Consolidating Spend

[afinch1992]

I think this is probably the opposite situation to most on this board, but I am considering ending the CC rewards game and consolidating most of my spend to one card/rewards system. I would like the opinions of those who have either made similar moves or have attempted this approach.

I got my first credit card about 4 years ago, but did not get into expanding my portfolio until about 18 months ago. Since then I have increase my credit lines from 3k to ~71k; picking up about 10 cards in the process. Now I am getting to the point where tracking all these cards and their rewards is becoming slightly time consuming and borderline annoying. Ive never had issues paying them as I use Mint and pay multiple times a month, but I think I may be spreading myself too thin across my cards sometimes. 

I probably won't close any cards outright, but I may let them die on their own. The only exception being my CSP if I dont consolidate to it. I usually spend around 1-2k per month depending on if there are major purchases. Most of that spend is grocery, gas, misc online purchases (a good amount on Amazon), and misc non-major category spend. At first the obvious answer would be to use my Salie Mae card nearly exclusively and maybe the Citi DC for anything not in the categories. This has been my trend the past couple of months give or take. However, I started looking at my spend and wondering if I might get similar or better returns by simply throwing all spend on a CSP (w/ Freedom for categories) or AMEX EDP. It may take a bit longer, but I would be able to achieve a larger reward (plane ticket, etc). Given the potential and average value of the UR and MR rewards, I could potentially outperform a straight cash back approach while only needing to track a single account.

Anyone have some insight or thoughts on this approach? 

[Creditaddict]

I think you have it figured out just right... you have to decide if you travel enough to make the UR rewards easy enough for you to move to some travel program which seem to be dropping like flies and then get your ticket vs just straight cash that you know at all times what you are getting.

While my partner and I have varied from time to time to do bonuses and stuff like that... we have now found for how much we travel and what now CASH is king when it comes to rewards... (for us)

[kdm31091]

Definitely see how much you can get out of the points, and go from there. It also depends on preference, some would rather redeem for cash as its more flexible, others want to eek more out of the points; the only way to do so is travel redemptions.

I do understand about consolidating and I want to pare down to 4 cards by the end of the year. Once I get a few CLIs, it's done.

CSP and Freedom would be fine if you want to consolidate down to those two -- this way, you retain the flexibility to redeem for cash back at full value, and can transfer points from Freedom, but you can increase your value with travel redemptions. If you are going to keep just two, those are a good pair for this situation.

[Anonymous]

I'm in the same boat as you OP. I think cutting down to the freedom, CSP, and Salie Mai would be a great way to go for you. It gives you the option of earning points and cash back.

[CluelessJohn]

I'm going in the opposite direction but, at the end of the day, you should do what works/makes sense for you based on your spend and your willingness to use mulltiple cards.  For years I only used Chase Freedom but realized (too late) that I was leaving money on the table.  I went on an app spree recently to reap sign up bonuses, so now I have 6 cards.  Consolidation makes sense to me on some level so I really only spend on 4 cards to maximize rewards/redemption.  With some exceptions, I get at least 2% back on what I spend.  I use Quicken, but as long as you use something similar, management is simplified.  Plus, all my cards are now arranged to cut stmts within days of one another.  That way you I only have to deal with all the cards on one day after the the last stmt is cut.  I did that today and processed $95 in cash back.  Sweet.

[CreditJim]

I can understand it. I've done the same. Almost all my spend now goes on my SPG. If I remember I'll use my Freedom or Discover for gas, but mostly I put everything on my SPG. I value those points, they're transferable to other programs, I'm covered by good protections from Amex and it just makes life easier.

[afinch1992]

thank you for the opinions and thoughts everyone. After crunching the numbers a bit with the help of a Mint export of all my 2014 activity I think that I am going to try and consolidate all my spend to mostly an AMEX EDP. There are some reaccuring items that will be on my BOA Better Balance and Cash +, but my goal was to get down to 1 main card with a back-up of another issuer in my wallet (in this case I'll carry the Cash + for times when the AMEX is not accepted or I remember its a bonus category). Forgot to mention that Amazon spend will likely go to the Sallie Mae. The rewards from that single category were too large to ignore and it will not need to see wallet time to take advantage.

I think there are probably a few more points that I could gain from adding a CSP+Freedom into the mix, but for the time being I want to simplify my credit card situation. Will update soon once I pull the trigger on AMEX

[takeshi74]

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@afinch1992 wrote:

Anyone have some insight or thoughts on this approach? 

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The same sort of analysis is required regardless of number of cards.  You have to look at your spend, where the major categories are and find the card(s) that offers the best overall rewards on that spend.  I would guess that with 1-2K/month you may be better off with cash back but you really just have to crunch the numbers.  With points/miles you also need to look at redemption as it has an impact on the value of the points/miles.  See how it all compares versus something like the DoubleCash or a 1.5% card.  With Mint you definitely have an easy tool to review historical spend.

You also have to factor in how many cards you want.  Some really want to simplify down to just one card.  Some may want a few.  With any decision it's a matter of balancing the compromises until you reach a solution that works for you.

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@afinch1992 wrote:

The rewards from that single category were too large to ignore and it will not need to see wallet time to take advantage.

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Are they really that significant if your overall spend is 1-2K?

[afinch1992]

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@takeshi74 wrote:

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@afinch1992 wrote:

The rewards from that single category were too large to ignore and it will not need to see wallet time to take advantage.

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Are they really that significant if your overall spend is 1-2K?

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Every month is different. A single $800 purchase results in nearly $25 in rewards difference between say a 2% card and a 5% (althought the 5% would cap at $750, but you get the point). My Amazon purchases alone were around 1.5k, so ~$50 in rewards difference between say a DC and Sallie Mae and around $35 difference between EDP and Sallie  

[toothgrind3r]

I'm in the same boat OP...I want to consolidate, ideally, down to one card.  Not only for simplicity, but in the back of my mind I feel it seems less lucrative to have a lot of small amounts of rewards, wether it's cash back or points, scattered across multiple cards...as opposed to having a larger amount of rewards on one card/system.

Just throwing made up numbers out here, but in one month I could get 500 Starwood points, $25 cash back with Double Cash, $50 worth of "miles" on Venture...doesn't seem very valuable to me.  If I throw all that spend onto one card, seems I would get more use of the rewards.

But that's just me.  I tried, and realized, I'm not good at rewards chasing and trying to fugure out the best value for redemption.  It's too much work for me.

Of course I wont pair it down to one card...but one main card with one or two as backup.

*EDIT*

If I could get in with Chase, I might do the CSP/Freedom combo.  Seems simple and valuable.  But Chase hates me.