@Anonymous wrote:
Looks like I have to come to my periodic defense of Flyer Talk! The people here aren't really that different, just mainly at a different point in credit rating/history.
For example: The "correct" behavior is to apply for a credit card. If they say "No", that's it, if they say "Yes" you use the card for ever.
On myfico, instead of this, we talk about reconning, paying before statement cuts to artificially boost fico, which order to do app sprees so one issuer doesn't get to see so many inquiries, using private browsing to make sure you get the Amex bonus even if you shouldn't, etc. Ways of gaming the system.
Flyer Talk is more of the same. And, really, for many here, if there was a good safe way of avoiding an annual fee, even if the deal including AF is good value, a large percentage would choose to avoid it. So I think the attack about cheapness is somewhat misplaced.
And a great deal of useful information comes from there, some of it via the bloggers. So hate it or not, you may well benefit from it!
FT is indeed a very useful resource and there are many knowledgeable people on there. Don't get me wrong on that. I lurk around that forums from time to time, and have an account made, but don't post much on there. This isn't about a "XXX website is better than YYY website" comparison either. And I agree to an extent about your assessment of FT and this website.
As useful as that website may be, at the same time, there're a lot of cheap misers on there. No I am not saying everyone there has issues, but generally you see a lot of these posts (maybe those people just post a lot!) and sometimes even other FT members cannot tolerate. There's nothing wrong with looking out for and wanting a good deal for anything. Slickdeals for instance is a very good example and resource.
However, some people on there aren't just looking for a good deal. These people basically want pretty much everything for free, regardless of whether they can afford it or whatever it takes to do it. It's similar to those people who have the mentality of "why buy a TV that's 50% off when I can rip amazon off for a free TV". That is just outright cheapstake. Regardless of how good the deal is, it's never good enough for some people unless it's free.
So in general, I think it's easier to just go through the posts by established members for useful info and avoid most of the discussions going on there unless you have a question or problem that needs to be addressed.
JPMorgan Palladium (100k), AmEx Platinum (NPSL), AmEx SPG (46k), AmEx BCP (42k), Chase Sapphire Preferred (47k), Citi Prestige (31k), Citi Thank You Preferred (27k), Citi Executive AAdvantage (25k), JPMorgan Ritz-Carlton (21k), Merrill+ (15k), US Bank Cash+ (22.5k), Wells Fargo (12k), Bloomingdale’s (12.4k), Chase Freedom (5k), Discover IT (5k).
