Related to Colonative's Sapphire Chase Credit Card... take a bow. That is Chase's new "Black Card". It is the "cat's pajamas". Gotta lov it!! It is available only to the best of the best so they say! :

All - as we get hung up on annual fees and APR's... we need to look at our own usage patterns. For myself, I pay in full every month so NO annual fee is my key. Then I don't have any costs. If a person wants low APR's because they carry balances then the APR may be the key. Actually low APRs and No annual fees is more in my head but I like to think I am getting the best deal.

After getting my household card, i enrolled in theire credit keeper to get my credit reports from all three, since i have been getting only one from my other credit cards service. i thought my scores were only around 520- to maybe 540. it said though that ex is 602 eq is 550 and tu is 577. i know those are not true ficos, but i still expected them to be much lower. how are those scores from credit monitoring and true ficos calculated differently? the biggest things that are hurting me at this point are inquaries and utilization, and also all the old collections and 2 charge-offs. inquaries will stop and utilization i am working on. my new account has not showed up yet either.

i just got my household bank card today. annual fee is zero, interest is 8.9% and limit is $500 i am feeling pretty good. first card i have got with ne fees!!

Congratulations.........The household card like to see plenty of usage and cli's will come just like they did for me.

i just got my household bank card today. annual fee is zero, interest is 8.9% and limit is $500 i am feeling pretty good. first card i have got with ne fees!!

So I received some more change in terms yesterday, anybody else?

1. (not really a change in terms but a change) Chase sent me a letter stating that my Platinum card is now called Slate with Blueprint. Not exactly sure what it is but this has First USA written all over it. They were the ones back in the '90's trying to one-up the Platinum card by making a Titanium card. Looks kind of cool and there are no changes to my account number, credit line or my APR.

2. Kohl's. I really am starting to not like Kohl's. Earlier this year they took away the interest free option in AR and CO. Then they state that CT, DC, DE, MD, NJ, PA, NY, TN, VA and WI no longer have the interest free option as part of the cardholder agreement. Almost like it isn't gauranteed to those states but is still available for now. Now they are adding that the APR will be Prime + 18.65% that right now is still 21.9% but once the Prime rate starts going up the APR on this card can be very high. Side note: I rarely use my Kohl's anymore, I used it last month for the first time since 10/08 and I remember minimum payments being $10 or $15 but now on a $92 balance my minimum payment is only $5. Crazy.

On the plus side, I got a $10 off any $75 purchase or greater coupon as well as a 30% off coupon. So once again just like Macy's, this card is worth carrying for the discounts.

I noticed today on my Citi Identity Monitor a change was posted on my Tribute Account, it states Account Closed By Customer, also rated as a credit account, thats obvious, shows my balance at $313.00, also took my credit score from a 644 to a 628, I am going to transfer this balance over to my Capital One Card and call it a day!

Make sure you take advantage of the low apr when you do so!

All - You need to understand HSBC game rules. Even though you may have billing cut off dates spread out over the calendar month, HSBC pulls ALL reporting based on the end of the month. : What this means is all of us get reported to the bureau based on what is on our HSBC accounts at the end of the month. The be aware is that we pay off our account thinking the credit bureaus will see the zero balance on our statement and WALLA some large charge shows up because we had a balance on our account at the end of the month. I have been experimenting with many of my creditors and everyone else posts to the credit bureau based on the balance outstanding on the statement!!! NOT HSBC... the game :white-flag:Works if you know the rules. You can ask HSBC to establish your billing date at or near the end of the month and it may eliminate much of what I said and can reduce the reporting time by almost two months depending on your statement cutoff date. The Game The Game The Game!!! I have made self credit monitoring and evaluation a game because the whole thing is up for discussion And it seems every creditor is different. HSBC is a case!!!

Patrick12, if you have the money to pay it off, do so. Robbing Paul to pay Peter won't do any good.

Yes, HSBC is slow at reporting when compared to other lenders but you will get used it. When you get used it, it's not all that bad.

I have heard it said that hsbc is slow at reporting accounts... is this still true? my new account with them is still not showing on any of my reports

I noticed today on my Citi Identity Monitor a change was posted on my Tribute Account, it states Account Closed By Customer, also rated as a credit account, thats obvious, shows my balance at $313.00, also took my credit score from a 644 to a 628, I am going to transfer this balance over to my Capital One Card and call it a day!

Posters - the FICO Scores like department store type reports in the mix and as I understand it, there may be a deduct for finance company loan postings. In today's world I do not know what might qualify as a loan company loan... A point to be aware of...

It's always a good idea to have a mix of credit including credit cards and installment loans. Not only does it look good on your reports but you actually gains points on your FICO scores.

thanks Colonative. i figured i wouldnt lose very much. i am planning to just let the accounts i have now age some more, i have good ones to build on. i have too many inquaries right now anyway. i actually lost about 5 points across the board when cardinal bank started reporting the installment loan. not sure why, but i know it will rebound with time and payments. it will be paid off in 12 months.