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by matwood 978 days ago
I mostly fall into the 'set it and forget it' group. But, if you travel it can pay to add another card. Also, there's a middle ground between do nothing and track on a spreadsheet. It's pretty easy to have an Apple Card for 3% Apple things, Amazon card for 5% at Amazon, and then something like Venture X (or other travel friendly card) for everything else. One of nice things about the Venture cards is you simply book travel however you want then apply points to the purchase after the fact - no blackouts.

And since you mention lounges - if you travel 3+/year, lounges and TSA Pre/Global Entry really lower the frustration of travel.
1 comments
plagiarist 978 days ago
I was reading reviews of the Amazon card and it sounded like there was a huge catch with fees and interest making that 5% not worth it. That's the only card I think would be worth adding for me. I don't do enough travel or shopping at Apple to make other cards worth using if I have a regular cash back card.
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paulmd 978 days ago
The amazon card has absurdly bad interest rates if you're carrying a balance, but that's not unusual with points cards, most of them are >= 25% APY.

There is also a weird gotcha if you use the cash advance balance transfer offers. It's 4% transfer fee, 2% APY for a year, but the cash advance pays off first, so, any purchases will continue to accrue at the 25% APY if you make them - but if you want to do a balance transfer just lock the card afterwards.

Other than that it's fine, actually great. I make a shitload of rewards on those amazon purchases, pay the balance monthly, and cash it out every month and don't pay any fees/interest.

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Schnitz 978 days ago
You should never carry a balance on any card anyways so I think the high interest rate is moot. I don’t even know the interest rate of any of my cards. The 5% back on Amazon is worth it if you buy a lot on Amazon.
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matwood 978 days ago
You do have to maintain a Prime membership, but there are no other regular fees. It's trivial to use the earned money on other Amazon purchases. No CC points/cash back are worth carrying a balance on any card.
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