Which credit card of mine do I make as the daily spender?

[mjb59463]

IHey everyone,
So it's taken some time to get my debt under control, and great things have happened in that regard. Still a bit of progress to be made, but I can see a Fair bit of light at the end of the tunnel. I've cancelled some cards, plan to cancel a couple more, and am starting to reorganize my credit card portfolio. Here it is as it stands with balances and limits:

Amex Delta Platinum: 700/11,000
Chase Sapphire Reserve: 0/20,000
Chase Freedom: 2000/6,000
US Bank Flexperks Travel rewards: 800/5000
Barclay Apple: 900/11,500
Wells Fargo: 800/7,000

Sapphire has been sockdrawered for right now until I clean everything up and has been getting dinged monthly with Netflix and Hulu (yes, I did hit the signup bonus), Amex is used for travel expenses, and Freedom has been the everyday spending card (movie tickets, gas, food, books, gym, iTunes)

Wells, US Bank and Barclay are not seeing any more activity and will be zeroed out before the summer for sure. I'd like to close them, simply because having open cards can tempt me to spend. Acting on temptation is what got me into trouble before, and I'm smart enough to know that. I realize that could potentially harm my score, but I'd rather have that happen than fall in the crushing debt sinkhole again due to making poor choices.

The only thing stopping me from making that the plan is that I One day hope to get a mortgage, and those lending institutions might want to see that I have credit with them and managed it appropriately. Is that a valid concern, or not really?


Also, am I making the right play with using the Freedom as my everyday card? Or should I be using something else in my wallet?

Any help or advice is appreciated.
Thanks

[Anonymous]

If under 5/24 AND you plan to keep the CSR for a while, you might consider adding a Chase Freedom Unlimited.. Use the CSR for Travel & Dining, The Freedom for 5% categories, and the FU for everything else... When time to redeem, pool the UR points and redeem through the CSR for 1.5c per point.. essentailly 4.5% on travel & Dining, 7.5% on rotating categories, and 1.5% on everything else, all points in one place. It's a great trifecta if the CSR is worth keeping for you (you travel enough to use the travel benefits that offset the annual fee). I love my combo I use, but dont do the above because I dont travel enough to warrant a CSR. Am sure you'll get other views, good luck!

[mjb59463]

I apologize for not stating this accurately. My Freedom is the Freedom Unlimited. As far as adding cards go, I'm not sure I want to do that without cancelling another card or two.

I do travel enough to justify the travel benefits of the CSR (Global Entry, 300$ travel credit), but as far as earning rewards for air travel I prefer to use my Delta Amex, as I have status and want miles from them. Any UR points I accumulate tend to go toward Marriott/Ritz hotel stays. 

[Anonymous]

I can respect that, and for delta purchases- great. 2 miles per dollar.. but for all other spend, 1 mile per dollar isn't the best deal in my opinion.. tbh, Im not that familiar with the second half of your list.. but if it was me- I'd add the freedom, use the delta card for delta purchases (free baggage, priority boarding, and a companion ticket offset the annual fee alone), and use the chase trifecta for the rest. The high UR earning & redemption rate would be tough to match..- would rather buy delta flights more frequently and redeem UR's instead of skymiles.. I really think you'd ultimately be way ahead.. The other cards may offer something else, im less familiar with them. That's just my 2 cents.. would have to understand the delta status a bit more, put a value on what its worth to you, and do the math with your current spending to see for sure though.

[Anonymous]

I think you should be using the CSR for dining and not the FU. 

[mjb59463]

Thank you for your responses!

DiscountDoubleCheck (best of luck against ATL) - I agree, for general spending, the Delta card is not the greatest. I think I will take your advice of using it only for Delta purchases and its benefits. 

The Barclay Apple/Wells/US Bank cards do not offer any reward programs that interest me or that I want to I take advantage of.

The Apple card was solely to help me get a new laptop, but they gave me such a huge limit. I'm paying the laptop off interest free at the moment, but when its done, I have no desire to use it for anything other than a new laptop (at the time when I would need it). 

Wells and USBank are cards I have because I bank with those institutions. Their rewards are not great, and I cant see myself putting significant spending through them ever again. I've heard that if I want a mortgage with either of those banks, it can work in my favor to have credit through them to show that I have managed it responsibly. Not sure if there's any truth to it, and I don't plan on applying for a mortgage anytime soon anymore. If it's not, I'd love to cancel those. 

MassEffect- The reason I am choosing not to do that at the moment, is that I don't want to carry around a card with a 20K limit as an everyday spending card for dining out. I'd like to have a bit more time to work on my accountability/responsibility with credit. Recklessly charging stuff was my downfall before, I just don't want that to happen again. But you made a great suggestion, and in time, I will definitely try it out. 

[Anonymous]

Definitely don't close any accounts. If temptation is a problem, do whatever you have to in order to keep them out of reach. If your plan is to apply for a mortgage down the road, the more open revolving credit you have open and the longer you've had it, the better, even if the accounts aren't used or are only used infrequently. Closing accounts will just cause your overall utilization % to rise and that won't do you any favors. Assuming that the cards with balances are being carried over month to month and are accruing interest, the rewards are a mute point because you're paying them back to some degree in interest anyhow. Since your Sapphire Reserve has no balance, I would make that your daily driver, but budget carefully so you can always pay it in full each month.

Another good option would be to see if you have any balance transfer offers available. Paying a 2-3% fee up front on those balances will stop the interest bleeding and give you one payment to focus on. The other advantage of this method is it frees up the majority of your cards for use so you can start earning some money back in points again. That ties into your other question - In terms of which cards to use for what, the best answer is to use whatever card pays you the most money/value for the merchant you're buying from, but only if you don't have to carry a balance month to month.

[austinguy907]

---

@mjb59463 wrote:

Amex Delta Platinum: 700/11,000
Chase Sapphire Reserve: 0/20,000
Chase Freedom: 2000/6,000
US Bank Flexperks Travel rewards: 800/5000
Barclay Apple: 900/11,500
Wells Fargo: 800/7,000

Wells, US Bank and Barclay are not seeing any more activity and will be zeroed out before the summer for sure. I'd like to close them, simply because having open cards can tempt me to spend. Acting on temptation is what got me into trouble before, and I'm smart enough to know that. I realize that could potentially harm my score, but I'd rather have that happen than fall in the crushing debt sinkhole again due to making poor choices.

The only thing stopping me from making that the plan is that I One day hope to get a mortgage, and those lending institutions might want to see that I have credit with them and managed it appropriately. Is that a valid concern, or not really?

---

First of all congrats on the financial fitness you've come to attain!  Debt is double edged sometimes.

Your other replies RE: WF / Barclay / USB..... Trashing them for the fear of running them up again is silly from a FICO standpoint.  You can easily take them out of play and keep reaping the benefits of a healthy account.  Shred the card, keep the #'s on file for stuff like netflix, cable bill, cell bill, etc.  If you can't swipe it then you're limited to where you can use it.  

You're an adult technically since you have CC's in your name and you should be able to handle them without being "tempted" by the big limit.  You've seen what you're capable of and hopefully learned your lesson.  

Mortgage:

You don't have to have a CC with a lender to get one.

Shop around for some CU's if you're not putting 20% down as some of them offer PMI at 50% less than other lenders which could save you 50-200/mo

Most lender programs want to see 2-3 years of history with about 3-5 cards for the best possible program they offer

Once you're ready to lock things down and prep for a mortgage app stop apping for anything 6-12 months prior to lessen the paperwork burden when UW comes back with questions about stuff

Make sure your ID Address matches thre info on your application  (sometimes UW is funny)

Get a pre-approval and not a pre-qual so you have an option to e-mail them for a letter of intent/verification of income/funds to make a solid offer

Other than that just hold onto your cards and carrying around a 20K limit shouldn't be any different than carrying your debit card since to maximize your rewards your CC should be treated as CASH since ideally you're paying in full each month.  I rarely think about the fact that my wallet in creadit terms of 2-3 cards is over 100K in CL's because of the cash philosophy.

[deltatee]

I think you you are making the right decision using the FU for your general spend since you also have the CSR.  I agree the CSR is your best dining out card.  You mentioned being tempted to spend if you have the credit available, I read about an app a few weeks ago that might be useful for that.  I can't remember exactly what it is called, but I think it is called Debitize or something like that.  My understanding of the of the app is that you link your credit cards, and each time you make a transaction on them, the app pulls that amount of money out of your checking account and sets it aside in a separate account and then pays the credit card from that account.  I think the idea is to make your credit card feel more like a debit card.  This might definitely be something to think about so you don't over spend.

As for current balances, I definitely agree that you should look on your cards and see if you have any good balance xfer offers.  

[mjb59463]

Wanted to bump this post for an update. 

Ended up selling some things and dumping the funds from that into my balances. Wells Fargo has now been zeroed out, and so has Barclays. US Bank is sitting with a balance of 300.

Wells is going to get the axe (wont affect AOAA too much), and Barclay will sit in the sockdrawer triggering my iCloud storage fee of $2.99 per month. 

Freedom debt has been brought down to 1000, and should be at zero within the next two months. Amex is still at 700 after my last payment. I'll tackle that within the next few months too.  

TL;DR

Everything is at zero besides Freedom, USBank and Amex

All in all, I'm using $2000 out of $53,500 in available credit.

I seriously never thought I would get here. At one point I was so deep in CC debt that I thought I'd have to file bankruptcy. Resolved to make my minimum payments no matter what, quit spending on the cards and dig myself out as best as I could. I can see the light and I'll be there soon!