I Ranked My 25 Credit Cards (Here’s What’s BEST)

[00:00] Today I'm ranking all 25, well 26, but that's not as good of a title. Credit cards that I've ever been approved for from S tier all the way down to D tier based entirely on my personal experience.

[00:12] This is inherently a controversial video since everybody's strategy is going to be unique to them, but I'm hoping that you hearing my use case for each card will fast track you to pick the right cards for your situation without making the same mistakes that I did.

[00:25] By the way, if you want to dive into any of these cards in more detail and support the channel at no cost to you, I'll have links for you to use down below. Now let's start with card number one, the OG Chase Freedom. This is the first credit card that I ever got back in 2020, but it actually didn't start as the OG Chase Freedom.

[00:41] It was the Chase Freedom student before, and that card had actually been completely discontinued and replaced by the Chase Freedom Rise, but being my first card, that Freedom Student's sole purpose was to help me build my credit history and work my way up to better cards down the line.

[00:54] After 8 months of using it and it alone, I got my second credit card, the Chase Freedom Unlimited, which earned higher than the base 1x that the Freedom Student gave, and because of that, I knew that it was time to product change it to something better, and that's what led me to the OG Chase Freedom.

[01:07] This card is basically a watered down version of the Chase Freedom Flex, but importantly, it earns the same 5x back on rotating quarterly categories that the Flex does, and that's exactly what I still use it for to this day. In quarter three, I'm really only using it for gas, but it also covers EV charging, public transit, and select live entertainment, which is pretty great.

[01:25] I would say for most people, their oldest credit card is one that they never really touch anymore, but fortunately, that's not the case for me. This card gets consistent use, even with my 25 other credit cards in my wallet, and earns roughly 15,000 points a year,

[01:38] so because of its longevity and how much I still use it today, I'm actually going to put this one up in 8 here. Like I just mentioned a second ago, the second credit card that I ever applied for is the Chase Freedom Unlimited. Back in 2021 and 2022, this was my go-to casual credit card, since at the time I was only in the Chase ecosystem, and I didn't have a better option.

[01:57] The card earns a flat 1.5x on everything as a base, but it also gives you 3x on dining, and drugstores, and then 5x on Chase Travel. So through those categories, I was able to accumulate a good amount of points for a couple of years, which helped me move into the points in my world that I love so much today.

[02:12] That said, it got almost completely phased out of my setup in February of 2023, when I added the Capital One Venture X. And ever since then, it only has one or two recurring purchases on it to keep it alive, like Odin's dog food through chewy, so ranking it based on my current use case, I can't put it any higher than seats here.

[02:29] Next up, the Chase Sapphire Reserve. To be clear, this was not the third card that I have ever applied for, this one used to be the Chase Sapphire Preferred. And speaking of, that preferred just recently had a pretty big refresh, adding 3x on gas, EV charging, and vacation homes like Airbnb and Verbo, an increased hotel credit, complimentary Apple TV, and more.

[02:48] The one downside is that they did change the Hyatt Transfer ratio from 1 to 1, to 4 to 3 on that specific card, which stings. But regardless, if the 100K offer is still around when this gets uploaded, then I would strongly consider applying for it if I were you.

[03:01] But yeah, anyways, I product changed that Sapphire Preferred to the Sapphire Reserve around 3 years ago, and here we are. At $795 per year, this is not a card that I would recommend to almost anybody, but definitely to most people.

[03:15] As we talked about last week, I think premium credit cards are generally overrated, and you can get 80% of the value for 10% of the cost elsewhere. But that said, living in downtown Austin and traveling constantly, both personally and for the channel, the Chase Sapphire Reserve is almost a no-brainer for me.

[03:32] I'm getting well over $1,000 in value every year between the $300 travel credit, $500 edit credit, points boost, 1 to 1 Hyatt transfers, lounge access, 4x on flights, and hotels booked directly, 8x through their portal, and so much more.

[03:46] And despite it being a coupon book, it actually never feels like work for me to get value from it, and that's exactly why I'm confident in putting it in S tier. Remember, this is entirely based on my life. Not yours, so this could very easily be a D tier credit card for you, and that's completely fine.

[04:01] Now, I hate to put salt on this wound, but it's time to cover the city custom cash. For those unaware, the city custom cash was recently discontinued and is no longer open to new applicants, and for now existing card holders remain unaffected, and I've even heard people had success like product changing to the custom cash still.

[04:18] But yeah, it's not necessarily looking good for this card. In my opinion, the reason they got rid of it is because us optimizers got a hold of it and just kind of ran it into the ground, and that's because it's a no-animal fee card that gives you 5x back on your top eligible spin category.

[04:32] Every month, up to $500 spent, which is perfect for filling whatever gap in your setup your other cards just can't cover that well. I've almost always used it as my dedicated gas card, except for quarters where the OG Chase Freedom covers that category, which is ironically right now.

[04:46] And I'm going to continue doing that until something changes. Secretly, I'm still kind of holding out hope here that they rebranded as the city strata select, and it's not actually gone forever. But ranking it in its current form, it's still very solid for me, and similar to the OG Chase Freedom, it's one of the longest standing cards in my setup, and that consistency earns it an 8-tier spot.

[05:04] Before we move to the next card, if you're in a similar situation to me, juggling a ton of credit cards with different earning categories, credits, benefits, due dates, and all of that, I'd highly recommend checking out Max Rewards. Max Rewards is an on-one credit card management app that allows you to track all the important information about all of your cards, no matter what lender they come from, and one convenient interface.

[05:23] Even with just their freets here, you can see your total reward balances, card balances, credit utilizations, build due dates, transactions, credit scores, and will also give you access to their best card tool that tells you exactly what card you use depending on the category you're spending in, or even your exact location too.

[05:38] While that's great by itself, I've personally paid for Max Rewards Gold for the past few years to unlock even more features. Some of my favorites being the auto offer activation tool, which has saved me more than $300 this year alone. They're a bonus tracker tab, and then I like to combine the benefits tracker with the card value tab to help me evaluate whether my cards are worth keeping for another year.

[05:57] Max Rewards even has a platinum tier now that is for business owners looking to really juice their tracking potential. But if your hesitant to sign up for any paid version right now, I completely understand. You can still try out the free version through either the QR code on screen, or the link in my description.

[06:11] MaxWords.com slash Spencer, and if you use my code, you're going to unlock a 25% discount off of Max Rewards Gold if you ever decide to upgrade to it. Big thank you to Max Rewards for sponsoring this video. As always, but let's jump back into it. Moving to the business side for a second, let's talk about the AMX Blue Business Plus.

[06:26] This is a no frills, no annual fee card that earns 2x back on all purchases, up to $50,000 spent per year, and it's my go-to catch all card on the business side. As a bonus, it keeps my AMX membership rewards points balance alive for free, which I think is reason enough to never cancel it.

[06:42] And it also pairs really well with my new AMX business platinum, which has given me a lot more flexibility in how I redeem those AMX points. So overall, it's a simple card, but it does its job well, and I'll put it in beats here. Sticking with the no annual fee cards, the capital one, venture one.

[06:56] If you've watched the channel for a while, you'll know that this one used to be the Capital One Venture X, one of the most popular credit cards in existence. And I know people think that I'm crazy for downgrading that one. So to really understand why, you can watch the full video here on why I got rid of it.

[07:11] But to briefly summarize, the Venture X is still a really solid credit card, and almost anybody should be able to get $5 of positive value from it every year. But with how built out my setup is, it just wasn't competitive enough to keep it spot,

[07:23] and I didn't want to be chasing $395 in credits just to justify a card sitting in my software. Because of that, I downgraded it to the free venture one to keep the account credit limit and unused miles alive with access to Capital One's transfer partners.

[07:37] But this card never gets any spin on it, because it just has a flat 1.25x earning rate. And because of that, unfortunately, just have to put it in deed here. The Amazon Prime business card is next, and this is another straightforward card with no annual fee.

[07:50] Historically, this has been an American Express co-branded card, but it has since moved to US bank. As an existing card holder, I'm still waiting for it to transfer over in August, but its value proposition remains the same. With it, I get 5% back on Amazon.com and all Amazon businesses, including Whole Foods,

[08:07] which is definitely not an earning rate to scoff at. Like a lot of my other cards, though, it has lost a decent chunk of spin to my new catch-all card, so for now, I'm putting it in seats here. Let's take a big step up to a luxury travel card, the Ritz Carlton.

[08:19] This card is really highly regarded in the credit card world, largely because of how hard it is to get. I can't just apply for it. You need a lower tier Chase Marriott card, open for at least a year with a $10,000 credit limit on it, and then request an upgrade from there.

[08:32] I got there through my Marriott boundless card, which I opened on a 5 free night welcome offer. Really solid. But actually, that offer led to probably my biggest regret in the credit card game so far, which if you know about it, you know.

[08:44] Going into year three with that boundless, though, I finally pulled the trigger on the Ritz Carlton upgrade. The timing worked out really well in my favor, too, and this was completely unaccident, but I earned the 85,000 point free night right away, instead of having to wait a full year like most people.

[08:58] And I'm still sitting on that right now, but I'm excited to use it this year. I've also already burned through a good chunk of the $300 travel credit, and have been enjoying the Marriott gold status. In saying that, though, I'm honestly not sure that this card is quite as good as its reputation

[09:11] suggests. The 85,000 point free night covers the annual fee on its own every year, which is great, but people forget that's only one night. You still have to pay for every other night that you're going to be staying at that likely more expensive property.

[09:23] For my work travel, where I do a lot of single night stays, that's completely fine, but for the average person, that's a bigger deal. Also, the gold status is a bit redundant since I get that through the business platinum now, too. And while it is a fantastic lounge card, giving you chase sapphire lounge access with guests

[09:39] and no authorized user fee, that's genuinely great. I don't need to lean on it at all while I have the sapphire reserve. All of that is why I think for now this card is just a B tier card for me. Can I see a world with this moves a lot higher?

[09:51] Absolutely, but while I have the sapphire reserve and the business platinum in my setup, it just kind of falls by the wayside. Card number 11 is a really quick one. The chase income limited. This one is very similar to the personal chase freedom unlimited,

[10:03] but it's way more stripped back, only giving a flat 1.5x on everything. With the AMX Blue Business Plus in my setup, and the fact that I value AMX and chase points very closely these days, I prefer using that Blue Business Plus for most of my miscellaneous business expenses.

[10:18] But I do still keep the income limited in my back pocket, in case I'm running really low on chase points. There's really nothing special about it though, aside from its massive elevated offers here and there. But for long term use, it's a C tier card for me. This next card is one that I actually didn't apply for.

[10:32] It's my old built 1.0 account, the Wells Fargo autograph. In my last ranking video, I had this one all the way up in S tier, in hopes that people would start paying attention to it a bit more. It's a really awesome card that has no annual fee,

[10:44] and earned 3x back on restaurants, travel, gas, EV charging, transit, streaming, and phone plans with cell phone protection. Plus, it unlocks access to Wells Fargo's small but mighty list of transfer partners,

[10:56] again completely for free. In my setup though, the only thing that I really find myself using it for is streaming, which is a really small category. So despite how good I think it can be if it's one of your only cards, in my 26 card portfolio, it's another C tier.

[11:10] Now switching gears from the free cards to the absolute highest annual fee credit card on the market, let's cover the AMX business platinum. This one has actually surprised me, if I'm honest. Initially, I thought I would really like it because of its access to AMX's global lounge collection,

[11:24] including centurion lounges, and the fine hotel's and resorts program that I'd heard so much about. And I assumed it'd be easy to justify the $895 annual fee through even just the $600 hotel credit, $200 airline credit,

[11:37] and $209 clear plus credit alone. And so far, both of those things have been true, but the biggest value add has actually been the 35% points rebate on flights through AMX travel with your selected airline.

[11:49] Before this card, I really had no real redemption path to American airlines directly, since I don't have a high balance of city thank you points. But now thanks to it, I'm getting a guaranteed 1.54 cent per point rate through AMX's travel portal, which I'm more than happy about.

[12:04] Also, this card gives me a one cent per point cashout option through my AMX business checking account, which is something most people wouldn't ever use, but referrals are a big part of how I support myself and my family, so having that flexibility really matters.

[12:16] Based on the few months that I've had this card, I don't see it ever replacing my chase afire reserve, but it's definitely opened up my AMX points in ways that I didn't really expect. For now, I would still put the business platinum up in A tier,

[12:28] but that's almost entirely carried by the redemption flexibility that it's unlocked. Similar to the Wells Fargo autograph, the city's shorter premiere is one of the best cards on the market for the average credit card user. For just $95 a year, you're going to get 10X back on hotels,

[12:41] car rentals, and attractions through city travel, three X on flights, hotels, restaurants, supermarkets, gas, and EV charging, and then one X on everything else. And the annual fee is pretty easy to offset too, thanks to its $100 credit for a hotel stay of $500 or more through city travel.

[12:57] But most importantly, it unlocks city's transfer partner list, including the biggest edge that they have right now, one-to-one transfers to American Airlines. All of that combined is what makes this an easy S tier card for a lot of people out there,

[13:09] but in my setup, that 35% points rebate on the business platinum that we just talked about has made both earning and redeeming through city a lot less necessary for me. So despite it being arguably the card of the year, it's going to be sitting around average for me in B tier.

[13:22] I say that, but once I work through my AMX point stash, and I need that direct AA transfer access more, I can easily see this one jumping up a lot higher. The Southwest priority is next, and I'll be honest, while I was prepping for this video,

[13:35] I was actually kind of surprised at how I ranked this one, so buckle up. As someone living in Texas, Southwest is by far my most flown airline. So a couple of years ago, I decided to go for the Southwest companion pass,

[13:47] that way my girlfriend and I could essentially travel for half-off with Southwest. And to get that, I applied for both the Southwest performance business and the Southwest priority card, and I was loving that. But last year, Southwest decided to refresh their whole entire airline program,

[14:01] and the cards were a part of that. After those changes, the Southwest performance business was just not justifiable for me in year two, so I got rid of it. But I decided to hold on to the Southwest priority, despite its increased $229 annual fee,

[14:14] just to see how valuable it could be. And honestly, I am really glad that I did that. With this card, I get access to a free preferred seat at booking, extra legroom seats, 48 hours before departure, which I just used for a trip tomorrow, so I'm excited about that.

[14:28] Earlier boarding for me and everybody on my reservation, free check bags, and anniversary points that offset a big chunk of the fee. What all of that combined does is make me feel at least a little bit special when I'm flying with Southwest. And I can't say that about any other airline right now.

[14:41] And that's the main reason that I'm going to rank this Southwest priority all the way up in eight year. I definitely was not expecting that. Now let's move to the chase ink cash. I won't bury the lead here. I've really never found this card to be very exciting.

[14:53] I've actually had two of them over the course of my journey, but the only reason I got either of them was because they had elevated 90,000 point welcome offers on them. I know that there are ways to gain the system and get a lot of points out of this card, but I honestly just don't want to risk my relationship with chase for that purpose.

[15:08] Hence why I really never touched this card outside of my internet bill. So it's just a pretty boring D tier card in my setup and I'll just leave it at that. Speaking of non-exciting cards, let's talk about the carrot card next.

[15:21] I don't even know where to start with this one. When I first heard about it, the value prop was intriguing. A credit card marketed exclusively for creators, which I guess I am. Thanks to y'all's support, I was able to get access to the card, so I thought, you know, why not try it out for the channel?

[15:34] Where it comes to worse, I would pocket the $100 welcome offer, and 6% back on a couple of categories of my choice for a few months. So I went for it, but I pretty quickly ended up regretting it. First, even though this card is branded as a business card,

[15:47] it hit my personal credit report and added to my Chase 524 account. That fact alone was extremely annoying, but on top of that, they did everything possible to avoid paying out the welcome offer to me, and the same shady experience carried over to their banking product too.

[16:00] After all of that, plus the card not being really even remotely competitive once the intro, 6% period ended, this one is going to sit at the very bottom of D tier. Okay, it's finally time to talk about the card that I've alluded to multiple times throughout this video

[16:13] as my new catch-all card that's made so many of my other cards practically irrelevant. And that is the built palladium. I've made a lot of videos now about how this card has completely reshaped my setup and why it fits my needs so well.

[16:26] I'm not going to get too far into it today, but all you really need to know is that it gives me anywhere from 3 to 4.33x back on every one of my purchases outside of rent because of how I use built cash. And keep in mind, those are built rewards points, which is the best currency in the game, at least in my opinion.

[16:42] Don't get it twisted though, this card does have some really big downsides, all of which really just boiled down to how complicated the new built 2.0 system is, and that's why I don't just like blindly recommend this card to everybody. But for those willing to put in a bit of time to learn about it,

[16:55] I have natural use cases for the $400 in hotel credits and $200 in built cash every year, and are okay putting a lot of spin into one ecosystem like this. It's almost impossible to beat. In my eyes, there is no other tier for me to put this in than S tier.

[17:09] Like the CSR though, this could be a D tier card for you and I completely understand why. You don't have to bring out the pitchforks because I like a card that you don't. Now we're getting into some really recent additions. And these next two are actually going to come as a package deal.

[17:22] The iG Premiere and Premiere business cards. A lot of y'all know that I've had the business version for a bit, especially if you watch my Cayman Islands Redemption video, but I just got to prove for the personal version too, about a week ago with the elevated 185,000 point offer.

[17:35] Since both of those cards are basically carbon copies of each other, I'm going to rank them as one, but I'll focus on the personal one for the screenshots you'll see on screen. Both of these cards are part of my long-term play of leaning into more co-branded hotel and airline cards as time goes on,

[17:49] since I've pretty much tapped out of all of the transferable currency ecosystems and out of that hotel and airline category, I think the iG Premiere is one of if not the best options you can get. For $99 a year, you're going to get up to 26x back on iG properties,

[18:04] automatic platinum elite status with room upgrades, welcome amenities, etc. Free night certificate worth up to 40,000 points that alone will cover the annual fee, a fourth night free on award stays and welcome offers reaching up to 200,000 points.

[18:18] No other mid-tier hotel card gives you that suite of perks for such a low annual fee, and that's why I think it's arguably not only the best hotel card bank for buck-wise, but it could just be one of the best bank for buck cards period. I was tempted to put both of these up in S tier, actually,

[18:32] but I will admit that there are some recent sea bias there, thanks to our really great stay at that Kimpton Sea fire in the Cayman Islands, so I'll keep them at a conservative A tier for now. A few months back, Robinhood announced their brand new platinum credit card,

[18:44] an attempt at competing with the premium credit card space, and let's just say that I don't think they did a great job with it, but around that time, they seem to open the floodgates on their older Robinhood gold card, letting almost everyone in off the wait list, including myself.

[18:58] For a cashback card, this one is practically impossible to beat for miscellaneous spend, earning 3% cashback on every purchase without an annual fee. Well, I say that, but technically you do need a Robinhood gold membership, which costs $50 a year, but there's enough value in that subscription

[19:13] outside of the credit card that should make it justifiable. But while this card is really strong right now, and I actually really wanted it a while back, even when I was fully on team travel, once again, the palladium came in and made it practically worthless to me.

[19:26] I can't sacrifice three to four built points for 3% cashback that just doesn't make sense. The question obviously then becomes why even accept the card in the first place, and it really comes down to the fact that historically it's been really hard to get.

[19:38] And as a content creator, I always try to make as much of my content as possible, based on my first hand experience, so I wanted to get my hands on it, and I've been using it here and there just to see how it functions. Let me tell you right now, I definitely have my gripes, but 3% cashback still isn't bad, so I don't know.

[19:54] Until the palladium gets nerfed, I really can't put that card any higher than seats here. Now, those were all of my active credit cards, but I have seven others that I've cancelled, almost all within the last nine months. The MX Gold, Chase Ink Cash, Chase Ink Preferred, Southwest Performance Business, Alaska Business,

[20:09] Hawaiian Business, and Chase Ink Premiere. We've been going at this video for a while now, so I'm not going to go through each one of those in detail. Just note there's a good reason that I cancelled all of them. For the right person, some of those are genuinely game-changing, but for me, none of them were worth

[20:22] their annual fees anymore, so if I was to still have them, then they'd obviously follow all the way down in D tier, with one exception, the MX Gold. To be completely honest with you all, between the 35% and 0.3-bit on the Business Platinum, making my MX points way easier to burn now,

[20:37] and living back in downtown Austin where I would actually use its credits, the MX Gold could be S tier in my setup right now. I know that might sound crazy coming from me, but it's one of the only cards that out-earns the palladium for dining and groceries, so if I had it,

[20:50] I would use it. Just wanted to plant that seed there to see what y'all think about that, but maybe it's time for an updated video on that card. But zooming out here, I want to remind you that you should not look at this list and just assume that these cards would rank the same in your setup.

[21:02] As I said earlier, I actually think that for the majority of people, high annual fee cards like my Sapphire Reserve, palladium, business platinum, and where its Carlton cards are completely overrated, and shouldn't be ranked as high as I have them.

[21:15] So if you want to hear more on that topic and see what cards you can get instead to get that 80% of the value for 10% of the cost, watch this video next. As always, Odin, I really appreciate you watching. If you enjoyed, please consider leaving a like, subscribing to the channel,

[21:28] and using the links down in my description so that we can eat tonight. And with that said, we'll catch you guys next time.