Do it all over again...

[GrandBaker]

Interesting question. If I knew back then (whenever that was) what I know now these would be my 3 cards:

• AMEX Platinum because I travel internationally at least once a year and those travel benefit plus 5x towards tickets/hotels would add up quick.
• U.S. Bank Altitude Go because I like getting 4% back on my dining.
• Citi Double Cash because 2% for everything else. I don't like chasing quarterly categories etc.

This also gives me the AMEX + Visa + MC combo.

Hey! I already have those 3 

[Anonymous]

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@GrandBaker wrote:

Interesting question. If I knew back then (whenever that was) what I know now these would be my 3 cards:

• AMEX Platinum because I travel internationally at least once a year and those travel benefit plus 5x towards tickets/hotels would add up quick.
• U.S. Bank Altitude Go because I like getting 4% back on my dining.
• Citi Double Cash because 2% for everything else. I don't like chasing quarterly categories etc.

This also gives me the AMEX + Visa + MC combo.

Hey! I already have those 3 

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I like the idea of having one of each Amex, Visa, MC in the combo!

[NoHardLimits]

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@GrandBaker wrote:

Interesting question. If I knew back then (whenever that was) what I know now these would be my 3 cards:

• AMEX Platinum because I travel internationally at least once a year and those travel benefit plus 5x towards tickets/hotels would add up quick.
• U.S. Bank Altitude Go because I like getting 4% back on my dining.
• Citi Double Cash because 2% for everything else. I don't like chasing quarterly categories etc.

This also gives me the AMEX + Visa + MC combo.

Hey! I already have those 3 

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The Amex+Visa+MC combo is good.  I forgot to mention that in my earlier post.  My 3 card choices were from three financial institutions with 3 payment networks.

[HeavenOhio]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is that you're likely to have to open at least one starter card to acquire most of the cards mentioned in this thread. I think it's fair to ignore that.

I'd say that the three cards should come from three different banks and that no more than one of them should be on the AMEX or Discover networks.

In my case, at least one of the cards would be the Chase Amazon Prime Visa. I don't like any of the common options for general spend 2% cards, so I guess one card would have 1.5% for general spending. Covering supermarkets/groceries would seem to make sense on the last card, even with the Chase card covering Whole Foods. I'd probably go with the BCE. Covering dining would be nice, but it gets crowded out under the three-card setup.

[coreysw12]

I'll keep it simple... CSR, CFU, CFF. I loves me some UR points!

But I really can't live without my Amazon and REI cards, though

If I were doing it all over again, I wouldn't have bothered getting any of my Citi or Cap1 cards.

[HeavenOhio]

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@coreysw12 wrote:

If I were doing it all over again, I wouldn't have bothered getting any of my Citi or Cap1 cards.

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Yeah, for me, "doing it over" would mean skipping cards more than having different cards in the arsenol. I'd have skipped CareCredit, the Wells Fargo Home Projects card, and the LL Bean Visa (now LL Bean Mastercard). I make the LL Bean card work out, but I closed the other two within a few months of opening them.

[notmyrealname23]

It's tough because there's a whole lot of contingent stuff on where I am that is dependent on way more than just what cards I should have chosen to optimize strategy. I also deny the premise (only three cards). If you're interested in travel like I am there are a LOT of cards that are worth holding, collecting a SUB, and sock drawering/limited usage without being a daily driver. Even ones with fees.

If you put a gun to my head and said "you get three cards and that's it, any three cards, but Tony over here will come break your legs if you get a fourth", it'd probably be Chase Sapphire Reserve, AMEX Gold, and a 2% cashback card with no international fee/redemption limits (I currently have two, SoFi and Paypal Synch), or maybe AOD if I can get over the "some MOD CUT -  NOT ALLOWED HERE.   CU in Alabama that'll probably nerf it" factor. As it stands I sort of have this now as the AMEX Green is also 3x broad travel categories, at a similar price point.

[Anonymous]

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@coreysw12 wrote:

I'll keep it simple... CSR, CFU, CFF. I loves me some UR points!

But I really can't live without my Amazon and REI cards, though

If I were doing it all over again, I wouldn't have bothered getting any of my Citi or Cap1 cards.

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Yep the Amazon card would be tough to give up! If we shopped at Whole Foods I could almost see it being our number 1 card. 

[JamP]

AOD/UsAlliance - best flat 3% cards available

AMEX BCE/BCP - first and only 50k+ credit line

Discover - they gave me love when no one else but Cap1 would.

Now if AOD/Usalliance were not available I loved my CitiDC MC for so long and the CL keeps going up every 6 months.

I would definitely miss my Synch Amazon but would love to replace it with 25k Chase Amazon someday or hopefully by then another 5% Amazon card is released that is not Chase or Synch.

I have so many great cash back cards, it took many years to compile the list I have. 

[Andypanda]

Us bank cash+ (as long as it stays visa so i can use it costco)

citi dc

amex gold card (want at least one charge card)