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remember that if your credit card is used for insufficient funds, it will be used as a cash advance and you'll be charged a 3% (or whatever it is) fee usually with a minimum and AFAIK points don't usually come from cash advances,
This is a very important point. In addition, with most banks the interest on your cash advance starts accruing *immediately*.
For overdraft protection, it can be cheaper to either link your savings account (if you have one), or a personal line of credit.
In your situation, that's what I would recommend until you get your utilization down. Use savings for ODP, or apply for a PLOC with BOA. Particularly if you explain you'd not only like to use the PLOC for overdraft protection but also to effectively balance transfer your existing credit card balance, they might be willing to approve the PLOC despite your high utilization. That makes for a double win, then, because you're reducing your util AND getting a better rate on your revolving balance.
@seigex wrote:
@acropolis wrote:Hello Everyone,
I need a credit card to insulate my BOA checking account, which has been hit twice in the last year. I would like to get a decent cash back card, like the BOA 1-2-3 card or maybe an AMEX BCP. My credit is pretty simple: a mortgage, one credit card (MC with 2.5k CL), and a car loan. EQ credit score is 717. AAoA is 3 yrs 6 mos, total accounts is 15. No derogs or late payments, zero hard inquiries. My main concern is my utilization, which is at 97%. I was laid off last December and had to use the card to make ends meet for a few months.
My ideal card would be something like the 1-2-3 BOA Rewards card with a $5k+ limit. Given the above info, if that reasonable? If not, which card would you recommend I pursue? Thanks for all of the advice!!
If you're willing to move over to chase, I would say go for the Chase Freedom card. Chase has excellent customer service, hands down better than BofA. Their card gives you 5% cash back on rotating categories (ie july thruogh september is gas/restaurants and jan through march is gas/amazon) and 1% back on everything else. And when you link it to your Chase checking account they give you 10 extra points for every dollar you spend and 10 extra points for every purchase you make.
In the first two months, I have about $250 in cash back waiting for me (although $100 of it was the signing bonus).
Just a note, Chase won't touch the OP untill he gets his UTL below 30% with less being better, if he can do that, he should be in good with Chase, His scores will go up, and adding a second card should also increase his scores, with 2 cards reporting under 10% utl the OP should see scores over 750.
@jamesdwi wrote:
@seigex wrote:
@acropolis wrote:Hello Everyone,
I need a credit card to insulate my BOA checking account, which has been hit twice in the last year. I would like to get a decent cash back card, like the BOA 1-2-3 card or maybe an AMEX BCP. My credit is pretty simple: a mortgage, one credit card (MC with 2.5k CL), and a car loan. EQ credit score is 717. AAoA is 3 yrs 6 mos, total accounts is 15. No derogs or late payments, zero hard inquiries. My main concern is my utilization, which is at 97%. I was laid off last December and had to use the card to make ends meet for a few months.
My ideal card would be something like the 1-2-3 BOA Rewards card with a $5k+ limit. Given the above info, if that reasonable? If not, which card would you recommend I pursue? Thanks for all of the advice!!
If you're willing to move over to chase, I would say go for the Chase Freedom card. Chase has excellent customer service, hands down better than BofA. Their card gives you 5% cash back on rotating categories (ie july thruogh september is gas/restaurants and jan through march is gas/amazon) and 1% back on everything else. And when you link it to your Chase checking account they give you 10 extra points for every dollar you spend and 10 extra points for every purchase you make.
In the first two months, I have about $250 in cash back waiting for me (although $100 of it was the signing bonus).
Just a note, Chase won't touch the OP untill he gets his UTL below 30% with less being better, if he can do that, he should be in good with Chase, His scores will go up, and adding a second card should also increase his scores, with 2 cards reporting under 10% utl the OP should see scores over 750.
yeah realized that after I had already posted ... Chase approved me with only one open credit line (Cap1 $300) with 6% util on review.. but only after I told them I was just approved for a $4000 card from USAA, wish I waited until after my NFCU card to call them
acropolis,
Have you considered taking advantage of the BCP 6% groceries for gas gift cards? If you play your cards right you can actually get 6% on the gift cards with cash prices, compared to CC gas prices i.e 123 BoA. In addition to the above you can actually purchase the gas gift cards from Kroger and combine that with thier fuel program which can potentioally save you .10 dollars per gallon per 100 dollars spent at particiapating shell stations, not to mention how great of an everday card the BCP is.
For example paying for 100 dollars worth of gas at $3.80 comes out to be:
At the pump: $3.80 (cash price)
100/3.8=~26.31 gallons of gas for ($100 + 6% cashback = $94)
Compared to ~$3.90 (CC price)
100/3.9=~25.64 gallons of gas for ($100 + 3% gas 123 BoA cashback = $97)
So for the same amount of money you looking at getting about 1.5-2 gallon of gas after rewards have payed out, that is not including the Kroger and Shell $.10 per $100 which would add another 1-2 gallons or 4-8 dollars per $100.
Sorry if math is off by a bit, math is not my strong suit..
Hello again everyone! Wow!!! Thanks for all of the great replies and information. This place ROCKS!
Let me explain "insulate". Most of my bills draft from my BOA checking account. I also use my debit card quite frequently (gas, lunches, groceries, etc., etc.). In the past year (about eight months actually), my checking account has been sucked almost dry through some semblence of fraud. In both cases, it was my debit card that was used to get at the money. BOA is great at correcting the problem and returning the money to my account. However, it may take a day or two before I have the cash back. My plan is to use a higher limit credit card to run all of my spending and bills trhough, so that if/when the account gets compormised my cash is safe. Plus, I get the benefit of a cash-back program, which is not available on simple debit cards. It seems to be a win-win. :-)
RE: the creidt card util. I can probably get it down a little in the next couple of months. I am trying to build back my savings, which I burned thorugh while i was unemployed. I normally send about $100 a month to the CC right now. Crawling back out of the hole has been a little difficult.
Thanks again for all of the advice and information. I really do appreciate your input. I do have one remaining question, though. If I can get the card util down to 50% by December or January, would that work? Or does it really need to be below 10%? The sense of urgency is worry over my bank account getting compromised again.
Ah, thanks for explaining. That brings more clarity to your situation.
I think you have the right idea here. I never use my debit card in a situation where it will have to leave my sight to be swiped...makes skimming the card stripe far too easy, and that is where a lot of debit card fraud comes from. Plus, hey...rewards when you use credit!
And incidentally, BoA just sent me a new debit card with a new number because apparently some of their data was compromised and they are trying to prevent any fraud from occurring. Sounds like you may have unfortunately been on the front line of whatever that was,
So yeah...once you get that utilization down, I'd go for the Amex Blue Cash Preferred (1/3/5) and the BoA Privileges Cash Rewards Visa (1/2/3 but since you have a BoA checking account, effectively a 1.5/3/4.5 thanks to the customer loyalty bonus). With your scores and history, the util and low number of accounts are the only things potentially holding you back from getting one or both of those. YMMV, but I would guess that with your score a util below 50% would probably be sufficient even if 10% is ideal.
On the off chance you were to get denied for both of those, just apply for an Amex charge card the same day to make the most of that hard inquiry. Garden it for 90 days, get your utilization lower, then go for both again.