@kdm31091 wrote:
It's all up to how you are going to redeem if you want to decide if Freedom or Discover is more valuable. I'd rather have the cash back, since UR points are not particularly exciting for me since I don't really travel, and there's no extra benefit to redeem them for cash. But it depends what you're going for.
I don't think Capital One is as bad as people paint it to be. They can be a pain in the ass with some things, and they don't have a long list of great cards, but to be fair, Chase doesn't have a long list of great cards either IMO (outside of travel cards). They do not even have a general spending card if you want more than 1% back. Citi's Double Cash may outclass the Capital One Quicksilver for now but it's anyone's guess how long it will take before it will get nerfed - I'm sorry but almost every card Citi has released has been nerfed in some way. The Forward, Dividend, and the Thank You Preferred come to mind. (The latter was not directly nerfed, but thank you points have been nerfed and decreased in value over the years). Double Cash also has a bit more of a hassle with redemption (25 minimum, which in practice should not matter but it is annoying, they're your rewards you should be able to redeem whenever you want), and also the 1+1 structure is a turnoff for some.
With any card you have to weigh the pros and cons vs worrying about who you want to build a relationship with. It is important to establish a long history of responsible payments with any lender, but also important to remember that in most cases, they do not consider it a "relationship" in the same sense. You are one out of many thousands of cardholders. If they want to cancel your card for any reason, they can and will. I'm not saying not to build goodwill, but, at the end of the day, we are all disposable to the issuer. Do not focus too much on "who should I build a relationship with?", IMO. Get the card that suits you, period.
I agree that Capital One isn't as bad as people make it out to be. They've actually been wonderful to me. They gave me a nice starting limit on my Platinum MC ($3000), and then less than a month later let me PC it to a no AF Quicksilver. Capital One, like Chase, seems to think I have good credit, lol.
Chase's card selection may be evaluated differently based on opinion, and I would never argue with opinion, but overall their card selection is viewed very favorably by the majority of myFICO members... And while I normally don't use the logical fallacy of "appeal to authority" when I debate, but really, who would know better than us?
I actually highly doubt that Double Cash will be nerfed, if for no other reason than that it's hard to conceive of a way that it could be (there are no spending categories to eliminate, no real spending bonuses to speak of other than a few targeted sign up offers). Although, I suppose if any company could find a way, it would be Citi. I suppose they could change it to .75% when you buy, .75% when you pay and make it a poor man's Quicksilver, lol. I actually think what Citi is going to do instead of nerfing the card is make it a little easier to get approved for, so less credit conscious people will apply and Citi will make money from them in interest.
By the way, I have never, EVER understood the argument that you aren't getting the full value of the 2% the DC gives you if you don't pay in full. Obviously you don't get the other 1% back immediately if you don't PIF, but you do get it whenever you do pay your balance.
While I agree with most of what you said in the last paragraph, relationship-building should be a priority when applying for a card if you are looking to build a strong collection of cards. While it's true that a CCC can cut you off at any time, they are less likely to do so if you have a solid, long-established relationship with them. There are companies that are important to get in with, Amex and Chase come to mind... If for no other reason than their prime offerings (Chase) or their great membership benefits like backdating (Amex).
