Advice requested on which cards to discard/add
 

Hi all:

I've had the following suite of CCs for the last year or so but am wondering what suggestions everyone has on which cards I have the opportunity to do away with and which cards I might want to consider adding --

• Chase Ink Bold (Used primarily for telecom and office supply purchases)
• Chase Freedom (Usually only use this for the quarterly bonus categories, typically gas, groceries, and Amazon)
• United MileagePlus Select (Barely use this, keeping it just for the UA MileagePlus account really -- potential to discard since I can just transfer miles from my other points programs to my MileagePlus account?)
• Amex EveryDay (I always try to make the 30 transactions per cycle to qualify for the bonus points)
• Amex Costco TrueEarnings (Only used at Costco and for 4% bonus on gas when Chase Freedom's 5% quarter is not in effect)
• Amex Blue (Never used, and I can't remember why I'm keeping it in my wallet. I feel it was because I needed it for Amex's Membership Rewards program for some reason perhaps?)

Other considerations --

• I do travel overseas occasionally and right now the only card without foreign transaction fees that I have is the Chase Ink Bold.
• My main intended use of Amex and Chase points is for airline travel (via transfer to the various airline FF programs).

Since you have Amex Everyday, I'd dump the Amex Blue. It's such an outdated card that Amex converts some of them to Everyday cards, but since you already have one Everyday card, I doubt you need another one exactly like it.

Amex is dropping their relationship with Costco next month, so I don't even if this card will exist soon. Any reason to keep that with that in mind?

Keep the Chase cards you have. Due to Chase rules about "no new cards for you if you applied for 5+ new cards from any banks in the past 24 months", you may not be able to get other Chase cards anytime soon.

There are many other Membership Rewards from Amex that you could get (especially once you clear out one or two of the least useful ones you have). Go to the American Express forum here on FlyerTalk to explore that.

If you're interested in the oneworld alliance, there are several different AA cards you can get (and in some cases repeat), most with 50k bonuses for $3k spend in 3 months. Go to the Citi forum to explore that. And some of them have no foreign transaction fees.

Thank you sdsearch!

To answer your question, yes, I do intend to drop the Amex Costco card once Costco transitions to Visa (which I believe will happen no earlier than June of this year).

Which card do you have?

Everyday is a free card which requires 20 transactions per cycle to receive a 20% points bonus.

Everyday Preferred is a $95 card which requires 30 transactions per cycle to receive a 50% points bonus.

There's definitely no point in keeping the Amex Blue when you have the Everyday. At its worst (you have no grocery spend and don't meet the 20 transaction bonus), the Everyday is the same as a Blue. It can only be the same or better.

My suggestion is a little bit different from others:

AMEX:

• Blue: Convert to Amex Everyday
• Everyday: Closed if Blue can be converted
• Costco: Stay as-is

It sounds like that AMEX Blue is an older account than your current AMEX Everyday. So it is best to keep the older for AAoA and you can close the new one.

Since AMEX Costco will be transferred to Citi. You should not do anything at this moment until the transfer is completed, even it means you want to cancel the account.

Chase:

• Ink Bold: Stay as-is.
• Freedom: Close or switch to CSP (product change or new application)
• United MileagePlus Select: Stay as-is or Close

Ink Bold is good for office supplies (OD/OM/Staples). So it is a good card to keep.

Freedom is an average no-AF card. It is good only if you can maximize the quarterly bonuses. Other than that, it is a typical reward card. I would rather use something more definitive, like CSP if I can justify the AF, or Citi Double Cash for its simplicity.

MileagePlus Select is a good card only if you are a UA Premier member or you don't mind paying the AF. Other than that, M+ Explorer card is a better card as it can give you actual benefit you can use.

I would drop the United MP card and get the Chase Sapphire Preferred. That way you can leverage the Ink/Freedom/CSP combo and get a nice suite of 2x and 5x bonus categories. The Freedom is valuable when used with the Ink or CSP because you can get 5x points on the bonus categories, which is pretty crazy (and last year it was 10 on amazon).

I'd add the Amex PRG when there's a decent sign-up bonus (50K), you'll get the no foreign transaction fee benefit as well as 3x on airfare and 2x on dining/gas/groceries in the US. The CSP will also give you no FTF but you're subject to getting screwed on DCC and Amex is immune to DCC so you really need an Amex if you're traveling intl.

You can dump either the Amex Blue assuming it won't mess with your credit (is it your oldest card by 10 years, etc)?

Don't think you need to be premier, but definitely a United flyer. The triple miles on United purchases, double miles on gas, groceries, and home repair, and the ability to earn up to 5000 EQMs make this a pretty good card that is no longer available.

If not a Premier, then the 5K PQM benefit will be meaningless and a waste of AF. It is also why people are keep PresPlus because of the FlexPQM (and more...)

Unless you are heavy bonus categories spender, miles you can earn from bonus categories are minimal.

Whether you dump the MP/Select card really depends on (1) how much you fly UA and (2) whether the card can help you achieve a Premier status level. For me, the (up to) 5,000 EQM for purchases made from UA has often gotten me over the hump when my actual butt-in-seat travel didn't quite make it.

I had considered replacing this card with the MP/Explorer which comes with Group 2 boarding, a free bag each for primary card holder and one companion, and 2 club passes per year - all perks that the MP/Select does not have by itself. But if the MP/Select can help you reach Silver status, that gets you the boarding and bags perks. Plus, you get 3 award miles per dollar spent with UA, 2 miles/$ on gas, grocery and some other stuff, and an annual 5,000 award mile bonus, so I'm hanging onto my MP/Select. (Also, for some reason, my card AF is $85, but I think others pay $95. No idea what happened there, but no complaints. ;) )

If the 5K EQM helps you reach elite status, then the benefit is most certainly meaningful. If you're a 1K, I can see why you would not be interested in holding the MP/Select. I'm at the other end of the scale - often just making Silver or Gold status and that's including the EQMs.

You seem to miss the point that anything you earn on Freedom can be redeemed for real airline miles and/or real hotel points as long as you also have an AF UR card (at the time you need to redeem). That's not possible with Citi Double Cash or any other "cashback only" card.

So IMHO it doesn't matter if you max out or not, as long as you're going to link it to an AF UR aco.... and use it to transfer to real miles or real hotel points which have a greater value for you (based on how you redeem) than earning cashback on the same spend could ever have.

Since I redeem my miles only for business class longhaul international flights, I get way more than 2 cents per mile on most of my miles redemptions. Obviously, someone who redeems 25k for $400 coach domestic trips would have to look at it completely differently.

Agreed. But again, in response to garykung, even if you are just a United flyer, I've earned a ton of miles from the 3x United purchases and 2x gas and groceries purchases. For someone with the right spend, it more than makes up for the annual fee.

This is why I said it is a good card only if you are a UA Premier member or you don't mind paying the AF.

OP provided no information regarding how the cards are used. On that basis, I did say Freedom card is good only if you can maximize the quarterly bonus. Other than the quarterly bonus, Freedom is simply your typical no-AF 1% card.

I disagree. Please look at post 1 again. The OP mentioned having both Ink Bold and Freedom, and did explain only using Freedom for quarterly bonuses, and then at the bottom of the post did explain that his main use of Chase points is for airline miles!

Ink Bold is a transferable UR card, so by having both, the OP can transfer any points earned on the Freedom to airline miles / hotel points.

I don't see why the OP would have both Ink Bold and Freedom and yet treat Freedom as a cashback card rather than the "full UR" card that it "becomes" when you also have a card such as Ink Bold (or Sapphire Preferred).

So while I can see how you might make an assumption that a standalone Freedom card is more likely to be used as a cashback card, I don't see why you'd make that assumption for someone who's paired their Freedom with a CSP or Ink Bold and who explained that they transfer Chase points to airlines.