r/CreditCards

So 18 last month, feels kinda weird and just wanna have some good credit, i have a new job i just started out a month ago and getting paid decent. Ive never had a credit card before or was ever an authorized user of any kind. I just wanna start building credit for myself so i can hopefully one day just not worry about things as much. I save a lot money so I'll pay everything on time right away. All recommendation's would be really great. Thank you world.

I am 56F & just had a shock. I applied for three credit cards - Wells Fargo active cash, Chase Freedom, and Apple - and I was immediately denied for all three. I thought maybe I had frozen my credit but it turns out I just don’t have any. One agency listed me as unscorable; another rated me as fair. I couldn’t believe it. My combined household income is $400,000/yr and I make $135k. For years, I’ve used a debit card to pay for everything thinking I was being responsible but it hurt me. My spouse and I have a nice house and two cars but while I’m listed on the deeds/registrations, the financing was done in his name. This was just an oversight on our part - we didn’t need my income to qualify so we just used his info each time. I used to have excellent credit, I pay our bills on time, I figured we were linked through marriage. But now my file is detrimentally thin. Lesson learned.

Where I need advice — I need a credit card in my name. I need to build credit but also need it for easier car rentals, foreign travel when my debit had issues, etc. Any recommendations? I can’t keep randomly applying - I’m hurting my score worse so I’d appreciate helpful advice. TYIA.

Got approved for a card with a higher minimum spend than I’m used to and now I’m trying to plan it properly instead of suddenly buying everything in month three

I have plenty of normal expenses coming up, just not all of them can be paid by card. For those of you who churn more seriously, do you plan applications around specific large expenses or just let regular spending get you there?

I have $600 in paze credits, im ngl, it's been fun using it, usually Dunkin is a rare treat bc frankly it's so overpriced. But I'm just getting coffee for myself and another person almost every day on my way to work 😂

HOWEVER I fail to understand the point of it after this is done, you don't get any extra rewards for using it & it seems to fail on me multiple times, sometimes just refusing to go through even trying multiple cards, I've had it happen with dominos, Wendy's and Dunkin. Which just makes it inconvenient I'm not trying to attempt checkout 7 times.

The other aspect is if you accidentally type a wrong digit on the verification side, you're locked out for 24 HOURS I realize you can also use passkey but still overkill.

I seriously have no reason to use this over apple pay when the promotion is done

I’ve hit my 1 year anniversary on my boundless card and want to upgrade. Is it possible to book something using my boundless free night, upgrade, then cancel and get the free night back?

I am always scrolling through the transactions and counting the number of Paze credits received and it’s hard to keep track of it when you have multiple cards and there is no fix timeline for the credits to appear.

I really appreciate how capital one puts a number beside the Paze credits transaction. Wish other cards would have done the same.

Has Synchrony Bank gone crazy...or should I say crazier...than usual? In the past few days, I've received emails for two pretty nice temporary 'bonuses' to the rewards structures of two of my credit cards that are serviced by Synchrony Bank:

Care Credit Rewards Mastercard

This card normally gets 4x points on spend that falls in their 'health and wellness' category along with pet stores, 3x points on grocery and restaurant spend, and 2x points on all other spend, which is actually a pretty solid rewards structure.

Earlier this week, I received an email stating that from now through Dec 31, the card now earns 5x points on any/all purchases capped at $3K in spend. Now, the $3K cap puts a little damper on it, but 5x points on $3K in uncategorized spend is an easy $150 cashback, so I'm not complaining!

OnePay Cash Rewards Mastercard (Wal-Mart)

This card normally gets 3% (5% if you have Wal-Mart+) unlimited cashback at Wal-Mart...in-store, online, and Wal-Mart branded (not including Murphy's) gas stations, and then 1.5% unlimited cashback on all other purchases.

Today, I received an email stating that from today through Sep 17, the card will still earn 5% at Wal-Mart if you have Wal-Mart+, but it will also earn 3% unlimited cashback on all other purchases. Not bad to get to sock drawer the 2% uncat cards for a month, and get 3% instead with no cap.

As anyone who 'chases' or 'churns' credit card rewards is aware, it's been a pretty 'boring' pursuit lately, and several popular rewards cards have recently gotten nerfed (ie. Citi Custom Cash), so getting these pretty nice temporary 'bonuses' to the rewards structures of a couple credit cards was really refreshing. From Synchrony Bank, of all places. Hopefully, they don't close all my accounts for taking 'too much' advantage of them! (If you know, then you know.) Anyone else getting these bonus offers, or anyone seeing other/different bonus offers on other rewards cards serviced by Synchrony?

Credit Card Name: USB Cash+

Status: Approved

Credit Limit: $1k

Income: $54,080

Credit Score: 674 EXP/690 EQ/699 TU (All are Fico 8 scores)

Number of Accounts: 11

New Accounts: 5/6, 5/12, 10/24

AAoA: 1 year 10 months

Bureau Pulled: TU

Inquiries: 5/6, 5/12, 10/24

State: PA

I wanted a simple card mainly for 5% on Utilities. I was planning to apply for this next year since my velocity was high right now but I checked the pre-approval tool on a whim and went for it. Probably waiting longer like I had planned to do would've got me a higher starting limit but this is exactly what I needed and the limit works for what I intend to use it for. Edit: No prior relationship with USB before application.

I wanted to know if this would be sensible, I've got ~12k credit card debt across 3 cards coming due the 28th this month. We'll have the money in the bank by then, but that would leave us with ~2k in the bank account after. This month had a lot of things that were very expensive come up, usually our credit card debt per month is ~6-7k.

Would it be worth it to transfer the debt to another card and pay it off (which would be no problem) in 20 months, or should I just pay off the debt and make sure we cut our spending the next few months.

If it would be worth in in your expirence what are the best cards out there currently for rolling that amount of debt for ~12k.

Thanks!

Looking for recommendations for the best 2% cash back credit card. Looking at a few different ones and I’m struggling to see the pros and cons of each. This will primarily be used for recurring monthly expenses like utilities such as electric bills, water bills, gas, medical insurance, dental insurance, car insurance and gym membership. Do you personally have a 2% credit card? Why or why not? I’m seeing Wells Fargo, Citi, fidelity and not much else.

https://www.wsj.com/personal-finance/credit/gen-z-has-just-discovered-the-premium-rewards-credit-card-a800e294?mod=hp_lead_pos8

Truly an insane feat of marketing these last 10 years. The banks managed to sell a $800/year credit card, convince young spenders to go into debt so they can get 1 or 2 free flights through a sign up bonus while selling the image that these cards are status symbols, even though minimum wage 21 year olds are getting approved for it. 15 years ago, it was almost impossible to convince someone to pay even a small monthly fee for a credit card.

Most vocal commenters here are smart and churn responsibly, but are likely the vocal minority. Credit card companies would never offer these things if it wasn't immensely profitable to them, and there is no other business in the world as profitable as high interest debt.

I would be very curious to know if the non-vocal majority of people who sign up for these credit cards go into horrendous debt to hit the $4-6k sign up bonuses.

I’ve had the cash back credit card with us bank for 12 years now. Over the years I acquired other cards with better earning categories and benefits.
I never use the card anymore. Maybe a 1.00 purchase a year just to keep it open.
I have a 810 credit score.
If I close this acct will it really affect my score that much?

My pending on Rakuten, ShopBack, Capital One Shopping and Offers looks ridiculous 😂

But anyway, just a reminder that some of the merchants on Paze are also participating on various shopping portals so be sure to click through your favorite one for that little cherry on top.

Tonight I opened up a new Citi Strata Premier Card in order to combine that account with my Citi Double Cash Back Card in an effort to take advantage of the 1:1 transfer ratio (and current ongoing 20% bonus) for a transfer of points into Flying Blue miles. While my card was instantly approved and shows up in the online Citi portal and my Mobile App, I am unable to tie the two accounts together because I do not have the 16 digit card number.

I called customer service and she said she couldn't combine the accounts until I have the physical card and activate it OR wait for an email. However, I am dubious as to this second path because from my research, Citi will not send the 16 digit card number via email. I am also skeptical that I will get another email other than the generic "Congrats you're approved and wait 10 days for your card to show up" I received.

Any advice would be appreciated.

I have until 8/22 until the Flying Blue bonus ends. Wish I would have started this 5 days ago!

Thank you!

Worked at a joint Baskin Robbins and Dunkin store when ordering from the touchscreen kiosk.

Also worked at a freestanding Baskin Robbins store in Los Angeles without ordering from the touchscreen kiosk.

I have CSR & CSP so looking for another card for a SUB.

Any recommendations?

Thanks

I feel like most cc math focuses on points, cashback, SUBs, annual fees, etc. But for business cards especially, Im starting to think the float is as important as the rewards

Not talking about carrying a balance or paying interest. More like using the statement cycle properly so cash stays in the acc longer while invoices clear, clients pay, payroll hits, etc.

For personal cards I mostly care about rewards. But for business spend, having another 30ish days before cash leaves the account can be quite useful

Do you factor that into your card setup at all or do you only count the rewards side?

I'm 20yo, and got a secured credit card with a $600 deposit in January 2026, in April it was boosted to $900 while still being secured, and recently last week in August it has become a "normal"(?) credit card, with a $2000 limit. From a lot of what I read, and learned over the months I used my card for all my subscriptions, and typically spent around 70% of it, paying it off in full every month. With maxing it out maybe 2 or 3 times (due to tough situations), but making around $200 payments right after to keep it from sitting up there, before paying it off in a full my next payday.

My main reasoning of working towards an unsecured credit card was to have a payment method always available for me in-case I couldn't afford a bill/rent, and also the occasional treat. So now that I have that, what should I do?

My credit score is around the low 600, and only peaked at about 680, so I was thinking of trying to really start building my credit by opening another secured card with around a $300 limit somewhere else like Capital One, or Discover, and put all my subscriptions on there. Then with bills I could consistently afford to pay off like my internet, or electric on my current card to keep it active. Is that a bad idea?

tl;dr - Should I open a second secured credit card for subscriptions to start building more credit, and keep my current one for emergencies/bills?

Thanks in advance for any help

Rent is 3K . Tax to be paid is 10-15K. TSIA