JohnK
Veteran Member
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2005
- Posts
- 43,771
In different ways.Congrats Lawrage, we are all nuts aren't we...... :mrgreen:
In different ways.Congrats Lawrage, we are all nuts aren't we...... :mrgreen:
Awesome work Lawrage - hope you enjoy the rewards now!For me the debate is still out on this one but so far it doesn't seem that Veda scores are as big of a deal as some people make them out to be. I will say that we have no plans to apply for any home or car loans in the near future so am not worried where my score is at the moment but lets just say its pretty damn low
Harder to do with retirees is the problem...
What evidence is required for proof of income?
Mickjoebill
What evidence is required for proof of income?
Mickjoebill
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¹ | My basic rule is if < 1¢ per point then go for it (no-brainer), < 1½¢ per point then think about it (what the heck!), < 2½¢ per point then think about it carefully (can I use them?) and over that then REALLY think about it. (With that last one, perhaps a $50 expenditure for, say 1500 points might get you over the line for an an award you are targeting AND there is no other way imminent, then it can make sense, otherwise no.) |
Awesome work Lawrage - hope you enjoy the rewards now!
Just one comment on the point above. You say you have no plans to apply for a home/car loan in the near future, but you also mentioned that you have an existing home loan. A low credit score could essentially lock you in to that loan - that's fine if it has a market leading rate & fees, and if it stays that way in the future, and if you don't want to or need to refinance for some other reason (e.g. move house due to unexpected change in circumstances). I'm not trying to pry into your own personal circumstances here, I'm just raising this as something for people in general to consider, as getting stuck with an uncompetitive home loan could cost a very serious amount of money over the years. And being unable to move home if you need to could be an even bigger issue. That said, lots of people have low credit scores and never got First Class flights to Europe out of it!
As a matter of interest, are you able to share any details on the effect that this has had on your Veda score? I'm not necessarily asking you to tell us what your score is (or was), but could you give an indication of how much it has fallen by per month (and/or per new card)? I'm just trying to gauge how far down this path I can go without causing too much damage to my score!
On a related note, the AFF summary of this thread states "One recommendation is to set a credit limit when applying for a new card. This limits the impact on your credit rating", but that doesn't seem to quite match up with what you said. You just said the higher credit limit was an issue when applying for more cards as you felt you had to declare those limits to other banks. Anyway, could you clarify if higher limits actually had a bigger impact on your Veda score? My impression was that doesn't make a difference, but I could be wrong.
Well done!
Now you need to learn to work with drip feed points - Signup bonuses can't keep going for ever ...
TIP: Every opportunity you see to add to you reward pool(s) for no (or little¹) additional expenditure then do it.
½K here, 1K there, 2K over there - it all adds up.
¹ My basic rule is if < 1¢ per point then go for it (no-brainer), < 1½¢ per point then think about it (what the heck), < 2½¢ per point then think about it carefully (can I use them) and over that then REALLY think about it. (With that last one, perhaps a $50 expenditure for, say 1500 points might get you over the line for an an award you are targeting AND there is no other way imminent, then it can make sense, otherwise no.)
Our home loan is with one of the big 4 and we have no plans on changing, we have on numerous occasions over the years got our broker to get the rate reduced as interest rates were falling, every time they obliged and reduced it for us without issue.
Something I found interesting was that not all my card applications show up on my Veda file and the ones that do don't always match the credit given to me. Citi for example hit my score with a credit limit of some 5k more than what they actually gave me.
The higher limits thing was more to do with the applications rather than Veda. Say bank A gives me a 40k limit and bank B gives 60k. When I apply to bank C I need to declare that I have 100k in CC debt in the "Do you have other credit cards and what are their limits" questions, they will take this total amount and work out what is costs to service that loan. With enough potential CC debt you will have a harder time getting future applications approved. Id rather put down the minimum say 9k instead of 100k.
Well done. Unfortunately there is a down side.
The missus may not want to go business again, and as for economy ... fergetaboudit! :shock:
Back on the points earning hamster wheel for you
The Veda score is interesting. Both mine and hubbys are just shy of 1000. We get a report every month from them. Getting more cards would not go down well with his "accountants hat" on, but if it keeps working for you - go for it.
I wonder though, did they check your credit score before reducing your rate? Because if I was them, and you had a low credit score, which meant you were going to have a hard time getting a loan anywhere else, then I would not be particularly likely to reduce your rate! Also - off topic but just in case it's of interest - by moving away from the Big 4 a few years ago, we reduced our rate by about 0.6% compared to the rate that our bank was willing to offer after we threatened to move, which in itself was well below their best advertised discounted rate. The new loan was also fee free. That has saved us several thousand $ a year since, although I gather the Big 4 offer different deals depending on the customer, so you might have a much better deal than we were offered.
Yeah I've seen that too. My most recent card is from ANZ - they did an enquiry for a limit of $50k, which I certainly didn't request, and it's also way higher than the limit they granted me. I assume they just have a fixed amount that they enquire on for each product.