TravelinSperry

I too hold SPG Amex and Marriott by Chase. Will likely hold the SPG Amex for the 35k free night. Surely the free night is worth more than $95. I will cancel the Marriott by Chase (as I'd like to free up a 5/24 slot for future applications).

I will also get the new SPG luxury card which with the free night and hotel statement credit, pays for itself. That's the card I'll use for all Starwood/Marriott stays as well as it has the highest earn.

If you truly don't want to hold the SPG base card... just upgrade it to the luxury version when you can. Although applying directly to get the initial bonus and then cancelling the base card is a better bet. But personally, I'd say hold both Amex cards as they pay for themselves.

Keyser

i was considering the luxury card but i think i'll just cancel both the spg amex cards & keep the chase marriott....i already have another amex that i use for the majority of my purchases so have no need for further amex cards now....

i paid the annual fee for both cards a couple of months ago so i'm in no hurry to cancel them now....can do so by the end of the year....

uppereastsider

Why not use the CSR for those un-bonused transactions? Yes, it only earns 1 point on non dining/travel expenses (which for me, dining/travel is the VAST majority of my spend when traveling internationally), but its earning points in a program I assume you have a large balance with. How significant is your un-bonused international spend?

damon88

TravelinSperry

You prerogative fo course. But the luxury card provides one free night (@50,000 point level) and a $300 statement credit towards hotel stays. Since the free night will clearly be worth more than $150 they are paying us to get this card. Plus applying for this card gets you the sign up bonus and then if you truly don't want it you cancel in the following year.

I can't see any reason not to get it (from a financial perspective it's a win). https://www.spgpromos.com/amexcomingsoon/terms/luxury

But aren't we limited to 5 cards in total? If so, I'd prefer to free up a slot. If not - then I can hold the card for the free night

damon88

damon88

Happy

Where did you get this idea?! There is NO SUCH THING of Slot with Chase.

You confuse Chase with AMEX which has a 5 Credit Cards limit, but that may also be a thing of the past as there are reports people have successfully open 6th credit card. Charge card is not even included in the "slot count".

Chase let you have however many Chase cards you feel comfortable holding. Some people I know have 9 or 10 Chase cards.

Happy

Where did you get this idea?

Your other understanding is correct, but NOT this one. This comment is total nonsense.

We have IHG cards that are NOT used at all after earning the sign up bonuses. They are just kept for the annual free night certs at $49 AF. (with the devaluation, these cards will be gone after the last uncapped certs are posted).
The Freedom cards hardly see more than a few hundreds a year. (No, the quarterly bonus categories are useless to us most of the time when you can get gas GC at 5% discount all year long with your Ink card for example).

Any bank will close inactive cards if the cards are not used for 12 months or 24 months, depending on how aggressive the bank's policy is.

damon88

TravelinSperry

I didn't confuse Chase and Amex but yes, inadvertently thought the same rule applied to both. Good to know I can keep a many Chase cards as I want.

I have had Barclays cancel a card on me for non use. I signed up for the original Virgin America credit card and used it for a while then stopped. Got a cancellation letter in the mail without notice to even use it or lose it. So cancelling does happen outside of just Chase.

Happy

It is indeed good habit to charge once every 6 months on the dormant card that you plan to keep, or charge a cobrand card a month before your planned cancellation so the activity would give you an extension of X months life before you close the card and lose the ability to generate activity on the loyalty programs from that channel. Do the charge and pay it off immediately a full statement cycle bore the AF hit and you close - so you can move all the CL without having to leave something on the closed card. Chase would leave $500 to $1000 on the CL of a card you want to close if the previous statement has any activity, even just for a payment. Their System is designed in such a way that the rep has no option but follow it.

There are plenty enough DPs posted on FT that Citi does the same thing, so as CapOne. Some claimed that Citi sent them an email but Citi closed their cards anyway.
Also read about USBank closes Club Carlson cards when there is no activity for a mere 6 months. Not sure if this is true or just hear-say.

The importance is to make a clear reference on the base of closure. Card closed due to inactivity should not affect your relationship with the bank though years past Citi system lumped such closure together with closures from adversity actions.

Happy

Caveat - need to be mindful on your Aggregated Credit Line with Chase - from both the personal and business. Chase does not care too much on how many their cards you have, but do care on how much total credit line or their exposure, on your unsecured borrowing power, as in theory you can charge up a storm, use all your credit line and then "Burst Out". On top of Chase also monitor your OTHER banks exposure and take that into account for their own risk calculation.

Chase has become overly aggressive in monitoring such since last year and literally programs its risk assessment modules to include such. We have seen a lot of closures triggered by such monitoring, seemed like automatic reaction from tripping wires of their system.
Luckily a very high percentage of such closures are reinstated when people call in and reason it with the Lending Dept. But you dont want to put yourself in scenario that your credit card activities (from all issuers) can trigger the flags in the overly aggressive Chase system.

One way you can tell if your issuers are monitoring you is to look at your credit report's "soft pull" section where you can see many banks these days are doing frequent periodic Account Reviews which allow them to assess your profile with other banks so they get a better picture of you on how much total unsecured credit you have from all sources. Account Review is nothing new, but the aggressive actions out from that is relatively recent, as from Q2 or Q3 of last year and is an ongoing practice now.

C17PSGR

I'm thinking about the luxury card, I get that it is sort of cost neutral ... $450 - $300 credit = $150, then I get a room. Of course, I would otherwise be paying for the room and earning points on that. It has Boingo, and Priority Pass but I have those through my Amex Plat. And for those of us who travel a a lot (I'm around 70 actual nights so far this year), the status doesn't matter.

So, other than being cost neutral, what is the advantage of having the luxury card? Breaking even isn't a particularly impressive selling point.

damon88