Ever since I discovered how valuable different credit card signup bonuses can be, my fiance and I have been pretty aggressive with signing up for new credit cards.  Between the two of us, we have signed up for a total of 18 credit cards in the past year, but we will probably cancel several of them when the annual fee comes around if the benefits aren’t worth the annual fee.  Contrary to what you might expect, our credit scores have each gone UP around 50 points since we started!  See Churning: Tracking and Understanding Your Credit Score for why signing up for several credit cards can actually be beneficial to your credit score as well as the various risks that you should keep in mind.  While typing this post up, I realized this would end up being a huge amount of text, so I decided to break it into 3 parts: airline cards, hotel and flexible point cards, and cash back cards.

Our 18 New Credit Cards in The Past Year Series

• Part 1: Airline Cards (9 cards)
• Part 2: Hotel and Flexible Point Cards (5 cards)
• Part 3: Cash Back Cards (4 cards)

This series is meant to show a personal example of how many cards a couple can sign up for and the various benefits that come with each one.  I list the signup bonuses we got on each which may or may not still be available, and in some cases they aren’t even the best signup bonuses available for the respectable card.  I also list out the thought process that we’ll go through before deciding whether or not to cancel each one once the annual fee becomes due, because this is an important part of any long term churning strategy.  All in all, hopefully you can get something beneficial by going over the cards we liked and learn something from our mistakes of either not getting the best signup bonus or spreading our points out over too many programs.

Hotel Credit Cards

In addition to flights, hotels are a major part of the cost on most vacations.  Fortunately, many hotel credit cards exist that can help cut down on those costs and we’ve signed up for a few of them.

Chase IHG Rewards Club Select Mastercard

I applied for this card under a recent public offer of 80,000 points after spending $1,000 in the first 3 months and the annual fee was waived for the first year.  Hotel points aren’t typically worth as much as airline miles, but it’s much easier to earn them through regular spending and the signup bonuses are typically bigger.  This is an amazing card because you get IHG’s Platinum status for as long as you have the card AND each year you pay the annual fee of $49, you get a free night at ANY of IHG’s properties.  That includes everything from the Intercontinental in New York to the over-water bungalows in Bora Bora and more.  We already have plans to use most of the 80,000 points earned though the signup bonus on our upcoming New York trip.

Despite having an annual fee, this card is a no-brainer to keep because of the amazing benefits.  Platinum status comes with a chance of getting free room upgrades, and the free night each year is worth WAY more than the $49 annual fee.  Becky will probably sign up for this card around the same time of year I did so our free night expiration dates (must be used within a year of earning) line up, allowing us to get 2 free nights towards one of our trips any time of the year.

Citi Hilton HHonors Reserve Card

Becky applied for this card with the standard bonus of 2 free weekend nights after spending $2,500 in the first 4 months.  The annual fee of $95 was not waived for this card, but comes with Hilton Gold Status for as long as you have the card and the 2 free weekend nights work at almost any Hilton hotel.  Hilton Gold status is one of the best mid-tier hotel statuses as it comes with free breakfast and free room upgrades depending on availability.  The primary motivation for getting this card is to use the 2 free weekend nights on our upcoming New York trip.  I still haven’t decided which Hilton we will use it at, but there appears to be several quality options available.

This card is a tough one when it comes to deciding whether or not we’ll pay the annual fee to keep it.  The Gold status is a great perk, but only if we plan to stay at Hilton hotels.  The card does offer an annual bonus of a free weekend night, but you have to spend at least $10,000 over the course of the previous year to qualify for it.  The opportunity cost on spending $10k is at least $200 (2% cashback card), but at 3 Hilton points earned per dollar, at least of half of that is made up by points.  Assuming we would get half a cent each out of redeeming the points and stayed at an expensive property with the free night, it’s probably worth it.  We’ll see how my spending maps out over the course of the year and make a last minute call on whether or not we keep this one.

American Express Hilton HHonors Card

I signed up for this card when the bonus was 50,000 Hilton points and a statement credit of $50 after spending $750 in the first 3 months.  This card has no annual fee, but lacks all of the perks of the Hilton Reserve card discussed above.  My original thought when applying for this card was to extend our 2 free weekend nights into a third night with points, but for a couple different reasons it doesn’t look like we’ll use that option.  We’ll find a use for them on a future trip, probably somewhere where a night doesn’t cost 70,000+ points.  A secondary motivation was to get any no annual fee card from Amex simply to hold on to it for the long term to help my relationship with them.  With Amex Offers, having this card with an authorized user will end up making me a small amount of money over the course of a year via gift card opportunities and Small Business Saturday.

This card has no annual fee, so I don’t plan to cancel it any time soon.  American Express limits card bonuses to once per lifetime, so I wouldn’t be able to cancel this card and apply again for another bonus unless they change their rules somewhere down the line.

Flexible Point Credit Cards

Several credit issuers have their own currency that is tied to multiple of their credit products.  Chase has Ultimate Rewards, Amex has Membership Rewards, Citi has Thank You Points, and there’s more than that.  These points are often very valuable because of their flexibility.  They all have both airline and hotel transfer partners as well as allow you to book just about any flight through their portal with points at a fixed value.  They can also be used toward gift cards or even statement credits in some cases.  All of these options make them more valuable than your average airline mile or hotel point, and the flexibility is one of the main reasons that we signed up for these cards.

American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card

Becky signed up for this card after being targeted for a 50,000 MR signup bonus after spending $1,000 in the first 3 months and the annual fee of $175 is waived for the first year.  This card recently went through some changes that added dining as a 2x bonus category as well as offering a $100 airline credit, but at the same time the annual fee was increased by $20 up to $195.  The Membership Rewards (MR) that this card earns offer several transfer partners including Delta, British Airways, and Hilton, and can be used towards flights directly at 1 cent per point.  Despite having earned this points a while ago, I still haven’t found a great use for them yet.  Once we start looking at our next international trip, I’ll probably be able to find a good transfer where we can get value out of them, but for now they are just sitting there.

At $195, it’s hard to justify keeping this card for our spending and travel habits right now.  I’m sure some are able to get great value out of this card with the $100 airline credit, but I think we’ll be cancelling this one later this year.

Chase Sapphire Preferred

I signed up for this card recently for a signup bonus of 45,000 UR (40,000 + 5,000 for adding an authorized user) after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months with the annual fee waived for the first year.  I value Chase Ultimate Rewards (UR) points at a much higher value than MR because of the greater number of transfer partners including Hyatt and United.  A great thing about UR is that it’s possible to simply cash them out for a statement credit at any time for a value of 1 cent per point.  That makes the signup bonus worth a minimum of $450, but a great redemption would at least double that value.

This card is physically cool because the card is actually made out of metal and has a little weight to it, but it’s going to be a tough decision on whether or not I keep it.  With bonus categories of dining and travel (2x each), I will probably use this card a decent amount when I’m not going for a signup bonus and UR points are very valuable.  At the same time, I don’t know if I spend enough at restaurants and travel to justify the annual fee over just using a simply 2%+ cashback card instead.  I’m leaning towards opening a Freedom card within the next year and downgrading this card to a Freedom as well to give me 2 Chase Freedom cards.  This will allow me to double the quarterly limit of $1,500 in the 5x categories which also earn UR points.

 Totals

For the 3 hotel cards, we earned 130,000 hotel points from the signup bonus and 2 free weekend nights at almost any Hilton property (and $50).  This is pretty good value for only 3 cards, but I’m currently looking for some additional hotel cards to supplement the large amount of airline miles we currently have.  For the two bank cards with flexible points, we earned 95,000 points which at the very least is worth ~$950, but we should be able to get more value than that transferring to travel partners.  A healthy mix of airline miles and hotel points along with some flexible points to fill in the gaps should make booking our next vacation a fun affair.