There are many credit card strategies out there which can be classified under 3 categories.
1) Gamer - Sign up new card with the sole purpose of getting the sign up bonus.
2) Strategist - Sign up cards to earn the best cash back % for each category.--> Our focus
3) Maximizer - Sign up cards that provide the best redemption options.
Ideally,
you want to get the best combination from these 3 strategies. To give
you some idea, this is what I did to be a Strategist by accumulating different cards for different purposes.
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1) Gamer - Sign up new card with the sole purpose of getting the sign up bonus.
2) Strategist - Sign up cards to earn the best cash back % for each category.--> Our focus
3) Maximizer - Sign up cards that provide the best redemption options.
- Highest cash back for general use
- Chase Freedom and Discover It are my primary cards when I can take advantage of their 5% cash back. Note that the 5% categories change every quarter.
- They are no-fee cards which is a good to have.
- Grocery credit card
- There are several credit cards that provide up to 5% for specific stores (e.g., Costco, Walmart, Target, Amazon).
- If you want a card with high category for no specific store, consider getting Blue Cash Everyday Card (no-fee card with 3% cash back) or the Blue Cash Everyday Preferred (fee card with 6% cash back). Note that these 3/6 % is capped for the first $6,000.
- I chose the no-fee card Blue Cash Everyday Card since there will be two quarters where I can earn 5% using either Chase Freedom or Discover It.
- Travel card
- For travel insurance (trip interruption, baggage delay, car rental and etc), my primary card is the Chase Reserve. There are many other reasons but that's another discussion.
- Another strong competitor is the Amex Platinum but since I already paid for Chase Reserve, I don't need similar card in my wallet.
- Instant Cash Back
- Each Amex card provides 100 offer at a time. Some of these offers are unique to each card members and cards.
- Some examples of what I have redeemed in the past 2 months using Blue Cash Everyday Card and Amex Everyday are $20 off $100 from a restaurant, $30 off $150 from Best Buy, $60 off $300 from Go Pro, $30 off $150 from SunglassHut.
- Chase is now copying this feature from Amex but they have fewer offers.
- Foreign purchase
- Based on my current card collection, only Discover It and Chase Reserve do not have foreign transaction fees. My primary card is Discover It as it has the best exchange rate. I will only use Chase Reserve when the store doesn't accept Discover It.
- Other general purchase
- For other spending category where you cannot get the best cash back %, choose general credit card such as Chase Freedom Unlimited (1.5%), Amex Cash Magnet (1.5%) or Citi Double Cash (2%).
Like what you see? Put your email address in the link on the right for new posts. Feel free to comment below if you have any questions.
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