re: Credit Card Rewards and Points Discussion

Thanks for the heads up. We have 80k SPG points that I've been banking.

Cancelling a card has very minimal effect on your credit report. Chances are, you won't even see a drop.

Your score will take a few points (7-15) hit due to addition of a new account if you applied for the Ink. But in a couple of months, it will go back up.

As far as credit inquiries, after 6 months the impact is negligible, after 12 months it doesn't affect your score.

The 6-12 month score impact has more to do with excess inquiries in 12 month period. On their own, 7-12 month old inquiries are basically ignored

I just got a Citi Simplicity card. Is there anything important I need to know? I know the basics of what they offer.

Don't think there is anything to that card beside the unusually high 0% APR offer. Doesn't excite me. Best use I can think of is to use the 21 month CL to park money in bank accounts that require high deposits to hit bonuses (and earn interest). But I don't think you are interested in that.

Doesn't it have 0% intro APR for 21 months? No interest charged on balances for 21 months? (aka a 21 month interest free loan).

Yes

The only reason I don't take advantage of bank bonuses is because even though some of my employers would allow me to change things online, they'd always require payroll to get involved to push it through the last step.

I just can't bring myself to hassle them 10 times a year.

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Teddy Ruxpin

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I was worried about the same. However, there are ways to trigger DD and some bonuses don't even require a DD.

For ex:

1) Chase Personal Checking - I got the $300 bonus. This required a DD. A cash out from simply best coupons where I receive cb for VGC purchases. Counts as DD. Pretty sure Schwab account withdrawal will do the trick as well. Also, a ACH from local credit union works. I actually did all three in the week

2) Chase Business Checking - I got the $500 bonus for merely opening the account and deposit $500 in it. Boom. Nothing else needed.

3) Iberia Personal - I got $300 for opening the account and doing a couple bill pays

4) Whitney - $200 for opening the account and doing 5 debit card transactions.

5) Citi - We all did this obviously for the 50K AA miles.

$1,300 + 50K AA for minimal effort. Plus I was looking to open some accounts anyway to spread MOs.

There are a few other accounts like Citi ($400) and Chase Savings ($400) that need you to park $15K for a few months. If I were to get a 0% APR card, I'd draw on the complete line and hit multiple bonuses in the APR period then pay it off in the last month.