What’s in Nick’s Wallet? 2024 Edition

Yesterday, Greg wrote a post about what’s in his wallet. I didn’t initially intend to write my own version of this right away, but I couldn’t help but enjoy the contrast: while Greg says he doesn’t carry a George Costanza wallet, I tend to carry at least two wallets on my person (and sometimes a third and fourth in my backpack). While Greg actually seems kind of organized and minimalistic, I often find myself rearranging my wallet. In fact, part of the reason I couldn’t get my own version of this post out of my head is that I was packing last night for a trip I’ve taken off for this morning and I had to rearrange the four wallets I’m bringing with me. Yeah, four. Here’s my story….

To be clear: Just as Greg said yesterday, this post is not meant to tell you what I think “should” be in anyone’s wallet but merely to share what genuinely is in my wallet right now. Please don’t take this to be a recommended universal solution — what is right for one person in this game (particularly when that one person’s job is to have, know about, and write about credit cards and rewards programs) certainly may not be right for you.

Wallet #1: My “daily driver”

I said that I often carry two wallets, but that was a half-truth. I live in a very small town (there are literally more cows than people) and I work from home (as a full-time Frequent Miler employee). My typical trips out of the house on a weekday are to drive my son to school (3 minutes each way), to the grocery store to get something we imminently need (2 minutes each way), or to the pharmacy (about 2.5 minutes each way). I don’t need to be too “prepared” when I leave home, so I have one main “daily driver” wallet that stays in my pocket all the time. When I venture farther afield — like an hour each way to go to a mall / Staples / airport, I tend to carry two or more wallets.

In my “daily driver’ wallet:

Dining

Amex Gold Business Card 4x

This is somewhat counter-intuitive: I’m sure you probably expected the Amex Gold card here — as in the consumer Gold card since that card is an easy double-whammy with 4x at U.S. Supermarkets. However, I tend to carry the business card for a few reasons.

This card earns 4x on each of the two qualifying categories in which your business spends the most each billing cycle. I actually don’t leverage that for MS on this card (I know many other people do, at least with gift card resale from certain sites that will qualify as electronic goods retailers). Besides, if I wanted to take that angle, we have a few Business Gold cards in my household, so I could use one of the others. Instead, I use the Business Gold card for dining and carry it as a backup gas card. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve handed my wife my Wyndham Earner Business card when she’s been heading out the door planning to stop at the gas station or something and then I’ve subsequently forgotten to get it back from her. Having a secondary card that earns 4x on gas (or at least can when it’s one of your top two categories) can come in handy.

This card’s current annual fee is being mostly offset by a monthly $20 statement credit for purchases at office supply stores (or FedEx or GrubHub), though the annual fee will increase for applications received on or after 2/1/24.

Grocery

Amex Gold Card 4x (virtual)

I use my consumer Amex Gold card for U.S. Supermarkets since it earns 4x on the first $25,000 per year (then 1x). However, on those regular weekday trips to the store to grab some coffee creamer or strawberries or whatever, I pay with Google Pay. I wear my Pixel Watch most of the time or can alternatively use Google Pay with my phone at my local grocery store and either way I earn 4x. I don’t find it necessary to carry the physical card since I always have either my phone or my watch on me and the cashier never needs to see the card itself.

This card has a sort of hefty $250 annual fee, but I use the monthly $10 Uber benefit (this benefit didn’t matter much to me when it first launched, but since we have several Platinum and Gold cards in our household and have added them all to the same Uber account to combine these monthly credits into a more useful lump sum, I make a point to use it). I don’t always use the other $10 monthly dining credit on this card, but between the two credits I get enough value to feel like it’s worth paying the fee for the 4x earning opportunities. Feeding a family of four at a restaurant is expensive, so this is inevitably one of my larger spending categories.

This quarter, the Chase Freedom Flex and Freedom card include grocery stores as one of the options for the quarterly 5x category. When something like that happens, I don’t go through the hassle of using a Freedom card for a bunch of small daily purchases. Instead, I’ll just make it a point to bring the Freedom card to a grocery store for just one or two big trips where I know I’ll be buying enough to meet the quarterly maximum.

Gas

Wyndham Earner Business 8x

There’s no surprise here: the Wyndham Earner Business card is the card to have for this purpose since it earns 8 (that’s eight!) points per dollar spent at gas stations. That can be an outstanding value since we frequently find Wyndham points to be worth 1c per point or more toward either Wyndham hotel stays or (more preferably) Vacasa vacation rentals.

An alternative use of the points can be transferring them 1:1 to Caesars Rewards. Then, the points can be used to offset charges at Caesars properties at a value of 1c per point (I took my son to see Battle Bots in Las Vegas last year using my points!) or if you live in or are visiting a state where sportsbooks are legal, you can turn them into bonus cash at the sportsbook at the same 1 point = 1 cent ratio.

This card actually also stays in my wallet for 5x utilities as home heating oil doesn’t typically register as a bonus category with other cards. Finally, the $95 annual fee is easily offset by the value of the 15,000 points awarded each year at anniversary.

Travel

U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve 3x

Let me start by saying that I don’t spend a ton of money on travel. If I did, I might prefer to be earning a transferable currency. However, as it stands, I’m happy to earn 3x with the Altitude Reserve. While that’s true any time I use Google Pay since this card offers 3x points on mobile wallet purchases, it should also be true for transactions where I use the physical card for travel.

Given that points can be redeemed at a value of 1.5c per point toward travel booked through the US Bank travel center or for qualifying travel via Real-Time Mobile Rewards, the return is effectively 4.5% on 3x categories like travel and mobile wallet. Since I have a number of other ways to earn transferable points, I am very happy with an effective 4.5% cash back in this category.

This card’s $400 annual fee is mostly offset by the $325 annual credit for dining and travel purchases. In fact, I had used the full $325 in credits on dining within the first two weeks of getting approved for the card. I find this to feel very close to a net $75 annual fee thanks to those credits.

Pharmacy

Chase Freedom Unlimited 3x (virtual)

The Chase Freedom Unlimited offers 3x at pharmacies. I keep this card in my Google Wallet specifically to use it now and then when I go to the pharmacy. I should note that I am infinitely more likely to use it when I use Google Pay with my watch (it’s easy to scroll through the cards to pick it before I pay) whereas when I tap with my phone, I often just stick with the default card in my wallet (the Altitude Reserve) because, as I explained above, I’m equally happy with ~4.5% back here over 3x transferable points.

Everywhere else

World of Hyatt Credit Card 1x (temporary)

Last month, I finally got around to opening the World of Hyatt credit card. I had been aiming to try to meet the minimum spending requirement (all $15K) before the end of the year in order to both earn the full welcome bonus and a 2023 Category 1-4 free night certificate. However, the card took much longer than expected to arrive and then I had a number of early fraud alert issues that made it clear that I wasn’t going to hit $15K before the end of the year, so I held back until January 1st and I am now spending toward the welcome bonus and a free night certificate.

I actually prefer to use Manufactured Spending techniques for this type of spending requirement both to make it easier to track $15K in purchases and so that there is no risk of buying and returning something that helped me meet the threshold, but since I am not in any rush to complete the spending requirement I am (at least for now) using this as an “everywhere else” card to season it with enough regular spend activity.

I want to add that my more typical “everywhere else” card is the…

Bank of America Unlimited Cash Rewards

This is my general “everywhere else” card because with Bank of America Platinum Honors status, I earn an effective 2.625% cash back everywhere on this card, which is the same return as Greg’s Bank of America Premium Rewards card. For full clarity, my wife has a Premium Rewards card, which is important since that card has no foreign transaction fees whereas the Unlimited Cash Rewards card does charge foreign transaction fees (and thus this isn’t a good card to use abroad).

As Greg explained in response to a question in the comments on his post, the reason for a 2.625% cash back card over a card that earns 2x everywhere is that I have a lot of points and a lot of ways to quickly generate more points (via welcome bonuses, spending bonuses, referral bonuses, manufactured spending techniques, etc). When I compare earning 2x transferable points (like with a Venture card or Double Cash) versus earning 2.625% cash back, it feels like I am effectively paying 1.31c per point if I use a 2x card since I am effectively turning away 2.625 cents every time I instead earn 2x points. While I find all of the major transferable currencies to be redeemable at greater than 1.31c per point, I have enough of them (or enough easy ways to generate more) that I generally wouldn’t buy them for 1.31c each.

When a points stash gets low, we certainly do mix in some 2x spend — and sometimes, the added purchases protections of an ultra-premium card make it worth using over a card like the Unlimited Cash Rewards card. But by and large, I’m happy with 2.625% back when I’m not earning a category bonus of 3x or more.

And for further clarity, let me also mention that I only use this card in situations where I can’t use mobile wallet since in those cases I use . . .

Mobile Wallet

U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve 3x

I know I’ve mentioned it several times already, but it deserved its own spot in the list to make it clear that almost all of my “normal” in-person credit card spend now goes on the Altitude Reserve card unless I’m working on a welcome bonus / retention offer / other spending bonus. As noted above, that’s because mobile wallet payments such as those made with Google Pay or Apple Pay earn 3 points per dollar spent and those points can easily be used at a value of 1.5c each toward travel, making for an effective return like 4.5%. That’s outstanding.

Many readers have shared the tip that websites which allow payment via Apple Pay also typically code at 3x as a mobile wallet payment. Unfortunately, I have found the opposite is frequently the case with Google Pay, which is to say that when I use the “Google Pay” option to pay on a desktop website, it almost never codes as mobile wallet (for the past couple of months, I’ve been trying almost any time I see the icon to use Google Pay on a website and it has mostly not coded at 3x).

Other stuff

Fee free debit card

My wife has a Schwab Investor Checking account, but I haven’t gotten into the habit of us carrying that card because we both have the SoFi Money card and got it years ago when they offered ATM fee reimbursements at nearly all ATMs. That changed a long time ago and anyone who joined SoFi Money over the past several years only gets free access to (I believe) Allpoint ATMs, but we’re grandfathered in to the ATM fee reimbursements everywhere, so I carry the SoFi Money card for cash withdrawals. I love the card because the ATM fees get reimbursed immediately — there’s no need to wait for the end of the statement period to get the reimbursement.

Wallet #2

Office Supply

Chase Ink Cash 5x

I actually have a slightly different version of this card called the Chase Ink Plus, but the Ink Plus has no longer been available to new applicants for many years (and as such we don’t have a credit card display for it). But the reason for the Ink Plus is the same as it would be for an Ink Cash card: 5x at office supply stores (on up to $25K per year in purchases on the Ink Cash). An Ink card that bonuses office supply store spend is incredibly useful office supply store sales. I earn enough on annual office supply store purchases that it makes it easier for me to forgo opportunities to earn Ultimate Rewards cards in 3x bonus categories on other cards.

Dining

U.S. Bank Altitude Go 4%

The U.S. Bank Altitude Go card has no annual fee and it earns 4% back on dining. Crucially, it also features no foreign transaction fees. That means this card is a great backup to bring for dining overseas, where Amex is less likely to be accepted anyway. Indeed, that’s how I tend to use this card. Yes, we could use my wife’s Sapphire Reserve for 3x dining, but I’m not paying the fee to add me as an authorized user on her Sapphire Reserve and I so frequently end up being the person to take out my wallet and pay that I just carry this card and I am satisfied enough with 4% back.

That said, in Europe I tend to keep my wallet in my pocket and use my phone to pay with the Altitude Reserve since the waiter or waitress usually brings the credit card machine to the table to pay and I’d rather earn 3x points on my Altitude Reserve card.

Backup Debit Card

Wells Fargo Debit Card

I carry my Wells Fargo debit card as a backup in case my SoFi Money card doesn’t work. This isn’t a great backup in the sense that Wells Fargo does not rebate ATM fees. However, I also carry it for times when I want to make deposits at an ATM since Wells Fargo ATMs tend to be very easy to use with the ability to enter up to 30 paper items at a time. However, I recently learned (and I tested this successfully) that many Wells Fargo ATMs can be accessed with the mobile wallet version of the card. My debit card expired and I needed to make a deposit before a trip; when I called for a replacement card the agent informed me that even without having yet received the card I could add it to mobile wallet from the Wells Fargo app and use that at an ATM. I tried that and it worked like a charm, so I may not really need the physical card in my wallet these days though I do like to have it in case I need cash, my SoFi card isn’t working, and I’m at a non-Wells ATM.

Award taxes / Incidentals

Chase Ritz-Carlton Visa Infinite

I tend to use the Chase Ritz card to pay for award taxes when I’m booking an award ticket due to the best-in-class travel protections. This card has the same travel protections as the Sapphire Reserve card. When it’s convenient to do so, I’ll instead use my wife’s Sapphire Reserve card since it has the same protections and earns a more valuable 3x Ultimate Rewards points per dollar spent, but particularly if I’m traveling alone I will use this card so that if I need to make a trip delay / cancellation / interruption claim I can do so for myself without my wife needing to submit the claim and monitor its progress (and when I’m paying a small amount in taxes, I’m not very concerned with the value of the points I’m earning).

Note that this card has a high annual fee, though I’m grandfathered in to an old annual fee of $395. I easily use the card’s annual $300 in travel incidental credits and I typically get hundreds of dollars in value out of the card’s annual 85K free night certificate. The included Priority Pass offers unlimited guests and authorized users (which are free) get their own, so I have added family members so they can have their own Priority Passes. This is an easy keeper whether I use it for spend or not.

Hotel Card

I have a rotating slot for the Amex Hilton Aspire or a Marriott card that I switch out depending on where I may be traveling. I rarely stay at IHG on a paid stay, but I could put in my IHG card if I had such plans.

Wallet 3: Monthly / annual credits cards

This wallet is imminently thinning, but I have a third wallet where I carry all of our cards with regular credits to use: our Platinum cards (both business and personal) and our Business Gold cards. I also sometimes have a gift card or two if I’m keeping one on hand to use for some certain purpose. This wallet isn’t terribly interesting, but I do tend to keep it in my bag in case I end up passing a Saks or an office supply store or a hot new Amex Offer comes out while I’m out and about. I intend to pass by a Saks store this weekend, so I’ll be happy to have our personal Platinum cards with us so that we can visit the store and perhaps buy a gift card in person on each of our Platinum cards, which has been known to trigger the semi-annual Saks benefit despite terms that suggest otherwise.

Wallet 4: My wife’s cards

When I wrote “My wife’s cards” in the section headline above, you probably assumed that this section is about the cards my wife carries. It isn’t. I actually carry a fourth wallet in my bag that is just cards that are useful in our travels that are in my wife’s name. She should probably carry these herself, but I got frustrated with non-bonused spend going at 1x on one card or another, so now I carry these in a fourth wallet in my bag.

Amex Blue Business Plus

I carry this when we are out and about shopping or traveling domestically so that if my wife inevitably asks me for a card (she tends to leave her purse in the car and then if we separate to do things she might need one for this or that), I can hand her an easy enough “everywhere else” card. This card has no annual fee and offers 2 points per dollar everywhere on the first $50K in purchases per year (then 1x), so it’s an easy solution when I don’t know exactly what she’s going to buy where.

Chase Sapphire Reserve

For larger travel purchases where I do care about the category bonus, particularly family trips where the award taxes will be high (like if we’re booking Flying Blue awards for instance), I try to use my wife’s Sapphire Reserve card. I tend to keep this in a spare wallet that I take with me when we travel so that A) I have it if we need to initiate an unexpected trip delay claim or B) I’m prepared to pounce on an unexpected airfare sale or that sort of thing.

World of Hyatt Card

I’ve had her World of Hyatt card in here as we had spent the $15K for a free night certificate on this card last year, so I carry it for situations where we can pick up some easy spend. However, now that I have the Hyatt card, I think we probably won’t use this one anymore for much spend. As a result, I’ll probably remove this one from the wallet, but we’ll probably keep the card for the annual free night certificate.

Marriott Gift Card

Not pictured (and not really something that belongs to my wife, but it nonetheless sits in my P2 wallet) but almost always in my bag when we travel is a Marriott gift card. While we pretty frequently see Amex Offers whereby you could buy a Marriott gift card at the front desk of a hotel for an effective discount, but my Marriott gift card comes from a strange old Capital One Redemption. Some old Capital One cards carry a “Hotel Special Offers” redemption option whereby you can redeem 64,250 Capital One miles for a $900 gift card for select brands. I happen to have opened one at the right time (I think it was around 2013 or 2014 that I got mine, but I don’t know the specific timeframe that applies or which versions of the Venture card may have offered it — if you have an old Capital One card, see this post for where you might find this redemption). I typically keep one of these $900 Marriott gift cards in this wallet so that if we get stuck and need a hotel and points aren’t a good value, I can use the gift card. It’s a backup plan of sorts, though I’ll obviously also use it if we have a paid Marriott stay and/or pay for Marriott incidentals.

I also have many other cards

While we don’t have the ~80 cards that Greg and his wife do, my wife and I have more than 50 credit cards between us, so there are plenty of cards that aren’t included in the lists above. Many of those cards either have no annual fee or things like an annual hotel free night certificate where we easily get more value than the cost of the annual fee. Others are cards we acquired for a good welcome bonus and will likely close before the next annual fee becomes due. Most of those cards sit in a “sock drawer” at home and don’t make it out into the world often.

Bottom line

What’s in my wallet doesn’t necessarily belong in yours. Again, this post isn’t meant to be advice but rather the realistic stuff that I use day to day right now as of January 2024. All of this will no doubt change just as it has multiple times before this. Many people will be well served by a credit card combo of two or three cards from the same credit card family and then maybe a “backup” card from another issuer / on another network (i.e. Mastercard vs Visa vs Amex), but as an enthusiast who writes about cards, these are the cards I carry and use regularly.

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