Recently, I have been fascinated with maximizing credit card rewards, but of course, it’s a balance between complexity (i.e. mental overload) vs cost/benefits.
Here’s my current stack:
- Chase Freedom Flex – I was able to get the 10% cash back grocery bonus for 1 year. Since my wife and I live downtown, we shop majority of groceries at Trader Joe’s. The 10% grocery reward is certainly nice, but it’s expiring in a few months. We were planning to open another one of these, but it looks like Chase doesn’t offer this bonus any longer.
- Citi Custom Cash – We use this for all of our restaurants/take outs. It’s 5% cash back up to $500/mo. We spend slightly less than that on take outs, so it works!
- 2% card – the rest of our purchases usually just goes on the 2% cash back card.
I’m also thinking of transferring $100K to Merrill Lynch to get their Platinum Honors tier, which will give me 5.25% CB for online purchases, and 2.62% on the rest. We also live downtown, so no need for a gas card.
So, Humble Dollar community, what is your credit card rewards strategy?
Glad you asked. American Express Platinum just raised their fee to $895 annually and I use to access their Centurion and Priority Pass lounges. Because I fly frequently and get to the airport early to relax before flights I take advantage of many lounges. Even though Centurion is for only myself the Priority Pass allows me to bring a guest. Because I take advantage of their different credits the card is free for me. Having a Schwab account knocks off $100 to $200. TSA reimbursement of $120. Streaming service credit of $300/ year (Paramount, Hulu, Peacock etc. ) Uber $200 credit (can use Uber eats if don’t take Uber). $400 Restaurant (RESY) offset. $300 LuLuLemon offset. $600 Hotel offset. And $200 Airline incidental. (Haven’t used too often but could. Conservatively adding these up gets me around $2000 which easily offsets the $895 fee. (The RESY and LuLulemon are new but the others have been around a while.) I did see the Saks $50 credit which I will look at adding also. Don’t leave home without it!
I was already getting good value out of the Amex Plat, and even with the fee increase, it’s a very good refresh:
$600 hotel credits
$200 airline credits
$200 Uber credits
$300 streaming credit (I use it for Disney+)
$100 Saks
$300 Lululemon
$400 Resy
$209 CLEAR credit
Those are the ones I actually use. I don’t bother with Walmart+ or Equinox, and I haven’t purchased an Oura ring (yet). And that doesn’t include the value of being able to access Centurion lounges or Delta lounges if you’re flying Delta. I also use Amex offers quite regularly.
Anyway, all of that easily recoups the $895 AF + the $195 authorized user (husband).
Best part: My card renews in December and the new fee doesn’t kick in until January 2026, so I get to use the new perks for the old price for more than a year.
P.S. I don’t shop at Saks, but twice a year I’ll use it for something I’d buy anyway, like underwear or shower gel. I’ll watch for Lululemon sales since I’m already on their mailing list.
With WalMart plan get either Peacock or Paramount streaming for free.
I have only had two credit cards my whole life, Amx and a Chase card. I didn’t know it gave cash back until I received it. It returns from 1.5% to 5% depending on the purchase. 3% on restaurants is my biggest winner.
I linked my Amx with Amazon and use points to pay for purchases or I can use at Hilton hotels.
if you want to see a real gaming the system go to a blog called Root of Good. He manipulates cards like crazy.