topic Re: Card recommendations in Credit Cards

Card recommendations

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 08:21:22 GMT

This is probably a generic question thats asked a lot but everyone has their own specific situation so I thought it would be best to ask anyways.

I currently only have a Discover It card and Paypal credit. Discover has a limit of $3800 as of last February and Paypal is at $800 but im not worried about increasing that. My Fico 8 TransUnion is at 731 according to Discover and Fico 2 Experian is at 735 according to my Credit Union I use, most likely will increase a bit more in a few days when my statement is released also. My spending is mostly random online shopping with some doordash sprinkled in here and there.

Honestly don't know if going for a CLI or going for a new credit card is the best option or if I should even worry about either right now with the pandemic so i'd like some advice/recommendations on my situation

Re: Card recommendations

sarge12 — Sat, 02 May 2020 08:58:34 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
This is probably a generic question thats asked a lot but everyone has their own specific situation so I thought it would be best to ask anyways.

I currently only have a Discover It card and Paypal credit. Discover has a limit of $3800 as of last February and Paypal is at $800 but im not worried about increasing that. My Fico 8 TransUnion is at 731 according to Discover and Fico 2 Experian is at 735 according to my Credit Union I use, most likely will increase a bit more in a few days when my statement is released also. My spending is mostly random online shopping with some doordash sprinkled in here and there.

Honestly don't know if going for a CLI or going for a new credit card is the best option or if I should even worry about either right now with the pandemic so i'd like some advice/recommendations on my situation

While approvals might be harder right now until the question of how things go post pandemic, they are still approving cards as another AMEX card is headed my way. In general though, it is probably not the best time to seek new cards. If you do a lot of your online shopping at amazon, the Chase Amazon Prime card should be on your wish list, but I have heard that it is not one of the easier cards to obtain. I do not know that is true, because almost any card is approved for me. Now credit limit increases are a different matter, and is an almost automatic decline for me. I always PIF and have very low utilization, and never pay any interest on credit cards, which credit card issuers hate. They actually call us strict transactors deadbeats. It is hard for issuers to identify strict transactors from a credit report and score, but once they see how I use their cards they know and refuse any CLI request. I imagine once trended data is actually used my card approvals will become much harder, as they may be able to identify me as a transactor before issuing me a card.

Re: Card recommendations

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 10:27:40 GMT

@sarge12 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
This is probably a generic question thats asked a lot but everyone has their own specific situation so I thought it would be best to ask anyways.

I currently only have a Discover It card and Paypal credit. Discover has a limit of $3800 as of last February and Paypal is at $800 but im not worried about increasing that. My Fico 8 TransUnion is at 731 according to Discover and Fico 2 Experian is at 735 according to my Credit Union I use, most likely will increase a bit more in a few days when my statement is released also. My spending is mostly random online shopping with some doordash sprinkled in here and there.

Honestly don't know if going for a CLI or going for a new credit card is the best option or if I should even worry about either right now with the pandemic so i'd like some advice/recommendations on my situation
While approvals might be harder right now until the question of how things go post pandemic, they are still approving cards as another AMEX card is headed my way. In general though, it is probably not the best time to seek new cards. If you do a lot of your online shopping at amazon, the Chase Amazon Prime card should be on your wish list, but I have heard that it is not one of the easier cards to obtain. I do not know that is true, because almost any card is approved for me. Now credit limit increases are a different matter, and is an almost automatic decline for me. I always PIF and have very low utilization, and never pay any interest on credit cards, which credit card issuers hate. They actually call us strict transactors deadbeats. It is hard for issuers to identify strict transactors from a credit report and score, but once they see how I use their cards they know and refuse any CLI request. I imagine once trended data is actually used my card approvals will become much harder, as they may be able to identify me as a transactor before issuing me a card.

My online shopping isnt typically on amazon most of the time, just online in general. Considering my credit history isnt very long as of now and my score isnt nearly as high as yours im not sure if the chase amazon card should be my next go to but it will definitely be one I get eventually since I want a variety of cards for different purposes (if thats a good thing to do anyways). Im more so looking for an all around rewards card if thats even a thing. If now isn't a good time then maybe ill just stick with trying CLIs until everything is back to normal.

As for CLI's I got an automatic increase from discover after 6 months and I requested another increase and was approved for that as well. I dont always have a low utilization but I never need to pay for interest so im in the same boat as you for that.

Re: Card recommendations

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 09:37:12 GMT

What type of rewards are you looking for? Cash back, airline miles, hotel points, or ecosystem-based points for transfer (such as Amex MRs)?

Re: Card recommendations

Gollum — Sat, 02 May 2020 10:05:49 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
This is probably a generic question thats asked a lot but everyone has their own specific situation so I thought it would be best to ask anyways.

I currently only have a Discover It card and Paypal credit. Discover has a limit of $3800 as of last February and Paypal is at $800 but im not worried about increasing that. My Fico 8 TransUnion is at 731 according to Discover and Fico 2 Experian is at 735 according to my Credit Union I use, most likely will increase a bit more in a few days when my statement is released also. My spending is mostly random online shopping with some doordash sprinkled in here and there.

Honestly don't know if going for a CLI or going for a new credit card is the best option or if I should even worry about either right now with the pandemic so i'd like some advice/recommendations on my situation

You have a good credit score (Fico 8 TransUnion 731) so if your credit union offers a cash back rewards credit card, that's my recommendation. If you qualify for NFCU (Navy Federal Credit Union) or BECU (the acronym originally meant Boeing Employees Credit Union), both of those credit unions offer 1.5% cash back rewards credit cards with low interest rates.

I wouldn't ask for a credit limit increase or apply for a bank rewards credit card right now. If you want to apply for a new credit card anyway, the American Express Blue Cash Everyday might be a likely candidate, but American Express was already in the news in late 2019 because they were losing money on their rewards cards.

Re: Card recommendations

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 10:27:16 GMT

@Gollum wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
This is probably a generic question thats asked a lot but everyone has their own specific situation so I thought it would be best to ask anyways.

I currently only have a Discover It card and Paypal credit. Discover has a limit of $3800 as of last February and Paypal is at $800 but im not worried about increasing that. My Fico 8 TransUnion is at 731 according to Discover and Fico 2 Experian is at 735 according to my Credit Union I use, most likely will increase a bit more in a few days when my statement is released also. My spending is mostly random online shopping with some doordash sprinkled in here and there.

Honestly don't know if going for a CLI or going for a new credit card is the best option or if I should even worry about either right now with the pandemic so i'd like some advice/recommendations on my situation
You have a good credit score (Fico 8 TransUnion 731) so if your credit union offers a cash back rewards credit card, that's my recommendation. If you qualify for NFCU (Navy Federal Credit Union) or BECU (the acronym originally meant Boeing Employees Credit Union), both of those credit unions offer 1.5% cash back rewards credit cards with low interest rates.

I wouldn't ask for a credit limit increase or apply for a bank rewards credit card right now. If you want to apply for a new credit card anyway, the American Express Blue Cash Everyday might be a likely candidate, but American Express was already in the news in late 2019 because they were losing money on their rewards cards.

My Credit Union also offers a card with 1.5% cash back and low interest rates so that seems to be an option

Re: Card recommendations

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 10:26:00 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
What type of rewards are you looking for? Cash back, airline miles, hotel points, or ecosystem-based points for transfer (such as Amex MRs)?

Sorry, forgot to mention that in my main post but did mention it in a comment. Im looking for cash back

Re: Card recommendations

Gollum — Sat, 02 May 2020 10:26:08 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
My Credit Union also offers a card with 1.5% cash back and low interest rates so that seems to be an option

Perfect.

Re: Card recommendations

sarge12 — Sat, 02 May 2020 10:34:35 GMT

The Citi Doublecash is 1+1 percent...one when charged and one when paid...a decent daily driver. AOD has a card with 3% cash back everywhere, and BoA has a card that lets you set a 3% catagory, and online shopping is one of them. The AOD might be out of reach for your profile, but I have not applied for that card and only learned of it here. The BoA is probably the easiest of those I mentioned to get, but there are a lot of bad comments about BoA. You might want to search for a card on a soft pull pre-approval site. With a thin credit file, a lot of these higher tier cards might be out of reach especially while the uncertainty due to this pandemic exists. Even cardholders with a long, stable credit history have been hit with card closures and CLD's here lately. Issuers are somewhat spooked by this for good reason. I am almost 62 years old, and I have never seen anything put the brakes on a World economy like this pandemic. There is just no recent example of how this might end up, and uncertainty is really bad for both stocks and financial markets. It is all just up in the air right now, and could go to any extreme. It is possible that businesses could rebound nicely without further outbreaks. It is also possible that attempting to restart will result in more outbreaks, followed by more closures and unemployment. There is also question if the fear of the virus might prevent the public from resuming normal travel and public interaction even after the virus itself is played out. The Government can't keep propping up the economy with continued shutdowns or we could be looking at another depression like the 30's. The USA has an amazing supply chain when conditions are normal, but is not built for this. All the resaurants that shut down had stock of food that went bad in their freezers, and will need to be re-supplied. Many farmers that were supplying them actually had to plow under some crops because there was not an outlet for their crops. Food at restaurants is delivered differently than grocery store who have label requirements, so much of the already packaged foods went bad because it takes time to repackage it for grocery stores. Oil prices actually went negative in price per barrel recently. All this is to explain just some of the disruptions that happened when half the World shut down suddenly. When the restaurants crank back up supply will then have issues meeting demand, so expect shortages everywhere. It is just not possible to shut off such large segments of the economy and be able to just start it all back up without major supply chain issues. The shutdown was the easy part, and starting it all back up will be a logistical nightmare. Historians will in the future debate whether the measures to slow the spread of this virus was worth the cost. How card issuers react to all this is very much unknown, but I will be shocked if the criteria for credit approval is not severely affected for some time. Just my honest opinion, and I am normally quite optomistic, but normally you don't see such extreme disruption to businesses and individuals alike.

Re: Card recommendations

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 10:35:15 GMT

Agreed with @Gollum - credit hunting may be a little risky with the big banks these days. With a CU that you're established with, offering the rewards you seek at a likely much better APR, asking them for a card is the clear-cut winner.

Re: Card recommendations

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 10:41:30 GMT

@sarge12 wrote:
The Citi Doublecash is 1+1 percent...one when charged and one when paid...a decent daily driver. AOD has a card with 3% cash back everywhere, and BoA has a card that lets you set a 3% catagory, and online shopping is one of them. The AOD might be out of reach for your profile, but I have not applied for that card and only learned of it here. The BoA is probably the easiest of those I mentioned to get, but there are a lot of bad comments about BoA. You might want to search for a card on a soft pull pre-approval site. With a thin credit file, a lot of these higher tier cards might be out of reach especially while the uncertainty due to this pandemic exists. Even cardholders with a long, stable credit history have been hit with card closures and CLD's here lately. Issuers are somewhat spooked by this for good reason. I am almost 62 years old, and I have never seen anything put the brakes on a World economy like this pandemic. There is just no recent example of how this might end up, and uncertainty is really bad for both stocks and financial markets. It is all just up in the air right now, and could go to any extreme. It is possible that businesses could rebound nicely without further outbreaks. It is also possible that attempting to restart will result in more outbreaks, followed by more closures and unemployment. There is also question if the fear of the virus might prevent the public from resuming normal travel and public interaction even after the virus itself is played out. The Government can't keep propping up the economy with continued shutdowns or we could be looking at another depression like the 30's. The USA has an amazing supply chain when conditions are normal, but is not built for this. All the resaurants that shut down had stock of food that went bad in their freezers, and will need to be re-supplied. Many farmers that were supplying them actually had to plow under some crops because there was not an outlet for their crops. Food at restaurants is delivered differently than grocery store who have label requirements, so much of the already packaged foods went bad because it takes time to repackage it for grocery stores. Oil prices actually went negative in price per barrel recently. All this is to explain just some of the disruptions that happened when half the World shut down suddenly. When the restaurants crank back up supply will then have issues meeting demand, so expect shortages everywhere. It is just not possible to shut off such large segments of the economy and be able to just start it all back up without major supply chain issues. The shutdown was the easy part, and starting it all back up will be a logistical nightmare. Historians will in the future debate whether the measures to slow the spread of this virus was worth the cost. How card issuers react to all this is very much unknown, but I will be shocked if the criteria for credit approval is not severely affected for some time. Just my honest opinion, and I am normally quite optomistic, but normally you don't see such extreme disruption to businesses and individuals alike.

Yeah im going to hold off on applying for a card for awhile until things start to go back to normal. Im only 20 so I have plenty of time to build my score and my history. Ill look into all the cards you mentioned as well as what the others in this thread suggested and go with what works best for me. Thank you!

Re: Card recommendations

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 10:43:50 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Agreed with @Gollum - credit hunting may be a little risky with the big banks these days. With a CU that you're established with, offering the rewards you seek at a likely much better APR, asking them for a card is the clear-cut winner.

Going with my CU makes it easier to track my finances as well so thats my number 1 choice it seems.

Re: Card recommendations

TSlop — Sat, 02 May 2020 12:37:11 GMT

As @sarge12 mentioned, I think the BoA Cash Rewards is a good option. You can set the 3% to online purchases (which is what I do) on up to $2,500 per quarter. 2% on groceries and wholesale clubs rounds it out.

Re: Card recommendations

FieryDance — Sat, 02 May 2020 18:59:11 GMT

I recommend BoA Cash Rewards:

It is a Visa or MasterCard, and you can choose.
At least 3% for online shopping.
Flexibility to rotate to 5 other categories should the needs arise.
Relatively low entry requirement.
Potential to become one of the most lucrative no AF cards, if you increase BoA relationship.

Re: Card recommendations

Anonymous — Sat, 02 May 2020 19:39:15 GMT

@TSlop wrote:
As @sarge12 mentioned, I think the BoA Cash Rewards is a good option. You can set the 3% to online purchases (which is what I do) on up to $2,500 per quarter. 2% on groceries and wholesale clubs rounds it out.

I read that you need a 750+ score to be approved for that card though so im not sure if I can even get it currently

Re: Card recommendations

recoveringfrombk7 — Sat, 02 May 2020 23:13:12 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@sarge12 wrote:
The Citi Doublecash is 1+1 percent...one when charged and one when paid...a decent daily driver. AOD has a card with 3% cash back everywhere, and BoA has a card that lets you set a 3% catagory, and online shopping is one of them. The AOD might be out of reach for your profile, but I have not applied for that card and only learned of it here. The BoA is probably the easiest of those I mentioned to get, but there are a lot of bad comments about BoA. You might want to search for a card on a soft pull pre-approval site. With a thin credit file, a lot of these higher tier cards might be out of reach especially while the uncertainty due to this pandemic exists. Even cardholders with a long, stable credit history have been hit with card closures and CLD's here lately. Issuers are somewhat spooked by this for good reason. I am almost 62 years old, and I have never seen anything put the brakes on a World economy like this pandemic. There is just no recent example of how this might end up, and uncertainty is really bad for both stocks and financial markets. It is all just up in the air right now, and could go to any extreme. It is possible that businesses could rebound nicely without further outbreaks. It is also possible that attempting to restart will result in more outbreaks, followed by more closures and unemployment. There is also question if the fear of the virus might prevent the public from resuming normal travel and public interaction even after the virus itself is played out. The Government can't keep propping up the economy with continued shutdowns or we could be looking at another depression like the 30's. The USA has an amazing supply chain when conditions are normal, but is not built for this. All the resaurants that shut down had stock of food that went bad in their freezers, and will need to be re-supplied. Many farmers that were supplying them actually had to plow under some crops because there was not an outlet for their crops. Food at restaurants is delivered differently than grocery store who have label requirements, so much of the already packaged foods went bad because it takes time to repackage it for grocery stores. Oil prices actually went negative in price per barrel recently. All this is to explain just some of the disruptions that happened when half the World shut down suddenly. When the restaurants crank back up supply will then have issues meeting demand, so expect shortages everywhere. It is just not possible to shut off such large segments of the economy and be able to just start it all back up without major supply chain issues. The shutdown was the easy part, and starting it all back up will be a logistical nightmare. Historians will in the future debate whether the measures to slow the spread of this virus was worth the cost. How card issuers react to all this is very much unknown, but I will be shocked if the criteria for credit approval is not severely affected for some time. Just my honest opinion, and I am normally quite optomistic, but normally you don't see such extreme disruption to businesses and individuals alike.
Yeah im going to hold off on applying for a card for awhile until things start to go back to normal. Im only 20 so I have plenty of time to build my score and my history. Ill look into all the cards you mentioned as well as what the others in this thread suggested and go with what works best for me. Thank you!

Ignore the AOD suggestion then. I'm certain I've read here that you need to be 21 for that one.

Re: Card recommendations

ChargedUp — Sun, 03 May 2020 08:08:03 GMT

If I'm reading correctly, you only have 2 cards right now. Picking up a card from your CU would bring to 3 which will help your scores when applying for bigger and better cards. As you wait out the chaos in the world, all three cards will age and you'll be set to grab anything most anything out there.

Re: Card recommendations

Anonymous — Sun, 03 May 2020 09:34:32 GMT

@ChargedUp wrote:
If I'm reading correctly, you only have 2 cards right now. Picking up a card from your CU would bring to 3 which will help your scores when applying for bigger and better cards. As you wait out the chaos in the world, all three cards will age and you'll be set to grab anything most anything out there.

Technically only 1 card but 2 lines of credit. My Discover It card and my paypal credit. Got the card in October 2018 and got paypal credit last September. I would like to go for the BoA Cash Rewards card but my score isnt high enough and I don't have enough income to qualify for that one yet. I plan on applying for a card from my CU here soon and was considering requesting a CLI on my current card as well since its been 3 months since ive gotten an increase.

Re: Card recommendations

ChargedUp — Sun, 03 May 2020 10:41:52 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@ChargedUp wrote:
If I'm reading correctly, you only have 2 cards right now. Picking up a card from your CU would bring to 3 which will help your scores when applying for bigger and better cards. As you wait out the chaos in the world, all three cards will age and you'll be set to grab anything most anything out there.
Technically only 1 card but 2 lines of credit. My Discover It card and my paypal credit. Got the card in October 2018 and got paypal credit last September. I would like to go for the BoA Cash Rewards card but my score isnt high enough and I don't have enough income to qualify for that one yet. I plan on applying for a card from my CU here soon and was considering requesting a CLI on my current card as well since its been 3 months since ive gotten an increase.

Paypal credit shows as a credit card, so it should count as one towards scoring. Disco and Synch are soft pulls so it doesn't hurt to hit the button when you like.

I picked up the BoA AAA Rewards Visa when my score was around yours, although that was in 2017

Re: Card recommendations

Anonymous — Sun, 03 May 2020 11:10:06 GMT

@ChargedUp wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@ChargedUp wrote:
If I'm reading correctly, you only have 2 cards right now. Picking up a card from your CU would bring to 3 which will help your scores when applying for bigger and better cards. As you wait out the chaos in the world, all three cards will age and you'll be set to grab anything most anything out there.
Technically only 1 card but 2 lines of credit. My Discover It card and my paypal credit. Got the card in October 2018 and got paypal credit last September. I would like to go for the BoA Cash Rewards card but my score isnt high enough and I don't have enough income to qualify for that one yet. I plan on applying for a card from my CU here soon and was considering requesting a CLI on my current card as well since its been 3 months since ive gotten an increase.
Paypal credit shows as a credit card, so it should count as one towards scoring. Disco and Synch are soft pulls so it doesn't hurt to hit the button when you like.

I picked up the BoA AAA Rewards Visa when my score was around yours, although that was in 2017

Oh thats good to know, I knew discover was soft pull for CLI but wasnt sure about paypal so I was nervous to request it. Ill probably wait a few days for my score to update then request a CLI for both of them