great OP!

so i have this cc that has a $3 monthly fee. i dont use the card anymore but i dont want to cancel it either, both because its helping my credit score and because i might need it someday. so even though its <$40 a year total the fee still tilts the hell out of me. what options do i have for getting it removed? is there any chance that if i called them and threatened to close the card if they didnt remove the fee that theyd actually get rid of it? tia.

What kind of card is this?

its a mastercard. other than that im not really sure. it doesnt have any title on it or anything.

That's kind of weird. Most credit cards don't have monthly fees, they have annual fees. It's more typical of debit cards to have monthly fees.

So I've been getting calls from a CA called cbe group. They've claimed I owe 50~ from around four years ago.

I called them, spoke to a supervisor, and asked about negotiating a "pay for delete". He said Verizon owns the debt and that he couldn't negotiate a deletion of the collections account off my credit report. I also mentioned the debt hasn't been validated and he said they sent a letter to my address (which I don't live at) and the mail wasn't returned.


So what's my play? I'm not sure how much of what he said is true and overall how scummy the CA is. I don't give a **** about $50 dollars but the cost of having that TL on my credit report is obv something I'm concerned about.

ok but this credit card has a monthly fee. so what would you recommend?

Does it show up on your creditkarma or credit report? Technically CAs are not supposed to give PFD because the bureaus don't like them deleting stuff, as the bureaus get paid for being accurate. CAs are much more likely to provide PFD as an option when the debt is very large, but it's not worth the potential blowback from the bureaus for a $50 debt.

I would post on creditboards as they will know much better than I do. If he doesn't have your current address you might be able to avoid the debt and then petition for validation through the bureaus as he has an incorrect address. But if you do that you better make sure the address he has isn't listed somewhere on your credit report or you end up validating the debt by accident.

I don't know. I would cancel a card that was charging me any kind of fee if I wasn't using it or getting a benefit. Call, ask why you're being charged a fee, ask if there is any way to not be charged a fee, ask if there is a fee free card the account can be downgraded to (will still keep the history this way), or close the card. Closed cards still show up on your report for a while anyway.

Just like the CFPB recently adopted on financial institutions in the US!

If the collection is really that old I would probably just pay it and move on. After 4 years it is having such a small effect on your credit score that I doubt it is worth a lot of hassle.

Actually FICO's newest score model (FICO 2008) actually ignores a collection if it is a small amount and is the only derogatory information reflected on your bureau.

I just did mine through transunion Canada and my score is 702

With this score it states:

I am rated as fair.

Your credit ranks higher than 35.93% of the Canadian population

That score is with a perfect payment history and Ive had lots of loans. One for a $22.000 truck a $16,000 car ..all 3 of my credit cards and rogers bill

I have some pretty solid credit card debt going on right now so I checked my score. I was thinking about going into my bank to see if I can consolidate it. I wonder if a 702 score would be good enough to get that loan

A quick bump to remind everyone that AmEx Small Business Saturday registration starts today. Free $25 statement credit for every amex you have if you spend $25 at a "small business" on saturday. Amex has a map of what they consider small businesses.

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/s...id=15440867574

Examples:

My favorite restaurant is classified as a SB, so I can go and buy 3x$25 GCs and get them all for free.
The local liquor store is classified as a SB, so I can go restock the liquor cabinet

Sorry if this is a repost, there's also a $25 statement credit with a $100 Costco purchase available through syncing with Facebook - http://slickdeals.net/permadeal/8227...-pizza-kitchen

I will be buying $25 of booze on Saturday as well

Yeah there are a lot of AmEx sync deals on FB, twitter, foursquare, and xbox. They can be very valuable.

The link specifically says you can only get one $25 credit per enrolled card.

I think he has 3+ AmEx cards

Yes I know that. I should have put OR in between my examples. I was showing the different options available.

@waterfall, I think he's implying that my example looks like I think I'm going to get 3 giftcards and then 3 bottles of booze with 3 amexs, which was not what I meant.

It was worded funny I guess, thanks for the link though I would not have known about this deal and signed up for it after you posted it

Yeah, I got all excited planning my shopping spree before realizing that there was no way AmEx would give me that much free cash.

Good tip for those who have a cash back with 5% at grocery stores (e.g. AMEX Blue Cash) and shop a lot at say Amazon.

Go to Vons/Safeway/Wherever, buy a lot of Amazon gift cards with your AMEX Blue Cash/Whatever, spend the money you were going to spend at Amazon anyway with gift cards -- profit with 5% savings on Amazon purchases.

Blue Cash Preferred is 6% at grocery stores and Blue Cash Everyday is 3%. Amex recently capped the bonus earnings at $6,000 per year, so this is not as lucrative as it once was.

Other things to keep in mind is often stores will run GC promos. A store by me is offering 4x gas points for money spent on GCs. That means, for every $100 in GCs you buy with the amex BCP, you get $6 in cash back and $.40 off per gallon (around $6 on a normal tank). So you get a 12% rebate on GCs that you will use anyway.

There are a lot of cards with highly bonused spend that can leverage opportunities like this. The Hilton cards get 6x at gas stations, grocery stores, and drug stores. The Ink cards get 5x at office supply stores.

Finally, there is the trick of GC "upgrading". Buying Sears physical GCs at 5x or 10x from the Chase shopping portal, and then going to Sears or Kmart and buying gift cards you want and paying with the Sears GC.

Do you spend over $100k per year on groceries or over $200k in general? Am I missing something?

Grocery stores often sell gift cards that you can buy for the other places you shop and get 6% cash back there too.

Sorry, I phrased that incorrectly too. They capped the spending that earns 6% rewards at $6000, not the cashback earned at $6000.

Great post - oh and to explain - for my AMEX Blue, I'm actually grandfathered into an older deal (hence the 5% groceries), but when I looked at it last time for my spending habits, the older deal was better than AMEX Blue Preferred Cash (which I believe is now their standard offering for cash back weighted with higher Grocery/Gas/Pharmacy rewards, and I can switch to). I should probably look at that again...

My favorite rewards card when I traveled a lot more was AMEX Starwood. AMEX Gold and Platinum looked great for higher spending levels and traveling than where I am.