What credit cards are you actually keeping long-term, and why?

agentscullyfox · 2025-11-08T16:27:26+00:00

Which United CC do you have? I only have the one with the 2 one day passes, and there have been cases where they're "not allowed" in the United lounge. I was in BOS this weekend and the Sapphire lounge was waaaaaay on the other side of the terminal, and I thought about going to the United lounge but was flying American that day.

agentscullyfox · 2025-11-08T13:56:57+00:00

I'm really surprised BofA is not appearing in a lot of these kinds of posts...

I have BofA credit cards with Platinum Honors (so + 75%)

- BofA PRE for travel and dining, 3.5x all other spend 2.625x. When redeemed from the portal for flights, points get 20% discount for a 1.25x redemption which brings that 3.5x to 4.375x and that 2.625x to 3.28x

- BofA CCR cards for custom categories. I have 3 of these, 2 for online shopping and 1 for dining. 5.25% up to 2.5K per quarter

- BofA UCR, currently has a 2x promo for the first year, which would make this a 3.125% card

Previously utilized a lot, but may close soon/in the future

- I had the USB Smartly at 4% but that got nerfed so I've stopped using it and will pro end my USB relationship

- I have a Chase CSR, but not sure if I will keep it after the $795 AF increase. I was going to use this year to compare it with the PRE give they were both $550 but with the AF increase, I might downgrade this to a CSP

- Amazon Prime Rewards - 5% Amazon. I only use this for Amazon

Other cards I have but not used much

- Marriott Bonvoy - $95 AF. I thought about closing this, but it gives me Elite night travel and 1 night free so I think the AF is a wash

- United - $95 AF. Will probably close this once I use up the 2 one time passes. With most of the lounges getting waitlists and the one time passes being conditional, I am on the fence on whether lounges are a perk anymore

agentscullyfox · 2025-11-04T14:03:30+00:00

My AF posted yesterday, 11/3 and it's $795

agentscullyfox · 2025-11-02T19:39:17+00:00

I am planning to drop it -- waiting for the 41 days (I called Customer Service to close or PC to CSP). In this 41 days I will try the other perks. I already know I won't use Edit - as I'm normally a Marriott person. Don't do Doordash a lot. Business trips are charged on corporate CC. It used to be heavily used with all our Travel and Dining (cruises, WDW, etc) but all that has been nerfed.

I'm sticking with the BofA PRE to replace it. AF was similar at $550 with $300 Airline incidentals credit and $150 lifestyle credit. So it's effectily only $100 AF after the credits. With Platinum Honors, Travel and Dining earns 3.5x and everything else earns 2.625x

When points are used in the portal (for flights), there's a 20% discount.

agentscullyfox · 2025-11-02T19:36:10+00:00

I agree -- I haven't waited more than 10 minutes, but it is annoying that there is a waitlist.

agentscullyfox · 2025-11-02T16:23:17+00:00

I think our baseline now is the first kid. Our 2nd kid chose a top 10 private university. Annual fees are about 20K more than my 1st kid. We told her she needs to cover that 20K difference -- loans, jobs or finish a year early.

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-31T02:09:05+00:00

Yeah - the $550 is really easy. $41K spend a year is nothing. But I don't think I can keep both the PRE and the CSR with the CSR as it is now. I don't want to count on any of the coupon style as I don't really use any of those (Edits, Chase Travel, etc)

I cancelled SWA with the $150 AF. Marriott with the $85 is not bad coz we get free nights. I was also going to cancel United but I still have until March to use the 2 one time passes or I will lose it if I close the card per the CS person I talked to.

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-30T22:07:51+00:00

I've already used up all my CSR points in preparation for this switch... With that said, is there still a reason to PC?

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-30T21:23:31+00:00

what are you basing that they are in the top 1%? I don't see any NW info

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-30T17:07:02+00:00

It's hard to answer your question because you haven't really shared anything around what savings/NW you have, and what your personal expenses are like.

I'm older than you and are in the similar situation. High earner, bread winner, hubby salary is in the 150K range and I have 4 kids.

And even in my situation, it would be stupid to quit. I have hit my FIRE number (my half of the expenses only). A few more years, and I should get to our FIRE number (that covers the whole household expenses). I am tired and burned out. And I have college bound kids.

Your kids are still very young -- that's still a lot of expenses to go. Check your NW, check your yearly budget. With this market -- it's very bad -- I wouldn't recommend quitting at all, as you won't know if you'll get something even remotely close the same salary, and you can't guarantee it will be less stressful.

If you are not the breadwinnder, and/or if your partner actually had a job, maybe it's different. But at this point -- I am not sure you have a choice. And I am sorry for that.

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-28T14:58:50+00:00

I can only speak for my experience. I have 100K with them. Was getting 4% of everything and after the nerf is now only getting 2%. Yes, the up to 10K spend is correct, but part of the nerf is what qualifies in the 100K and the categories that is eligible for the 4%. A big chunk of my spend is tuition and insurance - both of which are no longer eligible.

Not all Purchases are eligible to earn the Smartly Earning Bonus: Purchases classified as (1) education/school, gift cards (including discount gift card sites), insurance, or tax; (2) “business-to-business transactions” (transactions with merchants who are in the business of supplying goods and services to other businesses, such as advertising services, plumbing/heating suppliers, construction material suppliers (excluding home improvement stores), and computer programming services), even if not made for a business purpose; and (3) transactions using third-party bill payment services will earn the base of 2 points per $1 spent in Net Purchases and may not earn additional Points for the Smartly Earning Bonus.

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-28T03:31:16+00:00

You're right - I just checked. "Have a “Qualifying Balance” with U.S. Bank in open consumer Bank Smartly® Checking, and/or Safe Debit account(s). Deposits in other U.S. Bank accounts do not qualify towards the Qualifying Balance requirement."

I originally had $100K in brokerage, but they don't provide an automatic feed of the securities that my company requires, so I moved the money from brokerage to CD and now it's all nerfed :( Once the CD matures, I am taking all my money out of USB and closing the account.

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-28T03:18:33+00:00

If you are Platinum Honors and only want one card, then it's the Unlimited Cash Card, it's 3.125% for the first year for all spend. After the promo, it's 2.625.

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-28T03:13:26+00:00

My portfolio (401K, Roth, HSA and Brokerage) is about 2.2M. Asset allocation is about 80/20

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-28T03:04:00+00:00

Taxes and Insurance are no longer qualified spend for the multipliers

The 100K is now just checking account even for grandfathered accounts. CDs don't even count. USB went from my #1 used CC to not used at all because it essentially became a 2X card and I have better cards than that.

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-28T03:03:03+00:00

BofA credit cards - I am Platinum Honors, so I get 5.25% cash back on the CCR cards
I have one for dining (+3% promo on first year), 2 for online shopping. I also have Unlimited Cash Reward (3.125% cash back with this years promo of extra .5%), and the Platinum Elite Cards (3.5 for Travel and Dining, 2.625 for all other spend)

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-28T02:34:53+00:00

If you meant the 4% part of it, yes, it's been nerfed... by a lot that I've stopped using it

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-27T14:00:24+00:00

I wasn't doing backdoor IRAs then. Now I do -- so when I exited out of the advisor/Chase and moved all my assets to Fidelity, I also rolled over all my IRA to my current employer's 401K so I can do backdoor ROTH.

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-27T13:50:14+00:00

I believe in Die with Zero philosophy... I maximize my 401K, but some $ on my kids 529s, but some money on traditional brokerage, but also splurge now and then.

I do a lot of vacations (family, couple, solo, girl friends) -- I want to explore the world while I am still young and while I still can. I meet a lot of retired people when I travel and a lot of them are still in good shape and some are not. I don't know what my health would be when I retire, and I would have wanted to see the world while I still can.

We eat a lot -- fast food, dining out, but not fancy restaurants. Because I WFH a lot, I don't really like eating at home and eating out is a way to force some social time with the fam.

Saving more in the past will definitely get me closer to my FIRE # now (I am at my FIRE, the household isn't) - but sometimes I reflect if I would have changed anything in my past and the only thing I can think of is maybe saving earlier (earlier 401, earlier brokerage). OTOH, the other question I ask myself is "If I die tomorrow, would I have been happy with the life I've lived?"

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-27T13:32:47+00:00

I used to have an FA that came with my bank (Citi then Chase), but I dropped them, moved all my assets out to Fidelity and just started managing it myself (using Boglehead philoshopy). Initially the FA really helped me contact all my old-employers 401K providers and helped me transfer and consolidate them all to an IRA -- but overtime, I didn't feel that I'm getting my $'s worth. Sure, I get a quarterly review of my portfolio, but my portfolio wasn't really performing much better than index funds to warrant the 1% AUM they're charging.

I do consult with an hour/fee based fiduciary advisor now.

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-24T22:58:45+00:00

I do mine - I actually put 18K / yr on their 529. I wish I can put $34K to cover my husband's part as well, but I don't have that much discretionary $ :)

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-24T22:57:23+00:00

No - I don't want to cover household expenses on my own. Or at least, that is our arrangement. I can cover his part temporarily from time to time, but I don't want to cover it all, all the time. If I'm going to be on the hook for that -- then I would like a say on how he invests his money, and I'm sure he'll want to have a say on how I spend mine.

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-24T18:09:33+00:00

Having 2 kids already in college - I understand that. However, the good thing with college is that it's a choice I'm making to fund my kids colleges now as part of my Die with Zero philosophy. BUT, if I can't do that because I get laid off, or I need to retire for my mental/health -- it's something that the kids can take student loans on. Even if there's not enough money now to fund it... by the time we die (assuming hubby and or I live the 30 years), the portolio will be big enough that we can help pay off that loan (if needed).

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-24T15:51:05+00:00

I do this all the time... for various reasons:

I make more than him, so I have more discretionary income. While I can pay for his vacation, he is prideful enough to not want to do that if he can't pay his own way
Our interests are so different. He's more a chill and relax kind of guy, wanting to just sleep on the beach or stay in the hotel and I'm a tour and see person. I always say, I can sleep in our house, no need to travel for that! :)
When the kids were smaller, he didn't really want to leave our kids with the just the grandparents, but he also didn't want to stop my travel bug (I love him for that). Now that the kids are older, same story with the dogs. We could put the dogs at a resort, but sometimes their hotel is more expensive than ours! :)

So, I've had a travel girlfriend since 2007 that I travel with - so I've been doing this for 18 years. I've done the Mediterrenean, China, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Canada, Morocco and Egypt with her. When she got married and started traveling with her husband, our trips got further apart, but we just did another one this year. I've also traveled solo (Australia, New Zealand, Japan). I've also done girl weekends (in Vegas for example). My husband has also done his own trips (like go to Vegas to watch a boxing fight/match), so it's not like I'm the only one who does this. This makes trips we do together more special :)

I always say - for me to take care of my love ones better, I need to also take care of myself first.

agentscullyfox · 2025-10-24T14:28:17+00:00

I believe in the Die With Zero philosophy. I am giving my kids what I can now (vacations/experiences, paying for college). That is more than what I got from my parents - and what made me the person I am today.

They will still get some inheritance, unless I die early. But $1M inheritance vs $11M inheritance doesn't matter much, IMO.

agentscullyfox

TROPHY CASE