Best travel credit card - Sapphire

[BlueberryPie]

I'm think about the double cash. 2x on everything, no categories, no yearly fee.

I think I will miss the primary car rental insurance for sapphire, but won't keep it just for that or the no foreign transaction fees.

It looks like my mileage plus gateway has 0 foreign transaction fee so I can use that card when traveling abroad. I used to be a United fan-boy but have lost my status and award travel has been hard to come by, so I rarely use that card anymore.

 

[OldConch]

Good point. If you use their partners that’s a big plus. I also have the Chase Freedom card which allows 5x point on certain categories. But, I am not that big of a spender to rack up $3000 a month spend on any card or combination of cards. MY biggest expenses (property tax, homeowner fees, etc) don’t play well with credit cards.

$1k/month will go a long, long way in this game. There are lots of cards that offer huge sign-up bonuses for spending $3k in three months.

Love your Picasso quote. Had the privilege to visit the Picasso Museum and the Prado in recent weeks. Very interesting to see the progression of his works.

Booking with partners sounds hard but it really isn't. Had a three hour layover in Madrid and was able to set up a Cathay Pacific account, transfer points from Capital One, and book a LHR SEA flight on British Airways next May. Flying ORD MAD next April with Amex points transferred to Iberia.

 

[Chuckanut]

Another example:
- I spent $39,500 to date on my sapphire preferred this year (yikes! A couple large medical, home improvement and a cruise on top of every expense I can stick on the card).
- those netted me $53,500 points, because of a smattering of dining and things recognized as 2x points travel
- If I spend those on the chase travel portal, they are worth $535x1.25 or about $670 towards a flight.

If I had used Citi, those $39500 spent would be worth 2x$395 or $790 that I can apply to anything including travel

As above United would require 84k points and additional cash, and British Airways would require 66K points plus another $600. I'm not retired yet, I don't have time to spend hours looking up obscure airlines deals.

I think I'm talking myself into trying to get a Citi card

I’m in the same boat. I keep coming back to the 2% card and whatever I can squeeze from the two rotating 5% cards I have.

 

[audreyh1]

My 2% card is Fidelity VISA FWIW.

But it often gets trumped by Costco Citi VISA with 4% gas/EV charging, 3% dining/hotels/travel, 2% Costco plus no foreign transaction fees. My biggest CC charges are travel related.

And the Bank of America Cash Rewards which gives me 3.75% on all online purchases plus Amazon Store Card which gives me 5% back. That’s the second largest CC spending category.

And AMEX Blue preferred which gives me 6% on groceries and 6% on internet streaming including iTunes.

So Fidelity VISA comes in only when the above categories aren’t met. Not nearly as much now. It’s used more for insurance, medical charges, some utilities, retail stores that aren’t grocery category.

 

[Montecfo]

The Costco visa is hard to beat for the value.

Not really a travel card but does a lot of things well.

My second card is usually an airline points card that I got with a huge bonus.

Couple of others lightly used.

 

[Markola]

My 2% card is Fidelity VISA FWIW.

But it often gets trumped by Costco Citi VISA with 4% gas/EV charging, 3% dining/hotels/travel, 2% Costco plus no foreign transaction fees. My biggest CC charges are travel related.

And the Bank of America Cash Rewards which gives me 3.75% on all online purchases plus Amazon Store Card which gives me 5% back. That’s the second largest CC spending category.

And AMEX Blue preferred which gives me 6% on groceries and 6% on internet streaming including iTunes.

So Fidelity VISA comes in only when the above categories aren’t met. Not nearly as much now. It’s used more for insurance, medical charges, some utilities, retail stores that aren’t grocery category.

I didn’t know about some of those.

My current set up is:
5% off Target Red Card for everything at Target and free delivery on Target.com. We buy most groceries at Super Target, which has quality, organic store brands, drive up groceries, and the app has tons of other specials. All of that means Costco prices but more manageable portions for two. Altogether, at least one free month of groceries/year.

5% Amazon Prime card for everything at Amazon and Whole Foods. Cash back option provides about $300/year.

Chase Sapphire Preferred and Delta Platinum for travel.

2% Cashback Wells Fargo Visa for general spending. Cash back averages $1,500/year.

Auto payment + YNAB Budget makes it all easy to manage.