My apology for the confusion. We have had AMX since 1968…my, how times have changed! 
I fly once a year and have stayed in hotels maybe 3 times in the last 5 years. So upgrade rewards cards don’t do me much good.
I’ve used my debit card for daily purchases for 5 years. The only incident was one where the credit union contacted me about a questionable charge. When I disavowed it, they immediately took it off my account and issued a new card. Have I just been extremely lucky?
I have had a debit card for decades, and never a problem for offspring or myself. My main grocery store, as well as a few other local merchants don’t accept CCs, only debit and checks as it reduces their expenses.
I just don’t use the debit card because I like the cash back of credit cards I’ve always been very frugal so I’ve never been in fear of spending over my limits.
@busdriver11 thanks for that. The Slate app didn’t even ask for my income and spit out a number that’s decent but slightly less than I wanted for a balance transfer. Maybe it’s because I already have a Chase card? I’m not sure.
Once I get all my credit cards I think I’m going to cancel a few of the ones that I have but never use. I think I will now be up to 5 that are never used and 3 that will be used/have a balance. That’s more than I need/want and it’s too much to constantly monitor that many. I’ll close some of the ones I opened in undergrad so as not to reduce my length of credit history. (Plus I think the combined limit of the 2-3 I’ll probably close is less than 3k so no worries on my % credit usage taking a big hit.)
Just as an aside, Mr R and I have a joint credit union account (both a checkings and savings one) and he has a debit card and checking account with PNC. He keeps that because our roommate pays us in cash and a PNC ATM is right next to Mr R’s work so it’s for convenience. I closed out all my other bank accounts this year and transferred all our money to the CU because it’s just too much energy to keep up with all of those accounts. (I take care of all the financial stuff.) Except for the cash deposits, I can’t think of a time that either of us ever use the ATM or bank.
I wouldn’t cancel credit cards as that will hurt your overall credit score by increasing your debt to credit ratio among other things.
It’s one thing if the credit card companies close your accounts as they are the ones doing it…there’s no need to voluntarily take a hit to your credit score by volunteering to do it yourself.
2-3k is a drop in the bucket for my debt to credit ratio. I already said it won’t really affect my credit usage % (another way of saying debt to credit ratio).
“busdriver11 thanks for that. The Slate app didn’t even ask for my income and spit out a number that’s decent but slightly less than I wanted for a balance transfer. Maybe it’s because I already have a Chase card? I’m not sure”
Hey, you could be right! I think once when we called to get the credit limit raise, they agreed to do it, but in order to do so, they had to lower the limit on another Chase card. That was fine with us. We’ve gotten the Slate cards a couple of times, cancelled them, then reapplied and got the same balance transfer offer again.
I’m sure there’s an ugly name for consumers like me and my husband for what we do. Get these mega offers, do the min spend, get the payout and then cancel the card. Wait a year and then do it again, each of us. Though I admit, I’m kind of tired of it, but it has paid out thousands of dollars a year playing this game. I keep saying we’re not going to do this any more, and then another mega deal comes up, and we’re sucked right back in.
My two bits:
When I applied for an Amex cc when I already had one, they set a total credit limit and allowed me to choose how to split it between the two cards. So maybe Chase will do the same
I have made claims twice on the Amex extended warranty and they were easy to deal with and within a couple of weeks, I had the amount of purchase back on the card. This was on the no-annual-fee card too.
I have a Chase cc that is my main card (United Mileage Plus), for the total benefit package which includes PRIMARY, very comprehensive rental car insurance and automatic travel insurance on trips charged to the card, which I’ve made claims on. Reimbursement was not nearly as fast, friendly, and efficient as Amex but a nice perk nonetheless. Be forewarned, a one-way ticket doesn’t qualify (learned the hard way) for trip insurance.
^ I don’t know. My mom’s a former banker. She just called my plan smart 
(Though she did have unpleasant things to say about individuals who opened checking accounts for the perks and then closed them after the year or whatever. If they closed them within X amount of time, it counted against whoever opened the account’s quota even retroactively. Gee, I can’t imagine why she left her big bank…)
I have an American Express Skymiles Platinum card and like it, since it has some good benefits, including a free companion ticket every year, free luggage, and extra Medallion Qualification Miles on hitting certain thresholds. However, on my last trip to Europe I found lots of places don’t accept American Expresss, so it’s good that I also have a MasterCard.
They keep calling me to try to get me to get a traditional business card. If they offer the Platinum card I might take them up on it. It has a pretty high annual fee, but comes with free airline lounge access, plus some other perks.
Cards directly linked to your bank account may have some combination of features:
- ATM cash withdrawal and other things done at ATMs.
- PIN-based (not Visa or MC) debit transactions.
- Visa or MC "credit" transactions.
Most bank accounts automatically come with cards with all three features, but you can specially request a card without the Visa or MC feature, which is the riskiest one with respect to fraud.
There are American Express charge cards and American Express credit cards.
I have had discover cards since they came into existence - have never had a problem disputing a charge (they are particularly proactive and often check with me about any suspicious activity). I like getting cash back and there is no annual fee.
Your plan sounds good - you really should always have 3 credit cards - one to use exclusively for online purchases (keep it in the house next to your computer) - one as your go to card (use it for everything - keep in your wallet) and one back-up card (in case either of the others are compromised.)
There are still a few places that don’t take discover, so even though it is my primary card - I keep a visa in my wallet as my backup
Why should one be exclusively for online purchases?
During an internet safety class a police office told me to designate one card for online only. The idea is that online cards could be more easily hacked and for safety reasons it made sense to keep all your online purchases separate…
The idea that it doesn’t leave the house means it would not be physically stolen with your purse/wallet (obviously could be stolen during a break in). It works both ways in that if your wallet is stolen you don’t have to change your online accounts and if your online account is compromised you don’t have to worry about buying stuff with the card in your wallet.
The funny part is that since I have been doing this (probably over 10 years) the cards in my wallet have been changed more often than the internet one (I am one of those unlucky people who shopped at target when they got breached and then two months later at michaels when they got breached, etc.)
I never save CC info into any websites - I just memorize my card number. It takes an extra 10 seconds to type it in vs. using a stored number. This way, I use one card to keep rewards in one spot, never have to worry about changing account info if this main card is breached, and while it is being replaced, I just use a backup card or not shop at all.
I don’t let websites save my CC number with the exception of Amazon and paypal - I do what BB does - type it in every time. There are also a couple of automatic payment places that keep my CC number - like my EZ pass toll account.
So just wanted to update: apparently you can’t transfer a balance from one Chase card to another. I’ve never heard of this but I called Chase and tried to argue it and got no where 
The google has told me that this is pretty common- not being able to transfer from one card to another if it’s with the same company (chase, capital one, etc). Some just something to keep in mind if anyone is looking to do this in the future.
Not surprising, since the goal of these balance transfer programs is to pull customers away from competitors, rather than allow someone to keep extending the introductory interest-free period on the balance transfer promotion.
Yes we had the same issue. Thinking that Chase Slate gives the balance transfer checks, don’t remember if we had to request those…if they do, I think you can just deposit them right into your checking account, and do as you like. Thinking they had a limit on that, now that I remember, something like a max of 15K every 60 days (?), and we had a credit line of 30K. We had to do something sneaky like deposit the first 15K check, then just in time before the offer expired, deposit another 15K. Or was it a balance transfer to another credit card, I don’t remember. Wonder if there are any other credit cards with no balance transfer fee that aren’t connected to Chase, like Citibank, Amex or USAA.