@smcl1919 wrote:@Anonymous - Thank you so much for taking the time to weigh in. Agreed with the two issues. I'm hopeful that the GW saturation technique will work to remove the late payments. I detail in a response why the most recent was unfairly given by Citi based on conversations with multiple reps.
- You mentioned Citi won't give me a flex loan. Interestingly, under my offers section on the Citi website:
- "Citi® Flex Pay is currently available on your Citi® AAdvantage® Gold... There is no credit inquiry when you use flex pay"
- With my Citi Checking account, I was "pre-selected" to apply for a personal loan up to $30k
- Not sure if this is just marketing, or if there is some opportunity here. A loan with a lower interest rate would be great to knock out some of the high-interest CC balance, but I'm hesitant to do a HP until my situation is cleaned up a bit (lates removed from CR and Util is below 88.9% at least on Citi). If you have additional insight on these Citi offers, I'd welcome it.
@SouthJamaica - thanks much. Can you provide additional color on why Amex would not do a HP for the Blue Cash Everyday?
If you already have an Amex card, they usually do not do a hard pull.
@sammydavidjr - thanks so much. The reason for the new card is only for work expenses. So I don't have to worry about holding money back on the debit card that could otherwise be used toward crushing debt. If I don't have enough available cash, I don't want to have to put work expenses on my cc and incur interest b/c of the high balance (for example, we have an upcoming event that will cost $4-6k. I'm holding back $1.5k in cash that I could use toward chipping away at the cc, but will use that and still have to use the cc to pay for this event).
I like the Amex idea, I was actually thinking similarly about using my Amex for work expenses once paid off. My "hesitation" was that it's my understanding that charge cards affect credit reports differently than the Citi CC? I was thinking to get citi cc Util to ~88.9% or lower (about $4k in payments) and then attack Amex. I will have $5-10k in additional income in the next 30-45 days. If you were me, would you use the new income to do what I described (4k for Citi than Amex), go all to Amex, or consider a secured card with some of it? Also, my job allows me to make money on new business I bring in, but I'm stressed out by the personal financial situation that it's hard to focus, thus wanting the cc for work expenses only (PIF every month).
@staticvoidmain - thanks so much for this recommendation, I will look into it.
Thanks again everyone, I'm very grateful for your time, wisdom, and perspective! This is my first post so I'm navigating what is the best way to respond from a logistics standpoint.
