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Hey guys, been a while but starting to lurk again. I realized that it's getting old pulling the good ole wallet out and trying to figure out which card to use? I don't have a ton of cards (6 or so) but I'm thinking about sock drawing all of them and getting a charge card to use.
Any of you run into this debacle? First world problems I know...
@Broke_Triathlete wrote:Hey guys, been a while but starting to lurk again. I realized that it's getting old pulling the good ole wallet out and trying to figure out which card to use? I don't have a ton of cards (6 or so) but I'm thinking about sock drawing all of them and getting a charge card to use.
Any of you run into this debacle? First world problems I know...
Try and do an estimate of how much you gain using the "correct" card, over a generic one (e.g. 2% cashback, 1.5UR or whatever) If it is small enough to be worth losing the stress, go for it...
EDP is in top sleeve of my wallet and CSR is in second sleeve below for all dining and places that don’t take Amex. I reimburse myself for business meals and gas. So there isn’t much thinking in my two card approach.
Most of my point gathering and business spend is done online. When I travel I put in citi Exec, plat and Hilton.
Sounds like you need to consolidate cards. Hopefully by the time I'm done rebuilding, I'll have 5-6 cards max. I'm not about sub chasing or maximizing rewards, so that should be enough for me.
OP I can understand the feeling. It can get a little old and tiring trying to maximize on every category. Like LTL mentioned, figure out what works best for your overall spending go from there. In a recent post I shared that my line up is SPG Business (4x for categories), EDP (grocery & fuel - hit the 30 swipes per month to make this a 3x/4.5x MR card) and Alaska Air for everything else. I'll probably lose a point or 2 in the process but not having to worry about carrying several cards makes it with it in my situation.
Thanks for the input guys. I was thinking about just getting the AMEX platinum and making that my daily driver to make things simple. I've PIF for a couple of years now so I don't really ever carry balances (except biz always has a running balance, but still payoff statement balance each month). I thought about doing the PRG/Plat combo, but I'm only really gaining 1 point in gas/groc/rest but don't really spend all that much in those areas anyways, except biz.
I'll look at the SPG biz.
I have 6 cards as well, but I only really carry 2 in my wallet (PayPal 2% MC, and Costco Visa). The other 2, I only use online, and already set up as default payment (Amazon Visa, and Delta Amex). The last 2, I sock drawered because they are redundant.
Anyway, the reason I use Paypal MC (default) and Costco Visa (gas and food only) is because they are MC and Visa. I am sure that I will have at least 99% acceptance wherever I go that accepts credit card, unlike Amex. I even carry my Amazon Visa hidden in my wallet, but only as backup.
Wells Fargo Propel is a pretty good card for simplifying. 3% on travel, restaurants & gas.
Add a grocery card and you've got a lot covered.
The SPG Biz works out well in my situation because the wife and I like the Marriott properties (not to fond of how the merger is shaking out but that's another story) and with 2 monster, gas guzzling SUVs, her Civic SI, and my Scat Pack Charger, we burn through a lot of fuel and the 4x points work out well. We have no children so we dine out a lot so it works well there also. We both have cell phones and she has one for work and I've got my grandmother on our plan so we capitalize in that area to.
We accumulate a lot of Marriott Rewards points in a short period of time. I know a lot of folks didn't care for the 33% reduction in point value in the SPG-Marriott merger (and I don't blame them) but for us it was an increase as I was getting 1SPG (3Marriott points)/$ and now I'm getting 4 Marriott Points/$ and the change will easily net us an additional 1-2k points or more per month.
Most of the properties we frequent didn't have a category change with the merger and a couple actually went down in category so this has been a win-win for us...minus the hiccups of actually merging the rewards program.
ETA: the EDP also works out well because with our daily stops at QT for coffee or whatever it's not hard to hit the 30 swipes needed for the bonus. I grocery shop for my grandmother and occasionally things for our own home so the MR earnings there is 4.5/$ which gives me a .5 boost if I transfer those over to Marriott.