Guesstimate how long I should garden

Anonymous · ‎07-09-2015

I have all the cards I want, for now. But in the future I would like to get a maybe an all around 2% card (Citi Double Cash?). Also thinking about the Sallie Mae or maybe upgrading my BCE to BCP. I know that I need to garden for a while. My plan was to ride out the Discover double cash deal until it ends for me (in July of 2016). Will gardening for a year be long enough to get in with Citi or Barclays? I don't have any other cards with them. My scores are in my signature, and all of the cards in my signature were opened between April-May of this year (except for the useless Fashion Bug Comenity card which has been around since 2006). I have 5 inquiries on TU, 3 on Equifax, and I think I have 3 on Experian.

My ultimate questions are: 1. Is gardening for one year sufficient to get in with Citi or Barclays? (I am already pre-qualed for the Double Cash, but I couldn't find a pre-qual site for Barclay's). 2. Is it possible that upgrading to the BCP would be a better option that trying for Sallie Mae?

kdm31091 · ‎07-09-2015

Really, any new more exciting card could potentially come out by then.

Id definitely wait til your Discover promo ends as it makes a double cash pointless. Then decide from there. Its a year away. A lot can happen in a year. No need to worry about it yet IMO. You should keep gardening.

Anonymous · ‎07-09-2015

@Anonymous wrote:

My ultimate questions are: 1. Is gardening for one year sufficient to get in with Citi or Barclays? (I am already pre-qualed for the Double Cash, but I couldn't find a pre-qual site for Barclay's). 2. Is it possible that upgrading to the BCP would be a better option that trying for Sallie Mae?

1) Yes, honestly 3-6 months would be enough but I second waiting for Discover 2x deal to end before doing double cash

2) You probably have to wait until 12 months after your BCE opened to upgrade thanks to Card Act's rules on annual fees.

I would wait 3 months and try Sallie Mae, if declined wait 6 months and try again. Dont bother with Double Cash until Discover 2x wears off. By then your inquiries will have aged enough not to matter.

Anonymous · ‎07-09-2015

Agree, stay in the garden for a few more months. Let the new cards age a bit, and let the HPs become less of a factor.

Anonymous · ‎07-09-2015

re: BCP vs. BCE the fee is $75 so you just need to see if you'll get that much benefit in the double rewards. I only use it for groceries (mostly) and for me we'll hit the cap in a year. For me it was a no-brainer because $6000 @ 6% is $360 in rewards while $6000 @3% is $180. We'll max BCP on groceries and throw some here and there on SM or Freedom if they offer groceries again next year. The fee is $75, so you'd need to spend $4250 in groceries to break even. Anything over that is gravy.

I always forget about the 3% on dept stores on the BCP. I don't frequent them much, but I need to keep talking about it so that when the time comes I remember it.

If you need any help figuiring out some other $ breakdown, just holler.

Anonymous · ‎07-09-2015

You've already got a 5% category card (Discover), and two Quicksilvers which if the threads are correct you can now conslidate through Capital One to make one big one, and an AMEX card for Gas and Groceries. Double Cash is alright, but the difference between 1.5% on QS and 2% on DC is not a lot, hell even the difference between 1% and 2% isn't enough to justify.

Anonymous · ‎07-09-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
You've already got a 5% category card (Discover), and two Quicksilvers which if the threads are correct you can now conslidate through Capital One to make one big one, and an AMEX card for Gas and Groceries. Double Cash is alright, but the difference between 1.5% on QS and 2% on DC is not a lot, hell even the difference between 1% and 2% isn't enough to justify.

Thanks for the input, JonE. I considered consolidating the Quicksilvers, but I thought maybe it would be better to leave them as two separate tradelines so they could pad my file a little with good standing accounts. What do you guys think about this? I also struggle with the 1.5 to 2% issue. I feel like I am leaving money on the table if I don't maximize rewards. For example, my boyfriend pretty much uses the QS1 for everything. It bothers me because I know that I could be getting the 2% if he would just pick the Discover card to use. Free money just for using a different card, right?

Anonymous · ‎07-09-2015

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
You've already got a 5% category card (Discover), and two Quicksilvers which if the threads are correct you can now conslidate through Capital One to make one big one, and an AMEX card for Gas and Groceries. Double Cash is alright, but the difference between 1.5% on QS and 2% on DC is not a lot, hell even the difference between 1% and 2% isn't enough to justify.
Thanks for the input, JonE. I considered consolidating the Quicksilvers, but I thought maybe it would be better to leave them as two separate tradelines so they could pad my file a little with good standing accounts. What do you guys think about this? I also struggle with the 1.5 to 2% issue. I feel like I am leaving money on the table if I don't maximize rewards. For example, my boyfriend pretty much uses the QS1 for everything. It bothers me because I know that I could be getting the 2% if he would just pick the Discover card to use. Free money just for using a different card, right?

That's part of the reason I would like the Chase combo because it is so effective for combining points, and that's only two cards. Why I don't like putting 2% purchases on one card, general purchases on another, 5% categories on another. Use two Chase cards together and you can come up with some pretty good UR points totals between the two of them. It amuses me when people want to maximize rewards when spreading them out among 4-5 cards or more is the exact polar opposite of maximizing. Then you have uncompatible rewards systems that spread out your spending, with cards you only use occassionally.

kdm31091 · ‎07-09-2015

You dont want to spread rewards too thin. Just be careful. 1.5 vs 2 percent isnt much. I get about maximizing rewards but its nothing to obsess over.

Jon also has a great point that spreading across 5 cards or more isnt really maximizing.

Anonymous · ‎07-09-2015

The beauty of the Quicksilver instant cash rewards are now you can pay your traffic ticket and get four bucks back within a week half your discover cashback is locked up for a year from now.