I was in the low 600's when this thread started, most recent score is 764. Thanks!

They're each for-profit companies that act independently of each other. Their models and algorithms will be slightly different, hence the standard 5-10 point deviation. 40-70 points is a HUGE move. It's possible that one reported something sooner than the other, whether it is correct or not.

You need to find out why your score potentially changed that much. Did you do something like open a mortgage, use a CC for a huge purchase and not pay it off yet, or miss a payment or two? If you haven't done anything lately that would change it that much, you need to dig and figure out why it changed so much. Perhaps it was a mistake on their part, perhaps someone else has opened credit under your name and let it default... Go to annualcreditreport.com and get your free report from each bureau if you haven't gotten them in a year. You are legally entitled to get your credit report once per year for free.

FYI, in the past when I opened 6 credit cards in one day my credit score only dropped like 10-15 points...

Edit: Just realized you said it jumped (my advice was if it went down). Most likely cause is that you paid down a CC that had previously been keeping you at a high utilization or something negative on your report just fell off. Experian just hasn't received the same notification yet. 40-70 point jump is great, but you should still be able to figure out why.

That's impressive!

It's always nice to have a place to throw ideas around (where you don't get flamed, such as other forums) because there's always plenty to learn and something you miss.

Hawaii trip booked for December 11-18!

ATL to LIH and back for 120,000 SkyMiles

7 nights at the Grand Hyatt Kauai with our four free nights from the Hyatt card and 75K UR transferred to Hyatt thanks to my Ink Plus.

Nice enjoy your trip.

I loved Kauai.

@Demi did you register to receive 10% of your hyatt pts back?

Edit: NVM, seems your stay dates are after the promo period.

I was not aware of this, but I definitely will since I'm about to book a night in Asheville for the Fall before the Hyatt there goes from category 1 to 3.

finally made some use with my points as well in regards to good travel. orlando + tampa, 4 nights + rental car, $33 out of pocket but at friends house for two nights. family of four (one infant) going IND and back for 22k southwest points. thanks for helping me get the companion pass guys , definitely not using it to its potential though this year , didn't plan this one well


anyone seeing anything wrong with paying a few g's to buy an automobile on a credit card if i notify cc companies ahead of time? i know i have asked this before but it seems simple, i do not foresee any reasons why this should not be easy to do

From 560-700 in ~4-5 months. Thanks guys. Getting the secured card probably was the biggest factor in the score jumping up (allowed me to get other cards that had benefits instead of just nothing).

most dealers will take a few thousand on a cc but not an entire purchase
notifying your cc company first is a good idea.

Wait, what? I have this card. How are you earning that many points? I use my card for everything and I only have like 50,000 at the moment. I have redeemed a bunch for a couple flights but still, what gives?

Seeing **** after googling mosaic. Need to earn 15,000 base flight points? How much do I have to spend on flights to make this happen?

OP can correct me if I'm wrong, but my guess is that they got all of those points from a recent promotion where JetBlue would match your Virgin America points balance after you flew a single flight on JetBlue. My account now looks remarkably similar

(The credit card link was to transfer in a bunch of points to Virgin from a transferrable credit card, like the SPG card, before applying for the JetBlue match.)

Yeah, I took advantage of the VX / B6 points match. I also opened the credit card, so my jet blue account went from ~8k points to ~108k points in a month.

To get mosaic by flying its $4000 worth of flights with 30+ segments (12k earned base points), or $5000 worth of flights, no segment count required (15k earned base points). If you have status with another airline you can status match for mosaic and only need $1250 worth of flights.

Just got approved for chase sapphire after getting rejected a month or so ago.

Couldn't have done it without you guys, seriously thank you so much.

Buddy of mine is looking for a credit card. Already owns a house and appears to have very solid payment history on all utilities, but just never applied for a CC.

He and his wife don't travel a ton, but they do take a vacation or two every year. They do eat out a lot and enjoy other entertainment.

What card (cash back, it sounds like) is best for him to start out with? Preferably one with a good introductory offer.

Freedom would be my guess?

for eating out Freedom is great now, with the 5%, but TD bank has one that is 2% back at restaurants all the time

Freedom is good, but don't overlook Discover which is doubling earned CB for new enrollees for the first year. (I assume that introductory promo is still on-going.) He can Google the rotating quarterly CB categories for each to compare them.

If they can meet the Sapphire Preferred spend requirement, I would start with that. This is pretty much the optimal situation for the SP and I never recommend that card. It jives well with the big eating out expense plus the occasional travel plus a good signup bonus. It also lives under Chase 5/24 and will be very hard to get in the future.

They earn the bonus, enjoy the perks fee free, and after one year downgrade to the Sapphire regular, which is fee free and still gets 2UR on dining. To me 2UR is much better than 2%. If that seems to difficult a standard 2% cashback or a 3/2/1 type card is fine.

Now that I have the 2 main cards that I want, should I be looking to close my secured card to get my deposit back and avoid the $25 annual fee next year or should I wait until it converts (hopefully to a card without an annual fee) and just keep it open? I assume closing the card now may hurt my score a bit?

Closing your card will affect your overall credit utilization, but otherwise shouldn't hurt. It depends how much credit you have on your Sapphire and other cards and if you let your statements close, or if you pay off your card before the statement closes. The card will stay on your credit report for 10 years. Just make sure that it shows up as closed at customer's request, or something similar.

It's probably not worth keeping it open IMO.

The good thing about the CSP is that URs are potentially worth more than 1 cent per point, but they can also be cashed out at 1 cent per point for cold, hard cash.

Although I think it's an extremely valuable card, if he's never had a CC, I would recommend a no fee card that he can use, or not use, and not worry about paying an AF on. Perhaps the Freedom, Discover IT, Citi 2% CB, maybe something else. It really depends how much hassle he wants to go through and how much value he might get out of point, miles, or CB.

Although he specified he preferred it had a good introductory offer. The CSP intro offer wipes the floor with all other cards we've mentioned before. Calling in a year and downgrading is just a fact of life for me but you're right that maybe it might be too much for a newbie.

At the same time, he could accidentally pay the annual fee for 3 years and still make out better than w/ the freedom etc based on signup bonus alone.