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A comment on Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You. Parent comment

Re:Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You by skinnymuch on Saturday September 09, 2017 @10:20AM (#15207197)
Yep. I put my brother in a bad spot. It doesn't really hurt him much right now but I messed up some business work using CCs under his name. With his permission of course. I can't pay them off right now, but I've managed to get my credit score close to 800. So I'm going to be getting a couple of credit cards and balance transfer my debts over to myself.

All the decent or better CCs I've seen, offer pretty nice opening offers. I'll definitely be taking advantage of the "spend $3K in 2 months and get $500" sort of deals and pay off those balances. It'll essentially be free money. Like churning you said, Reddits churning subreddit provides a lot of info. Not sure if there are other good communities, but that seems good.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You by tertius on Saturday September 09, 2017 @10:52AM (#15207343)
Spend $3k and get $500 in rewards... Why not just spend $2k instead?

Maybe spend the time increasing your income.

(I have done this... Rarely would the hassle.)

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You by kinkrtyavimoodh on Saturday September 09, 2017 @11:00AM (#15207382)
Because you are probably spending 3K in 3 months anyway. If you absolutely aren't (or you can't hit the minimum spend in other ways [pay for your friends etc.]), sure, don't get the card.
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Re:Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You by tertius on Saturday September 09, 2017 @11:04AM (#15207405)
More work: - cancel the card because yearly fee. - pay tax on churned $. - shorten cumulative account age (lowers credit score).

I've done this... Not worth it. Focus on more important things.

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Re:Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You by kinkrtyavimoodh on Saturday September 09, 2017 @11:08AM (#15207428)
One card with a yearly fee is probably worth it for the other benefits. Other than that, the traditional way is to downgrade it to a free card. Either way, it's fine if you think it doesn't make sense for you, but it's pretty much no-hidden-costs net positive, and that's why so many people actively churn.
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Re:Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You by tertius on Saturday September 09, 2017 @11:11AM (#15207441)
I understand why. Semi-free money.

Invest in increasing your income instead. That's my recommendation. Long term thinking.

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Re:Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You by skinnymuch on Sunday September 10, 2017 @08:05AM (#15211852)
Can't you do both?
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Re:Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You by tertius on Monday September 11, 2017 @08:12AM (#15217883)
The older you get the more you realize how important it is to focus. Specifically long term.
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Re:Identity Theft, Credit Reports, and You by skinnymuch on Saturday September 09, 2017 @02:17PM (#15208368)
I'm spending the money anyway. Don't see the issue in this case.
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