topic Re: CSR and Amex EDP? in Credit Cards

CSR and Amex EDP?

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 21:11:06 GMT

This might sound odd but looking for opinions...

I'm looking for a new credit card power combo to earn travel points but I don't "travel" much. However, I do take the toll road very day, uber occasionally, eat out daily, and "travel" a couple times a year.

For a while I was looking at doing the amex platinum and every day preferred, but I honestly just am not convinced that I will get much benefit out of the platinum past the sign up bonus.

The Chase sapphire reserve is looking more and more attractive as I can bonus for my toll road fees, uber, and food. That being said the every day preferred gives massive bonus rewards for my other every day spending (groceries, gas, etc.)

Has anyone effectively used both of these cards? I'm obviously concerned that I would be earning two different types of point currencies, but I'm not sure if that is effectively a huge issue? I'm thinking I could always use one for flights and one for hotels?

Anything I'm missing? Seems like a great combo to me. The freedom seems a bit up in the air compared to the ESP because the 5x quarterly bonus may or may not be something I would typically spend on.

Any help or insight is greatly appreciated!

Re: CSR and Amex EDP?

Shadowfactor — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 21:41:34 GMT

I see you put quotes around travel. If you don’t fly much. The CSR, Amex Platnium , or any other high end travel perks are going to be hard to justify the annual fee. They are all geared towards frequent flyer’s

The CSR is a travel card. The earning rates aren’t that great on it compared to other cards if you won’t use the travel redemption options. It’s also going to be hard to justify the huge annual fee since it includes a lot of travel related perks. The lounge access is what really offsets the rest of the annual fee. If your going to struggle to use the $300 travel credit. I wouldn’t get the card.

The same goes for Amex Everyday/preferred. They earn MR points which have great value for airline travel. The redemption rate is only .6CPP for a statement credit and even lower for gift cards.

If you Uber and eat out. Look at Uber’s cash back card. 4% back at restaurants and 3% cashback on Uber plus other bonus categories.

Amex has the BCE/BCP which are cash back cards and would be much more valuable to someone that doesn’t travel. 6% on groceries is fantastic, but you have to check if getting the extra 3% over the NoAF version makes sense for your spending. The Blue cash cards also have gas bonus categories.

Re: CSR and Amex EDP?

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 21:41:42 GMT

Thanks for the reply. I put "travel" in quotes because the amex definition of travel is seemingly very different than the chase definition. I commute daily on the toll road, occasionally use uber, and dine out often. Under the platinum card this would net me almost no points but I believe with the CSR that would generate a decent amount of points daily.

I do travel enough to use the points (that's the goal) i want to have points to use for travel/vacations as opposed to cash back.

The Chase sapphire reserve and Amex everyday preferred seems to be the perfect marriage for my needs - CSR seems to generate points for tolls, uber, and dining out while the EDP covers groceries, gas, and incidentals.

My main concern is finding an effective way to use both point systems when I "actually" travel for vacations (flights, hotels, etc.)

I currently have about 80K MR points with amex, so I'm partially committed but the combination of the EDP and CSR seems much more appealing from a point generation perspective for my usage than the EDP and Amex platinum.

Just trying to figure out if it will be impossibly restrictive to depend on two cards with different rewards currencies for redemption?

Re: CSR and Amex EDP?

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 22:05:30 GMT

I'm not sure why you would want to hold an AMEX Platinum if you only travel a couple of times a year. The $550 is not worth it unless you max out the Uber benefit and the airline fee credit, and even then you're about $150 short and then some since the point is to outweigh the annual fee, not match it. If you're a Hilton person, you're better off getting the $450/year Hilton card instead since it gives you a free night or two, $250 towards airfare fees, priority pass, and multiple Hilton credits which could be utilitzed much easier when traveling only one or two times a year. If you're a Marriott fan, I would suggest the Starwood Preferred Guest (free first year, then $95), as it earns 3x Marriott points per dollar spent. IMO you should throw the Platinum idea out in the garbage.

The Chase Sapphire Reseve is a better card than the AMEX Plat for those who don't use lounges or Uber, but unless you're spending $300+ a year on airline incidentials, the idea of using that card is next to useless to you. Yes, you can transfer to UR partners which is great, but are they useful to you? And do you spend enough to outweigh the $450 annual fee?

The Everyday Preferred with its modest annual fee of $95 is a great card... I would suggest it if you fly Jet Blue, Delta or can use it for high value points with other airline partners. Sure it doesn't include any fancy benefits with it, but what it does offer is a TON of points on spending.

I wouldn't go the route of combining EDP and CSP unless you can find one particular partner from each program that is worthwhile to you, for example: earning Hyatt points with UR cards and earning Jet Blue points with MR cards.

Re: CSR and Amex EDP?

Shadowfactor — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 22:16:45 GMT

Have you looked at USB ? They have several cards which may be beneficial to you. They don’t have travel partners to transfer to. But the portal is powered by Expedia. So if you prefer flexibility to use points for a much broader scope of airline or hotel companies. Maybe a better option.

Have you considered the CSP over the CSR?

The CSP wins over the CSR First year if you won’t take advantage of the lounge access a considerable amount of time. Both cards have the same bonus but the CSP AF is waived the first year. You would have to put a considerable amount of spend on the card to justify getting the CSR the first year.

As far as different programs go. It really is dependent on your personal habits/needs. Does one program offer a travel partner the other doesn’t ? Will you use that travel partner and get a good redemption out of it ?

The thing with Amex is that if you won’t use the transfer partners available to you. The points are only worth 1CPP if you book through the portal. So that’s a big thing.

For me. I like to find the best deal and don’t care if I stay at a Hilton, Marriott or the other big hotel companies. I like being able to pick a hotel based on the property. This is big when overseas. Some brand hotels that aren’t transfer partners might be nicer or a better deal then the companies Amex let’s you transfer to. So Amex is my airline transfer card. And I use the FlexPerks portal for hotels.

This isn’t so big of a deal with chase and Their point structure

Re: CSR and Amex EDP?

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 22:31:04 GMT

All of those reasons are essentially why I threw the platinum option out. I'm just thinking that since I eat out almost every day and spend about $200 a month on the toll road the CSR would be the way to go since my understanding is that the $300 credit applies to tolls and the the tolls plus dining would generate 3X points throughout the year in addition to the everyday spend points with the EDP?

Re: CSR and Amex EDP?

UpperNwGuy — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 22:32:05 GMT

If you rarely travel, don't get a travel card. Get a cash back card. If you travel a moderate amount, make sure your travel cards all operate in the same ecosystem. Don't try to mix a UR card and an MR card. Only frequent travellers can make that combo work. I recommend you get a 2% cash back card and use that alongside a card (or cards) with 3% category rewards for groceries, gas, and dining.

Re: CSR and Amex EDP?

mongstradamus — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 23:16:28 GMT

I have used this combo for majority of spending when I am not trying to meet MSR on any cards. It covers a lot of categories that I would want bonus on that's eating travel groceries and gasoline. I found meeting 300 travel credits is pretty easy to do. Parking tolls trains Uber that alone makes it easy to meet

Re: CSR and Amex EDP?

Anonymous — Fri, 09 Mar 2018 23:20:51 GMT

This is currently my combo and I am very happy. I started with PRG and EDP and built a bank of MR points. I canceled my PRG for the CSR which is by far my favorite card. It has more than paid for itself last year and just renewed in January. I maintain the CSR and EDP now and get way more value than the annual fee on both. I use CSR for travel restaurants and bars and EDP for everything else to ensure I meet my 30x transactions. I travel maybe 3-4x a year so semi-frequently I suppose, but definitately not enough to find the right value in the Amex platinum.

Having used both MR and UR, I do prefer UR especially with the simple 1.5 redemption in the Chase portal with the CSR. I have yet to find a better suited combo for myself at this time and have about 150k in each.

Re: CSR and Amex EDP?

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 00:22:06 GMT

Have you thought about CiTi Thank You Premier? It gives 3 times points in tolls and gas and 2 x on restaurants. Points are worth more than 1 cent. 95 dollar annual fee waived first year with 50k sign up bonus.

Re: CSR and Amex EDP?

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 01:05:53 GMT

@UpperNwGuywrote:
If you rarely travel, don't get a travel card. Get a cash back card. If you travel a moderate amount, make sure your travel cards all operate in the same ecosystem. Don't try to mix a UR card and an MR card. Only frequent travellers can make that combo work. I recommend you get a 2% cash back card and use that alongside a card (or cards) with 3% category rewards for groceries, gas, and dining.

I agree with this (in general). One question is the spend. A big pitfall with multiple programs is that an low/average spender ends up with a small number of points in each program, and might do better to focus (this is if you intend to redeem for travel, if not, avoid MRs!)

The EDP has an additional challenge when used in a combo. It's valuable when you do 30 or more swipes a month. For many, that isn't a problem, but if a whole set of transactions are going to be on the Chase card, make sure that there is enough to get 30 on the EDP.

Re: CSR and Amex EDP?

MrDisco99 — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 05:38:41 GMT

I would first figure out which points system works best for you and focus on that. If you live near a Delta hub, then MR points may work best for you. Figure out what airlines serve you best based on where you live and where you want to travel to. Then base the rewards you want to earn on that.

It sounds like you're like me. I love to travel but I don't do it frequently enough to justify paying $450 or $550 per year on a card that gives me a bunch of travelperks I may not otherwise use. I want cards that will give me rewards on everyday spend that are redeemable for travel.

For Amex MR points, the PRG and EDP seem to be a great combination. The problem with this is the high fee on the PRG. $290 per year is a bit much for both cards. You could downgrade the EDP to the ED maybe or replace the PRG with something that earns well on restaurants for a lower fee.

The Citi TY Premier is a pretty good all-around card that earns transferrable points on a very wide range of bonus categories, at half the fee of the PRG. However, the transfer partners are different, so it may be difficult to combine those points depending on which airlines work best for where you want to go. Also there isn't a large US domestic carrier among them. TY points are also useful on their travel portal, though, which gives you a little more flexiblity vs. MR points which are not worth as much on the Amex portal.

If you go with Chase UR points, then combining the Freedom cards with the CSR and/or CIP is the way to go. That may be the fastest possible way to earn transferrable points. The main obstacle to that is being able to actually get the cards if you have a lot of recent new accounts. This system works great if you fly frequently with United or Southwest, but maybe not so much for Delta. At 1.5 cents per point on their portal, though, you might not be missing much from being unable to transfer points anyway.

Re: CSR and Amex EDP?

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 06:33:55 GMT

Amex Platinum imo is only really lucrative if you fly out of an airport with a Centurion lounge.

Personally, I have 4 cards that get 5% cash back on given categories (chase freedom, us bank cash+, vantage west CU connect rewards, nusenda CU Platinum Cash rewards - 5 if you count my Target debit card) , and will end up with 3 more (discover it, Citi dividend, Chase ink cash).

I also have a CSP, so I consider basically all of the other Chase cards as my primary UR earning force. I will be getting the Amex Platinum for the Centurion lounge benefit, principally - I don't expect to have too many MR points - and the Citi Prestige for the 4th night hotel benefit, 3 hr trip delay and unlimited roadside, principally.

So to me, my core is chase, but I'm still getting MR and TY cards mainly for the perks. The travel cards basically form a base that meshes with the cash back cards so that I am always getting high cash back or higher value, point per point, travel rewards.

Re: CSR and Amex EDP?

redpat — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 11:01:52 GMT

I would suggest that you first project your spend on each reward program then apply total spend by having one reward program to see how manny reward point you can accumulate annually. Also I would sign-up for one of the airline dining programs if you live in an area that has many dining options for an addition 5x miles per dollar spent. Then take a look at all the shopping portals that are available that you might use for additional points.

In my case for example I spend about 20k in combined personal and business dining and use my CSR which gives me 60k UR, I also live in an area that has many AA dining program options and get an additional 30k - 40k miles annually from the same spend. I have also pick-up a fare amount of points on Amex Offers, ur and aa shopping portals.

Many here don’t like Amex plat but for me it’s the best travel perk card, this card wasn’t designed for reward point category spend like the CSR but it now gets all my airline spend because it”s 5x vs 3x on CSR.

There are no right or wrong answers for which cards to get, it’s basic math, spend and what perks you want out of a card. Both programs are great. As you can see in my sig it’s MR & UR and I could be a poster child for both.

Re: CSR and Amex EDP?

Anonymous — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 14:14:33 GMT

I’ve been thinking of the same combo, actually. I think this duo makes a lot of sense. It all depends on where and how you like to travel. MR points are most valuable transferred out to partners. They’re nowhere near as valuable when used in Amex’s travel portal (unless you have the business Platinum, then everything changes in this respect). With Chase, 1.5 cpp for redeeming through the travel portal is a very decent minimum value to the points. However, their airline transfer partners (except the occasional southwest flight) don’t do much for me. Transferring to Hyatt is the real value in URs to me. I just got 2.4 cpp booking rooms at a hotel in New Orleans. (That’s like a 7.2% return on the CSR or 12% return on spend on the Freedom card, hands down beating anything the BCP or other cash back cards can offer).

So, for me, I collect MR for airline point transfers and Chase UR for everything else. I do also have the platinum card, and I think it can offer a ton of value, but only in certain situations (for example, my home airport only has a Delta Sky Club. I get no lounge access in my home airport with the CSR.) However, as far as point earning potential goes, I think the CSR/EDP route has a lot of potential. Just make sure you’re getting enough extra points out of the EDP to justify the $95 AF over the ED with no AF since the EDP offers no additional benefits.