The credit cards we currently have open
As you can imagine, the most frequently asked question we get is some variation of “Which credit card should I open?” or “What credit cards do you specifically have open?”
Depending on your experience in the points & miles world and financial situation, I don’t think those questions should be synonymous. The amount of cards and type of cards we have right now, a decade into this journey, are unlikely to be a great fit for you if you are just starting out.
Let me give you an example that might make some of you start hyper-ventilating: between Courtney and I, we have 22 credit cards open right now. For a lot of you, that sounds absolutely wild. And, to be honest, if you would have told me 10 years ago that we would have 22 credit cards, I would have assumed we were 100k in debt and crumpled to the ground. However, it’s been a slow, calculated path toward 22 cards over the last decade, opening 3-4 new cards a year, and more often downgrading to no-annual-fee cards that we no longer find useful, rather than closing them completely, which increases our number of open cards as well.
As we progressively understood more about the benefits and complexities of utilizing credit card rewards for travel, we began to earmark less and less money toward actual travel expenses and more toward credit card annual fees. We discovered ways that we could reach large minimum spend requirements for sign-up bonuses (i.e. 15k in 3 months) on a middle-class income (like buyers clubs and gift card re-selling).
So, all of that to say, don’t consider the amount or type of cards we have as a plug-and-play for you. Just use it as a guide to what cards might be beneficial as you compare it to your financial situation and as a snapshot of what could be for you in the future!
I’ll break down each of our cards into four major categories: transferrable points cards, airline cards, hotel cards and cash back cards.
Note: I’m not breaking them down by personal cards vs. business cards. Just remember: business credit cards are WAY easier to open than you think, even if you don’t have a formal LLC with an IRS EIN (Employer Identification Number). Selling items on Mercari or Etsy, re-selling items you grab at garage sales, etc. could easily get you approved!
Transferrable Points Cards
AMEX Blue Business Plus
This card will always be in our wallet, as long as it exists. Why? No annual fee. 2x on all purchases. Keeps your Membership Rewards points active if you don’t have another card that earns them in your wallet (since AMEX will forfeit your points if you don’t have a Membership Reward earning card active)!
AMEX Business Gold
Honestly, I think this card is a joke and only opened it for the 90k sign-up bonus. It will get the quick downgrade/cancel when it comes up at renewal (unless AMEX blows us away with a retention offer!)
AMEX Business Platinum
We may or may not have 3 of these open right now. Crazy, I know. When we’ve been offered 155-160k points for the sign-up bonus each time (with no lifetime language offers, as AMEX usually does not allow you to get one card’s bonus more than once), it’s just been too tempting, especially since we have the ability to transfer AMEX points to our AMEX Business Checking account at 1 cent apiece to cover the annual fee. We will likely keep one of these open at renewal.
AMEX Everyday
This was a downgrade from a Green card that we opened for Courtney, so her AMEX points could stay active. We don’t use this card at all.
AMEX Gold
We were on the fence about this one at a recent renewal, but stuck with it because we were offered 30k points after 2k in spend as a retention offer. Although we do love it for its 4x points back on restaurants and groceries, and we use most of the $240 in yearly dining and Uber credit, it’s just not a card we need, at least enough to justify keeping it open.
AMEX Platinum
We got 640k Membership Reward points out of our sign-up for the card in September of 2021 (more details on how in our Intro to Points and Miles E-book!), and decided to keep it open because we were offered a fantastic retention offer last September. I doubt we keep this one open at renewal, as it feels more like a coupon book now, and we feel like the Business Platinum is a better value if we’re going to keep one of the $695 Platinum annual fee cards open!
Capital One Venture X
This is another card that likely will always have a place in our wallets, unless the annual fee changes dramatically. With the $300 annual travel credit, 10,000 anniversary bonus points, Priority Pass lounge benefits, 2x on all purchases, etc. it’s a keeper for us!
Chase Freedom Unlimited & Chase Freedom Flex
We have had these open for years, and is easy to keep them open since they have no annual fee and are great compliments to the Chase Sapphire Preferred, to maximize spending categories.
Chase Sapphire Preferred
Introduced by Chase in 2009, this was our first-ever travel rewards credit card. Although we have debated closing in recent years, for new applicants, there are few better starter cards out there: Chase’s great transfer partners, like Hyatt and Air Canada, the simple bonus category structure, etc. makes it an easy “yes”.
Airline Credit Cards
Bank of America Alaska Business
To be honest, this is another one that I opened solely for the sign-up bonus (when it was 75k miles) and we used it to book business class seats to Peru on LATAM! This card does not get any spend.
Bank of America Air France/KLM World Elite
Ok, you might be starting to see a trend here. :) This is another card we opened when the sign-up bonus was at an all-time high. In this case, 75k miles. We used the bonus to book return flights for our October trip to Portugal. We don’t use this card on an ongoing basis.
Barclays AA Aviator Red
We opened this card for the sign-up bonus when it was 60k after the first purchase! I plan to cancel/downgrade this card at renewal, as the spending categories are trash and all of the perks of the card (like free bags on AA flights), I receive from my AA Executive Platinum status.
Barclays Jetblue Basic
We opened the Barclays Jetblue Plus card when it was at an all-time sign-up bonus high of 100k miles, but downgraded to the no-annual-fee at renewal and don’t use the card.
CitiBusiness AA Platinum Select
I opened this card last year for the elevated sign-up bonus (75k miles) and to help me reach AA Executive Platinum status (the bonus does not qualify for Loyalty points, the system that AA uses for elite status qualification, but spending on the card does!) This gets some strategic spend (i.e. on category bonuses and to help with elite status qualification), but not much.
Hotel Credit Cards
AMEX Hilton Basic
We opened this card a few years back for the sign-up bonus (100k points) and keep it open because it’s a no-annual-fee card, but no spend goes on the card.
AMEX Hilton Business
We opened this one recently for the 175k sign-up bonus and we actually like the card a good bit. The spending category bonuses are good and you can spend your way to free night certificates and Diamond status. This one might be a keeper in our wallet after Year 1!
Barclays Wyndham Business Earner
We actually love this card! 8x on gas purchases, a reduced cost for Wyndham stays (or, more importantly, Vacasa vacation rentals!) and 15k anniversary bonus points, make it a keeper for us!
Chase World of Hyatt
This is another card that we love. I’m glad we got it a few years back when the bonus was at 60k points, because it rarely gets close to that these days. We love the automatic Discoverist status, the annual free night certificate, the 5 elite nights each year, and the consistent promotions that are only eligible for cardholders. We’ll definitely continue to keep this one open at renewal.
Cash Back Credit Cards
AMEX Blue Cash Preferred
With our increasing points and miles balances, we came into an usual problem: we have more points than we have vacation time! So, we decided to diversify and open our first cash back card in a decade. 6x on groceries and the $350 sign-up bonus were the primary draws here! We are on the fence whether we will keep it open at renewal.
Fidelity Rewards
We’ve had this card open more than a decade, and don’t use it anymore, but since the age of your credit history accounts for about 15% of your credit score, it’s not going anywhere! We do put a purchase on it every once and awhile to ensure that it doesn’t get closed by the issuer!
A few closing thoughts
So, even though we have 22 credit cards open right now between Courtney and me, we’re most often putting our spend on cards that we are trying to earn a sign-up bonus on. For example, we recently opened up a CitiBusiness AA Platinum Select in Courtney’s name, as well as our 3rd AMEX Biz Platinum, so that is getting every bit of our spend. Even though most purchases on those 2 cards are 1x points back, since we are working toward a 75k sign-up bonus on the Citi AA Business card and 155k AMEX points on the AMEX Biz Platinum, we are earning 18.75 points per dollar spent on the Citi card and 10.3 AMEX points per dollar spent on the AMEX Biz Platinum, so it’s worth every dollar we put on the card!
After we finish those two sign-up bonuses, if we haven’t opened another new card and are not working toward a new sign-up bonus, we do have particular cards that we use for specific spending categories. Keep your eye open for a post in the near future where we walk through that!
