Originally Posted by
Campath
The insurance thing you mention is a bit of a stretch. If you want Amex to make a profit off your account, you can occasionally leave some money in it so they collect some interest. It's not like you get anything meaningful in a savings account. Why let go any opportunity to earn points?
Agree with the occasional using of older cards to keep the account active. But the best way to do this IMO is to purchase yourself a $1 Amazon gift card and apply to your account every 3-4 months or so. Once you store the CC info in your Amazon account, you don't even have to dig up the card for repeat purchases. Beats carrying around all these cards in your wallet and having to constantly switch them.
I feel I've optimized my CC strategy enough and earn enough points with manufactured spend so I don't fret the few thousand points I would miss out. I do keep a large blue bird balance ($2-3k).
I like your amazon idea. A predictable amount also makes it easy to set up a recurring bill pay. Same thing can be done for bluebird.
My current go to card is Club Carlson, as I will be traveling to Europe shortly. To round out I'm strongly thinking about working towards a TYP combo.