I’ve traveled internationally three times already this year and let’s just say that having the AMEX Platinum made each trip 1,000x more enjoyable. The AF for the Platinum is high but man if you travel a lot it’s totally worth it. It’s just simply nothing better when traveling than having lounge access. A lot of the trips I take are very far and can at times require me to make multiple stops so being able to hit up a lounge, get a bite to eat, have a cappuccino and use what can only be described as a private bathroom stall makes the airport a much more enjoyable experience. Late last year I went to LA with some family members and took my aunt and her husband into the Centurion lounge at Philly international and they both said that they have never enjoyed being at the airport more than they did that day.
Honestly I feel the venture X is an overrated premium travel card. The platinum still holds the crown due to its hotel status, lounge access in almost every lounge compared to the priority pass that the venture X gives
In regards to AMEX, I get tons of value from my Aspire Hilton Card for travel. The 200+$ flight credit, the multiplier for flights booked direct with airlines. And don't underestimate the flight protection/cancelation tier that it's in (as well as platinum and other premium cards). It can save you a headache if something is delayed 6 hrs versus the 12 that standard cards have, and you get about a 40% more allowance in coverage if you need to use that feature of the card. (300$ standard vs. 500$ with these top tier cards). Not to mention priority pass entrance. The little things make carrying ATLEAST 1 of these premium credit cards makes it worth while in the long run. **a card I will never cancel, is the sapphire preferred. It's the BEST rental car card, as its primary car insurance. You can't beat that**
The Chase Sapphire Preferred still has the 80k point bonus if you go into the branch until June 12th and the first year you don’t get charged the annual fee
I just got the CSP back when it had the 80k point bonus mostly because I’d have a bundle of points from a freedom bonus and large purchase I made. I may upgrade it next year to a CSR to use the points then downgrade it back to a freedom. My primary setup is still citi. I wish it had more insurance and better multipliers, but it’s earning is so high when paired with the Citi cash back cards. I get 100k points per year out of that ecosystem every year. Might get the venture x for lounges, but I’ve had poor experiences with capital one in the past so otherwise not crazy about them for credit cards.
Heads up to fellow service members. AMEX Platinum's annual fee is waived for us due to the SCRA. Just gotta have above a 690 credit score and no credit card debt to get approved for the card :)
It's almost time for me to get a new credit card, and my set up focuses more on travel. I would love to stay in the same eco system as I have the chase set-up (freedom + Sapphire) but it's really enticing to switch the the Venture x or Amex gold because of the value. Plus I do a lot of eating out, and spend a good amount on groceries.
Chase Perferred worth it just for primary insurance coverage alone. Amex gold card my workhorse. I have the Morgan Stanley version I guess because to me it gave the most value. Thank you for the video
I agree that the Amex Platinum is the best of the best, but that is all contingent on if you’ll use the credits as you mentioned. Luckily, there are so many great cards out there right now to get your feet wet in the travel card game which mean you don’t have to spend the $695 AF of the platinum if you aren’t sure about it yet. This was an excellent breakdown of the main travel cards out there on the market. I’ll have to save it to my watch later playlist to watch it in the future when I go to apply for a luxury card.
I love my platinum card. I will spoil it and tell you, don’t use the portal until you are book their fine hotels or resorts. I mainly use the platinum card for the travel and purchase protection. The annual fee is high BUT you get great services to come with it. So if you are a very big traveller the platinum card is perfect. If you are just travel maybe once or twice a year and status is not a big deal then the 2 tiers are better and cheaper.
Booking through the chase portal is really useful for me because I travel for work and get reimbursed after I file the expenses for the trip. Getting 5x with a CSP or 10x on a CSR on a transaction that will be completely reimbursed by my employer is literally free points and with a massive multiplier. It's 10x back on hundreds of dollars a year in travel with no out of pocket cost.
@@ArtistAzulon I work in IT, and have a service area that takes 8 hours to drive across, plus occasionally get flown to help my coworkers across the country.
I like Citi Premier, but without insurance and limited domestic transfer partners makes it a niche travel card. Great for those living on the coast and fly Jetblue domestically. Internationally it's great for those flying Air France, Singapore airlines, and Eva Airlines. Otherwise it's a battle between Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP) and Amex Gold. The Amex Gold is great for families who eat a lot and fly Delta airlines. CSP is great for everything else.
@@lmajc494 spoke to a friend who has a travel card he said you can use the reward points anywhere but you get better deals when you use the travel portal. He also said the “no annual fee” cards take so long to acquire points it’s actually worth paying an annual fee.
The only real disadvantage is booking through a 3rd party. Some people don't like to do that. For flights (I only use portals for flights) generally I've seen Capitol 1's and Chase's portal be on par or better priced than booking directly with an airline and I haven't had any issues so far. But if you don't want to use the portals you can always transfer your points out.
@@smokenojoke8182 that's not true. While in some instances like chase, if you have the Preferred or Reserve you can get 25% and 50% more value from your points while using the portal. So in that instance... yes. Trying to get max value of your points might be worth it to just use the portal.
Great vid! The US Bank altitude looks like a solid card with eff AF of $75 and 3x on almost all physical purchases! How come you've hardly brought up this card before? Any cons with it?
I have the USB AR, there are many cons I have seen so far is that when I booked a flight via their travel portal it only gave 1X back(note 3x back is not as flexible as Chase, you need to book directly with airline, they do give 5x for their portal hotel), hotels seem to be bookable 2+ days out, when I was over seas(in asia) I tried to purchase directly with the local airline and the transaction would not go through(amex did), tap pay rarely worked in asia, customer service is good but don't know there products details(had issues setting up priority pass, point earnings info was incorrect, ect..), travel portal seems to go down a lot, travel portal has limited options(better than amex but less options than c1) and can be more expensive than direct book or othet web sites, no transfer parnters, real time rewards can be great but dont rely on it(i booked a hotel with IHG and was hoping to use real time rewards but it never triggered), finally there is no way to tell how many points you get per transaction. The travel portal is identical to Chase but Chase notify you when it's down. Overall benefits are better than the CSP and AMEX platinum and almost as good as the CSR. I'm not say this is a bad card, it has it pluses but has many limitations.
I have 16 major credit cards accumulated over the past 20years+. I want to open new cards for rewards & points. My preferred way is to exchange points to gift cards for groceries or Grubhubs drug stores. I use them all here and there to keep them active. I want to close some but It will affect my credit limit and my credit score. So what to do?
So don't close your oldest ones. I'd suggest you close some of your middle aged cards that you don't really use. But..... before you do, if you multiple cards with the same financial entity, then consolidate your credit. For example you have 2 cards, 1st card has 10k limit and the 2nd card has 10k. You could close the 1st card and loose that 10k and your overall credit limits will drop by 10k. But when you move let's say 9k from the 1st card to the 2nd card. Now your 1st card has a 1k limit while your 2nd card has a 19k limit. So now you close that 1st card and only loose 1k of your total credit limit. It's really easy to do and should only take like 4 minutes to complete. Makes sense?
Try to see on their website if youre preapproved, click apply now and it should say youre preapproved, if it say expand your membership then youre not preapproved.
Just an fyi I booked a Marriott hotel in KC this passed weekend through the chase portal and they let me use my gold elite statue. Could it depend on the specific hotel?
@@Houston_Realtor I can confirm, just used my $50 credit for the first half of this year. Will use the next $50 in these upcoming months and keep in mind that these credits do not "stack" or carryover so you will need to use it or lose it. According to Amex they divide this $100 credit into 2 x $50 credits, once in Jan-June and then once again in July-Dec.
I have a question about using mobile wallet, though? Isn't it the case that you're charged 2% or 3% if you use a credit card with your mobile wallet? Wouldn't that offset any rewards gotten back?
I got a 100k offer for the CSP but this card sucks on its own to me. Don't book through portals so I can earn hotel points. So outside of travel portal the multipliers on the CSP is pretty weak. Might get it just for the SUB, but don't see myself using the card. I can do much better with earning with other cards.
Biggest value to me is transfer partners and pay yourself back. The $50 hotel credit and doordash membership through 2024 make it a solid value after year 1 In my opinion. If I traveled more than once a yr I would consider upgrading to the CSR.
Basically use it as a $50 hotel credit, transfer partner, and primary CDW car rental card. I use for 3x visa only restaurants too but you can use the Freedom for that too for free if you don’t rent cars or get cheap hotel at least once a year.
Great video thanks right now I use the united airlines explorer card the best buy card the city rewards plus card and the m life las vegas card from the bank of Omaha
Hi, I have a strange question for you when it comes to credit cards lol. I am thinking about starting to buy large purchases once a month But the companies I buy from generally only will take a wire transfer. I'm thinking about using a credit card to reimburse my business account by having my business account send me a invoice that I could pay with my credit card... Hence giving me all of the points and bonuses that they offer. It kind of makes sense in my head lol. If I were to do something like that which card do you recommend? Each purchase will probably cost me right around $20,000 and to start out I'll do one purchase once a month but gradually it will go up from there. Thank you for the great videos.
There are certainly some cash-back strategies that are pretty interesting, there's also the advantage of simplicity, but you can get so much more value with your points if you transfer them to travel partners. If you're going to be traveling anyway, you might as well just use your points instead. They'll just go farther than if you redeem them for cash.
I recently got a letter in the mail with a 100,000 sign up bonus for a sapphire preferred! I had no idea that chase did this too but that is an amazing offer compared to the 60,000 points on the website
@@TheAudioCzar I think the chase cards overlap in a lot of categories and that makes it hard for me to justify having 2 or 3 of them, but I heard you can't transfer UR points if you don't have a sapphire card so it's an annoying situation
@@allthatshines1008 You need a Sapphire card to transfer to hotel/airline partners yes. But that’s why a multiple Chase card setup is worth it IMO. Maximize earning points with Freedom cards, then combine and redeem with Sapphire card. Transfer partners are typically the highest value.
Just an fyi I booked a Marriott hotel in KC this passed weekend through the chase portal and they let me use my gold elite statue. Could it depend on the specific hotel?
Picking a card makes me feel like im picking a college to declare to
Agreed
So true !!
I’ve traveled internationally three times already this year and let’s just say that having the AMEX Platinum made each trip 1,000x more enjoyable. The AF for the Platinum is high but man if you travel a lot it’s totally worth it. It’s just simply nothing better when traveling than having lounge access. A lot of the trips I take are very far and can at times require me to make multiple stops so being able to hit up a lounge, get a bite to eat, have a cappuccino and use what can only be described as a private bathroom stall makes the airport a much more enjoyable experience. Late last year I went to LA with some family members and took my aunt and her husband into the Centurion lounge at Philly international and they both said that they have never enjoyed being at the airport more than they did that day.
Honestly I feel the venture X is an overrated premium travel card. The platinum still holds the crown due to its hotel status, lounge access in almost every lounge compared to the priority pass that the venture X gives
In regards to AMEX, I get tons of value from my Aspire Hilton Card for travel. The 200+$ flight credit, the multiplier for flights booked direct with airlines. And don't underestimate the flight protection/cancelation tier that it's in (as well as platinum and other premium cards). It can save you a headache if something is delayed 6 hrs versus the 12 that standard cards have, and you get about a 40% more allowance in coverage if you need to use that feature of the card. (300$ standard vs. 500$ with these top tier cards). Not to mention priority pass entrance.
The little things make carrying ATLEAST 1 of these premium credit cards makes it worth while in the long run.
**a card I will never cancel, is the sapphire preferred. It's the BEST rental car card, as its primary car insurance. You can't beat that**
The Cap One Venture also has the $100 TSA pre check statement credit as well. Since it wasn’t mentioned until the tier 4 cards.
True
whenever people talk about the Amex gold they always forget to mention the 3x it earns on flights. That's still a great feature of the card too.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred still has the 80k point bonus if you go into the branch until June 12th and the first year you don’t get charged the annual fee
Going tomorrow to try
Great to see the U.S. Bank Altitude Reserve make a comeback! 😃✈️
Also don't forget the US bank altitude connect 4x on gas and travel, $95 AF, $65 effective AF, and the SUB is $500 for $2000 spend
Every point is only 1 cent though
Great review for anyone considering these cards. I like how you went over the best uses of each card.
Venture X got 10k points annually. So the effective AF is actually negative.
Amex Gold has my vote out of the cards so far
I just got the CSP back when it had the 80k point bonus mostly because I’d have a bundle of points from a freedom bonus and large purchase I made. I may upgrade it next year to a CSR to use the points then downgrade it back to a freedom. My primary setup is still citi. I wish it had more insurance and better multipliers, but it’s earning is so high when paired with the Citi cash back cards. I get 100k points per year out of that ecosystem every year. Might get the venture x for lounges, but I’ve had poor experiences with capital one in the past so otherwise not crazy about them for credit cards.
I feel like this year a lot of banks are going to revamp their cards to match the country’s current situation
Heads up to fellow service members. AMEX Platinum's annual fee is waived for us due to the SCRA. Just gotta have above a 690 credit score and no credit card debt to get approved for the card :)
It's almost time for me to get a new credit card, and my set up focuses more on travel. I would love to stay in the same eco system as I have the chase set-up (freedom + Sapphire) but it's really enticing to switch the the Venture x or Amex gold because of the value. Plus I do a lot of eating out, and spend a good amount on groceries.
The AMEX Platinum is still the best despite the increase in AF
Chase Perferred worth it just for primary insurance coverage alone. Amex gold card my workhorse. I have the Morgan Stanley version I guess because to me it gave the most value.
Thank you for the video
It is notable that Platinum doesn’t give you the highest tier of priority pass which gives a free meal but Venture X and Chase sapphire reserved do.
I agree that the Amex Platinum is the best of the best, but that is all contingent on if you’ll use the credits as you mentioned. Luckily, there are so many great cards out there right now to get your feet wet in the travel card game which mean you don’t have to spend the $695 AF of the platinum if you aren’t sure about it yet.
This was an excellent breakdown of the main travel cards out there on the market. I’ll have to save it to my watch later playlist to watch it in the future when I go to apply for a luxury card.
Just downloaded your app and I love it!
American Express platinum by far here in Canada.
I love my platinum card. I will spoil it and tell you, don’t use the portal until you are book their fine hotels or resorts. I mainly use the platinum card for the travel and purchase protection. The annual fee is high BUT you get great services to come with it. So if you are a very big traveller the platinum card is perfect. If you are just travel maybe once or twice a year and status is not a big deal then the 2 tiers are better and cheaper.
Thank you much
Nice review.
Booking through the chase portal is really useful for me because I travel for work and get reimbursed after I file the expenses for the trip.
Getting 5x with a CSP or 10x on a CSR on a transaction that will be completely reimbursed by my employer is literally free points and with a massive multiplier. It's 10x back on hundreds of dollars a year in travel with no out of pocket cost.
what do you do for a living?
@@ArtistAzulon I work in IT, and have a service area that takes 8 hours to drive across, plus occasionally get flown to help my coworkers across the country.
Just picked up the ink cash card no annual fee looking forward to the 75k UR point bonus
Hey what is the best credit cards for water/road travel for both overseas and in the states
Cool video 👍
great video! never thought Jim Carrey would give us such great info!!
Jk thanks a lot, Ben.
Isn't Citi Premier better for EVA Air than Venture at 1:1 transfer ratio?
Which CC has the most freedom to use the points wherever?
I like Citi Premier, but without insurance and limited domestic transfer partners makes it a niche travel card. Great for those living on the coast and fly Jetblue domestically. Internationally it's great for those flying Air France, Singapore airlines, and Eva Airlines.
Otherwise it's a battle between Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP) and Amex Gold. The Amex Gold is great for families who eat a lot and fly Delta airlines. CSP is great for everything else.
Please add timestamps !
you often mention booking through the travel cards portals, are there disadvantages to doing that?
It seems like you can only use your points if you use the card travel portals.
@@smokenojoke8182 I'm okay with that as long as I'm not spending more money to do it
@@lmajc494 spoke to a friend who has a travel card he said you can use the reward points anywhere but you get better deals when you use the travel portal. He also said the “no annual fee” cards take so long to acquire points it’s actually worth paying an annual fee.
The only real disadvantage is booking through a 3rd party. Some people don't like to do that. For flights (I only use portals for flights) generally I've seen Capitol 1's and Chase's portal be on par or better priced than booking directly with an airline and I haven't had any issues so far.
But if you don't want to use the portals you can always transfer your points out.
@@smokenojoke8182 that's not true. While in some instances like chase, if you have the Preferred or Reserve you can get 25% and 50% more value from your points while using the portal. So in that instance... yes. Trying to get max value of your points might be worth it to just use the portal.
Great vid! The US Bank altitude looks like a solid card with eff AF of $75 and 3x on almost all physical purchases! How come you've hardly brought up this card before? Any cons with it?
From what I’ve seen, you have to have an existing banking relationship with US Bank to not get immediately denied.
@@Ouro44 good point!
I have the USB AR, there are many cons I have seen so far is that when I booked a flight via their travel portal it only gave 1X back(note 3x back is not as flexible as Chase, you need to book directly with airline, they do give 5x for their portal hotel), hotels seem to be bookable 2+ days out, when I was over seas(in asia) I tried to purchase directly with the local airline and the transaction would not go through(amex did), tap pay rarely worked in asia, customer service is good but don't know there products details(had issues setting up priority pass, point earnings info was incorrect, ect..), travel portal seems to go down a lot, travel portal has limited options(better than amex but less options than c1) and can be more expensive than direct book or othet web sites, no transfer parnters, real time rewards can be great but dont rely on it(i booked a hotel with IHG and was hoping to use real time rewards but it never triggered), finally there is no way to tell how many points you get per transaction. The travel portal is identical to Chase but Chase notify you when it's down. Overall benefits are better than the CSP and AMEX platinum and almost as good as the CSR. I'm not say this is a bad card, it has it pluses but has many limitations.
I have 16 major credit cards accumulated over the past 20years+. I want to open new cards for rewards & points. My preferred way is to exchange points to gift cards for groceries or Grubhubs drug stores. I use them all here and there to keep them active. I want to close some but It will affect my credit limit and my credit score. So what to do?
So don't close your oldest ones. I'd suggest you close some of your middle aged cards that you don't really use. But..... before you do, if you multiple cards with the same financial entity, then consolidate your credit. For example you have 2 cards, 1st card has 10k limit and the 2nd card has 10k. You could close the 1st card and loose that 10k and your overall credit limits will drop by 10k. But when you move let's say 9k from the 1st card to the 2nd card. Now your 1st card has a 1k limit while your 2nd card has a 19k limit. So now you close that 1st card and only loose 1k of your total credit limit. It's really easy to do and should only take like 4 minutes to complete. Makes sense?
How long should I wait before applying for amex platinum charge card from amex US?
I currently have amex Hilton Honors card with only 1k USD limit.
Try to see on their website if youre preapproved, click apply now and it should say youre preapproved, if it say expand your membership then youre not preapproved.
Isn't the waiting time for Global Entry much longer than TSA pre-check? Unless you fly internationally a lot I'm not sure why the wait is worth it.
Its worth it for international flights. But if you only fly domestic then it doesn’t matter
What are your thoughts on RCI timeshare for vacation 🤔
Do you get a welcome bonus on the Chase Saphire Reserve if you upgrade from a Preferred?
No
@@TheCreditShifu thanks so much for the info and the channel content. Amazing stuff. Keep it up!
Just an fyi I booked a Marriott hotel in KC this passed weekend through the chase portal and they let me use my gold elite statue. Could it depend on the specific hotel?
Does the Amex platinum still have the $100 Saks credit?
Yes 2X$50
@@engineerengineer2218 thank you! I didn’t see it on the Amex website but saw it in this video so wasn’t sure 🤷🏽♂️
@@Houston_Realtor I can confirm, just used my $50 credit for the first half of this year. Will use the next $50 in these upcoming months and keep in mind that these credits do not "stack" or carryover so you will need to use it or lose it. According to Amex they divide this $100 credit into 2 x $50 credits, once in Jan-June and then once again in July-Dec.
@@Dumplingz_Wontonz you’re the man 🙌🏽 thank y’all!!
很有帮助，谢谢
I have a question about using mobile wallet, though? Isn't it the case that you're charged 2% or 3% if you use a credit card with your mobile wallet? Wouldn't that offset any rewards gotten back?
No, i have never been charged a fee to use apple pay
@@TheCreditShifu got it! Thank you for the useful video as always!
what about green card? am loving it
I got a 100k offer for the CSP but this card sucks on its own to me. Don't book through portals so I can earn hotel points. So outside of travel portal the multipliers on the CSP is pretty weak. Might get it just for the SUB, but don't see myself using the card. I can do much better with earning with other cards.
The 50 dollar hotel credit and the 3x at restaurants makes it a good card for just 95 AF the sign up bonus is what makes it worth it 👌
Biggest value to me is transfer partners and pay yourself back. The $50 hotel credit and doordash membership through 2024 make it a solid value after year 1 In my opinion. If I traveled more than once a yr I would consider upgrading to the CSR.
Basically use it as a $50 hotel credit, transfer partner, and primary CDW car rental card. I use for 3x visa only restaurants too but you can use the Freedom for that too for free if you don’t rent cars or get cheap hotel at least once a year.
which US credit card currently gives the most signup bonus miles for a one way flight from US to Japan?
In what class?
@@TheCreditShifu any class will be fine
AMEX has targets offer for 150k points
Does Capital One still have a 2 cards per customer limit?
No. I have 4 capital one cards.
Venturex would be the cheapest cat4 if you factor in the free 10K annual points
Great video thanks right now I use the united airlines explorer card the best buy card the city rewards plus card and the m life las vegas card from the bank of Omaha
Hi, I have a strange question for you when it comes to credit cards lol. I am thinking about starting to buy large purchases once a month But the companies I buy from generally only will take a wire transfer. I'm thinking about using a credit card to reimburse my business account by having my business account send me a invoice that I could pay with my credit card... Hence giving me all of the points and bonuses that they offer. It kind of makes sense in my head lol. If I were to do something like that which card do you recommend? Each purchase will probably cost me right around $20,000 and to start out I'll do one purchase once a month but gradually it will go up from there. Thank you for the great videos.
I'm Amex following CiTi I like benefit match my purchases almost every day + better Customer service
you should cover navy federal and usaa
Is it worth getting a travel card if I only travel internationally once a year?
No love for Amex Green lol
I don’t know why I read it as High As F-ck. It’s High Annual Fee. Lol
Hello
Sup
With Joe in office traveling is going down the drain for a lot of people!!
Unpopular opinion pay for travel and earn points for cash back/statement credit.
Well hey there are cards for you this video, Capital One Venture
There are certainly some cash-back strategies that are pretty interesting, there's also the advantage of simplicity, but you can get so much more value with your points if you transfer them to travel partners. If you're going to be traveling anyway, you might as well just use your points instead. They'll just go farther than if you redeem them for cash.
The U.S. bank reserve is sooo sexy
I recently got a letter in the mail with a 100,000 sign up bonus for a sapphire preferred! I had no idea that chase did this too but that is an amazing offer compared to the 60,000 points on the website
I had no idea that Chase had a Sapphire Preserved either
@@jollama must have been quite shocking to find a typo on a UA-cam comment!
I got the same mail offer, I just don't think the card is very good. outside of the travel portal I can better with earning on other cards.
@@TheAudioCzar I think the chase cards overlap in a lot of categories and that makes it hard for me to justify having 2 or 3 of them, but I heard you can't transfer UR points if you don't have a sapphire card so it's an annoying situation
@@allthatshines1008 You need a Sapphire card to transfer to hotel/airline partners yes. But that’s why a multiple Chase card setup is worth it IMO. Maximize earning points with Freedom cards, then combine and redeem with Sapphire card. Transfer partners are typically the highest value.
Just an fyi I booked a Marriott hotel in KC this passed weekend through the chase portal and they let me use my gold elite statue. Could it depend on the specific hotel?
Yes, you can always try it at the front desk
@@TheCreditShifu or call after rsvp and have them add it - I did.