They are both from 2009. I've read the "date of last activity" can be screwed with by collection agencies to make them stay forever though, is this true?



Thanks for this

It's true if you don't know your rights and you have a 'bad egg' collection agency. But it's also illegal, they can't re-age the debt unless the debt changes. If you agree on a "payment plan" they can sometimes re-age the debt. I don't 100% understand collections, but here is a good blog to start with. The owner also takes email questions:

http://collectionagencydebt.blogspot.com/

Here are two articles that may be relevant:

http://collectionagencydebt.blogspot...-date-for.html
http://collectionagencydebt.blogspot...tatute-of.html

So are you keeping CC debt for the lolz or what?

Just got my 60k miles for the Ink Bold posted, combined with my spend and my Freedom points, have over 100k, should be great for transfers to Southwest/United for trips.

Trying to figure something out:

I have a AA Visa that I never use anymore. I have had this card for 4 years, as they kept offering bonus miles when I called to cancel due to annual fee. However, this year they only offered a credit on the $95 annual fee. I also have an offer for 50k miles on Delta Gold Card Amex that I am thinking of taking. Should I cancel the AA card as I never use it at this point and open the Delta (it would be my first Amex account)? Will that hurt my credit score losing a 4 yr old account and adding yet another card (I have opened the Chase Freedom and Ink Bold in the past 6 months)?

My credit score is very good (high 700s or 800, low utilization, pay off every month, no delinquencies, high credit limits) and I'm not looking on buying a house in the next 2-3 years. How careful do I need to be on opening new accounts and cancelling cards?

Get the CSP in a few months and have 150k!

Keep the AA Visa open if they'll waive the annual fee, but I'd ask about bonus miles instead (they usually have one or the other), and/or ask about a spending challenge for miles (like spend $500/month for 3 months and get 6,000 bonus miles etc). There is a big thread on flyertalk that you can read the last few pages to see what people are getting offered. Google "flyertalk citi retention offers".

Will you ever fly Delta? Their miles are notoriously hard to use. I wouldn't get them unless you have a specific trip that you know you want to use them on or you already fly Delta a lot. There are plenty of other Amex cards to start with, and the Starwood card is currently offering its 1x/year signup increase. The Blue Cash cards are good, or you can wait for another big signup offer on the Premier Rewards Gold.

With scores like that you don't have to be that careful. That sounds a lot like my situation and I open 2-5 cards every 3 months and cancel a similar amount of cards as well.

JL,

Currently have a Platinum Delta Amex, but just got the notification on the Starwood card. Possible to transfer the credit lines (or even split it?) to the Starwood AMEX without having to take the hit on the score for the new card?

I highly doubt it, you can call Amex to ask though. Maybe as a Platinum card holder they'd make an exception. (If they will, be very explicit with what you want and triple check that doing it that way will allow you to get the signup bonus.)

The hit on the score for the inquire is like 2-5 points and recovers in a few months. I wouldn't worry too much about it.

Thanks. Just bought a house a couple of months ago and my score took a pretty solid hit (down to low 7's), and I'm only a couple months out from needing a new car. I want to make sure I qualify for the top credit tier to get the promotional financing from wherever, so am being cautious about even the small hits at the moment.

Cool, thanks JL!

I've heard that Delta points are PITA to use. I think I'll stay away for now and wait to get Chase Sapphire Preferred. Hopefully a bigger bonus than the 40k will appear, but I'll get it if not anyways. I wouldn't use it that much after the bonus, so may convert to a regular Sapphire if they don't waive the annual fee during the second year, especially since I can transfer points to my Ink Bold to then transfer to partner airlines.

I was thinking of dropping the Citi AA also for a possible churn down the road. I asked about any bonus miles etc and they said no (probably because I haven't used it much in the past year).

I would have gone for the Southwest double 50k miles cards and gotten the Companion pass, which is probably the best bonus you can get, but I'm not travelling much in the foreseeable future, oh well.

I'll probably go for the CSP and 30k Starwoods Amex offer (I think I'm still a Gold member due to my time in mgmt consulting). Thanks again.

The CSP has some great earning categories. The bonus will probably not get bigger than 40k. They will not waive the annual fee after 1 year as far as I've heard because they know the card is awesome.

You can drop the Citi AA but most reports say you need to wait 18 months before you apply for it again. That's a long time in the future to plan for.

The two southwest cards are much better to do in January, because the companion pass lasts for the year you earned it, plus all of the following year. If you did that now it would be fore 16 months total. Do it in January and it will be 24 months.

Citi AA is actually hyper-churnable right now. You can do 2 apps every 65 days, and you don't even need to close your existing card(s) first. 50k miles for $3k existing spend. There's a big thread on the FlyerTalk Credit Card Programs forum.

So can you actually buy any of the gift cards for other places (home depot, Barnes and noble, etc) in a grocery store and have your grocery cash back apply?

Thanks, Ill have to go read that

Edit: That's awesome, will be applying for this now

Yes

Is there a site where I can see credit cards compared by their bonuses/promotions? I have found a few through Google but they are either not up to date or not comprehensive enough. Or perhaps someone can off the top of their head suggest me a card?

I currently have a ~7 year old generic Wells Fargo card with no bonuses that I use maybe once a month just to keep activity on it and a ~1 year old Chase Freedom card that I use for pretty much everything except my rent. I pay each off in full at the end of the month.

I want something to use when I am only getting the 1.1% from the Chase card. (When gas/restaurants are out of rotation). No annual fee.

There are a few decent cards w/o annual fees. The Discover IT card is basically the same as the Chase Freedom and has different rotating 5% categories as well as one of the best shopping portals around.

The Amex Blue Cash Everyday is 3% groceries, 2% gas.

The Bank Americard has 3%gas and 2% groceries

The PenFed Cash rewards has 5% on gas

If you're a student the Citi Forward has 5% on dining, if you're not a student the Chase Sapphire (regular) has 2% on dining.

There are a lot of cards available.

So you go to Meijer too...

Since freedom is gas this quarter, have you tried buying Meijer gc's within the station, to later use on groceries? It has not worked for me at two locations, and I got just 1%.

I have had it work numerous times with my sallie mae 5% card to allocate it differently if I'm going over the $250 in one category.

Never tried it before, personally I have the AMEX BCP (6% cb on groceries), so I buy meijer GCs from within the store and use them at the gas station outside - kinda the reverse of what you are trying to do i think

Thanks dude, this is really helpful. Unfortunately I am no longer a student, but I will look into the rest.

Just make sure that whatever you sign up for, even as an annual fee free card, you get a signup bonus. Feel free to check in w/ us as to whats the best bonus for whichever card.

I have 2 CCs- a secured card for 7 month, and an unsecured CC for about 4 months. The limit on each is $500.

In a few weeks, I'm going to apply for a new round of cards to get some basic rewards (e.g., looking at the Discover IT which I'm fairly sure I can get) but I'd like my limit on those future cards to be as high as possible (ideally $5k but that's probably unrealistic) so I can run all my normal spending through them. Would increasing the deposit on my secured card now help me get a higher limit on those new cards? I could easily increase my deposit from $500 to ~$2k and then just close it in a few months which I was planning to do anyways unless they unsecure me. Thanks.

Yes, having higher available credit helps.

I dont get it. So you get 2 of the same cards in your name to double the bonus?

Not sure how much it helps, but it definitely doesn't hurt. Increase your secured limit and wait about a month for that to be reported before applying for the new one.


There are 4 southwest cards available: SW Plus, SW Premier, SW Business Plus, SW Business Plus.

Most people who are going for the companion pass get 1 personal and 1 business card to get the 100k points. If you are not looking for the companion pass or don't travel SW much, there are better cards to get.

I can confirm that it is possible to acquire the two personal SW cards on the same day. The 50,000 sign-up bonus just re-appeared valid through Oct 30 (IIRC). With proper timing, it should be possible to get the bonuses to post in January 2014 to maximize the value of the companion pass.

Current situation: fairly new to credit cards. Currently have: military star: 2000 limit, chase military visa: 1000 limit, and my capital one which is at 750.

Cap One recently raised the limit from 500 to 750 on that card without me asking. I keep 1% usage month to month in total carried over balances. I'm interested in acquiring some more credit to keep growing. Would it be better to ask Cap One to raise me further or apply for something else and deal with the hit in average credit history balanced with a raised total limit?

My current TU credit score is 732 and the other two both hover at 695.