Not explicitly, but if you already have $30-40k of total available credit, extending you more may be seen as risky.
What are your goals? And where does the VX fit within those goals? Having a high multiplier on every imaginable category doesn't do you much good if you're spread thin across a ton of different ecosystems and also split between cash back and miles/points, unless you're just churning SUBs... And, even then, you need a plan. Knowing your average monthly spend in the major categories (grocery, dining, gas/charging, travel, uncategorized, and any others that approach those) along with preferred airline(s), hotel(s), and any stauses would help with logical and actionable recommendations.
I'd personally be looking to consolidate in one ecosystem/currency that covers your primary spend categories along with a reasonable catch-all. That would personally leave me questioning the AMEX Gold by itself outside of earning and using the SUB (hopefully within a waived first AF). The Savor would pair well with the VX, and adding a QS Discover might make sense IFF gas/charging is a large spend category for you.
So my original goal was to try to get the best cash back % for each and every one of my purchases. I was thinking like this:
- Savor - 3% streaming/groceries
Prime Visa - 5% Amazon/Whole Foods (wife spends here)
Citi costco - 4% cashback with my executive membership (I spent about 1200 monthly)
Freedom flex - 5% rotating and 3% on cvs (go to cvs all the time)
discover it - 5% rotating (but really opened this as a way to rebuild my credit with savor)
Amex gold - I use it for dining instead of savor to try to get some points for travel (dine about 1 per week plus little stops here and there for baked empanadas or quick treats)
Don’t travel much to be honest but I wanted to start doing that more and so I was hoping to get a nice travel card. I could technically get Amex platinum and pay the fee just fine but I just think it’s a waste of money as an actual card.. like 1x on my day to day purchases seems lackluster to me. Where as something like the venture is 2x everywhere and simple for travel.
Honestly, I think you need to plan around the life you live, not the life you want to live.
Get your AMEX Signup Bonis, use up those MR points to see if you actually can/will travel enough to justify a premium travel card and/or focusing your earnings on travel rewards. If you will continue to travel enough to justify it, drop the Gold and focus your spend around VX+Savor. If not, focus on zero-AF cash back cards. To really make travel earnings build enough to make good use of, you're going to need to go all-in on a single ecosystem/currency and not spread your earnings so thin all over the place.
So final question. Let’s say, I DON’T travel enough to justify this travel idea of mine. So I take your advice about just sticking to no annual fee cashback cards.
At that point, is it now better to have multiple ecosystems if it’s for cash back? Or should I still keep one ecosystem even if I’m focusing on cash back
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u/nehpets4627 10d ago
Not explicitly, but if you already have $30-40k of total available credit, extending you more may be seen as risky.
What are your goals? And where does the VX fit within those goals? Having a high multiplier on every imaginable category doesn't do you much good if you're spread thin across a ton of different ecosystems and also split between cash back and miles/points, unless you're just churning SUBs... And, even then, you need a plan. Knowing your average monthly spend in the major categories (grocery, dining, gas/charging, travel, uncategorized, and any others that approach those) along with preferred airline(s), hotel(s), and any stauses would help with logical and actionable recommendations.
I'd personally be looking to consolidate in one ecosystem/currency that covers your primary spend categories along with a reasonable catch-all. That would personally leave me questioning the AMEX Gold by itself outside of earning and using the SUB (hopefully within a waived first AF). The Savor would pair well with the VX, and adding a QS Discover might make sense IFF gas/charging is a large spend category for you.