This site talks a lot about credit cards (here, here, and here for example). This is probably due my past experience with them. We go back. My first credit card ever was from Citibank when I turned 18. I thought it was so cool to have my own card, even it was only a $300 credit limit one. It had a “low APR” of 14.99%, which jumped to 25.99% in 6 months. Within a week I spent half of my limit.
Looking at some old receipts, it seemed like I spent it on a mixture of eating out, gifts for family (I felt good at the time about that), car repairs, and stupid(er) things. I didn’t use Bill Pay at the time and my checks had a habit of being late (due to procrastination and forgetfulness). When I called to pay over the phone so I wouldn’t be late, they charged $15-$20 for this “convenience.”
Now I have one card that I use on occasion, it’s a Visa from my local credit union. I got it when I turned 19 and I was thrilled when I got upgraded to Platinum about 2 ½ years ago. (Man, I’m so easily impressed.) Here’s the 411 on it:
- It has no rewards.
- Interest rate is 17.99%
- It has a $1000 Credit Limit.
Good news is that I pay it off ever month. I got burned with Citibank and didn’t want to go back to that. I want to keep this as this my longest current card. I’m wondering though am I missing out on a better deal. Should I go with a cash back rewards card? Should I increase my credit limit by a bit (I was offered this a few months back but declined)?
So I’m asking you for help. What’s in your wallet? Do you like the credit cards that you have? Would you switch to another if you could?
Photo Credit: liewcf
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Whatever you do I would leave it open as it is probably your oldest piece on your credit report, plus given that you pay it off everymonth, it makes your utilization low.
If this is true it is a big help on your current FICO score
I’d leave it open for your credit score if you want to stop using it. I just applied for American Express…we’ll see what rates they offer me.
Here’s the sick, weird thing about credit cards. The more I got, the lower the interest rates I would be offered. I started out with the 17-18% rates, but as I got more credit cards, the rates continued to go down. I don’t have a single credit card with a rate over 9% nowadays.
Not that I’m advocating getting lots of credit cards, but there ARE others out there that you can get that are better than 17%. Your smart move has been to pay off everything each month. Have you called them directly and asked for the rate to be reduced?? You can hint that you’re starting to get lots of offers for other cards and that they are no longer competitive.
Don’t close it, but don’t use it again if you get a different card. Length of time your oldest account is open is a factor in your credit history. Longer is better, even if you never use it anymore.
Thanks for the comments and I love the support. I do plan on keeping the card, not just for the sake of my FICO score, but the customer service is so much better with the credit union. I’m going to call my bank in 20 minutes and see what I can get. I’m a bit under the weather, so I’m taking it easy today.
I currently use the HSBC Platinum Cash card. It gives me 5% cash back at supermarkets, drug stores and gas stations and (up to) 1% cash back everywhere else. They don’t give these out any more and I’m sure they’re going to change the rewards program any day now. So I’ve been shopping around for a new card.
The only one that’s really caught my eye is Chase’s Freedom Visa Signature card. It gives you 1% cash back on everything plus an extra 2% in the 3 “categories” with the highest spending. What’s neat about it is that your 3 categories can change every month. The down side is that the 2% bonus is capped at $12 per month ($600 in spending).
If you’re interested, here’s a link to the Chase card:
http://www.firstusa.com/cgi-bin/webcgi/webserve.cgi?partner_dir_name=cac_chase_freedom_cash_visa&page=index
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