September 2008 Weddings
xojo1
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Poll: Credit Cards
I'm thinking about getting a store card or two in order to receive extra discounts. We aren't planning on taking out any credit any time soon, so I don't have a concern about a possible drop in my credit score. I'm just not sure if it's really worth it or if there is a point where you can have too many credit cards (with no carried balance)
So, out of curiosity, how many credit cards do you have, including store cards? Why did you choose those cards? Are there extra perks?
Re: Poll: Credit Cards
I'll answer for myself, too.
We have 1 Visa that we share. We receive points for all purchases that we redeem for gift cards. We typically use it for large purchases (just to get points), online purchases, and gas only.
I also have 2 store cards. I use my Kohls card for the once a month extra 30% discounts and because it's super easy to return stuff bought online. My other store card was opened in college, but hasn't been used in at least 5 years. I only keep it open because it's the oldest thing on my history and closing it would make my history 2 years shorter.
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I wouldn't doubt it. Personally, I don't think the number should really matter on revolving credit accounts. Especially since many people don't carry balances. But, I'll be the first to admit that the way the FICO score is calculated doesn't always make sense.
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I have two cards through BOA (AMEX points and a MC for emergencies since not everyone takes AMEX), and Macy's and Victoria's Secret cards (for coupons). I'm probably going to get a Kohls card closer to when the babies come. I think Chris has 2 (one with BOA and a points one with USAA). Other than that, we just have my SLs and the mortgage.
I have no idea how many cards it takes to hurt your credit, as long as you don't carry a balance. someone told me too much available credit is bad too, but I don't know if that's true. On my BOA cards alone I have over $30k in available credit...
I need to figure out if it makes more sense to just put the impending car loan in one of our names or not, though I think since it'll be at least 6 mo before we get a new house, it won't really matter.
I have a VISA and 1 store card (at one point I had 2 store cards)
Colder's for furniture in college - 12 months interest free, we paid off our furniture well before then and then let the card sit empty for a few years and then closed it.
I had an American Eagle card. I opened it in college when DH and I did a huge shopping spree to get the discount at the time. I used it since then because it came with a lot of discounts and perks. I've paid it off and now I am letting it sit for a few years and will use it every once and a while but pay it off right away. I will close it in a few years.
No more store cards for me. The interest rate is ridiculously high on them to risk running up a bill and having to make monthly payments.
1 Chase MC with 1% rewards (with 5% on select categories each quarter), 1 BoA Visa (back-up, have only used it once, did get extra $ for using it to load by Starbucks card). DH has a BoA card too with rewards. We're both on each other's accounts but use the cards we originally took out individually.
For stores I have one to Kohls and another to Macy's (from the wedding). I wouldn't be surprised if the Macy's one gets closed soon for inactivity.
We have two major credit cards with balances. One is my old one (Citi) that is from my college days that I was stupid and racked up the balance on. Once it's paid off I will leave it dormant. The other one (BOA) we use to pay for gas each month and pay it off in full. We also have another card with Chase that has no balance and we leave open just to have the available credit show up on our report. Our goal was to just have one Visa and one MC open, but with no open balances.
For store cards we have Macy's and Kohl's cards, but only use the Kohl's card now and pay it off in full when we use it. We get great coupons and discounts from Kohl's thanks to the store card...we get a lot of M's clothes there along with kitchen stuff, and our clothes. We had a Pilgrim Furniture card (free interest for promo period), but we only used it when we bought our MBR furniture and they actually close the account when it's inactive for a certain period. We had to open a new one when we got our FR furniture (free interest 4 yrs) and have already paid it off in full. I'm not sure how long it'll be before they close the account again for inactivity.
We're probably not the best example, but this is what we have...
1 Visa (my main CC) that I use for reward points
1 Amex (Tim's main CC) that gets us hotel points
1 Home Depot card that we use for all our house stuff
those 3 cards have our largest lines of credit.
We have other store cards that we opened for one reason or another (usually a deal required to have a card for, like 30% off something). The only store card I use regularly is Kohl's because you get great deals and coupons.
The reason it's bad for your credit is dependent on the amount of credit you could possibly have out there. 7 different cards with $500 limits ($3500 available credit)is far different than 7 different cards with $5000 limits ($35,000 available credit).
Between us we have quite a few. I'm afraid to close some of the old ones I don't use, but I know I need to. We currently have 2 with balances, the Amex, which DH uses for business expenses and gets reimbursed for (and hardly ever is at a 0 balance bc of the repayment cycle) and our Furniture Row card that has 0% for another 8 months, it will be paid off before interest hits.
It seems we have a purpose for most of our cards if/when we use them. I like having Sears and Lowe's for 0% for periods of time so we can do projects, or in case of emergency like needing a water heater. We've utilized both of these cards for good reasons and I like the security of having them so we don't have to dip into our e-fund for things like a new clothes dryer. I prefer to have the e-fund strictly for something like car emergencies and insurance deductibles.
I also have a VS card that is one of my oldest cards I have, plus the discounts I get are totally worth it.
Interest rate shouldn't matter at all if you don't carry a balance, store cards always have a very high rate.
That being said, I think having a card to a home improvement store is a good idea, and somewhere you shop enough to reap good discounts. Target now offers 5% off any purchase when you use their Target store card or TargetVisa.
Oh, and even with all the cards we have, my credit score is still very good and when we refi'd in October, still got the very best rate available on mortgages.
I have a MC and an AmEx. I generally only use them for travel expenses or if I have things to pay for for work that I will get reimbursed for. I have been using the AmEx for gas and groceries the past month just to see if it makes monitoring those expenses easier, and for the points.
I do not have any store credit cards. Never have.
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I have a Capital one card that I've had for a long time, Clayton has one through a teachers organization
He has a JCP card because when we bought some big stuff he got the discount
I have a discount tire card because of the same reason....but we don't really use those (though we may in the future)
If it is a place you often shop at it might be worth it.
We have a few:
Two with balances that we don't use (a MC and an Amex) that we will have paid off in a little over a year. Selling a house for less than it was worth really killed us.
I have a Visa that I've had since I was 18 and DH has a MC that he's had for several years as well. We use them once in awhile and pay them off, just to keep them active. We may actually cancel them next year though and get the Delta Air Amex instead, since we will be flying to Florida at least once or twice a year now.
I have a VS card, I think, but I bet it got cancelled for inactivity. I haven't used it since before our wedding.
We don't currently have any other store credit. We used to have a Gap Visa, a Dell card, and a Jared Jewelry card (from our rings/watch/earrings/jewelry box from the wedding), but all are long paid off and cancelled.
A+S | Met 8/24/06 | Married 9/27/08
Started TTC 12/2008 | dx PCOS 5/2009
6 failed clomid/femara/TI cycles, 1 failed clomid/ovidrel/IUI cycle
Successful Cycle: 5/12/11 - 1000mg Metformin + 100mg Clomid(late response) + TI = BFP
? 2/13/12 - We proudly welcomed our daughter, Hadley Teresa! ?
? Lots of Luck to all of 3T/IF ?
I have one Visa credit card and DH has one CC. We do not have a joint CC.
We typically charge large items mostly related to car repairs. I will use it in a pinch for gas or groceries.
Oh we also use them for some other purchase like our computers or airlines just in case.