Hello again everyone,
I posted a few minutes ago about opinions about my credit but this thread is for my grandmother. We recently lost my grandfather who was a pay in cash and cash only type of man. He never had a credit card of any sort, paid for his cars with cash, built his house back in the day with a small $10,000 loan the rest he paid upfront, pretty much my pap never needed credit or a loan of any sort because of some smart financial decisions he made growing up. Long story short its been a rough few months without him, and to make matters worse he was my student loan cosigner. My gram said she'll cosign for me to get through my final year in school and so I have been helping her build her credit over the past year. I added her as AU on my chase FU card about a year ago (same for my grandfather) and then she got a Cap one platinum with $1500 limit currently, and a Amex Cash magnet (I am an AU on it) and I taught her the 3x CLI so that limit is now $6000 so she has only 3 cards total with only $9500 in revolving credit. Her scores are hovering at 760-770 with 3% utilization, 3 hard inquiries across the board (all over a year old) and no lates, misses, or collections. Sadly her AAoA is only 1 year and 4 months. I am looking at getting her a good "all around card" as she doesn't use my Freedom unlimited, and the Cap one platinum just sits around, BUT she uses her Cash Magnet heavily for groceries and as her daily driver. I want to get her a card that she can use for her utilites bills and such that will rack up rewards or cashback. Her main spending is groceries, bills, and occasionally we go to the mall and do some clothes shopping. What do you guys think would be best for her? She's completely new to this world and once I showed her how much cashback she's earning on her normal purchases she was shocked hahaha.
I was thinking the Citi DoubleCash(solid 2% back is nice), Chase Freedom (for rotating categories??), Chase Amazon Prime(she obsessed with amazon), or we are planing a cruise in september so maybe Chase Sapphire Reserve for SUB and travel credits(might be out of her league for credit age).
When will she be co-signing for your student loan? She already has a strong profile so she might want to hold off on applying for anything else until the loan. Otherwise her average age will just be even lower. After that, she should have quite a few cards to choose from. I would check prequals to see what comes up.
@Bmn5940 wrote:Hello again everyone,
I posted a few minutes ago about opinions about my credit but this thread is for my grandmother. We recently lost my grandfather who was a pay in cash and cash only type of man. He never had a credit card of any sort, paid for his cars with cash, built his house back in the day with a small $10,000 loan the rest he paid upfront, pretty much my pap never needed credit or a loan of any sort because of some smart financial decisions he made growing up. Long story short its been a rough few months without him, and to make matters worse he was my student loan cosigner. My gram said she'll cosign for me to get through my final year in school and so I have been helping her build her credit over the past year. I added her as AU on my chase FU card about a year ago (same for my grandfather) and then she got a Cap one platinum with $1500 limit currently, and a Amex Cash magnet (I am an AU on it) and I taught her the 3x CLI so that limit is now $6000 so she has only 3 cards total with only $9500 in revolving credit. Her scores are hovering at 760-770 with 3% utilization, 3 hard inquiries across the board (all over a year old) and no lates, misses, or collections. Sadly her AAoA is only 1 year and 4 months. I am looking at getting her a good "all around card" as she doesn't use my Freedom unlimited, and the Cap one platinum just sits around, BUT she uses her Cash Magnet heavily for groceries and as her daily driver. I want to get her a card that she can use for her utilites bills and such that will rack up rewards or cashback. Her main spending is groceries, bills, and occasionally we go to the mall and do some clothes shopping. What do you guys think would be best for her? She's completely new to this world and once I showed her how much cashback she's earning on her normal purchases she was shocked hahaha.
I was thinking the Citi DoubleCash(solid 2% back is nice), Chase Freedom (for rotating categories??), Chase Amazon Prime(she obsessed with amazon), or we are planing a cruise in september so maybe Chase Sapphire Reserve for SUB and travel credits(might be out of her league for credit age).
Those all sound good for her, but if she doesn't travel much, I don't think the CSR is a good card just for one cruise. If she does travel, then the CSR would seem ok.
Thanks everyone I'm going to talk to her tonight and show her the comments on this post with suggestions. I'll be applying for my loan the end of July and beginning of August so she's perfectly fine to wait a bit to apply the discover seems to be the smartest decision with the 10% off from them matching your first year. CSR could still be an option for her to get SUB and collect the rewards then product change to a freedom or freedom unlimited before the second annual fee hits. Thanks for the suggestions!
@Bmn5940 wrote:
Thanks everyone I'm going to talk to her tonight and show her the comments on this post with suggestions. I'll be applying for my loan the end of July and beginning of August so she's perfectly fine to wait a bit to apply the discover seems to be the smartest decision with the 10% off from them matching your first year. CSR could still be an option for her to get SUB and collect the rewards then product change to a freedom or freedom unlimited before the second annual fee hits. Thanks for the suggestions!
BTW I should mention that none of those kinds of cards are really good for utilities, because most utilities charge a convenience fee that wipes out the rewards.
What about Blue Cash Everyday? 3% on groceries, 2% at gas stations & department stores, 0% intro APR for 15 months, and no AF. Plus it’s only a SP since she already has an AMEX.
I love my BCE and why did I just now find out you get 2% at department stores wow I've been missing out on that. I really appreciate it everyone I'm going to compile all your comments into a pro and con list and let her decide what she thinks she'll use the most.