Guidance on new CC

[Anonymous]

Hello. New to the forums here.

Mortgage paid off 2002. No Installment loans. We buy used cars, PIF and keep for 10 years. I’ve been living with just 2 CC for the past couple of decades, and pretty much use them as charge cards.

One CC is an Elan Visa tied to my Fidelity brokerage acct. This is my daily go to for 2% back.

The other is an old Citi Dividend MC that lost all its best benes last year. Thx Citi! It does have 5% rotating categories, but I hate having to sign up all the time.

Travelled to Caribbean and FL at Xmas and set up travel alerts before leaving. Two days into my vacation, Citi shut me down for a fraud alert anyway. Thx Citi!  This Citi MC is now pretty much useless to me. Now I’m looking for a new CC to replace it.

Ideal replacement CC has cash back, no foreign fees, warranty protection and roadside.

My FICO 8 around 770 +/-. Good not excellent, prob due to thin credit history. Any suggestions on a card that hits my wants that I'll get approved for?

[Gmood1]

The Paypal 2% Cash Back MasterCard comes to mind. 2% cash back and no FTF. Pretty cut and dry.

USAA, Penfed, Navy Federal, NASA FCU, Redstone FCU all have CC's that are no FTF with some sort of cash back.

Just to name a few. You have a boat load to choose from!

[Anonymous]

You're right about the CUs! 

I was so focused on the big names Citi, Chase...but I'm a longtime member of FirstTech. Why didn't I think about that earlier?

Thx!

[Gmood1]

Lol, yeah I'm a member of them as well. I forgot about them. That sounds like the ticket! They offer some nice CCs for traveling.

[Anonymous]

How about a flat rate 1.5% cashback card with no annual fee? Say, Cap1 Quicksilver, Amex Cash Magnet or Chase Freedom Unlimited? Looking at your scores you should be good to go on any one of them. Good luck on your CC journey!

[Anonymous]

I decided to stick with my local CU.  My thinking is that it's one less username and pw to try to remember.

I decided to try for with the Odessey MC which has a $75 AF, but it has most of what I wanted and some I didn't know I wanted until now:
Roadside Asst (Can cancel AAA now -$59)

No FTF

Purchase protection-- not as good as extended warranty tho

Travel/Delay Ins (Can cancel the Allianz Annual Ins now -$180)

Points back which can be used as credit on a statement

and  Cell phone coverage which is a bonus I'll gladly take (-$8/month vs Tmobile)

I was able to apply through their link last night. It said to log in if you're already a member, then the application populated with all my info already filled in.  I've got an acceptance email this morning. 

Pretty painless.  This would be my first new CC in over 16 years.

The CU suggestion was indeed the way to go. Thanks Forum!

[K-in-Boston]

Welcome to the forums and nice job with the CU card!  As for Citi, it sounds like it's a pretty well-aged account.  Citi is extremely flexible when it comes to product changes.  While you would not be eligible for any new cardholder signup bonuses, there is an enormous catalog of Citi cards that you could consider product changing to if the Dividend no longer makes sense for you, so that it would still be useful to you and also retain the full account history and age.

[AllZero]

Congratulations on your approval!

[Anonymous]

There are plenty here who would like to get a card with First Tech and can't because they have too much credit so great pick. Enjoy!

[Anonymous]

I set a Travel Advisory before I went on vacation, then they shut me down on the third day while I was abroad. Thankfully flights and hotel were prebooked and paid for well in advance, and at the time they shut me off the only odd thing on the card was a $1 pending from the hotel in Trinidad for 'incidentals'. Citi fraud dept left me messages on my landline, and when I called in on my cell, they said I needed to call in from my primary number on file--which was my landline. They wouldn't budge on the calling back from the secondary number, it had to be the primary.

While I appreciate fraud alerts, what's a Travel Advisory for anyway? In a fit of anger I swore off all Citi. It's their CS not their actual products.