What is the best credit card to get right now?

Dummy dummy dummy wrote:

sshhhhh.. wrote:

So, if I don't use my credit card the prices will drop???? WOW, I didn't know that! SWEET!

No. It's because you are using it that collectively all your prices are higher. There's no such thing as a free lunch. Credit card companies aren't giving you 3-2-1 cash back because they are kind, they're doing it because they make more and more money from it. All of the retailers of those places where you spent your money, overcharged you to compensate for it.

Enjoy that steak, and that "free" trip to Vegas (another place that nets your credit card company big bucks.) You heard about predatory lending? Predatory marketing victimizes far more suckers.

So you only shop and eat at places that are "cash only" right?

It doesn't matter what you use the price is the same. As long as someone uses a credit card there you are paying the same price, get it yet?

You really are not that bright and it appears that you just won't get it.

Best of luck with life.

Dummy dummy dummy wrote:

No. It's because you are using it that collectively all your prices are higher. There's no such thing as a free lunch. Credit card companies aren't giving you 3-2-1 cash back because they are kind, they're doing it because they make more and more money from it. All of the retailers of those places where you spent your money, overcharged you to compensate for it.

Enjoy that steak, and that "free" trip to Vegas (another place that nets your credit card company big bucks.) You heard about predatory lending? Predatory marketing victimizes far more suckers.

The difference is 1-3% depending on the card that you use. Stores aren't generally affected by this amount.

Hmmm...the Amazon Visa I have basically gives me 1% back, and they charge the business 1%. So it is basically the same thing as cash, except I don't have to worry about carrying cash.

Yup, credit cards are a terrible thing. Let's burn them all!

If you can't pay cash for it... You don't need it... Get a bank debit card instead.

not a Visa United user wrote:

trailrunner64 wrote:

I have a USAirways Frequent Flier VISA card; it costs $ 60 a year, and I get 1 mile per $ 1.

How do the miles work?

Capital One said that when I signed up with then. Then the fine print bascially said we lied about that. In reality, it's $125 spent to earn 1 dollar in reward.

i.e. for a $100 flight, you would need to have charged $12,500 on the card.

You are looking for a gold mine that does not exist !

You get 1 "MILE" per $, not $ 1 dollar of credit towards a plane ticket ! Spend $10,000 in a year, you get 10,000 "miles". You need 25,000 "miles" for a free round trip in US.

trailrunner64 wrote:

You are looking for a gold mine that does not exist !

You get 1 "MILE" per $, not $ 1 dollar of credit towards a plane ticket ! Spend $10,000 in a year, you get 10,000 "miles". You need 25,000 "miles" for a free round trip in US.

And how much do you need to spend with cash to get a free trip?

If you think about it, that 25,000 miles isn't a bad deal. Some round trip tickets can be $400-500, so that is almost 2% back.

Credit Carder wrote:

What are some of the best credit card deals out there?

I was going to suggest one where someone else is paying the charges each month.

I have a discover card that does the cashback. That's come in handy a few times when we've had large bills. I put my kid's tuition on it, along with some other things, and got $100 back in one month.

I always pay my cards off each month. With the exception of the car and house, I don't ever pay interest on anything. I always go for the 12 months same as cash. If you buy electronics at some place like Best Buy, ask for it. They nearly always give it to me even if it's not advertised.

My sister-in-law put everything (even the house payment) on her GM mastercard to rack up points towards a car and bought a minivan after her kids were born.

When I was younger, I had a bank account that allowed 10 free checks a month. Everything went on the credit card so that I only had to write one check. Credit card interest and bank fees are something I can do without.

I was told that to establish credit you need to carry a balance on your credit card from month to month. Even if it's a small balance, carrying one from month to month earns credit.

The same person told me that to pay off your complete balance each month does nothing for your credit.

Is there truth in any of these statements, as I am about to hit my first billing cycle in 7 days and want to know if I should completely pay this balance off or leave like 10$ on it to carry over to next month.

Establishing Credit wrote:

I was told that to establish credit you need to carry a balance on your credit card from month to month. Even if it's a small balance, carrying one from month to month earns credit.

The same person told me that to pay off your complete balance each month does nothing for your credit.

Is there truth in any of these statements, as I am about to hit my first billing cycle in 7 days and want to know if I should completely pay this balance off or leave like 10$ on it to carry over to next month.

There must be better ways of establishing good credit than paying some bank 18-21 % interest, even on a small balance. I would never do such a thing, just for the principle of it. I simply cannot believe that demonstrating FULL monthly payment is not better than demonstrating PARTIAL monthly payment.

Nonsense. The important thing is to never carry more than 20 or 30 percent of your credit limit on any single card. Anything over 10 percent usage of all your credit limit is also counted against you.

Credit scorers get a monthly snapshot of your usage that most likely will not line up with your closing date, so if you pay your bill off every month the 0 balance won't show up anyway. It's the high balance you should be concerned about if your goal is to build your FICO score.

The scoring algorithms favor installment loans over revolving credit.

Pay all of your bills on time.

Pay off your revolving credit every month.

If you can't, keep the balance of any card less than 20 percent, and your total debt under 10 percent.

Never pay just the minimum due

If you insist on adding credit, only apply for no more than one card a year.

Don't close old accounts, they boost your credit history.

I made a lot of money off of a couple of my credit cards. I would get a cash advance at 0% interest for 6 months. It only cost $75 and I would get $40,000. I would put that into an equity line I had and save a couple hundred dollars a month on interest. I was saving a couple thousand dollars a year. (I used the equity line for my business).

The credit card now charges a flat rate of 3% for all cash advances, so I can't make money now if I have to pay that. It was great while it lasted.

My capital one card only has a 9.9% interest rate and I get back about $500 every year. I use it most of the time even though I have two others that have much higher credit limits.

I had a discover card years ago. I had to cancel it after a divorce. For years, they would send me letters saying I was pre-approved, but I always ignored them since I had other cards with limits of about 75 grand. I finally sent the application back in and they turned me down!! Sure enoough, the next month, the same letter came saying I was pre-approved, blah, blah, blah.

The latest Consumer Reports (Oct) has a story on the best and worst credit cards.

Best:

USAA Federal Savings (Military only)

Navy Federal CU

Credit Unions

Cabela's

Nordstrom

Am Ex

Dis

Worst:

JP Morgan

Bank of America

Citi

Cap One

HSBC

Providian

Direct Merchants

wamu

seriusly-they rip me off the less out of all of them. Never get bank of america

keino wrote:

The latest Consumer Reports (Oct) has a story on the best and worst credit cards.

Best:

USAA Federal Savings (Military only)

Navy Federal CU

Credit Unions

Cabela's

Nordstrom

Am Ex

Dis

Worst:

JP Morgan

Bank of America

Citi

Cap One

HSBC

Providian

Direct Merchants

Just to comment on this, yes Navy Federal is an amazing card. It gives you rewards (1% cash back) and for people who might be struggling it has a VERY low APR and ZERO minimum payments each month. So it helps you build credit (you always have "paid on time") even though you might be going through a tough time. They also have a great savings program, unfortunately I believe you need to have someone who was in the navy (look up the family tree, sometimes they'll take these connections).

Everything you need to know about building your FICO score is here.

http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/pf/0705/gallery.credit_score/index.html

IF everyone stopped using credit cards then the stores could stop charging the extra charges but is that going to happen? No. More people in the US carry a balance every month so this is not going to happen. The prices for those of us that can actually control our spending are going to be same as those that cannot so we might as well get as much out of the situation as we can.Plus you have to consider the convenience and safety associated with credit cards. I feel a lot safer not carrying around cash everywhere I go, I enjoy being able to buy airline ticket online, paying bills automatically, and not having to make sure I can get to an atm or bank in order to go to the grocery store.I obviously understand that the credit card companies are making money off of what I spend. But I am not going to save any money if I don't use it.

Dummy dummy dummy wrote:

No. It's because you are using it that collectively all your prices are higher. There's no such thing as a free lunch. Credit card companies aren't giving you 3-2-1 cash back because they are kind, they're doing it because they make more and more money from it. All of the retailers of those places where you spent your money, overcharged you to compensate for it.

Enjoy that steak, and that "free" trip to Vegas (another place that nets your credit card company big bucks.) You heard about predatory lending? Predatory marketing victimizes far more suckers.

I'm surprised that Consumer Rates would give a bad ranking to Citi because they seem to have the best rewards of any card. Are they also factoring interest rates into the equation? I have no plans of ever carrying a balance, so I can't understand why Citi cards would be bad.

I had a Discover card for a while but got tired of having to carry around a Visa as well since many places didn't take Discover. Many smaller restaurants and other places don't accept it since they charge the business more than Visa and Mastercard. I have had Capital One and have had no problems with it. They have been helpful when my car was broken into with cancelling my old and getting me a new card. And they monitor the card like hawks looking for fraud. I tried to use the card for online poker and they shut the card down out of fear of fraud. They shut the card down and I had to call in and verify everything was okay. It seemed like a hassle but glad that they monitor it.

keino wrote:

The latest Consumer Reports (Oct) has a story on the best and worst credit cards.

Best:

USAA Federal Savings (Military only)

Navy Federal CU

Credit Unions

Cabela's

Nordstrom

Am Ex

Dis

Worst:

JP Morgan

Bank of America

Citi

Cap One

HSBC

Providian

Direct Merchants