Credit Cards Thread

[Rob S]

aka the Damix/Rob show

[Rob S]

My current roster:

Chase
- Sapphire Reserve
- Ink Business Preferred
- Sapphire Preferred (to be downgraded to Freedom Unlimited)
- Freedom 5x

Citi
- Aadvantage Platinum (4)

Amex
- SPG Preferred Guest

Potential Adds: Amex Platinum (but not sure if I want 2 $450+ AF cards in the portfolio), SPG Preferred Business, United Mileage Plus Business (to waive annual fee), Citi Hilton Honors (no AF)

[Fernando]

I've milked the popular non work travel heavy cards.

Currently:
Amex every day
Chase Freedom
SW Premier
Discover It
Capital One quicksilver (my first CC)

I have a Best Buy card as well so I've bought all my electronics interest free for the past five years.

[Rob S]

Originally Posted by Fernando

I've milked the popular non work travel heavy cards.

Currently:
Amex every day
Chase Freedom
SW Premier
Discover It
Capital One quicksilver (my first CC)

I have a Best Buy card as well so I've bought all my electronics interest free for the past five years.

We need to get you in the annual fee game. Damix might have additional advice, but I'd say the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is a no brainer gateway to premium cards. 50k bonus points (worth $500 straight cash redemption or $625 towards travel) for a very easy spend requirement + 2x points on dining and travel. Annual fee is only $95, but waived year one.

[TheJayUNF]

All I have is a Hilton card. 6 points per dollar at Hilton, 3 points at grocery, pharmacy, and gas. 2 points for everything else. I think I can transition those to airline points too.

[cmarq83]

Missed the Reserve signup for the 100k bonus earlier in the year. Found out about it at 11:00pm on the last day when I was already drunk.

[towelie]

Originally Posted by Rob S

We need to get you in the annual fee game. Damix might have additional advice, but I'd say the Chase Sapphire Reserve card is a no brainer gateway to premium cards. 50k bonus points (worth $500 straight cash redemption or $625 towards travel) for a very easy spend requirement + 2x points on dining and travel. Annual fee is only $95, but waived year one.

was that a special promotion? i'm seeing a $450 annual fee.

converting points to the $ amount seems cumbersome to me and i lean towards the cash back cards. are rewards/points/travel cards with an AF worth it for a non-regular traveler with about $1100 monthly spend?

[scottyboy]

wait why have so many credit cards? I have one. It's pretty neat. Has cool blue and gray colors on it.

[Rob S]

Originally Posted by towelie

was that a special promotion? i'm seeing a $450 annual fee.

converting points to the $ amount seems cumbersome to me and i lean towards the cash back cards. are rewards/points/travel cards with an AF worth it for a non-regular traveler with about $1100 monthly spend?

That was a typo, I mean the preferred not the reserve.

And yeah - I'd say it is worth it. I wouldn't go as crazy as I do, but getting the preferred for instance is a slam dunk. Through the Ultimate Rewards portal, you can elect to just get cash back which is how I calculated the 50k points = $500.

Redeeming for cash back is often the worst possible value, but even if you did that it still covers 6 years worth of annual fees since the 1st year is waived.

[Prock]

Originally Posted by towelie

was that a special promotion? i'm seeing a $450 annual fee.

converting points to the $ amount seems cumbersome to me and i lean towards the cash back cards. are rewards/points/travel cards with an AF worth it for a non-regular traveler with about $1100 monthly spend?

I use the Flex Perks card from USB because they had a dope Olympic bonus along with their regular initial spending bonus. I enjoy having points that I can easily convert to airline miles. I also don't travel regularly and it works well for me.

[Damix]

Current lineup:

Chase:
Freedom

American Express:
Blue Cash (22 yr, hooray AAoA)
Business Gold Rewards
Business Starwood Preferred

Citi:
Prestige

Trying to get under 5/24 for CSR, I'll be grabbing united MPE and CSP again later this year (24 months since received bonus).

While I wait, once I hit my min spend on SPG, grabbing Citi AA Business or Business Amex Plat (once I get targeted).

[Rob S]

Having flexibility in terms of where you can transfer your points is massive. That's often where the biggest redemption values come in. Cash back is almost never the way to go if you're after value.

For instance - I am considering a trip to Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo in November. I have the option to redeem 160k Chase points for the itinerary I want in Korean Air first class. If I bought those same flights cash, the itinerary prices at around $15k. That's over 10 cents in value per point, which is an insane return.

[Fernando]

Originally Posted by Rob S

We need to get you in the annual fee game. Damix might have additional advice, but I'd say the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is a no brainer gateway to premium cards. 50k bonus points (worth $500 straight cash redemption or $625 towards travel) for a very easy spend requirement + 2x points on dining and travel. Annual fee is only $95, but waived year one.

The SW premier got me 50k points which turned out to be around $900 in flights last year, and it does have an annual fee.

I missed the boat on the CSR but that is my next card. Got an invite for the Amex platinum but I'm not sure if that's as flexible for me.

[towelie]

is there an ideal time of the year to open a credit card? i don't wanna open one and then there's promo offers in a few weeks.

i looked into CSP and talked myself out of it a few months back but i'm revisiting now. geez thanks rob

[Rob S]

Damix will probably know a bit more on promo timing than me. But if you are looking at Chase cards, I don't think they do many promos aside from new launches - the preferred has been at 50k bonus since I've been churning.

SPG preferred has a promo right now, as does United Mileage Explorer.

[bigbluedefense]

Chase Sapphire Reserve is my go to. I catch myself using this card pretty much all the time and ignoring my other cards.

[Kyle]

Are there any good miles cards without an annual fee? I don't think I spend enough to want to pay a fee.

[Fernando]

I like the SW one, and I think the fee is only $99. But 50k points if you spend like 2k within two months or something like that.

If you or anyone feels like applying for it let me know so I can refer you that way I get free points too

[Prock]

Originally Posted by Kyle

Are there any good miles cards without an annual fee? I don't think I spend enough to want to pay a fee.

The Delta gold is a good entry level one. You can get a free flight or two out of it.

edit - Minneapolis is a Delta hub, don't go with SW.

[Damix]

Originally Posted by towelie

is there an ideal time of the year to open a credit card? i don't wanna open one and then there's promo offers in a few weeks.

i looked into CSP and talked myself out of it a few months back but i'm revisiting now. geez thanks rob

CSP 50k bonus is best its been, so you *likely* won't find a better one (only 70k for Chase Private Clients, 250k+ invested with them).

Time of year isn't really a factor in best promos, you'll win some and lose some (I got a 50k MPE right before it went up to 70k).

The only ones to be really careful about are American Express, while other cards you can get the bonus multiple times, AmEx is once in a lifetime, so you'll want to hold out to get the best - 100k for plats (150k for bus plat?) 75k for golds, 25k for everyday. Most of these you have to be targeted for.

Originally Posted by Kyle

Are there any good miles cards without an annual fee? I don't think I spend enough to want to pay a fee.

Get the CSP, use it for a year (first year waived) downgrade to Freedom or Freedom unlimited.

Pretty much all mid-tier cards $69-99 AF have the first year waived. You can also ask for retention offers when the fee is coming up.