Thanks everyone for all the replies and congrats, I like to share my stories as we all learn from one another on this forum, especially where I came from poor/no credit and now having tons of credit all due to this forum and the knowledge I gained....
Starting Score: EQ 546 TU 566
@dap1984va wrote:so does that mean you took another Inquiry to move to the Sallie Mae ? How many credit hits did you take?
Checked my credit reports 2 hits from Barclay's on TU only one for the Upromise Card and one for the Sallie Mae. It could have been worse...
Good work - congrats!!
I love my Sallie Mae card... it fits my spening habits almost perfectly and made more than a few of my other cards obsolete.
@iHackerSix wrote:Forgive me if this is a dumb question but I tried google and didn't come up with too many details. What are the main differences between the Sallie Mae Mastercard and the UPromise Mastercard? Both have cash back, World MasterCards, and both are back by Barclays.
- Both give $25 bonus on first use
- Upromise: 5-10% on eligible online sites, 4% at participating restaurants, 3% at Exxon/Mobil 2% at certain movie theaters, 1% elsewhere
- Sallie Mae: 5% on first $250/month each on gas and groceries, 5% on first $750 books, 1% everything else.
So at first the upromise looks appealing until you see the online sites are limited, the restaurants are very limited, Exxon/Mobil doesn't have a footprint everywhere, and the movie theaters which are eligible are very spotty.
I suppose IF you shopped at the obscure upromise sites, IF your favorite restaurant was participating, and IF you always got gas at Exxon or Mobil then this would be a better card.
I have to disagree about the online sites being limited. The UPromise mall is huge, and offers a lot of opportunities to earn cash back. It's actually bigger than the Discover Mall. I actually love the UPromise mall.
@DaniBananiie wrote:
I have to disagree about the online sites being limited. The UPromise mall is huge, and offers a lot of opportunities to earn cash back. It's actually bigger than the Discover Mall. I actually love the UPromise mall.
All those malls are pretty much the same... most are the same merchants you see on Discover's mall, Wells Fargo's mall, etc. The rest are offers you can get other places online, some better offers elsewhere (such as 24 hour fitness 5% off)... if you can't get more than 5% off by just walking into a 24 hour fitness and negotiating for 30 seconds, you're not really trying. And no amazon.com... that's a deal breaker for many of us right there.
I have to disagree with you otter. The Upromise Mall has more merchants than the Discover Mall. I comparison shop between the two every single day, so I would know more than you do. Places like Oriental Trading Co isn't in the Discover mall but it's in the Upromise mall. You can get more cash back from Best Buy in the Upromise mall vs the Discover Mall. I would be nice if you didn't sway people in here with false accusations about things. It's pathetic..