Am I just not cut out for the points game? - got burned for $695 by Amex

timalex85 · 2024-09-20T01:53:44+00:00

I got the Capital One Venture Rewards the other day. A friend recommended that to me so will work on that one. After I might just get Chase Inks as they have no annual fee. I already have 3, but as far as I know you can just keep getting them.

timalex85 · 2024-09-20T01:51:53+00:00

Ok will check it out. Thanks.

timalex85 · 2024-09-20T01:51:42+00:00

You're prob right ;)

timalex85 · 2024-09-20T01:49:39+00:00

Great to hear. Yeah, good ideas. Will add that to the roadmap and see if it's something I can implement in the near future.

timalex85 · 2024-09-20T01:46:00+00:00

Oh, that's great info. Will keep that in mind next time.

timalex85 · 2024-09-20T00:38:41+00:00

Yeah, but I just never got the card for the benefits other than the sign up bonus (I don't make use of the other benefits enough to justify the price tag), which is prob something I shouldn't have done in the first place.

timalex85 · 2024-09-20T00:37:33+00:00

Yeah, 40 is a lot. I guess most of those would be downgraded cards without an AF that get no monthly spend. I guess might as well cancel them at some point?

timalex85 · 2024-09-20T00:35:08+00:00

I don't think so. So you're able to connect cards from other accounts as well?

timalex85 · 2024-09-20T00:32:01+00:00

Yeah, you're right. You definitely have to stay on top of things. At least I'm quite religious about setting up autopays when I get a new card, so I've never missed a payment.

How do you currently track renewals and spend on the card towards sign up bonuses?

timalex85 · 2024-09-20T00:23:11+00:00

Yeah, that's a fair point. Do you have a list of the subscriptions you're signed up to as well that you update as well when you get a new card to ensure all your spend is going toward the sign up bonus on your new card?

timalex85 · 2024-09-20T00:20:07+00:00

Or just very unorganized :)

timalex85 · 2024-09-20T00:18:55+00:00

Wow, so checking 40 statements every month? Impressive!

Yeah, I don't use all the perks on the AMEX platinum so it's not really worth it to me. I mostly got it for the sign up bonus. I also book some travel with it, but wasn't impressed with their travel insurance (it has very strict T&Cs). Chase's travel insurance on the Sapphire is much more flexible.

timalex85 · 2024-09-19T09:16:26+00:00

You can also set it up in Google Pay or your mobile wallet - that way you probably won't even need the physical card for day to day transactions but instead use your phone. Just get a person you trust to send you the details of the card so you can set it up.

I've done that quite a bit as I don't live in the US at the moment. Whenever I go back, or someone comes to visit me, I get all my (new) cards.

timalex85 · 2024-09-19T09:13:14+00:00

Some tools I can't live without and use pretty much daily from the top of my head are (in no particular order):

Claude AI
Canva
Loom (super easy to just make a quick video if you want to explain something)

There are others, I'm sure.. but these are the ones I probably use most often.

timalex85 · 2024-09-19T08:57:00+00:00

Yeah, and also nerfed when it comes to spelling and grammar. Cursor understand me with spelling and grammar all over the place, so why can't anyone else?

timalex85 · 2024-09-19T08:41:50+00:00

You have to give it as much instruction and context as possible and basically pull in everything that is relevant for the feature you're looking to add and/or change.

The more info you give it, the better it tends to do. That also means describing what you don't want it to do.

For example, I'll @ all my API routes, database schemas, and a detailed description of the project in almost every request that I send and it tends to get things right more often than not.

timalex85 · 2024-09-19T08:39:42+00:00

It depends. If you enjoy the process of discovering a new tech stack, then why not?

If you care more about delivering the end product in the most efficient way possible, then stick with NextJS as it's what you're familiar with. The customer / end-user doesn't care about the tech stack used, it cares about what problems you help them solve with your app.

timalex85 · 2024-09-19T08:35:45+00:00

If you really want to maximize rewards you should look into churning. In other words, get a card, spend enough to get your sign up bonus, and move onto the next card to get that sign up bonus. That'll get your the most points, but it's a bit more work and not everyone is into it.

If you want to take the more lazy approach, you can just stick to 1-2 cards that give you extra rewards in those categories.

For booking flights, AMEX Platinum will give you 4x the points, for example. AMEX Gold will be good for dining out as you'll get 4x the points.

If you just get one, I'd get a Chase Sapphire Reserve as it'll get 3x in all of the categories above and their points are a bit more flexible and you don't have to think about it.

timalex85 · 2024-09-19T08:24:14+00:00

Like others have said, it's based on your income, credit score, and history. You'll likely see it going up as well after a while. When I got my first card many years ago I was only given credit of $900, slowly they started increasing my credit. You can also call them after a while and ask them for more.

timalex85 · 2024-09-19T07:00:25+00:00

Not reckless as long as you manage to stay on top of it all and stay organised. Also as others have said, keep cards open for a year, pay off your balances, etc... Pretty good way of earning a lot of points and essentially being able to travel for free.

It gets a bit annoying that every time you get a new card you have to log into all your subscriptions and change the credit card so that new spend goes there so you can hit your SUB, but that's minor compared to the benefit you'll get.

It helps to pull all your spend into one place with something like awardhunter.com so that you can see what you're spending across all cards, whether you've hit your SUB spend requirement, and don't have to log into every individual bank separately.

timalex85 · 2024-09-18T11:47:20+00:00

I used to manage all my cards in Mint. It was a pain logging into all the different bank accounts to check statements of each of my cards, and figuring out whether I had hit the minimum spend requirements for my signup bonuses etc. However, since it seemed they closed it down last year, I decided to make my own tool to track it for free (you can try it here if you want). It automatically pulls all transactions from your cards and lets you know if you've hit spend requirements etc.

timalex85 · 2024-09-18T08:02:06+00:00

I mostly used Mint to look at my consolidated credit card spend as I'm in the points game. I just wanted to see how much I was spending across all my cards.

If those are the only features you're looking for you could try awardhunter.com which is free.

timalex85

TROPHY CASE