Which credit card should I be using?

[Anonymous]

Hi all,

Great forum, been lurking here for a while and finally decided to post. I'm a 20 year old student that currently has 3 cards. BP Visa i'm AU on, Citi ThankYou Preferred that was my first solo card and a Freedom Unlimited I just opened to pay my school tuition. I'm going to school year round now and won't be doing any traveling so I'm been trying to do as many cash reward bonuses, which is why I opened the CFU.

My question now is which card should I be using for my daily spend. My monthly spending is about $300-350 which is a mixture of food and general shopping purchases, and now every 2 months ish I willl have a tuition payment that will be around $1000-1500. As I said before cash rewards/gift cards are my main goal. I was also seeing if I could change my ThankYou Preferred to a DoubleCash but then I'm not sure if I should focus all my spending on one card or if I should be splitting the spend between the TYP and CFU. Please let me know.

Thanks in advance! I can elaborate anywhere when needed.

[Anonymous]

Amex blue cash preferred if you buy gift cards at supermarkets. Get the calculator out, start at -95, see if you break even at <6 months of your spend. After that all gravy of course. 7 bucks a week from groceries and general spend in cash back is how your spend sounds. 7x52? Lots of gravy. Amex offers currently are throwing in a lot in the pot too!

[csryang]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi all,

Great forum, been lurking here for a while and finally decided to post. I'm a 20 year old student that currently has 3 cards. BP Visa i'm AU on, Citi ThankYou Preferred that was my first solo card and a Freedom Unlimited I just opened to pay my school tuition. I'm going to school year round now and won't be doing any traveling so I'm been trying to do as many cash reward bonuses, which is why I opened the CFU.

My question now is which card should I be using for my daily spend. My monthly spending is about $300-350 which is a mixture of food and general shopping purchases, and now every 2 months ish I willl have a tuition payment that will be around $1000-1500. As I said before cash rewards/gift cards are my main goal. I was also seeing if I could change my ThankYou Preferred to a DoubleCash but then I'm not sure if I should focus all my spending on one card or if I should be splitting the spend between the TYP and CFU. Please let me know.

Thanks in advance! I can elaborate anywhere when needed.

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I am not sure how much cash back equivalent it is to spend your grocery, dining and travel on BP visa card... so I cannot help you there.

Overall, in terms of comparing Chase freedom unlimited vs Citi TY prefered, they all are pretty lame by themselves. I suggest you convert TY preferred to Double Cash and converting freedom unlimited to a regular freedom. 

If you can pay your tuition with credit card without any additional fee, that's great. Just charge tuition on your Citi DC.

If you just have Citi TY Preferred, I think your thank you point value is not that great. What can you redeem your points for? I think it has very poor value of redeeming for cash. Correct me if I am wrong, I think it maybe 100 point = 0.5 cent. I generally do not recommend having any point earning card unless you know what to redeem them for. So, I think converting to Citi Double Cash is a good idea. However, if you convert TYP to DC, your points earned by TYP might disappear so you better use them up first.

Freedom unlimited only has 1.5 points per dollar spend. Without a higher class Chase card like Chase Sapphire Prefered or Reserve, your point cannot be transferred to airline miles, and thus, they will be worth less. So, your Freedom unlimited is just like a 1.5% cash back card. So, Citi Double Cash still wins here as it's a 2% cash back card. If you convert it to a regular freedom, then, you earn 5% cash back on random categories each quarter. 

[SouthJamaica]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi all,

Great forum, been lurking here for a while and finally decided to post. I'm a 20 year old student that currently has 3 cards. BP Visa i'm AU on, Citi ThankYou Preferred that was my first solo card and a Freedom Unlimited I just opened to pay my school tuition. I'm going to school year round now and won't be doing any traveling so I'm been trying to do as many cash reward bonuses, which is why I opened the CFU.

My question now is which card should I be using for my daily spend. My monthly spending is about $300-350 which is a mixture of food and general shopping purchases, and now every 2 months ish I willl have a tuition payment that will be around $1000-1500. As I said before cash rewards/gift cards are my main goal. I was also seeing if I could change my ThankYou Preferred to a DoubleCash but then I'm not sure if I should focus all my spending on one card or if I should be splitting the spend between the TYP and CFU. Please let me know.

Thanks in advance! I can elaborate anywhere when needed.

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I would think the Freedom Unlimited makes the most sense for your daily spend.  Use the others a little, to keep them active, and pay them down to zero before the statement cuts.

3 cards is perfect. Disregard the advice to get any more cards at this stage. At some point substitute a card for the authorized user BP card.

[SunriseEarth]

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@SouthJamaica wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

Hi all,

Great forum, been lurking here for a while and finally decided to post. I'm a 20 year old student that currently has 3 cards. BP Visa i'm AU on, Citi ThankYou Preferred that was my first solo card and a Freedom Unlimited I just opened to pay my school tuition. I'm going to school year round now and won't be doing any traveling so I'm been trying to do as many cash reward bonuses, which is why I opened the CFU.

My question now is which card should I be using for my daily spend. My monthly spending is about $300-350 which is a mixture of food and general shopping purchases, and now every 2 months ish I willl have a tuition payment that will be around $1000-1500. As I said before cash rewards/gift cards are my main goal. I was also seeing if I could change my ThankYou Preferred to a DoubleCash but then I'm not sure if I should focus all my spending on one card or if I should be splitting the spend between the TYP and CFU. Please let me know.

Thanks in advance! I can elaborate anywhere when needed.

---

I would think the Freedom Unlimited makes the most sense for your daily spend.  Use the others a little, to keep them active, and pay them down to zero before the statement cuts.

3 cards is perfect. Disregard the advice to get any more cards at this stage. At some point substitute a card for the authorized user BP card.

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I'm inclined to agree, at least until you have established more of a credit history.  If you can PC your TYP to DC, that might be a good option for your daily driver.   If not, then the CFU definitely works for a daily driver.   However, adding another card down the line is a good idea.   If you do a decent amount of spend on Fast Food and Book Stores, Cash+ might be a great fit as those are both 5% categories.  US Bank can be picky, however.    Marvel Mastercard might also be worth considering for 3% dining and book stores and many other good categories.

[Anonymous]

Does anyone have any experience PC from ThankYou Preferred to DoubleCash? Seems hit or miss from what I've seen.

[csryang]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Does anyone have any experience PC from ThankYou Preferred to DoubleCash? Seems hit or miss from what I've seen.

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I do not have that specific PC example myself but I have product changed several Citi cards 3 times. I know any Citi card can be product changed to any Citi card.

As long as you have Citi ThankYou Preferred for at least one year, you can call the number on the back of your card and tell them that you do not like the card you have and considering canceling and ask them what are your options. They might transfer you to retention department or they might straight up telling you that they can change your card for you. If they tell you that it's not an option then you can either hang up and call again at a different time or get a supervisor involved.

Just make sure you use up the points as they will expire 60 days from the date of card conversion or sooner - you may verify it with the agent you speak with.

[Anonymous]

All great advice far

As for the BP Visa, understanding that it may have been a wonderful anchor for depth and history in order to secure the other 2... point is you have them now

That being said, is it a dormant card or does it get use monthly which could effect the # of accounts reporting a balance, especially if you are yinging and whomever handles that account yangs

The point I'm getting at is, you might want to go ahead a establish that 3 revolver on your own, so that you are in complete control over what gets reported.

Also an additional TL, one that could basically be pretty dormant adds depth and width to your profile and although basically dormant to you the aging of said account only helps you
5 years from now you'll have several thick old TL's with a gazillion 'paid as agreed' marks, very nice whereas most 25 y.o.'s wouldn't have such a profile

A nice Discover or a solid CU makes for an outstanding 3rd TL IMO just FYI

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
All great advice far

As for the BP Visa, understanding that it may have been a wonderful anchor for depth and history in order to secure the other 2... point is you have them now

That being said, is it a dormant card or does it get use monthly which could effect the # of accounts reporting a balance, especially if you are yinging and whomever handles that account yangs

The point I'm getting at is, you might want to go ahead a establish that 3 revolver on your own, so that you are in complete control over what gets reported.

Also an additional TL, one that could basically be pretty dormant adds depth and width to your profile and although basically dormant to you the aging of said account only helps you
5 years from now you'll have several thick old TL's with a gazillion 'paid as agreed' marks, very nice whereas most 25 y.o.'s wouldn't have such a profile

A nice Discover or a solid CU makes for an outstanding 3rd TL IMO just FYI

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The BP Visa is one of my parent's main cards, been open since 2008 and has a SL of $14k. It never goes above 20% utilization and I use it occasionally when buying stuff for family, home groceries, filling up parents cars, etc. I used it more before I had a job and my own cards but now that I do it is only used to buy stuff that my parents/the house needs.

I would really hate to close since I've had it for so long. I was hoping to add a third card on my own soon but I haven't been able to decide on that either. Something that would get me a cash bonus upon opening would be cool, or if I'm gonna be vain, I would love a metal card. I don't know why I'm so hooked on stupid metal cards but I want one baaadddd.

[HeavenOhio]

You've hit on the intended purpose of AU cards. People here frequently mention them as a way to improve scores — which they may or may not be, depending on how they're used. But they're really intended to offer convenience: one person buying on another's behalf, a parent giving a child access to a card, a spouse wanting to combine budgeting with the other spouse, etc. I'd suggest that you keep this setup as long as it's beneficial to all involved and as long it's not keeping you from having sufficient scores.

So really, the question becomes which of your own two cards you choose for your personal spending. I'd go with the Freedom Unlimited and use the Citi card just enough to keep it active — or when expenses are higher than usual and you need its limit. If you're able to PC the Citi card into DC, then the FU can move to a backup role.

A third card of your own is a a good idea, but there's no rush. Take the time to do your homework, assess your needs, ask questions here and get multiple opinions, and apply when you think your history and scores are right.