A fun week here on the No Annual Fee Podcast, where we’re discussing the following:
News
0:32 Italian-issued Tickets for Fun and Profit (link)
- Probably best to keep this as an academic idea, but a fun read by God Save the Points.
1:46 Citi ThankYou Points 30% Bonus to Virgin Atlantic (link)
- Matches the Membership Rewards promo from a few weeks ago.
- The Program is either outstanding or completely terrible depending on the use of the miles.
- Do not transfer if you don’t know what to do with the miles.
Main Topic
2:26 5 Best: Credit cards to put in your spouse’s wallet
- Amex Personal Gold 4x MRs grocery and dining
- CNB Crystal Infinite 3x on groceries, dining, travel, gas
- Amex Blue Business Plus 2x everywhere
- Bank of America Premium Rewards with Platinum Honors ($100k) for 2.625% everywhere
- No Fee Chase Freedom Unlimited 1.5x URs everywhere
- Honorable mention (not available any more): Citi AT&T Access More 3x for online retail (leave it near your home computer)
Counterpoint:
- Citi double cash 2% everywhere with Price Protection
- CNB Crystal infinite 3x Just about anywhere
- Blue Business Plus 2MR everywhere (2.5% CB, 3% towards flights)
- BofA Premium Rewards 2.625 – Tough to beat
- DO NOT Put a card you’re working the minimum spend on:
- Enticing to overspend
- Hard to tell if the MSR has been met
Like what you heard in the No Annual Fee version? This is just the tip of the iceberg.
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On this week’s subscriber podcast:
- Long Haul Business Class to Europe (with Miles)
- Demand Schedule Troubles
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Your spouse is OK with 5 cards?! That alone would be a huge upgrade in strategy for me, with the specific cards just being nitpicky 🙂
I only have 3 cards in my spouse’s wallet, I think that’s the right amount of variety and not overwhelming.
Me: Honey, I want you to carry these 5 cards.
Spouse: 5 cards? How much are we paying in annual fees for these cards?
Me: Only $745. $250 for the Amex Gold, $400 for the CNB, and $95 for the B of A.
Spouse: $745?!? Are you nuts?
Me: Well, actually it is $840.
Spouse: Why $840?
Me: The Freedom Unlimited card isn’t worth the space in your wallet unless you also have one of the “fancy” Sapphire or Ink cards which cost a minimum of $95 per year. You don’t need to carry that card, so I “forgot” to mention it to you.
Spouse: What else did you forget to mention to me?
Me: Please sign this paperwork so that we can move $100,000 of our investments to B of A.
Spouse: …
Me: Just sign the damn paper. I’m saving us a ton of money. These points are valuable!