Looking for advice on next slew of travel point cards

[Anonymous]

Looking for some advice. I recently got the Citi Prestige and Citi Premier. The Prestige AF is no big deal because work benefit offsets the annual fee (travel a lot so lounge fees/membership/"access" in my case is covered). I got the Premier to get the 3X on gas/taxis as that's a huge chunk of my spend.

Another huge chunk is groceries, which I'm lacking.

So with that among other things, including how even though TYP has transfer partners they may be weak, I've been thinking of applying for the PRG, EDP, and CSP.

Now, first, if I did all three over the next year or so...I should get the CSP first, right? So that Chase won't deny me despite nice income/credit history and due to multiple new accounts?

That being said, I really want the EDP/PRG as EDP would probably become my "main" card with the supermarket/gas bonus and also 30 swipe bonus. PRG I could use for restaurants/travel, and I could start using MR over TYP. I would also gain benefits if I book with AET.

However, I keep hearing about how great transfer partners are for UR, which is why I'm considering CSP. The main weakness is no gas or supermarket bonus, and gas/taxi would only be 2X, not 3X (if I stuck with TYP). But I keep hearing that points are more with them since they have great partners.

So what do you all advise?

I think my plan of redemption would mainly (if not only) be transfer to partners for business/first international travel. I don't plan on using points for their value (i.e. 1.6 TYP for AA/US with my Prestige), won't use them for domestic rewards/redemption either. At this point, I am not sure which cards I'll cancel, or if it's just a good idea to earn TYP, UR, MR rather than pool all my spend into one program.

Thoughts?

EDIT: Also note I think I may try and see if I can PC my Delta Platinum (which I was planning to cancel or PC anyway) to the EDP if I go that route so that I don't get a hard pull and maybe it'll keep the backdating my Delta Plat already has on my credit report.

[Anonymous]

Why not get CSP and Freedom for the rotating categories? That pairing is, probably, one of the best on the market right now.

Aside from that, I would reccomend CSP and the AmEx BCP. BCP can be your gas and supermarket card, while CSP can do everything else. BCP isn't a point card, but the statement credits keep extra money in your pocket.

[longtimelurker]

---

@Anonymous wrote:

Why not get CSP and Freedom for the rotating categories? That pairing is, probably, one of the best on the market right now.

Aside from that, I would reccomend CSP and the AmEx BCP. BCP can be your gas and supermarket card, while CSP can do everything else. BCP isn't a point card, but the statement credits keep extra money in your pocket.

---

Cash back isn't going to be useful if the goal is international premium cabin travel, you need points.     And as OP says, there aren't great UR cards for groceries.

OP, depends on your spend.  If you can spend enough on three programs to build up "enough" rewards in all, then that's good and decreases risk associated with devaluations etc.   But otherwise you might want to concentrate your spend on one or two programs, and in your categories, MR might be the best with EDP/PRG as you suggest.

[Anonymous]

Yup. I am at a conundrum now. Now I'm thinking just stick with my Premier/Prestige and hope transfers work out. It just seems like each program I'm missing out on someting. TYP I am missing out on better transfer partners + grocery. MR I am missing out on hotels/taxis (which is a big spend on for personal spend and also work spend). UR I am missing out on gas/groceries unless I get lucky with the categories but have great transfer partners.

Oh well! I'll pick something at some point. Also I realized that EDP probably won't become my main spend and I may not hit the 30 transaction bonus because it has no bonus on taxi/restaurants which is where a lot of my more-frequent-but-lower-cost transactions occur. IF I decided to pool MR points, I'd use PRG in that case...

[Anonymous]

Alright so I put together a spreadsheet of all the earning rates and it definitely seems like my Citi Premier wins out. The only thing that makes me hesitate is the lack of groceries and the potentially less useful transfer partners.

When I took a snapshot of my spend (the spend on my new Prestige to meet the spend limit before switching to my new Premier), I looked at what could potentially earn bonuses on tha various cards I've mentioned. Well it turns out that 47% of my spend is groceries, 8% is taxis, 34% is restaurants, and 9% is gas. Keep in mind I didn't travel for work/pleasure at all in this timeframe, which would, of course, add to the airfare, hotel, gas, and taxi categories (and take away from groceries).

But it seems that groceries is a pretty good chunk of my spend, so I really ought to get points there, maybe with the EDP. But I don't want to lock myself out of UR for two years if I get the EDP + PRG first...but then again, I don't need to get a full "pair"...I could get an EDP, then a CSP, be glad I have the CSP for 2 years. Apply for PRG later.

Another thing I'm thinkng of is trying to see if I can PC my Delta Amex to EDP (hoping to do new app for PRG for bonus whenever I do plan to do it), or my Marriott Premier to Chase Freedom. That'll save me an new card/pull, eh?

[Anonymous]

My latest thoughts are that I want to pool my spend on MR since that's where most of the bonus multiplier for my spend exists...except that PRG+EDP will leave a gap in hotels/taxis, and I often use taxis/ubers...

[red259]

I understand you looking at bonus categories and the best card for each category. However, what I would suggest is trying s different approach and look at how you want to use your travel redemptions and locations you want to visit. Then determine which travel partners hotels/airlines you want to use and determine the applicable credit card reward program. This may help make your decision easier. There is nothing wrong with MRs but they will only work if you can use their travel partners. If its not a good fit then they won't be as high value to you as other credit card rewards even with the bonus.

I also agree with the point above. If you have a decent amount of spend and can build up balances across different programs that is good, if your spend is more limited then you may want to focus on certain programs so you can get to redemption level. By way of example for my current trip I had points spread out across different programs. I had the amex spg card which allowed me to top off my AA miles for a redemption in first and I still had points left over that I ended up redeeming for three nights at starwood properties (even though I have never stayed at one of their properties before). This is an example where having points in multiple programs, even if its not a huge number of points really helped me fill in the gaps. 

If you can use Amex MRs I think the PRG/EDP is a great combo. If you want in with chase you should make the CSP your first stop and ideally getting the Freedom to go with it s the cards pair well together. July-September you can get 5x back on fuel with the freedom for the first 1.5k spent. 

[red259]

Another thing to look at is the travel partners that you use which accept points from different credit card programs. In my example above I topped off my AA account with points from ym Amex SPG. I also had a citi AA exec card that earned me miiles, so two different cards with different lenders worked together for one redemption. You can move URs and MRs (at least for a few months at a decent value) into BA as another example. So it goes back to who you want to redeem with and see if there is synergy between the different credit card programs and the travel partner you wish to redeem on.