I love credit cards so much! v3.0 (see first page for add'l details)

[havaneselover]

This, along with my rental being cash positive is part of why I don't worry about my mortgage. Or my student loan for that matter. Total of both is under 70k anyway. But they help the over all look of my credit since I have never had a car payment and would prefer not to. I'll be interested to see what people say and if those that have paid off their house only have cc cards for their score and if that would potentially cause problems with getting a mortgage or car loan.

It won't cause problems. My parents probably haven't had a car or house payment in 30 years. My score is higher than theirs, but their net worth is much much larger than what mine is

 

[ctinct]

Interesting thing I noticed about my credit score - having a mortgage raises it by about 20 points. The bank that has my mortgage merged with another bank, so my mortgage was temporarily reported as paid off on my credit report. A new one in the new bank's name was added a couple of weeks later. When the original mortgage was reported as paid, my credit score and DH's score both dropped by 20 points. They rebounded by exactly the same amount when the new mortgage was added in. Anyone else noticed something similar?

It did cause some stress when I got notices from all my credit monitoring services that my score had dropped by so much for no apparent reason, but now I think it's an interesting natural experiment. For those who have actually paid off their mortgages - did your scores drop permanently, or did they inch back up over time?

I’ve noticed the same thing, only my variance is 30 points. Trans union doesn’t show my mortgage for whatever reason. It’s kind of irritating, but I don’t know how I would go about getting it back on there. It’s been that way for years. And, it will be paid off within a few years, so I fully expect my other scores to go down then. I don’t have a car loan, either, and also noticed a small drop when that was paid off a year ago. I mean, I get it. Paying responsibly on loans shows you are a good credit risk, but I just wish we weren’t penalized so much for NOT having loans.

ETA: To answer your question, since my score on Transunion has been lower for years without the mortgage, I don’t really think it recovers with time.

 

[Hoosier John]

Interesting thing I noticed about my credit score - having a mortgage raises it by about 20 points. The bank that has my mortgage merged with another bank, so my mortgage was temporarily reported as paid off on my credit report. A new one in the new bank's name was added a couple of weeks later. When the original mortgage was reported as paid, my credit score and DH's score both dropped by 20 points. They rebounded by exactly the same amount when the new mortgage was added in. Anyone else noticed something similar?

It did cause some stress when I got notices from all my credit monitoring services that my score had dropped by so much for no apparent reason, but now I think it's an interesting natural experiment. For those who have actually paid off their mortgages - did your scores drop permanently, or did they inch back up over time?

That is interesting. During the couple of months between old being paid off and new refi opening, my credit score actually increased 4-5 points. But I still had a good "mix of credit" because I had a different mortgage going on (different property). I don't recall of any warnings that my credit score dropped in the short period between banks.

 

[Hoosier John]

Question: Which secured card should I apply for?

Background:

-CIU Biz 2/19

I need to build my credit before I apply for the "good" cards again (was declined CSP this month due to not having credit history). My score is 663.

I opened BoA checking and savings accounts this month to build a relationship with them, intending to go for their Cash Rewards card later. Today, they sent me a pre-approval for their Secured Cash Rewards card. It looks exactly the same as the card I had wanted to get from them later, without the $200 bonus with a $1000 spend (and of course needing a deposit, which isn't a problem).

This card gives 3% in category of choice (I want gas savings), 2% grocery and warehouse (side question: does that include Walmart?), 1% everything else.

Should I go ahead and get that, giving up the $200 bonus later?

Or, should I apply for the Discover It Secured card, which was highly recommended to me here already? It gives 2% on gas and dining, 1% everything else, PLUS will match my cashback at the end of my first year.

I'm leaning toward the Discover It, based on the good experience friends here have had, and the higher gas savings in the first year. And I could then apply for the BoA with the $200 bonus later.

Is it easy to get approved for Discover It? Or should I take the pre-approved offer from BoA?

I think I would try for Discover. Mine had double points the first year.
I doubt Walmart will count as "grocery" unless maybe its a Neighborhood Market. You can look it up here: https://www.visa.com/supplierlocator-app/app/#/home/supplier-locator
I would hold off on the BoA Secured card if it will endanger getting SUB on the Cash Rewards card
Good Luck!

 

[platamama]

Is there anywhere that explains the benefits of this (how many nights you need for things, etc). DH and I just opened Hyatt cards, but I don't really understand how many elite nights you need and what they get you lol!

I'm still learning too. I found this blog post helpful -

https://onemileatatime.com/hyatt-credit-card-review/
He covers more of the temporary benefits of the card here -

https://onemileatatime.com/hyatt-credit-card-promo/

 

[platamama]

If Bonvoy shows points availability for a standard room and a better room with a pay with points upgrade option, is it possible to use a FNC and pay with additional points to get the better room. Or, can FNC only be used for the standard room. I think the answer is no since Bonvoy's language on the terms of the FNC say not "at this time," but I wasn't sure if it was something that could be done with the right rep on the phone. Thanks.

I have assumed that you don't have the option of upgrading a FNC with points, but if you end up trying on the phone I'd love to hear how that turns out, one way or another.

 

[platamama]

Question: Which secured card should I apply for?

Background:

-CIU Biz 2/19

I need to build my credit before I apply for the "good" cards again (was declined CSP this month due to not having credit history). My score is 663.

I opened BoA checking and savings accounts this month to build a relationship with them, intending to go for their Cash Rewards card later. Today, they sent me a pre-approval for their Secured Cash Rewards card. It looks exactly the same as the card I had wanted to get from them later, without the $200 bonus with a $1000 spend (and of course needing a deposit, which isn't a problem).

This card gives 3% in category of choice (I want gas savings), 2% grocery and warehouse (side question: does that include Walmart?), 1% everything else.

Should I go ahead and get that, giving up the $200 bonus later?

Or, should I apply for the Discover It Secured card, which was highly recommended to me here already? It gives 2% on gas and dining, 1% everything else, PLUS will match my cashback at the end of my first year.

I'm leaning toward the Discover It, based on the good experience friends here have had, and the higher gas savings in the first year. And I could then apply for the BoA with the $200 bonus later.

Is it easy to get approved for Discover It? Or should I take the pre-approved offer from BoA?

I vote for the Discover It Secured card too.

 

[papaof3]

@SouthFayetteFan - any suggestions for restaurants and activities in Sanibel/Captiva? After cancelling our Disneyland trip next month, we decided to finally head to Sanibel - we are only 2 hours away and have never been!

On captiva as someone mentioned the bubble room. We go just to get deserts from the counter to go and walk around the restaurant. Cool little things to see and a small
Store next door with neat gifts. We also like the Mucky Duck. British type beach pub. Good draft beer selection for the island. Also we rented a pontoon boat. Many small little beaches and islands to boat to for lonely shelling away from crowds.
mom Sanibel we always hit the island cow restaurant a few times. Great free muffins with all meals. Their grouper sandwich is big and always great with the coconut fry. Also on Sanibel we have done the Sanibel thriller boat ride. See dolphins and take a fast boat around all of Sanibel island. Pinocchio ice cream right over the bridge area is the bomb. Huge cones and home made great flavors. We often stay are Sanibel arms west condos. Ocean front second floor has greatview of ocean and beach. We go every other year. Lots of great bike trails on Sanibel. I recommend renting a bike for a day or week.

 

[mmmears]

Interesting thing I noticed about my credit score - having a mortgage raises it by about 20 points. The bank that has my mortgage merged with another bank, so my mortgage was temporarily reported as paid off on my credit report. A new one in the new bank's name was added a couple of weeks later. When the original mortgage was reported as paid, my credit score and DH's score both dropped by 20 points. They rebounded by exactly the same amount when the new mortgage was added in. Anyone else noticed something similar?

It did cause some stress when I got notices from all my credit monitoring services that my score had dropped by so much for no apparent reason, but now I think it's an interesting natural experiment. For those who have actually paid off their mortgages - did your scores drop permanently, or did they inch back up over time?

Wow. This never occurred to me. Following along since our mortgage only has a few years to go.

I’ve noticed the same thing, only my variance is 30 points. Trans union doesn’t show my mortgage for whatever reason. It’s kind of irritating, but I don’t know how I would go about getting it back on there. It’s been that way for years. And, it will be paid off within a few years, so I fully expect my other scores to go down then. I don’t have a car loan, either, and also noticed a small drop when that was paid off a year ago. I mean, I get it. Paying responsibly on loans shows you are a good credit risk, but I just wish we weren’t penalized so much for NOT having loans.

ETA: To answer your question, since my score on Transunion has been lower for years without the mortgage, I don’t really think it recovers with time.

Yuck. That stinks. We will pay ours off in a few years and I never thought about how it would actually hurt our credit.

 

[havaneselover]

Wow. This never occurred to me. Following along since our mortgage only has a few years to go.



Yuck. That stinks. We will pay ours off in a few years and I never thought about how it would actually hurt our credit.

Should not impact your ability to get the best rates if you do need a loan. I would rather have everything paid off and a slightly lower credit score than have a nonrevolving credit balance/mortgage.

 

[jenmsmith]

Interesting thing I noticed about my credit score - having a mortgage raises it by about 20 points. The bank that has my mortgage merged with another bank, so my mortgage was temporarily reported as paid off on my credit report. A new one in the new bank's name was added a couple of weeks later. When the original mortgage was reported as paid, my credit score and DH's score both dropped by 20 points. They rebounded by exactly the same amount when the new mortgage was added in. Anyone else noticed something similar?

It did cause some stress when I got notices from all my credit monitoring services that my score had dropped by so much for no apparent reason, but now I think it's an interesting natural experiment. For those who have actually paid off their mortgages - did your scores drop permanently, or did they inch back up over time?

We paid off our mortgage and our scores dropped almost 30 points.

 

[FloridaNative8]

On captiva as someone mentioned the bubble room. We go just to get deserts from the counter to go and walk around the restaurant. Cool little things to see and a small
Store next door with neat gifts. We also like the Mucky Duck. British type beach pub. Good draft beer selection for the island. Also we rented a pontoon boat. Many small little beaches and islands to boat to for lonely shelling away from crowds.
mom Sanibel we always hit the island cow restaurant a few times. Great free muffins with all meals. Their grouper sandwich is big and always great with the coconut fry. Also on Sanibel we have done the Sanibel thriller boat ride. See dolphins and take a fast boat around all of Sanibel island. Pinocchio ice cream right over the bridge area is the bomb. Huge cones and home made great flavors. We often stay are Sanibel arms west condos. Ocean front second floor has greatview of ocean and beach. We go every other year. Lots of great bike trails on Sanibel. I recommend renting a bike for a day or week.

This is great - thank you so much!! We will definitely be doing some bike riding

 

[mmmears]

I’ve been seeing this Goldbelly offer on a bunch of our Amex cards so finally looked it up to see what it is. They ship regional specialty type foods, like Tucson tamales, New York bagels, Maryland crabs, etc. Anyone use them before? I was thinking about buying e-gc to maximize the %off but wasn’t sure how it would code with amex. I don’t know if it fits a bonus category or not. If it does, I want to put the offer on my correct cards.

Ooh. I have looked at their site every now and then but haven't tried it. I hope I have an offer.

 

[platamama]

OK - I know this is quoting an older message, but I remembered this being discussed and I can't figure out how to do it. I was recently approved for a Hyatt card and I'd love to add it to my apple pay.

I got an email saying to log into my chase app and then add the card to my mobile wallet. I can log in and see the card, but I can't find the number anywhere to add it to apple pay. I think I'm missing a step lol!

Were you able to add your card to Apple Pay without the physical card in hand? I'm impatiently waiting (P2 was approved yesterday, so yes I'm impatient!) for the WoH card to arrive because June 30 is not that long from now. Got turned down for expedited delivery via SM. Had him call Chase customer service but there's no way for him to get to a human right now since the phone prompt requires the 16 digit card number to get anywhere. I already tried to add it through his Chase account on the app, but it's not showing up as a card to add to Apple Pay. His other Chase cards are options but not the newly approved WoH.

ETA: @ski_mom I also found this post about Hyatt elite nights
https://onemileatatime.com/hyatt-credit-card-elite-nights/
The key part I was looking for is this

 

[ski_mom]

You should be able to go to your Hyatt account and see the levels. There is a chart here. You need 10 nights for Discoverist (or the Hyatt card gives you this status), 30 nights for Explorist, and 60 nights for Globalist.

I'm still learning too. I found this blog post helpful -

https://onemileatatime.com/hyatt-credit-card-review/
He covers more of the temporary benefits of the card here -

https://onemileatatime.com/hyatt-credit-card-promo/

Were you able to add your card to Apple Pay without the physical card in hand? I'm impatiently waiting (P2 was approved yesterday, so yes I'm impatient!) for the WoH card to arrive because June 30 is not that long from now. Got turned down for expedited delivery via SM. Had him call Chase customer service but there's no way for him to get to a human right now since the phone prompt requires the 16 digit card number to get anywhere. I already tried to add it through his Chase account on the app, but it's not showing up as a card to add to Apple Pay. His other Chase cards are options but not the newly approved WoH.

ETA: @ski_mom I also found this post about Hyatt elite nights
https://onemileatatime.com/hyatt-credit-card-elite-nights/
The key part I was looking for is this
View attachment 502065

Thank you for the information about the Hyatt perks that come with the cards. I'll have to study them some.

I did not end up adding the card to apple pay because the bill I needed to pay did not take apple pay, so I figured it wasn't work messing with.

I was also turned down to get the card expedited. They said it had something to do with having to get another kind of approval from Hyatt. The cards did come pretty quickly though. I applied and was approved 6/6 and received the card on 6/13. DH applied 6/8, approved 6/9 and received his card today 6/18. Hopefully your card will come quickly!

 

[IFlossU]

I'm still learning too. I found this blog post helpful -

https://onemileatatime.com/hyatt-credit-card-review/
He covers more of the temporary benefits of the card here -

https://onemileatatime.com/hyatt-credit-card-promo/

Thank you for this! I was approved for the Hyatt card Tuesday DH now each have one. Hyatt is getting a lot of love from this group lately

 

[hlhlaw07]

I’ve been seeing this Goldbelly offer on a bunch of our Amex cards so finally looked it up to see what it is. They ship regional specialty type foods, like Tucson tamales, New York bagels, Maryland crabs, etc. Anyone use them before? I was thinking about buying e-gc to maximize the %off but wasn’t sure how it would code with amex. I don’t know if it fits a bonus category or not. If it does, I want to put the offer on my correct cards.

I haven’t but have been very tempted.

Ooh. I have looked at their site every now and then but haven't tried it. I hope I have an offer.

I have been eyeing and drooling over the pictures that pop up into my Facebook ads for a long time. Well you guys just made me look to see if I had the offer. I did, so I placed an order. I also found a discount code B3lly15. My order was $72 and then I saved $15 with the code bringing the total to $57. So after the $10 statement credit $47 spent to try it out. And since I had to cancel my NYC trip in March my order was for a baker’s dozen of Essa bagels and a pound of their scallion cream cheese. Might seem expensive for bagels, but getting NY bagels delivered to your door is priceless in my book.

My bagels get here Tuesday! I have my eye on some Louisiana crawfish for the next order

 

[GlamMistress]

Food and Wine is happening (modified)! Halloween parties canceled (not shocked).

I hope the Morocco booth happens. Hummus fries!

https://disneyparks.disney.go.com/b...C0zJrnRcLT5U15qk-coRnf8bXxSu9lYBg67aZTLjlikxE

 

[Limes96]

I have been eyeing and drooling over the pictures that pop up into my Facebook ads for a long time. Well you guys just made me look to see if I had the offer. I did, so I placed an order. I also found a discount code B3lly15. My order was $72 and then I saved $15 with the code bringing the total to $57. So after the $10 statement credit $47 spent to try it out. And since I had to cancel my NYC trip in March my order was for a baker’s dozen of Essa bagels and a pound of their scallion cream cheese. Might seem expensive for bagels, but getting NY bagels delivered to your door is priceless in my book.

My bagels get here Tuesday! I have my eye on some Louisiana crawfish for the next order

That sounds awesome. I'd thought about the crawfish myself. I'll probably end up with tamales first. They are a family fav for sure.

 

[hlhlaw07]

That sounds awesome. I'd thought about the crawfish myself. I'll probably end up with tamales first. They are a family fav for sure.

The banana pudding from the magnolia bakery also looks amazing.