OT: Credit Cards

[Austin316]

I’ve always been against credit cards. When I was younger I was terrible with finances and saw my brother fall victim to tens of thousands of dollars in debt when he was in college even tho he was on a full ride for football. He got out of that hole and has been doing well since financially and has a great lifestyle.

Today I’m wiser with finances. My credit score is great despite not having a credit card with school and car loan payments. There’s no need to boost my credit score. I purchased a house last year, getting married in a couple months, and have a solid job. I’ve been feeling pressure to finally get a credit card.

Does anyone know where to start, friendly websites, or a helpful quiz/survey I can take?

I’ve done research on my own but there’s so much out there and bankers try to sell you on what they have. Should I get one or just pay off my current debt - car and school? It adds up quite a bit and I’m not sure if it would be smart getting one.

I think this would also be a good thread for any students that are debating on getting a credit card with respect to what happened to my brother. Would love to hear your feedback.

Go Huskies!

 

[Robertelamin]

Could you share a gif of stone cold tearing a credit card by his hands first?

 

[Austin316]

Could you share a gif of stone cold tearing a credit card by his hands first?

Hahaha maybe

 

[WrenchFan69]

Start with a simple cash back card. You should be a good candidate if you have over 700. Even with the great credit score, you probably wouldn't qualify for some of the more premium cards without credit card history specifically. Every major bank has a decent or better offering in this area but my suggestion would be the Barclay Uber card as you get $100 signup bonus, 4x on dining/bars, and cell phone insurance so long as you're paying your bill with the card, along with no foreign transaction fees. Other suggestions would be Chase Freedom/Freedom Unlimited, Citi Double Cash, Capital One Quicksilver or Savor, Wells Fargo Cashwise, Bank of America Cash Rewards, Discover it, Amex Bluecash Everyday or Cash Magnet. The major differences in all these would be where they earn multiplied cash back and the signup bonuses. You could say credit cards/miles/points etc are a hobby of mine so if you have questions I could probably help.

 

[sledog]

Don't know about your spend habits, but if you gotta buy it, might as well use the cc. Sure beats lugging the check book around. And the end of year summary is a great tax receipt bene.

 

[polycom]

Thepointsguy.com website is a good place to start to understand the basics about what credit cards are out there and what points are afforded to you.

 

[WrenchFan69]

Don't know about your spend habits, but if you gotta buy it, might as well use the cc. And the end of year summary is a great tax receipt bene.

Also, certain cards offer purchase and return protections, extended warranties, and almost all have quick-fix fraud protections. Plus points/cash back. Beneficial to use it for everything and pay it offer every month

 

[JMick]

just get a rewards or cash back card and pay off the balance every month. I'm linked with my debit card and just transfer funds from my checking to pay off my card. it takes two clicks.

I'm not really a fan of them in general, but I do like to put recurring charges on it. Netflix, Spotify, any small monthly donations I make, etc. This way I keep my usage the same every month. Only negative is I don't really get any of the rewards.

 

[HuskyHawk]

I think bankrate.com also has some good info. I use credit cards for almost everything. Cash for small things. Pay everything off every month. If you aren’t starving or otherwise in a dire situation you don’t need anything badly enough to pay 20% interest on it.

 

[sledog]

Also, certain cards offer purchase and return protections, extended warranties, and almost all have quick-fix fraud protections. Plus points/cash back. Beneficial to use it for everything and pay it offer every month

Thanks. Forgot to add the protection benes. I've complained to the cc cos a few times, and won - never lost. So GREAT in a dispute.

 

[WrenchFan69]

Thanks. Forgot to add the protection benes. I've complained to the cc cos a few times, and won - never lost. So GREAT in a dispute.

The thing with credit card vs debit card is in a dispute via debit card the bank is fighting for your money and via credit card they're fighting for their money. Easy to see where the motivations lie

 

[JMick]

The thing with credit card vs debit card is in a dispute via debit card the bank is fighting for your money and via credit card they're fighting for their money. Easy to see where the motivations lie

it's why I put any kind of membership on a credit card.

 

[MadDogRevival]

The problem isn't the CC. The problem is the mind set.
If you're good with money, a CC is not a problem.
If you can't control your spending, a CC will hand walk you into financial hell.

My card pays 1.5% on everything. That works for me.
Use cash for a lot, CC for a lot, including all online.
Never use debit - somebody posted above. I've had 20 CC disputes over the years and I'm 20 for 20.
You're using somebody else's money to buy something, they give you the float on the money for a month, they give you 1.5%, and you're not responsible for fraud.
So how do they make money?
The Schmucks paying 20% interest on that movie they saw 3 years ago.
It's like your tax bill. You can pay early, and get the discount. If you pay late, you pay the late fee. What's really going on is the late payers are the Schmucks who give some of their late fee to the early payers.

So the question you have to ask is this - are you financially responsible enough to use your CC as a substitute for cash/checks rather than as a short term, high interest rate loan?

It's also good to know I can walk in and charge a civic, if need be.

 

[8893]

The problem isn't the CC. The problem is the mind set.
If you're good with money, a CC is not a problem.
If you can't control your spending, a CC will hand walk you into financial hell.

My card pays 1.5% on everything. That works for me.
Use cash for a lot, CC for a lot, including all online.
Never use debit - somebody posted above. I've had 20 CC disputes over the years and I'm 20 for 20.
You're using somebody else's money to buy something, they give you the float on the money for a month, they give you 1.5%, and you're not responsible for fraud.
So how do they make money?
The Schmucks paying 20% interest on that movie they saw 3 years ago.
It's like your tax bill. You can pay early, and get the discount. If you pay late, you pay the late fee. What's really going on is the late payers are the Schmucks who give some of their late fee to the early payers.

So the question you have to ask is this - are you financially responsible enough to use your CC as a substitute for cash/checks rather than as a short term, high interest rate loan?

It's also good to know I can walk in and charge a civic, if need be.

^^This. Don't carry a balance and you are fine. Pick the card with the benefits most valuable to you and do as much business on that as you can. I have Capital One for the flexibility of the rewards and the decent return.

 

[Marbles90]

The problem isn't the CC. The problem is the mind set.
If you're good with money, a CC is not a problem.
If you can't control your spending, a CC will hand walk you into financial hell.

My card pays 1.5% on everything. That works for me.
Use cash for a lot, CC for a lot, including all online.
Never use debit - somebody posted above. I've had 20 CC disputes over the years and I'm 20 for 20.
You're using somebody else's money to buy something, they give you the float on the money for a month, they give you 1.5%, and you're not responsible for fraud.
So how do they make money?
The Schmucks paying 20% interest on that movie they saw 3 years ago.
It's like your tax bill. You can pay early, and get the discount. If you pay late, you pay the late fee. What's really going on is the late payers are the Schmucks who give some of their late fee to the early payers.

So the question you have to ask is this - are you financially responsible enough to use your CC as a substitute for cash/checks rather than as a short term, high interest rate loan?

It's also good to know I can walk in and charge a civic, if need be.

I could not have said this any better. I’ve used a credit card for everything that takes a credit card since I was 21 for all the reasons above. I’ve never carried a balance, ever. I have also never used a debit card. People get into trouble when they think “credit line” is “my money to spend”. I couldn’t even tell you what my credit limit is on any credit card I’ve owned.

Pick the card with the benefits most valuable to you and do as much business on that as you can. I have Capital One for the flexibility of the rewards and the decent return.

Also agree with this. I use a Southwest Visa to earn SW points. While the conversion of SW points to $$ isn’t as high as the $$ rewards of other cards, the flexibility of using SW points when flying is extremely valuable to me.

 

[Austin316]

Thanks for the input guys.

@JMick good call on putting reoccurring bills onto the credit card and paying it off every month. I didn’t think of that and it would be easier to track expenses.

bankrate.com @HuskyHawk thank you
Thepointsguy.com @polycom thanks I haven’t seen this one yet.

We just purchased the house and are paying for the wedding... tons of expenses flying around. The lady and I are pulling cash together but after the wedding we will be pretty poor lol. Fingers crossed for a card here or there from the aunts and uncles. Every little bit helps! With the incentives credit cards bring cash back and points would help and makes sense to try. Seriously Appreciate all the input.

 

[mjmoney23]

The problem isn't the CC. The problem is the mind set.
If you're good with money, a CC is not a problem.
If you can't control your spending, a CC will hand walk you into financial hell.

My card pays 1.5% on everything. That works for me.
Use cash for a lot, CC for a lot, including all online.
Never use debit - somebody posted above. I've had 20 CC disputes over the years and I'm 20 for 20.
You're using somebody else's money to buy something, they give you the float on the money for a month, they give you 1.5%, and you're not responsible for fraud.
So how do they make money?
The Schmucks paying 20% interest on that movie they saw 3 years ago.
It's like your tax bill. You can pay early, and get the discount. If you pay late, you pay the late fee. What's really going on is the late payers are the Schmucks who give some of their late fee to the early payers.

So the question you have to ask is this - are you financially responsible enough to use your CC as a substitute for cash/checks rather than as a short term, high interest rate loan?

It's also good to know I can walk in and charge a civic, if need be.

Spot on! Credit cards are great if you know how to use them. As long as you know they are not free cash you should be fine. I love my rewards cards, insane my points for a once a year purchase- basketball season tickets at the XL center! I love being able to get into the games without spending a dime.

 

[David 76]

Agree. If you can control your c.f. instead of your c.f. controlling you, they are great.
What's in my wallet?
The Capitol One card that gives 2% on everything. I figured it was wort paying an annual fee and getting 2% vs the free card at 1.5.
I have others too. Sometimes the sign up bonus is too good to pass up. But I regularly use the one above. My kid was in college in FL. It paid a lot of airfare.

 

[temery]

I posted this a while ago.


Chase currently has a referral program. If you are thinking about applying for a Chase card, it’ll help if you do so by clicking the link below. If five people do so, and meet certain requirements, it’ll pay for about three weeks of server fees to keep the boneyard going.



Chase Sapphire Preferred Referral Program

Chase Ink for business

 

[EROCK CONN]

I’ve got B of A preferred cards one is 1% cb on all purchases plus an additional 75% on the balance when you cash in the rewards ( I had $500 which went to $875) and another that’s points for travel credit - I accumulated 400,000 points over the past couple years and I used them for business class seats for the wife and I on our honeymoon. I also have chase freedom (they had a 100,000 bonus point signing bonus — I think it’s still 50k) and a couple others (am. Ex.). Candidly, if you aren’t using credit cards for all your purchase that don’t have a fee involved — then you’re throwing money away. I just got married and put everything on credit cards - just ensure you pay off all balances within a couple weeks or sooner and you’ll never pay a dime of interest.

 

[J187Money]

Look at cards that enhance the things that you already do. As an example, I travel a ton for work (at least 2x a month) and do a good bit of personal travel, most of it on United. Getting the Chase United card is great because I get extra miles and I get access to the club lounges in the airports. The better the perks the more the fees are (that Chase card is $450/year) - but for me it is worth it.

 

[manbyrd]

Thanks for the input guys.

@JMick good call on putting reoccurring bills onto the credit card and paying it off every month. I didn’t think of that and it would be easier to track expenses.

bankrate.com @HuskyHawk thank you
Thepointsguy.com @polycom thanks I haven’t seen this one yet.

We just purchased the house and are paying for the wedding... tons of expenses flying around. The lady and I are pulling cash together but after the wedding we will be pretty poor lol. Fingers crossed for a card here or there from the aunts and uncles. Every little bit helps! With the incentives credit cards bring cash back and points would help and makes sense to try. Seriously Appreciate all the input.

You might not need it but if you can't pay off the balance each month with a wedding/house etc., one thing to look for is a credit card that has a 0% intro rate for a period of time. When my wife and I got married, we got a credit card with a 15 month 0% apr period, paid it off in 6 months, but its nice to avoid getting hit with interest during that period. Definitely have to be diligent about paying it off before the intro rate expires though.

I agree that it comes down to discipline, I'd echo the strategy of paying everything on credit cards you can to get the points/fraud protection, and then paying it off each month. If you're carrying or building a balance, stop using it. For site recommendations (in addition to the above mentioned) to compare card benefits I've used these too:

nerdwallet.com
wallethub.com

(but if you sign up with one use the boneyard link)

One thing I'd be aware of is that the card offering the 'best' points/benefits changes pretty frequently. Seems certain credit card companies will make a push to sign up new members and will have promotional benefits that expire after a certain time.

My daily use card is the barclays arrival plus mastercard. Offers 2.1% on all purchases and is $89/annually. Points can only be used to offset the annual fee or for 'travel statement credits' (hotels, flights, car rental, etc.) and we generally save ours up to go towards a vacation flight or hotel.

 

[Beak7774]

Amex preferred for groceries (6% on the first 6k in groceries in a year, 3% on gas). Has a fee but pays for itself. For everything else: Citi double cash (2% on everything, no fee) or alliant cash back (3% first year, 2.5% after that, small fee).

You can get even better rewards with those 5% on rotating categories cards but I don't have the patience to sign up for different stuff each quarter.

Most important thing is paying it off in full each month.

 

[amory]

Nerdwallet.com and thepointsguy.com are good places to start, to see what's out there.

If you treat your credit cards as if they were debit cards, there's only upside and you can get a lot of free stuff. Personally I have a Chase Sapphire Reserve (effectively 4.5% back on dining and travel expenses), an Amazon credit card (3% back from Amazon), a Discover card (rotating 5% cash back categories ranging from gas to groceries to restaurants), and Citi Double Cash (effectively 2% on everything, which I use for expenses that don't fall under any of the above).

So for anything I buy, I'm never getting less than 2% back in rewards. It adds up really quickly!

 

[auror]

I posted this a while ago.


Chase currently has a referral program. If you are thinking about applying for a Chase card, it’ll help if you do so by clicking the link below. If five people do so, and meet certain requirements, it’ll pay for about three weeks of server fees to keep the boneyard going.



Chase Sapphire Preferred Referral Program

Chase Ink for business

The Chase Sapphire Reserve (not the Preferrred linked) is an EXCELLENT card.

It has a nice initial rebate offer if you're foreseeing a couple big purchases ($4,000 gets you $750, about 20% off).

But especially if you travel:

• No foreign transaction fees.
• 3x points on travel and dining, which as @amory notes is actually 4.5% because you get a bonus
• It has an annual fee of $450, BUT you get $300 travel credit that is super easy to redeem (any hotel, flight, hell even Uber rides can be used for it and the $750 covers 5 years of the card $150 remainder).
• Free entry into airport lounges
• Free TSA Pre Check or Global Entry
• Free rental car insurance