I would review each companies options including travel transfer partners.
Make a list of each travel partner you would use and then see which program would best fit your actual travel plans.
Then based on what that list shows you.
examine which cards would give you the most points for your spend. Do those two match up ? If not re-examine what is more important to you. Staying at a certain brand or traveling a certain airline versus the amount of points you would earn. Once you determine those things.
Make your selection.
For chase, they like to see a year of history and comparable limits on your cards.
CSP is a 5K SL minimum and CSR is 10K minimum.
Most chase cards are subject to 5/24 now so be mindful of that for future apps.
Make a list of each travel partner you would use and then see which program would best fit your actual travel plans.
Then based on what that list shows you.
examine which cards would give you the most points for your spend. Do those two match up ? If not re-examine what is more important to you. Staying at a certain brand or traveling a certain airline versus the amount of points you would earn. Once you determine those things.
Make your selection.
For chase, they like to see a year of history and comparable limits on your cards.
CSP is a 5K SL minimum and CSR is 10K minimum.
Most chase cards are subject to 5/24 now so be mindful of that for future apps.
@Anonymous wrote:My wife and I have spent years recovering from a Ch 13 and are ready to start adding some better credit cards to our names. We started with a secured card each (Discover and Capital One) and once those were converted to unsecured we each added the one we didn't have (Quicksilver for me and Discover It for her). Now we are trying to decide which route to go with our next cards.
Now here is the info to help with the decision. We like to travel, we just don't do it too frequently. We only fly once or twice per year, and almost always domestic flights on Southwest. However, we do travel within our state and region 4 - 6 times a year for long weekends or brief vacations. These stays are probably split 50/50 between hotels and VRBO rentals. Is this enough to justify the Chase duo of a Sapphire and Freedom cards?
Or are we better off just sticking to cash back via Amex, PenFed, Citi, etc? We spend approximately $400 per month on gas, $400 at grocery stores, another $200 - 300 at Costco, and $300 - $500 on dining out. Also is Citi as bad as many of the reviews I have seen? Lots of horror stories out there about the Costco card and Citi's poor customer service in general.
To me it appears that the Sapphire cards represent the best value with the bonus, but will it be worthwhile for us after the bonus is gone with our limited travel?
Our FICO8 scores are EQ 793 / 779 TU 768 / 699 EX 733 / 732
Any other viewpoints would be appreciated since I keep changing my mind.
In my opinion, if you go with travel cards, you're going to wind up like me, with a lot of points and rewards that go unused or are basically worthless to me. It takes a lot of planning to maximize that stuff unless you are a big high rolling airline-type traveler, which you are not. Upgrades to first class are meaningless to me because I wouldn't be caught dead in first class. When I book a flight it's coach, and when I check what I'm saving with airline miles I usually find it ain't much... e.g. half a cent, versus the one, two, or three cents cash I would have received with a cash card. Same with the hotel cards I would find the most use for.
I think you should go for the cash.
Also, at this stage in your recovery, I wouldn't gamble a hard pull on a Chase CSP or CSR. I have a couple of Chase cobranded cards which are good, the AARP Visa and the Amazon Prime Visa. Their customer service has been good. I have a Citi card, ,and haven't found any problem with their customer service. But truth be told I haven't needed much customer service from either of these big banks.
I'm basically going in a different direction myself, finding that the best cards, for my purposes, are with credit unions.
