Discover or US Bank.

[voidman]

Today after 6 months, I received preapprovals from Discover More with 0% balance Transfer for a year ( I dont have balance yet, but I can make use of chase to buy some thing and transfer to discover)

Discover also has 5% Cash back offer in 3 categories

And another one is US Bank, this one has no rewards but 0% APR on purchase and balance transfer for a year. 

I am kinda not so interested in non-rewards card. I have Chase Freedom which is gives me good chase back. (Today I deposided a $250 check from Chase) but then I can consider this as a backup card. 

My total VISA & Master card CL is ~7k & $400 Mervyns which is kinda useless now. 

Reported Credit balance is ~$1200 per month but I pay them off after the statement is cut. 

I havent checked my Credit Score recently, but about 5 months back it was ~710ish in all three

So Questions

1. Which one should I choose, Discover or US bank (based on growing with the back) 

2. I don't need credit as of now, so should ignore both of them?

3. Will some more credit improve my credit score? I konw it will but say if my total CL grows from 7k to 10k will it have significant +ve affect to my score?

I am looking at Discover to use the 5% cashback along with Chase Freedom's 3% chaseback 

Thanks, 

Void.

[Anonymous]

For BT's the US Bank one is better, because it will be something between 3 and 4% APR if you consider the BT fee, whereas the Discover is one percent higher. But you don't want BT.

The only advantage of the US Bank card then would be the 0% for purchases, if you want to buy anything bigger now and not pay from your savings. They tend to give higher CL's, too.

The only advantage of the Discover card is those 5% boni, which are capped at $400 per quarter ($800 in the travel quarter, but that's gone now). It's kind of a toy card to grab up a few bucks (or a $25 gift card) per quarter. That's all  there is to it.

Edit: I kind of skipped your main questions. I guess that's because you would have to give a bit more info to decide that. If it's only about relationship building, the US Bank card might be slightly better, but it's mostly a wash. I didn't take any of these two offers.

Message Edited by Ulan on 05-16-2009 02:30 PM

[voidman]

I am not going to use the BT of either US-Bank or Discover, coz i dont have any and I have no reason to generate any balance to transfer.

On checking the US bank card, it too has 0% APR untill Dec'09. 

Discovers bonus program sucks, i dont want it. plus it has the problem of acceptablity. I will stick to Visa and Mastercard now. 

So it boils down to only one thing, add more CL in my wallet (no not Cap1) 

I have another couple of question. 

Is US Bank a good bank to grow with?

Does US Bank follow with better Pre-approvals if you do not accept the first one?

Edit: After reading Ulan's edit, I edit my post too. I have thrown Discover PreApproval in the bin. so no second thoughts on that. 

Thanks

Message Edited by voidman on 05-16-2009 05:07 PM

[Anonymous]

If you can get 0% APR with a Discover Rewards card, I'd definitely go with it.

The 5% rewards will apply towards gas purchases during July-September.

Message Edited by Hov on 05-16-2009 05:48 PM

[Anonymous]

---

@voidman wrote:

Discovers bonus program sucks, i dont want it. plus it has the problem of acceptablity. I will stick to Visa and Mastercard now. 

So it boils down to only one thing, add more CL in my wallet (no not Cap1) 

I have another couple of question. 

Is US Bank a good bank to grow with?

Does US Bank follow with better Pre-approvals if you do not accept the first one?

Edit: After reading Ulan's edit, I edit my post too. I have thrown Discover PreApproval in the bin. so no second thoughts on that.

---

A few more thoughts: You mentioned that you rely mostly on Chase Freedom for rewards, and that one looks as if it will mostly suck after June 30. It will, for the most part, change to a plain old 1% rewards card.

Regarding the Discover, I have to mention that I have it. I said it's a toy card, because of the changing reward categories and low rewards caps, but if you know this, you can use it accordingly. This quarter, it's for department stores or Home Depot, and I just use it there.

US Bank is known to be conservative and grow with their customers. They don't pull any tricks (unlike Discover). Their cards are boring, but will probably keep a relatively low APR after the teaser period is up. Will you get better offers? Depends on what you consider to be better. The current offer has a 0% APR for purchases, which is nice if you don't do BT's. The January offer had fixed 3.99% with no BT fee until 2014, which was a better offer than the current one (0% for 12 cycles + 3% BT fee), with the latter being more expensive under nearly all circumstances.

[voidman]

I don't rely on chase freedom rewards program. I will take what ever I am eligible for. Since I have chase freedom rewards program, And if i have to open a new acc then the rewards program needs to be as good as or better than chase rewards program, else i am not going to use it.

Where did you learn about the rewards program of Chase Freedom changes? I know it has changed for the new accounds, but I havent heard anything from Chase about the changes in the rewards program in june. 

Message Edited by voidman on 05-17-2009 07:33 AM

[Anonymous]

They sent letters out to most of their customers, titled "Good things are coming from Chase Freedom". The most important change was that the triple cash rewards on everyday spending categories are gone. They will cycle through some categories of their choosing during the year, like Discover. The $50 bonus for collecting $200 in rewards will be gone, too.

No Freedom Plus customer has got that letter yet. There are also some customers (obviously their "better" ones), who got a notice about a "sapphire upgrade", but without spelling the details yet. We will see.

[voidman]

Well,

I don't remember reading or getting the letter, I might have received but might have thrown it away. Anyway, Lets see.

Thanks for the info. 

[Anonymous]

Apply for one of their visa signature cards. Unlike other banks US Bank actually reports a limit for their signature cards and it has a few more benefits than a platinum card as well as no annual fee and low interest rates 

Its one of my target cards for next year

Message Edited by reots on 05-17-2009 06:57 PM

[Anonymous]

Ulan:  You made some interesting points. You might want to post them also on the existing Sapphire thread. I've sent several inquiries to Chase on this very topic and want enough info to run a comparison of the Freedom Plus World MC to the Sapphire Preferred Ultimate Rewards (the rewards program annual fee version of Ultimate Rewards). An upgrade might eventually prove to be worth it, especially if they are shutting down the parts that made the Chase Freedom Plus good.

I've not yet personally received any kind of sapphire upgrade notice in the mail, but they do keep sending offers for the business cards, so I suspect I can't be exactly a bad customer for them. The card doesn't appear by invite only and does avoid the outrageous annual fees of the black card clan - so it might be some kind of black card / Freedom Plus hybrid given the benefits and rewards structure.