Cards I Carry

Figure I’ll make a post of what cards I currently carry and what cards I’ve stashed away.

Cards I actively carry:

AMEX Starwoods card – The reason I carry this card is because Starwoods points are the most value hotel points out there.  I can usually get 2 cents of value out of my SPG points, thus making this card effectively a 2% card.  The signon bonus is usually 25,000 points and once a year, they’ll raise it to 30,000.  The bonus is currently once per lifetime, so you decide whether you want to wait or get it now.  The annual fee is like $65 and the first year is free.  I actually go back and forth between the Business version of this card and my wife’s card.  I haven’t paid the annual fee in years (before I knew any better).

Barclays Arrival – This card lets you earn 2 points for every dollar spent, and when you redeem the points, they give you 10% of it back, effectively making this a 2.22% card.  I use this where AMEX isn’t taken and I’m not in a bonus spend store (like a grocery store).  The signon bonus is 40,000, and it’s never gone higher, so just go ahead and sign up for it now.  The first year’s annual fee is waived, and after that, it’s something like $69.  I just hit my 2nd year, and they only offered to downgrade my card to the free version.  I’m going to do that since I get to keep my points.  You can also get a 2nd card if you have the 1st card although they will ask you why you need a 2nd card.  Better you have already cancelled the card or have the no-fee version, so you can at least give a good reason why you need a 2nd one of these cards.

Chase Sapphire / Citi Thank You Premier – I had the  Chase Sapphire in my wallet for the past year, and I ONLY used it at restaurants since you get 2X on dining.  I never used it anywhere else.  The signon bonus I believe is currently 40K.  Once a year, they may raise this to 45K.  I wouldn’t wait for the bonus again if you want this card now.  The first year is free, but the 2nd year is an atrocious $95.  I got to my 2nd year, and they wouldn’t waive the fee, so I downgraded to the Chase Freedom (see below).

I’ve now replaced that card for the Citi Thank You Premier which gives me 3X at dining and entertainment.  The current offer for the card is 50K, which is pretty good.  The annual fee is free first year, but $125 after.  I just hit my 3rd year, and they offered to waive it if I spent $1,000 for the next 3 months.  I can easily do that.  Citi has been good with their retention offers.

Chase Ink Plus – This is my 3rd Ink card over the past 3 years.  I signed up for the recent 70K offer; you may want to wait for that to come back again.  I only use this at Staples (5X) to buy gift cards for manufactured spend.  I also use it as gas sometimes since I get 2X at gas.  The card also gives you 2 free Priority Pass vouchers per year.  This is great for the Alaska lounge at Seatac.

Wells Fargo Visa Signature – This is my go to card for manufactured spend at grocery stores (5%).  I use this card to buy gift cards at grocery stores at a ~1.4% fee and load them to my Serve cards at Walmart for a 3.6% profit.  I’m in my 3rd month, and will be sad once my 6 months is over.  Once that happens, this card will go into the sock drawer.

Cards in my sock drawer:

Bank of America Alaska Visa – I actually use this card to load my Buxxx accounts.  It gives you a free companion pass that’s actually useful – buy a roundtrip flight on Alaska and your companion flies for $99 + fees.  I’ve saved $100-$200 with that companion pass.  This card is also “churnable,” which means you can get multiple of it while still having it.  I’ve heard people getting up to 3-4 per year.  There’s also a business version as well.

Capital One Venture – I got this card 2 years ago when it offered a bonus of 50K or 75K points.  The card actually gives me 2 points per dollar spent.  To use it, you book your travel using their web site, so a $200 flight would cost 20K points or so.  I used this to book my Air Tahiti flight from Moorea to Bora Bora since that can’t be booked on points.

Chase Hyatt – I keep this card because the $75 annual fee gets you a free night up to a category 4 hotel.  If that room is $150, I’ve saved myself $75.  I don’t put any other spend on the card.  If you don’t have this card, I’d wait to sign up for it.  The signon bonus gives you 2 free nights in ANY Hyatt, which you can redeem at the Park Hyatt in the Maldives, Tokyo, or Sydney.  So I would only sign up for it if you’re about to go to a place that has an expensive Park Hyatt.

Chase Priority Club – Just like the Hyatt card, this card’s $49 annual fee gets you a free night in ANY Priority Club hotel in the world (think $1,000 a night at the Intercontinental in Bora Bora.)  The signon bonus is usually 80,000 points (check Flyertalk.)

Chase Freedom – This card has no annual fee and has rotating categories 4 times a year where you can get 5X up to $1,500 of spend.  Since I downgraded my Sapphire, I now have 2 of these cards.  I only use this card in those 5X rotating categories and call it a day.  Wait until there is a 20K

Citi Hilton Signature Visa – I got this card to get the signon bonus of 2 free nights at ANY Hilton anywhere (I used it on the $1000/night Conrad Maldives), so I would definitely wait for a big trip before you sign up for this card.  It also gives you Gold, which gets you free internet and breakfast.  If you spend $10K a year, you get a free night as well.  If you spend $40K, you get upgraded to Diamond, which isn’t much better than Gold benefit-wise.  I’ve spent the 10K and socked the card.

Citi Aadvantage Visa – I got this card for it’s 50K signon bonus, and Citi keeps waiving the annual fee every year for me.  The best perk is that it gives you a 10% annual rebate on award redemptions up to 10K.

Citi Aadvantage Business Visa – I got this card for it’s 50K signon bonus, and I’m coming up on my 2nd year, so probably will cancel to avoid annual fee.

AMEX Mercedes Benz Platinum card – The annual fee on this card is a whopping $450.  Oooph.  However, you also get $200 in airline credits every year (*ahem* buy airline gift cards).  So you should be able to get $400 in benefits with the card.  It also gives you free Priority Pass membership (to get you access to the Alaska lounge at Seatac).  It also refunds your Global Entry or TSA Precheck fees.  That easily makes up for the $450 that you pay the first and only year.  The current offer on this card is 50K for the Mercedes Benz variant, and it’s never gone higher.  Last year, they had this offer up to 100K for the generic Platinum version.  AMEX only gives you 1 signup bonus per lifetime, so I would wait for something higher than 50K.

AMEX Business Gold Rewards – I got this offer for the 75K bonus.  And that’s the ONLY reason.  It comes with first year free, and I don’t even know the annual fee since I have no plans on paying for the 2nd year.

AMEX Blue – You remember this card back in 2000 when it was a cool card to carry – it was translucent with a shiny blue box in the middle.  The card has no annual fee, and it’s the longest card I have in my wallet (helps my credit history).

Citi Dividend – I used to have 2 Citi Hilton no-annual fee cards that I got the signup bonus and socked.  I recently changed it to the Citi Dividend, which gives me the 5% rotating categories like the Freedom.

USB Club Carlson card – This one belong to my wife since my account got axed (long story).  I love this card because for every award night you book, you get 1 free award night.  Even if you pay for 1 night, you get the 2nd night free.  I used it in New York at the Radisson Martinique for 2 nights (1 free), which was a pretty good property.  We also used this in Rome as well.  There are 3 versions of this card (2 pers and 1 biz).  We signed up for the 85K version of this card.  I here if you sign up for the business card version as well, you’ll then have 2 Club Carlson accounts which you can then book 4 consecutive nights and pay for just 2 nights.  The $75 annual fee is offset by the 40,000 points they give you when you pay the annual fee.  Keep in mind that the Radisson in New York costs 50K points, and you can see already that the $75 is a no brainer.  And oh yeah, they give you 5X per every $1 spend.  I really should use this card more, but I have no trips planned where I could use this card.  If you travel to Europe though, there are lots of Club Carlson properties over there that makes this card worth it.

Discover card – I’ve had this card for almost 7 years now.  It’s a long story, but I got a 17K balance transfer with 0% APR and 0% transfer fee (YUP!).  So I’ve made the minimum payment on this card every month since.  I get charged a $0.50 minimum finance fee every month, but I’m okay with that.  I think I have about 4K left to go.  Haha.  However, the reason why I love this card is that it gives you access to the ShopDiscover shopping portal, which is a must.

Kohl’s charge card – For access to the 30% off coupon codes for Ebay reselling.