As someone who doesn't really care for the travel points because I mainly drive everywhere and don't fly out of country, I currently have a Citi Double Cash for 2% on everyday spending and the Citi Custom Cash for 5% back on Gas. Works great for my needs!
It's a cash back bonanza as long as you can use the gift cards they offer. I work in the auto industry so the offers they've got for several hardware stores helps out the tool wish lost. Keeps me off the tool trucks.
Honestly, you can't beat the Capital One duofor me. You take one or two trips a year and get the annual fee back, plus so many other great perks and the Savor One is the best no-AF card out there by a longshot. 10% back on Uber and 3% back on groceries is amazing, it competes with the Gold Card with 0 AF.
Yeah the Capital One duo is really really great for people who travel sometimes but aren't traveling 3+ times a year and people who like simplicity. That duo, plus BILT to get easier domestic travel coverage with less transfer partner work i think is a good "trio".
@@anonymoose2474 Yeah, no foreign transaction fees for trips. I don't remember their list of transfer partners off the top of my head but I think they have Eva air, Cathay Pacific and I know they have Aeroplan.
Really? Do you only eat at McDonalds and chain restaurants, no hole in the wall or real ma and pop shop accept American Express garbage 😂. When I visit Thailand and Vietnam, they take Visa and Mastercard but no one takes my AX gold card 😂, except Burger King.
@@jelloMadisonHere in Brazil Amex is widely accepted and I live in a very small Brazilian city, overall credit card penetration is far better then south Mexico.
Total Cap1 15 Amax 13 Chase 12 Citi 10 Love your videos and detail and in depth. Your chase fanboy really showed I feel skewed the scoring but like you said personal needs does play a bit of a role. I tried making it more based on the standard person so things like the flat rate cash back and coverage for daily spending weighed a little more than pure travel partner redemption and assuming all can redeem for same value vs personal preferment of redemption value My scoring is Round 1 Amax, Cap1, Chase, Citi Based on most bonus vale for standard sign up once nothing else Round 2 Citi, C1, Amax, Chase Best multiplayers coverage for Citi Round 3 Chase, Amax, Citi, C1 No denying Chase Redemption value Round 4 Cap1, Chase, Citi, Amax Hands down cap1 for 2x on the main card to give you most value of any setup with just one card Round 5 C1, Amax, Chase, Citi Cap1 pays for itself and still gets all the benefits premium benefits
If I had to order these trifectas, I'd have the exact same outcome. The Chase and Amex trifectas are both extremely valuable and can be used in combination with each other to really increase the value you can earn. And the Cap1 duo and Citi Trifecta, while powerful, don't quite have everything I'm looking for in a travel setup (mainly a lack of certain travel partners). However, I plan to get most if not all of these cards at some point to see which ones I like the most, so we'll see!! Awesome stuff as always man 👊🏼
I see a lot of people talking poorly about the travel partners for the city trifecta. For me I like them because I want to travel internationally more. I wonder if it's because the lack of domestic airlines that peoole don't like the citi partners?
Daniel actually has a spreadsheet that breaks it down for you, but if you look up the transfer partners for each lender, you should be able to find it. You'll just need specific cards with each lender to be able to transfer out. @@rioclemens
I fly a lot to Florida from Boston, and jetblue has the most affordable flights for those routes. Citi is the only transfer partner with JetBlue that is 1:1.
Really great video, Daniel. You continue to be one of the best RU-vidrs in this space - great content, no cheesy gimmicks, and refreshing transparency and honesty. You’re the real deal! 😊 I agree completely with just about everything you said. My only possible differing point would be valuing Amex’s Platinum at $1500. I don’t think there are that many people who truly value and take advantage of all of those credits (Saks, Peleton, etc). But that’s just my gut. I could be way off! Take care.
Watching your videos over the last year has tremendously helped me! I now pay rent with Bilt, have the Chase Trifecta, and a score over 800. Eyeing the AMEX Gold next, but a lot of the recent changes have me considering going to Capitol One for the Venture X before I'm too far along and have issues being approved for it like you.
Agreed about going mixed. If you run the Capital One SavorOne as your cash back, the BILT as your travel card, and the Hilton Honors Regular card you get three cards with different issuers, no FTF and a grand total of $0 in annual fees. Also dude, you should just do a tourney bracket for the next comparison video-credit card issuers compete for your business like a jousting match anyway so let’s lean into I say🤣
Bilt is a weak travel card. No lounge access, global entry, clear, etc. The multiple is good on rent day, but I'd never pick my bilt card over my Venture X for travel.
Dont travel much so cash back cards are sweet. Really like the Citi Custom Cash for set category and Double Cash for miscellaneous along with the AMEX Blue Preferred card for groceries, gas, streaming services.
While the Capitol One Duo is great, I’m sticking with Chase and Amex! Chase is my primary trifecta, while Amex will become my second trifecta once I get into traveling more which is my plan. I already have the Amex Gold! I do have the Custom Cash from Citi but the Citi Premier really lacks as a travel card so I use it as my Cash Back card, until Citi upgrades the Premier, no point to use Citi as a trifecta/travel card.
This was a very informative video Daniel! I am personally going for the chase trifecta, definitely wish they would add a grocery category somewhere in there no annual fee cards.
Since you talked alot about travel portals, it would be very informative if you and some of the other RU-vid channels could do a comparison with the cc travel portals and travel services. I’m referring especially to Going, Dollar Flight Club and Matt’s Flights.
Messed up big time getting the Platinum first, and holding off the Gold 😂 A bit surprised at the 1 poiunt for spending multipliers on Chase (maybe better when comparing with the CSR), but totally agree Chase needs a major refresh with all these strong cards and offers coming on the market. Also right there with you with Chase and Amex being 1, 2! I wonder where Wells Fargo will fit in if their transer partners end up being the same as the Bilt card 👀
With Chase's Freedom cards you can earn an unlimited 3% cash back at drug stores like Walgreens that sells gift cards for gas, groceries, online streaming, airbnb(travel) and more. There's a loop whole in the Chase Trifecta that no one's talking about.
awesome to see that there is a sapphire lounge coming to your hometown! definitely would be a great incentive for you to upgrade. Are you going to make a video on fincon this year? Would really like to see that!
WHY DOES NO ONE SHOW WHAT EACH CARD’S PORTALS BENEFITS ARE?? I WANT TO KNOW WHO EACH CARD WORKS WITH? why would I apply for a card for the extra points to book through their portal if no one ever gives any insight as to WHO they partner with? Domestic or international? Only chain hotels? Or b&b also?
Absolute W video Daniel! Personally for me the amex is a lot lower because in my life I find it so hard to justify the annual fees, as it's difficult to use the credits that come with both cards. I prefer the simple credits that just make it easy. Keep up the great work!
Excellent video! 👏🏼 can you please explain why would someone get more than one trifecta? It seems to me that it’s better to just focus on maximizing points with one trifecta? Please enlighten me!
As a Marriott/Delta primary user who is based in Georgia, Chase really didn't work well for me for partners when I used the CSR combo for a few years. I think the Amex Plat is a good combo with the CSP.
@@onbase50 well I meant the csp/chase trifecta and Amex plat. The Amex gold is a high AF to add, and tracking which credits were used on which Amex sounds like a pain.
Nothing beats chase right now with their current freedom unlimited bonus offer right now. 5% gas and 5% groceries for the first year is insane, and if you transfer to sapphire reserve its 7.5% if you use the points for travel.
Great video Daniel! Thanks for detailing the options, very informative. We are pivoting to a hybrid duo, Amex Gold with the Venture X. It should prove to be diverse when redeeming but time will tell. Thanks again.
They just don’t have transfer partners etc. U.S Bank is great for cashback. I canceled ALL of my accounts with US Bank after learning that some banks like Amex and Chase allow members to transfer their points to airlines and hotels.
Something you should mention is that the Citi Custom Cash card only covers 5% up to $500. Although you can get multiple, its spend limit is too low to justify for me. Also could have mentioned CS Plat points redemption for cash is 1.1:1, which is better than the vanilla.
I remember someone saying something about one of the big banks like chase or American express not liking when you already have credit cards with the other bank?
I am not sure if I got in just under the wire, but I just opened the Amex Gold last month, already having the Platinum, and I did, in fact, receive the 60K bonus. I might have just had really lucky timing.
During the video conclusion you mention that it is good to do more than one trifecta. At some point doesn't this have diminishing returns due to the annual fees on these cards? Realistically I don't think most people spend enough to justify more than one of the trifectas. Would be interesting to see at what point the returns diminish. In other words, how much money do I need to spend per month on avg for it to be worth it to have both the Amex and Chase setup. Thanks for the great vid!
I feel the same. My plan is to start with Chase and stick to one trifecta for a year or two. Maximize points in each ecosystem one at a time. Then when 4 years is up start over again with Chase unless something changes.
If Citibank ever gets their act together and adds travel protections back I can see them topping over Capital One in time. But Chase and Amex I don't see that happening anytime soon.
Ease of use really should have went at the end of the video considering Amex's credits and how they are used it reduces ease of use, if you miss some of the credits the amount of money you would have to spend to break even might not be worth the multipliers compared to a different card. Like if you miss 2 months of Amex golds credits you might be better off using the capital one savor one and using that money that you would have used to break even to actually receive a return on investment. as well the way Amex's credits are setup is so your very likely to spend money you wouldn't have just to get your money's worth and 99% of people will not get the value from the Amex cards considering they'll have to spend extra to get value.
I have the Unliited but for simplicity purposes I'd rather have the Capital One Duo but I'd pair it with Venture bc while I don't often travel, I would like to travel 2-3 times a year. No need for the lounges but the 2 visits per year the Venture has sounds nice af
If you travel 2-3 times a year the Venture X is better, you'd get your AF back while the Venture is a lot harder to make up its annual fee even if it's lower.
Hey Daniel, it's also possible to have a cashback Duo of the Capital One system right? I'm talking about the regular Quicksilver and the SavorOne duo. Thanks for replies!
I got the 150k/90k SUB for the AMEX trifecta so that was my go to for the past year. Thinking about canceling the Plat though and going for the Green because I do most my travel by train and it’d be nice to earn points on that
You can’t get the signup bonus for the Green now because you already have the Platinum. Really stupid that Amex didn’t grandfather in existing customers.
I know it's possible to product change a citi double cash into a custom cash to have 2 custom cashes, but is it also possible to get a citi premiere card and thenalso product change that to a 3rd custom cash?
For me if i had the Citi Double cash and the Citi Premier i would be just fine. I don't seenin my monthly budget where the custom cash would be a benefit to me. As for the travel partners i like to travel internationally so these are fine for me. Domestically i would find an airline like JetBlue, Southwest, or Frontier.
Love the channel Daniel - I'm curious why you went with the Blue for the Amex trio, instead of the Green, which seems to have a good SUP at 40,000 (60k a few months ago) and includes IMO heavy Travel Benifits to New or Seasoned CC users.
Green card and Platinum have a lot of overlap. Blue is far superior because it gives you 2 points back on everything. Sign up bonuses shouldn’t really be considered. I got the Green for the sign up bonus and canceled it a year later. I’ve also churned a few other Amex cards. Sign up bonuses are the best return you can get on your spending by far. The consideration for this list is the best card for spending.
10x on travel portal is kind of irrelevant anyways. Most of the time the hotel is significantly cheaper when booked directly even without any sort of elevated status.
Amex gold and everyday prefered is really hard to beat. I cant believe no one talks about everyday prefered. With the 30x uses point multiplier its killer as a catch all card plus actually a half a point more than gold on groceries and restaurants. And a good multiplier on gas.
only problem I see with the Everyday Preferred is hitting that 30x a month usage. I guess you could auto refill Amazon 25 times a month. There’s a $6000 a year limit on the grocery category too, and an annual fee. If you use your Gold credits and spend more than $500 a month on groceries, you’re probably better off with the Gold.
@@kungfoochicken08 6k on groceries alot. 115 per week on one card. As soon as you also spend on the gold card thats going to be hard to max out. I split it between both. So i doubt ill ever max out the 6k on groceries. Because the gold gets nothing extra for gas and 1 on everything else i use the prefered as the catch all and the points really add up with that 30 use multiplier
@@greatlakespowerstrokefx4 It just seems like a hassle to keep up with how much you’ve spent on groceries. $500 a month isn’t that much. I spend $800 a month with just me and my wife. I have 23 credit cards at the moment. I’m not terribly afraid of complicated spending patterns, I just don’t have the time to keep track of how much I’ve spent in each category. At a certain point, the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. Does Amex at least offer a tracker on their website?
Is there any point in owning multiple trifectas? I mean I understand the sign up bonuses but Imagine after that I would only be using one trifecta or duo. If anyone has multiple, if they could explain the benefits it would be nice
wait so once having the csp and downgrading to the flex card do you still earn those welcome bonus offer? and how do you keep the points earned on the csp before having to apply for it after what was it 24 months or 48 months ?
I believe once the Chase Sapphire lounges expand more Chase will offer two to four passes to the Chase Sapphire lounges to pitch CSP cardholders to upgrade eventually too the CSR for unlimited lounge access.
Wow haha I was way off! Still a very good and in depth video! I just can't get over the low annual fee, the spending multipliers, and the 2% catch all citis trifecta offers! It's cool to see how truly different people's spending and preferences play such a huge role in the credit card game.
What about Amex trifecta paired with SavorOne and Citi Premier. SavorOne has the Uber Eats free delivery credit, and Citi Premier as the MasterCard backup travel card.
So Chase 50% bonus boost is useless since the point of the game to maximize your points when redeeming. And the best way to redeem points is to transfer it.
As a super indecisive person with several credit cards, how do you decide which credit cards to use for a given category? ESPECIALLY when you have multiple credit cards that might offer similar points per dollar spent (example: Venture X vs Sapphire Preferred’s 5x on Travel) ? 😭I’d love to get the Chase trifecta but, having a lot of credit cards (as much as I love them) stresses me out.
Need to figure out what your goals are and work backwards from there. Figure out which airline or hotel you want to use, find which credit card point system works best for that goal, and use that point system. This can be your main point system and then you can routinely churn sign up bonuses in other point systems. How you use the points is incredibly important. If you just try to cash the points out, you usually get between 0.5-0.8 cents per point. If you transfer them to partners, you can routinely get 2-4cpp.
Hey Daniel! Have a quick advisory question, I just opened my Chase Freedom Flex card about 3 months ago, and I'm doing very well on credit utilization and paying on time thanks to you, with that said, I'm looking to expand into a 2nd credit card around the mid-tier level, and I'm looking either at the AMEX gold or Chase Sapphire preferred, my most spent category is in the food/dining which is why I was leaning more towards the AMEX gold, but idk if I would be accepted (720 credit score currently) considering I'm a new credit card user (of 3 months) and I'm already going for a 2nd card, should I go for the Sapphire preferred instead where I'm more likely to get accepted since I've been with Chase already? The goal would eventually be to have both of these cards, but in what order? Any tips would greatly help!
You can always try to get pre-approved with no hit to your credit. I had the freedom flex, built my credit up within 6 months and signed up for the 75,000 SUB and got approved surprisingly for the amex gold. Doesn’t hurt to try if your main category is dining like it was for me.
question for you guys , ive had my chase freedom card for about 2 years or so its my only credit card & wanted to attain another credit card. My score is 680 & wanted to know if its smart to get another cash back card ( chase flex ) or get a capital one card like the savor ? thanks if i could get any feed back !
The Freedom Unlimited doesn't move the needle. That card is lame. I product changed it to the OG Freedom just to get 5% on gas once a year. Plus more possible good quarters. Chase needs to change that cards benefits.
Agreed. I have three Custom Cash cards. If you stack those with a Citi Rewards, you can get 5.5% cash back. Double Cash gives you 2.2% back on everything with the Citi Rewards.
I would say bilt with covering rent(1x) travel(2x) food(3x) and they all double on the first of the month as well as the card has many other benefits such as lyft credit and it’s own travel portal and many other interesting ways to earn points
The bilt was my second card I started out with a discover student card but if I could go back in time I would say the capital one savor for my first card
