I got this too, just got back from a trip to Florida with about 20k points to spare. Another thing you can do with this card is to apply for the personal and business cards. After you've spent your $2k on each, you should have approximately 112,000 points total. You can transfer points from one card to another. Once you reach 120,000 points in a single year on a single card (even after the points have been transferred), you qualify for a buddy pass for a full year. So someone can fly free along with you. Of course, you can also get this without getting both cards, but the extra 50,000+ points from the additional card definitely helps. Cards I use: Citi Forward - 5% back at restaurants and on Amazon Chase Freedom - 5% back on quarterly rotating categories Southwest Visa - main reason I got it was for the free 50k points, but I do plan to use it strictly for flight purchases Amex Fidelity - 2% back on all purchases (the downside is, this goes into an IRA, so if you want cash back, there are better cards) Capital One Mastercard - 1% back on all purchases, an extra 50% back on your anniversary each year, so basically 1.5% back on everything Discover - 5% back on quarterly rotating categories (wife actually has this one, but I'll use it on some purchases, depending on the rewards) Another thing I use them for is the cash back for going through their site to another site and making purchases. I'll usually check the Chase Freedom and Discover cards to see which (if either) offers the highest cash back, and I'll check a few other places online. Oh, and lol....a google search brought you here, huh? mmhmmm.....good catch macalu & underoverup.
I rotate all of my spending between the Chase Freedom and Chase United Explorer cards based on where I can maximize my rewards. Freedom is great this quarter (5% cash back on gas), and I use my United for everything else. I fly United a lot, so it's worth the $90 annual fee. There's nothing wrong with using credit cards, especially since many of them will essentially pay you to use them. Just act like an adult with it.
Off topic question. If i wanted to cancel a credit card how many points will deducted from my credit score? does anyone have an answer?
There's no set number, it depends on many different variables. Your overall limit will go down, your average tenure could decrease, if you have made consistent on time payments, you could lose that, and I'm sure I'm leaving out something. I would recommend not closing the card, just cut it up and forget about it if you really don't want it.
Thank you Boss, it's because i want to get a Citi card because my wells fargo card has no rewards and it is has a low credit line. I will definitely keep this in mind.
I learned the last week some tips about CC's. I'm the money maker and bill payer of the house, never missed a payment and my wife has 20 points higher of a credit score then I have ONLY because she opened up a CC account with American Eagle back in 2003 and forgot to close it so her average tenure with a CC is so much better then mine is. It's catch 22 with CC's sometimes because if it's a new card (0-2 yrs old), it wouldn't kill your score to close it. However, what MAY effect your score because of this is your total credit limit will drop because this card will not count anymore with it being closed. So in other words, the % of credit you're currently using will be more then what it is now. Just think twice about it. If there is no fees attached to keeping the account open, then just keep it open, cut the card up and don't think about it again for a while.
Southwest is a good card. If you spend 100k in a year you get a companion pass. Which is awesome if you have someone you travel with all the time
If you spend $100k a year? Chances are if you spend that much you have no trouble affording a plane ticket for your wife.
I think he meant points. If you obtain 110K points per year then you get a CP for a year. But I don't doubt that they would pass that along to somebody who spent $100k annually either.
As others have said it depends on a number of factors. Your credit utilization will probably rise which will cause your credit score to drop. You want to keep your credit utilization between 1 - 9% for the best score. Example: You have 3 cards, Visa, MasterCard and Discover. Each of those cards has a $5000 credit limit for a total credit limit of $15000. Let's say you have $1000 on the Visa and $0 on the others. Your current credit utilization is around 6%, not bad at all. Now let's say you close the Discover. Your total credit limit is now dropped to $10000 and your utilization has risen to 10%, low but still above that magic 9% number. The average age of your accounts is also taken into effect but closing an account does not mean you lose this but keeping it open means you gain on it. As a rule, I keep accounts open that have no annual fee because it helps the utilization and average age of accounts.
If you close a card and have multiple cards on the same carrier ie Chase then you can transfer line of credit to an existing card.
the easiest way to acquire the companion pass is to apply for the Premier AND Plus cards. after spending 2k within 3 months on each card, you'll receive a total of 100k points. you'll only need to make up the other 10K to meed the CP limit.
I've read that this works for some and not for others. These 50,000 bonus points aren't really supposed to count toward the CP but for some they do.
really? i follow mileage blogs and i can't remember reading about anyone who didn't have the 50k bonus not credited towards CP. now, did those who didn't get it earn the 100K points within a calendar year (Jan-Dec)? that's one of the caveats. if you earned 50k in December and another 50 K the following year in January the points don't accumulate. also, it's a good idea to apply for these cards a few months apart instead of simultaneously. then you only need to spend $4k in 6 months instead of 3. this also increases your chances of getting the full 100k bonus points instead of just 50k.
Yes, some of the posts I've read said they got the points and Chase denied them because they already were awarded a bonus, some say SW didn't apply it toward CP qualifying points, etc. I'm really tempted to apply for the personal plus to go for the 50k bonus x2 before the end of the year but I don't want to risk a rejection and I don't want to risk not getting the bonuses.
Uh, I think we are all aware that you are ToyCen. It really depends on what you want a card for. If it is just to spend money that you don't have (obviously a terrible idea), go for lowest APR. Fatwallet can help. If it is for points, Amex has good offers. If you fly a lot, go United or Southwest. All depends on why you want the card. I have an Amex and a United card as I fly quite a bit for work so they make sense to have. And while I put everything possible on my cards, I pay the balance in full each month, as I just use them for points
