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Thoughts on the new Chase Freedom Flex?
Best way to cash $2000 in visa gift cards?
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Ditch the platinum you’re paying for, keep the one you’re an AU on. The platinum is a poor spend card, but a great benefits card. Seeing as you’re an AU on your parents account, you get all of the benefits without having to justify the fee.
Pick up the Chase Sapphire Reserve for 3x on travel and dining, and primary rental car insurance. $550 before factoring in the $300 travel credit.
Then pick up the chase freedom unlimited for 1.5x on everything else. You can transfer those to your CSR account and then they become more valuable (transferrable, 1.5 cents per point on the travel portal).
All in, an effective $250 annual fee for a return of at least 4.5% on travel and dining, and 2.25% on everything else.
I second the CSR. I have the chase trifecta (CSR, Freedom (rebranded as freedom flex now I think), and Freedom unlimited).
Use the CSR for restaurants and dining, freedom flex for 5% quarterly rotating category spends, freedom unlimited (1.5x) for everything else. I have been consolidating all the points to CSR for 1.5x more points for travel bookings until now (avg travel value of $2000 every year). However, something I have learnt lately is that the points can be valued at almost 2x by transferring points to travel partners such as Hyatt and a list of airlines. Do some research on this but I think your use case is very similar to mine and I get a lot more value from the chase trifecta than Amex, and given you are a platinum AU, you should be good!
If you plan to rent cars on vacations, he primary rental insurance is epic. Chase paid $1800 during my last euro trip for scuffs on the rim of an A6 I rented for 26 days, which was worth more than the car rental itself, no questions asked! And as you mentioned, hardly anyone accepts Amex in Europe so always good to have a Visa or MasterCard!
Thanks all — this is really helpful. Seems like the plan is to pick up a Bilt (all in $50k annual rent payment, thanks UHCOL city!), keep AU Amex for travel perks, and then stack CSR and Chase Freedom
Hi everyone, I just went to cancel the Amex platinum and they offered me 55,000 points to stay. With that in mind, I think I’m better off keeping the Amex platinum and stacking with an Amex gold
In order to get quality advice, I think you should tell us your goals (maximum cash back, travel perks, aspirational travel redemptions, etc.), give us your current CC line up, and the amount of cards you want to carry around.
My goals are travel perks and aspirational travel. Currently carrying an Amex platinum and a Citi Card I’ve had forever. Also have an additional Amex Platinum I don’t pay the fee for, but am an authorized user on and can keep. Would like to limit myself to no more than 3 cards. Average spend is about $5k per month. Highest spending category by far is restaurant dining (which platinum sucks for) and then groceries and travel. Travel internationally (for now) a few times a year, which is annoying because Amex doesn’t seem to be accepted many places outside the US. Let me know if anything else needed and I’ll provide. Thanks!!
1. Keep the Platinum. This will give you the travel perks you like, and let you earn 5X on flights. This is also a card you don’t really swipe often so you could potentially exclude this from your wallet.
2. AMEX Gold card for sure. This gets 4X on grocery stores and restaurants (up to $25K in spend annually). Keep in mind that you don’t get 4X for shopping at places like Costco/Sams Club. The merchant needs to be a grocery store. $10/month in UBER credits and $10/month on select dining credits. $250 annual fee.
Effective annual fee can be as low as $10 if all credits are utilized each month.
3. Chase Sapphire Preferred. This is a Visa with no foreign transaction fees. 3X on dining and online grocery deliver merchants, 2X on travel and streaming services, and a 10% bonus on all spend at each anniversary. So essentially 3.3X on dining and online grocery deliver merchants and 2.2X on travel and streaming services. This is perfect for international trips. You also get $50 credit when you book a hotel through the Chase portal. $95 annual fee.
Effective annual fee can be as low as $45 if you book 1 hotel stay through the Chase portal.
4. Capital One Venture X. 2X on everything. Visa with no foreign transaction fees. $300 credit when you book travel through the Cap1 portal. 10,000 points at every anniversary. Effective annual fee can be as low as -$5 if you book $300 worth of travel through the Cap1 portal. They essentially “pay” you to have this card, for now.
I would recommend a lineup of 1, 2, and 4.
Note that I didn’t cover the multipliers for bookings through each bank’s travel portal. Some people like portals, some don’t.
You can try to get retention offer for 10X dining or downgrade to gold if you want dining and grocery points. But i still think amex platinum is the best card for travel as the cash benefits (streaming, uber, saks fifth, global entry, clear entry, airline credits) and exclusive access and redeemable offers exceed CSP/CSR which is good for more general value-based points.
I am not sure if membership rewards pool if you use both platinum and gold to spread your spending between travel and dining/everyday categories.
The only reason they have kept platinum restaurant and shopping points low is to not cannibalise gold sign ups but i feel Amex needs to launch a more high end card between platinum and centurion…maybe call it amex diamond? I wouldn’t mind paying over $1000 in annual fee for a more exclusive experience as every tom dick and harry has centurion lounge access these days i feel
You’re not wrong about Amex diamond… did you get 10x dining as a retention? I’ve previously gotten money off the reup as a retention offer, but they said they’re not going to do it again for me.
Have thought about stacking platinum and gold, but have wondered if they pool.
Do you rent or own a home? Have you considered Venture X or CSR vs Platinum? Only thing you’ll really miss out on is Amex lounges, Walmart +, and saks credit from platinum
@OP, I suggest the Bilt card to pay for rent. It’s a World Elite Mastercard and provides points for rent, points transfer to Hyatt 1:1 or Expedia travel portal for $.0125.
Also, I’d ditch the personal Amex, and keep AU for obvious reasons. If you’d still like to maintain a travel card for travel perks and don’t mind an annual fee go with CSR or Venture X for your use case. Personally I prefer the CSR.