No credit card required
Browse credit cards from a variety of issuers to see if there's a better card for you.
I have two below 10%
Bank of America AAA branded Visa 7.9% fixed. This card is about 18-20 yrs old. It has "Platinum Gas Rebate" emblazoned on the card, but there is no rebate of any kind. I called and they remarked my card was "special". lol
Merrick Bank Mastercard 8.4% variable.
The Merrick card was down to 5.12% during the recession, it has crept up with the fed increases.
https://www.youracu.org/loans/credit-cards/
ACU Platinum 7.54% variable
@galahad15 wrote:Open to new apps and with no geo restrictions iirc:
(1) Unify FCU Variable-Rate VISA: as low as 7.24% V (need at least 740-750 FICO EX Auto Score for lowest rate)
(2) PACU MC: (sorry corrected accidental earlier typo, this card is MC, not VISA) currently as low as 8.45% F (need at least 730 FICO8 EX for lowest rate)
(3) Unify FCU Fixed-Rate VISA: as low as 8.99% F (need at least 740-750 FICO EX Auto Score, plus a min. SL of $15k for lowest rate)
Rates appear to have increased in the last month. Unify was on my list, but I guess I can just focus on NFCU. How disappointing.
@delaney1 wrote:
@galahad15 wrote:Open to new apps and with no geo restrictions iirc:
(1) Unify FCU Variable-Rate VISA: as low as 7.24% V (need at least 740-750 FICO EX Auto Score for lowest rate)
(2) PACU MC: (sorry corrected accidental earlier typo, this card is MC, not VISA) currently as low as 8.45% F (need at least 730 FICO8 EX for lowest rate)
(3) Unify FCU Fixed-Rate VISA: as low as 8.99% F (need at least 740-750 FICO EX Auto Score, plus a min. SL of $15k for lowest rate)
Rates appear to have increased in the last month. Unify was on my list, but I guess I can just focus on NFCU. How disappointing.
Garden Savings FCU is 8% fixed with a 680+
They used to be difficult to join apparently but you can do it all online now. I would have submitted an app but they only have two options for work - part-time and full-time - neither of those fit my situation of being disabled so I’ll stick with my NFCU Platinum card.
@Anonymous wrote:I wanted to start a thread where I can get some feedback from members on credit cards with APRs below 10%. I have three times my income in revolving credit lines. I am closing out a handful of cards with insane APRs regardless of how high the limit is.
From this day forward I want low APR cards only. I have the FICO scores to get the lowest offered. Please post any you may know of that are below 10% for us folks who qualify for the lowest APRs.
Well, that's one strategy (and I find it personally a better one that "lets get the max total CL we can so, so, we can um.") but IMO it's too defensive and limiting. Arguably, having say 2 very low APR cards can make sense for short term emergencies which exceed savings (or you don't want to touch savings) but as others have said, you cannot rely on them being there when you need them which is why people recommend building large emergency funds. But for other cards, I would want to get cards that maximize rewards, being aware that these do NOT form part of my emergency plan, i.e. no balance covering.
Again IMO, it's a very rare sort of situation where you max out say 6 low APR cards but survive the crisis, whereas having just one or two causes you to fail. In real situations, carrying a large balance long term at 8% isn't going to be much more sustainable than doing it at 18% (allows you to suffer just a little longer!)
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I wanted to start a thread where I can get some feedback from members on credit cards with APRs below 10%. I have three times my income in revolving credit lines. I am closing out a handful of cards with insane APRs regardless of how high the limit is.
From this day forward I want low APR cards only. I have the FICO scores to get the lowest offered. Please post any you may know of that are below 10% for us folks who qualify for the lowest APRs.
Well, that's one strategy (and I find it personally a better one that "lets get the max total CL we can so, so, we can um.") but IMO it's too defensive and limiting. Arguably, having say 2 very low APR cards can make sense for short term emergencies which exceed savings (or you don't want to touch savings) but as others have said, you cannot rely on them being there when you need them which is why people recommend building large emergency funds. But for other cards, I would want to get cards that maximize rewards, being aware that these do NOT form part of my emergency plan, i.e. no balance covering.
Again IMO, it's a very rare sort of situation where you max out say 6 low APR cards but survive the crisis, whereas having just one or two causes you to fail. In real situations, carrying a large balance long term at 8% isn't going to be much more sustainable than doing it at 18% (allows you to suffer just a little longer!)
I'd have to agree. The reality is that carrying debt at 8 or 18% is a hard hole to climb out of if you get in over your head or fall on hard times. Either way you will have a hard time escaping.
Emergency funds beat a CC any day of the week because there's no guarantee that credit limit will remain or that the bank will take kindly to you maxing it out and making low payments if you're in a bad situation. Meanwhile, you will still be paying some amount of interest.
That's not to say it's a bad idea to have a low APR card for certain short time situations, but I think they need to be kept very few and far between and short term or you can end up in a bad place.
@delaney1 wrote:Rates appear to have increased in the last month. Unify was on my list, but I guess I can just focus on NFCU. How disappointing.
Ugh... Unify's best rate went up by 1.5% and the prime rate didn't even change. It looks like the new rate went into effect 05-07-2019: https://www.unifyfcu.com/sites/www.unifyfcu.com/files/files/PDF/UNIFY_VisaProductGrid_050719.pdf (PDF file)
I was planning to apply for the Unify variable rate card in three weeks. NFCU's best rate is 0.50% lower than Unify's now (NFCU: 8.24%, Unify: 8.74%), so I guess I'll be applying for the NFCU card in three weeks instead.
@Gollum wrote:
Most credit card interest rates are tied to the prime rate, which is in turn tied to the federal funds rate. The Federal Reserve (in theory) raises the federal funds target rate if their voting members think the economy is "too good," or lowers the federal funds rate if they think the economy is not doing well.
TL;DR: good economy -> higher rates, bad economy -> lower rates.
Exactly. Most people do not know this.
DON'T WORK FOR CREDIT CARDS ... MAKE CREDIT CARDS WORK FOR YOU!
@kdm31091 wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:I wanted to start a thread where I can get some feedback from members on credit cards with APRs below 10%. I have three times my income in revolving credit lines. I am closing out a handful of cards with insane APRs regardless of how high the limit is.
From this day forward I want low APR cards only. I have the FICO scores to get the lowest offered. Please post any you may know of that are below 10% for us folks who qualify for the lowest APRs.
Well, that's one strategy (and I find it personally a better one that "lets get the max total CL we can so, so, we can um.") but IMO it's too defensive and limiting. Arguably, having say 2 very low APR cards can make sense for short term emergencies which exceed savings (or you don't want to touch savings) but as others have said, you cannot rely on them being there when you need them which is why people recommend building large emergency funds. But for other cards, I would want to get cards that maximize rewards, being aware that these do NOT form part of my emergency plan, i.e. no balance covering.
Again IMO, it's a very rare sort of situation where you max out say 6 low APR cards but survive the crisis, whereas having just one or two causes you to fail. In real situations, carrying a large balance long term at 8% isn't going to be much more sustainable than doing it at 18% (allows you to suffer just a little longer!)
I'd have to agree. The reality is that carrying debt at 8 or 18% is a hard hole to climb out of if you get in over your head or fall on hard times. Either way you will have a hard time escaping.
Emergency funds beat a CC any day of the week because there's no guarantee that credit limit will remain or that the bank will take kindly to you maxing it out and making low payments if you're in a bad situation. Meanwhile, you will still be paying some amount of interest.
That's not to say it's a bad idea to have a low APR card for certain short time situations, but I think they need to be kept very few and far between and short term or you can end up in a bad place.
Tell that to student loan lenders. My student loans are at 7.5%....
The issue I have with using CC for emergencies is that you issuer can CLD you and close your account because you lost your job and are now high risk individual or for whatever reason they want. 12 months of emergency savings is yours.... Why not use the rewards cards to build emergency savings instead?
@Gollum wrote:
@delaney1 wrote:Rates appear to have increased in the last month. Unify was on my list, but I guess I can just focus on NFCU. How disappointing.
Ugh... Unify's best rate went up by 1.5% and the prime rate didn't even change. It looks like the new rate went into effect 05-07-2019: https://www.unifyfcu.com/sites/www.unifyfcu.com/files/files/PDF/UNIFY_VisaProductGrid_050719.pdf (PDF file)
I was planning to apply for the Unify variable rate card in three weeks. NFCU's best rate is 0.50% lower than Unify's now (NFCU: 8.24%, Unify: 8.74%), so I guess I'll be applying for the NFCU card in three weeks instead.
Very sorry to hear that Unify's rates went up like that I just checked my Unify card account rates as I was originally approved at the previous lower rates about 1.5 - 2 years ago, and the rates for me appear to have been unchanged at least for now, so I'm not sure if they may have grandfathered customers approved prior to the 5/7 rate hike under the earlier rate structure? I do know that for PACU, IME, when they raised the best-available rate some time ago from 7.50% F to 8.45% F, they did grandfather people approved at the 7.50% F rate going forward? Again sorry to hear though about the rate hike for new customers, definitely not cool of them...