[post_break]

Maybe? Getting a bunch of cards works out in your favor. Costco card nets me 4% back on gas everywhere and 2% in store and extends the warranty on things. Southwest card nets me miles for flying, Chase cards get me points on certain things, etc. Suddenly you have tons of cards you cycle through to max out rewards to play the game. Also spread out your credit so you don't load up a single card with a heavy purchase.

[Bayart]

>Maybe? Getting a bunch of cards works out in your favor. Costco card nets me 4% back on gas everywhere and 2% in store and extends the warranty on things.

That's one way of looking at it. The other is that debt is priced in everything and you're just recouping part of it.

[post_break]

Am I supposed to just stop eating food and buying gas? I don't understand what you're trying to say. If the alternative is pay cash and not get these benefits the only other logical reason for your statement is that I have a choice in the matter to not do these things.

[Bayart]

No, what I'm trying to say isn't that your decision-making is flawed, but that there's little decision-making involved and that you're driven into that path by the way the system is structured in the US. You guys are being forced into a situation where the most rational decision is to have a dozen credit cards to optimize for an arcane rule-set.

It's pretty f*cked.

[cnst]

It's not uncommon to be able to collect more value from the rewards than what it costs for the merchant to accept the credit card.

For example, it often costs 3% or less to accept payment for a merchant, but there are many cards which offer rewards that can be valued at 7.5% cashback, or even higher values if you're into chic travel.

For example, many people have more than one of the same card, e.g., Chase Freedom is a popular example. By having 3 cards, you can increase the quarterly limit on the product by 3x — similar to using extra threads on a multicore CPU — it's still the same system, so there's no extra inconvenience. Since they're all from the same issuer, having any number of Chase cards is a fixed cost for the user, because all of them appear in a single account login, and can also be set to have identical due dates, too. Likewise, Google Pay and Chase have no limits to the number of cards you can add to a digital wallet, so, it works out there, too.

It's amazing how so many iPhone users project the perceived inconvenience of this approach, but there's actually no inconvenience for Android users, since Android's NFC is open and doesn't have any limits.

[post_break]

Also don't forget AARP is open to everyone. I'm 33 and a member.

[ceejayoz]

If you're maximizing like this, though, you're likely to still have a small handful of daily drivers - a 2% general purpose card, a dining/grocery card, maybe a gas card.

My airline and hotel cards aren't in Apple Pay because they're largely worthless in-person. Same for my Amazon credit card; 5% back on everything Amazon, but I don't need it physically with me ever.

[post_break]

Sure, but the point is, do I want to carry 20 cards with me, when I can carry one phone? Similar to the Coin card RIP. I need my southwest card, costco, chase, chase debit, apple card, amex, etc on my person, just to name a few.

[ceejayoz]

That's six, and you probably need the physical card for the debit for ATM access anyways. If you're in the Chase ecosystem, you're probably better off using the Chase cards and transferring to Southwest as a transfer partner, too, as you'll get better earn rates on every category than using the airline card itself.

Quite a few cards are worth having, but only in the sock drawer most of the time.

[cnst]

Don't all ATMs support contactless these days? I used ATM with contactless. So, no, you don't. You just need a good phone that doesn't have arbitrary restrictions.

[ceejayoz]

In the US? I haven't come across a single one yet.

[robbiet480]

Every Chase ATM I've used recently in California, Nevada, Colorado and Florida had contactless support on the ATM. I even pulled out large amounts of money via contactless without issue.

[cnst]

Yes. Many/most Wells Fargo ATMs have had contactless for several years now. Their Android app used to offer NFC contactless support so that you never had to even use Google's Android Pay to use contactless.

I think they originally didn't work with contactless Android Pay, maybe because the card number is different, but it's been fixed a few years ago. They also have the app-based ATM login, so I don't recall ever using the physical WF debit card in the last X years.

[riversflow]

Every Wells Fargo ATM I've used for the last couple years accepts contactless.