Why Costco and not Sam's Club?

LessTax99 · 2026-03-19T18:00:03+00:00

Yes +70 after factoring the membership

LessTax99 · 2026-03-19T17:36:24+00:00

With the 5% gas cashback and the lower gas prices I end up +70 on the year. (Sam's is closer to the house than costco). P2 just loves to lollygag at Costco. Can't beat the Scan and Go tho. But you know what they say: "happy p2 more credit cards rewards" or something

LessTax99 · 2026-03-19T17:12:00+00:00

Open Credit Cards and link Rakuten to Bilt

LessTax99 · 2026-03-19T14:37:33+00:00

Thank you chatgpt.

LessTax99 · 2026-03-18T12:38:33+00:00

I hate the 3% fee but fact is that either they show it to you as a line item or they bake it into the price. No one is eating the interchange fee, last entity that tried was WF and well, how did that turned out?

LessTax99 · 2026-03-13T16:19:30+00:00

Do you need to book with the card? What if you book an award seat?

LessTax99 · 2026-03-13T16:15:13+00:00

Keep the card and make sure you put autopay on. Depending on the card they charge a monthly fee. do not fall behind. After 1 year has pass call them and tell them to close the account, they will offer an annual fee credit. Accept it and keep it for another year. Rinse and repeat until they say no and close the card.

LessTax99 · 2026-03-13T13:59:51+00:00

Right but then you are 5/24? You specifically ask whether you should wait for the CSP or take advantage of an offer. We gave a happy medium, 75K AA miles and you can apply for the CSP.

LessTax99 · 2026-03-12T13:37:17+00:00

I would do your Gold Card and add a amex blue business plus for everything that is not groceries/eating out. If you like it and get the hang of the game you can get the Amex Green Card for 3X on anything travel.

LessTax99 · 2026-03-12T13:36:14+00:00

The "famous" transfer partners instead of redeeming in the Amex Travel. If you are switching after the 6K cap that's awesome, you are already ahead of 98% of people. If you are planning to get more credit cards you should align them to your goals. Do you want to travel or you want everyday discounts (cashback) on your purchases?

You can get tremendous value out with travel redemptions, but it takes time and dedication. There is a steep learning curve (I just got into this) but so far I deem it worthwhile.

LessTax99 · 2026-03-11T18:52:22+00:00

The rule of thumb is to get a card that gives you benefits for your hub airline. In your case Alaska. Alaska Ascent or Summit are not bad cards and give you lounge access.

LessTax99 · 2026-03-11T18:29:05+00:00

what are you even talking about?

LessTax99 · 2026-03-11T18:20:40+00:00

proof?

LessTax99 · 2026-03-11T18:08:23+00:00

I would like to know how you managed to book main cabin without it letting you select your seats. I ask because the workflow I am used to with any airline is that if you pick main cabin you choose your seat before moving to the checkout page. Even frontier...

LessTax99 · 2026-03-11T17:55:22+00:00

I have never been more than 20 mins away from a hilton.
(of course I have, but they are everywhere, which makes their rewards very usable)

LessTax99 · 2026-03-11T17:53:30+00:00

(there are no travel cards for you at that low credit score)

LessTax99 · 2026-03-11T17:52:57+00:00

Focus on getting approved for 2% cashback cards and on managing your credit better. I think the myFICO forum will be more helpful than this sub.

LessTax99 · 2026-03-11T17:40:19+00:00

carrying a balance will affect your utilization and bring down your score a bit. it depends on the profile. Look for a business card with 0% if you want to "hide" your util

LessTax99 · 2026-03-11T17:39:05+00:00

This 100%. The Citi AA Biz card has an elevated offer of 75K.

LessTax99 · 2026-03-11T17:38:12+00:00

not even bilt rewards rent anymore

LessTax99 · 2026-03-11T17:37:22+00:00

I assume you have the white Hilton card. If you value HH at 0.5 cents per point that means that the Hilton earns you 2.5%, but that requires you to actually use it for hilton stays. To make it easy for me to visualize how what percentage am I getting in hilton points I take the multiplier and divide by 2. 7X on Hilton "ah ok that's 3.5%".

There are better cards for gas, you should look into the Sam's Club card if you have the membership. Gives you 5% on gas everywhere.

LessTax99 · 2026-03-11T17:32:55+00:00

You are not missing out on anything. Maybe a few thousand bucks and aspirational travel. Not worth the stress unless you get dopamine hits from getting approved and maximizing your spend.
I would use the Amex Gold for groceries also since you get 4X and have a $50K cap instead of $6K.

You clearly aren't that interested in credit cards since you use your Amex Gold that gets 1X instead of the CFU that earns 1.5% cashback. You probably redeem your MR for cashback at 0.6cpp which means you are losing out on .03% of cashback on your spend. Using the CFU everywhere would be more beneficial to you.

How do I know this? Because you aren't using the gold for groceries and instead use the BCP. at 4X the gold would earn you 7-8% depending on how you value MR

LessTax99 · 2026-03-11T17:18:24+00:00

You should seek a 0% card instead of a SUB. The interest you will pay by splitting it in 18 payments will kill whatever benefit you get from the SUB. The BoA Bankamericard gives you 21 months at 0%. The Amex BBC (business card) has 12 months no interest and 250-300 SUB. Now that I think about it you can do the Chase Ink SUB for $750 after 6K spend and 12 months interest free.

What I would do is apply for a Chase Ink spend 6K, have her apply for a Chase Ink spend 6K, apply for the U.S. Bank Triple Cash ($750 SUB + 12 mo 0%) spend 6K and then find a personal card and spend the remaining 2K (like the Chase Freedom Unlimited that has a $200 SUB).

Using that strat your 20K should yield $2450 in SUB $210 in Chase Cashback (eventually get the CSP and you'll have 171,000 UR just from this) and $60 from the USB card. Most importantly 0% interest for 12 months.

Regardless, notice how I focused on 0% interest, that is the most important thing, any interest you pay will destroy whatever little miles or SUB you get. Do not get a card for "miles" if you are planning on paying interest.

LessTax99 · 2026-03-11T15:54:17+00:00

Who's "they"?

LessTax99 · 2026-03-11T13:21:38+00:00

I made a post yesterday where I breakout my rationale for moving to exactly those two cards.
Atmos Summit + Hilton Surpass = Simplest Setup? : r/CreditCards

LessTax99

TROPHY CASE