you have 2 options for the chase freedom https://creditcards.chase.com/freedom-credit-cards (I'm not sure if those bonuses are best available, just what I quickly found on chase website)
1) earns 1.5% cashback all purchases
2) earns 1% cashback all purchases + 5% cashback (up to $1500 spend) on rotating quarterly categories (so $300 cashback year assuming you max out said categories) Example being the quarter beginning July 1 will be gas stations, walgreeens and lyft

I think OS was referring to the 2nd card but I'm not sure what the general thoughts are on best cashback cards (I focus on churning airline/hotel/travel cards) as I travel a ton and the value is generally >1.5% with better sign up bonuses

eta: if you get the CSP or CSR later those % rise assuming you redeem for travel. you can transfer UR (abbreviation for points you get from Chase) from your Freedom card to your CSP or CSR and get a bonus for redeeming through their travel portal

You have an easy decision in regards to paying cash vs taking a loan then. If the loan is less than 1.75%, you should take it. If it's more, you need to decide whether you would like to pay a fee to simply keep more cash in your account and make payments over time. Assuming you have a solid emergency fund, I personally would never recommend taking a loan if the APR is higher than what you're making on your money.

In regards to credit card rewards: I personally churn (open lots of new cards mainly for their signup bonuses), as well as try and maximize category multipliers on keeper cards. Over the past five years I have probably averaged around $5k profit per year from churning, which includes new credit card signup bonuses, bank account bonuses, value of perks (airline lounge visits, uber credits, etc.), ongoing category multipliers, retention bonuses, and the occasional reselling on deals. The majority of this value has come from flights and hotels from signup bonuses. I spend a lot of time researching and reading, but I consider it a hobby. The feeling you get when you book your first trip to an island country and you pay less than $100 for a 7-day vacation that includes flights and a stay at a nice resort is pretty awesome.

Just saw an ad for Wells Fargo Propel, opening for applications July 16. No AF, $300 signup bonus, 3x points on restaurants and travel. Points can be used for $.01 cash back or other stuff. Seems like that should be well worth picking up.

depends on your card strategy. if you have or want another big travel 3x card, it's the same but without an annual fee but also without the ability to transfer to partners or get greater than 1cpp.

It's a great card for people who are scared of annual fees or just want a good CB card, but if you are willing and able to get the CSR (or already have it) for more than 1cpp, I can't see how the propel is worth looking deeper at or using a 5/24 slot.

It seems worth it just for the $300 bonus, no? Especially with the low hassle of it having no fee. After the CSR/CSP/AmexPlat, the only cards that provide that kind of signup bonus value are branded cards that don't provide any flexibility at all.

Before 5/24 I would have said sure, but to me $300 is not worth a 5/24 slot, unless you are not planning on opening a bunch of cards for their bonuses.

As I mentioned, for a simple, one card solution, it's a decent option.

I have a CSR now, I'd probably be getting rid of it. With an effective $150 AF I'd need my Chase points to be worth about 1.5 c/point (spend about $1000/month at restaurants and also park the card in favor of the 5% Freedom for a couple months each year). I know you can buy travel at that rate and transfer to outside rewards programs for more but I don't travel much and I'm sitting on over 200k points so in reality I'd want more than that to pay for the CSR. And as maddog said it's a pretty decent signup bonus even if you're not using the card for anything else so that puts it over the top for me. YMMV.

What is your plan for your 200k URs if you're closing your CSR?
They become way less valuable if you can't get 1.5cpp or transfer them to travel partners

Hadn't considered that yet. I have until early 2019 before my next AF so if I use them up before then that would be ideal.

Wasn't real thrilled with the new Marriott awards charts released the other day as most of the hotels I stay at with the family went up. Shame as I've stayed almost exclusively at Marriott properties in the last 5 years minus 2 stints at the Hyatt all inclusives. With the new hyatt card being rolled out and the devaluation in my mind I booked/currently staying at a Hyatt for normal travel.

Will hopefully book a 7day package this weekend to use my marriott points

I'm doing the same as I have a pile of them, but I'm trying to figure out what airline to transfer. Thinking southwest to use with my companion pass and stretch them further, but if we are using the hotel internationally I might need more avois. Only have 150k left. The other hold up I have is they haven't disclosed what's going to happen to unused packages. Are they giving credit via points, mapping them to similar categories? Who knows..... Lots of speculation, but no answers has me sitting on the fence.

I had an emergency room visit several months ago. I was unaware that I would get separate bills from the hospital and from the doctor. I paid the hospital bill on time but never saw the bill from the doctor. Now the doctors bill has already gone to collection. I talked to the doctors office and had the bill reduced to the "no insurance" price but they said I would still have to pay the collection company and they would let them know the new amount.

My question is, should/can I make not reporting to the credit bureaus a condition of my paying what I owe? I don't think it's been reported yet, I looked at my score and it's still close to 800. I will pay regardless just wondering if I should play hardball with that condition for a bit first.

we can speculate here but i think there's a medical billing specific section on creditboards

thanks

You are correct that there is...and CB is back up after the change to the forum software (massive upgrade apparently although patches are already indicated to be forthcoming).

Just because a medical bill went 'to collections' does not mean that it will be reported. MANY medical providers farm out their receivables. Pay it in a timely manner and it won't report.

Yeah, I went ahead and paid it today and they said it would not show up with the credit bureaus. It was hard to find anything on CB that applied to my situation, everyone there was disputing they owed or not going to pay. I definitely owed and wanted to pay, just wanted to make sure it didn't ding me while I still had the leverage of not paying.

So I'm at 6/24 right now, but tomorrow I will drop down to 3/24. It seems to be safe, I should wait until the following month (Aug 1) in order to apply for Chase cards again, correct? Also, I am currently sitting at 3 Chase Freedoms (37k credit limit total), and 1 Chase Ink Cash (26.5k credit limit). Should I try and lower my CL's in order to increase my odds at approval? I am thinking I want to apply for the CSP again, since I last had it in 2014, but if you think I should go a different route, please let me know. Should I try and go for another Chase card to fill it up my slot? Note that CSR is off the table since it would be within 2 years.

Can't answer all your questions, but can say that I once applied for a Chase card, got a "pending" response, and called them the next day to lower existing limits on other cards which pushed the new approval through. All that to say, I don't know that you have to preemptively lower your limits--you can do that after the fact if you don't get instant approval

^^^ I've had the same experience. Getting a human involved in the approval process isn't great if you're an abusive churner but if too much credit is the only red flag your application will just go to pending, then you can call up and offer to rearrange credit limits.

I would lower your credit limit, but keep enough on one card so that you can negotiate to lower it in exchange for new credit. I'd say $10k allows you to move $5k and keep $5k on if needed. You can drop the other freedoms to $2k each, as you shouldn't need more than that to max out the 5% categories.

You should check on DOC or flyertalk about the Chase family rules before applying for the CSP. You should also look at CIP rules.

Yeah, I ended up lowering a few credit limits and am sitting at 5k, 5k, 12.5k for the freedoms. And due to the chase family rules, I think it is best if I wait a few more months til it has been 24+ months since my CSR bonus posted. I may go ahead and do the 60k pt Barclay Arrival+ in the meantime.

Looking to do balance transfer. Have capital one card w/ 13.5k limit and no balance. Have CSP with 8.5k limit and ~6k of it used. Want to xfer that new card w/ 0% on BT b/c need some cash on hand looking to purchase house.

Looking at:

Discover it BT: 0% 18 months w/ 3% fee. Can xfer 95% of new cards available limit.
Amex Everyday: 0% 15 months w/ $0 BT fee. Can xfer 75% of new card limit.

Do y'all lean one way or the other? Or know of any other better options?

Thanks

Chase Slate?

I am fully aware of how obnoxious this post might sound, but I'm hoping that there's a kind soul out there who will have mercy on me and provide useful info anyway.

I am looking to get into the credit card rewards game soon. However, I'm super-busy at work for the next two months, so I won't have time to read this thread thoroughly before then. At that time I will study this thread and come up with a plan I'll post here for feedback.

In the meantime, I received an offer for the Uber credit card. And holy **** do those benefits look great, particularly the 4% back on dining out and 2% back on online shopping. I'm posting here just to make sure that getting that card right now wouldn't be a complete fish move given that I'll be able to devote more serious time and effort to the game in a couple months.

Thoughts?