skinfan2k Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 Who does it? Who is successful at it? How many credit cards do you have? Which ones do you recommend? Thought we could start a thread that talk about the advantages of credit cards and which ones are the best for cash back/rewards/hotels, etc? Did anyone recently get the Chase Sapphire Reserve? It's a $450 annual fee but the card will give you $1600 dollars towards travel once you met their spending requirement in the first 3 months? Discuss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elessar78 Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 I gave up on using credit cards over ten years ago. My credit score is in the 98th percentile now. Back then, I carried a small balance here and there. Paid it off and never looked back. It's not to say credit cards are evil. Some play a good credit card game earning points, rewards and cash back. I like my life uncomplicated so I don't do it. Personally, it's a game cc companies created so it's rigged in their favor. Like casinos, probably, the house wins 99 percent of the time in the long run. jist like the stock market when people talk about it, all you hear are excellent plays. But there's a reason the average American household carries$16k in credit card debt. But then again this is Lake Extremeskins where everyone is exceptional. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Springfield Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 I have a Chase Sapphire Preferred. I got it because it's a hefty metal card. Don't really use it except on meals when we dine out. I have a Discover card as well that I prefer. Higher limit and cash back rewards. I like the cash back better. I like the idea of security of a CC against fraud. Also, little perks like warranties on products you buy, etc. That said, I just bought a home in May and I'm carrying more debt than I'd like at the moment. It's win-lose as far as I'm concerned. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheGreatBuzz Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 I keep getting offers for the visa black card. Thinking about pulling the trigger. Sounds like some of their offers are pretty rock star. And I like the prestige. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinz4Life12 Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 Yes, I got the Chase Sapphire Reserve when the bonus miles were still 100k. I believe that dropped down to 50k recently. Anyways, it's a no brainer if you are taking a big trip within the year. It also comes with a $300 travel credit, access to airport lounges, and a credit for TSA pre check.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinfan2k Posted January 31, 2017 Author Share Posted January 31, 2017 1 minute ago, Skinz4Life12 said: Yes, I got the Chase Sapphire Reserve when the bonus miles were still 100k. I believe that dropped down to 50k recently. Anyways, it's a no brainer if you are taking a big trip within the year. It also comes with a $300 travel credit, access to airport lounges, and a credit for TSA pre check.. How are you moving forward with this card? Are you going to renew after year 1? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinsHokieFan Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 I do wont go into too many details but I now have lots of cards/points/tickets and still maintain a high credit score not hard to do Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tshile Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 You have to find a card that works for you... we stopped traveling recent switched to the Costco Amex and was racking up tons of dollars we'd cash at Costco (or spend, either way, no fee to cash) Then Amex lost the contract Now doing the discove it card. 5% back on things that rotate every 3 months, 3% most everywhere else, and like 1% on whatever isn't covered. But... they double your Cashback after the first year. I got a pretty nice check after a year. We put everything but our mortgage and one utility on it. I don't even carry any cash at all. Works great, but you have to have the cash to pay it off every month... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bearrock Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 Amex everyday blue for 6% back on first 6k of grocery, costco visa for gas, dining, and costco, then Amazon prime card for 5% back on amazon. We pay the full balance every month, so no interest and no neg impact on credit score. Plus the extended warranty and fraud protection. When used deliberately and responsibly, credit cards can be a great tool imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
No Excuses Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 I don't churn but I have two cards that give me fairly good utility. One is the Amex Blue Sky Preferred. It has an annual fee but it pays for itself because you can waive off a good amount of airline incidental fees with it. My primary card is the Barclay Arrival Plus. It has one of the more generous points systems for a card in the form of airline mileage, that can be applied to any airline booking. Their customer service sucks though. Between the two, I can essentially have one free vacation a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skinz4Life12 Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 1 hour ago, skinfan2k said: How are you moving forward with this card? Are you going to renew after year 1? No, I'm going to use it for a trip to Europe this summer and then cancel it before the renewal fee next year. At that point I'll go back to my Capital One Venture card Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimmySmith Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 Haven't had a card in years. In my 20's, I had black ones, silver ones, clear ones. In my 30's I had a kid and ran the card into the 20K's and paid it off. The remodeled my house and did it again. No more. Cash for everything for the last 15 years. Not down on cards, just have never been good with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
techboy Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 I do it, though not recently (haven't had to). In a lot of ways, the glory days are over. There was a time you could literally apply for the same card over and over and over, collecting a bonus and cancelling it, rinse and repeat. The Citi AA card was especially famous for this, though I never got super aggressive. Some people were getting 3 cards every two months, though, at 20k miles a pop. Now it's a lot harder... Amex has implemented a once in a lifetime rule for each card. Chase has something similar, though if you wait long enough you can get a bonus again. Chase also has the 5/24 rule now where if you've gotten 5 new cards (including authorized users) in 24 months, it's an auto rejection. It used to be if a bonus appealed, the best idea was to go for it. Now it's much better to wait for the biggest offers, like the sapphire one, which can be worth a heck of a lot more if used right, because those 100,000 points can be transferred into miles or hotel points that can be valued a lot higher than $1000 with the right usage patterns. But, it's worked for us. My wife and I have travelled to Europe two, sometimes three times a year, in business class, for like fifteen years, and haven't paid more than taxes and fees for a ticket (plus time to monitor and learn the system, of course, which isn't insubstantial). It's allowed us to live that one part of our lives well above our means. It's actually pretty funny to me... we go from sipping champagne and eating celebrity chef designed menus in business class to riding a city bus to our pension. The absolute best part, though, is how much it annoys zoony that I can snag award tickets which he thinks should go to actual fliers. Pfffft.* Churning is like credit card use X100, though... You have to be REALLY on top of things to avoid losing out on the deal. It's certainly not for everyone. *In reality, the money airlines make selling miles to credit card companies has kept several of them afloat (or in the case of United, for example, literally getting them out of bankruptcy), so his rage is misplaced, and there's nothing to feel bad about anyway. *EDIT TO ADD* The upshot, though, is that "churning" is mostly dead, because that refers to the process I mentioned of applying for the same bonus and card over and over. There are still some ways to do it, especially with some minor card compaines, but the biggest most lucrative ones (which were Chase and Amex) have shut a lot of that down, and since the best bonuses tend to come from Chase, and they don't want to see more than four new cards every two years anyway, it's probably a bad idea even if it can be done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skinsmarydu Posted January 31, 2017 Share Posted January 31, 2017 It's the "emergency" card, and we rarely use it. When I say rarely, I mean for when I buy my work shoes online, once or twice a year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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