It is recommended to use this template if you would like replies to your post.

• Current cards: (list cards, limits, opening date)

  • e.g. Amex BCP $8,000 limit, May 2019

• FICO Score: e.g. 750

• Oldest account age: e.g. 5 years 6 months

• Chase 5/24 status: e.g 2/24

• Income: e.g. $80,000

• Average monthly spend and categories:

  • dining $800

  • groceries: $400

  • gas: $100

  • travel: $100

  • other: $30

• Open to Business Cards: e.g. No

• What's the purpose of your next card? e.g. Building credit, Balance transfer, Travel, Cashback

• Do you have any cards you've been looking at?

• Are you OK with category spending or do you want a general spending card?

Common Abbreviations and Lingo:

• FICO Score - This is the score used by 90% of credit issuers (This is NOT the score given by Credit Karma, Credit Sesame, Capital One, etc.) (MyFICO.com, Experian.com, CreditScoreCard.com are FICO scores)

• AAoA - Average age of all of your accounts.

• 2/30 Chase rule - A rule of no more than two Chase credit card applications every 30 days

• 5/24 Chase rule - A rule where if you've opened 5 or more accounts in the past 24 months you cannot get approved for a new Chase card.

• AF - Annual Fee

• SuB - Sign-up Bonus

• MSR - Minimum Spending Requirement (usually referring to sign-up bonuses)

• 2/90 AmEx rule - A rule where you can only get approved for 2 AmEx cards in 90 days

• 1/5 AmEx rule - A rule where you can only get approved for 1 AmEx card every 5 days

I have been a Discover Credit Card holder for almost 15 years, and they were recently bought out by Capital One. This got me curious to start looking for a new credit card home and I came across Citi as the one that best that suited my lifestyle.

Over the last two years I've averaged an 825 FICO score and low revolving utilization. I recently finished paying off my vehicle and have never missed a payment on any revolving account or mortgage account. I have a 125k income and have proven through my credit report that I'm financially responsible.

I decided to apply for the Citi Strata Elite but was denied. I got mail from Citi approximately a week later with the reasoning, which had me puzzled.

Per the letter, I was denied for "Your credit report shows too few established/open accounts." This was the only reason on the letter that I was denied the credit card. I called the reconsideration line and still wasn't able to get approved or help. I'm really confused on understanding what this actually means and if I messed up. The majority of my credit card spending goes on my Discover card, but I have three other open credit cards (B of A, Lowe's and Kohl's) and my mortgage. This gives me a total of five accounts.

I have not applied for a credit card in years and maybe that's why I don't fully understand the denial reason. Here's a few questions I have.

1. If my credit report says I have too few established/open accounts, which is five, how many is considered a good number?

2. Was applying for a credit card with a high annual fee too ambitious in the beginning? Should I have applied for example the Citi Double Cash first, a no annual fee credit card?

3. When should I try again on applying for a Citi credit card whether that's the Elite or a no annual fee card?

I appreciate you reading my post and hope to hear your thoughts!

I feel like I'm missing something with this card. I currently use a 2% cash back card, so 3% seems like a simple upgrade. I pay my card off every month without fail, and have for years. This card would use my house as collateral, which poses additional risk if I default.

Has anyone else looked into this or gotten one? Is there some catch I'm missing? I can't figure out how they're making money on this.

For Chase Travel purchases not eligible for Points Boost offers, starting October 26, 2025, all new points earned can be redeemed at a 1:1 rate on Chase Travel (replacing 1.25x on all Chase Travel purchases).

For points earned prior to October 26, 2025, you will automatically get the best offer available, whether it’s Points Boost or 1.25x on Chase Travel - maximizing the value of your rewards for the next two years.

New offers will be available on a rotating basis, so make Chase Travel the first stop for your next adventure

Pretty much you'll get the bonus on only when they decide you can. I'm thinking of cancelling my renewal and switching the Capital One Venture X, as I was considering the CSR.

I also found the chase portal to not be very satisfactory out of the US

Card earns

• 5x on hotels
• 4x on airlines
• 3x on travel
• 3x on dining

$95 annual fee with an annual $50 credit for airline purchases. Launch offer is a 60,000 point SUB on $4000 spend in 3 months.

Transfer partners at launch are

• 1:2 transfers to Choice Privileges
• 1:1 transfers to Avios (Aer Lingus/Iberia/BA)
• 1:1 transfers to Air France / KLM
• 1:1 transfers to Avianca Lifemiles

As the title implies, does anyone know if CLEAR's membership is considered a travel category by Chase? Thus meaning it could be reimbursed through the $300 annual travel credit.

I do not want to carry my physical Visa card or physical Mastercard around. I also do not want to carry around any of my Visa giftcards and Mastercard giftcards. I am trying to reduce the cards in my wallet.

I cannot use Google Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or any banking app since I have a degoogled LineageOS phone and I like it this way since every app I have on it is FOSS.

If I were to store my physical Visa card details and my physical Mastercard card details in a password manager (Card Number, Expiry, CVC), would I be able to still manually enter these details at any physical place that take Visa or Mastercard? I will not be able to use the tap feature, but is it possible to always manually enter your card details at any place that accepts credit cards?

In the clip Clooney and Farmiga brag about their credit card perks...

Also thanks to the mods for creating this community, was missing this one from Reddit!

For transparency, I only signed up for a Discover card recently because they had a 15 month 0% balance transfer promotion, which is what I've been looking for. In general it's seemed like their rewards were not outstanding and you had to deal with potentially not having the card accepted elsewhere.

My receiving bank botched the transfer and the funds were missing for a bit. Discover was excellent -- every time I called there was a minimal wait for a U.S. based customer support agent that I could understand clearly and was knowledgeable about the situation. I was surprised.

I get that you may go years without ever needing to contact support, but it definitely quickly made a difference for me.

So I am always curious to hear how folks value points in different reward systems. I think many of the card reviewers greatly overvalue points based on booking ridiculously overpriced international first class tickets at a fraction of the cost, but still 2x-3x or more what you would pay for an economy ticket. Here is how I would value the point systems I have had cards for:

• Amex MR: 1.2 ¢/pt
  • I generally will transfer points to domestic or international economy flights or to hotels when I can get at least 1 ¢/pt. The CS platinum sets a good minimum redemption rate.
• Chase UR: 1.6 ¢/pt
  • Assuming CSR. May get better rates for Hyatt and occasionally economy flights, but portal bonus/PYB set the minimum
• Marriott Bonvoy: 0.67 ¢/pt
  • Based on what I typically see scrolling through the site.
• Hilton Honors: 0.5 ¢/pt
  • Based on what I typically see scrolling through the site.
• Hyatt: 1.67 ¢/pt
  • Can be higher but the options are more limited.
• Delta Miles: 1.2 ¢/pt
  • Based on what I typically see scrolling through the site. Sometimes there are good deals on partner flights internationally.

That all said I mainly use the Amex trifecta because I can earn MR at a fast enough rate to make up for the lower valuation and I can use the credits effectively.

How do you value points?

I am using a Savor One as my daily driver. It's an excellent card and the 3% in groceries and dining covers two of my largest spend categories so it's a great fit.

However, I still feel as though I'm leaving a lot on the table for everything else that only gets 1%. I am currently using a secondary Venmo Visa -- mainly because I needed VISA exposure for costco. It's an aesthetically pretty card but the lack of authorized users and only being able to manage the account inside the app are pretty big hindrances for me. I don't think I'm going to stick with it.

Any recommendations for a complementary daily driver? I know I should just consider the WF Autograph but I REALLY hesitate to work with them just on principle.

I live in Europe (transplanted American) and would love to know some resources for international churning.

I keep a US residence and mailing address.

Any thoughts or ideas are appreciated!

My 4 year anniversary with the CSR is coming up. I couldn't re-earn the sign-up bonus during that time, but now that's going to be gone how do I earn it again?

I've read that I could down grade and upgrade, but is there a step by step detail so I don't mess it up? I'm not finding much about that except for thus: https://upgradedpoints.com/credit-cards/reviews/chase-sapphire-preferred-card/upgrade-to-chase-sapphire-reserve/

Hi, the Capital One duo is looking like a much better deal than with the Chase trifecta, especially if you're a CSR holder. With Chase reducing their benefits and trimming their bonus categories every year, I don't see a point in keeping the Chase trifecta as your main source of points anymore. The Capital One duo + Bilt (if you rent), at least on paper, look amazing for travel points.

Wanted to know your opinion. Cheers!

Wondering if they even have a reason to increase it anytime soon.