domestic flights or hotels....i seem to migrate to Marriott so that might be worth it.

In most cases you get the most out of airline miles when redeeming for high value trips, like business class to Europe or similar. The big thing in the travel blogs now is to realize that no matter what credit card you choose, you’re forgoing a 2% cashback card for it. So if you earn 1 mile/$ spent, you better get 2 cents per mile of value or you should have just taken the cashback card. To make this simpler, normally a domestic one way on the legacy carriers cost 12,500 miles. In order to get “good value” out of this it needs to cost 12,500 * 0.02 = $250. If you redeem for a flight that costs less than $250, it was a bad redemption. The reason value is so much better on upgraded international travel is the price of those tickets are usually really high. For example, a business class ticket from NA to Europe might cost $2k, and require 50,000 miles. $2000/50000miles = $0.04/mile, which is obviously better than the 0.02/mile breakeven.

Rambling a little here. The exception to this breakdown is revenue based programs like Southwest or JetBlue, where you pay points based on how much the fare costs in dollars. These are the types of programs you want to focus on if you only want to fly domestically. Hotel programs are good too, and almost every hotel credit card gives you 1 free night a year when you pay the annual fee. Since you can use it on a room valued at $200+, paying the $40-$95 annual fee is a win on these cards. Chase has the Priority Club, Marriot, Fairmont cards, Citi has Hilton, USBank has Carlson.


The club carlson card in particular is pretty awesome for its perks, but Marriot has much more hotels in the US, and Carlson (Raddison brand hotels) seem to be hit or miss in the US (but very good abroad).



Lastly, for domestic type flights, sometimes they best cards are the ones that will issue you statement credits for your travels, like the TY Premier. There are so many things out there. I think you made a good choice with the SW card, but you need to find out why you were denied and if you can fix it.

You know what tilts me? Getting invited to apply for a card, or "pre approved" when they'll surely deny me and just hurt my score. It's possible it's bc the last time I tried the trick of applying for a bunch of cards on the same day and I remember seeing "too many inquiries" on the reasons of the letter.

Why would they "surely deny" you?

The trick there is being cautious, and only applying for cards you really like that have good bonuses. Also, learning which bureaus are pulled by which companies in your state/area helps, as you can spread out the inquiries.

I saw this thread and thought it was just credit score issues. But i see my credit card rewards setup is horrible...i think basically just 1% with BOA.

So JL, how do i proceed? I have had this card for about 10 years. So i should keep it open and just stop using right?

I took notes through about 80 posts. I charge about $1200 per month and have a very high credit score. Can i configure a set of new cards to get between 5 and 6 percent in all category? Maybe like US Bank+ and AMEX Blue Cash Preferred?

I think cashback its best for me.

Curious about your advice

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Yeah if it's a no annual fee card, definitely keep it open. You may want to find out when BOA will close the card for no activity, usually its a few years, but if you want to avoid that maybe buy a $1 pack of gum every 6 months or so.

If your main focus is cashback it's not too difficult. Depends what you're willing to spend in annual fees and what your main categories are. I think 5% in every category is going to be difficult, but there are some good options.

As you mentioned the Blue Cash Preferred is good for 6% on groceries (on the first $6k/year spent), 3% on gas and department stores. There are also signup offers as high as $150 last I checked. (Has an AF)

Pen Fed Cash Rewards is good for 5% on gas (no AF)

US Bank Cash+ where you choose your own categories I believe you can only apply in the bank for now, not sure why. I know they made some changes to the card but I am not up to date.

Probably wouldn't hurt to get the Discover IT and Chase Freedom (no AF) for their 5% rotating categories, and access to the Shop Discover portal.

There's also the Fidelity Rewards Amex (no AF) that earns 2% on everything but the cashback has to be deposited into a fidelity account of your choosing.

The Barclays Arrival World Mastercard essentially offers 2.2% cashback on everything but that can only be used to redeem for travel (AF).

Alternatively you could get the Chase INK and get 5x on office supply stores and just buy GCs from staples at 5% cb for everything you need from gas, to clothing, to restaurants, etc.

If this all seems too crazy then your best bet is to call BOA and ask if your card can be upgraded to the BankAmericard Cash Rewards card which offers 3% on groceries and 2% on gas.

I have many dormant cards I do this with, but I do exactly 99cents each month because they zero out the balance. Discover actually does it for $1.99 each month. Buying an amazon gc for yourself is the easy way to get it exact.

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/fina...297/?start=280

I am planning a long weekend in NYC towards the end of June. I am interested in acquiring a card for a hotel chain that ideally will help us get a night for free or at least earn us the best rewards on our booking. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

Cliff's on changes: Bill Pay and Home Improvement are no longer options for a category. "Cell phone bill" and something else less useful have replaced them. This year they are doing away with the $25 CB bonus for each $100 redemption and limiting it to one $25 CB bonus per year.

Although others are bemoaning that the card is now "worthless", I still see value in it as a card to fill in the gaps of the 5% categories of other cards' rotating categories. Note that the Cash+ has separate categories for Restaurant and Fast Food though.

The changes seem to have been made because the card was too "successful" for US Bank. And, yes, in-bank applications only now.

Great thread, I've found slogging through the FlyerTalk and FatWallet threads to be a bit cumbersome.

I've been casually playing the CC game the past couple of years, started with the Citi AA 75k bonus offer + Capital One "Match Your Miles" promotion (this combo was awesome), but wanting to play it a little more heavily.

My current rotation:

Chase Freedom Visa (5% rotating categories, $100 signup bonus) - Maxed out drugstore in Q1, as I found some Vanilla Reloads, but decided the effort wasn't worth it given that VRs are getting more and more difficult to find. Finding it tough to max out restaurants in Q2 (need $500/month spend to hit max 5x rewards). Q3 and Q4 categories are pretty meh outside of Q4 Amazon.

Citi ThankYou Preferred (5% drugstore/grocery/restaurants for a limited time): Had this card since 2002 and was dormant until I heard about the bonus categories. Called and got them applied until end of June. I think max is only 2500 pts for me, so basically just $500 spend to get, which I've already done. Going to go back to dormancy once points post.

Capital One Ventures (basically 2% on every dollar spent): Use for all other purchases, pretty easy to have the wife just use this one. $59 annual fee is a burn; they usually credit it back, but this year they said no. I got this one during the 100k miles promotion a few years ago and it was totally worth it.

Thinking of having the wife get the Blue Cash Preferred for the 6% groceries. Just had a baby, so the restaurant/groceries ratio is being strongly slanted back to groceries. My wife is credit-averse, but I'm going to have her get the Target Red Card (5% off all Target purchases) because we are spending a lot more there recently.

Any other suggestions? Not sure if the Cap One card is optimal, but it is pretty easy to use and translate to statement credits. I have very good credit and can probably take in a couple more cards over the next year. Looking for a some good sign-up bonuses; probably should have gotten on that Southwest one, but I had and cancelled the Southwest card in 2010 and I don't think I could have gotten it anyways.

Lots of options here, Chase Hyatt gives 2 free nights, Citi Hilton Reserve gives 2 weekend nights + gold status (free wifi and breakfast), US Bank Club Carlson gives 85k points (1-9 nights depending on redemption, probably 1-2 nights in NYC) + gold status + 2nd night free redemptions (if you book a 3 day award stay you pay points for 2 and the 3rd is free, if you book a 2 day award stay you pay points for 1 and the 2nd is free, etc).

Compare the spending requirements and do a little research on how quickly the reward certificates / points are paid out, as June is fast approaching.

If the timetable is too tight, get one of the cards that will give you status at your hotel to at least make the stay a little better with wifi or breakfast or similar.

Thank you.

Figure out how much you actually spend on groceries because I did the math earlier in this thread with the BCP / BCE (6% vs 3%). I think it came out to needing to spend at least $2500 to make the two cards breakeven since the BCP has an annual fee and the BCE is Fee free. If you spend much more than $2500 in grocery stores a year than go with the BCP. If you don't, or want to avoid annual fees in general, get the BCE. Make sure to get an authorized user account for your wife so you will have 2 cards for Small Business Saturday this year.

To be perfectly honest, the best returns will always be on dollars spent to reach spending requirements to unlock bonuses. For example, you get 2 pt/$ in restaurants on the Sapphire preferred for every day spend. But if you signup for a new card that gives 50,000 points after spending $2k, that card "earns" you 52,000/$2000 = 26 pt/$ on the first $2k spent. 26 obviously >>> 2.

Alternatively, there are cards that for example earn a free night in whatever brand hotel after spending $10k in a year on that card. This card may only earn 1pt per $ spent and is pretty bad in terms of regular earning, but if you can use that free night in a hotel that costs $200, you are actually earning $200/$10k = 2% back plus the 10,000 points for the spending. If you use that free night in a hotel that costs $800, then that's a 8% "rebate".

So in my opinion, if your credit score is good, you may be better off signing up for X new cards per quarter to earn bonuses rather than worrying which card gets 3pts or 2pts or 1% cb and which is a better deal. (X is a number that you feel comfortable with where the total spend requirements are an amount that your family is comfortably spending in the time period anyway).

Lastly, if your wife doesn't like credit or credit cards, you can always look into the Target Debit redcard instead.

So how to go about applying for more cards - I believe your credit takes a temp drop after each inquiry? So prolly not a good idea to apply for 3-4 cards in the space of a couple days. Maybe like 1 app every couple weeks?

Thanks for the response, you and this thread rock. I think my wife currently has the BCE, I think. She wants one card that I don't hassle her about, which is this one. Was looking at the BCP due to the $150 statement credit, which covers first two years of annual fee, and the 6% on groceries. I will probably take over my wife's BCE and use it on groceries. Will definitely get her on the Target RedCard soon.

What CC would you recommend at this point for signup bonuses?

I am usually able to clear spend requirements ($5k per 3 months would probably be as high as I can get, but would have to solely use that card). I am looking at the Chase Sapphire Preferred (although I just got the Freedom 2 months ago, so may have to wait) and also may wait for the Starwood Amex to have a bigger sign-up bonus (30k miles) and go with that, as I have a few SPG points from my days as a mgmt consultant. Thoughts?

If you're going to apply for 3 cards, it's better to do it all the same day. Inquires stay on your report for 2 years, so waiting a week between isn't going to help there. But doing it all on the same day won't allow the 3 banks to see you are applying for credit from each other, and the temporary drop doesn't happen that quickly.

You can get 250 sign up bonus for BCP. in class now but will post detail and link in 30-60 min

Sure but the BCE sometimes has signon offers of $100-$150 which is all gravy because there is no annual fee. As I said, you need to calculate how much you actually spend on groceries. Also, the BCP may be better if you are comfortable buying giftcards at the grocery store for things you will buy anyway, like clothes, travel, or dining.

You should wait until the 3 month mark before applying for another Chase card. Although I have heard of people getting cards more frequently than that, I wouldn't tempt fate.

If you don't need the SPG points now I would wait until the bonus rises to 30k, but realize that the spending req is 5k in 6 months, so plan ahead if you want to use those points on a upcoming vacation.

Again, other cards depend on your needs and ambitions. I recently got the Amex Premier Rewards Gold when it was 50k MR points for $1k spending. I also got the Chase British Airways card and the US Bank Club Carlson card. thats 4.5k worth of spending to manage, and a huge pile of Avios I will use for shorthaul trips like SFO to LAX, or LAS or PDX. These trips only cost 4500 Avios each way, which is crazy good.

I don't think you can really go wrong as long as the signup bonus for the card you choose is at its max (i.e. not getting the Southwest card when it's at 25,000 pts vs 50,000 pts).

ETA: What Josh is talking about can be found here: https://www.creditcards.com/cardmatch/ fill in your info (SSN not required) and see what kind of offers pop up. This is how I got the great bonus on the PRG, site is legit.

JL, do you know if this card always gives you 3% with amazon payments or what the cap is? I was very happy to get 3k pts last month (53k total)

Yeah that's it, thanks JL. With respect to deciding between BCE, BCP - you should also assume that if you apply for the chase freedom it will likely have one 5% category in groceries for three months. Thus the annual breakeven point disregarding sign up bonuses can be solved for using

0.05*(3/12)*x + 0.03*(9/12)*x = 0.06*(12/12)*x - 75
you need to spend more on groceries in a year than X to justify the BCP.

Edit: it's $3000

Not sure, I have had the same thing happen with the BCE (got $30 cashback for $1k on amazon payments). Have not been able to repeat it and haven't found much info online about it either.

Yeah, my BCE did that too, back in Jan/Feb. I also had Discover do 5% late last year.

Thanks JL, very helpful. Looks like I'll wait on the CSP and Starwood application until later this year. I may still go with the BCP, as I can buy Target and Amazon GC at our grocery, which I have done at CVS to fulfill drugstore spending rewards. I may add one more card depending on any future bonus offers. Thanks again.

There is a 75K pts bonus For the Amex Business Gold Rewards Card. You must spend $5k in 90 days (obv spot for Amazon payments, and buying gc's). I just applied and was approved! My standard is to just sell amex points, so I'll probably net a cool $1k with this deal.

link: http://www262.americanexpress.com/la...&AFFID=k623125

Plenty of info from thepointsguy posted today: http://thepointsguy.com/2013/05/amaz...-rewards-card/

NOTE: You may have to clear your cookies, or try a different browser. Chrome said 50k, Mozilla said 50k, but my IE said 75k.

JL-Please let me know if you think there is better "value" in me doing something else.

I have the Chase Southwest card and spend 9-10k per month on it which qualifies me for the companion pass. It generally takes about 23k miles to fly from HOU to LAS. So that's 5 flights per year for me plus the wife comes along for free so I'm getting 10 flights a year for the $59 yearly credit card fee.

Looks like a good deal to me but wouldn't mind finding something better.

Where do you sell your points?
sellmyrewards.com is offering 1.5 cents per point but I'm not sure how legit they are.

Ok, so in the past I have sold to http://www.rewards2cash.com/. Pretty quick and simple and I got a check to avoid any paypal fees. Currently it looks like 1.26 for amex, so I'll be shopping around when my pts hit.

A couple days ago I actually sold all of Chase UR pts to someone on Fatwallet for an amazing 1.81 rate. I may sell my amex pts to him as well, since I think his rates beat most of the sites.

I have also heard good things about Bruce Goldberg aka "the flighthunter", brucergoldberg2@gmail.com, and of Shlomosiles: http://shlomosmiles.com/. They are discussed on flyertalk, fatwallet, sickdeals, etc. Too much personal info is needed by shlomo, though, so I don't think I personally would sell to them.

Have you sold to any sites before? Many of these things have been sprouting up the past year or two.

FYI, sellmyrewards is only 1.5 if you sell 100k amex pts or more.