If I were asked to educate the general population on financial wellness, I’d tell them to max out their 401ks and Roth IRAs. Especially Roth IRAs, due to no penalty for withdrawal after 5 years.
I don’t max out my 401k or Roth IRA. I contribute a measly 2% of my income (previously 1%) and get 1% matched by my employer. I’d try to justify why, but everyone with some mathematical capability would tell me I’m stupid. In short, it’s just anxiety that my world is going to fall apart, and I’m more interested in the emotional feeling of financial security than the actual presence of wealth. I don’t even really care about money by itself very much, but I do care about being in a position where I can’t take care of myself.
Anyways, I currently have the following credit card inquiries:
- TransUnion: 2 (03/20/2024 and 05/20/2024). Don’t know how a hard inquiry from May showed up from Amex, because I didn’t apply to any cards, and Amex claims they didn’t pull my credit, but oh well, I can’t dispute it without a whole mess.
- Equifax: 1 (04/20/2024) from Citibank
- Experian: 4 (11/18/2023, 11/19/2023, 03/26/2024, 04/20/2024). The first two are car loans, the third is an actual justified credit inquiry from Amex, and the last is Citi for a double pull.
I feel pretty unlucky with two double pulls, both unjustified — neither lender is known to pull from more than one bureau — but okay, I think my best luck would be applying around five months from now.
Currently my credit profile includes:
- US Bank credit card, opened Nov 2019, $3000 credit limit
- Car loan, opened Nov 2023, closed and paid in full in April 2024
- US Bank credit card #2, opened March 2024, $21,000 credit limit
- American Express credit card, opened April 2024, $15,000 credit limit
So I have three open revolving accounts. The first account is 4 years and 6 months old. The second is 2 months old. The third is 1 month old.
At the time of application, I want my account ages to be:
- 4 years 11 months
- 7 months
- 6 months
with 0 inquiries in the last 6 months for all three bureaus.
I plan to apply to the following cards all at once:
- Bank of America Customised Cash Visa – pulls Experian or TransUnion. Opting to freeze TransUnion.
- Bank of America Unlimited Cash Visa – uses the same inquiry from the Customised Cash.
- Citi Custom Cash Visa – pulls Equifax.
- US Bank Pick ‘n Save Mastercard – pulls TransUnion.
In this case, neither lender will know about the other lenders, which boosts my chances of approval. I have bank accounts with both US Bank (33k stored in investments with them), and Bank of America (currently 19k stored in Merrill Edge, will hopefully have 50k-100k stored by October). Both US Bank and Bank of America are relationship lenders, so they should both be much more lenient with me than other lenders, especially with relatively large sums of money stored with both.
In the end, if all goes as planned, I’ll have the following cash back percentages:
- 4% dining via US Bank Altitude Go
- 5% Internet via US Bank Cash Plus
- 5% gym membership via US Bank Cash Plus
- 5.25% travel/online shopping via BoA Customised Cash
- 5% groceries via Citi Custom Cash
- 3% gas via Amex Blue Cash Everyday
- 5% catch-all mobile wallet via Pick ‘n Save Mastercard
- 2.625% catch-all via BoA Unlimited Cash
My resulting profile 1 month after application is going to look like this:
- Credit card #1, 5 years
- Auto loan, 1 year
- Credit card #2, 8 months
- Credit card #3, 7 months
- Credit card #4, 0 months
- Credit card #5, 0 months
- Credit card #6, 0 months
- Credit card #7, 0 months
which will drop my average age of accounts from 22.5 months to 11.25 months. It is going to be very crappy on my credit score in the short term, but it will bounce back up quickly I think, within a year.
I still am considering more cards after this. There’s a chance I’ll apply to five at once and get the Chase Freedom Flex additionally, or if Citi rejects me again I’ll definitely try Chase, since there is a sign on bonus for 5% groceries the first year with $150 flat for $500 spend. Chase has a 5/24 rule where you can’t open more than 5 credit cards in 24 months, so now is my only time until 1.5 years later, prior to the cards being reported.
I also want the Discover It Cash Back card. Both Chase and Discover have rotating categories, but I find the Discover categories more useful, considering a 5% mobile wallet category each year. Discover likely won’t approve me for 6+ months after so many opened cards at once, so I guess I’ll have to continue trying preapproval until I have better luck.
Some other cards I’m considering include:
- Citi Rewards Plus, which boosts currently rewards by 10%, making the Citi Custom Cash a 5.556% card instead of 5%. It is also great for small purchases, since it rounds to the next 10 points. For example, if you spend $1 on a coffee, this card will give you 10 points rather than 1, giving back 10%. Not worth it for purchases over $4 with the Unlimited Cash.
- USAA Cashback Rewards Plus American Express. This card gives 5% in gas purchases, and military base purchases. I mostly like the card because it’s aesthetic though, considering that I spend less than $40 a month at gas stations. A USAA membership requires you to be military or spouse of military and I’m hoping to manipulate someone into giving me the latter status. I don’t think my credit card obsession is quite insane enough to actually serve in the military for 6 years.
- US Bank Altitude Connect, which I’d convert into a Cash Plus to fulfill other categories such as utilities and furniture or sporting goods.
- Marriot Bonvoy Boundless. This is a $95 annual fee card, but it offers a free night at a Marriot hotel each year, I think up to a $300-$400 night. If I travel even once every year, it might be justified.
- Fidelity Visa. I like the convenience of the cash back automatically being redeemed into my Fidelity account as opposed to manually managing it. If I get tired of managing multiple credit cards, this would be the best bet by far.
- Multiple additional Kroger branded credit cards.
I don’t know. I think I’m finally starting to get kind of sick of credit cards. Not too sick but sick enough to think I’ll stop in October. I’m more interested in investments right now. I’m still fairly uneducated regarding investing so it’s very intriguing to me in the moment, but maybe I’ll soon get to a point in which I’ll find an actual sustainable and fulfilling hobby.
Credit Paradise 