Get the Discover It Miles card ASAP. They match the 1.5 % for the first year = 3% on everything. Capital One will nerf this card as soon as the merger is approved.
I'm || this close on going for the 3% on the smartly for that reason mentioned at the end. My P2 (wife) just doesn't follow. The amount of times I've told her to use the Freedom Unlimited for everything, except use the Amex Gold for groceries. You know how many times I've seen the Freedom used at grocery stores? It'll be nice to just give her a flat 3% card and tell her to never use anything else, and I can go back into my little credit card game bubble trying to min/max.
The hardest issue with my Smartly, is that it's made about 2/3rds of my cards sub optimal. If something isn't a sub, 5x, or roughly 3x transferable... then other spend becomes a tough choice.
But if ur using this card it’s mostly for non category spend. Or fill in gaps for cards u don’t have (yet). But USB will nerf it. At least with caps. Bet.
I think USBank is counting on the difficulty of transferring over that much money, that later on they’ll reduce the 4% earnings to something smaller in the hopes customers will stick around.
Someone (on Reddit?) did the math. You’ll never earn max percentages due to their high investment fees. …perhaps Unless u put the cash in their savings. But not a good trade off.
That's only true if you're a frequent trader / options trader -- you'll see that we talked about it on the show. As we noted, the $50 brokerage annual fee is waived with enough in investments. And you get 100 free stock and ETF trades per year. My investment accounts are all buy and hold, depositing once a month to make 3 buys. That's 36 trades a year. Add another few to rebalance once a year and I'm still well under 100 trades per year in both my IRA and taxable brokerage accounts. I wouldn't personally keep it in savings given all of the above, but even if you did, it's not necessarily a bad trade off. With $50K or more in the Smartly Savings and the Smartly credit card, you get 3.5% APY. While that isn't the highest savings yield possible, it isn't terrible. Depending on how much money you spend annually on credit cards, that might not be a bad trade off. Like I said, I wouldn't do that, but it's not as bad as keeping savings in a bank account at Bank of America to meet Preferred Rewards status. -Nick
I moved my ira over to us bank to get to the 100k threshold. It was more painful than bank of America because I had to print in a paper form and then emailing it to them.
Love these condensed Card Talkd episodes!!
Best information on the Smartly Card by far ! You had the answers as the questions were popping in my head !
Bruh. Just read the terms in USB website. 😂
Get the Discover It Miles card ASAP. They match the 1.5 % for the first year = 3% on everything. Capital One will nerf this card as soon as the merger is approved.
No point to get it then. Unless a fat bonus.
@ The referral bonus is one hundred dollars each to both parties ( $200 )
Prediction: this card is nerfed into the ground after April 2025 when people pay their taxes on this card.
USB will def cap the card by 2026. Nerf is what they do .
I'm || this close on going for the 3% on the smartly for that reason mentioned at the end. My P2 (wife) just doesn't follow. The amount of times I've told her to use the Freedom Unlimited for everything, except use the Amex Gold for groceries. You know how many times I've seen the Freedom used at grocery stores?
It'll be nice to just give her a flat 3% card and tell her to never use anything else, and I can go back into my little credit card game bubble trying to min/max.
Speaking of 4%, would like to see a card talk on the WF Attune card
Nothing to talk about. It largely doesn’t payout as promoted. Who would have thought, Wells Fargo??!
I wonder if the upcoming nerfing of this card will appear in either of your 2025 predictions :-)
The hardest issue with my Smartly, is that it's made about 2/3rds of my cards sub optimal. If something isn't a sub, 5x, or roughly 3x transferable... then other spend becomes a tough choice.
But if ur using this card it’s mostly for non category spend. Or fill in gaps for cards u don’t have (yet). But USB will nerf it. At least with caps. Bet.
I think USBank is counting on the difficulty of transferring over that much money, that later on they’ll reduce the 4% earnings to something smaller in the hopes customers will stick around.
Honey pots has been their play. Certainly with credit cards.
Someone (on Reddit?) did the math. You’ll never earn max percentages due to their high investment fees.
…perhaps Unless u put the cash in their savings. But not a good trade off.
That's only true if you're a frequent trader / options trader -- you'll see that we talked about it on the show. As we noted, the $50 brokerage annual fee is waived with enough in investments. And you get 100 free stock and ETF trades per year. My investment accounts are all buy and hold, depositing once a month to make 3 buys. That's 36 trades a year. Add another few to rebalance once a year and I'm still well under 100 trades per year in both my IRA and taxable brokerage accounts.
I wouldn't personally keep it in savings given all of the above, but even if you did, it's not necessarily a bad trade off. With $50K or more in the Smartly Savings and the Smartly credit card, you get 3.5% APY. While that isn't the highest savings yield possible, it isn't terrible. Depending on how much money you spend annually on credit cards, that might not be a bad trade off. Like I said, I wouldn't do that, but it's not as bad as keeping savings in a bank account at Bank of America to meet Preferred Rewards status.
-Nick
I moved my ira over to us bank to get to the 100k threshold. It was more painful than bank of America because I had to print in a paper form and then emailing it to them.
And you’re just getting started. USB IT, policies and service is bad. And don’t forget the high fees!