So i checked credit karma and my score is 747. The only bad grade i have is number of accounts (4) which gives me an F. I'd like to open an account or 3 this year to clear some decent signup bonuses. Ideally these would just be cash bonuses since i won't be able to travel much in the next few years, but i'd like to maximize the cash back i can get. We would have no problem clearing most of the bonuses i've seen posted ITT.

So what are the best offers right now?

If you don't have the Freedom yet, today is the last day for the $200 after spending $500 offer.

You can usually find the basic current offers on slickdeals sorted by hot deals & money:
http://slickdeals.net/forums/forumdi...order=&icon=25

already have the chase freedom card unfortunately. Thanks for the link!

Do you have the freedom visa or mastercard?

thanks for the tip on the Freedom JL

sniped that before that deal expired...

Thanks for the discover freedom card tip. any other really good ones? Signed up for it today. Basically will cover half of my books cost

Hi guys, thanks for the info. Is there any reason a CC inquiry would still be on my report from April 2012? How long until they usually fall off?

2 years

I have the chase freedom visa

why does that matter?

sometimes if a card has 2 versions (ie visa and mastercard) you can get both versions

i also signed up for the chase freedom.Thanks for the tip!

Just signed up for the delta sky miles amex card with a 50,000 mile bonus after spending 1K in the first month and $50 account credit with a delta purchase. Feels pretty good since I will be flying delta at least 3 times in the next 9 months. Priority boarding and free checked bag will go a long way since I travel with golf clubs a lot.

I don't know if its available out there since I had to enter some RSVP number when applying; I got the offer in the mail.

dude, i average atleast one cc thing to me a day. I guess they're saying something, time to start beasting.

How do mileage bonus card work? You get 50k free worth of flights?

Is general consensus that the chase sapphire preferred card the best card for travel bonuses? 50k sign up bonus and 5k for adding new user

so, when you clear the bonuses on cards that have an annual fee, do you cancel them before you are charged the annual fee? looks they are all pretty much waived for the first year. Does cancelling them after a year make it more difficult to get others in the future?

You can always back them down to a card that doesn't have the annual fee afaik. Or you can just pay it. Since ill be getting a $50 acct credit the annual fee is effectively $45. You can also say the priority boarding/checked bag/discounts are worth it.

gotcha. thanks.

Also I think JL made a post in the last 100 or so saying that he cancels cards with regularity with no ill effects, I'll try to find it.

just signed up for that chase freedom card. not in need of a CC but $200 cash back? Sold.

My general process for a card I get just for the bonus is like this:

Get card, transition all my spend to that card to clear the bonus, put card in the drawer for 10 months. Around the 11 month mark, I call retentions and say the annual fee is coming due and I'm not sure the benefits work for me or justify the fee.

Can they offer a statement credit to offset the fee? If so, I'll keep it for another year, because why not?

Often they'll say due to some law they cannot give you a annual fee credit, but they'll offer you some points or miles instead. Sometimes it's a good deal, say 20,000 miles for the $89 fee.

Sometimes they say they have no retention offers, or they only have ones I'm not interested in. In that case, I like to have a related no annual fee card in mind, and I'll ask to downgrade. When my Sapphire Preferred fee came due, I downgraded to the Sapphire regular with no annual fee. Usually the downgrade card doesn't interest me, but it keeps the relationship with the bank, and increases the average age of my accounts.

Cancelling the card is the last resort, but I definitely do it if there are no other options to paying the fee on a card I don't want to keep.


Cancelling a card shouldn't make too much of a difference unless it's your only card in your file. But make sure you cancel after a year or so so it looks like you just didn't want to pay the annual fee anymore. Cancelling right after you get the bonus is a good way to get the banks to blacklist you.

And just for reference, I've cancelled 5 cards and downgraded 3 since starting this thread, and my credit score is doing fine (higher than before), and I was just approved for a new card this morning.

I need to start bonus whoring ccs more. My apartment lets me pay rent with a credit card for a $20 fee so I'd have no problem reaching spending thresholds.

fo sho, cc's baby.

jl, do u ever refer ppl? seems to me, with very limited knowledge or experience, but I think my wife and I can Hove even harder as a team through referrals and simply that much more credit to grab hold of and whore, eh??