@HeavenOhio wrote:
@Np1791 wrote:
Question. Why did you apply for the chase Amazon Prime card? I have it too but I’ve been thinking of closing it since it doesn’t really offer any special finance options on purchases. What was your reason for getting it?I like the Chase card because it's a Visa that can be used anywhere. Along with that, 2% cash back on restaurant and drug store spending beats what I get on any of my other cards. And 2% on gas ties my BCE for my best gas reward. The lack of a foreign transaction fee is a nice perk too. With no FTF, even the 1% cash back on general spending becomes useful.
Also, I'd much rather deal with Chase than Synchrony. My experience with Chase has been good. I had CareCredit for a while, and my experience with Synchrony left something to be desired. I've since learned here that Chase is much more predictable than Sync. And I learned with CareCredit that I really have no desire to finance anything. I'd much rather pay in full.
Yeah for a "store card" Chase Amazon comes with very decent cash back % + no FTF making it fully viable as a daily driver.
In my case though it went from "everything except gas and groceries" to "when am I ever gonna use this except on Amazon"?? My BofA Cash Rewards gets me 3% gas and 2% groceries (I have Preferred Rewards too so the actual % is higher). Discover has rotating 5% cash back quarterly categories (10% effective in first year due to cash back match), and Uber has 4% dining, 3% travel, and 2% online shopping (Paypal, Venmo etc now included), which pretty much covers 95% of my spending habits, basically making the Chase Amazon obsolete for my needs. But at least it'll make it easy to keep 0 balance if I don't have any natural use for it.
@Anonymous wrote:Discover is a weird beast. They give rebuilders $10,000 CLs, but someone in the 800s gets a mediocre limit.
Some folks give the card heavy usage with no CLI ever, but then they decide to sock drawer the card and end up with auto CLIs and manual CLIs approved. No rhyme or reason.
I'd say give the card the usage that makes sense to earn rewards. PIF unless it's your AZEO card. Then try manual CLI request (luv button) every month and see if you're on a CLI cycle of 1, 2 or 3 months. Otherwise don't sweat it.
Definitely sounds like the most sensible thing to do. Luckily the Q4 category for this year is Amazon+Target, and gift cards DO count, so after doing my holiday shopping I just loaded up on gift cards to hit that $1500 cap.
See the thing I'm trying to figure out is whether to keep this as the AZEO card, or just PIF before statement cut and forghedaboudit, given that I do need (yes need
) that CLI. But seems like it's a crapshoot either way so might as well just PIF, especially since Barclays tends to get jealous, and I do want to put 5K through the Uber visa for that $50 credit towards Amazon Prime. Or maybe let both Discover and Uber report a small (<10% util) balance, since 2/4 is technically 50% revolving accoutns reporting so I shouldn't get dinged too hard.
Having a thin history means you'll be building a stronger AAoA all together. Get that Alliant SSL done ASAP so it reports in January. Also make sure to analyze your AAoA now and going forward -- you want to be aware of what it is now, in the future, and where it will be if you app. Get it to 24 months AAoA and then don't app unless a new account keeps you over 24 months. PM me if you need help, I have a spreadsheet that forecasts AAoA that tons of folks use on Facebook groups I'm on and it gets raves because it helps folks stay in the garden.
If I did my math correctly, applying for a 5th card (6th open account) at the 17 month mark from Nov 2017 (so May 2019) will still allow AAoA to be above 24 months. If I close the Chase Amazon account, then I can apply for another card around the 15 month mark and keep AAoA at 24 months. Long gardening ahead of me either way.
Cool good to know re Credit Karma's quirks. Yeah even if it dropped tomorrow it bumps up my timeline by a whooping 2 months, so most likely I'll end up just keeping this in the sock drawer (and for when my Amazon spending gets slightly out of control 
)
Sorry for necro, but thought I'd share a data point that someone may find useful.
All new accounts have started reporting, and I'm currently AZEO with the Uber visa showing a $15 balance for the fast card fee. (the balance is actually $260 something but the statement just cut on the 23rd). TU08 score is 777 as of Dec 19 according to BoA, with "length of time accounts have been established" and "lack of recent installment loan information" cited as ding factors.
So to recap, in one month I went from:
- one open revolver, 3% util, AAoA 5 years, 0 inq
to:
- four open revolvers, 1% util, AAoA 1 year 4 months, 1 inq
And my TU08 score dropped "only" 25 points from 802 to 777. I was so worried I'd see a massive 50+ point landslide due to significantly slashing my AAoA and going from 0-->1 inq, so I'm really happy with this outcome. I opened an Alliant SSL on Dec 14 so hopefully the score will only go up from here once that starts reporting (I plan on sticking to the AZEO routine religiously 
)
Good to know. Yeah I know as long as I cross an integer value FICO doesn't care whether it's 1.1 or 1.9 years. I've pretty much maxed out my AAoA buffer from my 5 year card (5 accounts = 1 year AAoA, which is what I'll be at once the Alliant SSL hits), so time to head to the garden.