SwampSystems Tracker

Re: Discover 5% Cashback for 3rd quarter

SwampSystems — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:40:36 GMT

nyancat wrote:
BrokaToe wrote:
Yah, luckily Walmart has 15 cents off per gallon right now until July 7. That has overlapped nicely between 1st quarter Freedom and 3rd quarter Discover. Be getting a decent discount most of the year. Then I'll use BOA for 3% during the 4th quarter. Gas is so ungodly expensive I have to take advantage of every offer I can get for it.
Actually, it's cheaper than bottled water and cheaper than virtually any other country in the developed world (barring oil producing countries).

Where do you buy your bottled water, a vending machine? I buy mine by the gallon for 80 cents.

Re: Barclay CLI's?

SwampSystems — Mon, 13 May 2013 15:28:03 GMT

I received an Auto CLI recently on my Barclays NFL Visa. Frankly I was shocked because at the time of the original application last year, they had only approved me for something like a $1,500 CL which I got up to $4,500 through recon.

I actually went several months without using the card at all after cashing out the sign-up bonus. A couple of months ago, I transferred a $4,200 or so balance to the card during a 0% APR offer, carried it for a statement or two, and then paid it off in full, and on my next statement my CLI was increased to $6,000. Barclays is very much about seeing you actually using your current limits before giving out an increase.

Re: US Bank Cash+ CL Not Showing?

SwampSystems — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 04:36:51 GMT

Mine showed a limit when it was a Cash Rewards card but no longer shows it now that it is a Cash+. I wonder if it might have to do with it being a Visa Signature card.

Re: Chase cards…

SwampSystems — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 20:24:13 GMT

afbar1114 wrote:
Aren't are visa signatures npsl?

From the Visa Signature website:

Visa wrote:
Not all Visa Signature cards offer this benefit. Availability is determined by your card issuer.

Additionally, it is up to the card issuer to approve any purchase against your credit access line on an individual basis. For example, take a look at the Freedom Visa Signature-World MasterCard Agreement:

We will assign a credit access line to your account, and post it on your monthly billing statement. We may cancel, change or restrict your credit availability at any time. Each transaction is considered for approval on an individual basis, including those above the credit access line. We may not approve all transactions.

It is my understanding that Chase will generally approve all purchases up to twice your credit access line (three times your credit access line on the Palladium).

Re: How to stop the page header from overlapping posts

SwampSystems — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 03:00:05 GMT

BlueNightStar wrote:
Thank you! This has been the most annoying site since they changed the layout.

ETA: I'm glad you had this in your signature.

I put it in my signature because most people only browse the Credit Cards subforum, and it would have been out of place if I had posted it there.

Re: PCing from CSP to plain CS

SwampSystems — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 02:51:08 GMT

jake619 wrote:
Thanks for those links - lots of reading but very good articles.

Do I really need a Freedom card, too? I really don't want to have a Costanza wallet.

Freedom card gives you 2.86% more cash back on dining for 3 months out of the year.

Re: Discover Habbits?

SwampSystems — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 02:06:20 GMT

ryanbush wrote:
GE loves it becuse their interest rates are CRAZY!!! lol

Barclays and Capital One like it too. Creditors have a finite amount of credit to extend to all of their customers. They would rather extend it to more profitable customers.

Re: Using tax refund to pay cc balances

SwampSystems — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 02:04:32 GMT

eviLution wrote:
Thanks Swamp.

There are better deals as well. I'm getting 3% APY on my BCU savings account. When Chase sends me 12-month 0% APR convenience checks with a 1% fee, I deposit them directly into my savings account and earn a net 2% after the fee.

How to stop the page header from overlapping posts

SwampSystems — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 01:58:50 GMT

If you're having issues with the page header overlapping posts when you navigate directly to a post, add these filters to Adblock Plus:

ficoforums.myfico.com##div#branding
ficoforums.myfico.com##div#utilnav

Re: Discover Habbits?

SwampSystems — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 01:41:50 GMT

joeyh2007 wrote:
So my question is how does Discover respond to large purchases that may take 3-6 months to pay off?

They like it, because they are a credit card company, and interest is how they make their money.

My Discover More started out with a $500 limit. For the first year of having the card, I kept it completely maxed out and only paid the minimum payment. I received an auto-CLI at 6 months and again at 9 months (and promptly maxed out the increased limits as well). Fast forward to the future, when my credit profile and income had improved significantly, and during a manual CLI reconsideration, a Discover underwriter actually asked me why I went from paying only the minimum to paying the card off in full.

GE did the same thing to me --- I kept my Walmart store card completely maxed out for a long time, and they continued to give me auto CLIs. People who face adverse action from carrying a large balance were probably already considered a high risk when their accounts were opened. As long as you keep making that minimum payment, and as long as they keep making money from the interest, the creditors are happy.

Re: PCing from CSP to plain CS

SwampSystems — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 01:29:46 GMT

jake619 wrote:
Since they still have the 40,000 points for $3000 in 3 months w/ no 1st year AF, could you get CSP, rake in the sign up points and PC to regular CS before 12 months to avoid paying the AF? Would you get to continue using the metal card?

Open the card at a branch to get the bonus with $2k spend instead of $3k spend.
Don't open the card until after February so you can still get your 7% annual dividend in December before the AF hits in January
Instead of PCing to Sapphire, close the card and roll its limit into a Freedom if you already have one.

Re: Using tax refund to pay cc balances

SwampSystems — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 01:27:56 GMT

eviLution wrote:
I'm not in debt so it goes straight to my bank. I ain't getting much back though lol

SallieMae Money Market -- currently at 0.95% APY, no minimum, no fees

Re: Barclay's NFL card CLI

SwampSystems — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 21:54:01 GMT

high_lander wrote:
I called the Barclay's back door number today for a CLI, and spoke to a very nice lady and she was able to bump from 500 to 2000! She offered a balance transfer @ 0% for the next 12 months off of my Cap One card. More than likely I will shutdown my low limit Cap one and keep the other for a bit.

HP or SP?

Re: Big Changes (bad) Coming to US Bank Cash+?

SwampSystems — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 20:33:24 GMT

bs6054 wrote:
I don't think the Forward is losing 5x on books. Looks like another of the rumors that circulate.

I thought the Forward was being discontinued altogether.

Re: Big Changes (bad) Coming to US Bank Cash+?

SwampSystems — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 20:16:51 GMT

The bright side of this is that the Cash+ is getting 5% back on bookstores in April, which counters the Citi Forward (?) losing that. Can anyone confirm that Amazon.com bills as a bookstore with the Cash+?

Re: Chase says I have too much credit...

SwampSystems — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 15:28:25 GMT

McArthur wrote:
Could there be something else? I mean, I'm already at about 40% over income and Chase just gave me an additional $30k on a CSP. Perhaps, the income thing coupled with, say, a few extraneous INQs was the dealbreaker.

They specifically mentioned too much available credit. Probably because I hardly use it.

Re: Question about CK

SwampSystems — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 04:51:23 GMT

WallyxD wrote:
I know CK isn't really reliable as far as score goes, but I'm looking at my account now and my CK score is now 638. 100% on time payments and 25% util(it improved) According to them, my AAoA is only 7 months, longest being 1 year and 4 months. No derogs, and 12 inqs. I thought after one year, hard inqs have no effect on your score? I can't think of any other reason why my CK score is so low other than the fact that they factor in my inqs.

For the actual fico scores, how important is the AAoA and as far as inqs go, say if someone has several recent inqs, the score will go down, will that person see a bump in their score after those inqs hit the 1 year mark?

See my post in another recent thread about how CreditKarma and CreditSesame differ from actual FICO. In short, CreditKarma only looks at open accounts when calculating your average age, while FICO look at all reported tradelines -- open or closed.

Re: Credit Karma vs Credit Sesame

SwampSystems — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 04:44:41 GMT

ElMayimbe wrote:

Is it just me or is Credit Sesame scoring system pretty close to FICO?. CK is usually for me between 30 - 40 point difference, I do like CK for daily credit monitoring though. Are there any other free services out there, perhaps better or similiar?

CreditKarma uses TransUnion TransRisk which weighs things differently than FICO. For instance, CreditKarma calculates your average age over open accounts only, while FICO looks at all reported tradelines -- open or closed -- to make the calculation.

CreditSesame uses the Experian National Equivalency Score, which is designed to weigh risk as closely to the same way FICO does as possible. Altough this score normally ranges from 0 to 1000, CreditSesame uses Experian's optional scoring method and actually ranges from 360 to 840, in an attempt to closely match your actual FICO score.

Your results may vary, of course, but between the better score model and CreditKarma's habit of sometimes hiding hard pulls, I usually find that CreditSesame gives me a score much closer to my real FICO than CreditKarma does. But regardless of the actual score, both sites are a useful and free way to stay up-to-date on your TransUnion and Experian reports.

Re: Chase says I have too much credit...

SwampSystems — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:16:49 GMT

andyaycw wrote:
Wow, OP Chase seems pretty stingy with you. Reason I say that is because I'd expect the bigger banks (like Chase) to be more generous than credit unions.

My income is comparable to yours, and Penfed has been very generous to me. Last year, they knew I had over $70k in unsecured credit, but still gave me a slew of pre-approval offers, including a CLI on my Platinum Cash Rewards CC up to $32.7k. They know how much I make too as they have verified my income.

I wonder if your history with Chase may have had something to do with it?

My history with Chase is spotless. I do not think they have been stingy with me, they have extended me over 25% of my annual income in credit. I do think that banks tend to see a single, high limit as being more risky or dangerous than multiple, smaller limits, so they would be weary to extend me any more credit after combining my existing limits.

Re: How high does the Walmart Store Card Limit go?

SwampSystems — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 21:14:09 GMT

SE7EN57 wrote:
What was everyones initial starting limit? Mine is $800 and plan on asking for a cli in about a month or so once I've used it a few times. What amount should I asked them for?

Mine had a $1,200 starting limit when my only other cards were a $300 Capital One and a $600 Macy's (which may not have been reporting yet).