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The Question & Answer (Q&A) Knowledge Managenet
The Internet has many places to ask questions about anything imaginable and find past answers on almost everything.
Are you eligible for the Chase Freedom Flex℠? If you have good credit — a FICO score of 690 or higher — you’re likely eligible. That is, as long as you aren’t afoul of Chase’s “5/24 rule.” Chase limits the number of new personal credit cards you can open in a rolling 24-month window.
What is the 5/24 rule? Many card issuers have criteria for who can qualify for new accounts, but Chase is perhaps the most strict. Chase’s 5/24 rule means that you can’t be approved for most Chase cards if you’ve opened five or more personal credit cards (from any card issuer) within the past 24 months.
Free Costco Membership
Visa Cards
When you shop at Costco, you can use the warehouse club’s co-branded card, the Costco Anywhere Visa® Card by Citi, as well as any other credit card backed by the Visa network.
Put simply, Costco wants you to use a Visa card because it saves them a considerable amount of money in transaction fees. You can still use most branded debit cards at the register, since the “swipe” fees are much lower for merchants. And Mastercard and Discover are accepted on the Costco.com website.
As of November 2020, the following credit cards are accepted at all 100 Canadian Costco locations: MasterCard Credit Cards. Debit Cards (includes Visa debit cards) Costco Shop Cards.
Costco Citi Card approval odds are best for Costco members who have a credit score of 750+ and a steady income – enough to make payments on the card, which has a minimum credit limit of $500. Also, keep in mind that you must be a Costco member to apply for this card, so your approval odds are zero without a membership.
If you’re a regular Costco shopper and don’t mind driving to your local Costco to pick up your annual rewards certificate, then the Costco Anywhere Visa is a great card. But if there’s a chance you’ll cancel your membership within the next few years, it may not be worth the risk of losing all or some of your rewards.
You cannot use a Citi Costco Anywhere card immediately after approval. You will have to wait for your physical credit card to arrive before you can make any purchases. You should receive it within 10 business days of account approval.
Where do I pay my credit card bill?
Credit card reward certificates may be redeemed for merchandise or cash back at any U.S. Costco warehouse, including Puerto Rico. Requests to redeem the certificate for cash may be fulfilled in an alternative form (e.g., a check or electronic transfer), at Costco’s discretion.
“Having a zero balance helps to lower your overall utilization rate; however, if you leave a card with a zero balance for too long, the issuer may close your account, which would negatively affect your score by reducing your average age of accounts.”
Although it goes against general credit advice, in certain circumstances closing a credit card account is necessary. A credit card can be canceled without harming your credit score—paying off your balances first is key. Closing a credit card will not impact your credit history, which factors into your score.
In general, it’s best to keep unused credit cards open so that you benefit from a longer average credit history and a larger amount of available credit. Credit scoring models reward you for having long-standing credit accounts, and for using only a small portion of your credit limit.
Close no more than one credit card every six months, McClary says. “You want to be very careful about how you do it,” he says. “Understand that even if you don’t close them all at once – you just take them one at a time – it’s still going to have a negative impact on your credit score,” he says. Updated on Oct.
If you don’t use a credit card for a year or more, the issuer may decide to close the account. In fact, inactivity is one of the most common reasons for account cancellations. When your account is idle, the card issuer makes no money from transaction fees paid by merchants or from interest if you carry a balance.
Your account is considered open from the date you’re approved for the card. If you don’t activate your card your account will still be open, you just won’t be able to use it.
To activate your new credit card you’ll need the credit card number and your date of birth. You can either activate your card via online banking, phoning the card provider directly or using an ATM machine.
Activating Your Credit Card You won’t be able to use your credit card until you activate it.
In most cases, you won’t be able to use a credit card before it arrives and you will have to wait until you receive it in the mail. The best thing you can do is ask for expedited shipping, as some issuers offer it for free.
Chase is one of the issuers that do not give you the credit card number as soon as you are approved. That’s frustrating when you have big spending coming up, but you don’t have the card yet to make the purchase. You can see the card in your Chase account, but there’s no way to use it!
The good news is that you don’t have to accept the card you’ve been offered — you can cancel a card at any time for any reason.
The length of time that you have to activate your card will depend on the issuer. American Express gives you 45 days to activate, after which they will deactivate the card and you’ll need to request a replacement card. Chase, on the other hand, gives you 60 days before they simply activate the card for you.
If you don’t activate your debit card, you won’t be able to use it. However, you will still have to pay any associated fees and could be more likely to experience fraud.