Congrats on the EDP approval. Since that works best with 30 swipes per month, I would relocate the recurring subscriptions to EDP, reallocate limit and close the Cash Magnet. 1.5 MR earnings beats 1.5%.
If you are happy with the Bonvoy Priority Pass then closing the Platinum would make sense. The Gold still earns 3 MR on airline tickets, not bad compared to 5 MR with a high AF required.
@jetsfan2013 wrote:Hello All,
I believe I have maxed out the Amex personal card relationship, however wanted thoughts on what I should potentially downgrade or close.
- Cash Magnet - No AF is nice, however I use just for recurring subscriptions at this point.
- Aspire - Only 1 Hilton hotel stay scheduled in 2022 (family wedding), will likely downgrade card and shift some of $4K CL to EDP/Bonvoy
- Bonvoy - Personal/Business travel preference is Marriott over Hilton
- Platinum - Used much more pre-pandemic. Now with travel starting to ramp up, could see it being used a bit more, however on the fence
- Gold - Used exclusively for Restaurant and Groceries, averaging $600/mo spend
- EveryDay Preferred - Just approved ($5K), intended to use as daily driver
I could see the EDP and Gold staying in my wallet daily, with the Bonvoy and (potentially) Platinum being used as needed. Downgrade the Honors Aspire and continue to sockdrawer the Cash Magnet was my initial plan. Thoughts?
Should I can Platinum and just keep Gold?
With Platinum and Gold, it's all about your personal calculations to include:
- How much of the credits are you able to use and is it organic spending you would have done if you didn't have those cards? What was your effective net AF on each card last year after redeeming credits?
- What is your spending analysis by category? If it is (or will be) very highly slanted towards airfare (Platinum) or Dining Out / Groceries (Gold), that could lead you to a good solution. Your $7200 annual spending on Gold sounds significant enough to keeping it.
- What value do you place on perks such as airport lounge access for Platinum?
- Considering the above, what value are you getting per MR and are any of the AFs dragging down your overall potential return?
I agree with @NRB525 that closing Cash Magnet is probably a good idea as well as downgrading the Hilton Aspire.
EDP is a wonderful, underrated daily driver. As long as you are hitting 30 swipes, it beats your Gold card for MR for groceries as well as being a solid return on non-category purchases.
It gets harder to hit 30 swipes the more cards you are juggling, so keep that in mind. That being said, before I switched to the BCP, I was able to maintain the 30 swipes a month by some patience at the self-checkout once a month.
Did you say you have both the Marriott personal and business Amexs? Maybe ditch your Gold card entirely and use the Marriott Business AmEx for restaurants. Marriott points aren't strictly worth as much as MR points, but if Marriott is what you end up using them on, then it's an equal trade and would allow you to cancel the gold card (since both restaurants and groceries are covered by the EDP and Marriott Biz) unless you just gotta have those credits. The Marriott Biz has better additional categories than the Marriott Brilliant, with 4x restaurants, gas, and shipping being pretty solid returns, and somewhat overlooked by those who have spread spending across several cards... valuing Marriott points at 0.8cents, means a return of 3.2 for those categories if you're weighting them. 4 points straight obviously if you transfer them to Marriott anyways from AmEx outside of a bonus deal.
I agree with cancel the Cash Magnet, your EDP will cover what it did but better. Maybe cancel the Aspire and go all-in on Marriott, since you're already 2 cards deep with them (so is P2 and it's a fantastic value for him).
Biz - 
@wasCB14 wrote:
@unsungivy wrote:It gets harder to hit 30 swipes the more cards you are juggling, so keep that in mind. That being said, before I switched to the BCP, I was able to maintain the 30 swipes a month by some patience at the self-checkout once a month.
Stores (at least the places I shop) don't seem open to that anymore. Clerks intervene and "help" (usually causing things with poor packaging to spill out, or re-scanning items I already paid for).
Either they're worried that a line may form behind me, they think I'm trying to steal, or they think I don't know what I'm doing.
To each their own, of course, but this is a great example of one of the extraordinary things that I'm just not willing to do for credit card rewards. (Or to put occassional small swipes on my cards just to show activity.) Unfortunately, AMEX has its' fair share of these annoying hoops they try to make consumers jump through. Even keeping up with the monthly credits on the Gold card are extra work and detract from rewards return, which is a major reason I'll probably just close it. It's also the same reason I've mostly erred away from the rotating category cards; they sound like high rewards but in reality, for many people the incremental rewards are a lot of work for less than they may have expected. I prefer a more simple and consistent methodology when I reach for my cards. More uncapped and uncategorized rewards or higher rewards in certain categories that don't change, such as my Citi Costco for gas at 4% or my BofA Customized Cash Rewards at 3.5% for grocery-warehouse or my Chase Sapphire Reserve for 3%-4.5%-6% on dining out, depending on how I redeem URs.
@Aim_High wrote:
@wasCB14 wrote:
@unsungivy wrote:It gets harder to hit 30 swipes the more cards you are juggling, so keep that in mind. That being said, before I switched to the BCP, I was able to maintain the 30 swipes a month by some patience at the self-checkout once a month.
Stores (at least the places I shop) don't seem open to that anymore. Clerks intervene and "help" (usually causing things with poor packaging to spill out, or re-scanning items I already paid for).
Either they're worried that a line may form behind me, they think I'm trying to steal, or they think I don't know what I'm doing.
To each their own, of course, but this is a great example of one of the extraordinary things that I'm just not willing to do for credit card rewards. (Or to put occassional small swipes on my cards just to show activity.) Unfortunately, AMEX has its' fair share of these annoying hoops they try to make consumers jump through. Even keeping up with the monthly credits on the Gold card are extra work and detract from rewards return, which is a major reason I'll probably just close it. It's also the same reason I've mostly erred away from the rotating category cards; they sound like high rewards but in reality, for many people the incremental rewards are a lot of work for less than they may have expected. I prefer a more simple and consistent methodology when I reach for my cards. More uncapped and uncategorized rewards or higher rewards in certain categories that don't change, such as my Citi Costco for gas at 4% or my BofA Customized Cash Rewards at 3.5% for grocery-warehouse or my Chase Sapphire Reserve for 3%-4.5%-6% on dining out, depending on how I redeem URs.
I would do it again if I went back to the EDP being my daily driver... but atm it doesn't make sense for me, and I don't see that being the case again anytime soon. I agree with rotators being too much of a PITA, and that's why I ditched my Discover IT card (although I will make an exception for Affinity).