topic Re: Alternatives to Verizon Visa and Amazon cards? in Credit Cards

Alternatives to Verizon Visa and Amazon cards?

urbex — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 00:55:24 GMT

Continuing to work on fine tuning my credit portfolio...closed several store cards over the past weekend (mostly Citi backed cards), and I keep reading about sudden unexpected CLDs and account closures from other Synchrony accounts.

At the moment, I have 7 cards with Synchrony, with a total credit limit across all of them at $48K. 6 store cards, and the Verizon Visa. I do have Verizon service, no plans on switching, and do make good use of the autopay discount on that one. I also use the Amazon card and Lowes card monthly for the 5% CB.

Other than the Verizon card, there's really nothing here that I'm particularly attached to, but losing that much credit limit out of the blue would be a bummer. The remaining cards I've only used once or twice in the past 6-8 years, and I'm kind of surprised they haven't already closed dut to inactivity.

I keep reading posts saying these Synchrony cards aren't really needed because there's other, better, non Synchrony/non store cards out there, but I've yet to see them...but then I've also focused on 0 AF cards because until about the past year, I didn't feel like I was churning through enough on a yearly basis to make the AFs worth it. I've finally started getting some nice pre-approvals on some AF cards with higher rewards, but they've all been travel cards which I'd never use the perks on anyways.

Just curious of what these other cards might be? Are they part of the higher AF class cards?

Re: Alternatives to Verizon Visa and Amazon cards?

DakotaM — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 01:05:20 GMT

Affinity FCU has a Visa that gives 5% back on Amazon. It used to be unlimited but I think it was reduced to $1,000 in purchases per month a while ago.

Re: Alternatives to Verizon Visa and Amazon cards?

Gregory1776 — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 01:28:53 GMT

Chase obviously. theyve been great with me, started low on the cl, and they auto increased it for me quite a bit. little use now (deleted amazon, I am cleaning my room) its been dormat until early this year with a BT offer i had to take.

Re: Alternatives to Verizon Visa and Amazon cards?

urbex — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 02:28:47 GMT

@Gregory1776 wrote:
Chase obviously. theyve been great with me, started low on the cl, and they auto increased it for me quite a bit. little use now (deleted amazon, I am cleaning my room) its been dormat until early this year with a BT offer i had to take.

Oh...I had completely forgotten about the Chase one! Funny enough, I actually HAD a Chase Amazon card many years ago, but never actually got to use it, because they kept sending the card to my house address where I physically can't get mail, thus I was never was able to activate the card, and the account was closed after a couple months. Sometimes, though rarely, the mail ladies at the post office will catch mail, and redirect to my PO box, but usually any mail address directly to the house immediately gets returned to sender. Tried again a few months later, same thing. But I got to keep both SUBs, lol.

So I just went in and app'ed for the 3rd time. Instant approval at $20K! Heck of a nice increase over the $2900 that was on the Prime store card. But then I immediately logged in to my Chase account, and made sure to move my PO BOX mailing address over to this card as well, so fingers crossed it shows up this time.

Re: Alternatives to Verizon Visa and Amazon cards?

GZG — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 03:57:57 GMT

@urbex wrote:
Continuing to work on fine tuning my credit portfolio...closed several store cards over the past weekend (mostly Citi backed cards), and I keep reading about sudden unexpected CLDs and account closures from other Synchrony accounts.

At the moment, I have 7 cards with Synchrony, with a total credit limit across all of them at $48K. 6 store cards, and the Verizon Visa. I do have Verizon service, no plans on switching, and do make good use of the autopay discount on that one. I also use the Amazon card and Lowes card monthly for the 5% CB.

Other than the Verizon card, there's really nothing here that I'm particularly attached to, but losing that much credit limit out of the blue would be a bummer. The remaining cards I've only used once or twice in the past 6-8 years, and I'm kind of surprised they haven't already closed dut to inactivity.

I keep reading posts saying these Synchrony cards aren't really needed because there's other, better, non Synchrony/non store cards out there, but I've yet to see them...but then I've also focused on 0 AF cards because until about the past year, I didn't feel like I was churning through enough on a yearly basis to make the AFs worth it. I've finally started getting some nice pre-approvals on some AF cards with higher rewards, but they've all been travel cards which I'd never use the perks on anyways.

Just curious of what these other cards might be? Are they part of the higher AF class cards?

chase amazon or amex biz amazon to replace the synchrony amazon card

nothing can compete with the verizon visa and lowes 5%, clearly

unless your other synchrony cards offer 0% apr on purchases like the google store synchrony account, I'd personally close them out to limit synch ban hammer exposure, personally if you're not really using them

Re: Alternatives to Verizon Visa and Amazon cards?

GZG — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 03:58:40 GMT

@urbex wrote:
@Gregory1776 wrote:
Chase obviously. theyve been great with me, started low on the cl, and they auto increased it for me quite a bit. little use now (deleted amazon, I am cleaning my room) its been dormat until early this year with a BT offer i had to take.
Oh...I had completely forgotten about the Chase one! Funny enough, I actually HAD a Chase Amazon card many years ago, but never actually got to use it, because they kept sending the card to my house address where I physically can't get mail, thus I was never was able to activate the card, and the account was closed after a couple months. Sometimes, though rarely, the mail ladies at the post office will catch mail, and redirect to my PO box, but usually any mail address directly to the house immediately gets returned to sender. Tried again a few months later, same thing. But I got to keep both SUBs, lol.

So I just went in and app'ed for the 3rd time. Instant approval at $20K! Heck of a nice increase over the $2900 that was on the Prime store card. But then I immediately logged in to my Chase account, and made sure to move my PO BOX mailing address over to this card as well, so fingers crossed it shows up this time.

call them and ask them to expedite the card, should be free, congrats!! make an approval thread!!

Re: Alternatives to Verizon Visa and Amazon cards?

MissLiz — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 04:01:00 GMT

@urbex wrote:
So I just went in and app'ed for the 3rd time. Instant approval at $20K! Heck of a nice increase over the $2900 that was on the Prime store card. But then I immediately logged in to my Chase account, and made sure to move my PO BOX mailing address over to this card as well, so fingers crossed it shows up this time.

Congratulations on your approval and awesome SL!

Re: Alternatives to Verizon Visa and Amazon cards?

urbex — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 05:51:53 GMT

@MissLiz wrote:
@urbex wrote:
So I just went in and app'ed for the 3rd time. Instant approval at $20K! Heck of a nice increase over the $2900 that was on the Prime store card. But then I immediately logged in to my Chase account, and made sure to move my PO BOX mailing address over to this card as well, so fingers crossed it shows up this time.
Congratulations on your approval and awesome SL!

Yeah...still a bit wild to me to see this kind of SL, even given the NFCU $25K SL I got last year, because it still seems like only yesterday that I had 10 cards that didn't crack $20K CL all combined, and I was always stressed about applying for anything else as I was afraid it would be a other $500 "pack of gum" card.

Feels good to finally be on the other side though 😁

Re: Alternatives to Verizon Visa and Amazon cards?

unsungivy — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 11:28:58 GMT

Came in to recommend the Affinity, now I'm laughing at the turn this thread took!

Re: Alternatives to Verizon Visa and Amazon cards?

urbex — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 15:50:56 GMT

@GZG wrote:
@urbex wrote:
Continuing to work on fine tuning my credit portfolio...closed several store cards over the past weekend (mostly Citi backed cards), and I keep reading about sudden unexpected CLDs and account closures from other Synchrony accounts.

At the moment, I have 7 cards with Synchrony, with a total credit limit across all of them at $48K. 6 store cards, and the Verizon Visa. I do have Verizon service, no plans on switching, and do make good use of the autopay discount on that one. I also use the Amazon card and Lowes card monthly for the 5% CB.

Other than the Verizon card, there's really nothing here that I'm particularly attached to, but losing that much credit limit out of the blue would be a bummer. The remaining cards I've only used once or twice in the past 6-8 years, and I'm kind of surprised they haven't already closed dut to inactivity.

I keep reading posts saying these Synchrony cards aren't really needed because there's other, better, non Synchrony/non store cards out there, but I've yet to see them...but then I've also focused on 0 AF cards because until about the past year, I didn't feel like I was churning through enough on a yearly basis to make the AFs worth it. I've finally started getting some nice pre-approvals on some AF cards with higher rewards, but they've all been travel cards which I'd never use the perks on anyways.

Just curious of what these other cards might be? Are they part of the higher AF class cards?
nothing can compete with the verizon visa and lowes 5%, clearly

Well yeah, that's the way it looked to me as well, but then I've seen several threads where people were saying that there is literally zero reason to have the Sync cards when other better cards had the same benefits. I'm certainly not familiar with everything out there..maybe there was something I wasn't aware of....

As for the 0%..in a way, yes. I have Sync cards for Discount Tire, Summit Racing as well, and both have the X months 0% financing based on receipt amount - like spend $1,000+, get 12 months same as cash kind of thing. Ever since I started mounting and balacing tires myself, it wasn't worth paying Discount's inflated prices anymore, so it's been years since I've touched that card.

Summing Racing is a performance car parts retailer, and I hammered that card while I was building my last engine a couple years ago, but otherwise hasn't been touched. I'm at a point where I can PIF for this kind of stuff now, so I don't NEED the promo financing, but as I've been moving the majority of my checking/savings funds to higher interest accounts, there's that part of me that's thinking it's better to let those funds sit in an account collecting 5% for that time frame while pulling a few hundred a month, rather than pulling it out all at once.

But then, I'm also thinking that I know I have a few cards with the large purchase payment plans like Chase pay over time and AmEx Plan It, that if I really needed to spread a purchase out, I could leverage those without relying on the Sync cards, even though there's a bit of interest involved.

So yeah...I think I've pretty much convinced myself that I'll just hold on to the Verizon and Lowes cards, and close all the other Sync cards. Thanks for providing the push to think this through, lol.

Re: Alternatives to Verizon Visa and Amazon cards?

urbex — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 16:05:06 GMT

@GZG wrote:
call them and ask them to expedite the card, should be free, congrats!! make an approval thread!!

It's not that big of a deal that I get it right away, but I did just call them to verify that it's getting sent to the PO Box. Was a bit of a convoluted process to get through the IVR (how I know I've reached old guy status - I'm screaming at the phone on these automated systems - HUMAN!! REPRESENTATIVE!!! ), but I did eventually reach an actual person who verified it is getting sent to the box.

Re: Alternatives to Verizon Visa and Amazon cards?

Anonymous — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 21:57:06 GMT

@urbex wrote:
nothing can compete with the verizon visa and lowes 5%, clearly
Well yeah, that's the way it looked to me as well, but then I've seen several threads where people were saying that there is literally zero reason to have the Sync cards when other better cards had the same benefits. I'm certainly not familiar with everything out there..maybe there was something I wasn't aware of....

Sometimes people dislike Sync (or whatever) enough for them to make overly general statements, and sometimes that is combined with ignorance of the features as well. A slightly more well-reasoned statement for those "burned" by Sync is that the advantages over other cards does not outweigh the risks, not there is zero reason to get one!

For other examples, consider say the Paypal card. This offers a 3% uncapped rate on Paypal purchases. If you hate Sync, and don't dislike Amex, you could suggest using the Amex Blue Cash Everyday, which offers 3% on online orders, whether paypal or not. So, zero reason to get Paypal? Well, not if you spend above the BCE $6000 annual cap (or in either case after using Freedom Flex/Discover $,1500 if they have a Paypal quarter). So for heavy Paypal users this card makes sense.

And similarly for some other branded cards. The rewards from a Sync card CAN be better than any alternatives and I think the Verizon Visa is a good example. Again, critics might not think the risk is worth it, but that is a different argument from no-one should ever have it type of thing.

Re: Alternatives to Verizon Visa and Amazon cards?

UncleB — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 00:16:53 GMT

@urbex wrote:
@Gregory1776 wrote:
Chase obviously. theyve been great with me, started low on the cl, and they auto increased it for me quite a bit. little use now (deleted amazon, I am cleaning my room) its been dormat until early this year with a BT offer i had to take.
Oh...I had completely forgotten about the Chase one! Funny enough, I actually HAD a Chase Amazon card many years ago, but never actually got to use it, because they kept sending the card to my house address where I physically can't get mail, thus I was never was able to activate the card, and the account was closed after a couple months. Sometimes, though rarely, the mail ladies at the post office will catch mail, and redirect to my PO box, but usually any mail address directly to the house immediately gets returned to sender. Tried again a few months later, same thing. But I got to keep both SUBs, lol.

So I just went in and app'ed for the 3rd time. Instant approval at $20K! Heck of a nice increase over the $2900 that was on the Prime store card. But then I immediately logged in to my Chase account, and made sure to move my PO BOX mailing address over to this card as well, so fingers crossed it shows up this time.

Slightly off-topic, but a possible solution to your mail issue is to put your address as:

First Name Last Name

Street address here

PO Box 1234

City, State ZIP

The USPS reads our addresses from the bottom up, so with this format they'd deliver to the PO Box. If by chance the delivery was by UPS or FedEx it would come to the house since they read from the top down. Of course this only works if your PO Box is in the same post office that would serve your house.

Re: Alternatives to Verizon Visa and Amazon cards?

urbex — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 00:26:12 GMT

@UncleB wrote:
Slightly off-topic, but a possible solution to your mail issue is to put your address as:

First Name Last Name
Street address here
PO Box 1234
City, State ZIP

I've been using

1234 Main #567

Town, ST 45687

for years, and it's been mostly successful, though I still have had issues from time to time on some of these automated forms because whatever USPS database they cross reference will kick it back as an invalid address...presumably due to my property being coded as a single family home.

Re: Alternatives to Verizon Visa and Amazon cards?

UncleB — Wed, 21 Aug 2024 00:31:18 GMT

@urbex wrote:
@GZG wrote:
@urbex wrote:
Continuing to work on fine tuning my credit portfolio...closed several store cards over the past weekend (mostly Citi backed cards), and I keep reading about sudden unexpected CLDs and account closures from other Synchrony accounts.

At the moment, I have 7 cards with Synchrony, with a total credit limit across all of them at $48K. 6 store cards, and the Verizon Visa. I do have Verizon service, no plans on switching, and do make good use of the autopay discount on that one. I also use the Amazon card and Lowes card monthly for the 5% CB.

Other than the Verizon card, there's really nothing here that I'm particularly attached to, but losing that much credit limit out of the blue would be a bummer. The remaining cards I've only used once or twice in the past 6-8 years, and I'm kind of surprised they haven't already closed dut to inactivity.

I keep reading posts saying these Synchrony cards aren't really needed because there's other, better, non Synchrony/non store cards out there, but I've yet to see them...but then I've also focused on 0 AF cards because until about the past year, I didn't feel like I was churning through enough on a yearly basis to make the AFs worth it. I've finally started getting some nice pre-approvals on some AF cards with higher rewards, but they've all been travel cards which I'd never use the perks on anyways.

Just curious of what these other cards might be? Are they part of the higher AF class cards?
nothing can compete with the verizon visa and lowes 5%, clearly
Well yeah, that's the way it looked to me as well, but then I've seen several threads where people were saying that there is literally zero reason to have the Sync cards when other better cards had the same benefits. I'm certainly not familiar with everything out there..maybe there was something I wasn't aware of....

Opinions are like... opinions, LOL. Everybody has one.

I've read the same posts you have, and for those people having no Synchrony cards *is* the best option. That doesn't mean it's the right option for everybody, or for you or me.

I think Synchrony cards have their place. I have five, and they've served me well. That said, I know how Synchrony can be, and I won't be heartbroken if they get squirrelly and take adverse action (CLD, closure, etc.) For me the benefits I'm getting now outweigh the annoyance of any possible issues later on (and it's always possible - likely, even - that there will be no issues at all).

Remember that this forum is overrepresented by folks who tend to 'push limits', and as such you're likely to see a similar overrepresentation of bad things happening vs. what someone might normally expect.