@angelnyc wrote:
@LS2982 wrote:
@angelnyc wrote:
@LS2982 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:Hi everyone,
I'm new to this community, I'm a college student graduating in the near future, and I've always had an interest in personal finance, hence my career choice of accounting. Excuse the length of my post, the real bulk of my actual question is lower down the page, but I feel the background is relevant so here goes...
I'm starting to really get all my ducks in a row, and this includes cutting expenses. Cutting expenses may mean closing out the AMEX Gold card account that I've had for about 2 years now, because I really don't spend enough to justify the $125/year fee. But first, let me give a bit of background:
My only two sources of credit history are my current AMEX Gold card that I've had since 2011, and a past BoA card from 2009 that was a joint account with a parent. I believe I am off of this now, and the account might be in fact closed. There are actually two listed on the MyFico report, one that says its been terminated and one that says there has been no activity since 2009. I did a MyFico and CreditKarma check and both have me at 691. I'm assuming what's mostly against me here is my age, and also it looks like the BoA card was at one point late, but again, excuse my ignorance on this because I was 16 at the time so my parent was handling it, it was just an emergency card for me. But anyway, I'm never late on my charge card, so I'm assuming the only things against me are my short history and that one late payment that I got associated with.
I'm starting to babble, sorry. Back to my real question here:
Lately I've been contemplating closing my charge card. I really don't think its necessary to be paying that amount of a fee to spend as little as I do. However, I don't want to close out an account if its going to hurt my credit score, which seems to be sort of fragile at my age. Plus, as much as I dislike the fee, I do like the ability to charge large amounts with essentially no limit when necessary, for example when I had eye surgery that was covered by insurance, instead of walking around with $5000, I just put it on my AMEX. On top of that I love the customer service and non-points related benefits of AMEX.
So this is what I was thinking, opening up another account with them for the Blue Cash Rewards credit card. I figure this will help me in a couple of ways:
1. From what I understand, AMEX back dates to your earliest account? This will help my AAoA. This will also give me the ability to later close the Gold card and still have a long history.
2. It will give me a credit mix, with one Credit Card and one Charge Card.
3. From what I understand, charge cards don't go into utilization, so I can have a very low balance on my credit card, and then if I need to charge large things to my Gold card. This will give me a utilization score, which I basically don't have right now, and a good one at that.
This doesn't really solve my problem of the fee I feel like is unneccessary, but if my thinking is correct, by opening another card with AMEX now, it will give me the option to cancel the Gold card in the future with basically no real penalty.
So quick recap,
Option A: Carry on as normal
Option B: Close Gold card, open a credit card, probably AMEX Blue or one with a bank
Option C: Keep Gold card, open Blue card, with possibility of closing Gold card later.
What do you all recommend for my situation to best help my credit score?
Thanks in advance!
Welcome to the forums!!!!
I would suggest keeping the PRG because it is a NPSL card and does not affect utilization. Go ahead and app for the BCE. With 2 years of flawless history with AMEX you should be approved instantly.
Can't say what kind of CL you will get, but 2K seems to be the norm starting out with AMEX revolvers and a thin file.
Good luck to you!!
- He has a gold, the PRG annual fee is worst, 175, his AF is 125. He's paid the AF for 2 years now whats the difference? He's already said he likes the NPSL side of the card.
- It does affect utilization on the TU98. Which is pretty much outdated and a useless score.
- It is a NPSL (a limit that is adjusted frequently based on his spending habits), but why does that give reason to pay an AF of 125? If the OP uses the card alot and uses the points wisely it will be worth it.
LOL Red seriously?
Listen he is a young student closing in on his graduation, I am trying to HELP this person make right decisions so lets remember to keep that the agenda.
- He has a gold, the PRG annual fee is worst, 175, his AF is 125. He's paid the AF for 2 years now whats the difference? He's already said he likes the NPSL side of the card.
So historically he has expended already 250 dollars in AFs, it's not about difference but why should he keep paying more if he gets approved for the revolver, the OP already said he likes NPSL, but hence why I explained to OP what NPSL entails and perhaps why it is not a good enough reason to keep paying an AF.
2. It does affect utilization on the TU98. Which is pretty much outdated and a useless score.
The OP however has the right to know. You may conceive it however you may but it is still being used and the OP has the right to be informed of where it is being used as opposed to just telling the OP it does not affect utilization like your previous post, that would just be plain wrong.
3. It is a NPSL (a limit that is adjusted frequently based on his spending habits), but why does that give reason to pay an AF of 125? If the OP uses the card alot and uses the points wisely it will be worth it.
The OP has to spend an excess of over 35K annually to make back the annual fee of a PRG card... remember the OP is still a college student. Now remember from post 1 your question of what is the difference? The gold card has worst reward structure then PRG, so it will be even more difficult for the OP to make that annual fee back with that reward system, which is why many gold card members (who really have the means of spending annually that much) switch to the PRG.
Not real sure why you take red offensive, I use it on my replies. 
2nd it's up to the OP not anyone else whether he wants to keep the NPSL card, I simply recommended it because he was still interested in keeping a NPSL card and not having it affect utilization. Sorry i didnt pick up on your having the regular Gold card.
TU98 is pretty much useless very few lender use it, so OP keep in mind theres a possibility they could pull TU98. I doubt you'll ever run into that situation and even if you did the analyst you speak to on a recon would know the difference between a charge card and a credit card.
If you cant make the AF difference up on the NPSL card while getting the BCE or BCP then yea I suggest you just close it out. It's all on you feel about it.
If I were you I would try to get the BOA tradeline removed, since you were 16 at the time, you shouldn't have had an account with your name on it...
FICO 9: 
Filed Chapter 13 on 6/1/2017 after job loss. Discharged 6/1/2022.
Goal: Gardening!
Filed Chapter 13 on 6/1/2017 after job loss. Discharged 6/1/2022.
Goal: Gardening!
@webhopper wrote:If I were you I would try to get the BOA tradeline removed, since you were 16 at the time, you shouldn't have had an account with your name on it...
Thats an excellent point there!
@ryanbush wrote:Where did you get that he would have to spend 35k annually to make back the AF? MR points can easily be redeemed for 2c each, even if they were only 1c each you would only have to spend 17.5k to earn the AF back at only 1ppd.
The whole point in the PRG is to earn more than 1ppd, you can easily earn the fee back with under 10k in spend in the right categories. Significantly less than that if you can find a good redemption value for the MR points.
OK let me provide a very specific example. Let's say you have your PRG card and for year 1 you did not travel anywhere (3x points) and you use mass transportation (2x points for gas, we are also assuming you use a better card for supermarkets like BCE or any of the better options out there). That means all your purchases fall under the 1 point category for the PRG.
Let us talk about PURE CASH b/c that is what the MAJORITY of people want = ).
You would have to spend 20,000 dollars for 20,000 points to get a 100 dollar AMEX gift card. That is .005% percent cash back for each dollar spent in the aforementioned way (yes, quite laughable).
I am making the assumption the OP wants cash back, also keep in mind the OP doesn't even have a PRG he has the regular gold card which means he will only ever get 1 point per dollar spent. Using the above example OP has to spend 25,000 dollars to make his 125 back, that is just to break even (oh and keep in mind amex only does specific denominations for their AMEX gift cards, you can not liquidate points to the tee).
Now if you want to help OP out by providing how OP can beat the annual fee and make out lovely, please provide specific examples and scenarios that you think this college student would be interested in.
