Hi everyone, I’m Darren, currently a math PhD student with a 3-year credit history. I made a lot of mistakes when I first started applying for credit cards, but after reading many blog posts and learning from friends, I’ve come a long way. I’ve now applied for 16 cards. That may not sound like a lot, but I’ve at least gotten started, and I hope sharing my journey can help other beginners.

My First Card

When I first started, I really knew nothing. In February 2016, right after getting my SSN, I directly applied for the Chase Freedom. I had already had a Chase checking account for 2 years at that point, but I was still flat-out denied. And that was it. I didn’t know to call reconsideration, and I also didn’t pivot to applying for something like Discover. Later, with some guidance from friends, I finally applied for my first card, Discover, in September when the fall semester started. My credit limit has only grown to 4250 even now, so I mostly just use it during the quarterly 5% categories. But as my goals shifted toward earning various points and airline miles, cashback cards no longer seemed enough for me.

discover

Rapid Expansion

Then Chase started enforcing the 5/24 rule, so I decided to prioritize Chase cards first.

Looking back now, after the first 4 Chase cards plus Discover, I was already at 5/24. I could have moved earlier to AMEX, Citi, BofA, and Barclays, but at the time I didn’t know enough, and I may also have felt that I already had enough cards. I actually waited until I was already over 5/24 and then added another Chase card, which caused me to miss a lot of all-time-high offers and discontinued cards. For beginners, after hitting 5/24, you can consider getting a Barclays card while still under 6/24, then move on to other issuers.

During this period, I also redeemed 50,000 Hyatt points for two nights at the all-inclusive Hyatt Ziva Cancun for the first time. At the front desk, I added $200 to upgrade to the adults-only Turquoize section. For two days, all we did was swim, drink, and eat at the resort. It was fantastic, and I highly recommend it if you’re going to Cancun.

The room itself was fairly average, though.

While planning a trip this January to accompany my wife to a conference in Australia, I was talked into getting the Hilton Aspire card, which is often described as a powerhouse card with an effectively negative annual fee. So I applied for both the Aspire and the Ascend, and that was really when I started seriously learning about the hotel side of the game. If you’re still hesitating about whether to get the Aspire, I strongly recommend jumping in. The automatic Diamond status and benefits are excellent.

On this trip, in Melbourne, Cairns, and the Gold Coast, we got breakfast for two and room upgrades all along the way. On the Gold Coast in particular, we were upgraded to a suite, and I also used the Aspire resort $250 reimbursement, which made the experience excellent. Interestingly, right before going to that Gold Coast hotel, I happened to notice that the room price had dropped a lot compared with when I booked it. I contacted the hotel, and they first adjusted me to the new lower price. Then I brought up the BRG policy, and in the end they gave me another 25% off. At the time, I didn’t yet know about a loophole for maximizing the reimbursement, and I figured I probably wouldn’t visit another resort hotel that year anyway, so I ended up ordering a bunch of drinks at the hotel just to force my way up to the full $250 reimbursement. In Sydney, I had originally wanted to use 30,000 Hyatt points for one night at the Park Hyatt, where the cash rate was probably around $1,000 per night. But I worried that as just a basic member, if I only got a standard room, I wouldn’t be able to see the Sydney Opera House, and then the redemption wouldn’t have meant much. (Actually, my wife also wanted to save the points for another Cancun trip.) Looking back now, though, I still think I should have redeemed it decisively at the time. Points can always be earned again, but I may not get to Sydney many times, so in the future I should be quicker to burn points.

But it was also this 17+ hour flight from the US to Australia that got me completely hooked on airline miles. It also marked my shift from simply using credit cards to truly playing the credit card game. My wife and I were seated in the middle two seats of a four-seat middle section in economy, with two large guys on either side of us. It was unbelievably painful, so I decided then and there that for future trips back to China, I would try to use miles for business class whenever possible. For this summer’s trip back to China, I’ve already booked business class using UA miles, which are about to be devalued. For the return flight from China to the US, I’m hoping to use AA miles for JAL business class. Over the past half year, I also accelerated my application pace and got the Barclays Aviator Red (the two AMEX cards probably hadn’t reported yet, so I still met the 6/24 condition), AMEX Rose Gold (before the rose gold color was discontinued), Gold Delta (with a targeted all-time-high offer), SPG (before it was discontinued), the MS Platinum (so I could add my parents as free authorized users and make travel more convenient), Citi AA (planning to start churning), and Premier (without Citi Gold status, the $550 annual fee Prestige didn’t seem like it would provide enough usable benefits). During this time, the only denial I got was for the BofA Alaska card. I called recon many times with no success, so I could only open a checking account and build some relationship with them before trying again. As for how I met so many minimum spending requirements, I helped a wealthy classmate buy a diamond ring, which knocked out several bonuses at once, and I also paid $4,000 in rent each month with Plastiq. Of course, manufactured spending was another option. Around that time, besides reading blogs, I also started following Doc and Reddit and learning all kinds of tricks. Eventually I even found myself going to Walgreen to buy Visa gift cards with Freedom while stacking various cashback apps to maximize returns. At that point, it had gradually turned into a hobby.

Thoughts

Managing this many cards actually isn’t that hard. Most of them are drawer cards. For everyday spending, the Rose Gold usually covers dining and groceries, Citi Premier covers gas, and then I carry one more card that I’m currently working on for a welcome bonus. If your regular spending is relatively high, or if you have wealthy friends, you can also consider going after the annual free night from Chase Hyatt after $15,000 in cardmember-year spending, or the weekend free night from Hilton Ascend after $15,000 in calendar-year spending.

Credit cards also have many hidden shopping benefits, such as price protection (Citi Price Rewind) and return protection. Recently, I bought my wife a dress from Maje on final sale. After it arrived, she decided she didn’t like it, but the website didn’t allow returns, so I used the card’s 90-day return protection to get the money back. But some perks feel like they’ve backfired on me. For example, the Rose Gold’s monthly $10 credit on Grubhub and the Platinum’s $15 credit on Uber Eats—I barely use Uber otherwise—have given me the bad habit of ordering takeout all the time, and I cook less and less!

When I first got into credit cards, my wife wasn’t very supportive. She didn’t understand why I was applying for so many cards, and she thought having too many cards was unsafe and hard to manage. But later, when she saw that we could get free hotel upgrades, fly business class back to China, and not worry as much about online purchases dropping in price or being non-returnable, she handed over her SSN too and let me apply for cards for her.

Beginners shouldn’t try to do everything at once. It takes time to understand credit cards from different banks, hotel programs, and airline miles. Based on your own needs and spending ability, you can create an application strategy that fits you, then learn the related hotel and airline programs around the points you earn and plan out a perfect trip. I hope my experiences and lessons can be helpful to everyone. Keep sharing and learning from each other!

ymlulu’s comments

As a longtime credit card player, reading an experience like this feels very familiar and brings back memories of the old days when I would apply for a batch of cards every 2-3 months and then frantically work on meeting the minimum spending requirements. In terms of application order, Darren’s setup was fairly reasonable: apply for Chase first, get the strong cards limited by 5/24, and then move on to other issuers. Of course, this approach does come with some opportunity cost. For example, when other cards have all-time-high offers, you may hesitate. Still, I believe most people are like Darren: they’re not applying for cards just for the sake of it, but rather building a strategy around their real airline and hotel needs. That said, having an overall plan from the start is always best.