I have a terrific 800 credit score — what are the best credit card hacks to start with?

The nice thing about having a great credit score is that you’re more likely to get approved to borrow money when you want to, whether in the form of a car loan, a mortgage, a personal loan, or a credit card. Not only are you likely to get approved to borrow money, but you’re more likely to snag competitive interest rates on loans you end up signing.

In this Reddit post, we have a borrower with an outstanding 800 credit score. Credit scores range from a low of 300 to a high of 850.

Most people don’t have perfect credit. But a credit score of 800 or above is virtually the same as having an 850. Lenders and credit card issuers don’t differentiate much between borrowers with an 800 versus 850 because people in both categories are very likely to repay their debts on time.

The poster here wants to know about credit card hacks they can benefit from with their high credit score. And there are certainly options they can look at. But the poster should also be careful to avoid damaging the great credit score they’ve clearly worked hard to build.

Chase those great offers, but do so carefully

Having an excellent credit score makes you more likely to qualify for credit cards that put extra cash back in your pocket. But more so than that, there are many credit cards that offer generous sign-up bonuses. And applying for one could mean scoring a pile of cash up front.

Here’s how a sign-up bonus might work: You apply for a new card and spend $3,000 within three months of opening the account. After that period, you get $250 cash to keep.

Here’s another example: You sign up for a travel rewards credit card and spend $5,000 within your first three months. From there, you get 50,000 bonus points or miles.

Each credit card creates its own sign-up bonus. But some of these offers are hard to qualify for — that is, unless you have a great credit score. In that case, you may be able to qualify for multiple sign-up bonuses and pocket a whole bunch of extra cash, points, or miles, depending on the offer at hand.

Don’t push your luck

Having great credit could make it easy to qualify for a bunch of new credit cards. But it’s important to spread out those applications and ideally wait six months in between them.

The reason? Each time you apply for a new credit card, a hard inquiry is done on your credit report that could result in a small amount of credit score damage. A single hard inquiry won’t do much harm, but multiple hard inquiries in short order could.

Also, if you apply for too many new credit cards at once, you risk getting rejected. Credit card issuers want reassurance that you’ll actually use your card and aren’t just chasing the sign-up bonus. If they see that you’ve applied for three other cards in the past six months, you may get rejected even if your credit score would normally render you eligible for the offer.

All told, it’s possible to benefit big time from an excellent credit score by enjoying different credit card offers. But go about it carefully to avoid getting hurt.

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