How Many Credit Cards Do You Have?

[Rams]

Here is my scenario

- 2 credit cards with long history of good credit and 1 with shorter history.  I plan to always keep these open to keep AAoA up.
- 1 SWA card that I have gotten the bonus from that I opened in March
- Just got 2 new cards today (one from Chase which is the SWA card also)

Is it better to cancel that SWA card for credit score purposes or keep it open?  credit lines are all about the same.

never cancel a chase card.  always transfer the credit to a new chase card.

[Phil Titola]

Here is my scenario

- 2 credit cards with long history of good credit and 1 with shorter history.  I plan to always keep these open to keep AAoA up.
- 1 SWA card that I have gotten the bonus from that I opened in March
- Just got 2 new cards today (one from Chase which is the SWA card also)

Is it better to cancel that SWA card for credit score purposes or keep it open?  credit lines are all about the same.

never cancel a chase card.  always transfer the credit to a new chase card.

So i effed up applying for and getting the Sapphire card?

[bubbles4ksu]

never cancel a chase card.  always transfer the credit to a new chase card.

i recently transferred from a sapphire preferred to a sapphire to avoid the fee.

1. did i do the right thing?
2. when can i get the preferred and it's bonus again?

[sys]

just performed a successful "triple dip" in the ur mall and got 11,278 points for a $900 purchase 

describe it.

[Rams]

Here is my scenario

- 2 credit cards with long history of good credit and 1 with shorter history.  I plan to always keep these open to keep AAoA up.
- 1 SWA card that I have gotten the bonus from that I opened in March
- Just got 2 new cards today (one from Chase which is the SWA card also)

Is it better to cancel that SWA card for credit score purposes or keep it open?  credit lines are all about the same.

never cancel a chase card.  always transfer the credit to a new chase card.

So i effed up applying for and getting the Sapphire card?

no.  I was just saying that you shouldn't outright cancel a chase card.  you'll get to a point eventually where you'll have to start calling reconsideration with every chase application because you've met their outstanding credit limit.  reconsideration is pretty much a guaranteed approval with chase if you just have them transfer credit from an existing chase card.  that way you're never giving up any outstanding credit and risking them not giving it back to you.  make sense?

[Rams]

never cancel a chase card.  always transfer the credit to a new chase card.

i recently transferred from a sapphire preferred to a sapphire to avoid the fee.

1. did i do the right thing?
2. when can i get the preferred and it's bonus again?

1. I suppose if you're not concerned about the additional perks that come with the preferred version.
2. you can't churn chase cards.  you can get another preferred at some point if you want to but they only give bonuses once.

[Phil Titola]

Here is my scenario

- 2 credit cards with long history of good credit and 1 with shorter history.  I plan to always keep these open to keep AAoA up.
- 1 SWA card that I have gotten the bonus from that I opened in March
- Just got 2 new cards today (one from Chase which is the SWA card also)

Is it better to cancel that SWA card for credit score purposes or keep it open?  credit lines are all about the same.

never cancel a chase card.  always transfer the credit to a new chase card.

So i effed up applying for and getting the Sapphire card?

no.  I was just saying that you shouldn't outright cancel a chase card.  you'll get to a point eventually where you'll have to start calling reconsideration with every chase application because you've met their outstanding credit limit.  reconsideration is pretty much a guaranteed approval with chase if you just have them transfer credit from an existing chase card.  that way you're never giving up any outstanding credit and risking them not giving it back to you.  make sense?

Yup.  Thanks Rams!

[Rams]

just performed a successful "triple dip" in the ur mall and got 11,278 points for a $900 purchase 

describe it.

buy $900 worth of bass pro gift cards from staples through the ur mall with my ink bold. ink bold gives me 5x points at office supply stores and ur mall gives me an additional 3x points for going through ur mall.  go back through ur mall and use gift cards to buy $900 worth of crap from bass pro.

[sys]

buy $900 worth of bass pro gift cards from staples through the ur mall with my ink bold. ink bold gives me 5x points at office supply stores and ur mall gives me an additional 3x points for going through ur mall.  go back through ur mall and use gift cards to buy $900 worth of crap from bass pro.

so, they say that the ur mall bonus isn't valid on gift cards, but they can't actually tell if you buy gift cards?

[bubbles4ksu]

never cancel a chase card.  always transfer the credit to a new chase card.

i recently transferred from a sapphire preferred to a sapphire to avoid the fee.

1. did i do the right thing?
2. when can i get the preferred and it's bonus again?

1. I suppose if you're not concerned about the additional perks that come with the preferred version.
2. you can't churn chase cards.  you can get another preferred at some point if you want to but they only give bonuses once.

1. no, i don't think i care about the other perks.
2. damn, i thought i just needed to take a year off with chase.

thanks.

[Rams]

buy $900 worth of bass pro gift cards from staples through the ur mall with my ink bold. ink bold gives me 5x points at office supply stores and ur mall gives me an additional 3x points for going through ur mall.  go back through ur mall and use gift cards to buy $900 worth of crap from bass pro.

so, they say that the ur mall bonus isn't valid on gift cards, but they can't actually tell if you buy gift cards?

buying gift cards at staples seems to work for everyone from what I've seen (for now).  whether or not you get the bonus by using only gift cards for your purchase varies from store to store.  apparently bass pro is one of the stores it works. I may be buying all of the paint to paint my house this way through home depot.

[sys]

buying gift cards at staples seems to work for everyone from what I've seen (for now).

great tip, thanks.

[michigancat]

Why wouldn't you cancel a Chase card before the annual fee?

[Rams]

Why wouldn't you cancel a Chase card before the annual fee?

I'm not saying you shouldn't cancel a card before the annual fee, just don't cancel it outright.  always apply for a new card and have that credit transferred.  once you've canceled a card outright you've given up that available credit and they have to decide whether or not to give it back to you.  if you just keep transferring it you'll never lose it.  chase is never going to just reduce your credit available (unless you're a huge dumbass) so why do it for them?

[bubbles4ksu]

Why wouldn't you cancel a Chase card before the annual fee?

i have a bunch of unused UR points and the person told me i would lose them if i cancelled.

[michigancat]

Why wouldn't you cancel a Chase card before the annual fee?

I'm not saying you shouldn't cancel a card before the annual fee, just don't cancel it outright.  always apply for a new card and have that credit transferred.  once you've canceled a card outright you've given up that available credit and they have to decide whether or not to give it back to you.  if you just keep transferring it you'll never lose it.  chase is never going to just reduce your credit available (unless you're a huge dumbass) so why do it for them?

Let's say I have 4 chase cards with a $5k limit ($20k total). I cancel one, now I have $15k of credit w/ Chase. If I try to open a new one w/ a 5k limit and my income/overall credit didn't change, why wouldn't they do it?

[steve dave]

Why wouldn't you cancel a Chase card before the annual fee?

i have a bunch of unused UR points and the person told me i would lose them if i cancelled.

yes, that's a good reason

[steve dave]

Why wouldn't you cancel a Chase card before the annual fee?

I'm not saying you shouldn't cancel a card before the annual fee, just don't cancel it outright.  always apply for a new card and have that credit transferred.  once you've canceled a card outright you've given up that available credit and they have to decide whether or not to give it back to you.  if you just keep transferring it you'll never lose it.  chase is never going to just reduce your credit available (unless you're a huge dumbass) so why do it for them?

Let's say I have 4 chase cards with a $5k limit ($20k total). I cancel one, now I have $15k of credit w/ Chase. If I try to open a new one w/ a 5k limit and my income/overall credit didn't change, why wouldn't they do it?

they would

[michigancat]

Why wouldn't you cancel a Chase card before the annual fee?

I'm not saying you shouldn't cancel a card before the annual fee, just don't cancel it outright.  always apply for a new card and have that credit transferred.  once you've canceled a card outright you've given up that available credit and they have to decide whether or not to give it back to you.  if you just keep transferring it you'll never lose it.  chase is never going to just reduce your credit available (unless you're a huge dumbass) so why do it for them?

Let's say I have 4 chase cards with a $5k limit ($20k total). I cancel one, now I have $15k of credit w/ Chase. If I try to open a new one w/ a 5k limit and my income/overall credit didn't change, why wouldn't they do it?

they would

so rams just gave advice that just makes things more difficult than they need to be?  Interesting if true.

[michigancat]

I kid rams, I kid.

[Rams]

Why wouldn't you cancel a Chase card before the annual fee?

I'm not saying you shouldn't cancel a card before the annual fee, just don't cancel it outright.  always apply for a new card and have that credit transferred.  once you've canceled a card outright you've given up that available credit and they have to decide whether or not to give it back to you.  if you just keep transferring it you'll never lose it.  chase is never going to just reduce your credit available (unless you're a huge dumbass) so why do it for them?

Let's say I have 4 chase cards with a $5k limit ($20k total). I cancel one, now I have $15k of credit w/ Chase. If I try to open a new one w/ a 5k limit and my income/overall credit didn't change, why wouldn't they do it?

they would

yes they most likely would...assuming your overall credit didn't change and they didn't change their credit issuing policies in any way.  buy why take that chance unless you've just run out of chase cards to apply for?  I prefer not to give back any credit that's already been given to me because then I'm leaving it up to them as to whether or not to give it to me again at some point.  if I never cancel a card outright then they never have to increase my credit line so they never have to decide to take on more risk with me.  it gives them very little incentive not to give me the new card.  do whatever you want though.

[michigancat]

I'm far more likely to forget about a card I'm not using and get hit with an annual fee than have a problem with chase giving me credit. so that's why you risk it.

[The Tonya Harding of Twitter Users Creep]

there are ways to not forget, mich.

[Rams]

there are ways to not forget, mich.

sounds like a lot of work

[steve dave]

I don't know. Unless your credit rating is going to go down significantly I don't see Chase ever offering less credit. I've had every chase card that is worth getting and I've never had them pull that. Now, if you don't have a very high amount of overall credit availability that could factor into your credit score but that's not a big issue for me or most people who aren't just out of college. If you don't have much available credit I can see it paying off to making sure you don't lower your total available credit but that's just for credit scoring. I just don't think it's worth worrying about for me or most people. Basically do whatever you want outside of some outliers.