We often cover which credit cards to get, when cards have the best-ever bonuses, how to maximize various card perks, and more.
And it’s for good reason. Rewards credit cards can unlock the ability to travel more for less.
I should know: I currently have 25 open card accounts, and each serves a purpose in my wallet and helps my family travel in ways that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.
But credit cards — especially ones with annual fees — can also quietly drain your budget if you aren’t maximizing their benefits.
So today, instead of talking about which card to get next, let’s talk about a few cards you may not need.
A card doesn’t have to be “bad” to be worth canceling, or at least downgrading (keep reading for details on that). In fact, some of the worst credit card values come from cards that once made perfect sense for your wallet but no longer match your spending or travel habits.
That’s why it’s worth doing a periodic wallet audit to make sure the cards you’re paying for still match how you actually spend and travel. With that in mind, here are five credit cards you probably shouldn’t have.
An airline card that offers lounge access you aren’t using
Premium airline cards often come with annual fees north of $500 — and for frequent travelers, that can absolutely be worth it. I have a United Club℠ Card (see rates and fees), for example, and I can justify the cost even with its $695 annual fee.
But it’s only worth it for me because I travel a lot on United Airlines and use the United Club benefit, which makes up a chunk of the annual fee. The extra miles, elite-qualifying perks, and headstart help, too, but lounge access is usually what drives the cost of premium airline cards.
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United Club in Denver. ZACH GRIFF/THE POINTS GUY
If you’re paying a large annual fee for airline lounge access you rarely use, it may be time to reconsider whether that card is still the right one for you. It’s also possible that a broader lounge network, not tied to any one airline, might work better for you.
That doesn’t mean you need to give up airline cards entirely. Most major airlines offer cards at multiple annual-fee levels, and lower-fee options can still provide perks like free checked bags, priority boarding and better award pricing without requiring a massive annual fee.
If you need help reviewing the options, here are various credit card options within these major airlines:
Premium rewards card with lots of credits you aren’t using
In recent years, several top premium rewards cards have gotten … more complicated.
For some people, premium cards have started to feel more like coupon books than travel rewards cards.
To be fair, you can still come out way ahead with premium cards loaded with hotel, dining, shopping and entertainment credits. I happily play that game.
DANYAL AHMED/THE POINTS GUY
But if you are paying $800+ a year for a card that has $1,500+ in annual credits and you aren’t using hardly any of them, then one of three things should be true.
The annual fee genuinely doesn’t matter very much to your budget.
You need to start maximizing more of the card’s perks to make it worth it.
You’d probably be better off with a simpler card that better matches your habits.
If using various shopping and dining perks sounds more exhausting than rewarding to you — and the other card perks (like lounge access) don’t more than offset the annual fee — then I promise that it’s really OK to say goodbye to a premium credit card with a fancy name if it is no longer serving you.
You can always decide to get it again down the road if you change your mind. (Though the welcome bonus may be a one-time only event.)
Sometimes carrying multiple cards with overlapping benefits makes perfect sense. But in other cases, you may simply be paying multiple annual fees for perks that largely duplicate each other.
Unless there’s a specific strategy behind it, keeping multiple cards with nearly identical perks often isn’t worth the extra cost long-term.
That said, some extenuating circumstances where you might want to keep similar cards include:
As an example of when this can make sense, I actually have three Marriott credit cards, and they make sense for me not only because the elite-night credits stack and help me earn higher status, but also because each one gives me an annual award night worth more than the annual fee.
CHRIS DONG/THE POINTS GUY
On the flip side, I recently canceled one of my American Airlines cards as it was extremely similar to another American Airlines card I had and didn’t offer any differentiated benefit I was actively using.
Hotel card if you aren’t using the annual night award(s)
The hook many hotel credit cards offer year after year is an annual free night award. Sometimes you have to spend a certain amount to access these nights, and sometimes they come with having the card for another year.
Annual free-night certificates can become especially valuable as hotel award pricing grows more dynamic.
But — they are only worth it if you use them, and some are much harder to use than others. For example, I get two Marriott 35,000-point certificates a year from my Marriott cards.
I can consistently use them (often by topping them off with up to 25,000 Marriott points), but if I only stayed at higher-end Marriott hotels, I might not be as successful at putting them to use. And if that’s your situation with hotel annual award nights, you may want to consider whether keeping that hotel card is right for you.
Disney Swan and Dolphin are sometimes within reach with Marriott certificates. SUMMER HULL/THE POINTS GUY
Or maybe you should have a hotel card, but not the one in your wallet right now. If that’s potentially the case, here are options in some of the major hotel programs:
A card you got because it had a huge welcome bonus, but you just aren’t using it
Credit card issuers may not love this one, but let’s be honest: many of us have opened a card primarily because the welcome bonus was too good to ignore.
And sometimes you may find that you actually really dig the card and its ongoing perks, and it’s worth keeping even if you got it at first for the big bonus.
But once that first year passes, you may realize the card doesn’t actually deserve a permanent spot in your wallet. And in that case, sometimes the right thing to do is to cancel or downgrade it and move on to make space for the next one.
Think about whether you are better off canceling or just downgrading the card. Often, after a year, you can downgrade a higher-fee card to a lower-fee card within the same family. You usually won’t get a welcome bonus for doing that, so factor that in, but it is an option to think about in some cases.
If you’re on the fence, you can ask about any available retention offers when you are on the phone with a representative from the credit card company before you cancel. There might be an offer available to you for bonus points or a statement credit that makes the card worth keeping.
Don’t cancel a card without understanding the implications for any rewards. For hotel and airline rewards, those points are typically in your broader hotel or frequent flyer account and are usually safe. But for bank points, if you are closing your last or only card associated with that reward currency, you’ll usually lose the points if you don’t transfer them out first, so act strategically.
Yes, closing a card can affect your credit score via factors like your credit utilization ratio and average account age. But beyond keeping your oldest accounts open and monitoring your debt-to-credit ratio, those concerns alone usually aren’t a good reason to keep paying annual fees on cards that no longer fit your wallet.
Bottom line
Credit cards are supposed to serve your financial and travel goals — not become permanent residents in your wallet simply because they once made sense.
If you’re unsure whether a card still deserves a spot in your wallet, ask yourself:
Did I actually use this card’s biggest perks in the last year?
Did I clearly get more value than I paid in the annual fee?
Is there another card in my wallet doing essentially the same thing?
There’s rarely one right answer for when it’s time to cancel or downgrade a card, but those questions should point you in the right direction.
The mainframe is an industry-related term for a large computer. The name comes from the way the machines build-up: all units like data processing and communication etc, these units will be combined into a frame. Thus the name is given as software framework. Mainframe computers are power computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data, and processing millions of records each day such as census industry and customer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and transaction processing.
What are the benefits of the mainframe?
The following are the key benefits of using a framework:
1. Mainframe software is cost-effectively provided for an attractive computer architecture that will continue to thrive for the foreseeable future.
2. It offers a comprehensive solution to all the major problems.
3. It is thus likely that the most robust and flexible computing environments of the future will be a combination of both mainframe and client/server architecture.
4. Large organizations with existing reliable mainframe systems and employees who are trained on them will continue to use them for many years to come.
5. Mainframes based companies like HSBC, Accenture, RBI, SATYAM, CSC, and TATA group of companies.
Mainframe Architecture:
Mainframe architecture is a set of rules and components which are used to define the overall structure of the software technology.
The following diagram explains this,
Mainframes are arrived in the year 1960s and now popularly known as “big iron machines”. Before they were used as a small machine, each new generation framework has come up with advanced improvements. The following are the key features of the mainframe they are;
1. New generation framework consists of more and faster processors.
2. Come up with more effective physical memory and greater memory addressing capability.
3. Supports dynamic capabilities for upgrading both software and hardware systems.
4. Increased automation of hardware error checking and recovery facility.
5. Offers enhanced software devices for both input and output between I/O devices and main processors.
6. Provides advanced clustering technologies, they are like parallel Sysplex, and also share a large amount of data among multiple systems.
Different types of mainframe tools
1. CICS:
CICS stands for customer information control system. This tool was developed by IBM in 1968. CICS is a transaction processing system this is also known as online transaction processing (OLTP) software. CICS is also called a data communication system that supports thousands of hardware networking terminals.
Overview of CICS:
CICS is a DB/DC system type that is used in main online applications. The main purpose of developing CICS is to execute only batch programs. CICS programs can be written using programming languages like C, C++, COBOL, and JAVA. CICS allows users to communicate well with the back-end systems, for example, flight reservations.
Functions of CICS:
1. CICS manages several requests from concurrent end-users in any application.
2. Although suppose if the multiple users working on CICS system, but it always gives feel that only a single user is working on CICS.
3. CICS helps to access the various data files which are used for reading and updating in an application.
CICS features:
1. CICS is also a type of an operating system, and it manages its processor storage, own task manager. This also handles the multiple program execution and offers its own file management functions.
2. CICS also offers an online environment only in a batch operating system, faster jobs submissions, and executed quickly.
3. It is also possible to have more than two CICS regions at the same time. CICS acts as a batch job in the operating system.
4. CICS also supports generalized online transaction process interfaces.
CICS Environment:
Following are the various services offered by CICS:
1. System services:
CICS maintains the control functions to manage the memory allocation and deallocation of the various resources. In this CICS system service, there are 4 types of controls available such as task control, program control, interval control, and storage control.
2. Data communication services:
CICS data communication service offers an interface with the help of several telecommunication access methods like BTAM, TCAM, and VTAM. CICS releases several application programs from the terminal hardware issues with the help of Basic mapping support (BMS). CICS system also offers the multi-region operations (MRO) to communicate with multiple CICS regions. With the help of Intersystem communication (ISC) users can communicate with the CICS region on another system.
3. Data handling services:
Data handling services act as an interface between different data access methods like BDAM, and VSAM, etc. CICS offers servicing data handling requests from application programs. This type of data handling service helps application programmer to set a lot of commands to deal with data set, database access, and related operations. There are various types of data handling interfaces available such as IMS, DB, and DB2.
4. Application programming services:
The application programming services of CICS offer features like command-line interface, CEDF (is also known as debugging facility), and CECI (also known as Command interpreter facility).
5. Monitoring services:
Monitoring services in CICS monitor various events along with address space. This service provides serious statistical information that will be used for system tuning.
2. COBOL tool:
COBOL stands for Common business-oriented language. This language was previously developed by the US defense department for processing business data is popularly known as COBOL.
COBOL is used for writing programs for various applications. With the help of COBOL no need to write programs on system software. The applications included are the defense domain and insurance domain.
COBOL is a high-level programming language and anyone can understand how COBOL works. Here COBOL code was initially converted into machine code with the help of the compiler. Compiler helps to run the program and check for any syntax errors. Then converts them into machine language and the final output is known as the load module. The output will be available in binary form (0s and 1s).
Importance of COBOL:
1. COBOL was the first-ever widely used high-level programming language. This is kind of English like language and user friendly. All the instructions can be coded in simple English language terms.
2. COBOL is also known for its self-documentation process.
3. COBOL language is designed to handle huge data processing.
4. COBOL is compatible with the previous versions.
5. COBOL has an effective error message and resolution of any bugs or ticket is easier.
Features of COBOL:
Below are the important key features of COBOL:
1. Standard language:
As I said earlier, COBOL is a standard language that can be compiled and executed on computer machines namely IBM AS/400 and personal computers.
2. Business-oriented:
COBOL was mainly designed for business-oriented applications related to the defense domain and financial domains. This language can handle huge volumes of data due to its advanced file handling capabilities.
3. Robust language:
COBOL is a robust language because of its numerous debugging and testing tools which are available for almost all computer platforms.
4. structured language:
In COBOL, there are lots of logical control structures are available. These logical structures make it easier to read and modify different divisions and make it easy to debug.
COBOL program structure:
Below is the program structure of COBOL:
Let me explain each section briefly:
1. Sections: sections are the logical subdivision of program logic. A section is nothing but a collection of paragraphs.
2. Paragraphs: paragraphs are the subdivision section or division. It is either a user-defined or a predefined user name followed by a period, or sentences/ entries.
3. Sentences: sentences are nothing but a combination of one or more statements. The sentences appear only in the procedure type. Any sentence should end with a period.
4. Statements: statements are meaningful COBOL statements and perform processing.
5. Characters: characters are the lowest hierarchy level section and which cannot be divisible.
DB2:
DB2 is one of the popular database products developed by IBM. This is a relational database management system or RDBMS. DB2 is designed to store, retrieve, and analyze the data. DB2 products are providing extended support for object-oriented features and Non-relational XML structures.
History of DB2:
At an earlier stage, IBM had developed the DB2 product to work on specific platforms. In the year 1990, IBM decided to develop a universal database (UDB) DB2 server. So this universal database product can run on any operating systems like LINUX, UNIX, and Windows.
Versions:
The current version of the DB2 version we are using is 10.5 with advanced features like BLU accelerations and the code name is known as “Kepler”. Below are a few versions:
3.4 version -> code name “cobweb”
8.1, 8.2 version -> code name “stinger”
9.1 versions -> code name “viper”
9.5 versions -> code name “viper2”
9.7 version -> code name “cobra”
9.8 version -> this version added features with only pure scale.
10.1 versions -> code name “Galileo”
10.5 versions -> code name “Kepler”
Data server editions and features:
Below are the data server editions and features:
1. Edition name = Advanced enterprise server edition and enterprise server edition (AESE /ESE)
Features:
It is designed for mid-size to large scale business organizations platforms like Linux, UNIX, and Windows. Table partitioning high availability disaster recovery (HARD), materialized query table (MQTs), multidimensional clustering (MDC), connection concentrator pure XML backup compression homogeneous federations.
2. Edition name = Workgroup server edition (WSE)
Features:
This is designed for workgroup or mid-size business organizations. Using WSE or Workgroup server edition users can work with- high availability disaster recovery (HARD), online reorganization pure XML, web service federation, support DB2 homogeneous federations homogeneous SQL replication backup compression facility.
3. Edition name = Express –c
Features:
It offers all the capabilities of DB2 at zero change. This can run on any physical or virtual systems with any size configuration.
4. Edition name = Express Edition
Features:
This version is designed for entry-level and mid-size business organizations. It is full-featured DB2 data server. It offers only limited services. This edition comes with web service federations, DB2 homogeneous federations, homogeneous SQL replications, and backup compression.
5. Edition name = Enterprise developer
Features:
This edition offers only a single application developer. It is useful to design, build, and prototype the applications for deployment on any of the IBM servers. The software cannot be used for developing applications.
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DB Architecture:
The below diagram explains the overall structure of DB:
A database is nothing but a collection of buffer pools, logs, storage, tables, schema, and tablespaces. These components are working together to handle the database efficiently.
Database directory:
A database directory is a type of organized repository of various databases. Once you create a database, all the required details about database will be stored in a database directory. The details included are default storage devices, temporary tables list, and configuration files, etc.
In this database directory, the partial global directory is created in the instance folder. This database directory contains information that is related to the database. The partial global directory is named as a NODExxxx/SQLyyyy. Where XXXX is the data partition and yyy is the SQL database token.
How to create a Partitioned global directory?
1. Go to the directory location: /NODExxx/SQLxxx
The partition global directory consists of database related files they are listed below:
a. Global deadlock write-to-file event monitoring file type.
b. Table space information related files [SQLSPCS.1, SQLSPCS.2]
c. Storage control files [SQLSGF.1, SQLSGF.2]
d. Temporary table storage container files. This file will be stored in [/storage path/T000011/C00000.TMP/SQL00002.MEMBER0001.TDA]
e. Global configuration file [SQLDBCONF]
f. History files [DB2RHIST.ASC, DB2RHIST.BAK, and DB2TSCHG.HIS]
g. Automatic storage containers.
The syntax used to create a database:
Db2 create database
Where database_name indicates the new database name, you are going to create it.
Create a restrictive database:
Db2 create database restrictive
Where db_name indicates the database name.
IMS DB tool:
IMS stands for the Information management system. IMS was first developed by IBM with Rockwell and Caterpillar in the year 1966 for the Apollo moon mission. This type of IMS offers easy to use, reliable, and standard environment facility for executing high-performance data transactions. IMS DB tool is used by high-level programming languages such as COBOL to store the data for hierarchical arrangement and access them.
Overview of IMS DB tool:
A database is a collection of related data items. These data items are stored and organized in order to provide fast and easy access. IMS database is a kind of hierarchical database where different types of data are stored at different levels and each hierarchical entity is dependent on the higher-level entity.
The following figure explains this:
Database management:
A database management system is a collection of application programs mainly used for data storage, accessing, and managing your data sets in the database. One of the main advantages of the IMS system is to maintain the data integrity, allow you to faster data recovery, and make it easy to retrieve data. IMS tool maintains a large amount of data with the help of its database management system.
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Transaction manager:
The main function of the transaction manager is to offer a better communication platform between the database system and the application programs. Sometimes IMS acts as a transaction manager. A transaction manager deals with various end-users to store data and retrieve of data from the multiple database management systems.
DL/I –Data language interface:
DL/I comprises several application programs and grants access to the data stored in the database. IMS database uses the DL/I this serves as an interface language and accesses the database in an application program.
Importance of IMS:
1. IMS database system supports applications from different programming languages such as JAVA and XML.
2. IMS database system offers better application management and data can be accessed over any platform.
3. IMS database system offers faster data processing when it is compared to other DB2 systems.
Limitations of IMS:
1. IMS database implementation is very complex when compared to other database systems.
2. IMS helps to predefine the tree structures that reduce flexibility.
3. IMS database system sometimes it’s difficult to manage.
Hierarchical structure:
An IMS database system is a collection of data physical files. In the hierarchical database system, the topmost level data information entity. Each level in the hierarchy consists of segments, standard files, and difficult to implement hierarchies but sometimes DL/I support hierarchies. The following diagram explains the hierarchical structure type:
Segments:
A segment is created by grouping similar data types. This is the smallest unit of information that DL/I transfers to and from an application program during the time of input and output operations. A segment can have one or more data fields that are grouped together.
Field:
A filed is a single piece of information in a segment. For example, roll number, course, name, and mobile number in the student segment. A segment consists of related data fields to collect the appropriate entity information. A field can be used as a key for ordering any segment types.
Segment type:
A segment type is a category of the data segment. A DL/I database consists of 255 different segment types and 15 levels of the hierarchy. The following is an example of a Segment type:
Segment occurrence:
A segment occurrence is an individual segment type and this consists of only user data. For example, when you take book information as a segment type and you can see any number of occurrences of it. This type of segment contains any number of book information.
JCL tool:
JCL stands for job control language is the command language of multiple virtual storages (MVS), which is commonly used in various operating systems in the IBM mainframes. JCL helps to identify the program to be executed, required input, and location of the input or output identification with the help of job control statements. JCL is mainly used for submitting any program type for the batch mode execution.
Overview of JCL:
JCL is used in a mainframe environment and acts as a communication between a program and an operating system. For example COBOL language, PL/I, and Assembler. In the mainframe environment programs will be executed in the form of batch and online modes. Here Virtual storage access method can be used as a batch system program. Online program mode can be of type back office screen and accounting details.
Job processing:
A job is nothing but a unit of work that is made up of many job processing steps. Each job processing step is specified in a job control language (JCL) using a set of job control statements.
In the mainframe, the operating system makes use of Job entry systems or JES to accept the jobs, transfer that into the operating system, to schedule various jobs type for processing, and to control the output.
The below diagram will illustrate the job processing step:
Job submission step: this step is used for submitting the job control language or JCL to JES (Job entry system).
Job conversion: The JCL along with the PROC process will be converted into an interpreted text which is to be understood by JES and helps to store the data sets, which is known as SPOOL.
Job queuing: JES decides the priority based on CLASS and PRTY parameters in the JOB control statements. The errors will be checked in this step with the help of job queuing.
Job execution: Once the job reaches the highest priority, it is taken up for execution from the job queue.
Purging: once the job is completed, the allocated resources and the JES SPOOL spaces are released. In order to store any job log file, you need to copy this job log file to another dataset.
VSAM tool:
A VSAM stands for virtual storage Access method and this is also known as file storage access method used in many technologies like MVS, ZOS, and OS/390 operating system. This also acts as a high-performance access method used to organize the various data in the form of files in mainframe devices. VSAM tool is used by COBOL and CICS to store and retrieve the various data sets. VSAM makes it easier for any application program to execute any output or input operation.
Overview of VSAM:
Virtual storage access method (VSAM) is a high-performance access method and organizes the data sets. This mainframe tool utilizes the various virtual concepts and also protects the data sets at different levels by using passwords. In COBOL, this VSAM can be used as a physical sequential file. VSAM is the logical dataset for storing data records.
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Characteristics of VSAM:
Below are the various characteristics of VSAM:
1. VSAM helps to protect the data against any unauthorized access by using passwords.
2. VSAM offers faster data access methods.
3. VSAM provides various options for optimizing the performance.
4. VSAM allows data set sharing in both online and batch mode environment.
5. VSAM’s data sets are more structured and organized in data storage.
6. Free up space is reused automatically in various VSAM data files.
Limitations of VSAM:
1. VSAM data sets cannot be stored on TAPE volume. This is only stored on DASD space.
2. VSAM requires a number of cylinders to store the various data sets and not cost-effective.
VSAM components:
There are three main components of VSAM:
1. VSAM cluster:
VSAM clusters are nothing but logical data sets for storing the various data records. A cluster comprises of index association, sequence data set, and data portions. The space occupied by the VSAM cluster will be divided into contiguous areas known as control intervals.
There are two sub-components used in a VSAM cluster:
a. Index components
b. Data component.
2. Control intervals:
The control intervals (CI) in VSAM are equivalent to blocks and used for non-VSAM data sets. In non-VSAM methods, the data set unit is defined by various blocks. VSAM works well only with logical data sets are known as control intervals. Control intervals are the smallest unit used to transfer data between a disk and the operating systems.
The control interval consists of sub-components:
a. Logical records
b. Control information fields
c. Free space
3. Control Area:
A control area in VSAM is the formation of two or more control intervals. Any VSAM dataset is composed of one or more control areas. The actual size of VSAM is a multiple of the control area. All VSAM files are extended in units of Control areas.
Conclusion :
In this Mainframe tutorial, you will be learning major mainframe technologies like CICS, COBOL, DB2, IMS DB, JCL, and VSAM. These technologies offer different features and functionalities. We have tried to explain all in one article, and kind of ready book. I hope this tutorial may help a few of you who want to begin your mainframe profession as well as working professionals.
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