Credit Cards

I like making cashback and points on everything I buy. Here is the bare minimum of cashback I expect to get on all purchases and which credit card I use to do each:

As a note, more lucrative than simple cashback is credit card churning (opening cards to take advantage of introductory offers). I do this regularly, but this is my “normal” setup when not churning. While churning, you might get around 20% cashback on all purchases.

Cards in my wallet

Here is a list of cards I use. Note that I have a lot of other cards which I’ve opened to get sign-up bonus, but these are the ones I use regularly and usually keep on me.

I have a booklet wallet that has six visible positions for cards, but also other pockets for more rarely used ones. If I’m churning a card, sometimes I just walk around just with it and no wallet, or a smaller wallet.

USAA Cashback Rewards Plus

This USAA card gives 5% cashback for all gas station purchases. This obviously includes gas, but it also incidentally covers purchases made inside gas station convenience stores as well.

Note that in addition to this card, I join basically every gas station’s rewards club (in America, nearly every one of them has one of these). These stack with this 5% card for very juicy savings. I keep these cards in my car and pick the relevant one out when I pull into a station.

Unfortunately, only USAA members can get this card, which is somewhat exclusive, but if you are not, you can get the Autograph below which still gives a good unlimited 3% back, or the Altitude Connect that gives 4%.

Also unfortunately for some, the 5% rewards are capped at $3,000 of spending every year, so if I feel I’m going to be using more gas than that in a year, I’ll make sure to use the Flex or Discover It when they are giving 5% for gas for some of the year.

Chase Freedom Flex

This card is a “rotator,” meaning for each of the 4 quarters of every year, Chase announces a very wide category that gets 5% back with this card. Sometimes it’s restaurants, or gas, or Walmart purchases, or home-improvement stores or sometimes even purchases made with PayPal. In fact, pretty much every year, each of these categories will be used.

I hold this card whenever this quarter’s categories are something I’d use. If not, I keep the weight out of my wallet.

Note that this card also gives you 3% back on drugstores (which I basically never use because American drugstores charge like twice or three times as much as Walmart or something), but also 3% on restaurants, which is good (although I use another card for that).

Discover It Cash Back

The Discover It works just like the Chase Freedom Flex. Their categories will rotate differently, so having both cards is great because you might be getting, say, 5% on Walmart for half of the year.

Note that if Chase and Discover are doing the same category in a quarter (which sometimes happens), I usually use the Chase card because their points can theoretically be redeemed for more things at an elevated value. Discover points are good too though, and usually I redeem them for gift cards on a discount, so I get a little more than the 5%.

Citi Custom Cash

While Discover and Chase choose your 5% category for you, the Citi Custom Cash is great because you decide what you get 5% for: whatever thing you spend most on in a statement, you will get 5% for it.

So normally I use this card for groceries, which are the most important thing not handled by another card. Now if the Chase Freedom Flex is covering groceries for a quater, I might use the Citi Custom Cash for something else I need (maybe 5% on home improvement stores or something).

Wells Fargo Autograph

• 3% back on gas.
• 3% back on hotels.
• 3% back on airfare.
• 3% back on public transport.
• 3% back on ridesharing (Uber/Lyft)
• 3% back at restaurants.
• 3% back on cell phone bills.
  • Also, if you pay for a cell phone bill with this card every month, you get cell phone insurance for free.
• No foreign transaction fees, making it an ideal travel card.

This card is just too good. WF used to have this card called the “Propel” and it was on the American Express network, not Visa, but the rumor is that its cashback was so good that AMEX dropped it because it was eating into their (bad) pseudo-premier cards (which are just glorified coupon books). E.g. the American Express Green Card charges an annual fee of $150 to get rewards only partially as good as this card.

Wells Fargo Active Cash

• 2% on everything.

This is the card I use on anything not covered by the other cards. All the rest of my bills and other boring purchases go here.

US Bank Altitude Connect

• 4% back on travel.
• 4% back on gas stations.
• No foreign transaction fees, making it an ideal travel card.

This is the only no-annual-fee card in existence that gives you access to airport lounges. You get four free yearly entries into Priority Pass lounges which are basically everywhere as you can see on their site.

Now airport lounges can save you huge amounts of money and annoyance in airports if you can get in free. All of them have all-you-can-eat food, so forget paying for airport food—in fact, take some of it in your bags for the flight too. Many lounges have places for comfortable resting or sleeping, sometimes free spas.

They totally change the dynamic of going to the airport and make it relaxed and a time for rest and refreshment. You can quantify it in money saved buying meals, but lounges give you a lot more. I’ve asked the attendants in lounges for little things like toothbrushes and toothpaste and they’ve gotten them for me.

Aside from that, this card gives 4% back on travel purchases, but also it comes with travel insurance, TSA Precheck or Global Entry statement credits and SmartDelay which gives free lounge visits to your party if flights are delayed.

Cards I don’t actively carry, but use benefits of.

Wells Fargo Visa Signature

Unfortunately, this card has been closed to new applicants for half a decade now, so you can’t get it. However, I was lucky enough to get it (flippantly at first) back in I believe 2018.

It doesn’t actually give any cashback at all, but it gives you the ability to redeem Wells Fargo points (even those from other cards) at 150% of their normal value if you use them for airfare in the Wells Fargo travel portal.

While the Wells Fargo portal isn’t fantastic (nobody’s is), when I do occasionally get a flight through it, it really overpowers my Autograph and Active Cash cards—it makes the Active Cash a “3% for everything” card and the Autograph gives 4.5% back for its many categories, travel and restaurants, etc. Adding this with the Attune would be giving me 6% back for a huge swath of purchases!

Normally with a travel portal, you should be worried about the company only offerring expensive flights, so you don’t actually save money. Wells Fargo, however, does have airlines like Frontier in America that are good budget options to genuinely get good value from this. Still, most flights I fly, I still find through Kiwi.com or Skyscanner.com and then book directly with the airline, because even with the elevated Wells Fargo rewards, often the greater options and deals are on these sites. But when I do occassionally use this card on a great flight deal, it makes some of my best cards even better.

Paypal Mastercard

I don’t carry this, but it’s linked to my Paypal account. It gives me 3% back on all Paypal purchases.

It used to be a 2%-back-for-everything card, but was demoted—thankfully the Active Cash does that for me, but this card is still for Paypal.

Marriott Bonvoy Boundless

This is an annual fee card, which for me easily pays for itself. It costs $95, but among other benefits, it gives you one free night at a Marriott hotel every year. I always use this benefit, which is nearly always more valuable than $95 because I at least go to Southeast Linuxfest every summer, which is in a Marriott hotel.

There are other little benefits to this card, like getting free “Silver Elite” status which grants you a little more grace with Marriott in general. It doesn’t always mean that much, but I’ve had twice when receptionists have granted me a reserved room for having status it when they simultaneously turned away others. They are also more likely to let you check out late. Most of this, you could charm yourself into getting without it, but staff is supposed to be more hospitable to “Elite” customers.

This card also grants more points back (17x total) for Marriott purchases, etc., but the main tangible benefit for me is the yearly free night. Don’t bother getting into the “points game” because it’s a rip off. Marriot points (and all other “points”) are constantly being devalued. Even to redeem my free night, it’s best to book the free night as a separate booking from consequtive nights because using the free night requires you to use points for the other nights, which will actually cost you more money.

There are also no foreign transaction fees on this card, so I sometimes carry it internationally.

Cards I Plan to Get

There are a couple cards I have my eyes on for more benefits.

AAA Daily Advantage

AAA has two pretty nice credit cards (although you can only have one at once). Their “Daily Advantage” card is really exceptional though:

• 5% back from grocery stores
• 3% back on gas, wholesale clubs, AAA purchases
• No foreign transaction fees

5% back for groceries is great and rare. As I said, I use the Custom Cash for this now, but having this would free up the Custom Cash for another category.

3% on Wholesale stores is also fantastic for Sam’s Club or Costco people. Costco’s own credit card only gives 2% back for Costco purchases.

Max Cash Preferred

• 5% back from two categories of your choosing including:
  • Home utilities, department stores, electronic stores, entertainment, furniture stores, cell providers, fast food, recreation or TV, internet and streaming services.

This is actually a card offered by many different credit unions. I have my eye on it for the ability to get 5% back on home utility and internet bills.

Wells Fargo Attune

This card is pretty unique and almost hard to describe. I think Wells Fargo basically just made this card as a way to corner in one fell swoop a lot of random markets that other cards don’t touch.

It gives 4% back on a huge number of random purchases at specialty stores and places. See here for a partial list, but here are some I am interested in: book stores, antique stores, campgrounds, plant nurseries, fabric stores, bus lines, etc.

This is a nice new card I only haven’t gotten because I’m churning others now (it has an intro offer, but it’s not greed-inspiring). I’m mostly attracted to the 4% back at thrift/second hand/antique stores, which is basically where I buy everything from furniture to clothing.

Wells Fargo Signify

This is Wells Fargo’s business card, whose rewards are the same as the Active Cash: 2% back on everything. I only want this card because sometimes I use business cards just to prevent utilization from reporting on my personal credit account.

Chase Ink Cash

This is another business card I’ll probably get when I have the opportunity to do the spending for the sign up bonus (of $750 after spending $6,000 in 6 months).

• 5% back from internet, cable and phone services
• 5% from office supply stores

I have a lot of business purchases that code as such.

Marriott Bonvoy Business

This card worth having for the same reason the Bonvoy Boundless is. It has an annual fee of $125, but gives you a free night’s stay every year at a Marriott hotel. It gives you free Marriott Gold Status, which again, status means nothing tangible for an infrequent traveler.

Referral Links

Here are some referral links to some credit cards I hold. If you click on one and open the card, we both get a benefit:

• Chase Freedom Flex/Unlimited: https://www.referyourchasecard.com/18J/9QBBYS48QD
• Chase Marriott Boundless: https://www.referyourchasecard.com/252m/0719YXUTND
• Discover It Cashback: https://refer.discover.com/5lmu5n
• AMEX Delta Gold: https://americanexpress.com/en-us/referral/delta-skymiles-gold?ref=LUKEShEMX
• AMEX Blue Business Cash: https://americanexpress.com/en-us/referral/bluebusinesscash-credit-card?ref=LUKESrCIb