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Within the last week I have added the following cards with the following strategy:
AMEX Gold Delta - 50k miles bonus and travel perks (baggage, priority...)
Discover IT - Alternate with Chase Freedom on quarterly rewards and no foreign transaction fees
AMEX BCE - Groceries and Gas when Freedom and Discover quarterly is not gas
BOA Cash Rewards - Alternate with BCE on spend categories
Does this sound like a solid plan? What other benefits/features of these cards am I missing?
Sounds like a solid plan indeed and seems like you got it all covered, congrats on obtaining these cards
@CreditControl wrote:Within the last week I have added the following cards with the following strategy:
AMEX Gold Delta - 50k miles bonus and travel perks (baggage, priority...)
Discover IT - Alternate with Chase Freedom on quarterly rewards and no foreign transaction fees
AMEX BCE - Groceries and Gas when Freedom and Discover quarterly is not gas
BOA Cash Rewards - Alternate with BCE on spend categories
Does this sound like a solid plan? What other benefits/features of these cards am I missing?
BCE: (And why you should have got the BCP!): gift cards at the supermarket for things not covered by other credit cards. This effectively gives you 3% off those purchases, up to the total $6K.
@longtimelurker - Got it! I need to investigate these Preferred level cards more......I imagine my spending would definitely cover the AF. I am also intrigued by the statement many people keep making that the CSP and Freedom work so well together. So still more learning for me.
CSP+Freedom duo: Basically, if you have both, points earned on the Freedom (with the 5x categories this can add up) can be transferred to the CSP account. The advantage of doing this is that you can transfer UR points to airline/hotel frequent flier/guest programs from CSP (or Ink) account, but not from Freedom.
I'd add the following:
Personally, I think the US Bank card is more valuable than either BCE or BCP. BCE is good for only 3% on groceries. BCP is good for 6%, but it can't been used as widely as US Bank can (Wal-Mart, Fred Meyer, etc.) And, unlike BCP, there's no annual fee.
For anything that doesn't fit anywhere else, there's the Fidelity AMEX - 2% accross the board.
I like the sound of choosing my own 5% categories....
@sr383 wrote:I'd add the following:
- Sallie Mae World Mastercard - %5 on gas and books
- US Bank Cash+ - %5 on any two categories of your choosing (plus 2% on a third)
Personally, I think the US Bank card is more valuable than either BCE or BCP. BCE is good for only 3% on groceries. BCP is good for 6%, but it can't been used as widely as US Bank can (Wal-Mart, Fred Meyer, etc.) And, unlike BCP, there's no annual fee.
For anything that doesn't fit anywhere else, there's the Fidelity AMEX - 2% accross the board.
For that matter Sallie Mae is also 5% on groceries, although fairly low limits ($250 per month) on each of gas and groceries.
Whether Cash Plus is more valuable than BCP really depends on what you spend on. If groceries are a big expense, this is only covered at 2% by Cash Plus, whereas if you are able to use a 5% Cash Plus category, obviously that wins as you can spend up to $8K a year (if you have no spend in the other 5% categories).
All these cards are good (Cash Plus much less so than it used to be, but still good!).
And if we are throwing things out, it's hard to beat the Citi 5x TY card from a branch, for the first 12 months. 5x uncapped gas, groceries and drug stores. Especially the drug store part...
Are Thank You points convertible to cash at 1:1 ratio?
@HiLine wrote:Are Thank You points convertible to cash at 1:1 ratio?
Via asking for a mortgage/student loan check and depositing it, yes. For statement credit or cash back, no, the rate there is very bad.