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Applied and approved for a bunch of cards- bad idea? having second thoughts :(

tag
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Applied and approved for a bunch of cards- bad idea? having second thoughts :(

I despise the chase amazon visa. They could do a lot better with the rewards on that card. Or ya know at least make them xfer to UR. That would be AWESOME. CSP, freedom, ink, and then add AARP and Amazon.

Message 11 of 23
BearsAndTurtlesRtheBest
Senior Contributor

No FTF means no foreign transaction fees

No FTF means no foreign transaction fees
Discover IT $2,600- First Premier MasterCard $1,000- Dillards Store Card $300- Fingerhut Advantage $200
Chapter 7 BK Dischagred on 07/11/16. Gardening Since 01/17/2019
Message 12 of 23
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: No FTF means no foreign transaction fees

lol seems a bit obvious in hindsight now..

 

and i agree with the comment about the Amazon chase- apart from the $80 gift card for signing up, it seems to pale in comparison to what else is out there.. To clarify, I got the 5% card, not the Chase Amazon-- as others have said, the limit is pretty low (I think mine is like $1700), but 5% off Amazon is huge for me.

 

From what you guys are saying, it sounds like putting in one more App for the Fidelity card won't be the end of the world.  I would think it would be less catastrophic now than waiting a few months?

 

Also, in case anyone else here has any experience with Consumers Credit Union-- apparently they changed their terms for 2016... its easy for me to hit the 12 debit card transactions to get 3% interest on up to 10k ballances; but now instead of needing 12 more transactions on their credit card (which would have fallen into the category of unnecessary expenses for me), you need to spend $500/1000 per month to get something like 4/4.5% interest on up to 15k/20k balances..  Seems like that card might be worth it, although obviously that $1000 is conservatively $20 a month your not getting in 2% cashback (and obviously more in 5%); need to weigh out the risk/reward as that alone adds up to $240 a year (however if you can afford to keep a 20k ballance, that will end up earning you over $500 more per year than not having the CCU credit card).

Message 13 of 23
core
Valued Contributor

Re: No FTF means no foreign transaction fees

Yes, the Chase Amazon is now worthless, but the whole deal with the Amazon store card paying 5% only happened a few short months ago, so you gotta cut them some slack.  Possibly they had no warning about what Amazon and Synchrony were planning.  I don't think they'll improve it much though at this point, so the card will die a slow death.  Probably exactly what Amazon wants.  They want people to sign up for Prime.

 

Regarding Consumers CU changes, yeah that's what my letter says too.  No more 12 CC transactions to get the extra 1%, but the 5.09%/4.59% is still a very good deal if you can get your $1k of spend in each month.  To maintain your $20k balance you can use BTs from 0% APR cards if necessary.  An extra $950+ a year is a darn good deal.

Message 14 of 23
sillykitty1
Established Contributor

Re: No FTF means no foreign transaction fees


@Anonymous wrote:

 

 

Also, in case anyone else here has any experience with Consumers Credit Union-- apparently they changed their terms for 2016... its easy for me to hit the 12 debit card transactions to get 3% interest on up to 10k ballances; but now instead of needing 12 more transactions on their credit card (which would have fallen into the category of unnecessary expenses for me), you need to spend $500/1000 per month to get something like 4/4.5% interest on up to 15k/20k balances..  Seems like that card might be worth it, although obviously that $1000 is conservatively $20 a month your not getting in 2% cashback (and obviously more in 5%); need to weigh out the risk/reward as that alone adds up to $240 a year (however if you can afford to keep a 20k ballance, that will end up earning you over $500 more per year than not having the CCU credit card).


I'm happy with CCU, though the downgrades for both their CC and the high yield checking are significant.  But, IMO, it was a little to good to be true up until now.  It is entirely manually underwritten.  I had to provide pay stubs and references.  They don't call references, they just have them on file in case you default.  So that is an unusual, and a slower process, I can see why some people would balk.  But you can get the membership, checking and CC all for the same pull.  I've found them very easy to work with, if not the most up to date or advanced.  I asked to match my highest limit and they did.

 

I also recommend Fidelity.  Sometimes I get too lazy to do all the category rotation, or don't want balances on many different cards to manage, so it is a good card to have, knowing you're getting decent rewards for little effort.  Generous limits for me, and you can recon the limit and speak to the underwriter directly, if you don't like your SL.  Makes a good pairing for with the CMA account, which is a great checking account to have for traveling overseas.

Message 15 of 23
core
Valued Contributor

Re: No FTF means no foreign transaction fees

Sillykitty-  What CC downgrades for CCU?  That 3% cash back grocery card is _still_ on my wish list and I was going to call them up and grovel at the end of this month.  Did something happen to it such that I should cross it off my list?

Message 16 of 23
sillykitty1
Established Contributor

Re: No FTF means no foreign transaction fees


@core wrote:

Sillykitty-  What CC downgrades for CCU?  That 3% cash back grocery card is _still_ on my wish list and I was going to call them up and grovel at the end of this month.  Did something happen to it such that I should cross it off my list?


They out a cap on the 3% rewards

  • 3% cash rebate on up to $6,000 in "Grocery/Convenience Store" purchases annually ($180 total)

This cap is new, it used to be the only cap was you could earn $6,000 in rewards annually

Message 17 of 23
core
Valued Contributor

Re: No FTF means no foreign transaction fees


@sillykitty1 wrote:
  • 3% cash rebate on up to $6,000 in "Grocery/Convenience Store" purchases annually ($180 total)

This cap is new, it used to be the only cap was you could earn $6,000 in rewards annually


I did see that the other day, but the language is contradictory on this page:

  • 3% cash rebate on up to $6,000 in "Grocery/Convenience Store" purchases annually
  • Maximum cash rebate of $6,000 annually

So I'm not sure which one is correct.  Did you get a letter recently saying the thing had been capped?

 

Edit-  Oh I see now.  Maybe they're saying you can still earn $6k annually but you'd have to do it at the 1% rate!  Argh.

Message 18 of 23
sillykitty1
Established Contributor

Re: No FTF means no foreign transaction fees


@core wrote:

@sillykitty1 wrote:
  • 3% cash rebate on up to $6,000 in "Grocery/Convenience Store" purchases annually ($180 total)

This cap is new, it used to be the only cap was you could earn $6,000 in rewards annually


I did see that the other day, but the language is contradictory on this page:

  • 3% cash rebate on up to $6,000 in "Grocery/Convenience Store" purchases annually
  • Maximum cash rebate of $6,000 annually

So I'm not sure which one is correct.  Did you get a letter recently saying the thing had been capped?


Both are correct ... the 3% is capped at $6,000 in purchases ($180), but you can still earn up the $6,000 in rewards on the 1% & 2% catagories.

Message 19 of 23
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: No FTF means no foreign transaction fees

I didn't realize that the CCU card could actually have rewards.. In that case, I would think it's a no-brainer to get that for the possibility of about 5% interest on checking account..  I was thinking you had to forgo your other rewards cards in order to hit their 1000$ per month requirement-- if you're actually racking up 1%-3% rewards on that too, it seems youd be leaving a minimal amount of money on the table to make almost 1k in interest per year (which is taxed while credit card rewards aren't in my understanding)

 

Although to maximize your money with so many cards, there will certainly be an added element of strategy every time you have to pay for something. Wouldn't be impossible but may be difficult (seems I'll go right down the list until I get to a card that fits)--

Discover/Chase Freedom for the 5%

Amazon for Amazon Purchases

Sapphire for travel and restaurants

CCU to get up to 1k (preferably on groceries and gas)

Fidelity 2% for everything else

 

Message 20 of 23
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