topic Re: Some questions in Credit Cards

Some questions

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 14:30:37 GMT

1) Now that I have Venure (YAY ), I am satisfied with my current cards. I will be using SM (grocery, gas, amazon), Freedom (dining), Venture (everything else). Would it hurt my credit score, having all the other credit cards sitting idle? Or should I use rest of the cards once in a while just to show some activity?

2) Currently I am using Freedom for dining (restaurant, fast food, coffee etc) for 5% back. I am planning to use Amex Hilton after this quarter. Is that the right choice? I can use Venture for 2% but Amex Hilton gives me 5 points for each dollar. I read somewhere that, HHonor point is valued at .5 cents.. thats about 2.5% back. Am I calculating right?

3) How do I find out which card is my oldest card? If I request a free annual credit report, would it have all the history?

Re: Some questions

killer_queen229 — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 14:29:50 GMT

Did you check the date on your cards? The membership date? My Freedom has one, my Quicksilverone has a date on it as well.

As far as your other cards go, you should rotate them and buy small purchases and pay them off.

Re: Some questions

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 14:30:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
1) Now that I have Venure (YAY ), I am satisfied with my current cards. I will be using SM (grocery, gas, amazon), Freedom (dining), Venture (everything else). Would it hurt my credit score, having all the other credit cards sitting idle? Or should I use rest of the cards once in a while just to show some activity?

2) Currently I am using Freedom for dining (restaurant, fast food, coffee etc) for 5% back. I am planning to use Amex Hilton after this quarter. Is that the right choice? I can use Venture for 2% but Amex Hilton gives me 5 points for each dollar. I read somewhere that, HHonor point is valued at .5 cents.. thats about 2.5% back. Am I calculating right?

3) How do I find out which card is my oldest card? If I request a free annual credit report, would it have all the history?

1) Use them every once in a while simply to keep the accounts open if you can. It won't hurt your score to have them idle but many banks will close out unused accounts generally around 6 month-1 year mark (exception being Cap One who almost never closes idle accounts).

2) I don't know much about the Hilton but you should be able to log in to your account and see how much points are worth.

3) Yes your credit report is fairly extensive showing AAoA, Inquiries, Baddies (if any), current accounts and age of them, etc.

Re: Some questions

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 14:39:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
1) Now that I have Venure (YAY ), I am satisfied with my current cards. I will be using SM (grocery, gas, amazon), Freedom (dining), Venture (everything else). Would it hurt my credit score, having all the other credit cards sitting idle? Or should I use rest of the cards once in a while just to show some activity?

2) Currently I am using Freedom for dining (restaurant, fast food, coffee etc) for 5% back. I am planning to use Amex Hilton after this quarter. Is that the right choice? I can use Venture for 2% but Amex Hilton gives me 5 points for each dollar. I read somewhere that, HHonor point is valued at .5 cents.. thats about 2.5% back. Am I calculating right?

3) How do I find out which card is my oldest card? If I request a free annual credit report, would it have all the history?

Congrats on the Venture. Feel free to leave your cards idle but keep them alive with a yearly gum run

Get your free credit reports at Credit Karma...several updates a month. Don't pay much attention to the score though; not much good for anything (the Score on your Sallie Mae would be the FICO score to go by) On the Credit Karma report it will have a section for accounts. Look for the account with the oldest "OPEN DATE"

Re: Some questions

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 14:41:43 GMT

Only few of the cards show that member since 2015 or 2014 rest doesn't have any info. I think I will request the annual credit report. Never requested one before.

Re: Some questions

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 14:43:01 GMT

Gum run.. great idea

as for Credit karma.. I thought it's a paid service.

Re: Some questions

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 14:44:48 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Gum run.. great idea

as for Credit karma.. I thought it's a paid service.

Credit Karma is 100% free. As the above said, pay no attention to the Score. It's a FAKO score and not in anyway related to FICO. It can be decently accurate but it can also be totally wrong. However, they do have other information that might be useful to you.

Re: Some questions

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 15:25:26 GMT

WOW!!!! Credit Karma is awesome! I just registered and got my free report. I have pretty healthy credit history. In the "Average Age of Credit History", both TransUnion and Equifax show average age 7 years and 3 months and oldest account 14 years and 2 months. How do I find out which is the oldest account? I dont want to close that credit by mistake.

Update: I think Credit Karma is talking about my Student Amex card from 2001! But i closed that account long time ago.

Re: Some questions

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 15:45:23 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
WOW!!!! Credit Karma is awesome! I just registered and got my free report. I have pretty healthy credit history. In the "Average Age of Credit History", both TransUnion and Equifax show average age 7 years and 3 months and oldest account 14 years and 2 months. How do I find out which is the oldest account? I dont want to close that credit by mistake.

Update: I think Credit Karma is talking about my Student Amex card from 2001! But i closed that account long time ago.

Closed accounts still show on credit report for up to 10 years so it could be

Re: Some questions

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 15:53:54 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
1) Now that I have Venure (YAY ), I am satisfied with my current cards. I will be using SM (grocery, gas, amazon), Freedom (dining), Venture (everything else). Would it hurt my credit score, having all the other credit cards sitting idle? Or should I use rest of the cards once in a while just to show some activity?

2) Currently I am using Freedom for dining (restaurant, fast food, coffee etc) for 5% back. I am planning to use Amex Hilton after this quarter. Is that the right choice? I can use Venture for 2% but Amex Hilton gives me 5 points for each dollar. I read somewhere that, HHonor point is valued at .5 cents.. thats about 2.5% back. Am I calculating right?

3) How do I find out which card is my oldest card? If I request a free annual credit report, would it have all the history?

Most travel bloggers value Hilton points somewhere around half a cent each as you say.

However, you should understand that Hilton points (like any hotel points) do not have a fixed value. You can get a better or a worse deal depending on what Hotels you book with them. I would say that 0.5 cents is rather optimistic, usually the rate will be a bit lower. Furthermore, Hilton can at any point devalue the points by increasing the number of points needed to book a particular room. They did this about a year ago, it was a sad moment.

So, if you want to use the Hilton the card, I advise to not do this if you only spend $100 a month on the card. It will take you a long time to accumulate enough points for a redemption. It might be a good choice if you 1) spend a lot on the card or 2) if you already have a good chunk of points in your HHonors account and just need a few hundred/thousand points to "Top Off" for a booking.

Re: Some questions

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 23:25:25 GMT

I guess I will be using Venture for everyting including dining, except for grocery, gas and amazon (Sallie Mae). Unless, as you said, I need a couple of thousand hhonors points for a booking.

Thank you all