Please Pay Attention

Guys, this week has got me a little stressed. My friend and 2 readers received an Amex Financial Review. My mom got denied for a couple cards. Another reader took a big hit to his credit score. So please pay attention because it seems like I need to review some old lessons:

  • Don’t lie about income on your credit card applications. Especially to American Express. 
  • If you can’t pay cards off every month, you’re not ready for this game.
  • If you’re late with payments because you’re disorganized, you’re not ready for this game.
  • Closing cards is fine. It’s actually smart, because you don’t want to be stuck paying a bunch of annual fees. But for the love of God, stop closing those no-fee cards you’ve had for years and years. Length of credit history is very important, so it’s newer cards that should be closed.
  • I keep the majority of my cards open for at least 6 months and close them before the 1-year mark. But my no-fee cards from 1998 will NEVER be closed.
If you’re not tracking your application dates in a spreadsheet, you’re getting yourself into trouble. You people who apply for Chase and Citibank cards every month aren’t being smart. Again, I do a round of applications every 3 months. In each round, I apply for a maximum of 1 card from each issuer (1 from Chase, 1 from Citibank, 1 from Bank of America, etc). I apply for all the cards on the same day. The only exception is the occasional Business version of a card. 
If you’re coming up with your own strange way of doing things, making up income, and applying for different cards every week…don’t say I didn’t warn you. 
MileNerd out.

Love, Like, and Neutral

  • I love AwardWallet a little more today than I did yesterday. You can track your Delta SkyMiles again. Scroll to the last post on the bottom of this page to learn how.
  • I like this new opportunity to to redeem American Express Membership Rewards points. For the next month, get a 35% bonus when you transfer to Virgin Atlantic. I’d then transfer the Virgin miles to Hilton points at a 1 to 2 ratio. Not a bad use of Membership Rewards points. But I still like the 30% transfer bonus to British Airways (starting next week) better.
  • I’m neutral about raffles in general. Still, there are some killer prizes like 110,000 Hyatt points. Check it out here.

AmEx Financial Review

I realize some of you are scared of an imaginary credit card boogeyman. This stops you from applying for cards, which keeps you from getting bonuses, which prevents you from going on amazing vacations. I continue to tell people the Boogeyman doesn’t exist. If you have good credit and pay cards off every month, you have nothing to worry about. A month ago, I wrote a post called Attention: Wusses to try and shake the fear. I’m well aware that today’s post is going to freak some people out and create even more wussified behavior. Alas, I have no choice…

I heard from a friend and a couple readers this week who received the dreaded American Express Financial Review. What does this mean and what can you do about it?

  • What is it? AmEx sends out a letter asking for information. The main thing they want is a copy of your tax return. 
  • What if I ignore it? You can have your American Express accounts shut down.
  • Who gets it? All kinds of people. Some of the most common include those with huge limits on their cards, those who consistently charge over 50% of their credit limit, and those who go crazy with “alternative” things like Vanilla Reload cards.
  • How can I be best prepared? The main thing is to not lie about your income when you apply for the card. If your tax return income matches the income you wrote on your application, you’ll be fine. If it’s a business card, you don’t need to pretend it makes a huge amount of money on your application. The truth shall set you free! 

Last Day To Save 15%

Save 15% on hotel stays from Orbitz here. It’s not really a mile deal, but I hear from a lot of you who are very short on hotel points. I think it’s silly to fly across the world in first-class premium seats and then stay in a cheapo motel, but to each their own.

Free Money This Weekend

  1. If you shop online and are a fan of money, you MUST go through portals like FatWallet or BigCrumbs. This weekend, the cash back rates at BigCrumbs are at least 34% higher. If you’re shopping online, take advantage of this.
  2. Small Business Saturday = Free money for shopping. Don’t forget.