alpha0meqa

Hello all,

It has come to my knowledge that I should obtain a rewards CC, and just use the card for everything possible, (which my debit card currently does) and just pay it off every month.

I like to visit Las Vegas, and I'm by no means a high roller. Flights are a bit expensive from Raleigh, NC so anything would help! I've looked at the Sapphire preferred from Chase and that seems to be really good.

My current situation is:
One 1st Financial Visa Platinum card(12k limit) currently has 500$ on it, I have a Credit card with my bank (5k limit) and it has 1400$ on it. I have a belks credit card as well, for some dumb reason. Not sure what the limit is, but it has a 0$ balance. My credit(last I checked) was around 640-650. My uncle who owns a car dealership checks it for me for free once a year. I'm 26 by the way if that helps.

My predicament is that I don't know which card to get, as mentioned above I love the Sapphire so far, but you have to spend 3k a month on the card to get the 40,000 points. I could easily do that, but unfortunately my rent can only be submitted by: money order, check, or direct draft from my bank(which I use). Not sure if there is a way around that or not, but thats 650$ that I usually spend a month, my bills are about 1,000$ a month. Not including gas, food, movies, misc. That's just electricity,cable/internet,rent,phone. So I don't know if I should try for this card, as I'm really not sure if I could spend 1k a month for 3 months, although, I do want to book a trip here soon, definitely in the next few weeks, so maybe that would help.

Not sure what to do! Any advice would be great =)

Thank you

ekwang

Do a search, but there is a thread in FT for paying rent with a CC. As for the CSP sign up bonus, I believe it is $3k spend first month, not every month thereafter.

deant

First, get your current credit cards paid off and work on getting your credit score up! Once you have done that, then you could consider a points earning card.

chrisj500

640-650 seems a bit low for a rewards card; I'm assuming that's a FICO - but it is also likely an auto loan FICO, which is a bit different. I'd suggest trying to figure out how to improve your FICO. That's probably a good idea any should you later decide to get a car, or mortgage. Also, having your uncle pull your credit report may be resulting in hard pulls against your CR - making it appear that you're applying for credit, and resulting in a dip in your score as well.

If you don't know the factors that are negatively affecting your score, you may want to buy a score from myfico.com to see how you can improve your score.

traveling trinity

The CSP is $3000 in 3 months, not 1 month. You might as well apply and see if they accept you. If they say no, apply for the chase freedom so you are at least getting some points (although you can't transfer to partners with ONLY the freedom card). You will need to open a BlueBird account for free on line. Then you buy Vanilla Reload cards with your points earning credit card (s) to pay your other bills that don't accept credit cards. Educate yourself more by signing up for travel blog newsletters. My favorites are; the frequent miler, the points guy, mile value, and million mile secrets.

alpha0meqa

Hey all,

Really sorry about the typo I had. I read your replies and almost crapped myself. I was always told my credit was really good for my age. I went and found the report and it says
Beacon 5.0 Score (Auto Finance) 751.

I'm guessing this may change the answers I receive I'm very sorry for my mixup. Definitely glad I figured out what it actually is as 640 is quite low....Sorry again!

deant

You should definitely pull your credit report and see what pulls are on it and what score it shows. By getting the report yourself, you will know which bureau it is from. If the report that your Uncle get results in a hard pull (which I suspect), you should not have him do it any more.

Once you have the report review it for any inaccuracies. Then make sure you understand what actions impact your credit score.

If everything is OK then, you should apply for the card. Based on your information, the CSP card is probably as good as any.

alpha0meqa

I have a report with all of the things that build credit I believe, It was pulled in December though, I get them to pull it once a year just to see what happens, as I understand doing it just once a year shouldn't mess anything up too terribly. Everything looked fine on the report though, I don't think there are any inconsistencies.

chrisj500

You can acquire free copies of the three major credit reporting agencies for free once a year.
https://www.annualcreditreport.com/cra/index.jsp

If you're FICO is in the mid-700s, I'd expect you'd have a pretty good change of getting approved. Since you're mostly wanting to fly from NC to LAS, it might be worth looking into the Southwest 50K card as well. If you're not looking for aspirational flights, that may even be a good card for you to keep.

alpha0meqa

Hey Chris!

Well what sucks is southwest flights are like 150-200$ more than Delta....Otherwise I'd be all over the southwest card for sure! Not sure what it is about NC that southwest just wants to charge so much here....

What is the purpose of pulling the reports and not the score? Just to make sure everything is correct?

chrisj500

Hi Alpha,

If your uncle is getting you a report, it is likely only coming from one bureau. Due to govt regulation, the bureaus must offer you a credit report annually for free. Personally, I wouldn't waste a hard pull for a free report / score. (Full disclosure, I did this once in the past myself with a friend at a car lot.)

Would 50K Southwest points get you to LAS twice round trip? It's difficult to book an award ticket with Delta. It sounds like you really would be looking for free domestic travel. Southwest has a sale right now that ends tonight, $149 one way to Las Vegas from Raleigh. With the CSP card, I'd probably move the points to United - but I wouldn't use that for a reward ticket to LAS. Those points are certainly enough to get you to Hawaii and back. But that's just me - everyone has their own prerogative.

You may want to look at the Fidelity AmEX 2% cash back card too, if you don't think you're interested in opening a bunch of credit cards. That's certainly the best every day spending card, if you're just trying to replace a debit card.

alpha0meqa

Duly noted, I will look into getting an updated report then! Thanks

I'll have to check into how many points it takes to get to XYZ location as I'm honestly not sure.

That sale with SWA was for pretty much the end of August and on. In hindsight I might want to go to Vegas in November, but I just realized that late afternoon(for a UFC Fight), however, in July I'm looking to book a trip. I know it's a bit last minute, but even when I look far ahead on Southwest, the prices are just always so expensive. I was just thinking the Sapphire Preferred is able to be used everything, and you get basically the same amount of points. And the 20% off when buying through their reward spot. I figured it may be the better deal.

chrisj500

They're both good cards. I rarely fly Southwest, but I have a cash of 100K points just in case for domestic travel. I'm not trying to deter you from getting the CSP -UR points are very valuable, and I'd tend to save them for bucket list trips. Also, Barclay's Arrival card has a $400 fixed value sign-on bonus for flights, and that only has a $1K spend requirement.