Are you even on their radar? I ask because the only downside of trying for a pay for delete is them saying no and then they start bugging you. Not a big deal, but then again an old medical collection isn't either.

Also, if they aren't actively trying to collect a blanket dispute barrage would probably do the trick. Doing this right would take a little work and research but you'd kill it sooner or later.

There are plenty of cashback cards offering between 1-5% in specific categories or 1-2% on everything. Having a revolving line of credit that you have a payment history on will definitely improve your score. Each bank has a basic rewards card with no annual fee if you don't want to think too much.

And FF miles are not useless if you travel at all. What did you mean by "on account of my line of employment"?

I already fly for free, sorry if that was not clear. So, for someone like me, would you recommend just a basic cashback card over a line of credit? Or both?

A cashback card has a line of credit. I didn't realize you flew for free. What about hotels?

But yea, if there's no advantage to FF miles, then a straight cashback card is probably your best bet. Or a flexible rewards card that earns points that can be used for all sorts of stuff.

Question about mortgage rate shopping. I have read in a few areas that you can do up to 10 or 15 pulls within 30 or 45 days and it will count as one pull. Does anyone know the truth here? Is there any disadvantage or advantage to doing this online vs in person?

Can't personally verify, but that's what I've heard.

I just started a new job and it looks like I'll be traveling a bit for work (1x a month is a decent estimate) so I'm looking to get a hotel rewards card and an airlines card.

Given that I'lll probably not be vacationing much in the near future, I'd prefer cards that give me flexibility/better rooms rather than sheer number of free flights/stays I can get. That is, I'd like to be able to get a nice room for 2 nights a year than an ok room for 10 nights a year. Flexibility is also important, as I'd like to be able to either book same day with fair confidence, or book in advance with a forgiving cancellation policy (talking about booking with my rewards points, here). Same goes for flights, I'd rather take 1 first class trip a year without worrying about blackout dates, than take 3 coach flights but have to navigate the airlines policies.

Any advice? I probably have a slight preference for Marriott and Southwest (based mostly on coworkers) but I'm open to recommendations, and have heard good things about Starwood.

Thanks.

PSA: American Express Small Business Saturday is November 30th. It looks like you only get $10 this year (I think last year was $20), but note that this is per card so if you have 3 AmEx cards that's $30 free.

https://www.americanexpress.com/us/s...ss/Shop-Small/

Booking same day is going to be difficult no matter what hotel program you become loyal to.

Marriott has good promos and gives away free rooms quite often, especially to newer travelers. For example, right now they're running their MegaBonus (9/15-1/15, you should sign up for this now as registration closes 11/15) where for every 2 stays you get a free night certificate (max 2). They run this promo quite often, and with your rate of travel you should be able to collect at least one free night each quarter. However, it's pretty difficult to get status at Marriott, they have pretty high qualification tiers for everything except silver.

Starwood has some very nice hotels, and their points are highly valuable as they can transfer to airlines and can be used for cash and points redemption to make them stretch farther.

If your goal is first class flights I'm not sure that Southwest is the ideal airline as they're domestic and only have Business Select. That being said, if you're near a SW hub, SW can be pretty lucrative for business travelers (link).

Where are you located and where do you primarily travel to?


It was $25 last year.

I've had an Amex gold card since 2000. Never even been late(have paid up to 6k at a time and recently paid off a 2.7k balance) and they recently cancelled my account because I'm going through a short sale and my credit has taken a hit to ~580. Is this standard? I was shocked/angry to say the least.

So you're defaulting on your loans and are surprised someone no longer wants to give you credit?

Not sure if it's standard, but I'd do the same if I was amex.

Thanks JL. I'm traveling out of MSP, but my destinations will range widely within the country-can't name any with confidence.

I may have overstated how important first class and same day bookings are. My main point is that convenience/quality of free flights/stays is more important than # of stays.

Thanks much for your help.

With regards to airlines and miles, it may be helpful to see where you can go (nonstop) from MSP, and who flies there: LINK

FYI, every airport has a wiki page with all airlines and their destinations listed. Very cool to use. Based on that page, you can see that if you want easy, connection-free travel, your best bet is Delta, which is tough because Delta is probably the worst with award availability. The positive side about Delta is that you can get high tier status on delta just by spending on their credit cards (link). They also have a relationship with Starwood w/ some reciprocal benefits.

I'm trying to think if I had to pick one card what it would be. I'd probably rotate yearly (to avoid annual fees) between the chase sapphire preferred (2.14x on all travel), the amex premier rewards gold (3x airfare, 2x gas and groceries, 1x everything else), barclays arrival (2x on everything). The Hilton surpass or reserve are good for HHonors gold, which is pretty much the best status you can get through a credit card, and there are Hiltons everywhere. But they're points are worth a lot less these days.

Ultimately, what you'll find out is that the earn rate of any particular credit card is not that spectacular, and you're better off bouncing from signup bonus to signup bonus. I've mentioned this earlier itt but for example:

Most airlines charge 12,500 miles for a domestic one way. Most cards earn 1pt/$. That's $12,500 in spending for a single one way (that may be between $100 and $350 or so, typically).

Compare this with a signup bonus of 50,000 miles after 2k in spending in the first 90 days. That's ~4 domestic one ways after spending $2k. That's 25x better return than "normal spend".

I understand the preference to have one card and not worry about it, but it's tough to talk about "maximizing" if you're going with that strategy.

100% standard. AMEX especially is well known to cancel/cut limits for much less.

You mean soft credit pulls? If that's what you are meaning then it's more like 8-10 in my experience. A lot of times, though, the mortgage company or bank is going to do a hard pull prior to the GFE though and even after you sign the GFE they probably will re-disclose on you so "mortgage rate shopping" isn't really what it's cracked up to be.

Im from Canada and I apply for credit cards through an online advertising company. So far ive applied for 3 over the past 6 months. I get paid $25 for getting approved. It only works for scotia bank here. They pre approve me but want me to go into t he bank with pay stubs etc to finalize it. I was too lazy so they just cancel the application. But I still get my $25. I just did another one a few days ago.

So you get the $25 cash plus whatever rewards scheme your into with the CC.

Could be possible there are offers for americans too. I also use the site for online shopping. If I buy through old navy, amazon or whatever through them, I get like 6 cents cash back on every dollar spent. Obv not a huge amount but it all helps. They also pay you for using their search engine. So if im looking for info and I use their SE, I sometimes get money for doing it. Sometimes I'll do 6 searches and get 10 cents, sometimes 6, the odd time 40. Not a whole lot but between goofing around with surveys, searches and credit cards ive earned about $600 this year through them and I havent invested a single $1. Dont think I could if I wanted too.

Discover offering free FICO scores to its Discover IT holders, and soon to all card holders. Pretty awesome imo.

http://mobile.bloomberg.com/news/201...hly-bills.html

Even if you fly for free if you can get the 50k point sign up offers take them.you can easily sell the points for more than 1 cent each.

Barclay's has this as well
In the last year I've gotten their NFL card and arrivals card both gave a free 400 bucks when spending 1000 in 90 days.

Chase Sapphire Preferred now has a 50k mile signup bonus after $3k spend in 3 months. Caveat is that the annual fee is now $125 (up from $95), waived for first year.

You can also get 5k additional miles for adding an authorized user for a total of 55k miles.

I was approved and am awaiting the card. Will be downgrading to the no-fee Chase Sapphire when annual fee hits, as I already have (and will be keeping) the Ink Bold and Freedom.

AMEX holders check this out:

https://enroll.amexnetwork.com/US/en/Amazon/

New offer from AMEX, spend $75 at Amazon.com get $25 statement credit. Works on gift cards. Enrolled for my card and my wife's card (AU). Free $50. These AMEX offers are really blowing everyone else out of the water. Used a tiger direct one coupled with a mail in rebate to get a 2TB WD portable harddrive for $70.

thanks for the link, had synced 3 cards on twitter but this is way easier. got $60 free last night from SBS and just got $150 in free amazon money

There are also two gas offers that I clicked on. $5 off $30 gas at Exxonmobil and $5 off $30 at BP. Once logged into Amex, click on "Offers for you" to view all of them. There are tons of others as well, so check them out. (JCP, Papa Johns, BB, Sony, etc)

Didn't read the fine print, but what's the chance I can do 2 transactions at the gas station and get $10 off $50?