This made me go back and take a look at the articles I read, and now that I've read them in detail, neither one is clear on existing card users.

http://creditcardforum.com/blog/citi...d-card-review/

http://www.mybanktracker.com/news/20...ankyou-points/

The first one specifies new users while the second one says that it is unclear whether or not existing card members will keep the bonus. So I'm hoping that it's still 5% but not sure.

I still get 5%

where did you check? I just logged on to my acct and couldn't find where to see.

My last billing statements have all shown me getting 5% category bonuses based on Amazon spending. I remember reading the article you linked a while back it's from late 2013. I believe everyone who previously had the card before this change was made retains the 5%. The card itself is otherwise impossible to get now iirc. Think you need to be a student or something

Just applied for the 60kUR bonus for INK plus. No instant approval. Called in to give more details about my business. Said he added a recommendation to approve, but he couldn't approve it. I have 5 open cards with Chase, one of which is the Bold. Hope this one gets approved! BTW, 60kUR is a great deal. If you can spend or MS 5k in 3 months, you should get it.

ya, speaking of MS, who is doing heavy manufacture spending?? it isnt an area i have really touched yet but recently signed up with AMEX bluebird, so i want to start capitalizing in some spots

Now that Vanilla Reloads are dead, no more for me. I used to do a couple grand a month at CVS if I could find them.

I use my Bold card to ms at office supply stores. I still do a few other MS things that I don't want to write about. The best MS tricks will only stay the best if very few people take advantage of them. Whenever a good MS vehicle gets big (VRs, the mint, etc.) It gets shutdown.

what do you guys read daily/weekly to stay in the know?

said it's the new right

Try emailing Lee w/ your question

http://collectionagencydebt.blogspot.com/

quick question for the thread, I read through original posts, but huge thread so not going to be able to sort through whole thing.

Wife and I may be buying a house in next 11-14 months. We are in late 20s, she finished her masters and I am finishing up a MD. I've had a credit card for probably 6+ years and have always paid on time and never carried a balance. She has never had a credit card. Neither of us have ever had a car payment, we both have student loans but havent started paying them yet b/c still in school.

If we only have 11-14 months, is it worth it for her to get a credit card? Its very likely we are just going to get one of the special "Physician Loans" through a local SunTrust branch that works with a lot of resident physicians in the area, so it probably won't matter. But in the case we go somewhere else that doesn't have that option, would her having a credit card for 10 months help anything?

I'm not really qualified to say for sure. Maybe you should ask the morgage guy at SunTrust

plan to do that sometime in future, but any idea what the answer would be if we were just buying a house like any other first time home buyer?

I think if she's never had a credit card, she should open one, and the sooner the better. If you can do it a year before you get a mortgage the inquire from the application will matter less.

And yes, 10-14 months isn't a long time. But showing responsible use of revolving credit, even if for a short time, is better than not having any.

I agree completely with this.



On another note:

I was approved and received my card the other day! WOOOOO! I'm just glad it gets 5x points at office supply stores. 5k MS to hit the min spend req should be making a profit on the side as well.


p2 dog: When you post, you sound like a kid. It's hard to take you seriously most of the time. I read quite a few blogs and forums, but in general, I look for my own ways to MS. For example, any time I'm in a store and see gift cards, I check them out and see what's available and whether they can be purchased with a CC. You never know when you're going to find a good MS opportunity.

Loan officer here. I just opened this thread and didn't read much of it but wanted to throw my $0.02 in the mix.

All day I pull people's credit to try to qualify them for mortgages. I have a credit team that I work with to help improve credit for clients who don't qualify clients.

The best and easiest step someone can take to start from scratch building up credit history when they don't have any credit and to improve ****ty credit in most cases is to get a couple small credit cards that report to all 3 credit reporting agencies. Use the cards each and every month and pay them off each and every month. Use them for a small amount each month, never charge them up over 10% of the credit limit if you are using them solely to build the credit.

If you can't get a normal credit card because you don't have a score or your credit is too ****ty you can get a secured credit card. Typically local banks or credit unions offer them. The way they work is you put down the amount you want as a credit limit up front (typically $300 or $500) which secures the card. Again make sure this reports to all 3 bureaus.

If you are fixing your credit don't waste your money on Lexington law. Utilize the above advice. Get your current credit cards paid down to 10% of the credit limit. Also get your credit report from a mortgage company (our credit reports are typically the most up to date and accurate). We won't just pull your credit because you want a copy so pretend you want to qualify for a mortgage. Once the credit is pulled request a copy (note this will hit your score for an inquiry of 2-5 points but you don't know what's on there until you look) On the report try to work with any creditors. The report may be quite a few pages, towards the end of the report there is a creditIor information section that lists the contact information for creditors. Call them to try to negotiate settlements on collections WITH THEM REMOVING IT FROM YOUR REPORT (you have leverage here "I'll pay this if you take it off my report). Make sure any creditor that says they'll remove something from the report sends it to you in writing before you pay anything.

That is all for now. Feel free to ask me any questions.

One more side note, the credit reports you pull on your own online or through the credit bureaus are going to be different and typically higher than when a mortgage company pulls the credit. The scoring systems are different and ours are more conservative in general.
(I tell clients this 10 times daily when I pull the score and they go no my score is a 720 not a 580. I just pulled it online!)

Yes! Have her get a credit card tomorrow! something small. Use it each month. Put a tank of gas on it each month and pay it off each month.

From Mortgage guy.

How long do you have to make regular, on time payments on a secured credit card (generally) before the issuing bank will approve an unsecured card.

I have a account that is in collections with LVNV funding for an HSBC Visa card that was

-opened in Jan 2006
-last payment was made Dec 7, 2007
-the account has a balance of $3,700
-was charged off by HSBC in July of 2008
-the debt changed hands many times until is was most recently bought LVNV funding in Aug 2011.

I want to finance a car, but obviously an open collections account will prohibit that. What should I do?

Settle? They offered me a settlement of $751. That seems kind of high considering that they offered me a settlement of $181 in 2012 when I didn't' have any money

Just wait? Jan 2015 will be over seven years since the last payment on the account and it will drop off of my credit report

u technically owe 3700 and won't settle at 751, all the while posting on the internet.

cool story bro

If you accept the settlement, you will see the difference between the amount you owe and the amount you pay as income, on which you will owe income tax for this year (assuming this is in the U.S.)

Does the delinquent debt show up on your credit report? If so, ask the collection agent if they can/will remove it, so that the charge off from 6 years ago is the only blot.

Do you have your **** together now? Paying off the whole amount on a payment plan might be better, if the collection agent will report your payments as ontime on your credit report. In retrospect, I should have done this with one debt, as I had the tax hit and the credit report hit.

If you don't have your **** together, get your **** together before taking on the car debt. A repo is not going to improve your credit. Maybe consider saving the amount of your proposed car payment in a savings account for six months, and then leaving it there as a buffer.

After I moved, my cable company accused me of not sending in all of the equipment, and said I had like $100 owed to them. I called in and they said don't worry, sometimes it takes a few months to fully credit. Then a few months later I got a call from some collections person and I immediately told them I didn't owe the cable company any money, told them not to contact me again, and hung up on them, called the cable company back, and they checked their systems and gave me the credit after like a half hour.

They do have my SSN, is this something that could hit my credit report? Did they potentially sell the $100 to a collections agency, or was this probably just a service for the first time and now there's nothing to report anymore?

If they had actually sold it, do they contact the agency and say that this is now extinguished or something? That would be a weird situation I guess...

I'm in the exact same situation except they say I owe them 250 and it was AT&T that sent it to collections. I mailed in their POS router and they said they didn't get it. Called, they said it was fixed but later got called and letters from a collection agency. What are my options? I'm not about to pay 250 for a mistake AT&T made.

Comcast turned me in to collections for 30$ like 2 years after I canceled my service with them. Never got a letter or call before that. They said they couldn't tell me what the charge was for because it was so old it had gone to some archive. I ended up paying it because I didn't want to mess with my credit. Filed a complaint with the BBB that went no where. Never found out what the charge was for FML

F these companies