New Year = New Card!

Although most New Years Resolution’s rarely last more than a few months, a resolution to have your money work for you is one that should be pretty easy to keep. If you are still using a debit card for your purchases, you are missing out on FREE MONEY! You are going to purchase groceries, gas, gifts, pay your cell phone bill, insurance, and much more… Why not let all of this make you a little money back. Let’s look below at a few cards based on spending habits to start you on your way to booking that YOLO trip when travel opens back up!

Dining and Groceries

Widely considered the workhorse of most AMEX card users, the American Express Gold is currently offering a 75,000 Membership Rewards point bonus when you use the referral link above(worth $1500) that can be spent a number of ways… from booking travel via Amextravel or transferring it to partners, this card is the one I use the most. The American Express Gold offers 4X Membership Rewards points at restaurants and grocery stores, 3X points on travel, and 1x point on all other purchases, while offering several great benefits from American Express. If we look at dining and grocery stores, you are talking about an 8% back return(Membership Reward points are typically valued at 2 cents per point with a 4X multiplier), to which no other dining card even comes close. Even taking the average American household spend on groceries and dining out(approximately $8000 a year) you are looking at 32K Membership Reward points on top of the 60K sign up bonus for a value of $1840!

Travel

The best travel credit cards are often considered “top tier cards” because they come with pretty high fees, however these fees can easily be offset and allow you earn more value than they cost. The American Express Platinum is my personal favorite, with benefits like 5X points on all travel booked through amextravel.com or the airline directly, a $179 yearly CLEAR credit, $240 streaming credit to things like Audible and SiriusXM, a Walmart+ subscription, a $200 airline credit, access to the Delta SkyClub, access to the American Express Centurion Lounges, Hilton Honors Gold status, Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite status, National Rental Car Executive status, $100 a year to Saks Fifth Avenue, and a $120 Uber/Uber Eats Credit, this card will always be in my wallet! Although it has a $695 annual fee, using the referral link above you can earn 100,000 Membership Reward points after $6,000 in spend in the first 6 months + 10X points on restaurants and small businesses for the first 6 months. If you are able to maximize both into bonuses, you are looking at approximately $7,000 worth of points!

Both of these cards are swiped almost daily for me in order to maximize my earnings. As travel is still limited, now is the time to bank all of these points and take that extravagant trip once things open back up! Drop a comment below if you are looking at getting into the points game!