topic Re: Decisions decisions in Credit Cards

Decisions decisions

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 12:30:51 GMT

I have a couple of questions **bleep** **bleep**

Re: Decisions decisions

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:19:45 GMT

What exactly are your questions again?

Re: Decisions decisions

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:47:44 GMT

Which would be the best card for restaurant rewards?

Re: Decisions decisions

Anonymous — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:48:52 GMT

Ahhh man. I fell victim to the bleep. I had a nice long post

Re: Decisions decisions

gettnthere — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 13:55:54 GMT

The Citi Forward card is an excellent choice for restaurant rewards. 5%

Re: Decisions decisions

flowfaster — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 14:29:23 GMT

@gettnthere wrote:
The Citi Forward card is an excellent choice for restaurant rewards. 5%

The US Bank Cash+ is great if you pick restaurant and fast food.

Re: Decisions decisions

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 00:44:43 GMT

Thanks for the replies! I heard about the Viti Forward and US Bank. What's the approval criteria normally like for the forward? I don't think I could get US bank bc I don't have any cards that are 5K limit

Re: Decisions decisions

nagisa — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 01:47:58 GMT

I'm using the Amazon Chase Visa card for restaurants. It's only 2% unfortuntately.

Although the Citi Forward gets 5 points per $1, for some reason the Citi TY Points are not worth 1 cent each. I heard it ends up being more like 3-3.5% or so.

Re: Decisions decisions

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 02:35:06 GMT

You can convert 10k points for a $100 gift card to a ton of retailers.

Re: Decisions decisions

nagisa — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 03:09:19 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
You can convert 10k points for a $100 gift card to a ton of retailers.

I thought there was something about the Citi Forward not being the highest tier of TY card so once you log in to the TY Point store you get worse redemption rates... I could be wrong as I don't have a Citi Forward card.

I have like $500 of points on a PNC card and I've never bothered to redeem them because getting gift cards requires a little effort.

Re: Decisions decisions

trumpet-205 — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 03:11:49 GMT

I wouldn't consider Cash+ to be a great card, since it separates fast food and restaurant.

You have four options,

* Citi Forward (5X TY points)

---> 2.5% for cash or statement credit

---> 5.0% for gift card

* Chase Amazon (2X points)

---> 2.0% return on cash, statement credit, and gift card

* Chase Sapphire (2X UR points)

---> 2.0% return on cash, statement credit, and gift card

* PayPal MasterCard (3X points)

---> 1.8% to 2.5% return on statement credit and gift card (points value varies a lot)

Re: Decisions decisions

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 16:23:36 GMT

Thanks for the input everyone! Sounds like the Citi Forward is the way to go. I don't mind redeeming for giftcards as long as I get my full point value. What are the typical credit requirements? Who do they pull?

Re: Decisions decisions

kittenkatt79 — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 16:57:36 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
Thanks for the input everyone! Sounds like the Citi Forward is the way to go. I don't mind redeeming for giftcards as long as I get my full point value. What are the typical credit requirements? Who do they pull?

For me Citi pulled EQ and my score was approx. 707 at the time. Citi is not BK friendly and seems to like to see a balance reporting on at least one of your cards at the time of application - I've heard of people getting denied for having all $0 balances on other cards.

Keep in mind that you also can get full redemption (1 pt=$0.01) value on TY points for travel booked through the TY rewards site, student loan payments, and mortgage payments. I'm not a fan of gift cards, so I use my TY points for travel.

Re: Decisions decisions

distantarray — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 18:18:51 GMT

you have to be careful with how you redeem thank you points with Citi Forward, and sometimes end up getting only 0.8 cents for the dollar so i wouldn't call it a true 5% card

also Chase Sapphire gets 2.67 points per dollar cause it's 7% annual bonus + 25% bonus for travel, but it all depends on what your going for, if you have the trifecta with Chase checking + freedom + sapphire you'll get the undoubtly the best restaurant card in some quarters, in those months it'll be 6.25%+ 10/10 bonus when used for travel and transfered through sapphire.

If you average that for the year you'll have average of 3.565% points for the year plus 10/10 bonus.

Re: Decisions decisions

gettnthere — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 18:26:36 GMT

As far as Citi approval for the Forward card, i was approved for 6k and my score was 699, they pulled EQ for me. Had lots of inq's and a PL that still has a large balance. I also heard Citi DOES NOT like all your cards reporting a 0 balance, so i had a couple cards report various balances

Re: Decisions decisions

nagisa — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 02:55:36 GMT

@gettnthere wrote:
As far as Citi approval for the Forward card, i was approved for 6k and my score was 699, they pulled EQ for me. Had lots of inq's and a PL that still has a large balance. I also heard Citi DOES NOT like all your cards reporting a 0 balance, so i had a couple cards report various balances

Lucky! I'm still fighting Citi for my Forward app. My score is around 740 or so and got denied. AMEX BCP approved me for $7.6k and Chase for $3.1k a week later, so kinda confused.

More info: http://ficoforums.myfico.com/t5/Credit-Cards/Citi-Forward-denied-why-worth-a-recon/td-p/1669080