I've been lurking these forums for a while, trying to figure out what travel card is best for me. As of now my fico 8 equifax score is 748 and I have around 25% utilization (which is mostly 0% apr store cards). I have not applied for a new credit card in a few years, the newest being my amazon card from 2012.
A little more history about me:
- I am 29 years old
- I make ~52k per year
- I still go to school, have a few federal loans
- I travel for work sometimes, depends on the year (like 1-2 times a year average).
- I travel for fun or go home 1-3 times per year.
- I spend anywhere to 1-2k per month on my cards
- I currently have a Chase checking account, but I believe they got rid of the checking account bonus for ultimate rewards?
Here is a list of my current cards and limits:
- Chase Freedom: 6500
- Amex Everday: 2000
- BoA card (joint account): 12000
- Bestbuy store card: 5000
- Amazon store card: 6000
I keep going back and forth between a few options:
- Chase Sapphire Preferred combination with Chase freedom. Use the chase sapphire for travel and dining and chase freedom for everyday purchases. The benefits of going this route are the vast amount of options I would get form ultimate rewards. I also would fly mostly southwest, where the wanna get away fares would equate to 1.4 points per dollar. One thing I am not clear on is if the 20% bonus from using UR applies to the rapid rewards (if I transferred points to southwest, do you get 1.2 per point??). I would also get 40,000 bonus miles, but there is a 95 dollar yearly fee after the first year...
- Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier, Chase Freedom, and Amex Everday combo: Use the Chase Freedom card for the 5x bonus groups, Southwest for traveling via southwest, and amex for the rest. The major bonus of going this route is the 6,000 bonus points you get per year with southwest and the 50,000 signup bonus. I'm sure there are traveling promotions as well where you receive more reward points for certain flights and hotels.. However, the downsides are only 1 points per dollar for almost everything besides flying via Southwest and the 99 dollar fee (which is pretty much covered by the 6,000 bonus points though).
- Upgrade to Amex Everday preferred. Get 4.5x for groceries, 3x for gas, and 1.5x for everything else. This seems like you I could get the most points total, but there would be no signup bonus for me and I cannot use it for southwest (although I could use it for other flights, I just normally use southwest for the price and free baggage). There is also a 95 dollar yearly fee.
I'm sure there are other options out there, these are the main cards that look the best to me. I would go with the Chase Sapphire Preferred in a heartbeat, but after the first year I'm not sure the 95 dollar fee would be worth it. The main reason to go with it is to be able to transfer my Chase Freedom UR points for traveling... The Southwest card pretty much pays for itself per year, but the points you get for using the card are pretty bad. Lastly, the Amex Everday Preferred will net me a lot of points but I do not get a signup bonus because I would just upgrade my current preferred card.
What are your thoughts? And thanks for the input in advance!
