What I want to say about credit cards (by the way, I will summarize and share)

I don’t know why, but a lot of people have been talking to me about credit cards recently. The problems are mostly similar, which one saves money and which one is easier to use. Since coming to the United States, I have opened almost 14 credit cards, and I have tried basically all the ones recommended on the market. My feeling is that there are many credit cards, but few are practical. If you have time, please share your experience. My experience is still shallow, so any corrections are welcome.

***Many credit card articles on the market are designed to recommend you to open a card and make money. I am just writing about my experience and sharing it, and there is absolutely no profit. But if you think it's good and it will give you some benefits, I can recommend you to open a card and get the card opening points.

Basic information (popular science):

Opening a credit card is just for cash back. To put it bluntly, it is to save money. Of course, there is also an element of accumulating credit history, but it is not discussed as a focus. So as cashback, there are generally two types:

1. Give you points, 2x or 3x. For example, if you spend 100 dollars, if it is 3X, you will get 300 points.
2. Give you cashback. This is usually written as a percentage, such as 3%. For example, if you spend 100 dollars, you will get 3 dollars cashback.

There are actually a lot of details here. Each bank, and even different cards of the same bank, are different. Those who have never used them will hardly know them.

1. For points, some places use points to exchange for gift cards, and some can directly offset consumption. Of course, it is generally possible. Most exchanges for gift cards are 1:100, which is the same as a percentage, but you have to find a gift that suits you. card, if you use points to exchange for air tickets, it is generally less than or even far less than 1:100. The same goes for offsetting consumption. This is why I don’t like points. The categories of gift cards will also change. In addition, in many cases, you can only collect a certain amount to replace. For example, you need 2,500 points to exchange for a gift card. If you don’t have it, you need to buy some points, which is very expensive. People who understand at this time should see that the multiples of this kind of consumption are generally not round numbers. However, some points can be exchanged for mileage, etc. This is a discussion for another time.
2. Cashback also has this problem, but it is much better. For example, the previous boa cashback must exceed before it can be exchanged. Of course, any amount above can be deposited into the card.

My deck (I personally think it is invincible on the market for now):

Okay, let me talk about my combination first. I think it is the highest on the market, but this is no longer possible (of course, invincibility is for my life. If you fly every day and go out to play every day, there may be a better combination), because some cards no longer allow applications (red).

1. Dining, amazon, entertainment:citi forward, 5x points rebate
2. Supermarket shopping and refueling:Barclay SallieMea Reawrds, 5% Cash Back
3. Others: citi double cash, 2%
4. There are also two weird 5X cards: Discover It, and Chase Freedom, which change every quarter, as backups.

The reason for this combination is: the main force of consumption: 1. Eating, 2. Buying food in the supermarket, 3. Refueling, 4. Buying in online shopping malls, each of the first three itemsStablizeIt reaches the current cap of 5% on the market. The fourth one is that no credit card can provide special cash back, so it is grouped with all others and uses 2%, which is very worry-free. Note that I used the word "stable" before. Why do I say that? Because two weird cards sometimes explode by 5x, but I have to check every quarter, and there are only three months in a year. It is annoying and not enough, so I have to worry about it.

Insert talk: Discover and Freedom

There is a personal reason why it is called a weird card. Everyone respects these two cards, but I think they are very average. They change every quarter, and sometimes they are useless at all. Starbucks 5x and so on. Especially the discover card cannot be used in many places. Below is a description of the card type and ease of use. The weirdest thing is that Discover last year offered a 10x rebate for opening a new card, and then using Apple Pay to add 10x (it seems less), so that when you buy an iPhone, you get about 20x cash back, which led to a large group of people buying a bunch of iPhones...

Since we are talking about two weird cards, let me share the information with you. IIt is recommended that everyone hold these two cards, but don’t rely on them.

1. Discover's 5x is a direct cashback, which can be directly recharged into the card to offset consumption.
2. Freedom can be used with the Chase Sapphire card to exchange miles for air tickets (more on this later).

Card type

Let’s talk about the types of cards, which are generally divided into these categories:

1. There is nothing to say about visa and master. They can be used everywhere with basically no restrictions. Basically, except for amex and discover cards, they are these two.
2. AmericaExpress, commonly known as Amex, this type of card has an advantage. Basically all cards come with insurance for car rentals, which saves insurance fees. However, some do not, so check it clearly when applying (this is why this card has no benefits, I still keep a spare one). However, the application scope of this card is a little smaller than the above. It can be used in basically 90% of the United States, but some restaurants (especially Chinese restaurants) do not accept this card.
3. Discover, this acceptance range is much smaller, and many will not accept it. But there is an advantage. Dicover cooperates with UnionPay, and you can use it as a UnionPay card in China (legend). I tried it, but it didn't work.
4. Others, I am currently ignorant and don’t know what cards have been played. I choose this option mainly because I am afraid of being criticized.

Strategies for Holding a Credit Card

The so-called strategy is very simple. The purpose of getting a card is to save money, and the strategy is how to maximize profits. To maximize your cashback, you first need to know what you consume the most. However, not every item can be covered by a credit card. The categories that can use high cashback are summarized as follows:

1. Restaurant: This is three meals a day, and the cost is at least . It costs 0 a month, right?
2. Supermarket (grocery store): If you say you save money and cook, then you always buy groceries at the supermarket, right? (Supermarket here refers to daily supermarkets. Generally, every credit card company has a list that you can check) So, this one is always used, right?
3. Gas: This is not a big deal, but the United States is a car society, and you have to drive everywhere. For people who have cars, a gas card is necessary, right?
4. Buying bags, online shopping, etc.: If you don’t have this kind of card, you can either open a separate credit card from a merchant like Priceline or Macy (not recommended, the card is terrible, and the service is still very poor)
5. Airfare and hotel: Needless to say, airfare back home is very expensive. People who travel frequently have this need.
6. Department stores: Rich ladies like Gao Fushuai often go shopping in malls, which is commonly known as shopping. I only know about this type of Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express that does 3%, but this card has an annual fee, and it is limited to 4,500 per quarter (forgot). Another advantage of this card is that it is 6% for grocery shopping at the supermarket, 1,500 per quarter (it seems)
7. Other than that, I don’t seem to have any other big needs.

The strategy should look like this: First priority: the higher the cashback, the better! Priority 1.5: No annual fee is the priority, priority 2: simplicity of operation is priority, and priority 3: convenience of cashback is priority.

At this stage, you can easily find 3% cash back products on the market at restaurants, supermarkets, and gas stations. I won’t go into details. If you can’t find it, please leave a message.

When shopping online and buying bags, if you go there every day, it is recommended to look for the card of the store you often go to. If you visit different malls and stores every time and spend a lot of money, I recommend the Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express just now. It has an annual fee of 75 and a 6% discount on groceries, which is very good. If you often shop at Amazon online, the Chase Amazon card is relatively common, with a 3x score. However, if you can’t find another card, it is recommended to open this one (not a strong recommendation). Of course, Amazon also has a 5x card. If you haven’t used it before, you can try it.

For the rest, basically all credit cards will say 1% for other things, but Citi DoubleCash is 2%, so it goes without saying. I recommend this. Capitalone seems to have it too, but it’s about the same. Personally, I think Citi’s service is better. Of course, Citi’s system is old and broken.

Air tickets and travel cards

I put it at the end because I want to have a good talk.

Let me summarize first. If you don’t often fly and book hotels, don’t even think about it. If you travel frequently, please open a card based on the hotel categories and aircraft categories you frequently stay in (miles can only be used within a certain company or airline alliance, the same applies to hotels). If you have nothing to do, open all the hotel and flight cards, get the sign-up bonus and then retreat. In many cases, the sign-up bonus can be exchanged for a flight back home.

As for why, the reason is very simple. All these cards have not reached 2% in exchange. In other words, it can be solved directly with doublecash, and the exchange is still very troublesome. Example:

With Citi AA cards, you get 2x the number of miles spent on AA airlines. For example, if you spend 1,500 on a flight back to your country, you get 3,000 miles, and then you go back to your country and come back again, which is about 15,000 miles, which means you get an 18,000 mile reward. It costs 75,000 points to exchange for a return ticket, which means that if you go back and forth 4 times, you can return to your country for free once. It looks good, but if you calculate it carefully, even if you don't use this card, you still have 15k each time, which means you can exchange it for free every 5 times, which is only an extra 3000 each time. So what is this ratio? Simple algorithm:

75000 = 00 ==> 50 = ==> 1500 = , 60/1500 ==> 2%

In addition to the discounts during redemption, the cash rebate is slightly more than 2%. Isn’t it uneconomical to spend so much money and it is a long-term investment? And a few questions, 1. There are not many free air ticket dates and flights, and not all flights are available for you to choose from. 2. Almost all airline and hotel cards have annual fees. This is what I say if you don’t fly often, don’t open it. If you add the annual fee, let alone 2%, it may not even be 1%.

I have basically calculated that almost all airlines on the market can get up to 2% very rarely, and there are many restrictions, because you can only fly with one airline.

In addition, everyone is using sapphire + freedom. This combination is actually very good. Sapphire can't do anything. It just redeems miles at a 1:1 ratio, and freedom is 5x. If you transfer the freedom points to sapphire and then use sapphire to redeem miles, isn't it 5x? That's right! It's really good, but! Still the same problem, SapphireThere is an annual feeIt is useless at ordinary times. Freedom’s 5x items are different each time. Not 100% of the consumption is 5x, and it may not even cover 10% of the consumption. If you want to exceed 2%, you must cover 2.5 times of your other items. (2% is the lowest cashback, and the other 3% is 1.7 times). Even if you get the cover, you can indeed save a little. It is difficult to apply for these two cards. The premise is that you must have these two cards, then figure out the relationship, and redeem them. It costs a lot of energy.

However, airline and hotel cards still offer many discounts with their own airlines and hotels, such as early boarding, free baggage check-in, etc. If you travel frequently, it is recommended to open a card with an airline that you frequently use. There are still many discounts.

My point about aviation and travel is: don’t be fooled.

Cashback methods of various banks (now known)

1. citi doublecash, direct cash, can be redeemed at any time
2. boa cashback, direct cash, with minimum exchange requirements (very low)
3. citi forward, points, you need to go to thankyou mall, can be used on amazon
4. capitalone 1.5cashback, can be redeemed directly
5. discoverit, exchange directly
6. AMEX bluecash: direct exchange
7. AMEX golden: points, which can be purchased or redeemed, and can be used on Amazon
8. barclay SallieMea: direct exchange
9. chase amazon: available on amaozn

That's it, let's wrap things up and go eat. Welcome everyone to correct me for future updates. Don’t open too many credit cards. Every time there is a hard inquiry, it will be kept on your credit record for two years. If you add two credit cards, it will be downgraded by one level. Open early, otherwise you'll be in trouble if you're late.

Finally, let me talk about the timeliness of this thing. New cards will be released every year. For now, if you are too lazy to understand the article or search, just get a 2%everything doublecash. It’s not a favor. It really saves me a lot of worry.