Folks, need a quick sanity check here. I have been using the Chase trifecta for seven years now and it's been great, but with the new annual fee due on May 1st I have a month left to decide what to do. I have liked the trifecta because of how easy it has been to use, understand, and extract value from. My wife is a reluctant participant in the trifecta strategy but learned how to use it. This is part of why I've never truly min/maxed by running 5+ cards; Amazon stays in the drawer and the trifecta stays in the wallet, something that is frictionless enough that she's been fine rolling with it. Adding more cards would complicate things for her, and so the trifecta worked with an effective 2.25% back on everything through the CFU, an effective 7.5% back on rotating categories through the CF, and an effective 4.5% back on travel and dining through the CSR. We've gotten great value through pay yourself back (during COVID) and booking travel through the portal, but with the increase in the fee, the changes to the value of points in the portal, and the useless (in my case) coupons added, I think it's time to drop it.
I live in a mid sized metro area but cannot take advantage of many of the "perks" of the new CSR. The dining credit works at three total restaurants in my city, only one of which we are interested in. The Edit is quite frankly bullshit; getting $250 back on an ultra luxury resort that costs $1,500 a night is not providing value, because I'm never gonna pay to stay at a place like that. I travel for work a few times a year and she and I take one trip via plane on average once a year, otherwise most of our travel is by road trip, particularly to Disney since we are in Florida and have three little kids and annual passes. Lyft credits are useless; the DashPass is nice but gets rarely used; StubHub would probably get used as I usually go to a few sporting events a year and buy tickets secondhand; I subscribe to Apple TV but get Spotify for free already; lounge access is nice, but most decent cards have that perk; IHG Platinum Elite status is something I don't care anything about.
I am leaning towards downgrading the CSR to a no-fee Sapphire and before doing so, transferring my points out to IHG (have about 60k points at the moment). Then the plan is to open a Venture X and eventually a Savor, and based on my math I will probably come out better on points earned, have a lower annual fee that will get zeroed out by the travel credit, and not have any coupon bullshit to deal with. The only true downgrade is the loss of free guest passes on the lounge access, but as I said, I only fly with my wife on average once a year and she said she doesn't care if I lose that perk for her.
So yeah, mostly looking for confirmation that this is the right route to go before pulling the trigger. The Amazon card would stay open; all other spend would shift to the Savor and Venture X. I am not interested in churning SUBs; just want to have a solid and stable set up to stick with for a while just as I did with the Chase Trifecta for 7 years. I do not have brand loyalty to hotels or airlines and book what makes the most sense given the circumstances, although in my smaller city I do find myself flying Delta most frequently (again, only a few times a year).
- Current cards:
- Amazon Prime Visa $27,900 limit, Aug 2012
- Chase Sapphire Reserve $20,900 limit, April 2019
- Chase Freedom $18,900 limit, Jun 2019
- Chase Freedom Unlimited $13,700 limit, July 2019
- FICO Score: 830
- Oldest account age: 17 years, 9 months
- Chase 5/24 status: 0/24
- Income: $180,000
- 2025 Annual Spend on Categories/Retailers
- Amazon $12,800
- Dining $4,140
- Costco $8,653
- Supermarkets $2,922
- Travel ~$7,500
- Sporting Events ~$1,400
- Disney Annual Passes $1,956
- Healthcare ~$4,500
- Home Improvement $1,389
- Gas $1,582
- Car Insurance $1,311
- Open to Business Cards: No
- What's the purpose of your next card? No fuss cash back or travel rewards
- Do you have any cards you've been looking at? Capital One Venture X + Savor
- Are you OK with category spending or do you want a general spending card? Ideally don't want more than 3-4 wallet cards
Sanity Check: About to swap from Chase Trifecta to Capital One Duo
byu/zman2100 inCreditCards
Posted by zman2100
6 Comments
You should never transfer to IHG. It’s actually better to cash out at 1 cpp than transfer to IHG. Hyatt will still be a much better transfer after the nerf.
As for switching to the Capital One duo, it’s probably a good move to get away from the $795 annual fee and the annoying coupons. What you’ll lose is good transfer partners to domestic airlines and hotels. International airline transfers are your only good choices. On the flip side you’ll probably earn more points and the setup is much simpler.
With your spend patterns and the family situation, Capital One makes a lot of sense here. The Venture X is solid for travel and the Savor will crush it on that dining spend, plus you’re right about the annual fee basically being free with the travel credit
Only thing I’d double-check is whether you can maximize that Costco spend better somewhere else since neither Cap One card will give you bonus points there, but overall your math seems sound for a cleaner setup
I also made the switch. I love the Venture X
Venture X is my primary card and Amex Gold for food. I spend enough to justify the Gold card over Savor, plus I need an Amex card for Rakuten. This being said, I find myself hoarding C1 points because it’s always a better deal through some other currency. United is my primary airline and the changes they have coming up likely only make this worse. If you play the field and book any airline you may find better value out of C1 points. Even in my situation, I’m planning to stick with the VX as I haven’t found a better solution. For sure, I think the C1 Duo is an upgrade over the Chase Trifecta.
Do not transfer out to IHG. If nothing else, just cash out for a statement credit or direct deposit.
Chase is a terrible ecosystem for someone who doesn’t utilize transfer partners, so moving away from it is the right move. Capital One duo definitely makes sense here due to the much stronger multipliers on everyday spend, the travel eraser permitting 1 cpp redemption without transferring points out, the travel portal having same day price matching, and the annual fee being wiped out by the annual travel credit and points bonus.
Main contender would probably be Bank of America. Even after the nerf, it’s still hard to find that combo of premium travel card benefits + solid cash back in a simple 1 to 2 card setup. The PRE with 2.25% base earn and 3% dining and travel, boosted to effective 2.81% base and 3.75% dining and travel if you use all your points via the travel portal, would work very well for you. Could be run as a standalone card or paired with the Customized Cash Rewards for 4.5% on online spending on up to $2,500 per quarter.
I would recommend downgrading to the Sapphire Preferred instead and re-evaluating where your points can go from there
You can keep the Chase cards but have the C1 duo be most of your primary setup. It’s common for people to mix with them both.