Credit card strategy?
I have the following cards: 1. Citi double cash - 2% cash back on everything 2. Costco Citi card -4% on gas, 3% on restaurants and travel - Costco membership needed 3. Wells Fargo Active Cash - 2% back on everything 4. Chase Sapphire Preferred - 5% on travel, $95 fee with $50 travel credit. I am debating changing over the Citi double cash to Citi custom cash and use that for gas or groceries only to get 5% cash back for one category. I don't want to pay annual fees if I can avoid it but the chase Sapphire deal was pretty good for now. Is there a better approach to cash back optimization?
Cash back isnβt worth it. Get Amex or Chase points to convert to airline miles. I just redeemed a first class flight to Europe for 150k points. If I simply converted it to cash back, I would get $1,500. But instead I got a first class flight worth $6,000 dollars.
What would you recommend for a top 10% earner with good credit that is short of a centurion baller?
I don't travel a whole lot but had some travel come up so using the travel card bonus benefits
You need an airline card depending up on where you are located.
Check X1 card. 3% redemption for partner purchases. I use X1, chase preferred, and discover (for 5% cash back categories which change every quarter)
Cashback cards suck in comparison to chasing the Amex/Chase/Citi/Discover sign up bonuses. The points you accrue are best spent on flights (2+ cents per point), but even at the standard cashback rate of 1 cent per point, you should see this is far more lucrative.
I am seeing this as a better use of my credit score - just rotate through card offers every couple of years and cancel once they charge a fee and don't give bonus - sounds just like the Blind community plan for jobs π€£
Precisely. You cancel the card(s) after the annual fee (the second one, after one year) posts, and you get that refunded. Check out the churning subreddit, those guys are very enthusiastic about this stuff
If u want Amex plat I have referral code
So does everyone else lol
1. Citi double - 2% on everything 2. Chase Freedom - Quarterly 5% - currently gas, car rental, theater, live entertainment 3. Discovery Card - Quarterly 5% - currently restaurants and PayPal. In the first year, they double cashback, so first year it's 10% quarterly, and 2% everything else. 4. Amazon - 5% on all Amazon purchases and Whole Foods.
I am a little lazy about figuring out the rotation of categories, I would rather have specific cards for specific purchases but you are probably getting a better deal
For all the renters out there... highly recommend the BILT card. No annual fee and lets you pay rent with your credit card and earn points for travel partner transfer. I have a referral code but you don't get any extra bonuses... if you'd like to help me out I'll DM you the ref link :)
Amex blue cash preferred. 6 percent back on groceries up to 6k per year. 3 percent back on rideshare and gas. 6 percent back on streaming services. 95 annual fee and 350 welcome bonus. The 6 percent on groceries alone makes it a winner. I travel a lot for work and rack up a lot of Uber / Lyft rides and rental gas, so the 3 percent there is great too.
BoA Unlimited Rewards gets you 2.625% unlimited back on everything if you hold 100k in a BoA or Merrill Edge account. Strictly better than either of your cash back cards.
"if you hold 100k"... My 401k does better than BoA's 2.625%. π¬ Also TMobile money gives 4% interest on first $3000, then 1% interest after 3k. Much better than the 2.625% on everything. π€·ββοΈ
I think you misunderstand. As long as you deposit 100k in any BoA or Merrill Edge account (including brokerage investing and retirement accounts), then you get 2.625 percent back on all purchases with the Unlimited Rewards credit card. This isn't about investment returns so your comparison to Tmobile money makes no sense.
Chase freedom unlimited better than double cash b/c of chase point redemption is better
I might convert the chase card to a no fee version next year or something once I have used all the points