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United will give you spend reward miles multiple times in a year if you’re a credit card holder. I’m an Infinite card holder and can buy a miles ticket at a steep discount for being a card member. Example, SMF to CDG July 2025 is only 40k miles per person Economy one way. And then I pay to upgrade to first or business class. That picks up bonus miles on United 5x, from each dollar spent. So I can get to Europe for $1200 per person and pick up 6,000 miles for buying the upgrade. And free lounge access to boot.

I just called chase and got approved for a card I got declined for. Used your “new credit journey, so I’m opening stuff in batches. I wanted to start a relationship with chase” line. Thank you so much ❤❤

best sequence 1. Capital One VX 2. Chase cards 3. Barclays 4. US Bank or Citi 5. AMEX

Should I call to have my credit line decreased first on one of my chase cards first before applying for a new one? I have quite a bit of credit lines across the 4 cards that I have but I'm not at 5/ 24 yet. I also don't use one of the cards anymore.

Bilt is total trash with all the nerfing that they’ve done in the past year. With the latest nerf there isn’t much reason to put spend on this card going forward

Always call the recon line people. Call multiple times!!! Believe u CAN get approved

I look at it this way. I was at 5/24, where I'll be at for at least another year and a half since I've been going at a high velocity, probably longer if I want to get into Amex's MR ecosystem. I just churned out three Chase cards, one being an Ink Cash. While I'm gardening, I might as well get in on Bilt so I can pay down my 0 APR balances and earn points on another avenue I wasn't earning already. Made the app, got approved, and now I'm 6/24.

At least it’s not a 7 dollar credit at Starbucks it won’t even get a medium latte

Nice, thanks!

I was at 14/24 at one point. Now im at 6/24

You guys are killing me. I got my first CC age 22 and my 2nd age 29. Didn't start the rewards game until age 35 😂

I got the 90,000-point offer on the American Express Gold Card and the 150,000-point offer on the American Express Platinum Card I was not logged into my American Express account when I was looking for a higher offer on the Platinum Card, so maybe that would help, if the concern is that you wouldn’t be able to get the highest offer on each card you want

dude it's ok LOL LOL LOL

these godamn college boys. i cant

These guys: "omg when we were SO young at 19". Trust me, you guys are still extremely young 😅

Chase never approved me credit card: only AMEX!!!

I downgraded a sapphire preferred to a freedom flex and accidentally increased to 5/24. Therefore I am ineligible for the current ink preferred bonus!

Surprised to hear Virgin on speculative transfer list still

Hotels in the US in general sucks in terms of service. Hotels oversea such as ASIA ar way better. I was treated with kindness and respect even when I was only GOLD member with Marriott.

Sherwin mic sounds echoey for me

Pretty excited for these changes. Resy is huge in New York and the Dunkin credit is welcome too. I understand why it's a bad proposition if you live in an area without much stuff on Resy or if you don't frequent Dunkin or any of the other establishments that qualify for the other $120 annual credit, though. Def not for everyone.

The problem with both the current and upcoming versions of the Amex Gold card is not that the credits to offset the high annual fee is hard to use for the everyday person. In fact, if the Amex Gold was your only credit card, it would be quite easy to exhaust the monthly credits if you live in a city, and earn the highest multiplier on food/groceries. The reason why credit card optimizers are getting increasingly fed up with Amex is that the monthly credits consume an incredible amount of mental energy and opportunity cost from spending on other cards. If you're a casual, you'd think a 4x dining card is the best in game, but by putting all your food spending on Amex, that's taking away spending on plenty of other 3x cards you could be using to hit a SUB on. The monthly credits and high multipliers are designed to make sure you put all your spending on Amex to get the annual fee back. It's genius marketing.

I’ve been purposely saving AMEX charge cards for the end of my credit journey since they are so easy to get approved for. With that said I do like the new version better than the old. I didn’t have Shake Shack where I live but do have Five Guys and Dunkin. And at least there is now a lot higher credits to where you can actually come out ahead. Before best you could do is an effective $10 AF. Now you can come out $99 ahead. And yes Sean the Aspire is a great card for credits but it absolutely sucks to spend on.

No annual fee of Chase FLEX. 3% on restaurants. Then transfer using Chase Sapphire preferred or Chase ink preferred to partners.

Stayed in caption osaka last week...very very nice hotel only 3200 points lol

Now is better for first time have more credit that the annual fee and 4x dining and grocery is very solid. Amex have Delta transfer partner: transfers the points and if you fly only Delta is solid

Why have two toddlers do this? What adults don’t spend a lot of restaurants and groceries?

I have used the rest a few times and I found it helpful when visiting new areas to find some good eating options. The places weren't always high end places either. Several had decent food options in the 15-25 dollar per plate range.

altitude go for restaurants 4%, bcp 6k grocery $95 annual fee Disney credit makes that $11 bucks aaa visa rewards 10k groceries no annual fee, goodbye amex gold next month!

I would if Capital One would reapprove me since I stupidly went to a QuickSilver the first time around, back to a SavorOne and plus, I have 2 Citi Custom Cashes and the second was through a product change from a Double Cash. For groceries, I can use the 2 Custom Cashes at 5x and when they are quarterly categories, the Discover It and Freedom Flex at 5x at $1500 cap each, the Blue Cash Preferred or even if I downgrade the the Blue Cash Everyday and Venmo Visa for groceries which considers also Walmart supercenters as GROCERY with the Venmo Visa if its a top category at 3x. For dining, at 3x I can use the Venmo Visa if its my top category, Bilt Mastercard, Freedom FLEX and the if I'm ever under 5/24, I would reacquire the Freedom Unlimited at 3x again since I product changed it to the Flex at 3x and 5x when its quarterly category and the Discover It when dining is a quarterly category. Bottom line I have options for groceries and dining. I don't fly much so my Airline card would be 2x card which I have the Blue Business Plus, Blue Business Cash and the Synchrony Mastercard.

Citi is smiling right now.

Note: the Resy credit will work for purchases made directly with the merchant, including GCs when available. You don't have to book through Resy, the restaurant just has to be listed on Resy.

I feel like the 💳got better but it's still not worth it after year 1. Why pay $325 a year for a bunch of credits and 4x grocery/dining when you could get a SavorOne and pay $0 a year and get 3x grocery/dining?

for me, trash at $250 & at $325

White gold for the win! 😂

Yeah, none of the credits work for me which is why I needed to cancel my Amex Gold Card. I would need to change my spend behavior to receive the credits and that’s nonsensical. There are so many other credit cards out there that have much lower fees or a more straightforward travel credit to reduce the effective annual fee, or both. I feel like Amex is playing a game where they want to maintain their revenue stream from annual fees and trick customers into thinking that there’s value there that they will receive credits for when in fact, they never do. In one retention offer conversation with Amex, the retention agent tried to prove to me that all of my spending did in fact cover their $250 annual fee. I simply stated to her, “Ma’am, the reason that I spend on this credit card is not so I can cover my annual fee; it so that I can accumulate points to use as travel benefits”. It’s like the retention people are trained narcissists. Anyway, it amazes me that Amex continues to perform so well in the credit card space when clearly there is a lot of competition with better value than Amex. The “complicated cafeteria style credit game” doesn’t work for me. It’s a game that I’m not willing to place. Life is already too complicated to have to remember to go to Dunkin or the Cheesecake Factory when I don’t frequent those chains. Also, while the card doesn’t have any foreign transaction fees, since I spend half the year out of the U.S., the 4x Supermarket rewards and $10 monthly Uber credit don’t work; I only receive 1x for foreign supermarkets and no $10 credit outside the U.S.

Do y’all pre record these? Feel like they are usually a week behind. Amex gold was just updated today

So in my use case we spent 49k in groceries from 1/1/23-7/25/24 37.8k was in the gold in that time and the other 12k was split between two CFF with the 5x grocery offers. Then another 32k on dining. So while I’m not close on the 50k in dining I think I get good value out of the card. I normally go to Dunkin 1-2 times a month so the new credit covers the increased fee for me. However, there isn’t a single resy restaurant of interest for me in the 3 cities I visit monthly for work (Chicago, Indy, Philly). So, I’m hoping I can find something in NYC or DC when I visit friends.

💯💯💯

$7 x 12 = the smallest even dollar amount that covers the $75 AF increase

Amex is for chumps. And I know you two aren’t chumps.

First!

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Quality > Quantity

It’s wild that the US economy is largely service driven and were one of the only first world countries that heavily relies on tipping for services (as in the income of the service worker is 90% reliant on receiving tips) but we do not have a hospitality culture:/. Make sense of that. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Thanks for the info + video!

Really feel like this channel should have more subscribers

Sherwin talking about luxury hotels while he has his luxury Blue dorm room Mattress behind him.

IMO preference of a non luxury property doesn’t make them overrated, especially when circumstance is the biggest driver.

I generally prioritize location over raw luxury if I'm looking for a specific destination (for example, when I went to LTX in Vancouver last year, I stayed at the downtown Marriott instead of the Hyatt Regency because it's closer to the convention center), but if I am going somewhere such as Hawaii or the Maldives, I'd go for a nicer hotel.