Looking for a new Credit Card. Family of 3. Currently have Chase Freedom, Amazon Visa and Costco Citi. Work travel 2 times an year and 1-2 domestic+international air travel. Grocery spend is around 200-300 / month excluding costco groceries. What credit cards would people recommend with the goal of maximizing cashback/ travel? Have explored BCP, CustomCash, but gets super confusing. Appreciate your help 🙏🏻 TC: 430k #personalfinance #investments
Alaska airlines Bank of America / if you are in Seattle. Annual companion ticket for $100 (or whatever it is now, I forget).
Bruh. Look up Venture X. Hands down the best travel card. They literally pay you $5 net to keep the card
If you are only spending on one category, citi custom cash is 5% cash back up to like $500 and no annual fee so that is one of the cards to specifically use only for groceries. If you plan to travel a lot, especially internationally, Costco card is good but you do better with the Venture X as long as you actually use the benefits. Chase is alright but they charge more for hotels so you don't really get the full benefit by booking on their site using points. Keeping track of categories is painful but I will probably downgrade my chase card to one of the 0 fee options soon
I would not get the platinum based on your travel. I guess it got a lot of votes due to status and your tc. You only get 5x points on booked travel, so unless you're paying for your own work travel and getting reimbursed AND spending a considerable amount on family vacations annually, I wouldn't seriously consider it. The lounge access is a nice perk but still crowded in most cities. And you have to have a separate platinum card for each guest (or pay $50/adult $30/child per visit) which, at $195 per additional card, also doesn't make sense with your travel expectations. How often do you dine out? The Amex gold may be better. 4x at grocery and restaurants. It's my go-to card and I have 3x chase cards, gold and platinum, Costco Citi and others. You can turn those MR points into travel.
Altitude go is 4x for restaurants and no yearly fee. Additionally a 2x card would and WF propel for travel 3x is good enough Personally feel annual fee cards is just additional pressure to spend and 1 bad usage year could role back years of benefit
BCP is a no brainer for groceries. For the rest, create a sheet and run the math on the payoff. Assign a $ premium for nice to have perks. I went with CSR. Thinking about some perks on there as insurance in case random things go wrong when traveling. I get back the fee with yearly travel spend and restaurants. 1x intl, 2x domestic, $200/mo restaurants. Sometimes I consider downgrading and just keeping Costco Visa. Reduce confusion by doing BCP for groceries+other card for everything else.
Do you come out ahead even in the second year with the $95 fee compared to using the 5% cash back on Citi custom cash just used for groceries? I guess if you are buying for a family of 4 and your grocery store takes Amex, it might be a better deal. The cheaper grocery stores have stopped accepting credit cards altogether in some places so there's that
Probably not consistently coming on top with it every year. I get back about $180/yr from 6% cashback on groceries+streaming and also use amex offers that net me about $50-$75 extra per year. The amex offers get me back a lot of money so far. I appreciate how the offers are useful at least once a quarter though and that's why I'm keeping it. Fwiw I'm single and live alone. I shop only at whole foods or safeway, besides costco. The cheap grocery stores around me have veggies that degrade too quickly for my slow usage and the meat isn't as tasty as what's at whole foods. What's your CC stack?
Too complicated. BoA Premium Rewards with 100k kept in Merrill Edge investment account is the single best all-in-one unlimited cash back card that currently exists.
Amex Platinum. 150k sign on bonus. DM me for referral Benefits 1) $200 Uber Eats or Uber credit 2) $200 Airlines credit 3) $240 credit towards Hulu, Disney+, Espn 4) $155 Walmart+ and Paramount+ credit 5) $100 Saks credit 6) Automatic gold status to Hilton, Mariott, Hyatt, National, Enterprise, Hertz (free upgrades too) 7) Free theft protection for iPhones/iPad ($1000 credit) 8) Free Global Entry or TSA Pre-Check - $100 credit 9) Clear enrollment (worth $189), skip the security lines at airports 10) Extended warranty 11) Purchase protection
Sapphire preferred gives you primary rental car coverage if you travel a few times a year
But also ask your current car insurance company if you already get rental car coverage too!
The first party insurance from the card is ridiculously better though. Your regular insurance generally transfers to any car you borrow or drive as long as it’s not commercial transport. It depends on your policy though. Imagine you get in a crash or ding up the rental car… Normal insurance => file a claim with normal insurance company and you pay deductible and your rates go up next cycle Chase Freedom Card (free version) => file a claim with normal insurance company and the credit card. The credit card covers your deductible. Your rates still go up next cycle. Chase Sapphire Preferred (premium) => just file it with the card and your regular car insurance isn’t affected. You just get a credit when they charge you the damages. It’s awesome. I’ve done it.