PITA? Yes. Husband, father, and recent grandpa? Yes. Frugal Travel Nut? Guilty. But now I have been classified as a "Guru" by Creditsesame for how I handle my credit. I just got the upgraded rating last week. In essence, it means that Creditsesame recognizes that I have excellent credit and they can not find any means to improve my financial situation. I earned the excellent rating for a score of 740+.
For all you new to the credit card game, I hope this confirms for you that you can, if prudent, apply for a few credit cards and keep an excellent credit rating. It takes discipline, patience, and a plan, but the rewards are many, the travel exciting, and at a very reasonable cost. We have been around the world twice on business class tickets that cost us taxes only and at the same time have almost 100 credit cards in our credit file (no, they are not all open now). Katy and I have over two million frequent flier miles in our accounts combined, and have visited 63 different countries with the vast majority of the trips coming from credit cards.
I get many, many, many emails per week from people asking me to review their credit situation and I'm glad to do it, with the understanding that you are responsible for your own decisions. And as some of you know, I can and will suggest that if your score isn't high enough to generate approvals for these premium travel cards, I'm gonna send you back to work on your credit, correct errors on your report, or establish a more complete credit file. It is such a waste of time to just apply for cards without a plan or the credit score to support it.
If you read the Sunday Success Stories in the blog, you'll see that plain old ordinary folks like you and me can see the world at prices we all can afford. Start by getting your credit score from one of the free offers on the left hand blog column, then drop me a note (rick@frugaltravelguy.com) with your results, and a few other things I suggest in the Rookie Tips and FAQ tab above.
I've spent years approving mortgages as a FNMA, VA, and FHA underwriter, done credit counseling for my local VA office, and used these techniques myself successfully for years.
Your credit is one of your most important assets. Please be careful but excited by the possibilities -- if you treat your credit right.
New Ink Bold with Ultimate Rewards Card
•50,000 bonus points after you spend $5000 in 3 months – that's $500 in rewards of your choice, or $625 towards airfare when you redeem online through our Ultimate Rewards booking tool.
•No limit to the number of points you can earn – and points do not expire.
•5X points per dollar on the first $50,000 spent annually on eligible business purchases.
•No foreign transaction fees and Free Employee Cards.
•No interest or over limit fees.
•No Annual Fee in the first year – that's a $95 savings.
For all you new to the credit card game, I hope this confirms for you that you can, if prudent, apply for a few credit cards and keep an excellent credit rating. It takes discipline, patience, and a plan, but the rewards are many, the travel exciting, and at a very reasonable cost. We have been around the world twice on business class tickets that cost us taxes only and at the same time have almost 100 credit cards in our credit file (no, they are not all open now). Katy and I have over two million frequent flier miles in our accounts combined, and have visited 63 different countries with the vast majority of the trips coming from credit cards.
I get many, many, many emails per week from people asking me to review their credit situation and I'm glad to do it, with the understanding that you are responsible for your own decisions. And as some of you know, I can and will suggest that if your score isn't high enough to generate approvals for these premium travel cards, I'm gonna send you back to work on your credit, correct errors on your report, or establish a more complete credit file. It is such a waste of time to just apply for cards without a plan or the credit score to support it.
If you read the Sunday Success Stories in the blog, you'll see that plain old ordinary folks like you and me can see the world at prices we all can afford. Start by getting your credit score from one of the free offers on the left hand blog column, then drop me a note (rick@frugaltravelguy.com) with your results, and a few other things I suggest in the Rookie Tips and FAQ tab above.
I've spent years approving mortgages as a FNMA, VA, and FHA underwriter, done credit counseling for my local VA office, and used these techniques myself successfully for years.
Your credit is one of your most important assets. Please be careful but excited by the possibilities -- if you treat your credit right.
New Ink Bold with Ultimate Rewards Card
•50,000 bonus points after you spend $5000 in 3 months – that's $500 in rewards of your choice, or $625 towards airfare when you redeem online through our Ultimate Rewards booking tool.
•No limit to the number of points you can earn – and points do not expire.
•5X points per dollar on the first $50,000 spent annually on eligible business purchases.
•No foreign transaction fees and Free Employee Cards.
•No interest or over limit fees.
•No Annual Fee in the first year – that's a $95 savings.
8 comments:
Congratulations credit "Guru". My score on sesame is 772, wonder when I will be given a status of "Guru". Keep guiding us on the path of credit card churning.
As my CC inventory grew my Credit Sesame score grew. It shot from 725 to 777 over the course of a few months and a few CC apps (almost all pulling from Experian).
Rick, quick question for you - if I am looking at a mortgage in the next couple months, would you recommend taking out a small loan at a regional bank for $2K to try and potentially get a bump in credit rating by having broader credit types?
What?? No "too many hard inquiries"? You're not churning nearly enough!
Rick l. I would not do anything different. Particularly if your score is 740 or above
Anon. I space my inquiries have 21 on experian and still not too many inquiries
I just checked my Credit Sesame score - it is 850! And that is with a decline of 13 points after I received the new Ink Bold card. I'm quite happy with it.
Hi! Could you tell in how many month you have 21 inq on Experian. I'm in NJ - all hits are Experian and I'm still unsure about the limits( how many cc applications at once ,a year, 3 or 4 month apart?) CScore 747 after 3 recent cc in Dec .Thank You
Just e-mailed you for assistance/review! Look forward to the response :)
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