Hello everyone,
my wife and I recently paid off a lot of old credit card debt and have been using a debit card and budgeting carefully for the past 3 years while we got ourselves out of debt.
Now that we are in a place where we no longer have credit card payments, we were taking a look at our wallets and wanted to simplify a bit. Not only that, but we want to move away from using a debit card for security purposes as we confidently can say we are no longer in a position to rack up the debt again after years of budgeting with YNAB.
That being said, we would like some feedback on which cards we currently have we should keep, close, and maybe any recommendations on cards we should open. We followed the template as best as we could, so go easy on me:
CREDIT PROFILE
- * Current credit cards you are the primary account holder of: (list cards, limits, opening date):
- Capital One Platinum Secured ($700 limit, opened 11 years ago – my first card)
- Capital One QuickSilver ($3000 limit, open 10.5 years ago)
- Chase Freedom Unlimited ($1500 limit, opened 9 years ago)
- Chase Amazon Prime ($9600 limit, opened 9 years ago)
- Costco Citi Visa ($11,500 limit, opened 7 years ago)
- Apple Card ($5300 limit, opened 7 years ago)
- Chase Disney Visa ($4800 limit, opened 6 years ago)
- Best Buy Citi Card ($5300 limit, opened 5 years ago)
- Citi Double Cash ($1350 limit, opened 4 years ago)
- Kohls Card ($400 limit, opened 4 years ago)
- Capital One Venture One card ($12000 limit, opened 3 years ago)
- * FICO Scores with source (see note on FICO score sources below): Transunion: 781, Experian 778, not sure about EQ
- * Oldest credit card account age with you as primary name on the account: 11 years
- * Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 6 months: 0
- * Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 12 months: 0
- * Number of personal credit cards approved for in the past 24 months: 0
- * Annual income $: 160,000
CATEGORIES
- * OK with category-specific cards?: Yes
- * OK with rotating category cards?: Not really, seems a bit overkill for our goal
- * Estimate average monthly spend in the categories below. Only include what you can pay by credit card.
- * Dining $:200
- * Groceries $: 800 (yes, we are in a HCOL area)
- * Gas $: 300
- * Travel $: 50 (we do one trip a year which averages out to this. Wasn't a big priority for us while we were paying down debt)
- * Do you plan on using this card abroad for a significant length of time (study abroad, digital nomad, expat, extended travel)?: No
- * Any other categories (examples: phone/internet, insurance) or stores (example: Amazon) with significant, regular credit card spend (the more you specify, the better): $ 300 monthly for phone + utilities
- * Any other significant, regular credit card spend you didn't include above?: $
- * Can you pay rent by credit card? If yes, list rent amount and if there's a fee for paying by credit card: No
MEMBERSHIPS & SUBSCRIPTIONS (delete lines that don't apply)
- * Current member of Amazon Prime?: Yes
- * Current member of Costco or Sam's Club? Yes, Costco
- * Current member of Chase, US Bank or any other big bank?: Just Cap1 checking
PURPOSE
- * What's the purpose of your next card (choose ONE)?: (first credit card, balance transfer, saving money, travel rewards)
- Just want to utilize some cashback cards if possible. Travel cards would be neat, but we dont travel that much so cashback would probably be best for us.
- I hear the amex blue cash or citi custom cash is good for groceries. Maybe one of those?
Posted by Evinreud
10 Comments
man that’s a lot of cards to juggle – i’d probably close the kohls and best buy ones since they’re store specific and keep the costco visa since you already shop there anyway.
The three Capital One cards, Disney, Khols, and Best Buy are all easy trims. Call Cap One to graduate that Platinum and get your $700 deposit back. Then you can trim the rest of those
Apple Card and CFU are also trim worthy. Chase Prime, Citi Costco, and Citi Double Cash are all fine to keep.
AAA Daily Advantage would make sense as an addition for 5% groceries and 3% wholesale clubs. US Bank Cash+ for 5% home utilities & phone plans.
You could definitely close Cap1 Platinum, Kohls and Best Buy card. Don’t close too many cards at the same time. Spread those out. Your credit score will temporarily drop but will recover in a couple of months.
* Keep Costco and Amazon since you shop there
* Close the store-specific cards (Kohls, Best Buy, Disney)
* Keep 2% or higher cards (Apple, Double Cash)
* Close the cards with lower %s (all the Capital One cards, Freedom Unlimited)
* unless you think you’ll need their credit limits, and then keep them until you can get an increase on your other cards
At $800/mo on groceries, you could consider BOTH the Custom Cash and Blue Cash Preferred (EDIT: Unless most of this shopping is at Costco, in which case neither of these would be accepted… but previous commentary remains below)
* BCP gives 6% back up for a maximum of $6K/year, so if you want to maximize it, you could budget $500/month before switching to the CCC.
* CCC gives 5% back on the first $500/month in a single category, so you could use it after your BCP budget and get 5% back on the remaining $300 or so per month.
Note that the BCP does have a $95 annual fee after the first year… there are some other benefits so you could see if those are worth it to you. What some people do is wait until their annual fee posts, downgrade to the free Blue Cash Everyday, and then check back for an upgrade offer BACK to the BCP which sometimes just takes a few weeks, and waives the annual fee for another year. If you don’t want to spend this effort though and don’t want to pay the annual fee, you could each get a separate CCC and that will cover your groceries, or you can look at some other free cards listed in the sidebar.
If the $800 monthly spend on groceries is at Costco, then you don’t need another card on groceries. If not, then Cap1 Savor One is a good card for that. It has 3% on dining too.
I’d try to consolidate credit limit, if possible, with an issuer and close the rest.
I’d close the secured card and the store specific cards to start cleaning up your wallet
ETA. And the apple card as well. It’s a really poor card when it comes to cash back.
The Chase freedom unlimited gives you 1.5% cash back for everyday spend and I think is the best catch all card you currently have
Congrats! I had a similar debt journey with YNAB (Debt free since 2024) and simplified by credit card setup overtime. Here is what I recommend step by steps:
* Close the following cards: Kohls, Best Buy, and Disney
* **Why:** You have way too many cards which is increasing your risk for debt and these cards have the lowest value overrall in your setup
* Keep one of the 4 catchall and cancel rest: Citi Double Cash, Freedom Unlimited, Apple, and Quicksilver
* **Why:** They are redundant to each other and with your credit profile canceling cards will not hurt. This is a myth and when you cancel a card it stays on your profile for 10 years.
* **My recommendation:** Keeping Quicksilver and canceling the rest to centralize your spend / redemptions at your preferred bank
* Request product change from the Capital One Platinum to Capital One Savor
* **Why:** Savor is better value for everyday groceries, dining, and enterainment at 3% cashback
* **How:** You should be targeted by Capital One overtime and will show under your offers / upgrades when you click the “I want” setting button under your platinum card; more information [here](https://www.capitalone.com/learn-grow/money-management/upgrade-or-apply-for-new-credit-card/)
The results of these steps will be the following 5 cards below making this easier to manage long-term. You can later upgrade the VentureOne to Venture X when provided offer to use for luxury travel. I recommend this so you both can celebrate 🙂
* **Capital One Savor** – 3% Groceries, Dining, and Entertainment
* **Chase Amazon Prime** – 5% Amazon card
* **Citi Costco Anywhere** – 2% Costco, 4-5% Gas / EV, and 3% travel card
* **Capital One VentureOne** – Keep for utilization, history, and upgrade offer to Venture X for luxury travel when ready
* **Preferred Catchall Choice**: Citi Double Cash, Freedom Unlimited, Apple, or Quicksilver
EDIT: Formatting
If you’re looking for a designated grocery card, the AAA Daily Advantage is probably the best option. 5% on groceries, up to $10,000 of spend each year.
However, if you use Costco for groceries, no designated grocery card is going to count them as a grocery store.
Out of the cards you have, I’d keep Costco for gas and restaurants, Amazon for Amazon, and Citi Double Cash for everything else.
To OP. There is power in simplicity I too played the credit card game with 18 in rotation at one time and while it was fun the mental gymnastics to keep up with spend categories, transferring out to partners etc. gets old fast. I recommend Fidelity visa rewards credit card. 2% that you can take as cashback or route to your brokerage. I travel internationally many times a year, and this beats out the city double cash, because of the zero foreign transaction fees. If you choose to continue using a debit card, just use it through Apple Pay safest way to use your debit card.
Close platinum, quicksilver, CFU, Apple Card, Disney, kohls, Best Buy over a period of time. PC venture one to savor. For the future, look into custom cash for gas + aaa daily advantage or Amex bcp for groceries (if you already pay for Disney+/hulu). Venture x could be a travel option later on IF you’re able to use the $300 travel credit per year – 75k miles from SUB could fund a good portion of a future trip and if things change and you want to transition from cashback to miles, you’ll have the capital one duo which is probably the most simple way to earn miles with decent multipliers.