Originally Posted by
SpunkyGD
I agree on paper the CSP looks strong, especially in combination with the Freedom and Ink... 7% dividend, 5x on select categories.... what's interesting is that in addition to Freedom's $1500 quarterly cap, and the rotating categories end up dictating your behavior rather than fitting your actual spending patterns (unless you devote the time to gaming the system).
I'm not sure I follow you here. CSP and Ink have fixed categories so the only time you have to spend "gaming the system" is pulling the right CC out when you purchase something. Freedom's 5x categories only change once a quarter, so not much time or effort required there either.
Originally Posted by
SpunkyGD
Adding an Ink Plus/Bold puts annual fees into or beyond Amex territory, and unless you can really max out that office category (which I assume entails some MS or again, gaming the system) it seems pretty hard to offset the additional $95.
Chase is pretty consistent about giving retention bonuses on their Ink cards so I consider them no AF CCs for all intents and purposes. Even if I had to pay the $95 AF without an offsetting retention bonus, my cell phone and cable bills alone more than pay for the AF, and both of those are on auto-pay so no time or effort required.
Originally Posted by
SpunkyGD
Totally agree on the travel categories if you fly around for work a lot, although these days the flights are so expensive, getting 3x or 4x on those can be a lot more significant than dining and hotels.
Is there a CC that earns 4x in flexible CC points on flights? I thought the best MR card for that was PRG at 3x, comparable to the CSP's 3.21x when you book through the UR website.
Originally Posted by
SpunkyGD
I have to create some pretty contrived scenarios where the Chase combos come out ahead, so maybe I'm just calculating things wrong?
Can you describe some scenarios where a different combination (MR or otherwise) comes out ahead of the Chase Freedom/CSP/Ink combo?