Any chase credit card gurus that can help?

amother

OP ↓

Sat, Sep 14 2024, 9:52 pm

I’m not credit card savvy at all. I opened credit cards for the bonus points and now have three chase credit cards open that I basically don’t use. I use one just for tuition or random large purchases that I dont have the money for right away that I usually pay off within two months. I am not interested in using the credit cards but I do want to have one open for the car rental protection and large purchase protection but I am paying yearly the $95 so I would like to know which cards are worth it to keep and continue paying the $95 yearly and which cards to downgrade. I also still have the points on all the cards.
Chase business ink preferred
Chase sapphire preferred
Chase ink unlimited
My husband also has these three cards that he doesn’t use but we pay the yearly fee on.

amother

Brickred ↓

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 9:53 am

I don’t know about these, you can do an online research project to figure out which are worthwhile to keep. When I was in a similar situation, I put the info about each card on a spreadsheet with columns for the annual fee, benefits, and impact on points if the card is downgraded. It then became clear which one to keep (in my case, none of the cards with annual fees because I don’t travel these days so I don’t want any of those benefits, and the benefits I do want are available on no annual fee cards).

It’s better for your credit score to downgrade credit cards than to close them. Just call Chase and ask to downgrade whichever cards you want to get rid of to cards with no annual fees.

amother

↑ OP ↓

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 10:11 am

amother Brickred wrote:

That’s literally what I’m asking. Which cards to downgrade and which to keep. I know I can transfer all the points to one card but which?

amother

Natural

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 10:41 am

Why are you paying a fee for any credit card?

I would never consider a card that carried a fee.

Get rid of every card that carries a fee.

I don't care about my credit score particularly because it is irrelevant to my life. I don't care because I don't need credit and my score is high enough so that anything short of a bankruptcy would have o impact on it.

However to the extent you care about credit scores because they are a factor for some reason having a large amount of credit available - even if not used - can lower your credit score because theoretically you could use it.

amother

↑ Brickred ↓

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 10:46 am

amother Natural wrote:

However to the extent you care about credit scores because they are a factor for some reason having a large amount of credit available - even if not used - can lower your credit score because theoretically you could use it.

I really don’t think this is true. Your credit score is impacted by your utilization percentage of your total available credit. So if you’re spending 6k a month and have only a 10k credit limit, that’s over 50% utilization each month. Bad for your credit score. Vs if you have a bunch of cards you’re not using, the 6k becomes a low percentage of your total available credit.

amother

↑ Brickred

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 10:48 am

amother Gray wrote:

You can look at the benefits of each one online and see which benefits speak to you most. This is a personal decision. You may even be able to downgrade all 3.

Yeah this is what I was saying above. It’s a personal analysis so you can’t ask us to do the work for you. Research the cards on your own and figure out which, if any, you want to keep.

Genius ↓

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 10:56 am

amother Natural wrote:

I have some cards that have a fee because I get more money from their perks than I lose. For example Amex blue preferred gives 6% cash back in supermarkets. So I pay 95$ annually and earn a few hundred. As with everything financial, you need to do the math before making absolute statements.

Also as someone mentioned above, having more credit available that you don’t use INCREASES your score. It’s a good thing, not a bad one.

Why are you commenting if you don’t care about it?

groisamomma

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 11:00 am

amother Natural wrote:

OP, this is false. Large amount of available credit increases your score.

But there’s no reason to pay annual fees for all three so I hear your question. Dans Deals can for sure help-they’re familiar with these credit cards. Have you tried posting there?

amother

↑ OP ↓

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 11:27 am

I don’t think it’s a personal decision. There has to be a card that’s known to be an excellent card to keep for its benefits such as car rental protection or purchase price protection or the points conversion is higher with that card etc… I’m not into credit cards enough to know which is the best which is why I’m asking. But I do agree that paying the fee yearly on all cards is dumb

amother

↑ OP ↓

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 12:02 pm

groisamomma wrote:

I’ll do that. Thanks

emhabanim

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 12:12 pm

Make sure to transfer the credit limit of any cards you close to the card you keep. Chase allows this and it keeps your credit line high and credit utilization at the same level as when you had three cards.

amother

Snowflake

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 12:28 pm

You can maybe downgrade these cards to free. I don’t pay for my ink cards. The only card we pay for we have one between me and my husband is the chase sapphire reserve. You can book travel at 1.5 cent per point or redeem for certain categories statement credit 1.25.
We transfer all our point from all cards there.

amother

Steel

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 12:49 pm

amother Natural wrote:

Most people need credit in life whether a mortgage, car loan, heloc, credit card etc.

Maybe you don't but that's not typical.

Notsobusy

Sun, Sep 15 2024, 1:01 pm

amother OP wrote:

I think this is why it is so personal. I haven't rented a car in years, so car rental protection isn't very important to me. It is important to someone who rents cars frequently. Travel perks are important to people who travel frequently. You need to look at the benefits these cards provide to see which ones are most important to you.