My All-Time FAVORITE Credit Cards

lots of you guys it's great here so I realize I've been slipping up a lot lately I've let a lot of you guys down and this is just unacceptable and that's because it's been way too long since I've made a credit card video four months ago to be exact and that changes today now for those who are new to the channel and haven't seen my previous credit card videos well my name is Graham Stefon and I am addicted to credit cards no but seriously they like credit cards are actually like a weird hobby of mine I know it sounds kind of weird to say that these metal and plastic squares are a hobby but yeah it's true like I collect these like some people collect Magic the Gathering because the thing is if you know how to properly use these you can use them to get a lot of free stuff like free plane tickets free travel free hotel free airport lounge access free food free just about anything it's entirely possible to use these cards to your advantage if you just know what to do because it's like I said no one loves free stuff and credit cards more than more than I do it's also with these cards that I have not paid for a single plane ticket in over three years and I've traveled throughout North America multiple times and I have not paid for a single thing it's just all just go right here for free so with this I'll be going over my all-time favorite credit cards why they are my favorite exactly what I got for them how you can use them as well as long as you just destroy the like button for the YouTube algorithm no but seriously though actually hitting a like button or commenting down below for the each of algorithm helps push the videos out to an even larger audience and then we can continue taking over the world one subscriber at a time so with that said let's get into the video so let's begin with the first grown-up credit card I've ever got and that would be the American Express gold rewards card no I got this card because it's known as what's called a charge card meaning that it's meant to be paid off in full each and every month now I never advocate ever carrying a balance on any credit card but this one specifically is meant to be paid off each month in full now because of that and because it's known as a charge card it technically doesn't have any preset spending limit which means it won't negatively impact your utilization anytime the credit bureaus calculate your credit score so technically any money spent on this credit card is not going to negatively impact your credit utilization unlike any their cards that have a preset spending limit and that's why I specifically chose this card as my first like grown-up real adult credit card I'm not gonna lie I also wanted to get some free stuff too and this is the perfect card for me to get free stuff with for example there's an opera out there where you can get fifty thousand points after you spend two thousand dollars in the first three months and of course now you might be wondering well how much is fifty thousand points worth and it really depends on how you redeem them if you just want to use those points to cover your American Express bill then typically those points have a value of 0.6 cents each which means that fifty thousand points is going to be worth about three hundred dollars and if you want to redeem those points for a gift card then typically you can get up to one cent per point meaning that fifty thousand points would get you about five hundred dollars depending on who you redeem the gift card with but of course I've found a more magic way of redeeming American Express points and that involves transferring those points to their affiliate known as Aeroplan then once you're on aeroplanes website you could pretty much book a round-trip ticket anywhere in North America for twenty five thousand points so that means that fifty thousand points is for the most part worth two round-trip plane tickets anymore in North America with a value anywhere between five hundred and maybe even fourteen hundred dollars depending on where you're going entirely for free just for signing up for the credit card now in addition to that there's also so many other advantages that just make this card a really good deal for instance you will get a one hundred dollar per year airline credit if you choose to check your bags or in-flight meals or purchases or anything of the like you're also going to be getting purchased protection up to ten thousand dollars per occurrence if one of your purchases is lost or stolen or damaged ortley after you buy it they're also gonna be extending a warranty for you up to two years on eligible products so if you go and buy something and it gets lost or stolen or damaged or it breaks chances are they will take care of that for you there's also a bunch of other perks with the card as well that's just too much for me to mention but I will link to all of the information down below in the description if you guys are curious yes of course this card does have an annual fee of two hundred and fifty dollars but honestly that pays for itself so many times over with the rewards and bonus points to get just for getting a card and it's really for those reasons that this is one of my favorite credit cards out there not only for the rewards but also to help build up your credit as well and of course link in the description for anyone who's interested in learning more about that card the secondly we can't mention the American Express gold without talking about one of the cards I use for pretty much everything and that would be cue the spooky music the American Express Platinum this card is pretty much like the grown-up version of the American Express gold but on steroids and I gotta warn you this card is not for everybody it's a lot of card to handle but if you can't handle it the benefits could be pretty staggering like the American Express gold card I just mentioned the American Express Platinum operates in a very similar manner it's meant to be a charge card which means you put money on it and pay it off and full at the end of every single month and it doesn't have any preset spending limit within reason of course like it's not like you can go and spend like five hundred thousand dollars on a Ferrari and then drive it out of the country and then just never appear ever again and disappear and change your name not like I've thought about this by the way I've not thought about that but if I did think about that you know you can't do it but it does offer some pretty great advantages which is why I use it so often now first let's talk about the signup bonus when I signed up for this credit card I got 60,000 points now yes I did need to go and spend five thousand dollars in the first three months to get those points but I was right in the middle of a home remodeling project anyway where I was spending like twenty twenty-five thousand dollars so I figured you know I may as well just open up the card put some of the remodeling materials on the card and get free stuff where otherwise I wasn't going to get anything and like I said when you redeem those points through Aeroplan 60,000 points is really worth anywhere between $600 and up to $1400 a free travel and by the way just for the record I want to throw this in there is that the current signup bonus has actually been raised to 70,000 points in not 60 right now so just want to mention that for anyone who is interested now in addition to that this card also gets you into one of my favorite places in the entire world besides Costco for the free samples during lunch and that would be the American Express Centurion lounge these are just really upscale airport lounges in select cities that are just insanely nice I'm talking like all you could eat food and all you could drink drinks and in Dallas they actually give you free massages so anytime I find myself in an airport with one of these lounges I could easily get like 50 to $60 worth of free food and free drinks plus a free massage and then try to take more food to go I don't know if you're supposed to do that maybe not but I like trying to take food to go now in addition to that you also get a 100 dollar hotel credit on select hotels you'll get discounts on other hotel services a 200 dollar airline credit towards any airline of your choice and then you'll also get top-of-the-line purchase and loss protection for example last year I had my brand-new $2,500 MacBook Pro computer stolen from the back of a car they just went in they smashed the window they stole the backpack with my computer inside of it and thankfully American Express was able to cover that through their loss protection featured on the card and even though I really hope I will never need to use that ever again because that was a horrible thing to have to go through it's nice knowing that at the very least it's there in case I need it as far as downsides are concerned this card is not cheap it's five hundred and fifty dollars a year to have and it to be eligible to get the cards they usually like you to have a good credit score combined with a strong income although if you will actually use the benefits I really believe those benefits will strongly outweigh and pay for the annual fee many times over like just for my stolen computer that ended up paying for the annual fee of this card for almost the next five years not to mention all of the other free stuff that I was able to get from having a credit card so again that's one of the reasons why I keep this card and why I use it so often not to mention their customer service is really top-of-the-line top notch it's it's really honestly some of the best customer service I've ever seen on a credit card and now we have my third-favorite credit card that I always carry on me at all times and that would be easy Shae Sapphire reserve now this one is easily the crowd favorite in terms of credit cards because what they did at the time when they first came out was revolutionary they offered a hundred thousand points for signing up they also offered a metal credit card and they just mass-marketed it everywhere this card was so good that you literally couldn't turn it down because the offers were just they were insane you had to get this card in fact I believe that it was because of this credit card that American Express began issuing metal cards as well and they completely restructured their reward system just so they had a chance to compete with this card that's how good this card was when it first came out I think now Jase is come to realize that this card was just too good and they weren't as profitable as they originally thought they would be so they began dialing back some of the rewards over the last year or so but regardless it's still a very good card to get for example now they're gonna be giving you 50,000 points when you spend $4,000 in the first three months and when you go and redeem those points for travel through Chase 50,000 points really has a value of about 750 dollars in addition to that they also give you a $300 a year travel credit and the term travel is used very loosely it can be applied to anything from a parking meter to an air B&B to an uber to a hotel to a plane ticket to pretty much anything involving a moving thing and best part about all of this is that you get access with this card to the Priority Pass airport lounges and even though the Priority Pass lounges are not as nice maybe it's just a little bit more crowded than the American Express Centurion lounge it doesn't mean that you can't just go and get like all-you-can-eat food and all you can drink drinks and including free iced coffee and these party paths airport lounges are pretty much located in every Airport out there so chances are if you're traveling somewhere it's got a priority pass lounge and even if there's not a priority past airport lounge then sometimes this will even just get you a $28 free food credit at select restaurants so again all of that is basically just like free money and anytime I go into an all-you-can-eat place I definitely eat all I could eat and I get my money's worth now of course all good things usually come at a cost and the cost of this is 450 dollars each and every year but between the 750 dollars in free travel that you get just for signing up plus the $300 travel credits plus the Priority Pass lounge access and a ton of other rewards and features of the card the four hundred and fifty dollar annual fee pays for itself very quickly my fourth favorite card is a very very special one just because you don't really see it very often and that would be the infamous JP Morgan Reserve credit card this is also the same credit card that was in the unboxing video that just got an absurd amount of views but for those who didn't watch the video this card is issued to people who belong to the JP Morgan private bank not to be confused with the chase private client or chase private bank which is something completely separate now not always but usually to get access to the JP Morgan private and therefore get access to the credit card you need ten million dollars in assets hence the name the ten million dollar credit card and even though I will admit this card is pretty much identical to the Chase Sapphire reserve in terms of benefits this card does have a few unique advantages first I was able to get a hundred thousand points just for signing up for this card which when you redeem that for travel is worth about $1,500 now in addition to that just like the Chase Sapphire reserve you get a three hundred dollar per year travel credit that you could apply to anything travel related like parking lubbers Airbnb and anything of the like so already right off the bat I'm up to eighteen hundred dollars worth of rewards plus you're also gonna be getting the priority Pass lounge access so so far it's like we're discussing a glorified Chase Sapphire Reserve but one of the extra benefits with this card is that you get access to the United Club Lounge which is about five hundred and fifty dollars if you purchased it directly through them so already we've got over twenty three hundred dollars worth of rewards just for getting the card now this does have a four hundred and fifty dollar annual fee which is identical to the Chase Sapphire Reserve so it's pretty much redundant for me to have these cards since essentially they're the same thing with this one just having a few extra benefits but regardless for four hundred and fifty dollars for me to get all of these rewards and benefits it's just it's worth it not to mention this is a pretty fun card to whip out every now and then to pay for something especially if you're gonna pay for something that's like a few dollars and then you pay with this if you go to McDonald's you're like I want something from the dollar menu and you pay with this card it's it's just kind of funny and v finally my last favorite credit card is a business credit card I wanted to throw this in there for any business owners or for anyone who wants their own dedicated credit card for that and that would be the chase Inc business preferred now when I signed up for this card they hadn't offered going where if you went into a physical Chase Bank branch they would give you one hundred thousand points just for signing up so of course that's what I obviously did I just walked a few blocks from my office went down to Chase opened up a card to end there we go I got a hundred thousand points which has a value of fifteen hundred dollars worth of free travel and the great thing about this card is that the annual fee is only ninety five dollars a year which spending ninety five dollars to get back fifteen hundred in free travel seems like a pretty good deal to me far as overall rewards go from this card it's decent it's really nothing special although you will get three times points when you spend that money on social media marketing advertising and other business expenses which is nice but it's not necessarily as good as some of the other cards out there that I mentioned and really as far as business credit cards go this one is great just for the sign up bonus and the low annual fee but beyond that maybe some of the other credit cards might be a little bit better like the American Express business cards have a lot of great features and are pretty much identical to the personal cards but I still really like this one because I feel like overall it's still a pretty good deal so those are the five favorite credit cards that I use the most often and exactly why I got them and when you use those cards properly and also strategically it's very easy to see how you can get some very insane rewards that you would never otherwise get with debit or cash and also at the same time those cards end up helping boost my credit score so that I can continue to get the lowest rates anytime I go and finance something or invest in real estate so for anyone wondering exactly how to build up their credit score to the point of being able to do this I have another video that I will just link in the description that shows you exactly what to do step by step on how to build up your credit score for absolutely free so I'm just gonna put that down below in the description for anyone who's interested and as long as you just smash the like button so with that said you guys thank you so much for watching I really appreciate it if you have not already subscribed yet make sure to smash and destroy the subscribe button destroy the notification bell too so YouTube notifies you an exam I post a video add me on Instagram I post there pretty much daily so if you want to be a part of it there feel free to add me there also before you leave go and add me on my second channel it is called the Graham Stefan show I'm posting there every single day that I don't post here so if you want to watch a new video every single day just go and add yourself to that channel and you'll be able to now see me every day so again thank you so much for watching and until next time

Channel: Graham Stephan

Views: 578,827

Rating: 4.9373655 out of 5

Keywords: CREDIT CARD, credit card churning, best credit cards, how to boost your credit score, credit score, credit score increase, credit score explained, credit score dave ramsey, how to increase your credit score, how to increase your credit score fast, american express, chase sapphire, chase ink, american express gold, american express platinum, how to make money, how to make passive income, credit card points, How to build wealth, how to build wealth fast

Id: eJXq_2mlYEk

Length: 15min 7sec (907 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 18 2019