Best Credit Card

[Anonymous]

We currently have the following three major credit cards:

We also have a couple of store credit cards that we pay off monthly.

Ideally I would like to reduce our interest rates (possibly by transferring balances?).  I would like to keep at least two major credit cards (one for my wife and I, and one for my daughter (under our name).  A couple of other factors that could affect any credit card changes:

1.  We have a family vacation planned this summer.  We still owe a balance of about $3,000 which is due in the middle of May.  We also need to book flights which will be an additional $3,000.  We will be using one of the cards to pay both of these.

2.  Our daughter will be going away to college this summer.  She hasn't made a decision as to where yet but right now she leaning toward a college about 600 miles away.  If she does chose this school I would assume she will be flying there and back a couple of times a year (we might also).

3.  In the next few years I would like to start having an annual vacation that will involve flying.

So what would be the best plan for us?  Apply for a new card a transfer balances?  If so, what card(s) should we be looking at?  Do cars with cash back offer more value or should we consider cards that offer miles.  Thanks!

[Anonymous]

With BT, I suggest AMEX Everyday. I applied it myself and easy breezy with the BT from my Discover so it's 0% APR and there were no BT fees.
With Travel Card, I always use my BofA Travel Rewards. Straight up 1.5% CB at anything but the credit only goes to Travel purchases. No Caps though and it never expires so you will really enjoy the CB once it piles up plus it has SUB of $250 (again, can only be redeemed thru travel purchases) oh and no foreign transactions fees ever.

Another good travel card is any Capital One card. They never have Foreign Transaction Fees and I have Quicksilver so another 1.5% CB.

Since you have Discover, have you tried asking them for 0% APR on your current balance or lower? They are easy to talk to online or on the phone.

[Anonymous]

IF you are not spending beyond your income can support, then sounds like you can benefit from a travel card with good sign up bonus, and a bt card.

Bt card can be bankofamericard, slate, or everyday from amex.

Travel card can be csp, csr, propel, gold/platinum, prestige.

More accurate recommendation depends on your annual spending break down, your airline preference, your fico score and account history.

[DapprD]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Do cars with cash back offer more value or should we consider cards that offer miles.

If you find a CAR with cash back, please let me know ... ha ha ha ha

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[NRB525]

If you PC the Diamond Preferred to Double Cash, that gets you a card earning 2% with no fuss. Ask for the APR to be reduced, check for availability of CLI

Use the Freedom and Discover for their 5% categories.

What airline will you be flying?

Have you considered hotel loyalty?

[jdbkiang]

Definitely BT would be like above mentioned. Getting a boa Premium Rewards would essentially get you $500 off that $3000 trip. Alternatively you could use the cap one venture and achieve the same.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the responses.  To answer a couple of the questions brought up:

1.  I have not recently talked to any of the companies for the cards we currently have.  I believe I talked to all of them a couple of them a couple of years ago and was able to reduce APR a bit.

2.  A breakdown of our spending for 2018 is as follows:

     28% on Home (92% of that on Mortgage; Rest on Home Improvement, etc)

     18% on Shopping (Food, clothes, dining, alcohol, home goods, gifts, entertainment, etc)

     16% on Auto (One car loan which will be paid off this year, car maintenance, gas)

     11% on Utilities and Loan (26% of that on a land loan; remaining on utilities such as electic, cell phone, cable, internet etc)

      9% on Education (Student Loans, School Fees, College Applications, etc)

      The remaining 18% is miscellaneous.  A lot of this probably would get categorized as Shopping (kid's sports, gifts etc) but I didn't start using Mint seriously until later in 2018 so some of the earlier transactions ended up as Uncategorized or Other.

3.  We will be flying United to Hawaii in July and staying in a condo booked through VRBO.  We want to book our flights very soon to make sure our preferred flight doesn't fill up and to lock in prices.

4.  The FICO score on our Discover bill is 822 and on our Citi bill 848.  I ran my scores last year through CreditCheck and my scores ranged from 782 to 808 (depending on the reporting agency).  

Thanks again!