cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

Harebrained Disco Idea!?!

tag
Medic981
Valued Contributor

Harebrained Disco Idea!?!

When I obtained my Discover IT Chrome card almost two years ago my FICO scores were 100 points lower and I was initially denied a Discover card. I wanted a Discover, so I went the secured route and started with $2000 CL. A few months after my card went unsecured, I received a unicorn auto $1000 CLI. My card sat at $3000 for over a year until recently I obtained two $300 CLI by hitting the luv button in June and then again in August. 

 

My plan in August was to make Discover my daily driver, put some spend on it, and hope that when I make my next CLI in December that I will get a substantial increase.

 

Last week I discovered (pun intended) that I can get $60 cash back at some POS terminals when making a purchase. Today I again had some success with Disco who lower my APR from 24.99% to 20.24%. Tonight, shopping at Krogers, I took $60 cash back at the end of my grocery purchase. 

 

This is where my harebrained idea began. I am thinking of taking $60 cash back at every available opportunity to increase my spend. Every week or two I will deposit this cash back into my checking account, rinse and repeat. 

 

Other than making it look like I have an unreported cash income to my financial institution I do not see any downside to this. 

 

This is where I want to be told what a bad idea this is and why I shouldn't do it. What am I missing here?







Your FICO credit scores are not just numbers, it’s a skill.
Message 1 of 28
27 REPLIES 27
HeavenOhio
Senior Contributor

Re: Harebrained Disco Idea!?!

I don't think it's feasible to acquire so much cash that depositing it will raise any eyebrows.

 

Depositing the cash to cover the cost of this plan seems like a lot of work, though. How about considering the cash back as your primary means for replenishing your personal supply of cash? Rather than making withdrawls for cash, that money would remain in the checking account to cover your cash back transactions.

Message 2 of 28
Medic981
Valued Contributor

Re: Harebrained Disco Idea!?!


@HeavenOhio wrote:

I don't think it's feasible to acquire so much cash that depositing it will raise any eyebrows.

 

Depositing the cash to cover the cost of this plan seems like a lot of work, though. How about considering the cash back as your primary means for replenishing your personal supply of cash? Rather than making withdrawls for cash, that money would remain in the checking account to cover your cash back transactions.


Right now, $100 cash will last me for just about a month. As for re-depositing, there is a co-op credit union two blocks down the street from my house so making deposits once or twice a month is not much of an issue. I guess I could just keep the cash and when it seems to excessively exceed my needs I can deposit it.







Your FICO credit scores are not just numbers, it’s a skill.
Message 3 of 28
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Harebrained Disco Idea!?!

Like any other CC you just need to use it monthly and pay it monthly to get it to grow.

 

This idea though would probably work on Cap1 that likes to see high use to give you a bump every 6 months.

 

Most CC's don't require a huge amount of activity to grow the CL though.  I have several of them that are beyond 25K up to 65K that don't see more than $200/mo ever and 1/2 of the time they don't see anything on them for an extended period of time and still grow beyond anything I would ever need to put on them.  In the automated architecture of banking it's all about activity unless you end up having to talk to someone over the phone for a manual review to get a CLI.  

Message 4 of 28
Medic981
Valued Contributor

Re: Harebrained Disco Idea!?!


@Anonymous wrote:

Like any other CC you just need to use it monthly and pay it monthly to get it to grow.

 

This idea though would probably work on Cap1 that likes to see high use to give you a bump every 6 months.

 

Most CC's don't require a huge amount of activity to grow the CL though.  I have several of them that are beyond 25K up to 65K that don't see more than $200/mo ever and 1/2 of the time they don't see anything on them for an extended period of time and still grow beyond anything I would ever need to put on them.  In the automated architecture of banking it's all about activity unless you end up having to talk to someone over the phone for a manual review to get a CLI.  


My frustration is that Disco is one of my older cards with almost my lowest CL. I am thinking it may be bucketed because it was a secured card at one time.







Your FICO credit scores are not just numbers, it’s a skill.
Message 5 of 28
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Harebrained Disco Idea!?!

It's possible.... if you think it is then apply for a new one and the new CL will tell you for sure.  Then combine them later on if you want or just close out the bucketed one and keep on moving forward.

 

Just from ecperience though starting at $4500 and slugging my way up the ladder just took patience and persistence.  The 4500 was low in comparison to my limits at the time but it did grow. There have been several others that started secured and got stuck there for 2-3 years before going for a new card that blossomed and bloomed into a good CL after getting out of the bucket.

 

Like your little CC scrubbing you did today across all of your lenders there's some value to replacing some older cards from when you started out that have crappy terms attached to them.  Like discovering all of your store cards have a flat set APR across all users vs being able to haggle them down under 20%.  

 

Do the pre-qual and see if it comes back with a 0% period or not and what the APR is and you'll know if it's bucketing or if they're just being stingy.

Message 6 of 28
Medic981
Valued Contributor

Re: Harebrained Disco Idea!?!


@Anonymous wrote:

It's possible.... if you think it is then apply for a new one and the new CL will tell you for sure.  Then combine them later on if you want or just close out the bucketed one and keep on moving forward.

 

Just from ecperience though starting at $4500 and slugging my way up the ladder just took patience and persistence.  The 4500 was low in comparison to my limits at the time but it did grow. There have been several others that started secured and got stuck there for 2-3 years before going for a new card that blossomed and bloomed into a good CL after getting out of the bucket.

 

Like your little CC scrubbing you did today across all of your lenders there's some value to replacing some older cards from when you started out that have crappy terms attached to them.  Like discovering all of your store cards have a flat set APR across all users vs being able to haggle them down under 20%.  

 

Do the pre-qual and see if it comes back with a 0% period or not and what the APR is and you'll know if it's bucketing or if they're just being stingy.


Great advice here. Unfortunately or fortunately, depends on how you look at it, I am in the garden until December 2020. Perhaps if after slugging it out for the next 15 months I do not get anywhere, I will consider applying for another Discover card after I apply for the Chase cards I am interested. 







Your FICO credit scores are not just numbers, it’s a skill.
Message 7 of 28
Medic981
Valued Contributor

Re: Harebrained Disco Idea!?!

No soup for me!

 

I thought as it would be a soft pull I would check for Disco preapprovals. 

disconoluv.JPG

 







Your FICO credit scores are not just numbers, it’s a skill.
Message 8 of 28
AverageJoesCredit
Legendary Contributor

Re: Harebrained Disco Idea!?!

Just know pulling out cash does not count for cash back bonus and in the end youll still have to pay it back as a regular purchase. If you arent on 0% promo you will pay interest if not paid in full. With Discover, i dont think you need to force spend just use it and pay. All those cli will come eventuallySmiley Wink
Message 9 of 28
Medic981
Valued Contributor

Re: Harebrained Disco Idea!?!


@AverageJoesCredit wrote:
Just know pulling out cash does not count for cash back bonus and in the end youll still have to pay it back as a regular purchase. If you arent on 0% promo you will pay interest if not paid in full. With Discover, i dont think you need to force spend just use it and pay. All those cli will come eventuallySmiley Wink

I know you posted this for someone else who might visit this thread with less experience.

 

As for eventually, I am trying to accelerate eventually. Eventually we are going to die. I do not want to accelerate that event.







Your FICO credit scores are not just numbers, it’s a skill.
Message 10 of 28
Advertiser Disclosure: The offers that appear on this site are from third party advertisers from whom FICO receives compensation.