Credit Cards Deals??

[Mel7706]

Just read an article in the WSJ about great mileage deals some of the cards are offering. Anyone have firsthand experience with the new credit card offers?

 

[ronparise]

I dont know anything about miles, but the paypal debit card offers 1% cash back

 

[DeniseM]

www.flyertalk.com is the TUG of airline credit card deals.

 

[am1]

Capital One. 3% on all travel purchases that can you be used for any travel charges.

 

[Bucky]

Chase Sapphire is giving 50000 bonus points if you spend over $3K in the first 90 days of use. Equivalent to about $600 in airfare. Stay away from SWA. Their new program is terrible. We had used them for years and just recently we priced two RT tickets from RDU to ONT and return in Mar 2012 and they wanted 84K points!! The same route we paid like the equivalent of approx 32K points the year before!

 

[MichaelColey]

www.flyertalk.com is the TUG of airline credit card deals.

I'll second that. They have a sub-forum specifically for credit card offers, plus if you're interested in a specific airline you'll find airline-specific information in the sub-forum for that airline.

For ongoing credit card spending, many of us LOVE the Starwood AmEx. You earn one Starpoint per dollar spent and you can transfer Starpoints to a myriad of airlines (including American, which isn't a choice with Membership Rewards). When you transfer 20k Starpoints, you receive 25k airline miles (with most airlines), so you effectively earn 1.25 miles per dollar. You can also get excellent values using Starpoints for Starwood hotels (Sheratin, Westin, W, Four Points, etc.), which is probably less important for most people here.

There have been some incredible signup offers with many airline credit cards over the last few years. Some Citi AAdvantage cards gave bonuses up to 100k (the best is 75k right now) and you could apply for up to two at a time. Some were churnable (although most if not all of those are gone now), which means you could apply, do the required spending, get the bonus miles, cancel the cards, then repeat. I accumulated several hundred thousand AA miles that way.

If you do much travel at all, FlyerTalk is definitely worth checking out.

 

[MuranoJo]

I've gotten some fantastic offers in the mail for some of these--mega miles for joining, but I've not pulled the trigger. I know some folks sign up for these things and then 'churn' them. My credit score is way up there, but each sign-up initiates an inquiry and then a hit (albeit small in my case) to your credit score. Plus one more exposure of your confidential information.

OK, I may be a bit paranoid, but is it really worth it to play this?

 

[MichaelColey]

The hit to your credit score is minimal and short-term. I think only hard inquiries in the past 2 years are a factor. If you have great credit, it's not even going to make an impact. If you have iffy credit, definitely take it into consideration as every little thing helps.

I've accumulated hundreds of thousands of miles doing this. What's that worth? That's enough to fly my family to Hawaii two or three times. It's well worth it to me.

 

[csudell]

Chase Sapphire is giving 50000 bonus points if you spend over $3K in the first 90 days of use. Equivalent to about $600 in airfare. Stay away from SWA. Their new program is terrible. We had used them for years and just recently we priced two RT tickets from RDU to ONT and return in Mar 2012 and they wanted 84K points!! The same route we paid like the equivalent of approx 32K points the year before!

I just got the Chase Sapphire and thanks for the info on SWA. I have their card but havent used it with the new program yet. If I find problems, I'll be switching to a new card.

 

[Laurie]

What's the best way to close or cancel the card, once you've got your miles? Just call and cancel?

 

[antjmar]

Just read an article in the WSJ about great mileage deals some of the cards are offering. Anyone have firsthand experience with the new credit card offers?

Not mileage but I prefer cashback or gift cards anyway, I signed up for these two. Too good to pass up IMO.

I will get $500 back if I spend $1000 in 3 months with amex premier rewards and they waived first year fee. $175 after that (i'll cancel it)

$500 back with citibank "thank you" card must spend $2000 in first 3 months no annual fee.

 

[GetawaysRus]

What's the best way to close or cancel the card, once you've got your miles? Just call and cancel?

Yes, you can call and cancel. But the conventional wisdom is to WAIT at least 6 months. It's reported that some banks have pulled back the bonus points/miles if someone cancels too quickly.

The banks know that many will be tempted to do this. So actually what has happened is that card perks have gotten good enough that you will be tempted to keep the card. Or they may offer you a credit to cover the fee. Here are some examples:

I hang on to my Chase Marriott card despite the annual fee because I get a free night hotel stay at a category 1-5 Marriott each year. And I may also hang on to my Chase Priority Club card because of the annual free night stay. I'm also likely to keep the Chase Sapphire Preferred card because of the card benefits. (We like to travel. The Sapphire Preferred offers double points on travel expenses, and those points are very flexible.) The AmEx Starwood card is another one that is hard to cancel becasue SPG points are so valuable. With Citibank, it is often possible to get the annual fee waived (or get a credit to cover the fee) if you call to cancel.

 

[Bucky]

If I find problems, I'll be switching to a new card.

That's exactly why I ended up getting the Sapphire card. I had been a SWA member for several years until this recent change of theirs basically ruined their program IMO.

 

[glypnirsgirl]

I've gotten some fantastic offers in the mail for some of these--mega miles for joining, but I've not pulled the trigger. I know some folks sign up for these things and then 'churn' them. My credit score is way up there, but each sign-up initiates an inquiry and then a hit (albeit small in my case) to your credit score. Plus one more exposure of your confidential information.

OK, I may be a bit paranoid, but is it really worth it to play this?

It has been worth it for Ian and I. We each got 2 of the 100K mile cards (no longer being offered) and I was able to add a 3rd business card for 75K miles. Each of us are going to be flying first class round trip to Asia this year. Last year we went round trip business class to Hawaii.

Credit inquiries hit scores harder when the percentage of credit available is less than 35 per cent. If you keep your overall balances below 30 per cent of your available credit, the impact on your score should be minimal.

And the credit inquiries do not affect score for a long period of time. IIRC, the credit inquiries only track for 6 months.

We don't churn our cards. We each got the offers that we qualified for and we have not cancelled the cards.I am more concerned about the available credit and historical credit issues than I am concerned about the credit inquiry issues.

Ian and I each have credit accounts that we have had for more than 20 years. We will never close those accounts.

elaine

 

[MuranoJo]

OK, you and Michael have me convinced we should give this a shot. It's just the ongoing disclosure of your confidential information that somewhat concerns me. But heck, if they really want it they can get it online these days.

I've about burned off my old UA miles in FC upgrades to HI, so need to find another course for future trips, as I don't travel that much for work these days.

And BTW, I have been meaning to post some of my own experiences on your other thread regarding tripping to Asia. I'll get to it after a bit.

 

[Talent312]

What's the best way to close or cancel the card, once you've got your miles? Just call and cancel?

B4 closing a card, check its credit limit. Your FICO score is affected by the ratio of your total reported balance (even if paid off each month) to your total available credit. You may want leave open CC's with high limits, even if you don't intend to use 'em again (unless there's an annual fee).

I have a BoA card with $45K limit that I haven't used in over five years, with no threat of closure for inactivity. All it does is keep my total credit limit up there.

 

[javabean]

I've been looking at the Continental airlines card as an option. Nice incentive, double miles on flight purchases. Continental is our carrier of choice when we fly. I do follow flyer talk but wanted to get opinions here. Chase Marriott is our primary card but we have not realized much from Chase Saphire as our secondary card and they just hit us with a high annual fee.

 

[Mel7706]

Looks like the AA 75,000 mile deal

is gone. We are looking at the new Citi AA 50,000 mile offer now and possibly
the Chase card. Still reading about others and surfing mileage sites. Thanks all!!

 

[MichaelColey]

B4 closing a card, check its credit limit. Your FICO score is affected by the ratio of your total reported balance (even if paid off each month) to your total available credit. You may want leave open CC's with high limits, even if you don't intend to use 'em again (unless there's an annual fee).

Yes, but another factor is average age of credit, and those new ones will drag that down. Canceling the new ones will improve that. Also, it's possible to have TOO MUCH credit relative to your income. As long as your utilization (i.e. total balance / available credit) is under about 30%, you're in excellent shape.

 

[rickandcindy23]

We froze our credit, and now applying for credit is a pain. We have all the cards we need and unfroze our credit last to get our Alaska Airlines cards. We are thrilled with those companion fares.

The Chase Venture is still our best value for flying elsewhere (other than Hawaii). And we can build miles on Southwest and United through our actual flying miles, then we get our airfare free with the Venture card. I feel we get double rewards.

Frontier used to be our main mode of travel, but they are just bad now. Using our FF miles with them in January, then they lose our biz forever.

 

[ampaholic]

We froze our credit, and now applying for credit is a pain. We have all the cards we need and unfroze our credit last to get our Alaska Airlines cards. We are thrilled with those companion fares.

The Chase Venture is still our best value for flying elsewhere (other than Hawaii). And we can build miles on Southwest and United through our actual flying miles, then we get our airfare free with the Venture card. I feel we get double rewards.

Frontier used to be our main mode of travel, but they are just bad now. Using our FF miles with them in January, then they lose our biz forever.

I thought Venture was a Capital One card? Mine is anyway - What's in you wallet?

 

[ampaholic]

-snip-

I have a BoA card with $45K limit that I haven't used in over five years, with no threat of closure for inactivity. All it does is keep my total credit limit up there.

Wow, how did you get them to go that high - the most limit they'll give me is 25K?

 

[MOXJO7282]

B4 closing a card, check its credit limit. Your FICO score is affected by the ratio of your total reported balance (even if paid off each month) to your total available credit. You may want leave open CC's with high limits, even if you don't intend to use 'em again (unless there's an annual fee).

I have a BoA card with $45K limit that I haven't used in over five years, with no threat of closure for inactivity. All it does is keep my total credit limit up there.

I have one with $95k and I haven't used for years but don't want to close and hope they don't. I like it there as a safety net in case I have an emergency and need to buy a TS.

I got it years ago when they were giving 0% credit away like candy and used it to finance my TS purchases. And even though I haven't used in years they haven't reduced.

 

[Talent312]

Wow, how did you get them to go that high - the most limit they'll give me is 25K?

There was a time in this fair land when the banks handed out credit like candy. It was then that I had 2 MBNA cards which totalled $45K (the second one was a mistake). Then BoA bought MBNA and seemed to think it was a good idea to let me to combine the two cards and their limits.

 

[MuranoJo]

Wow, how did you get them to go that high - the most limit they'll give me is 25K?

I also have an old UA Visa that has a credit limit this high and I've had it over 20 years I guess. All I get are miles, though, no cash back. I use only a very small % of this every month and pay it in full every month. Have an annual fee of $60., but hate to close it out.