Credit Card Hot Deals

[keystroker]

bump

 

[MyBuds]

Wrong. Creditors get names for 'pre-approved' mailings from credit bureau lists. They find ppl that meet certain requirements and send the solicitation out. YOU ARE GUARANTEED a credit card from that creditor, but you have to read the brochure to see which card you may get. Usually its some 9.9% Platinum card advertised on the front that you could get, but read the back and it will also have information about a 21% "Standard Gold Card". So to sum up...if you get a pre-approved mailing you will get a credit card from them, but read the entire brochure to determine which cards you are applying for.

Andrew


Preapproved mailings DO NOT always mean you will get the card. My younger brother, who is 7, has received several preapproved credit card mailings. Because you cannot take part in a contract as a minor, he would not be approved for any card, despite whatever he may be worth and his "credit history."

 

[RossMAN]

<< Hey I've had a CC for about 8 months wells fargo student visa, i applied for amex blue regular about a month ago. Got Denied. Would it be safe to apply for amex blue student card right now? I don't want to mess up my rating. I know I should just stick with my visa but I think the blue card looks cool . I pay off my CC full balance every month I can manage my money pretty well. >>



I'm assuming your VISA is your first cc?
What month/year did you get it?
How long have you been at your job and living at your present address?
Do you make a decent income?
Have you applied for more than 3 cc's or loans in the past 12 months?
Did you actually read Amex's decline letter stating why they declined you?

 

[keystroker]

I'm assuming your VISA is your first cc? yes
What month/year did you get it? nov 2001
How long have you been at your job and living at your present address? at my job since augest 2001 present address 16 years i think
Do you make a decent income? no 500-600/month
Have you applied for more than 3 cc's or loans in the past 12 months? yes 3-4 CCs
Did you actually read Amex's decline letter stating why they declined you? i haven't recieved it yet i checked on the phone.

 

[keystroker]

turned 18 in augest 2001 .

 

[RossMAN]

The good news is you probably don't have any bad credit marks (assuming you have no late payments, right?).

The bad news is credit takes TIME and PATIENCE. I'm assuming that you were declined for all 3-4 cc's and loans you applied for? You need to give some time to establish and build your credit history. Make sure to use your cc, pay it off in monthly installments -or- in full every month.

You CAN get approved for an Amex Blue cc but I would suggest two things:
1) Read the Amex Blue decline letter you're going to receive and the 3-4 previous letters, notice a trend?
2) Every new cc or loan you apply for is an inquiry on your credit, regardless if you are approved or declined - several inquiries is a BAD thing and lowers your credit score. So here's the bad news you don't wanna hear, in order for you to establish credit with your VISA and have the 3-4 inquiries disappear you need to wait at least 12 months. By then you will have proven that you're responsible with your VISA and the 3-4 ccs you applied for will drop off.

This is a conservative approach but it's what I always recommend to my clients. I've worked in banking for nearly 8 years, 4 of which were spent in Consumer Credit/Home Equity/Auto Financing.

Use your VISA, pay it off, DO NOT APPLY FOR ANY NEW cc's and wait for 12 months then apply for an Amex Blue.

 

[keystroker]

ok cool well the 3-4 CCs i applied for was before I got my Visa when i turned 18. So the only CC i applied to after I got my visa was the amex blue, but I know its still on the record.

 

[RossMAN]

<< ok cool well the 3-4 CCs i applied for was before I got my Visa when i turned 18. So the only CC i applied to after I got my visa was the amex blue, but I know its still on the record. >>



Just make sure to wait at least 12 months since your Amex Blue application and you should be ok.

 

[VisionsUCI]

Great thread! AznRyda, if you monitor this very much, I wonder if you could could keep some information updated in your first post... like a summary of the cards if it isn't too much work.

 

[Lore]

So I was thinking... even though AMEX Blue's BVG is gone, the BVG program is still available with their charge cards, which have a $75 annual fee. If you use the BVG just once or twice you've earned that money back, and whatever other deals you were thinking of pricematching will easily make this card worthwhile.

Unfortunately, this is a charge card which means you have to pay in full every month.

 

[RossMAN]

<< Unfortunately, this is a charge card which means you have to pay in full every month. >>



That's what's stopping me from getting that Amex card. Although I usually pay my cc's off every month sometimes I can't, in those cases I'd be screwed with this Amex card.

 

[Emulex]

the floor (base score) for blue is 680 (fico). They do not like more than 4 inquiries in the past 6 months, but a high score will override that.

You should always talk to the amex "MORE" team, they can explain more options, and may be able to override the decline if there is a good reason.

 

[Lore]

<< That's what's stopping me from getting that Amex card. Although I usually pay my cc's off every month sometimes I can't, in those cases I'd be screwed with this Amex card. >>



This should only be your "pricematching" card. Ideally, you should only buy things with this which you would have bought anyway (and therefore have the cash for), and only for the pricematch. For $75 I'm considering doing it, except I noticed I haven't bought much recently...hehe

 

[dentalboy]

bump

 

[AznRyda]

 

[RossMAN]

I was finally approved for a co-branded CostCo/Amex Platinum rebate card, no annual fee, it doubles as my CostCo card, earn up to 2% rebates per year (not realistic since I have to charge > $5,000 and carry a balance).

 

[MitzEclipse]

Keep this thread up for the newbies! Lots of great resources in this thread...

Any new deals out there?

 

[slaman]

Excellent thread - here's my situation:

Have had two Canadian credit cards with good standing for about 3 years now. I am a student in university. I moved to California for a year earning a decent income, so now I think I'll be eligible for some nice cash-back cards. (IF they check my Canadian history)

Is there anyway to make sure they check my Canadian credit history?
Amex Blue's Price Match thing died right?

First USA Platinum - 1% Cashback Unlimited

Chase Platinum - 1%+ Cashback Unlimited

Any thoughts on the above two?

Edited to remove those retarded referral id's

 

[bit]

there are other cash back credit cards that you can consider too. Blue doesn't have pricematch anymore, but amex gold and amex business gold still have pricematch capability.

 

[slaman]

Given my non-existant US credit rating, would those two cards be applicable to me? (The AMEX ones)

Edit: I think those are WAY out of my credit range

 

[BurningRome]

Hey Slaman -
re: Canadian Credit rating in the US......
I had/have a good one in Canada, having had Canada Trust and BofM CC's for about 10 years upon moving to CA 3 years ago. No dice for the US CC companies- I had no US credit rating and there was no way for me to induce them to check the Canadian ones. Tried many times. No go. Finally got a low-limit American one from my credit union at Stanford and then everything was fine from then on.
Things might be a bit different now, with Canada Trust sellling their CC bizness to Citibank which of course is the largest US CC issuer. That might make things a bit easier.

 

[slaman]

Hrm, this could be good news since I had a citibank card in Canada (originally a Canada Trust)

Maybe I should apply for a citibank card - any good deals on their cards?

By the way, I just did a bit of research on that stockback card and it's crap - I think they lock your funds in some sort of investment account. Must be a pain to get the funds out if you want them. Secondly, the person at the phone number provided had no idea what the "stockback" credit card was and after about 15 minutes of being tossed around, they told me to goto chase.com

sigh

I'll look into citibank to avoid being denied... We need to start an auto loans thread too now!

 

[ingenue007]

BTW, does anyone with an MBNA platinum plus card know what the website is to redeem all those points you get?

 

[RossMAN]

slaman - I would strongly recommend applying for the CitiBank Dividend Platinum Select VISA which is almost identical to the Chase and First USA 1% rebate cards you listed above.

No annual fee.
Low APR.
1% rebate on all purchases.
0% APR on balance transfers for the first 9 months.

If you are DECLINED (which is a possibility) instead of going crazy applying for every cc on the planet I would suggest applying for a SECURED credit card (CitiBank and Capital One among other cc issuers offer this credit card). A SECURED credit card can help you to establish your U.S. credit history which will not happen over night, it takes time unfortunately.

I have been a happy CitiBank customer since 1994, although I work for a bank (one of CitiBank's competitor's) I can honestly say my Dividend Platinum Select VISA is one of my favorite cc's.

 

[BurningRome]

Ha - that's the same card I use now! I was going to mention it in my previous post but I thought that it fell under "too much information". But it's a great card for all the reasons RossMan lists. Altho mine's a Mastercard. Also there's purchase protection, rental car insurance, etc etc.