One of the best credit card breakdowns I've heard! I love the visual breakdowns and the combination suggestions! The missing piece for me is that once you have exhausted all your sign up bonus points with yourself and your partner it just comes down to maximizing points with spending. I would love to hear strategies for more seasoned credit card holders for point acquisition. I feel like this is never covered. I have the Chase and AMEX cards and we have used them a lot. But it takes months and sometimes a year to rack up enough points to cover airline and car rentals for both of us.
This is so kind, thanks so much! I find that referrals, everyday shopping (i.e., shopping within their portals with the extra points multipliers), and maximizing the category multipliers is the biggest way to rack them up after sign-up bonuses!
@@MoneywithKatie great content, as always! No matter how much I think I know in this space, I’m always learning new things. Had no idea active duty military get their annual credit card fees waived. The least they can do for them!
Great topic! This is really hard for people to grasp and understand starting off in the points travel world, but you broke it down well and made it easy to understand. :)
Thank you so much! I have a few of these cards and have booked an annual family vacation for four of the last several years mostly on points. I travel for work and have to book through a portal using a company card that isn't in my name. I still get points for the flight, but I am curious about what airlines have the best points value for redemption. I travel 1-2 a month and historically have flown United and Southwest and have used the points I accrued from work for personal travel.
I think it depends on where you're located, the kinds of redemptions you're looking for, etc. The Points Guy has excellent content on getting the most bang for your buck (or rather, points) on specific airlines or destinations!
I’m curious to know what some think about Navy Federal’s Flagship card. It has 3x points on a more generous definition of travel expenses. And 2x points on all other categories. This combined with a low annual fee and and a few other perks makes me debate between using my Flagship and Amex Gold combo, or getting a Saphire reserve to compliment my Amex Gold.
I've always racked up miles with airline cards but never looked into the rest of these so I'm excited to start. How does this effect your credit having so many cards and open credit. Also, do you ever close cards and then reopen them a year later to get the sign up rewards again?
Hi Becky! I deep dive into both of these questions at the end of the podcast episode we did on the topic: podcast.moneywithkatie.com/how-to-travel-for-free-in-2023/ Will credit card travel rewards hurt your credit score? No, not if you do it correctly. Having more credit cards is, counterintuitively, a good thing. When you have more credit cards, you have more credit available to you, thereby driving your credit utilization down, unless you're always using all the credit available to you, in which case, not so much. And is getting new credit cards bad? New credit is minimally impactful. So having new credit from a new credit card only accounts for 10% of your overall score. Granted, credit age is important, so try not to cancel old cards even if you're not using them, because they make your credit older and therefore more established.
I see no flaw in her logic about choosing CSR over Amex Platinum. CSR does have many more spending multipliers, but I’ve gotten so much more value than I expected with the Platinum card using Rakuten and Amex Offers. In 2022, I earned about 10-15,000 additional points between the two. Regardless, having both Chase and Amex is a winning combo.
🌟 Amazing video, as always! Your top 5 card recommendations are spot-on for anyone looking to travel for free in 2023. One of the ways I save money while traveling is by using the Platinum Traveler Plus card, the perks have been incredible. I'm definitely considering adding the Sapphire Explorer card to my wallet. Thank you for taking the time to share such valuable tips.
Do you have any suggestions for people who don't live in an area where Southwest has a lot of routes? Like if your most likely airline is Delta or American?
You could look into Delta or American branded credit cards if those are your most frequent airlines! Check out Nerdwallet's top offers each month to see if they're offering any great points sign-up bonuses.
I don't believe you can right now, but you could theoretically book Southwest flights then redeem AmEx credit towards them if you wanted to try that. What are your thoughts on the Southwest card on its own?
@@MoneywithKatie That's a good thought. I'm very tempted with that 4x points on restaurants and supermarkets. I have the basic Southwest card and it's not bad but the rewards mainly seem to come from strictly only travel aside from the 1x on everything else.
I can get people 150kpts + 200dollars for the Platinum and 90kpts + 200dollars for gold off a personal referral. Highest offer ever for these cards until the end of May.
One of the best credit card breakdowns I've heard! I love the visual breakdowns and the combination suggestions!
The missing piece for me is that once you have exhausted all your sign up bonus points with yourself and your partner it just comes down to maximizing points with spending.
I would love to hear strategies for more seasoned credit card holders for point acquisition. I feel like this is never covered. I have the Chase and AMEX cards and we have used them a lot. But it takes months and sometimes a year to rack up enough points to cover airline and car rentals for both of us.
This is so kind, thanks so much! I find that referrals, everyday shopping (i.e., shopping within their portals with the extra points multipliers), and maximizing the category multipliers is the biggest way to rack them up after sign-up bonuses!
Looking forward to listening to the full episode at the gym today!
Let me know what you think! You kind of already nailed the script ;)
@@MoneywithKatie great content, as always! No matter how much I think I know in this space, I’m always learning new things. Had no idea active duty military get their annual credit card fees waived. The least they can do for them!
@@BarbellFinancial Yeah, it's a really great perk! I'll be sad when my husband is done with the service LOL
Great topic! This is really hard for people to grasp and understand starting off in the points travel world, but you broke it down well and made it easy to understand. :)
This is so kind, thank you Marcus! The episode on the podcast goes into an even deeper dive!
Nice rundown. Loving the Marriott Bonvoy. Already received several hotel stays. About to get the chase.
Yesss! Let us know if you have any questions.
I like my capital one venture and savor one duo. Very easy to use!
Good to know! Benét in the full episode talks more about the Venture X, so I'm thinking about it!
Ahh was going to ask your thoughts on Venture X vs Sapphire Reserve as I love my VX and my boyfriend loves his SR. Will listen to the full episode!
@@sarajean21 Let me know what you think!!
Thank you so much! I have a few of these cards and have booked an annual family vacation for four of the last several years mostly on points. I travel for work and have to book through a portal using a company card that isn't in my name. I still get points for the flight, but I am curious about what airlines have the best points value for redemption. I travel 1-2 a month and historically have flown United and Southwest and have used the points I accrued from work for personal travel.
I think it depends on where you're located, the kinds of redemptions you're looking for, etc. The Points Guy has excellent content on getting the most bang for your buck (or rather, points) on specific airlines or destinations!
I’m curious to know what some think about Navy Federal’s Flagship card. It has 3x points on a more generous definition of travel expenses. And 2x points on all other categories. This combined with a low annual fee and and a few other perks makes me debate between using my Flagship and Amex Gold combo, or getting a Saphire reserve to compliment my Amex Gold.
I love it. It's super easy to use the NFCU Flagship point system.
I've always racked up miles with airline cards but never looked into the rest of these so I'm excited to start. How does this effect your credit having so many cards and open credit. Also, do you ever close cards and then reopen them a year later to get the sign up rewards again?
Hi Becky! I deep dive into both of these questions at the end of the podcast episode we did on the topic: podcast.moneywithkatie.com/how-to-travel-for-free-in-2023/
Will credit card travel rewards hurt your credit score? No, not if you do it correctly. Having more credit cards is, counterintuitively, a good thing. When you have more credit cards, you have more credit available to you, thereby driving your credit utilization down, unless you're always using all the credit available to you, in which case, not so much.
And is getting new credit cards bad? New credit is minimally impactful. So having new credit from a new credit card only accounts for 10% of your overall score. Granted, credit age is important, so try not to cancel old cards even if you're not using them, because they make your credit older and therefore more established.
I loved this breakdown! I was on the fence between the CSR and the Platinum and this has really helped with the decision!
Which did you end up going with?!
My first video watched! Love it! Subscribed!
I'm so glad you liked it, thank you!!
I see no flaw in her logic about choosing CSR over Amex Platinum. CSR does have many more spending multipliers, but I’ve gotten so much more value than I expected with the Platinum card using Rakuten and Amex Offers. In 2022, I earned about 10-15,000 additional points between the two. Regardless, having both Chase and Amex is a winning combo.
🌟 Amazing video, as always! Your top 5 card recommendations are spot-on for anyone looking to travel for free in 2023. One of the ways I save money while traveling is by using the Platinum Traveler Plus card, the perks have been incredible. I'm definitely considering adding the Sapphire Explorer card to my wallet. Thank you for taking the time to share such valuable tips.
Do you have any suggestions for people who don't live in an area where Southwest has a lot of routes? Like if your most likely airline is Delta or American?
You could look into Delta or American branded credit cards if those are your most frequent airlines! Check out Nerdwallet's top offers each month to see if they're offering any great points sign-up bonuses.
Are you able to use the Amex card points for southwest flights? We mainly fly southwest so that would be super convenient if so!
I don't believe you can right now, but you could theoretically book Southwest flights then redeem AmEx credit towards them if you wanted to try that. What are your thoughts on the Southwest card on its own?
@@MoneywithKatie That's a good thought. I'm very tempted with that 4x points on restaurants and supermarkets. I have the basic Southwest card and it's not bad but the rewards mainly seem to come from strictly only travel aside from the 1x on everything else.
The cat tail 😂
I can get people 150kpts + 200dollars for the Platinum and 90kpts + 200dollars for gold off a personal referral. Highest offer ever for these cards until the end of May.