Credit Cards - - Page 2 of 5 - The Finance Gourmet

What Is Your REAL Credit Score?

April 27, 2021March 18, 2021 by Finance Gourmet

One of the latest trends in online personal finance is the idea of getting a free credit score. This plays so well because we all know how important our credit score is, but it is still relatively difficult for the average person to get and see their credit score. (Note this is different than getting your free credit REPORT, which you are entitled to each year by law.) FICO and Real Credit Scores The big problem with the concept of a real credit score is that there are lots of available credit scores, and none of them are fake scores, per se. After all, anyone can setup some math and calculate a number they call a credit score. The credit bureaus themselves created their own credit score called the Vantage Score. It’s a real score, created by real companies, and sold as a real product. It is also the actual credit score you get from Credit Karma if you use the Credit Karma free credit score service. However, very few lenders, relatively speaking, actually use the VantageScore when making their lending decisions. That doesn’t make it a fake score. It just makes it one that probably won’t get used. When most people say, “real …

Citibank Rewards Catalog

September 16, 2020April 12, 2020 by Finance Gourmet

There are tons of Citibank rewards credit cards. Like most other credit card rewards programs, there are a wide range of items that you can redeem your credit card miles for, ranging from travel items like free airline tickets to discount car rental or free hotel room nights. In addition, you can redeem your Citi rewards points for merchandise, gift cards and even get cash back from your Citibank MasterCard or Citibank Visa rewards card. One popular card is the Citibank Rewards Premier Credit Card. The Citibank Rewards catalog is a great way to look through what you can redeem your miles for. Citibank Rewards Catalog Travel A while back, the Citibank travel rewards were changed from flat-rate awards to awards based upon the actual cost of the airline ticket. The current rate is approximately 100 points for every dollar the plane tickets costs. So a free airline ticket reward for a round-trip fare that costs $300 would require redeeming 30,000 points. Note that in order to redeem Citibank ThankYou rewards for free airline tickets, you must book the plane tickets through the Thank You rewards website which always seems to have fares that are slightly higher than the …

Capital One No Hassle Rewards Catalog

August 24, 2021April 2, 2020 by Finance Gourmet

Capital One No Hassle Rewards Credit Card Catalog information.

VentureOne Card Review from Capital One

May 10, 2021March 9, 2020 by Finance Gourmet

Capital One has different types of Venture rewards credit cards. One of them is the VentureOne Rewards Credit Card, which is similar, but different from the main Capital One Venture card that Alec Baldwin pitches on TV. This VentureOne credit card is yellow instead of the Venture card which is blue. Earn VentureOne Credit Card Miles The VentureOne credit card is a travel rewards credit card, so cardholders earn miles instead of earning points, although in practice, it is the same thing. Owners of this credit card earn 1.25 miles per dollar spent on every purchase. There is also a one-time bonus for new cardholders of 10,000 miles if you spend $1,000 during the first three months you have the card. The amount of miles you can earn each year is unlimited and the miles do not expire. Redeem Miles for Free Travel The best feature of the VentureOne card rewards catalog is that there is no need for a rewards catalog. Unlike getting the Capital One rewards catalog for the Miles Plus program, there is no need for this card’s reward catalog to come in the mail. Instead, the number of miles needed to earn free travel is equal …

Capital One Miles Redemption Chart

December 3, 2020January 13, 2020 by Finance Gourmet

I promised a look at the value of the Capital One No Hassle Miles Travel Rewards after looking at the value of the the Capital One Miles Rewards Catalog for gift cards in a previous post. One of the nice features of the Capital One Miles program is that you can both purchase travel with your miles, or you can get a “statement credit” for travel that you have already taken. The great thing about this feature is that if you don’t have time to sift through the usual rewards catalog website and redeeming rewards process, you can just book your travel like you normally would, pay with your Capital One No Hassle Miles Reward card, and then use your points after the fact to pay for your trip. Do it before your payment is due, and it is just like you went through the usual booking process to use your miles or points costing you no interest payments. Capital One Miles Redeem For Travel Rewards Chart Number of Miles Ticket Value 15,000 Miles Up to $150 Ticket 35,000 Miles $150.01 to $350 60,000 Miles $350.01 to $600 Ticket Price X 100 Above $600 The basic Capital One No Hassle …

United Dining Rewards Earn Airline Miles for Dining Out

November 24, 2020February 2, 2019 by Finance Gourmet

In order to make it worthwhile to get airline miles without being a frequent traveler, it is important to take advantage of every mileage program bonus, special offer, deal, or coupon. For United Airlines Miles, one of the great ways to earn miles free and easy is to join the United Dining Rewards Program, which offers miles for every dollar spent eating out at restaurants. Signing up for Mileage Plus Dining is free and easy for Mileage Plus Rewards Members. Just go to the United Airlines Miles Plus website and login with your Mileage Plus Member Number. Find the link to dining rewards and click the button to sign up. The program works by allowing members to register credit card numbers with the Dining Rewards Program. Then, whenever you dine at one of the participating restaurants, you earn points on United Airlines for free just buy paying for your tab with one of the credit cards you registered. To really make this offer pay off big, use the best rewards credit cards in your wallet. Since United Dining miles are not related to your credit card account issuer or bank, you still earn your regular credit card points and credit …

The Purpose of High Credit Card Limits

May 8, 2018 by Finance Gourmet

I’ve always wondered what the purpose of a $30,000 credit limit was. I get what the purpose is for the credit card company. They want you to spend more money and keep a balance on your card, but what would the purpose be for a responsible credit user, specifically one that pays the balance off every month. Using Your Credit Card for Everything If you don’t have the ability or the discipline to pay your card every month, then DO NOT use them in this way. But, for me, I use a Capital One Rewards Card as my primary means of spending. I get Capital One rewards points at the rate of 2 for every one dollar spent, or basically it works out to 2% cash back when I use the Purchase Eraser to wipe out travel spending from my card. (We travel a fair amount, it lets you look back 90 days, and it turns out some odd things like Uber rides, or Car2Go rentals end up getting coded as travel on your Capital One Statement.) At any time, I have a log of virtually everything I have purchased in a given month, going back 24 months. I print …

Quizzle Scam or Legit?

September 11, 2018March 27, 2018 by Finance Gourmet

I’ve gotten several requests for a Quizzle review. Quizzle is an online financial service that offers, according to the bold face type, a free credit report, free credit score and various financial tools. Whenever someone points me in the direction of a personal finance company like this the first thing I check is if I can sniff out a scam. Often, you can spot the scam coming before you even see the fine print. Obviously, if something isn’t on the up and up, then there is no reason to waste any time on a review. So, is Quizzle legitimate, or is this all a big con job? Quick Quizzle Review The biggest red flag for the various free credit score or free credit report offers floating around out there is to look for the words “free trial.” Typically, the way the free credit score scam works is that a financial company (including all three major credit bureaus) offer you a free report in big, bold type and in smaller type, lower down on the page, inform you that it isn’t actually free at all. Instead, you are being offered an automatically renewing trial membership in a credit monitoring program that …

Is Credit Repair Legit, or Just a Credit Repair Scam?

December 12, 2017December 7, 2017 by Finance Gourmet

Is it just me, or are you getting a lot more offers for real credit repair these days? Legitimate Credit Repair Is there a way for someone to do legit credit repair? After all, there are all of these people out there selling credit repair services, so there has to be some real credit repair that isn’t just a scam, right? The reality is that credit scores, credit reports, and the credit bureaus that run the whole racket is big business. While you may know about credit scores and credit reports as what determines if you get credit or not, on the other side of the equation are big banks and investors who build billion dollar portfolios off of pools of borrowers. The key to both buying and selling these pools is the credit scores of the borrowers. Getting fake credit scores, or borrowers who fixed their credit with a scam, would be a big problem. Check out my Credit Karma review. The reality is that there really isn’t any legitimate way to fix your credit, other than to do better with your credit. Once upon a time, back before the housing bust and the Great Recession, you could fix …

Experian Free Review – Scam, Legit, Worth It?

February 16, 2017 by Finance Gourmet

Did you see commercials for a free credit service from Experian. They do something clever in that they de-emphasize the free credit score idea and instead play up the concept that “credit is a skill” rather than a number. This is actually true advice, even if it isn’t what most people are looking for. This new push is undoubtedly a response to the growing number of free credit score services out there like Credit Karma, Credit Sesame, and WalletHub. Keep in mind there is no Experian free credit score offering, but we’ll get to that in a minute. This is also not the same thing as getting your annual free credit report that is required by federal law. Free Experian Credit Report Not Free Experian Credit Score Is Experian a scam? There are plenty of unsavory things about Experian’s business, but at least they are not some new free credit report, or free credit score business. Experian is one of the three major credit bureaus, and they have been around for a long time. If you have ever had a credit card, mortgage, car loan, or personal loan, chances are, they already have a report on you with all of your information. …