Should I get another card?

[gh17]

I just got credit limit increases on all my cards, and I had a bunch of inquiries fall off from last year (car loan, cable, etc).  I was initially planning on "gardening" or not applying for anything and just letting my average age of accounts go up.

I current have three credit cards that I'm very happy with.

-Capital One 1.5% cash back (2013, $17,500)

-Bank of America 3% gas, 2% groceries, 1% else (2009, $9000)

-Citi Forward 5pts restaurants, entertainment, bookstores (Amazon), 1pt else, equates to 4% back on 5pt categories if you redeem in Amazon gift codes (2011, $7100)

One main concern is that they no longer offer the Citi Forward card.  For now, I'm grandfathered in, but I have a feeling that at some point I'll be phased out.  A large portion of my budget is on restaurants, since I tend to buy lunch every day.  My grocery budget is smaller.

Ideally I'd really like to have another restaurant reward card as a backup for if/when I stop getting the Citi points.  It looks like most of the viable options would be rotating categories cards - Chase Freedom, Discover IT.  There's also US Bank Cash+ where I could pick restaurants as a 5% category. but it looks like for some reason that's hard to get, and it also looks like you can't apply online and there are no US Bank branches within 100 miles of me.  I lean towards the Discover IT, since maybe a Discover would be a good addition to my two Visas and one Mastercard, and I also really like the idea of free FICO scores.  Unfortunately it would probably only be 5% restaurants for a quarter of the year, but maybe I'd make use of the other categories.

I really want to get my average age of accounts up, and opening new cards isn't going to help that.  But I figure I'm probably going to want to get a new card either now or in the future, and maybe it's better to do it now rather than later.  Five years from now, I'd rather have an account open in 2014 than one opened in 2018.  I wouldn't mind having a lot of credit cards, but I would just want them to all be old - I don't want to be applying for a new card every year; I want cards with lasting rewards so that at some point I can just stop applying for anything new.  I almost think maybe it would be better to get a few more good cards now, while I'm 23, so that in the long term a new card ten years from now has less of an effect on my average age of accounts.

Thoughts?

[gh17]

Another thing to note is that I have no short term plans to get a mortgage or loan or anything so the inquiries shouldn't be a huge deal.  I'm more interested in long term planning.

[chalupaman]

I had no idea they had discontinued the Forward card. That was my very first card and it's served me really well. I hope they don't close my account because of this.

[gh17]

My best guess is that we'll get another year or two out of it, but at some point they'll either 1) switch the 5pt bonus categories to 2pts, more in line with some other cards they have, or 2) transition us into another Citi ThankYou reward card with worse rewards.  They might still offer the college student one, I forget, but it definititely doesn't have the 5pt bonus anymore for new applicants.

[longtimelurker]

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@gh17 wrote:

My best guess is that we'll get another year or two out of it, but at some point they'll either 1) switch the 5pt bonus categories to 2pts, more in line with some other cards they have, or 2) transition us into another Citi ThankYou reward card with worse rewards.  They might still offer the college student one, I forget, but it definititely doesn't have the 5pt bonus anymore for new applicants.

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Even the college one was stopped recently (though that had become a 1x), replacing it with the TYP for Students

[amakol]

Get an Amex in 2014 for backdating unless your MSD is already confirmed.

As for the Forward, it's still at 5X so I would either wait to see what they decide to do and when, or apply over the phone for the Cash+. Chase Freedom and Discover are also great cards but not the restaurant type that you're looking for unless you get both together to effectively give you 3%.

Other options - CSP and Arrival if you travel, Huntington Voice if you're in their distribution area (midwest to PA I think), Chase AARP card, a few more. Good luck.

[longtimelurker]

Two other things: active thread on restuarant cards

http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Cards-with-Restaurant-rewards/td-p/2812493

And you can get true 5% on the Forward by redeeming for student loan/mortgage checks, even if you have no such loans.

[gh17]

Good to know about the student loan checks.  I do have loans, so maybe I'll start doing that.

For some reason I have an aversion to American Express and don't plan on ever getting one.  I know it's weird, but I'd rather stick to Visa/Mastercard/Discover.  I don't like charge cards, and I don't like the issues I've heard with limits reporting weird, and I don't like their whole "prestige" marketing.  Overall they just annoy me, even though I do realize my annoyance is pretty illogical.

[gh17]

Also, I don't travel very often.

My question isn't necessarily with regard to which credit card I should get but rather if it's a good idea to apply at all (as opposed to "gardening").

[longtimelurker]

It's a good idea to apply if there is a card that would be valuable to you, otherwise no need!

In particular, I wouldn't defensively apply for a restaurant card against the day that the Forward stops its 5x.   That may never happen, or not for a long time, and if/when it does, you can evaluate the available offerings then.  A card you get now could just as easily be nerfed as the Citi Forward could be.

But if your scores are OK, and your inqs have fallen off, and there is a card that makes sense, then yes, apply.  It looks like the issue is that there doesn't seem to be a card you really need, so you can wait till there is.