Nick’s wallet: Completely revamped in 6 months

33

Six months ago to the day I published a post with what was in my wallet. Had you told me then that not only would almost every card in my wallet have turned over within six months but that I’d be earning more rewards everywhereI probably wouldn’t have believed you. The truth is, various temporary bonuses have gotten so good and so plentiful that it can be difficult to remember which card(s) to use. Thankfully, I’ve now retooled and simplified everything and split this post into three wallets: my wallet, my wife’s wallet, and our “virtual” wallet (for online stuff). As noted in my previous post on this topic, the cards in my day-to-day wallet aren’t necessarily a reflection of A) what should be in my wallet, B) what should be in your wallet, or C) my full portfolio of credit cards, which includes many cards that get used in specific ways such that I don’t need to carry them each day. This post is simply meant to share which cards I’m actually using in the real wallet that I carry when I leave my house. Here’s where we stand in mid-2020.

My “old” wallet (just six months ago)

a wallet with credit cards insideAs a reminder, six months ago, this is what I carried and why:

  • Restaurants: Citi Prestige (5x)
  • Gas Stations: Chase Ink Plus (2x) (note this card is no longer available for new applicants)
  • Everywhere else: Capital One Venture (2x “miles” is good for 1.5 airline miles in several programs or 2.8% back toward Marriott gift cards in my circumstances)
  • SoFi Money Visa Debit Card: For fee-free ATM withdrawals (note that customers who opened accounts prior to 6/9/20 still get fee-free ATM withdrawals at almost all ATMs, whereas those who have opened accounts from 6/9/20 onward get fee-free withdrawals at Allpoint ATMs). See the latest SoFi Money account bonuses in this post.
  • Niue Yacht Club Membership Card: For laughs and bragging rights at parties
  • Simon Visa Gift Card: In case I could liquidate it

But things have changed…

Nick’s wallet now

a wallet with credit cards and cards in it

  • Gas: Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card (10x on up to $7500 through 10/31/20 with the new Amex offer). Note that we’ve still got the old SPG Business card art.
  • Grocery: Chase Freedom (5x on up to $12K in the first year with the new welcome offer)
  • Restaurants: Marriott Bonvoy Business American Express Card (10x on up to $7500 through 10/31/20 with the new Amex offer). Note that we’ve still got the old SPG Business card art.
  • Everywhere else: Bank of America Premium Rewards (Soon to be 2.625% cash back with Platinum Honors. See my retirement planning mistakes post for more on making this switch.)
  • ATM withdrawals: SoFi Money Mastercard debit card. They changed networks earlier this year and along with that have come some nice benefits (currently 10% back on streaming and at Whole Foods, Trader Joe’s, and Instacart — though we’ve seen offers for 20%-40% back on streaming). Still free ATM withdrawals worldwide for those who opened prior to 6/9/20.
  • Bragging rights: Niue Yacht Club Membership Card. Nothing has become more brag-worthy in my life in the past six months while sitting at home.
  • Takin’ care of business: That’s a Frequent Miler business card you see between the Premium Rewards card and “SPG Business” card (now the Marriott Bonvoy Business card). The image you see there is a link to our Start Here page.

As you can see above, my wallet has experienced near-total turnover in six months. Sure, my SoFi Money debit card is still in there, but even that has changed — in this case, a change of networks has meant some limited-time cash back bonuses / discounts like the current deals for 10% back at some grocery stores / Instacart and on some streaming services.

The only thing that has remained totally unchanged in my wallet is my Niue Yacht Club membership card. I don’t anticipate something cooler coming along any time soon.

Otherwise, my wallet has changed significantly, and I’d say for the better:

  1. I’m now earning 10x Marriott points on gas vs 2x Ultimate Rewards points previously. That’s a big boost in terms of Reasonable Redemption Value. I’m personally happy to pick up hotel points at good value since (apart from the past few months) I generally find collecting hotel points directly via credit card spend to be a poor value. Furthermore, given that Marriott points transfer to airlines at a rate of 3:1 (or slightly better if transferring in blocks of 60K), this is like a return of 3.33 miles per dollar spent. I’ll take it while I can get it. I just hope I can buy Gift of College cards with this bonus — unfortunately my previous attempts to pay for them with this card have been declined. I set myself a reminder for the end of October to switch this card out for my Citi Premier (for 3x) if I don’t hit the cap sooner.
  2. I’m now earning 5x Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent on groceries vs 4x Membership Rewards points before. While I generally prefer Membership Rewards over Ultimate Rewards points, I’ll take 5x over 4x. I’ll note that it’s kind of surprising that Citi debuted 3x ThankYou points for grocery store spend ahead of schedule and it’s gotten totally buried first by COVID credit card enhancements the past couple of months and now by the new Freedom cards welcome offers.
  3. I’m now earning 10x Marriott points on restaurants vs 5x ThankYou points. Is that a better return? This is open for debate. Given the many ThankYou points sweet spots that are sometimes overlooked, I could see some saying that this is a downgrade. On the other hand, as noted above, apart from pandemic-increased payouts, I generally find it hard to justify spending on hotel credit cards, so I’m happy to take 10x Marriott for the short-term. It’s also worth noting that I product-changed my Prestige card, so that is no longer my next-best option. That second-best option would now be the Amex Gold (4x) followed by the Citi Premier or Sapphire Reserve at 3x. That makes a 10x Marriott return easier to swallow and I’m earning those other currencies in other ways that frees me up to earning some Marriott points here.
  4. I’m now en route to earning 2.625% cash back everywhere. I’m still waiting on the bestowal of Platinum Honors, but in the meantime there is a $500 welcome bonus to trigger, so the Bank of America Premium Rewards card has already made its way into the wallet. While I was using the Venture card as an effective 2.8% back toward Marriott gift cards, I am happy enough with the trade for 2.625% straight cash on everyday spend given the obvious flexibility advantage of cash.

Overall, my wallet feels nicely upgraded. It’s worth mentioning that one thing that helped simplify here is that we no longer have any Hilton resort credit to use at restaurants (as a reminder, you can use the $250 resort credit on the Aspire card at restaurants through the end of this month), otherwise that would complicate things. After avoiding restaurants altogether for months, I finally got myself accustomed to getting take-out again and that ramped up quickly. I’ve even eaten at a couple of restaurants with outdoor seating. Baby steps.

Note that I wish my wallet were slightly different: If I could successfully register for the Chase Marriott bonus for gas stations and restaurants, I would have my old Marriott Bonvoy Premier card in my wallet. That’s the old Marriott card that only awards an annual 25K certificate and unlike all of the other Marriott cards that are currently available, it only offers 1x on most purchases. However, it awards an elite night credit with every $3K spent. I’d gladly use that card for $3.5K at gas stations in order to earn both 10x and pick up an elite night. However, since Chase won’t seem to let us register any of the cards in our household (and the same seems to be true for many other card holders), there is no Chase Marriott card in my wallet at this time.

Nick’s wife’s wallet

a group of business cards in a wallet

My wife is more active in this hobby than the “Player 2” in many households. She is generally the more enthusiastic manufactured spender between the two of us and she could probably tell you in which programs she currently has elite status. Probably.

However, between working, being the full-time caretaker of our son, patiently growing a tiny human that is set to join us shortly, and picking up the slack everywhere I leave it, she would argue that she should be forgiven for that time she put a large purchase on a Southwest Airlines credit card at 1x. I took that slip-up as a cue to simplify her wallet considerably.

These days, she is carrying three credit cards and one membership card:

  • Food (Grocery / Restaurants): Amex Gold Card (4x on up to $25K in purchases at US supermarkets per year, then 1x; 4x restaurants)
  • Gas: Chase Sapphire Reserve (5x on up to $1500)
  • Everywhere else: Capital One Venture
  • Emergencies & Discounts: AAA card. We frequently use this for hotels in normal times (though we rarely get asked to show it). It has also come in handy a time or two for assistance.

Her wallet is now set up so it can be almost foolproof. One card for food, one card for gas, one card for everything else. If she goes to a restaurant that doesn’t take Amex, she knows enough to use the Sapphire Reserve.

Why is she carrying the Venture card rather than the Premium Rewards card? This is only temporary. We are most of the way to the points needed for another hotel gift card with Capital One miles. Once we hit that threshold, we’ll likely put the Premium Rewards card in both of our wallets (though we’ll hold off on redeeming the Venture miles until we either need the gift card or need a transfer to a partner).

Overall, I like the simplicity here. As long as I can get her to avoid unbonused spend on the Gold or CSR cards, we should be good to go. As above, I wish I could get our Chase Marriott cards registered for 10x gas and restaurant purchases so we could pick up some earn there in her wallet as well, but if that promo doesn’t work out I won’t lose sleep earning 5x Ultimate Rewards on gas and 4x Membership Rewards on dining in the increasingly rare instance that my wife is spending without my wallet also present.

Our “Virtual” wallet

a person using a laptop

The truth is that these days, especially given the fact that COVID-19 has slowed our manufactured spending routines, we spend more money online than we do in-store with physical wallets. Therefore, as important for us is which cards we’re using for our many online purchases:

  • Amazon.com: Chase Freedom (5x this quarter on up to $1500 in purchases)
  • Other stores: Citi AT&T Access More (3x online retailers). Note: This card is no longer available for new applicants or product changes.
  • DoorDash: Chase Sapphire Reserve. We’ve now used up this year’s $60 in credits, but if we use DoorDash again, we will continue to use the Sapphire Reserve for DashPass benefits and 3x.
  • InstaCart: Amex Gold. We can’t get delivery where we live, but we’ve used InstaCart once or twice for delivery to a family member’s house where we could pick it up the same day. We were pleasantly surprised when our order from a warehouse club coded as grocery through Instacart. Of course, if we order from Instacart in the near future, we would be smarter to use one of our SoFi Money cards for 10% back, up to $50 for each of us.
  • Plastiq: Chase Ink Business Preferred. As a blogger, I’ve picked up a lot of fee-free dollars over the years. As such, I pay a number of bills via Plastiq (including our car payment and some bills for others in the family). I’ve been paying those bills with a suboptimal card here: at times in the past, this card earned 3x at Plastiq. It hasn’t for a long time and I’ve been lazy about changing it. I’ll likely be switching to a MasterCard here, but I’m still working out which one. There are a number of good options, though with Platinum Honors we may need to take a closer look at Bank of America options.
  • Everywhere else: There are some online stores where the AT&T card is known to not earn 3x points. In those instances, we’ll use the Bank of America Premium Rewards card for 2.625% back.

These aren’t the only cards we’ll have/keep/use

The cards we carry day to day don’t represent all of the cards we’ll use on a semi-regular basis in normal times. For example, if we’re going to a Simon Mall, we’ll carry several more cards not noted here in order to split big purchases and spread out spend. When an office supply store runs a deal on Visa Gift Cards and we have plans to pass by a store, we’ll obviously rotate in a Chase Ink Plus (which is no longer available for new applicants, though it is very similar to the Ink Cash). This post doesn’t cover every card we have but rather which cards are in the wallets we carry day to day.

Bottom line

My, how things have changed! I wouldn’t have expected six months ago that almost every card in my wallet would be different today. That said, I’m certainly not disappointed to be earning 10x Marriott points at restaurants and gas stations or 5x Ultimate Rewards points at the grocery store and 2.625% cash back everywhere else. Current short-term enhancements and strategic new card additions have significantly improved our day-to-day earn and simplified our wallets considerably. Sure, we’ll rotate in plenty of other cards for unbonused purchases — and we’ll need to switch things around if and when we reach the caps on various spending bonuses. Still, for day-to-day use, we’re earning plenty of points on all of our purchases with a simplified approach that doesn’t require too much thought.

Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

33 Comments
newest
oldest most voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

[…] I shared the contents of my current wallet to note the fact that every credit card I’m carrying today is different than the cards I had […]

Jerry

The BofA cards have not played nice with Plastiq due to being Visa cards. There were many times I tried to pay a bill with the Premium Rewards card only to be shut down and had to switch to a MasterCard. Also with the recent fee increase to 2.85% Plastiq has slowly dropped off my list. I also add the BofA Cash Rewards card as part of my BofA trifecta (Preferred, Travel Rewards, Cash Rewards). No annual fee and selectable categories for 3% it makes the return 5.25%. I’ve been using it a go to for online purchases.

Tara

Interesting that you mentioned Hilton cards, what did you do with them? closed or pc?

WR2

I always find it interesting that travel bloggers are not so much into churning signup bonuses. I guess you are MS focused plus affiliate/referral bonuses. I wish I could MS here, as I haven’t signed up for a new card in 6 months, going through withdrawals. Thankfully my last one was a BofA Business Cash Rewards. Got a fat limit, 9 months interest free, and Plastiq codes as travel for 3x, so I’m getting paid to float my rent for a few more months.

No Aspire, or did you already use up the restaurant/resort credit?

Kate

Nick, thanks for your thoughts. You are absolutely right that I do book a lot of star alliance Transatlantic flights and don’t use many Radisson points most years. Although we did find the Radisson points very useful in Scandinavia a couple of years ago, and I could definitely see using them in Mayfair in London again. I guess the key is “in a normal world “. We are older so not sure when we will be flying, and if driving domestically I guess I was thinking the Radisson points could provide an ok-ish discounted room, but really maybe I should have canceled those cards also. I have the aspire so I figured we didn’t need 2 at the moment. Our card fees had gradually ramped up to well over $3000, particularly including first year fees. A crystal ball would be helpful!

Michael

I signed up for the Marriott Bonvoy Business card from amex today, but am not seeing the Marriott / gas station / restaurant offers showing up on my account. Do they take a day or two to show up after opening a new card, or did you have to have the card prior to the offers coming out to qualify? I see a number of other offers showing up that I had already loaded onto another amex card, but not those. Thanks

Felipe

How were you able to keep the old SPG biz card? Is it because the card hasn’t expired yet?

AlexL

I am curious if you call to find out why it is declined at the gas station. Maybe do a test purchase somewhere else.

Last edited 4 years ago by AlexL
Kitz

I normally love almost every type of post that you do. You guys are above the card-shilling hucksters and I’ve come to trust your voices for all things about this hobby.

Except for this type of post, though. Every once in a while you are promoting the idea of carrying around a lot of cards in order to maximize points. It sticks out from the rest of your normally well-reasoned posts, and not in a good way.

You could/should tell your readers: What is the benefit of doing this? Are the extra points you are earning really worth the hassle of spending the time to decide which cards to carry and which card to use for each transaction? Do you even have that much ORGANIC spend these days (or even pre-Covid) to move the needle much?

With all due respect, I think of this type of post as a “FM Sales” post (in that it allows you to mention a bunch of cards from which you might earn a commission). And I know you have a business to run, so it’s understandable. But, at the same time, you guys should not be promoting the (what I consider to be a) false idea that this “card shuffling” will amount to a whole lot.

———————————

Unless you are working on a SUB or doing MS, a 2% card for everyday purchases (which, for the average household is probably under $1K a month) is clearly the way to go: it’s simple and effective (enough).

Gabby

Perhaps under normal circumstances you’d be right but, you’re not taking into account our current Covid times. There are way too many cards offering 10%, 8%, 5%, etc… to pass up on.
Also, I don’t think the average household expense is under $1K. More like between $2K-$3K.

Cov

Wow, I guess I can see where you are coming from, but I read this completely differently. To me this seems more like a fun post aimed at satisfying reader curiosity.

Jay

This blog is not directed at the “average household.” This post is precisely the type of info that I find helpful. I like to maximize every spend and know that I am using the best card for each spend. It’s immaterial to me whether it is “simple” or not. It’s a hobby and I find value in the hobby. I assume other readers do as well. Others watch lots of t.v. I find spending time watching t.v. doesn’t “amount to a whole lot.” Each their own. Keep up the great work, Greg and Nick and Tiffany and Stephen!

Kitz

No problem with maximizing, Jay. It’s just a question of whether of not it is worth the time and trouble. You might personally be willing to juggle a lot of cards to eke out another 100 points, but at some point it gets silly.

Gabby, I agree with you about all of those Covid bonuses. I have hit them hard, but only with MS; once I meet the target spend requirement, then I’m done with that card.

SUBs, Covid bonuses, and MS is 95% of this game, I figure. Jay is going for that last 5% and more power to him. (I’ve got TV to watch! 😉 )

Kitz

Thank you for your very thoughtful reply. I want to be clear that I meant absolutely no ill-will when I wrote my original comment, even if I used clumsy phrases like “‘trying to’ run a business” and “sales post”. You guys are the best source for information in this hobby and I respect your style. And, yes, to me, this was still a sale-sy post, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing and you guys have a low-key style which makes it palatable. All good!

I take your point about people wanting to know what cards you are carrying and that your post is an explanation of your personal situation. I still contend that, for most people, it’s really not info that is all that useful to them.

My post was more about questioning the very idea that the cards a person carries are worth bothering about and specifically, about “tuning the wallet” for various categories, for organic spend.

For example, when you wrote “I’ll take 5x over 4x” (on grocery spend)–is it really worth the hassle of using Chase Ink to go to Staples to buy GCs to put in your wallet to use for groceries, risking all sorts of breakage? (I know the answer: for a select minority of your audience who enjoys maximizing to the Nth degree, the answer is YES!) But, for the rest, is this really an approach that you’d promote? (Disclaimer: I buy those Staples GCs, but I cash them out within days: it’s pure MS.)

The important thing for me (and, I think, for most of your readers) is to priotize wallets for 3 things: SUBs, Covid bonuses, and MS. And I would definitely be interested in hearing how you prioritize/organize your spending to take care of those 3 areas.

And I’d even latch onto your post’s idea of using multiple cards for organic spend if I saw that the incremental points yield was worth the effort, the hassle, and the inevitable “spouse points” that this approach must surely cost. 🙂

Gmoney

Relax. Also this is a dumb opinion.

MRS

Wow what a horrible “take” from Kitz. It was way off base.

I am certain that no readers will agree with him/her on this

Buzz

I have the old SPG card. The offer was 8x. I’ll use it for now just to minimize confusion swapping cards around. We spend so little on gas and dining out these days it won’t amount to much. I had the wife using the Aspire for groceries and now she’s using the IHG card which has a current offer of 5x on groceries.

anthony

Nick-the message on your wallet-awwww!

Captain Greg

Nice update. I guess I blew it the other day when I used my CSR for instacart instead of my SoFi card! Joking, but I do pride myself on always knowing which card is best. These new pandemic offers demand that I up my game!

Kate

I’m taking the opportunity to cancel/downgrade many cards. With the complications of the Amex airfare credit, that seems worth very little to me. I’ve axed my Amex platinum, the Amex premier rewards, my Amex Bonvoy, my husband’s Hilton Aspire and both of our Hyatt card. I downgraded American to mileup so T least there is an easy way to extend miles.I continued with the four Radisson cards we have since I assumed we would never be able to obtain them again, and thinking maybe the points will come in handy one day for road trips. Also keeping the old $49 IHG cards.
My big debate currently is whether to keep our two Asiana card for 10,000 miles on renewal. I was figuring those miles could come in handy for “discounted” business class to Europe, interested in your thoughts. I don’t know if it makes sense to spend another $200 in fees for the two cards.

Becky

Thanks for sharing. I’m re-training my brain to think on categories that didn’t even exist before (e.g. small businesses that qualify for a $5 shop small discount but aren’t a restaurant).

Half of me wonders if the mental effort is worth it. We’re spending so little right now compared to pre-covid that the points don’t feel like they’ll add up to anything meaningful. 10x on gas is great, but I’m spending $25/month to fill up. In a decade, that’ll be a free night at a Courtyard Marriott. Hooray?!

Hard to believe how different life has become!

Danny

Seems like points from Gift of College card purchases at gas stations would be likely to get clawed back by AmEx later. That’s one reason I’m avoiding doing that.

Danny

I wish it wasn’t, though 🙁 I have so many loans to pay off, and would love to be getting 10x on these payments! #ThanksAmEx

Gmoney

Never had a problem with buying them at HEB. Did maybe 10k a year ago over a few month period on Hilton surpass