What are your 2020 Goal Cards?

[I_Love_Cards]

The main cards left on my wish list are issued by US Bank (x2, 3 if you include Elan), FNBO, Bank of America and Commerce Bank.  

All of which would have a seizure if I applied with my 2848599595932/24 (and 3/6/12-but who's counting) new accounts.  

So my 2020 card goal is to garden for more than an hour (which seems to be my record).  1 month and 2 cards in, so there's ... opportunity for improvement.   I also will try for another NFCU before the BT promo is over.  

Next main goal is to close all my subprimes (a little after they have a second birthdays - as per Navy & US Bank-I don't have enough revolving lines open longer than 2 years). 

Last card goal is to really decide if all these cards are earning their paychecks.   On a card by card basis, I do get the value back.  But I know I'm paying for duplicates benefits - and that's not prudent (even though I'm still in the black).  But of course; some of these benefits are subjective so we'll see how it all shakes out.  

So maybe my card goals are anti-card?  

My primary financial goal is to pay off the multiple home, dog & human repairs from last year (plus the 3 busted major appliances that had to be replaced).  Nearly all of it is on 0% or 1.99% which is helping immensely in that effort.  If someone threw another 0% card at me; I would happily take it. 

So the plan is to pay off debt  (perhaps with another 0% or 1.99% promo card), close subprimes and decide what else is or isn't working anymore.  

[FieryDance]

2020 plan for me (4/24 ) and DH (2/24)

Bank of America 

• Have: Premium Rewards, 2 x Cash Rewards, Amtrak World
• Plan: a 3rd Cash Rewards, will either have DH fresh app or PC from Amtrak

Chase 

• Have: CIC (me), CIP (DH)
• Goal: Chase Biz Quinfecta in 2P mode, 2 CICs, 2 CIUs, 1 CIP

Amex 

• Have: BCP (me), Amazon Prime Biz (me)
• Plan: Plat Biz or Gold Biz, BBP (DH), BBC (me), PC my BCP to BCE
• Note: AmEx does not allow points transfer so I focus on cash back and DH on MR

Capital One 

• Have: Savor, Venture
• Plan: PC both to QSs 

CitiBank

• Have: Costco Visa, AA Biz
• Plan: Cancel AA Biz or PC it to Costco Biz 

Barclays

• Have: AA Biz
• Plan: Cancel 

Discover

• Have: IT
• Plan: Not to lose it due to inactivity 

Other banks 

• USBank: might go for Biz Cash if the good SUB returns
• WF: might start a checking account and go for Biz Plat
• HSBC: started Premier Checking, might have DH go for World MC

[Anonymous]

The only 2 cards on my radar to get in the immediate future are

The Amtrak Guest Rewards World Mastercard-For Amtrak Travel and no foreign transaction fees

The Chase Ink Business Cash Card-For 5% on Internet, cable, phone and the occassional office supply store purchase.  As well as $500 sub after 3k spend and 0% apr on purchases for 12 months.  

Other possible inclussions are 

Bank of America Cash Rewards- 3% back on online shopping.  Nice but it's only 1% more then my double cash card and I'm a pretty frugal guy so I'm not spending tens of thousands of dollars on online shopping...not even spending close to 10k a year on online shopping.  

US Bank Cash Plus- 5% back on two different categories but which categories I don't know.  Can't use the home utility feature right now unfortunately since my utility company classifies my home as a commercial property (long story and it's only a 3 unit technically 4 unit based on how the home is metered i.e. garages are metered but it's not a 5 unit) so I can't currently pay my utilities with a credit card unfortunately.  The other categories aren't that great for my spending paterns.

Fast Food?  Yeah I don't eat at fast food joints.  Movie Theaters?  Yeah maybe twice a year I go to the movies.  Select Clothing Stores?  Yeah I'm a little over 6'1" so just on my height those stores aren't going to work and I'd never shop at those stores anyway.  Department Stores?  Does Land's End, Shoes.com and DXL count?  If not this another useless category to me.  Sporting Goods?  If Rogue Fitness was included in this category it would be nice to use once in a while but other than that I really don't spend much of anything in sporting goods...I don't hunt, rock climb, fish or care about MLB so this is pretty useless to me.  Gym/Fitness Centers?  I work out at home so this is worthless.  Furniture Stores?  Yeah every couple of years this is nice but it's not something I'm going to spend money on regularly.  Ground Transportation?  Well I already get 3% back on travel from my Sam's Club Mastercard, I get 5% back on lift with my Chase Freedom and I'm planning to get the Amtrak credit card so this is also a pointless category for me to really bother with. 

I'm not trying to dis the US Bank Cash Plus card just pointing out it's not a great fit for me at the moment and probably won't be going forward.  Still though for rare furniture purchases every couple of years and the same goes for the every couple of years large electronic purchase the card would be excellent for that.  Just not a priority right now for me. 

The only other card goals I have right now is to downgrade my everyday preferred to the no annual fee everyday version.      

[Anonymous]

I drop under 5/24 next month so I can get United. After that I might consider the Costco Visa, though the lack of a SUB makes it less alluring, so I'll probably be back to the garden, especially since I may be within 2 years of a mortgage now.

[Anonymous]

Since I found out I have several pathways into NFCU the only card on my radar is one from them. 

[Anonymous]

No real card specific goals.  General goals:

1.  Stay open to pounce on great offers like the Vuela 60,000 LifeMiles offer and the Citi Expedia 70,000 point offer last year.

2.  Work harder on retention bonuses

3.  Hit enough spend on my hotel card to qualify for a second free night

4.  Keep on top of transfer bonuses that magnify SUBs by 20%+

5.  Hit at least two checking account bonuses in 2020

6.  Maximize the SUB point value on paying my December property tax/homeowners' assn dues

7.  Use all my free nights and airline incidentals

[Aim_High]

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@FieryDance wrote

Chase 

• Have: CIC (me), CIP (DH)
• Goal: Chase Biz Quinfecta in 2P mode, 2 CICs, 2 CIUs, 1 CIP

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Wow, that's some detailed, specific, and complicated plans! 

Good job plotting that out. 

Some of it left me curious.  Like why all the Chase Biz cards?? 

But you don't have CSR/CSP to magnify UR points with them??

Or do you? 

You'd get 25% or 50% bump with one of those. 

I got 80K UR point SUB on CIP, PC'd it to no-AF CIC where I get 7.5% in URs on my CSR for travel. 

I guess you and DH have enough Biz travel to dabble in Chase, BoA, and AMEX?  Seems like a lot of systems and cards to me but DW doesn't travel and much of my travel spend is paid employer-direct.

[coreysw12]

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@Aim_High wrote:

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I got 80K UR point SUB on CIP, PC'd it to no-AF CIC where I get 7.5% in URs on my CSR for travel. 

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7.5% (which is, 5% x 1.5 CSR redemption bonus) is a lot, but doesn't it only apply to office supplies and cable/phone/internet?

[Aim_High]

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@I_Love_Cards wrote:

So my 2020 card goal is to garden for more than an hour (which seems to be my record).  1 month and 2 cards in, so there's ... opportunity for improvement.  

Last card goal is to really decide if all these cards are earning their paychecks.   On a card by card basis, I do get the value back.  But I know I'm paying for duplicates benefits - and that's not prudent (even though I'm still in the black).   

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LOL ...   You're funny!

Will you be here all week? 

Sounds like a good plan, if you manage to stick-to-it which is easier said than done, right?

I don't know your spend and travel but that does look like a lot of AF cards! 

   AMEX PLAT - $550

   AMEX GOLD - $250

   AMEX GREEN - $150

   AMEX Hilton Aspire - $450

   AMEX Delta PLAT - $195 (going to $250)

   Chase United Mileage Plus - $95

   CITI AA Platinum Select - $99

plus is there a fee on the AMEX Marriott? 

Did I miss any?

And why the duplicate AMEX Hiltons??

Just curious.

Either way, looks like at least $1789 in fees ...ouch!

Definitely time to close the subprimes too.  Good idea.

[Aim_High]

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@coreysw12 wrote:

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@Aim_High wrote:  I got 80K UR point SUB on CIP, PC'd it to no-AF CIC where I get 7.5% in URs on my CSR for travel. 

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7.5% (which is, 5% x 1.5 CSR redemption bonus) is a lot, but doesn't it only apply to office supplies and cable/phone/internet?

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That's correct.  You get 5% back on up to $25K spend per year in those categories.  And rolling UR points over to CSR account yields 7.5% for travel redemptions for that spending.  Not bad at all!  That's the only thing going on that card right now, but it's no AF with very high returns on my monthly-recurring  cell phone and home TV-internet services.  It adds up quickly.