@EasyMark wrote: A DP I may have missed elsewhere regarding a way to get rid of those pesky SYW Visa gift cards:   In my one and only inaugural trip to Costco with my spouse, I noticed I could use them in Apple Pay at checkout. I mention this because of Costco's unique Visa-only policy that negates many high-cashback-percent cards (like my 4% GM Rewards and out 5% GM cards), so the sacrifice of cashback from other cards bypassed is minimized there.   BTW - does anyone know the reward terms for the Citi ThankYou Mastercard they are PCing Sears Mastercards to, and if worthwhile, is there a way into PCing into that new option? The base reward is 1x TYP per dollar spend, the vast majority of promotional offers pay out in bonus TYP + base reward with the occasional offer paying out as a statement credit + the base reward, the bonus TYP valuation itself typically aligns with the value of the equivalent SYW promotional offer. As an example the TYP version of the current 10% gas/grocery/restaurant promo is for 10,000/20,000 bonus TYP for $1000/$2000 spend each month plus the base 1  TYP/dollar spend, or for example a net total of 11,000 TYP earned for $1000 combined spend.   The card includes access to the Citi travel portal if you want to redeem TYP for travel,  or you can redeem as a ACH deposit into a checking/savings account even if a non-Citi account (IIRC for $0.01 per TYP, not 100% positive as my pooled TYP account has my Strata Premier as primary which does redeem at the $0.01 rate) or as a statement credit for $0.005/TYP.    Citi stopped allowing the other Sears Mastercard variants from being converted into a TYP earner several years ago,  haven't heard anything about them enabling a PC from a SYW card into a Thank You Mastercard.  The Sears Mastercard -> Thank You Mastercard transition was official on 4/12 and the rebranding has been completed;  cards will be replaced in 4-8 weeks and original account open date is being retained on credit reports.       ... View more

@CreditOnion wrote: Well I finally got my first offer today! $45 statement credit on $500 or more of eligible online purchases for the next 30 days. So, not quite 10%, but close enough. :)   My question, and I know its touched on in the 106 pages here, but what is the best way to make sure my spend is counted as "online"? The list of exclusions is long and potentially exhaustive.   Roughly put,  buying physical goods online by using your credit card directly is a safe bet. It doesn't matter if you have it delivered to you or when for example it's a merchant that has both physical stores and a large online presence like bestbuy.com or homedepot.com (I know these both work,  I've triple-dipped promos with both these sites before for in-store pickup as well) you instead order it online for local in-store pickup.       Once you start getting into things like using Paypal, paying utility bills, taxes, or a service, or buying gift cards it's going to be a huge YMMV as to whether or not they would be viewed by Citi as an online purchase unless there's a specific crowdsourced loophole in play that hasn't yet been shut down.   ... View more

@Varsity_Lu wrote: @indiolatino61 wrote: Good morning, all... I see that a list is available with all the ranking levels. Thanks for that. However, it would be nice to have a list delineating the actual "cut-offs" between the ranks. For example, time spent online, number of posts, etc. Just a thought. If this is indeed already available, my apologies, as I have not been able to find it. Have a great day. I think this thread is what you are looking for:    Forum Ranking Criteria Table 2024  The actual algorithm is internal to MF and emperically isn't anywhere as static as that table might tend to suggest -  that table IMO should really at best should be considered a rough guide of when someone might  be getting close to ranking up.  ... View more

  After each or either approval did they come back with an offer to consider a larger CLI if you agreed to a hard pull?   (congrats BTW!) ... View more

  Consistent with the previously announced timeline the rebranding of the Sears Mastercards happened yesterday.     My 1 month offers have tended to come a little late via snail mail anyway so am interested to see if I'll still be getting them. ... View more

Save that email as proof that you're eligible for the promo in case there's an issue when it's time to collect the SUB,  just base that 90 days as being from date of approval and not the day you get the card.   Congrats on the approval,  $7250 is a nice starting limit from Bread. ... View more

@UncleB wrote: The "no longer accepting new applications" version is a Visa Platinum card, while the "current offerings" version is a Visa Signature card.    Perhaps they've decided to make all new accounts Visa Signature cards regardless of the credit line, sort of like Chase does with the Amazon Visa?  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯   U.S. Bank is a bit crazy these days...  I thought they already started doing that years ago with the Cash+ given the number of **bleep** posts and threads from applicants grumbling about their $500 SL Visa Signature  Cash+ approvals...    ? ... View more

Here's a related news article describing the changeover: https://fordauthority.com/2025/04/fordpass-rewards-visa-card-applications-no-longer-accepted/   Here's a brief description of the replacement card: https://www.card.fnbo.com/gearup ... View more

While mostly an exercise in semantics technically surcharges aren't allowed in Massachusetts (although some gas stations don't advertise the price differences on their large signs, only at the pump); you're supposed to structure it so that you offer a discount for not paying with a credit card.       https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXX/Chapter140d/Section28a   Section 28A. (a)(1) With respect to a credit card which may be used for extensions of credit in sales transactions in which the seller is a person other than the card issuer, the card issuer may not, by contract or otherwise, prohibit any such seller from offering a discount to a cardholder to induce the cardholder to pay cash, check or similar means rather than use a credit card. (2) No seller in any sales transaction may impose a surcharge on a cardholder who elects to use a credit card in lieu of payment by cash, check or similar means. (b) With respect to any sales transaction, any discount from the regular price offered by the seller for the purpose of inducing payment by cash, check or other means not involving the use of an open-end-credit plan or a credit card shall not constitute a finance charge under section four if such discount is offered to all prospective buyers and its availability is disclosed clearly and conspicuously. ... View more

@Patient957 wrote:     To my knowledge Synchrony has done nothing like this. They did.   When COVID was getting spun up and their rate of defaults took a big leap the federal government required them to increase the size of their financial reserves, and since one of the general criteria governing the minimum size of their financial reserves is the total amount of unsecured credit extended across all cards issued one of the steps Synchrony took was to undertake a bulk purge where cardholders with significant TCL across their Synchrony cards (as in significantly more than $50K, especially if they were approaching $100K or more) and with what Synchrony deemed as minimal activity on those cards were at significant risk of having all their Synchrony accounts simultaneously closed, regardless of payment history with Synchrony and their continued financial health.    They also updated their axiom to view cardholders who requested CLIs across multiple Synchrony cards within a short period as being at increased risk, which also triggered a lot of account closures, but this particular senario was more drawn out affair than the bulk closings of high TCL cardholders.   There were a couple of master threads and a number of one-off threads made here at the time with posts from affected members.   ... View more

@bass_playr wrote:   Your own words in your first post:   "Just to make sure I understand your situation as you have posted it here.       "Please confirm that what I'm hearing is what you're actually saying."<follows up with what they're hearing>   Everybody please knock off the squabbling and get back on topic.     ... View more

If in doubt or you're otherwise uncomfortable with the thought of applying for a 2nd Cash+ look for a bank or CU that is cobranding its fraternal twin (Elan)Max Cash Preferred card. They're essentially the same card using the same underwriters, the most notable differences are that some co-branded versions are Mastercards,  categories automatically carry over each quarter instead of needing to be manually validated, and if you don't have an account with the co-branding FI (you don't need one to get the card) the cashback earned can only be applied as a statement credit.   Data points over time suggest that USBank tends to be a bit more lenient with having new accounts for Max Cash applicants than with the Cash+ and there is no shortage of those who have both a Cash+ and a Max Cash Preferred. ... View more

@TyrannicalDuncery3 wrote: @RickSanchez712 wrote: Potential Others  -Shell Pay in Store (haven't been able to test yet, most of the Shells in my area don't sell Gift Cards) I tried Shell Pay at the gas pump the other day and it didn't seem to count. Transaction was 3/28 and it posted by 4/3, maybe earlier. As of 4/10 I don't have my points, which I would have had it counted.   Also I guess there is like a Phillips 66 mobile payment app? Not sure whether that is usable. If the listed merchant category for the transaction is "Vehicle Services-AUTOMATED GAS DISPENSER" you should be GTG.  If not then it's a gamble. ... View more

@VanderSnoot wrote: Approved. Lowest credit line I've seen in a while but still ample. Thanks again.   Also - bizarrely - maybe the CFU isn't closed? It's listed as closed on the Chase website and app, but they let me add it to my Google wallet and I have a charge pending on it. The fact that they let you add that card to your Google wallet is....bizarre, although I'm not surprised that the card still shows up,   I  have a card that I closed 15-16 years ago that they also still show on the website and mobile app.   Congrats on the approval and have fun working toward that SUB!   ... View more

  For a while several years ago there was a fairly steady stream of data points shared here which IIRC coincided with their DC Comics-themed credit cards becoming available.      From memory they appeared to be VERY sensitive to the number of existing cards an applicant already had regardless of income/AAoA/AoYA/scores, there were a lot of denials reported and there was kind of a running joke tied to how few cardholders there were.     ... View more

@AndySoCal wrote: The time that the data breach is discovered til the notifications are sent out is slow. There are reasons for for this. There are several questions that must be answered this not a complete list by any means. The job is not easy because the hacker is going to be stealth as possible to avoid detection. Where and how did the hacker breach the system? How many times and when was the system breached? What did the hacker have access to?  Was and data pulled from the system and exported somewhere? How to fix the known breach ? Are there other potential breach points waiting to be exploited? Whose information was compromised or was potentially compromised?   The  fixes that prevent furthur hacks have to be in place ahead of any notifications. All that said, there are companies that specialize in doing this type work after a company has had data breach. I have read where teams that are working on a data breach are working  24 7 due to the difficulty of the job they have to.   There are other things to be addressed but this largely sums it up.    A key point is that multiple government agencies are involved in the entire process and they help determine when it's the appropriate time for public disclosure.      A relevant point is that as an NCUA member institution AOD has regulatory requirements to adhere to a wide swath of best security-centric business practices and must regularly positively demonstrate via external audit their compliance with these best practices.  3rd party cybersecurity-related companies that AOD would have been eligible to engage are also validated (with the FFIEC) as having complied with the same requirements.   ... View more

Thanks for remembering me, I don't post quite as much as I used to but I'm still here.   Nice to see you,  I haven't seen you post here in quite a while, I'm not the only relic that still posts here. ;)   You're way past the 48 month threshold to be eligible for the SUB with a clean profile and no 5/24 issues so IMO you might as well roll the dice.  If denied you could likely spin a reasonable story on recon something like that you closed the original card due to COVID-related suspension to all travel and decided to apply because you're now starting to travel again,   I'd also have a quick spiel ready as to why the CFU was sockdrawered in case you were asked. ... View more

@ptatohed wrote: All I know is the $100k I put in ($50k robo, and $50k self directed) now is worth $86k. I'm not even sure if I am getting 4% any more. :( I believe BoA wouldn't hold it against your Preferred Rewards status if that $14K drop was due only to the drop in market value of the portfolio with no assets being moved out of the account.  At a minimum you'd at least retain current status through the rest of the calendar year    I wouldn't lose hope here.... ... View more

[note: I've requested the mods to relocate this thread for you per your request]   Why did they close your Freedom Unlimited?  Lack of use?   Having the account closed on you does nothing for odds of approval but some reasons as to why are more impactful than others.   Chase does still extend preapprovals through Chase Credit Journey, but not having a preapproval from Chase does not automatically translate to having poor or nonexistent odds of approval either. ... View more

BoA CCR does stretch toward that goal for cardholders with Platinum Honors or higher status - 5.25% in a chosen category and 3.5% for a groceries and wholesale clubs category with a combined $2500/quarter spend cap, and 1.75% (with no spend cap) for category spend over the quarterly threshold and all non-category spend. ... View more

You still have the problem of at least 1 order being delivered to your home, which at a minimum is a bad optic when you're claiming fraud as the shipper would have attested to the merchant as to proof of delivery.     Reading this thread made me think of those incidents when someone's 7-10 yo kid took Mom's or Dad's CC and used it to buy playing time on an online game. ... View more

Simply for being 6/24 likely not, but they have been known to occasionally do so several weeks after the fact if several other new accounts also popped up on ones credit reports within the same short time frame, inferring that Chase was included in an app spree. ... View more

@Fenway2025 wrote: My in-laws just applied for the card with a similar situaion to yours and just got the notice they were unable to approve the application and will give more information in 7-10 days. They fall 4/24 with Chase , have a credit score above 830, and around 7% credit utilization across all cards. The last card they applied for was the Chase Freedom Unlimited 3 months ago as their first Chase card.    It makes no sense to me how they could be declined, every box seemed to have been checked for approval. Do you think that calling the line would give any chance to change this outcome  If they don't call for recon they definitely won't get the card so there's really nothing to lose other than the time spent on the phone by trying, and Chase is an issuer who sometimes does overturn denials on recon.  Only thing I can guess based on the info you provided is that Chase can be reluctant to approve a 2nd card only 3 months after the 1st card is approved although it is something they will do. ... View more

@bscott44 wrote: Last weekend, I was browsing vehicles on Cars.com and became “pre-qualified” through Capital One Auto Navigator. By Monday night, I had narrowed my options down to a couple of vehicles, but I hadn’t committed to anything. On Tuesday morning, I began receiving an overwhelming number of calls and emails from various dealerships, even though I had not contacted any of them directly or responded to their outreach. Then on Wednesday morning, I received an alert that a hard inquiry had been made on my credit report through Equifax. After checking, I confirmed that one of the dealerships had run my credit without my authorization. I made several attempts to speak with the dealership’s finance director, but I was consistently told he was with a customer. I then filed a dispute with Equifax, but today they informed me that the inquiry will remain on my credit report until 2027. My questions are: how is a dealership legally allowed to run a hard inquiry without my explicit permission, and what steps can I take to have this removed from my credit report? Next time this happens don't immediately jump to filing a dispute with the CRA.  They will only address removing inquiries themselves that are related to fraud.      The issue here sounds like that you did not make any application for credit nor did you offer to enter into a P&S agreement, you only expressed a general interest in a vehicle.   That is probably not sufficient for the dealer to have  Permissible Purpose to hard pull your credit but whether or not it constitutes fraud is more of a grey area.  If your local police would agree that this was fraud and would create a police report for you that's something that Equifax would more seriously consider as justification to remove the inquiry.   A dealer can withdraw an inquiry if they're so inclined to follow through with the related multistep process.   A single inquiry in and of itself is not a big deal,  so you are going to have to decide for yourself how much time and energy you are willing to expend to further fight this.    If you decide you want to push further and are willing to potentially go down a deep rabbit hole (I likely wouldn't be) there are a few things you can consider doing like:   - Contact the owner of the dealership directly (or hiring an  attorney with relevant experience) to insist on a withdrawal. - Try filing an online complaint with the CFPB (problematic right now) - File a complaint with your state's Attorney General office. - Contact in writing the US HQ of the relevant make/model vehicle that the dealer's actions have tarnished the brand reputation, plz fix this ... View more

  There's no regulatory-based reason why you couldn't product change,  it would strictly be a question of what if any senarios Chase is currently allowing Slate cardholders to PC to an OG Freedom and whether or not you qualified.   Personally I'd try to PC the card if for no other reason than there's a reasonable chance of you at least sometimes being able to take advantage of a quarterly 5% category,  much of the appeal of the Slate is for the window for low APR purchases and balance transfers for new cardholders.   Call Chase and ask,  if they give you a thumbs-up you can always tell them that you want to think about it and will call back later if you decide to proceed with the PC.   ... View more

I'd suggest you take a very thorough look into the federal and ESPECIALLY your state's homestead exception laws including how having taken on debt via tapping into a HELOC impacts the laws ability to protect the asset against creditors.  That also includes understanding what if any differences in protection exist depending on how the ownership was structured (joint tenancy? etc) if only 1 vs both of you ended up filing for BK.   ... View more

@UncleB wrote: I'm being inundated with prequals for both the Bread 2% Amex and the AAA Visa ($200 bonus on the Amex, $100 on the AAA).   Ironically, I'm interested in the AAA card (for Walmart) but obviously the higher bonus on the Amex gets my attention more, LOL.  The drawback to the Amex for me is it would probably end up sock-drawered after the bonus was earned since I have better options.   I'll likely be sitting on my hands a bit longer, but it's good to know they'll show the credit line before the app is completely submitted. If AMEX cookies are in play you know the right choice... ... View more

@ptatohed wrote: Received this one again today (04-01-25), through the rest of the year.     (The appropriate - yet missing - Oxford Comma was added by me, lol)         Earn up to $1,800 in statement credits Activate this offer by 5/15/2025 Earn $100 in statement credits when you spend $1,000 – $1,999.99 each month or earn $200 in statement credits when you spend $2,000 or more each month on eligible gas station, grocery store, and restaurant purchases. Activation required. Offer ends 12/31/2025. +1   I was hoping to see that someone with a SYW card got this offer! ... View more

April Fools!!! ... View more