You should go ahead and apply for the American Express Premier Rewards Gold card, but today only. It will go under the same experian inquiry (99.999% liklihood). If you spend $1,000 on it in 90 days, you will get 50,000 MR points. That is worth around $1,000 for travel, or 250-500 in gift cards. Plus, you get $100 in travel credit now, and again january 1st, which you could buy airline gift cards in $50 increments. I would start combining apps and inquiries here at your rate you are going to have 25 inquiries like me lol.
But seriously though, part of me kind of wanted to question your motives...I wanted to say list your spend and its categories so you can apply for better cards. Sounds like you already have a good paying job, and charging equipment seems to help you with work. So that is great. If these help you then so be it.
Your utilization would really benefit from the Amex PRG card though. You could charge 5 or 10 grand on it (if amex allows it, you can check your spending ability online before purchases) and not have your score go down. You have to google amex prg from an incognito or inprivate browser to get the 50k mr point offer to pop up. This is a charge card and must be paid in full each month. You may get options to carry balances over time but that charges interest.
The PRG has a $195 annual fee, but its waived the first year. Plus you just got the ED and that is a place to keep membership rewards points with no annual fee if you decide to cancel the PRG card.
You may benefit from delving deeper into how you spend and on which card. A person that prefers Delta airlines would take the ED/PRG combo....whereas someone that likes United would take Chase. If you spend enough it doesn't matter, just gives you more flexibility. Someone who stays at hotels a lot would take the Citi Prestige or the Amex SPG.
But really you could try to think of a fun vacation idea and share it here and maybe get some pointers on which cards to be using to get there. Paying interest does negate any rewards in most cases. You'd be fine now carrying some balances with intro periods.
The nice thing about your current ED card is it does have a charge card feature. You can spend over your $3800 limit but any portion over the limit must be paid by the due date plus the minimum payment amount. I would also highly encourage you to use this new amex ED card for at least a few months and pay it in full before you request a credit limit increase of $11,400. This is known as an Amex 3x CLI. They have really tightened the reigns with increases, I was denied at approval for an increase, and also at the 90 day mark. 6 months is what it took for me to go from $5k to 15k. Once you hit a 25k limit they will ask for tax documents. Of course you could just switch to your BCE and request increases on it after your first few with the new ED. Just know 90 days between denials across all cards, and 6 months between approvals across all cards. You could start using the chat feature and ask for APR reductions. Have you completely given up on this BCE and just quit using it because of the low limit? You might have to show amex some love on the new ED and then they will approve increases down the road on your other accounts.
Do you own your own business?
