Fold Debit Card - 1% back on mortgage and credit card payments

[scripta]

@tomprc

the hunting period would only be 2-3 months normally

Not if you’re an active real estate investor.

@tomprc

The general advice to always pay off CC before statement date is misguided.

I agree, that should not be the “general” advice. My advice has always been to pre-pay only if and when you want the highest possible score and cleanest possible report. I never suggested that doing this all the time is the right thing for everyone. But it can make sense to do it all the time if your insurance rates depend on it.

@tomprc

A 1% increase of monthly payment may not have an impact if you are well qualified any way.

It’s not about an increase in monthly payment or even the credit score, it is about the debts and the minimum required payments that show up on the credit report – those payments will be subtracted from your maximum DTI (45% or whatever it is), so if you owe too much, you can still get the best terms, but the max loan amount may be limited – it’ll be lower than you could get if you pay off all CC balances.

@glitch99

The only bad advice here is that it is “argyl’s rule” or “scripta’s rule”. It’s a technique that dates back 15+ years to SuckIsStaples and the AOR heyday on FWF.

Amen. I really only have a small problem with it being called “Argyl’s rule” when he wrote the same thing I wrote a few posts above his (that where the name started on this forum). It definitely doesn’t belong to either of us .

@tomprc

The opposite. If you don’t use your credit limit by keeping your balance at $0, you are more likely to have your credit limit taking away.

This is not true, because we ARE using our credit limit, then paying it off all during the cycle. This will not cause your limit to be taken away.

@tomprc

That’s more than 2X of your $1.99 small balance credit.

It’s $2.00 now and has been for a while, but you are not wrong – when I’m not hunting for a mortgage I compare the potential interest with the small balance credit before pre-paying

[sullim4]

@scripta

This is not true, because we ARE using our credit limit, then paying it off all during the cycle. This will not cause your limit to be taken away.

This. In fact, Chase seems to love that I pre-pay. So much so that they’ve raised my limit twice in the last six months on one of their cards when they saw I was hitting it hard mid-cycle and paying the balance down before close.

I don’t see this rule as being hard or fast quite frankly - I prefer to do it because of the insurance score impact and that my marginal federal tax rate is high with the net investment income tax. For the small amount of interest we are talking about, I’d rather have the peace of mind that the payment makes it, and have time to fix it if needed. The fold bitcoin is a nice bonus.

[tomprc]

So now you have reduced the applicable people to prepay CC, to “active real estate investor”? LoL. I rest my case.

[sullim4]

Can we stay on topic? We’ve already established there are valid reasons for both approaches.

I should be getting my first payout from Fold soon. Right now the equivalent USD payout is $126… not too shabby. Of course that’s mostly 1% payout and not the .5% payout effective 9/12.

[glitch99]

@sullim4

So much so that they’ve raised my limit twice in the last six months on one of their cards when they saw I was hitting it hard mid-cycle and paying the balance down before close.

It’s likely a metric that considers the large payments, and doesnt really matter when those payments post. Except maybe they see the large payments, then combine that with how your credit report also shows little-to-no outstanding balances.

@scripta

when I’m not hunting for a mortgage I compare the potential interest with the small balance credit before pre-paying

It also doesnt matter when you are churning the credit line and need to recapture the available credit well before you maximize the float anyways. Posting the payment before the statement just keeps everything looking clean.

@tomprc

Say I spent $1500 this month on my discover card

You’re thinking in terms of rolling a $1500 balance; my evaluation involves rolling $15,000 balances on multiple cards. Again, different use case, different factors, different effects, different conclusions.