Advice with credit cards, and which ones?

robvas

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If you want to get your score up:
Get a full credit report!
Make sure you don't owe anyone a dime. Dentist bills, old cell phone bills, anything. Make phone calls and get that shit straightenedout.
Pay all your credit cards off. Don't close the accounts if they have been open for a while. If they have only been open for 1-3 years, close them as they bring your average down.
But don't close any cards that have > $10k limits. You want those open.
Do the math on balance transfers. There's always a fee. It's only worth it if you can take a 20% balance and put it on a low low one.
Start paying all your shit off. Start with your credit cards, and then your cars. You can do lowest balances first or highest interest rates. Whichever keeps you motivated.
Go in your garage/basement and sell anything worth more than $25 that you haven't touched in a year. Start tossing shit up on craigslist or marketplace. You'll make a couple hundred to a couple thousand bucks this way.
Buy all your shit on a credit card and pay it off every week. The reason I say that is that if you wait until the end of the month you will be shocked that you've spent thousands more than you think!
Try to get a 2% back card to do your daily purchases on. You can either take the cash back or just apply it to the balance of the card. The money is just in one hand or the other.

About 9 years ago I foreclosed a house, had a 500 credit score and had $20k in debt. Now I'm debt free (except my house which is 40% paid off) and have an 820
 

AustinSN

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Everyone else here has plenty of good information.

Keep it paid off, do NOT outspend yourself.

I have a chase freedom card that works just fine, it was free and gives me cash back.

My other card is an expensive one that I use for most other things, it gives more cash back and has pretty insane rewards. I would say in points alone over the past 4 or so years, it's paid for 9-10 hotel stays, probably 5 or so rental cars, 2 iphones and 2 mac books.

I use the freedom card when they have a quarterly 5% cash back, then transfer the points to my expensive card to get better value on travel/certain items.
 

BlueSnake01

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On the recommendation of another SVTP member, I applied for Citi Card which has a 2 Points cash back rewards program, no annual fee.

1 point awarded for purchase.
1 point awarded for paying the purchase off

We charge everything to it except for things like loan payments that cant be paid via credit card.

We pay it off every month. Its easier to track our spending too. After 6 months, we accumulated $335.00 cash back. Thats car parts or a free AirBnb for Mustang Week


Sidenote, PROPERTY, like a house mortage helps build credit. Was so exited to sell my house after 15 years. My credit score fricken dropped :mad:

Lots of paid off car loans help too :devilish::devilish:
Thats my main card as well, I use it like a debit card.

Pay everything I spend before end of month. Pretty sweet getting 2% cashback for practically nothing.
 

4stang6

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Thanks everyone for the solid advice! I really appreciate it! If anyone has anything else to add, Lets hear it. Looks like some others are finding this useful.
 

9397SVTs

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While I don't have experience with cards that offer points or other "rewards", I have heard of studies that show people tend to overspend because of these incentives.

An example of what I am familiar with is Frys points. (grocery store) For every $100.00 spent, you save $.10/gal on gas. For an average fill up on my DD, I would save $.90- $1.00. Am I going to chase $100.00 increments all to save $1.00 on gas? I don't think so.

Don't fall for the hype. Do you think the CC industry is trying to help you with these rewards/incentives?

It's all about money.

Your money.

And how they can get their hands on it.
 

DSG2003Mach1

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While I don't have experience with cards that offer points or other "rewards", I have heard of studies that show people tend to overspend because of these incentives.

An example of what I am familiar with is Frys points. (grocery store) For every $100.00 spent, you save $.10/gal on gas. For an average fill up on my DD, I would save $.90- $1.00. Am I going to chase $100.00 increments all to save $1.00 on gas? I don't think so.

Don't fall for the hype. Do you think the CC industry is trying to help you with these rewards/incentives?

It's all about money.

Your money.

And how they can get their hands on it.

of course like Amazon you go to buy a $10 thing but to get it tomorrow you have to spend $35. Anything they do to get you away from spending actual cash out of your hand encourages you to spend more

I dont see where any of my cards rewards programs encourage you to spend to hit a tier to earn something/earn more but at the same time they want to know that you're gonna pull out THEIR card more of than someone else.

That being said I do intend to take a look at my spending/rewards programs over the last year, I get the feeling Im proooobably better off just getting a flat 2% back on everything.
 

Adower

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Find out what your highest expense is per month. Whether that Be food or gas or whatnot. Find the card that has the highest rewards for that expense.

For us it is monthly groceries/eating out. So we got a card that pays high rewards for those two categories.

Ensure to pay off the card in full monthly.
 

4stang6

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So if a credit card has a $2500 limit, Its best to ONLY use 10%($250) of that and pay off each month? or would it be okay to use whatever the amount as long as you pay it off each month??
 

Gpcalero

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So if a credit card has a $2500 limit, Its best to ONLY use 10%($250) of that and pay off each month? or would it be okay to use whatever the amount as long as you pay it off each month??

Read my response from earlier.

Just keep it under 50% utilization and always pay off the months balance. You could pay the entire balance, if you wanted. I don’t think you need to. More important to never miss a payment or underpay the billed month’s balance.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

DSG2003Mach1

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So if a credit card has a $2500 limit, Its best to ONLY use 10%($250) of that and pay off each month? or would it be okay to use whatever the amount as long as you pay it off each month??
I may have been incorrect on that since it turns out my score was being ****ed with my ex wife’s activities
 

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