Every hobbyist has a hiding place for credit cards I’m sure. They just don’t all fit in the wallet or purse at one time if you play this game seriously. I am constantly shuffling cards in and out but thought, for the fun of it, I dive deep just to see what’s still active and in the pile. But first, in the wallet:
Three debit cards for money order deposits, four credit cards including:
- Navy Federal CU for 3 points per $1 on grocery.
- Amex Gold for 4 points per $1 at restaurants.
- BofA Travel Rewards for 2.625% on all other spend.
- Amex Platinum card just out of habit and to pay for occasional airline tickets. In reality, I leave it in my wallet so I can have access to Centurion Lounges when I travel and don’t take it out because I’m afraid I’ll leave it in the sock drawer.
And now the drawer
I haven’t been through this collection one by one in years and may actually have some oldies but goodies. The total number of active cards in my sock drawer is 24, with the oldest being an M & T Bank Business card from my old 0% balance transfer days. That is at least 10 years ago.
No fee as most of these are within the first year the fee hasn’t come due yet.
Chase
My Chase cards are Hyatt, Sapphire Preferred, IHG, Ink Business Plus and I have an authorized user card Ink Business Cash from a friend that lets me spend $20K at 5X at Staples.
Huh, I thought I had five of my own but just going through this remembered I canceled the Marriot Business card when the fee came due.
American Express
Amex is Gold, Biz Blue, Delta Gold Personal and Delta Gold Business and Hilton Aspire.
Other cards
Discover Basic and Discover It as I hate quarterly bonuses I never use these.
Wells Fargo and Suntrust Cash Rewards.
Citi Premier, Preferred, Double Cash, 3 AA personal and one AA Business.
Terps Card from University of Maryland, Navy Fed Flagship Rewards, PenFed Platinum Rewards and a Barclays Choice Hotels (Barclays never liked me much).
And last a PayPal Cashback Mastercard and OOPS a Paypal debit card.
US Bank never cared for me much like Barclays although I’ve had a few Barclays cards.
And my wife as her own stash of 19 active credit cards. She has a Barclays Aviator, both the Amex Aspire and Ascend cards and holds a Marriott business card as well.
Katy carries two cards in her wallet: Bank of America Travel Rewards card as my AU and her own Amex Gold card.
Final thoughts
Our credit scores are in the high 780’s. We are always looking for new cards to apply for, and realize that this year is going to involve some major changes in our card holdings.
With the elimination of the ability to buy airline gift cards with our high annual fee cards, some are destined for the shredder this year. But that’s another story.
Ok fellow hobbyists: What are we missing? How many are you juggling? Anything you wish you could get but are 5/24? Once in a lifetime? Or every 24 or 48 months out of luck with?
It’ll be another 18 months until I’m under 5/24, so I would luv to get my hands on one of those Chase Business Cards (80K) again!
Hey Rick, been following your posts and love your contribution to pointchaser! Former FWF vet here. Come join us at fragiledeals.com (migrated FWF forum, but not the membership we used to have in the old days… )
How do you join?
“The administrator is currently not accepting new membership registrations.” and the contact the administrator button has an invalid email. Must be exclusive!
Sorry, fragiledeals.com is the exclusive forum. Try fragiledeal.com (without the ‘s’).
You use the Navy 3x for groceries over the Amex Gold 4x? Is it cause you maxed out the 100k MR on this category?
I keep the Ink cards in wallet for when I pass Staples or OfficeMax. If no gift cards with reduced fees I pick up the Everywhere cards to generate points at around 1/2 cent.
I keep the Hilton Surpass for gas and gift cards at grocery stores to get extra bonus points enroute to the 15k spend required for free night. Have two of them now.
My sock drawer cards are literally in my sock drawer. I should take them out and cycle, but never do. Occasionally I pull out a hotel specific one if staying at their brand but mostly not. Too lazy.
Yes we both reached our 25k grocery earlier this year with Amex Gold
why would you pay that many annual acct fees?
I’m cheap. I only pay annual fees on cards where I get more value than fee. The other option I leave up to banks:
Give me retention bonus, convert to fee free card or I cancel.
Thanks, I was trying to figure out how the Chase Sapphire Preferred & Citi Premier fit in if you weren’t using them. In fact, I’m still not sure how the Sapphire Preferred fits for anyone despite it being heavily promoted but I digress.
I’m coming up on the AF for my Citi Premier and am hoping they offer a decent retention bonus. I too have “sock drawered” the card but am hoping to keep it long enough for a decent transfer bonus to pop up.
So he can soon replace all these credit card names with affiliate links!
So many cards…not even one direct affiliate links. Such a pity, all this effort wasted, sad!
And….yawn!
A nap is always a good idea when you’re cranky.
Still living in your head. You are so entertains here! Love seeing you self destruct over your obsession. Please continue with these amusements.
What a terrific post, Rick. I heard somewhere how it’s beneficial when feeling insecure or in question of what to do next in certain situations, to do what the smart people do. In other words, observe and learn. When you post how you are navigating this hobby, you help everyone, and I’m certainly better off following what you do, and why. Keep up the good work and I look forward to your next article.
Thank you Jo. Glad to help if I can