^ what Gardener said.
my Game for 2020 is actually rather simple..
AMEX Plat for flights and good value hotel bookings for 5x (second AF for me hits Feb 2021 so i'm going to downgrade to Gold after Calendar incidentals reset and i make use of $200 airline, $50 saks and $15 uber by end of Jan 2021, netting me $865-$550 value BEFORE welcome bonus + all other perks, and points) 80k SUB
Discover for 5% spend
Apple card for 3% when disco category isn't there (walgreens for me mostly) + i like the way the rewards are pretty much instant and visible without waiting a statement (not a huge deal for me but nice kicker), also maybe a new iPhone purchase in future too? who knows
AMEX magnet for 1.5% will be my occasional spender
BBP for business 2x (2.5% cash back up to 50k spend come august, see below)
Applying for Freedom and Propel in June 2020, reaching SUBS by August 2020. Then apping for the Schwab Platinum (another 60k welcome bonus), use incidentals and calendar credits to full as usual, Downgrade original plat to Gold before 2nd AF hits. Will miss welcome bonus of gold about 30-50k but eh :/ the 140k from plat bonuses should even out that pain.
Feb 2021 onward will be
Gold for 4x dining, supermarkets
Plat on 5x flights, good value hotel bookings thru portal
BBP 2x up to 50k non-cat spends
Propel for 3x gas and uber
Freedom (if they ever let me in) 5x on anything i may use if cat. applies
Discover for 5% on rotating cats. both rotating cats. will be factored before spending on above non-rotating
JEEZ xD, 19 and im already addicted to the game... someone save me
My daily driver has been my Discover It as it's my first year. It still shares some duties with DC that's so simple to use.
@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous wrote:
I haven’t seen this question posted in a while so I thought I would get a current picture.
When not chasing a signup bonus what is your daily driver for non-category spend?When not chasing a SUB my DD for non-category spend is my Limitless. 2.5% everywhere is tough to beat for many cards so it's used often, $42k in 2019.
Nice, congrats. I have often kicked myself for not applying when I could. I never imagined they would close it so quickly and it was available in my area already. I was already USAA member with banking accounts. 
Maybe they will offer it again one day!
USAA Limitless is also the most used card here. Followed in order by Walmart MC, US Bank Cash plus and Penfed Cash back.
My arsenal has changed a little since this post was written, so I figured I’d update it. I’m using 5 cards regularly and frequently.
PPMC - This card gets the most swipes and usually highest spend.
BBVA - I’m using it for 3% utilities and this month had a bonus where we got 6% on dining. It will have highest spend this month.
BCP - We use this one for 6% groceries, streaming, and Apple charges.
PNC - We use this card for 4% gas station purchases and 3% dining usually.
Disco - We are now using it for 5% categories and we are using it heavily this quarter for groceries because we’ll surpass the $6K cap on the BCP if not.
For the last 3 months this lineup has averaged 3.23% Cashback overall, which is pretty nice. We are averaging about $140 per in overall Cashback earnings, and we’ve got $550 worth of SUB’s since November, so this lineup of cards should average around $2200+ for the calendar year, which is definitely worth the effort IMO.
We put all Cashback that I can withdraw into a separate “Cashback” account and when I use it for statement credit on the ones that I can’t redeem as cash, I transfer that amount to the account also. When we use any of the Cashback from the account, we charge it one of the cards and use it pay the charge so we get Cashback on it again. I never pull cash out of that account that won’t be spent on cards.
I had someone tell me recently that doing this seemed like a lot of effort for the return, but I remember when my kids were small that having an extra $2200 in an account would have totally made our lives better. We’re fortunate enough to be pretty comfortable financially these days, but I remember being broke, and I haven’t forgotten it!
I wish I had started doing this years ago!
PPMC - This card gets the most swipes and usually highest spend.
BBVA - I’m using it for 3% utilities and this month had a bonus where we got 6% on dining. It will have highest spend this month.
BCP - We use this one for 6% groceries, streaming, and Apple charges.
PNC - We use this card for 4% gas station purchases and 3% dining usually.
Disco - We are now using it for 5% categories and we are using it heavily this quarter for groceries because we’ll surpass the $6K cap on the BCP if not.
For the last 3 months this lineup has averaged 3.23% Cashback overall, which is pretty nice. We are averaging about $140 per in overall Cashback earnings, and we’ve got $550 worth of SUB’s since November, so this lineup of cards should average around $2200+ for the calendar year, which is definitely worth the effort IMO.
We put all Cashback that I can withdraw into a separate “Cashback” account and when I use it for statement credit on the ones that I can’t redeem as cash, I transfer that amount to the account also. When we use any of the Cashback from the account, we charge it one of the cards and use it pay the charge so we get Cashback on it again. I never pull cash out of that account that won’t be spent on cards.
I had someone tell me recently that doing this seemed like a lot of effort for the return, but I remember when my kids were small that having an extra $2200 in an account would have totally made our lives better. We’re fortunate enough to be pretty comfortable financially these days, but I remember being broke, and I haven’t forgotten it!
I wish I had started doing this years ago!
