Which second card?

[smc733]

Hi all,

So as a previous thread of mine discussed, I've retooled my strategy to a 2 card system, one Visa (BofA), with good terms and good rewards, and one out of network card (this is where I'm stuck).

I have the following two cards:

Discover More, $2,500, 15.9%

Amex BCE, $2,000, 22.24%

What is a better second card?  My thoughts have been this:

Discover

+Good terms

+Good CS

+Never heard of bad things like sudden account closures of financial reviews

-So so rewards at best

-iPhone app is "meh"

-CLIs are hard to come by, and small

Amex

+Great benefits

+Better rewards

+CLs tend to grow

-Poor APR

-Financial Reviews with Amex happen

-Less acceptance than Discover in the "metro" area here in Massachusetts

So with all that said, what should be my choice?  How is Discover with APR reductions?  What about Amex?

Not that I ever do it, but how does the Cash line grow with Amex?  Its nice to know if I get stuck somewhere I could pull a grand or so in cash if I really needed it.

Essentially, rewards are a nice secondary benefit to me, I just want to have a secondary card that can get close to the 10.99% APR I have on my BankAmericard, and a $5,000 limit also comparable to my BankAmericard, and the rest will go to the sockdrawer.  Which company would it be better to have this with, and which company can get me there?

[Wolf3]

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@smc733 wrote:

Hi all,

So as a previous thread of mine discussed, I've retooled my strategy to a 2 card system, one Visa (BofA), with good terms and good rewards, and one out of network card (this is where I'm stuck).

I have the following two cards:

Discover More, $2,500, 15.9%

Amex BCE, $2,000, 22.24%

What is a better second card?  My thoughts have been this:

Discover

+Good terms

+Good CS

+Never heard of bad things like sudden account closures of financial reviews

-So so rewards at best

-iPhone app is "meh"

-CLIs are hard to come by, and small

Amex

+Great benefits

+Better rewards

+CLs tend to grow

-Poor APR

-Financial Reviews with Amex happen

-Less acceptance than Discover in the "metro" area here in Massachusetts

So with all that said, what should be my choice?  How is Discover with APR reductions?  What about Amex?

Not that I ever do it, but how does the Cash line grow with Amex?  Its nice to know if I get stuck somewhere I could pull a grand or so in cash if I really needed it.

Essentially, rewards are a nice secondary benefit to me, I just want to have a secondary card that can get close to the 10.99% APR I have on my BankAmericard, and a $5,000 limit also comparable to my BankAmericard, and the rest will go to the sockdrawer.  Which company would it be better to have this with, and which company can get me there?

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IMO, 2 cards is too few.   I would keep both.

 That said, Dump the AMEX.   Back when I had both.   Discover was the one who was the best with APR deals.  IMO, AMEX is not a good SD card.

[smc733]

Well I have 5 cards total, (the cards shown, plus a Chase Visa/Citi M/C).

I won't be closing anything, ATM.

So you're saying Discover is easier to work with?  After this statement cuts (11/11), my 9 month promo period at 0% ends, I was hoping for them to lower me to the lowest available APR, which is 11.99%.

What do you mean Amex is not a good SD card?  You mean sockdrawer or secondary?

I do want a permanent APR that is close to my BankAmericard.

[Wolf3]

IMO, Amex wants customers to use their cards, not a good sock drawer card.   They also seem to be more likely to close, reduce CL, and FR at the hint of change in creditworthingness.

[SamsungHDTV]

I'd go by which is cheapest to use. And that depends on how you plan to use the secondary card. In all cases you should have a secondary and a third, IMO. Simply using the third only in emergency.

1. Will you just hold it in your wallet and use it only on emergency?

In this case just hold both, discover will be secondary, amex will be third. Going by APR.

2. Will you use it regularly and PIF?

In this case amex will be secondary, and discover third. Figure that you will get better rewards and PIF will negate the APR factor.

3. Will you use it regularly and carry a balance?

In this case it will vary. It will always lean towards discover second, amex third. Calculate if the amex rewards make it worth the APR difference then amex second. 

[Walt_K]

I still think you are overthinking the APR issue.  From what I understand, your concern is that there might be some month where you need to carry a balance and that you would wipe out your rewards with a higher APR.  Won't you typically have some advance notice of this?  You're envisioning a scenario where you have some larger than normal expense that you can't fund out of your emergency fund (I believe you have said you have a decent amount saved) and that you can't use your primary card for some reason.  I just don't think that all of those things are likely to come together at the same time.  And if you have a situation where you have depleted your savings for whatever reason, you can switch cards then. 

As for how the cashline grows with Amex, I don't know if you can ask for a separate increase on the cashline, but my SPG card has a $25K CL with $4K available for cash.  My initial limit was $19.6K with $4K available for cash.  I have no idea if this means that $4K is a default max, if you can ask to have it increased, etc.  I don't have any intention of using it, and I don't know the PIN on the card to use it (incidentally, I love how Vegas makes it so easy to get a cash advance without knowing your PIN, and I thought I was being clever).  Relatively speaking, the amount is low as a percentage of the CL, but I'm not going to ask for any increase. 

If I were you, I'd probably carry all three.  I carry three credit cards.  It's not a huge difference over the two card system  you're looking to use.  This way you can use the card that has the better rewards, but if you do get in a situation that you're worried about the APR, you can use the lower APR card.