About to leave the garden, want a strategy

[mccallb]

Hey guys!

I am finally about to stop gardening after a long bout of letting the dust settle.  A little over a year ago, I got a new house and have been letting that cool off.  I currently have about 30K in total credit limit between Quicksilver, Overstock.com, BOA, USAA and DCU.

This year the only account movement I've had is the new overstock card (7K limit last month) and I bought a new car in September.  Both of those inquiries went to EQ, so Exp and TU show no inqs.

Total util is 15%, my debt to income is about 34%. 

My question is, I'd like to move into some higher limit cards or more prestige cards. I went to AMEX and it prequaled me for Amex plat and the Blue prefererred every day, which i think are both good cards, but i keep reading conflicting reports on what the best cards are to get.  I want to move towards much higher limit cards and more rewards than just quicksilver and am looking for any suggestions you guys might have.

If I call AMEX, can they do a single pull and give me two cards? IE: both the plat and blue preferred? (I travel, so I would use the plat perks). If I get the blue preferred AMEX, can I add my wife as an authorized user? (She has decent credit)

Once I'm done with the apps, i'll request CLI with BOA (3000) and USAA (2000) but I want to save those HPS for last and get new cards while i have 0 inqs.

Any suggestions would be really appreciated!!

[OmarGB9]

You can try and app for two Amexs using 1 HP, but YMMV; no guarantees you'll only take one. And yes you can add her as an AU as long as she never burned them in a BK. As far as what to app for, besides wanting "prestigious" cards and high CLs, what are you looking to get out of the card?

[mccallb]

Hey thanks for the reply!

Great info about the amex.

Right now I use my Quicksilver for EVERYTHING. I probably 3-4K per month on it.  I've easily put 60K through the card in the last year and a half, which is awesome because at 1.5% cash back, I bought a brand new computer using just rewards.

I travel about 5 times a year, and would love getting upgrades to first class, love the idea of lounges, etc. So these are reasons the platinum amex sounds great to me.

For the rest, I probably do 1000 a month on groceries, 300 on gas, and 1000 on amazon, with the rest being meals, or other expenses. I pay anything I can with a card that gives me points, so the cards that have the best perks, where its the citi double cash, which will net me more than the quicksilver, or a revolving door 5% bonus on new types of spend, every quarter, what I'm mostly looking for is earning rewards.

I don't care about miles or travel points though. I explicity want things that either go to the card statement, or can be redeemed for something physical.  That said, I didnt even know, before today, what the features of the Amex platinum were, so I also may just be ignorant to some cool stuff other cards offer.

[OmarGB9]

You could try going for the BCE or the ED, although the ED gives you MR points while the BCE gives cashback. But the reward rates are pretty nice on both.

[takeshi74]

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@mccallb wrote:

My question is, I'd like to move into some higher limit cards or more prestige cards. I went to AMEX and it prequaled me for Amex plat and the Blue prefererred every day, which i think are both good cards, but i keep reading conflicting reports on what the best cards are to get.

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The Blue Cash Preferred and the Everyday (Everyday and Everyday Preferred) are different cards.

Of course you're going to get "conflicting" information on which cards are best.  Best is always highly subjective regardless of topic.  The best card depends on what the individual's needs/wants/preferences/priorities/etc.  It is not inherent to the cards.  It's never inherent to the item in question regardless of topic.  It's always a matter of which solutions best suit the individual.

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@mccallb wrote:

I want to move towards much higher limit cards and more rewards than just quicksilver and am looking for any suggestions you guys might have.

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Pretty much everyone wants higher limits.  However, that's not a useful criterion.  Your credit and income will determine what limits you qualify for with different creditors.  We can't tell you what limits you would stand to receive from different creditors.  You can Google for and look around in the Credit Pulls Database (tracks CRA, score, approval/denial, limit, etc) but keep in mind that it's never just a matter of score.

As for rewards, that depends on your spend.  You need to look at where your money is going and find cards that will earn the most rewards on that spend.  You should know where your spend is going.  You should know which categories are your biggest including non-category spend.  If you're considering cash back cards the math is very wasy.  Multiply the spend by the earn rate.

If you're looking at miles/points programs like Membership Rewards -- which applies to the Everday cards -- then you need to go beyond just the earn rates and look into redemptions for the specific program.  The redemption methods that you can use will imact the value of rewards.  In most cases, mile/point value is maximized by transferring to travel partners and redeeming for premium international travel.  That's not to say that you couldn't benefit from other redemption methods but you need to run the numbers for your spend to determine what's best for you.

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@mccallb wrote:

Right now I use my Quicksilver for EVERYTHING. I probably 3-4K per month on it.  I've easily put 60K through the card in the last year and a half, which is awesome because at 1.5% cash back, I bought a brand new computer using just rewards. 

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So is it 3-4K per month or 60K a year?  You probably won't see much benefit from looking for a better earn rate on a flat cash back card as they top out at 2%.

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@mccallb wrote:

For the rest, I probably do 1000 a month on groceries, 300 on gas, and 1000 on amazon, with the rest being meals, or other expenses

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So groceries and Amazon are the biggest spend categories listed so far.  That leaves about $1-3K in other categories/noncategory spend which could continue to go on your Quicksilver.

The BCP offers 6% on groceries but if you're buying groceries from a warehouse club then spend at such a club will not qualify.  Also consider that the BCP has an annual cap on grocery spend of $6,000 and a $75 AF that will impact rewards.  Our grocery spend is similar so my wife and I each have a BCP and we switch which card is used for groceries midyear.

The BCP does offer 3% on gas with no cap.  There are 5% cards for gas but the difference in rewards (you can calculate this easily and should do so when comparing rewards cards) between 5% and 3% on that level of gas spend is about $72/year.

If you can leverage redemptions with MR to get high point value then you might want to consider the Everyday Preferred.  It's 3X on supermarkets and there's a 50% bonus for 30 or swipes in a billing period -- i.e. supermarkets would go to 4.5X.  Depending on what you can get per MR point you might be able to exceed the 6%-AF on the BCP.  I can only manage 0.6 cents to 0.8 cents per MR so MR isn't for me.  YMMV.

There are rotators that offer 5% on Amazon but if you're spending that much a month you'll want rewards all year long.  The Amazon Prime store card will give you 5% but you need to have Prime membership to qualify.  The Sallie Mae is long gone but it was capped at $750/month on bookstores.  Amazon will fall under bookstores for the US Bank cash+.  It's not really a rotator but 5% categories can change per quarter.  I've been able to select bookstores for many quarters but there is that caveat.

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@mccallb wrote:

where its the citi double cash, which will net me more than the quicksilver, or a revolving door 5% bonus on new types of spend, every quarter, what I'm mostly looking for is earning rewards.

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How much more in dollars would the DoubleCash earn for your spend versus the Quicksilver?  Is that dollar amount worthwhile to you?

How much more would something like the BCP or EDP for grocery spend and another card for Amazon spend along with noncategory spend on your Quicksilver?  How would that compare to just putting all your 60K spend on a Double Cash?  Is that difference in dollar amount worth managing 3 cards for different cateogories for you?  Would you rather have just one card for all spend to keep it simple considering the difference in rewards?

This is the sort of due diligence that you have to do.  I'll leave this math to you but if you have difficulty with it we can certainly help.

[mccallb]

My apologies,  I was just looking for suggestions for good cards and some ideas about what makes them better than entry level or mid level cards, so I could think about which cards to focus on, and perhaps the order in which to app, or request CLIS.

[takeshi74]

"Levels" are not relevant.  Start with your needs/wants.  Look at your spend.  Those will be the criteria that will determine the cards that are best for you.  You can't poll or rely on broad, sweeping generalizations to determine what is best for you.

Note the process in my reply above.  You can do this yourself and should do so to evaluate any rewards cards you're considering.  There are certainly other consideration that you may have that will factor into your decision making but assessing rewards is straightforward for cash back cards.  It's not quite tso straightforward for miles/points cards (aside from those that are really cash back cards) but you can get a rough idea of what you rewards you stand to earn before applying and we can certainly help with any specific questions.  If you find that dealing with point/miles rewards programs are not for you then you can certainly stick with the simplicity of cash back.

We really can't provide any meaningful responses about order to app or request CLI's.  We don't know what you stand to be approved for, what limits you'll qualify for or what CLI's you'll qualify for.  You just have to consider the order of importance to you and do these things in that order.  We can't say for certain what the impact of each action will be to your credit profile as it's a matter of your credit profile.  Generally speaking, I'd suggest requesting any CLI's that are based on a soft pull as that has no negative impact and if you get the CLI's they may help with your reported revolving utilization.  The change in utilization is another thing you can calculate.  It won't tell you impact in terms of points but, generally, a bigger change in reported revolvling utilization will have a bigger impact on score.

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@mccallb wrote:

I don't care about miles or travel points though. I explicity want things that either go to the card statement, or can be redeemed for something physical.

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Oops, should have read it all before replying but I'm not going to delete what I typed above as it is info that you and others will want to at least consider.

Keep in mind that there is potential for greater rewards with points/miles but you have to do your due diligence and you have to be willing to deal with such rewards systems.  There's also potential for really poor rewards.

Redeeming for product is generally poor value but depends on the specifics.  Again, math and comparisons are the tools you need to use when trying to determine if redeeming for a product is good or poor value.

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@mccallb wrote:

I travel, so I would use the plat perks

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...and they're worth the $450 AF to you?  Take a look at the airline specific $200 airline credit threads on FlyerTalk.  If you don't already have Global Entry then make use of the Global Entry credit as well.

The standard Platinum currently has a 40K/$3K/3 month bonus offer.  The Mercedes-Benz Platinum has a standing 50K/$3K/3 month offer.  Even if you don't need/want the Mercedes-Benz perks it has the same features as the standard Platinum and no special eligiblity requirements.  If you're eligible for the Ameriprise Platinum it has no AF the first year.  If you're eligible for the Morgan-Stanley Platinum it has a 50K/$1K/3 month bonus and there's no fee for your first AU.

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@mccallb wrote:

I travel about 5 times a year, and would love getting upgrades to first class, love the idea of lounges, etc. So these are reasons the platinum amex sounds great to me.

The Platinum won't help with upgrades.  It has access to several lounge programs (Centurion, Sky Cluib, Airspace & Priority Pass Select) so caerfully research each to see if they would benefit you.  FlyerTalk also has a thread on maximizing Platnium benefits such as status with hotel and car rental programs, etc.

[Anonymous]

Discover IT fanboy over here! It is in my opinion the best deal around at the moment for cashback the first year and a solid card after year one. They are hard to predict on limit, but I feel they would show you love. Here is why I like it:

All Cashback Doubles after year one

1% back on all non category purchuses (2% after the first year double)

0% APR for year one (if your into that)

Free Monthly TU FICO 08 (at least a 60$ a year value)

Soft Pull CLI

5% Rotating Categories

Tons more 5%+ cashback through online shopping everyday (Discover Deals)

I really like discovers overall interface as well.

If you do decide to go this route have one of your family or friends refer you and get the 50$ bonus (can not confirm if it will double after year one, but still free money and it probably will). You will get 50$ and so will the person who refers you. If you do not know nobody with the card I would be more than welling to send you out a referral link too . 

[PointLager]

If you are looking at the Everyday Preferred card from Amex check when was their latest increased offer.  They have an increased offer floating around sometimes (30k MR). 

The other thing you can do with the Grocery bonus category is to buy Visa/Amex gift cards and use those at warehouse clubs, for example.  Or use those gift cards to pay off your cell phone etc.  This way you are getting the increased earn for other things.

But, first thing I would do is assess your travel needs and aspirations and from that you will see which points you can start earning.

[mccallb]

I am currently considering getting some new cards with specific rewards for the new year.
.
I'd love amex plat, bcp, the csp and perhaps venture.

I'm around a 720 score now and wanting to keep my app spread between ex and eq equally.

Util is 15 aaoa is 3.5. 0 INQ last 12 mo 5 INQ last 2 yr.

How bad would it be to app/open all 4 of those on the same mo? Would it hurt too bad or be fine? I'm going to get enough purchases overy the next two months to justify it. (Wife is 7 mo preg) so it'd louver top rack up ppints on my spending spree.

I would love to stay above 700, and after a month or so do some cli on my existing cards (boa/usaa)