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I have recently been trying to maximize our cash back but my DH has such a wide variety of card's it's been a bit of a mess.
Here's a list of his cards:
Chase Freedom Unlimited (Considering PC to Freedom Flex)
Chase Amazon Visa (Only Amazon and Whole Foods)
American Express Platinum (No Use considering downgrading)
American Express Gold (4x Resturants and Supermarkets)(Should we swap Amazon Visa to only Amazon and have gold be whole foods card?)
American Express Green(3x on subway swipes however barely ever used)
American Express Everyday(Useless card at this point)
American Express Everyday(formerly Optima Plat.)(See Above)
BOFA Customized Cash(Current 5% online shopping)
BOFA Unlimited Cash (Possible PC to 2nd Custom Cash)
Discover It Cash Back
Citi Custom Cash
Elan MCP (Current categories cell phone, insurance, fast food)
Anyone have any suggestions on swapping feel free to ask questions for example if you want to know what categories would be best. The freedom flex pc would be worth it he and me believe as the freedom unlimited dosen't seem to offer anything we need at the moment.
Well, you mention cash back as a goal, however nearly half his cards are MR earning AMEX cards, so that leads to the clarifying question: Do you, or does he, value MR points for Travel at all, or has the goal truly shifted to Cash Back. If there is no interest in MR points, then the advice to use one of the EveryDay cards 20+ times per month to get 1.2MR on general spend has no relevance. The Gold as a dining and grocery card seems to indicate some value may be placed on those MR points.
Are the AMEX Charge Cards ( Platinum, Gold, Green ) being used for the various credits and offers? That's a ton of Annual Fee as a starting point. What is your calculated net Annual Fee after credits? In a Cash Back world, that AF boulder can drown any potential Cash Back earnings, no matter how they are optimized, unless you've taken advantage of all the available credits to chip away at the AF boulder.
Is the Citi Custom Cash being focused on one $500 category each month, to max that one? If you had to choose, where should you use this card monthly? ( this card is earning in ThankYou points, which is more valuable as a travel transfer to similar / parallel travel partners for some of the AMEX and Chase points, but the open question about whether Travel is a goal...)
The Freedom Unlimited earns UR points, and 1.5 on general spend, 3 UR points on dining, so there's that. With no CSP nor CSR, there's no transfer capability, but is the 3% on dining interesting with this card? Freedom Flex categories can be quite useful, so a PC certainly could be entertained.
Which category for the BofA CustomizedCash would you use? Is 5% online shopping a good maximization of that card? I have no idea what the categories are, what would a second version of this card open up, as your second category choice?
We do value our MR points. The majority of his cards are cash back cards. The platinum card is worth value for when we travel. Gold is a good card too earning us a lot of points each month. The green card sorta is in a word spot. You are right however some downgrades most likely to the platinum may be worth it for that large af. We do take advantage of the SirusXM and Equinox offers which was cool to see them add.The Citi Custom Cash is being focused on dining to max then we swap dining to the Freedom Unlimited/Gold Card but the Freedom Flex also earns 3% on dining so we intend to pc soon. A second BOFA card would enable it to be used as a gas category card.
Ok, then I would lobby for using the Gold card for all groceries and dining, because that's going to help build up your stock of MR points. It takes a lot of MR to do anything fun
DH has an excellent starting line up of travel-funding cards. My further suggestion would be to max out the $500 monthly category on the Citi Custom Cash, and save those TY Points. Keep an eye on the Citi Premier, to get that SUB and transfer TYP to an airline.
Where is he in the 5/24 race? Consider adding a new Freedom Flex for the SUB, and ability to earn grocery points for 12 months. Keep those UR points from CFU and CFF. Then consider getting a CSP to transfer UR points.
Both the Premier and CSP will add hundreds of dollars worth of points toward travel, and well placed SUB earning will beat daily cash back, while those SUB's can be had.
That gets back to my first question, whether you value travel or strict cash back. I would argue he has a lot of potential earning to get through just to take advantage of travel points offers, so he's not really looking for cash back. Later, sure, but there's a few years of travel point earnings ahead first.