Originally Posted by
ymarker
I liked the simplicity of this card - can give it to the wife to use for a broad range of spend grocery/gas/dining all @ 3%. Now I think I'm going to have to divvy it up:
- Gas 4% - citi costco; or 3% + 75% bonus = 5.25 via boa preferred rewards (limited to $2500/qtr).
- Grocery 2% + 75% bonus = 3.5% via boa preferred rewards (limited to $2500/qtr) OR mobile 3% USB AR (most grocery places / costco take mobile payments); Could also get her a gc when chase freedom/discover are doing their 5%. Probably easiest to do USB AR and cb could be higher if doing rtr.
- Dining - 3% + 75% bonus = 5.25% via boa preferred rewards (limited to $2500/qtr)
P1 & P2 will both have the boa card and get the relationship bonus, but seems like a lot of juggling around of cards probably easiest to just assign: Gas = citi costco; Grocery = USB AR; Dining boa. Thoughts?
In terms of volume of spend, Grocery / costco =
#1 ($1200/mo) , dining
#2 ($600/mo), gas
#3 $200/mo.
I'm in the same boat and used this card as my primary for the last 3 years. I'm especially going to miss the unlimited PP and $100 Visa Air discount, which saved me over $1k/year for the past 3 years. My wife and I put $70-80k of annual spend on this card, which represents 95% of our total cc spend. My other cards are the legacy IHG card for the free night ($49 annual fee) and the Hilton AMEX Aspire for Diamond and free night ($450 annual fee). My spend breaks down to roughly the following;
$30k Grocery - family of 5. I'd say $10k of that was Amazon or other gift cards for the 3x.
$2k Gas - we might drive 8k miles/year
$15k Restaurants
$10k Airlines, Bus tickets and non-Hilton Hotels
$20k in non-bonus categories
I have zero interest in switching my banking/brokerage to BoA/Merrill. I just know if I do, that program will end. My wife has no patience for this and will only use 1 card. My renewal for CNB is 2/28 and I'll likely keep it for another year to spend down points (150k+) and possibly for the first $50k of spend for the airline club reimbursement, which is like an extra 1% back. I will certainly be dropping all my AU's before 2/28 though. This and the UA devaluation have hit me hard. Curious to hear what others plan to do if they're in the same situation.