I love credit cards so much!

[trenty]

So, slightly off topic but I figure someone will know the answer to this one.

What is a good, easy to get card for someone who is just starting her financial life? Doesn’t need to have a ton of points, as I’m not sure she will get into the points game, but I’d like her to at least get something.

She will be graduating from grad school in a few weeks. I think she said her credit score is in the mid to upper 700s. She hasn’t ever had credit in her own name, except for student loans, but she’s been an authorized user on a few of my cards for over seven years while she’s been in school, and more recently I’ve added her to my CSP and Marriott cards. As I recall, I may have done that for the bonus points. I will be taking her off of all these after she gets a couple cards of her own.

She has a good paying job lined up beginning in June. Should she wait until she has a particular number of months at her job before applying? And which cards do you suggest? I already know to stay away from CapOne with their funky qualifying and all three credit bureau pulls. I was thinking CF or SW, but I’m not sure if the new SW one will be tougher to qualify for. Thanks.

Have her check her credit score with Credit Karma. That should give you a good indication of approval odds. I had my college age children start with the student Discover card. It is a cash back card.

 

[speedyfishy]

So, slightly off topic but I figure someone will know the answer to this one.

What is a good, easy to get card for someone who is just starting her financial life? Doesn’t need to have a ton of points, as I’m not sure she will get into the points game, but I’d like her to at least get something.

She will be graduating from grad school in a few weeks. I think she said her credit score is in the mid to upper 700s. She hasn’t ever had credit in her own name, except for student loans, but she’s been an authorized user on a few of my cards for over seven years while she’s been in school, and more recently I’ve added her to my CSP and Marriott cards. As I recall, I may have done that for the bonus points. I will be taking her off of all these after she gets a couple cards of her own.

She has a good paying job lined up beginning in June. Should she wait until she has a particular number of months at her job before applying? And which cards do you suggest? I already know to stay away from CapOne with their funky qualifying and all three credit bureau pulls. I was thinking CF or SW, but I’m not sure if the new SW one will be tougher to qualify for. Thanks.

Discover gives students a card with $500 limit fairly easily. If she has been an AU though she should be able to get some of the higher end cards. I started with Discover when I was in college it’s a good first card. Also, when my SO got his first offer out of college we started using that income a few months before he started. As long as she has an offer letter I don’t see a problem. We had no issues.

 

[Lain]

Now that I've signed up for Plastiq, I have a question for you experts. My mom lives in an assisted living place and her rent is > $6500/month. I am in charge of her finances, so I pay all of her bills for her. I've been writing checks for her rent, but I could be doing this through Plastiq and putting it on the CIP, right? As long as the CIP keeps getting 3x UR with Plastiq, are there any downsides to this that I'm not thinking of?

You'll pay a 2.5% fee to Plastiq, but that makes sense as long as Plastiq continues to code 3x UR for the payment and the fee on CIP as you noted. You're actually making a little money doing this, and you can think of the fee portion as socking away vacation funds or you can cash out UR at 1 cent per point. Just remember to schedule a payment ahead of time since checks get mailed and can take 7-10 days to deliver; give yourself some extra time just to be safe. The cash advance issue on Visa cards is reportedly fixed, so you shouldn't have to set your cash advance limit low, or make a small test payment on MC or Amex to establish a relationship. Residential rent is fine, so you don't need to fudge the Recipient's name. Just make sure to have your mom's name and account/room number, if any, in the memo line so the facility can apply payment correctly. Good luck!

 

[schmass]

You'll pay a 2.5% fee to Plastiq, but that makes sense as long as Plastiq continues to code 3x UR for the payment and the fee on CIP as you noted. You're actually making a little money doing this, and you can think of the fee portion as socking away vacation funds or you can cash out UR at 1 cent per point. Just remember to schedule a payment ahead of time since checks get mailed and can take 7-10 days to deliver; give yourself some extra time just to be safe. The cash advance issue on Visa cards is reportedly fixed, so you shouldn't have to set your cash advance limit low, or make a small test payment on MC or Amex to establish a relationship. Residential rent is fine, so you don't need to fudge the Recipient's name. Just make sure to have your mom's name and account/room number, if any, in the memo line so the facility can apply payment correctly. Good luck!

Excellent! Thank you!

 

[pillow]

Thank you I'm going to go look up Mommy points review.

Frequent Miler did a review of the Hyatt hotel too (and the Points Guy too I believe). Its the Andaz Papagayo. We considered it for our trip, but we wanted to stay other places. We booked using UR points for 2 our of 3 hotels + we paid for several activities with UR points. We flew into San Jose where we rented our car, then flew home from Liberia:

3 nights Manuel Antonio area - stayed here with UR points - http://www.fallsresortcr.com - great property and huge rooms
3 nights Monteverde at Casa Batsu - https://www.casabatsu.org - heaven on earth! - paid cash here cause not on the UR portal and I really wanted to stay here - was my favorite!
3 nights La Fortuna at Silencio Del Campo (they have hot springs on property) - http://www.hotelsilenciodelcampo.com/eng/index.html
Another nice option in La Fortuna is the Arenal Observatory Lodge. No hot springs but their hiking trails are gorgeous (we went for the day). https://www.arenalobservatorylodge.com

Activities we paid for with UR were:
Guided Manuel Antonio hike
Horseback riding (just the 4 of us) near Manuel Antonio - on a beach - it was awesome!
Guided hike in Monteverde Cloud Forest
Selvatura zipline and hanging bridges in Monteverde (extreme adventure)

Can you tell we had fun - ha? PM me if you want more info. I can't wait to go back there!!!

 

[Eighty8Keys]

I think it counts as cash advance but not sure

I used it a few times many years ago when I didn't want to hit the ATM and it didn't count as a cash advance. It's called Discover Cash at Checkout and it's treated like a purchase. I was hoping that it would be considered a grocery purchase but doing a little Google searching it seems like you don't earn any points on the cashback part of the purchase. I'll know for sure after the 20th when my statement closes. There's a limit of $120 per 24 hours but some retailers have lower limits or can choose not to participate at all.

 

[GZanta77]

I also have the credit card and am supposed to get the 10% back. I redeemed some points on Feb 1st, just checked my activity and the 10% points back have not posted. I actually forgot about it until you mentioned it. I looked at the terms and it says they are supposed to post within 4-6 weeks. Looks like I'll need to make a call to see what happened to mine!

Have you taken the flight? You only get the 10% back after you have taken the flight booked with points.

 

[platamama]

So, slightly off topic but I figure someone will know the answer to this one.

What is a good, easy to get card for someone who is just starting her financial life? Doesn’t need to have a ton of points, as I’m not sure she will get into the points game, but I’d like her to at least get something.

She will be graduating from grad school in a few weeks. I think she said her credit score is in the mid to upper 700s. She hasn’t ever had credit in her own name, except for student loans, but she’s been an authorized user on a few of my cards for over seven years while she’s been in school, and more recently I’ve added her to my CSP and Marriott cards. As I recall, I may have done that for the bonus points. I will be taking her off of all these after she gets a couple cards of her own.

She has a good paying job lined up beginning in June. Should she wait until she has a particular number of months at her job before applying? And which cards do you suggest? I already know to stay away from CapOne with their funky qualifying and all three credit bureau pulls. I was thinking CF or SW, but I’m not sure if the new SW one will be tougher to qualify for. Thanks.

Have her check her credit score with Credit Karma. That should give you a good indication of approval odds. I had my college age children start with the student Discover card. It is a cash back card.

Discover gives students a card with $500 limit fairly easily. If she has been an AU though she should be able to get some of the higher end cards. I started with Discover when I was in college it’s a good first card. Also, when my SO got his first offer out of college we started using that income a few months before he started. As long as she has an offer letter I don’t see a problem. We had no issues.

Just to add regarding Discover, they have an online bank where the debit card gets 1% back on up to $3000/mo. And their savings account is offering 1.5% which is one of the higher rates being offered. So as far as a suite of simple and straightforward offerings, Discover is pretty strong.

 

[Lain]

DP reporting that paying federal taxes through pay1040 .com with SPG Biz did not earn Starpoints or count towards MSR: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/8b6hmv/daily_discussion_thread_april_10_2018/dx59sek/

 

[speedyfishy]

Just to add regarding Discover, they have an online bank where the debit card gets 1% back on up to $3000/mo. And their savings account is offering 1.5% which is one of the higher rates being offered. So as far as a suite of simple and straightforward offerings, Discover is pretty strong.

Yes! I have a savings and checking account with them too and I love it. I moved most of my money from Chase to them.

 

[speedyfishy]

DP reporting that paying federal taxes through pay1040 .com with SPG Biz did not earn Starpoints or count towards MSR: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/8b6hmv/daily_discussion_thread_april_10_2018/dx59sek/

Amex is getting ridiculous. That’s an actual expense...

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

DP reporting that paying federal taxes through pay1040 .com with SPG Biz did not earn Starpoints or count towards MSR: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/8b6hmv/daily_discussion_thread_april_10_2018/dx59sek/

Amex is getting ridiculous. That’s an actual expense...

In response to this somebody else is saying they did earn points on the same expense just a few days ago. I hate to be skeptical of somebody but something seems off on that one.

 

[gottalovepluto]

So, slightly off topic but I figure someone will know the answer to this one.

What is a good, easy to get card for someone who is just starting her financial life? Doesn’t need to have a ton of points, as I’m not sure she will get into the points game, but I’d like her to at least get something.

She will be graduating from grad school in a few weeks. I think she said her credit score is in the mid to upper 700s. She hasn’t ever had credit in her own name, except for student loans, but she’s been an authorized user on a few of my cards for over seven years while she’s been in school, and more recently I’ve added her to my CSP and Marriott cards. As I recall, I may have done that for the bonus points. I will be taking her off of all these after she gets a couple cards of her own.

She has a good paying job lined up beginning in June. Should she wait until she has a particular number of months at her job before applying? And which cards do you suggest? I already know to stay away from CapOne with their funky qualifying and all three credit bureau pulls. I was thinking CF or SW, but I’m not sure if the new SW one will be tougher to qualify for. Thanks.

General knowledge says Chase will deny her for not having her own credit card history of at least 6 months, preferably 1 year. Being an AU gets her in the credit bureau system but Chase wants more than that. She'd be better off starting with Discover and then trying for a Chase card in 6 months to a year.

 

[gottalovepluto]

In response to this somebody else is saying they did earn points on the same expense just a few days ago. I hate to be skeptical of somebody but something seems off on that one.

NOTHING MAKES SENSE ANYWHERE ANYMORE

 

[Ava]

With all the Marriott/SPG merger rumors swirling, I'm wondering how long it will be before the current CC's are no longer open to new applications. I'll be working on spend on my Marriott Biz & SPG Biz through June. After that, I'm wondering if it will make sense to pick up the SPG Personal and/or Marriott Personal before they cease to exist in their current forms (if they are still open to new apps at that point). My only hesitation would be that I would still have the card(s) open on the rumored Aug 1st merger date, so would risk being converted to a new product and therefore ineligible to receive a bonus on that product in the future. Although I guess that's only really a risk with AMEX since I'd be able to churn the Chase bonus in 24 months (pending 5/24 status and whatever new rules they've come up with by then).

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

NOTHING MAKES SENSE ANYWHERE ANYMORE

If you want to have fun with people, create a throwaway reddit account and tell them your Plastiq payment caused a clawback from AMEX...hahaha!

 

[elgerber]

In response to this somebody else is saying they did earn points on the same expense just a few days ago. I hate to be skeptical of somebody but something seems off on that one.

I will be paying my state taxes tomorrow with a Delta Biz, I will let you know how that goes.

 

[Lain]

DP reporting that paying federal taxes through pay1040 .com with SPG Biz did not earn Starpoints or count towards MSR: https://www.reddit.com/r/churning/comments/8b6hmv/daily_discussion_thread_april_10_2018/dx59sek/

In response to this somebody else is saying they did earn points on the same expense just a few days ago. I hate to be skeptical of somebody but something seems off on that one.

Yup, I see the counter-DP already.

 

[Angrose]

Have you taken the flight? You only get the 10% back after you have taken the flight booked with points.

Ah, that's good to know! It wasn't really clear in their terms but I may have just missed it. Thanks!

 

[SouthFayetteFan]

Yup, I see the counter-DP already.

And then we're left to wonder who to believe? Or are both telling the truth but we're missing some other details?? And of course there's always the thought of why do I care since I don't use pay1040 myself...but I do care dagnabbit!! Churning is life! hahaha!