I need a credit card, recommendations? Looking at "miles" cards

[rothwem]

I just got married, and my wife and I are looking to open a joint credit card.  We both have excellent credit, 800+.  Since we both live approx 8-10 from our families, we are interested in a travel miles card, but there's so many fucking choices and so much fine print.  Any recommendations on which one to get?  We'll probably put ~$1500/month on it.  I'm currently looking at capital one venture, since I've always been pretty happy with the service I get from Capital One, but if there's other choices, I'm open to hearing about it. 

Also, no southwest since they don't fly into our local airport, and they don't fly to the nearest airport near my wife's family, so its pretty worthless for us. 

[ditheca]

I don't know about a long-term miles card because I usually switch cards rapidly for signup bonuses.  The AmEx Gold Delta Skymiles has a nice signup bonus and Delta miles never expire.  I'm currently chasing that one.

I signed up with a public 50,000 mile bonus after 3k spend, but my referral link is a better deal for 60,000 after 3k spend.  http://refer.amex.us/KERRIMJOaV?XLINK=MYCP

I'm not sure its worth keeping after the initial bonus.

[geekette]

There's a free course by a couple mustachians here.  There's a great FB group as well.

Before you apply to anything make sure you're aware of Chase's 5/24 rule, which, if it's not covered in the course, a quick google will educate you.  Basically, Chase won't approve you for many of their cards no matter your credit worthiness if you've gotten 5 or more cards in the last 24 months.  Get the relevant (great) Chase cards first, then worry about the others. 

Here's an updated list of cards and their opening bonuses from the Travelmiles 101 course.  If you're not wedded to a particular airline, just getting miles from all you can gives you greater flexibility.

[SmileAllDay]

In general, people go for the:

Chase Sapphire Preferred
Capital One Venture
Chase Sapphire Reserve
Amex Platinum

bc of their hefty bonuses and perks. The CS Reserve and the Amex Platinum have higher annual fees, so that's worth considering.

Having used both Chase Sapphire Preferred and the Capital One Venture I will say one gripe I have with the Capital One is that charges are a little slow to process and you can't pay off more than 110% of the posted charges.

So, say you have $500 in posted charges, and $500 in pending ones, you can't just pay $1000 to clear the card. With the CS Preferred, you can. As someone who loves to stay at $0 debt, it's a pet peeve but maybe that's splitting hairs :)

[SmileAllDay]

This podcast will get you right up to speed: https://www.choosefi.com/009-travel-rewards-travel-world-free-ultimate-guide/

[billy]

I'm also looking for a travel rewards card for a trip from California to Mexico. The only way for me to meet the spending requirement for CS Reserve is to use it on my property tax second installment, about $2350, but there is a credit card fee of 2.35% or about $55 fee. I currently have the Citi double 2% cash back card, but it seems it's a better deal over all to do the travel hacking game?

And @ditheca, that AMEX link is expired :(

[SmileAllDay]

There's a lot of ways to meet the minimum: from paying rent, paying for your table's dinner and getting them to reimburse/ Venmo you, visa gift cards, to taxes I believe.

I would caution against coming up with new things to spend money on just to unlock the bonus. The goal is to use the card to purchase things you would be purchasing anyway.

If it's helpful here is an active referral link for Amex: http://refer.amex.us/RACHARGnQ1?XLINK=MSNR

If you want my referral link to Chase Sapphire, let me now. (Don't want to be sharing it unsolicited as that feels spammy)

If those minimum spends will put you under pressure I would ask the community for cards that are a better fit. Since I travel full time, I focus only on the travel cards with no international transaction fee. My knowledge of the domestic cards is limited. Good luck!

[billy]

Buying gift cards sounds like a great idea, my local grocery store doesn't take CC, and I have been using debit all this time, but I just found out you can buy gift cards online with CC.

That AMEX annual fee is a deal breaker, can I please have the Chase referral link?

[SmileAllDay]

Yeah the AMEX fee is a stinger, but the rewards are great.

Here you go: https://www.referyourchasecard.com/6/UBVB8LNLPD

If you open one in your name first, both use it to hit the minimum, then stop using it, you can do the same under your wife's name you can double your travel points. Just a thought. Good luck!

[doggyfizzle]

Give us a breakdown of your monthly spend (gas/groceries, etc).  For most people, a cash back card allows for more consistent redemptions (3% etc).  You can both open an Amex Blue Cash Preferred, and get 6% back each on grocery spend of $6k a year ($12k total for two separate accounts).  That’s $530 in cash back after annual fees you can use for travel.  You will be extremely hard pressed to find travel redemptions on Delta, AA, or UA at 6c/point domestic.  Don’t overlook local credit unions as well; my local credit union offers 5% back on the first $6k annual in travel and gas spend with one of their cards, and I have another card that gets uncapped 3% back at groceries and dining out.  Another recently offered up to 12x points (12% cash back) during the shopping period between thanksgiving and Xmas).

Bummer about Southwest not being an option, because that airline really does offfer (IMO) the most convenient air travel system in the US that isn’t dependent on the legacy hub and spoke system.

[billy]

Thanks for the referral link, but it turns out to be the same offering at Chase's website.

Gas is about $65 month at Costco, we go to Winco (debit only) and Costco (warehouse store not coded as grocery on bank end), grocery is $325 month for two (I just decided to try to bump that down to the magic $200 month, but when I told her to give up her almond butter she said piss off), we are not big at dining out.

I didn't know you can't use airline points on southwest.

I'm trying to get airline tickets from Sacramento CA to Guadalajara Mexico maybe in Sep., I looked at Volaris and nonstop two tickets are $537 if I paid cash (it does not look like I can transfer Chase points to them?), and if I did the travel hack thing at Delta it's 70,000 points (20,000 shy) and I still have to pay $178 cash. 

[doggyfizzle]

Thanks for the referral link, but it turns out to be the same offering at Chase's website.

Gas is about $65 month at Costco, we go to Winco (debit only) and Costco (warehouse store not coded as grocery on bank end), grocery is $325 month for two (I just decided to try to bump that down to the magic $200 month, but when I told her to give up her almond butter she said piss off), we are not big at dining out.

I didn't know you can't use airline points on southwest.

I'm trying to get airline tickets from Sacramento CA to Guadalajara Mexico maybe in Sep., I looked at Volaris and nonstop two tickets are $537 if I paid cash (it does not look like I can transfer Chase points to them?), and if I did the travel hack thing at Delta it's 70,000 points (20,000 shy) and I still have to pay $178 cash.

Debit only at Winco is no big deal, get an Amex Gold or Amex Blue Cash Preferred and go buy variable visa gift cards at a Safeway etc.  load $500 at a time, so you get between 4-6% back in points or cash statement credit, and can use the gift card (it’s a pin-enables debit card) at Winco and Costco.  I do this all the time to still ensure maximum bonused grocery spend at warehouse locations.  I think the signup bonus right now is $250 for Amex Blue Cash Preferred.  I’d suggest picking one of those up and maybe a Barclays Arrival (60-70,000 point bonus) that can be used as a cash credit against travel charges and pay cash for those tix. 700000 Delta miles for an equivalent flight cost of $548 on Volaris  is a very poor redemption for Delta miles.  I believe the Barclays Arrival is also a 2x mile everywhere card, so 2% cash back as a statement credit for travel expenses for most other spend.

[rothwem]

Give us a breakdown of your monthly spend (gas/groceries, etc).  For most people, a cash back card allows for more consistent redemptions (3% etc).  You can both open an Amex Blue Cash Preferred, and get 6% back each on grocery spend of $6k a year ($12k total for two separate accounts).  That’s $530 in cash back after annual fees you can use for travel.  You will be extremely hard pressed to find travel redemptions on Delta, AA, or UA at 6c/point domestic.  Don’t overlook local credit unions as well; my local credit union offers 5% back on the first $6k annual in travel and gas spend with one of their cards, and I have another card that gets uncapped 3% back at groceries and dining out.  Another recently offered up to 12x points (12% cash back) during the shopping period between thanksgiving and Xmas).

Bummer about Southwest not being an option, because that airline really does offfer (IMO) the most convenient air travel system in the US that isn’t dependent on the legacy hub and spoke system.

Most of what goes on the card is gas and groceries.  We spend about $800-1000 on grocery store purchases, and another $200-300/month on gas. 

I have a blue cash preferred card right now, the aggravating thing about it is that my wife can't see the total balance on the card since she's only an authorized user.  I added her as an account manager, but there's no link between being an authorized user and an account manager.  So she can see the balance if she goes onto the desktop site and logs in as the account manager, but she can't use the app.  Fucking annoying, but apparently that's how most credit cards are setup and I didn't realize that.  A "joint credit card" doesn't really exist.  I'm not sure there's much point in my opening another credit account. 

[daverobev]

Check out reddit.com/r/churning for a good flowchart and advice.

[billy]

Rothwem, those are some great ideas. Do you know if Safeway has a reloadable Visa debit card so I don't have to buy a Visa debit card every time?

[billy]

I just signed up for AMEX blue cash preferred, loaded it to Samsung pay, got my mastercard gift debit card today at Safeway and used it at Costco and Winco. I also applied for Chase ink business card today (I'm a big time Ebay seller:) , but it said there still determining if I'll get approved.