Travel Cards and Rewards, which to choose from. Help!!!

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone!

Very 1st time posting, but read tons of forums as I have been on a 20 month journey from a horrible credit file to now what I call a at least dencent/good one, but not yet what I or you guys would call excellent or perfect. I have some questions about which cards to apply for as I have been in the garden for about 9 months since getting my last credit card which was a rewards card (Cap 1 QS1 with a 1500.00 limit.) Now I ?THINK? (with your opinon lol), I am finally at a point that I want a really good travel card becasue I do a lot of it for work and have family a cross the country that I go see as much as I can.

I do want to point out, for work, the travels done as I am a competitive athlete so its not with a company I should say. Yes I do the work 9 to 5 in my degree field and I compete as a athele as well and I LOVE IT!  Thus there is no need to get a company card. I have had the Cap1 unsecure plat now upgraded last month to the Cash Back Quicksilver for 18 months and have the Cap1 QS1 for 7 months. I really want a travel card as it will benefit me greatly as I do travel a lot and feel I can use a better cash back card as well. Done research and want to do a balance transfer with the QS1 to get rid of that card to get a better Cash R card. I have been eyeing the Barclay card/ Aviator Red AA; Amex/ BC or BCP and Delta gold or plat Cards plus of course the Cap 1 Venture. 

If you have anymore good cards that you can suggest I would really appreciate it!?? I really love the benefits of the AA Red AND Cap 1 Venture as far as travel is concern, and really love the Cash rewards benifits of the Amex BC or BCP, either one. I pre qual for Venture and they have a awesome 50k sign up bounus but so does the AA Red, so I might want to get both and utili both. Im just really nervus about the Amex as far as applying as my EX score isnt horrible but not excellent either. Ive seen score in the 620's get either of those card but I beleive I should have a chance. My stats are below. Be great if I can get some much needed advice my friends!? Thanks again for all the help you guys provide and I can finally say I am happy as my journey has taken me from 20 months ago back in 2015 where I had a horrific Fico(s) Tu 422, EQ 437 and EX 417 . But now things are different as again I will post my file below. Thanks everyone and looking forward to some much needed advice! Off to bed after this so I will respond asap when I wake!

Fico 8 Credit Scores 11/12/2017: (Again, not a excellent profile, I no lol, but I work very hard to gt it here lol)

-TU F8 684/ Fico 2 Bank card score TU 681

-EQ F8 656/ Fico 2 Bankcard score EQ 652

-EXP F8 658/ Fico 2 Bank Card score EX655

-AAoA 4.9 years

-No Collections FINALLY (had 16 of those UGLY things way back in 2015 but got rid of ALL of them with hard work and determination and Im so happy I did it!!!) But I do have a Repo that is now at its 7 year mak and reports say it will fall off on Jan 3rd of 2018 and find no need to pay that balance it there is only 1 month and a half to go. Does that make since to do or not and pay it off, its1100.00 bucks????????????

-1 late payment (30 day) 6 month ago on my card loan as I lost my father and grandfather in the same month and things were just sad and very hard for me. got depressed badly but thank god for family and very great friends to get be back to myself and thank goodness the car loan company were really nice about it!

-Car loan since 2013 with only 1 late payment in April (Father and Grandfather passed way same month. No 1 or 2 of my scores would probably be over 700's if I didn't miss that payment, but its ok)

-No Judgements

-Cap1 QS1 limit 1500.00 Balance 400.00

 -Cap 1 QS 1500.00 Balance 120.00 (Use this Card heavily!)

 -Total utilization is 12%

-3 inquiries on each bureau

[Anonymous]

Barclaycard will pull TransUnion for the Aviator Red. There are data points that show approvals in your FICO 8 score range. Also, personal data point, my mom was approved in the TU 680 range last week with a medical collection reporting.

Hope this helps.

[elim]

During my rebuild, I added whichever travel card I could get approved for that had the highest 3k spend bonus. 3 to 6 months later I would try another. After I experienced which card(s) fit my travel, I worked my way up to the top tier (Chase was my pick) and kept the rest until I used the bonus.  This led me to a couple very nice cards (and tons of rewards) that I use on my travels. I still look for higher than normal bonus offerings on other cards and grab them when it makes sense.

Venture's were decent cards for me (I had a couple) and I think will fit your profile to start. It will give you near $500 bonus toward any travel expense and has a prequal so you won't waste HP's. After you are approved, you can roll your other Cap1 limits over to it and report a heavy limit for awhile. It (and some) travel cards are visa signature (usually 5k min limit) and some are visa infinite (usually 10k min limit) so the late payment may get in your way for some time. Once you have a 5k card on your reports for 6 months, you can usually get approved for more. Beware, If you want a Chase card, you need to stay under their 5/24 rule.

Keep trying all the prequal sites and don't jump just yet. If Chase CSP (5k min limit) ever showes up, start your relationship with them at that moment. At one time they offered 14 cards (most travel) with sign-up bonuses, and probably still do. I don't churn travel cards, I just like plenty of green marks on my reports (530 today) and they are the cards of my choice.

Good Luck... Does Venture show up on Cap1's prequal?

[Anonymous]

Thanks for you awesome reply!

Yes, I have the pre qual for the Venture, but just afraid to take the hit lol! I dont have any cards that are over 5k so I was really looking into that but to afraid to apply just to get turned down becasue of the non 5k card i dont have.

[Anonymous]

You probably already know this but the Aviator Red won’t require a $5K starting line. Also, maybe consider the Gold Delta Amex card. There are approvals that are in-line with your score.

Note though, the bonus isn’t as high as it was pre-Nov 11 at only 30,000 bonus points. You may want to hold off for a quarter or so until that’s back up. Also, it doesn’t have FTFs but the Amex network isn’t as widely accepted as Visa/MC.

[Anonymous]

Thanks (4theLoveofPoints!)

An love that screen name lol!!!!

I beleive I will shoot for the Amex gold or platnium along with the AA Red here in a week after paying down my QS1 and doing a balance transfer with it. Really looking at the Uber Visa Card as well, think that the card I go for with the bal transfer instead of the Amex BCP. I called to ask about the benefits and the CSR really tried to have me apply for that bonus that went threw unitl 11/8. I was almost going to but as I read here and so many of you give the advice to wait as utili ismaybe too high, I decided no to.

Thanks again for you swell advice!

[Anonymous]

Lol. Thanks. I heavily chased points this year and am now gardening (or something like it). I don’t think I’ll be paying for several upcoming trips thanks to bonuses.

If you go with the PRG, there was a 50,000 MR point offer floating around. There was also a 100K MR point offer for the Platinum but I think that’s effectively shut down as of the 8th.

Good luck, I hope you get the most points, and definitely report back.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely will check back and follow up.

Before hand, I might want to ask for some advise once more maybe a day before I apply if that ok? I will start and new post with questions and let you kow??? Will be traveling  A LOT in 2018 between Delta and American so that's why Im strongly looking at those 2 cards. Plus this Uber Visa is very awesome as well.  Cap 1 has had my business for almost 3 years and with great payment history, plus they pre qaul me for the Venture so thats a know brainer!