Credit cards
It’s no secret that I have a lot of credit cards. As a matter of fact, in the past several years I have opened 24 of them. What can I say? I love me some credit card rewards points and sign up bonuses!
Many people would call me an avid travel hacker. This is fitting because I do have a lot of experience with earning credit card points and miles to redeem amazing travel experiences.
Funny thing is, I’m not particularly fond of the term “travel hacking” because it implies some kind of illegal action. It’s a misnomer because using credit card points for nearly free travel is perfectly legal. But it does sound forbidden and sexy, so I run with it. After all, one of my first posts (and an excellent primer to the world of “travel hacking”) on this site is titled The First Rule of Travel Hacking Club is… 😉
Over the years I have amassed more than a million points and miles from credit card sigh up bonuses alone. This has allowed me to:
- Fly first and business to Europe and Asia with my wife for the mere cost of taxes and fees
- Redeem free night stays at various 5-star luxury resorts around the world
- Fly multiple flights on economy class for free (or nearly free)
- And so much more…
But aren’t credit cards bad?
No. At least not necessarily.Â
Many people have an aversion to credit cards. And it’s completely understandable. Credit cards can lead to overspending because they make it so easy to mindlessly swipe (or insert) a piece of plastic that represents money you don’t own.
To make matters worse, people who overspend are often unable to pay off their full credit card balance. This can lead to an increase in your balance due to the high interest rates typical of credit cards. And God forbid you forget a payment; the interest rate may increase, you may be slapped with a late fee, and your credit score is likely to go down. This is how most people find themselves in a ton of credit card debt.
Don’t be like most people.
Avoid these pitfalls by making automatic payments to pay your full balance every month. By doing this, you will avoid missing a credit card payment and the consequences that follow.
Additionally, it is important to never overspend. Make every purchase with deliberate intentionality. And never be mindless with your money. I avoid overspending by being a frugal conscious consumer.
My diversified credit card portfolio
I have credit cards issued from five different banks. Through these credit cards I have earned a variety of flexible points currencies, airline miles, hotel points, as well as cash back. And the flexible points that I earn allow me to transfer points to a diverse array of frequent flyer and hotel loyalty programs.
Below is a list of all the credit cards that I have owned. They are categorized by bank issuer, then ordered by date. The cards that I keep active are italicized. I also include the main benefits that I have received and some of my plans for each card moving forward. I will not include affiliate links or referral links in this post. My intention is to display my inventory of credit cards, and not to sell you on anything. 🙂
Chase
British Airways (opened 10/2015 and closed on 10/2017)
I used this card to earn a sign up bonus of 100,000 British Airways Avios (their point currency) and a free companion pass. I used this bonus to redeem BA first class flights from LAX to London Heathrow for my wife and I. While the tickets turned out to be fairly expensive (~$1,100) due to fees and fuel surcharges imposed by British Airways, I thought it was worth it for a first class experience that retails at $10,000. I closed the card last year because we didn’t have any immediate plans to fly BA in the near future with our baby. Plus I didn’t want to pay the $95 annual fee.
British Airways does have a generous policy for lap infants. The cost is only 10% of the miles when redeeming for a lap infant. So if an award ticket costs 80,000 miles ticket for an adult, it would only be an additional 8,000 to take an infant in arms. Other airlines will charge 10% of the retail cash price of the fair. Â So, in this example, if you redeem 80,000 miles for an adult first class ticket that would normally retail for $10,000, bringing an infant will cost you an additional $1,000. (This is only and example.) But that’s a steep price to pay for a baby.
Because of BA’s generous policy, I am considering signing up for the card again in the future. (I can receive the sign up bonus again since it’s been 24 months since the last time received a welcome bonus on that card.) Wouldn’t it be cool to take a baby on first class? Maybe for baby, but not so much for the other passengers.  😉
Hyatt (active since 12/2015)
This card had a lucrative welcome bonus of 2 free nights in any Hyatt property. (Unfortunately, this bonus is no longer offered as current welcome bonus is 40,000 Hyatt points instead.) Â We used the bonus to stay at the Park Hyatt Paris Vendome, one of the most expensive (rooms can retail $1,000+) Hyatt properties in the world. I keep the card because receiving an annual free night makes up for the $75 annual fee.
Ink Plus Business (active since 2/2/016)
This is one of my favorite cards because it earns valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Since it earns 5x points on spend at office supply stores, I often use it to buy gift cards at Staples or Office Depot/Max during lucrative promotions. Using this card, I effectively earn a 5% return on purchases by manufacturing a ton of Chase points. This card is no longer available to new applicants, but the Chase Ink Preferred Business and Chase Ink Cash Business cards are somewhat comparable and available.
IHG (active since 4/2016)
Though this card I have earned a lot of IHG points which has allowed me to redeem free nights at various IHG properties (Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza, Intercontinental, etc.). Our last IHG redemption was a free night at the Intercontinental Estoril, near Lisbon, Portugal in October 2017 for our anniversary and baby moon. I keep the card active because the annual free night in any IHG property more than makes up for the annual fee.
Southwest Premier Business (opened 11/2017)
Recently, I had my wife sign up for this credit card so that we can earn the Southwest companion pass. In addition to using the companion pass to take the whole family to Orlando, I have many other plans to use it in the future. I was ineligible to sign up of this card (thus my wife applied) because I was over the Chase 5/24 rule. We may try to qualify for a companion pass next year depending on our travel plans.
American Express
Starwood Preferred Guest (opened 1/2015 and closed 2/2016).
Back in the day, this was the gold standard credit card for people well-versed in the points and miles hobby. This is because star points could be transferred to more than 30 different airline loyalty programs. The welcome bonus on this card was 30,0000 star points and it comes with a variety of benefits with Starwood hotels. I ultimately closed this card because I later opened the business version (see below) and I saw no point in paying two annual fees for the same product.
Starwood Preferred Guest Business (active since 9/2015)
I applied for this card because the welcome bonus (35,000 star points) and benefits were even better than the SPG personal card. Some of my favorite redemptions include the Westin Paris, Le Meridien Chiang Rai, and Le Meridien Chiang Mai. I currently keep this card despite the annual fee because of the hotel benefits. There is an annual fee to this card, but so far I have had great luck in either waiving the annual fee or earning a retention bonus.
Hilton Honors (active since 5/2016)
The welcome bonus for this card was 75,000 Hilton Honors points for minimum spending. I keep this card active because there is no annual fee and the increase in credit favorably impacts my credit score by decreasing my overall credit utilization.
Platinum charge card (opened 5/2016 and closed 5/2017)
I signed up for this card because it had a generous bonus offer of 100,000 points after meeting minimum spending requirements. Most of these points were used to help redeem flights on Singapore Airlines Business class for our flights from Seoul to LAX on our one year anniversary. The card also gives you elite status with Hilton and Starwood as well as access to Amex Centurion Lounges. I canceled the card after a year to avoid the hefty (now $550!) annual fee. Of note, this is a charge card which is not the same as a credit card. With charge cards, there is not credit limit (you can charge as much as you want), but the only caveat is you have to pay the entire balance off every month (which I always do).Â
Platinum Business charge card (opened 11/2016 and closed 11/2017)
This is the business version of the Platinum charge card. I signed up for it because of the generous welcome bonus of 100,000 membership rewards points. (Usually, it’s only 50,000 points). Both the personal and business version have similar perks and benefits with a few subtle differences in terms of earning and redeeming points. 60,000 of the points that I earned were used to redeem free flights to Europe for a trip through Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, and Montenegro back in April 2017. The welcome bonus of 100,000 points is currently available.
Hilton Honors Ascend (opened 4/9/2017 and closed 5/2018)
With this card, I earned a sign up bonus of 100,00 Hilton Honors points along with a several Hilton status perks. The card also comes with a free weekend night award after the first anniversary of card membership. (This offer is still available by the way.) After the free weekend night award certificate was credited to my Hilton account, I canceled this card to avoid paying the $95 annual fee.
Blue for Business (opened 2/2017 and closed 5/2018)
This card helped me earn 20,000 membership rewards points due to the lucrative 10X bonus points earned from spending at restaurants. It was fun while it lasted, but this card is no longer available and I canceled it to make room for more American Express credit cards (you can only have at most 5 at a given time).
Blue Business Plus (active since 5/2017)
This is one of my favorite cards because it has no annual fee and it earns 2X membership rewards points on any purchase up to $50,000. This is the card (along with my Citi Cash Back card) is what I primarily use to pay my estimated quarterly federal income taxes to make a profit. Since I value membership rewards points at 1.7 cents a piece, I’m effectively earning a 3.4% return with each purchase. That’s not too shabby!
Hilton Honors Business (opened 5/2018)
I recently opened this card to earn 125,000 Hilton points by spending $5,000 in the first 3 months. In my opinion, Hilton properties are consistently nice across the world so it’s nice to boost up my Hilton Honors account with more points. The card also comes with complimentary Hilton Gold status (free breakfast and late checkout).
Gold Business charge card (opened 5/2018)
I recently opened this card primarily to earn 50,000 membership rewards points by spending $5,000 in the first 3 months. It has a $0 introductory annual fee, then $175 thereafter (which I will likely cancel or downgrade when the time comes). For the meantime, it’s a great way to bolster my membership rewards balance.
Citi
Preferred (active since 10/2013)
I earned a welcome bonus of 30,000 Citi thank you points with this card, and since then I haven’t really put much spend on it. This is my second oldest personal credit card and I keep it active to maintain a long average credit history. It also helps that there is no annual fee :).
Premier (active since 2/2014 then converted to Double Cash Back on 2/2017)
This card came with a welcome bonus of 50,000 Citi thank you points and earned bonus points on travel, gas stations, dining, and entertainment. For a long time, this was my favorite card because I was living in Los Angeles and there were plenty of opportunities to spend on these bonus categories! The points I earned helped pay for free flights to Cabo San Lucas for my wife and I to attend a destination wedding in December 2014. Ultimately, I converted this card to the no annual fee Citi Double Cash Back card to avoid paying the $95 annual fee. By converting this card to another product, I kept the long credit history with this card alive, which positively impacts my credit score.
Double Cash Back (converted from the Premier on 2/2017, see above)
Along with the Amex Blue Business Plus, this is my favorite card for everyday non-bonus spending. All purchases earn 2% cash back. I featured this card on my post How to Make an Easy Profit by Paying your Taxes. The card has no annual fee, adds a lot of cash back value, and is a definite keeper.
Prestige (active since 10/2015)
This is one of my favorite travel rewards card because of the perks. It has great auto rental coverage and travel protection benefits when traveling abroad. The Prestige card also has a “fourth night free” benefit that I have used several times.
Hilton Reserve (opened 7/2016 and closed 1/2018 due to discontinuation)
This card is no longer available because Hilton no longer has a relationship with Citi and now exclusively partners with American Express. But it was a terrific card that served me well. I earned a welcome bonus of 2 free weekend nights at ANY Hilton property worldwide. Wanting to take my wife to an unforgettable trip for our first year anniversary, I was torn between the Conrad Maldives and the Conrad Koh Samui. We eventually chose to go to Koh Samui because there was more to do nearby in the Thai mainland versus being fairly isolated in the Maldives.
AAdvantage Platinum Select Business (opened 5/2018)
I recently opened this card for the welcome bonus of earning 70,000 AAdvantage miles after spending $4,000 in 4 months. The annual fee is waived the first year.
Bank of America
Automobile Club of Southern California (active since 7/2009)
This was my first credit card and over the years I have earned a few hundred dollars in cash back. Since this is my oldest credit card and it has no annual fee, I am keeping it active. Â A long average length of credit history positively impacts your credit score, so never close or cancel your oldest credit card!
Alaska Airlines (opened 6/2017)
With this card I earned 30,000 Alaska Mileage points and earned a free companion ticket that we plan to use for Hawaii. The $75 annual fee is due of this card and therefore I will cancel it in a few days to avoid paying for the fee. I will likely apply for card again after 6 months because this card is still churn-able (meaning: you can earn the sign up bonus of 30,000 points more than once).
Barclays
AAdvantage Aviator (opened 6/2017)
With a single purchase, I earned 50,000 American Airlines AAdvantage miles with this card to help bolster my AAdvantage mileage account. The annual fee on this card is soon approaching and so I will likely cancel this card to avoid paying for it.
Why is it important to diversify?
In my opinion, diversifying your rewards points across multiple programs is important because it allows for a lot of flexibility. While I do have elite status in a few programs, I am not particularly loyal to any one of them. If there’s a deal with one airline, I’m taking it. And if there’s award availability for first class seats on another airline, I’ll redeem miles for it. I try to extract maximum value wherever I can and the flexibility of a diversified points portfolio allows me to do this.
Being flexible and having a diverse portfolio of points also protects you from the inevitable devaluation of points and miles. For instance, let’s say you only earn Delta Sky miles and nothing else. These Sky miles may go from a valuation of 1.5 cent per mile to 0.5 cents per mile because Delta decides to increase the number of miles to redeem an award ticket. Not trying to pick on Delta, this is only an example. However, it is better to accumulate flexible points like Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards, and Citi Thank You points. You can transfer them to many airline and hotel programs!
One critique I hear about earning points in many different programs is that it is difficult to keep track of all your points. Â For me, the best way to keep track of your reward programs by using Award Wallet. (NOT an affiliate link.) It is basically the Personal Capital for reward programs.
What’s my credit score with all these credit cards?
I have an awesome credit score.
This is because the sum total of my credit limit with all of these credit cards is a lot of money. More than a million dollars. Being frugal, I really don’t spend a whole lot. Therefore my credit utilization is very low. And I always pay my credit card balance in full every single time!
Over to you
Do you have a lot of credit cards? Do you use them for cash back or travel rewards? Or do you just hate them? Â Comment below, I’d like to hear from you!
Wow, I figured that closing all those accounts would ding your FICO score but you’ve got the highest credit score I’ve ever seen! Awesome post, Doc. Useful.
Thanks Moose! Yeah. As long as you never close your oldest credit cards, it will not ding your FICO score. In fact, if you close your most recent card, it will increase the average age of your credit history and therefore increase your FICO score :).
Neat such a luxe looking life! We’re not serious about travel hacking but we’ve been churning for cash back bonuses more than anything else. I think we’ll be interested in traveling in the future though so we’ll try to get something juicy if we’re anticipating higher expenses. What sources do you use for your research?
Yes, we try to travel luxuriously on the cheap whenever we can. It’s one of our few non-frugal splurges 🙂
For research, I read a lot of travel and miles/points blogs:
1) For the latest deals and excellent guides on the rules for each bank / credit card issuer, I use Doctor of Credit
2) For learning different ways to accumulate points without flying, I read Frequentmiler
3) For reviews on the best first and business class flights, I check out OneMileAtATime
4) For maximizing mile points and miles for redeeming award flights I occasionally use TravelCodex
5) For general information, I sometimes read The Points Guy and Million Mile Secrets
6) For a forum with a lot of information regarding luxury hotels and premium award flights using points and miles, I check out FlyerTalk. It’s essentially the BogleHeads forum for frequent flyers and people really into the points and miles game.
Of the blogs above, the ones that I check out on a daily basis are OneMileAtATime and FrequentMiler. 🙂
I need to hear more about this:
“redeem free flights to Europe for a trip through Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, and Montenegro back in April 2017” Routing, and which points?
I’m like you where I just see good deals and pounce to earn points. Then I figure out what to do with them later. I got the Citi Thank You card because there was an elevated bonus. They’re hard to use but I was able to use them to go to Hawaii, so it all worked out. As long as you’re willing to put together a “puzzle.”
We don’t open nearly as many cards as you! I think we open maybe one or two a year and that seems to get us to where we need to go.
I have a few cash back cards, but I prioritize miles since I value them so much more. Um, you can get a business class seat to Japan for just 50k miles. $500 in cash rewards isn’t going to get you that far…
For people like us, putting together the “puzzle” can be a lot of fun. But I know it’s not for everyone. 🙂
I have to be more specific about my 60,000 membership rewards redemption for our flights to Europe…
Before we had kids, we would take 3-4 international trips a year. (Both our jobs are very generous with paid vacation leave.) We always try to travel during shoulder season April/May and Sept/October. I had always wanted to go to Croatia and the Balkan peninsula because I’m fascinated by the history of the region and coastline is simply gorgeous.
So for awhile, I had planned this trip for our April 2017 vacation slot. Months prior to the trip, I was checking Google Flights like a hawk for flights form LAX to any gateway city in Europe. You can put deal alerts on Google Flights, which is wonderful and something I like to use.
Anyway, a deal came up for flights LAX to VCE (venice) in economy for $450 each. And it was on our designated airline with Amextravel. AT the time, I had both the Amex Platinum Business AND the Amex Platinum personal charge cards. So I used my Amex Platinum Business card to redeem the flights on Amextravel.com (since with this card I would be rebated 50% of points used). THEN, on check out I used my personal Platinum for check out to earn 5x points on what would have been the cash price. This tactic is explained in detail here and here.
So for 2 flights from LAX to Venice, I paid something like 95,000 membership rewards points, but I was rebated 35,000 back… so the net cost was only 60,000 membership rewards points for both me and my wife to fly there. On top of that, since it is considered a “paid ticket” and not an “award ticket”, we both earned AAdvantage miles for those flights since we flew One World carriers (American and Iberia). We both have some status (not elite) with American, so I think we both earned something like 5,000 miles (or more, I forgot) for those flights.
From Venice, we used buses and cars to get around and explore the Balkan peninsula (Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, and Bosnia).
Wow kudos to you able to keep track of which card to use in which circumstance and of course keeping up with all the rewards/benefits from said cards.
I basically have pared my credit cards down to 3 cards (amazon card which gives 5% on amazon purchases which I do a ton), a Sams club credit card, and a Chase card that gives me 1.5% on all purchases.
I used to do the credit card balance transfer game in med school/residency to get low APR. But now I just pay everything in full each month.
I think for most people, simplicity and paring it down to 3 rewarding cards is the best. Even though I have 10-15 cards open at a given time, I only carry the 2 or 3 cards in my wallet. I don’t like having a fat wallet 🙂
Wow. Like wow. You must be very organized. My husband took care of our bills for 4 months in our almost 22 year marriage. We paid interest during all those 4 months because he missed the deadline.
I would be extremely afraid if my husband ever tried this.
I am embarrassed that I still love camping. None of my friends will ever travel with me anymore. 😊
Don’t be embarrassed that you love camping! I do too! Who doesn’t 🙂
I’m not THAT organized. Just organized enough. Automatic bill pay makes it so easy to make payments without forgetting.
Diversified portfolio for sure and a beautiful line up! Low expense ratios, and I am sure the return on investment has been great! I have several of these cards, but many of them I do not own. I particularly appreciated you listing the timelines of these cards! I have roughly 7-9 cards open currently and 4-5 of them are coming up on the year anniversary and the subsequent annual fee which I would prefer not to pay! I am closing several down and need to open some new ones! I don’t have the Hyatt, British Airways, IHG, Hilton Honors, Platinum charge card, or the AAdvantage Platinum card. These are on my radar!!!
Those are all very awesome cards to sign up for.
In case you didn’t already know… here’s a few tips before closing your cards:
1) Never close your oldest card(s). Most likely your oldest will not have an annual fee.
2) If the card has an annual fee and if you’re on the fence on closing it, then call the number on the back of the card and ask the customer service representative if it’s possible to waive the annual fee (this has worked for me twice in the past). If not, then ask to talk to a retention specialist to see if there are any retention offers.
3) If annual fee can’t be waived and no retention offers, consider downgrading the card to a version of the card with no annual fee (if possible). Doing this keeps your credit history alive.
Do you have the Ritz Carlton card? Among the many perks, they allow you to upgrade to any Club Level Free 3x/year. I can’t tell you how much this has saved us on food and drink for a family of 4 with 2 (I mean 3) hungry boys!
Check it out.
I’m definitely considering that card! I have to first get under 5/24 (which I will be at the end of the month) so that I can apply for a Chase Sapphire Reserve card. After getting approved for that card, I am considering applying for the Ritz before August based on this post by Frequent Miler.
Wow, lots of cards! Kudos to keeping track of everything, and on that awesome credit score.
We’re not that big into travel hacking. We just have one cash back credit card through BofA. I think credit card churning is similar to debt: it can be used effectively as a tool, but you need to be careful. Like you mentioned, it’s important to not overextend yourself with purchases that you can’t pay back in full every month.
Thanks for sharing your CC portfolio!
Yeah, totally agree that credit churning is similar to debt. It’s best to leverage it responsibly. Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Well, I have to say I’m blown away. I’m a big fan of Chase cards (personal and business) but agree with your comments around diversification. Curious about your comment on using AwardWallet. I tried connecting my accounts but started getting messages around United and some other airlines not granting them access anymore. Since I’m pretty much with Chase is it a big deal but wondering if you have had any issues recently. Thanks again.
Yeah, I do have issues with certain programs too, including United and Delta. In these cases, unfortunately you would have to access their individual websites to check your balances. Luckily most programs can be accessed by AwardWallet still. Thanks for stopping by!