As professional sports team managers famously say to the press, this past year was a bit of a rebuilding year. What I mean by that is that this past year I focused on maximizing the credit cards I already carried vs. opening new ones and changing strategies. In doing this I was able to easily evaluate my spending habits to understand where exactly I spend the most money each year. By looking deeply into my spending history and plans for 2020 I’ve been able to evaluate my current credit card accounts to come up with a decent strategy (for me) for 2020.
In doing this analysis I also identified a few cards that I hadn’t yet opened that could be worth opening soon. Thanks to this review, I think I have a strong credit card strategy for early 2020 and beyond. However, I know that there were will a few curve balls along the year, so, I expect this strategy to change as benefits are added or removed throughout the year. I’m also prepared to change everything if there are any new cards released in 2020 that offer far better rewards than anything offered today. That being said, I find the introduction of a new competitive all-round card unlikely in the upcoming year.
The Easy Choices – Keepers
First and foremost, I plan to keep my American Express Platinum Card open and have no intention of closing the card anytime soon. Sure the card carriers a $550 annual fee, but I receive and use the $200 Uber credits, $200 in airline credits, $100 in Saks Fifth Avenue credits, and access to several lounges around the globe. For the past several years I’ve easily gotten $550 of value back from the Platinum Card even without spending on the card. Then, I earn 5X points on airfare when purchasing flights on the card which adds up quickly. Finally, I occasionally receive some value when booking hotels through the Amex travel portal. For 2020 I should have some additional time off in which I can get even more use out of the Amex Travel Fine Hotels & Resorts program. All of that being said, keeping this card open is an easy decision.
Next, it’s safe to say that I’ll be keeping the American Express Gold Card open for the foreseeable future. The Gold card carries a $250 annual fee, but I get $100 back in airline credits and $120 back in dining credits. So, for just $30 a year I carry a card that gets me 4X points on dining and grocery store purchases. I spend quite a bit of money on both each year, so keeping this card open is again an easy decision. I don’t use the card for much else which is fine because I do earn a lot of points from dining and grocery purchases.
Now, it’s worth noting that both the Amex Platinum and Gold cards are in my wallet everyday. I rarely cycle cards and my wallet only has room for 4 credit cards, so that’s 50% of what I’m willing to carry each day.
The Tweener – Undecided
The third card I always carry with me is the Chase Sapphire Reserve Card. In my wallet I have 6 slots for cards and the Sapphire Reserve sits on the main side with the Platinum and Gold cards. While I carry the card daily I rarely actually use the card. Primarily, I use the Sapphire Reserve card when a merchant doesn’t accept American Express. Rarely now do I willingly go out of my way to pay for things with the Sapphire Reserve card. The only exceptions to this are standard hotel stays (not-prepaid) and rental cars. However, in 2020 and beyond I’m going to make more of an effort to book hotel stays through Amex Travel and I should rarely need to rent cars. Because of all of this, I’ll most likely downgrade this card to the no annual fee Sapphire Card at some point in 2020.
The Chopping Block – Close / Convert
Another card that I always have in my wallet is the Citi Premier Card. I carry this card because I use it whenever I need to buy snacks or water from a gas station. I also use this card to pay for public transportation and gas when renting a car. Besides that I rarely use this card. Since I rarely use the Citi Premier card, I only earned about 3,000 points this year from spending. That means that this year the points earned from the card did not outweigh the annual fee. Likewise, I don’t receive any other benefits for this card. As this is the case, I will 100% convert this card to the Citi Double Cash card in short order. Then, I will use my Citi Double Cash card for all of those purchases at merchants that don’t take American Express.
The Standbys – Protected
I won’t get into these cards very much, but in the interest of transparency, I maintain United MileagePlus Explorer card, the Chase Freedom card, and the Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card accounts. I spend very little on these cards each year, but all of them give me something back that I value more than the annual fee. For the United card I receive 2 club passes annually. The Marriott card gives me a free night each year which I maximize for more than $95/night. Finally, the Chase Freedom card offers 5X points on certain categories each quarter that allow me to earn an extra 7,500 Ultimate Rewards points annually.
Lastly, I also carry the Bank of America Cash Rewards card. I only carry this card because it’s my first credit card account and therefore my oldest. Closing this account would negatively impact my credit score so I have no plans to close this card anytime soon.
2020 Credit Card Applications
The first card that I’m going to apply for in 2020 is the Citi AAdvantage Executive card. This card carries a $450 annual fee, but provides Admirals Club access when traveling with American Airlines. When I travel domestically I almost always fly American and again, I plan to mostly fly with American next year. For that reason, I’d like Admirals Club access when flying domestically. Furthermore, I plan to add a few family members as authorized users (for free) so that they can access Admirals Club locations when flying American as well. Authorized Users are free with the Citi AAvantage Executive card and you can have up to 10 of them. The final reason I’m considering getting this card is because of the 50,000 AAdvantage mile signup bonus.
Keeping with the theme, I’ll also most likely open a Citi Prestige credit card in 2020. The Citi Prestige card also comes with a 50,000 point sign-up bonus which I’d like to take advantage of. I also think the Citi Prestige card is a good fit because the card offers 5X points on Airfare and all dining purchases. The card doesn’t offer bonus points on grocery store purchases so it won’t be a direct replacement for the American Express Gold card, but a lot of that spending will move to the Citi Prestige card. The primary reason I want to open the Citi Prestige card is for the 4th hotel night free benefit. From that benefit alone I can easily recoup the annual fee each year making opening this card a fairly easy decision.
Final Thoughts
Overall, My Wallet won’t change dramatically in 2020, but there will be a shift. This year most of my spending was on either Amex or Chase cards. In 2020 I suspect most of my spending will be on either Citi or Amex cards. After opening both the Citi AAdvantage Executive and Citi Prestige cards I will then look back to see if there are opportunities to close other card accounts.
Personally, I’m getting up toward the limit of credit cards that I want to have open. I don’t mind having a lot of open accounts as they are easy to manage, but I just don’t like thinking about “am I maximizing every single purchase” when swiping (tapping) my card. I’d much rather have just 3 primary cards that are “good enough” than to worry about every single dollar and point.
Either way, I’m excited to open a few more cards and earn some massive sign-up bonuses. Thinking back, I haven’t earned a sign-up bonus in over 12 months! That’s a long time considering I’d like to earn about 2 sign-up bonuses each year.
