I've learned so much here, guys and I straightened up my credit nicely. Got that 0% interest car I was planning on getting.
Anyway, I got a number of cards over the last year. Not good for my credit score in the short term, great in the longterm because I don't overutilize and except for 0% intro rate cards, I pay off monthly. I only desire one other card and then I am done. I may play the CLI game later but no new cards. The card I want is the true earnings Costco/amex marriage card. I dislike Amex with a passion but this one would be very useful to me. I applied for it twice and was turned down.
Last week, they sent me a preapproved begging letter (that's what I call those thousands of offers that come in when you are a credit card user) that included a teaser of a $55 statement credit after using $250. I don't know about you, but I rarely walk out of Costco with less than $200 of stuff. So, I thought, hey why not? But, here's the rub. I have a Discover It that has a 0% interest rate until about 8 months from now. It also offered 0% balance transfers with a very small transaction fee. Anyway, they are way over the utilization that they should be, but if I weren't looking at this other offer, I would let it ride. I can pay it off easily within the timeframe but why speed it up? I think that would be bad money management, except.......
The offer from Amex expires on Nov 25th. I've been paying off the Discover about 500.00 a month, even though I should just keep the money in reserve in an interest bearing account, but I don't trust life to find a way to use that money. Alas, it won't be payed down to 1500.00 (30% util) until after ththe AMEX/Costco offer expires (it will be at 3000 with a limit of 5000). I can do a balance transfer to a card that would charge 3.99% which sounds really financially stupid. But it would then show both of those accounts at below 30% for the Amex application. I haven't checked but I can probably move it back and stick with my plan but the fees back and forth might make it unfeasable, plus I haven't checked to see if I can move money owed that often between cards.
Any ideas fellow Ficos?
Tavalon
In my wallet: Barclaycard rewards 2% on groceries and gas. and my CU debit card
Resting in the garden: 2 quicksilvers 1.5% rewards - were being used for groceries until I got the Barclaycard, Chase Amazon with 3% rewards at Amazon, Chase Disney - the one with the great transfer rate but the trip to Disney is done, so otherwise, it's pushing up daisies, Discover 5% rotating but util is too high so no using it. REI - dumb choice since I love REI with all my heart. Nonetheless it's paid off and buried. Bill me later or whatever it's called these days - I have a number of no interest, no payments until the middle of next year with them and they will be paid off in time.
