Just tried recently to look at what cards I currently have and match it with my spending patterns in order to understand what I am missing in cashback / rewards. I really feel there are some white spots so I'm thinking now of what I should close them with.
So, regarding my card 'portfolio' (or, to say more precisely, 'wallet'):
Discover More - I only cherrypick with it. I really like Discover, especially their customer service, but their cashback (I think it's 0.25%) before reaching ceratin spending level is a joke. So this works for those rotating categories they offer. This quarter, for example, I use it only for online shopping (at least before I reach the cap).
BofA 123 Cash Reward - I use it almost exclusively for gas because of their 3% CB on it, at least those months when Discover does not offer 5% for gas.
Amex BCE - I use it mostly at groceries, but my spending there is not huge as I prefer to buy a lot from huge supercenters like Walmart / Target.
Chase Amazon - I use it at Amazon when I don't have 5% on Discover for online shopping and also use it for dining (2%)
BofA 123 Travel Rewards - I use it everywhere else (for 1.5%)
From the remaining cards I only use Target store card for their 5% and also can consider using Amazon Store cards for their 0% financing (while it's not in my immediate agenda now as I still enjoy 0% intro APR benefits on several recently opened cards, including Discover and Amex)
Looking at my spending patterns I see certain things I am missing now:
1) One of the large types of spending I have is airfare. Some is paid by my employer and I have to buy it on my corporate account, but I still fly a lot on my own with family. I don't have specific preference in terms of airlines as for personal international travel I usually look at the cheapest option (with reasonable flight times/connections, of course), so I was not really looking at airline cards (At some point I wanted to get Amex Delta, but was denied by Amex).
I see that now Chase Freedom has a generous 5% CB offer on airfare, but I wanted something more stable on that, even if it is less (but I still think that Freedom is a great card, so it is in my shortlist of what I want to apply for at some point)
2) Other types of travel expenses (hotels, car rentals) also represent a somewhat significant part of my overall spending. Currently I use my BofA Travel rewards for those, enjoying also 0 FTF for that, but I am almost sure I am missing something here. Again, I am looking mostly for value for money here, so I don't religiously stick to a specific chain of hotels and I have a strong hate to Hilton, so HHonors card is in the special blacklist 
. I don't know if such card exists, but if there's some card offering 2-3% CB/equivalent points for ALL hotels/motels/longing expenses, I'll definitely take it.
Here I also want to look for cards that might give me additional "indirect" benefits like extended protection / insurance against involuntary trip cancellation / interruption / delay, companion tickets (but not yet sure how it works) and other travel-related perks..
3) Dining. Currently I use Chase Amazon, but I think it's far from the best. I know that Forward has some decent rewards for dining, but does it only apply for "proper" restaurants, or it also gives CB for fastfood like BK, McDo, Starbucks and Tim Hortons'?
4) Supercenters. I doubt anyone gives much on Walmart, but again maybe I'm missing something here too? I spend huuuge amounts at Walmart (at least comparable with airfare), so this category is of specific interest.
5) Any other places (like stand alone clothing stores, outlets like Columbia Sportswear) etc?
I normally prefer no-AF cards, but I am still open to have ONE card with AF (especially if it is waived for the 1st year which is almost always the case and / or if it has nice signup bonuses that basically cover first and sometimes even second year). My approximate scores are in my signature below. Please also mind my very low AAoA (less than a year), that would probably put most of top-tier cards out of my reach at least for some more time.
Any advice would be very much appreciated! Maybe I'm also missing something with my existing set of cards, so any advice here is also very welcome!
Thanks!
cmthomas06, I looked at CSP and it seems to be a very nice card, but as far as I know it is normally granted with at least 5k limit, so I'm afraid it is still out of my reach - my only limit that big is on my Amex card thanks to 61 day CLI and all my other cards are well below 5k.
On the other hand if I purely compare CSP with 2% on travel and BofA 123 Travel rewards with 1.5%, I come up with a minimum of $19,000 a year to be spent on travel only to justify $95 fee. I doubt I spend that much on travel, frankly. Of course it's kinda speculative calculation as it does not factor other things like 7% bonus on all earned points, 20% discount for tickets booked through their rewards redemption system and ability to transfer points to other partner programs (pity they don't have Delta Skymiles there on the list or any other Skyteam airline, I'd probably go for it) and other nice perks but this at least gives a certain number-based perspective on the economic rationale of having such a card.
Nonetheless, thanks for a good advice, it made me at least to look again carefully at CSP conditions and benefits offered and feel a little bit sorry for my low AAoA )
Dustink, kevinjjc, thanks, added to my short list A also looked at this card before, but again it seems that requirements to qualify for this card are pretty high and there is a huge chance to end up with the other US bank card instead if not initially approved for Cash+.
BTW, unlike Chase Freedom and Discover cards that announce all their bonus categories in public, I have never been able to get any insights on what categories are offered for 5% CB on this particular USBank card as that section of their website is intended for existing cardholders only. Would you mind giving me some insights on how that 5% CB categories work there with some live examples of what category / categories can be chosen, if possible, please?
Thanks
Don't let the lack of "5K limit cards" deter you from the CSP application. That's been proven to be incorrect over the past few months for many people, and FWIW I suspect you're in a much better position for approval than you think with both the Amex and the Chase Amazon card. Honestly I'm hoping to execute on my own credit card acquisition plan as well as you apparently have looking at your portfolio, and even though I don't know the exact approval timeline, I can guess. Absolutely well played to date.
Edit: that said, the Cash+ really is one of the most useful cards on the market today, and your Travel Rewards card overlaps with the CSP in many respects, and the USBank Cash+ is pretty much unique.
@mikka1 wrote:Dustink, kevinjjc, thanks, added to my short list
BTW, unlike Chase Freedom and Discover cards that announce all their bonus categories in public, I have never been able to get any insights on what categories are offered for 5% CB on this particular USBank card as that section of their website is intended for existing cardholders only. Would you mind giving me some insights on how that 5% CB categories work there with some live examples of what category / categories can be chosen, if possible, please?
Thanks
You have a good chance at approval for the Cash+ if you have a1+ year history with an account over $5000, FICO over 740, $50+k income, and nothing negative on the credit reports like high amount of INQ's. It is possible to get the card with significantly lower credit standards, it just isn't as easy as an instant approval.
I do not yet have the card, so I am unsure what the category choices are. It looks like they change and must be enrolled in every quarter. I have the Flexperks signature card, it has been pretty good. The Cash+ might be a little better, the credit requirements for the cards are the same.
@seigex wrote:
@Revelate wrote:Don't let the lack of "5K limit cards" deter you from the CSP application. That's been proven to be incorrect over the past few months for many people, and FWIW I suspect you're in a much better position for approval than you think with both the Amex and the Chase Amazon card. Honestly I'm hoping to execute on my own credit card acquisition plan as well as you apparently have looking at your portfolio, and even though I don't know the exact approval timeline, I can guess. Absolutely well played to date.
Edit: that said, the Cash+ really is one of the most useful cards on the market today, and your Travel Rewards card overlaps with the CSP in many respects, and the USBank Cash+ is pretty much unique.
3 months ago I was denied and the sole reason according to the credit specialist was because I didn't have a $5k limit card yet.... wasted HP for me but as usually YMMV
You're special seigex .
All kidding aside, it's not for everyone admittedly but we've seen at least 3 approvals in the past couple of months where CSP's were granted and their current limits were nowhere close to 5K. Even with my current top limit of 2500, if I had the credit file to support a CSP approval and I wanted it (and wasn't putting lipstick on my pig for a mortgage in this instance) I'd apply... am just guessing but I suspect Chase would be happy to give me a card even now, just it probably wouldn't be their CSP currently heh.
HP's are never wasted unless it's a frivolous app, and that's not the case for the OP. Probably wasn't for you either but I don't remember your stats from the time unfortunately.