Credit card usage bumps from 3% to 4% due to a busy month with client dinners. CK says credit scores down 15 and 17 points and that seems to be the only reason for a change.

The credit game is just absurd.

Yeah no kidding. My utilization went down like 3% but 3 new offers (2 for actual new cards from new companies) all popped up immediately. Unreal.

a 20 pt reduction is virtually meaningless if your score is decent,

if it really concerns you, when you have another heavy month, just make a payment before the statement closing date (if you can, some cards won't let you)

It doesn't, it would be a trivial exercise to just pay off the cards tomorrow instead of waiting until closer to the due date. Just bitching for the sake of bitching and because I like the shiny top tier numbers.

Anyone here knowledgeableon how PRE-PAID credit/debit cards work and which one(s) are the best?

I've never used or bought one before; was at Walmart recently, there offer lots of different cards, lots of different fees, etc., so hoping to get advice/direction instead of having to sort it out by myself. What I'm looking for:

Lowest overall fees

Preferably RE-LOADABLE, and via cash deposit onto card at a Walmart, Walgreens, etc., not via transfer from a bank account.

A card without a maximum balance limit or at least a higher than average limit--many of the cards appeared to have a limit on the amount you could deposit onto the card at any one time, i.e., $500, and many of them seemed to have a limit on the balance you could have on the card at any one time, again, max $500 balance.

Are any of these cards anonymous, or do you always have to go online and "register" the card to your name, address, social security #, etc.?

I do NOT care about ATM/cashback fees or the ability to do direct deposits or link card to a bank account.

If anyone has links to helpful websites, that would be appreciated.

I have a Delta Amex that I have had for more than 10 years. It has a 0 balance. I do not want that credit card anymore but this is by far my oldest credit card account. It is also the account with the biggest line of credit.

Can I change the Delta card for a different kind of Amex and have the balance and open date remain the same?

you can ask they have a chat feature at americanexpress.com

log in and ask, should not take long at all

Have now long since cleared my CSP bonus and looking for the next. I am thinking I'm just going to hop right onto the CSR, for 3 reasons:

1) It's "better" than CSP and my intention would be to transfer the credit line from CSP to CSR if they'll allow it before my next CSP fee hits.

2) I think this is the only other big card that's 4/24, so once I'm over that hump I can go hog wild on lots of smaller cards (one or more airlines, stores, lesser bonus general cards, etc.).

3) Seems foolish to wait and HOPE for it to go back to 100K bonus or higher than 50K. They've already changed other rules (such as the $300 credit now being tied to card year rather than calendar year) due to presumably losing their shirts on this card.

Reasonable?

EDIT: I also used my CSP points suboptimally, apparently. Ideally you transfer to United miles, Southwest, or another partner when there's a good opportunity. I used them through the Chase travel portal; better than cash value but not optimal.

I have had a biz cc from Capital One for about 10 years; I used it to purchase all the inventory for my business, which I closed nearly two years ago. Since then I use the credit card very little, but keep it open/active as I have a ton of reward points on this card.

Recently I received a letter from Cap 1 stating "We noticed that you have not been using a significant portion of the credit line from your account ending in ****. To better fit your usage, we have changed your credit limit from $35,000 to $10,000."

I have a lot of other credit cards (I don't carry balances on any of them), so on a practical level I don't really care that they lowered my credit line. However, how will this will affect my credit score?

CSR is a great card and I don't imagine it going up to 100k again except through maybe special bank promos or relationships. There are a lot of cards that are under 5/24, so maybe check the list (link). If you're <5/24, I'd recommend picking up chase cards one at a time before switching to any other issuer.

My personal route if I was 1/24 and only had the CSP:

1) Product change CSP to CFU
2) CSR
3) Ink (if you need any of the categories, if not, for the bonus), or if worried about business card then a 20k+ bonus on freedom
4) Marriott
5) United

But that's for me personally. A lot of people would get 2 SW cards for the companion pass. Either way, I think long term the CSR + CFU is a really good combination that covers most bases and earns a great return (2.25+%) with very little effort.

After that you can branch out to other non-5/24 cards from chase or another issuer of your choice.

Should have very little effect if any.

So update to the above @BaltimoreJones
Important that you product change to a freedom before doing anything else based on a memo that was just leaked today:
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/chase...-cant-get-csr/

Ugh I was just thinking about getting a CSP on top of my CSR for the 50k bonus

Here's what I would do in your situation:
Use up the travel credit, get the Priority Pass card issued, use up TSA or Global Entry Credit for the CSR, and then PC to a Freeom. Won't have the 50% travel redemption bonus through the portal. Then apply for the CSP. I transfer points to Southwest mainly though, so I don't care about the 50% portal bonus.

Not ideal if you want to keep the CSR long term though. :/

Yea I want CSR for the long run, unfortunately. Oh well, I already got the CSP once a few years ago so I still got that value

You could try to get an INK instead

Hm good point. I've avoided those to-date because I've got nothing close to a business but will look into it

Utilization is a big part of your score. If you already have very low usage, it won't matter. If you utilization is a littler higher and this your only card, or it constitutes a lot of your revolving credit, it could matter a great deal.

The best amount of credit to utilize score-wise is almost none (but not actually $0, as you get dinged for that.) So if you have $2 reporting, it won't matter to your score if you have 1k in total lines or 1mil. But in your case, let's say you had 50k in total revolving lines of credit before you lost 25k, and you were utilizing 5k. Well, you just went from 10% to 20% utilization, and that will certainly have some effect.

So, it depends.

Argh!! There's also the 24-month bonus rule though, and I got it in the last couple of months. So I'm screwed. This is now the second time that I've screwed up bad on CSR by a matter of a day or two (was literally about to apply).

Considered taking a shot anyway and hoping the systems weren't updated, but recent reports are that has failed; plus the T&C are now officially updated (they weren't as of 1-2 days ago).

Damnit.

Now the question would be, should I straight-up convert from CSP to CSR with no bonus to get the better benefits.

Plan B: United MileagePlus card through Chase, 60k bonus when I clicked the link through my existing MileagePlus account. Will try to see if I'm at 4/24, and if so might apply for one more Chase today.

Last month I went to Colorado for vacation; yesterday I received a traffic ticket from city of Boulder for a "Red Light Camera" violation. Avis (rental car company) will auto-charge my credit card a $30 "processing fee" to the credit card they have on file.

The "Notice of Violation" from city of Boulder states that "This violation will NOT be a part of operator's driving record and NO points will be assessed." I'm considering not paying the fine ($75.00) and I don't care to discuss whether that's the correct thing to do or not.

The notice goes on to state that "Delinquent cases are referred to a collection agency. This impacts your credit rating and increases the total amount due by 25%."

Anyone know if this is true or not? If I don't pay fine and don't pay collection agency, will my credit take a hit??

If they actually send it to collections, of course your credit will be impacted.

It goes under negative remarks and it's weighted quite a lot

I have two nominal amounts in collections. Should I just pay them off, even though they say they can't/won't delete them once paid in full?

If you can't get them to agree to a pay for delete in writing, don't bother. Open collections and paid collections hurt the same.

If they are medical or utility collections, you might be able to get rid of them anyway.

I thought they changed this.



http://www.creditcards.com/credit-ca...ash-credit.php

http://www.creditcards.com/credit-ca...gment-lien.php

Very cool - I didn't know that. Although I would not be terribly surprised if sometimes it ends up on the report and you would need to dispute it off.

Another cool thing I found while researching is a consumer friendly update from a collections agency:

https://www.midlandcreditonline.com/...dit-reporting/