As long as you keep the cards open(which requires use every once in a while) it will boost your credit.

Is there a reason you want a really high credit score? Are you planning on a mortgage?

You can get an excellent score from credit cards alone and you should never take out a loan you don't need.

Keep getting this targeted offer for Bank of America travel card of 15k points/$150 for 500 spend. Will probably just take that in March when I plan on also getting sapphire preferred too.

Getting married fairly soon and will look at mortgages probably 2-4 years from now. Have access to the VA loan which I've not used. I just figured I want the best rate possible for a mortgage eventually. Maybe a car loan too someday which I've never had. Not that I'll ever buy a new car but it feels a waste of money if I'm paying cash if I can get a rate <5% or so on a car loan in the future.

how long do delinquint school loan payments (now paid in full) stay on your credit history?

I think mine fell off after 4 or 5 years

Don't use the VA loan unless you can't save up a downpayment. The fee is not worth it.

Have you ever disputed them (before paying them off)? If not, you might try that now. Worst thing that can happen is nothing. Best thing that can happen is Sallie Mae or whomever doesn't bother to send the response to the reporting agencies within 30 days and it comes off your reports.

Got Sapphire a preferred auto approved for 40k/500 on 3k. An also got blue cash preferred auto approved 250 on 1k but without the 75 waived so effectively 175, which from what I can tell is better than their default 150 on 1k.

However the weird thing is the CLs are vastly different. ~16k on chase and 2k on Amex.

I don't mind because I'll just pay off pre statement on Amex so util stays low, but that seems weird to me. Could I e because I have a chase card already(freedom) and this is my first Amex ?

Absolutely, or they pulled different reports which have a huge difference. What's the spread between your karma and sesame scores?

My sesame is out of date. I had been carrying a decent high util % due to moving costs for new job(broke student)+furniture costs for new apartment+traveling(all interest free on cards with intro 0% apr), but I'm paid off now.

Last month I was at 711 sesame and 705 karma.

Now at 736 karma once one of my cc's reported(still at 18% util since one hasn't reported)

i have no idea how they give credit lines. i have a bunch of different chase cards. my last 4 credit lines- 12k,3k,16k,2500

makes no sense

mb, i find it very hard to believe that their credit line assignment is random. Can you tell me what cards you got with those limits?

chase freedom marriot and the 2 southwest cards all within the last few months

And they were all auto approved w/ those credit lines? Or did you have to call reconsideration?

all auto approved. if they gave me a ****ty credit line i would just have some of a different cards credit line moved to the new card.

i have had about 15 chase cards in the last 3 years and never had to call reconsideration.

i've had to call reconsideration for a barclays card and a discover card and when they asked why i wanted that card when i already had others with them i just named some benefit the new card had that the old one didnt and was approved.

Could be that you bumped up against their max overall exposure for your credit profile or income, then something improved to make them more generous, but not by a great deal. So you found the new ceiling on that last card.

I got autoapproved last year for BCP as my first Amex for $15k and Chase Freedom as my 3rd Chase for $5k so

lol creditsesame

I've had the same credit card since 2008 and it is nowhere to be found on that site, what a joke.

Also, is it really true that 90% of lenders use FICO? If so, is it possible to find out that score for free? Sure seems like it should be.

A lot of CCs out there have FICO for free now.

All of my Barclayscards have it. Discover IT has it. My Citi cards have it. Not sure if any of my other cards do or not. You should have a good overall knowledge of your creditworthiness by looking at your FICO, Credit Karma, and Credit Sesame scores. This way, it doesn't matter what each individual bank or lender uses. If you know whether your lender or bank uses a certain credit bureau for hard pulls, like Experian, you can take a look at that score specifically.

There are 3 credit reporting agencies (CRAs.) Credit Sesame gets their data from Experian. So it's likely the card issuer doesn't report to them. They aren't required to; some report to none, some report to only 1 or 2. Major issuers all report to all 3 though afaik.

It's a card issued through Chase, they're pretty major, no? FWIW that card does appear on my Experian credit report, just for some reason Credit Sesame is blissfully unaware of its existence.

Ah, well, lol CS it is. Pretty weird though.

Over the last two years I opened several new cards in order to take advantage of sign up bonuses. The problem I'm experiencing now is that a) I have too many cards to try and keep track of, and b) I'm starting to get hit with annual fees. I called one company who charges a $95 annual fee & complained / threatened to cancel, and they offered me a $95 statement credit to offset the annual fee.

However, I just called my Chase Sapphire account, and they said they cannot waive the fee; they did offer, however, to change my account from a Sapphire account that has no foreign transaction fees to one that charges 3% foreign transaction fees but no annual fee. I have several other cards that offer no transaction fees, so I will probably change the type of card I have with them.

I have a Chase Sapphire account with approx 110,000 UR and a Chase INK account also with just over 100,000 UR miles; three questions:

1) Should I consolidate those miles onto one card (does it matter & if so which one?), and/or what are the advantages / disadvantages of transferring those points to one of their "partner" frequent travel programs, i.e., Singapore Airlines, Southwest, Marriott, etc.?

2) The representative I spoke to re: the Sapphire account told me I could deposit the points into a checking account, basically it was a little over $1,000. Anyone know what the tax implications of that would be?

3) Anyone know if there are tax implications for using miles to pay for travel?

I assume if CHASE deposits $ into my checking account perhaps they report something to IRS, but not so if I simply use miles to pay for travel.

Sorry for long rambling post, thanks for any replies.

I can't help with 1, but:

2&3: Rewards programs are usually considered discounts on what you already purchased so they would not be considered taxable income. Sign on rewards for checking accounts that give you unrestricted cash up front without any requirements for purchases would be taxable, though you should get a 1099-misc the next January for your taxes. I don't know about sign on rewards for credit cards, my guess would be these aren't taxable because you probably had to spend a certain amount to get them in the first place so not taxable. There could be implications though if you were to get rewards on purchases you plan to use as business expenses.

there are no tax implications for credit card rewards. smk is right if it was a bonus for opening a bank account it would be different.even cash from chase for cashing out credit card points is not taxable.

unless you have a really good reason don't pay an annual fee.some cards force you to pay it to get a huge sign up bonus and that's fine but otherwise they're pointless for the most part.

i also converted my chase shapphire preferred to a no fee one, with other cards when they won't waive or cancel the fees i cancel the card.

an advantage to canceling the cards is you can often get the bonuses again a year or 2 later.