So, credit cards can be a great way to get free travel, although they do have some downsides.
"Ok, Fox, what's in your wallet?" you ask in your Samuel L. Jackson or Jennifer Garner voice. Below is an inventory of the plastic (and metal!) I'm carryin' around right now, just like a rowdy credit card-totin' cowboy who just rolled into town and is lookin' to mix things up.
1.
Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR). I use this whenever I eat out (i.e. a lot) because it earns 3
points for every $1 spent on restaurants and travel (hotels, airfare,
Uber, airport parking). When used as cash, each Chase Ultimate Reward (UR)
point is worth 1.5 cents. Due to math, 3 x 1.5 = 4.5; in other words,
every dollar spent on lunch is worth 4.5 cents I can use toward airfare
or hotels. $150 effective annual fee ($450 annual fee with $300 travel
credit). Current bonus is 50,000 Chase UR points (worth $750. Got it? In addition to a host of other benefits you may or may not need, CSR also gets you a Priority Pass Lounge card for airport lounges. More details here.
2. American Express Blue Cash Preferred. Mrs. Fox carries this, actually. It earns a ridiculous 6% cash back at grocery stores (on up to $6,000 per year, then 1% after). 3% back at gas stations and select department stores (yes, they still have those), and 1% everywhere else. $95 annual fee, and this offer gets you $250 cash back after you spend $1,000 in the first three months.
3. *I am going to downgrade this card to the no-fee Hilton Honors card, which is 90% as good for my purposes. If it's your only card and you don't already have Hilton Gold status, its other benefits make it worth consideration: Hilton Honors Ascend. I commute 170 miles per day. I drive a Prius, but I still buy a lot of gas. 6 Hilton Points for every $1 on gas, as well as supermarkets and restaurants, but I only use mine for gas and miscellaneous (3 points per $1) as CSR and Blue Cash are better options for restaurants and groceries, respectively. It earns 12 Hilton points per $1 at any of Hilton's hotels. For reference, 20-30k Hilton points will get you a free night. Annual fee is $95, currently with a 75,000 bonus (spend $2k within 3 months) with potential for another 25,000 when you spend an additional $1,000 within six months of the card's opening.
4. Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP). This is CSR's little cousin. It's similar to the CSR, but earns 2 points instead of 3 on travel categories. One person can't have both of Chase's premium Sapphire cards; you have to pick one, so this is Mrs. Fox's. She uses it at restaurants for 2 Chase UR points per $1 spent. Redemptions in the Chase Travel Portal are at 1.25 cents per UR point, but she can transfer her points to me and I'll get 1.5 cents per point. We just used this to pay for kid #3's braces: minimum spending taken care of in one fell swoop! Mrs. Fox is very helpful with meeting credit card minimum spending requirements, bless her! The annual fee is $95 but waived the first year with this offer. Like CSR, you currently get 50,000 UR points (worth $625) when you spend $4,000 in the first three months.
5. Mrs. Fox also has a USAA cash back card that gets 1.5% cash back on everything. It's good for miscellaneous purchases like new tires, TJ Maxx and, uh, LuLaRoe. Lots of that. In select states, USAA has a sweet-looking 2.5% unlimited cash back card. Not in my state, unfortunately.
In a drawer
6. American Express Platinum. Like my inner party animal, this card only comes out when I travel.
7. Chase Marriott Rewards Visa. Got the points, no need to use it now. Mrs. Fox has one too, which I will cancel soon. $85 annual fee and a free night every year after Year One.
8. Chase IHG Rewards Club MasterCard. See above. Good benefits for having the card, but no need to use it anywhere once I got the bonus. Low fee ($49, waived first year) and like above, one free night per year on the anniversary.
9. Chase Amazon Prime Rewards Visa. Great card, all my Amazon shopping goes on it. 5% cash back on Amazon purchases as a Prime member. No annual fee.
10. Chase United Mileage Plus Explorer Visa. Great card; I fly United a lot. Gives me access to more award seats, free checked bag, boarding group 2 (so there's still overhead space). $95/year fee, waived the first year, 50,000 mile bonus.
11. American Express Delta SkyMiles Platinum. Just got it and the 70,000 Delta miles that came with it. $195 annual fee. We loves us some flyin'!
12. Discover It. This card has rotating quarterly 5% cashback for various categories like gasoline, Amazon, and groceries- stuff I can get better returns on with the cards in my wallet. I don't have time to fool with that. Might be a good deal if you can find a 0% offer. Oh Lord Jesus, it's got no annual fee!
2. Any Capital One cards. I don't know much about these, but every offer I see doesn't impress me. They're spending their money paying Elektra and Ezekiel 25:17 guy to ask the question that is the title of this post.
3. Amex Starwood Points Group Card. I want this one, but I'm waiting for the sign-up bonus to go up. Currently it's 25,000 but it's been 35,000 in the past.
4. There might be something really cool that I don't even know about. Let me know in the comments if there's a card you love. A good fox is always willing to learn!
"Ok, Fox, what's in your wallet?" you ask in your Samuel L. Jackson or Jennifer Garner voice. Below is an inventory of the plastic (and metal!) I'm carryin' around right now, just like a rowdy credit card-totin' cowboy who just rolled into town and is lookin' to mix things up.
 |
| If you'd only killed him here, Sydney, he wouldn't have been able to ruin Batman, too. And y'all's marriage. |
In my wallet
1.
Chase Sapphire Reserve (CSR). I use this whenever I eat out (i.e. a lot) because it earns 3
points for every $1 spent on restaurants and travel (hotels, airfare,
Uber, airport parking). When used as cash, each Chase Ultimate Reward (UR)
point is worth 1.5 cents. Due to math, 3 x 1.5 = 4.5; in other words,
every dollar spent on lunch is worth 4.5 cents I can use toward airfare
or hotels. $150 effective annual fee ($450 annual fee with $300 travel
credit). Current bonus is 50,000 Chase UR points (worth $750. Got it? In addition to a host of other benefits you may or may not need, CSR also gets you a Priority Pass Lounge card for airport lounges. More details here.2. American Express Blue Cash Preferred. Mrs. Fox carries this, actually. It earns a ridiculous 6% cash back at grocery stores (on up to $6,000 per year, then 1% after). 3% back at gas stations and select department stores (yes, they still have those), and 1% everywhere else. $95 annual fee, and this offer gets you $250 cash back after you spend $1,000 in the first three months.
3. *I am going to downgrade this card to the no-fee Hilton Honors card, which is 90% as good for my purposes. If it's your only card and you don't already have Hilton Gold status, its other benefits make it worth consideration: Hilton Honors Ascend. I commute 170 miles per day. I drive a Prius, but I still buy a lot of gas. 6 Hilton Points for every $1 on gas, as well as supermarkets and restaurants, but I only use mine for gas and miscellaneous (3 points per $1) as CSR and Blue Cash are better options for restaurants and groceries, respectively. It earns 12 Hilton points per $1 at any of Hilton's hotels. For reference, 20-30k Hilton points will get you a free night. Annual fee is $95, currently with a 75,000 bonus (spend $2k within 3 months) with potential for another 25,000 when you spend an additional $1,000 within six months of the card's opening.
4. Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP). This is CSR's little cousin. It's similar to the CSR, but earns 2 points instead of 3 on travel categories. One person can't have both of Chase's premium Sapphire cards; you have to pick one, so this is Mrs. Fox's. She uses it at restaurants for 2 Chase UR points per $1 spent. Redemptions in the Chase Travel Portal are at 1.25 cents per UR point, but she can transfer her points to me and I'll get 1.5 cents per point. We just used this to pay for kid #3's braces: minimum spending taken care of in one fell swoop! Mrs. Fox is very helpful with meeting credit card minimum spending requirements, bless her! The annual fee is $95 but waived the first year with this offer. Like CSR, you currently get 50,000 UR points (worth $625) when you spend $4,000 in the first three months.
5. Mrs. Fox also has a USAA cash back card that gets 1.5% cash back on everything. It's good for miscellaneous purchases like new tires, TJ Maxx and, uh, LuLaRoe. Lots of that. In select states, USAA has a sweet-looking 2.5% unlimited cash back card. Not in my state, unfortunately.
In a drawer
Many of these cards provide benefits for having the account, like priority boarding, a free checked bag, and various hotel status/perks. I don't necessarily need to use them because whatever I'm buying, the cards that are in my wallet earn more points/miles/cashback. Will discuss each in more detail in forthcoming posts. These have links, some of which give me bonus points if you sign up using my links.
6. American Express Platinum. Like my inner party animal, this card only comes out when I travel.
7. Chase Marriott Rewards Visa. Got the points, no need to use it now. Mrs. Fox has one too, which I will cancel soon. $85 annual fee and a free night every year after Year One.
8. Chase IHG Rewards Club MasterCard. See above. Good benefits for having the card, but no need to use it anywhere once I got the bonus. Low fee ($49, waived first year) and like above, one free night per year on the anniversary.
9. Chase Amazon Prime Rewards Visa. Great card, all my Amazon shopping goes on it. 5% cash back on Amazon purchases as a Prime member. No annual fee.
10. Chase United Mileage Plus Explorer Visa. Great card; I fly United a lot. Gives me access to more award seats, free checked bag, boarding group 2 (so there's still overhead space). $95/year fee, waived the first year, 50,000 mile bonus.
11. American Express Delta SkyMiles Platinum. Just got it and the 70,000 Delta miles that came with it. $195 annual fee. We loves us some flyin'!
12. Discover It. This card has rotating quarterly 5% cashback for various categories like gasoline, Amazon, and groceries- stuff I can get better returns on with the cards in my wallet. I don't have time to fool with that. Might be a good deal if you can find a 0% offer. Oh Lord Jesus, it's got no annual fee!
What I don't have
A fox knows many things, but he doesn't know everything: these cards are blind spots for me.
1. Any Citibank cards. I had a Citi no-fee Hilton card, but their contract with Hilton ended and now Amex has all the Hilton cards. Citi has superior extended warranty protection over other card issuers. They extend an item's warranty two years, vs. the standard one year. In 2009, the first HDTV I owned quit working a few months after the warranty expired and Mastercard covered the $400 repair under extended warranty coverage. Citi also have the Citi ThankYou Premier card to compete with Amex Platinum and Chase Sapphire Reserve.2. Any Capital One cards. I don't know much about these, but every offer I see doesn't impress me. They're spending their money paying Elektra and Ezekiel 25:17 guy to ask the question that is the title of this post.
3. Amex Starwood Points Group Card. I want this one, but I'm waiting for the sign-up bonus to go up. Currently it's 25,000 but it's been 35,000 in the past.
4. There might be something really cool that I don't even know about. Let me know in the comments if there's a card you love. A good fox is always willing to learn!
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| "What's in YO wallet, mutha.....?" |
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