I was just going through some mail we got over the past couple of days and I noticed a credit card offer for my wife for an American Airlines credit card.
Since we travel a lot, it did peak my interest a bit, but we don’t fly American that often so I don’t think the bonuses they are offering are actually worth it.
Credit cards are a sticky situation when it comes to finances. On the one hand, they can be helpful and offer nice rewards for using them. On the other, they can be used incorrectly and actually hurt us financially.
Just curious to know what other Penny Hoarders do when they get these offers in the mail.
Have you ever applied for a credit card after getting an offer in the mail?
MOORE INCOME That is what got me in trouble was getting
approved for this card and that one. Not thinking because I
never had credit cards before. I learned the hard way and now
they go in the trash. I don’t need them. There one I get for a loan
but the interest is 299 % i trash that one. I don’t need to get in more
debt with any more cards or any thing.
@bonnie.squires I agree with you, they can be pretty dangerous. My wife actually did apply and get approved for the American Airlines one we got in the mail.
She has gotten plenty of other offers that have high interest or just don’t make sense but in this case, since we are planning some travel in the near future and this one offered some travel related rewards, it made sense to apply for it.
We will of course be careful however to have the cash in hand to pay off our cards as soon as we put a balance on them!
MOORE INCOME that makes sense because you will be traveling.
i’ve seen ones where they charge you $49 to $99 for the year than
24 percent interest. No thanks i learned my lesson.
@bonnie.squires yes they do really try to get you on the interest! The card we got does have a $99 a year fee but it is waived for the first year so it is $0.
As far as the interest is concerned they offer a 0% intro APR for so many month and since we plan to pay it off in full right away, we won’t have to worry about this anyways.
After we have made our travel purchases for the year, we can just cancel the card next year.
Although it does offer some perks such as a FREE checked bag when flying on the airline. So if we end up doing a lot of travel and fly American, it might be worth the annual fee just for the perks. But we will see when we get closer.
If you use a card enough when they offer an annual fee, I have heard of some people who call up the company and they are sometimes more than willing to waive the annual fee for additional years if you are a good customer.
@sue.sweet, it is true that this could be the case if the card opened has a high credit limit and if you carry balances on other cards.
However, in our case, with several other cards that have high credit and once we carry a zero balance, closing one account won’t have a significant affect on our credit score.
If you find you are feeling too many credit card offers in the mail, you can call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT in the USA or visit www.optoutprescreen.com . I’m more in fear of ID theft and credit card fraud and actually prefer NOT getting offers in the mail.
If I keep getting the same one I would write on it do not send me these anymore across a paper they sent me and mail it back to them since they are paying for the stamp. It does work I stop getting them. There are other things I get in the mail that I write do not send anymore and sent it back to them. It does work however for catalogs you need to call the company and ask them to take you off the mailing list.
SHIRLEY this reminded me of a friend. She said she got
tired of getting junk mail that she rip up what they sent her
and they stop sending her the stuff. lol
