DragonBoss

Thank you for the reply nandog, did you mean conventional loan is +775 or +675? Mine is at 750 on CK, but I think in reality it is in low 700's, because I moved most of the credit card debts to a good rate personal loan. After doing it my total credit utilization became lower than it was before. And knock on wood the overall debt is getting lower from month to month.

However I played with prequalifed calculators online and I saw the Conventional loans offered better monthly payments and lower upfront cost. Still, most people whom I know go after FHA and that is what confuses me? Maybe because they don't want to try shopping arround for a conventional mortgage?

I have a good job, with a strong large company, a degree and working on masters with no student loans. From the other side I have that personal loan and a some minor credit card debt on 0% balance, now. Therefore, I may need to wait a few more months to save more for the downpayment, closing costs and to decrease the debt. 

I would give it 3.5 rating, but it seems like that are doing some improvements, I guess to fight the competition of Chase Freedom.

Pro's:

- Great Freud Department. 

- Good US base customer service.

- Shop Discover is the best cash back/ points online program.

- Cash back can be increased if chossing a partner gift card. For $20 you get $40 of rental car, or for $45 you get $50 for great dining and department store options.

- Seems like they are partnering with Diners Club internationally, country by country, so can be used where Diners is accepted.

- As of recently there is no transaction fee for the purchases abroad.

Cons

- Need to spend $3,000 before the 1% cash back starts to kick in, otherwise it is 0.25%.

- Warehouse clubs have only 0.25% cash back always.

- Low 5% limits. E.g. Recent one had 5% on travel purchases up to $400. Chase limits are $1,500.

Tip

- If you are doing a lot of online purchases, then go through Shop Discover, that is how I maximaze my cash back. 15% Groupon, 5% Dell, Lenovo and Tiger Direct, and so on. Then I get a gift card, from Olive Garden or Gap to maximize it even more. 

CK is a great tool. It is free and a lot of us here talk in plain language so it is easy to understand. I like CK reviews and users reviews of the credit product.

My advice would be use credit karma, free annual credit reports, mint for daily tracking of the finances and flyer talk for good mileage offers.

I see the credit as an unneeded body weight. We ate all those readily accessible fatty and sweet stuff (credit card, loans, etc) over the course of years, now we need to put it under control (no more over spending) and then to gradually decrease it (and improve the credit score). It cannot happen overnight, but with a right discipline we will get there.

Thank you nandog, I do appreciate your advice.

I am even thinking on buying a car true a site like a truecar, so I can avoid all the hassle.

And you are right, the sales people like to pull credit too much, but I was thinking to apply for the loads in advance and go to the dealership with a pre-approved loan. Last time they wanted to sell me a 10.2% loan for 12.2%, Basically, an institution had to check my job references so they called me and they told me the apr, while the dealership called me to tell me about the "great" 2% higher offer. Imagine that!

What was your score approximately when you applied?

Agree with hardeight, just want to open a new credit card & close the old one. You should first apply for the new one and after you receive the new card then you should close the old one. If you close the card before you apply for the new one, then at the time of the application you will have a lower credit score due to the closing of one credit account.

If you have some saved cash:

1. Get a secured credit card with a limit over $1,500
2. Get a fully secured personal loan.

Almost always it hurts your credit score, with the assumption that your credit card accont, which you want to close, has a limit that is reported to the credit bureaus. Simply by doing it you lower you overall credit limit and it increases your credit utilization.

E.g. You have 3 cards with $2,000 limit each, and the total debt on two cards is $600 and on the one for close is $0. Then your utilization is $600/$6000 = (total debt / total credit) = 10%.

If you close 1 of 3 accounts, then your total utilization is higher; $600/ $4000 = 15%.

The exception is if the credit card does not report the limit (e.g. World Master Card: Citi Expedia, Citi Premier Pass...) then it would not hurt your score that much, only in the number of the two opened accounts. Those cards that do not report the limit are the ones that have no pre-set spending limit, meaning you can go over the limit (without a fee), as long as you are under the limit until the payment due date. Usually require very high credit score.

The number of opened accounts factor is in the "low" category per creditkarma, while credit utilization is in the "high" category of the impact on the credit score. I fully agree to it.

Hope it helps.

When I was approved for this card about 15 months ago, my credit score was in 720's. They gave me a $2K limit, while my average limit on a credit card was $5K. The reasons I applied for this card were to get a cheap award ticket to South East Europe by the following logic: to collect the bonus $25K of miles, to utilize a 100% buy miles bonus with Delta and because there was no fee for the first year. I thought the worse what could have happened would be to pay with miles for a big chunk of a $1.2K airfare ticket. Note, I assumed the mileage calculations based on my positive experience with United Mileage program and their availability of award tickets for the South East Europe and by Chase pay with miles policy through its United Credit Card.

But, I had false assumptions, because Delta Mileage program is far worse than United’s one. Whenever I try there is no availability of flights (although its partners Air France and KLM show available award seats). Delta pay with miles does NOT work with all the tickets purchased, only with the ones marked with pay with miles and the associated award fees are far higher than United’s one. Of note, with Chase United you can at least get 100 miles per dollar for your airfare, lodging or good gift cards (e.g. best buy) as a statement credit.

I still have not closed the card; I will do it as soon I spend my 60+K of miles. My only options are some of the hotels, rent-a-car or to get $600 of Macy’s gift cards.

Another con is that I had to pay $100 for rent-a-car insurance, which I have declined. So it is not provided by default with this card.

There is one new pro; it is for people who travel a lot on Delta domestically. As of June 1 the first checked beg will be free.

Amex customer service is India based, they are nice, but it took them forever to get all my miles posted.

Please not that I am not praising Chase, actually I have finally closed their United Credit Card, since they have lowered my CL in less than one year in the following order: $6K-$5K-$3.6K-$.07K. The funny thing is that a day after Chase lowered my CL on $3.6K, Citi had increased my CL on one card from $9.6K to $11.2K???

I collect my credit card related United miles in a different way now. But, United Mileage program works much better than Delta, regardless of my poor experience with Chase.