If you frequently fly with a particular airline then an airline card may be a good choice, but I tend to prefer the more generic travel cards. Capital One Venture cards, Chase Sapphire, Mercury World Elite, AmEx BCE / BCP, etc... There's a lot of good options, and lots of decent SUB's. It's going to depend on how many cards you're willing to rotate between to take advantage of different categories, and whether you want to stick with particular hotel or airline chains as well.
IMO, go w/ EDP card and only use that with the DW. After 30 swipes it's a 9X, 6x and 3x card vs 8x, 2x value of MR points. So even with getting 4x dining and grocery but getting every at 3x the extra you get with the gold wounldn't make that much of a difference.
In addition, you can MR points using Rakuten.
Personal Cards: Amex Plat | Amex Delta Res | CSR | Citi AA Exec Business Cards: Ink+ | Amex BGR
The Gold card has two main types of credits, which goes a long way to reducing tht $250 AF. Uber Eats and GrubHub are how I apply mine.
The EDP may get slightly more points on groceries, but not much on dining and the groceries are capped at $6,000 per year. There is also no way to cut down the $95 AF on the EDP.
The MR ponts from the Gold are great for airlines, but not going to cover all your travel costs such as hotel and rental cars. So some of your travel points planning should identify whether you intend to fly there, or driving to something more local, as well as what the likely hotel brand is involved.
How close are you to 5/24? In travel points, one must seriously consider Chase early on, due to the flexibility of those points.
When it comes to travel cards, you have to decide what you want it for. Do you want it for the benefits, such as insurance? Or is lounge access your primary motive (sometimes people forget lounge access is possible without a credit card). Or do you want a card for rewards? If rewards, do you want points or cash back or a combo of both? If points, it depends on how you want to use points. AmEx MR points vary in value depending on how you redeem them. If cash, they are only worth $0.006 / point. Some get $0.02 / point, but the primary way most do this is for international 'asporational' travel, such as upgrading to first class or a luxury vacation to a place where you find a good deal for points. But you have to either transfer the points to a travel partner or use the AmEx travel portal. It has been my experience that for standard economy domestic travel, using the AmEx portal costs more than if I book directly with airlines without points, so I am mostly on team cash back, but still dabble in the Chase point system. My view of AmEx charge cards is that they are well marketed status symbols, but to me they are just coupon books (coupons = $10 / mo select dining credit, etc.), and without a stated credit limit, one might have a Platinum card and not even know their internal limit is really only a status lacking $2k! So AmEx charge cards aren't for me, but if your organic spending matches their coupons, then they might be right for you. There are other travel cards that have good benefits and earn rewards in the categories you spend in most - such as groceries and dining. I suggest you research cards that match your spending, and then pursue a card setup that matches. And if you want to try points, pick one eco system and focus on experimenting with that before getting points cards in multiple eco systems. good luck
13Oct22 Exp F8: 812
@Creditisstupid wrote:
We haven't typically traveled much but want to start doing yearly vacations, sometimes with flights sometimes not, but don't know much about whether travel cards would even be worthwhile for us. The points systems are a foreign currency to me.
I've been looking into the Amex Gold card, and found an offer for a 75k point sign up bonus, but am a bit daunted by the $250 annual fee and can't decide if it's worth it. I'm torn between that one and the Everyday Preferred, as more of a way to ease in to points, though that has a much lower sign up bonus.
The majority of our spend is on groceries and dining, which is part of why I've been drawn to the Gold card with it's high cap on grocery spend.
I would try the AmEx Gold before Everyday Preferred, and here is why: With the larger SUB, you will have enough MR points to start with to experiment with the portal or consider a transfer to a travel partner. Don't worry about the annual fee, because if you don't like the card, the SUB more than covers the AF, and you can cancel after the first year. But here is what to look for. You are considering Gold because of 4x on dining and groceries. If you can transfer or upgrade at a value you think is actually worth $0.02, then you are making $0.08 / dollar spent - which is great! BUT - if you end up not finding added value in transfering or upgrading your travel, then you are stuck with the cash rate $0.006, which works out only to $0.024 / dollar spent. And since there are many no annual fee cards out there that earn $0.02 - $0.03 / dollar on dining and groceries, then $0.024 is not very competitive. And if your spending doesn't match Gold's 'coupons', then the $250 AF eats up all your rewards! You have nothing to lose trying the Gold card, but I personally don't like getting cards just for the SUB's and then cancel. I prefer to pick cards I think will actually work for me. Good luck