Late post but frankly my credit card strategy is simply going to be reacting to life changes. Admittedly I basically got to portfolio complete a few years ago and the only upgrade is the laudable AOD card which I hopped on.
Ultimately credit needs to serve a purpose, as Remedios said we only have a finite amount of money and therefore a finite amount of spending.
My spending habits are changing, namely I dumped the boutique consulting gig that included travel, and my other one that I am keeping I am getting moved to a different part of the big giant organization and will be working out of the house except for a 10-15 minute drive to my now one client site and other than maybe going to DC or one of the giant company meetings (if we ever do those again), or unless I fall head over heels with someone who likes to travel (which kids would curtail anyway) I think I am more likely to be closing or PCing what I could.
Vis a vis is a redemption bonus worth keeping around a $450 card vs just asking Chase to switch me to a Freedom Flex when only traveling once a year? Seems unlikely, and at that point while I would probably keep swiping a Chase card default spender anyway would be AOD and really at that point it would be the only spender. 3/4 of my cards have gotten zero swipes in 2020, I am not even trying to keep them open at this point other than a few of my original and still $0 AF ones that sit on autopay.
The other thing might be shifting to groceries, maybe. Again depends how life plays out though it would be probably better financially than many other things I could do at this moment.
We'll see, there may be further credit market changes as a result of the COVID fallout much like that aforementioned Flex but I suspect after my frivolous mortgage I am mostly done applying for credit cards without a darned good reason.
I think I'm officially done for 2021.
I just hit up Discover, Citi, CapOne, NFCU and PenFed for CLI's.
Got another $2k on my Discover (bringing it to 22,500 which I'm happy about)
Citi and CapOne declined. These are particularly frustrating because I've run a lot spend through them, always PIF'd and zip.
PenFed declined, but they did just give a $20k personal loan so whatevs.
NFCU is under review. They've denied my last few requests for a CLI on my $31.5k platinum, so I asked for one on my $23.5k Amex.
I bought a house (and quite a bit of stuff to go with it) and a car and took out a $20k personal loan in 2020. The loan is actually just sitting in my bank account which is partially ridiculous to be paying interest on, but I took a huge chunk of my savings to get into the house and it makes me nervous barely having an emergency fund. My job is stable, but I moved to FL and have a job with an NYC salary. Should anything happen to that, the thought is always in my mind that it would be quite an adjustment to have to find a job in FL.
I'm going on a bare bones budget for 2021 and just paying everything down. No online shopping, no records, no tech goodies, no car mods. Debt will quickly plummet 
UPDATE: NFCU hasn't notified me yet, but the available credit on my Amex just increased by $3k
I thought I would update since my cards slightly changed. I kept thinking I would use the time of being under 5/24 to get another Chase card. I know I had mentioned the IHG Premier in other threads, ultimately I decided against it because I am not as optimistic now that travel will resume to normal levels this year, while the SUB had good value I figured I would probably stick with Marriot, I have stayed at some nice IHG properties (though I don't recommend the Holiday Inn Express SEATAC) but ultimately it wasn't enough to make me add that card.
When I posted in this thread I mentioned AOD, Chase Amazon Prime and PayPal. I have no Synch cards and PayPal emails me weekly inviting me to apply. I thought it would be a good backup in case AOD Needs their card, but I am going to wait. If AOD went down to a 2% card it would be worth continuing usage, if they drop to less I will look at PayPal.
For Chase Amazon Prime, I have maintained Prime membership for 7 or 8 years, but I went back and looked at my spend and honestly it has never been that insane. There have been years where I spend $600, at those numbers we are talking $12 difference between 5 and 3 percent. I very rarely (like maybe twice a year) go to Whole Foods. I keep the prime membership for prime video and when I do want something the fast shipping is nice so I justify it though they are making money off me probably. I decided not to add the card.
I did get approved for the AOD and I did get approved for the Elan Max Cash Preferred through my local credit union. For the ELAN I am waiting to hear back on a reconsideration for the CL as they approved me for $2000. They underwriting department is reviewing my request as I feel my profile warranted $5000 or more.
I think that will put me in the garden. I might do an SP CLI on AMEX in 6 months for grins to see if I can get above that 15k limit but overall I am going to go back to working on budgets as we work to pay off my wife's student loans and get stuff for the house.
If AOD nerfs their card, I doubt it will take the form of dropping from 3% to 2% or anything else that straightforward. I think they will probably add some 4% categories and make everything else 1%, or, something along those lines, so it's not obvious to the general public that it's a downgrade. JMO.
That said, I applied and was rejected during the latter days of the initial MyFICO gold rush on AOD, and do not feel motivated to try again at this point, for many reasons but mainly because if they rejected me before, they may reject me again, and if I did get the card, I'd expect them to nerf it the day it shows up in the mail.
Not sure what I am going to do with my credit in 2021. As AF comes up I am evaluating them card by card and deciding if its worth paying. I apped for a couple of cards back in October I believe. I am currently in the garden since my next card will likely be the CSP. My last sapphire card was approved back on 2/2/17. Unfortunatly I am not sure of what date I got the bonus points so I need to figure that out somehow so that I do not app until its been 48 months since earning the bonus. Beyond the CSP not sure what else I will target. Maybe I will get the United business card first in Feb then wait a month or two to pick up the CSP.I have the personal united card but never got the business card so I could top off my united account. I have three ink cards. One with the AF and the other two are the ink cash, so I only really need one of those and can close the other to free up credit. After those moves it will basically be watching for new card products on the horizon and maybe getting rid of some less useful cards.
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@sxa001 wrote: ... There have been years where I spend $600, at those numbers we are talking $12 difference between 5 and 3 percent.
Good for you for doing the math. Yes, once you get to 3% or so, the incremental difference on getting 5% on some spending cap, plus the possibly not even meeting the spending cap, can make for a questionable valuation on having the additional card to manage. I've been taking a look at some of my cards in that regard. But I will likely keep my Discover regardless since it's the oldest card I still have open continuously. (It will be 28 years old in June.)
