A question that I often get is what cards do you have in your wallet.
Since things change so often in this hobby, I thought it would be good to step back and
review the cards that I’m using right now in 2019.
Hey, how’s it going everyone?
It’s Ernest from Trip Astute.
If you’re in the US, hope you had a great 4th of July.
In this video, we’re going to review what credit cards have stayed in my wallet, which
ones are new, and which may be leaving soon.
The last time I did this sort of video was at the end of last year, so I thought it would
be good for me to do another one at the mid-year point.
Of course, we all have different lifestyles and spending patterns, but I think hearing
what others are carrying and why can help inspire others, especially if you have similar
spending patterns or goals.
But first, if you’re new here, welcome to our channel.
Trip Astute is a travel channel that is focused on sharing ways to make travel easier, affordable,
and more enjoyable.
Traveling can be stressful and expensive, so we’re looking for ways to help you maximize
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If that sounds interesting to you, please consider subscribing.
To start off, we’ll cover the newcomers in my wallet this year.
1.
Chase Ink Business Unlimited: I already have the other two Ink Business cards, so I thought
I’d get the third and final card.
It came with a 50,000 point welcome offer with no annual fee, so it seemed like a great
deal.
Also, I seem to be putting the majority of my business spending on this card now.
Since a lot of my expenses for Trip Astute are around technology products and services,
this seems like a better card for those purchases in terms of earning points.
Also, in case you’re wondering, when I applied for the card, I didn’t get an automatic
approval.
It took about two weeks for me to hear the approval status change when calling the Chase
status line.
I got a $3000 credit limit too, which wasn’t much, so I ended asking to have some of the
credit line moved from my other Chase business cards.
2.
American Express Blue Business Plus: I wasn’t planning to get this card, but I received
a targeted offer from American Express for 20,000 Membership Rewards points.
I decided to get it since I’m also earning Membership Rewards points with my Gold Card.
I also figured that if I decide to cancel the Gold card, then it this would be a great
card to have in order to retain my Membership Rewards points.
Despite my crazy planning and strategy, it is a great business credit card with its 2X
points on all purchases and no annual fee.
3.
Citi Dividend: If you’ve seen our rotating bonus categories videos, you’ll know that
I now have this card.
The card is not available for new applicants, but it is available as a product change.
Since I had a Citi Double Cash card that wasn’t being used, I figured I would product change
it to the Citi Dividend to take advantage of the rotating 5% cash back categories.
Apparently, Citi will allow you to convert most of their cards to the Dividend card.
Even co-branded and Thank You rewards cards seem to be eligible for conversions.
This might be a consideration if you have a Citi card that you want to cancel or downgrade.
4.
American Express Blue Cash Everyday: This is another card that was a result of a product
change.
I used to use the American Express Blue Cash Preferred for all my grocery and fuel expenses
since it earns 6% on groceries and 3% on fuel.
However, since I got the American Express Gold Card, that’s become my primary card
for groceries.
Though this might change before the end of the year.
It depends on whether I’m going to keep the Gold card, which I’ll touch on later
in this video.
And now, here are the cards that have become a regular part of my everyday carry this year:
1.
Chase Sapphire Reserve: No surprises here.
You all know how much I love Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
I still get a lot of value from my Sapphire Reserve.
The $300 travel credit is very easy to redeem, so it makes the annual fee feel more like
$150.
Plus, I have to admit that having the Priority Pass lounge benefit has been very useful when
traveling.
In fact, I’ve even had a chance to use the restaurant credit a few times at the airport.
The $30 credit per person is a great perk and really helps to offset the annual fee,
along with all the other benefits from the card.
Some of you might be wondering why I would continue to keep the Sapphire Reserve when
I have the American Express Gold for dining out purchases.
It’s a good question, and it’s an area where I honestly feel a bit conflicted.
Since I’m not 100% sold on keeping the Gold card after my first year, I wanted to keep
the Sapphire Reserve.
Plus, the travel bonus category is valuable to me, along with the lounge benefit.
I know that many people have had problems with lounges claiming no additional capacity
for Priority Pass members.
However, we’ve still managed to maximize the benefit and save money on food or drinks
while traveling.
2.
Chase Ink Business Cash: This is a powerhouse business card that I love.
I have another small business that I run, so I use the Ink Business Cash for all those
expenses.
I also charge my internet and streaming services on this card since it earns five points per
dollar on purchases from office supplies stores, internet, cable, and phone services.
This card easily earns me over 1000 Ultimate Rewards points per month with just my normal
spending, and it doesn’t have an annual fee.
I’ve also been driving a lot more for work with my new job, so this has become my primary
fuel card since I’ve been filling up my tank at a Costco Gas near my office.
3.
Chase Freedom: This is another workhorse in my wallet.
In fact, this is my favorite rotating bonus category card since it also earns Ultimate
Rewards points.
There are always a few quarters during the year where I’m able to earn 7,500 Ultimate
Rewards points.
Since the card has no annual fee, it’s definitely staying in my wallet.
4.
Chase Freedom Unlimited: This is my go-to card for most of my non-bonus spend.
Like the Ink Business Unlimited, it only earns 1.5X points on all purchase.
But since I can redeem each point at 1.5 cents using my Sapphire Reserve on the Chase Travel
Portal, the Freedom Unlimited has an adjusted earning rate of 2.25%.
If that doesn’t make any sense to you, check out our points value video for more information.
5.
US Bank Cash Plus: This is another 5% rotating bonus category card.
However, the catch is that you get to pick your 5% categories every quarter.
It also has some 2% categories where you can earn unlimited cash back.
I primarily use it to earn 5% on my gym membership.
You can also use it to earn 5% on home utilities.
It’s a great card to have to fill in some of the bonus category gaps in your card collection.
Oh, and if you’re wondering whether I prefer points or cash back, I generally prefer to
earn points.
However, when I do earn cashback, I like to allocate it toward my travel budget.
6.
Discover It: Like the Chase Freedom and Citi Dividend card, the Discover It earns cash
back on rotating bonus categories.
It’s not one of my favorite cards, but it does have useful categories and I’ve had
it for a long time.
Ok, so those are the cards that I actually carry in my wallet.
However, I do have a bunch of other credit cards that I don’t necessarily carry with
me all the time, but keep active since I get some kind of benefit or reward with them.
Here a list of cards that I have as well:
1.
Chase IHG Rewards Club Select: I’ve covered this card in many of our videos.
I keep it because I get Platinum Elite Status with IHG, and more importantly, a free anniversary
night certificate as part of my $49 annual fee.
These two perks are worth so much more than the annual fee.
Chase is trying to get me to upgrade to the new IHG Rewards Club Premier card, but honestly,
I don’t feel rushed to do it.
There are a few compelling new perks, like the free night when you redeem points for
stays that are four nights or more.
However, I don’t want to pay the $89 annual fee right now.
That may change in the future when we start planning our trips for 2020.
The next card on my list is the Chase Hyatt card.
I still have the older Hyatt card which has now been replaced by the World of Hyatt card.
Like the IHG Rewards Club card, the older card provides a bump in loyalty status and
a free night every year with an annual fee of $75.
The World of Hyatt card offers additional perks and benefits at $95 per year.
There are a ton of awesome hotels in Hyatt’s portfolio where you can use your annual certificate.
Since I can almost guarantee that I’ll get a room for more than the value of the annual
fee, it’s worth me keeping this card.
Also, a lot of people have asked me whether I prefer the IHG Rewards Club Premier or World
of Hyatt.
For me, they are both great cards to have.
The way I see it, the IHG Rewards Club Premier gives you a more valuable status upgrade and
redemption perk, though I tend to avoid transferring Chase UR points to my IHG account since the
points tend to hold less value.
The opposite seems to be true for Hyatt.
The status bump doesn’t get you much, but I’m more likely to transfer Chase UR points
over to Hyatt since I can get fairly decent award redemptions with my points.
Next is the Chase United MileagePlus Explorer card.
I never use this card, but I keep it for the lounge passes, free check-in baggage, priority
boarding, and additional award availability.
If you have this card, you’ll actually see more award seat availability for flights when
redeeming points.
To me, these benefits are worth the $95 annual fee.
I’ve contemplated getting rid of this card for a while, but the additional award availability
and perks keep me from canceling it.
Lastly, I do have two USAA credit cards that are also in the drawer.
I got both of these credit cards when I was a cadet in college.
The only reason I even keep these cards is because they are my oldest credit cards, so
canceling them would probably affect my credit score since it would decrease my average age
of accounts.
And sadly, there are three credit cards that are on the chopping block this year.
I haven’t actually canceled these cards, but I’m trying to decide how I’m going
to move forward.
In fact, I’ll probably only cancel one of them, so I’d love to get your opinions on
which I should keep.
The first card that might be leaving is the American Express Gold Card.
I know I keep hinting that I’m going to cancel the Gold card, and I have to admit
that I’m leaning in that direction.
It’s mostly because I really prefer Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
Even though I can earn more points with the Gold card, I am just less excited about earning
Membership Rewards points.
I know I might be crazy, but I just prefer the flexibility that I get with Chase’s
Ultimate Rewards.
Also, while I like having a strong reason to go to Shake Shack every month, I don’t
know that it’s something that I would normally do.
In fact, I’m just not a fan of how American Express structures their credit redemptions.
I just find them harder to use for my lifestyle.
So, sadly, this card is probably going to be canceled this year.
That means that I’ll likely product change the American Express Blue Cash Everyday back
to the Blue Cash Preferred and make it my primary grocery and fuel purchase card.
Even though it earns cash back instead of points, I can put it toward our travel budget.
The second card on the chopping block is the Chase Ink Business Preferred.
This was my primary business card for Trip Astute.
Though to be honest, I’m not sure I am going to keep it.
I’ve shifted most of my business spending onto the Ink Business Unlimited, which seems
to be a better fit for my business spending patterns.
There are two reasons I am hesitating with canceling the card.
One is that I do like the cell phone protection offered by the card.
I’ve never used it, and I’m usually careful with my electronics, so it might not make
sense for me to pay the annual fee just for this perk.
The second reason is no foreign transaction fees.
A few of my business expenses for storage and website plugins are outside the US, so
I’d much rather have the charge on a card that doesn’t have foreign transaction fees.
The other card is the Chase Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business.
This is another card that I’m just not using.
I got it since I wanted to extend my Southwest Companion Pass another year, and the welcome
offer points counted toward the qualification.
The good thing is that the card has an annual benefit that mostly offsets the $99 annual
fee.
However, with the new Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business card that just came out,
it might be worth canceling this card and applying for the new one.
I like that the new card has some overlap with the Ink Business Preferred in bonus categories,
and I think I could use the upgraded boardings and inflight wifi credits.
My original plan was to cancel the Ink Business Preferred and keep the Southwest Rapid Rewards
Premier Business card instead since it doesn’t have any foreign transaction fee.
Though now that the new card is out, it’s complicated things a bit more for me.
If you have any thoughts or suggestions on what I should do, I’d love to hear it.
And that’s my wallet wrap up for July 2019.
I’m thinking of doing a review of Fiona’s wallet as well.
She’s not as hardcore as me when it comes to maximizing points, so I think it might
be fun to look at what cards she uses and how we navigate earning points when we have
different levels of interest in this hobby.
If that’s something that you’d want to see, let us know.
Also, I’d love to hear what cards have joined, stayed, and left your wallet this year.
If you’re interested in applying for a credit card, we would love it if you used our link
in the video description or on our website.
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be valuable and helpful.
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sign-up for our free card consultation service.
You basically fill out a questionnaire and schedule a 15-minute video or audio call with
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Until next time, travel safe and travel smart.