Mastercards on my mind for Player 2’s Curve card (on Nick’s mind)

A few weeks ago, I called the Curve card the ultimate Player 2 card. In a nutshell, currently only available to a select number of people who are part of the beta testing group, the Curve card allows users to pay using the Curve credit card and charge the actual purchase to some other underlying credit card of your choice. More importantly, it allows users to go back in time and change the underlying card even after a purchase is made (read more about the Curve card here). The hang-up (beyond the fact that it is not yet publicly-available) is that it only currently works with Mastercard, Discover, or Diners Club credit cards. This has had me contemplating the best Mastercard or two for Player 2.

My Player 2 goals differ from Greg’s Curve wallet

Greg previously wrote a post outlining his anticipated Curve wallet. I realized that the ideal wallet for my wife would differ in a number of ways.

Greg’s proposed Curve wallet would be ideal for him based on the cards he already has. In our case, I quickly came to realize that my wife and I currently have very few Mastercards. My main goal would be to cover the couple of categories in which my better half spends the most when I’m not around since I am happy to manage the multitude of Visa and American Express cards we own when we’re spending money together.

A wise argument could be made for using the Curve card purely for the purposes of earning new welcome bonuses as often as my wife’s spending pattern would allow for it. There is no doubt that the fastest way to earn a meaningful number of points is through strategic credit card sign ups and the Curve card would make it easy to rotate in the next Mastercard on which she’s trying to earn a bonus.

That said, my wife and I typically do not struggle to meet spending requirements. With two kids and a number of regular bills that can be paid via credit card, we have a fair amount of expenses. Additionally, we are both comfortable with a number of ways to increase credit card spend when necessary. All that is to say that minimum spending requirements for new card bonuses isn’t a factor here. My main concern is getting my wife set up with a Mastercard or two that will be as rewarding as possible for the types of spend my wife is likely to do with her Curve card, which is a fairly narrow set of circumstances.

My wife and I have been been working from home since long before it was “cool”. We started working full time from home back in the summer of 2009 — almost 13 years ago. We are fortunate enough to spend the vast majority of our time (and thus make the vast majority of our credit card purchases) together. My wife’s job doesn’t require her to travel and since we live in a very rural area, we order many “needs” online — from clothes and pantry items to appliances. We even did our car shopping online from home.

Therefore, my wife doesn’t spend a lot of money without me. She tends to make about one big solo shopping trip per week, typically going to a grocery store, a warehouse club like Sam’s Club or BJ’s Wholesale (no Costco in our part of the world), and maybe a store like Target that typically doesn’t trigger bonus categories. She’ll usually get something to eat while she’s out and she may fill up the gas tank in the car. The other somewhat regular solo expense for her is a once or twice a month visit to a massage therapist. My goal is to get her a couple of Mastercards that we can add to her Curve wallet that are as rewarding as possible for grocery, dining, gas and “everywhere else” categories so that I can help her make sure that she always earns at least 2x on every purchase and more when possible. I want to simplify her life down to a single card — her Curve card. Sure, she’ll miss out on a point per dollar here or there by using the Curve card over other cards, but Mastercards have been on my mind because I’d like to get her set up with a collection of cards that doesn’t sacrifice much.

Mastering my wife’s spending categories with Mastercards

Here are the cards I have in mind for my wife’s (Curve) wallet:

For grocery: Capital One SavorOne

This card would give my wife 3% back at grocery and 3% back on dining with no annual fee. However, the real draw for me here is the fact that these are more like 3x categories since Capital One allows cardholders to move cash back rewards to credit card rewards at a rate of $0.01 = 1 mile. The SavorOne effectively earns 3x grocery and 3x dining with no annual fee since my wife could move rewards earned on this card to her Venture X card.

The Citi Premier was initially on my mind for those same 3x categories until I considered how it compared: the Premier has a $95 annual fee whereas the SavorOne has no annual fee. More importantly, Capital One has objectively better transfer partners. While Citi has a sweet spot going for it in the 1:2 ThankYou to Choice Privileges conversions, I can’t ignore that Capital One has all of Citi’s other useful transfer partners while also having several that Citi doesn’t have. If I’m between 3x Capital One miles versus 3x Citi ThankYou points, I’d be on the Capital One side of that fence before even considering the annual fee. The SavorOne seems like a better option for me.

The issue here will be getting approved. She product changed her old VentureOne to a Quicksilver and I had hoped we could product change to the SavorOne from there, but no dice so far. She’ll probably have to throw up an application at this card and cross her fingers for approval. That wouldn’t be a concern with most banks, but Capital One is notoriously difficult on approvals for those with many cards. She did get approved for the Venture X a few months ago, so we’ll see.

Uncapped 3x grocery is good, but is the SavorOne really the dining card to have in this wallet?

For dining: Brex for now, but maybe Freedom Flex

My wife already has the Brex card and this card earns 4x on dining. That’s one point more than the SavorOne card earns.

However, I’m hesitant on this strategy. Sure, the Brex card earns an additional point, but Brex has a far more limited set of transfer partners (just 7 total partners). I’ve tolerated that and still used this card for dining now and then since Brex’s partners are ones that I am somewhat likely to use, but I’m not convinced that earning 4 transferable points that are less flexible (due to fewer partners) is better than earning 3 points per dollar with the SavorOne given additional useful Capital One transfer partners.

However, I’m not even convinced that the SavorOne should be the dining card for Player 2. While earning 3x transferable miles per dollar spent on dining is good, 3 more flexible points per dollar is even better. In other words, while the SavorOne would be a potentially solid fit, maybe the Bilt card would be even better.

On the surface, the Bilt Mastercard doesn’t make a lot of sense for us. We already have cards that earn more points per dollar on travel and dining and I have said that the card makes the most sense for those paying rent and not earning rewards for it. With not even a welcome bonus to attract us, it wouldn’t seem like this card would be high on the list.

However, I’ve been using up Hyatt points with speculative future bookings like it is going out of style. Given my current station in life with two young boys, I value a suite more than ever. Packing all four of us, with our greatly varying sleep schedules, into a regular standard room just seems like an awful idea at the moment. Hyatt provides the ability to book directly into a suite using points (or upgrade certificates) at the time of booking. That’s huge for us. Earning 3x points that could transfer to Hyatt is very attractive. The fact that Bilt also has other excellent transfer partners that Capital One and Brex do not have, like American and United, strengthens the argument to have the Bilt card for my wife’s solo dining.

Of course, her solo dining trips aren’t likely to add up to a lot of money spent. And an advantage of the SavorOne or Brex card for dining is the flexibility to redeem points at a value of $0.01 per point, which isn’t an option with the Bilt card. Since it is Hyatt points that I think I am most likely to want, a better strategy is product changing my wife’s Chase Freedom Visa to the Chase Freedom Flex card. That card will earn 3x dining that we can combine with her Sapphire Reserve to transfer to partners (or with one of my cards to ultimately transfer on to my Hyatt account). It also adds the ability to max out quarterly 5x categories by setting rules on the Curve card. For example, I can set the Curve card to automatically charge the Freedom Flex in a quarter where gas is the 5x category. I’m sure my wife won’t quite max out a category this way, but she’ll probably get some use out of them this way (whereas I currently don’t focus much mental energy on those 5x categories on her Visa Freedom card). On the whole, I prefer either Bilt or Capital One’s transfer partners over Chase’s, but the Freedom Flex enables us to effectively earn Hyatt points without a new account and some potential 5x, so that seems like the best option for now.

Gas: A New Orleans Pelicans card?

My wife has the Wyndham Business Earner card, which earns 8x points at gas stations. This makes it the default choice for gas station spend in our household. However, the Wyndham card is a Visa and I’d like to have my wife set up with a Mastercard with reasonable return on gas so that she can just use her Curve card for everything.

While it is a questionable choice for a 5/24 slot, the Cardless New Orleans Pelicans card offers 4x / 4% back at gas stations. The points earned on this card aren’t transferable to any partners, but uncapped four percent back on gas is quite good. The welcome bonus on this card is a good-enough $300. While the Pelicans card hadn’t previously been on my radar, it is now. I’m not 100% convinced that she’ll go for it as she probably could be fine with having a second or third card in her wallet in addition to the Curve card (in other words she could continue to use her Wyndham card), but neither am I sure that I want to collect an infinite number of Wyndham points. This is a contender.

Everywhere else: Capital One Spark Cash Plus

My wife’s final major spending category is “everywhere else” for those trips to Target and/or the massage therapist. A great choice for an “Everywhere else” card would actually be the U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve card since it earns 3x on mobile payments and she could probably use her phone to pay at Target or warehouse clubs, effectively earning 4.5% back. Of course, that doesn’t pair with the Curve card since it is a Visa Infinite. It also doesn’t pair well with my wife’s reluctance to use mobile payment technology (don’t ask me why, she just resists my attempts to get her used to it). Alternatively, if she is willing to carry a card other than her Curve card, the Bank of America Premium Rewards card earns 2.625% back everywhere thanks to having Platinum Honors status and would be a great choice for those trips to Target or the massage therapist. That’s certainly the “everywhere else” card I would be sure to use when we’re together. In fact, I’ll probably recommend she carry this card anyway in case the Curve card doesn’t work / gets declined as it provides very good return everywhere.

While Greg had the Citi Double Cash listed as a sort of catch-all backup 2x “everywhere” card in his imaginary Curve wallet, I am much happier with the Spark Cash card in its place (my wife has the older and no-longer-available Spark Cash card rather than the Cash Plus card that is available now). The Spark Cash card gives us the flexibility of 2% cash back if we prefer to redeem the rewards as cash or the ability to transfer that cash back to miles since my wife has a Venture X card. Since I prefer Capital One’s transfer partners over Citi’s, the Spark Cash seems like a reasonable choice for warehouse clubs, Target, and that sort of thing.

Notably absent: The Custom Cash card

Many might wonder why the Citi Custom Cash card is missing from my life. Greg included this card and for good reason: it earns 5x on up to $500 in purchases in the category in which you spend the most each month. I think this card is a great fit for a lot of people and particularly for the Curve card since one could theoretically juggle purchases after the fact to make sure not to exceed the $500 cap.

If I were willing to track it more closely, this would be a great card to have paired with a Curve card. Personally, I’m just not sure I want to track this. She’ll spend more than $500 per month at grocery stores and less than $500 per month at the other options eligible for 5x.

Furthermore, she doesn’t have a Premier card, and unlike most Citi ThankYou points, the points earned on the Custom Cash card can’t be transferred to another cardholder. Her only option for redemption would be cash back. While 5% back each month is very good return, I’m not sure I want to take on the additional maintenance of making sure she doesn’t end up with 1x by going over $500 or charging more than one type of purchase to this card.

Ultimately, that’s only due to laziness. This card would be good for gas or grocery or dining if I were willing to track the $500 in monthly purchases. If she also had a Premier card and had her Custom Cash points pooled with it (so she could transfer them to partners), I would be more willing to put in the work. Somewhat ironically, I’m less willing to do that for the additional 1-2% cash back each month on $500 in purchases. That’s not necessarily sensical, but it’s the truth.

However, if she can’t get approved for a SavorOne, she should consider the Premier card for 3x grocery. If she ends up with the Premier card, the Custom Cash card will probably make a lot of sense as a companion.

Bottom line

Though my wife and I currently have very few Mastercards, she already has a good “everywhere else” Mastercard in her Spark Cash card. Product changing her Freedom to a Freedom Flex will give her a good option for 3x dining. We’ll have to cross our fingers and see if Capital One is willing to approve her for a SavorOne. Assuming she is able to get the SavorOne, we may round things off with a New Orleans Pelicans card for gas. If she can’t get the SavorOne, we may need to re-think the strategy entirely and get her a Citi Premier for grocery and then I’d consider pairing the Custom Cash for gas. Any way you slice it, a single Curve card in her wallet is going to be a strong earner that limits both her need to think about which card to use and instances of operator error (incorrect card choice). While the Curve card isn’t yet widely available, I look forward to when it is because so far it is simplifying the household card strategy considerably and ultimately that makes my wife happy. And you know what they say — happy wife, happy (miles and points) life.

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