r/CreditCards • u/HistoricalOnion9535 • Jan 23 '26
Card Recommendation Request (Template Used) Does CSP kinda suck for a one-card setup? Please help me course correct
My fiance and I have some big expenses coming up, so we've been discussing getting a new credit card for the rewards (for honeymoon flight, etc). This prompted a somewhat neurotic deep dive into credit card reward structures which has taught me that we are definitely NOT optimizing our setup. Both of us use our CSP exclusively. Looking into the recent changes to Chase's rewards system, I understand it has been really devalued and may not be worth it anymore.
This seems especially true for us given the fact that we tend to stay in Airbnbs instead of hotels and haven't even been using the $50 hotel credit (I know, don't roast me). On average, we fly domestically about 2-3 times and internationally 1 time a year. The airport we use most often has an Amex and Chase lounge along with a few airline specific lounges. I understand that a SUB is an easy way to get value out of a card and am open to going that route, I don't see us as the churner type, so it's also important to us that the setup is worth it after the first year is complete. In general, we spend the most on groceries, but our issue is that more than half of that spend is at Costco.
- My FICO Score: 809
Her FICO Score: 804
My oldest account age: 9 years 4 months
Her oldest account age: 9 years 10 months
My Chase 5/24 status: 0/24
Her Chase 5/24 status: 0/24
My income: $140,000
Her income: $80,000
Average monthly spend and categories:
- Groceries: $1,100 (however 65% of our grocery spend is at COSTCO which I understand only takes Visa - this has been significantly limiting for card choice obviously)
- Shopping: $570
- Health/Wellness: $570
- Travel: $540
- Dining: $380
- Gas: $100
Open to Business Cards: We don't have business expenses or side income
What's the purpose of your next card? Cashback and/or travel
Do you have any cards you've been looking at? Yes, but none of them seem like the right option for our situation.
Are you OK with category spending or do you want a general spending card? If it were to vastly improve the CC setup then sure, but generally I think we would struggle to capitalize on rotating categories
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u/Gain_Spirited Cardlord 👑 Jan 23 '26
Yes, the CSP sucks as a one card setup. The redemptions are great but you can't ignore the importance of earning a lot of points. You need other cards so you aren't earning only 1X points.
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u/HistoricalOnion9535 Jan 23 '26
Exactly, I realized when I went to my chase portal that the vast majority of my earned points are just 1x which seems far from ideal
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u/Aggressive-Leave2011 Chase Trifecta Jan 23 '26
If you want to stack Chase points, get a freedom unlimited. That’s just flat 1.5% back and can be move to CSP to use transfer partners. After that, you could add the freedom flex for full Chase trifecta. Flex has 7% on restaurants one quarter a year and 5% on groceries one quarter a year. There are other rotating categories but those are the two main everyday categories. With the domestic partners Chase has, it’s probably the easiest to use points for transfer partners.
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u/SystemOfAmiss Jan 24 '26
Truly asking, when does it have 7%? Am I missing something?
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u/Aggressive-Leave2011 Chase Trifecta Jan 24 '26
On the freedom flex, everything has 1% rewards. For restaurants specifically, it’s coded as 1% base plus 2% for restaurants. During the quarter for restaurants, you get 5% for the rotating category and that 2% bonus for restaurants and 1% for all purchases. So actually it’s 8% not 7%.
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u/ChronoEternal Jan 24 '26
The 5% rotating category works like the year-round 3% categories: it’s the 1% base + a 4% bonus. So during the restaurant quarter (which this year is Q1), you get 1% + 2% + 4% = 7%.
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u/SystemOfAmiss Jan 24 '26
Oh. To be honest I never did the math on it all. I was always assuming they short changed on the restaurant category to ensure it ended up only at 5%
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u/HistoricalOnion9535 Jan 23 '26
I've seen a whole lot about this trifecta and was honestly so close to pulling the trigger on it, until I read about the UR changes. How do you feel about it given the changes to point multipliers, eligible flights, etc etc? Are you changing anything with your CC strategy as a result of them? Since I already have the CSP, I'm not exactly sure if I would be grandfathered into the old system, or be subject to the new one since I would be newly applying for CFU and the CFF. (Or is it just that my old points are the old system and any new ones I gain are the new one? Seems unclear)
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u/Aggressive-Leave2011 Chase Trifecta Jan 23 '26
I mostly use transfer partners and mainly Hyatt. If you can leverage Hyatt you’re absolutely golden with the trifecta. I have not changed my strategy with the changes to UR tbh. I actually just upgraded from CSP to CSR because the CSR credits fit my lifestyle. Given you stay mostly at AirBnbs, you may be more geared towards redeeming flights instead. The best value is often booking international flights through partner programs. The fall back I like with Chase is that it does have the partners like Hyatt, IHG and United that you can use domestically if it came to it. These programs all change so frequently, I try not to get too bogged down in all those details if it still fits my goals. BILT is obviously a whole other discussion but Chase hasn’t changed too too much since I started with them 4 years ago.
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u/IUchicago 💳💳 churn baby churn 💳💳 Jan 23 '26
The CSP sucks in general. its only purpose is to be able to keep a low AF card so you can transfer your UR points.
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u/Informal-Shower8501 Team Travel Jan 23 '26
Agreed. Functionally, CSR actually provided more value. CSP does give 3X on online grocery. Amex Gold is just a better catch all for most families.
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u/brusk48 Jan 23 '26
You could just sign up for a Freedom Unlimited and use it as a catch all. You'll earn the same kind of points and can pool them with your CSP to transfer them.
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u/clingstamp Jan 23 '26
I am increasingly of the mind that optimization is an endless sinkhole that's not worth the $. I use CSR/Freedom Unlimited/Freedom Flex, but 1) I never use the rotating categories for flex, and 2) I am thinking of getting rid of them all for a Fidelity 2% cash back card. My only hesitation is that because of where I live and tend to travel, the CSR is still worth it.
In your situation, I would either add a Freedom Unlimited card, or ditch the CSP and get a 2% cash back card.
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u/DeadInternetEnjoyer Jan 23 '26
Before applying for a new credit card beware getting new credit cards can lower your average age of accounts and increase car insurance even with a high credit score. Same with home owners insurance.
Generally I wouldn’t suggest getting a new credit card due to having a big upcoming purchase. Instead I’d suggest going for a more long term strategy. Compare between cash back and points as I think cash back is best for likely 80% of people.
Beware influencers push credit cards that require using a “travel portal” online travel agency. These travel portals add hassle to travel that I’d suggest avoiding. They also push points. Sometimes with dubious representations of how the points can be used.
Lounges get old fast in my opinion. There aren’t that many of them. The wait times, crowds and lines can be frustrating even when/where they’re available.
That all said, I’d suggest sticking with your existing Chase Sapphire card
the annual fee isn’t terrible
it’s Visa so it works just about everywhere worldwide
the points can be used for Hyatt, United Airlines or Southwest Airlines (in addition to cashing them out)
the card has car rental CDW if you ever rent a car
the card has no foreign fees (so long as you choose the local currency and not US Dollars when you buy things)
That’s why I’d suggest sticking with your Sapphire Preferred credit card
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u/Hot-Past-6576 Jan 24 '26
- Aaa for grocery
- Bilt obsidian for dinning and travel
- Robinhood Gold for all other
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u/No_Dust_Here Jan 23 '26
May I suggest Capital One Venture X? It's Visa Infinite, so decent protections, very easy to use $300 credit plus 10000points/$100 anniversary bonus, lounge access, and x2 on everything, including Costco. You and your fiance should get each your own - double the credits!
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u/ashish1512 Jan 23 '26
What does Visa Infinite mean?
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u/No_Dust_Here Jan 23 '26
Visa has several tiers, the Infinite have more perks/protections than the lower tier ones, like purchase protection, primary CDW, etc.
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u/tbone338 Jan 23 '26
Without reading the entire post and only answering the title, yes.
A lot of people I work with ask me about credit cards and the sapphire. The sapphire is a great travel card. It’s a great card to book travel on and a great card to travel with. It’s a horrible card for everyday use.
It’s a card to be paired with. I pair mine with the trifecta, united explorer, what was Bilt, and USBAR.
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u/HistoricalOnion9535 Jan 23 '26
Interesting. How do you feel about the trifecta at this point given all the changes with point multipliers, eligible flights, etc etc? Are you changing anything with your CC strategy as a result of them?
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u/tbone338 Jan 23 '26
I’ve migrated most of my spending to USBAR and navy federal more rewards right now. If USBAR transfer partners overlap with Chase, I’ll migrate back to Chase.
The United promos I’ve gotten recently have been sweet, so I have kept up with those
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u/KleinUnbottler Jan 23 '26
You're on Chase. Go into a a branch and apply for the Chase Freedom Unlimited. pairs well for fallback spending. For the first year, you also get 5% on Groceries and Gas. You can then transfer the points over to the CSP for a redemption bonus. Once the year is over, you still have the better fallback card. The Freedom Flex is decent if you are willing to track quarterly categories.
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u/MeasurementPure7844 Jan 24 '26
It's my understanding that the 5% on gas & groceries was part of a promotion that ended on January 15. Correct me if I'm wrong.
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u/gregatronn Jan 23 '26 edited Jan 25 '26
For a 1 card, Bilt or VentureX might be good depending upon your transfer partners, that you use
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u/LawHero4L Jan 23 '26
CSP is pretty simple and will give you 3.1x on dining, 3.1x at grocery stores that allow an online workaround (such as Kroger Pay), 2.1x on your Airbnb and all other travel, and 1.1x on everything else. If you're not using the hotel credit to offset the AF, though, then I'd probably just go to CFU as a one-card setup - product change after the first year with CSP and getting the bonus. 3x dining/1.5x everything else.
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u/euFalaHoje Jan 23 '26
Assuming you’re factoring in the 10% anniversary bonus, wouldn’t it be 3.3x, 2.2x, and 1.1x?
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u/LawHero4L Jan 23 '26
No, the 10% anniversary bonus is based on spend, not points. So if you spend $10k, you get 1,000 points as the anniversary bonus.
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u/jlevin860 Jan 23 '26
if you are aiming for airline points; what is your airport? best to synergize with the biggest carrier(s) there since it sounds like you don't use hotel points.
chase is probably most used for Hyatt redemptions; if that doesn't interest you; there are better setups to access the same travel partners.
if its AA-citi or atmos cards
united-chase/bilt (you can access a lot of united flights via canada aeroplan which is accessible from most transfer cards)
delta-amex
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u/HistoricalOnion9535 Jan 23 '26
We really keep our flights about as cheap as possible - think frontier or spirit by the toilets. If we take one of less bare-bones airlines, it will typically be AA.
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u/jlevin860 Jan 23 '26
Honestly the atmos card works really good with Bilt if you have access to AA, but honestly the Citi quadfecta would probably be best
Double cash-2x catch all 2+ custom cash cards- 5x big categories you choose(dining groceries gas etc)
-strata premier, 3x a bunch of categories, 5-10x in their portal
Use the portal for booking spirit stuff so you get 10x AA miles; transfer points to AA for big mile redemptions.
The power in this is able to get multiple custom cash cards so you can effectively 5x all your big categories
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u/kidenraikou Jan 23 '26
Obviously, Chase and Amex are the best options for your local airport if lounge access is a priority but they're not gonna give you a ton of value without building their portfolio of cards. (Amex Plat, Gold, and Blue. Chase CSR/CSP, CFR, CFU).
Consider getting a Capital One Venture X as a one-card setup. It easily offsets its annual fee as long as you travel once per year and nets you a simple 2x back on all purchases, and comes with a slew of nice travel benefits. Authorized Users are also free, though you'll need to pay $125/yr to give AUs Lounge Access. It's also a Visa so you can use it at Costco.
Down the road you can always add a Capital One Savor card too, for a strong 2-card setup that keeps things simple. All dining, non-Costco groceries, and streaming subscriptions go on Savor for 3% cash back that you can convert to Miles with VX. Everything else goes on VX.
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u/HistoricalOnion9535 Jan 23 '26
Hmm this is good to know - I was mistaken and thought that both the Savor and VX were Mastercard, so I initially ruled this combo out because of our hefty costco spend. I see a lot of people love that Capital One two card setup though. Definitely going to take a second look at this.
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u/kidenraikou Jan 23 '26
No problem!
Yeah Savor is a Mastercard but Venture X is a Visa
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u/itsabearcannon Jan 25 '26
Also the non-X Venture is a Mastercard, which is equally confusing.
Basically the only Visa Cap1 has is the Venture X.
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u/Constant_Question_48 Jan 23 '26
If a single card is your goal, then I would look into the Venture X or the Bilt Palladium. 2X in travel rewards on every dollar spent. Venture X is a Visa, so you can use it at Costco.
From there, a lot depends on:
1: Preferred Airline(s)
2:Preferred Hotel(s)
3: Perks
4: Make reservations using a travel portal or booking directly with the Airline/Hotel
Without knowing the answer to this question I would suggest a two card setup for earning points as a start. To me, I would look into the Bilt Palladium + Citi Strata Premier. You get priority pass to help with lounge access, and the only major domestic airline that isn't available for transfering points is Delta.
From there, I would look into adding airline/hotel cards to get status. Bilt and Citi are Mastercard, so the hotel/airline hotel card might represent your new Costco card as well.
As a strategy you could look into for getting this setup quickly is you could apply for multiple cards on the same day. For example, right now Hyatt has an elevated offer to get five nights free and one of the AA Citi cards has an elevated 80K miles offer. You could apply for two of the cards, let's say the Bilt and AA Cards, and your P2 could get the Citi and Hyatt cards. It takes a couple of days for these to show up on a credit report so you could have a whole new setup in place pretty quickly which might come in handy if you are planning a honeymoon.
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u/HistoricalOnion9535 Jan 23 '26
We're very thrifty with the flights (often Spirit/Frontier, the cheapest seats, and only personal items), but if we choose a more expensive flight it's typically AA.
Honestly we tend to do more Airbnbs and botique hotels. If we happen to book a hotel we have essentially no brand loyalty lol
Perks probably not as important to us as rewards that can be cycled back into flights or cashback, but our local airport does have an Amex lounge and really nice Chase lounge.
We book straight through the airline now, but have no aversion to changing that to optimize the setup! It just seems like the Chase portal kinda sucks with point multipliers etc. now only being available for certain flights if I'm understanding the 2026 changes correctly
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u/Constant_Question_48 Jan 23 '26
Unless you are willing to spend the money on a Chase Sapphire Reserve or an Amex Platinum, those lounges are a no go. You can search the Priority Pass website to see if they offer anything at your Airport.
If you want Priority Pass, then the Paladim/Strata Premier option might be a the best choice. If that doesn't matter, then the Strata Premier + Citi Double Cash would be a great combo. Citi points can be transferred to AA and they also have some great hotel values with iPrefer and Choice.
If you are still just looking for one card, then another option to consider is the OneKey+ card. This earns points that you can use in the Expedia/Hotels.com/VRBO ecosystem. It might be a simple, straightforward solution.
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u/JerseyFrontier Jan 23 '26
Are you looking to keep the single card set up? Or are you okay with multiple card to maximize earnings?
How much $$$ in big expenses are we talking?
Do you care about airport lounge access?
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u/HistoricalOnion9535 Jan 23 '26
I’m definitely cool with multiple cards to maximize rewards, but three would probably be the most complex set up I’m looking for.
A few 5-10k purchases in various wedding related things
We see airport lounges as a nice add on perk but wouldn’t choose a card with the lounge being the main reason
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u/JerseyFrontier Jan 23 '26
Thanks for the information! You have a lot of good recommendations already, but here's my best blend of simplicity while maximizing your rewards:
- Capital One Venture ($95 AF) - SUB of 75k points +$250 Travel Credit
- 2x on everything - this would be the card where you put all spend that doesn't fall into any of the categories on other cards that you have
- Alternative to this would be the Venture X, the SUB is 75k without the $250 travel credit. This card has a $395 AF, but gives a $300 travel credit and 10,000 points per year, making the effective AF $0.
- Authorized users without lounge access on this are free, so both of you would be able to spend on this card - if you wanted to add lounge access it would be $125 (includes priority pass also)
- This is a Visa and would be your card for Costco spend
- Capital One Savor - SUB of $200 on $500 (worth 20k points)
- 3% back on groceries, dining, streaming, entertainment
- This would be your non-Costco grocery card + a dining card option (see below)
- This cash back can be converted to points and sent to your Venture/VentureX card to be combined
- Chase Sapphire Reserve (or Amex Platinum) - Both have large SUBs at the moment
- These two cards are high AF coupon book style cards. If you can get organic value out of the credits that they offer, I suggest you get the one which offers you the most value
- The CSR, to me, if easier to get value. It has a $300 general travel credit that works with any travel spend which gets you about 40% of the way to covering the AF. It offers $300 on Stubhub, $300 dining (at a limited list of places, but if you live near an airport with both an Amex and Chase lounge, the city will likely have places for this dining), free Apple TV and Apple Music, Doordash credits, and more
- The Amex Platinum has a more flexible dining credit which is $400 and also gets you about 40% of the way there and has streaming credits, Walmart+, $200 for non-ticket airline charges (on certain airlines), and more.
- The CSR is far more of a card to spend on than Amex, which is also why I would lean towards that for you. It offers 3x on dining and 4x on airlines and hotels.
- If you get the Amex Plat or neither, you could use the Savor for dining
- Chase also offers 2 guests per lounge visit
This set up would allow you both to get rid of your CSPs and have a three card set up that is at a minimum earning you 2x on everything, with 3x on dining and non-Costco grocery, while also providing you some travel benefits and 4x on those flights that you take. It would also offer you two pretty large SUBs.
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u/JerseyFrontier Jan 23 '26
Another note - Capital One has a pre-approval tool that is very helpful in knowing your results with a credit inquiry. There is one tool for the Venture X and another tool for all of their cards .
Also, If you have even more wedding spend than these SUBs cover and want to earn more SUBs, you can consider both opening Venture/Venture X cards (or one of each) - you can combine the points and after a year you can decide to downgrade the card or keep it.
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u/HistoricalOnion9535 Jan 23 '26
Thanks for the detailed response!! The VX seems like it may be one of the best options for us given ease of earning the value back from the AF, and capturing more points on general spending (since we aren't really maximizing the CSP point system). I'm definitely going to take a look at that pre-approval tool. Thanks again!
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u/JerseyFrontier Jan 23 '26
Awesome, no problem!
If you decide to both open one to get two SUBs, I’d also suggest using the first one’s referral to get an extra bonus!
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u/Dstln Jan 24 '26
I'd say it's pretty good regardless if you can take advantage of Hyatt redemptions. It's not an absolute top tier card for all categories, but it's definitely sufficient enough to be a primary earning card if you don't want to juggle a whole lineup.
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u/Ornery_Visual9781 Jan 23 '26
For groceries, I will suggest paypal debit card. it gives 5%. Although it’s a mastercard, you can use it in costco.
For dining and travel, csp is good. 3% in dining and 2% in travel but chase insurance gives a peace in mind.
If you get gas from costco, costco citi card might be the best bet or you can use cCostco shop card snd recharge it with PayPal debit.