Its been a while since I have written a full blown guide. I think the last one were “a beginners guide to Chase cards” (last updated: 2018 lol) and anti-churning rules (last updated: I have no idea), both were cross-posted in r/churning at some point. Well, 4 years later, here is a natural follow-up to the guide.
I don’t plan to make this guide super through hence why it is titled “intermediate”. I expect you to know “beginners material” beforehand like what is 5/24, what is UR, etc.
If you are under 5/24, you have two choices
- Prolong 5/24 until desired time or
- Get out of 5/24 asap
prolong 5/24: This group may include individuals who
- want to permanently stay under 5/24
- stay under 5/24 until they can time Southwest card application (maybe they are trying to optimize Companion Pass)
- optimize their SUB on Chase cards by getting as many Chase SUB as possible
- getting Chase cards only at or near all-time high bonus
- people who want to space out their apps hoping to avoid shutdown due to too many recent inquiries or new accounts
- are doing some funny business
get out of 5/24 asap: This group may include individuals who can’t wait to be done with Chase applications because they
- are happy with their Chase card portfolio (maybe they have Chase quadfecta, IHG, Hyatt, and all the typical keeper cards from Chase)
- don’t want to risk getting shutdown by poking Chase again and again.
- want to optimize their 5/24 status to some degree but can’t wait to get juicy bonuses from other banks like Amex and Citi
Which Chase Card to get?
4 years ago I wrote a guide recommending CIP, CSR, and CSP and I want to resonate the overall sentiment by saying that Chase Sapphire and Ink family should still be your top priority as far as Chase card goes.
If you plan to travel often then know that that many of us consider Chase IHG and Hyatt as “keeper cards”. It is assumed that the “value” you get from annual certificate of these card surpasses the annual fee paid. Chase also has Marriott card but it isn’t as widely accepted as a “keeper card”, especially with Amex also issuing Marriott card and there being some conflict in which card you can and cannot get at the same time.
There are other several cards like Southwest (useful for attaining Companion pass), United, etc that some may consider a keeper card as well.
Generally, you want to grab Chase cards at all-time high bonus (or close to it) but those cards also need to make sense to your habits (cash or travel, spending pattern, etc).
Business Cards that Don’t Count Towards 5/24
Many business cards (eg. that of Chase, Citi, Amex, Barclay, U.S. Bank etc) do not report to person credit report and thus won’t count towards 5/24. The number of banks that do report to person credit report is ever shrinking and includes the likes of Discover, TD Bank, and Capital One. You can read this through article from Doctor of Credit for further detail.
Small Remark on Post-5/24
I want to write a small section addressing the immediate “phase” (for a lack of a better word) post 5/24. A lot of people immediately jump into Amex and that makes sense because naturally there will usually be at least one Amex card that offers all-time high offer.
However, it is worth noting that Amex is known to handout cards like candies, however this is not true for all other banks. For instance, US Bank and Barclay are known to be a little tougher to get cards with. If you are someone who does a lot of mobile payment then grabbing Altitude Reserve soon after 5/24 makes sense. Similarly, grabbing one of the higher offers from Barclay also makes sense in the immediate post-5/24 phase.
It is also worth noting that you might want to build history with various other banks while you are still under 5/24. For example, you might want to prep for Altitude Reserve application by opening a checking account with US Bank beforehand (obviously do it when there is a good offer on a checking account). You might also want to open checking account with BoA (again, when there is a good checking offer).
All-Time High Bonuses
If you are under 5/24, you may not have much choice as the card you want to get may from Chase may not have an all-time high bonus. However, post 5/24, you can start to be rather picky.
Checking All-Time High Bonuses
I strongly recommend US Credit Card Guide (UCCG) for this purpose. UCCG will have a chart for each card and this chart will date all the signup bonuses, their spending requirement, as well as if annual fee was waived or not.
This is a super cool feature because you
- don’t have to remember what the highest signup bonus was for any card
- know exactly how long ago the highest signup bonus existed
- know all signup bonus that card ever had at a quick glance
- you can quickly compare current signup bonus with the highest offer in existence
- in some cases, you might also realize that for some card, like BoA Amtrak (UCCG), all-time high bonus only comes around once a year or so.
I don’t remember all the details of what the all-time high bonus was, especially for non-Chase cards, so their chart comes pretty handy in checking where the existing bonus lands in comparison to previous bonuses. These charts also give you some sense of when a all-time high bonuses might come back. This is particularly helpful with some offers, like BoA Amtrak (UCCG) where all-time high only comes around once a year or so.
Check Top Offers from Credible Sources
Unfortunately, big sites aren’t always the great places to get credit card recommendations from. They almost always have affiliate links (third part or better yet banks pay them per approved application) so it is in conflict of their interest on which card (and thus offer) they rank as #1, #2, etc. Often, banks and cards paying highest will be found at the top of the list. This is generally why you will always see articles on same cards (CSP, CIP, CSR, Plat, etc) getting churned over and over again. Obviously, none of the cards on above list are bad but the offer being pushed to you at the time might not be the best, or worst yet there might another elevated offer for the same card going around at that time (which the blog may choose to not promote because their affiliate link doesn’t have said offer).
Now that all of that is out of the way, let’s talk about few links I personally use.
- Doctor of Credit (DOC): generally well liked. Doesn’t use affiliate links.
- US Credit Card Guide (UCCG): Uses affiliate link but shows historic offers on the chart so no room to mislead.
The above two will have you covered 99% of the time. Sometimes, I notice some excellent offers don’t make it to the list until a few days later, but that is expected, nevertheless it is worth being aware of.
I used to occasionally look at a similar page from MilesNerd (no affiliate or referral) but unfortunately he doesn’t update it anymore. There is also a similar page from Frequent Miler (uses affiliate links). I am mostly putting FM’s page to showcase the fact that (a) he flat out discloses which aren’t an affiliate link (although it is easy enough to check) and (b) he seemingly ranks card by “first year value” which is pretty much a YMMV territory. Then there are various other other ways people do it like the famous DansDeal who practically allows CardRating (their affiliate middleman) to manage which card shows up on top of the list….this IMO is a huge no-no, especially if you’re looking to to get the best list of cards with as little bias as possible.
The Value of Points
Is 50k Hyatt points the same as 50k Hilton points? Obviously not. I would almost link to some blogs that put valuation on these points but this is a huge YMMV territory. Blogs using affiliate links are selling you the card and thus it is in their favor to exaggerate the valuation.
When Platinum card was refreshed in late June of 2021, I jokingly said I conservatively value Platinum at $7500. Few days later, credit card salesman from TPG wrote “even the average consumer who doesn’t travel all the time can find approximately $7,155 of value from the first year of holding this card” (reddit link).
Nevertheless, its a good idea to know which point is relatively more valuable than the other. Generally, bank points from Chase, Amex, and Citi, shortly known as UR, MR, and TY and valued higher because of their ability to be transfer to various transfer partner. A lot of novice users value UR (easy to earn through cards and easy to use partners) while some intermediate-advanced points maximize may prefer MR or even TY.
Now, if you ask me if I will choose 2 UR or 4 cent, my answer will always be 4 cent because I don’t value UR at 2 cent per point (cpp), however, you will find people in this hobby (not just bloggers looking to make affiliate money) who will value 2 UR over 4 cents.
But What Card is Actually Useful for MY Trip?
This is a key things you need to answer on your own. I suggest checking out r/awardtravel, which is a subreddit for discussing redemption of hotel and airline miles. Their dated award travel tool post on sidebar has a few tools that you may use. For example, you may use
- Awardhacker to try to figure out which airline points might be best for your trip.
- Awardmapper or Wandr to try to figure out which hotel points might be best for your trip.
There are a lot of other tools you may use. I leave it up to you to figure that.
Closing Thoughts
Instead of telling you what card to apply for (with an affiliate or referral link), I’m telling you how to find the best next card for YOU. I hope you learned something. Now, go get your next card.
