What’s in Our Wallet? Our July 2025 Credit Card Strategy
Optimizing credit card rewards is all about strategy - and we’re sharing ours. If you want to earn more points without spending more, this peek into our wallet will help you build a setup that works for both everyday spending and bucket-list travel.
🧱 Our Credit Card Foundation: The Chase Trifecta
Our core earning system starts with the Chase Trifecta, a setup that allows us to rack up Chase Ultimate Rewards points with everyday purchases.
Freedom Unlimited - Our catch-all card. Earns at least 1.5x points on all purchases.
Sapphire Preferred - 3x points on dining, our highest spending category.
Freedom Flex - 5x points on quarterly rotating categories, like gas, groceries or streaming.
🧠 Tip: While this setup is strong, it lacks a consistent gas or grocery multiplier. We’ll look for other cards in the future to help us fill that gap.
💎 Premium Travel Cards: Big Fees, Bigger Perks?
We’re currently testing out two premium credit cards:
Chase Sapphire Reserve - Strong welcome bonus (100K points + $500 travel credit), 4x+ points on flights and hotels, 3x dining and useful statement credits. We’re tracking all benefits to make sure we get positive value for the $795 annual fee.
American Express Platinum Card - Similar to the Sapphire Reserve, the strong welcome bonus got our attention (175K points). This card also features statement credits that can help offset the fee.
🔍 While the value is there in the first year from the welcome bonus, we’re watching these cards carefully throughout the year. If the effective annual fee (after using credits) isn’t worth it, they’ll be on the chopping block. (Learn more about tracking your annual fees here.)
🏨 Hotel & Airline Cards: Free Nights and Status Perks
We keep a few co-branded hotel and airline cards in rotation to unlock free night certificates, status and special offers.
Marriott Bonvoy Boundless® - $95/year. Jen travels for work and stays at Marriott properties, so this is a good value. Greg originally had the card and then referred Jen during a big sign-up bonus (SUB), using the 2-player strategy to earn even more. (Learn more about the 2-player strategy here.)
IHG One Rewards Premier - $99/year. Signed up for the 5 free nights SUB, and the 4th night free perk when booking with points makes this a keeper - for now.
Hilton Honors AMEX Surpass - $150/year. We got the card for the 165K SUB, but since we rarely stay at Hiltons, it probably won’t make it past year one in our wallet.
Southwest Rapid Rewards® Plus - $69/year. We grabbed this for the Companion Pass + 30K point SUB. Flying from MSY, Southwest gives us flexibility, and the Companion Pass makes every trip feel like a 2-for-1.
Note: Marriott, IHG and Southwest are all transfer partners of Chase, meaning we can use our Chase credit cards to earn more points and then transfer them to any of those to help unlock more value. Hilton is a transfer partner of AMEX, but since we don’t use the AMEX card to earn many points, there is not much value to holding the Hilton card.
🧾 Business Credit Card: Keeping It Clean at Tax Time
We use the Chase Ink Business Unlimited to separate personal and business expenses. The 90K SUB and 1.5x earning on all purchases make it a no-brainer. it’s also helping us build points towards our next redemption while simplifying tax season.
🪦 Gone but Not Forgotten: Retired Cards
To get the SUB on the Sapphire Reserve, Greg had to downgrade his Sapphire Preferred (after almost 4 years) to a Chase Freedom. We had a lot of memories and even more swipes with this card. It was our first travel card and will always hold a place in our hearts. (Jen still has hers.)
✅ Want Your Own Credit Card Playbook?
If you’re ready to build a personalized setup that earns more points without adding debt or spending more, we’ll help you create a smart, strategic wallet that fits your lifestyle.
📲 Book a 1-on-1 consultation, and let us help you build your own Credit Card Playbook.