I am credit card hoarder and have near $400K in total credit limit on 30+ accounts. I have scanned this thread and thought there may be some credit cards that members here are not considering.
Here are a few:
1. You should consider getting one or two category cards which rotate 5% category every quarter for up to $1,500 purchases. Chase Freedom and Discover IT are the popular cards in this list. Maximize your spend on these for the best return for your spend. Discover IT also doubles your cash back in the first year making it a 10% card for the first year. Also, read up on Chase Ultimate Rewards, and Amex Member Reward’s systems.
Some credit card users use some creative ways to maximize their cash back. For example, getting a Costco Cash Card when purchases at Costco are in the 5% category. This also beats the 4% cash back you get with Costco Anywhere card.
2. Get a 1.5% card like Chase Freedom Unlimited and Chase Sapphire Preferred/Reserve cards if you travel. You can transfer points to CSR/CSP.
3. Foreign Transaction Fees are only part of the issue. You have to look at the currency conversion rates offered on your cards.
4. Alliant Credit Union Cashback Signature card: If you like cash back, this card is hard to beat in first year. 3% for the first year with no annual fee and 2% cash back and $89 fee rest of the years. You will need to join the CU to get any of their products.
https://www.alliantcreditunion.org/bank/visa-signature-card
You can convert it to a no-fee card after first year.
5. 2% Cash back cards like Fidelity Rewards Visa and Citi Double Cash have minimum redemption limits on cash back earned.
6. Citi, Discover, and Amex have online credit limit increase button or link. Request increases every 6 months. You can lower utilization and limit hit on your credit score even if you are not going to use $30,000 limits you will accumulate eventually. This also helps keep your overall utilization low if your other cards have low limits. This is very useful if you’re considering doing balance transfer of large amounts.