The Only 5 Credit Cards You Need in 2024

so one of the biggest credit card myths is that you need to have 20 or 30 plus cards in order to maximize the rewards you earn however in my opinion the truth is you really only need about five good credit cards to get hundreds or even thousands of dollars in value every single year but only if you're using the right five credit cards now obviously the more you have the more sign up bonuses you can get which is great but if you start getting disorganized or you start paying too much in Annual fees for cards that aren't worth it anymore then that could be a quick way to lose at the credit card game so in this video here I just want to go over the only five credit cards you need to create a perfect setup this year and we're going to cover setups for both team travel and team cash back because I know most people prefer one over the other and to keep things interesting I'm also going to include a bonus credit card or two in these setups so as always let's not waste any time and just get right into it here so for credit card number one in these setups this is going to be what we call a catchall card that'll probably be the most used credit card for you because it earns around 2% or 2x back on everything so on the Travel side we have the capital 1 venture or Venture X and then on the cashback side we have the city double cash now the city double cash has sort of been the gold standard for casat all cards for a while now because it's going to earn a flat 2% cash back on everything by getting 1% back when you buy something and then another 1% back when you pay off your balance and because the first rule of using credit cards is to always pay them off on time and in full to avoid interest the double cash is going to be an easy 2% back card if you're using it responsibly now in the past City never really offered a standard signup bonus on the double cach which is always the biggest negative to me but recently it looks like they actually introduced an offer for $200 cash back after spending $1,500 in your first 6 months which is pretty good and honestly if you're just using this card in a cash back setup then that's pretty much all there is to it so it's basic but it gets the job done very well for spending that you might do on miscellaneous things also because there's so many other 2% cash back cards out there you could go with something else like the Wells Fargo active cash the Sofi credit card or the PayPal MasterCard to name a few or there's even cards like the Apple card if you're an Apple user or credit union cards like the Alliant cashback Visa signature card which pays up to 2. . 5% back if you're willing to jump through a few Hoops to become an Alliant member but just be aware that some of those other 2% cards like the active cash do offer a signup bonus well other cards out there like the Apple card typically do not so yeah you've got a lot of options here but my pick is going to be the city double cash for a catch- all card in our cashback setup for team travel we've got two catch all cards that are pretty similar with the Capital One venture or the Capital One Venture X and the choice between these two cards really comes down to what kind of travel benefits you're looking for and what annual fee you're willing to pay because the Venture Card comes with a $95 annual fee while the Venture X comes in at $3.95 per year now both of these cards have the same standard signup bonus offer of $75,000 Capital 1 miles after spending $4,000 in 3 months and both cards are also going to earn 2x m per dollar on everything plus both have no foreign transaction fees and come with a credit to cover the cost of global entry or TSA pre-check which honestly is a must have for anyone that's ever waited in a long line to get through security at a busy airport before now the choice between these two travel credit cards really comes down to whether you want to pay the extra $300 per year for the Venture X to get some of the better features and benefits that it has so for example The Venture X earns 10x miles on hotels and car rentals and 5x on flights booked through Capital One whereas the Venture Card only gets 5x on hotels and car rentals booked through Capital One and then nothing on flights and then the Venture X gets you and two free guests unlimited access to Capital One lounges priority pass lounges and Plaza premium lounges plus the Venture X also comes with a cell phone protection benefit Hertz president Circle status primary autor rental coverage and some other good stuff like that also even though the Venture X costs $395 per year compared to only 95 on the Venture Card The Venture X does come with a $300 credit for travel that you book through Capital 1 which is pretty easy to use that basically helps to bring down the effective cost of this card down to the same $95 level after that credit and then Capital One is going to give Venture X card holders 10,000 Mi every year that you renew this card and those 10,000 Mi are going to be worth $100 at a minimum so for myself and for many other people we'd rather pay that higher annual fee Upfront for the Venture X but then get much more value back every year now not everyone wants to pay $3.95 for a credit card so if that's too much work but you still want a solid catchall travel card earning 2x then the cheaper Venture Card is still a great deal with the same huge signup bonus and if you get either one of these cards but then decide in the future that it's no longer worth paying the annual fee then what you could do is you could always downgrade to a less talked about no annual fee Venture one card and even though downgrades are never guaranteed still leaves you with some potential options but your mileage may vary all right now next for credit C number two in these five card setups this is going to be our food card because food is typically one of the highest areas of our budgets and we really want to be maximizing the value that we get back from this top spend category so on the cashback side we have the Capital One sa one card and then on the Travel side we actually have the same sa one card as well or you could swap in the MX gold card but only if the credits on the AMX gold Mak sense for you now the Capital One sa one is interesting because it technically earns cash back and that's what Capital One advertises on their website so in a cash back setup you're earning 3% back on dining entertainment popular streaming services and at grocery stores plus you can get a nice $200 bonus after spending 500 bucks in the first 3 months and that's all very good for a no annual fee card you're also able to earn 5% cash back on hotels and Rental cards booked through Capital 1 and then 10% back on Uber and Uber Eats until November 14th 2024 but really as a food credit card in this cashback setup here getting 3% back on dining and groceries along with some of those other multipliers on top of that is really great however the interesting thing here is that if you pair this card with another Capital One card that earns miles like the venture or the Venture X cards that we just talked about you're basically able to turn the cash back into those more valuable miles so that $200 cash back bonus becomes 20,000 mil and then the spending multipliers in this card become 3x m per dollar on dining entertainment streaming and grocery stores plus 5x mes on hotels and rental cars and then 10x M on Uber and Uber Eats again until November 14th 2024 then when you throw in the fact that the sa one also has no foreign transaction fees this becomes a very powerful card that costs nothing to hold and again if you're able to take advantage of the airline and hotel Transfer Partners over there on the Venture cards then the rewards earned on the Savor one card become even more valuable in this travel setup compared to just using it strictly as a cashback card now I'm going to have a video out very soon on the best and the worst ways to redeem Capital 1 miles with plenty of examples so make sure to go ahead and subscribe down below if you haven't already and as always subscribing is completely free but it does allow me to make the very best content here on this channel to help people level up their everyday finances so thank you to everyone who is a subscriber now the other option for a food credit card in this travel setup is pretty obvious with the AMX gold card because this card is going to give you a nice bonus of somewhere around 60 to 75,000 AMX membership rewards points or sometimes even a little bit more than that for targeted offers and then you're going to be able to earn 4X at restaurants worldwide 4X on groceries at US supermarkets on up to $25,000 in purchases per year plus 3x on flights which is all very good now for food spending 4X on dining and groceries with the AMX gold beats 3x X on the sa 1 card but again the sa one has no annual fee whereas the AMX Gold Card costs $250 per year which sounds a little bit High to some people however there is also up to $240 in annual credits over on the gold card which can basically lower the effect of annual fee down to as low is just $10 per year these credits come in the form of $10 per month for Uber and Uber Eats as well as $10 per month for dining with select dining Partners like rubhub and Shake Shack and these are going to be user or lose it credits meaning that you have to be using them every single month in order to get value from them or otherwise they just go to waste so if you're already spending money on those things anyway and you know that you're going to get good value back from those credits then I would say go with the AMX gold card as your food card in this travel setup but if you just can't make the math work for that annual fee then that's still very much okay and you can get a lot of value from the sa one card instead so that's all up to you but for me personally I have been using the MX Gold Card myself in my setup for the past 4 years now if you want to learn more about any of the cards here in this video then as always I'm going to have links down below that you can feel free to go ahead and use if you want to just make sure sure you are finding the best possible offers out there whether that's through my links or through referral links or other public offers but again thank you in advance to anyone that does choose to use my links because it truly is the best way to support the free content here on my Channel all right now moving on to the third credit card here in the setups that I'm going to call the rotating card and with the rotating card what we really want to have is a flexible option which is basically just changing the way it earns rewards every single quarter so to me I think the very best card for this is going to be the Chase Freedom Flex for both the cashback and travel setups the freedom Flex has no annual fee and it also comes with a standard signup bonus of typically around $200 cash back but Chase does run a lot of special limited time deals throughout the year which can be good to take advantage of if you see them and if you're subscribed then you're going to be the first to know about any of these limited time deals so again make sure to go ahead and subscribe down below because I'm always writing Community posts but then the cool thing here like I said is that the freedom Flex also earns 5% cash back in rotating quarterly categories that change up every 3 months and after having this card and other versions of it over the past 5 years typically I've seen Chase include categories like grocery stores Amazon gas stations and even PayPal purchases now you do have to remember to actually activate these categories every single quarter which Chase reminds you of with an email and you are also limited to earning 5% cash back on only up to $1,500 of spending per quarter before that goes back down to earning 1% back but still 5% cash back from $1,500 of spending if you hit that it's going to be $75 of cash back per quarter or up to $300 of cash back per year so to me that's pretty much a no-brainer to take advantage of Plus the freedom Flex also warrants 5% back on travel book through Chase 3% back on dining takeout and eligible delivery services 3% back at drug stores and then also 5% back on lift rides through March 31st 2025 and it even comes with a cell phone protection benefit that covers theft and damage when you pay your monthly sell and Bill with this card so obviously all that right there works out really well to give you a ton of value and a cash back setup but even though Chase markets this as a cash back card in their terms what they tell you is you're actually earning Chase Ultimate Rewards points here that can be later turned into cash back so $200 cash back from the signup bonus is really 20,000 points and then the spending multipliers are really 5x points per dollar on rotating quarterly categories 5x on travel book through Chase 3x on dining and drugstores and then 5x on lift Rides Again through March 31st 2025 now earning chase points on the freedom Flex card pretty much means nothing here if you only intend to redeem those points for cash back because there's not really any extra benefit on the cash back side of things but to sort of unlock more value with a freedom Flex in a travel credit card setup what you're going to need is the fourth credit card here for the setups in this video that we're going to call the wild card and the wild card is just something that I think is going to add more value or serve a specific purpose so for the travel credit card setup that is going to be the Chase Sapphire preferred and then the city custom cash card is going to be my pick for the cashback side now the chase sappi preferred has a $95 annual fee and it also earns the same Chase Ultimate Rewards points as the freedom Flex the reason why these two cards work so well together is because you can actually combine all the points you earn under both of these cards under your Sapphire preferred and then you could take advantage of features like a 25% points boost when redeeming for travel in the chase portal or like getting access to a number of really great Transfer Partners that chase has over on the sapphire preferred like Patt British Airways Air France km and more where you can find ways to get at least double or even sometimes triple the value of your points so for example if you got a 20,000 Point signup bonus over on the freedom Flex you could redeem that for $200 of cash back at a rate of 1 cent per point in a cash back setup which is good or you can redeem for travel through chase at a 25% point boost by combining those 20,000 points from the freedom Flex with the sapphire preferred so that would turn those same 20,000 points into $250 worth of travel at a rate of 1.25 cents per point which is better or you can learn how to transfer points which I talk about all the time here on this channel then you can redeem those same 20,000 points at around 2 to three cents per point so that would make those worth between at least $400 and $600 in value now aside from those features with redeeming points on the sapphire preferred you can also earn points in a few ways as well starting with a nice standard signup on bonus offer of 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in 3 months and then this card also earns 5x on travel book through Chase 2x on a wide range of other travel 3x on dining 3x for online groceries and 3X on select streaming services plus 5x on lift through March 31st 2025 the Chase Sapphire preferred also comes with a $50 Hotel credit every single year if you book a hotel stay through the chase portal then on top of all that stuff you also get some solid travel benefits including primary auto rental coverage but the thing that I really love about the sapphire prefer that not enough people talk about is the fact that this card gives people options option one is that you actually enjoy this card with its low annual fee and all the features it has so you just keep renewing it year after year option two is you don't think it's worth paying the annual fee so you can just downgrade it to a no annual fee card like the Chase Freedom unlimited which earns 1.5 points per dollar on everything or option three is that you decide you want more value and more power out of this card so what you do is you can actually upgrade to the Chase Sapphire Reserve which has a higher annual fee at 550 per year but you also get a a ton of better features and benefits which I covered in another recent video comparing the Chase Sapphire preferred and the sapphire Reserve so I'm going to link that video down below as well if you want to check that out later now on the cash back side of things for this wild card and our five card setups like I said I decided to pick the city custom cash because it's going to serve a very specific purpose and that is basically to fill in any gaps we feel like we might have in our setup so the city custom cash has no annual fee and it comes with a nice standard signup bonus of $200 cash back after spending $1,500 in 3 months but after that bonus the feature that we really care about here is the ability to earn 5% cash back in your top eligible spend category each billing cycle and up to $500 in spending so if we do the math and we're hypothetically hitting that cap every single billing cycle then potentially that can add up to $25 of cash back per month or up to $300 of cash back per year which again is really great value now over on City's website they tell us the 10 categories that are eligible to earn 5% back like this so those are going to be restaurants gas stations grocery stores select travel select Transit select streaming services drug stores home improvement stores fitness clubs and live entertainment and to me the really valuable categories here for most people are going to be things like restaurants gas stations and grocery stores the optimal strategy with this card is just pick one of those categories where you plan to spend the most each billing cycle and then only use the custom Cash Card in that one category to basically lock in getting 5% back on that one thing so again this is a great card for filling in the gaps with pretty much any credit card setup out there now to complete our five card setups we're going to need some options here that can ort of act like a Swiss army knife so for the fifth card in these setups before we get on to some of the bonus cards I want to give you guys my picks for a good multi-purpose card and we're going to go with the city premere card in our travel setup as well as either the AMX Blue Cash everyday or Wells Fargo autograph card on the cash back side of things so the City premiere card has a $95 annual fee comes with a nice standard signup bonus of 60,000 points after spending $4,000 in 3 months but the best part about this card is that it earns 3x points per dollar on restaurants supermarkets gas stations air travel and hotels so that is a ton of different ways to earn 3x back and then you're also going to get access to some really great Transfer Partners just like a lot of the other travel credit cards here in this video there's no foreign transaction fees as well here which makes this an excellent option to use outside of the US while still earning 3x in a lot of ways but there's not really any travel protections or insurance benefits on the City premiere so I would probably use another travel credit card to book things like flights if that's something that concerns you for some bonus travel cards I would definitely look to add the no annual fee built MasterCard if you're somebody out there who pays rent because you can earn one built Point per dollar on rent here with this card and buil points are actually some of the most valuable in the entire credit card game right now so make sure to go ahead and check out my recent video I did on the buil MasterCard if you want to learn more or if you're a really serious traveler and you want to have the best benefits including access to the largest network of AMX lounges where you can just relax and enjoy some free food and drinks before your flights then of course you can also check out the famous AMX Platinum Card the MX Platinum does have a really high $6.95 annual fee and it comes with all these credits to use if you want to get the most value out of it but if you travel a lot and use these credits then this card can definitely be a good fit in your travel setup as well like it has been for me however since the platinum card is really not for everyone that's why I'm only including it here as a bonus card on the cashback side of things for the multi-purpose card there's basically two options here that you cannot go wrong with and I couldn't decide between so there's the AMX Blue Cash everyday which has no annual fee and comes with a really nice $200 bonus after spending $2,000 in the first 6 months and then with this card you can earn 3% cash back on groceries at US supermarkets Us online retail purchases and gas at us gas stations now you are going to be limited to earning 3% back on only up to $6,000 of spending per year in each one of these categories before going down to only 1% back but honestly it's pretty reasonable for many people to stay within that there and that could be worth up to $180 in cash back per year in each category if you take full advantage of this card the Wells Fargo autograph card is another really solid option here with no annual fee and a 30,000 point signup bonus which is worth $300 after spending $1,500 in 3 months and then you're going to be earning earning 3x points per dollar which is worth 3% cash back on restaurants travel gas Transit popular streaming and phone plans plus you get a cell phone protection benefit here as well for bonus cards I really like the no annual fee US Bank altitude go if you want to earn 4X points per dollar which is worth 4% cash back on dining takeout and delivery and then there's also the Chase Amazon Prime Visa card which gets you 5% back at Amazon and Whole Foods if you're a Prime member but honestly there's just so many credit cards out there that you can choose from for both cash back and travel setups so if you want to see a tier list of where I rank all the cards in this video here compared to even more credit cards on the market then make sure you go ahead and check out this video over here on the screen next but as always thank you so much for watching

Channel: Daniel Braun

Views: 152,563

Keywords: credit card, credit cards, credit, best credit card, best credit cards, best credit card 2024, best credit cards 2024, travel credit cards, cash back credit cards, cashback credit cards, best travel credit cards, best travel credit cards 2024, best cash back credit cards, best cash back credit cards 2024, best cashback credit cards, chase credit cards, amex credit cards, citi credit cards, capital one credit cards, best credit card setup, daniel braun

Id: AxErhPoTjGY

Length: 17min 38sec (1058 seconds)

Published: Thu Jan 25 2024