Card recommendations (22 y/o, 110k income)

[mikesonthemend]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I paid a CA.

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Look up the name of the collector. Find examples of how they have dealt with others. Do not contact them until you know their tendencies. The examples you will find will also have recommendations for what not to do, mostly deal with them by phone. Find the examples that have had the most success.

GL

[tacpoly]

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@Anonymous wrote:

... 

A bit about me: 22, university grad, moving to San Fran to work for a well known investment management firm as a software engineer. I plan to travel a good bit during the year as my company offers unlimited PTO with managerial approval.

... 

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This is not credit card advice, but do yourself a favor and don't take advantage of "unlimited" PTO in your first year.  Figure out what is the normal rate of PTO-taking and don't go much above that.  Even though you're technically entitled to it, the amount of time off you request sends a message to your manager specially on your first year on the job when you're establishing a reputation.  And I'm pretty sure you wouldn't be a candidate for stressed-out burned-out employee yet. 

I've worked (and currently work) for companies that offer unlimited PTO and found that people don't end up taking a lot more vacation days than normal as people were self-policing.  I frankly prefer my first company's vacation policy, which gave us 5 weeks of PTO to start and allowed us to bank up to 20 weeks -- you could take 12 weeks off without feeling like you were abusing a (poorly defined) benefit.  

[Anonymous]

Oh, to be clear, I wasn't planning on taking any more than 2-3 weeks of PTO, and wasn't going to use *any* within the first 6 months, but that's still enough to get in some decent travel.

Also, Verizon updated the status of my account so there's no longer a derog account on my record, and just lists it as one late payment, which I guess isn't the worst. My score just jumped up to 633 as a result.

[Anonymous]

No card recommendations, but congrats on your job, wow, wish I was making that kind of money at 22.

[Anonymous]

Ty, honestly it doesn't end up being that much when I factor loans and rent into the pic, but it looks good when applying for cards at least lol.

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@Anonymous wrote:
No card recommendations, but congrats on your job, wow, wish I was making that kind of money at 22.

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[CreditInspired]

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@Anonymous wrote:
No card recommendations, but congrats on your job, wow, wish I was making that kind of money at 22.

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I wish I was making that kind of money NOW! 

[ChargedUp]

Once you get your utilization under control and your scores are... say in the mid 700's , there's lots of great credit unions here in the SF Bay area. If you're going to travel internationally, First Tech CU Odyssey Rewards offers Chip + Pin, no FTF and 3X on travel and 2X on dining. They have branches all over Silicon Valley (Palo Alto probably being the closest to the city.)

Other than that, look into what travel rewards system works best for you. You've already got your feet wet with Amex Gold/Everyday and MR's, Chase Freedom Unlimited and UR's, then you also have Venture. Decide what airlines and hotel chains that you'll generally use and plan your spend accordingly. If you plan on staying with MR's, you've already got the 2 cards for that. I'd work on growing your ED card limit and keep your spend with Amex as much as possible. With Chase, I'd look into grabbing Sapphire Preferred or Reserve to compliment your Freedom Unlimited and run with Chase, using their travel portal for redemptions... Venture is gaining ground with travel partners, but others will have to chime in with who, what and where regarding this card. The Venture doesn't have any other cards that compliment it's rewards, meaning it's pretty much a stand alone.

Once again, get your scores in a sweet spot and don't app for more than 2-3 cards at a time. (Especially with Chase, only app for one of their cards every 6 - 9 months to avoid potential AA.)

Best of luck and welcome to MyFico!

[Anonymous]

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@ChargedUp wrote:

Once you get your utilization under control and your scores are... say in the mid 700's , there's lots of great credit unions here in the SF Bay area. If you're going to travel internationally, First Tech CU Odyssey Rewards offers Chip + Pin, no FTF and 3X on travel and 2X on dining. They have branches all over Silicon Valley (Palo Alto probably being the closest to the city.)

Other than that, look into what travel rewards system works best for you. You've already got your feet wet with Amex Gold/Everyday and MR's, Chase Freedom Unlimited and UR's, then you also have Venture. Decide what airlines and hotel chains that you'll generally use and plan your spend accordingly. If you plan on staying with MR's, you've already got the 2 cards for that. I'd work on growing your ED card limit and keep your spend with Amex as much as possible. With Chase, I'd look into grabbing Sapphire Preferred or Reserve to compliment your Freedom Unlimited and run with Chase, using their travel portal for redemptions... Venture is gaining ground with travel partners, but others will have to chime in with who, what and where regarding this card. The Venture doesn't have any other cards that compliment it's rewards, meaning it's pretty much a stand alone.

Once again, get your scores in a sweet spot and don't app for more than 2-3 cards at a time. (Especially with Chase, only app for one of their cards every 6 - 9 months to avoid potential AA.)

Best of luck and welcome to MyFico!

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I'm still not sure whether I wanna go all in on either UR or MR. Any input on which you think is better or are they mostly interchangeable (lots of overlap in transfer partners).

[sjt]

Congrats on the job AND finding a place in San Francisco for $1400 per month.

Like the other posters mention, do NOT open any new accounts. There have to be other factors that got you a 610 credit score. In addition to the collection, there is the utilization, and I'm guessing your current credit card accounts are relatively new. So I would focus on paying off your debts and letting your accounts age.

Here are my 2 cents:

1. San Francisco is a very expensive city and $110K is not going to get you far as you think.
2. Create a budget (you will realize the above.)
3. Prioritize paying down the credit card debt before you think about travel or applying for new accounts.
4. Research "Goodwill Letters" and create an action plan to get that collection deleted.
5. Your first year on the job, you will be working your butt off to prove yourself. So forget about travel plans.
6. Enroll in auto pay for the minimum payment as a precaution in the event you might forget to make a payment.

[Anonymous]

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@sjt wrote:

Congrats on the job AND finding a place in San Francisco for $1400 per month.

Like the other posters mention, do NOT open any new accounts. There have to be other factors that got you a 610 credit score. In addition to the collection, there is the utilization, and I'm guessing your current credit card accounts are relatively new. So I would focus on paying off your debts and letting your accounts age.

Here are my 2 cents:

1. San Francisco is a very expensive city and $110K is not going to get you far as you think.
2. Create a budget (you will realize the above.)
3. Prioritize paying down the credit card debt before you think about travel or applying for new accounts.
4. Research "Goodwill Letters" and create an action plan to get that collection deleted.
5. Your first year on the job, you will be working your butt off to prove yourself. So forget about travel plans.
6. Enroll in auto pay for the minimum payment as a precaution in the event you might forget to make a payment.

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Oh, my oldest account isn't even 3 years old so they definitely need to age a bit. My Amex Gold, Amex Hilton Ascend, and a few others are < 1 year.

I'll definitely be working on a budget and honestly for the first few months I'm planning on hardcore mixmaxing my expenses. Like almost no eating out, grocery shop for cheap but healthy stuff, etc.

Verizon actually updated the collection to "paid" so it was taken off my report, and it's showing as a late payment but no record of a derog account is present. My score jumped up to 633 as a result.

I'll definitely be working my butt off at the job, and although I do have some travel planned, it's all during regular break times (Thanksgiving, New Years) so I'll be using very little if any PTO. I also travel on a budget and don't spend a lot per trip, usually, and use rewards points to minimize my expenses as much as I can.

I'm already enrolled with min payments for all of my accounts (I learned that lesson about a year ago).