income is in the low $30K range. She PIF monthly. Just leaves a very small balance. She'd like another card. Maybe a better quality card. She does a lot of traveling so travel rewards would be great. I'm thinking a Chase card. Wondering what others suggest? 

So I had Chase business account in the past and they are great besides approving me for lines of credit and credit cards.   my credit was ex- 720 eq-745 tu-760   My dti at the time was 20% and all my cards were sub 5% usage. Even after receiving two pre-approval offers I was denied twice.  i ended up switching to a local bank and although the relationship is good. The operations just can't fulfill what I need. Can only withdraw $500 from their atm, closed on weekends and doesn't transfer from my business to personal account.   So I'm looking for a new business bank yall would recommend. I was considering nfcu, but have heard that their business banking department is lacking.

I have an unbranded FNBO  card that used to be the NRA Visa, but is just blank now.  It still has the 5% cash back for gas and sporting goods.  I got a letter from FNBO saying "Did you know that it's been over 3 months since you last used your FNBO Visa Signature credit card?"  Then later in the note, "To keep your card active be sure to use your card soon."   3 months seems kind of short for that kind of letter.  I looked back and haven't actually had a transaction since December, so I guess it's really been six months.  I've got other gas cards now, and haven't been shopping at any sporting goods stores.  I do have a trip coming up, so I guess I'll gas up with this card so they don't cancel it.  I'd rather get a warning then just have it canceled without knowing about it, but I wonder how long it takes for FNBO to cancel for non use?

Good afternoon,   I have paid a large sum amount of money and my credit score has gone up about 35 points. Problem is on account it still shows no reduction of amount in my credit card balance. I'm planning to buy a house next month and not sure if that will affect my DTI despite of my scores going up nearly to 740... but it still shows a huge amount of utilization that is incorrect since I've paid everything off..    all payments were done the past 2 months I figured something should've changed in the balance reported, a little worried now 

Hello, I recently did a pre approval for the smartly card, and got the message "we are reviewing and will send a decision in 7-10-business days". I called them two days later and the rep said I wasn't pre-approved because I just opened the Renasant bank zero + plus card and they need to see 6 months of on time payments to be approved. I find it strange because the card is not directly with US Bank. 

My spouse and I are separating and he ended up setting up a Chase Bank account a while back without me noticing, and they were just taking $15 for themselves every month and they had managed to wipe out all but $10 of his initial $100 deposit.   We finally settled down after months of arguments and agreed to be reasonable, and one way that I helped him was by shutting down Chase Bank and opening a new account at Fifth-Third with a $350 account bonus coupon.   He was never particularly interested in the ways I handled things, and so he didn't know to stay away from Chase Bank, especially if you don't qualify for one of the ways to avoid their fees. In their case, they not only have fees but they tend to be some of the highest in the banking sector, even for ones with physical branches.   There's still a couple of branch banks out there that have plain no-nonsense free checking accounts and the two in the area that I know about are Fifth-Third Momentum Checking and Huntington Asterisk Free Checking.   I moved most of my stuff to Fifth-Third after dealing with online-only banking since 2009. It's just not convenient for me when certain situations arise and I don't have access to branch banking services, and Fifth-Third has a lot of branches in the Chicago area, especially the suburbs. There's one near my new apartment and another one right next to the Sam's Club I will be going to for gas and home goods, so this worked out to be more convenient for me than Chase Bank.  I got a $400 bonus from Chase earlier this year and as soon as my direct deposit hits Fifth-Third I'll get another $350.   I told my (soon to be ex-spouse) all about how banks try to make off with all your money a little at a time and how to dodge that.   He doesn't know how to do much in this country because he handed all the finances to me. I don't want to be vicious or unfair to him. In many ways, he's lucky that it was me and not some of the people he could ask for a divorce. I've seen some truly horrible things like when my mom got divorced from her second husband in 2008, and ended up filing bankruptcy over it in 2017 over a mortgage foreclosure, and then having to stuff her divorce lawyer from the third husband in it too because she ran up such a balance when he sued her trying to get half her pension over a marriage that lasted three years.   The second husband flouted a judge's order to take her name off the mortgage by deliberately buying a Harley-Davidson on finance then applying for a refi so that his debt to income wouldn't qualify. Even though the judge knew what he did there, he just shrugged and told my mother "I can't control what he buys!" when it was a very clear case of contempt of court.   So as far as the second husband went, the judge turned out to be a paper tiger.   Then the judge ordered her to put part of her paycheck into a joint account to finish paying the IRS, but then he did not notify her they were paid off and started ransacking the account for beer money, years after their divorce.   Finally he died in January 2017 and the mortgage went into default because his 6-7 adult family members that were living in the house wouldn't pay $500 a month, so now they all have to rent apartments that start at twice that and go up in rent every year.   Mom was panicking because the bank was going to come for her over some people that were living there and refused to leave. She couldn't even take the house back. So I told her "File bankruptcy. The sheriff will get them out." and she ended up disposing of some more IRS debt and the divorce lawyer from the third husband and all kinds of bad things.   Point is, I know how these things tend to spiral and go on forever. Divorce judges can rule whatever they want, but if they don't enforce it, who cares?   My spouse has spent the last few years being mean to me, like when my shoulder was broken into three pieces and the biceps and  rotator sheered off of it, and I was in horrible pain and the first two surgeons I saw were incompetent and wouldn't tell me it was broken even after taking MRI scans.   I was in a lot of pain, so much that I had "thoughts" that I will not go into, because the pain was making me crazy. I was essentially bedridden for all the time I could possibly sleep, I got addicted to pain pills over the constant stabbing and burning pain, for years while the surgeons wouldn't help me. (I haven't taken a single pain pill since October, the week after my surgery. Other than the very occasional celebrex which is similar to ibuprofen.)   I would get out of bed at 5 PM, I was living on Disability income, and I didn't want to sleep until 5 PM because of being lazy or even tired, it was because it hurt so bad to be anywhere but bed and asleep. Then I'd wake up and still be so tired I could not think, staggering towards the coffee machine at 5 PM.   On his days off he'd be sitting there at the kitchen table in his underwear going "Leche ka! Talaga! Putang ina mo! Hayup ka! Pangit! You're lazy! You're useless! You're ugly!" while I was trying to make coffee. I never learned more than about a dozen words in Tagalag, the ones he called me.   Then when he demanded a divorce last year I was a couple weeks out from my shoulder reconstruction surgery. I ended up spending those two weeks in bed crying. I had that on my mind and "What if this surgery goes wrong and my arm goes from like 50% functional and a lot of pain to "amputation". Yes, "amputation" was one of the things they told me could happen while they had me out for surgery.   I had an excellent surgeon at Froedtert in Wisconsin. But they have to tell you everything that could possibly happen even if it's a remote chance.   It took six months to recover and heal from that. My shoulder got two pieces of bone removed and replaced with a donor graft, and they reattached the tendons, and it's back to like 98-99%, which was as good as it could possibly get.   Medicare covered most of the bills and most of the pain is gone. I made the mistake of using one of those gas nozzles that extends to the other side of my car at Sam's the other day and my shoulder let me know it didn't like that.   For the move I'm hiring movers. I'm too old and especially after this I need to be careful not to wreck my shoulder and end up in surgery again.   In my 20s I would have just pulled up with a U-Haul and had someone help me with the couch and a mattress in a box and stuff, now I need deliveries because even though my arm is functional again I'm reluctant to end up screwing it up and ended up back where I started.   Even though my spouse treated me terribly, I still feel "responsible" for whether he lands on his feet or not.   I told him what it would cost us in lawyers, what it would cost him in IRS bills, what would happen to his credit, what would happen to mine, if he gets nasty and starts fighting me. I told him, "If we get nasty, we both end up with less, not more. Sit down with me and we can draw up the papers and file them without a lawyer. Your alternative is to pay a lawyer and they start at $5,000 and if you go over like 10 hours, they'll take more, and there's simply not enough to argue about. I will be as fair to you as you are to me."   I started dating again while I was trapped at home in October after the surgery. So I'll be moving in with someone I've known for about 8 months. He's never said an unkind word so far or let his temper slip.ust doesn't strike me as the "usual" that I've experienced in relationships.   The "usual" meaning they start out acting like they're your best friend, but they leave without warning when you have a life problem, even if you were always there for them.   That's how this marriage went. I personally did at least $8,000 worth of lawyer stuff for my spouse at USCIS so we didn't have to hire anyone for certain phases of that process. I made sure he got his surgery so he wasn't deaf anymore. I made sure that he could get in with a dentist, and paid about $5,000 on top of maxing out his dental insurance for two years in a row.   I've learned a hard lesson that love should be expected or you shouldn't be with someone. Don't tell yourself that you will ever do "enough" that they will "love you eventually" or you will just lose years of your life and end up in a mess.

I've been reviewing my spend coverage. For reference, I'm not a big spender. I find my second highest spend is dining. Presently, that's covered at 3% by savior, commerce connection visa and aven. I'm thinking of adding usb altitude go visa for 4%. Here are some of my Pluses, Already have usb card, doesn't add another bank to manage. Offers $200 sub for $1000 spend, not hard to meet. I'm probably missing a good 5% choice, any suggestions?  

My 3rd across two cards and 2nd 3x on this card since opening late last year. Doing all the right things, paying off my statement balances on all cards every month, all FICO 8 and 9 scores over 800. Proud of myself