I'm still a rewards card user, but a friend/co-worker and I were talking yesterday about cash vs rewards cards and he told me how he and his wife work the system. They "tag team," which is to say they will both apply for the same card (when necessary), spread the benefits across more categories, and add each other as authorized users. This is their setup (I had to write this down LOL):
No Annual Fee Cards
Gas: AAA Travel Visa at 5% cash back (combined with Shell rewards) – [his card]
Groceries: AAA Daily Visa at 5% cash back (*not Walmart, see below) – [her card]
Streaming: Citi Custom Cash at 5% cash back – [his card]
Dining: Citi Custom Cash at 5% cash back (not fast food – see next line) – [her card]
Fast Food: US Bank Cash+ at 5% cash back – [his card, allows 2 categories]
Cell Phones: US Bank Cash+ at 5% cash back – [his card]
Department Stores: US Bank Cash+ at 5% cash back – [her card, allows 2 categories]
Utilities: US Bank Cash+ at 5% cash back – [her card]
Amazon Shopping: Amazon Prime Visa at 5% (or more) cash back (**see below why this is listed as no annual fee) – [her card]
Annual Fees
Robinhood Gold: 3% cash back catch-all for anything not listed above, $50 annual fee to be a Gold member but offset with margin bonus invested in SGOV (he has their Roth IRA's parked at RH) – [his card]
*Walmart+ membership: $98 annual fee but opens up the OnePlus Mastercard (no annual fee) for unlimited 5% cash back at Walmart, and includes Paramount+ streaming – [her card]
**Navy Federal Flagship Visa: $49 annual fee but offers free Amazon Prime membership ($139 value) and a $120 TSA credit toward Global Entry or PreCheck – [his card, but they are both members]
T-Mobile: they pay $100/month for their Experience More plan (veteran rate) which includes free in-flight Wi-Fi on Delta, United, American, Southwest, and Alaska Airlines (they only take 1-2 trips per year and pay cash)
Total annual fees or membership costs: $197 not including the T-Mobile bill
I asked him how he keeps up with all of that and which card to use when. He said that many of them are setup with autopay. However, every card has written on the back via a Sharpie what the card is for. Genius!
Posted by GenXDrummer
4 Comments
This is actually pretty solid but damn that’s a lot of mental overhead lol. Writing categories on the back with a Sharpie is honestly brilliant though, might steal that idea
The tag team approach makes sense but you gotta have serious trust in your relationship to coordinate all that without stepping on each other’s signup bonuses. One miscommunication and you’re both burning 5/24 slots for nothing
I agree. Your co-worker has a great setup. He knows what he’s doing.
One other issue besides the Sharpie is tracking the monthly/annual caps. I am all in for cash back but have a much simpler set up and average about 3.5% overall with 4 cards (only carry 2). Good enough for me.
But this is the game, with cash back you need a lot of cards to cover categories and caps, with team travel, multiple cards for the subs.
Note one thing I was a little surprised not to see on there was the Paypal debit card.
The actual win is to get a willing P2 to play the game.