Thank You for Nothing, Citi...

Received very cryptic letter from Citi today.

“Dear Suzy:
As of March 15, 2009, we are changing some of the terms and conditions that will affect your ability to earn and redeem ThankYou Points. They listed about a million conditions under which I could lose the points I’d already accrued, but the first one was the big one: “ThankYou Network may be revised in a manner that may affect your ability to use the ThankYou Points you have already accumulated.” i.e. we can “revise” the program to eliminate what you’ve earned, pretty much whenever we feel like it.”

I immediately went on to the ThankYou Network website and ordered a $50 giftcard to Banana Republic with my 6,000 points. And will check in one more time to cash out before this curious March 15th deadline. And then we’ll see what happens after that…
When I’m not satisfied with any other service or company, I just end the relationship. And yet with credit cards, I fear doing anything that will impact my credit score, and I would think closing this account would. So I will just deal, charge a tank of gas on it a month, and spend more on my other cards that give me better rewards.

When Last Minute is a Good Thing...

My credit card payments are currently coming from my Bank of America checking account – certainly not an interest-producing machine there, by any means. So I have never really bothered with WHEN I paid my bills. I usually pay them at the end of the month when I do my usual scrub or whenever I think of it. But I realize that I AM relinquishing interest, no matter how miniscule, and it won’t cause me any grief to just schedule the payments the day before due. So that is my new commitment to me – paying my credit cards at the very last minute.

Credit Cards the new "Big Oil"?

Unreal. This article was in my inbox this morning from Marketing Daily: Can Credit Card Brands Weather Debt’s Image Problem? Wow, debt has an image problem? Apparently debt needs a makeover and some shiny new trainers. While of course I think it would be a boon to consumer lifestyles to observe a little more thrift, if American Express and Visa begin to be vilified along the same lines as Big Oil, we’ll be missing the point. It’s our spending that has us held over a barrel to the plastic, not the MasterCard priceless ads. The article bemoans a resurgence of cash, but is doubtful it will occur:

“Besides, unlike smoking and other personal habits that have fallen out of fashion, plastic is a little confusing--no one standing behind you at the Cineplex knows if you are financially intact and using a debit card as an electronic convenience, or a reckless spender juggling balances on eight cards. She doesn't expect much of a change in consumer behavior, although many advocates recommend using cash as a way to regain a sense of control over spending. "We've gone too far in the way of plastic-people perceive credit cards as safer, more convenient," she says. "I doubt cash will make a comeback."

What's the best card when you don't carry a balance?

Just updated my goals today – so ridiculously close to zero on my debt.

Now that I’m thisclose to not carrying a credit card balance ever again, I’m starting to think about what would be the best card for me. Right now I have a no-annual-fee Chase and a Citi, and both seem fine, but I don’t know enough to know if the points or rewards are good enough. As for better cards with an annual fee, many of my friends have the Starwood card which lets you rack up hotel points instead of airline miles, or I could of course go for a frequent-flier credit card. The only rule I’ve ever heard is that it’s bad to pay an annual fee of $60 or more for one of those.

Mint.com tells me I can save $129/year with a Citi Dividend Platinum Select MasterCard. Mint also tells me my most frequented store is Target. Yep. Sigh.

Anyone (who already doesn’t carry a balance) that has a good card to recommend?

Credit Score Surprises

When I finally got my credit report (which looked good, although I didn’t opt to pay the $9.95 or whatever it was for my actual credit score) there were only two surprises: apparently I still have my American Eagle credit card open from when I was oh, sixteen (balance-less, thankfully). And, two, I am still recorded as an authorized user of one of my parent’s credit cards. I forgot I had it, but I do have it buried in a drawer at my place – my parents wanted me to have it as a last-ditch safety net of sorts. In case of emergencies. However, I started wondering if this affects my credit rating in any way, and started investigating. Not that I necessarily think my credit rating is better than theirs, but now I’m curious. The answer I found: up until now, yes – you were associated with the credit of the actual user. So you have the perks of their line of credit, but also have all of their credit flaws attached to your record as well (late payments, etc.).

But according to WikiAnswers, this will be changing this year, and the use of authorized user accounts will no longer be involved in the computation of the FICO score, and there will probably be a negative impact as a result:

The '08 version of the FICO scoring software, available in September 2007, will completely bypass any accounts listed as Authorized User. Fair Isaac expects that about 30% of consumers will see a drop in their FICO score as a result of this.

These two sources also paint the other side of the picture – the “guilt by association” effect of being an authorized user... we shall see when this takes effect.
BCS Alliance
Bankrate

FICO score surprise

A few nights ago Suze Orman was on CNN and she clarified something I don’t think I was really aware of about credit scores. Your FICO is really about your debt to credit limit ratio, she says. By extension, it would seem like I’d want to have lots of various credit cards and have charged only a small amount one ach one. It doesn’t seem quite right to me – I’ve always operated with a kind of innate fear of credit cards in general, and so, I only have one (and it took me a long time to even consent to get one), and I make all my purchases on that one card. I think that despite it’s impact on my FICO score, part of this will never change about me because of the emotional impact that debt has on me. I’m really glad that Suze Orman touched on that too – beyond the numbers, if debt makes you squirm (like it does me) then it’s best to get rid of it all and do whatever you need to do to eliminate it.
I don’t think I will make any immediate changes now, but since I’m already shopping for a better credit card, I think I won’t close the one I have now when I do – I’ll pay off a tank of gas on each one to keep them alive. I remember now that my financial advisor said that he did that when I first met him quite some time ago.
But I’d welcome thoughts and comments from those with a more sophisticated understanding of it than myself.

Plus, a link to a Forbes article on Mint.com that I wrote about last.