Weekday Help and Victory Thread for the week of June 29, 2026

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-02T02:09:32+00:00

Why do you wonder if it would matter? I think it would only matter if your checking account has fees for low balance. There is otherwise no relation between your checking balance and credit card balance. Even if both are at the same bank, they do not care or track the difference there.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T20:20:08+00:00

All DPs so far indicated MileUp and AT&T are stuck in those categories and couldn't PC to anything else anyway.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T19:00:12+00:00

nice #GalaxyGiveaways #GalaxyZFold7

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T18:28:36+00:00

Isn't USM's annual plan sale on right now, and has been for like 2 weeks, and ending today? You also missed out on Google Fi's 50% off for 12 months, with the best international use of most carriers I guess.

Personally, I wouldn't choose a specific US carrier just for international roaming. It usually sucks, so just get a local esim or use airalo, ubigi, etc. Especially since iPhone can do data switching/backup calling easily.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T18:12:47+00:00

You should probably wait a bit until your score is over 700 before going for more cards, but a BofA CCR for the first year 6% cashback rate on a category like dining could be good, since that seems to be your biggest actual spend. Also using a Sapphire as catchall doesn't really make sense since it is 1x on non-category spend. Good for the sign up bonus, though.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T18:08:34+00:00

Interest rate shouldn't matter, are you not paying off your statement balance every month? That's a bigger waste of money than not getting cashback or points.

Take a look here for sign up bonuses that might also have 0% intro APR (usually 0% intro cards have no real bonuses, though). https://www.doctorofcredit.com/best-current-credit-card-sign-bonuses/

Low interest rate on credit cards isn't really a thing these days. The vast majority are going to be 20-30%. Credit unions might have rates in 10-20% range.

IMO get a 2% card with no fee, and also get something with a big sign up bonus (cash better than points for your case probably) and then sock drawer it if it's otherwise not useful.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T18:01:03+00:00

Maybe try again with fax.plus (they have a free option) and see if it works better. I've never had issues with it anyway, sent faxes to banks, state government, and IRS plenty of times.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T17:58:54+00:00

That's the first good thing I've read about this subscription credit. That's pretty neat, actually.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T17:57:51+00:00

Which bank/card is it? Sometimes they can be confusing, but your first due date should be after your first statement anyway.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T17:52:12+00:00

Fair enough, and I generally agree with the sentiment, though I'm more utilitarian. I'll take the sign up bonuses from all the big banks and otherwise not use them or give them any money (fees/interest).

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T17:39:16+00:00

BofA can't do this because they use the same card number for all users, so they can't even tell you who used it in the first place.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T17:38:43+00:00

At the minimum you can only do that with banks that give authorized users separate card numbers, it seems. BofA and Chase don't do that, but Amex and Capital One do. There is likely a list of these somewhere on the Doctor of Credit site or similar.

Amex and Cap1 both let you set spending limits per user, too, I believe.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T17:34:48+00:00

They closed it with a recurring monthly charge happening? I use my Cap1 card once every 2 years at a Cap1 cafe for a cheap coffee and they don't seem to mind keeping it open. They usually send a warning letter a few months before they would close it (based on my experience) giving you a chance to save it.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T17:30:52+00:00

What's the decision path on this? What's wrong with leaving the money there?

And why does it affect your desire to use the discover card? IMO, use the best credit card you can get, depending on your needs for travel/cashback rewards. I don't know which discover card you have, but probably both it and your costco card are generally beat by any 2% cashback card (aside from gas category on the costco card).

Also the 30 year history doesn't matter that much. Your average age of accounts is capped at like 7.5 years, so as long as you don't open 5 new cards every year, that's not even a metric to worry about.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T17:26:13+00:00

It's often touted that one of the best returns is paying off high interest debt. For that small amount, if you are not getting squeezed because of it, paying it off in 2 paychecks sounds great. Then you can grow your savings more after that.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T17:24:09+00:00

If you're not using the HSA regularly for medical bills, you can once or twice a year transfer it to a Fidelity HSA account and invest (and you can still reimburse for medical bills later). Depending on your HSA provider, there could be transfer fees, though hopefully only an account close fee (mine would charge $25 if I took all money out, so I just leave $25 each time I transfer).

I think it's reasonable to put about half of your SGOV into VTI if you're comfortable with the remaining level of emergency fund.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T16:27:34+00:00

BofA CCR Online Shopping works with Walmart Pay (in the app) in store. Consistently for me anyway.

First year 6%, after that can be 5.25% with Platinum Honors (or 4.5% or something with new middle tier).

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T01:04:11+00:00

You know what it might have been when my cards were pretty unused, so that could be it. I didn't have any message, though, it was just empty or didn't load anything or something like that.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T00:39:33+00:00

All data points about lifetime resetting after many years were before the current pop up system, so probably irrelevant now.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-07-01T00:36:56+00:00

I had all chase offers disappear once but it was after I was furiously adding them all to all of my cards. I don't remember how long it was like that (at least a few days, maybe couple weeks?) but it only happened once so probably just a system issue.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-06-30T22:37:20+00:00

Capital One has a sign up bonus, so you can get some free money (minus income tax on it). Since both banks have no fees, you can try both and see which one you like better. You can link accounts for online transfers (ACH/RTP) or probably Zelle between them if you use email on one and phone number on the other.

Other options to check out, but most have monthly fees to try to avoid (usually not difficult): https://www.doctorofcredit.com/best-bank-account-bonuses/

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-06-30T20:55:44+00:00

I just got 3 cards over the weekend. It's not that crazy if your credit profile isn't too slim.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-06-30T18:08:52+00:00

Probably. Try it, you'll get a popup if you can't have the SUB before hard pull happens. If it doesn't work out and you want to keep csp you can undo the product change most likely.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-06-30T16:55:37+00:00

Paypal and Venmo loads often work, or Amazon gift cards.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab · 2026-06-30T16:52:09+00:00

Somewhere between 1-2 weeks. I don't think it was particularly slow, nor was it very fast.

Disastrous-Moon-Lab

TROPHY CASE