topic Re: Discover It advice in Credit Cards

Discover It advice

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 04:25:39 GMT

Hi All,

I was recently approved for the Discover It card, starting with a CL of $2400. I have been reading up on this card and Discover and it seems that many people have experienced a reduction in their CL. I am curious if people have opinions on how best to use this card to avoid a reduction in the CL. Is it better to use the card for groceries and then pay the balance in full every month or carry a balance from month to month using it to buy airfare or rent Airbnbs for vacation, paying way more than the minimum, of course, but still carrying a small balance month to month? I also have a really high utilization, which this CL will help with greatly, so I had thought buying groceries and paying the card off in full every month was the way to go to keep my utilization down, but after reading some stories here and elsewhere, I am worried that might get my CL reduced. Thoughts? Many thanks!

Re: Discover It advice

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 06:37:25 GMT

That is nonsense, make your spending decisions based on maximizing your rewards in conjunction with your other cards, PIF before due day, no one is taking away your credit line because you're not an interest paying customer, work your credit don't let it work you. I have never paid a dime in CC interest ever, my Discover IT went from 4k SL to 10k in less than 6 months time.

Re: Discover It advice

UncleB — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 06:43:19 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Hi All,
I was recently approved for the Discover It card, starting with a CL of $2400. I have been reading up on this card and Discover and it seems that many people have experienced a reduction in their CL. I am curious if people have opinions on how best to use this card to avoid a reduction in the CL. Is it better to use the card for groceries and then pay the balance in full every month or carry a balance from month to month using it to buy airfare or rent Airbnbs for vacation, paying way more than the minimum, of course, but still carrying a small balance month to month? I also have a really high utilization, which this CL will help with greatly, so I had thought buying groceries and paying the card off in full every month was the way to go to keep my utilization down, but after reading some stories here and elsewhere, I am worried that might get my CL reduced. Thoughts? Many thanks!

I only recall seeing a report or two about Discover reducing a credit line, and I think in both cases (IIRC) there were issues with credit scores that had taken a modest drop that likely was the cause. For the most part, Discover is one of the few lenders who seems to leave people alone.

I would just use the card organically, and by that I mean how it suits your lifestyle and finances the best. If you look hard enough around here you'll find CLD stories on just about every issuer there is. If you try to groom your spending habits to suit each lender you'll end up spending a lot of time worrying about something you have little control over anyway.

Re: Discover It advice

kshurika — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 08:02:38 GMT

I'm with Oldman and UncleB. I just want to add that you should make maximum use of your first year doubling of cash back. Right now, we're in the groceries quarter and you can get greater rewards by occasionally buying gift cards at your regular grocery stores. The same applies to the gas quarter, and such. Your 5% cash back turns into 10% at the end of the year and you want to get as much as you can. Additionally, you'll have plenty of gift cards to use to buy all your necessities.

Re: Discover It advice

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 13:27:16 GMT

I read a lot on these forums and very rarely have heard of Discover hitting someone with a CLD. Relative to other lenders, Discover's name comes up a lot less often when discussing CLDs. OP, I'm not quite sure where you got this idea from.

If your credit profile stays the same or improves, there's no reason that Discover would hit you with a CLD. They gave you that $2400 SL based on your current profile. They only time they would have a reason to take away from the $2400 is if your profile weakened, like if negative items showed up on your CR for example.

Re: Discover It advice

Anonymous — Tue, 10 Apr 2018 21:34:59 GMT

@UncleB wrote:

I would just use the card organically, and by that I mean how it suits your lifestyle and finances the best. If you look hard enough around here you'll find CLD stories on just about every issuer there is. If you try to groom your spending habits to suit each lender you'll end up spending a lot of time worrying about something you have little control over anyway.

Yes, this is very true. The forum is full of statements about what issuers like and don't like, and most of them have little basis in fact, just repeated enough for many people to view them as true. Just use the card within your means and you will (probably) be fine. Avoid clearly stupid things like getting large numbers of cards you don't need in a short space of time, but as far as USING a card "correctly" there's not much to remember apart from don't overspend and pay on time.

Also, you don't need to focus on constantly maximizing your score (using AZEO unnecessarily has opportunity costs) and cards don't, in fact, need to "grow". As others say, the card is for your convenience, not something to be ruled by.

Re: Discover It advice

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 02:00:10 GMT

Thanks, everyone! This is all a relief to hear. I will go ahead and use organically and pay off in full every month. Thanks again! I had been a bit stressed about this.

Re: Discover It advice

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 02:03:46 GMT

@kshurika wrote:
I'm with Oldman and UncleB. I just want to add that you should make maximum use of your first year doubling of cash back. Right now, we're in the groceries quarter and you can get greater rewards by occasionally buying gift cards at your regular grocery stores. The same applies to the gas quarter, and such. Your 5% cash back turns into 10% at the end of the year and you want to get as much as you can. Additionally, you'll have plenty of gift cards to use to buy all your necessities.

@Anonymous @kshurika, just curious. I plan to do my weekly grocery shopping on Saturday with the card. Are you suggesting that I need to buy a gift card and then use the gift card to buy groceries? Many thanks!

Re: Discover It advice

kshurika — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 02:12:38 GMT

Nope.

I'm suggesting that if you have a grocery store you go to frequently, that you occasionally buy gift cards for that store during this quarter. You will get 2 X 5% cash back for everything you buy. After the quarter is over, you can use the gift cards you've bought during the grocery quarter to buy groceries. You will have purchased a 10% discount on everything you buy.

Re: Discover It advice

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 02:21:41 GMT

Don't forget about $1500 spending cap per quarter.

Re: Discover It advice

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 04:22:46 GMT

What is the $1500 spending cap? Is this the maximum quarterly spend eligible for the 5% cashback?

Re: Discover It advice

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 04:39:09 GMT

Yes, got to keep track of that before going to town on gift cards.

Re: Discover It advice

Anonymous — Wed, 11 Apr 2018 05:19:02 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
That is nonsense, make your spending decisions based on maximizing your rewards in conjunction with your other cards, PIF before due day, no one is taking away your credit line because you're not an interest paying customer, work your credit don't let it work you. I have never paid a dime in CC interest ever, my Discover IT went from 4k SL to 10k in less than 6 months time.

Exactly!, My current situation never paid one penny because while I did with BOA it later turned out last year it was a billing error... To which I was still in the intro and should have never been charged. ... My Attitude however on CLD's is don't frit over if your earning good rewards and keeping balances low you should hardly ever notice a drop in score also you can always get a SP CLI from some lenders to offset any real impact if timed right which I've done in past... Discover has and always will be a quality lender they take fraud seriously as so they should if your account is closed there is usually fraud or something else going on same can be said with Amex.