Decisions, decisions
 

I need some help deciding on my next card. I have a large property tax bill that will cover any $3k minimum spend requirement. I also have monthly reoccurring daycare cost of about $1k. Due to a new baby in the family, we won't be taking any trips in the next 1.5-2 years but outside of that we do take a family trip every year, therefore I can collect points that don't expire.

My husband is military so we can get any AMX or Barclays card and have the AF waived.

Here is what I have in my wallet now:
~Sapphire Preferred
~Freedom
~PenFed 5% Platinum Cash Back
~USAA World Mastercard

What cards I was considering:
~Citi Hilton HHonors - Current 75k offer and no AF is nice. Plus 3pts. per dollar on groceries (I lack in everyday spending card).
~AMX Everyday Preferred - I need an everyday card but not sure about moving all my monthly spend to this card for MRs when I prefer URs to hit the 50% bonus.
~AMX Blue Cash Preferred - Nice option for 6% back on groceries. That is probably the only thing I'd use the card for. I do have a $250 statement credit offer that I can use right now if I apply plus no AF.
~AMX Platinum - I really want to wait for a 100k offer before applying to this. Plus since we are not going to be traveling anytime soon, I was going to wait a year or so before applying (unless a 100k offer comes through).

What are your suggestions?

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"What are your suggestions?"

What are your intended family trips, and starting from what location?

Family trips: All domestic travel. Disneyland/Disney World, New York, Washington DC, etc.

Leaving from Denver or Colorado Springs

People in the military get AF waivers for Barclay and American Express? Is that in perpetuity, or just year 1?

Yes. The fee is waived as long as you are Active Duty.

A couple card companies reduce APR too, but I never carry a balance.

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I think you need to decide whether you're more interested in getting free flights or free lodging. Given the dominance of UA at both COS and DEN, you'd probably want to accrue UA miles and/or miles on another Star Alliance carrier that can be redeemed for flights on UA.

For free lodging, I would delay getting hotel cards that offer free nights as a sign-up bonus until you're ready to travel, as the free-nights bonus typically must be redeemed within one year.

For all domestic family trips, might be worth considering getting the Southwest cards and nabbing the companion pass.

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+1.

That's actually a great idea, if the OP is willing to forgo flying out of COS. Southwest offers nonstop service from DEN to NYC, WAS, and MCO.

Great idea on the Southwest cards!!

I'd wait until the 50k bonus mile offers come back around again (or make sure you apply through the right link), because then you only need to come up with 10k in spend to get the CP. If you apply for and get approved for both the premier and plus cards (I think) you can get 50k each towards the 110k required for the CP.

I'm not a big Southwest fan/flyer, so look around Flyertalk and there are also about a million blogger posts out there about the companion pass. I travel alone 90% of the time so the CP has never been on my list of achievements... #foreveralone

I would have to say cash rewards is the only currency with stable valuation over time. Sallie Mae (no annual fee) has 5% cash back on groceries as you mentioned several times about groceries; however 5% is only for the first $250 each month. I suppose you and your husband could each get a card if desired (Sallie Mae also earns 5x on gas and Amazon with a upper limit). If you have significant spending on groceries, you could add Everyday or Blue Cash Preferred from Amex to maximize earnings. I would suggest waiting until after you restart traveling to get the Amex Platinum card.

If you want continue to earn cash rewards, citi double cash (no fee, 2% cash back on everything) looks good. Otherwise, consider ThankYou Premier card (1st year free) as it has a nice sign-on bonus and a worthy competitor to Chase Sapphire Preferred (e.g. 1 TYP = 1.25, 50K points= $625 in airfare for those fly economy class). Nevertheless Amex SPG has always been good for non category spend (if you didn't have the card before then you'd earn the sign-on bonus), and *points would likely remain valuable for SPG hotel stays.