Keep in mind, it will also be a hard hit on your credit for each card you apply for, although sometimes by applying for 2 back to back, it will only be 1 hard hit. Usually, more than 4 hard hits in a 12 month time will hurt your score. The hard hits stay on your report for 24 months, but don't affect you after 12 months. If you're rejected, you can call the rejection line: 1-888-245-0625 To spend 2k is fairly simple. You and someone you trust set up separate accounts, transfer them a "payment" of 1k per month from the card. Have them give you the cash, or do a bank transfer and pay the card with that. Also, I stole this from SD: 1. Buy gift card. 2. Get gift card, get pin. (this varies by type of gift card) 3. Go to wally world and load your BB, with debit card. (use gift card as debit, it's free to load up to 5k per month) 4. Go home and pay your mortgage, car loan, college loans, whatever. Limit is 2600 per chase card per rolling 30 day period on chase gift cards. Regular gift cards from stores obviously no limit. Remember 5k BB limit though.
Here's a great subreddit on 'churning', which is pounding Credit Cards during a short time period so the increased credit checks don't hurt your credit. The rule is something like a 30 day window for multiple credit checks only counting as one. http://www.reddit.com/r/churning
I had one card the last 10 years (wellsfargo 1% cashback). finally got the balls to apply for another card. Got the chase ink business after reading blogs hoping to get 5% at office depot/visa cards..but apparently that's not possible anymore. I will have to decide what to do after I get my 60,000 pts in 3 months.
Got my first AmEx card in today. I got the basic Blue Sky, no interest for 15 months and no annual fee. Anyone have any experience with this card?
No interest for 15 months is great. If you don't mind travel rewards, this is a good card to have because you get 1.333% back on all of your purchases if you redeem them 7500 points at a time. Anything over 1% on "all" purchases is pretty good. Here's a good list of the benefits of the card. Spoilered below. Spoiler #1 – Higher Rewards Let’s be completely honest… rewards are the main reason most of us are interested in credit cards anyway. Without rewards, we would probably just stick to our debit cards. As you and I both know, many airline cards only give rebates which equal out to be a rebate of 1% or less. However, the American Express Blue Sky gives you rewards worth 1.33% on all your spending! Like most cards, it gives you 1 point per dollar spent, but each point is worth more than 1%. For every 7,500 points, you get a $100 statement credit good towards virtually any travel purchase. That means you are earning 33% more than the other guys! And right now you can get an extra 7,500 points (worth $100) when you apply. #2 – Hassle-Free Rewards Redemption With the Blue Sky card, you don’t have to worry about things like peak and off-peak, blackout dates, and other tricks. In fact, you don’t even have to worry about which airline has the better deal on the ticket you want. Instead this is how it works... American Express allows you to book your own travel however you wish. You can go to a travel agent, buy from a site like Expedia, or even buy from an airline directly! After you do that, just redeem your points and American Express will credit your account $100 for every 7,500 points! This is a huge benefit; you can choose the best deal out there, and in doing so, you are making your reward points go even further! The rewards on Blue Sky are so flexible, you can even use them for other travel related purchases like hotel, rental cars, cruises, tours, train tickets, and much more. #3 – Guaranteed Room Have you ever made a hotel reservation, only to arrive at the hotel and have them tell you it’s overbooked and they can’t fulfill your reservation? I know that’s happened to me before! Or have you ever arrived late, and because you did, they gave your room to someone else? With the American Express Blue Sky, they guarantee every hotel reservation you make using the card! This applies to all hotels! Blue savings examples#4 – Travel Discounts With the Blue Sky Travel Savings Program, you can get additional discounts at Enterprise, Alamo, Atlantis Resort, and more. For example, the discount at Hertz is up to 20 percent! #5 – Rental Car Collision Coverage Why pay extra for collision coverage on your rental car? With the Blue Sky credit card, you get free car rental collision coverage on eligible rentals! #6 – Travel Accident Insurance I sincerely hope this is a feature you will never have to use, but in the event of death or dismemberment during travel, you and your family are protected with up to $100,000 in travel accident insurance (as long as you paid for your eligible plane/train/ship/bus ticket with your American Express Blue Sky card). Again, I hope this is something that will never apply to you, but the truth is accidents happen all the time, especially overseas. It’s nice to know you are covered up to $100,000 while traveling in the U.S. as well as abroad. #7 – Purchase Protection Have you ever bought a new pair of sunglasses, only to drop them on the pavement a week or two later? Accidentally damaging something after we buy it is extremely frustrating, but it doesn’t have to be. With the Blue Sky credit card, you have “Purchase Protection.” If an eligible purchase is accidentally damaged or stolen within the first 90 days, they will pay for it… up to $1,000 per incident! So if that pair of shades is ruined, American Express has you covered! #8 – Extended Warranty How often have you bought something, only to have it break down right after the warranty expires? I don't know about you but it seems to always happen with my computers! For example, let’s say your new iPad has a one year warranty. After you have it a year and a half, the screen goes bad. Replacing that part would normally cost you several hundred dollars. But with Amex Blue Sky, the manufacturer’s US warranty is doubled on eligible purchases, up to one extra year! Yes, you heard right - American Express will replace or repair those items up to a year after their warranty has expired… for free! #9 – Return Protection Returning merchandise isn’t always easy. Maybe you lost the receipt or the store just doesn’t accept returns. Or the store may wrongfully claim the item isn’t in the same condition as it was sold. Whatever the reason may be, you get left with something you don’t want. When you pay with Blue Sky card, you don’t have to worry about these things! If a store won’t let you return something, American Express will take it back for you and refund the money! This applies up to ninety days after purchase and up to $300 for each eligible item. Try doing that with your Visa or MasterCard! #10 – No Annual Fee After reading all these benefits, you were probably guessing this card carried a hefty annual fee. Guess what? There's never an annual fee! Of course, if you would rather put your earnings into savings, you would be better off with the Fidelity Amex Card because you get 2% back on everything. If you think about it though, that's only a .67% difference, or an additional $.67 for every $100 you spend.
Heres my stats: Credit Card Utilization 32% Payments Made On Time 100% Avg Age Of Open Credit Lines 2 Yrs 11 Mos Total Accounts 15 Hard Credit Inquiries 5 Derogatory Marks 0 I have 4 credit cards open: USAA Bal. $2168 (limit $3000) Open 6/2010 Amex Bal. $1918 (limit $5000) Open 11/2007 Citi Bal. $0 (limit $1200) Open 6/2010 Cap One Bal. $0 (limit $3000) Open 5/2011 I tried getting Amex to increase my credit limit to $8000 so I could cancel my Cap One card but they declined it due to my credit utilization. I'm on the verge of getting approved for another CC that would lower my credit utilization but also lower my Avg Age of each account. What would you do in this situation?
Amex Blue and CapitalOne no hassle I used AMEX for gas and groceries and the CapitalOne for everything else. I don't care what the interest rate is. I've never carried a balance on either.
lol. it ain't a ToyCen thread if he ain't askin' about finances, mortgages, credit, getting rich quick, starting a restaurant, or how to install a tv remote control battery properly. i use Visa Rapid Rewards through Chase and Southwest Airlines but not for the rewards exclusively. also, zookeepers.
NO REWARDS! If you have a balance, and you're paying interest, here's a rare opportunity, not sure how long it's good for: Chase Slate 0% and no transfer fee on balance transfers for the first 60 days (doesn't come along too often) 15 months 0% interest "Good" credit needed vs. excellent Chase BluePrint plan which is said (known?) to help people pay off their debts twice as fast (see below) Oh, and it's a vertical card, not horizontal like all the others! Basically, this is a great card if you need to do a balance transfer, but not if you're in it to gain rewards and pay off your card in full each month.
USAA Bal. $2168 (limit $3000) Open 6/2010 Amex Bal. $1918 (limit $5000) Open 11/2007 Citi Bal. $0 (limit $1200) Open 6/2010 Cap One Bal. $0 (limit $3000) Open 5/2011 I can't explain the Cap One or Citi card.... Im thinking I got them to do a balance transfer and I never did? Not quite sure. But as mentioned above, the Slate card offers 0% APR on balance transfers and no transfer fee until October of 2014. Checked my CCs recently since my wife is handling all that and realized she is making minimum payments of $30 a month but we're paying about $15 in interest each month. So One more new CC would take care of those 2 CCs that are carrying balances. Im thankful I have "so many CCs" now since it makes my overall credit limit higher then if I didn't have them.
