Underhill

United just sent me an application for a United Mileage Plus Visa Card. Besides the $60 annual fee, does anyone know of any reason not to sign up and get 20,000 miles?

gail

Sounds fairly standard both in mileage bonus and annual fee for an airline affinity card.

Depends on how much you fly, how much you would charge, etc. We have USAir Visa card and miles get dumped into same FF account as flyer in our family who does the most traveling. Because of status of USAirways, we will be swtiching to another airline.

Some here have stated they prefer a card where miles can get dumped into any FF account - but these often have fairly low number of miles you can accrue per year.

mrwunrfl

The 20,000 miles are worth more than $60, especially if that is the mileage you need to reach an award level.

rkkwan

Reasons not to:

- You may forget to cancel the card next year.

- It doesn't look too good on your credit reports to apply a credit card and cancel it a year later.

- Makes you spend more money than you have, and pay financial charges.

Jed

20K miles for $60 is sensational. Get it, spend another $5K, and you have a free flight.

BTW, I thought the sign-up bonus was 15K.

Patty

Jed,
I believe the standard sign up bonus is 15K. I also received the same 20K solicitation in the mail a few days ago.

I was able to find an online link for the 20K offer through the freefrequentflyermiles.com site -

http://www.firstusa.com/cgi-bin/webc...&mkid=6P6M

Underhill,
I can't think of any reason not to sign up if you fly UA and collect Mileage Plus miles. If you have an otherwise lengthy history of excellent credit, I wouldn't be too concerned with opening 1 or 2 new credit accounts a year. It shouldn't have a detrimental impact on your overall credit score.

gail,
Did you mean cards that accrue reward points which can be used to redeem/purchase flights on any airline (not combined with FF miles)?

Of the cards that I know of where points can be transferred and combined with miles in existing FF accounts (Amex cards with Membership Rewards, Starwood Amex, Diners Club), none of them have an annual cap on maximum accrual. Unfortunately, all 3 are of little benefit to UA Mileage Plus members as UA isn't a participant in Membership Rewards, the Starwood to UA transfer ratio is poor (2 points=1 mile), and Diners Club acceptance is pretty limited.

Dick

rkkwan...

<It doesn't look too good on your credit reports to apply a credit card and cancel it a year later.>

Do you have specific info regadring this? I routinely open and close accounts after the one year zero interest....and my FICO score seems unaffected.

Patty

Dick,
Me too, see my comment above to Underhill. I average 2 new credit accounts annually (though I do it for miles/points not zero interest) and haven't noticed any change in my credit scores over the years. I keep my oldest credit accounts active (the 2 cards I use most frequently actually date back to my college days). Maybe if your credit history is relatively short, it might have some adverse affect. I can see if you were very young with a limited credit history, how opening and closing multiple accounts in a short span of time might not look too good.

wally34949

I have a VISA rewards card from my bank. No annual fee and I get cash back each year. Only about $85 but now I can purchase my ticket--no blackout dates and I can choose from all of the airlines. Also, the airlines charge a higher interest rate than the banks.

Avoid an airline credit card like the plague.

Patty

wally,
For some, a cash back card is clearly the best option. But for others whose primary goal is to redeem miles for international business class travel, it would take much, much longer to accumulate enough cash rebate to pay for a ticket.

Dick

Wally,

The card might not be right for you, but it isn't fair trash it like that ( avoid it "like the plague&quot

The interest rate is of no significance for those that pay in full each month.

I have put college tuitions on the card, two cars, and much more.

The result for me is free first class tickets worth tens of thousands.

For many of us, an airline card can be a great deal

grubs

I've had great success with these cards; if you can control your spending, there's no reason to avoid airline FF credit cards. A few points to consider:
- If you don't pay your balance in full each month, you're most likely going to pay a much higher interest rate with these cards, so they might not be worth what you end up paying for the miles. If you only occasionally carry over a balance, try paying this card off with a low-rate balance transfer check that your other card issuers send occasionally.
- Don't spend more than you normally would just because you get miles. It's okay to use your card where you would normally use cash, but stick to your budget, regardless of form of payment, and pay off the card with the cash that you would have spent.
- The bonus miles are great and are worth the annual fee. Some issuers repeat some kind of bonus offer each year to entice you to renew and pay the annual fee. But if they don't, or if you find that you don't use the card often enough to justify the annual fee, call the issuer. I called and told them I wanted to cancel because I didn't want to pay the fee, and they offered me a differnt deal. No annual fee, but I only get half a mile for every dollar charged.
- If you jump from card to card every year, make sure you cancel the old line of credit, and make sure your credit report shows the account canceled. Closing an account after only one year should not negatively affect your credit score, but having several accounts that appear to be open (i.e., a large amount of debt at your fingertips) and a large number of rejected requests for credit will be damaging.
- If you get tired of the game, as I did, move to a card that allows you to move the miles to any airline. I am now using a Capital One card that has no annual fee. They also offered a 20,000 mile bonus, although that bonus is paid out over two years. I haven't tried to cash in any miles yet, so I can't say how well that aspect works...

Underhill

I'm just interested in the miles and probably won't use the card a whole lot; might even cancel before the end of the year or just charge one or two small things monthly, which I would pay as I go.