IamA credit card expert. I accumulated 1 million miles in less than 2 years and traveled more than 25 countries for free AMA!

Do you want your debit card numbers to be visible in your proof image?

Thank you for the catch. I made necessary changes :)

which cards do you recommend staying the hell away from?

Capital One and Discover are really bad cards to consider. Don't even look at them.

Which are the best?

There are many to consider depending on offers: - Amex Starwood (Personal and Business) - Chase United Mileage Plus (Personal and Business) - Chase Sapphire - Chase Ink - American Express Premier Rewards Gold (Personal and Business)

Side note: it's ok to apply as a business. You can be a sole proprietorship. They don't care.

Do they give better rates or have a more forgiving stance on existing credit when applied as a business? Higher credit lines? What's the benefit of getting business cards?

Multiple benefits: - it has no impact on your credit score - rates are similar (but first you should probably avoid paying interest on your credit cards...) - You can get more bonuses (70,000 points for a Chase Ink is a nice to have...)

why would you call them bad?

Because there are cards that offer much better rewards...

Why is capital one bad? 1.5% back cash. Please explain

Because miles are worth more than 1.5%.

Let me give you an example: You want to fly round trip to Paris in 1 week. It will cost $1,300 or 60,000 miles. It will be a return of 2.16%. If you fly business, it will be even better. When you accumulate enough miles, you can fly international in business all the time. In the US, flying business does not make much of a difference.

To someone who cares about miles. That's the catch. Not everyone does. I personally enjoy driving and road trips.

Can't drive your car to an overseas country.

The world is a gem worth discovering :)

Paris, Hong Kong, Rio, Bali, Tokyo and so many more places...

Can you tell us about cards that give you other benefits, like points on Amazon or something? I don't give a shit about flying and I have excellent credit. Must be something else of value that a new card can give me?

You can offer flights to the ones you love.

Otherwise, you can go for cashback. Not as great.

For example, you can apply for chase southwest and you will get miles that you can convert to amazon gift card.

You can also go to nice hotels with your points. For example, you can go to a palace in paris ($1000/night) for 30000 points.

Chase Freedom gives 5% cash back on Amazon spending in October, November, and December.

Discover it, if you apply for that one through Amazon, offers a $100 Amazon gift card.

Yes but there is a cap of $1,500

$100 gift card is not that great

Can airline miles be used to bring a friend? Or can they only be redeemed for yourself?

Yes of course! For most airlines, you can book a flight for a friend with no fee!

If you have some premium status, that can be helpful!

What's the tl;dr lesson? Is it: Use your card for everything, pay it off immediately?

It's a mix of a few things to optimize your credit card use: - Apply for multiple cards to get bonuses - Make purchases with cards that give you the most miles (Amex starwood, United Mileage Plus Club (Personal or Business) - Make good use of your miles (understand what are the best airlines to use,...)

When you came to the states, which cards did you start with to build credit?

I came from France. I was banking with HSBC and they offered me a credit card HSBC Premier. It was a good way to start.

However, in general, I would say, go for a simple card to start: - Chase Freedom - Chase Slate - Amex Everyday card

Wait a few weeks to make a few payments and then ask for more cards. I was a student, I was not making any money but after a few months I was able to apply for any card

Chase Freedom + Chase Sapphire for the win.

Yes!

But for daily purchases I would go Chase United Club or Amex Starwood.

Why United Cub? What's the benefit of that one specifically when compared to another equivalent Airline Card?

• first year and 2 months: no annual fee (you need to ask chase by pm to waive the fee)
• access to a lot of star alliance lounges in the world
• 1.5 mile per $ spent so it's great for everyday purchase
• no fee when you book flights a fee days before the trip

On another note, united is great for award availability.

You can get personal card and then business so 2 years and 4 months without fee

What's the best way to use 200,000 American Express membership rewards points? Thank you!

It depends where you want to travel. Pick the airline you like and then transfer your MR points to that airline. It's always better than plain cash. Always you can wait for an offer from Amex (you get bonus if you transfer to a specific airline. They just offered a 40% bonus if you transfered your miles to BA)

Does AMEX do a hard pull if I request a credit limit increase?

Yes they do unfortunately. That's why you want to avoid to request credit limit increase. If you need more credit, just apply for a different credit card.

Why is this down voted? If true, this is very good to know- i was about to ask (as I have in the past with a different card) for a credit increase to have a better debt/credit ratio. If there's a hard pull, that might off-set any good that is done (at least in the short term).

Apply for a new card.

Credit card issuers are not interested in loyal users. They will give you bonuses when you are a new user. When you have been around for 2 years, retention is not that great...

Just apply for a new card :)

What is a hard pull?

When credit card issuers ask for details on your credit score from credit agencies.

That's why applying for 2 credit cards from the same issuer at the same time can be helpful. 1 hard pull instead of 2...

What do you think of Alaska Airlines Visa? I do not see it on your good or bad lists

Unless you fly with Alaska Airlines on a regular basis, it does not make much sense. On top of that, they are not part of any major airline alliance so you can't use their points on any other airline...

Go for United, Lufthansa, BA or American Airlines instead! Many more possibilities for nice trips!

Ahem

Fair enough. My mistake.

I am not aware of award availability but my guess is that it's not that great

You have some airlines that are really helpful. Avianca is one of them. I don't think alaska is one of them...

What do you think of cards with annual fees? Does the fee outweigh the benefits or vice-versa?

It depends on the cards but for most cards they will waive the fee for the first year so you can take advantage of that.

Then, after a year, you just close the card and get another one. Later on, you can apply again and get the fee waived a second time!

Apply, rinse & repeat!!

How does your credit score withstand all these closed cards and young accounts?

I'm assuming those would be business accounts?

It's a mix of personal and business credit cards

Hard pulls represent 10% of your credit score so it's not an issue.

I have a great credit score

Not just a hard pull for applying for a new card, but there are other factors too: Lots of closed accounts, your average account age being very low, etc. Just curious how much it affects it.

Closed accounts don't matter Average account age is not low because I always maintain a relationship with the credit card issuer (ie I always have at least 1 card with chase, amex, barclays,...) so my average account age is great

I tried this with TD infinite, even tried to cancel unless they waived the fee. No luck.

Apply for a new card where the fee will be waived for the first year usually

What are some tools you use pretty often to maximize your travel rewards? Is it simply just spending money to accumulate miles on those cards? Or do you try to look for mistake fares like a lot of travel hackers? Purchase through portals? Would love any kinds of tips you could give! :)

EDIT: also, what countries/places have you traveled to? Where are you planning on traveling to next with your miles?

It's a mix of different things: - opening credit cards to get new bonuses - accumulating quality "money" (chase ultimate rewards, starwood points and amex membership rewards). Rest is poor quality. - you can "manufacture" spending from time to time but I am not a fan - airlines are not equal. Some miles are better than others depending on routes. For example, ba is amazing for short trips in the us - mistake fares are rare but sometimes it's nice - i never do long trips on the cheap to accumulate miles. I am not interested in statuses. Especially in the us. They are very disappointing. Am I interested to be gold on delta to get to the lounge for a free banana et coffee? No thank you...

My father has done 110 countries. I am at 45 so far. My favorites: japan, brazil and colombia...

On my list: malaysia, myanmar, finland,...

Thanks for the reply!

You are welcome :)

I have no credit and my Chase bank denied me a credit card. What can I do to build my credit?

Not OP but this is what I did to get the ball rolling:

I contacted my bank and signed up for a $300 secured credit card. That's where you give them $300 and it becomes your credit line. Should you fail to pay it, they use that money to pay it. I used that for a few months.

After that I started getting credit offers in the mail. I signed up for one and got a $500 credit limit. At the time my secured card was maxed out and you have to pay it off to close the account. So I used my new $500 card to pay my $300 secured card off, close the account, get my deposited $300 back and paid off the charge to the new card. And that's how I got my first credit card.

That's a great idea.

Some other options: - ask to become an additional user on someone else's credit card - apply for a simple card (chase slate, amex everyday)

Call them and ask for reconsideration. Ask for a manager.

Chase is more flexible than others

Do you know anything about canadian credit cards?

Unfortunately not so much. Issue is that market is not as competitive so you can't take advantage of new cards or bonuses.

You have almost 1,000 cards available on the US market. Credit cards issuers have to be very aggressive to gain market share...

That's why you need the right tools to find the best cards!

Yep, low competition means the rewards aren't as nice as in the US.

I met a guy who worked in the government who was given a project of researching which card gave the best rewards and up here it is the Capital One travel card. (At least it was a couple years ago.)

Edit: on/in

It's such a lucrative business for banks. There should be more competition in Canada.

I'm in the states. I'm interested in my next creditcard being from Barclays. What's your opinion on that?

Barclays Arrival Plus is your best bet.

Do you have to have a business to actually get a business card/how do you get a card for a business so it doesn't hurt your credit when you open and then close all these cards?

No you don't need a business. When you apply, you just put your name and indicate that this is a sole proprietorship. You can say you sell stuff on ebay or etsy or whatever you have in mind!

Business credit cards are not taken into account on your credit score.

So this is all well and good for Mile accumulation, but how much debt are you in?

I have no credit card debt. This would be the worst mistake.

Credit card interest rates are so expensive. This makes no sense...

I was just wondering cause when I posted that you hadn't mentioned paying anything off in the grace period or at all really.

I always pay my bills on time.

you this guy? http://www.unilad.co.uk/articles/this-guy-plays-the-system-and-travels-the-world-for-free-in-first-class/

Nope that's not me but I flew first class several times and it's definitely worth it. I would recommend a Lufthansa from Hong Kong to New York with a stop in Frankfurt. That was an experience!

Singapore Airlines first class is also worth it!

Do you have a general approach for how to go about accumulating miles? Is there more to it than just reading the benefits for all the cards and pulling them? I'd love to travel more so looking to get started. Did you have to do anything to keep your credit rating okay after opening so many lines of credits?

I try to be organized.

I have a simple excel spreadsheet where I put payments, payment date, bonuses,...

I look for new offers and bonuses. That's why I built a mobile application to share that info.

Regarding opening credit lines, it's not an issue. It's a common myth. It's just 10% of your credit score. Not a bug deal.

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I would be happy to do so.

Do you have some miles you can use?

For last minute trips, this is really helpful... I love it!

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Sure!

Your parents have miles?

B-b-b-but how?

Be organized and follow my guidelines :)

I've heard opening and closing too many credit cards starts to really hurt your credit rating. Have you found that to be the case?

Absolutely not.

I have a great credit score.

Hard pulls are 10% of your credit score

Is that not a lot? How long would it generally take for someone to regain that 10%?

When you are above 725 you are considered prime so no

And if you are really concerned, after 4-5 months, you get perfect score

What does it mean to be 'prime'? Does credit score have a cap? Sorry for all the questions. I have no idea how these things work

Prime is a high credit score ie you will get the best rates if you apply for a mortgage

I don't think it's a lot.

You can regain it in 4-5 months

Also apply for 2 or 3 cards at the same time to have 1 hard pull

Is it best for me to pay my credit card off when the statement comes in? Ive always just transfered money from debit to credit after spending a bit of money. How should i be paying my bill to insure i am increasing my credit score ?

You can pay a fee days before due date if you want to play it safe.

But will it stil be building credit if i pay before even receiving my statement ?

It will have no impact on your credit. Just pay on time and after a few months you will see the difference.

I like US Airways the most, and I want to travel to Europe. What would be a good card for me?

Well it will be american now...

You should accumulate ba avios

You can go for: chase ba or chase sapphire

what benefits would they give me?

With ba avios you can book us airways flights

Makes sense?

Well, I meant other benefits? Like dollar=/=point program, ablity to buy other stuff, whatever.

Buying other stuff is always a bad use of your miles.

Which travel rewards card is the best for Canadians?

I would go for an airline that is on star alliance.

I don't know enough about canadian credit cards unfortunately...

Do yoy work for a credit card company?

No I don't

Is there a card you'd recommend to a college student as a first credit card?

Chase Freedom Amex Starwood

I have no credit and almost no income

Go for a secured credit card then. You will get accepted.