Best strategies to get most out credit cards, rewards, balance transfer offers.

[+ cougar]

I have been utilizing the CC points for the past 3-4 years and I can kick myself for not jumping in earlier. I have the both Amex Ex Gold and Platinum, and I end up above water each year with their fees as I utilize most all of the benefits that comes with the cards. The way that I first learned how to make these cards work for you was by following the points guy, which is also a gay man. www.thepointsguy.com.

Another website I use is daily drop. There is a huge community of websites that will make sure you get the most out of your cards and they can even give you solid advise on which cards are best for your wallet based on your needs and desires.

So I am using the CC points system and staying on top of it, and the benefits that I use more than cover the annual fees. 

 

[mike carey]

There's an article today on OMAAT wondering if folks are suffering credit card fatigue having to navigate all the perks, bonuses and offers that are becoming increasingly complicated. Individual cards may have benefits that outweigh the annual fee, some only if you use them all, which may not be feasible, or may require you to do too much work to redeem them. With a constant supply of new cards or new benefits on existing ones, it's useful to think carefully before applying for that shiny new one, or renewing one you already have. I have benefits from my Amex card that I would never use, so I don't consider them when I do my cost/benefit analysis, but it's still a 'keep' despite the annual fee.

Is Credit Card Fatigue Becoming A Problem For Points Hobbyists? - One Mile at a Time

ONEMILEATATIME.COM

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As credit cards are increasingly complicated to maximize, is the concept of credit card fatigue increasingly setting in?

As an aside, reading through the article and comments, I know perfectly well that AF means 'annual fee' but when I'm reading 'Card X ... expensive AF' I have to stop and correct my initial reading of it.

[+ tassojunior]

Been churning cards for 30 years and even with a lot of flying, still have 9 million ff miles. Last night me and a friend came back from Copenhagen on a 39K + $100 Business class award flying SAS. Had gone over n a 34K + $150 Iberia Business award. Churn baby churn. 

[mike carey]

9 hours ago, tassojunior said:

Been churning cards for 30 years and even with a lot of flying, still have 9 million ff miles. Last night me and a friend came back from Copenhagen on a 39K + $100 Business class award flying SAS. Had gone over n a 34K + $150 Iberia Business award. Churn baby churn. 

Were they on DL and AA miles respectively? Or one of their other partners?

[+ tassojunior]

18 hours ago, mike carey said:

Were they on DL and AA miles respectively? Or one of their other partners?

Iberia was on Ibeia Avios while the SAS was on an AF/KLM award. No idea why Af charges les than the 50K SAS chages on its own saver biz awards, but not complaining. Iberia this week raised their saver biz awards....all the way up to 40k. From US Iberia has the new 321XLRs which are great for biz and SAS has new 350-900s. New car smell in both. 

Edited June 22 by tassojunior

[+ tassojunior]

19 hours ago, mike carey said:

Were they on DL and AA miles respectively? Or one of their other partners?

i really like SAS's new 350-900s. 

Edited June 22 by tassojunior

[handiacefailure]

I see Chase is making some major changes to the Sapphire reserve card:(    Looks like I'll need to find a new credit card for a couple large monthly charges that used to get 3x per dollar that are now only getting 1 pt  

[+ tassojunior]

20 hours ago, handiacefailure said:

I see Chase is making some major changes to the Sapphire reserve card:(    Looks like I'll need to find a new credit card for a couple large monthly charges that used to get 3x per dollar that are now only getting 1 pt  

i just do subs constantly but i do keep the free Chase Ink Cash for random charges between subs. It gets 5X on Visa giftcards at Staples the alternating weeks they are no-fee there and you can use those as either charge cards or debit cards anywhere Visa is taken (the MC giftcards they sell also). My old "between subs" spender was the free AmEx Blue Business Plus which gives 2X on everything. But new card subs give 20X to 50X everything. The 2 new Chase cards that came out today with 100K and 200K subs and $700 fees require a 20K and 30K spend. Ouch.