topic Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and... in Credit Cards

Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

StarsongPhoenix — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 00:19:52 GMT

Hi folks. Time for me to tap the knowledge and experience of others:

We recently received "prequalified" offers for a US Bank Visa Platinum (me) and LL Bean Visa/Barclays (DH). Purchase APRs for both are variable at 9.99%, no 0%/intro/purchases. Both BT APRs also 9.99%. LL Bean provides for 0%/6 months/3% fee BTs. US Bank waives BT fee one time at card acceptance, but no 0%/intro BT. USB is supposedly known for generous CLs and balance friendly, LL Bean for their particular rewards.

At first we weren't actively looking for new cards, because earlier we thought we might _might_- do a mortgage sometime next year. That's on hold for now. But we've each been getting RJ'd all over the place, also recently. (As have so many others, I know.)

DH scores are TU FICO 792 EQ FICO 815; mine are TU FICO 780 EQ FICO 809. No "baddies" for either of us. We PIF 4-5 of 7 cards/month with 2 sometimes having balances between 250-350 and current AX balance of 1200 for DH. So occasionally we will leave some balances. This doesn't seem to have negatively affected our long term scores. (Except for one instance? I'll explain below.)

Okay, sorry for all the detail, but some folks always ask for additional, so I thought I'd include it.

I've read good things here about USB and not so good about Barclays. But we are considering the apps. DH loves LL Bean. If history and AAOA didn't count that much, I would have loved to close both Chase and Paypal, and the same for DH with Sears. But I get the bulk of my 29 yr history through my AU on his AX and 13 yrs via AU on Sears, and Paypal's my oldest at two + years, Chase, BOA, and AX near one year. So I know I have to just do the old SD on those cards, if I'm not happy. Although in a little more than a decade we oldsters will both be septuagenarians, and I wonder if by then we'll care!

Anyway, here are my questions.

-Are either of these cards worth the effort? Eventually we want to move to CUs, just not right now.
-Are there better bank CCs than USB for a general balance friendly card? Not including Simmons (not worth it).
-Since we're satisfied enough with current rewards, would DH be better off cold apping for his own USB vs LL Bean?
-Does AX ever "punish" for transferring one of their balances to another card, or would some consider that wise?
-We are in Illinois. Who does USB pull, who does Barclays pull? (If anybody knows)

Last "related" question:

-What would make a CB report say that though both scores are excellent a negative factor is that there's recently been heavy usage of credit - at 4% utilization ?

This shows up on both our recent TU FICO reports, while we used to be higher at 7% and later 6%. There's been SOME recent shopping but no card reflects above 4% usage.

Anyway, all answers to my many queries will be most welcome. Thanks, in advance.

Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:19:36 GMT

@StarsongPhoenix wrote:
Last "related" question:

-What would make a CB report say that though both scores are excellent a negative factor is that there's recently been heavy usage of credit - at 4% utilization ?

This shows up on both our recent TU FICO reports, while we used to be higher at 7% and later 6%. There's been SOME recent shopping but no card reflects above 4% usage.

The FICO scoring algorithm/report has to spew out one negative reason at the score level you are both at and that is the worst thing it could find. If 4% UTIL is the worst thing about your CBR you are in excellent shape!

Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

MidnightVoice — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:47:18 GMT

I have a USBank card and have no problems. They are a conservatibe bank and have not suffered too much in the meltdown.

I have had no major problems with them

Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:51:01 GMT

There is a post here by DickC where he states that he was informed by a USBank official that the automatic CLI's will be eliminated soon. (They are automatic if you ask for them.)

Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:02:56 GMT

@MidnightVoice wrote:
I have a USBank card and have no problems. They are a conservatibe bank and have not suffered too much in the meltdown.

I have had no major problems with them

I have a US Bank CC and agree with MidnightVoice. I would not hesitate to carry a balance with US Bank, if I needed/wanted to.

US Bank hard pulled EX for me. I live in Arizona.

ETA: US Bank has not once taken AA with my CC account.

Message Edited by plasticman on 10-09-2009 11:02 AM

Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:00:49 GMT

I would honestly recommend joining a CU because it is a safer haven. I dont have any experience with USB so sorry cant comment there. I would also say start developing a positive history with a CU and build a r/ship with them and they will most probably be a good way to go mortgage wise and even the rates are much more attractive. Lastly, the CU CC's tend to be more on the lower APR end. I have my PSECU and another CU CC that I work for at 9.9% both and they will stay like that and CL's are kinda generous too!

Good Luck!

Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

spiritcraft1 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:20:35 GMT

Where in Illinois? Our personal and business CU in BCU (Baxter Credit Union). They have great products, you are a person not a number there, great free checking that earns 4%, Auto loans at 3.99% etc... At least try them... they pull TU and one pull lasts for 90 days.

Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

emoticon — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 16:52:21 GMT

I recommend USBank, but not the card offer your received. Your credit is great so no worries about approval. The American Humane cards with USBank have 0% everything and no BT fee when applying. I got one and it's been good to me. Try the link.

https://applications.usbank.com/oad/begin?locationCode=9584&sourceCode=76024

Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

Creditaddict — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:50:16 GMT

I LOVE USBANK and everyone says they are a conservative bank which I think they even say but yet they are my HIGHEST CL and I carry very high balances with them, use BT offers constantly whenever I get it paid down and they still have only continued to increase the CL VS chasing balance or anything. you can ask for no pull CLI every 6 months. They are just fabulous and they start approving with scores over 680, so you should have no issue.

Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

StarsongPhoenix — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:12:19 GMT

creditwherecreditisdue wrote:

The FICO scoring algorithm/report has to spew out one negative reason at the score level you are both at and that is the worst thing it could find. If 4% UTIL is the worst thing about your CBR you are in excellent shape!

Wheww! Good to know, I was beginning to wonder! As for USB planning to stop automatic CLIs, that's something we'll have to consider. But if either or both of us apply, hopefully the card will live up to its name for generous opening limits, and APRs won't quickly go sky high.

Thanks a lot for your reply.

Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

StarsongPhoenix — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:22:13 GMT

@MidnightVoice wrote:
I have a USBank card and have no problems. They are a conservatibe bank and have not suffered too much in the meltdown.

I have had no major problems with them

Actually, after I posted my questions, last night, I did a search for threads and found lots of information. So what you wrote seems to be very true, Midnight.

And that's getting to be one of our main concerns. After all the other banks' glitz-glam-wheeling-dealing of easy credit in the previous years, only to end up close to major failures and punishing good customers, who needs more of it? Plus, I'm sure there will be more of that stuff to follow. So when the dust settles, while we do plan engaging CUs in the not too distant future, we'd still like to have some bank cards, but from banks who value our patronage. Thanks for the info.

Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

StarsongPhoenix — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:29:47 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:

+1

I have a US Bank CC and agree with MidnightVoice. I would not hesitate to carry a balance with US Bank, if I needed/wanted to.

US Bank hard pulled EX for me. I live in Arizona.

ETA: US Bank has not once taken AA with my CC account.
Message Edited by plasticman on 10-09-2009 11:02 AM

Hi plasticman. Thanks for reminding me of one other concern we have. When we make a major move away from this area within the next year-and-a-half, we'll want to be able to take this card and the bank's other services with us. Believe it or not we're considering two very disperate climates, Wisconsin or Arizona. So when you mentioned your location, I thought to look up where else USB operates. Turns out it would be available in both states, which is nice.

Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

StarsongPhoenix — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:41:30 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I would honestly recommend joining a CU because it is a safer haven. I dont have any experience with USB so sorry cant comment there. I would also say start developing a positive history with a CU and build a r/ship with them and they will most probably be a good way to go mortgage wise and even the rates are much more attractive. Lastly, the CU CC's tend to be more on the lower APR end. I have my PSECU and another CU CC that I work for at 9.9% both and they will stay like that and CL's are kinda generous too!

Good Luck!

From everything I've read about CUs, your advice is right on the money. Which is why we do plan to move toward those options soon. Actually we have a CU available to us through my husband's employment but the savings/checking aspect is not that great, the credit cards now come from HSBC, and many union members are actually pulling away from this one because it seems to be going down the hill, so to speak. We are checking others out, including Alliant, NFCU, and Penfed. But as I wrote in another post, above, we do also want to have involvement with at least one bank that appears to be pretty solid. Yet here also, offers may change so we'd like to not miss the opportunity with this one, once we decide. Thanks for your information, I really appreciate it.

Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

StarsongPhoenix — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:03:10 GMT

@spiritcraft1 wrote:
Where in Illinois? Our personal and business CU in BCU (Baxter Credit Union). They have great products, you are a person not a number there, great free checking that earns 4%, Auto loans at 3.99% etc... At least try them... they pull TU and one pull lasts for 90 days.

Hi spiritcraft. Thanks for the heads up about Baxter Credit Union. I took a look and yes, great products. BUT...that darn old BUT...we are not eligible by location or their list of employers, so that's that, I guess. Unfortunately. I am, though, researching other local CUs, and also some of those that are national. If either or both of us app for USB, we'd like to narrow the CUs, for now, down to one or two, so as not to get too many inquiries on our reports. My husband has NONE in the last two years (a will of iron, I tell ya), but I need two each to age one year on both TU and EX between NOV and JAN. Thanks again for the info.

Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

StarsongPhoenix — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:13:47 GMT

@emoticon wrote:
I recommend USBank, but not the card offer your received. Your credit is great so no worries about approval. The American Humane cards with USBank have 0% everything and no BT fee when applying. I got one and it's been good to me. Try the link.

https://applications.usbank.com/oad/begin?locationCode=9584&sourceCode=76024

Wow, emoticon! Thanks for the alternative USB link. Who'd a thunk, eh? Very nice offers on all, as you wrote. I'm still new enough at all this stuff to forget that offers coming via snail mail might not always be the best. What a good memory jolt your post was, about this. Plus, we can definitely support what the American Humane Association tries to accomplish. All we have to do, now, is make a decision whether to app. I'm not sure this is one we or at least one of us should pass by. Though, truth be told, I'm also not sure how much longer I can hold my husband back from scratching his "itch." Ha!

By the way, very nice cards, and limits you have. Thanks again for your reply.

Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

StarsongPhoenix — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:31:00 GMT

@Creditaddict wrote:
I LOVE USBANK and everyone says they are a conservative bank which I think they even say but yet they are my HIGHEST CL and I carry very high balances with them, use BT offers constantly whenever I get it paid down and they still have only continued to increase the CL VS chasing balance or anything. you can ask for no pull CLI every 6 months. They are just fabulous and they start approving with scores over 680, so you should have no issue.

Creditaddict, I love your sig line! So funny! Sometimes I get to feelin' that way, here and there, lately.

Thanks for all you input. As I wrote in another post, last night I did a search for threads on USB, and am really glad I did. Between your reply, plus those of others in this thread, and everything else I've now read, I'm feeling pretty good about the bank. Even though, I seem to have been doing okay, I sometimes easily get intimidated by thinking of moving up in terms of credit. It's a throwback to my growing up under the authouritarian eyes of nuns and priests - heh. They always had a way of making you feel "not quite enough." Seriously, that's why I find these forums so helpful.

I still am wondering if ever transferring some of one's AX balance to a different issuer's card is okay (in terms of AX not doing a number on you). So I'll have to give that a bit more thought. If anyone out there has had experience with this, I'd love to know. Thanks, everyone, for your answers.

Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

Creditaddict — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 01:45:49 GMT

Transferring balances to UsBank has NEVER been an issue for me and they seem to welcome them, because whenever I get more than a couple grand in available credit they send me fixed for life BT offers and I usually max the card back out.

Now transferring from another card to Usbank could get the other card to take action, but it's one of those I think they are going to do it eventually to you if they are just waiting for you to pay it off, so you my as well save the money and do the transfer and be done with it

Re: Questions re US Bank, LL Bean CC offers and...

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 01:02:40 GMT

I agree with you spiritcraft1, BCU (Baxter Credit Union) does have some awesome products. I am a member of theirs through my employer. I applied for an auto loan with scores of TU-609 EXP-619 EQ-665 hoping they'd pull EQ, pulled TU instead. However I was approved for a $25K auto loan with an 8.8% for 72 months. I was also quoted only 8.4% for 48 months. A .40% APR isn't a huge deal for me so I chose 8.8% for 72 months. (I know I know if I can pay more, which I plan to do.)

At BEST I was hoping for somewhere between a 12-15% APR. I've had several auto loans in the past and this is by far the lowest APR of ANY of them! Additionally, I was told in as little as 6 months if (more so when) my scores increased that they'd refinance WITHOUT a hard pull, lowering my APR.(gotta love that!) I simply can't say enough about 'em! I'm REALLY being treated like a customer and not a number, that's a huge change for me.

I LOVE the fact that they are looking out for me and not the other way around!

(Accepting MY Oscar Award!...LOL) I'd like to thank My Fico Forums(oh yeah) for bringing my scores in 04/01/08 of 485-502 to what they are now 609-665!(AND STEADY IMPROVING, even through a terrible economy!!)

My Goals for 2010 (~~It can~~ It will be done)

0 inquires

+700 scores across the baord

0 consigning for friends AND family (love ya'll but the only thing I'll cosign for is an A@@ Kicking)

Happy New Years!!!