Seeking Financial Plan (Best all in one card?)

[Anonymous]

Friends,

I'm seeking a financial plan to streamline my money management. I think I'm doing OK, but it's taken me a while to get my head wrapped around things and I know I can do a lot better, so I welcome any advice you may have for me.

My scores as of today (just ordered my FICO 3B and looked at it):

Transunion 791

Experian 740

Equifax 721

Income: $46,500 (Single, Male, 34 Y)

3 Month Emergency Fund in Place

403b Match

Own Home Free & Clear

Open Lines of Credit:

One (DiscoverIt Chrome (0% Utilization on $8,500 limit)) (Opened Oct 2017)

In September 2017, I closed 7 credit cards (all had zero balance, paid in full). In retrospect, I realize this was dumb, but I also wanted to get a three-month emergency fund in place. The cards I closed were: Wells Fargo Platinum Visa, US Bank, Citi HHonors, Amex Platinum, Amex Delta Reserve, CSR & CSP

I also have a paid in full WF Home Mortgage and one of those Austin Capital Bank Installment Loans, also paid in full. The oldest account on my file is the WF Plat (14 Years).

With my three month emergency fund in place, I opened a DiscoverIt Chrome Card. I don't mind this card, but I'd prefer a card accepted everywhere, decent credit limit, where I can just put everything on autopay that are recurring expenses and pay for food and everyday expenses (I always pay off in full, I think my head would explode if I didn't).

My questions: If I reapply for a CSR, will I be laughed out of the place? It seems to fit my all-in-one criteria

Or, would it be better to go for a Barclay Visa Card? (Like the Uber Card) Since they tend to always pull TU?

I love(d) holding the AmexPlat and the DeltaRes, but I can't justify more than $1,000 in AFs each year.

FWIW, I always fly Delta and stay at Hiltons (travel a fair bit for work).

If you were me and were looking for a one credit card solution, which card would you choose? Admittedly, I like the personal concierge feature of the higher end card. If I could have put everything on Amex Plat, I would have carried it forever.

Thanks in advance, P

[Anonymous]

Is there any reason you want to have only one credit card?  You are limiting your score significantly by that choice.  Three would be far better.

You mention that your current card has a 0% utilization.  That means that each month the "amount owed" at the top of the statement is $0.  Is that the case?  If so, that is likely hurting your score.  A better choice would for your statement to have a small balance on it each month and then to pay that balance in full (after the statement prints).

You mention having paid over a $1000 in annual fees at one point.  That strikes me as a terrible idea for anybody but especially bad for someone who's annual income is 46k.  If I were you I would consider a small portfolio of three well-chosen no annual fee cards and compare what you end up with at the end of the year compared with (say) the Chase Sapphire Reserved (and its big annual fee). 

It sounds like you have no open installment loans.  If so, you would benefit from the Share Secure Loan Technique.  The lender we recommended until two weeks ago for the SSLT was Alliant, but they are no longer an option.  We'll have a few vetted alternatives to Alliant by March, but in the meantime I would read the first two posts in that thread to get the big idea.

[Anonymous]

If you want to maximize your FICO score, you need an installment loan reporting as open -- the old 'Alliant SSL' technique went away a week ago, but I believe folks are looking for an alterative method that costs very little (pennies a month) but provides the nice 20-30 point boost to FICO scoring versus not having any open loans.

You also want 3+ credit cards for a minimum FICO boost, but 5+ cards all 24 months of age is even better of a boost.  This should firmly put you closer to 800, maybe even over 800 if your oldest (closed) accounts that still report are more than 6 years old.

I don't believe there is one card to fit everyone, especially based on travel rewards.  I prefer cashback myself, and I love the Amex BCP even with the $95 annual fee because at 6% on supermarkets and 3% on gas, it's a winner for my budgetary spends.

Annual fees are worth it if the amount you earn is MORE than a similar no-AF card.  You have to do the math.

I'd suggest spending the next 18-24 months opening 3-4 prime cards that match your spend categories.  Chase, Citi, Amex, etc.  And look into an SSL-type installment loan to boost your scores for pennies a day/month.

[Anonymous]

Thank you all. 

I like the 3 Cards with No Annual Fee idea very much. 

And I will investigate SSLT you mention in your posting. 

Appreciatively, Peter

[Anonymous]

Looking at options, Amex Blue Cash Everyday, Chase Freedom and Citi Simplicity seem to fit the no annual fee criteria. Are these cards ones that will get me over 800, when paired with a secured share loan?

I also like that these are Amex, Visa and Mastercard, respectively, which go well with my existing Discover.

How do I go about helping my odds to be successful in the approval process for these three cards?

Thank you, Peter

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Looking at options, Amex Blue Cash Everyday, Chase Freedom and Citi Simplicity seem to fit the no annual fee criteria. Are these cards ones that will get me over 800, when paired with a secured share loan?

I also like that these are Amex, Visa and Mastercard, respectively, which go well with my existing Discover.

How do I go about helping my odds to be successful in the approval process for these three cards?

---

To get over 800 you need a combination of factors that can change at any time considering some of your older accounts are closed.  Most closed accounts will stay on your reports for 10 years after closure, but they can fall off sooner.

You want your oldest account to be over 6-7 years old, which I assume is the case with at least one of your closed accounts.

You want the average age of all your accounts (open or closed) to be at least 2-3 years old.

You need your utilization on credit cards to be extremely low -- minimum $3 on one account but no more than 8.9% on any one account.  

You also need an open installment loan with a balance due well less of the original balance.  So if you open a $500 secured loan for this purpose, you want the balance left to pay much lower than the $500.  Many of us did the Alliant SSL which isn't available anymore because it let us open a loan for $500 and immediately pay it down to $40 left and not make another payment for 4+ years so it reported perfectly for that time.  Not sure what other CUs offer a similar secured loan but there are active threads on this forum with folks looking for the new perfect secured loan.

You also need your inquiries to be minimal (as you wanted) and older than 6 months.

So if you add a few cards now and let them all age a year, keep your utilization in check, hope your oldest account doesn't disappear from your reports, and get an installment loan with very little left to pay you should be very close to 800 (if not over 800 if your oldest account is old enough, and your average age of accounts is high enough).

Amex Blue Cash Everyday, Chase Freedom and Citi Simplicity are great cards!  All 3 offer prequalification pages that can give you an idea if you'd be approved (but not guaranteed of course).

[Anonymous]

Friends,

Instant Approval for the BCE today, got a credit line of 12,700. Thank you for the advice.

This means that I now have a BCE (12,700) and a DiscoverIt Chrome (8,500)