Credit Cards

Hey, I was wondering if someone needs credit to buy things. People in my family have said I wouldn't be able to buy a car or a house without credit. But if I'm saving up cash to pay for things outright, do I really need credit?

Note: I’m sorry if this is the wrong place to ask.

Card earns

• 5x on hotels
• 4x on airlines
• 3x on travel
• 3x on dining

$95 annual fee with an annual $50 credit for airline purchases. Launch offer is a 60,000 point SUB on $4000 spend in 3 months.

Transfer partners at launch are

• 1:2 transfers to Choice Privileges
• 1:1 transfers to Avios (Aer Lingus/Iberia/BA)
• 1:1 transfers to Air France / KLM
• 1:1 transfers to Avianca Lifemiles

As the title implies, does anyone know if CLEAR's membership is considered a travel category by Chase? Thus meaning it could be reimbursed through the $300 annual travel credit.

I do not want to carry my physical Visa card or physical Mastercard around. I also do not want to carry around any of my Visa giftcards and Mastercard giftcards. I am trying to reduce the cards in my wallet.

I cannot use Google Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or any banking app since I have a degoogled LineageOS phone and I like it this way since every app I have on it is FOSS.

If I were to store my physical Visa card details and my physical Mastercard card details in a password manager (Card Number, Expiry, CVC), would I be able to still manually enter these details at any physical place that take Visa or Mastercard? I will not be able to use the tap feature, but is it possible to always manually enter your card details at any place that accepts credit cards?

In the clip Clooney and Farmiga brag about their credit card perks...

Also thanks to the mods for creating this community, was missing this one from Reddit!

For transparency, I only signed up for a Discover card recently because they had a 15 month 0% balance transfer promotion, which is what I've been looking for. In general it's seemed like their rewards were not outstanding and you had to deal with potentially not having the card accepted elsewhere.

My receiving bank botched the transfer and the funds were missing for a bit. Discover was excellent -- every time I called there was a minimal wait for a U.S. based customer support agent that I could understand clearly and was knowledgeable about the situation. I was surprised.

I get that you may go years without ever needing to contact support, but it definitely quickly made a difference for me.

So I am always curious to hear how folks value points in different reward systems. I think many of the card reviewers greatly overvalue points based on booking ridiculously overpriced international first class tickets at a fraction of the cost, but still 2x-3x or more what you would pay for an economy ticket. Here is how I would value the point systems I have had cards for:

• Amex MR: 1.2 ¢/pt
  • I generally will transfer points to domestic or international economy flights or to hotels when I can get at least 1 ¢/pt. The CS platinum sets a good minimum redemption rate.
• Chase UR: 1.6 ¢/pt
  • Assuming CSR. May get better rates for Hyatt and occasionally economy flights, but portal bonus/PYB set the minimum
• Marriott Bonvoy: 0.67 ¢/pt
  • Based on what I typically see scrolling through the site.
• Hilton Honors: 0.5 ¢/pt
  • Based on what I typically see scrolling through the site.
• Hyatt: 1.67 ¢/pt
  • Can be higher but the options are more limited.
• Delta Miles: 1.2 ¢/pt
  • Based on what I typically see scrolling through the site. Sometimes there are good deals on partner flights internationally.

That all said I mainly use the Amex trifecta because I can earn MR at a fast enough rate to make up for the lower valuation and I can use the credits effectively.

How do you value points?

I am using a Savor One as my daily driver. It's an excellent card and the 3% in groceries and dining covers two of my largest spend categories so it's a great fit.

However, I still feel as though I'm leaving a lot on the table for everything else that only gets 1%. I am currently using a secondary Venmo Visa -- mainly because I needed VISA exposure for costco. It's an aesthetically pretty card but the lack of authorized users and only being able to manage the account inside the app are pretty big hindrances for me. I don't think I'm going to stick with it.

Any recommendations for a complementary daily driver? I know I should just consider the WF Autograph but I REALLY hesitate to work with them just on principle.

I live in Europe (transplanted American) and would love to know some resources for international churning.

I keep a US residence and mailing address.

Any thoughts or ideas are appreciated!

My 4 year anniversary with the CSR is coming up. I couldn't re-earn the sign-up bonus during that time, but now that's going to be gone how do I earn it again?

I've read that I could down grade and upgrade, but is there a step by step detail so I don't mess it up? I'm not finding much about that except for thus: https://upgradedpoints.com/credit-cards/reviews/chase-sapphire-preferred-card/upgrade-to-chase-sapphire-reserve/

Hi, the Capital One duo is looking like a much better deal than with the Chase trifecta, especially if you're a CSR holder. With Chase reducing their benefits and trimming their bonus categories every year, I don't see a point in keeping the Chase trifecta as your main source of points anymore. The Capital One duo + Bilt (if you rent), at least on paper, look amazing for travel points.

Wanted to know your opinion. Cheers!

Wondering if they even have a reason to increase it anytime soon.