E,
...Doesn't all of this "new account" negatively hit your Credit Report?..
Xooz
Good question, I’m glad you brought it up. I did some quick research and this is what I found. It’s a good article.
https://www.fool.com/the-ascent/cre...pening-a-new-credit-card-hurt-your-credit-sc/
I also looked at opening bank accounts, specifically checking accounts and their effect on your credit score is a minimal if any, as the bank does a ”soft pull” which doesn’t affect your credit score. The credit card companies do a “hard credit inquiry”.
Anyway, the long and short of it is, if you use the credit responsibly, the effect will have a positive effect and offset the negative impact of the “hard credit inquiry”.
I’ve had to use the credit card to quality for the cash incentive. I always pay off the credit card in full and once I have qualified for the cash incentive, I put the card away and wait a while and then cancel it. Unless the ongoing rewards, point, miles, cash justify continued use.
Granted, this might not work for all, but it’s worked well for me.
I’ve been playing the credit card game for a long time. At one time, a long time ago, a credit card company was offering savings bonds for transferring balances. I would transfer a balance, get a savings bond. I would transfer the balance to another card and then transfer it back. This is when there were no balance transfer fees. I still have those savings bonds and that was a long time ago.
This is similar to the day before cell phones, when all the ma bells were making offers for your long-distance business. They had all kinds of incentives. They were offering checks of $75 - $200 if you changed provider (no pun intended). I used to change providers sometimes twice a month. You didn’t need to stay with them any length of time. Back then I was just trying to pay my mortgage, didn’t know what a spa was, and the telephone companies helped.
I won’t go into the airline and hotel points game. I have accumulated so many free flights I can’t use them and end up giving them to the extended family members who aren’t even in the family anymore. Lol. Hotel cards are good too. One hotel chain is offering 100K points. I usually wait till the offer is so good I can’t refuse.
Even though you need to spend X$ to qualify, I never ever spend on something that isn’t necessary. Think about all the places you can use a credit card. You might want to wait till you have a big expense coming up before you open a card.