ATHLLC5809144795
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.080 | - Hello, and welcome to another episode of "All The Hacks,"
00:00:05.040 | a show about upgrading your life and travel.
00:00:07.440 | I'm your host, Chris Hutchins,
00:00:08.760 | and today I wanna do a little 2024 planning.
00:00:12.040 | I titled this episode, "What's in My Wallet,"
00:00:14.040 | 'cause I wanted to take a hard look
00:00:15.520 | at all the credit cards I have,
00:00:17.400 | the ones I use, don't use anymore,
00:00:19.440 | and whether there are opportunities for new cards to fit in.
00:00:22.240 | And I wanted to do that publicly
00:00:23.760 | 'cause I thought it would be really valuable
00:00:25.040 | for you all to hear how I'm thinking about this,
00:00:26.860 | because I'm sure many of you
00:00:28.180 | are dealing with the same questions.
00:00:30.220 | The funny thing about the title
00:00:31.480 | is that I don't really carry
00:00:32.860 | what traditionally would be a wallet
00:00:34.360 | with all these cards I have in it.
00:00:36.240 | I actually just use the Apple MagSafe wallet,
00:00:39.040 | and I only carry two credit cards,
00:00:40.920 | usually my Amex Gold and my Capital One Venture X,
00:00:43.640 | unless I'm traveling,
00:00:44.880 | and I use Apple Pay for everything else,
00:00:46.720 | or I store those cards in one password
00:00:48.920 | and use them online.
00:00:50.300 | I'm gonna talk about a lot of cards in this episode.
00:00:53.360 | If you wanna support me or the show,
00:00:55.440 | please go to allthehacks.com/cards
00:00:58.340 | to check any of them out.
00:00:59.860 | It really, really helps, and I really appreciate it.
00:01:02.820 | Before we jump in,
00:01:03.740 | I wanna kick it off with a story from a listener named Jake.
00:01:07.040 | He hadn't really played the card game that much,
00:01:09.660 | but after listening,
00:01:10.620 | he'd been able to open up a handful of cards.
00:01:13.420 | He wrote to me from a perfect day
00:01:15.380 | at the Hyatt Zalara in Montego Bay, Jamaica,
00:01:17.960 | where he was able to use points for flights and hotels,
00:01:21.220 | and because the property was all-inclusive,
00:01:22.980 | all the food and drinks,
00:01:24.380 | as well as lounge access on the way down in Atlanta,
00:01:27.300 | which he said was not the greatest lounge in Jamaica,
00:01:29.780 | which was awesome,
00:01:31.140 | and got some free bags thanks to card benefits.
00:01:34.220 | He's got trips planned to Portugal
00:01:35.580 | and Argentina in the future.
00:01:37.260 | He said he couldn't thank us enough
00:01:38.720 | for everything we've shared.
00:01:40.100 | So Jake, I'm so glad the trip was awesome,
00:01:42.780 | and I'm so glad you're doing what you love.
00:01:45.060 | Jake actually is a sommelier,
00:01:46.780 | and his wife pointed out
00:01:47.740 | that he was constantly helping people plan trips
00:01:50.500 | related to wine,
00:01:51.580 | and finally kicked off his own business
00:01:53.500 | called Terroir Tours,
00:01:55.000 | where he leads food and wine tours
00:01:56.580 | through remote parts of Italy and beyond.
00:01:58.940 | I hope this new business goes well,
00:02:00.760 | and even more,
00:02:01.600 | I hope it brings you ample opportunities
00:02:03.780 | to earn more points on business cards.
00:02:06.500 | So let's jump in right after this.
00:02:08.620 | Sometimes the smallest changes make the biggest impact,
00:02:13.420 | and Trade Coffee is a great addition
00:02:15.720 | to your new year routine,
00:02:17.260 | and I am so excited to be partnering with them today.
00:02:19.700 | Trade is a subscription service
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00:02:26.060 | and brings it straight to your doorstep.
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00:02:37.860 | There's multiple ways to experience coffee with Trade.
00:02:40.820 | Sign up for a subscription
00:02:42.140 | or try one of their starter packs today.
00:02:44.780 | It's been so convenient for us
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00:02:49.140 | and over the past year,
00:02:50.380 | we've gotten so many great coffees from Trade,
00:02:53.200 | but this last bag of beans
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00:02:57.320 | it's called Bark the Moon,
00:02:58.600 | and it's so delicious.
00:03:00.520 | So jumpstart this year
00:03:01.680 | by signing up for a Trade subscription.
00:03:03.660 | Right now, Trade is offering a free bag
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00:03:16.860 | allthehacks.com/trade.
00:03:19.900 | (upbeat music)
00:03:21.560 | All right.
00:03:22.400 | So there are really three reasons
00:03:23.840 | that I think it might make sense to have a credit card.
00:03:26.200 | First is how you spend.
00:03:28.760 | So lots of cards earn bonus points on different categories.
00:03:32.500 | So if you are spending a lot in a category,
00:03:34.600 | I think it can make sense to have a card
00:03:36.080 | that matches with that category.
00:03:37.300 | So that's spending.
00:03:38.560 | Second is perks.
00:03:39.880 | There are some cards
00:03:40.900 | that the benefits of having that card far outweigh the cost,
00:03:44.240 | and whether you spend anything on that card at all
00:03:46.920 | doesn't matter because the perks are so great.
00:03:49.400 | For us, that's the Hilton Aspire card.
00:03:51.560 | Between the free night
00:03:52.740 | and all the credits you get with a card,
00:03:54.480 | it's totally worth the annual fee.
00:03:56.680 | And if you wanna check that one out,
00:03:57.960 | it's not on our cards page,
00:03:59.860 | but you can use my wife Amy's referral link
00:04:01.960 | at allthehacks.com/hilton.
00:04:05.040 | And then the third reason to have a card is the bonuses.
00:04:08.280 | There are plenty of welcome bonuses
00:04:10.060 | that you can get for cards
00:04:11.720 | that may or may not make sense for you in the longterm,
00:04:14.680 | but that if the bonus is compelling enough,
00:04:16.760 | I do think makes sense to get.
00:04:18.480 | My threshold is usually somewhere
00:04:20.180 | in the 75 to 100,000 point range.
00:04:22.960 | Though, if it's a hotel card,
00:04:24.560 | I try to look for something even greater
00:04:26.440 | because those points are usually a little less valuable,
00:04:29.060 | except Hyatt, where if Hyatt had a 100,000 point offer,
00:04:32.320 | I would be jumping on it as soon as I saw it.
00:04:35.200 | Also, and I'm recording this little part
00:04:36.960 | right after I recorded the episode,
00:04:39.200 | I just noticed that the Amex Platinum referral offers
00:04:42.400 | are up to 150,000 point signup bonus.
00:04:45.920 | So if you wanna take advantage of that,
00:04:47.440 | I'll put my referral link up at allthehacks.com/platinum
00:04:52.280 | to all the hacks members that might have platinum cards
00:04:54.880 | with 150,000 point bonus there.
00:04:56.960 | So in general, I want cards
00:04:59.240 | because they're gonna help me earn more when I spend,
00:05:01.120 | they have big bonuses, or they have a lot of perks.
00:05:04.640 | Today, I'm gonna focus probably mostly on the spending side,
00:05:07.480 | but I will touch a little bit on the perk side as well.
00:05:11.080 | Also, when I went through this process for me,
00:05:13.320 | there were a couple of goals I had.
00:05:15.160 | One was I wanted to make sure
00:05:16.400 | I always was keeping my transferable points.
00:05:18.800 | So that means that even though
00:05:20.000 | I might not need a particular card
00:05:21.880 | with a bank like Amex or Chase,
00:05:23.920 | I might wanna keep that card open
00:05:25.280 | just so I keep those points alive
00:05:27.120 | or find another card that will keep those points alive.
00:05:30.240 | Few other things that are important to me,
00:05:32.040 | may or may not be for you,
00:05:33.400 | is to have at least one card with good rental car coverage,
00:05:36.280 | to maintain some lounge access.
00:05:38.580 | There are a lot of promotions I've seen recently
00:05:40.360 | where you get bonus for mastercard.
00:05:42.360 | So I wanna have at least one mastercard
00:05:43.960 | because I have a lot of Visa and Amex cards.
00:05:46.480 | I need a card with no foreign transaction fees,
00:05:48.400 | which is pretty easy.
00:05:49.640 | And this year, I really wanna try
00:05:50.920 | to have more built points and status,
00:05:52.720 | but I will come back to that one.
00:05:55.160 | Okay, so the first thing I wanna do
00:05:56.840 | is talk about how I review the cards I have
00:05:59.160 | and my spending and try to pick cards that align.
00:06:02.160 | So for me, fortunately, I use an app called Copilot,
00:06:05.380 | which makes it really easy
00:06:06.720 | to track all of my spending from last year.
00:06:09.160 | So as I'm recording this, I've gone through 2023
00:06:11.840 | and I've looked at how much I spend
00:06:13.440 | in a lot of different categories
00:06:15.560 | and tried to figure out which ones I spend the most on
00:06:18.240 | so I can think about that.
00:06:19.560 | So that was step one.
00:06:20.880 | And I'll go through each individual category that I found
00:06:24.200 | and talk about the cards that make sense there,
00:06:26.640 | many of which I already have,
00:06:28.640 | and we'll go a little bit further.
00:06:30.180 | And to figure out the value of a card,
00:06:32.440 | there are a few things.
00:06:33.560 | So first off, I have this card value tool.
00:06:35.920 | If you go to allthehacks.com/cardvalue,
00:06:39.040 | I built this spreadsheet.
00:06:40.260 | You can download it for as little as $1
00:06:42.360 | if you're interested,
00:06:43.520 | where I break down all the cards
00:06:45.060 | and how many points you earn on each
00:06:46.680 | and make it really easy to type in how much you spend
00:06:49.880 | in different categories
00:06:51.000 | and see how much adding a certain card
00:06:53.120 | would benefit to your points accumulation.
00:06:55.400 | There's a whole video on that page
00:06:57.040 | so you can check it out before you have to make the decision
00:06:59.760 | but honestly, it's $1.
00:07:01.360 | It was part of an experiment
00:07:02.520 | to make sure that these products are valuable.
00:07:04.760 | So go through each card.
00:07:06.720 | Dining was the first category.
00:07:08.560 | It was a big spend for me.
00:07:10.040 | I'm already using the Amex Gold card
00:07:12.220 | which earns four points per dollar, which was great.
00:07:15.060 | But I figure as I go through these categories
00:07:17.620 | for people listening,
00:07:18.560 | it's also helpful to mention what my backups would be
00:07:21.260 | if I wasn't using that card.
00:07:23.180 | So for Dining,
00:07:24.520 | while I think the Amex Gold at 4X is great,
00:07:27.460 | the Capital One Saver also earns 4X points on Dining,
00:07:30.620 | which is fantastic.
00:07:31.980 | And the Citi Custom Cash earns 4X points
00:07:34.620 | but only up to $500 a month.
00:07:37.780 | And then in the 3X Camp, there are so many cards.
00:07:40.620 | You've got the Chase Reserve, the Chase Preferred,
00:07:43.100 | the Freedom Flex, the Freedom Unlimited,
00:07:45.180 | all four Chase cards and then the Built Rewards card
00:07:48.180 | which also gets three points on Dining.
00:07:50.260 | So Dining, I feel like I have it covered.
00:07:52.880 | I have a couple backup cards as well
00:07:54.840 | for anyone that doesn't take Amex.
00:07:56.940 | So then I looked at Groceries
00:07:58.500 | and I don't spend more than $25,000 a year on Groceries
00:08:01.460 | so I'm in the clear with Amex Gold
00:08:03.740 | because you get 4X points on Groceries
00:08:05.860 | up to that $25,000 limit.
00:08:08.420 | Additional to that, if you're looking for a card
00:08:10.940 | and that one's not a fit,
00:08:12.320 | the Saver card from Cap One gets 3X
00:08:14.940 | and the Citi Premier card also gets 3X.
00:08:17.540 | I'm gonna focus on points earning cards
00:08:19.300 | but I'll talk a little bit about Cash Back later.
00:08:22.140 | Next big category for me was Travel.
00:08:24.340 | Right now I'm using the Chase Reserve to get 3X on Travel.
00:08:27.620 | Some other 3X cards include the Amex Green,
00:08:30.980 | the Citi Premier, which is 3X on Flights and Hotels
00:08:34.420 | but not all Travel.
00:08:36.380 | And then there are a lot of cards
00:08:38.540 | that earn huge bonuses on Travel
00:08:40.380 | with the caveat that you need to spend them
00:08:42.940 | in the Travel Portal.
00:08:44.740 | So for example, the Capital One Venture X
00:08:47.100 | and the Chase Reserve get 10X on Hotels
00:08:49.700 | and 5X on Flights when booked in their Travel Portals.
00:08:53.400 | The Chase Preferred is also 5X on Hotels and Flights
00:08:56.440 | booked in the Travel Portal.
00:08:57.840 | The Platinum card earns 5X on Hotels in the Portal.
00:09:01.000 | And what's interesting about the Travel Portal
00:09:03.240 | is there are some downsides.
00:09:05.080 | Doing a little bit of research for this episode,
00:09:06.620 | there are actually some upsides.
00:09:08.240 | So I take that with a word of caution
00:09:10.100 | when I think about how much I can earn with Travel.
00:09:12.580 | The obvious downside is that when you book
00:09:14.620 | through a Travel Portal,
00:09:15.580 | you're usually booking through an agency,
00:09:17.740 | which means you have to deal with that agency
00:09:19.820 | to make changes.
00:09:21.080 | We were taking a trip with a bunch of friends to Cabo
00:09:23.660 | and our flight was so delayed
00:09:25.960 | that everyone wanted to go take another flight
00:09:28.020 | and everyone that had booked through the airline,
00:09:30.180 | and this was canceling a United flight
00:09:31.940 | to take an Alaska flight,
00:09:33.580 | everyone was able to very quickly and simply call United
00:09:36.460 | and cancel the flight because it was so late,
00:09:38.700 | except the people who booked it through a Travel Portal
00:09:41.100 | who needed to get Amex Travel to help out.
00:09:43.540 | And it was a little tricky 'cause they'd already checked in.
00:09:46.060 | And so I'm not actually sure to this day
00:09:48.100 | whether those people all got their refunds,
00:09:49.960 | but I know they were trying.
00:09:51.300 | So that's a big downside to booking the Travel Portal.
00:09:54.160 | I've definitely used the Portal to book flights
00:09:56.220 | and it's gone fine,
00:09:57.760 | but I just caution that if things go wrong,
00:10:00.580 | having booked in the Portal can create a few problems.
00:10:03.460 | And also if you're booking hotels,
00:10:05.300 | there are some Travel Portal hotel rates
00:10:07.500 | that don't always accrue points.
00:10:09.520 | So that's another thing to keep in mind.
00:10:11.300 | However, I was very surprised
00:10:13.260 | when I was looking at an article that the Points Guy wrote,
00:10:15.840 | which I'll link to in the show notes,
00:10:17.500 | where they compared the pricing for flights,
00:10:20.000 | booking direct and at the Portal.
00:10:22.740 | And while sometimes Travel Portals were expensive,
00:10:25.520 | there were almost as many times
00:10:27.340 | where the Travel Portal was cheaper.
00:10:29.260 | And that was something I was really shocked by.
00:10:31.660 | So I can definitely tell you that when I'm going forward,
00:10:34.620 | looking at expensive flights,
00:10:36.300 | I'm certainly gonna look in the Portal
00:10:37.820 | because there were times where flights
00:10:39.580 | were five, 10, 15, 20% cheaper
00:10:42.580 | booking in a Chase or Citi or Amex Portal
00:10:45.500 | than it was actually booking directly with the airline.
00:10:48.300 | Though, if I remember correctly,
00:10:50.040 | I don't actually think there was a single time
00:10:51.980 | where booking in the Chase Portal was cheaper,
00:10:53.740 | but Citi, CapOne and Amex
00:10:55.180 | all sometimes were a little cheaper.
00:10:56.860 | All right, I'll also link to an article
00:10:58.720 | from the Points Guy about reasons to avoid
00:11:00.940 | booking for a Travel Portal if you wanna go deeper,
00:11:03.000 | but I just wanna caution
00:11:04.140 | that when I'm talking about earning points on travel,
00:11:06.360 | I'm talking about earning points on any type of travel
00:11:09.220 | booked anywhere, not the Travel Portals.
00:11:11.780 | Separate from travel, I'll just highlight flights
00:11:14.020 | because I have a Platinum card on Amex
00:11:16.020 | that earns 5X points on flights.
00:11:18.280 | So I'm using that for flights.
00:11:19.720 | I'm using the Chase Reserve on everything else.
00:11:22.020 | Another big category for us was Amazon.
00:11:24.320 | We have the Amazon Prime Visa.
00:11:25.740 | It earns 5% cash back.
00:11:27.740 | You guys know I love points,
00:11:29.540 | but it's hard to turn down 5% cash back
00:11:32.540 | compared with earning two points,
00:11:34.540 | which is the best I could do
00:11:35.520 | with any of the other cards I have.
00:11:37.060 | The next is cell phone services.
00:11:38.740 | Since switching to T-Mobile and Mint Mobile,
00:11:41.260 | we've actually brought our household phone bills
00:11:43.220 | down significantly.
00:11:44.580 | So this didn't really make sense to call out
00:11:46.700 | except that we bought our cell phones through our carrier.
00:11:50.340 | So I bought a iPhone 15 Pro through T-Mobile.
00:11:54.080 | So I actually put that entire charge there,
00:11:56.120 | which was fantastic because there are cards
00:11:58.960 | mostly on the business category,
00:12:00.740 | the Ink Cash and the Ink Preferred,
00:12:03.000 | where you can earn three to five points
00:12:04.540 | on cell phone services.
00:12:06.300 | Unfortunately, this category is mostly focused
00:12:08.400 | on business cards.
00:12:09.240 | So there aren't a lot of cards
00:12:10.920 | that prioritize this category to get bonuses.
00:12:14.160 | So for most people with consumer cards,
00:12:16.400 | I would actually just focus on whichever card
00:12:18.400 | gives you the best cell phone insurance.
00:12:20.560 | Next, we actually spent a lot of money last year at Costco.
00:12:23.320 | And unfortunately, there isn't a card
00:12:25.880 | that earns more than 2% or 2X points at Costco,
00:12:29.600 | though I will get to one later that is surprising way
00:12:33.240 | to get a little bit more than 2X at Costco.
00:12:35.880 | So we just used our Venture X at Costco to earn 2X points.
00:12:39.580 | It seems like with every business,
00:12:43.020 | you get to a certain size and the cracks start to emerge.
00:12:46.360 | Things that you used to do in a day are taking a week
00:12:49.200 | and you have too many manual processes
00:12:51.560 | and there's no one source of truth.
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00:14:17.040 | we're organizing trips,
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00:15:33.120 | And then the biggest category for us
00:15:34.900 | was actually the other category,
00:15:36.760 | and that's everything else we put our spend on.
00:15:39.900 | For us, it was all on the Venture X, earning two X points,
00:15:43.720 | though if you don't have that card,
00:15:46.220 | the Citi Double Cash also earns two X on everything.
00:15:49.960 | Like a lot of cards,
00:15:50.880 | the Double Cash is marketed as cashback,
00:15:53.120 | but if you have a points-earning card with that issuer,
00:15:56.240 | you can transfer that cashback to points.
00:15:58.400 | So in this case, you would need the Citi Premier
00:16:00.920 | to have the Citi Double Cash earn points
00:16:03.120 | that you can transfer instead of just cashback.
00:16:06.320 | The other big card in this category
00:16:08.000 | is the Chase Freedom Unlimited.
00:16:09.760 | Now, normally, it only earns 1.5 points per dollar,
00:16:12.840 | which is, in my opinion, not as great as earning two,
00:16:16.260 | but up until last week,
00:16:18.900 | there was the ability to sign up for an offer
00:16:21.120 | which would double your points
00:16:22.660 | on the Chase Freedom Unlimited.
00:16:24.320 | So it was gonna earn six X on dining
00:16:27.220 | and three X on everything else for the next 12 months.
00:16:31.060 | Downside was those extra double-matched points
00:16:33.500 | weren't gonna come until the end of that 12-month period,
00:16:36.460 | but the ability to earn three X points on everything
00:16:39.720 | was unbelievable, six X on dining, also unbelievable.
00:16:43.900 | For anyone who missed out on that deal,
00:16:46.060 | you definitely should get subscribed to the newsletter
00:16:48.340 | because I sent a reminder out before it expired.
00:16:51.620 | That's allthehacks.com/email
00:16:53.900 | if you're not already subscribed.
00:16:55.940 | One more category that I don't use
00:16:57.660 | but really comes up a lot with listeners
00:16:59.580 | is the Gas category.
00:17:01.060 | The Citi Premier at three X
00:17:02.860 | or the Custom Cash at five X is really your best option.
00:17:05.880 | There are a few other cards like the Wyndham Earner card
00:17:08.620 | that earns a lot of points on gas,
00:17:10.840 | but the Citi Premier is one of the best at three X points.
00:17:14.800 | And that Custom Cash at five X is great,
00:17:16.720 | but it is capped at $500 a month.
00:17:18.600 | So depending on how many points you are
00:17:21.940 | or how many dollars you're gonna spend on gas,
00:17:25.280 | it kind of affects that.
00:17:26.400 | And also like the Double Cash card,
00:17:28.520 | the Custom Cash card is a cashback card
00:17:31.120 | that can be converted to points
00:17:32.720 | if you also have that Citi Premier card.
00:17:34.980 | So that's a little bit how I thought
00:17:37.340 | about all the main categories.
00:17:39.160 | For anyone listening with a business,
00:17:40.760 | I'll run through this really fast.
00:17:42.480 | I basically went through that same list of categories
00:17:45.220 | for business and I just tried to figure out
00:17:47.120 | whether I had a card I could use.
00:17:48.540 | So for travel, it was three X
00:17:50.400 | with the Inc Business Preferred.
00:17:52.000 | For flights, there wasn't a great option.
00:17:54.280 | So that's where the fact that Amy and I
00:17:55.720 | both have a platinum card comes in handy.
00:17:57.720 | I use one for business stuff and one for personal.
00:18:00.640 | And then dining, I ended up just saying
00:18:03.600 | that my Chase Freedom Unlimited,
00:18:05.000 | which only earns three X on dining
00:18:07.240 | because I didn't take advantage of that offer
00:18:09.440 | because I already had the Freedom Unlimited,
00:18:11.600 | has kind of become my dining card for business
00:18:14.100 | to kind of separate things.
00:18:15.840 | For Amazon and everything else for business,
00:18:17.780 | we just use the Spark Cash Plus,
00:18:19.920 | which is earning two X on everything.
00:18:22.340 | Though I would love to get the Venture X Business,
00:18:25.200 | I am not eligible because I have the Spark Cash Plus
00:18:27.920 | and I'm a little scared to cancel it
00:18:30.040 | and be not 100% certain
00:18:31.720 | that I could open up the Venture X Business.
00:18:33.540 | So that's business.
00:18:34.560 | Now I've gone through all these categories.
00:18:36.540 | Then I thought, let's go through all the cards I have
00:18:39.140 | and decide if they make sense to use.
00:18:41.560 | And I think about this in two ways.
00:18:44.120 | So one, depending on how much you spend on a category,
00:18:48.280 | earning more points in it might not make sense.
00:18:51.060 | So for example, the Capital One Saver
00:18:53.360 | earns four X points on streaming.
00:18:55.480 | And I don't have a card that earns
00:18:57.040 | more than two points on streaming,
00:18:59.000 | but I don't spend enough on streaming
00:19:01.600 | to make those extra two points per dollar make sense.
00:19:04.600 | And so the way I would do the math there is
00:19:06.200 | if I spend $1,000 on streaming,
00:19:08.200 | I'm gonna get an extra 2,000 points.
00:19:10.400 | So 2,000 points, but the cost of that card is $95.
00:19:14.780 | So what am I gonna pay for those points?
00:19:17.000 | Well, if I'm paying $95 for 2,000 points,
00:19:19.840 | I'm paying 4.75 cents per point,
00:19:22.360 | which is really, really high.
00:19:23.960 | So it doesn't actually make sense for me to get that card
00:19:27.480 | solely for the streaming category.
00:19:29.680 | So as I'm looking at where I'm spending money,
00:19:32.020 | I'm definitely trying to see,
00:19:33.880 | oh, maybe I could get a few more points per dollar
00:19:36.440 | on a category, but is it worth the annual fee?
00:19:39.800 | Is it even worth the hassle?
00:19:41.480 | There are categories where I might spend $500 a year.
00:19:44.600 | And even if I could get more points on that category
00:19:48.100 | with a no annual fee card,
00:19:49.760 | it might not even be worth the hassle for a few hundred points.
00:19:53.120 | So that's one value.
00:19:54.560 | And then the other is when it comes to premium cards
00:19:57.120 | that have a lot of perks,
00:19:58.680 | trying to figure out whether a card's worth it
00:20:00.560 | is often about a lot more than the points.
00:20:03.640 | Take the Amex Platinum, for example.
00:20:05.880 | Yes, you can earn 5X points on flights,
00:20:08.460 | but you also get a bunch of perks.
00:20:10.720 | So saying, can I spend enough money on flights
00:20:13.320 | that earning 5X points versus maybe 3X
00:20:16.480 | for whatever other card you have is worth it?
00:20:19.560 | And it doesn't make sense to say,
00:20:21.320 | is it worth it for a $695 annual fee?
00:20:24.300 | I imagine for almost everyone listening,
00:20:26.360 | it's not going to be worth it.
00:20:28.060 | However, the Amex Platinum also has a ton of perks.
00:20:31.640 | I think in the points and miles world
00:20:33.160 | it's often been called a coupon book
00:20:34.640 | because of how many different ways
00:20:36.120 | that you can earn value from the card,
00:20:38.080 | whether it's sax credit or airline credit,
00:20:40.200 | clear, global entry credits.
00:20:42.320 | So I really like this premium card spreadsheet
00:20:45.080 | that the Frequent Miler team put together
00:20:47.360 | where for every single card with a big annual fee,
00:20:50.200 | they itemize out every single one of those perks
00:20:53.400 | and they give their estimate of the value.
00:20:55.580 | And then they let you put in your estimate of the value
00:20:58.300 | and then summarize it all on a tab.
00:21:00.240 | So you're able to kind of go through and say,
00:21:01.680 | well, how much is a $50 credit at Saks twice a year worth?
00:21:06.260 | Push you to say, just because you spent $100 at Saks
00:21:09.160 | doesn't mean you saved $100.
00:21:11.220 | Maybe you used it to buy some fancy Aesop soap,
00:21:14.480 | which is often what we do,
00:21:16.160 | which otherwise we would have just bought regular soap
00:21:19.000 | and it probably saved us $30 instead of the full 100.
00:21:22.760 | So I love how you can go through that spreadsheet
00:21:24.480 | and see are these cards actually worth it?
00:21:26.720 | How much do you value the bonus points
00:21:28.800 | you get in this category?
00:21:29.860 | So you can put that in as well.
00:21:31.400 | I'll link to that spreadsheet in the show notes.
00:21:33.360 | So for us, I'll run through all the cards we have
00:21:35.880 | and just say what our takeaway was.
00:21:38.480 | Chase Sapphire Reserve,
00:21:40.120 | gonna keep that for 3X travel.
00:21:42.240 | Chase Freedom Unlimited, we never use it.
00:21:44.560 | It has no annual fee, but I decided this year
00:21:47.120 | to make it kind of my segregated card
00:21:50.800 | for earning points at dining and restaurants for business.
00:21:54.860 | The Chase Freedom Flex, we actually have,
00:21:57.360 | it's kind of a wild card because it earns 5X points
00:22:00.260 | on categories that rotate every quarter.
00:22:02.760 | So I can't tell you that this card
00:22:03.960 | will be valuable for you in the future
00:22:05.320 | because I don't know what it will earn points on.
00:22:07.500 | In Q1, you can earn 5X points on groceries,
00:22:10.360 | I think gym memberships and some personal care spa services,
00:22:13.880 | but I don't know what it'll be for Q2.
00:22:15.320 | So we're definitely keeping that, no annual fee,
00:22:17.700 | and those 5X points while marketed as cash back
00:22:20.640 | because we have the Chase Reserve end up being points.
00:22:23.360 | On the business side,
00:22:24.640 | actually noticed we had the Inc Unlimited card,
00:22:27.240 | which earns one and a half points per dollar on everything.
00:22:29.420 | Well, we don't really use it for anything
00:22:31.080 | and the Inc Cash card earns 5X points
00:22:33.460 | on phone and internet services.
00:22:35.400 | So I'm gonna product change that card,
00:22:37.480 | which is something you can do for any card.
00:22:39.400 | You can product change it within its group.
00:22:41.860 | So I can go and say,
00:22:42.700 | "Hey, can we change the Inc Unlimited to the Inc Cash?"
00:22:45.700 | At least as I'm recording this,
00:22:47.320 | there is also a $900 or 90,000 points signup bonus
00:22:50.960 | on the Inc Cash and Inc Unlimited,
00:22:52.760 | which I'll link to in the show notes.
00:22:54.440 | And as I said, also at allthehacks.com/cards
00:22:57.560 | are all the links to all the cards
00:22:59.460 | except for a few that I will call out.
00:23:01.500 | I gotta decide, do I wanna just product change it
00:23:03.700 | or do I wanna open up another Inc Cash
00:23:06.000 | for that 90,000 point bonus?
00:23:07.900 | I'm gonna keep my Inc Business Preferred
00:23:09.460 | 'cause I use that for travel for the business.
00:23:12.080 | And then I'm gonna keep the Amazon Prime card,
00:23:14.640 | which I use for 5% on Amazon.
00:23:16.820 | And then we have a United card
00:23:18.740 | that is my wife Amy's longest held card.
00:23:21.840 | And we're just gonna keep that one going
00:23:23.360 | because it helps boost her credit
00:23:24.900 | by keeping a really long credit history.
00:23:27.280 | And I should say, I'm talking about all of these cards
00:23:29.240 | as if I have them all.
00:23:30.740 | Because Amy and I play this game together,
00:23:32.980 | we often have some of these cards are hers,
00:23:35.300 | some of them are mine,
00:23:36.140 | so we're not all carrying all of them.
00:23:38.500 | Moving on to Amex, the gold card, Workhorse card.
00:23:42.020 | It's my primary card I keep in my wallet.
00:23:44.220 | Probably not necessarily because I put the most on it,
00:23:46.520 | but because dining and groceries are the purchases
00:23:49.340 | that I most often need a physical card for.
00:23:52.180 | Next is the Amex Platinum.
00:23:54.140 | This is an interesting one.
00:23:55.220 | We have two of them
00:23:56.680 | because there was a great signup bonus for them.
00:23:59.320 | And we've held onto both of them
00:24:01.720 | because it's kind of made sense
00:24:03.880 | and we got some good retention offers,
00:24:05.680 | which I'll talk about in a minute.
00:24:07.320 | Going forward, I'm not sure if it makes sense.
00:24:09.960 | Now that Amex has removed the free guests
00:24:13.860 | into the Centurion Lounge,
00:24:15.400 | at least if Amy doesn't have her own card,
00:24:17.960 | she won't be able to go in.
00:24:18.920 | So that could make it make sense to keep.
00:24:20.520 | And like I said earlier,
00:24:21.840 | I think we might end up using one for business flights
00:24:24.760 | and one for personal flights to separate that.
00:24:27.380 | I also have the Business Platinum card,
00:24:28.980 | which we opened up this year
00:24:30.220 | for a massive 190,000-point signup bonus,
00:24:33.380 | which I don't think,
00:24:34.780 | based on using that frequent miler premium card spreadsheet,
00:24:38.060 | I'm gonna get the value out of.
00:24:39.300 | So that's not a card
00:24:40.380 | that I think I'm gonna carry past the 12-month mark.
00:24:43.460 | We have two Bonvoy cards,
00:24:44.800 | a Bonvoy and a Bonvoy Business card.
00:24:47.020 | The annual fee is worth about as much
00:24:49.380 | as the free night certificate we get,
00:24:51.940 | though they're a little tricky to use.
00:24:54.020 | The primary reason we keep these cards
00:24:55.760 | is because they earn 15 Elite Nights on Marriott each year,
00:24:58.840 | and that means between the two of them,
00:25:00.280 | we're 30 of the 50 nights you need
00:25:02.240 | to get to Platinum status,
00:25:03.920 | and three more years of earning Platinum,
00:25:05.720 | and we'll have Platinum for life,
00:25:07.280 | which would be a great thing to hit for us
00:25:09.200 | because then we never pay for breakfast.
00:25:11.560 | So we'll probably keep both of those open.
00:25:13.680 | Next, on the hotel front,
00:25:15.020 | we have the Hilton Aspire card.
00:25:16.800 | Amy has it, and it's such a great value.
00:25:19.200 | I might even get it myself
00:25:20.520 | just because the free night certificate
00:25:22.480 | at any Hilton worldwide plus the resort credit
00:25:25.280 | plus the airline fee credit,
00:25:27.040 | I think it pays for itself.
00:25:28.880 | And then last, I have an Amex Blue Cash card
00:25:31.480 | from so long ago that I think maybe earns 1% cash back
00:25:35.560 | and nothing special.
00:25:36.560 | I got it in college, but because it has no annual fee
00:25:39.800 | and it helps boost my credit score, I will keep it open.
00:25:42.880 | In the Capital One camp, we both have a Venture X card
00:25:46.080 | because of the big sign-up bonus when it launched.
00:25:48.580 | I don't see any reason for us to both have it,
00:25:50.520 | so I think this year will be the year
00:25:52.200 | that one of us cuts our Venture X card.
00:25:54.640 | The $300 travel credit plus the 10,000 points a year
00:25:58.320 | make it a break-even on the annual fee,
00:26:00.800 | but we don't really need it.
00:26:02.840 | You can transfer all of one person's Capital One points
00:26:05.640 | to another person, and unlike some cards,
00:26:08.160 | you can actually do that to anyone.
00:26:09.640 | It doesn't have to be in your household.
00:26:11.160 | So we might probably just transfer
00:26:12.920 | all of our Venture X points to one of us
00:26:15.000 | and cancel the other card.
00:26:16.720 | And then last, I have the Spark Cash Plus,
00:26:18.620 | which is a 2X on everything card, but for business.
00:26:22.340 | And I like to pair that with the Venture X
00:26:24.500 | so that I'm separating all of the everything else spend.
00:26:27.280 | If I can figure out a way to get that Venture X business,
00:26:29.540 | especially right now when it has a massive sign-up bonus,
00:26:32.860 | I think it's still 150,000 points, I would love to.
00:26:36.460 | I got denied when I applied because you can't have both.
00:26:39.340 | And like I said earlier,
00:26:40.380 | I'm a little nervous to cancel the Spark Cash Plus
00:26:43.300 | and then find out I couldn't get the Venture X
00:26:45.220 | and then be out of luck with a 2X card for business.
00:26:49.100 | Though, as I'm saying this out loud,
00:26:51.180 | maybe the strategy here, cancel the Spark Cash Plus,
00:26:54.860 | use the second Venture X we already have for business
00:26:58.640 | if I don't get approved for the Venture X
00:27:00.540 | after I cancel that card.
00:27:01.860 | So somehow just talking about this aloud
00:27:04.960 | made me come up with a strategy that makes sense.
00:27:07.500 | And then the only other card we have,
00:27:08.780 | which isn't technically a credit card,
00:27:10.100 | is the Target debit card,
00:27:11.700 | which we're gonna keep for 5% off at Target.
00:27:14.040 | There's no annual fee, it's not even a credit card,
00:27:16.380 | so we'll keep that going.
00:27:17.740 | And if you don't have that,
00:27:19.340 | oftentimes throughout the year,
00:27:21.060 | they do bonuses where you get 40 or 50 or 100,
00:27:23.980 | I can't remember the exact amount
00:27:25.280 | of kind of free credit for signing up.
00:27:27.620 | There's no impact on your credit score
00:27:29.340 | 'cause it's a debit card.
00:27:30.500 | So definitely one, if you shop at Target a lot,
00:27:33.300 | that makes sense, just wait till they're doing the promo,
00:27:35.860 | which I will probably put in the next newsletter
00:27:37.940 | the next time it happens for the Target card,
00:27:40.500 | that would be the time to get it.
00:27:42.100 | So if you go through a similar process yourself,
00:27:44.800 | what should you do when you find out
00:27:46.040 | that you have cards you don't need?
00:27:47.560 | There's three things that you should consider.
00:27:49.640 | The first one is find out
00:27:51.120 | if you're eligible for a retention offer.
00:27:53.120 | And I guess maybe the first one is just do nothing, right?
00:27:55.000 | If it's a no annual fee card that you've had forever,
00:27:57.320 | even if you're not using it,
00:27:58.600 | I would consider just keeping it
00:27:59.920 | because it helps your credit score
00:28:02.140 | to increase the average length of credit history
00:28:04.660 | when it averages all the cards on your credit profile.
00:28:07.600 | So you could just keep it if it has no annual fee,
00:28:09.760 | even if you're not using it.
00:28:11.200 | If it does have an annual fee
00:28:12.520 | and you don't wanna have to carry that fee every year
00:28:14.680 | because it's not worth it,
00:28:16.200 | step one, see if you can get a retention offer
00:28:18.880 | from the bank to make it worth keeping.
00:28:21.480 | I've had the Amex Platinum retention offer once
00:28:23.960 | of a comped annual fee.
00:28:25.980 | I think one time I had a card
00:28:27.720 | where it was 30 or 40,000 points
00:28:29.700 | if we could spend a few thousand dollars on it.
00:28:31.840 | So always check if you can get a retention offer
00:28:34.000 | that might offset that annual fee and make it worth it.
00:28:36.880 | If not, many cards have the ability to downgrade
00:28:40.280 | within a product class.
00:28:41.720 | So the Amex Platinum can go down to the gold or the green.
00:28:44.920 | All of the cards in the Hilton portfolio can be downgraded.
00:28:48.100 | And similarly, in a lot of other categories,
00:28:50.540 | the Chase Sapphire Preferred and Reserve can downgrade
00:28:53.600 | to the Freedom Flex and Freedom Unlimited,
00:28:55.520 | which is actually, we had Chase Sapphire Preferreds,
00:28:57.840 | downgraded to the Freedom Flex and Freedom Unlimited,
00:29:00.360 | and then opened up Chase Sapphire Reserve
00:29:02.480 | when that came out.
00:29:03.400 | So downgrade path is great.
00:29:05.880 | Keep in mind with Amex and a few other cards
00:29:08.520 | that once you have a card, you're often not eligible
00:29:11.680 | for the bonus on that card.
00:29:13.320 | So for some cards where the bonus is small enough
00:29:15.600 | or non-existent, it might make sense to downgrade.
00:29:18.520 | But if there's a card you really wanna try
00:29:20.380 | to get a big bonus for,
00:29:21.520 | you might want to not downgrade to it
00:29:23.680 | because you might make yourself ineligible
00:29:25.440 | for getting that bonus.
00:29:26.880 | Also, sometimes there are cards
00:29:28.360 | that aren't obviously marketed that exist
00:29:30.600 | that you can downgrade to.
00:29:31.840 | So I didn't think there was a no annual fee United card
00:29:35.400 | back when I downgraded our United card,
00:29:37.800 | but there was, so it never hurts to ask.
00:29:40.600 | A lot of times also you can do all of this
00:29:42.640 | through live chat or through secure messaging.
00:29:46.200 | Sometimes the retention offers don't work well
00:29:48.520 | through kind of that secure messaging portal,
00:29:50.400 | but on Amex, I've had a lot of luck with them
00:29:52.800 | just live chatting, but you can also always call
00:29:55.540 | or look up the numbers for the retention departments,
00:29:58.040 | just Google Amex retention number or Chase, et cetera.
00:30:01.840 | And then the last option is to cancel the card.
00:30:03.720 | If you can't get a retention offer,
00:30:05.080 | you can't have a downgrade path
00:30:06.620 | and the card doesn't make sense,
00:30:07.960 | it could make sense to cancel it.
00:30:09.880 | Only thing I'll share here is before you cancel it,
00:30:12.680 | if there is a lot of credit on that card
00:30:15.000 | and you don't wanna lose that credit,
00:30:17.080 | at some issuers you can transfer credit between cards.
00:30:20.160 | So I know Chase is pretty good about this.
00:30:21.640 | So if you had two cards with a $20,000 limit
00:30:24.280 | and you wanted to cancel one, but you needed that limit,
00:30:27.040 | you could actually transfer all but 1000 to the other card,
00:30:30.840 | bringing that one up to 39,000
00:30:33.200 | and then cancel the card when it has a $1,000 limit.
00:30:36.440 | As for when to cancel and go through this process,
00:30:39.260 | usually within 30 days of the annual fee posting
00:30:43.220 | to your account, you can still negotiate it.
00:30:45.940 | Also, a lot of the ways that cards market
00:30:49.540 | and check for people taking advantage of offers
00:30:52.940 | is that you close the card within the first year.
00:30:55.620 | So my advice is always let that annual fee post
00:30:58.980 | after one year and then figure out what you wanna do.
00:31:01.780 | So instead of trying to cancel it before the fee posts,
00:31:04.620 | let the fee post and then decide
00:31:06.280 | whether you wanna cancel it.
00:31:07.400 | And you can usually get that annual fee refunded
00:31:10.040 | if it's within 30 days.
00:31:11.400 | Every issuer has their own set of rules.
00:31:13.460 | You can search online and say,
00:31:15.120 | "Annual fee refund capital one policy,"
00:31:17.800 | and find an article that explains
00:31:19.280 | what each individual issuer's policy is.
00:31:21.460 | But within that 30 day window of it posting,
00:31:23.880 | not of the statement close, but the fee posting,
00:31:26.880 | you should be good on all the major card issuers.
00:31:29.740 | When it comes to our personal finances,
00:31:33.440 | Amy and I are making some really intentional changes
00:31:36.240 | with how we wanna spend in 2024,
00:31:38.360 | and we are so excited about it.
00:31:40.080 | And what made that whole process possible
00:31:42.200 | is our sponsor today, Copilot,
00:31:44.000 | which is one of my all-time favorite apps
00:31:46.560 | that makes it seamless and easy to track your spending,
00:31:49.960 | and in the case of our 2024 plans, boost our savings.
00:31:53.840 | I've tried dozens of apps for tracking spending
00:31:56.080 | and managing your finances,
00:31:57.360 | and Copilot is the only one I keep using.
00:32:00.080 | So if you're looking for a replacement for Mint,
00:32:02.120 | I think Copilot is the answer.
00:32:04.440 | You can link accounts at over 10,000 institutions,
00:32:07.360 | and their AI-powered expense categorization
00:32:09.800 | is the best I've used,
00:32:11.320 | with custom Amazon and Venmo integrations
00:32:13.680 | to make it even better.
00:32:15.220 | You can completely design your spending categories
00:32:17.700 | and subcategories, and easily set up rules
00:32:20.280 | to automatically assign transactions to them in the future.
00:32:23.500 | Thanks to Copilot, we have never had a better grasp
00:32:25.920 | on our spending and cashflow,
00:32:27.640 | which honestly has probably resulted in hundreds
00:32:30.120 | or maybe even thousands of dollars of savings each year.
00:32:33.040 | So for the best app to track your spending,
00:32:34.960 | subscriptions, investments, and more,
00:32:36.960 | go to allthehacks.com/copilot on an iOS device or Mac
00:32:41.240 | to download Copilot and enter code HACKS2
00:32:44.480 | during onboarding for a two-month free trial.
00:32:47.360 | Again, that's allthehacks.com/copilot
00:32:50.600 | and the code HACKS2 for a two-month free trial
00:32:54.000 | of my favorite personal finance app.
00:32:58.200 | If you're like me, it's about the time of year
00:33:00.280 | that you have to start dealing with collecting
00:33:02.000 | all your W-2s, 1099s, and any other docs you need
00:33:05.800 | for this year's tax return.
00:33:07.440 | Well, thanks to our sponsor today, Daffy,
00:33:09.720 | I never have to go digging through emails, desk drawers,
00:33:12.640 | or Dropbox folders to find my donation receipts.
00:33:15.960 | Daffy is a platform and app I've been using for years
00:33:19.200 | that helps anyone manage giving to the charities
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00:33:23.640 | And they do that by helping you set up
00:33:25.400 | a special tax-advantaged account
00:33:27.280 | called a Donor Advised Fund, or DAF,
00:33:29.760 | to set money aside for charity, have it invested,
00:33:32.520 | and give on your own timeline.
00:33:34.560 | They also make it seamless to gift appreciated assets
00:33:37.120 | like stocks, index funds, or crypto.
00:33:39.200 | And because it houses all your charitable contributions,
00:33:42.120 | you only have one place to go at tax time,
00:33:44.720 | and you can easily make sure you're maximizing
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00:33:49.440 | charitable contributions.
00:33:51.000 | Also, if you're raising money
00:33:52.320 | for a cause you care about in 2024,
00:33:54.440 | you have to check out Daffy campaigns,
00:33:56.360 | which helps anyone set up a fundraiser in seconds.
00:33:59.280 | I know because we used it last year
00:34:00.880 | to raise almost $20,000 for Charity Water
00:34:03.960 | to fund two water projects for communities in need,
00:34:06.600 | and thank you so much to everyone who contributed.
00:34:09.400 | So if you want a better system for giving,
00:34:11.680 | head on over to allthehacks.com/daffy,
00:34:15.000 | where you can get a free $25
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00:34:19.120 | Again, that's allthehacks.com/daffy,
00:34:22.720 | D-A-F-F-Y, for a better way to give.
00:34:26.420 | I just wanna thank you quick
00:34:29.280 | for listening to and supporting the show.
00:34:31.600 | Your support is what keeps this show going.
00:34:34.420 | To get all of the URLs, codes, deals,
00:34:37.120 | and discounts from our partners,
00:34:38.880 | you can go to allthehacks.com/deals.
00:34:42.440 | So please consider supporting those who support us.
00:34:45.760 | Okay, so that covered all of the process I go through
00:34:48.560 | when I review cards and what I'm thinking about my cards.
00:34:51.520 | But what I wanna do that I think is really interesting
00:34:54.000 | is talk about where to go from here.
00:34:55.840 | So what am I thinking about for the future?
00:34:58.840 | So I've gone through this process.
00:35:00.120 | This is what to do with my cards,
00:35:01.400 | but where were the gaps?
00:35:02.560 | What's next?
00:35:03.700 | Next, I wanna talk about where the holes are.
00:35:05.860 | What are the new cards that I'm looking at?
00:35:07.400 | What are the new things that I wanna add
00:35:09.760 | to my roster this year?
00:35:11.500 | So first off,
00:35:13.160 | anytime there's a massive new exciting welcome bonus
00:35:15.960 | or a new card,
00:35:17.100 | obviously I couldn't have anticipated that.
00:35:19.160 | So you can assume that that's gonna be exciting to me
00:35:21.520 | even though I don't mention it.
00:35:22.800 | But as for cards that I know exist
00:35:24.760 | that I'm really excited about,
00:35:26.160 | the first one is one that as of January 1st this year,
00:35:30.120 | I strongly regretted not having the card sooner.
00:35:33.240 | And that is the Built MasterCard.
00:35:35.400 | Built Rewards is notably
00:35:37.840 | one of the highest value point currencies
00:35:40.200 | by the PointSky bank rate in my personal opinion,
00:35:43.140 | because Built Rewards allows you to transfer points
00:35:45.960 | to a lot of different airlines and hotel groups,
00:35:48.640 | but the big ones that I'm most excited about
00:35:50.880 | are American Airlines,
00:35:52.080 | which is not a partner of anyone else.
00:35:53.960 | They have United, Air Canada, Air France,
00:35:57.200 | British Airways, Avianca Life Miles, Turkish Air, Hyatt.
00:36:01.900 | They've recently added Marriott and IHG.
00:36:05.240 | And so there's just so many options
00:36:07.200 | for what you can do with Built Rewards.
00:36:08.680 | But that's a reason to love Built Rewards, the points,
00:36:11.920 | but there's so many other reasons to actually love the card
00:36:15.360 | and some really cool things Built's doing.
00:36:17.680 | First off, if you are a renter,
00:36:19.520 | the Built card, in my personal opinion, is a must-have.
00:36:22.840 | You earn one point per dollar you spend on rent payments.
00:36:26.080 | And the best part is that even if your landlord
00:36:28.320 | requires a check or a specific payment portal,
00:36:30.640 | Built can handle it as well.
00:36:32.280 | So if you're spending money on rent,
00:36:33.600 | you have to check out the Built card.
00:36:35.500 | And like I mentioned earlier,
00:36:37.040 | Built earns 3x points on dining, 2x points on travel,
00:36:40.640 | and 1x points on everything else.
00:36:42.400 | But the really exciting thing is what Built does on rent day.
00:36:46.340 | And that is what gives me so much regret
00:36:48.440 | for not having gotten the Built card earlier.
00:36:50.880 | And what Built does on rent day
00:36:52.680 | is that all points are doubled.
00:36:54.320 | So you get 6x points on dining, 4x points on travel,
00:36:57.640 | and 2x on everything else.
00:36:59.560 | I have a couple of people who've emailed me
00:37:01.320 | as all the Hacks members and said,
00:37:02.800 | "Hey, can you reset my payment date to hit on the first
00:37:05.560 | so I get 2x points with Built?"
00:37:07.420 | Lots of people, time booking travel,
00:37:09.960 | time going out to dinner to hit rent day,
00:37:12.340 | but even better is the promotions
00:37:13.960 | Built has been doing on rent day.
00:37:16.000 | Each month, they've done an awesome promotion,
00:37:18.140 | but January 1st this past year,
00:37:20.360 | they did the best one yet,
00:37:21.960 | where they took three different partners,
00:37:23.980 | Air France, Virgin Atlantic, and IHG,
00:37:26.960 | and gave you huge transfer bonuses
00:37:29.260 | based on your Built status.
00:37:30.900 | So any Built member could get a 75% bonus,
00:37:34.940 | all the way up to Platinum Built Rewards members
00:37:37.480 | got a 150% bonus.
00:37:40.100 | That means that if you were gonna transfer 50,000 points
00:37:42.740 | to Air France, and you had Built Platinum status,
00:37:46.280 | you would earn 125,000 points.
00:37:50.300 | That is crazy.
00:37:51.860 | I have not seen transfer bonuses coming from Chase,
00:37:54.800 | Amex, Citi, CapOne, for anything more than like 30%,
00:37:58.900 | and sometimes it's 15, 20, 25, 30,
00:38:02.500 | but to get 75 to 150% is crazy.
00:38:06.220 | Now, I didn't have Built status at the time,
00:38:09.120 | and all I could think about was,
00:38:11.480 | I don't have three days to earn this status,
00:38:13.840 | 'cause I believe they announced this promo
00:38:15.800 | three or four days before the first of the month.
00:38:18.480 | And it made it my goal that in 2024,
00:38:20.960 | I'm not only going to make sure I have the Built card,
00:38:23.600 | I'm going to be spending enough on the Built card
00:38:26.280 | to earn status so that the next time
00:38:28.480 | they have one of these monster bonuses, I am participating.
00:38:32.040 | So I opened a Built card, and my new plan,
00:38:35.600 | because I don't pay rent, is to focus on spending,
00:38:38.720 | travel, and dining, especially on rent days,
00:38:41.480 | when I can do 6x dining, 4x travel, and 2x everything else.
00:38:45.840 | So that means date nights are getting shifted
00:38:47.800 | to the first of the month.
00:38:49.180 | That means I'll be booking travel on the first of the month,
00:38:52.120 | and it means that any bill that I can pay
00:38:54.600 | at a certain day of the month,
00:38:56.000 | I'm gonna try to earn 2x points.
00:38:58.080 | I don't know what kind of transfer bonuses
00:38:59.680 | are in store for 2024.
00:39:01.920 | They're even half as good as the ones they've done last year,
00:39:04.680 | especially the one they did on the first.
00:39:06.680 | I'm really excited, and if you're interested
00:39:08.880 | in the Built card and you haven't yet signed up,
00:39:11.600 | I would greatly appreciate it if you do that
00:39:13.960 | at allthehacks.com/built, B-I-L-T.
00:39:18.000 | The next card on my docket this year
00:39:19.600 | is the Delta Platinum card.
00:39:21.440 | I got a mailer for a big bonus for the Delta card,
00:39:25.120 | and you get free check bags, a companion certificate,
00:39:28.400 | and 15% off award bookings.
00:39:30.600 | So it's something I'm thinking about.
00:39:32.040 | Delta points are not the most valuable.
00:39:34.160 | In fact, they might be some of the least valuable points.
00:39:36.720 | So the welcome bonus definitely isn't enough on its own,
00:39:39.720 | but we do have a few Delta flights planned for this year,
00:39:42.840 | and so the free check bags will help.
00:39:45.440 | To the extent we book any of our flights
00:39:47.520 | using the few hundred thousand Delta points we already have,
00:39:51.000 | getting 15% off awards would be a pretty meaningful addition
00:39:54.860 | to the sign-up bonus.
00:39:56.160 | In fact, if you get 100,000 points from the sign-up bonus,
00:39:59.220 | getting 15% off award bookings
00:40:01.700 | just makes those points go further.
00:40:04.000 | And then finally, the companion certificate is great.
00:40:05.960 | You don't get it until your first year is up,
00:40:08.620 | so it's not something you can use right away
00:40:10.360 | until the card renews,
00:40:11.880 | but it is something that keeps the annual fee
00:40:14.280 | effective value down.
00:40:16.040 | Next is a card that I, it's so interesting.
00:40:18.480 | It's the Capital One Saver card,
00:40:19.960 | and I just, every time I read about this card,
00:40:22.200 | I look at this card, I just think it's such a great card.
00:40:25.760 | It's marketed as a cashback card,
00:40:27.360 | but if you have the Venture or the Venture X, it's points,
00:40:30.240 | and you're getting 4X on dining,
00:40:32.200 | entertainment and streaming, 3X on groceries,
00:40:35.520 | and for most of the rest of this year,
00:40:37.400 | 10X on Uber and Uber Eats,
00:40:39.720 | and you get a free Uber One membership,
00:40:41.520 | and it's only a $95 card.
00:40:43.480 | I feel like it's such a good card that I should have it,
00:40:45.600 | and I just love talking about it,
00:40:47.340 | but it just doesn't fit with all the other cards I have.
00:40:49.920 | The welcome bonus isn't that big.
00:40:51.300 | It's $300 or 30,000 points,
00:40:53.720 | and all of the categories that it earns points on
00:40:57.240 | are categories I'm already earning
00:40:58.760 | as many or more points on,
00:41:00.360 | except for entertainment and streaming,
00:41:02.320 | which I just don't spend enough
00:41:04.000 | to really make this a huge value,
00:41:06.120 | but if you have the Venture X card,
00:41:08.000 | and you don't wanna spread your points
00:41:09.680 | across lots of programs,
00:41:10.960 | I think this is a great companion to that card.
00:41:14.480 | Next is the Bonvoy Brilliant.
00:41:16.000 | Like I mentioned, I'm three years of platinum status away
00:41:18.740 | from having lifetime platinum.
00:41:20.280 | You have to have platinum for 10 years
00:41:21.880 | plus a number of nights,
00:41:23.720 | so if I can't stay at a Marriott enough this year
00:41:26.580 | to earn the nights I need
00:41:28.280 | to stack with the elite nights I get from my card
00:41:30.800 | to hit platinum,
00:41:32.080 | I may just shell out for this card.
00:41:34.260 | It's a massive annual fee,
00:41:36.000 | but for three years to lock in platinum status
00:41:39.160 | and get free breakfast at Marriott Properties for life,
00:41:42.040 | it might make sense.
00:41:43.680 | If I get to that point,
00:41:44.920 | I'll definitely be waiting
00:41:46.200 | until we actually have a trip planned
00:41:48.520 | where the breakfast that we'd get
00:41:50.240 | would actually offset that cost.
00:41:52.460 | So that's one.
00:41:54.280 | A couple other ones that aren't on here
00:41:55.740 | that I was just thinking about,
00:41:56.840 | and I thought it would be worth sharing my thoughts.
00:41:59.240 | So one is city cards.
00:42:01.840 | When I look at this strategy,
00:42:02.880 | I'm like, I have no city cards.
00:42:04.760 | I talk about them a lot,
00:42:06.160 | but I don't have any,
00:42:07.480 | and there are a few reasons.
00:42:09.460 | One is that there's not a lot of ROI for what I have, right?
00:42:14.000 | The Premier card is crazy.
00:42:15.420 | 3X flights, hotels, dining, gas, and groceries,
00:42:19.340 | but I already have those categories covered.
00:42:21.920 | The custom cash is 5X
00:42:23.360 | on whatever category you spend the most on,
00:42:25.700 | but it's up to $500 a month.
00:42:27.600 | So, you know, meaningful number of points
00:42:30.280 | you could earn in a year on those categories.
00:42:33.060 | And then the city double cash is 2X on everything,
00:42:35.500 | which is comparable to the VentureX,
00:42:37.520 | but I already have the VentureX.
00:42:38.920 | And so, look, if you wanna build that trifecta
00:42:41.700 | of the Premier custom cash and double cash in city,
00:42:44.440 | I think it's a really powerful group of three cards.
00:42:47.320 | However, I have them all covered.
00:42:49.320 | And the other reason could be I don't have city points,
00:42:52.680 | but right now city points transfer
00:42:55.060 | to all the same transfer partners
00:42:56.800 | as all of the other credit card programs
00:42:58.860 | I already have points in,
00:43:00.340 | with one exception, which is Tye Air,
00:43:02.900 | which doesn't really matter to me.
00:43:04.020 | So again, if you wanna go to allthehacks.com/T,
00:43:07.460 | the letter T as in transfer, P as in partners,
00:43:10.140 | allthehacks.com/TP,
00:43:12.060 | that's where you can get a free copy
00:43:13.380 | of the transfer partner spreadsheet I have,
00:43:15.060 | and you can see where
00:43:15.940 | all the different programs transfer to.
00:43:17.980 | But because city doesn't have any unique transfer partners,
00:43:20.660 | having city points aren't really that valuable to me.
00:43:23.760 | And if I'm not gonna earn more points,
00:43:25.000 | it doesn't make sense.
00:43:25.880 | Honestly, I want one just 'cause I'm curious.
00:43:28.240 | I wanna be able to see the card-linked offers they have
00:43:30.680 | to be able to share those with you,
00:43:32.200 | but not enough until something more interesting comes out.
00:43:35.040 | So if something happens in 2024 from city,
00:43:37.960 | I'll be excited, but I'm not holding my breath.
00:43:40.680 | What I am holding my breath for is Wells Fargo.
00:43:43.260 | And I know that sounds strange
00:43:44.360 | 'cause Wells Fargo hasn't been talked about much
00:43:45.960 | on this show as a interesting card.
00:43:48.400 | But for one of their cards, the autograph card,
00:43:51.380 | they've announced that they will be adding transfer partners.
00:43:54.460 | I have no idea
00:43:55.300 | whether those transfer partners are interesting.
00:43:57.300 | I have no idea if those points will transfer one-to-one,
00:44:00.300 | but I'm just saying I'm interested.
00:44:02.580 | And that's 'cause right now the autograph
00:44:04.660 | is a decent cash back card.
00:44:06.640 | It's no annual fee,
00:44:07.940 | and you get 3% on dining, travel, gas,
00:44:11.420 | transit, streaming, and cell phone services.
00:44:14.500 | Not a bad card, but today it's just cash back.
00:44:17.900 | And that's not a priority for me right now.
00:44:21.080 | But depending on what happens with these transfer partners,
00:44:24.200 | it could be super interesting.
00:44:25.520 | And if somehow this card adopts built rewards
00:44:28.560 | as its transfer partner program,
00:44:30.780 | it'd be even more compelling.
00:44:32.620 | They've also announced
00:44:33.700 | that they're gonna launch a premium and better card.
00:44:36.440 | It's rumored to be called the autograph journey card
00:44:38.920 | with a higher annual fee.
00:44:40.600 | And honestly, when they've said it's going to be better,
00:44:44.500 | I assume that means it has to earn more than 3X
00:44:47.180 | on dining, travel, gas, transit, streaming, and cell phones,
00:44:50.280 | which is now sounding pretty interesting.
00:44:52.040 | So I don't know what the autograph journey card will include.
00:44:54.820 | I don't know how much it'll cost.
00:44:56.180 | I don't know what the transfer partners will be
00:44:57.920 | and whether that'll transfer one-to-one,
00:45:00.260 | but if all those things line up,
00:45:02.100 | it could be a really interesting entrance to the point space,
00:45:05.660 | especially if like the Chase Reserve did
00:45:08.180 | and like the Venture X did,
00:45:09.460 | they kick this card off with a massive welcome bonus.
00:45:12.300 | So stay tuned there.
00:45:13.720 | One more card that's interesting
00:45:15.140 | that I don't think I've ever talked about on the show
00:45:17.740 | is the US Bank Altitude Reserve card.
00:45:21.380 | Now I won't go into a lot of detail and I'll explain why,
00:45:25.020 | but what's interesting about it
00:45:26.380 | is that it earns 3X points on mobile wallet, like Apple Pay.
00:45:30.660 | It also earns 3X points on travel.
00:45:32.580 | Now, right now, those points are just cash back
00:45:35.140 | and there's no plans to change that.
00:45:36.860 | So I don't really think of it as a points card,
00:45:39.540 | but those points can be worth one and a half cents
00:45:42.440 | either used to book travel
00:45:44.540 | or using this real-time rewards feature they launched,
00:45:47.960 | which I'll put a link to in the show notes
00:45:49.560 | of someone reviewing it, but it's pretty cool.
00:45:51.760 | Essentially, you take a Uber or something
00:45:54.160 | in the travel category and after the fact,
00:45:56.420 | they let you kind of use your points to pay it off
00:45:58.440 | at that same 1.5 cent rate,
00:46:01.160 | which means you don't actually have to go
00:46:03.040 | and book everything in the portal
00:46:04.380 | to be able to get that bonus.
00:46:06.260 | That means that all mobile wallet payments
00:46:08.620 | are four and a half percent cash back,
00:46:11.380 | which is a lot.
00:46:13.220 | And I started thinking,
00:46:14.760 | would I rather have four and a half cents cash back
00:46:17.060 | or 2X points?
00:46:18.860 | And then I started thinking,
00:46:19.700 | okay, well, what are points worth?
00:46:20.760 | I say one and a half to two cents is a great value,
00:46:23.340 | which means 2X points is only worth three to 4% cash back.
00:46:27.580 | So if I'm getting four and a half percent cash back,
00:46:29.920 | that's better.
00:46:31.020 | And then I started thinking, okay, well,
00:46:32.620 | am I actually gonna use my cash back
00:46:34.960 | to buy these kind of really premium,
00:46:38.180 | aspirational business class trips,
00:46:40.440 | or am I gonna get caught up in spending that money?
00:46:43.220 | And then I started thinking, okay, well,
00:46:44.860 | a lot of times American, Avianca, United,
00:46:47.100 | and a lot of airlines sell their points.
00:46:49.460 | And I started wondering if I switched to cash back
00:46:53.040 | and use that cash back to buy miles and points
00:46:55.560 | when they were on sale and then book trips,
00:46:57.800 | would I actually come out ahead?
00:46:59.820 | And so that led me down a path
00:47:01.260 | that I'm not gonna cover today,
00:47:02.960 | but I'm going to be doing an entire episode
00:47:05.420 | where I really try to make the case for cash back.
00:47:08.540 | Not necessarily saying I'm gonna switch,
00:47:10.300 | but I want to do a steel man argument
00:47:11.920 | for what it would mean to switch to accumulating cash back
00:47:14.860 | and kind of put a case out there for team cash back
00:47:17.900 | and what it could mean,
00:47:18.960 | taking into account everything I just said,
00:47:21.120 | the fact that points depreciate over time.
00:47:23.720 | So stay tuned on that episode.
00:47:25.620 | I will also cover a bunch of the cash back cards
00:47:27.780 | I don't cover normally.
00:47:29.180 | And then one other thing
00:47:30.020 | that I'll probably include in that episode,
00:47:32.140 | or I'll bring up in a future episode,
00:47:34.400 | was something that Ben wrote in to me asking
00:47:37.140 | about a strategy he used with his Apple card
00:47:40.340 | to buy a MacBook Pro.
00:47:42.020 | And on that card, he got 0% financing for a year.
00:47:45.520 | And it made me think about a way to potentially earn more
00:47:50.520 | with 0% APR cards
00:47:53.300 | because we have a high interest rate environment.
00:47:55.780 | So I haven't done the math to kind of process this out,
00:47:59.000 | but the argument would be,
00:48:00.260 | let's say you're gonna go spend $5,000, right?
00:48:02.980 | You could put it on a card that earns two points per dollar
00:48:05.660 | and get 10,000 points.
00:48:07.340 | And let's say those points are worth 2 cents.
00:48:09.100 | So now you've got $200 worth of value.
00:48:11.980 | But what if you take that $5,000
00:48:14.540 | and you go put it in a high yield savings account
00:48:17.300 | that earns 5% and don't pay that card off
00:48:21.240 | other than the minimum payments for the 15
00:48:22.900 | or whatever number of months you have,
00:48:24.860 | well, you might actually end up earning more than $200
00:48:27.540 | in interest.
00:48:28.740 | Now that interest is taxed.
00:48:30.460 | So I haven't quite figured out
00:48:31.460 | whether the math would play out here,
00:48:32.820 | but it's definitely something I'm thinking about.
00:48:34.780 | And as I dig into this and think about it more,
00:48:37.540 | I will definitely share that
00:48:38.840 | because with high interest rates,
00:48:40.780 | if you can avoid spending money,
00:48:42.140 | it might be worth more than the points.
00:48:44.160 | And there are also some cards that earn points
00:48:47.100 | and have 0% APR.
00:48:48.900 | So if you could find something that does that,
00:48:51.360 | then I think this could be really, really compelling.
00:48:53.260 | So definitely something I'm thinking about in 2024.
00:48:56.300 | All the things I just mentioned, obviously, are ideas.
00:48:59.400 | I haven't committed to any of them other than the built card,
00:49:01.780 | which I've already gotten.
00:49:03.060 | That's one that I am so excited to earn status
00:49:06.220 | and find the next transfer bonus.
00:49:08.140 | I think that's it.
00:49:10.740 | I think that is everything that's in my wallet,
00:49:13.260 | what I'm doing with it, how I'm thinking about it,
00:49:15.380 | all the categories I spend money on
00:49:17.620 | and everything I'm excited about going forward.
00:49:20.260 | I hope this episode was helpful.
00:49:21.660 | If I missed anything,
00:49:22.820 | or if there's something you want me to cover
00:49:24.140 | in a future episode,
00:49:25.460 | send an email to podcast@allthehacks.com.
00:49:28.900 | I will read all those emails.
00:49:30.620 | I may or may not be able to reply to all of them,
00:49:33.180 | but they will definitely inform
00:49:34.540 | the future direction of the show.
00:49:36.220 | Also, allthehacks.com/cards are links to sign up
00:49:39.500 | for any of the cards we mentioned
00:49:40.900 | or any card you're signing up for.
00:49:42.700 | Obviously, please make sure
00:49:44.020 | that you find the best deals there.
00:49:45.780 | If you don't find the best deal, go somewhere else.
00:49:48.340 | I want you all to earn the most points possible,
00:49:50.620 | but if you do find the best deal,
00:49:52.340 | would greatly appreciate you using the links
00:49:54.500 | at allthehacks.com/cards to support the show.
00:49:57.020 | Thank you so much for listening.
00:49:58.900 | 2024 is gonna be an awesome year for all the hacks.
00:50:01.500 | I'm so excited for what we can share,
00:50:03.380 | and I will see you next week.
00:50:04.940 | (upbeat music)
00:50:07.520 | I wanna tell you about another podcast I love
00:50:13.000 | that goes deep on all things money.
00:50:15.320 | That means everything from money hacks
00:50:16.980 | to wealth building to early retirement.
00:50:19.140 | It's called the Personal Finance Podcast,
00:50:21.300 | and it's much more about building generational wealth
00:50:24.180 | and spending your money on the things you value
00:50:26.420 | than it is about clipping coupons to save a dollar.
00:50:29.340 | It's hosted by my good friend, Andrew,
00:50:31.280 | who truly believes that everyone in this world
00:50:33.500 | can build wealth, and his passion and excitement
00:50:36.140 | are what make this show so entertaining.
00:50:38.620 | I know because I was a guest on the show in December, 2022,
00:50:42.460 | but recently I listened to an episode
00:50:44.500 | where Andrew shared 16 money stats that will blow your mind,
00:50:48.020 | and it was so crazy to learn things
00:50:49.860 | like 35% of millennials are not participating
00:50:52.860 | in their employer's retirement plan.
00:50:54.780 | And that's just one of the many fascinating stats he shared.
00:50:58.440 | The Personal Finance Podcast has something for everyone.
00:51:01.100 | It's filled with so many tips and tactics and hacks
00:51:03.780 | to help you get better with your money and grow your wealth.
00:51:06.680 | So I highly recommend you check it out.
00:51:08.680 | Just search for the Personal Finance Podcast
00:51:11.020 | on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
00:51:12.700 | or wherever you listen to podcasts, and enjoy.