Recommended prime credit cards - For excellent credit score

With your FICO scores, you can get anything you want, but you already know that.

You probably have 3 of the best large ones. Over time, Citi will give you very large credit limits, and periodically good terms on balance transfers. You might even get another Citi card as a store affiliated card, such as Sears MC.

You now need some diversification with accounts other than these, and with 1 or 2 more, you can park BTs on a card at good rates and little effect on your debt to available credit, and use different cards for purchases so they do not interfere with your BT terms.

You might screen your offers based on whether they are offering "fixed" terms at reasonable rates, although with the rise in the Fed Fund rate, a lot of recent offers are now variable tied to an index. In my experience, fixed terms were more common several years ago when we were still in a recession and some banks were looking for reliable customers.

You might look at what banks appear to be trying to grow their CC business, perhaps having made recent purchases and being in the process of readjusting their new customer base, since they are more likely to be competitive. For example, BofA recently bought both MNBA and Fleet, and also appears to be actively marketting cards associated with Amex. They are probably trying to compete for market share against Citi.

WAMU recently bought the old Providian CC operations (prior to that they offered cards thru Associates, later bought by Citi. Associates had some "problems" that Citi got stuck paying for.), and they are probably trying to market their CC products to their other customers as they try to increase the breadth of their consumer banking. (I would never have done business with the original Providian, due to their various regulatory violation problems, but maybe they are different under WAMU. We shall see.)

You might look at Cap One. Some don't like them because they got one of their subprime cards when they were pushing into that market a few years back, or because they don't report credit limits allegedly for competitive reasons, but if you act accordingly, with an initial balance transfer to establish a high balance near the limit, it just doesn't matter. It's all a game, so you play it too.

On reviewing any terms, keep in mind transfer fees. If they are offering 4%, but with 3% fees, you just paid 7% the first year, not nearly as good. Bof A, and Citi, seem to alternate between 3% fee up to $60-$90, and other offers with no fee. Chase always seems to be claiming low rates, but with 3% fee.

Do you already have a card thru where you bank? What offers are you currently getting, and from who?

 

You might then look at it as opening an additional business relationship, and not just a credit card account.

If you already have a CC thru the bank where you have your checking, do you have a credit union relationship? It might have some advantages for some types of loans, particularly auto loans, so you might want to add that, plus an associated CC.

 

When you are looking at credit, you are looking at two things:
1) How cheap does money cost.
2) Availability of choices, both to ensure that you can take advantage of opportunities where using credit makes sense, and to ensure that you have access to competitive offers to result in (1).

I am not aware of a "Too much credit factor" per-se, and I have always viewed those suggestions that somehow you will improve your scores by closing accounts as a bunch of bunk. Too much NEW credit can be a problem due to its effect on your scores thru your average account age. That is why you expand your access to credit over time, and as your lengthening credit history weighs in your scores to show you can handle it.

The reason I was suggesting that you look at relationships and not just CC accounts is that if you view the problem as one of access to choices, to ensure you get the best terms, not all of those choices are CC accounts, and even store related MC or VISA accounts might only make available as additional choices beyond the CC account itself offers related to that store. If you don't particularly value Nordstroms otherwise, then it is just another VISA or MC.

The old saying is that bankers want to lend money to those who don't need it. Similarly, you put in place access to credit, on competitive terms, when you don't need it, for use when you do.

Your use of credit is not just for short term borrowing on credit cards, but may also include in the future mortgage loans, either for a personal residence, or for rental property, possibly car loans, possibly business loans, etc. You may not know now what credit product you will need in the future, but if you are already doing business with several lenders that together offer products over a range, you are better positioned to take advantage of those relationships, and the most competitive of those terms, if an opportunity arises. In addition, you can't be put in a bind where you have to take subprime terms because you have no alternatives.

You can develop some of those relationships in concert with your expanding of your access to CC credit, and long term that is as valuable as increasing your total available CC available credit or improving your currently available borrowing terms. Since you are looking at "relationships", and "risk", and not just terms, it is as important what terms are offered as whether a "lending partner" honors its commitments, has good customer service, etc. You want to know these things before you are depending on them, before switching to someone else has costs.

 

I have no direct experiences with National City Elite, Nordstrom Visa, or Discover. I would, however, try to research any lender I was looking at to see if they are having certain patterns of complaints.

It has been my experience that CCs associated with a store, even if they are VISA or MC, tend to have a higher rate than CCs that are not, even when they are thru the same lending bank. They seem to be viewed as a more captive customer base, perhaps, or maybe the store gets a cut, and the lender uses higher rates to cover that.

In addition, how your CC company handles disputes, billing errors, and unauthorized charges matters more and more, since there are more crooks out there trying to pull scams.

If you have a long history of good credit, the question is no longer what accounts with what lenders you are eligible for, but what lenders on what terms are eligible for YOUR business.

 

You may consider BMW Financial. The have a very nice product and allot periodic CLI's.

Regarding National City, I've heard that their initial credit lines are rather meager. Nortstrom is a good product, however, it will cost you an inquiry per each CRA.

USAA is another option in terms of credit unions although you know have to be current or ex-military in order to join. If you are either of these two, I'd encourage you to apply. Their banking products are hard to beat.

 

Ontrack had some excellent suggestions. I too think you should look at a credit union and build a relationship for other banking services (mortgage, refi, LOC, auto loan, etc...) Credit Unions are non-profit organizations and if you have never been a member you don't know what you are missing. Pentagon Federal is great and you can qualify for membership by joining an association for $20 (not per year, it is a one-time fee). Spend 5 minutes and look at their rates and website. NAVY Federal credit union is also good but you have to qualify so check out their website. There are a lot of good local credit unions as well. Ask friends and relatives if they are members of a credit union and then check the membership eligibility on their website. Do a Google search and you will find their sites. You should really look into a credit union! I have a Discover and do not really care for it. They pulled 3 hards even though I responded to a pre-approved offer. A lot of places don't take it and they would not give me a CLI until I had the card a year without doing a hard pull on my credit. The only reason I got it was to use at Samâ??s Club, but Samâ??s now takes MC so it is useless to me.