Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chase Freedom Unlimited – everyday spending
Chase Sapphire Reserve – dining out and general travel
Chase IHG One Rewards Premier – IHG hotels
Chase United Club – most United airfare
Chase United Quest – occasional United airfare
Chase World of Hyatt – Hyatt hotels
Amex Hilton Honors Aspire – Hilton hotels
USAA Signature – backup

We earn enough rewards to take 3-4 family vacations per year with all airfare and hotel costs covered by points and miles. Five nights on average for four people. We only fly first class and stay in premium suites at upper tier hotels like Waldorf Astoria, Park Hyatt, and Intercontinental.

Why the Quest card AND the Club card? Quest brings no additive value and has a $250 annual fee. You get 3x for United bookings on it, but get 4x on the Club card

I'm guessing they originally opened both to get two signup bonuses, but yes its weird they pay both annual fees every year. Although they are paying a ton of annual fees and given how much travel they do, they are probably big spenders who haven't even noticed the extra $250 each year.

Good point. Although the hotel cards all have really good ongoing value with credits/free nights. And the CSR is really net $250 fee, and has industry leading travel/rental car insurance, along with restaurant priority Pass access and points transferrability, so it's fee is worth it for most, I think. In fact I don't think the United Club card is worth it for most people unless you are flying United more than say once/month. The additive value of their lounges just isn't worth $650.

But if you do travel a lot the airline cards that grant you lounge access are worth it.

We have 10+ cards.

AmexPlatinum: gives Centurian lounge access, the perks of Fine Hotels pays the $600 yearly fee with 1 stay (free breakfast for 2---typically $30-45/person daily, $100-200 credit for dining/drinks at the hotel during stay, early checkin if available and guaranteed late checkout)
Delta Reserve Amex: Delta Lounge access, earn points towards miles/status on Delta for the year (now that it's all $$$ based for status this will help a bit)

Chase Sapphire Reserve
Costco Visa: Gas and Costco

1

2. Visa I use for in person purchases (I.e., I actually have in my wallet and swipe it). Amex I don’t carry around but it is tied to PayPal and Amazon, so it gets used for online purchases.
Don’t feel the need for more. Oh, I do have a Target card, though I very rarely shop at Target anymore. If I do, I use that card.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chase Freedom Unlimited – everyday spending
Chase Sapphire Reserve – dining out and general travel
Chase IHG One Rewards Premier – IHG hotels
Chase United Club – most United airfare
Chase United Quest – occasional United airfare
Chase World of Hyatt – Hyatt hotels
Amex Hilton Honors Aspire – Hilton hotels
USAA Signature – backup

We earn enough rewards to take 3-4 family vacations per year with all airfare and hotel costs covered by points and miles. Five nights on average for four people. We only fly first class and stay in premium suites at upper tier hotels like Waldorf Astoria, Park Hyatt, and Intercontinental.

Why the Quest card AND the Club card? Quest brings no additive value and has a $250 annual fee. You get 3x for United bookings on it, but get 4x on the Club card

I'm guessing they originally opened both to get two signup bonuses, but yes its weird they pay both annual fees every year. Although they are paying a ton of annual fees and given how much travel they do, they are probably big spenders who haven't even noticed the extra $250 each year.

Good point. Although the hotel cards all have really good ongoing value with credits/free nights. And the CSR is really net $250 fee, and has industry leading travel/rental car insurance, along with restaurant priority Pass access and points transferrability, so it's fee is worth it for most, I think. In fact I don't think the United Club card is worth it for most people unless you are flying United more than say once/month. The additive value of their lounges just isn't worth $650.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Chase Freedom Unlimited – everyday spending
Chase Sapphire Reserve – dining out and general travel
Chase IHG One Rewards Premier – IHG hotels
Chase United Club – most United airfare
Chase United Quest – occasional United airfare
Chase World of Hyatt – Hyatt hotels
Amex Hilton Honors Aspire – Hilton hotels
USAA Signature – backup

We earn enough rewards to take 3-4 family vacations per year with all airfare and hotel costs covered by points and miles. Five nights on average for four people. We only fly first class and stay in premium suites at upper tier hotels like Waldorf Astoria, Park Hyatt, and Intercontinental.

Why the Quest card AND the Club card? Quest brings no additive value and has a $250 annual fee. You get 3x for United bookings on it, but get 4x on the Club card

I'm guessing they originally opened both to get two signup bonuses, but yes its weird they pay both annual fees every year. Although they are paying a ton of annual fees and given how much travel they do, they are probably big spenders who haven't even noticed the extra $250 each year.

Three. My priority is cash back, not travel points.

AmEx blue cash preferred for groceries (6% cash back) and gas (3%)
Amazon for all amazon purchases (5%)
Citi Double Cash for everything else (2%)

All three paid off in full every month.

One credit card (AmEx) and one debit card.

Anonymous wrote:How many credit cards do you actively use?

We have 2- an Amex Platinum and a Chase Visa. I haven't wanted more because it's more to manage but I'm now thinking we should mix it up a bit and get some other credit card benefits.

How many do you have... is it enough or too much?

We have a ton of cards but actively use Discover, Costco, Capital One, Bank of America & Amex (2 diff. ones). Which card we use depends on the situation (e.g. Travel)..

Anonymous wrote:Chase Freedom Unlimited – everyday spending
Chase Sapphire Reserve – dining out and general travel
Chase IHG One Rewards Premier – IHG hotels
Chase United Club – most United airfare
Chase United Quest – occasional United airfare
Chase World of Hyatt – Hyatt hotels
Amex Hilton Honors Aspire – Hilton hotels
USAA Signature – backup

We earn enough rewards to take 3-4 family vacations per year with all airfare and hotel costs covered by points and miles. Five nights on average for four people. We only fly first class and stay in premium suites at upper tier hotels like Waldorf Astoria, Park Hyatt, and Intercontinental.

Why the Quest card AND the Club card? Quest brings no additive value and has a $250 annual fee. You get 3x for United bookings on it, but get 4x on the Club card

I’m down to two. One AMEX Gold and one Citi (my first from college). Big difference from my younger days when my wallet was overflowing with them.

One - Chase Sapphire Reserve. I have another as a backup in case it is stolen etc.

Anonymous wrote:Chase Freedom Unlimited – everyday spending
Chase Sapphire Reserve – dining out and general travel
Chase IHG One Rewards Premier – IHG hotels
Chase United Club – most United airfare
Chase United Quest – occasional United airfare
Chase World of Hyatt – Hyatt hotels
Amex Hilton Honors Aspire – Hilton hotels
USAA Signature – backup

We earn enough rewards to take 3-4 family vacations per year with all airfare and hotel costs covered by points and miles. Five nights on average for four people. We only fly first class and stay in premium suites at upper tier hotels like Waldorf Astoria, Park Hyatt, and Intercontinental.

I'm impressed you are doing this just with spending. We do something similar, but its mostly from the sign up bonuses on new cards. As soon as we spend enough to get the signup bonus, we open a new card with a new signup bonus.

Two Mastercards- one for in person purchases and one for online purchases (so I have a backup in case one number gets stolen). One Amex for backup/large purchases/the rare place that doesn’t take MC.

Anonymous wrote:
We earn enough rewards to take 3-4 family vacations per year with all airfare and hotel costs covered by points and miles. Five nights on average for four people. We only fly first class and stay in premium suites at upper tier hotels like Waldorf Astoria, Park Hyatt, and Intercontinental.

How much do you spend per year across all those cards?

I have and use several cards but all are paid in full every month. Every Jan. I evaluate whether the cards with annual fees are paying for themselves.

Amex Platinum - don't use often but max out the benefits so it pays for itself
Amex Gold - groceries and restaurants
Amex Everyday Preferred - used for most purchases (1.5 points per $)
-- points for these 3 are pooled into one account

Amex Aspire - Hilton points, used for free night and hotel stays
Chase United Quest card - for airline purchases
Chase Sapphire Reserve - backup travel card, will probably downgrade this one this year
Apple card - Apple purchases and Apple Pay

I have a couple no-fee cards that don't get much use aside from once or twice a year just to keep them open.