Author Topic: Citi double cash rewards card  (Read 3688 times)

LauraL

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Citi double cash rewards card
« on: September 19, 2014, 04:02:48 PM »
My first forum question! A little background: I'm a young professional with a solid job in the pharmaceutical industry. I live at home and my only major monthly expenses are for my car and student loans.

My question is regarding the possibility of switching/consolidating my credit cards. Something to note: I essentially use my credit cards as debit cards. I spend between $500-700/mo and about $300 every 3 months or so to visit my boyfriend in Texas. The cards are linked directly to my savings account and are paid in full every month. No balances allowed here!

I signed up for my first two credit cards about a month ago.

First, the Barclaycard Travelocity Rewards Amex: No annual fee, 3 points per $1 spent on eligible Travelocity purchases (helpful because I usually book through Travelocity to visit my boyfriend), 1 point per $1 spent on all other purchases, 5,000 points after first purchase, and 5,000 points after spending $1000 in the first 3 months. I've been working toward that second 5,000 set of bonus points by paying some family bills and having my parents pay me back. My plan has been to pay my day to day expenses with this card, rack up the points, and then use the ensuing rewards points to lessen the financial pain of buying plane tickets to visit the boyfriend every few months.

Second, (and as a backup, since some vendors don't accept Amex) the CapitalOne Quicksilver Rewards Visa: no annual fee, 1/5% cash back on all purchases and a $100 bonus after the first $500 spent in the first 3 months.

The Question:

Today I got a mailer about the Citi Double Cash Rewards Mastercard: no annual fee, 2% cash back (1% for the purchase, and 1% when you pay it off).

By my rough calculations, it seems like the Citi card would be my best bet rewards-wise. But my questions are (I'm new to credit cards): Should I close the other two accounts? Will closing the other accounts hurt my credit score? Any advice?

Thanks so much!
« Last Edit: September 19, 2014, 04:17:48 PM by LauraL »

seattlecyclone

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Re: Citi double cash rewards card
« Reply #1 on: September 19, 2014, 05:29:39 PM »
The Citi Double Cash Rewards card looks like a good default option, as you really can't beat 2% back on every purchase. However, the Travelocity card looks like it might offer you a better deal for travel purchases. You make a fair number of travel purchases, so I think it makes little sense to close that card. Use that one for travel and the Citi card for everything else. There's no law that says you have to use the same card for everything!

Closing an existing account affects your credit score in two ways: first, you get some points for accounts that have been open a while. Since your existing credit cards are only a month old, closing one of them shouldn't affect your score much in that way. Second, you get some points for having a higher credit limit and lower percentage usage of that credit limit. It shows that banks trust you with borrowing capacity and that you don't overuse what you have. In that sense, closing a credit card could lower your score a bit, but probably not very much if you replace a closed card with a new one that has a similar credit limit.

 

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