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I'm not a heavy churner, but I'm down to 3/24 right now and will be 0/24 by August so I thought it might be time to start applying for a few cards again. Any advice as to the best cards to get? I just applied for the Ink Cash, but as that won't affect my 3/24 I still have slots.

To start... What's in my wallet: I have the CSR, Citi Prestige, Citi Preferred (PC'ing when the AF comes up), Capital One Quicksilver, Discover More, and IHG Select.
Additional key information - I don't live in the US. So cards with FTF or bonus categories restricted to US locations are not appealing at this time.

As I said earlier, I applied for the Ink Cash yesterday. Another card I would like to apply for is the IHG Premier. I'm also debating the value of getting either the Hilton Surpass or the Hyatt cards although I don't have any immediate travel plans to take advantage of either. I typically do 4th night free stays through the Prestige. Other than that, I also typically spend a few scattered nights a year in Hong Kong (which is where the Hyatt card might have some value for the Cat 4 Hyatt in TST). I also really want the Ink Preferred, but I can't get to a Chase Branch to speak to a BRM for the 100k points.

Anyone have a good roadmap recommendation for me to build up some points since I'll be a clean slate soon?

hey all, have some big expenses coming up and want to open a card ASAP.

i already have a CSR, CSP and CF.

i am leaning towards the AmEx Premier Rewards Gold Card as i just received a 50K targeted bonus with $0 annual fee.

there are other options but the Platinum has a huge fee and is only 75k and i am concerned with the SPG due to the upcoming "announcement".

i was intrigued by the Chase Marriott and United card but ehhh.

advice? thoughts?

thanks.

So I'm moving to Seattle in a few weeks, and figured I'd rack up enough organic spend to hit a credit card spend requirement, and I'm a little stumped on what to acquire. I currently hold a CSR and a Citi Prestige. I'm at 2/24 and 0/90 for Chase and Amex respectively, I will mainly fly AS/UA going forward (SEA-IAD/SEA-SFO-TPAC) and my preferred hotel chain is SPG/Marriott.

• United Explorer -- will eventually need this anyway in 2019 for the PQD waiver, assuming I can pay my rent on the card.
• Ink Business Preferred -- 80k points sounds great, but I'm nervous about the validity of the whole "sole proprietor" thing.
• Marriott Rewards -- mainly only useful for the 15 night elite credit toward lifetime status, again, UA Gold matches to Marriott Gold.
• Amex SPG Luxury -- confers Gold Status, but not available until end of August, and not sure if the credit can be used for bookings.
• Amex Platinum -- mainly for Centurion Lounge access (esp. SFO/HKG) as UA Gold matches to Marriott Gold (for now, anyway).

It seems like the logical choice is the UA or Ink card, thought I'd appreciate any advice anyone might have on the matter. I've been fishing for the 100k Amex Plat offer for a while now, but no luck, though I haven't tried with the new address yet.

Not sure if advice threads are permitted here -- if not, mods please lock/delete/move/whatever.

Done.

Be aware that business cards from most banks (Discover and Cap One are the main exceptions) don't show up on your EQ/EX/TN credit reports and thus don't count toward chase 5/24 (which counts cards on you credit report with an "opened on" date in the past 24 months). So figuring out how to get over your fear of applying for business cards can help you get more cards while staying under 5/24.

Meanwhile, the new Marriott Gold is pretty useless; it's not much better than the Marriott Silver of the past. Yet going forward, it's only that new Marriott Gold that you can get from credit cards or UA Gold (from everything we hear as of now). So I wouldn't focus on Marriott status unless the 15 nights you get helps you get to 50 nights total in a year (for the new Marriott Platinum, which is the old Marriott Gold renamed). That 50 night credit is what gets you lounge access at FS Marriott, etc.

5/24 is less of an impediment to me compared to AAoC -- I'm not huge on manufactured spending, so other than occasionally paying my rent with a credit card to hit a min-spend, I'm not splurging on getting a bazillion credit cards.

I think mainly it just seems a little weird to apply for a business card without a "real business" per se. I worry that if Chase ever does an account audit, I wouldn't necessarily have a paper trail demonstrating X years in business, for instance.

Would it be suspicious to apply for a biz card, then change addresses to a different state in 3 weeks, and then at some point prior to the annual fee, product-change it to the no-fee Ink Business Cash?

I doubt I'll be able to hit the 50 (or 35 in the case with credit card) nights in a year for Platinum Status. I figured Gold might be helpful for whatever an Enhanced Room Upgrade counts for (I'm guessing high floor or preferred view?). I'm not big on suites anyway, and I've never set foot in a hotel lounge before.

Why would change to a card that cost more per year?

The Marriott Business Card has a "net negative" annual fee, in that every year after the first, you get a capped free night certificate good for a year. Even with the cap, I would have no trouble finding one hotel a year that I need that costs more than the annual fee. And thus I make back more than the annual fee with the savings from the free night cert. While with Ink Business Cash, there's no free annual perk that I'm aware of, so you've just got $0 annual fee, instead of a "net negative" annual fee. To me, a "net negative" annual fee is even better than a $0 annual fee.

I've never heard of Chase doing that to anyone who listed their business name as their name, business address as their address, business hone as their phone, sole proprietor, years in business 0, annual business income $0.

Without wanting to ever say so in public, banks like people to have business cards because consumer credit protections don't apply to business cards. Some smaller banks are picky about who applies for a business card, but not the majors like Chase, Citi, Amex, US Bank, etc.

For more on applying for business cards, see this thread:

Applying for Business Credit Cards [Consolidated]

Mm, I'm not sure I follow. If I were to apply for an Ink Business Preferred, it is my understanding that I can only product change within the Ink product family (i.e. to the Ink Business Cash or similar).

Also, from what I've read, the Marriott Business Card is not under 5/24, but holding said card invalidates the holder from subsequent Marriott/Starwood Chase/Amex sign-up bonus offers for 24 months, though I will admit I didn't look very closely at the fine print either.

No, holding it past the 24th month after earning the signup bonus is what invalidates it. You're simply not eligible for another card until both (1) it's 24 months since you earned a Marriott/Starwood signup bonus, and (2) that card is now closed.

But 24 months after earning the signup bonus is 25 or 26 months at least after opening the card, which means that you can earn two annual free night certificates (one after 12 months, one after 24 months) before it matters whether you still hold the card or not. I see no advantage to getting rid of the card earlier than that. (Once the free night cert is showing in your Marriott account, you can close the card and cert stays there.)

Err, isn't that what I said? Effectively, holding the Marriott Business CC invalidates you from future Marriott bonuses for the next 24 months. Certificates aside, I still don't see how you've interpreted my "I was thinking of applying for IBP" statement as "I want to apply for the Marriott Business" -- as you yourself even outlined above, Marriott Gold Status isn't worth much, and from that I gathered it would be more effective to acquire 80k URs from the IBP.

Or to return to my original query, perhaps my question should be: do I pick up the UA card since I can hit the spend organically, absolutely above board, or do I go for the IBP for the 80k URs and deferring acquiring the UA card given my relatively short AAoC?

Well, I can't answer those questions myself (I have no current interest in an IBP, and I have Chase cards open for a decade or more, and a Citi card open for 30 years, so I'm not in your AAoC shoes either.

In my case, I'm waiting for a UA bonus to possibly get better (50k general or 70k targeted, while it's now 40k general or 60k targeted) after the current offer expires on Aug 15. But just because the current offer expires then doesn't prove that a better offer will appear the next day, the last time (in July) an offer expired, pretty much the same offer appeared the next day. OTOH, they historically have done bigger offers occasionally.

In my case, I already applied for Chase Marriott Business card last last year, and closed a personal and applied for a new personal Chase Marriott card earlier this year. So the only card I can possibly apply for (since I also had the existing SPG cards before) is maybe the SPG Luxury card in the 3-day window (Aug 23/24/25) before the new rules go into effect on Aug 26. But it remains to be seen whether it will really be available to anyone for 3 days. (I already have enough nights and points or years at Marriott or Marriott + SPG to get at least LTP and maybe even LTPP in the new program, so I don't need a card to get me into their lounges.)

Your question is so specific, I don't know whether anyone will be able to give you an outright recommendation.

Any recommendations for a new credit card that I should apply for that would complement the cards and points that I have?

I am not under the Chase 5/24 rule at this time.

I have:
AAdvantage: 170,000 miles
Delta SkyMiles: 16,000
United Mileage Plus: 129,000
Choice Privileges: 59,000
Hilton Honors: 64,000
IHG Rewards Club: 89,000
Chase Marriott Rewards: 114,000
Wyndham Rewards: 51,000
Chase Business Ink Preferred: 88,000
Chase Freedom Unlimited: 0
Chase Sapphire Reserve: 375,000 -- I'm probably cancelling by end of 2018 due to annual fee
Chase Amazon: 0
Citibank ThankYou Rewards: 55,000
Chase United Explorer MielagePlus: 50,000
Navy Federal Credit Union Flagship Rewards: 45,000 -- I'm cancelling in a few day

I do have a 'special offer' letter for 60,000 miles after spending $5k in 12 months (from Citi AAdvantage Gold Mastercard).

Is there a card out there for which you would suggest I apply? Maybe something that would work well with the cards and/or points that I have at this time?



Thanks.

I have a spend of about $6000 coming up and I�d like to apply it to a new card that has a good bonus...if there is something out there that is worthwhile.

It would seem to be impossible for anyone to provide insight without knowing your travel patterns and habits.

Do you consistently fly the airlines and stay at the hotel chains that you mention, or are you simply collecting cards and banking the miles and points?Are you getting any value from those cards that you are paying annual fees on? If not, perhaps some consolidation would simplify your situation.

If the CSR is your general spending card( which is a guess based only on the amount of points), do you have an alternative in mind if you do cancel?

If you were to provide more specifics as to your intentions and needs, I think you would get more responses to your inquiry