topic Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade? in Credit Cards

Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

iNathanDrake — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 15:24:48 GMT

Hey guys, I'm wondering if I should upgrade to the chase freedom unlimited card? I know most people say that the .5% isn't worth it compared to the rotating 5% cash back but I'm wondering if it might be right for me? I currently have AMEX blue cash (3k limit) , Quicksilver from Cap 1 (2k limit) and Chase Freedom (1200 limit -_-). I use my Amex as my primary card for everything, and have certain reccuring bills on my other 2 cards (Cell phone bills, insurance, etc, just to keep the cards in use!). With that said, I don't really take advantage of the 5% rotation as much since it isn't my primary card. I try to when possible ofcourse but its barely there. I easily spend over 600 at least on my freedom card monthly with the bills on it and am currently amounting 1% cash back. Do you think it's worth upgrading to the unlimited? I would lose out on the 15000 points (150 dollars free) which as I stated with bills I pay on the card I would easily make the 500 in the first 3 months. However, I feel conflicted on having 2 freedom cards, as I would favor one over the other, making my old freedom card redundant. Is the free 150 worth have 2 freedom cards? as opposed to just upgrading?

Also does anyone know if the upgrade counts as a hard pull? Any chance for an increase on upgrade? I've been at 1200 forever man and my other cards have all gone up atleast once or twice.

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

newhis — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 16:53:08 GMT

Upgrade will not be HP. There is no increase on PC. If you need more limit you need to burn a HP and ask for CLI.

If you have low util reported and good history, you may get the Unlimited and $150 with a better limit (with a HP). Keep the Freedom and only use for 5% cat, or don't use it for a few months and you can transfer all the limit to your new Unlimited. Good luck.

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 16:55:07 GMT

If you put a lot of value in UR points, Freedom + Freedom Unlimited (plus CSP or CSR plus Ink... heh) is a pretty killer combination. If you are just looking at cash back alone, QS and Freedom Unlimited are redundant to be honest, but if you never, ever use the quarterly bonus categories you'd get more out of the 1.5%, clearly. However, depending on spending habits and whether or not you rewards-chase you may or may not be leaving money on the table by not aligning your normal spending on the Freedom during a bonus quarter. I don't know what you spend your money on, but during the gas quarter the Freedom beats BCE and BCP (not sure which blue cash card you've got), and during the grocery quarter it beats BCE but not BCP (unless you've already maxed out the 6%)... etc etc etc heh.

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

iNathanDrake — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 17:18:34 GMT

@newhis wrote:
Upgrade will not be HP. There is no increase on PC. If you need more limit you need to burn a HP and ask for CLI.

If you have low util reported and good history, you may get the Unlimited and $150 with a better limit (with a HP). Keep the Freedom and only use for 5% cat, or don't use it for a few months and you can transfer all the limit to your new Unlimited. Good luck.

If I do that, transfer all the limit to the new unlimited card, do they close out my old card? Will that affect my age of accounts and all that good stuff?

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

iNathanDrake — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 17:20:44 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
If you put a lot of value in UR points, Freedom + Freedom Unlimited (plus CSP or CSR plus Ink... heh) is a pretty killer combination. If you are just looking at cash back alone, QS and Freedom Unlimited are redundant to be honest, but if you never, ever use the quarterly bonus categories you'd get more out of the 1.5%, clearly. However, depending on spending habits and whether or not you rewards-chase you may or may not be leaving money on the table by not aligning your normal spending on the Freedom during a bonus quarter. I don't know what you spend your money on, but during the gas quarter the Freedom beats BCE and BCP (not sure which blue cash card you've got), and during the grocery quarter it beats BCE but not BCP (unless you've already maxed out the 6%)... etc etc etc heh.

I'm not sure how all the points and combinations work lol, all I've ever known was spend money, pay it back, earn cash back, apply that towards credit balance or gift cards lol.. I'm a noobie but I'm on top of my stuff and in good standing. How does all that points combination stuff work lol? I always thought it was redundant having 2 or more CC's from the same bank?

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

Anonymous — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 18:44:07 GMT

@iNathanDrake wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
If you put a lot of value in UR points, Freedom + Freedom Unlimited (plus CSP or CSR plus Ink... heh) is a pretty killer combination. If you are just looking at cash back alone, QS and Freedom Unlimited are redundant to be honest, but if you never, ever use the quarterly bonus categories you'd get more out of the 1.5%, clearly. However, depending on spending habits and whether or not you rewards-chase you may or may not be leaving money on the table by not aligning your normal spending on the Freedom during a bonus quarter. I don't know what you spend your money on, but during the gas quarter the Freedom beats BCE and BCP (not sure which blue cash card you've got), and during the grocery quarter it beats BCE but not BCP (unless you've already maxed out the 6%)... etc etc etc heh.
I'm not sure how all the points and combinations work lol, all I've ever known was spend money, pay it back, earn cash back, apply that towards credit balance or gift cards lol.. I'm a noobie but I'm on top of my stuff and in good standing. How does all that points combination stuff work lol? I always thought it was redundant having 2 or more CC's from the same bank?

Well, with Chase's Ultimate Rewards program, if you have the family of cards and are interested in redeeming in something that isn't straight cash back, the points are valued at well over a cent a point (straight cash back is still a cent a point, of course). So if you had the family you'd get 5 points on office supplies and cellular phone, landline, internet and cable TV services (Ink Cash or Ink Plus), 3 points on travel and dining (CSR, or 2 points for those categories on CSP), and 1.5 points on non-category spending (Freedom Unlimited), and of course the 5 points on the rotating categories of the Freedom (which were gas/local commuter travel, groceries/wholesale clubs, restaurants/wholesale clubs, and department stores/wholesale clubs/drug stores for 2016). Plus signup bonuses across the board.

Of course, the CSR and CSP (and Ink Plus but that's unnecessary here) have annual fees so you'd have to decide if pooling all of the points would be worth it (minimum to do so would be with a CSP at $95 annually).

Of course, this is a credit card board so people do this sort of thing, haha. It's not generally speaking something that everyone out there does. It isn't even something I do myself. I just know some people like to really, really maximize rewards and Chase'll let you do it.

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

iNathanDrake — Thu, 20 Oct 2016 19:23:13 GMT

I don't really know much about all of that lol and from what I've read the points benefit and max out best when being used for travel and flights, something I don't do too much of lol.

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

newhis — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 01:49:45 GMT

@iNathanDrake wrote:
@newhis wrote:
Upgrade will not be HP. There is no increase on PC. If you need more limit you need to burn a HP and ask for CLI.

If you have low util reported and good history, you may get the Unlimited and $150 with a better limit (with a HP). Keep the Freedom and only use for 5% cat, or don't use it for a few months and you can transfer all the limit to your new Unlimited. Good luck.
If I do that, transfer all the limit to the new unlimited card, do they close out my old card? Will that affect my age of accounts and all that good stuff?

Yes, they will close your old card. It will report for 10 years then it will drop, then maybe you can see a score change, and I say maybe because in 10 years you will have a better file anyway.

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

iNathanDrake — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 13:46:02 GMT

So would most of you say it's better to stick to the regular freedom card and just be more proactive on the rotating quarters? Would you say it's a bad decision to have both cards? Also, thinking of my future in the credit world, is there any card I should be after? What I mean is I'd like to have as many of my cards as early as possible to not affect AAOA later on. So thinking long term, in terms of personal needs and maybe vacations and flights (much later on lol) is there any cards I should start aiming for now? I also don't want to have a lot of cards. I feel its unecessary and then you have to make the effort to spend money on all of them to keep activity on them. I would ideally like to have 4 major cards at MOST, each with around 5-7 thousand per card. And MAYBE, a retail card or 2. Any advice? Suggestions?

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

newhis — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 17:57:12 GMT

If you only want to have 4 cards I will say go with Discover. First year they will match the cash back, so it will be a 2%-10% card (or more with online deals) after 13 months (you get some cash back month to month, and the 'match' on 13th statement).

Amex, Cap1 and Discover can grow with SP CLI. You can try CLI:

- Amex every 90 days if denial, 180 if aproved

- Discover every 30 days a 3-5 days after statement close

- Cap1 every 6 months (?)

When you need/want to travel, you can apply for Chase Reserve or the better travel card at the time. Good luck.

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

austinguy907 — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 18:06:04 GMT

Youu have 3 major cards already so, adding 1 more puts you at 4.

Check out Discover and you'll have all 4 V/MC/AX/DS brands. Also, Discover is doing double cash back for the first year on anything you use it for.

4 cards is an ideal goal either way for long term planning and management.

DON'T get a RETAIL card.... there's no benefit to your CR or you wallet if you end up paying interest at 24-29%

If you haven't already it's probably time to request your 3X CLI on AMEX 61/181 day interval

The way I see things from what you have posted:

AMEX - grows quickly with the 3X CLI plans

Cap1 - grows every 6 months if you hit the CLI button

Chase - HP CLI's unless they really like you

Adding Discover - reasonable CL to start since you have a thin file and no issues on it / growth every 60-90 days with a SP CLI

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

iNathanDrake — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 18:16:52 GMT

@austinguy907 wrote:
Youu have 3 major cards already so, adding 1 more puts you at 4.

Check out Discover and you'll have all 4 V/MC/AX/DS brands. Also, Discover is doing double cash back for the first year on anything you use it for.

4 cards is an ideal goal either way for long term planning and management.

DON'T get a RETAIL card.... there's no benefit to your CR or you wallet if you end up paying interest at 24-29%

If you haven't already it's probably time to request your 3X CLI on AMEX 61/181 day interval

The way I see things from what you have posted:
AMEX - grows quickly with the 3X CLI plans
Cap1 - grows every 6 months if you hit the CLI button
Chase - HP CLI's unless they really like you

Adding Discover - reasonable CL to start since you have a thin file and no issues on it / growth every 60-90 days with a SP CLI

I failed to mention that I do have 1 retail card. It's a Best Buy CC with a 2k line. Really wishing I would have wen't with target instead of BB for better usage I guess and saving 5% lol.. oh well.

Oddly enough, my QS by cap 1 is also Visa, not the normal Master Card one.

I did indeed do my 60 days upgrade with Amex back in June, I started with 1k and now currently have 3. What is the interval for increases upon successful increase?

Never thought about having a Discover card, always liked Visa and Amex better. What are the benefits to a Discover if I went that route? I have no good reason for this next statement, however I'm not crazy about discover. I couldn't tell ya why cause even I don't know? Absolutely no good reason lol just was always least appealing to me.

And yes I've heard and seen the stories with chase HPs. My friend has a freedom card as well, got his started at 3k, and they recently increased it for him automatically to 4500. He got his with less credit history than I did, with a lower score than I did, and they started him at 3k. He had it well over 90% usage all the time, and they bumped him up to 4500? -.- Mine has been heavily used and well maintained, always pay off huge chunks. Rarely do I make a payment smaller than 400. Yet I'm still at 1200 for close to 2 years now -.- I even took the HP and got declined the CLI.. with an over 700 credit score.. I love chase, but I feel they hate me. Thank goodness I got my AMEX this year, much happier with them

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

austinguy907 — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 18:48:50 GMT

I failed to mention that I do have 1 retail card. It's a Best Buy CC with a 2k line. Really wishing I would have wen't with target instead of BB for better usage I guess and saving 5% lol.. oh well.

Oddly enough, my QS by cap 1 is also Visa, not the normal Master Card one.
I did indeed do my 60 days upgrade with Amex back in June, I started with 1k and now currently have 3. What is the interval for increases upon successful increase? Every 181 days after your initial increase / 90 days if they decline to increase
Never thought about having a Discover card, always liked Visa and Amex better. What are the benefits to a Discover if I went that route? I have no good reason for this next statement, however I'm not crazy about discover. I couldn't tell ya why cause even I don't know? Absolutely no good reason lol just was always least appealing to me. Diversity for one thing amongst lenders in your wallet, 5% categories, decent growth with use/time

And yes I've heard and seen the stories with chase HPs. My friend has a freedom card as well, got his started at 3k, and they recently increased it for him automatically to 4500. He got his with less credit history than I did, with a lower score than I did, and they started him at 3k. He had it well over 90% usage all the time, and they bumped him up to 4500? -.- Mine has been heavily used and well maintained, always pay off huge chunks. Rarely do I make a payment smaller than 400. Yet I'm still at 1200 for close to 2 years now -.- I even took the HP and got declined the CLI.. with an over 700 credit score.. I love chase, but I feel they hate me. Thank goodness I got my AMEX this year, much happier with them With Chase it's hit or miss depending on which "bucket" they put you in when you open the card. I have one that was picked up during the financial meltdown from WAMU that doesn't budge and when it did they increased the 2 cards they picked up and then a few months later CLD both of them. At which point I combined them into a single card and just let them sit on the sideline because of their wacky policies.

If you don't find yourself using the Best Buy card it's ok. Just toss it in your sock drawer and let it live out life in there until you find a use for it down the road. Target is a stingy lender as well normally starting out in the 200-600 range for a CL and then typically sits there for the life of the card. Many people have went 5-10 years with them and didn't see any results when it comes to the limit. A select few have randomly received an increase and sometimes even an upgrade to the Visa version for no apparent reason or usage.

We're just trying to point you in the right direction with the Discover recommendation and it's not coincidence on the back to back response. They're easy to work with and don't have many issues when it comes to resolving things if something goes awry. There's a slew of lenders out there that people tend to go with the big 6 Chase, Citi, BoA, Wells Fargo, Amex, Discover. If you look into CU's though there's another 1000+ places you could get a new card. CU's are great for checking/savings since they offer higher APY's than the traditional banks do for daily transactions. If you want a balance card that has a low ongoing rate you can snag one from a CU for less than 10% APR and they're easier to deal with than the big banks. Most CU's will reduce your APR as your score goes up and you ask them to reduce it. The one caveat of CU's is that they usually HP for any account change like APR, CLI, etc.

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

iNathanDrake — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 19:08:51 GMT

Thank you for the feedback! I looked into the discover card and their current cashback match promotion. It looks nice but it begs the question.. how do you know what card to use when lol..? If this card and chase freedom both have rotating 5%s how would you choose which one to use between the two? (ignore match for now) For example, someone mentioned that Freedoms 5% on the gas quarter beats my Amex blue. Then during the non 5%, my Amex Blue beats chase? So I can decide when its wisest to use one over the other, however if both freedom and discover have the same (im not saying each rotation will be identical) but how would you choose which card is the best card to use in that case?

And furthermore, either I don't have the best grasp on this, or I just don't get it. But if one card can do what the other card can, what purpose does it serve having multiple credit cards? If hypothetically speaking my Amex can keep tripling every 6 months. Not that it will, I;m sure there are lots of factors. But this december I'll be able to request another increase. Assuming it goes positively, I'll have a 9k credit line. I can't imagine a scenario where I'd want to max out 9k, that said why would I need to resort to my freedom card or my QS card? Or if I got discover than that one? Aside from rotating quarters, idk it just doesn't make sense to me. Can anyone educate me on this one? I know the more credit cards and constant use of them and paying on time helps build your score and all that. Outside of that, what other benefit is there to having so many cards? I also hear if you don't use your cards much, they're prone to random CLD's? So I'd feel obligated to spend just for activity when I probably don't need to?

Do you guys carry balances? Do you pay off in full?

All advice is greatly appreciated!

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 19:21:47 GMT

Iif both freedom and discover have the same categories, during the first year, you would us the discover card, because at the end of the first year, they will match your cashback.. doubling it.

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

austinguy907 — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 19:26:16 GMT

@iNathanDrake wrote:
Thank you for the feedback! I looked into the discover card and their current cashback match promotion. It looks nice but it begs the question.. how do you know what card to use when lol..? If this card and chase freedom both have rotating 5%s how would you choose which one to use between the two? (ignore match for now) For example, someone mentioned that Freedoms 5% on the gas quarter beats my Amex blue. Then during the non 5%, my Amex Blue beats chase? So I can decide when its wisest to use one over the other, however if both freedom and discover have the same (im not saying each rotation will be identical) but how would you choose which card is the best card to use in that case?

And furthermore, either I don't have the best grasp on this, or I just don't get it. But if one card can do what the other card can, what purpose does it serve having multiple credit cards? If hypothetically speaking my Amex can keep tripling every 6 months. Not that it will, I;m sure there are lots of factors. But this december I'll be able to request another increase. Assuming it goes positively, I'll have a 9k credit line. I can't imagine a scenario where I'd want to max out 9k, that said why would I need to resort to my freedom card or my QS card? Or if I got discover than that one? Aside from rotating quarters, idk it just doesn't make sense to me. Can anyone educate me on this one? I know the more credit cards and constant use of them and paying on time helps build your score and all that. Outside of that, what other benefit is there to having so many cards? I also hear if you don't use your cards much, they're prone to random CLD's? So I'd feel obligated to spend just for activity when I probably don't need to?

Do you guys carry balances? Do you pay off in full?

All advice is greatly appreciated!

The catagories are just a perk for cash back. If you're targeting a major purchase and know which catagories are coming up then that helps in the decision. For instance if Discover has a deal on hardware stores and you know you are planning on a big purchase then you can take advantage of the 5% and possibly stack it with additional savings through say ebates through an online purchase.

The purpose of having multiple cards is two fold. Diversity of lenders and a backup in case one declines.

The idea behind increasing your CL is that you'll plan on only using up to 10-20% of the limit at any given time. So, if you get up to 9K with AMEX you'd only want to use 900-1800 of it for optimal scoring and showing good credit management skills.

CLD's are somewhat of a myth unless you don't use them for over a year or two. I have 10 acounts and use 2 of them regularly at this point. I tend to rotate monthly bills across the remainder of them every couple of months just for scoring and maintaining them. The last encounter I had with non-usage was with my Sam's PLOC due to upgrading to a new Sam's MC version. It took them 23 months of non-usage to close out the account which was a blessing in disguise since I picked up AMEX / Disc to replace the loss. The loss of the Sam's (10K) resulted in 15K of new credit between the two new cards. Both are now up to 85K in CL from where they started in 1 years time.

I PIF every month on autopay. Typically my balances stay under $500/mo for regular bills / catagory spends. On the rare instance of say Insurance being due then they spike up a bit with the 6/12 month payments. If you carry a balance it negates the whole rewards scenario completely since they'll charge more than you can earn.

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

Anonymous — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 19:36:12 GMT

@iNathanDrake wrote:
Thank you for the feedback! I looked into the discover card and their current cashback match promotion. It looks nice but it begs the question.. how do you know what card to use when lol..? If this card and chase freedom both have rotating 5%s how would you choose which one to use between the two? (ignore match for now) For example, someone mentioned that Freedoms 5% on the gas quarter beats my Amex blue. Then during the non 5%, my Amex Blue beats chase? So I can decide when its wisest to use one over the other, however if both freedom and discover have the same (im not saying each rotation will be identical) but how would you choose which card is the best card to use in that case?

And furthermore, either I don't have the best grasp on this, or I just don't get it. But if one card can do what the other card can, what purpose does it serve having multiple credit cards? If hypothetically speaking my Amex can keep tripling every 6 months. Not that it will, I;m sure there are lots of factors. But this december I'll be able to request another increase. Assuming it goes positively, I'll have a 9k credit line. I can't imagine a scenario where I'd want to max out 9k, that said why would I need to resort to my freedom card or my QS card? Or if I got discover than that one? Aside from rotating quarters, idk it just doesn't make sense to me. Can anyone educate me on this one? I know the more credit cards and constant use of them and paying on time helps build your score and all that. Outside of that, what other benefit is there to having so many cards? I also hear if you don't use your cards much, they're prone to random CLD's? So I'd feel obligated to spend just for activity when I probably don't need to?

Do you guys carry balances? Do you pay off in full?

All advice is greatly appreciated!

You go with what card is going to give the highest cash back for the place you are using the card.

Gas station or grocery stores- Amex BCE is going to give you the most at 2% and 3% respectively.

Freedom- use for whatever the 5% categories are covering for the current quarter.

QS with the 1.5% should be used for everything else since it beats the base 1% of the other 2 cards.

Unless you add the discover, that would change things up a bit for the first year of double rewards.And having 2 cards with rotation categories will make more sense as they will cover different categories, whereas 2 1.5% cards are always going to be 2 1.5% cards. (I currently have 2 1.5% cards since I got the CFU before I learned I could PC my Cap1 plat to a QS. I am going to PC my CFU to a freedom)

You don't have to use a card every single month to keep it active. Every 3-6 months will be fine.

Carrying a balance will eat through any cash back rewards. Don't carry balances unless you are in a low interest promo period.

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

iNathanDrake — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 19:53:34 GMT

What does PC mean? You used it a few times but I don't follow xD

questions for Austinguy907 and Tidegirl

1. I recently learned that you can like merge credit lines from the same lender (Chase Freedom and Freedom Unlimited) Is it worth opening a Freedom Unlimited? And if I'm not happy with my credit line, can I say spend 500, get the 150 cash back, then merge the new unlimited into my older Freedom?

2. How bad would that help or affect my score? I'm aware of the HP for the CFU, and I'm aware of closing out the card. Those are pretty low impact on the score generally no?

3. With a current score of 710-717 accross the board, should I apply for Discover now?

4. What do you think are the chances of a high line of credit to start with Discover? (Not expecting anything crazy, just don't want another card stuck at 1000, 3k is ideal)

5. I was always under the imperssion you had to have some balance or it would show as in activity? I was always told to keep around 10%? So my cards are usually there.... is that wrong? D:

They're nothing crazy atm.

Chase is at like 80 something bucks of 1200

Cap is like 200 of 2000

Amex... Is in its 1 year no interest grace period so that ones being used for necessities right now.

And BB is at like 50% for like.. a while now. I know this ones bad and I need to lower it but I have other priorities right now so I'm fully aware of the interest eating me alive on that one. But I am currently comfortable with it, and letting it be for now. So please no harsh judgements on this one, I'm not going crazy with it or irresponsible. It's just not priority right now. The purchases on it were just a computer and supplies for my brother for school. And paying off my other cards/ maintaining them seemed more important to me that rushing to clear up best buy. I'll take care of it soon, but yeah.

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

austinguy907 — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 20:04:31 GMT

@iNathanDrake wrote:
What does PC mean? You used it a few times but I don't follow xD Product Change to another CC with the same lender aka BCE to BCP with AMEX would be a product change

questions for Austinguy907 and Tidegirl

1. I recently learned that you can like merge credit lines from the same lender (Chase Freedom and Freedom Unlimited) Is it worth opening a Freedom Unlimited? And if I'm not happy with my credit line, can I say spend 500, get the 150 cash back, then merge the new unlimited into my older Freedom? Yes, you can combine the limits... if it's Amex though you have to wait 13 months of age on at least one of the accounts before they will combine them

2. How bad would that help or affect my score? I'm aware of the HP for the CFU, and I'm aware of closing out the card. Those are pretty low impact on the score generally no? Depends on the file / age / etc. A HP could be 1-20 points depending on the file but, the increase in available credit usually counters it and the effect of the HP decreases in about 6 months and drops from factoring after 12 months.

3. With a current score of 710-717 accross the board, should I apply for Discover now? your score and amount of accounts makes you a prime candidate for adding Discover to the mix. There's a 5/24 rule with Chase that doesn't seem to be set in stone if you decide to add CFU after getting Discover.

4. What do you think are the chances of a high line of credit to start with Discover? (Not expecting anything crazy, just don't want another card stuck at 1000, 3k is ideal) when I opened mine they started off at $4500 and have grown past 35K at this point a year into being with them

5. I was always under the imperssion you had to have some balance or it would show as in activity? I was always told to keep around 10%? So my cards are usually there.... is that wrong? D: 10% is fine. some say 4-5% is ideal. I just set my spending limit at 10% of the CL and let it report / PIF. With higher limits it's easy to report only 1-2% even with a few hundred in spending per month.

They're nothing crazy atm.

Chase is at like 80 something bucks of 1200 this is perfectly fine for scoring increases
Cap is like 200 of 2000 this is also in a good place
Amex... Is in its 1 year no interest grace period so that ones being used for necessities right now. Amex grows quickly and in comparison with most other cards this should be getting you the same rewards as most cards unless you're spending a ludicrous amount of money for a bonus
And BB is at like 50% for like.. a while now. I know this ones bad and I need to lower it but I have other priorities right now so I'm fully aware of the interest eating me alive on that one. But I am currently comfortable with it, and letting it be for now. So please no harsh judgements on this one, I'm not going crazy with it or irresponsible. It's just not priority right now. The purchases on it were just a computer and supplies for my brother for school. And paying off my other cards/ maintaining them seemed more important to me that rushing to clear up best buy. I'll take care of it soon, but yeah. as long as you're on a 0% period with them and PIF before it expires you're good here. if you don't PIF before it expires though they will charge you interest for the full balance back to the date of purchase.

Re: Chase Freedom Unlimited Upgrade?

newhis — Fri, 21 Oct 2016 20:08:37 GMT

Every 3 months I print a little guide to my DW, which card to use LOL.

Discover can give you more cashback if you get a Gift card. So after the first year and if the quarter matches Freedom, you just have to look if you want direct cashback or Gift card, you can get several $25 cards for $20 or $50 for $45. That's other way I save a few dollars more.

Now with Chase Reserve may use Freedom over Discover if both are the same.