Best way to go about applying credit cards for a newbie - June 2017

Some time back, I had posted a strategy for newbie to navigate the credit card applications. It was an optimized strategy based on then prevalent rules.

You can read it here: https://creditcardsteroids.wordpress.com/2015/01/28/best-way-to-go-about-applying-credit-cards-for-a-newbie/

For instance one of the rules took into account rules of leading credit card issues such as Barclays Bank of Delaware. This bank was pretty strict and still is and would approve maximum one or two credit cards per year per user. Arrival+ and many other cards were hard to come by even for those with excellent credit. Soon Chase followed with a 5/24 rule which limits you to only 5 applications or approved credit in the past 24 months. That is pretty harsh for most people. Bank of America has tightened a lot of their processes along with another old bank Citi which is perhaps now one of the strictest when it comes to opening a new account. Further, there is also American Express which has limited its new credit issuance rates to focus more on reliable and profitable customers. All this has resulted in a huge amount of shutdowns and limited opportunities in ongoing credit card bonus accumulation as well as reduced steps to navigate for a newbie or dormant user. If you are newbie with no credit card history then you are of course better off signing up a secured credit card and building up a good history and reputation for about 5 solid years. If you are a dormant user or rather someone that has taken care of mortgages and other loans, and want to "redeem" some of your higher credit score; then there is a set way to go about this. This is a dated article as of June 2017 and is highly specific for this period. As such it is an upgrade to the above earlier mentioned article.

First up, target Chase.

1. Chase bank: Due to the newly introduced 5/24 rule, overall tighter than expected screenings and lack of reconsideration for most cases now combined with the best rewards program in the industry along with Amex, this is a no brainer. First apply chase bank credit cards. For those with say a decent score, not much history, go with Chase Sapphire Preferred card, consider the pros and cons before Chase Sapphire Reserve, British Airways Visa Credit card, Marriott or Hyatt credit  card. Both IHG and Freedom cards - unlimited and regular version - one of those is definitely a long term hold. I consider them as "base" chase credit cards. Most people dont see value in the high fees card and rightfully so. In many cases the value tapers off and many people do not see it is a good idea to hold anything beyond 3-4 years at maximum. There are other hotel cards and airline cards with Chase which could be applied at this point. I would say apply 5 cards here and wrap this up completely. Because they are main users of 5/24 rule and though Citi might have something similar, it is pointless to consider them when there is such a varied option in Chase. The southwest airlines card is not that great currently with low sign up bonuses. But United is really good with many offers of 60k being targeted. Further, for business users, the sign up bonuses on Southwest and Ink cards are all time high so by all means go and apply for those.
2. Barclays - this is a notorious credit card issuer so like in the original link target arrival+ and then slowly work your way towards other cards.
3. US Bank- they have a good card with no annual fee waived which is the Altitude but chances of this card being approved is rather low.
4. Citi- Though not as exciting as last year, they still have some pretty good cards and nice rewards program. The AAdvantage card continues to be the best airline one. Costco users will by default have their cards issued from here no matter what.
5. Wells Fargo: Their propel is one of the best cards and has nice features in it. Apply this card next.
6. Bank of America/Amex and the rest: All goes here
7. Credit union banks: Alliant is pretty with their new card offering 3%. Details can be found here.

That rounds up the way for a newbie to go about applying for a credit card in June 2017.

Best Credit Cards for June 2017

Middle of 2017 is seeing some exciting news on the credit card front.

The personal credit card offers had US Bank Altitude Card. This is similar to Chase Sapphire Reserve Card or Amex Platinum card. Amex Platinum competes to lead the industry with newer features such as Uber tie-up which is a $200 value. Continuing tweaking is ongoing in many existing cards including sign on bonuses as well as rewards categories.

The business credit card offers saw Amex again leading with Simplycash as well as Platinum cards. Chase comes close second with improved sign on bonuses for the Ink brand cards.

Apart from this there is a whole host of cards which are regional such as credit union banks or online banks which also has good offers. Alliant CU rolled out a new 3% card which is the best in the industry right now. It is good for most people even with its settled 2% after an year. City National Bank which is mostly in CA has waived off annual fee for its Visa Signature cards which has a $250 fee refunded for airline costs annually. That is an instant $500 for an airline gift card. That is another industry leading feature and beats Chase Sapphire cards handily. There are some good hotel cards offers too in the form of American Express Hilton Surpass card with its free night after 1 year anniversary as well as the best 100,000 points ever.

May 2017 stock update

The stock market continues to go up and act super wild ever since it started becoming markedly irrational since election night 2016. The main bellweather stocks that this blog follows such as Fedex or AXP or WMT and many others are very high. Tech stocks are particularly what led the rally with Amazon and Google and Apple at extreme highs. Same with Netflix and slew of other techs that are not doing enterprise services. Apple being a huge weight has not only moved up but its movement in the upward direction has lifted many an indexes way up. Banks are also on highs with some investment banks getting a quite rebound in this run up. Remaining sectors are stabilising the gains that they had got in the recent rally. Whether they are able to hold onto them is something that time will be only able to tell. One thing is clear when there is a fall and when the dust settles this is going to leave a lot on boom and dust induced coma. The excess right now is a clear parallel to 2007. It is hard to predict even beyond basic common sense on the direction and extent these days. I bet the quants and analysts in banks are just as much scratching their heads like any regular person is. Of course this being present you can make a choice to trade in it or just stay away from it. I think index funds with lesser weights or optimized weights and decent relative volume vs net market volume is the better tool as opposed to the individual stocks. I dont think we can rule out a spectacular fail something big sometime in near future. And this is not going to be one of those sucker banks stuff. Rather I am talking something big and established. If it were up to me that would be Tesla beating up the big three car manufacturers from detroit. Already they have been surprassed in both market cap and innovation. Revenue is just a function of this. We all saw what a Model S generated in terms of revenues and interest. Same with other industry which is why Tech attracts the most of Venture capital and startup funds.

That said, all sectors has scope in automation or partial automation or complete takeover by AI. Medical and insurance sector is already highly computerized and even further scope is not that hard.