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My fiance has a Citi Choice Visa card that has a "extra cash" rewards program. It is basically a 10% discount program. Useless!! He had this card for 35 years!! Changed to this rewards card many many years ago without knowing about rewards.
Usage:
He usually pays it off every month. We have done a lot of things to the house so he currently has a balance for the first time. His rate now is 16.99 and credit line is 25,000.00 (he wants to keep)
Needs:
we need a card that will let us use points for travel- flights/hotels/car rental and cash back. Keeping credit limit.
We are looking at the Capital One No Hassle Cash Back card
Does this look like a good choice for our needs?
Also, what are the chances that a new company will give him the same 25,000.00 credit line?
And, when we call and inquire about the card offers, will them pulling his credit look bad as a bunch of "inquires" on his credit report? How do we best go about this?
Any suggestions would be much appreciated!!
Thanks!!
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Green Member
- Join Date
- Oct 2011
- Location
- ma
- Posts
- 1
Citi Choice Visa is useless! Need a new rewards card?
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Centurion Member
- Join Date
- Dec 2010
- Location
- Florida
- Posts
- 209
If your beau has a 25 year history with one card and little revolving debt he should have NO problem. Have you considered the Sapphire card from Chase? Give them a call, they may transfer him to a different, more rewarding program, but if he just opens a new account (and keep the old one) he is more likely to get the new account sign up bonuses that you wouldn't get from converting. You don't have to be concerned with inquiries unless you are applying for a half dozen cards.
Credit cards basically fall into 3 categories with little overlap:
1) Rewards- These cards are great for those that pay in full monthly. Great rewards, high interest (airline and hotel cards, AMEX, Chase Sapphire, Citi Diamond)
2) Low APR- Little or no rewards, but great for carrying a balance if you have good credit (Simmons, PenFed Promise, IberiaBank)
3) Bad credit/No credit- High APR, low limit, no rewards (Orchard, First Premier)
Regarding the Capital One Cash Credit Card, it looks ok, but there are better cash back cards out there. Discover has several cards with 1% back across the board plus bonus categories that change quarterly (ex, maybe you get 3% on fuel from Jan. to March). American Express Blue Cash is a great program for earning cash rewards.
Rewards are generally points OR cash back, so you have to pick one or the other to maximize your rewards.Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same.
Ronald Reagan
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Centurion Member
- Join Date
- Aug 2011
- Location
- Phoenix
- Posts
- 398
The Citibank Choice account is quite rare. Originally, Citibank intended to create a whole new credit card to compete with Visa and MasterCard and called it Choice. It flopped and so they were re-issued as a Citibank Choice Visa.
Extra Cash from Citibank is a free feature that they added to many of their no reward credit cards a few years back.
Instead of throwing away 25+ years with Citibank and a large credit line, why not call and find out if they will do a product change? A Citibank Dividend will give cash back or a Thank You account will give Thank You points that can be used for a large variety of rewards.
A Capital One No Hassle Cash Back card is not likely going to give him a $25K credit line. The new Capital One Cash Reward card (green card)is marketed towards a prime customer so that would be the best bet of a higher credit line. But the general attitude on every credit forum I have ever been to is that Capital One does not give out high credit lines.
I am not sure what your beau's credit looks like now (the Choice card was marketed towards people with sub prime credit back in the 80s by the way) but if he has no baddies, low utilization and a high FICO he should look into Chase, Amex or BofA. If he is military or ex military he should be a member of USAA and Navy Federal Credit Union and they have excellent cards and service.
But I stand by what I suggested; see if Citibank will product change the current account for something that your beau will prefer. Some people would cream their shorts for an old card like that, rewards or not. If he does go with a new card, he should keep the Citibank Choice card around due to its age and make small purchases to keep it active.
If he applies for a card there will be a hard inquiry. If you simply call around and ask for details, he would not give them any identifying information and therefore, there would not be a hard inquiry. Most banks do offer a pre-approval website. It asks for identifying information and it would result in a soft pull that only he would see. These are pre-approvals only and do not gaurantee credit. And if he applies then they will pull a hard. Best to do some window shopping and apply for the one card he really likes the most.
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