Nervous about new cards-help

[Kree]

If your gonna spend the money anyway, might as well get your bonus. As long as your aware of your spending and can pay in full each month, there is no problem with using your cards.

[Anonymous]

I'd suggest after you've had the Freedom Unlimited open for a year consider product changing it to the regular Freedom card. The Freedom Unlimited and Citi Double Cash fill the same role. Since you don't have a Chase Sapphire and don't have any intention to get one, the Freedom Unlimited simply earns you 1.5% cash back to the Citi's 2%. The Freedom Unlimited isn't benefitting you, but you would benefit from the regular Freedom.

Use the Citi double cash for transactions that don't fall under a 3% or 5% category, otherwise use the respective card. Since you pay in full using your credit cards when applicable won't be an issue.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymouswrote:

You have credit cards and no bank account? Yeah, that's not going to work. Ditch the cards, get your financial life in order. Get a bank account, learn to save, and dont get credit card or debt. 

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Are you for real? Horrible advice. BTW, the OP has a bank account.

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymouswrote:
I have more than enough income to handle them now, 10 years ago when foreclosure happened 2007 husband had lost job. Now we are at the best income we have ever had. I am done getting cards, I have no need for anymore. I thought if I was gonna take my score from 0 to somewhere I could get a auto loan other than jd byrider, that would be nice. So you are saying that I should dump all the cards and go back to cash only?

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OP, don't let posters like Chrissy get to you.

[Anonymous]

Have a question about the Freedom, do you get to pick your categories, or are they preset? Would hate to have 2 cards going in the same category.

Great thing about the Voice, even though it's only 3% is I can choose the categories.

I have no interest in the sapphire cards, I do not travel at all. Quite frankly, sadly I really didn't want a Chase card at all. Like I said I have been out of credit game for a while. I will be buying a car next year most likely, and wanted to maximize my score. My stupid thinking was having the Discover, and 3 bank cards, plus my kohls store card, would really make me look good to lenders. Like I said before, I should have researched more. Didn't take AAoA into account. Hopefully after a year with these cards, always PIF, I can get a great auto loan deal. After the year I might PC to freedom or just close the Chase account all together.

[Caught750]

You're doing a solid job of rebuilding! I'm actually hoping to be where you are soon. Take what you have, grow it, and like someone said PC the FU. It doesn't benefit you. Otherwise use the cards, PIF, and enjoy the benefits! You certainly deserve it!

[Caught750]

I believe, and I may be wrong, that they are set like Discover'S 5% categories. Sometimes they're close but I think they can vary.

[Shadowfactor]

Good job on the rebuilding so far but I would chill out for a little bit and garden.
You have some great card options, put them to use and pay them off.

If you have financial troubles in the past. Treat your credit cards like a debit card for the first year. Pay them every day if you have to until you reteach yourself how to properly use credit. If you can’t afford to pay for something in cash that day, you shouldn’t put it on your credit card either.
Unless it’s an emergency, but even then you should still be able to atleast cover the purchase with money in your savings.

Once you relearn the proper handling of credit. Start paying less frequently, still on time though. Do this until you find what works for you.

Since no one mentioned, chase credit journey is not a FICO score. It’s vantage score. Don’t pay attention to it, it’s going to differ from a FICO score. Sometimes even 100 points.

Keep up the good work.

[beutiful5678]

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@Anonymouswrote:

You have credit cards and no bank account? Yeah, that's not going to work. Ditch the cards, get your financial life in order. Get a bank account, learn to save, and dont get credit card or debt. 

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If you're going to comment, at least give the OP the respect of reading their post. You're so quick to preach Dave Ramsey that you don't even read what the poster wrote.

[Anonymous]

You can't pick the categories for the freedom, and sometime there is some overlap with discover, but usually they complement each other fairly well, and otherwise leaving it as a FU doesn't benefit you at all. If anything Freedom tends to have better categories. Also worth noting that for each card the 5% is limited to the first $1500 spent per quarter so even if they're the same category there is some benefit if you spend more than that in a given category.

The US Bank Cash+ is a 5% back card that lets you pick 2 categories, but you should probably chill on new apps - I suggest PCing to the freedom cuz it's optimizing an acct you already have that would otherwise not benefit you.