topic Re: Help me decide which cards in Credit Cards

Help me decide which cards

Kathy4NU — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 15:42:39 GMT

My scores are:

EQ 661

TU 669

EX 681

All are true FICO lender pulled.

I just had a judgment vacated. Waiting for it to be removed. Have two paid med collections ('08 & '10). I sent HIPPA letters on. Looks like TU has already deleted. Waiting on the other two. My secured VISA through my CU has been upgraded from $500 to $1000 unsecured (never reported as secured) - it will report on the 3rd. I have a student loan from '06 never late, VS reporting for 2 months. 2 student loans paid - never late. Hoping once judgment and last 2 collections are deleted that I will be in the low 700's.

I am in the process of buying my house. Once I have closed and house is fully funded I want to apply for two prime cards.

What two cards would be good ones? I want 2 that will grow with me. I will hold on to them forever and probably not worry about apping for any others. I have never used credit cards and don't have planned to get in the habit either. I do travel extensively - both in US and abroad.

I was thinking of apping for Southwest and Freedom.

Thoughts? Should I not consider these and try for something else?

I think I want to stay away from Capital 1 and American Express. I want steady CLI and no cash register declines because of account reviews. I want the cards primary for travel and to help build my credit scores. Will probably always PIF.

Re: Help me decide which cards

boomhower — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:15:36 GMT

Those cards are certainly attainable once your reports are clean. Just be advised that auto-CLI's with Chase do happen but are fairly rare. Consumer initiated CLI's require a hard pull. If you like the Southwest let the Freedom go and get a Discover IT. Very very similar rewards as Chase but gets in with another lender. Having your two main cards with the same lender lends to some risk if that lender has an issue. Also consider the Sapphire card, lots of folks like it as a travel card.

Re: Help me decide which cards

Kathy4NU — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:19:06 GMT

@boomhower wrote:
Those cards are certainly attainable once your reports are clean. Just be advised that auto-CLI's with Chase do happen but are fairly rare. Consumer initiated CLI's require a hard pull. If you like the Southwest let the Freedom go and get a Discover IT. Very very similar rewards as Chase but gets in with another lender. Having your two main cards with the same lender lends to some risk if that lender has an issue. Also consider the Sapphire card, lots of folks like it as a travel card.

Great advice! Don't put all my eggs with one company. I was thinking of the Discover IT. Was a little nervous because Discover isn't accepted everywhere but if I got approved with the Southwest and the VISA with my credit union I would still have those to fall back on.

What type of minimum scores would Southwest and Discover IT be looking for? What kind of credit line do they normally grant when first apping? My only other cards are VISA - $1000 and VS - $350.

Re: Help me decide which cards

HiLine — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:29:37 GMT

Southwest points are not that valuable - only 1.69 cents per point: http://milevalue.com/how-much-are-rapid-rewards-points-worth-the-value-of-southwest-airlines-points/

I would take a look at BofA's Travel Rewards card, one of the most underrated cards in the market. I review this card on my blog: http://hiepsfinance.wordpress.com/2013/03/10/699/

If you have a banking account with BofA, you earn 1.65%; otherwise it's 1.5% for everything, except that it'd be 3% if you book travels through BofA. No annual fees and no foreign exchange fees. Concierge service, road side assistance, warranty extension and all.

Re: Help me decide which cards

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:38:00 GMT

once your report is clean, there's lots of cards you can choose from.

Are you looking for primarily rewards? Low APRs?

Discover and Freedom are nice starting places!

Re: Help me decide which cards

Kathy4NU — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 16:50:49 GMT

Probably more towards rewards. But I can't really say either. I am new to this credit card thing. I have always operated on a cash only basis.

The VISA through my credit union is 8.25% so if I am going to carry a balance I would use this one.

I buy a lot of airline tickets. I have a $5000 trip to Hawaii planned for January that I would like to get rewards on than a $7000 trip that I am taking my whole family on to Disney World. I would normally just use my VISA debit card tied to my checking account to pay for them. But after reading these forums, I think a rewards card would get me something in return. I do usually take two big trips a year and 3 smaller trips (which means lots of hotel rooms too). I also do about 4 business trips a year with my job.

Re: Help me decide which cards

HiLine — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:35:45 GMT

If you typically book travel packages through online agencies such as Expedia and Hotwire, you should consider the Discover It: the card gives you 5% cash back if you book travels through their partner sites. 5% on 12k would be a pretty decent amount IMO.

Re: Help me decide which cards

Anonymous — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 17:56:56 GMT

I think the Discover IT card would be a nice addition to your mix. It's true that Discover is not as widely accepted by the traditional brick-&-mortar retailers, but it is almost universally accepted by online merchants - so you could just leave it at your computer for that purpose. I think it is worth having.

Re: Help me decide which cards

webhopper — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:56:25 GMT

In my European travel, I have found Amex to be more widely accepted than Discover and Mastercard...

With that being said, I recommend Amex PRG... with a Visa as a backup. NPSL is nice when you're dealing with travel bookings. And the fact that the balance doesn't affect utilization is also nice.

I also highly recommend Discover IT.

I have no idea what your scores will be once your reports have done their deal...

I find Amex, discover, and NFCU to be the least trouble to deal with.

do you have any military affiliation at all?

If so, USAA and NFCU have fantastic offerings. As well as PenFed, but then they are highly conservative.