Airline cards, these branded cards signal a partnership between a card issuer and some of your favorite travel loyalty programs and today we are going to tackle the principle of these types of cards and if it is in your best interest to apply for one or not. The first thing you need to look at is if you're interested in travel, because if you aren't then obviously you don't even need to look at these options. the second thing you need to look at is if you're loyal enough to a single airline to warrant getting one of these cards, you also have to take in consideration where is it that you want to travel or where is it that you mostly travel to, if you're looking to travel abroad your best bet would be to look at what airline goes to the places that you most want to travel to, if you're looking to travel to Europe then my suggestion would be to pick a card belonging to a airline like Iberia or British Airways, if you're someone that travels a lot domesti...
Just as with any type of construction project, your card strategy should have a solid foundation to support your future credit card construct. There are a number of cards that can make up a good base, these foundational pieces are known as starter cards, these are cards that mainly don't have an annual fee and are fairly easy to get without that much credit history, though some of these cards may not provide reward points they are still very useful especially if you're interested more in cash back rather than rewards but the real purpose of these cards is to get your foot in the door of banks like Chase and American Express so you can have access to their respective premier travel cards.
These cards might be fairly easy to get but that doesn't mean that you'll be approved without first going through the motions, first off, if you don't have any type of credit card on your credit history you'll have a hard time tryin to get starter cards from Chase like the Freedom and Freedom Unlimited and from American Express like the Cash Magnet, Blue Cash Everyday and the Amex Everyday, usually these banks like to see that you have at least 8 months of experience with a card on your report before approving you, yet this doesn't mean that you have a zero percent chance at getting approved for one without credit experience, you may have a better chance if your credit is over 700. Now, you may be asking yourself what it is that you can do to get approved for your first card, well, if you have a credit score lower than 700 and have no credit card history you can apply for either a secured card which is a type of card for building or repairing credit that runs on a deposit that you have to give the bank after you get approved (this deposit will be used as your credit limit) or you can try applying for a card which I always recommend to first timers, the Discover It card by Discover bank. Why do I recommend this card? Because discover bank is more lenient when it comes to approving people that have no prior credit history and this card specifically is a good cash bak card that gives you 5% back for every dollar spent on rotating yearly categories, with this you get a good starting card that gives you great value on your spending and has no annual fee.
Now, after you apply for your first card, I recommend that you spend 8 to 9 months with it on your report before trying to apply for one of the starter cards from Chase or Amex though your primary target should be Chase cards since there is a special rule in place known as the Chase 5/24 rule. This rule basically limits the amount of cards that you can get approved for in the span of two years, for example, let's say you get approved for the Discover It, Cash Magnet and Amex EveryDay cards in the span of one year, this means that you'll only have 2 card slots open for Chase cards from the day that you got approved for the Discover It because after you get approved for any card that fills up those two spots you'll automatically be declined for any chase card that you apply for until two years after the date that you got the Discover card, so if your focus is on getting a card like the Chase Sapphire Preferred you should first try to apply for Chase cards before filling up your five slots just so you don't have to wait two years after stacking up starter cards from both banks to try and get a premium card like the Sapphire.
Ultimately, the choice of what cards you want to go after and build your card strategy around is up to you, maybe you want to focus more on Amex cards than Chase cards or vice versa, just remember to always analyze what card fits best inside the set up that you want to go with and don't just look at the amount of points or cash back the card gives back, you may find a card that gives you 3% cash back on super markets but if you mostly dine out then it wouldn't make sense to grab a card like that, it would make more sense to grab a flat rate cash back card that gives you 1.5% back on every dollar spent on any purchase. These are the types of things that you're going to have to look out for when you start creating that foundation for your custom build and remember that this is where these starter cards shine, they support your premium cards so that you can get more value for your everyday spend, so think wisely my friends.
Comments
Post a Comment