Rich's Tongfamily (Richtong.net add-on)

One of the great life hacks at least in the US is figuring out what credit cards you should have. Getting a credit card early (and never using it) is one of the easy ways to get to the magical 800+ credit card rating, so here are some recommendations (by stage of life) for what you should be getting.

It’s hard to figure out what to get because there is a massive referral fee game being played online, so beware who you use to figure this stuff out.

Starving Student Cards

OK, first the reminder, the points of this is build your credit, it is not to actually use these cards (except to make regular small payments to show onetime payment), but here’s a list of good student cards to get. They are all free and you can get started from Nerdwallet and WalletHub and this advice really hasn’t changed that much over time. I cleaned all these links fyi:

1. Capital One Savor Student Cash Rewards. No fee and you get a 1%-8% cash back. I haven’t used this one but Capital One is pretty reputable.
2. Discover it Student Cash Back. I’ve actually hard this card for years and it is quite nice initially particularly with the rotating 5% cash bonuses, they change each quarter. Given that typical credit card fees to merchants are 2-3%, you can feel good you are getting more than they take in.
3. Chase Freedom Rise. This is one card that gives you 1.5% back but you shouldn’t use your points (see the next section on the value of Chase points).
4. Bank of America Student. I don’t normally recommending getting cards from them, but it is free and if you have a high enough credit rating, you can try. NThey let you pick a 3% cash back category and you get 2% back on grocery stores which is nice.
5. Apple Card. This is another free card and they have a limited time $300 incentive, so worth it to try. You need a good credit rating, so check for that, you can get it for free from the credit bureaus

Basically at this level, you are getting 1% at least, 2% is great and if you plan carefully 5% on rotating bonuses at Discover It and Chase

Cards for the First Job

Ok, now the next step, you have a job and you have a decent credit rating. There are a zillion scam sites and do not click on all the charge things at Experian, Equifax and Transunion. Also after you do all these applications make sure to lock your reports there so scammers can’t create card for you. Some notes on what to look for

1. Apply in the same month, because you only take on hit for the series of “hard pulls”. You lose points if you’ve been pulled, but they only update every month or so, so do a blizzard.
2. You want at least card without foreign transaction fees because you might want to go overseas and everything there uses cards these days (and RFID, so have a modern phone too).
3. Invest now in something that gives immediate dividends that is the conversion to other things like free flights
4. Watch for bonus parties. This more opportunistic, but there are times when the bonuses are very high (not right now though), so keep watching if you have a good base of free cards, then you can add these as needed.
5. Do not cancel cards. There’s a natural tendency to cancel what you don’t need, but for credit cards this is a bad idea. What you should do is make sure the passwords are in 1Password and you have all use notifications turned on to alerts at $1, so that you can know if you are hacked, then just put it in a drawer. I do tend to use cards like this on trips in there “ultra safe stuffed in the liner of your suitcase” for the worst case scenarios.

Given this, here’s a highly opinionated list of cards to get in addition to the ones above:

1. Chase Freedom Unlimited. If you don’t yet have the student card, this is the same value. The rotating bonuses are a pain but really worth it. Particularly if you decide to take the leap to moving into the points game (see below).
2. Bilt Card. This is an amazing deal, you get points for rent. It’s somewhat hard to get but worth it.
3. Alaska Airlines Card (if you will use the Companion Fare). Ok, this is the first of the cards that cost money but for $99/year, you get a free companion ticket. They are offering 75K miles ($1500 value) which is great, you need an existing Alaska Airlines.
4. REI Co-op Master Card. This is another free card that is great for those of you who are outdoors. Gives you another 5% off there and is a good one for the drawer.
5. Chase Ink Business Cash. This has a $750 bonus when you spend $3K in the first three months. You don’t need to have an actual business, your SSN will work as it is also for side hustles.
6. Chase Sapphire Preferred. This is the first paid card. The main reason to get it is that it lets you take the dollars you get from Chase Freedom and Chase Ink and transfer them into Chase points. This effectively doubles their value. So your 3% off becomes 6% because Chase lets you transfer them to a huge number of partners for award and other travel. It also has a big range of 3 point bonuses for restaurants and food delivery (this translates to 6% off by the way since these are using points. This also has no foreign transaction fees, so a good one to use overseas.

For When You are a Traveling Fiend

Well maybe not grown up but you are out and about, then I think the above cards, but I would swap out the Sapphire Preferred for a Reserve:

1. Chase Sapphire Reserve. Yes this is $550 a year but hear me out. If you guy through Chase Travel, you get 5x and 10x points after the first $300 spent. Also you get Priority Pass as well
2. American Express Platinum. This is even more expensive at $695, but you get $200 off of Airline incidentals, $100 from Saks, $240 digital entertainment credits, so it works down pretty fast. Plus the Amex lounges are actually very nice. There is also $200 of Uber Cash and a $199 CLEAR Credit. And for me the most valuable, if you buy some expensive electronics, then they extend the warranty a full year.