Which credit card do you use the most?

[SoclosetoIrvine]

Just got the 100,000 points from Chase Sapphire Reserve, it's either $1000 cash back or turning it into travel for more value, doing some calculations now for an upcoming trip to Europe

Added value is the priority pass membership included.  Just got back from Asia and happy to report that every airport has a lot of lounges included (get some nice food and wine before your flight) and it includes guest access for no extra cost.  Really nice perk for sure

It's the only card I use now

 

[peppy]

Just got the 100,000 points from Chase Sapphire Reserve, it's either $1000 cash back or turning it into travel for more value, doing some calculations now for an upcoming trip to Europe

Added value is the priority pass membership included.  Just got back from Asia and happy to report that every airport has a lot of lounges included (get some nice food and wine before your flight) and it includes guest access for no extra cost.  Really nice perk for sure

It's the only card I use now

are you going to keep your miles with chase or transfer them to a travel partner?

 

[ps99472]

http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170111005311/en/

Chase is taking over my wallet, and Amazon too

Too bad you're not earning Ultimate Reward points.  But at least I get a shining metal card refresh.

 

[Paris167]

Any of you AMEX Platinum card holders? Is it worth it? Maybe it's been discussed in this thread but I was lazy to go through 12 pages of this discussion 

 

[id_rather_be_racing]

I've had the amex plat for 2.5 years now.  I signed up when I received a targeted mailer for 100K points, and I can report that I've gotten a TON of value from this card.  I've paid the annual fee 3x now, but I've gotten MUCH more value than the 1350 ive paid. Some of the benefits I received are listed below:
-$800 in AA gift cards (for the 200 annual travel credit)
-100k points
-40k points retention offer on my first anniversary-
-tons of points and statement credits from amex offers
-use of the centurion lounge (been to almost all of them now)
-SPG gold status which has resulted in at least 70% of my spg stays being upgraded to better rooms + spg gold points bonuses

The perks above have handily offset the annual fees I've paid thus far, but the one perk that not many people know about (and is not advertised anywhere as far as I've seen) is the Access Lounge benefit at South Coast Plaza.  It's a small lounge area next to Saks where they serve a variety of drinks and snacks (with a 2 alcoholic drink limit), and it is completely free other than tipping the servers.  I've brought many family and friends with me and have never had an issue.  This is a hidden gem of a benefit that has paid for itself over and over again.

Reserve Card (which my wife and I also have) is a direct competitor to the plat with much better rewards potential, and I'm seriously considering cancelling the amex plat when the next annual fee is due.

 

[ps99472]

got my global entry approved for the whole family yesterday.  Interviews done at the Long Beach location.  Booked the appt in January, so plan ahead.  While there the agent told me they expanded hours (120+ interviews per day) to 7pm.  So those who booked this location should check again for new availability.  Really easy, kid got finger printed as well so hopefully we won't get an 'X' from the global entry kiosk.  Also got Sentri for my car.  Not sure if I would ever drive my car into Mexico.  But who knows. 

Happy I will never have to take my shoes off at the nasty security checkpoint again.

 

[ps99472]

Amex Plat got a redo recently:
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/card/platinum/https://thepointsguy.com/2017/03/huge-amex-platinum-improvements/

Most likely to compete with Chase Sapphire Reserve, which i bet has taken a decent chunk of their customer base.  So what did they do to the old stand Plat to make it more competitive?  raise the annual fee by a $100, $15/month in Uber credits with extra $35 in December (WTF?  that's gonna be hard to max, uber to work anyone?), 5x hotel but with limitations, more lounge benefits.. etc... etc..

But man, hiking the price by a $100??  Not too sure if that's smart.  Need to target the cheap ass semi-rich people with 'great' deals, once they're trapped, raise price gradually and have enough customer base to scale just like Amazon.  I do like the lounge access, Delta Sky club and centurion plus that SCP lounge that was mentioned above are tempting but unlike CSR, i'll be working hard to break even on the Amex whereas the CSR I can break even without much effort. 

But having a nice hefty metal card is tempting though....

 

[lnc]

If you already have the Chase Sapphire card, now you can get 100,000 reward points when you open a mortgage with Chase.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ch...-points-for-new-mortgage-customers-2017-05-09

 

[id_rather_be_racing]

The Uber credits also work with UberEats, so it's easy to use those credits up.  I pay the remaining balance with my CSR, which gets reimbursed by the $300 travel credit, so having both has been awesome.

The card itself definitely feels much more premium than the CSR.  If you use up the $200 in uber(eats) credits, $200 airline reimbursement (i opt for gift cards), and use a couple amex offers here and there, you can almost make up the entire fee.  What helped me justify keeping the card open for 3+ years now is the 100k signup bonus, 40k retention fee, and the use of the SCP lounge (i'd estimate at around 50+ trips so far).

Amex Plat got a redo recently:
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/credit-cards/card/platinum/https://thepointsguy.com/2017/03/huge-amex-platinum-improvements/

Most likely to compete with Chase Sapphire Reserve, which i bet has taken a decent chunk of their customer base.  So what did they do to the old stand Plat to make it more competitive?  raise the annual fee by a $100, $15/month in Uber credits with extra $35 in December (WTF?  that's gonna be hard to max, uber to work anyone?), 5x hotel but with limitations, more lounge benefits.. etc... etc..

But man, hiking the price by a $100??  Not too sure if that's smart.  Need to target the cheap ass semi-rich people with 'great' deals, once they're trapped, raise price gradually and have enough customer base to scale just like Amazon.  I do like the lounge access, Delta Sky club and centurion plus that SCP lounge that was mentioned above are tempting but unlike CSR, i'll be working hard to break even on the Amex whereas the CSR I can break even without much effort. 

But having a nice hefty metal card is tempting though....

 

[irvinehomeowner]

If you're in the Starwood program (now owned by Marriot), your information may be compromised:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/marriott-announces-data-breach-affecting-500-million-hotel-guests/

International hotel chain Marriott announced today a security breach during which the personal details of 500 million hotel guests was stolen.

The breach happened in 2014, but Marriott says it became aware of it on September 10, two days after its staff spotted an alert from an internal security tool about an attempt to access the Starwood guest reservation database in the United States.

[...]

The Starwood hotel chain, which Marriott acquired in 2016, includes other hotel brands, such as W Hotels, St. Regis, Sheraton Hotels & Resorts, Westin Hotels & Resorts, Element Hotels, Aloft Hotels, The Luxury Collection, Tribute Portfolio, Le M?ridien Hotels & Resorts, Four Points by Sheraton and Design Hotels.

Investigators said that for 327 million of the Starwood guests, the information that attackers stole included a name, mailing address, phone number, email address, passport number, Starwood Preferred Guest ("SPG") account information, date of birth, gender, arrival and departure information, reservation date, and communication preferences.

For some of these guests, payment card data was also stolen, but Marriott did not say for how many.

"For some, the information also includes payment card numbers and payment card expiration dates, but the payment card numbers were encrypted using Advanced Encryption Standard encryption (AES-128)," the hotel said today in an SEC filing.

"There are two components needed to decrypt the payment card numbers, and at this point, Marriott has not been able to rule out the possibility that both were taken," the hotel chain added.

For the rest, up to 500 million, the data only included a name, and sometimes other info such as mailing address, email address, or other information.

 

[ps99472]

Just got the new Amex rose gold card with the 50k sign on bonus.  The $250 annual fee is pretty much offset by the $120 dining credit (think ubereats with Amex platinum, but now with Grubhub $10/month) and the $100 airline fees (buy $100 AA instant GC for reimbursement).  The 4x points on dining out is what got me.  We eat out mostly.. and this beats the 3x points on CSR.  Take advantage of a few Amex offers and spouse gets free additional card so we can double down on amex offers.. makes it seem like its a no brainer.  But to me the Amex membership points are harder to use than CSR's.. I'll use this card for a year and see how i do.  At least the 50k bonus will negate the fees for awhile. https://thepointsguy.com/guide/who-should-get-amex-gold-card/

 

[Cares]

Just got the new Amex rose gold card with the 50k sign on bonus.  The $250 annual fee is pretty much offset by the $120 dining credit (think ubereats with Amex platinum, but now with Grubhub $10/month) and the $100 airline fees (buy $100 AA instant GC for reimbursement).  The 4x points on dining out is what got me.  We eat out mostly.. and this beats the 3x points on CSR.  Take advantage of a few Amex offers and spouse gets free additional card so we can double down on amex offers.. makes it seem like its a no brainer.  But to me the Amex membership points are harder to use than CSR's.. I'll use this card for a year and see how i do.  At least the 50k bonus will negate the fees for awhile. https://thepointsguy.com/guide/who-should-get-amex-gold-card/

Dining with CSR is worth 4.5x with bonus travel redemption whereas Rose Gold is only 4x. Also more flexibilty with travel partners.

The golden churning tri-fecta is CSR, Freedom, and Freedom Unlimited and to bounce spend against those cards. Unless you're chasing bonuses you want to accumulate UR points from daily spend.

 

[irvinehomeowner]

Man... ps9 still churning through high-end credit cards like refis.

I can't seem to manage all those deals, thinking about just getting the Costco Visa.

We eat out a lot too, but there are several places in Irvine that don't take AmEx (I'm looking at you Asian food places).

We split our purchases between AA/Southwest cards and hotel cards, but find we use hotel points more because airfare is so expensive and you can find good deals by not being tied to specific airlines.

 

[Irvinecommuter]

Man... ps9 still churning through high-end credit cards like refis.

I can't seem to manage all those deals, thinking about just getting the Costco Visa.

We eat out a lot too, but there are several places in Irvine that don't take AmEx (I'm looking at you Asian food places).

We split our purchases between AA/Southwest cards and hotel cards, but find we use hotel points more because airfare is so expensive and you can find good deals by not being tied to specific airlines.

I can't deal with points...4% back from gas..3% from travel and dining...2% from Costco purchase are fine with me. 

Also, no foreign transaction fees now.

 

[irvinehomeowner]

Man... ps9 still churning through high-end credit cards like refis.

I can't seem to manage all those deals, thinking about just getting the Costco Visa.

We eat out a lot too, but there are several places in Irvine that don't take AmEx (I'm looking at you Asian food places).

We split our purchases between AA/Southwest cards and hotel cards, but find we use hotel points more because airfare is so expensive and you can find good deals by not being tied to specific airlines.

I can't deal with points...4% back from gas..3% from travel and dining...2% from Costco purchase are fine with me. 

Also, no foreign transaction fees now.

Yeah, that's why we're thinking about ditching the travel rewards cards and just doing Costco and our hotel cards.

The hotel ones actually give you pretty good value. A few times I calculated 3% back from the spend and how much the hotel would cost me vs the points I use and it usually benefits the hotel points financially.

 

[Irvinecommuter]

Man... ps9 still churning through high-end credit cards like refis.

I can't seem to manage all those deals, thinking about just getting the Costco Visa.

We eat out a lot too, but there are several places in Irvine that don't take AmEx (I'm looking at you Asian food places).

We split our purchases between AA/Southwest cards and hotel cards, but find we use hotel points more because airfare is so expensive and you can find good deals by not being tied to specific airlines.

I can't deal with points...4% back from gas..3% from travel and dining...2% from Costco purchase are fine with me. 

Also, no foreign transaction fees now.

Yeah, that's why we're thinking about ditching the travel rewards cards and just doing Costco and our hotel cards.

The hotel ones actually give you pretty good value. A few times I calculated 3% back from the spend and how much the hotel would cost me vs the points I use and it usually benefits the hotel points financially.

You also get extra offers from Costco.  Like they give extra rebates for tires last months.

 

[Cares]

Man... ps9 still churning through high-end credit cards like refis.

I can't seem to manage all those deals, thinking about just getting the Costco Visa.

We eat out a lot too, but there are several places in Irvine that don't take AmEx (I'm looking at you Asian food places).

We split our purchases between AA/Southwest cards and hotel cards, but find we use hotel points more because airfare is so expensive and you can find good deals by not being tied to specific airlines.

I can't deal with points...4% back from gas..3% from travel and dining...2% from Costco purchase are fine with me. 

Also, no foreign transaction fees now.

Yeah, that's why we're thinking about ditching the travel rewards cards and just doing Costco and our hotel cards.

The hotel ones actually give you pretty good value. A few times I calculated 3% back from the spend and how much the hotel would cost me vs the points I use and it usually benefits the hotel points financially.

You also get extra offers from Costco.  Like they give extra rebates for tires last months.

So Chase UR points can be redeemed for cash. You just get the most effective redemption for travel.

And in terms of Costco, why not have all the cards? I have about 20 active credit cards including Costco. Lots of spreadsheeting to manage though. But I've traveled all over the place mostly on business or first class for my family through points exclusively.

 

[Irvinecommuter]

Man... ps9 still churning through high-end credit cards like refis.

I can't seem to manage all those deals, thinking about just getting the Costco Visa.

We eat out a lot too, but there are several places in Irvine that don't take AmEx (I'm looking at you Asian food places).

We split our purchases between AA/Southwest cards and hotel cards, but find we use hotel points more because airfare is so expensive and you can find good deals by not being tied to specific airlines.

I can't deal with points...4% back from gas..3% from travel and dining...2% from Costco purchase are fine with me. 

Also, no foreign transaction fees now.

Yeah, that's why we're thinking about ditching the travel rewards cards and just doing Costco and our hotel cards.

The hotel ones actually give you pretty good value. A few times I calculated 3% back from the spend and how much the hotel would cost me vs the points I use and it usually benefits the hotel points financially.

You also get extra offers from Costco.  Like they give extra rebates for tires last months.

So Chase UR points can be redeemed for cash. You just get the most effective redemption for travel.

And in terms of Costco, why not have all the cards? I have about 20 active credit cards including Costco. Lots of spreadsheeting to manage though. But I've traveled all over the place mostly on business or first class for my family through points exclusively.

Because I like to concentrate my spending and not have to carry 5 cards with me.  I get the initial rewards but just a huge headache. 

 

[Cares]

Man... ps9 still churning through high-end credit cards like refis.

I can't seem to manage all those deals, thinking about just getting the Costco Visa.

We eat out a lot too, but there are several places in Irvine that don't take AmEx (I'm looking at you Asian food places).

We split our purchases between AA/Southwest cards and hotel cards, but find we use hotel points more because airfare is so expensive and you can find good deals by not being tied to specific airlines.

I can't deal with points...4% back from gas..3% from travel and dining...2% from Costco purchase are fine with me. 

Also, no foreign transaction fees now.

Yeah, that's why we're thinking about ditching the travel rewards cards and just doing Costco and our hotel cards.

The hotel ones actually give you pretty good value. A few times I calculated 3% back from the spend and how much the hotel would cost me vs the points I use and it usually benefits the hotel points financially.

You also get extra offers from Costco.  Like they give extra rebates for tires last months.

So Chase UR points can be redeemed for cash. You just get the most effective redemption for travel.

And in terms of Costco, why not have all the cards? I have about 20 active credit cards including Costco. Lots of spreadsheeting to manage though. But I've traveled all over the place mostly on business or first class for my family through points exclusively.

Because I like to concentrate my spending and not have to carry 5 cards with me.  I get the initial rewards but just a huge headache.

I only carry a couple of cards at a time. I have all my other cards on Google Pay. Most big spend occurs online or at home to a vendor anyways so carrying cards is not a necessity.

 

[Irvinecommuter]

I only carry a couple of cards at a time. I have all my other cards on Google Pay. Most big spend occurs online or at home to a vendor anyways so carrying cards is not a necessity.

We don't really have big purchases...mostly groceries/daily stuff and the occasional travel.