Spousal Support- Churning etc.
 

Been quietly sitting back for the last year with my mouth shut reading FT and learning the lay of the land. I have had great results "churning and burning" and implementing my learnings. Thanks to all of you. I am always impressed with the high level of intellect of the FT community.

Here is my question. It seems that every few weeks I am sitting my wife down for a briefing on which cards she should be using or switching her cards out after meeting a spend. She always does it but I always seem to get some flak with comments like "geez, another change!". In the end she knows from 16 years of marriage that there is always a method to my madness and of course the benefits are very visible to her when we travel.

Just curious how the other spouses out there respond to all that goes into churning cards etc? Thanks- Maz

I have quit banging my head against that wall and just buy the OD visa cards and let her use those...or used to until the $500 cards got pulled. With the chase biz cards, I was getting 5:1 points on them so getting the wife away from which card to use and getting the bonus points was money well spent paying the small service fee. Hopefully the $500 cards come back soon. Funny how she loves the travel but doesn't want to bother with helping cut the expense. If I could get her to churn, we might hit that 1 million mark in a year but she just will not do it.

Mrs drminn is a willing participant, both in acquiring and spending the points - she loves travelling in style. I just hand her a new card every now and then and tell her to spend on this one for a while.

The $500 gift cards are the way to go with everyday expenses and spouses. Just got another couple recently and that works well with my spouse. Otherwise, just keeping it simple is good. If I am working on a minimum spending requirement then he gets that card. I have found that trying to get reluctant spouses on board with bonus category spending can be pushing it, so assign one at a time. Most don't really care which card they are using as long as they aren't having to remember which of 8 different cards to use for any given purchase.

The other piece of it is to use miles for something they really enjoy. Nothing gets a reluctant spouse on-board faster than an amazing trip that they never dreamed possible. ;)

I too have limited my wife's involvement to just the "use this card for a while". I don't want to go down the road of having her choose one of 2 or 3 cards based on what is being purchased for x2 miles etc. Not too worried about it because I handle those decisions when we are together and the times when large charges where double miles count the most such as the Sapphire Preferred x2 on travel etc.

I don't churn cards, however, my husband has had enough free or nearly free vacations to Hawaii (& Disney) to just blindly do what I tell him to regarding with the cards and also doing mattress runs.

He even has a bookmarked section of which websites to check before he makes an online purchase.

Spousal Support- Churning etc.
 

My wife just shrugs and takes the next card. She did sorta like the Amex Gold. I'll probably get her a plat one so you can enjoy that for a while. She totally gets it on the free trips so no complaints. .

I tape a label on the back of each card 5X, amount and date needed...
We do not even need to talk about it...
After date needed to spend goes in closet safe.
Date to cance in Google Calendar

Got to watch women they keep taking things back..charge back goes on card..

Another FT had a good system that we now use: Write in Sharpie marker on the side of each card what to use it for. When the cards are in the wallet you can easily see the labels:
_____
| Gas |
| CVS |
| Rest|
| " . " |
|____|

I realize this only works with vertical wallets, but most purses/wallets for women go this direction. When quarterly bonuses change a little rubbing alcohol/nail polish remover erases the categories that change. I also write "DO NOT USE" on cards that have no real bonus spending right now.

My wife now just tells me.. " I dont care why I'm using a card, just tell me what card to use". She complains when I talk about but enjoys our free breakfast and checked bags etc..

i make all the decisions for the SO and plan her AoRs accordingly

then I usually keep track of all the spend and tell her which card to use. It gets bothersome when she needs to call in for a card, but, she loves the vacations, so she deals with it

my wife is the exact same way. hilarious.

Moderator action
 

Thread transferred to Credit Card Programs which is the preferred venue for discussing card strategy and techniques.

My wife hasn't started complaining yet..may be because we just got in this game. Her attitude is, just tell me what card to use, or better still, put it in the front in her purse :)

I have implemented a 3 card strategy for my wife's wallet:

1. Amex BCP =Groceries & gas
2. Citi Forward = Dine & Amazon
3. The every thing else card, which I swap out every couple/few of months based on min spend needs.

I am also very gracious if the above strategy is not implemented with 100% precision, as she may have misplaced a card or the like. She stays home, so I can't churn for her (no income, not in a community property state). She has expressed reluctance to have too many things hit her pristine credit. I am negotiating a number for how many cards I can apply for her in a year. I am hoping she will consent to four cards per year.

We have done it this way for about 6 months and she is fully on-board and will brag at times when she does something above and beyond (e.g. use Forward at Barnes & Noble).

I do find high spend cards (e.g. Brit Air) are good choices for card #3.