Hey all. I'm looking for a new credit card. For the past 8 years or so I've been using a GM Mastercard, building up rewards that can be used to purchase a GM vehicle. I did this because my father had the same card and used it to get $3700 off the Pontiac he bought back in the day.
However, there's a few problems with this plan:
#1 They changed the terms of the rewards plan, and now each vehicle has a cap, so I could get $1000 or $1500 max off a vehicle, and I have like $3400 in rewards built up, so any additional awards are being wasted.
#2 Even with this $1000 off same-as-cash that I could've claimed in 2003 when I bought my last car...there were no appealing GM vehicles so I bought a Nissan anyway.
Basically I've been using a credit card (which I pay off every month without fail) for 8 years and have gotten jack shit out of the endeavor. It's time to change that.
I need a credit card with great rewards - either airline miles or cashback/giftcards/student loan payments/etc.
This brings me to my second problem: I have great credit - not a single late payment or default on my credit report, and 10 years of history. But since I pay my credit card off every single month (despite an average of about $1200 a month worth of charges on it for the past 5+ years), I just got declined for the best rewards credit card I could find.
Now I'm not sure whether I should keep one-by-one spamming credit card applications for the best reward cards I can find until one sticks, or if there's some other path I should pursue. I don't want to keep dinging my credit report with requests for cards that are going to deny me (even though those dings go away in less than a year) needlessly.Thank you for applying for the Citi Forward3 Visa(R) account. Unfortunately, we are unable to approve your request for the account at this time because of the following:
o Your credit bureau report shows you have no revolving accounts with a balance.
Also, this thread doesn't need to get into topics of irresponsible credit card use, that's not an issue here.
I'm considering paying my credit card off each month for the total amount minus $1, so I'm at least carrying a month-to-month balance, but I'm not sure if such a transparent gesture will be helpful.
Thoughts? Or what current credit cards do you all have that you love the rewards on? I was using this site: $$$> Credit Card Tune-Up: Calculate the Best Credit Card Reward Deal <$$$ to find that Citi Forward rewards card that declined me. Not really interested in a card with an annual fee, and I'm looking for something for long-term use, although hefty signup rewards bonuses are nice too.