frequent flyer credit cards

[DebDynamite]

Hey everyone,

I've been searching online all morning and have decided that before applying for one of these, I thought I'd ask for real life testimonials. I'll be applying for residency this fall and intend to try and rack up some miles. Does anyone have any positive stories about succeeding in savings with one of these cards? The best deal I have found (apparently) this AM is with the Capital One card, but wonder if anyone else has a card they really like? American Express also seems to have a good one right now, but it's not as widely accepted...

Gracias.

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[etf]

this might not be true, but i heard capital one purposely dings your credit so that you are stuck with them. american express is great, and is my preferred card. as for acceptance, i have yet to encounter a merchant that I shop at that will take visa/mastercard but won't take amex, but have encountered two - neiman marcus and costco - that ONLY take amex.

 

[Tired Pigeon]

If I were only carrying one card, it would be my Amex.

 

[changeofheart77]

while traveling in paris and rome, i found that amex is not widely accepted both in restaurants and shops. i was told that it's harder for small businesses there to use it (harder to qualify/get and more fees associated). that's 2nd-hand info i gathered fr business owners. i also noticed i'll be the bigger stores who would also accept amex. just something to keep in mind.

 

[Tired Pigeon]

while traveling in paris and rome, i found that amex is not widely accepted both in restaurants and shops. i was told that it's harder for small businesses there to use it (harder to qualify/get and more fees associated). that's 2nd-hand info i gathered fr business owners. i also noticed i'll be the bigger stores who would also accept amex. just something to keep in mind.

True, I do carry a Visa in addition to my Amex for situations like this. It does seem to be more common overseas.

 

[DebDynamite]

Yes, I have found that Amex gives superior cust service as a rule, and I can always obtain a (non Capital 1) Visa for travel. What I am really most curious to know is if the frequent flyer miles would even be worth it as this point. I should have thought about this about a year or two back and started racking up the points then... oh well. If anyone knows of a frequent flier card that they really like, I'd love to know. I have been using a debit card for a while now, but for various reasons am going to quit using it, start charging everything, pay off the balance monthly (before interest ensues), and want to get some "rewards".

As for Cap 1 dinging the credit, I wonder how they do this? Changing the balance due date? Regardless, it sounds awful. One of the reasons I quit using credit cards a few years ago. But lately I have decided that debit cards are worse than credit cards because one screwed -up swipe by the merchant, and you (ie- me) are chasing your money all over timbuktu.

 

[etf]

Yes, I have found that Amex gives superior cust service as a rule, and I can always obtain a (non Capital 1) Visa for travel. What I am really most curious to know is if the frequent flyer miles would even be worth it as this point. I should have thought about this about a year or two back and started racking up the points then... oh well. If anyone knows of a frequent flier card that they really like, I'd love to know. I have been using a debit card for a while now, but for various reasons am going to quit using it, start charging everything, pay off the balance monthly (before interest ensues), and want to get some "rewards".

As for Cap 1 dinging the credit, I wonder how they do this? Changing the balance due date? Regardless, it sounds awful. One of the reasons I quit using credit cards a few years ago. But lately I have decided that debit cards are worse than credit cards because one screwed -up swipe by the merchant, and you (ie- me) are chasing your money all over timbuktu.

from what i heard, capital one doesn't report your entire credit line or something, so it looks like your utilization rate (amount you have as a balance/overall credit line) is really high, which is bad. whatever, screw them.

as for your other question, the mastercard i use is diners club. it too is a charge card ($95 fee), but it's club rewards program is fantastic. for instance, if i want to get a plane ticket and redeem rewards for it, instead of having to transfer rewards to my frequent flier account or call someone to book the ticket for me, i can just buy the ticket wherever, and diners club converts the points necessary to pay for the ticket automatically. back when they had the restaurant savings program it paid for the annual fee several times over, but now that they've gotten rid of it, it's hard to justify unless you rack up a lot of points.

 

[Stroganoff]

from what i heard, capital one doesn't report your entire credit line or something, so it looks like your utilization rate (amount you have as a balance/overall credit line) is really high, which is bad. whatever, screw them.

Yup, this is the biggest issue with Cap1. That, and they don't like to give high initial credit lines or credit line increases -- rather, they'll offer you a new card so you end up with like 2 cards for $300 or $500 or $750 each -- this increases odds in their favor that card members will get confused/overwhelmed and miss a payment or go over the limit on one or both cards = fee revenue for Cap1! Evil.

They're getting rid of their practice of not reporting credit lines sometime this year or next, so we'll have to wait and see if they turn into a "prime", respected company.

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For frequent flyer miles, I have an AMEX Delta. The $85 annual fee (ick) is waived the first year, but they'll give 15K-17.5K bonus miles for signing up plus double miles for grocery, gas, drug store, USPS, etc. purchases. It's pretty easy to get approved, and I'm doing it to build internal history with AMEX so that I can get some of their other cards in the future. Can redeem for Delta and Continental and some others, but I dunno much about blackout dates. 25K miles for a free flight but like ActiveDutyMD said in the other credit card thread, airline cards are getting pickier and pickier so it might take like 35K or 50K now.

Citi AAdvantage (American Airlines) is popular, but it doesn't report your credit line so it could hurt your FICO score. Citi allows conversions to other cards, so you can use this card for interview season then convert to another Citi card without taking another inquiry hit on your credit report.

AMEX Starwood is pretty popular, and I think you can redeem them for multiple airlines and multiple hotel stays, but I dunno much about it.

Maybe get an airline card that you like and use it for interview season, then convert it to another non-airline rewards card? (Citi and usually AMEX allow conversions). Every bone in my body says steer clear of Capital One, and the company's practices are widely hated on multiple finance forums. Don't shoot the messenger! Good luck racking up those miles.

 

[blanche]

Don't have capital one, but it IS good for one thing--foreign travel.

It has the one card that doesn't charge a 'foreign transaction fee', which can really add up, and often can be quite shady...am ex, visa all have them. for ex, when I just inquired about a new visa rewards card i have, they told me the foreign transaction fee could be 'anything from 1 to 10% of the transaction', and there is no way to know which transaction will be 1% and which will be 10%...niiice. This counts for Canada, Mexico, Bahamas, not just distant places.

But back on topic, are you guys successful in using airline rewards? i find it so hard to actually book tickets using frequent flyer miles (unless you are booking months and months ahead..) that i just opt for the simplicity of a basic rewards card.

 

[MJB]

We have just gotten a Capital One No Hassles account that my wife and I will share...the intitial credit line is more than I'd ever want to have on a credit card, and I might see about having it reduced.

We researched this pretty hard and have friends that carry Cap. One, Citi, and Amex.

I pretty much refuse to pay a fee for a card, so certain ones were out of the question.

Another couple we are friends with have a Cap. ONe and a Citi account. The Citi account was intriguing because you get miles for actual miles travelled in addition to miles for monies spent.

We both have what is rated as excellent credit, so this might have been why we were fortunate on some things.

We plan to use this for our purchases of gas, groceries, hotels, etc...and use the miles toward flights home, etc...

I used this site for much of my research.

http://www.creditcards.com/airline-miles.php

 

[wyo]

I got a Capital One No Hassle Miles Card about 2 years ago and have had no problems. As far as dinging your credit, what they do is not report your credit limit. Instead, they report your highest balance. This kinda sucks, but it isn't dinging your credit, especially if you don't carry a balance on the card. I was also fortunate that I got married last summer so racked up a balance one month that was close to my credit limit. It has not negatively affected my credit score in any way.

As far as only approving you for small amounts...that is not true in my experience. I got approved for a credit limit that was 5 times higher than the Discover card I had been using for about 5 years and that was just with my student loan income.

As far as the rewards. I have not yet used the miles, but you can eitehr buya ticket through them or you can buy your own ticket and then they credit your account with your points that you've acquired. Plus they've been giving me 2 points for every dollar that I spend, so I've acquired enough points to aford a free $900 ticket in a pretty short time. You can also use the rewards for other things including cash back (not quite as much bang for your buck.) Sorry, not trying to make this promotional, I've just been happy with the card and wanted to debunk some misinformation I just read.

 

[etf]

I got a Capital One No Hassle Miles Card about 2 years ago and have had no problems. As far as dinging your credit, what they do is not report your credit limit. Instead, they report your highest balance. This kinda sucks, but it isn't dinging your credit, especially if you don't carry a balance on the card. I was also fortunate that I got married last summer so racked up a balance one month that was close to my credit limit. It has not negatively affected my credit score in any way.

not reporting your credit limit will hurt your fico score, unless the limit isn't reported because the line is of type "revolving - monthly" - i.e. a charge card. capital one is one of the more unethical companies out there, and plus, their cards are just ugly.

i guess the best thing about amex and diners club is the service - they better have it to justify an annual fee. i've missed my amex payment about 5 times (at most 2 weeks late), and all i've had to do is send them a secure message and they reverse the fee, no questions asked. diners club does one better - i've missed the payment about twice, but both times i sent it in within about 5 days, and they automatically reversed the fee in the next statement - and the fee was about $130!.

 

[DebDynamite]

I appreciate all the replies, this is one of the most useful forum on SDN I do believe. Have yet to sit down and apply for my card yet, I'm doing so tomorrow. Maybe I'll re-post after interview season with what worked out.

I really like to keep things simple, and having a separate card for foreign travel isn't what I want to have to do. At the same time I want all the points possible. I'm too tight to really want to have to spend the annual fee, and my FICO's pretty dang good. We'll see how this works out....

One thing is for sure, I'm not looking forward to having to use a credit card again. My life has been much simpler over the past two years just using a debit card. But my husband is right in that they really do not favor the individual (twice this year merchants have screwed up my transactions, and if I'd had a credit card it would have been easier to prevent ). So, it's back to the credit cards for a while.

 

[blanche]

good luck with the credit card transition

really, it's not so bad. i used to use my debit card for everything also, but during the summer b/w MS1 and MS2 someone got my acct # and drained my account. let me tell you, that was a real pain in the @#%% to get the money returned to my account (for mastercard debit accts, it's a different process then credit cards, where you simply dispute the charge and it goes away).

now, i use credit cards EXCLUSIVELY, except in the rare cash only situations or when i'm paying at small/independent businesses who take more of a hit. i find one visa rewards card, one master card, and one american express card in my wallet serves me well. i use my visa for rewards (also an ex-Citibank dividends customer ) master on nothing usually (but has a better APR) and amex for travelling, car rentals, etc. i pay off the balance every month so i figure if i'm going to spend $$$ on things, i might as well get something back (even if is only 2%..) also, i like 'seeing' where my money goes every month (online) and the peace of mind that if it's lost, i can just cancel it. guess how much $$ i lost when i got robbed? nada, just needed to request new cards. really, things with credit can be just as simple, just autopay your bill every month with that checking account!

 

[melancholy]

Opps, didn't realize this thread was here when I posted in the adjacent thread. http://forums.studentdoctor.net/showpost.php?p=5040197&postcount=12

Any other first or second-hand comments regarding Capital One's card?

 

[MJB]

melancholy,

We JUST got our account a couple weeks ago, and I actually just got my card yesterday. So far, no adverse effects, and it showed up on the credit report last week. I think my wife having too many open cc accounts probably hurt more than this one ever could. I will re-research the bad reviews again, however.

I can't believe that Southwest (just the rewards program, not even the card) wouldn't be a better deal. Maybe use CapitalOne to buy your Southwest flights.

We plan to do this, though we'll have to drive from Knoxville to Nashville to use Southwest.

 

[melancholy]

melancholy,

We JUST got our account a couple weeks ago, and I actually just got my card yesterday. So far, no adverse effects, and it showed up on the credit report last week. I think my wife having too many open cc accounts probably hurt more than this one ever could. I will re-research the bad reviews again, however.

I can't believe that Southwest (just the rewards program, not even the card) wouldn't be a better deal. Maybe use CapitalOne to buy your Southwest flights.

We plan to do this, though we'll have to drive from Knoxville to Nashville to use Southwest.

I forget the exact calculations, but even taking to account the number of free credit points you get by opening a Rapid Rewards Visa, the amount of dollars itself needed to get enough points for a free flight was greater than that of the Cap1 card. I don't recall if I tried to go through and calculate approx. how much it would cost to get a free ticket solely by earning enough credit by flying back and forth. They require quite a few flights in order to get that free ticket. In the end, I suppose many people sell the free ticket on ebay, but not sure if that will offset the cost. I also believe the ability to buy tickets with other airlines through Cap1 as a strength since it gives a little more flexibility than the Southwest card.