Now that 2023 is coming to a close, I am always curious to see what returns I generated from the credit cards that I have. My top 3 most valuable return cards were: PayPal MC, Citi Costco Visa, Target RedCard.
What were your top return cards in 2023?
Mine are AMEX Gold, AMZN Visa, Apple Card.
I am considering closing my amex gold and moving my primary spend back to my chase trifecta. I recently paid a large dinner (>$500) with the gold and amex did not count it as a restaurant. I never had the same issue at that restaurant with chase. I've already called their MR team and am waiting for a response from them. Will probably end up opening an aspire and transferring all MR to Hilton.
Top 2 are Venture X, and Savor.
Then supplemental cards that get 5% in certain categories like Cap1 Wal-Mart, Chase Amazon Visa, and DiscoverIt.
Welcome to the What Card Should I Get Weekly Thread, where we try to figure out what card you should get or critique your current plans or AOR if you're doing it that way). Everything is YMMV and these are all opinions. Agree or disagree with your votes. As always read the wiki, do your research, and happy churning.
Also, check out the Credit Card Recommendation Flowchart before posting in this thread.
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The flowchart can answer 95% of all "What card should I get?" questions. By continuing to post, you must explain why you feel the flowchart does not answer your question. Asking for feedback ("The flowchart says I should get X - is that still the best choice?") is absolutely allowed.
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What is your credit score?
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What cards do you currently have or have you had in the past (including closed cards), along with dates of when you were approved for the cards? Please include month and year for any card approved in the last 3 years.
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How much natural spend can you put on a new card(s) in 3 months?
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Are you willing to MS, and if so, how much in 3 months? See this page for a primer on MS. Plastiq (for rent/mortgage/loan payments) and bank account funding are often good options for beginners.
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Are you open to applying for business cards? If not, why? See this post and this wiki question to learn more.
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How many new cards are you interested in getting? Are you interested in getting into churning regularly (if you aren't already)? Or are you just looking to get a new card(s) for now but not get into churning long-term?
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Are you targeting points, Companion Passes, hotel or airline statuses, First Class, Biz, Economy seating(s) or cash back?
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What point/miles do you currently have?
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What is the airport you're flying out of?
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Where would you like to go? (The more specific you are, the better someone can recommend the right card. Tokyo is great, "International travel" is way too vague)
Hey all, I'm trying to decide on my next card, frankly I don't have many. My wife also has the Chase Sapphire Reserve so regarding Chase points/redeeming I'm able to transfer to her. I have a conference trip coming up that will be covered and will involve 6 hotel nights stay, i.e wondering if I should get a hotel card or go for something more traditional since I'll hit the SUB quick
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Recommended to get the Chase Preferred (currently 5 years out from having it downgraded to a regular Sapphire)
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770-780
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Chase Sapphire (Previously CSP from 08/18), Chase Unlimited (2019), Chase Freedom Flex (08/21), Amex Gold (07/23)
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Naturally about 3-4k but as mentioned above I have a conference, flights and 6 nights hotel stay coming up so it will be easy
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Not willing to MS
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No business cards
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I'm probably looking to get 2 or 3 more cards, don't think I'll be a heavy churner
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Targeting points primarily for travel use but could go for hotel stays as well secondarily
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I have roughly 250k UR, and just waiting on SUB for Amex to hit (75k)
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Airport varies, probably LAX the most
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Traveling targeting Spain, Portugal, Tokyo in near future
Thank you!
Which Marriott Card should I get?
I'm eligible for anything since I've closed all the ones I've had well over 30 days ago and my last bonus was well over 24 months ago.
I've had:
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Amex SPG -> Bonvoy
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Amex SPG Biz --> Bonvoy Biz
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Amex SPG Lux --> Bonvoy Brilliant
No Chase Marriotts or the new Amex Bevy. At 3/24 and about out of personal Marriott cards in my wishlist. So, the contenders are the Bold, Boundless, Bountiful, or Bevy. I do have 4 guaranteed nights at Marriott properties though December and can probably get two more by Jan, so the extra 50K for 6 paid nights is a draw. That said, our travel isn't super loyal to a brand, so not sure if I could make that offer work again in the future, and would want to get the most return (Bevy).
Bevy Pros:
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Since I'd be locked out for 24 months, I'd rather get the most points in the Bevy's 125+50k for $5k than the better bang for the buck Bold's 100k for $1k.
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Have Marriott spend to do now, so an instant card number would be nice.
Chase Pros:
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A goal would be to get the Ritz, so do want to get a Chase Marriott card some point soon to get that 12 month clock ticking.
What are other reasons to get the Bold or Boundless over the Bevy?
Currently have three credit cards in rotation.
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Chase Freedom Unlimited
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AmEx Blue Cash Everyday
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Amazon Prime for 5% Cash back
With an Experian score of 811.
Planning on applying for Chase Sapphire Preferred for the 90k SUB in April and I’m also interested in the AmEx Gold for their travel redemptions. However, I recently stumbled on Bank of Americas Preferred Rewards program and wondering if getting one of there cards would be more beneficial. I don’t have an account with Bofa but I do have my 401k with Merril Lynch. Does that qualify and would it make sense to reconsider some of my next cards? I only want to apply for two cards this year so that my credit history doesn’t take such a big hit since it will approximately drop 2 years bringing me down to 3 years of average credit history.
If Merril Lynch account qualifies I would be under the Platinum honors tier which to my understanding has a 75% rewards bonus based on the eligible cards. Mainly interested in redeeming for travel but if the cash back makes sense I could always cash out and just buy my own travel. Thanks for the advice.
I have all my cards in my wallet, but I mainly am using my:
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DiscoverIt Cash back - for the 5% back categories ,
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PayPal MC as of now,
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SavorOne for dining and soon my -
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BofA Custom Cash Rewards 2% back unlimited and 3% on selective 3% categories
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BofA Unlimited Cash Rewards 2.5% back on purchases
My BofA cards have both a $200 signup bonus and I plan on spending both 1K to meet up that requirement by spending 350 a month. While I am planning on getting a few more cash back cards and then waiting 24 months to get below 5/24? I plan to close down 2 Card accounts that I do not need nor give benefits that are in my wallet before doing so. I have never had a chase card so I cannot wait until the start and end of those 24months!
I'm looking for a credit card that has better cash back than my current ones. I don't really care for the travel points or anything like that. Just strictly cash back. I've heard chase sapphire is good and discover it, but I'm wondering what you all have found to be the best. Thanks!
Are you loyal to one, more than one, or none?
Mine are no more credit cards lol. I have a bunch now and a good set of categories covered. I might even let 2 of my sock drawer cards close.
Last year, I posted asking for people’s credit card plans for 2023.
How did your plans work out?
For me:
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Amex BBP - it’s been a great earner
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CapOne SavorOne - got denied, then accepted 3 months later and then they raised my credit limit
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Amex Delta Platinum - I got the personal version for a $90K SUB as a churner since I already had the Reserve. But between the companion pass and the 2500 MQDs, it’s worth keeping.
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My wife got both the Amex Delta Gold and the Barclays AA card for free checked bags.
2024 will be light. I won’t be under 5/24 with Chase until near the end of the year and I won’t be eligible for the SUB for the first card I want - the Chase WOH personal until January 2025. That’s 24 months after I got the 60K SUB for the Chase WOH Business.
I only have two cards planned for the year:
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Barclays Hawaiian Airlines Business card - the 70K miles is enough for a round trip for two to Hawaii from the west coast. We will use one of our Delta companion passes to get to a city where they fly from
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Apple Card - just for the 0% interest on some Apple gear.
I’ll probably convince my wife to get the Amex Delta Platinum to replace her Gold for the extra companion pass and the 2500 MQDs. We will be flying less next year and need the boost to keep Silver in 2025.
FWIW: the cards I already had going into this year were:
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Amex Gold
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Amex Green
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Amex Hilton Aspire
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Amex Delta Reserve
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Chase WOH Business
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Barclays AA
US BANK YOU FUCKERS I WILL GET A CARD ONE DAY DO YOU UNDERSTAND
We opened a ton of cards over the past 18 months, so we’re really dialing it back.
I have an elevated offer for the Amex BBP that I’ll almost certainly pull trigger on. Not a great bonus, but better than the standard offer.
Cancel the Venture (non-X). I got it for the SUB, and spouse already has the X.
Grab the regular Hilton Honors card if there’s an elevated SUB with a free night certificate, but that’s probably unlikely.
Have my spouse downgrade their Sapphire Preferred to a no annual fee card and add them as an AU to mine.
Possibly cancel the platinum. I want to wait and see how the DCA lounge turns out in terms of both facilities and crowding since most of our travel is out of there.
Do about $35-40K in free travel with the points we’ve socked away. We’ve got three trips booked this spring, one booked for the winter, and one penciled in for the fall.
Be on the lookout for redemption options for a trip to Asia next spring.
That’s about it for now.
What was your credit card orders and at what time points did you get them? And why? Also, if you go back in time, would you do it differently?
Few may disagree but my vote is for US Bank Cash+ Visa Signature... Generous Bonus & best rewards... take a look ...
https://www.usbank.com/credit-cards/cash-plus-visa-signature-credit-card.html
This version is out-of-date, here's the latest version of the flowchart.
This is the latest installment of the CC recommendation flowchart, originally created by u/kevlarlover years ago to answer most of the questions repeated week after week in the "What Card Should I Get?" weekly thread. It is primarily geared towards helping newer churners, though it could still be a useful reference for experienced churners too. I've outlined the major changes in a comment attached to this post.
HTML always pointing to the latest flowchart version -- you can bookmark this link and keep using it, I'll update it with newer versions as they are released
HTML of this flowchart version
Images of this flowchart version: Imgur, Imgbb and PostImage. All three are the same, but some users have reported some of these sites working better than others on certain devices -- try each and see which works best for you.
Device/Browser compability: The HTML version works well in Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge. In legacy Internet Explorer, the text-spacing is way off. It also sometimes doesn't show well on mobile (switching to landscape seems to help on iPhones, and on Android click the right-most button in the upper-left and then it'll let you pinch-to-zoom). In both cases, you can also use the image-version as a fallback.
The flowchart is meant as a general (and subjective) guide, not absolute truth. Please thoroughly read the "Limitations of this Flowchart" section.
This flowchart is also not a replacement for reading the wiki and the other excellent guides in the sidebar, though it does attempt to distill the most important and oft-asked topics concerning credit card recommendations and application strategies.
I will update the flowchart in this post occasionally (either by editing this post, or by creating a new post for major updates), as new cards enter the market and old ones are discontinued, but the flowchart will not be updated to reflect every temporarily increased sign-up bonus.
Please feel free to send me corrections, improvements, hate-mail, etc., either in the comments or via PM to u/m16p.
For reference, here's the previous three versions of the flowchart:
Early 2022
Mid 2021
Late 2020