Why Using Travel Credit Cards Is An AWFUL Idea

I am still churning travel cards. Works for me until I start getting denied.

I only have one travel card and it's the Sapphire Preferred. I still pay it for the CDW and the points for cash back.
I only applied for 1 card in the last year.

I think the Robinhood gold card is one of the best options for most people.

Dude just shut up….please.

The triple A cards are hands down the best secret that not that many people talk about.

Irks me the "platinum" is a higher value card than gold. Gold is worth over 4K/oz, but platinum is only ~1,500. 🤷

YESSS USE UPSIDE ITS AMAZING! you can also use my code: DCWBWU

As some who was hoarding points (currently sitting at 500k chase points and 130k skymiles) I’m seriously considering switching to cash back or redeeming them since I always purchase my travel in cash

I would love to go all in on the capital one duo but I have been stuck with my 3 capital one cards with 500-700 dollar limits for years and they don’t want to budge for me! Any tips? I do have the savor, I just need the venture x.

Im not a high income spender and have only been in the game of mass credit cards for about 1-2 years now and I can say cash back just makes more sense atleast for me. Unless you are getting a welcome offer but even then I can never justify the big “luxury” annual fee cards. I just don’t want to prepay for a bunch of coupons that I would have to force my spending to use. I am lucky to have got 2 custom cash cards before they went extinct but my current setup has a strata premier and 2 custom cash and my next will be a double cash and for me taking cashback and booking straight through citi travel portal gives me a better value overall. I also have the no annual fee amex hilton card I got mainly for the bonus but in my opinion when it makes sense to book direct and keeping no annual fee or low 95 hotel cards to keep hotel status when booking direct is my strategy or atleast as long as my citi setup stays in tact! I value how many nights can I get for free more than what is the most luxury hotel room can I get etc. I do want to add the marriott bonvoy boundless and the IHG card to my setup eventually and then I may be done unless they nerf my citi setup. What do yall think of my setup? Im genuinely curious if yall think my setup is great or if I have big flaws in it?

I agree w these points. Im considering moving to a cash back card due to lack of time to make sense of everything w my points. Im also in a smaller market so have almost no flexibility in what airline i can use to get to a particular destination so i am almost never able to take advantage of transfers. Not to mention i cant ever remember who i can transfer to and when.

All great points. Lots of a channels like to talk about the many benefits of travel cards, but rarely do they seriously present the downsides.

Depends how you spend. Cards are a distraction for most people honestly. The annual fee math only works if you actually redeem and most don't. There is also a bigger leak nobody talks about - you book a refundable hotel and never recheck the rate. Prices drop after you book all the time. There are free AI tools like Arbitrica, that watch the booking and rebook people when it dips, no points circus needed really

Prime Visa is the bomb!

I got into travel cards recently because my wife wants to visit her family in England at least once a year. Should I just go back to cash back cards and invest those earnings to help pay for travel?

This was why I decided to go with VentureX. If I want to earn for something cool, I can. Regardless I will be flying once per year minimum. Plus I got savor. More CB will be added into my rotation with time. I almost went for Citi bc ThankYou points are miles and cb, but then custom cash died.

Recently I've been primarily using my robinhood gold card and transferring the points at 1 cent per point to my robinhood investment account

I use a Venture/Savor duo. I think that's worth it, but I can go back to a Savor/Quicksilver setup if its not.

The best thing you can do is look at your organic spending and pick a card that suits you best that’s it nothing extra. As someone that has seen the points game get devalued year after year and become mental gymnastics to get value cash back is just easier. Right now I’m using my Freedom Flex & Savor cards. I hope to get the Venture X, a Delta Amex or Amex Gold. 10:25 GO BIRDS‼️🦅

This is so refreshing to hear. I take a vacation once every 2-3 years and have the no fee American Airlines card that I use only for flights and to track those vaca expenses. I’ve had excellent experiences with the airline and I always fly with them. I’m solidly team cash back. Thanks for more great content!

I feel like the robinhood gold card is super underrated. It's perfect for team cashback or use it for investing

The AAA cards are fantastic!! 🥳🥳

I recently did an overview on my premium cards and I had to cancel or downgrade because the credit fatigue is real! When are you gonna do your next Livestream Appearance? haha

I've been mainly focused on cash back for a while but I've definitely chased after some Chase & Bilt points here and there. But with all the changes, to me there's less and less reason for Chase points. And I closed my Bilt card once they stopped carrying Rent for the traditional 30 day window (now deducted directly from your checking/savings account). Citi custom cash (NAF) cards for groceries, wells fargo autograph (NAF) for gas, some others for key expenses, and a 2% catch all Fidelity card (NAF). Capital One Venture X catches my attention here and there but still, tracking coupons to recoup costs is just not that interesting to me since I already work a lot and don't have as much extra time for hobbies as I used too.. Put all my CB into a brokerage account w/ a match and I'm good to go.

For me it depends on the card ecosystem and can't be generalized to all travel cards. I've saved about $800 in the past year due to Citi's portal on hotel stays (Strata Premier) vs. if I went with the competition (Chase Sapphire) prices, and even saved $400 once vs. the hotel website for the same stay. I'd feel very differently about travel cards generally if I just used the Sapphire Preferred, given my experiences with it.

This is why I’m strictly cash my wallet is

Citi Custom Cash x2 (5% gas and groceries)

US Bank Cash+ (5% on utilities and internet)

Robinhood Gold 3% catch all.

I run EVERYTHING on credit, and this produces an insane amount of cashback. My idle $ in my checking account waiting to pay statements sits in fidelity CMA earning 3.29% with spaxx

Platinum is still great for Hotels & Walmart + since I get mine delivered every week. Gold is great for Food outside of Walmart. Chase Sapphire Reserve is great for Apple TV cause I enjoy F1. But I also don't pay for the yearly fees since it's waived for Active Duty Service Members 😅 so I don't feel the pressure to maximize points per dollar on each one. I remind myself that every time I think about leaving the service.

What I've learned for myself is, if you want to benefit from premium travel credit cards but you don't want it to become a 2nd job to extract maximum value... don't try to extract maximum value. The threshold for me to sign up for a card is if my current spend will already well outpace the annual fee without me spending differently in any way. CSR is an example where that is true--I spend so much on travel per year that the additional hotel/flight points I get over the next best free option already more than pays for the annual fee. I also like Chase because I can just Points Boost my redemptions so I don't need to spend time looking for crazy redemptions on 5 days of the year or something weird like that.

I don't need to worry about every obscure credit it has. If I happen to spend that way for some reason, great. If there's 5 credits I don't use at the end of the year, no biggie. This way, I benefit from having this specific card while it does not take any time away from my life. Could I get more, potentially a LOT more if I made this a job? Sure. But if I wanted that, I could just go and work another job instead.

I think travel cards are great. But not I think the big boys of Chase and AmEx don't offer pure travel cards anymore, at least for their flagship cards. They are more luxury cards, not travel cards. What does a Peleton credit, or $5 door dash credits have to do with travel? I get why they do it, but I don't consider them travel cards anymore.

The mental gymnastics to maximize get tiresome, and inflated travel portals really nail the coffin of travel cards. Get SUB, transfer, and move on

My family has been in the travel card game since well before COVID, and I think this is about the last year we'll be able to make it work. Between the banks cracking down on churning, the point devaluations, and the crazy inflation, we're barely pulling airfare and a couple nights of hotels with our annual spending patterns. It doesn't help that we can only travel during peak vacation times, but when you add in all the coupons, card juggling, and credit tracking, the juice is no longer worth the squeeze. Great video explaining the downsides.

Have a great holiday weekend. This is some good advice here but I genuinely enjoy a lot of my travel cards. I've definitely slowed down after getting the amex plat however.

Have a wonderful 4th of July weekend to you and Jackie over there in Philly, the Cradle of Liberty & Freedom 🇺🇸🧨🤠

Well said!

After having these cards for a long time, I’m at a point where I’m tired of them because they are always devaluating points.

Great video. I use the Chase Freedom Unlimited and for travel BOA travel card

Cashack for the win... Sure you can get insane "cents per point" "value" for some first class flight to tokyo with some mental gymnastics, but for us normal folk a straight up discount is what we're after even if the long term "value" is poorer.